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The boy who knew too much: a child prodigy

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family. I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become. Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Book review of X events the Collapse of Everything by John Casti

Today, one of my book reviews has appeared in the Star newspaper. This one is for X Events - the Collapse of Everything by John Casti. It is notable in that it is a negative review of a  book, and I did wonder whether it was going to be published at all. Well done to the Star for doing so.

A couple of things got changed in the editing. One sentence has been misunderstood. I was trying to say at one point that anyone who reads newspapers or online news would not need this book. Somehow that got changed to someone who "only reads newspapers or online news", would have a need for this book. That is not what I was saying at all. So, it seems that someone misunderstood my intention there.

One sentence got removed entirely. It was my most critical remark. Perhaps, as a family newspaper they want to preserve as upbeat a tone as possible. None of my truly critical remarks, in any article, have ever made it into print, in any section of the newspaper. (My excised sentence included the phrase: "a rather lame attempt to repackage something old as something new").

Please have a read. Let me know what you think, if you have a moment. Thank you.

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2012/8/19/lifebookshelf/11767744&sec=lifebookshelf

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

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Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Shocking news: Mermaids don’t exist...zombies neither.


Mermaids don’t exist, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). If that news disappoints you, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced, last month, that zombies don’t exist, either.

Now, for me, these news items were a little surprising – not, you understand for their content, but for the fact that they were thought necessary.

NOAA released their denial of the existence of mermaids to counter an upwelling of belief in them, after a recent Animal Planet TV show: “Mermaids: the body found”. Apparently, the computerized imagery showing mermaids, in this show, had convinced some viewers that mermaids were real.  In response, NOAA said: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found”.

So, too, the CDC denial of the existence of zombies presumably comes in the wake of a case in which a man, apparently high on some sort of drug, ate the face of a homeless man, in rather zombie like behaviour. The CDC declared: “CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms).”

Both of these announcements gave me great pause. It is true to say that they are enough, in themselves, to turn one’s world upside down. Of course, that is not because one might be disappointed to learn that mermaids don’t exist and that zombies are entirely fictional. It is quite simply because of the sheer implicit dumbness of the American people that would require these scientific bodies to make such announcements. How dumb must the population be, to be convinced of the existence of mermaids, or the truth of zombies? How dumb must these people be, to live in fear of a “zombie apocalypse”...as some apparently do?

We live in paradoxical times. Whilst educational opportunities, in general, may be better than at any other time in history, for the average person, we are also confronted with the sheer stupidity of many modern people. Somehow, despite the opportunity to learn and a considerable apparatus to do so, in almost all the world’s countries, people still insist on being dumber than your average brick.

Particularly worrisome about this is the fact that both these announcements came from American scientific bodies. This is very much suggestive that America, in particular, may be suffering from a surfeit of dumb people in its population. Could this be because American education has declined in recent decades? Is the average person leaving High School unable to distinguish reality and fiction to the extent that they need to be told, via official announcements that the stuff of mere stories – mermaids and zombies – do not exist in real life?

Modern civilization is upheld, not by the average person, nor by the believers in zombies, or mermaids, but by the intellectually gifted. Relatively few people know how the apparatus of science, technology, engineering, architecture and medicine work. It is on such people that the structure of society rests. Without them, society would be on the level of the zombie believers. That would be the true “zombie apocalypse”.
The situation led me to wonder why our scientific bodies don’t devote more energies to educating the public. What if, instead of having to deny the existence of fairy tales, they could use the mass media to educate the general public about science, technology and the world? The only problem with this, of course, is whether the mass media would even carry such stories.

Sometimes I do find myself agreeing with Ainan’s sombre view of the future of Humanity. He thinks we are in for a general decline in civilization, in the coming century. He sees signs of it in the general decay of public consciousness and in the disregard for the future, shown by our “leaders” (think, for instance, of the general inaction on global warming). He doesn’t yet know about the zombie/mermaid believers. I don’t expect it will fill him with any more hope to hear it.

I do hope Ainan is wrong on this point. I would like civilization to climb to ever higher levels. Yet, then I hear stories like this one. It is a worry.

Clearly, what is needed to address this is for education standards to be raised to the level at which, at least, people are able to distinguish reality and fiction. Is that too much to ask?

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Is the USA an incapable nation?

I had to ask. One fact prompted me to do so. The USA, at this time, has no means to send astronauts into space. It is entirely dependent on paying the Russians for the privilege of hitching a ride on its spacecraft. This, to me, seems a very humbling fact.

