A telling question.

About two weeks ago, Ainan, 12, asked a question I have never heard asked before.

The question popped into the air before me, utterly unannounced.

“Does violence cause video games?”, he asked, with an amused glitter in his eye.

I laughed. I had to – for I at once understood the truth of his question. Video games are violent and are suspected to cause children to be violent...but why are video games violent in the first place? As Ainan had noted...because they are based on real world violence. So, in a sense, Ainan is right: violence causes video games. If our world were not violent, video games would not be violent too: they are a reflection of the world we have made, together, they are a distillation of our times.

The funniest thing about this question is that it points to a self-evident truth...whereas the other question, more commonly asked of “Do video games cause violence?”, is not self-evident and is much prone to controversy, argument and difference of opinion.

I like Ainan’s view of the situation. In his view, real world violence gives rise to video games which are violent, which gives rise to real world violence, which gives rise to video games which are violent – which gives rise to real world violence...and so on ad infinitum. One feeds the other...they are two sides of the same phenomenon.

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 London Riots and the Collapse of Civilization.

The riots in London, over the shooting of one Mr. Duggan, a father of four, who apparently had a gun on him, at the time the police attempted to arrest him. (Well, police say a “non-police gun was found”, which implies as much.) The circumstances of his shooting don’t seem entirely clear, since the only bullet the police have found that might have been from him, turns out to be one of the police’s own. It was found embedded in a police radio. It seems that at least one officer is either unable to distinguish his fellow policemen, from suspects (which is telling, in itself), or he needs some more shooting training.

Conduct and training of the police aside, it is the reaction of the public, in Tottenham, initially that concerns me: they rioted. Cars were torched. Buildings were burnt to the ground. Shops were looted – indeed, rioters were seen pushing shopping trolleys loaded with stolen electronic goods. Police officers were attacked. I understand even shopkeepers were dragged out of their shops and kicked in the head. In the subsequent couple of days, rioting has spread, contagion-like, to Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol, as well as many other areas within London including Clapham, Brixton, Ealing and Croydon. There are streets in Ealing in which every single storefront has been smashed in. Quite simply, the UK has gone mad.

I look at this situation, in which a single police incident can spark riots across a nation, and I think one very clear thought: civilization is very fragile. We delude ourselves, daily, into thinking that the civilized lives we have come to expect, will always be there. We delude ourselves into thinking that the nation states in which live, are stable. We delude ourselves into thinking that the average man is quite nice really and would never dream of harming us. Not so. Civilization can vanish overnight. Nation states can crumble in an afternoon. The average man can, in the right circumstances, commit crimes that make it to the front pages of newspapers around the world. In fact, they have, in the past few days, in London. The rioters are referred to as “young people”, as if youth were their only distinguishing characteristic. Many of them are, it is said, black. However, some are white, too. They are, I understand, generally “working class”…that is pretty “average men”. Yet, what they have decided to do, en masse, sets them apart from our expectations of the average man.

It is clear that the spark that set off this particular human blaze, was little more than an excuse, for the rioters to strike out at society and enrich themselves by looting stores, in the process. This seems likely since the troubles have spread far beyond the immediate locality in which Mr. Duggan lived and was, presumably, known. Hundreds of rioters, across the country, with no connection to Mr. Duggan at all, have elected to riot. They have, it seems, taken the pretext of the Tottenham disturbance and used it to pursue their own, immediate, short term goals. These seem both trivial and malicious. Electronics retailers have been looted of every single viable item. Shoe stores have been trashed. Sporting goods stores have been emptied. Clothing stores have been ransacked. Even convenience stores have been raided, with people stealing ice cream and toilet paper. It does seem rather ridiculous that they should attack police officers, beat up shopkeepers, burn cars and set fire to buildings, all in the quest for an ice cream – but what should not be overlooked here, is what it all means. It is the physical statement, by a large number of youths, that they refuse to abide by the system of society in which effort leads to reward – that to achieve something, one must do something, personally. They have, instead, elected to take, what is not theirs, en masse, under the cover of great civil disorder that they have created. There is great peril in this situation. You see, there is the risk that not only will the perpetrators of these riots learn a lesson, from this – but that thousands, perhaps millions of other disaffected youths, will learn a lesson, too, not only in England, but throughout the world. The lesson is this: the State is powerless to stop rioters from looting, stealing what they please, if they do so in large groups, simultaneously, in many locations – as has been happening in London. There simply isn’t the manpower to control simultaneous civil disturbances. The police will not do much to intervene when there are too few of them to do so safely against the rioting crowds. This lesson particularly applies to a state like the UK, in which the police generally make little use of guns and it is not expected that they should do so. They are expected to use gentler means to control crowds. Some commenters, online, have urged the use of guns, by the police, to quell the riots. This would seem to be a very dangerous tactic indeed since the riots began with the shooting of one man: how much more incensed might they become if others were shot, too? The very nation could descend into universal chaos, as the young – and it must be said, poor – took up whatever weapons they could find or make, and took out their anger on the police.

