I absolutely love this article about a newlywed couple finding out that their wedding cake was made of polystyrene, which Stuart spotted on the BBC news website today. Since everyone is usually too full to manage more sweet food at the end of a wedding reception, and the concept of the cake is more ceremonial and symbolic than gastronomic, the Blog thinks that this would be a good new market for hard-pressed polystyrene producers to explore.
Recently in parties Category
Polyester producer Teijin is to stage a free jazz concert in
The concert is expected to attract two to three thousand people, and will reflect the company's green philosophy. On stage, Koh Mr Saxman will wear the company's environmentally-friendly recyclable casual jackets. After the jackets are worn out, they can be collected and recycled into new polyester materials through Teijin's "
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.
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)
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.
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 ....
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."
Will Beacham, ICB European bureau chief, writes about his adventures at
Glastonbury in Somerset, UK last weekend, Friday 26 to Sunday 28 June ...
With the mud now removed from most of my clothes, I'm back in sunny Sutton's ICIS office to share my experiences. Barbara only wanted the highlights of Bruce Springsteen from the comfort of her armchair. But I can tell you it was worth the effort of trudging through the fields with a pint of hot cider in my hand to watch probably the most electrifying live performance I've ever seen. You'd better get a ticket for next year!
For five days each year, a few fields in a quiet corner of the UK's West Country become a throbbing city of 180,000 people. The Glastonbury Festival of the Performing Arts is a national institution. Started in 1971 by a farmer, Michael Eavis, who had an interest in music, it has grown to become
Whilst there this year, I started thinking about the organisation and economics of this event, plus its wider impact on the local area and on demand for chemicals.
The local economy must benefit hugely from the festival. There were several hundred stalls selling everything from food to clothes to the "ShePee", which I'll leave to your imagination. Of the 180,000 people attending, 40,000 are workers: a major boost to the economy.
The huge number of tents covering the site must also stimulate demand for the
"Green" is certainly a key theme of the event. Woe betide anyone trying to avoid the queues at the toilets by hiding behind a bush or hedge. A team of "green police" (see video) wearing British Bobby hats coloured green patrol the site, blowing their whistles and chasing offenders.
The figures for waste produced are staggering. In 2008 the festival recycled 49% or 863.32 tonnes of its waste. This included 193.98 tonnes of composted organic waste, 400 tonnes of chipped wood, 9.12 tonnes of glass, 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles, 41 tonnes of cardboard, 66 tonnes of scrap metal, 11.2 tonnes of clothing, tents, sleeping bags, 0.264 tonnes of batteries, 10 tonnes of dense plastic and 0.25 tonnes plastic sheets.
This year the festival also used a fleet of New Holland tractors, all capable of running on 100% biodiesel refined from used cooking oil sourced in the
This year I saw fantastic performances from Prodigy, Will Young, Tom Jones and Neil Young plus DJs like Pete Tong and Deadmau5. Don't tell any of my cool friends, but I also loved Australian legend Rolf Harris!
Icecream van in Glastonbury mud on the only rainy day
Will and friends
The shape of business travel to come
