Still on the plastic fashion theme, now you can have a stylish hooded poncho made from recycled potatoes. When you're finished with it, you simply bury it in the ground and seeds contained in the fabric will grow into a new plant, according to an article in yesterday's Austrian Times. The potato seeds are in little pouches, and the rotting coats provides all the raw material for the seeds to germinate.
Continuing the Blog's love affair with potatoes: Plastics from Potatoes; Heaviest Potato and my own favourite: Seriously Chemical Potatoes
October 2009 Archives
Los Angeles Fashion Week (LAFW) is showcasing plastics in fashion, and it looks like the reporters from the "Plastics Make It Possible" team at the American Chemistry Council are having a wild time at the catwalk shows.
Late into Thursday night, they were posting a string of photos of models wearing plastics and a possible journalistic first: an interview with a catwalk model on the benefits of wearing plastics.
Photographer Vincent Bousserez has made a series of exquisite pictures of tiny plastic folk in giant landscapes. The collection has achieved a mass following, and his photographs sell for up to £1,800, according to an article in today's Metro.
The Blog has often mused on why golf is the sport du moment of the petrochemical industry. Why not football? Why not tennis? Why not flower-arranging?
Football had its brief moment in the spotlight after some eager 5-a-side games at EPL and the infamous annual APLA national team championship where players' nationalities can be pretty fluid and injuries are always multiple.
After this brief flowering, golf has reasserted its stranglehold on the industry. As a non-golfer, I've enjoyed the alternative trips round stately homes, spa outings, the funny speeches and especially the takeaway golfshirts with company logos which stay untouched, some still in their plastic wrappers, on a high shelf in the wardrobe.
Now a friend has emailed the Blog a promo video for Calloway's "Big Bertha" golf club which is unsuitable not only for a corporate blog but also so unsuitable that it was quarantined by the ICIS anti-virus filter. At first I thought it must be a spoof, but have subsequently found it on YouTube. While browsing through Calloway's range of amusing golfing ads, I came across this one on "hitting a 3-metal from salad" ...
The Women in Leadership Forum (WILForum) in
Olefins trader Gina Fyffe of Integra was among those shortlisted for the Energy award at the conference, which was held at the Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah.
According to the American Chemistry Council's new website which launched today, plastic is the newest trend in couture, and to make the point the site will present the Gen Art "Fresh Faces in Fashion" Los Angeles Show on 29 October, hosted by actress Kaley Cuoco, star of the popular CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.
"From
The Blog was particularly entranced by this link to "How Many Bottles to Make a Handbag."
(photo: plasticsmakeitpossible.com)
Anyone with Asian connections will know all about the cult of pre-wedding photos in exotic and luxurious locations, but one couple has chosen to make theirs unique by having them taken at AirAsia's low-cost terminal in
The Blog is full of admiration at this scoop by fellow blogger Barbara Cockburn on Flight, since we both started our blogging careers at the Reed Charity Blogathon two years ago.
The photos remind me that when ICIS and Flight shared a
(photo: Dennis Yap/Flight)
I had to laugh yesterday when I saw a leaflet for a local stand-up comedy gig starring an up-and-coming comedian called Stuart Goldsmith. Just why it should be so amusing to picture olefins trader Stuart Goldsmith as a stand-up comedian is hard to explain to those readers who don't know him.
I remember being impressed to see a review of a new Picasso biography by art historian John Richardson, when we all know the more famous John Richardson, blogger of Asian Chemicals Connections.
A simple Google search shows that very few of us have sole rights to our own name.
My namesake is a Viennese opera singer, my daughter's is a supermodel, and my husband's is busy scoring goals for Port Vale when he can take time off from being an Australian surfing champion.
For more on same, see: Two
(photo: EPCA 2009)
The Blog has been enjoying the almond-stuffed dates from
Our own Shelley Kerr is just back from presenting a paper at the conference's Baseoils Methodology Seminar and meeting many of her editorial contacts during the two-and-a-half day event. From her photos, I see that the highlights of the trip were the
Beth Tweddle, new world champion in the gymnastic floor exercises was being interviewed on the radio as I drove in this morning, and very charming she was, but I didn't realise how closely she was connected to the world of petrochemicals.
Now my North of England Chemicals correspondent Judith tells me that Beth lives in her village and is the local celebrity. Another young girl in Judith's son's class at high school is following in Beth's footsteps and doing exceptionally well.