It is the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s adventure in space. One would have expected, that, after the passage of 50 years, America would truly have become a spacefaring nation. But no...it seems to be in retreat, in some respects. Fifty years ago, America had the means to send a man into space. Now, they don’t. That is quite a striking fact. Something, clearly, is wrong with modern America.

Let us talk a look at the situation. NASA and America knew for a long time, that the shuttle was to be retired. They knew when it would be retired. Yet, what they did not do, was to ensure that a replacement was ready in time for that retirement. This seems to be a failure of planning, of foresight and, perhaps, the willingness to fund such a replacement. Ultimately, it is a failure of America as a nation.

Everyone imagines that NASA has a huge budget. There is a common assumption that vast sums are being spent on space. However, the true figures are very much smaller. NASA recently announced a 17.7 billion dollar budget request for 2013. My immediate reaction to that: “How pathetic!” It is a miniscule budget compared to the supposed wealth and status of the American nation. The truth is such a small budget (compared to the 3 or 4 trillion spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) shows, with overwhelming clarity, that space is simply not a priority, interest or asset of the United States of America. It shows us that space faring is being neglected, indeed, largely ignored. So small is NASA’s budget and the American commitment to space, that the wealth of a few individual billionaires, would be enough to sustain the present level of expenditure, indefinitely. That is nothing.

America was once a great nation – or at least, seemed great. I don’t, however, believe that it is, any longer. The very fact that America is no longer a space faring nation, indicates a precipitous decline in its capabilities and willingness to maintain capabilities. That can only mean that there are profound problems elsewhere that are distracting attention from space efforts.

It seems likely that, in a few decades, another nation will be the world’s leading space nation. That nation could very well be China. If so, America has only one entity to blame: itself. America is wilfully throwing away its lead in the space arena, simply by not caring enough to maintain it. That is emblematic of a nation in decline, a nation that has lost it pride and its ability to sustain its historical advantages.

America is fast becoming an incapable nation – a has been State. I wonder whether it will be seen, in another fifty years time, as the UK is now: a shadow of its former self, a once great power, hanging on to the vestiges of its position, through international tradition alone?

We shall see. What is for certain, however, is that whilst America neglects space and the attendant technologies required to attain it, other nations are forging ahead. The history of space travel was once an American province. The future of space travel is likely to be of a very different origin.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 3:03 PM  0 comments

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The mystery of mass extinction.

Over a week ago, Tiarnan, 6, peered up at me, with questioning eyes, as we waited for his school bus, to take him to school in the morning.

“Daddy, why did all the dinosaurs die, but other animals are still alive?”

He had a point.

I then explained to him how many of today’s animals did not exist at the time of the dinosaurs. I explained that they had evolved since then and did not, therefore, have a chance to die in the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs.

He didn’t comment on my answer, he just listened, quietly.

I found his question impressive in a way. It shows that he is not just acquiring facts, but considering the “whys” of how they could have become, in the first place. It was clear to him, that not all animals had been treated the same way, it seemed...some lived and many had died. Therefore, he saw the fact that there were animals alive today, as a mystery in itself. That is an interesting way to turn around the question of mass extinction – he was not asking, “Why had the dinosaurs died?”, he was, in fact, asking: “Why had all these other animals not died?” That is quite a sophisticated way to reconsider the facts.

I rather like my mornings sending Tiarnan to school, even though it is very early. I like them because he is very alert and filled with questions. He likes to probe the mysteries of the world, through me, by posing questions whilst we wait for the bus. Some of them are scientific in flavour and answer – and some of them philosophical. Whichever it is, I am pleased to hear him, for by asking questions, of me, he is answering one of my own: “What is in my son’s head?” It is ever pleasing to find out. So, carry on questioning, Tiarnan!

Posted by Valentine Cawley.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 3:42 PM  0 comments

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Ron Fouchier and the end of the world.

Will Ron Fouchier’s curiosity and, it seems ego, end the modern era? Dr. Ron Fouchier is a virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. He is also the creator of, most probably, the most deadly virus ever seen on Earth.

Ron Fouchier has mutated the bird flu, H5N1, into an airborne form, that transmits easily from host to host – and would do so, too, in humans. If his virus were ever to be released into the world, it would kill 50 to 60% of all who caught it: billions of people would die. Civilization itself might fall, in the chaos and terror of such a pandemic, in which simply breathing the air, breathed out by another, some distance away, would be enough to kill.

Apparently, it took, we are told, just five mutations, to change ordinary bird flu – which kills over 50% of those infected, but rarely transmits between people – into an easily transmissible airborne version, that spreads as easily as any other flu – but which is up to 30 times as deadly as the Spanish flu of 1918, which only killed 2% of those it infected.

