From the fabricator: Pay attention to what matters

This past week really showed the mixup of our priorities as violent weather racked the South while a majority of the country was either paying attention to the bogus birth certificate issue or a royal wedding. The tornadoes that hit the South were nothing short of catastrophic for so many. It is time to properly pay attention and send our thoughts and prayers to the people that need them. Our industry was touched by these storms when one of the production buildings of Coral Industries was flattened. Thankfully, and amazingly, no one was hurt as the folks at Coral heeded the warnings and were cleared out of the structure before the storm rolled through. I have exchanged a few e-mails with Coral's Lewis McCallister and he, his family and the folks at Coral are back at work and throwing themselves into the needs of their customers and community. Their undamaged building is up and running, and the diversion of work is probably a good thing to keep their minds off of what just happened. The ownership at Coral is amongst the "good people" in our industry, so there's no doubt that they will emerge from this better than ever. All positive wishes and support towards those guys and the entire affected region (which spreads over several states) is really necessary and appreciated.

Coral has started a Twitter feed with updates and items that you can provide to help. You can access it here. Click here for information on the overall effort to help the folks in Tuscaloosa.

Elsewhere...

• Wild timing, as last week AAMA released a voluntary tornado specification. I think after seeing the video and destruction, there really isn't anything we can put in to stop that fury. It's like an old coworker used to tell me about hurricane material: the system might be tested to deal with a Category 5, but the rest of the building won't be.
• Funny that I have been blogging since 2005, and with her effort last week, Jenni Chase might have stirred up more of a tempest than I ever have. The interesting part of Jenni's blog were the comments, both public and private, to me (both on e-mail and to my blog, ironically). They ran all across the board, including some nasty ones (sent anonymously, of course) that really curdled and boggled the brain. But there is no doubt that this is a very volatile issue and time in our world, and the next few months will undoubtedly be very interesting ... especially as truth is separated from rumor and fact from innuendo.
• The Kentucky Derby is this coming Saturday and as some of you might remember, my daughter actually picked the Triple Crown correctly last year. So, we will see if she can do it again. The post positions and odds come out mid-week, and after she picks I'll post it at my blog's home site, which can be found here. If she does it again, we will move to Vegas this time.
• The excellent Glazing Executives Forum announced its keynote speaker this year is the CEO of Serious Materials Kevin Surace. Just hearing his version of the work at the Empire State Building will be worth attending. Seriously, the entire event is a tremendous deal, and if you are coming to GlassBuild America (which I am sure all intelligent people are), then doing this event is a no brainer. Mark the calendar for September 12. I am sure you will see a ton more on this and the show in the coming months.
• Last this week... I have run stories in the past on passwords and how some people just use things like "123456" and "QWERTY" but I had to share in the main part of the blog this amazing story. Do you realize that a hacker can figure out a six-character, no number/letter mix, no uppercase password in 10 minutes? That is just wild. The quick blurb, which blew my feeble mind is here. 

 Read on for links and video of the week...

Max Perilstein is chief marketing officer for Vitro Architectural Products, Memphis. Write him at mperilstein@vitro.com.

The opinions expressed here are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Glass Association, Glass Magazine editors, or other glassblog contributors.