The value of the Human Race.

How much is the human race worth? By this, I mean, how much is it worth expending, to ensure the long term security and longevity of the human race? I ask this question, because the powers that be, in the world's leading nations, don't seem to be asking it. Look, for instance, at the question of space colonization, as it has recently been debated. Many commentators have balked at the price of spreading human kind into the solar system. They speak of the billions required, as if they are a total waste of money that would be better put to use building mansions for the elite. Never, for a moment, do they pause to reflect what colonizing space means. It means, quite simply this: the immortality of Mankind. Should we never colonize space, Mankind is doomed to extinction. Only if we colonize space, will Mankind have a long term future. Thus, it is, that any analyst should look at any proposal for space colonization with this question in mind: "How much is it worth to save the Human Race from extincition?". They should not consider the expenditure required as throwing money away - for in doing so, they are buying something very valuable: the future of Mankind.

At present, American politicians don't seem to think the long term survival of Mankind is worth the investment of billions of dollars. Personally, I don't think the long term survival of such politicians is worthwhile. If your local politician does not support space colonization, do your bit for the long term survival of Mankind - by voting him out of office. Only a short sighted moron thinks that space colonization is expensive. On the contrary, space colonization is cheap at ANY price - for it ensures the survival of Mankind - and that, to my mind is worth an untold number of billions of dollars - certainly it is worth a lot more than the 3 trillion dollars spent killing people of a different religious persuasion in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let us save Mankind from extinction. Let us colonize space, in our lifetimes. Judge your local politician accordingly.

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.)

A vision of tomorrow.

Today, not for the first time, I paused to admire an open plan “stall”, in Bangsar Village One Shopping Centre, in Kuala Lumpur. This is a rather odd shop and every time I see it, I think it strange. It is a shop that sells models of old sailing ships. The sign above them calls them “wealth ships”.

As I contemplated the diverse range of multi-sailed ships, of various designs, in their lacquered wood, I suddenly had an epiphany: I wasn’t looking at the past, at all, but the future. One day, Mankind might have to return to using sailing ships, for global transport, in the wake of Peak Oil, Peak Coal, indeed, Peak Everything. To my grandchildren, sailing ships such as the ones before me, at that stall, might not be history at all, but the living present. It was a most sobering realization.

As I write, I am aware that few people seem to be truly conscious of the plight the modern world faces with declining fossil fuel supplies. Viable alternatives are unready and undeveloped. The “renewable energy” of which everyone speaks contributes a minute amount of present needs, and needs to be dramatically scaled up, to replace the declining fossil fuels – and I just don’t know if the urgency, resolve, investment, planning and foresight are there to get that done, in time.

The time I have lived and the life I have known, in this modern era, might one day come to be seen as fantastical to our descendants – more of an Atlantis like legend - than anything that was ever real or tangible.

Should not enough be done, in time, to secure new energy sources and salvage the decline in civilization that would result, if they are not replaced, then, my words might not reach the future, to be read. They might be lost, along with the Internet, when we are no longer able to power it. It is a gloomy prospect.

The world is asleep, in many ways, before the difficulties that lie ahead. Many of the world’s politicians, still seem to be thinking in a very short term way, not preparing properly, for what is to come. I hope, as I write, that if the future should know ships like the ones I saw today, that it is by choice – and not because Mankind was left with no other option. I would not like to think that I had lived at the Peak of Human Civilization, too. I had always rather hoped that a long ascent would stretch ahead of me, into long ages, after I had gone. However, that might never be. We might, unknowingly, be living in a time of legends. We might be living the stuff of fables, for our distant descendants. I hope not. I dearly hope not – but those ships, today, did leave me to wonder, at what tomorrow might really be like.

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.).

California State Public School System in Jeopardy

It is strange, sometimes, to see, from afar, the priorities of another country. America has built itself on the ingenuity and energy of its people (and the immigrants they managed to attract) - yet those who decide on education matters, there, sometimes seem to forget this.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing 4 BILLION dollars of cuts in the education budget, in attempt to balance state finance, in the face of its housing crisis and stagnant economy. For those who may not know, I should point out that this does not mean that the education system was over-funded to start with. It is just that he has to find cuts somewhere and thinks he can find them in schools.

California needs its teachers but doesn't appear to value them. Apparently, every year, it has become traditional for many teachers to receive pink slips, in the Spring (before March 15, according to State law), informing them that they might soon be fired. This is done to prepare them for the possibility of losing their jobs. Many of them, in past years, did not, in fact, go on to lose their jobs - but they were informed just so that the state had the option of firing them.

What do you think this does to the morale of teachers in California public education? It must be terrible. No doubt they feel undervalued and insecure. In sending this message to the teachers that they are of no value, I have no doubt that that will affect what happens in the classroom. A demoralized teacher is hardly likely to be an inspired or inspiring one. No doubt this annual and rather cruel ritual negatively impacts teaching throughout the California state education system.

About 14,000 Californian teachers have just received pink slips. Some of these are even award winning teachers like Lincoln High's Guillermo Gomez, 37, who was declared a San Diego County Teacher of the Year in 2006 for his work in suburban Chula Vista. Not even being talented in the classroom, is protection against these latest cuts.

Other states are stepping in to offer signing bonuses to Californian teachers, to lure them away.

What effect will all of this have on Californian education? Well, firing so many teachers will not change the number of students - but it will logically increase class sizes and the workload on the remaining teachers. This will prompt some of those teachers to give up teaching as the job becomes too much - or leave for another state. Thus, it could be the beginning of a viscious circle.

One thing is certain: the quality of public education will decline further in California. Is this wise? Can America afford to have a poorer educated population when it already has one that is poorly educated, by international standards (see the PISA OECD education report, I have referred to elsewhere in this blog. America was outshone by very modest countries, on the education front.)

The damage done to the education of California's children, by such cuts, is cumulative and not easy to change.

From a foreign perspective, it is strange to see a country built on great minds, take so little care of future ones. I only hope that the cuts eventually come from somewhere else in the state budget, than education.

(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, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)