A man was walking down the street when he passed by some elephants feeding. As he was walking he saw something that made him stop. He saw that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could,…
Unleashing the Power of Everyday Leadership
Book Title: My first impression about the title is that the book will discuss how you can be a leader in your organization. It does not appear geared to managers who are in the upper ranks but more on managers in the front line. About the Author: Hal Pitt CEO and founder of Hal Pitt Seminars…
The Catcher in the Rye
By J.D. Salinger277 pages in paperback. Published by BACK BAY BOOKS / LITTLE BROWN AND COMPANYISBN 978-0-316-76917-4 Book Title: I have always wondered why the title is Cather in the Rye. Isn’t Rye a type of flour? An internet search reveals that Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain, crop cover or forage…
The Great Gatsby
By F. Scott Fitzgerald180 pages in paperback. Published by SimonandShusterISBN 978-0-7432-7356-5 Book Title: When I first heard about the book, the first thing to come to mind was “Why The Great Gatsby?”. Come to think of it, “What is a Gatsby?” And what do we do when we want to find information? We Google it….
Speech 9: Feed the World Part II
In Speech 8, I showed you one possible solution to feeding a world growing out of control. Consider becoming vegetarians. And it is possible that in the near future, most people will make the switch from eating meat to eating plants. There are many advantage to this: It is good for your health. More efficient…
Speech 8: Feed the World
Accompanying Slide (Slide 1) Tonight, I will talk about what everyone can do to (Slide 2) help feed the world! In 1974, (Slide 3) the world’s population reached 5 billion. And world hunger as a problem back then. In 1999, (Slide 4) the world population reached 6 billion. And world hunger as a problem back…
Speech 7: The World’s Most Commonly Spoken Language
This speech is about the most spoken language in the world. (I did not include this in the actual speech I presented) In 1998, I was working the night shift with two other co-workers. As anybody might tell you, the night shift can be a time where employees can find themselves with not too much…
Speech 6: Is Society Ready for Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence! Those two words appended to anything is enough to either fill you with or with fear. Imagine the home of the future. You may have AI-powered refrigerators, ovens or even showers and toilets. All these devices listening in, and sending, information up into the cloud somewhere. What happens to your privacy? And wouldn’t it be funny if those appliances actually talked to each other about you? The toilet might say “Hey fridge, this guy ate something bad again yesterday”. To which the fridge might answer back “I tried to warn him he wouldn’t listen. I suppose we need to ask the IPhone to order him more Imodium”. Or,a future where the military forces use smart weapon systems. Systems able to distinguish between friends and foe. To determine who lives, and who dies. Scary isn’t it. Very Terminator-like if you will. The time when weapons operate without human intervention is still many years away. Perhaps not in our lifetime. What is closer to reality is how AI will affect our economy. Indeed, even how we live our lives. Is our society ready for this? You can find articles about how AI will benefit society. But not enough about how it might cause harm instead. There is enough concern that recently, a number of technology and scientific groups have come together to call for governments to consider the negative impact of AI on society, and to develop solutions. Among these people are Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Stephen Hawkins. If AI is so beneficial, why should worry? After all, disruptive technology has happened before. Examples are the development of the PC, the internet, the smartphone. These disruptors have one thing in common. They allowed us to increase productivity. Farmers still drove their tractors and they could farm more efficiently by using GPS and computers to plan when and where to plant. And how to best harvest their fields. Ships needed fewer people to run her. The flight engineer on airplanes might seem redundant. More work is done but with fewer people. But, the jobs were still there. AI combines with advances in material and miniaturization, has the capacity to actually take jobs away. Like the job of a driver. There…
Speech 5. A Story About Cats
My speech today is about Cats. No, not the award-winning Broadway musical. I’m talking about real, domesticated, cats. The 4 legged animal people either love or hate. Our first feline pet was a little black and white kitten. We decided to train this kitten to do tricks. We would say words like “seat” while pushing its…
The Hardest Part in Preparing A Speech
What is the hardest part of preparing a speech? Is it the research? The Practice? Whenever I am preparing a speech, I am reminded of an episode of “How I Met Your Mother”. In this episode, Marshall Ericksen had received a call and had received an offer to become a Judge. Marshall had studies law and becoming…