http://insidehpc.com/2009/11/20/former-vice-president-al-gore-keynote-speech-sc09/ HPC news for supercomputing professionals Mon, 21 May 2012 17:48:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 http://insidehpc.com/2009/11/20/former-vice-president-al-gore-keynote-speech-sc09/comment-page-1/#comment-194410 skip Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:00:40 +0000 http://insidehpc.com/?p=8858#comment-194410 Well, I was NOT an Al Gore fan coming into the conference. I listened closely to his message. And I have to say, I now see him in a different light. When we develop emotional judgements of people for whatever reason - it's hard to sway those initial feelings or opinions. This is certainly true with many celebrities in the entertainment industry. I was sure I would not like Gore's speech and would find it too self serving. I was wrong. He really did address our community - and I know from talking to a few others that he had a number of 1:1 conversations with some of our community leaders prior to this speech. And they were genuinely impressed. I guess my point is - I wish more people would back off with the Gore bashing long enough to take a fresh look. He may do a lot of things wrong - but he is good for this community - and I think he was hands down the best keynote speaker we've ever had. Well, I was NOT an Al Gore fan coming into the conference. I listened closely to his message. And I have to say, I now see him in a different light. When we develop emotional judgements of people for whatever reason – it’s hard to sway those initial feelings or opinions. This is certainly true with many celebrities in the entertainment industry. I was sure I would not like Gore’s speech and would find it too self serving. I was wrong. He really did address our community – and I know from talking to a few others that he had a number of 1:1 conversations with some of our community leaders prior to this speech. And they were genuinely impressed. I guess my point is – I wish more people would back off with the Gore bashing long enough to take a fresh look. He may do a lot of things wrong – but he is good for this community – and I think he was hands down the best keynote speaker we’ve ever had.

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