Truly, this virus is a potential doomsday weapon. Yet, it is held in a special room at the Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam. Should it ever be leaked, billions could die as a result. Richard H. Ebright, a bioweapons expert at Rutgers University commented that there had been hundreds of unintentional leaks of potential bioweapons from US labs – and regarding airborne H5N1 he opined: “It will inevitably escape and within a decade”. Should it ever do so, Ron Fouchier would become the most destructive person in human history. His work would have killed billions of people.

There is only one justification for the kind of work Ron Fouchier has done. That is if this work leads to a means to defeat this illness and prevent it ever becoming a pandemic. However, now that he has created it and spoken of its details at public meetings, it is likely that others will recreate the work. As similar viruses are created elsewhere, the chances of an accidental or deliberate leak escalate. The race, therefore, is now on, between those who would defeat this potential pandemic, and those who would unleash it, accidentally or deliberately.

Oftentimes, it seems that modern man does not have long in this world. We have the intelligence to create powerful technologies, but not the wisdom, as a race, to use them wisely. Ron Fouchier’s work could lead directly to the downfall of modern civilization. Were 60% of people to die, days after being exposed to no more than a sneeze, I very much doubt whether the fabric of civilization would hold – it would rupture into utter terrified chaos.

The real danger of Ron Fouchier’s H5N1 work is that now all the world’s terrorists and unhinged haters of humanity, will know that it is possible to create an airborne H5N1 – by simply announcing that, he has ensured that many others, around the world, will try to do so. Even if these groups don’t deliberately release it, simply by working on it, they greatly increase the chances that it will be released accidentally. Then again, there are foreign powers who might consider releasing such a virological agent. What might North Korea, for instance, do with such a virus? Would they consider it reasonable to lose 60% of their own population (which they don’t seem to have much love for), so as to kill 60% of the rest of the world? Some unstable nation, somewhere, might make that calculation and make a fateful decision.

The onus is now on Ron Fouchier and all the virologists familiar with his work, to create a vaccine against H5N1, or to derive some other means of defeating it. If this is not done, the time might come, after the modern era, when the name Ron Fouchier is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

I am struck by the hint of a self-satisfied smile that seems to adorn all photos of Ron Fouchier that I have seen. I am not sure whether I am reading him wrongly or not – but he does seem to be rather impressed with himself. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be potentially responsible for the death of 60% of humanity and the fall of the modern era – yet that is precisely the potential of the work he seems so smug about.

Now, that you have made the virus Ron, you have a responsibility to learn how to defeat it. Only then would you truly deserve a self-satisfied smile. Only then, will humanity be able to relax, before its impending fate.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 7:53 PM  0 comments

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Once upon a time...

As I come to understand the future path of the world ahead – the one which we shall all have to face, whether we want to, or not, I have to measure what I should tell my children and what I should omit. Generally, I like to keep them informed about the issues they will face.

A few days ago, I remarked to Fintan, eight, in a soft voice, bearing hard news:

“The oil will run out in your lifetime.”

“But not in yours!”, he countered, very quickly. “That’s not fair!”, he said most passionately.

“It will.”, I said, sad but sure, “but I will probably be an old man by then.”

He seemed to stare off into the distance – a distance in time – and what he saw there displeased him. It was clear that, at that moment, he had no further comment to make: he needed time to absorb the message and think about it.

Most of us think of ourselves as at the beginning of a new world. We look ahead to the greater things to come. Few of us, however, reflect upon the unavoidable truths that Mankind now faces: the end of the Age of Oil, for a start. It is quite possible, that my children’s children, will be born in a time when the oil has finally gone. It is certain that my children’s, children’s children – that is my great grandchildren, will definitely be born in a time in which oil has become a fairy story – a “once upon a time...” to be told at bedtime, of a fabled era when there was such a thing as cheap energy and people did crazy things, like drive their own two ton people carrier, called a “car” – often to move just one person. Young children, in those times, might lump “oil” along with “elves” and “dragons” – as something that either was far, far away and of no relevance to the modern world (which might be a lot less “modern” than now), or consider them of equivalent status: not real at all.

We live in a time of great challenge, greater than most people seem to appreciate. All that we have become accustomed to, in our way of life, is threatened. Unless Man builds an alternative energy infrastructure, with no dependence on oil or other fossil fuels, soon, the future will not seem to be the “future” at all – but the past. Without a great deal of energy, the modern way of life is not possible, at all.

