CNN, Ris Low and Scientific Child Prodigy.

Bizarrely, CNN has quoted my blog, on its website. They have excerpted an article I wrote, a while back, on Ris Low's atrocious behaviour, in her nascent career - or should I say, career of atrocious behaviour.

The link is here: http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/none/miss-singapore-world-2009-aftermath-811798

If you scroll down the article, you will see "Scientific child prodigy" quoted, in the latter half of the article. That is me.

Now this is the second instance, in the past month or so, of a major news organization linking to my blog - the other was the leading Danish newspaper Berlingske. So, I am both surprised and unsurprised - if it is possible to be both at once. Surprised, because there once was a time when I never could have thought of CNN linking to my writing; unsurprised, because they are most certainly not the first media organization to do so. (Even Bild, the German daily, and one of the biggest circulation newspapers in the world, has linked to my blog, in the past).

What seems to be beginning to happen, is that I am writing on many subjects, some of which are of general interest to mass media. In searching for background, journalists are stumbling on my articles and, if they have integrity and journalistic honour, they link to them and credit me with my thoughts, if they use or quote any. (I have seen instances in which this has not been done - and thoughts have just been lifted, without credit...but I will post of that another time...soon.)

It is strange being a blogger. If done well, a blogger is as good as any journalist - but freer. So, in a way, being a blogger is better than being a journalist, since I can genuinely write whatever I please (excepting that which would constitute libel...but then that would be discourteous in most cases, too, so common decency prevents that, anyway.) The only difference is that a blogger is, usually, not paid for their work. So, some might see the journalist as a superior position. However, it is not - for the very reason that the blogger is not paid. Being unpaid and being free to say the truth, without editorial or political interference, a blogger is more likely to be able to say - and to actually say - what needs to be said, on matters of importance. Furthermore, a blogger's opinion has not been "bought" in any way - it is a free opinion, freely given (in those parts of the world, in which a blogger feels free to speak, of course.)

Thus, but for the matter of making a living - which, in most cases has to come from somewhere else - the blogger is, in fact, the ideal media source. The blogger may not have access to the huge resources of a media organization - but they have the only tool that is really essential: a mind and a view to speak. Thoughts are free to those who are able to have them. Now, with blogging, those thoughts may be freely shared with the world. It is, in my opinion, a great step forward, in human culture that blogging should be available to all. The thoughts of so many more people, will now be on record, to speak of our times - and that will, one day, be seen to have incalculable value.

Yet, perhaps that day is already here - for the Bilds, the CNNs and the Berlingskes, of the world are already linking to my blog, quoting from it and acknowledging it. That can mean only one thing: the mass media is well aware of the value of the new media - and, instead of attacking it, they are incorporating it, into their discourse, using the minds of millions of bloggers, as a resource for their own articles. As long as they continue to properly credit the bloggers so referenced, this is a good development. I am left to wonder just how common this referencing of bloggers is going to become.

Anyway, thank you, CNN, for quoting my writing. It is much appreciated.

(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.)

Lord Valentine the Misplaced.

Lord Valentine the Misplaced, to give him his full title, was a character of my invention in the early 1990s. For a time, this 18th century dandy roamed the late 20th century world and, through no intention of my own, came to the attention of millions of people.

Lord Valentine the Misplaced was interviewed for a London magazine called Time Out, in November 1993, through a chance encounter with a photographer who submitted pieces to it, while I was going about, minding my own business, as any 18th century dandy would, in 20th century London. Then, as is the way of these things, other media read the interview and contacted me through Time Out. I was subsequently interviewed for the Observer newspaper, then Channel One, the new Associated Newspapers TV news channel. Finally, the big boys came a calling - and I found myself on CNN. When I later went to New York in February of 1994, NBC News covered my presence there, with a broadcast. Ironically, it all felt as surreal as Lord Valentine was.

I found Lord Valentine the Misplaced to be a very interesting experience. He consisted of an extended improvisation in character, with a liking for aphorisms. I wore full 18th century attire, including wig and make up. It took as long for me to get dressed as some women are reputed to do. It was great fun. What was not so fun, was the rush to claim credit for my character's invention.

