Smart News

We had an interesting/exciting/hopeful move in Washington DC this past week with the introduction of the “Smart Energy Act” by a bi-partisan group of representatives. This movement contains many provisions that can bring positive results to our industry with the push on retrofit being the most promising. The support on that business segment and the fact our world is littered with bad buildings that waste energy faster than I can finish a bowl of M&M’s is a point of emphasis that somehow always gets lost in the wash. While so much focus is on making sure new buildings are up to code, we as a society give old buildings a pass. This effort will hopefully help change that. The only frightening part is that the DOE is involved and as many of you know I am not a fan. So as long as the DOE and the typical Washington gridlock doesn’t damage the process, this bill has hope.

Elsewhere…

-- And yes I know I am nicer on the blog these days. So it is shocking I just made a negative comment! Ironically I actually get more e-mail complaining that I am TOO nice on the blog than anything else. In any case as nice as I have been the DOE still frustrates me to no end.

-- Loved the announcement from Glass Magazine on their new awards. I am absolutely thrilled that they’ll be some personal recognition happening. We have so much talent in this industry that doesn’t get the pub it deserves, and doing it in the format laid out, is really spectacular. Heck my mind is racing nomination wise right now! Just a brilliant idea by Jenni Chase and team. The Crystal Achievement Awards were always the gold standard in the industry and now they have taken the entire process another great step forward.

-- Last week I noted the launch of the excellent new website at CommercialWindows.Org and Kerry Haglund added a comment on the main site of my blog that I felt was needed to be shown here and shared with the e glass weekly audience:

Max, Thanks for the kind words. We feel the work we do is important and makes a difference to the industry. We have some more exciting stuff coming in the future with an upgraded residential site/tool and other projects to be announced in the near future. ~Kerry

The fact that there’s MORE to come here is awesome. Simply wow. I seriously think if Kerry and the folks she works with at the Center for Sustainable Building Research ran the DOE, we’d be soooo much further along.

-- A couple of items from pop culture world this week…

-- Michael Jordan celebrated his 49th Birthday… and without question is the best basketball player to walk the earth. Unreal. I know Magic, Bird, the Doctor and others were great, but no one holds a candle to Air Jordan.

-- The Grammy Awards were a fun watch and GLASS made an appearance as Katy Perry broke a piece of tempered as a part of her set. I love when glass gets involved in anything mainstream. As for the rest of the show- loved Bruce off the top and I just wish I could dance and move like Bruno Mars. Oh and that Adele is a star!

-- Something else I am always tracking and complaining about here are gas prices and they are on the rise again- over $4 per gallon in California now and probably will keep going. That is flat out depressing.

-- Last this week… a great friend of mine sent me a story on the government reading people’s tweets and Facebook pages and the “outrage” of that effort. Well I for one could care less- those are public forums, and if you’ve got something to hide, Twitter and Facebook are not the place for you. Face it, in the electronic world, everything is somehow fair game. And it while it may not be right in every case, it is what it is.

LINKS of the WEEK:

-- Have you been following this story with the Dad in North Carolina who did a wild You Tube rant that featured him shooting a laptop because his daughter complained about doing her chores on line? If not, just click the link. It’s fascinating. Good for the Dad by the way.

-- This reminds me about the stories that people are able to argue with Siri on their iPhone. (Tons of videos of that on line but none have good sound) Anyway, this story is about a “smart” computer at a University library taught to talk back X rated…

This guy lost 200 pounds in a year. GOOD FOR HIM!! Amazing. Hope he can keep it off… I know I sure as heck can never do that.

VIDEO of the WEEK:

Fun one. Watch the upper right hand part of screen about the :14 mark and a young lady will lose track of her steps while texting. I am surprised this doesn’t happen more often!