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• Worse than divorce

  "This is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth and I still have a wife," said one shell-shocked share trader at the end of the worst day on the stock market for twenty years. This line came in to me from the US via yahoo messenger... Posted Oct 11 2008, 04:20 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trading, gossip, ICIS, corporate life, traders, media life, Times, divorce

• Global financial crisis jokes

  As the crisis deepens and chemical markets tumble, the jokes are circulating on yahoo messenger to get the industry through a Friday afternoon. 1 Japanese joke You think things are bad in the USA, but have you heard about the crisis in Japan? Apparently... Posted Oct 10 2008, 06:26 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, economy, corporate life, jokes, humour, financial crisis

• The right image for the recession

  The soundbite of former Lehmans boss Fuld being grilled by a US congressional committee about his beachfront home and multi-million dollar art collection made for great radio this morning. On BBC Radio 4's Today programme on my drive in, you got the... Posted Oct 10 2008, 10:07 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: BBC, business travel, EPCA, Vienna, corporate life, Berlin, Monte Carlo, image, Meridien, Radio 4, appearances, Waxman, Fuld

• Conference Etiquette #2 - The Social Kiss

  I am endebted to this Times article for the final word on the minefield of business kissing. If it's three kisses for the Dutch, what do you say to a German who comes in for a third and quite inappropriate lunge? Reading the paper from cover to cover... Posted Oct 07 2008, 09:26 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: parties, EPCA, Heathrow, corporate life, women, Times, Nice, Debretts, social kiss

• Calculators are for wimps

  We're driving through the west of England on wide open roads in brilliant sunshine, taking my son back to university for the start of the term. The new small car, with the back seats folded flat, is like a Tardis for the amount of student luggage... Posted Oct 06 2008, 08:25 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: price reporting, corporate life, drive, cars, training, ICIS Training, calculators, brain training, breakfast

• Lists of lists

  The Blog loves Top 10 lists. We've had the Blog's Top 10 chemical movie scenes , top oil and chemical-themed cocktails , top chemical adverts , top chemical buzzwords , more top chemical movie scenes , top expensive capital hotels , top songs... Posted Sep 27 2008, 05:17 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: chemicals, trivia, ICB, ICIS, ICIS Chemical Business, corporate life, chemical companies, Top 10, Top 100, lists

• The Blog celebrates its first birthday - a year of chemicals gossip

  The ICIS Chemicals Confidential blog is today celebrating its first birthday. Born in the maelstrom of the Reed Charity Blogathon on 24 September 2007, it has grown unexpectedly strong and bonny, boasting 257 postings over the course of its first year... Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:56 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, gossip, ICIS, price reporting, blog, corporate life, media life, blogathon, birthday

• Chemicals breaks the glass ceiling

  Nigel Davis celebrates some other top women on the occasion of Ellen Kullman's promotion to CEO of Du Pont today ... " Stacy Methvin , who ran Shell Chemicals LLP, has moved on to bigger things in Shell. Dow Corning has a female CEO, Stephanie... Posted Sep 23 2008, 05:05 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: corporate life, women, Shell, Rockwood, CEOs, Dow Corning, Du Pont, Ellen Kullman

• Ryder Cup players are model for petchems

  Watching the opening of the Ryder Cup , which kicks off today in Kentucky, sets me wondering about golf and chemicals. Why is golf the sport of the international petrochemical industry? Even as EPCA has axed the Sunday sailing competition this year, and... Posted Sep 19 2008, 01:13 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, fashion, gossip, ICIS, EPCA, Ineos, corporate life, ExxonMobil, golf, women, Ryder Cup, Intermarc

• Chemical company salaries revealed

  A new website which shows salaries for thousands of employees in leading companies, including major chemical firms, has been running for two months in the US, according to this article in TimesOnline today. Click on Glassdoor.com to see more than 50,000... Posted Aug 21 2008, 10:02 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: chemicals, gossip, BASF, salaries, DuPont, corporate life, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Bayer, Glassdoor, Dow

• Football and chemical freebies

  I'm sitting in a football stadium on a mild and sunny Saturday afternoon in this cool damp English summer, watching our team in what is only its third game this season as all the expensive new players fail to score a single goal. Watching football... Posted Aug 18 2008, 01:06 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, Sabic, ICIS, EPCA, price reporting, corporate life, football, LyondellBasell, Neste

• HALO video conferencing - it's the future for petchems

  More hi-tech gadgetry was on display when the Blog visited a major petrochemical company this week for a three-way global video conference. My colleague Peter S and I sat chatting long-distance in a state-of-the-art HALO suite , where the experience was... Posted Aug 11 2008, 09:11 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: business travel, conferences, hi-tech, corporate life, Halo, Dyson Airblade, video conferencing

• On perfect Houston office lunches and coffee

  When I'm in the ICIS Houston office, one of my favourite places to get lunch is the local Whole Foods Market on Kirby. That is when I'm not queuing up for slabs of beef at the Texas Bar-B-Q or down the nail salon. So I was happy to see that a... Posted Aug 11 2008, 01:13 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, business travel, London, gossip, CBI, ICIS, Houston, corporate life, Shanghai, coffee, Starbucks, Whole Foods Store, organic food, Whole Foods Market

• Dr Who, Hamlet and chemicals

  The Blog is bouncing with glee because the long-awaited Hamlet with David Tennant (aka Dr Who) has opened, and we already have our stalls tickets in hand, even if it is for a Saturday in deepest November. The play opened last night at the RSC's Stratford... Posted Aug 06 2008, 10:04 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: gossip, BASF, RBI, corporate life, RSC, Hamlet, Stratford-upon-Avon, Dr Who, David Tennant, Hamlet tickets

• Houston fashion goes tropical

  A tropical influence has been evident in ICIS Houston in advance of the scheduled arrival tomorrow of Tropical Storm Edouard. They tell me that dress-down Friday shirts have been tending towards Hawaiian over the long hot Texan summer, and that in last... Posted Aug 04 2008, 05:50 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, fashion, ICIS, Houston, price reporting, corporate life, media life, Hawaii, Tropical Storm Edouard