I'm not there because of the "Day Job"

This past weekend I had a bunch of e-mails asking me what my plans were for the NFRC meeting this week. Sadly, I had no plans since I was not attending. But obviously I’ll follow along via USGNN. Regardless it was nice that people who in the past could care less, actually now are tuned in and getting more curious. Will all of that make a difference? Probably not, but you do never know and quite frankly, like I have said before the proof will be in the pudding when the new programs come out and then swim or most likely sink….

Elsewhere…

-- I do wish I was at the meeting though so I could take part in the “homework assignment” that new NFRC chair Joe Hayden asked for. He asked for suggestions to make NFRC more successful. Um… wow… see how about this one… before imposing your will on an industry… maybe learn it and respect it? And while you’re at it, maybe you should sincerely try and create a system that truly adds value to the “stakeholder” and not profit to the NFRC elite… Damn… why did my day job have to interfere with my love of NFRC tormentation….

-- Yes.. “Tormentation”….. see what dealing with the NFRC does to someone?

-- Solutia emerged from bankruptcy this week…. And here’s hoping only good things for everyone involved there. Solutia has some of our industries best and brightest people and many of them had to do extra duty down the stretch to get the ducks in a row to emerge from the current situation. Now hopefully the can concentrate on the main stuff- selling and marketing material.

-- My friend Jim Fairley posted an interesting topic on the message boards about “Daylighting” and he also noted the lack of greening at the past BEC event. (More Vegas than the event itself) I agree- the level of waste in Vegas is still way beyond where it needs to be- then again IT IS a city of excess afterall. But it was comical to see a “renewable energy” show there and yet very little care or promotion on keeping it “green.” As for GANA, paper was limited by the sponsorship of the flash drives (a trend that is here for the long run) and more and more these conferences will have less and less paper… but then the next question is… what is worse… 700 laptops all running at the same time for 8 hours or 700 people with 25 pages of handouts? Hmmmmmmm

-- Is it the end of an era with CRL buying Somaca? Looks that way based on the USGNN news report from Tuesday. Consolidation's long arms reach in all segments and sectors....(Additional Note- I am amazed that CRL would defend something like this publicly one day before they dropped it on the workers... didn't they ever hear of "no comment"?)

From the links this week:

-- Communist China speeds up military growth… (click here) yep keep supporting them folks… and yes I know when or if war hits the things we use daily will also be affected, but I am talking industry only… of course…

-- VERY interesting article about the founder of the Weather Channel and his feeling that Global Warming is a FRAUD. And after shoveling for 99^th time this winter, I’d love to see some more evidence of global warming… please…. (and yes I know one has nothing to do with another…) Anyway a good read…

-- How bout this headline: Builders Adjusting Business Plans to Survive 2008. Huh you don’t say…. Depressing but interesting article none the less.

-- Last, this column about building green (residentially) and variables involved… I liked that he noted that cities like Seattle have had their “own” programs… hell afterall that’s the city where they certify everything from glass to microwave popcorn!