A common practice in newsrooms all over the world is the use
of “sensational headlines.” Usually
these are statements that leave a key word in or out and are misleading enough
to catch your attention. In the old days
the term would be these “sell papers” but now in the heavy online age its “gets
clicks” or “clickbait.” So when I saw the headline on CNBC.com (thanks
to the great @tedbleecker twitter feed) that said “Architects Billings in
August Signal Construction Slump” I knew to take it with a massive grain of
salt. The story attached to the
misguided header was about the release of the August Architectural Billings
Index (ABI) which slipped in it’s main metric to 49.1 from the previous month
of 54.7. The way that indicator works is
any total under 50 means a decrease in design services. So this was a negative month by that
accounting, and thus the assumption of a slump was trumpeted. However when you start to look deeper, and
when it comes to data, you owe to yourself to always look deeper, the situation
is still nowhere near a “slump.” The
main indicator was down, but other key indicators were still up, and still
rolling along- including inquiries and contracts. Many of the other deeper indicators also
remained positive. So while there’s been
some slippage, I don’t think calling it a slump is even close to accurate. Especially on the basis of one month of
anything. Obviously the overall worries
that I hit here a lot (transportation, workforce, materials etc.) are still
prominent, the fact is the base remains in an optimistic state. In the end, CNBC succeeded with their
headline… it got me and many others to read and comment on it, probably driving
their pages views quite a bit higher than it would normally be but they’re
completely wrong.
Elsewhere…
-- By the way the industry ended up in another article in a
traditional setting with the Toledo Blade doing a “glass capacity” piece with a
focus on hometown player Pilkington. Not
a bad attempt with some content lifted from the previous pieces and also a
mention on glazier availability. Here it is.
-- I was alerted this week about a petition online regarding
the 179 Tax Deduction. 179 allows
businesses to deduct the full amount of the purchase price of equipment (up to
certain limits), it is a fantastic incentive for businesses to purchase,
finance or lease equipment this year.
However at the start of this year the deduction limit was reduced to
25K. It used to be as a high as
500K. This deduction is a huge help to
small and medium sized businesses and if you are one of them and you were just
at GlassBuild America about to buy machinery, then signing this petition is
something you need to consider. Take a look
here and decide for yourself.
-- Congrats to the team at Dip-Tech on the launch of their new
website. Really sharp from a look and
layout standpoint but the key for me on this one was the depth of the
info. The site was heavy on detail and
resources. Well done!
I’ve recognized many new sites here so feel free to send me
links to yours to check out- I always love to see what people are doing and
sharing here when I can.
-- Lost in the shuffle of the big news of the past month (CRL
deal and GlassBuild America) the call for abstracts for GlassCon Global 2016
came out. This will be the 2nd
edition of the highly regarded event and it will be in Boston next July. The education and insight that comes out of
events like this are extremely helpful for the advancement of the
industry. If you are interested in
presenting and reaching a diverse and impressive audience click HERE. Deadline is October 15th
-- Last this week… in my coverage last post about GlassBuild
America I missed a few items. First, the
2016 edition of GlassBuild will be in October, not as it usually is in
September. There’s some conflicting info
online at non GlassBuild sites but the dates are October 19-21, in Las Vegas.
Please make a note of that. Also if you
are not following @GlassBuild on twitter, please do so. That feed is rolling and will be a great
place for updates and insight throughout the year. And finally I forgot to note and congratulate
the amazing work the staff of NGA/WDDA did. To handle thousands of people from all over
the globe and hundreds of exhibits of varying sizes and needs is a challenge,
and the folks that I had the extreme honor to work with did it and did it
extremely well. Simply amazing to watch
it all come together. Congrats to
everyone there for a job well done!
LINKS of the WEEK
-- After the book I am on now, this one is next- the taking on
of those pesky e-mail spammer, scammers.
-- As a huge dog lover- I salute this pilot for doing the right
thing to save a life!!
-- Virtually every day in the news there’s a story really goofy
or bizarre and you see it happened in Florida.
Here’s one for this week.
VIDEO of the WEEK
The thing I hate about twitter is the negative
discourse. Some folks are downright
viscous and classless and that’s sad. So
I enjoy when people can make fun of those who tweet such nonsense. Jimmy Kimmel “Mean Tweets” is good TV.
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