And back to normal... whatever that is...

Back to normal.. BEC is over… my NFRC rant off my chest… so now what do I talk about? Well there’s actually a lot of “housekeeping” type items to get through, because so much is going on and only so much time… So here goes…

Cleaning off the desk… first the old links…

-- Did you know the leader of Iran has a Blog? Here’s the story… and no I do not think he’s taken on the NFRC issue… yet….

-- This is an older link but the whole “Green” thing has led to a job boom…. And not just with test labs trying to cash in on the commercial glazing industry… (yes another shot). Green really is a cottage industry… click here for the story.

-- And yes people actually do click through these stories by the way, its funny my link on the “Global Cooling” actually got a lot of action.

-- This is probably my favorite old link that I needed to get on here… it’s about the city of Seattle wanting a ban on Microwave popcorn. You know it’s not a surprise since Seattle is the home of Uber-NFRC supporter John Hogan. (John being the best traveled city employee in the history of the world... man I'd love to work for the city for Seattle!)
Its going to be just a matter of time before they get John involved and all microwave popcorn must go through an NFRC approved IA and then physical testing and then the bags labeled…. and you "kettle" corn people.. don't try acting like your popcorn is different! Popcorn, like glass.. is the same whether its in a 100 foot house or 80 floor skyscraper! Seriously the folks in Seattle need to have their popcorn policed by a true 3rd party set up! C'mon Jim Benney and company get on this one! And if I ran this one before I am sorry, but its too hilarious not to show again.

OK enough on NFRC…

-- Well I have started to work on the annual From the Fabricator Power List and that should be coming your way in the next few weeks. The list has most of the same groups as 07 but a few new ones, so tune in.

-- Speaking of “power” GANA really flexed their muscle last week with simply a tremendous back to back effort of Glassweek and BEC. There simply is no comparison for the high quality of people who attended those events. The annual glass show may get more quantity, but nothing compares to the quality of the past week.

-- Major thanks do need to go out to the fine folks at GANA who really work their tails off to make the experience easy and enjoyable in Vegas.

-- I did get several e-mails asking why I did not re-cap more of BEC than I did. Good points on all, I did believe that the press did a good job of covering and there was not more I could add. That said, I think the presentations we had at BEC this year were super. Probably the biggest problem we run into is the fact that some presentations are extremely technical and others are the opposite, so there’s always that middle problem we have. I must commend guys like Joe Solinski and the pair from the Façade Group (Stanley Yee and Richard Green) because they had some heavy presentations but still were able to keep the group enthralled. Other speakers like Mike Burk of Edgetech went the more simplistic route… his use of a glass scraper will always be remembered. But all in all a great event, so instead of me re-capping, make plans to attend next year….

-- Was asked at BEC.. What are the hot products that aren’t the norm? (Basically not the Triple Silver low e’s etc) My answers were: The Sunscreen…. Seeing that pop up all over the place… Makes sense in the world of LEED that’s for sure… so either a sunscreen or frit design is a must really…. right behind it is Bomb Resistant material… so high quality companies like Arpal Defender and the others that produce this material are probably very busy. It’s a shame though that products to defend our lives are so popular… then again the old house alarm is still very much in vogue too, so I guess this makes sense.

-- As I wrote last week… love Baseball and training camp… cracked up when I saw Hunter Pence, the young star of the Astros will miss a week of training camp after he walked through his glass doorwall… I guess he needs those little stickers you see? Man that must’ve been one great clear patio doorwall… I bet we should keep mirrors out that guys house for the time being since he’ll probably walk into one of them too…

-- Did anyone watch the Oscars? Have you noticed that the Oscars, Emmy’s and Grammy’s all have had their lowest TV ratings ever this year? Think the real world is tired of Hollywood or is the ability to get things on the internet, quick and when you want, make watching TV not worth it anymore? For me, I did not see any of the nominated movies… though they did say look for Hannah Montana to be nominated for best song in next year’s event… so I have that going for me. But bottom line is if you haven’t seen the movies do you care?

-- In this miserable winter, there are some great books out…especially if you are a sports fan. If you like sports, and have not seen the website deadspin.com you probably should check it out. And now the editor of that site has a book called “God Save The Fan” out and it’s a tremendous read. If you don’t like sports then disregard…

Last for this post... A while back I wrote about the book “Bringing Down the House” and how much I loved it and how I thought it would make a great movie. Well at the time, I was told Kevin Spacey had taken it on as a project and sure enough, March 28^th, the movie version of the book is coming out. Thanks to Matt, here’s the trailer for looks to be an AWESOME flick called “21”….