At the bottom of last week’s post, a comment was left with a link to a very interesting story. The story was on how some people thought that any Buy American treaties would be bad and bad for jobs and so on. The article had some interesting points, some I agreed with and some not. The biggest frustration I have is I’d actually like to see the act be a Buy North American play. I simply cannot get why in some circles Canada is considered the enemy. Drives me crazy actually. Yes we are two different countries but our ideals are very similar. There was no worse usage of “Canada is a foreign country” then in the World Trade Center debacle… where the Port Authority in New York basically said buying from China and buying from Canada was the same. The article in its entirety can be found HERE. So if we can get over that hump and remember who our friends are, then I think some good policy could be written. Until then it’s going to be very shaky.
By the way in a ironic move… China announced a “Buy China” plan for their stimulus money… story is here for your comic relief.
Elsewhere….
-- One item that came up in an e-mail to me at the end of last week was the old battle of suppliers selling direct to the end customer. That has been an adventure for years and it’s happening now more than it has happened ever before because its slow out there. However, for some reason, the people who should be mad, aren’t. I’ll never understand it, but getting mad over losing work to your supplier is seemingly not a priority…
-- In case you have not heard, Greg Carney has been released from the hospital and is now at home. Simply awesome… no news now can bring me down when you think about the return to health by one of legends in our industry. Now hopefully in time, Greg will be back at it and the values of our industry will be back in his very capable hands.
-- So many comments I could make on the Bill Stone buying back his company from the UGC… but I can’t bring myself to it. So we’ll leave that one alone… yep finally an issue that even the therapy of this blog can’t help. But I do have to say that they (UGC) did do one good thing, they let BDM Products go, easily the industry’s most talented manufacturers rep firms go… so for that I am grateful.
-- On to good news… the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup… what a year for the Pittsburgh sports fan… Steelers in January and Penguins in June… now if the Pirates win it in October…. Ha ha… actually no way the Pirates can win it in October because if they would make the World Series, the games would be cancelled because all hell would be frozen over….
-- Check out this quote from the GPD in Finland and was on USGNN…
Despite the strong theme of solar energy at this year’s event, Bostick did note one “non-trend“ of sorts: “Solar cells are not really big on any architect’s mind … I think it’s also too expensive still,” he said. He added candidly, “I don’t think the architects are quite that interested in energy efficiency yet.”
Did this architect really say that architects are not into energy efficiency? Did I read that right? Maybe he meant solar, which he’s also crazy on judging from the excitement virtually any architect gets talking about BIPV. Wow. Hell if this guy doesn’t think energy is an issue I may have found an ally against the NFRC- heck he’s gotta hate them!
-- By the way speaking of Solar and new technology I am dying that I am not at the IGMA meetings this week. They have some tremendous speakers going covering some of the newest and most interesting advancements in solar, switchable, thermo-reflective and so on.
-- Last this week… I noticed that the NFRC hired a marketing consultant to push the CMA program in California and then beyond. Yep gotta love this program that no one wants… now big money will be spent promoting it. THIS IS SUCH A WASTE. It’s a freakin shame that so many people will get burned by this and the NFRC and their benefactors will just roll on and count their cash. Simply despicable…
Off to the links…
The Link Chick was all over it again this week…
-- First up… 7 things that will annoy a flight attendant… and me… and anyone else who has to fly a lot for a living…
-- Nice story about unselfish kids and striving to be better than your surroundings allow…
-- Good ole AIG is at it again… this time making life miserable for passengers from the USAIR Hudson river flight. Unreal.
Video of the Week:
The biggest story video wise was Artie Lange’s appearance on HBO… but that keeps getting scrubbed off the web. It was heavy duty guy humor that is for sure. So with that out of the running, I then move to dedicate this space to the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins… here is the best of game 7 with calls provided by the best hockey announcer ever created... Mike Lange.
No comments:
Post a Comment