And in another freakish chemicals connection, it turns out that fellow blogger Paul Hodges used to work with Jerry Tweddle, Beth's father, now at INEOS, and posted a video of Beth on his own blog this very morning.
(photo: Elizabeth Tweddle of
The Blog traded free tickets to the Goodwood Festival of Speed with Max Kingsley Jones, editor of Commercial Aviation, in return for this posting on chemicals in Formula One racing ...
It may be a surprise to hear that among the many varied roles found within a Formula 1 Grand Prix racing team, there is one for a fully qualified doctorate of polymers and plastics.
At Renault F1 - based in Enstone near
With Formula 1 racing car designers having to obey three masters - regulation, weight and aerodynamics - it is not surprising that carbonfibre - thanks to its high strength and low weight properties - has long been a fundamental of car construction. It is used for everything from brakes and suspension parts to bodywork and heatshields.
Continue reading Chemicals in Formula One racing.
These Calvin Klein ck USB shades fit the bill for the Blog for being both plastic and designed for business travel. The right arm has a flash drive that can be plugged into a computer, so one minute you can be looking cool and the next hard at work, although pretty stupid if you try to wear them with only one arm.
We were keenly awaiting the photos of the Accenture party at EPCA 2009 in
ICIS Houston's Stephen Burns has recorded this memorable moment and running with a Berlin Cold War theme, has entitled it "The Man Who Came in for a Rolled."
"Whoa...!! Industry events where they hand out Cubanos?? Sign me up, I'm there! Well done, Nigel, well done!" commented our Man in Washington, Joe K, on viewing the video through a fragrant fug.
The trip to
Then things take a turn for the worse. Peter T has surpassed himself in his economising with the hotel where we are staying, across the road from the hotel where the training will be held. I open the door and sidle in to a narrow single room, with a single bed against the wall and a tiny bathroom one metre square. There'll be no swinging of cats here, because with my arms outstretched I can touch all four white-tiled walls at once.
It's a shock to get up in the dark but we get off to a good start to the day, with just the local Dutch delegates delayed as always by the
Over lunch, one of the delegates tells us that only her boss can know that she is out on a training course. She has had to tell her colleagues she is taking a day's holiday, as all external training expenditure has been axed. The other delegates nod in agreement. Nevertheless, Peter tells me that our training delegate numbers are up and that we will probably squeeze an extra course before the end of the year.
"People are finding there's a little bit of money left in their budgets, and they need to spend it," he says.
The other hot topic at lunch is the day's news of the run on Dutch bank DSB.
During Nigel's afternoon paper on "Petrochemicals - a changed world," I help myself to a tea labelled "Sterrenmunt," thinking with my clearly inadequate command of Dutch that this must be spearmint. My mouth fills with the most disgusting liquid, an indescribably horrible concoction which I later read on the label is a herbal brew of liquorice and anis. To be avoided.
The Blog's "Celebs in Chemicals" category has been a bit short of sightings recently, so hats off to Joe Chang who spotted Jessica Biel, star of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the launch of the Dow Live Earth Run for Water - at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in
For more details on the event, see
Your mobile phone or Blackberry knows everything about you - your friends, your movements, your location, the entire history of your communications - and with just a little bit of encouragement, is prepared to reveal it all.
There are already companies which specialise in cellphone forensic analysis for police forces, private companies and individuals snooping on suspect employees or wayward partners. An article in this week's New Scientist explores how anyone with an inquisitive nature can piece together your activities, and extract personal information like health records and bank passwords.
Michael Vassiliadis, the newly elected chairman of
While researching an ICIS news article on the union boss's call for reliable energy policies, news reporter Franco Capaldo came across this video on YouTube.
"Men in Coats" will be the after-dinner act at the December EPL Xmas dinner in Brussels, an email to members announced today. Remembering previous December EPLs, the Blog's advice is:
1 Don't sit near the front.
2 Don't volunteer to be hypnotised.
3 Don't offer up your wedding ring for vanishing tricks.
The Financial Times has thoughtfully emailed the Blog an introduction to the new website for its "How to Spend It" weekend supplement. Full of gorgeous things, it comes just in time for those chemicals executives who spent the weekend sitting around with furrowed brows, wondering just how they were going to spend the worryingly large sums accumulating in their bank accounts.
Fortunately, howtospendit.com "is updated daily with sumptuous images and insightful writing from the magazine, as well as exclusive content and bespoke videos."
