Another Week in the Life

Another week in the glass and glazing industry….

* The biggest story to me was that US Aluminum now has new owners. That story broke late last week. Will it have any effect? Maybe, maybe not. The Aluminum side has been pretty mellow in comparison to all of the consolidation on the Glass side of the ball. Where could the big change happen? Well, maybe US Aluminum will answer the bell and get involved on the NFRC and code level for one. They have been relatively non existent in that process over the last few years while basically all but one of the other major aluminum manufacturers have been involved.

* And speaking of NFRC, I can’t let this latest tidbit go by. Rumblings from behind the scenes have the Board of the NFRC starting their little games again. I won’t go into huge detail, because quite frankly this whole NFRC thing is an acquired taste, but the bottom line is that the Board is working to remove manufacturers from the testing process- which means MORE MONEY FOR THE TEST LABS…. And more money for companies like ATI, a gigantic test lab that pretty much gets whatever they want from the NFRC and their membership. (All for a $400 investment in membership, what a deal!) Anyway the whole thing is sickening. In short, the manufacturers had agreed to EXTRA oversight if they could do a portion of the testing themselves, and that was not good enough. The worst part is, there is simply no one to whom we can complain to. NFRC has DOE snowed, and basically the NFRC reports to no one. It is simply comical. You’ll remember this passage in a year or two when you have to pay through the nose for calculations to meet codes…..

And yes I know I said I would quit, but I also told my wife I’d stop sneaking Pop-Tarts down to my office, too... some things are too tough to give up.

Before I go on.. this week’s video… another movie trailer… for the funny Will Ferrell… it's no Rocky, but looks like it has potential.




Other stuff to ponder….

* I also saw in USGNN that there’s another “self cleaning” glass out on the market. Thank god, I was worried that we would not be able to make due with all of the hundreds of options already available. (And this is not to say that all of those options are bad, but man, that pool is already pretty packed and with some really good options too)

Sorry I am in a sarcastic mood today, but NFRC news does that to me.

Some new features here will be a weekly look at Low E glass and a monthly “Book to Read” when you have time.

The Low E features will begin within the next few weeks and you will also be able to note them on Paul Bieber’s blog as well. Paul started a thread on the USGlass Message boards about changing the name of Low E and I found that pretty interesting. Bottom line is our goal to push more Low E usage (no matter who makes it- Low E of any flavor). So look for those tidbits soon.

The Book feature- The first entry is “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich. This book is about the MIT students (true story) who figured out how to “beat” the house in Vegas at Black Jack. It is riveting and I am just stunned no one has made a movie out of it yet. Mezrich also has a pseudo sequel out for it called “Busting Vegas” so if you read the first one, go get the second one- similar story but different enough to be worth it. Bottom line- If you are intrigued by Vegas and like some adventure, these books are worth it.

All right that’s it for this week- I’d be remiss if I did not mention that the best show on TV started this past week. 24 is back and it's in fine form. Gonna be a fun few months on the Jack Bauer roller coaster. But can you imagine Jack running a glass plant? Now that I would pay to see with lines like “Dammit, we have to get that truck loaded by 5AM or else!” If you are a 24 fan and you have some other Jack Bauer lines, feel free to send ‘em to me and I’ll list them here…