Sell plastic online, email Joe@domplas.com, call 631-751-1995, or text 516-972-5632.

Contact us today to sell us your plastic scrap. Call 631-751-1995, text 516-972-5632, email Joe@domplas.com, or sell us plastic online. 

We had the world’s biggest documented plastic pellet spill occur on our beaches in July which grabbed Hong Kong’s attention and forced the government to face the growing plastic pollution problem.  Everybody got involved in the clean up,  from people on the streets that rarely go to beaches, to people who usually only go to gazetted (or government) cleaned beaches, business leaders and of course the government themselves.

The timing worked in favour of triggering long term action on this problem too as our government was newly elected and they saw how many thousands of people got out and were cleaning pellets and trash and saying loudly ‘we want clean beaches’.  It was a united voice talking plastic pollution in Hong Kong for the first time.   Now, new policies are being developed and next week at the Chief Executive’s January 16th Policy Address we will see what big changes they have come up with. Fingers crossed.

It was a great year for me too.  I recieved incredible personal support (thank you, thank you, thank you!) from so many individuals, organisations and businesses to help achieve my goal of raising awareness of the problem of plastic pollution.  The Journey to the Plastic Ocean trip in June was a great platform to use to say ‘Hey! Our daily consumer habits are trashing our beaches, and whats more, all that rubbish is ending up in the middle of the ocean, corrupting our food chain!’.  It made people listen & then inspired many to act.

And now we are well into 2013.  I have quite a few resolutions (one I broke just 21 hrs after I had made it!) but a few that I intend to keep and make them habits.

Like my reusable cutlery in a pouch.

I have a couple of sets of cutlery in there (including 2 stainless steel straws ) so I can eat out with a friend and not have to use disposable cutlery, thus creating less waste.  It feels a bit like a drop in the ocean but every time I use them I notice people looking, then realising the sense in my simple act. I am determined this year to carry it with me always, it is smaller than my wallet so I have no excuse.

My other resolution is to challenge everyday ‘plastic’ habits of convenience or tradition when they make no real sense.  For example, I’m talking to supermarket managers and asking them politely if they can reduce waste by taking simple measures in their store.  One of the things that has really irked me for ages in the supermarkets is the sushi grass in the trays.  My kids eat a lot of sushi and for a while I could take my own container for them to fill as their sushi making coincided with my school run.  It was completely waste free sushi and it was great. 

This plastic is completely unnecessary and a waste for the company and the environment.  So I asked the manager if it was possible to stop putting it in when they made up the sushi in the morning.  He said he would look into it and he did!  Very happy to see that it was so easy to make a small change.  A thank you card is in the post to them …

These personal actions are all small, I know.  But it is more about individuals taking responsibility for their own usage of plastic, being consciously aware of what we ‘need’, use and can avoid.  It is about what we all can do so easily to start turning the tide on our habits of consumption and waste.  When everyone mindlessly uses so much disposable plastic we get phenomenal amounts of waste.  When people start refusing cutlery, unnecessary packaging, over packaging, water bottles, plastic bags, straws, coffee cups … this mountain of waste will start to recede.  We won’t see it littering our beaches and our streets and and we will feel good that we are changing our habits so easily.  It is all small steps but these small steps will take us somewhere better.

Happy New Year to you and I hope all our good new habits will continue through this year and the next.

TransCanada Keystone Pipeline filed an application in 2008 to build and operate the Keystone XL Project (expanding the previously approved Keystone pipeline) which would consist of a 1,700-mile crude oil pipeline and related facilities to transport crude oil from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada to Oklahoma and Texas.  It was estimated to cost $7 billion and could potentially transport up to 830,000 barrels per day till at least 2030.[1]  To fully fathom how much oil this is, here is a little break down.  A barrel of crude oil converts to about 41.8 US gallons.  Refineries in the USA are yielding about 49% gasoline from a barrel (about 20.5 gallons) from the mix of crudes they process (2004 data).  An average non-hybrid sedan gets around 35.7 miles per gallon (mpg) city and highway combined.[2]  Therefore, on average, a car would be able to drive 606,902,142 miles per day or 505,752 sedans driving all day at 50 miles per hour![3]  This should convince us to have our pen ready to sign, right?  Let’s look further…

Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline argue that it will create 20,000 jobs in the US, strengthen US energy independence from sources in unstable and unfriendly regions of the world, and will not have a drastic effect on the environment.[4]  Yet, just thinking logically, after the pipeline is finally built those workers will no longer be needed, so those 20,000 jobs are temporary (the state department now estimates that the pipeline will only create 5,000 to 6,000 jobs in actual construction).[5]  Also, when TransCanada’s president was asked whether he would support a legislation that required this Canadian oil and products refined from it to only be sold in United States, he responded by a blunt “No”.[6]  To me this shows a definite plan for the company to sell the oil where profitable, not only in US; and although this is a totally plausible strategy for a corporation, it invalidates the argument that US energy independence will strengthen since there is no guarantee that we will be the buyers of that oil.  Now, to the effects on the environment.

The Keystone XL pipeline project proposes to transport extracted tar sands oil from Canada all the way down to Texas.  Tar sands extraction in Canada destroys Boreal forests and wetlands, causes high levels of greenhouse gas pollution, and leaves behind immense lakes of toxic waste.[7]   Although the Keystone XL pipeline is not proposing to extract, only to transport, it is by definition supporting this type of dirty energy and it does have the potential to pollute its route to Texas.  This is the reason the original route in Nebraska was rerouted – it crossed Nebraskan Sandhills, a large ecosystem, and one of the largest water reserves in the world.  If there is a small leak of any kind in a pipeline, it can affect the ecosystem around its route.  And the leaks can happen from outside forces like excavators and earthquakes, which are common in that area; they can happen from faulty valves; and even human errors and corrosion.  And because the pipeline carries diluted bitumen, there is a risk of a highly corrosive, acidic, and potentially unstable blend of thick raw bitumen and volatile natural gas liquid condensate spilling in communities and ecosystems.[8]  Only in May 2011, 21,000 gallons of oil leaked in North Dakota…[9]  Some researchers even argue that this pipeline will increase costs of fuel!  Let us now go into every opposing argument to understand whether any of them hold water.

Extracting oil from tar sands is a long and gruesome process.  Just to make things a little clearer, I found this great visual diagram:

Canada’s oil sands are developed using open-pit mines and processing plants that spew carbon, which lay waste to millions of acres of the Boreal forest.[10]  If Keystone XL pipeline is approved, tar sand oil extraction by open-pit mining will expand because this will be their route to export the oil from Alberta, Canada, and their incentive to extract more.  Pipeline construction itself is also vicious – cutting through indigenous communities of Canada, trenching the Bakken Shale in parts of Montana and western North Dakota, ripping through private lands in Texas.[11]  And the company is proposing to use thinner steel and pump at higher pressures than normal, which means there is even more risks of leaks![12]

Now you’re probably asking, how is it possible that this pipeline will raise the cost of fuel?  The line would create a new way to carry Canadian imports outside the Midwest and reduce an oil surplus that’s depressing prices in the central US  Canadian producers will also be able to charge more for their oil after Keystone XL is built.  So completing the entire pipeline would raise prices at the pump in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains 10 to 20 cents a gallon.[13]

Now as I step away from this heart wrenching topic, I realize something…  Wouldn’t it be better to invest in greener infrastructure and greener transportation locally and nationally?  Wouldn’t it make more sense for people to invest more in green energy?  Rather than building a pipeline, build wind farms or solar farms on those routes instead, invest in green research…  This is where our money is needed most and this is what will make US become the leader in innovation and an example for developing nations.  And if the Keystone XL pipeline is built, we will be paying for it one way or another, either in taxes or higher prices, so why not invest in something that will keep paying off into our country’s future and not until we destroy the Canadian forests and suck out all the oil possible.  Our job as US citizens is to speak out against detrimental and irreversible damage that this dirty fuel represents and speak for what makes sense.