Caroline Howard reflects on this week's PET conference in
The warm October sunshine is the first thing to hit me on landing at
Set in the Tuscan hills, this Medici stronghold exudes Renaissance elegance. It is worlds away from the bustling modernity of the Intercontinental in
Admittedly, I was let out until the small hours of the mornings for some serious networking! I soon realise, however, that this training may prove useful as the 160 delegates and I are led to the wine cellars of the Paggeria Medicea. An evening of Italian culinary delights ensues.
Continue reading From Berlin to Florence.
Chewing gum, yuk. The Blog is not a fan, especially open-mouthed chewing and filthy streets, but now a
Prof Terence Cosgrove of
"He has developed the idea that new polymers -- large molecules made up of repeated simple molecules -- could be made from existing polymers. He and his team have used this idea to make a polymer which can be added to chewing gum. Cosgrove says: "Chewing gum is oil based, the new polymer makes it capable of absorbing more water." He adds that this makes the gum degradable and it gives the chewing gum a lower energy surface, meaning that when it sticks to a surface it is easy to pull off. It is, he says, green because it is completely solvent free."
The Vopak Monday night party at EPCA was one of the conference highlights. Here is a selection of pictures of the Blog's favourite characters from the Vopak photo collection ...
Continue reading PHOTOS: Vopak Party at EPCA Berlin.
Chemical folk who were worrying that the NECA Winter Meeting at the Pierre in New York just wasn't glamorous enough, will be relieved to read that the hotel has just undergone a $100 million renovation of its rooms and public areas, under its new owners the Taj hotel group, according to a snippet which the Blog came across in the British Airways in-flight magazine on the flight home from EPCA.
Built in the 1930s, the refined
The Blog was very taken with this photo of another chemical reception in the Pierre for the Jackson Laboratory National Gala in September 2008. That centrepiece of chemical flasks would be just the thing to brighten up the NECA meeting.
The NECA website says that the $250-a-head lunch will be on a Friday for the first time, and that the speaker will be an energy consultant from Cornerstone Analytics.
(photo Rex)
While we are still recovering from EPCA
Here I am at the World Gas Conference in sunny
You see, each company has a 'stall' at the conference. It's the biggest exhibition I've ever seen. There must be 1,000 stalls. Some of them are bigger than a house. Some have women dancing outside them, Formula One cars, free booze. And then there's the Gazprom 'stall'. It's the size of a temple with an ice skating rink in front of it. Word is that the Russian girls who skate on it are some of the best in the world. It's the biggest stand in the most prominent position, it really is quite amazing.
Continue reading Gazprom take the headlines - again.
I picked up a few new business cards at EPCA from old friends moving jobs.
Joe Duffy, previously with Huntsman and SABIC, has joined DeWitt as Vice President, Ethylene, Propylene and Derivatives, EAME, based in the UK, but I see no sign of him on the company website.
Andy Brice from ICB has a few words to say on his newest campaign and blog ...
ICIS Chemical Business is almost a month in to its year-long Education and Recruitment Campaign, and it's already garnered widespread support from many leading trade associations and chemical producers.
It's no secret that the industry is facing a severe labour crisis and there's an urgent need to attract new recruits.
There's a wealth of opportunities for those wishing to pursue a career in chemicals but are students and graduates aware of them? What is your company doing to swell your ranks and how are you reaching out to bright, young talent?
If you fancy sharing news, views or concerns, why not join our online web forum, ICIS connect. http://www.icis.com/icisconnect/groups/recruitment-campaign/default.aspx. There you can take part in discussions, upload videos and documents, and help to address this key issue.
ICIS Chemical Business will be running a series of articles over the coming months - (all ideas and contributions are welcome - email andy.brice@icis.com) and a blog has been launched to highlight the industry's efforts. http://www.icis.com/blogs/recruitment-campaign/
The labour shortage isn't going to go away, so take a moment to share your views. The chemical industry needs YOU!
It's Tuesday midday and the ICIS suite is as empty as a hollow gourd. In writing the final word on the EPCA 2009 conference in Berlin, the Blog will be careful to avoid all mention of the usual Top 10 parties, after a friend hinted that it aroused jealousy and ire amongst wives and stay-at-home colleagues, and gave quite the wrong impression of what we get up to at conferences. Hmmm
In its place, the Blog has been tirelessly compiling an alternative listing of Best of Bests...
Most Complaints - security at the Interconti, stopping people from entering the bars and meeting areas, even the restrooms, without a delegate badge.
