Although it was sad that two National Treasures, Stephen Hawking and Sir Ken Dodd, should die within a day of each other, their passing caused not only mourning but quite a few smiles.
Both were known for their sense of humour, though more incidental in the case of Hawking. Naturally he will remembered as the nation’s favourite scientist, theoretical physicist and prolific author. Despite living for 54 of his 76 years with motor neurone disease he displayed incredible humour. This was not only shown by his cameo appearances on his favourite TV shows including Monty Python and The Simpsons, or his part in Star Trek:The Next Generation, where he was seen playing poker with Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton.
How ironic that Stephen Hawking died on 14th March, the anniversary of Einstein’s birth in 1879 and was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo. March 14th was also Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical constant – 22/7- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (Pi has been calculated to a trillion digits beyond its decimal point – Stephen Hawking may have remembered them all?) Hawking joked that his book A Brief History of Time (1988) was the best selling and least read of all books. Perhaps it is worth a second look.
As for Sir Ken Dodd, his death managed to create a few smiles but not at the Inland Revenue. By marrying his fiancée of 40 years just before he died, he not only conferred the title of Lady Dodd but also ensured that his entire estate passing to her would be free of Inheritance Tax, depriving the Tax Man of over £5million. Bearing in mind Ken’s long battle with the Revenue over alleged underpayment of tax (which he eventually won), it really must have ‘tickled’ him that the marriage could achieve such a successful and legal tax saving. When asked in Court why he did not pay enough to the Inland Revenue, he replied ‘But I live by the seaside’.
Still working at the age of 89 and playing shows going on until well after midnight, he managed to be funny without anger, smut or alternative attitude. Saucy perhaps and from a more gentle and subtle age “How do you get a fat girl into bed?” he asked…….”A piece of cake”. No doubt the politically correct brigade would be appalled.
I was pleased to attend the annual Goldman Sachs Investment Update at the Crowne Plaza, arranged by Wealth Management Company Scholes and Brown. James Ashley, Head of International Market Strategy at GS gave an insightful overview which emphasised that we may all be too parochial and reserved by investing so extensively in British stocks when these are significantly and consistently outperformed by the Emerging Markets especially India and China (and Mexico).
Next morning I noted that Goldman Sachs has promised to work harder to rectify their pay gap. It had been announced that GS is paying women who work for them in Britain 55% less on average than men. Maybe they have identified women as an emerging market!
Congratulations to Winton Keenan, recently appointed as the new Chief Constable of Northumbria. He will be a great asset and has already impressed by his openness and enthusiasm to engage with all communities and sectors. I was very pleased to share a stage with him on community policing – and to help him enjoy the Chinese New Year Celebrations.
The recent cloning of the speech which John F. Kennedy was due to deliver at the Dallas Trade Mart on November 22 1963 was made possible by new digital technology. Americans reacted to the sound of President Kennedy addressing them from the grave and found it to be disturbing and emotional. It was notable that the speech contained warnings about Russian expansion in South East Asia.
The speech was recreated by sound engineers at the Scottish speech technology company CereProc using a programme working on 831 voice recordings. It took two months of painstaking work to disassemble these into nearly a quarter of a million segments which were then matched to the text of the written speech.
However a new Chinese AI algorithm may be able to produce such results within a few hours – with thoroughly convincing imitation speeches of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump or Theresa May.
Should there be an outcry at the attack upon the time honoured and respectable occupations of the likes of Alistair McGowan, Rory Bremner, Jon Culshaw and Ronni Ancona. Are they the latest humans to be replaced by robots? A great opportunity for fake news and fake views.
Home / Business / COMMENT with.. Barry Speker
Comment With.. Barry Speker
Although it was sad that two National Treasures, Stephen Hawking and Sir Ken Dodd, should die within a day of each other, their passing caused not only mourning but quite a few smiles.
Both were known for their sense of humour, though more incidental in the case of Hawking. Naturally he will remembered as the nation’s favourite scientist, theoretical physicist and prolific author. Despite living for 54 of his 76 years with motor neurone disease he displayed incredible humour. This was not only shown by his cameo appearances on his favourite TV shows including Monty Python and The Simpsons, or his part in Star Trek:The Next Generation, where he was seen playing poker with Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton.
How ironic that Stephen Hawking died on 14th March, the anniversary of Einstein’s birth in 1879 and was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo. March 14th was also Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical constant – 22/7- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (Pi has been calculated to a trillion digits beyond its decimal point – Stephen Hawking may have remembered them all?) Hawking joked that his book A Brief History of Time (1988) was the best selling and least read of all books. Perhaps it is worth a second look.
As for Sir Ken Dodd, his death managed to create a few smiles but not at the Inland Revenue. By marrying his fiancée of 40 years just before he died, he not only conferred the title of Lady Dodd but also ensured that his entire estate passing to her would be free of Inheritance Tax, depriving the Tax Man of over £5million. Bearing in mind Ken’s long battle with the Revenue over alleged underpayment of tax (which he eventually won), it really must have ‘tickled’ him that the marriage could achieve such a successful and legal tax saving. When asked in Court why he did not pay enough to the Inland Revenue, he replied ‘But I live by the seaside’.
Still working at the age of 89 and playing shows going on until well after midnight, he managed to be funny without anger, smut or alternative attitude. Saucy perhaps and from a more gentle and subtle age “How do you get a fat girl into bed?” he asked…….”A piece of cake”. No doubt the politically correct brigade would be appalled.
I was pleased to attend the annual Goldman Sachs Investment Update at the Crowne Plaza, arranged by Wealth Management Company Scholes and Brown. James Ashley, Head of International Market Strategy at GS gave an insightful overview which emphasised that we may all be too parochial and reserved by investing so extensively in British stocks when these are significantly and consistently outperformed by the Emerging Markets especially India and China (and Mexico).
Next morning I noted that Goldman Sachs has promised to work harder to rectify their pay gap. It had been announced that GS is paying women who work for them in Britain 55% less on average than men. Maybe they have identified women as an emerging market!
Congratulations to Winton Keenan, recently appointed as the new Chief Constable of Northumbria. He will be a great asset and has already impressed by his openness and enthusiasm to engage with all communities and sectors. I was very pleased to share a stage with him on community policing – and to help him enjoy the Chinese New Year Celebrations.
The recent cloning of the speech which John F. Kennedy was due to deliver at the Dallas Trade Mart on November 22 1963 was made possible by new digital technology. Americans reacted to the sound of President Kennedy addressing them from the grave and found it to be disturbing and emotional. It was notable that the speech contained warnings about Russian expansion in South East Asia.
The speech was recreated by sound engineers at the Scottish speech technology company CereProc using a programme working on 831 voice recordings. It took two months of painstaking work to disassemble these into nearly a quarter of a million segments which were then matched to the text of the written speech.
However a new Chinese AI algorithm may be able to produce such results within a few hours – with thoroughly convincing imitation speeches of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump or Theresa May.
Should there be an outcry at the attack upon the time honoured and respectable occupations of the likes of Alistair McGowan, Rory Bremner, Jon Culshaw and Ronni Ancona. Are they the latest humans to be replaced by robots? A great opportunity for fake news and fake views.
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