When I am old, the Age of Oil, will be at an end. My children will, then, be in the middle of their lives. They will see oil pass away and they will live in what is to come. For them, it shall be harder, therefore, than for me – for they will see the contrast between the Age of Oil and the age of whatever is to come. Should Man be foolish enough not to have replaced the energy source, in full, by then, my children will know a sense of loss, in the second half of their lives, as they compare the lives they have to live then, and the lives they knew, growing up in the early 21st century.

Looking again, at Fintan’s words: “That’s not fair!”, he asserted. He is right. It is not fair that my generation and the couple of generations before me, should have been so profligate with our oil and other fossil fuels, such that it shall shortly be at an end. It is not fair, that the generations that are and have been, did not husband this precious resource more carefully. Even an eight year old can see that – can feel the wrongness of it. It is not fair that people living now, should deprive all the people, who shall come, in the entire future history of Man, of that precious resource. We all should be more careful with it, than we have been. It is foolish to burn such a precious, once in a planetary lifetime, material, for reasons which, actually, don’t seem good enough, if you analyze them.

It is an odd thought, but my remaining life expectancy, if I live a typical life, for one of my background, is much the same, as the life expectancy of oil. Should I pass from the world as expected, I shall be leaving the world, just as oil does, too. I shall not, therefore, see what happens when all of it has gone – but I shall see the effects of its depletion as it nears that time.

I hope my children see a good world, in the time beyond the Age of Oil. I hope that there is enough wisdom in the world’s leaders (or at least all the major leaders between now and then...for there is little enough wisdom in the present ones), to ensure a secure ENERGETIC future for Man to come. Yet, I worry at what that world will be. Will enough be done, to ensure a good future for Mankind? Will my children have a good world to live in, in the second half of their lives? Any parent who truly understands what Mankind faces, can only be concerned about what the future will hold. I would suggest that, wherever you are, you choose to elect leaders who have an eye on replacing our present fossil fuel based energy infrastructure, with a renewable alternative, well in time, whilst there is still fossil energy to allow it to happen.

I wonder what Fintan will tell his children, about the Age of Oil and about his early life? I hope there is a workable alternative, then, for them, I really do.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.


To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.).


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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 11:06 PM  2 comments

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A vision of tomorrow.

Today, not for the first time, I paused to admire an open plan “stall”, in Bangsar Village One Shopping Centre, in Kuala Lumpur. This is a rather odd shop and every time I see it, I think it strange. It is a shop that sells models of old sailing ships. The sign above them calls them “wealth ships”.

As I contemplated the diverse range of multi-sailed ships, of various designs, in their lacquered wood, I suddenly had an epiphany: I wasn’t looking at the past, at all, but the future. One day, Mankind might have to return to using sailing ships, for global transport, in the wake of Peak Oil, Peak Coal, indeed, Peak Everything. To my grandchildren, sailing ships such as the ones before me, at that stall, might not be history at all, but the living present. It was a most sobering realization.

As I write, I am aware that few people seem to be truly conscious of the plight the modern world faces with declining fossil fuel supplies. Viable alternatives are unready and undeveloped. The “renewable energy” of which everyone speaks contributes a minute amount of present needs, and needs to be dramatically scaled up, to replace the declining fossil fuels – and I just don’t know if the urgency, resolve, investment, planning and foresight are there to get that done, in time.

The time I have lived and the life I have known, in this modern era, might one day come to be seen as fantastical to our descendants – more of an Atlantis like legend - than anything that was ever real or tangible.

Should not enough be done, in time, to secure new energy sources and salvage the decline in civilization that would result, if they are not replaced, then, my words might not reach the future, to be read. They might be lost, along with the Internet, when we are no longer able to power it. It is a gloomy prospect.

The world is asleep, in many ways, before the difficulties that lie ahead. Many of the world’s politicians, still seem to be thinking in a very short term way, not preparing properly, for what is to come. I hope, as I write, that if the future should know ships like the ones I saw today, that it is by choice – and not because Mankind was left with no other option. I would not like to think that I had lived at the Peak of Human Civilization, too. I had always rather hoped that a long ascent would stretch ahead of me, into long ages, after I had gone. However, that might never be. We might, unknowingly, be living in a time of legends. We might be living the stuff of fables, for our distant descendants. I hope not. I dearly hope not – but those ships, today, did leave me to wonder, at what tomorrow might really be like.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.


To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.).

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 10:08 PM  0 comments

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Echoes of Alexandria.

Once, there was a great library that held virtually all of the world’s knowledge. Barbarian thugs burnt it down.* That library was, of course, Alexandria.