The stability of a nation depends on an unspoken contract with the people, that they should respect the law and abide by the “system”. In traditional times, most people do this – and so civilized life is possible. However, under times of strain, some people decide not to obey the system and to tear up the contract. When enough people do so, at the same time, a nation can become impossible to govern, without taking the direst – and potentially most inflammatory – of steps. The UK is not far from such a situation. Many areas have rioted, affecting cities across the nation. So, many different groups of youths, have experimented with what it feels like to disobey the social contract, en masse – and to reach out and take whatever they please and, in many cases, attack whomever they want.

At this time, there is no telling whether the riots will naturally subside, or whether this civil chaos, will spread further. Whether it spreads, or not, many youths will have learnt a lesson that it would be better that they had not. They may seem powerless in their typically unemployed lives – but together, acting as one chaotic being, they have great power. They have the power to take whatever they please, do whatever they please, the power to smash, destroy, loot and burn, maim and, even kill (some arrests have been made for attempted murder associated with the riots). Very few of the youths involved in these crimes are ever likely to be caught and convicted – there are simply too many of them. Thus, word of the power that they have within them all, as a group, is likely to spread far and wide. They will have learnt that all they need to do to get something – is simply to reach out and take it, as one, rioting, organism.

Very few people are natural leaders. Yet, all it would take, in the UK, for this situation to become both endemic and dangerous, is for leaders to arise amongst the rioting youths, to direct their efforts, coordinate them, time them and plan them. Such co-ordination, were it to arise, would create an unprecedented challenge to the security of the nation – particularly if it were to spread widely amongst Britain’s millions of unemployed youth.

Britain is on the edge of chaos. The riots that we have so far seen, the burnt buildings and cars, the looted stores and the assaulted shopkeepers, are nothing compared to the potential devastation which could be unleashed were this behavior to be emulated across the nation, by even a small minority of the unemployed and other disaffected people.

Our civilization will, most probably, fall, one day, like many civilizations before it. What might surprise those who see this occurrence is the swiftness with which it could happen. A few days ago, there were no riots in the UK: now there are. The descent into chaos can come as swiftly as the flicking of a light switch. Of course, the circumstances that create the underlying strains, may take years or decades to build up – but the ultimate chaotic expression of those built up pressures, can break out in an instant.

I am struck by how much chaos the shooting of one man, in an attempted arrest, can lead to. Imagine how much greater the potential chaos, were oil to run out…or food to suddenly become scarce? Were either of these two events to occur – the first, without a viable alternative – the second to happen at all, then we would see the almost immediate break down of our society. Within days, our civilization, so carefully built up over centuries, would collapse into universal criminal chaos. It would be beyond the control of any state to maintain itself, under the kind of pressures, indeed, distress, the people would feel. Any state facing such situations could very well collapse completely, and, what’s more, ferociously. Many would die – and, depending on the severity of the strains upon it and the depth of the resultant collapse, it could be decades, even centuries before there was a semblance of recovery. It should be said that there might be no such recovery in the event of the end of oil, without a viable replacement, available.

