Mysteriously disappearing posts on blogger.

I am sorry to note that all posts since May 21st 2013 have disappeared from my blog, without trace. I don't know why this has happened, though perhaps it was due to a failed hard drive at Google (the owner of Blogger). Whatever the case, those posts are gone.

I wonder if you can help: if you have a copy of any of those posts on your computer, could you email it to me, or post it below this post? Thanks.

I will resume posting today. Hopefully, those posts will not also be lost.

Thank you.

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.) 

The consequences of Blogger's shutdown.

Blogger shutdown for "maintenance" this week. Basically, the site had crashed owing to some problems in the new "upgrades". During this period about 30 hours of posts were lost, no new comments could be received and no new posts could be made. Now, Blogger is back, however, there are some after effects.

You might have noticed that the comments on Writing in a Vacuum, disappeared. That is due to Blogger's failure and not my doing. Also gone are all the labels on the recent posts. This is not, however, what most concerns me. Blogger has clearly changed its programming. Blogger does not want writers, like me, to post links after each post - because today I was unable to activate the links. Active links, when copied, became inactive ones.This is a change in the way Blogger works which considerably reduces the utility of the facility. Is this why many bloggers eventually move on to their own platforms...? Do they tire of the lack of control and self-determination in free blogging platforms?

If anyone at Blogger/Google ever reads this, could you please change the programming back to allow the placement of links after each post? Don't you realize that, by hampering what your bloggers want to do with their sites, you are encouraging them to move on to other platforms? There should be complete freedom to write in whatever way a blogger pleases, as long as it does not harm others. That should also include freedom in how the blog is formatted, including outbound links.

On my blogging regularity

Accessing the internet, from Malaysia, has certain quirks. Sometimes, I just can't do it.

I have both a Maxis connection and a Streamyx connection. I must say that, of the two of them, the Maxis connection is better. However, both have a problem. Sometimes common sites display broken links. By this I mean that it is not possible, often for hours or a day or so, at a time, to connect to particular sites. These are sites as well known as yahoo.com and blogspot.com. This means that sometimes, I can't check my mail. It also means that not infrequently, I cannot post to blogger, when I wish to. Thus, please be patient if I haven't blog posted for a while. It could be that I am not able to from my computer. This phenomenon has, in fact, prevented me from posting on several days, now.

So, my intention is to post regularly. However, this may not be possible, at times. So, just check back another time. The post will come eventually.

Thank you.


(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, 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.

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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

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

I have reached one of Blogger's inherent limits. Oddly, nowhere was it stated, in anything that I read, along the way, that Blogger had any limit such as this. You see, I cannot write any new labels. Apparently, Blogger only permits 2,000 different labels per blog. I find this most odd, since, surely, storage space on computers, these days, is rather cheap - so why limit the number of labels at all?

You will have noticed that I have stopped giving detailed labels at the ends of posts. This is because I cannot do so any longer. I can only use labels that I have used before. Thus, I am now permanently constrained to be non-specific and unclear in my labelling of posts. This has the effect, of course, of making posts more difficult to find.

It occurs to to me that Blogger must not have intended Blogspot to be supportive of people who really have a lot to write about. Perhaps they anticipated that "bloggers" would be: a) very repetitive so in need of few different labels b) unproductive, writing little, so having little need for new labels c)that bloggers would give up blogging long before they reached these limits. Now, I must say that these assumptions are true of many bloggers. Most blogs are abandoned soon after they are begun (when people realize that they don't write themselves and require daily attention). Most bloggers do, in fact, write on a narrow range of topics - some blogs are incredibly slender in their focus. So, too, many bloggers write relatively little. So, given this, perhaps Blogger feel safe placing such a modest labelling limit on its blogs. Yet, this system punishes those they should most truly be supportive of: the productive, daily bloggers, who write consistently, across several topics, across the span of years. ALL of these bloggers will run out of labels, soon enough - and yet these are the most important bloggers of all. They are the ONLY bloggers who are actually keeping the platform alive and making it a substantial creative medium for people to enjoy.

So, I ask this of Blogger, should they ever read my words: shelve the label limit. Let bloggers use as many labels as they wish. It is clear that the ONLY bloggers punished by a label limit are the ones who should be most supported: the most productive bloggers. It seems both shortsighted and self-defeating to limit the output of the most productive writers. By doing so, Blogger is actually damaging its own platform. So, lift the label limit - and let me write as I please!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Thanks to Google Webmasters Discussion group

Yesterday, my blog was not found in normal searches in the Google search engine. It did not appear for either "child prodigy" or "ainan cawley" - both of which had previously returned results on the first page for over a year. Consequently, I tried to contact Google directly (no use, there, since there is no live customer service). Instead, I posted the problem on the Google Webmasters Discussion group. Surprisingly, within hours half-a-dozen people had posted their advice.

I would like to thank those who made the helpful posts and to tell them that, today, the problem has been resolved, for now. It is much appreciated.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Blogger formatting problems: again!

Please excuse the mess that is the format of the "Chemistry experiments beyond the book" post, below. I simply can't get the paragraphing to work - and I have no idea why. Blogger has done this to me before - once or twice and I do not know how to resolve it.

I hope you can manage to read it despite this.

Thanks.

Blogger formatting problem

Sorry for the formatting of the previous post: I can't create spaces between the paragraphs. Whenever I try, they are compressed together after publishing. If it returns to normal, I will have solved the problem, and if it doesn't I haven't.

Thanks for your patience.