Technorati Ranking for The Boy Who Knew Too Much.

By reason of nothing more than randomness, I decided to check my Technorati ranking, yesterday. I found myself rather stunned by the result.

Those of you who are long term readers of my blog will have noted a blog post I wrote on May 27th 2007. Then, I remarked that my blog was doing unexpectedly well. I had a Technorati authority of 23 - which meant that 23 independent blogs had linked to me in the previous six months - and I stood 222,604th out of all the world's then, 71 million blogs, in Technorati ranking. These rankings are an indicator of how important other people think the blog is, as it is measured by the number of people who decide to link to it, from the rest of the blogosphere, compared to how many people are linking to all the other blogs. I was, at the time, rather pleased to have my, then, young blog, considered so highly by the rest of the blogosphere.

Yesterday, I saw a surprisingly different tale concerning my blog. Firstly, it should be noted that, according to Wikipedia, Technorati was tracking and ranking 112.8 million blogs by June 2008. Presumably they are likely to be tracking more now. Anyway, have a guess where my blog was listed, out of such a giant horde of blogs, in significance in the blogosphere, yesterday?

Well, I was stunned to note that my blog was listed as the 15,157th blog in the world out of all of its hundred million plus blogs! Not only that but astonishingly its authority was listed as 419. This means that, in the previous six months, 419 new bloggers decided to link to my blog. To my mind, that is a very large number.

To put it into terms that might be more meaningful, my blog is in the top 99.987% of all blogs, worldwide.

Now, I must point out that Technorati is measuring blog importance in terms of the number of people who think it worth linking to a blog. It is not measuring purely the traffic to the blog. My blog remains a niche interest, in regards to its subject matter, but what is clear, is that those who do read it, appreciate it, more than is typical - for a lot of people are linking to it.

Thanks to those who have linked to my blog. I am really amazed to learn that there are so many of you out there. It is appreciated and acts as a spur to keep on writing.

I did note something even more interesting. Technorati indicates that my blog has fallen in rank recently. Thus, an authority of 419 is NOT the peak it has reached. It has, in the recent past, been even more popular.

If you have a blog, and like anything that you read here, I would be grateful if you could link to the posts that you like, or to the blog head page. Thanks very much.

(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.)

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.)

Google search and successful blogs

If you have a successful blog, it is quite possible that no-one will be able to see it.

I should explain. Today, I have been unable to get to my own blog, using Google as a search engine. It just says: "We are sorry but your query looks like an automated request from a virus or spyware application".

How bizarre. I can't access my own blog. I tried using the search engine to find it, by typing in "scientific child prodigy". Sure enough, my listing came up No.1 - but when I clicked on it, I wasn't allowed to go to the page: I got the "We're sorry but..." page, again.

Every way I tried to get to my blog, I got the same result. Even from my blogger interface, I can't view my own blog.

Now, I don't know if it is just my computer, or if this is a global problem - and everyone who tries to read my blog is being blocked by Google. If so, it is very ironic indeed, since my blog is hosted on Blogspot which is OWNED by Google.

I am at a loss. So, if you have had trouble getting to my blog I apologize. Somewhere, there is a machine that equates popularity of search, with viral infection. There is no virus. There is just a simple case of a lot of people searching for the blog at the same time.

Thank you for your patience. I hope this is resolved soon because otherwise I may as well stop writing - for what would be the point if no-one can get to my site?

Unposted comments posted.

Some people have posted comments, recently, that I hadn't had time to address. Now, I have...well, most of them. So please look for an answer to your comment post, if you wish to find one.

Thanks.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, 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.

NLB archive Xiaxue blogspot

Now, to most people my title is in code. So, I should explain what it means.

"NLB" stands for the National Library Board of Singapore. "Archive" is self-explanatory. "Xiaxue" is Singapore's answer to Paris Hilton - without the hotel fortune. "Blogspot" is her blog address.

I found myself somewhat stunned to read the newspapers today. Stunned for two reasons. Firstly, that NLB had the foresight to decide to archive 100 of Singapore's blogs, to preserve them as a record of Singapore, for future generations, against their eventual deletion. Secondly, however, that they chose Xiaxue's blog, to be among the select few. The big question that reverberated in me was: why?

