Tiarnan's interpretation of a song.

Tiarnan, three, is rather fond of the Transformers. Therefore, it was little surprise, perhaps, that he has taken to singing its theme song. However, he came out with his own version. Part of it, went rather like this:

"...and wash the Americans clean!"

It was both sweet and funny to hear him sing these wonderfully reinterpreted lyrics. I, at once, thought of all those dirty Americans being washed. What a strange song. He sang it with such earnestness in a kind of rock style, that no matter how funny it was, you couldn't really laugh at it: it was just done too seriously for that.

I had to ask my wife what the lyrics were meant to be: "...and wash our memories clean!" However, on listening to the song on another occasion, it was obvious why Tiarnan had difficulty discerning the words: they weren't sung clearly at all.

On listening to both the real song and Tiarnan's version, I find that I much prefer Tiarnan's version. At least, his has a funny image in it.

What is particularly sweet about Tiarnan's singing is that he puts a lot of extras into the performance: a rhythmic nodding of the head, the intent expressions on his face, the "rock" voice...it is, as a whole, a great little performance.

Thank you Tiarnan for the wonderful - and unintentionally original - song.

(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.

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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/

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The career ambition of a young child

It is a cliche, throughout the Western world that many children want to grow up to be firemen or policemen (or the like). I suppose this is because these figures seem to play such a dramatic role in the tv dramas and stories children are aware of. Such people seem to have interesting, heroic lives and are, of course, in a tv show, or a story in a book, at the centre of the action.

Fintan's ambition, however, is a little different, though it shares one characteristic: his ambition is of someone at the centre of things, too, though in a rather more chaotic way.

We asked Fintan, four, in early December, what he wanted to be when he grew up.

His answer? "Mr. Bean."

I thought that funny and interesting, but the question is why would he wish to be Mr. Bean? It is clear that Mr. Bean is funny...but not intentionally so. It is also clear that Mr. Bean is different from the people around him. Perhaps that is part of the attraction. There is no-one, in real life, like Mr. Bean. Then, again, another thought occurs to me. Perhaps he means to be a performer, like Rowan Atkinson, the real life actor behind Mr. Bean.

It is unclear why he would like to be Mr. Bean, when he grows up. I shall have to ask him.

Note: For those who live in countries that don't receive the Mr. Bean tv shows, Mr. Bean is an idiosyncratic man, who doesn't speak, but interacts with the world in a logical but absurd fashion. His solutions to problems are always just the wrong way to get something done - even though there is reason behind them. (For instance, trying to paint a room quickly by putting an explosive into a pot of paint and letting it off.)

(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.)

A Science Prodigy's Comedic Sense

We laugh at strange things in my family - jokes that require unusual knowledge to appreciate. Perhaps the oddest thing about this joke making is that they are generally made by Ainan, 7.

Ainan sees humour where others see mystification. I haven't heard any accounts of other scientists finding science funny - but Ainan does. He sees comedy in the most unexpected of places - even in such a mundane concept as distance.

Yesterday he said to me: "There is a very funny distance, called an apc."

I didn't laugh - mainly because I didn't know what an "apc" was. I looked at him with that universal expression of blankness that asks, wordlessly: "Please explain."

He waited just a little to see if I understood and then, with a patience that I believe he has come to acquire, through his relations with others - who, no doubt, often don't understand his remarks, he continued.

"It is an attoparsec...which is about 3 centimetres."

Laughter exploded from me. I thought the idea was hilarious.

Let me explain a little so that you too can appreciate why a distance was funny. A parsec is a "parallax second" - that is 3.26 light years. A light year is the distance light travels in one year. This is a truly enormous distance. Light has a velocity of 300,000 Kilometres per SECOND. So, imagine travelling at the speed of light for 3.26 years. That is one parsec.

Now, what made this funny was that the inventor of this absurd unit of measurement had multiplied that unit by a very small number. "Atto" means 10 to the power of minus 18. This is a really really small number. So small that the famed "nano" of nanotech represents a number a billion times bigger than an "atto".

Atto is so small a number that when it is used to multiply a parsec, it reduces it to just 3 centimetre.

What I thought was funny was the idea of conjoining an astronomical distance and a very small number - to make an everyday, modest distance of three centimetres. Clearly, Ainan had thought it funny too, though if he had ever laughed at it, his laughter had already been done by the time he mentioned it to me.

So, there you are. Science can be funny - and there is even comedy in distance. At least, Ainan managed to find it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

High Five, Tiarnan style

How often have you heard the phrase High Five? How have you responded to it?

Yesterday, Syahidah went: "High five!" to Tiarnan, putting out her hand for him to slap. She is not in the habit of doing this, it just came upon her to do so, in that moment.

He looked at the proffered hand for a smidgeon of a second and shouted, in reply: "High Ten!" and then moved to slap with two hands - and she duly presented both hands to be slapped.

This was funny to the degree that it was both apt and unexpected. Tiarnan, nineteen months, had taken a standard phrase and action and made them his own - with arithmetical correctness thrown in for good measure.

Who needs television when you've got kids? They are far more entertaining than the goggle box.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)