Today, I learnt that, amongst all the buildings set afire by Britain’s own barbarian thugs, were two libraries – and a College. Gloucester Library and the former Salford library were both set ablaze by Britain’s rioters. So, too, the Gloucester College of Art and Technology, has been burnt to the ground.

Now, assuming the choice of these buildings was deliberate, it does say something telling about the psyche (such as they have them), of the rioters. They choose to destroy that which they are personally unable to appreciate, presumably through a combined lack of intelligence and interest in learning. These thugs are typically uneducated, largely by choice, since the opportunity of a free education was given to them all. That they should burn libraries shows that they resent the written word, as something that somehow offends their “sensibilities”. To them, perhaps, the written word and books represent a kind of oppression: it is something that caused them great difficulty in school and required effort (which is the last thing they want to make), so, when faced with an innocent, vulnerable library, their first response is to set light to it. Watching all those books burn, no doubt fills them with glee. If these rioters had their way, there would not be a single book left in the world – and then everyone would be equal in their ignorance. The rioters are unable, intellectually, to “level up” with everyone else, so they would rather level everyone else down to them, through depriving them of the books, the rioters always resented.

That Gloucester College of Art and Technology should have been set afire is also very revealing of their mentality. It seems as if they blame the education establishment, in some way, for their own predicament. Perhaps they think that the education “system”, prevented them from gaining qualifications, by some trickery, or deviousness. In truth, of course, they prevented themselves from gaining from education by making no effort within it.

The rioters’ choice of two libraries and a College to burn, is evidence that we are really dealing with barbarians here, in the truest sense of the world. Although they grew up within British culture, they are not part of it – they have their own subculture, a barbarian world with no place in our own. There are only three choices when dealing with these people: reform, exile, or containment. Of course, there is the fourth alternative: death – and perhaps it might even have to come to that, if this blight upon the British people persists in mayhem, violence, looting, arson and, I now understand, murder (three and counting).

The means must be found to reform the character, nature and outlook of these thugs. If the means cannot be found (and, in fact, it would be difficult to educate such bestial people) then we should look to long term containment of them, until such time as they are no longer a threat to society. As for exile: who would have them? Would it be fair to inflict them on anyone? If, however, a rioter should be an immigrant from another country, a fair punishment would be for any visa, or indeed citizenship of Britain, to be revoked, and for them to be sent back to their country of origin – with a permanent ban on any return. Anyone who strives to destroy society – as these thugs have – deserves to be exiled from society, forever. I intend to write a fuller approach to dealing with them, in another post.

Given that two libraries and a College have been set alight, it would seem wise if the police took particular care to set a guard at the leading libraries in the UK. I cannot, for instance, imagine the loss to the nation, were the British Library to be set on fire – or indeed, any of the major University libraries, containing, sometimes, millions of books each.

The rioters have anger. They are evil, in the sense of not seeming to know what good is, or not caring about it, at least. All that they lack, is intelligent guidance. Should there arise among them, an intelligent leader able to guide them, so as to do maximal damage, then Britain will be in a very grave situation, indeed. It is fortunate that, so far, they appear to be as stupid as they are thoughtless of others. Perhaps, in a way, we should be thankful for their lack of seeming effort in the education system. Had they learnt more about the world, they would be a greater danger to it.

Then again, it must be said, I never thought I would live through times, in which people set libraries alight. When I was a young boy, in school, the idea that anyone would actually burn down the greatest library in the world, Alexandria, destroying the heritage of humanity, appalled me. I couldn’t understand how anyone would so lack appreciation of knowledge, art, literature, culture, science and history, that they would be able to do that. Now, however, Britain has a bred a generation of thugs, able to do just that: burn libraries, destroy knowledge, wipe out culture (given a chance). The burning of libraries, often signals the fall of civilizations and the ending of Old Worlds. Let us halt the advance of these particular barbarians and not be fearful of dealing with them in the manner they deserve – before their violent creed becomes the new norm, for a fractured British society. Personally, I would rather see the rioters burn, than our libraries. The real danger, however, in the present British political and social system, is that the rioters will be treated too gently, too kindly and too respectfully ever to teach them to be civilized. These rioters are a threat to Britain as a civilization. They should, therefore, be approached as an existential threat and dealt with, with an appropriate and punitive level of harshness. They should come to learn that Britain will not tolerate barbarians on its soil – not now and not ever (again).

* There are four possible historical culprits for the partial or complete destruction of Alexandria's library. I am not going to disentangle them here - except to say that although not supposedly all barbarians, their attitude to knowledge was certainly barbaric (except for Caesar, who might have burnt it by accident!)

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.


To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)


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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 6:29 PM  3 comments

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