Here is where you can speak your voice against tar sands oil extraction and the Keystone XL pipeline:

http://www.nrdc.org/energy/keystone-pipeline/tar-sands-stories/

http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/keystone_obama/index2.html

You can also call the White House and urge Pres. Obama to reject the pipeline. It’s best to call during regular business hours (M – F, 9 am – 5 pm EST). Click below for a number and a script to call:

http://act.credoaction.com/call/report/?cp_id=136&tg=743

And if you are in Washington, D.C. for a few days between August 20th – September 3rd, consider joining the historic sit-in outside the White House, and risking arrest in peaceful protest, to make sure we have President Obama’s attention. Learn more and sign up to become a part of the sit-in here:

http://www.tarsandsaction.org/credo/

ANDOVER (CBS) – A drive-by shooting involving plastic pellets from an Airsoft gun frightened a number of people outside a downtown Andover frozen yogurt shop on Wednesday.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Doug Cope reports

Download: cope-andover-wrap1.mp3|titles=Airsoft%20Driveby|artists=Doug%20Cope

Police say Benjamin Warren, 18 and Louis Correra, 17, drove by and fired several plastic bullets into the crowd outside the Orange Leaf.

Five people were hit, but none were seriously hurt.

The owner says Warren had been fired from his job at the frozen yogurt shop a few months ago, suggesting that may have been the motive.

Warren and Correra were arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Both pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday. The judge ordered them to home confinement with electronic monitoring. They are allowed to leave for work and school.

Warren and Correra have also been ordered to surrender any other weapons and stay away from the Orange leaf and the victims.

It’s Friday, and as we do most Fridays, it’s time to deliver a horse doctor’s dose of robot videos straight into your skull. Not that your brain didn’t get a healthy amount of robotic juice this week: On Wednesday we had clips showing a robot purposefully cheating and deceiving humans (all in the name of science), and yesterday you sawrobots shooting plastic pellets and mini rockets at each other (all in the name of fun). But we’re not done, and today we bring you robot videos featuring hands, humanoids, and hugs.

Festo, the big German automation-firm-cum-mad-science-lab, is famous for itsSmartBird robotic seagull and elephant trunk manipulators, among other things. Last week the company unveiled its latest bionic contraption: the ExoHand is an exoskeleton glove that you can wear to teleoperate a separate robot hand in real time. But the cool part is that the device, powered by eight pneumatic actuators, can also be used to make your hand stronger and reduce fatigue during repetitive tasks. Festo says the ExoHand could find applications in manufacturing and medical therapy. Bionic handshake anyone?

Our friends at PlasticPals reported this week that Russia is building a teleoperated humanoid called the SAR-400, which is very similar to NASA and GM’s Robonaut. Apparently the SAR-400 was constructed by a company called Android Technology and the Central Research Institute of Machine Building, part of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency. The legless robot has two arms, torso, and head, and an operator wearing a head-mounted display and haptic gloves can directly control its movements. The Russians are currently testing the SAR-400 in simulated environments, having it tight screws and open hatches, and the plan is to have the robot aboard the International Space Station within the next two years. Check out the vid below (in Russian) and another one showing the robot’s capabilities.

Dan Mathias is a Florida-based inventor and a self-described “engineering firm of one.” At his robotics outfit FutureBots, in Jupiter, Fla., he’s been building myriad wheeled and legged systems based on his own original designs and parts scavenged from his home lab and yard sales around town. A couple of years ago he introduced a 1.6-meter tall, self-contained humanoid robot called ATOM-7XP—an impressive feat for a solo engineer. His latest creation, built in just three months, isKATE, which stands for “Kids Avatar Teacher and Entertainer.” The robot has an articulated mouth, a Microsoft Kinect for tracking people, and an Android tablet for communication and data input. Mathias says he hopes KATE could be used “for the home, schools, and labs for AI work.”

Remember the Telenoid, that strange teleoperated android shaped like an overgrown fetus? Now its creators, led by Osaka University roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, unveiled a simplified (emphasis on simplified) variant called the Hugvie. The Hugvie is basically a pillow “in a minimalist human form,” as DigInfo puts it. You insert your mobile phone into a pocket on the Hugvie, which then uses a microcontroller and small vibrating motors to match the characteristics of the caller’s voice, supposedly making your communication experience richer when talking on the phone with loved ones. Ishiguro explains that the motors produce a throbbing sound like a heartbeat, which can get faster and stronger, depending on the mood of the conversation. The Hugvie will be sold by Japanese robotics company Vstone for about US $60.