My first and only impression of her blog was that it was the vapid musings of a vapid girl. Not being one to make snap judgements, I went to her blog, today, to check what it was that the Singaporean state thought worth preserving of her inestimable thoughts.

I read it again - and found the vapid musings of a vapid girl. No change there then. For those who have never stumbled on this great opus of a blog it concerns the kind of things that Paris Hilton is concerned with - except cruder, crasser, with a lot of swearing and a lot of photographs of the eponymous Xiaxue in fairly skimpy attire.

The entire blog, as far as I can discern, consists of tales of her boyfriends, shopping, with price tags, exclamation marks, glossy pictures of herself and glamorous friends, swearing, more exclamation marks, details of the dull minutiae of a party girl's life, more swearing, a bit of shopping, some plastic surgery, some more swearing, a bout of shopping, even more exclamation marks, a boyfriend mentioned, a party, some more swearing...you get the picture, by now. It is very dull and repetitive stuff.

I did notice one thing though, which may explain why it was thought important enough to include in a national archive, for posterity. There isn't a single idea, thought, or hint of cognitive activity on the entire site. I suppose they thought it captured the essence of the times.

The National Library Board is the nation's repository of knowledge, history and culture. It rather concerns me that when so few blogs can be preserved (after all 100 is rather a small number when Singapore alone must be producing six figures of the things), that one of those chosen should be a blog with absolutely no meaningful content at all. It is a blog about a girl's social life. It is a blog about how a trivial, ordinary girl, with little ability (like Paris Hilton) can become famous. It is a blog, however, which does one thing they might have thought worth preserving. It is a blog which captures the essential emptiness of modern life, for many young people, in Singapore. What they do with their lives and their time is quite positively meaningless. This blog embodies that to the fullest.

Perhaps, one day, the world will be a place filled with people who are wiser, deeper and more intelligent, than those of today. Perhaps they will be living lives of Significance. What will they make, then, of the ancient records of an apparently empty girl living a shallow life? Will they wonder why it was considered important to ensure that her words survived for posterity? Will they judge then, the Singaporeans before them, as shallow - for who but a shallow person would think that a shallow person's thoughts had sufficient merit to make into a national record?

I don't believe the future will think kindly of the choice of Xiaxue for such a limited database of the nature of the Singaporean blogosphere in the early 21st century. I don't think it says very good things about the priorities of the society that decided on such a preservation.

Surely, out of what must be hundreds of thousands - or at least tens of thousands - of Singapore based blogs, there must be one of more merit than Xiaxue's empty effort?

I do note that my own blog is not among the 100 chosen (as far as I am aware). I find that particularly telling, in its own way. It says that a blog that attempts to discuss ideas, that attempts to think about issues and reflect on them, is of less consequence than a young girl's vapid musings on nothing much at all.

My blog is not alone. There are many blogs based in Singapore that, to the unbiased eye, appear to be of more merit than Xiaxue's. One of those more worthy blogs has been excluded from the archive to make way for hers. In other words, something worthy has been lost in order to preserve the worthless.

In the NLB's choices may be found the nature of the society that makes those choices. I will leave it to you to decide what that says about the nature of the society in question.

It could, of course, all come down to fame. Yes, it is true that Xiaxue says nothing of consequence. She never has and never will. If her blog is anything to go by, she will never conceive of an idea in her life. It seems, however, that none of that is important, for one thing is true: Xiaxue, like Paris Hilton, is famous. That single fact seems to make up for any lack of substance. Famous people are often thought to have merit, simply because they are famous. This, then, seems to be a case of that. She's famous...so of course we must preserve her every twittering.

Wonderful stuff. I wonder if my shopping lists should be in the national archive? Perhaps if I started to talk about shopping, social life and swearing, I too, would achieve National Importance. That is now the recipe for immortality, in Singapore.

Be trivial. It pays.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Blogger display failure: help wanted.

First of all, I am sorry if the display looks strange. Everything is NOT meant to be in one vertical column with the sidebars beneath the posting text. I did not put it that way and have no idea why it is that way. So, I have a request: if you do know how these things work and have some advice regarding how to restore my formatting to its usual self, please advise me in a comment post or email so that I can correct it.

Note that before this re-formatting occurred, I did nothing to change it. All I did was post - and note the alteration.

Thanks very much for your help in advance.