Burning Up The Net

My plan was to do a review of the first quarter of 2007, but in the last few days the internet provided me with too much material to not make comment on. So the quarter in review must wait, it’s time to dig into some of these interesting tidbits.

- On USGNN on Tuesday, the 4th item was a note that China based glass fabricator Xinyi Glass reported a net profit increase of almost 50% in FY 2006. My goodness does the government still need to subsidize them then? And that Tariff that was noted in my previous post will do nothing to them with numbers like this. By the way, in North America, Xinyi Glass works through the name of XYG Glass and uses an HQ of British Columbia, but bottom line is their material is still made in one of their 5 facilities in Communist China.

- On Monday, the lead item on USGNN was the note on the US reaching a trade agreement with South Korea. It’s also the question of the week on USGNN (feel free to opine on the USGlass message boards). There’s no way this can be as bad as the Chinese debacle right?

- Also on line this week, a top weather researcher came out and stated that 2007 should be a very “active” hurricane season. Forecaster William Gray is calling for 17 named storms, with 5 being major storms. The probability of a major hurricane hitting land this year is rated at 74%. Gray’s team from Colorado State University (which begs to ask, how many hurricanes hit ole CSU?) notes that last years dire predictions of major hurricanes were thrown off by El Nino. Now with El Nino gone, the activity may be more severe. I guess we will see what happens, but it will be interesting to see if a major hurricane hits one of the areas where the hurricane codes have been ignored or fought against. There is no better evidence for strong hurricane codes than South Florida. When Hurricane Wilma made mince meat of the region 2 years ago, phone lines and electrical were a mess but the hurricane glass and aluminum came shining through.

- Lastly on line, back to China, and a piece on North American Architects doing work in China. PPG commissioned a survey that showed 21% of US architects are doing work in China right now and the article also included a note that China has an intense focus on energy conservation and energy prices. Wow I think the NFRC needs to set up shop there- ASAP. But seriously it should come as no surprise that PPG is in the middle of this. Anyone who follows the Chinese influence on our industry knows that PPG has been “sleeping with enemy” for years. You want to get a flavor for what I mean, check out this classic 2005 article from China Daily.
In any case, it’s depressing that the technology that is allowing the Chinese to take work from glaziers, fabricators and other manufacturers is being given to them on a silver platter. Shame.



Before we get to the video choice of the week… it was opening day in baseball this week.. ah life is back to normal… I seriously feel complete… anyway the World Series will be between the Red Sox and Pirates, (if you are still reading this you just spit out your coffee that I predicted the Pirates… that is a late April Fools Day joke- my real choice is actually the Braves) with the Sox winning it… As for the Video, the mayor of Cincinnati threw out the first pitch and well nerves must have gotten to him, because this went very wrong…. Check out the reaction of Eric Davis (the guy due to catch the pitch) his face is priceless….



And by the way conggrats to the "Gator Nation" for winning the NCAA...