Oil is coming to an end. With it, will come lowered agricultural productivity, since all modern food production (everything from fertilizers to tractors) depends on oil. Thus, our world will one day see the dual shocks of the end of oil – and a scarcity of food. That day is not far off. Oil has no more than about 40 years left at present rates of consumption – perhaps less if oil producers are lying about their reserves (very likely, some cases of such are proven). Thus, without a viable alternative to oil, our world will face just such a collapse, within the lifetimes of many now living. Only a complete reorganization of our energy infrastructure and agricultural systems to adjust to the absence of oil, can forestall it – yet, too little, at this time, seems to be being done.

The end of oil and its consequent scarcity of food, will see riots like the ones in London, across the face of much of the world, perhaps all of it. Lawlessness will become universal. States will crumble –and a new dark ages is very likely to begin. All of this is within the realm of possibility, if not enough planning and implementation of new energy infrastructure, and alternative means to support agriculture, is not put in place within the next four decades. Of course, the strains upon the energy and agricultural systems will become evident long before the ultimate end of oil – for long before then, oil will become shockingly expensive – and so, too, will food. Many in the world will starve. We are all accustomed to seeing people starving in the Third World – how will people react when people start starving in the First World?

I like living a peaceful life. Everyone should have the right to a peaceful life. Unfortunately, as I get old, I might have only chaos to look forward to, unless the world’s leaders really LEAD on the issue of the end of oil, energy security and food production. Any failings in these areas, will lead directly to a world in which riots, chaos and mass criminality, will be the new normality. In such a world, people will murder for a pint of milk or a loaf of bread. It is not a world in which anyone would like to live – and perhaps the only thankful aspect is that most people won’t live long in it. Only the most ruthless, the most violent, the most prepared and organized will survive. Once the collapse begins, all that man has striven for, for millennia, will come to a swift end. In a couple of generations, much that we were and had, will be lost, perhaps forever.

We are at a very vulnerable time. It is a time in which much foresight is needed to plan a path through the inevitable future. Sadly, most politicians care only for today, not a seemingly far tomorrow. Without visionary leadership, many of us alive, today, might live through the peak of human civilization, into its decline and eclipse.

Civilization is fragile and precious. Without it, life is bleak and rather brief. Only wisdom and foresight, can safeguard civilization through the trials to come. I only hope the world’s populations, have the wisdom to choose, nay, demand, wise leaders, with a vision of the tomorrow they wish to build and the challenges they must overcome. I see no signs, at present, that the world has such leaders, in general. The US, for instance, is consumed with infantile bickering between the Republicans and the Democrats, whom to me seem just like two brands of spoilt children, fighting over every single issue, and never coming to any agreement. No. There is no leadership, in the US, at present, to help direct the world through what is to come. It is unlikely, given their political system, as it is, that there ever will be. One must hope, therefore, that other nations are wiser and more foresighted. It wouldn’t surprise me if some Asian nations take the steps that Western nations might fail to. We shall see.

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.)

The Utoeya Shootings and the Price of Legal Leniency

It is needless to repeat the details of the Utoeya shootings in Oslo. As I write, 93 people, mostly teenagers, have died and as many again are nursing injuries, of varied degrees of severity. The shooter, a far right white terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik, age 32, was apparently – and bizarrely – motivated by an anti-Islamic, anti-multiculturalist, anti-left ideology. He is a Christian fundamentalist.

Now, I am not going to delve into Anders Behring Breivik’s motivations, in this post, nor, even, his sanity, which is clearly questionable – no, I wish to address a problem, in Norway, external to Anders Behring Breivik, himself. You see, in one very real sense, Norway’s legal system made Anders Behring Breivik’s act palatable to Mr. Breivik, himself. You see, I understand that the maximum penalty under Norway’s legal system is just 21 years in prison. That stunned me, for it has a very real implication: people like Anders Behring Breivik, driven by extremist ideologies may consider 21 years in prison a fair price to pay, for committing their atrocities. They may say to themselves: “I have killed 93 people, and counting…for which I shall pay 21 years of my life: that is a fair exchange.”

