Something fishy's going on here

If you can look beyond the blurriness of this quickly grabbed photo, you'll see, yes, a workstation panel outfitted with live fish. It's one of the many interesting things that's caught my eye in the last 12 hours.

An explanation: Frequent readers may have noted a bit of silence on TalkContract over the past couple of days....The reason? I've been on my way to Guangzhou, China, for the China International Furniture Fair (ICFF). It's been an interesting foreshadowing of the trade show mania to come in the U.S., from HD Expo to ICFF to NeoCon. Ah, the tired feet, the aching back from lugging around materials and samples, and the covert photo shoots taken amid no photo signs.

From a quick overview on day 1, it seems halfway around the world from Contract HQ, a large number of office furnishing manufacturers toggle between two extremes: heavy (very, very heavy) and old-worldly casegoods and desks along with very traditional, highly padded and ornate executive chairs and light, free-standing, modular desking systems alongside a bevy of mesh-backed chairs. That's not to say that's all on display, but it certainly seems to be the bulk. In between, of course, are some treats and, of course, things that make you go Hmm?....like the panel system above. Would YOU specify a fish tank/panel system?