And finally, two words for you: Alien. Prequel. That’s right, Ridley Scott is working on a prequel to his groundbreaking sci-fi horror movie. Well, looks like it’s not exactly a prequel, but what it matters is that apparently there will be androids involved (and a stellar cast that includes Noomi Rapace). In the movie, called Prometheus, a team of scientists is journeying through the universe on a spaceship when—you guessed it!—they become stranded on a foreign alien world. The movie will hit theaters in June, and several trailers have recently been released, including this faux-ad featuring a humanlike robot named David manufactured by one “Weyland Industries.” The visuals are striking, and the text brilliant.

Image: http://precyclebin.files.wordpress.com/

 Have you heard of the “trash island” that lives in the Pacific Ocean?  Well, it is made up of mostly plastic that has been trapped in the currents of the oceans and is estimated to be between 270,000 to more than 5,800,000 square miles.    Back in the 1950’s, when present day plastic was just discovered, it was supposed to be our environmental savior, replacing ivory and wood.  But the low-cost and availability created a monster, rather than a savior.  Nurdles, from which all plastics are made of and which make up most of the trash island, are tiny pre-plastic pellets that kill large numbers of fish and birds that mistake them for food.¹  These nurdles are everywhere, moving up the food chain until they reach us.

Image: http://destination3.com

The sources of that trash, which make up the island, are considered diverse.  Yet according to the EPA, US is the biggest waste producer in the world, followed by other leading industrial nations, accumulating at least 236 million tons per year of municipal solid waste alone.²  So what does this mean for us and our country?  Waste production is a sign of prosperity and waste generation decreases considerably during economic downturns.³  In India, for example, waste pickers in slums collect trash for recycling use, reducing the average waste generation to 1.3 pounds per person per day, compared to 4.6 pounds in US.⁴  Looking at prosperity through trash, makes recessions look a lot nicer.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eb78

But not all is in dire straits… Some landfills, including Puente Hills near Los Angeles, manufacture energy from the methane gas that is produced during trash’s decomposition process.  Puente Hills landfill is 500 feet tall and is a high point in the south end of Los Angeles.  (This reminds me of the movie “Idiocracy” which is not so far-fetched as it once seemed.)  “There is so much trash in this landfill that it generates enough electricity to power 70,000 homes,” says Edward Humes, the author of “Garbology:  Our dirty love affair with trash”.  Humes says capturing the methane gas to make energy is better than allowing it to escape into the atmosphere, but that doesn’t mean it is the most efficient way to make energy.⁵  Manufacturing those landfill products uses more energy, than the landfill generates.

Image: http://matthewbrunwasser.com/

China is taking advantage of the US production of paper waste.  They buy the paper waste, shipping it immense distances with enormous environmental impact, manufacture new products, and ship it back into US.⁶  It might be more economical in monetary terms, but environmentally, it is rather disappointing.

Image: http://www.recyclechina.com

The story of Harrisburg, PA is also worth noting.  If you haven’t heard,Harrisburg claimed bankruptcy this year and it all has to do with waste management.  In the 1970’s, an incinerator was built in Harrisburg as the region’s answer to its waste.  It was supposed to convert trash to steam and electricity, which the city would sell, generating revenue.  But since the beginning, it never worked quite right.  The city kept taking out loans to repair the incinerator, hoping that it will finally work properly and create wealth for the city.  After 40 years, Harrisburg is sitting on $300 million of debt and its residents pay $200 a ton to dispose of their own waste at a facility within city limits, one of the highest trash rates in the country.  At that rate, it would be more prudent to start composting and recycling.

Image: http://www.pennlive.com

So where do we go from here and what does the future hold for us?  The answer lies in a person’s view of the future and their comprehension of how significant the environmental issues are in forming that future.  Any form of conservation is considerable and it can begin with recycling.

Image: http://www.ema-online.org

Tree People <3

Links to great ideas of recycling, reusing, and upcycling:

Where to recycle anything!

Freecycle

Necklaces out of an old t-shirt

Cat bed from a monitor

Make a water jug

Planter from lamp

And more…

But a partnership between Method, the “green” laundry product company, and recycler Envision Plastics Industries LLC. has done what no company’s done before. Pellets made partly from ocean plastic debris rolled off Envision’s Chino, California’s plant assembly line on March 1st.