The first photographer of my character, a somewhat "hyper" man of unknown age, but probably in his forties, by the name of Nick Simpson, tried to give everyone the impression that, somehow, I was his invention. This galled me. You see Nick Simpson was particularly SLOW in understanding my character. I had to explain to him, on several occasions, the type of photographs that would work and what should be done. Even this didn't work. On the day we turned up for the shoot, his intended image was all wrong - it wouldn't have been interesting at all. Finally, after further explanation, we managed to get some shots which expressed some of what I had in mind. Unbelievably, this man would later claim that he had created the images in which he had had to be directed. He laid claim to the idea of my own work. I even am given to understand that he sold similar images and ideas in his work as an advertising photographer, letting people believe that he was the origin of this kind of image.

It took a lot of coaching of Nick Simpson to secure the right sort of image from him. Between first meeting me, and the day of the photoshoot, he had done some practice images, with others and they were quite the most horrifyingly garish over-coloured, emetic images I have ever seen. There is just no way this man would have got a decent image on his own. He seemed to lack the basics of good taste.

To sum up his attitude towards me as the creator of my own work, I asked him what he would say if anyone asked him who was in the photographs. "I might tell them." So, he "might" tell them who had had actually thought of the images. Just great. That was my welcome to the world of advertising - a world in which I have never met an honest person.

Lord Valentine was a very influential character. It seemed that just everyone wanted to copy him or lay claim to him in some way. Interestingly, no-one who did this, not a single one of them, ever referred to the origin of their imitative work. None of them gave credit to their "inspiration". I was so appalled that I resolved never to show any more creative work in public - and I didn't for many, many years. In fact, in some ways, I have yet to do so, again. It was just too distressing to see my work imitated, without any credit being given. It was also galling to see people such as Nick Simpson making a lot of money out of my idea, by letting people believe that it was their idea. In all my time in Nick Simpson's studio, I saw no particular evidence that he was a man of ideas. However, he thought he was...but that isn't quite the same thing.

Friends and relatives pointed out to me the resemblance of the central character Don Juan de Marco in the subsequent New Line Cinema film, of the same name, to Lord Valentine. Indeed, both characters are dandies from the past, living in the present. The film appears to have taken the Lord Valentine character and psychoanalysed him. That is it. That is the film. Rather curiously, Don Juan de Marco's film company, New Line Cinema, is owned by the same company that owns CNN. Thus, it could easily be, that CNN's interview somehow became a film made by a sister company of theirs. I did note that in all interviews the writer of Don Juan de Marco gave, he was particularly unclear about the origin of his film idea. He couldn't have been more vague, elusive or evasive about it.

What was particularly telling about this "coincidence" is that the resemblance between my prior work, of Lord Valentine, and the later Don Juan de Marco project was so close, that many different people pointed it out to me, as something they had, themselves, observed.

Indeed, there are rather too many coincidences in the Don Juan de Marco film. The characters were basically the same kind of person. The film was made by a company that had had access to the character, through CNN, before Don Juan de Marco was written. Furthermore, CNN had delayed the broadcast of the interview for quite a long time, before finally airing it. This was on the order of several weeks of just sitting on it. When you put these facts together, it is awfully hard not to come to the conclusion that Nick Simpson wasn't the only person in a hurry to lay claim to my work. It would seem most unlikely that it was an accident that a film that comes so close to imitating Lord Valentine, should also have been made by a company whose sister had interviewed me.

So, the success of the Lord Valentine character, instead of becoming the beginning of something, became the end of something. I was so disheartened with the rush to plagiarize him by so many different people, all at once, that I resolved to retreat into creative silence - which I did. Lord Valentine the Misplaced was a piece of performance art that could have begun a great career of an unusual nature. However, it did not. It ended one, by being something too many people were interested in imitating - and no-one was interested in crediting.

It taught me something, though: almost none of the people who are in creative professions, are actually creative, most of them are career plagiarists. There are very few people thinking for themselves.

Why, do I write now about Lord Valentine the Misplaced? Well, Valentine's Day is approaching and the last broadcast of Lord Valentine was on February 14th 1994, in New York. Lord Valentine was in an interview on NBC News. I never saw the interview myself, but I rather get the feeling they missed the point.