Most Failures to Meet - There was the usual quota of people turning up at the wrong place or wrong time or just failing to connect. Prize to Daphne and Truong who failed to meet on at least four occasions.
Most Puzzling Vehicle - 2 large coaches for Helm parked continuously outside the Steigenberger Hotel.
Best Thing about the Steigenberger Hotel - huge showers.
Most sobering news - five redundancies due to "restructuring" in seemingly rapid succession: Barry H, Nick K, Andy S, Alan T, Kieran D...
Photos Most Looking Forward to Seeing: Vopak party; EPCA photos on website (in about three months' time going on previous experience); trying on Russian hats at Checkpoint Charlie; Nigel and cigars at Accenture party.
Biggest Promise - Hans K who volunteered to speak at 2010 ICIS Aromatics conference on "Being in Chapter 11."
Best Early Morning Walk - Steigenberger to Interconti, each day rejoicing in the lack of rain or snow.
Most Wacky Dresser - tall guy from ISP at the Mitsubishi party, in skin-tight shiny shirt and twisted red neckscarf - surrounded by 100 men in dark suits.
Best Chemical View - from the Sasol-Huntsman suite on the 7th floor of the Interconti Trigon, over water (always calming), autumnal trees and the Berlin skyline including the Reichstag, and Fernsehturm.
Most Extravagant Use of Company Resources - Russian delegation staying at the historic Adlon Hotel, most expensive hotel in town and miles from the conference, with its 3rd Reich connections, by the Brandenburg Gate.
Nicest Compliments about the Blog - Fred H and Marija K.
Most Touching Exhibition of Male Competitiveness - Joe D and Barry H disputing who got the highest scores for chairing an ICIS conference in the delegate feedback.
Most Superfluous Items in Packed Luggage - evening bag, sunglasses, camera charger, new grey tights, which turned out to be TOTALLY the wrong shade of grey (whoever knew that greys could clash), new necklace from Argentina (which didn't go with anything).
Most Avidly Discussed ICIS News Article - Exxonmobil speech - attracted huge attention from Japanese delegates.
Most Requested ICIS Report - Benzene (Europe).
Most Pointless Innovation - Twitterfeed on my blog: it never worked. I devotedly updated it all day Sunday and Monday with my every thought and action, creating a repository of information too trivial even for the Blog, including highlights such as the arrival in the ICIS suite of a mystery bouquet of stargazer lilies, and all to no avail.
Most Shipbrokers Per Square Metre - the Chelsea vs Liverpool football match Sunday night at the Irish Bar.
PS Update on social kiss agenda:
No sightings of the male-on-male kiss at EPCA 2009. I did see two male delegates walking with arms around each other - but guess they were shipbrokers.
Economic guru Paul Hodges would never be so vain as to put a photo of himself on his esteemed blog. So for readers who occasionally flip across to Chemicals and the Economy and were concerned that they were taking economic advice from a cartoon character, here he is at the EPCA opening reception, deep in discussion about the implications of the downturn in the automotive industry with ICIS Houston's Heather Doyle.
Late into the night, Stephen Burns was editing the highlights of Sunday evening's EPCA opening reception at Berlin's Mercedes World, sending it to the Blog at a few minutes before midnight ....
Stephen Burns tells of the curious happenings in the ICIS suite this morning ...
Believe it or not...a mysterious sequence of events put a spooky chill through the ICIS suite mid-morning on Sunday.
Visitors and staff alike were startled when someone - suspected to be a smoker! - opened the door onto the terrace, unleasing a gust of wind that knocked display stands down with a crash and launched loose papers through the air.
Minutes later, a gesticulating managing editor accidentally sent a keyboard flying, putting another jolt into the crowd.
To complete the hat-trick, minutes later a waiter loudly knocked over several bottles, including a full one that was smashed to a thousand pieces.
"We're getting out while we can," a nervous subscriber was heard to remark on the way out...
Chemical conference-goers are always partial to a free gift or two. The ICIS suite at EPCA is piled high as usual with small toys and executive gizmos bearing the ICIS logo, and suitably sized to be easily stuffed into a conference delegate bag. I'm very impressed with this year's tastefully discreet ICIS passport covers, which are just the right size for my children's crumpled passports.
