- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Gypsum Magazine
As my wife shopped in a branch of Hobby Lobby, a giant American craft shop, I picked up a copy of the founder’s autobiography which was languishing near the tills. David Green’s book, ‘Giving It All Away... and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously,’ recounts how he started his company by making picture frames in his garage in 1970. His firm now has over 700 stores and he is worth around US$7.9Bn. He seems to be a humble man, despite his vast wealth, and is seeking to give away much of his money – and not necessarily to the people who might expect to receive it. He says that it is never too early to consider what your legacy may be. He considers that one of his own legacies (apart from a precedent-setting US Supreme Court case), are the values that he has instilled in his own family.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Gypsum Magazine
I’ve recently enjoyed a short holiday with my wife, younger daughter and two elderly parents in Sardinia. One evening, after some Sardinian wine, beer and local myrtle liqueur, I wandered out in the chill night to catch some fresh air before bed. I looked out over the night-time hills and valleys and was rapt with the sound of frogs croaking, down the hill in the damp stream. They would go silent for a while, and then one would start up again. Then all the other frogs would join in, and an amphibian cacophony would result. Presumably, at some point in the evening, there would be some kind of frog-based orgy, everyone would get pregnant and the new generation would arise. Biology was never my favourite subject at school.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Gypsum Magazine
We recently heard on the grapevine of the passing of another participant in the wider building materials industry, at the much-too-young age of 46. Whenever we hear news like this, which is all-too-frequently, we always loosen our collars and wonder at our own mortality. We will all die - that is a certainty - but we all hope to spend a reasonable amount of time on this Earth before we go, and to depart with dignity and without pain. Ideally, we will leave the planet a better place, through our actions, than when we first arrived. How many of us can say that?
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
I am currently in the process of moving house. While this is a stressful life event, there’s not normally much to report: Pick up the keys, move your stuff over, notify everyone of your new address and put the kettle on. The stress mainly happens before the actual move.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Gypsum Magazine
There are already many forms of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world today. Weak or narrow AI is a kind of machine-based expertise that is focused on a single or very narrow range of tasks. This is already very widely available. Siri and Alexa might be thought of as weak AI, although they are already sophisticated compared to achievements only a decade ago1: they combine speech recognition and natural language processing to ‘understand’ what you are asking them. They then have a set of capabilities that they can act upon (such as making a call, setting an alarm or ordering flowers for Mother’s Day on the internet).