I wonder if any of my readers remember seeing either the CNN interview or the NBC interview? Did it make enough of an impression to be remembered, today, one and a half decades later? I would be interested in any thoughts or comments from anyone who managed to see it, all those years ago.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. This is not only my birthday, but the birthday of Lord Valentine the Misplaced. We share the same birthday, separated by a couple of centuries. A happy birthday, then, to Lord Valentine the Misplaced, for tomorrow.

Note: Lord Valentine the Misplaced, is frequently just referred to as Lord Valentine, however, this doesn't change the fact that he is misplaced.

(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.

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

Are many gifts better than one?

If we look back at the past, some of the figures we most admire, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, had many gifts. He was a man who, seemingly, could do anything excellently. Is this situation the ideal one?

In one way, it would seem to be, for it lends the bearer of the gifts, many opportunities and choices: there is nothing they cannot do if they have gifts in the sciences and the arts, practical gifts and theoretical gifts, musical gifts and athletic gifts. Such people may do as they please in life. That is the clear advantage. However there is one disadvantage that is not so clear. With many gifts, there will be a tendency to dilute one's efforts among them and so reduce the likelihood of success in any of them. In the modern world, therefore, the person of many gifts may not succeed in the way that a person of one gift would: eminence requires focus and effortful attention over many years. That does not come easily to someone who has half-a-dozen areas of expertise. Such a person may sparkle brightly in one way, and not at all in another.

I have seen such a tendency in my own early life. I had many areas in which it was easy for me to shine - science, acting, writing, music, art and academia. Yet, having so many areas meant that I was pulled in several directions and so did not dig sufficiently deep in any of them to satisfy my potential in those areas. Many years were perhaps "wasted" pursuing one gift at the expense of others. Although I would say that pursuit of any of one's gifts makes one grow - and so makes the whole person more complex and more interesting.

I was a physicist for a time, with a government laboratory, at 17. It was at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middx., UK. I enjoyed it and completed two research projects while I was there - a major and a minor, if you like. I worked as an Arts magazine founder and editor, for a couple of years - and again, found it enjoyable and rewarding. I have written two non-fiction books and done major work on two others. (The process of publishing these has begun). I used to draw very distinctive compositions as a teenager...but gave up due to personal injury at 17. I have yet to return to it. Though, a piece of my performance art, "Lord Valentine the Misplaced" was global news on CNN, and Reuters, among others, in the 1990s. The interviewer at CNN, was Richard Blystone who was, or became, the European Bureau Chief. As a child, singing was one of my greatest joys. I went to Cambridge University and studied Natural Sciences, taking my B.A and later M.A. This I did not enjoy for reasons too diverse to discuss here, though I would point out that I was unlucky enough not to find a mentor there. I have also acted on stage, TV and the odd film. I appear regularly on TV in South-East Asia of all places.

Yet, there has been a price for this diversity: the cumulative effect of working in one area with focussed effort over time, is to establish a rather large presence in a field. That doesn't happen in a short time if you are working in several fields. Would I do things differently had I the opportunity? Perhaps - but then I would have paid a different price - the lack of diversity of experience that I have garnered in my varied career.

Why do I write this? Well, many parents are worried about the development of their children. They want to see them become all-rounders in some instances, or to shine at one thing in others. Is either superior? Well the first gives great flexibility of choices - but the latter could be superior from the career point of view. You see the person focussed on one thing is infinitely more likely to become a great shining success in it, than the person who has several mini-careers. That being said, of course, if the person of several mini-careers becomes famous for any one of them, he or she may become known as a polymath, and admired for that characteristic - and rewarded with opportunities in the other areas, too.

Ainan, my scientific child prodigy son, shows great focus on science, at present, although he has shown aptitude in music and art among other things. If his focus is maintained as he grows up, he is likely to make a significant impression in whichever scientific area is his choice. I don't worry that he might be less "polymathic" than I was - for I see something now which I did not understand then - there is a definite advantage in picking a strength and working with it. He has other strengths and each may develop at different stages in his life - but it is as a scientist that I think he will most readily shine - for that is the subject of his focus.

So if your child has many gifts, or just one: don't worry - for both have paths to success - and in some ways, it is the child of one great gift who has the easier path.

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and one month, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)