Saturday, March 21, 2015

Good News/Bad News

There was a mix of economic related news that populated my twitter feed this week.  First the good news, where on a link from Conners Sales (@ConnersSales) any initial fears about the awful housing starts number from last month were calmed.  Basically the analyst called it “winter” and said to wait another month.  That’s good enough for me.  Then the bad news came up via Ted Bleecker (@TedBleecker) with a story on the scary debt situation in China.  Surely one to continue to monitor especially since it will have a massive effect on the world economy.  Both items will be big drivers and bear following along.

Elsewhere…

--  Quick family note… I'm absolutely thrilled about my nephew Josh joining on with the fine folks at Pleotint.  As any reader of this blog knows I am huge proponent of dynamic glazing and its usage and potential.  Great to see Josh signing on to that world and very excited to see what great things they do together.

--  Last week I posed two questions at the end of my blog… one on the upcoming Apple Watch and one on ultra thin glass.  I really was blown away at some of the insights I received and learned a lot as well.  The great Chuck Knickerbocker of TGP educated me on a few things including ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) which is being used in glazing areas on some really intense projects.  Overall on thin glass question, the issue of finding the sweet spot for usage was the theme.  As for the watch, universally negative towards its success.  Apple has not failed with a product launch in a very long time, so we’ll see if their winning streak is up or we’re all missing the boat here.  Thanks again to all who responded!!

--  Congrats and good luck to Margaret Brune who recently joined the tremendous team at SAAND as a rep in the Michigan market.  Once again a good match of company and salesperson.  I’m glad I’m not involved in sales anymore as back in the day I had to compete with Margaret and she crushed me on a daily basis…

--  Over in England there’s a very strong daily blog called Double Glazing Blogger (DGB) and he had a post last week that was very interesting.  The use of quadruple glazing in China, combined with a video of a 57 story building in China going up in just 19 days using the quad glazing system. Just crazy how things get done over there… I wonder will the quadruple glazing run come this way?  Given that triple glazing has not gained as much market share in North America as the experts predicted, I’d guess this one going mainstream is still far off.

--  And while on the subject of China (my gosh, 3 items related to China this week and none featuring me ranting…odd) A good look here at two all glass skyscrapers designed by SOM… the key?  Huge IGU’s but oriented a little differently than we are all used to.

--  Programming note- no post coming from me next week… unless of course big news happens, which right now seems doubtful as its pretty quiet out there.  Next post coming first full week of April!

LINKS of the WEEK

--  104-year-old woman and her secret to the long life?  Drinking three Dr Peppers a day!  Incredible.

--  A 38-year-old man takes the AP High School history test.  Interesting read.

--  The selfie craze is annoying when people like to be a part of a tragedy or major emergency event.  This one though turned out right if you are rooting for karma.

VIDEO of the WEEK

It is March Madness and the guys from CBS (network that televises it all) had some fun this week making fun of each other and their catch phrases and mannerisms.


1 comment:

Rich said...

Wow, 3 floors in 3 days. Amazing. Never going to happen here. Same with quadruple units. Could have replaced Britain with North America in the Double Glazing Blogger post and would have read the same. It's a shame.