The consequences of committing appalling crimes, in Norway are not severe enough to deter motivated people from committing them. Under the law, as it stands, Anders Behring Breivik, could quite easily have thirty years of life and freedom left to him, after paying the price for his crimes. This strikes me as both wrong, and abhorrent. In a way, it is as much a crime to punish Anders Behring Breivik so lightly, as the crime he is to be punished for.

The first principle of an effective legal system should be that there should be penalties commensurate to all degrees of crime. Clearly, that is not the case in Norway. Twenty-one years in prison is too little a price to pay for quite a few categories of crime, in my view. Norway needs to reform its whole penal system, in response to this crime. At the very least, they should bring in true life prison sentences, which last for the entire life, no matter how long, of the criminal. That, in itself, would deter quite a few potential criminals, from committing the crimes that carry such a sentence. Other countries have the death penalty - but, in some ways, life in prison can be a lot worse than death, particularly if the prisoner is consistently ill treated by the other prisoners – as Anders Behring Breivik is likely to be.

Any country which is soft on crime – as Norway is seemingly – can expect to learn some pretty hard lessons.

It is possible that 93 Norwegians would be alive today, if Norway had full life prison sentences for murder, as an option. It is clear that Anders Behring Breivik considers 21 years a price worth paying, to further his “vision”, of the future of Norway. It is up to legal systems everywhere, to institute penalties that as few people as possible, would ever consider worth paying for their crimes. Maximal crimes, deserve maximal punishments – the more severe the punishment, the less likely the crime will occur (for all but the irrational).

Then again, if Anders Behring Breivik is not placed in solitary confinement, for the duration of his sentence, it is very likely that another prisoner will kill him, instituting an effective death penalty, that Norway does not have. Perhaps Anders Behring Breivik didn’t consider that. Or perhaps, like the Islamic fundamentalists he oddly resembles, in his deeds, if not in his beliefs, he doesn’t really care. Either way, the fact remains that Norway’s legal system seems rather naïve as to the motivations of men. Can they not understand that the punishment must be great enough to deter the crime?

Anders Behring Breivik was not deterred. It is now up to legal systems everywhere, to ensure that they have a sufficiently deterrent punishment on their statute books, so as to dissuade as many Anders Behring Breivik’s as possible, from becoming known to us, by their atrocious deeds.

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.htmland 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.)

Plagiarism in schools.

Plagiarism is a matter too lightly taken in many schools, in Asia. I say this, because it seems much too common and I rather feel it would not be so, if a harsher stance were taken against it. It is, for instance, almost expected that students will plagiarize, in China - which is famous for this, yet, the problem extends beyond China and is found throughout Asia.

I heard a true story recently which may indicate why plagiarism is so prevalent. In a school, in Malaysia, an art and design teacher caught out a foreign student, in an act of plagiarism. She duly announced that was going to deduct 20% from the piece of work, owing to its lack of originality. Now, that should have been the end of that. The student should have been taught a lesson not to plagiarize in future, for they would be suitably penalized. Yet, that was not the end of the matter. This particular student made a very vociferous complaint about this NEW teacher, to the senior management of the school, for marking her down. Guess what happened then? Please have a think about it.

Well, the senior management had a word with the teacher. She was instructed to reinstate the student's mark and was led to understand that she was not to do such a thing, again.

I was shocked. A young teacher had taken a stand against plagiarism and her school had taken a stand FOR plagiarism: they had dressed her down for her action and forced to go back on her decision.

Now, what lesson did the plagiarizing student learn from this? She no doubt thinks that all she has to do, to be able to get away with theft, in future, is to make a loud fuss about it and complain about whoever finds her out. Thus, is plagiarism encouraged and rewarded.

Plagiarism will continue to be endemic not only in Asian schools, but throughout Asian society, as long as the educational system (and other institutions of the cultures) do not take a stand against it.

In my mind, the greater wrong here, was committed by the manager who decided to force the teacher to reverse her decision. Failing to support a teacher who is trying to instil a respect for originality, is a far greater crime, than the plagiarism itself.

For those who like to know such things, this event took place in a school in the Kuala Lumpur area of Malaysia. However, it should never have taken place at all. I hope this story might persuade other schools to be more supportive of the fight against plagiarism.