The result of eighteen months of cooperation between the two companies, these black pellets were then packed into 1,200-pound boxes. The next step will be for them to be molded into a Method-designed container that will hit a major grocery chain this fall.

Known as "Plastic Beach", Hawaii's Kamilo Beach is constantly inundated with plastic trash from the ocean

Currently, San Francisco-based Method’s packages are made from 100 percent recycled materials.

Adam Lowry, Method’s co-founder and CEO said the new package will be for one of their existing products – in an “iconic” shape. Method-brand products include household and personal-care items. The new container will be made by a major plastics packaging blow molder.

To gather the ocean plastic, Method employees – working with school groups and beach-cleaning groups – collected the material for the initial production run from three very large beach cleanups in a little over a year.Although the company isn’t sure how much plastic material it recycled from Kahuku Beach, Hawaii, n one sweep, “We collected 3,700 pounds of plastics in two hours,” said Rudi Becker, Method’s packaging director and chief resonator, who helped collect the plastic litter with several dozen school-age children on that trip.

Method will use the black pellets made partially from ocean debris to create a new "iconic" package

“There is a tremendous amount of little fragments of plastics on the top layer of the ocean in the gyre and it is an amount of litter that is literally impossible to clean up,” Lowry said.

“We need to educate people to recycle plastic packaging and products as opposed to throwing them away” said Parham Yedidsion, a co-owner of Envision Plastics.

Lowry said the pellets are the first phase of the 12-year-old company´s plan to raise awareness of the plastic pollution problem.

There’s tremendous work ahead to really be able to make a dent in the amount of plastic in our oceans. Yet the opportunity to turn an environmental disaster into something useful is there. With more companies diving into upcycling these days, who know! Perhaps we’ll see ocean plastic turned into things like garage doors and gardening equipment. It could happen.

In an airsoft pistol, compressed carbon dioxide inside a piston is used to fire the plastic pellet. The piston is compressed utilizing a spring, whose elastic potential power is used, on pulling the trigger. In some superior models an electrical motor linked to an electrical gear box is used to compress the spring. The electric motor is driven by a chargeable battery inside the pistol.There are also some hybrid models obtainable available in the market, which are loaded with magazines of these plastic pellets.

This has enormously reduced the period of time consumed in loading single pellets earlier than each spherical of fire. To know more about Airsoft Pistols visit Affliction T-Shirts. The firing range of the pistol, pellet’s velocity and the pellet’s potential to penetrate the target could be simply increased by the producer by growing the spring’s rigidity or may be changing it with a high rigidity spring.

Personally, I love my Rage.
It has lots of bounce, while still giving plenty of control. These factors make it easy to get lots of tricks in there; however, I find that stalling is pretty hard to accomplish with this hacky sack.
As for durability, the Rage is amazing. I have kicked it around for a year now, and it is in very good condition. Breaking it in took about, oh I don’t know…I want to say it was about a month? A little less than that? Anyways, it did not take long at all to break it in.

Specifics:

• Three color combinations to choose from (Red/Black, Blue/Black, Solid Black)!
• Material: Leather
• Panels: 14
• Filling: Plastic Pellets
• Fill Level: Medium-Full
• Diameter: 2 inches

I made another Green Baby, and in time, the children added to their Baby-stashes with Yellow Baby, Red- , Purple-, Blue and Pink-Baby. These little dolls all have different “powers” (you really do have to be a young boy to get the powers thing) and are brought everywhere- on holidays, to friends houses and in the car.

They are floppy little dolls, filled with wool and beads, and can be posed in lots of different ways. We have many days where beds, clothes and accessories are made for these little ones, and they are an integral part of most of their games.

Last night when I went to look in on our little ones, thinking they should be asleep hours by now, I found a little small face peering up at me, a long way from sleep, his mind overactive in the dark. He began telling me about the beds he had made for his Green and Yellow Babies and how he would love a white “Snow” baby, and all the powers that baby would have. 