One previous freebie that proved very popular was the selection of USB sticks. In contrast to the ICIS USB connections, always in the best possible taste, I see that Electronics Weekly's blog has been writing about some really pointless, tacky USB rubbish, including a USB greenhouse, a parrot that repeats what you say at intervals and a mosquito repelling USB stick. Not at all suitable for the Blog's stylish readers then.
(A free premium gift to anyone who stops me and says the magic line: "I read your blog.")
The champagne was flowing at last night's Mitsubishi party - Ruinart, as Chris pointed out to me. As guests greeted each other in the fiercely over-heated room with a clink of their glass flutes, little did they think of the chemistry going on under their very noses.
Advances have been made this very week and reported in the Times in scientists' understanding of what makes champagne taste so good. Surprise, surprise - it's all in the bubbles.
"The bubbles carry aromas up to the surface and leave them hovering above the sparkling liquid in a fine mist ... the molecules responsible for the aroma come attached to fatty acids released by the yeast ... The acids are double-ended compounds with one end that is attracted to water and another that shuns it ... As the bubbles rise to the surface, the aromatic molecules are carried upwards and released as aerosols as the bubble pops at the surface."
Microwaveability - is that a word? It seems that you can buy baked beans in little yoghurt pot-style Snap Pots, and while sales of canned foods are plummeting, the most successful products in this retail category are these new little pots. Consumers have fallen in love with their microwaveability, according to an article in this week's issue of The Grocer.
Not only baked beans but also spaghetti, petfood, tuna and fish fingers. Children and pets will be in heaven.
There's also the health and safety angle. Canned food producer Heinz argues that the Snap Pots are easier and safer to open and, if you can't finish the whole lot, can be stored in the fridge.
High density polyethylene is being used by scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in
Scientists from Prairie View A&M University's Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration (CRESSE) created simulated moon dirt by analysing samples brought back from previous moon missions, and combined it with HDPE to create shelters that provide protection against radioactivity.
Ideally they would like to make lunar shelters from materials already on the moon.
"It would take $1 million a pound to bring things to the moon," CRESSE research scientist Brad Gersey said of the NASA-funded research. "We need to use something that's there already."
Banished from the BA lounge since June when my silver card membership expired because I had done too little longhaul travel in this year of recession, I've been roaming around Heathrow Terminal 5, trying on perfume here, buying euros there, avoiding the free snifters of Scotch which at 7.00 am would be a very bad start indeed to what is going to be a very long day.
I have gone back to my old habit of coffee and almond croissant at the Costa coffee stand - let the conference weight gain begin!
I'm waiting for my
Dressed for the Arctic, in my woolly hat, scarf and gloves, I am prepared for the heavy rain and even snow forecast for
Colleagues have been reminding me that last time we were in
It's good to see that Lanxess is so delighted at winning the ICIS Company of the Year Award. Most of the Lanxess home page is set aside to celebrate the award, and the press release was translated into several languages. Apparently the employees are thrilled and their customers are impressed too.
"So much effort goes into the Top 100 - which has been a roaring success this year - and the Company of the Year Award and it's hugely encouraging to see the winning company taking the award so seriously. Great brand building for both of us. Lanxess is a worthy winner," says Nigel Davis, editor of Chemical Insight in his praise of Lara Mcnamee and the ICB team who put the list together.
Writing about writing - we are endlessly fascinated by ourselves. For some high quality journalistic navel-gazing, plus some sharp photos, see a new blog from my former boss, Andy Soloman: Global Journalism and New Media.
Thousands of readers have been downloading the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies from our website this week. The Blog loves to celebrate Top 10 lists. Now you can join a discussion forum to talk about the list, and even download a podcast about it.
Download a pdf of the Top 100 league table for 2008.
Executives from chemical and fertilizer company Potash Corporation have been profiled in the New York Times in an article (with helpful video footage) which describes the way they multitask behind the wheel. Shocking though it seems to Europeans, using your cellphone and laptop, often both together, while driving is entirely legal in the
One Potash Corp regional salesman, gives this stomach-churning quote: "I'd be on my cellphone, writing notes in my planner, driving with my knee, and with a sandwich in my lap."
"He felt he could not ignore his phone, he said, because he never knew which call or e-mail message would be one he could not miss ... Tens of thousands of Americans have turned their cars, vans and trucks into mobile offices, wired with phones and computers to stay in close touch with bosses and customers."
"On Wednesday, the Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, called the broader phenomenon of distracted driving a "deadly epidemic" at a meeting on the issue in
It's definitely something to bear in mind next time you pick up the hire car from