(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.)

Could Ris have got any lower?

The whole Ris Low episode leads me to wonder about to what degree it is possible to conduct a life built on lies. It also leads me to wonder why anyone would want to.



Ris Low, for instance, told all Singapore's national newspapers, when news of her credit card fraud broke, that ERM World Marketing, the organization behind Miss Singapore World, KNEW about her credit card fraud conviction. She said that she had told them. She further said that they had informed her that they would let her continue in the pageant as long as the news of it, did not leak out.


Well, we have recently learnt that ERM World Marketing did NOT know of her conviction. They were only told by Ris Low AFTER NEWS OF IT BROKE. So, there are two lies exposed above. A third lie is that Ris Low said, in the past, that she was aware of all of the clauses regarding criminality but didn't mention her crime because she thought that her sentence, 24 months of supervised probation, did not count as a conviction. Now, she is saying that she didn't know about the clauses, because she didn't read the contract in detail - because the other pageants had no such clauses. Since these two statements contradict each other, one of them is a lie.



There is, it seems, no end to the lies of this young girl. Indeed, it is beginning to seem as if her youth is her only recommendation, (if recommendation it can be...) She is also amazingly insensitive to the seriousness of her own crime dismissing it, as "not so big". So, the fact that she had over 60 charges of credit card fraud levied against her, doesn't seem to have awakened any sense of what is right or wrong in her. She still thinks of her crimes as nothing.



This, I think is key to her personality. Credit card fraud is "not so big"...it is nothing serious. Thus, the threshold for what she thinks is wrong is above this. Thus, any crime or wrongdoing somewhere ABOVE credit card fraud, will be dismissed as nothing. Thus, issuing a stream of lies in public to the newspapers about each and every issue will be considered as "nothing" to her. It is, after all, much less serious than credit card fraud, which is also "nothing" in her eyes.



She has recently defended her demonstrably risible English, by claiming that she received "A1" in her English O levels and Communication O levels, in Singapore. Now, if this is true, then these exams are worthless, when issued by the Singaporean system - because she clearly cannot use English remotely well. Yet, I don't think that the Singaporean education system is at risk here. It is much more likely that Ris Low is lying again. People with perfect English scores generally make better English sentences than ones that include non-existent words such as "Boomz".



In the case of Ris Low, whenever any of her public statements has been examined, it has been discovered to have been a lie. This is now a consistent pattern. She has also, for instance, laid claim to a defense of "I have bipolar disorder". Interestingly, this "diagnosis", I have read, was only "made" AFTER she was in need of an excuse. Her lawyer advised her to get a medical check up to see if there was any excuse she could give for her actions. Hey presto, out pops an immediate diagnosis of "bipolar disorder". Now, the course of events that led to this diagnosis hardly encourages us to believe in it - but even if she has bipolar disorder, this is not really an excuse. Bipolar disorder gives you severe mood swings, it does not automatically turn you into a congenital liar and fraudster. Indeed, her use of "bipolar disorder" as an excuse, is an insult to all those who actually have bipolar disorder, because people might begin to doubt their integrity and moral worth, when there is, in fact, no reason to do so.

What we have learnt, so far, of Ris Low, is that close examination of her statements tends to reveal them to be lies. I would like, therefore, an independent opinion on her "bipolar disorder". It would also be interesting to see if her school will back up the A1 grades claimed in English and Communications. Somehow, however, I don't think that will happen.

So far, the public reaction to Ris Low's crimes and lies, does not seem to have dissuaded Ris Low from continuing to lie. I can only hope though, that the whole situation will sober her up, with regards to the importance of integrity and truth. If not, I cannot imagine what harm she will bring to those around her - and herself - should she continue to live a life of persistent dishonesty.

Ris Low: it is time to stop the lies, and start the confessions. It is time, basically, to stop running from the truth of yourself with excuses like: "I was young, I didn't think"...and start seeing yourself for what you are - and make an effort to reform. It is no excuse to claim youth as a reason for dishonesty and lack of integrity. Most young people are honest in most parts of the world. Why should Ris Low be any exception?

