An old favorite...

After a few weeks of the battles domestically, it’s time to change the focus to an oldie but goody topic. China. Yes my pals from China are back in the news again and it continues to amaze me how they get away with what they do. Last week there was a widely published story on how the Chinese glass industry was doing and it stated the pricing in the marketplace there. But of course when you figured it all out, the pricing of the material being sold in China for that market is double or more the price that they dump…errrr sell it here for. But alas buyer beware as you really do get what you pay for from there. Right now there’s two large jobs, one on each coast, that are turning into quagmires of bad product…. All courtesy of the Chinese. And I have a feeling some North American companies will take some serious heat and hurt while the Chinese reps and suppliers will whistle quietly down the road….
By the way… speaking of the Chinese… one of the largest American Solar panel manufacturers, E Solar, was proud to mention that they bought 24,000 mirrors from China for their last project. Wonderful. And thus the problem with the “green job” theory… the products needed for these “green jobs” will come from China and that is not good for anyone….

Elsewhere…

-- Good news about people working together for the GOOD of the industry… as mentioned here several weeks ago, the newest plan for ASHRAE would limit the overall glass usage on buildings. And while parts of the plan are good, there are parts that are just not logical or helpful for our industry. Well the folks at GANA stepped up and have gotten every main player in our industry on board on promoting a unified message. It is truly wonderful that this unselfish industry first approach took place. Now hopefully the folks at ASHRAE and DOE will take the necessary value in it. But even if they don’t kudos to everyone who did the right thing!

-- Did I re-jinx gas prices? I wrote months ago that gas would go to 4 bucks in the summer… thankfully it didn’t… so I ate the crow and celebrated the lower prices… well since then prices are on the rise again and oil has been trending upward. High gas prices is surely not what we need now or going into what looks like a pretty ugly winter.

-- Class Act alert… the gang at Edgetech IG did a tremendous thing last week acting as the “Rally Point” for a bike run to honor veterans. The bikers were transporting a traveling Vietnam Memorial wall and paid homage to those incredibly brave folks who fought in that war. Very classy and patriotic and props to all involved at Edgetech who made it happen.

-- Last week I linked to the tremendous article on Harvard and their lost endowment cash and I had incredible feedback. I think many went into checking that link with expectations of a blah story about a rich university but got totally engrossed into the amazing story that came out. The comment made by most people after they read it was- “amazing that they could blow so much money”- well sometimes all the smartest people in world can’t keep egos in check….

-- Pre-season football is HERE! And I know it’s horrible to watch but it is football and dang it I am very pumped…. All I can say is… Here we go Steelers… Here we go!

-- Have I told you how big of a sham that lawsuit against the primaries are lately? It just kills me that we will be wasting time, money and resources on the ultimate ambulance chase while so many other more crucial issues happen around us.

Off to the Links!

One e mail last week to me said “too many Max links, not enough Link Chick”- so your wish is my command… 3 good ones from the lady of the links!

-- “Who can it be now”…. Famous line from the 80’s singing group “Men at Work”…well now they are being sued for plagiarism! Wow.

-- A floating apartment complex.... Wonder what the backcharges would be if you needed to set up a swing stage…. Would hate to have any failed IG on this one! Neat stuff…

-- The most “unfortunate” names list… you really wonder what the parents are thinking here…

Pictures of the week...

Instead of a video this week we have pictures of some jobs gone really bad… YIKES!