Sunday, September 27, 2015

Beware the Misleading Headline

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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