One good thing, though, that all of this has done, is make it harder for Ris Low to get away with any future crimes or lies. People just won't believe her. Perhaps, then, she will reform, not through her own efforts, but perforce, through the reactions of others. That will be a good thing. Perhaps, one day, she will be even thankful for the reformative pressure that will be brought to bear on her. That is, she might be so when she is old enough to have acquired some wisdom...say, not nineteen, but ninety.

We will wait and see.

(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.)

Of curiosity and criminality

Which is worth more: a tree or a PhD? Have a think about it and come to a decision.

Which did you choose, the tree or the PhD? (You can say in the comments if you like).

Well, I think the tree is worth more, when you know a little bit more about the tree. In 1964, a young geographer, Donald R. Currey, was working his way towards his doctorate, and was interested in gathering evidence for Ice Age glaciers, in the Southwest USA. He was on Wheeler Peak with a colleague when he came upon some bristlecone pines at the timberline. They started drilling cores into them, to determine their age. They found one that was over 4,000 years old, which rather excited them. Then their only corer broke.

They had, before them, an even bigger tree than the others. It was known as "Prometheus". Without the corer, there was only one way to find out its age: kill it. Shockingly, this impatient young man called the U.S. Forest Service to ask permission to cut down the tree, just so he could find out how old it was. Even more shockingly, some dimwit at the Forest Service said yes to his request. So, Mr. Currey (as he then was) and some Forest Service personnel duly cut down this magnificent ancient tree 8 foot up from the base. Then they settled down to count the rings. They got to 4,844. (Later dendrochronologists determined that it was actually over 4,950 years old). Donald R. Currey had just killed the oldest living thing on Earth, known, at the time, simply to find out how old it was.

I really had to share this incident with you, because I was stunned by the stupidity of the attitude that would allow such a wonderful multi-millenial life to be snuffed out, just to find out how long it was.

It was completely unnecessary to kill the tree. All they had to do was come back another time, with a new corer and get their answer that way. However, this young man had no patience for that: getting his PhD pronto was more important than the life of the oldest living thing on Earth.

No-one should put short term personal gain, over the long term health of the world - or the existence of a magnificent life, such as the nigh-immortal tree that Mr. Currey killed that day.

That tree had stood from the dawn of human civilization, right up until the modern world: from the time of the Ancient Egyptians to the time of the 20th century Americans and the hippies of the sixties - until one young man put his immediate career and personal curiosity before its undying life. Think of the sadness of that trade: he killed it just so he could write a number on a piece of paper - the tree's age. (Oh, and make some observations about the Little Ice Age - which most regard as being just 600 years ago: so there was no need to gather information from such an old tree, at all).

How many of you, now, think a PhD is worth more than a tree? Comments please.

By the way, Donald R. Currey went on to earn his doctorate five years later. He had a successful academic career primarily studying a single lake - Bonneville. His papers on geomorphology of lakes, paleolakes, lake basins, and coasts; geotectonics (paleolimnology) and geochronology and geodynamics of quaternary lakes; geoarchaeology; and environmental change in desert, mountain, Arctic areas were highly cited.

Personally, I would swap his entire career for the grand tree he murdered in the name of it.

As a direct consequence of Mr. Currey's tree killing action, Bristlecone Pines have become a protected species - and the areas in which they grow are now part of a national park. (Something for which Currey, in perhaps a fit of late-arriving guilt, lobbied for.)

Rather pointedly, despite all his academic ambitions, Dr. Don Currey is most famous for the day he killed the oldest tree in the world. Or should I say, infamous.

So, if curiosity ever leads you to a course of action with irrevocable harmful consequences, please pause to think again. Don't do as Mr. Currey did - for the sake of us all.

Dr. Don Currey, himself, didn't have the lifespan of a tree, though: he died at 70 in 2004. I hope he came to understand what he had done, before his time was up.

Prometheus, the ancient tree, would still be alive, today, if Mr. Currey hadn't killed it, for career advancement.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and four months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and nine months, and Tiarnan, twenty-six 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)