- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
As we go to press, literally on this occasion, residents of Scotland, one of the UK's four 'home nations' are voting in a referendum. The question in this referendum, as those living all over the UK are now very aware, is this: 'Should Scotland be an independent country?' (It is, of course, unfortunate that we could not go to press 24 hours later).
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
In the house of my venerable parents is an odd-shaped piece of furniture. It is an elongated rectangular box made of some highly polished wood, perched on four stout legs - they have to be stout because this thing weighs half a tonne. Opening the front reveals a radio dial, and opening the top shows a turntable for old-fashioned records. It is a Blaupunkt radiogram from around 1950 - you can actually see it for yourself by searching 'Blaupunkt radiogram playing Otis Redding Fa fa fa' on Google. Placing a vinyl record on the platter and bringing down the needle into the spiral groove will bring forth a nostalgic series of clicks and pops as well as the full audio representation of your chosen music, faithfully rendered in full stereo through powerful - and heavy - speakers, after amplification through real glowing analogue valves. If the heating in the house fails, you can warm yourself next to the heat-emitting innards of the radiogram.
- Written by Peter Edwards Deputy Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
Yesterday, during my lunchbreak, I read a transcript of a recent lecture given by the former British politician Nigel Lawson at the University of Bath, UK. The subject was 'climate change,' the catch-all phrase that seems to be increasingly used to describe weather events that do not conform to our expectations of a generally benign climate. The person that recommended the article was Robert McCaffrey, the Editor of Global Gypsum Magazine and, as regular readers of this column will be aware, something of a climate 'sceptic.' The content of the Lawson article was therefore not a surprise.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
I've sometimes been accused of being slightly morose, with a cynical take on the world, but I prefer to think of it as seeing the world as it really is, and being better prepared than if I were to wander around wearing rose-tinted spectacles. So when I recently noticed an increase in reports about China's growing economic troubles, my ears pricked up. I've long been a sceptic about the sustainability of China's meteoric growth, even after having been to the country and seen for myself the jaw-dropping construction projects and scale of building work that seemingly never stops. Flying from skyscraper-studded Shanghai, below, (where I have travelled on a 400km/hr maglev train to the airport) back into low-rise London felt to me like passing from the 23rd to the 15th century.
- Written by Dr Robert McCaffrey, Managing Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
I remember going to a business development meeting where some sage person opined that 'You need to find a niche small enough so that you can expand to fill it, but not so small that there is no business in it.' A niche, for the uninitiated, is a small space, sometimes cave-like, sometimes occupied by a religious icon, also any small cavity-like physical space or specialised subject area or concept. I wonder if we might usefully think of the building materials industry as a series of niches? Let me explain.