So, when a friend of mine had to cancel a visit today due to the weather, I decided to make Snow Baby for our little chap. (I had said that I would make one for Christmas, but as Liam said “a day in the life of a child is a very long time” !!) As soon as I started several more “orders” came in (for and Orange and a “Pinky” Baby) and so I set to work. I have documented the Snow Baby here in tutorial, it took me about an hour in all to make (and I am not the most proficient sew-er), they are so easy and simple to make- and eminently adjustable-: the head could be a simpler one, or the stuffing could be whatever you have, including fabric rags. I make things in a very organic way, using whatever I have on hand, so I would encourage you to do the same.

(I have included notes on making in italics throughout)

 This tutorial is picture-heavy- in some cases I won’t write the descriptions if the picture explains it better than my long-winded explanations (I, like my friend Sophie, and well described by her husband: am “a fan of the long sentence”!)

Materials:

Wool fibre (used for felting, also known as “batting”)

Tubular stockinette approx 4″ (for encasing the wool head before the doll-skin fabric)

doll tone knit approx 5″ x 6″ (you could also use white t-shirt fabric dyed a skintone colour with tea)

Jersey, velour, fleece fabric (something with a little stretch) for body (I used an old white baby-gro that has been stained around the neck, an old orange fleece top for Orange Baby, and a polka dot fleece babygro for “Pinky” baby)

Sissors, needle and thread

How to:

Before we start, let me explain the proportions of most traditional Waldorf dolls: the head is one quarter, i.e. 25% of the size of the entire body. This doll is 8 inches long, I am basing the dimensions on Purple Baby here. So hence, the head is a 2″ ball (explained further in a bit) 

So. We have to draw a pattern for our baby- (email me if you would like me to send you a PDF pattern, but it is easy to draw out)

I roughly drew out the shape, and when I was happy with it, folded over an A4 sheet, drew it on the fold so that when I cut it out, both sides would be the same:

Once you have your proportions correct, you start with the head. (I am going to post a second pictorial tutorial after this one for the head in detail) But, firstly, sew a running stitch through the top of the stockinette: (the stockinette should be approx 4″ for this head)

The gist of head making: You tightly wind the wool into a ball (I have to admit to cheating, and took out my felting needles and used them to create a tight wound ball) You are aiming for 2″ all around.Leave some wool coming down to form the neck, and this is important for attaching the head to the body later on. 

When you are happy it is as tight as you can wind it, pull the stockinette down over it

(Ideally, the stockinette should be longer, but this was a piece I had)

Tie a piece of thread tightly around the base of the head (double or treble the thread to make it stronger)

Wrap a strong piece of thread half way down the head too, pulling tight to indent into the head:

Wrap the head in the skin tone knit, pinning it to hold it in place, then sew neatly up the back, and on the top, folding in the fabric as you go:

Lay your pattern on the reverse of your fabric, and draw around it:

Carefully sew ao the pattern lines, leaving the hand and neck open.

Sew 2 “U” shapedhands from skin tone knit, and cut out:

Stuff the hands quite tightly with wool, and then fit them into the arm holes:

Sew neatly and securely around the wrist to attach the hand:

I stuff the feet with wool, and then you decide on your body stuffing:

I chose these little plastic pellets to fill this baby:

A word of warning though: If this is for a small child, make a second cotton body for fitting inside, fill with the pellets and securely sew it shut just in case the outer rips or gets chewed open! (Some doll patterns would say to fill with millet or something like that, but for us, I think in our damp Irish climate it would be growing within a week!)

Once the baby is filled; enough to be floppy but enough to feel relatively full (I reckon approximately 50% filled), fit the head into the neck sace and sew around the neck:

from the front:

From the back:

To make the hat, I wrapped the towelling fabric (I used a towelling fabric washcloth) around the head, securing it with a pin:

This could be handsewn, but I whizzed it up on the machine:

Sew it securely on:

Paint on the sweet little face, adding two rosy cheeks with a dab of blusher.

In the Waldorf tradition this is kept very simple with not much expression in order to allow the child to imaginately decide on the emotion:

And here is Snow baby – in the snow!!

 Email me if you would like some:  enquiries@rarebird.ltd.uk   (NB the P&P free bit applies to the UK only I am afraid.  I am happy to send some to you wherever you are in the world outside the UK, but I will have to charge something for P&P, the exact amount depends on where you live and what the Post Office charges me)

A typical 7″ stick of Friendly Plastic weighs just over 1/4 oz and costs around £1.70.  You get 4 times the weight of plastic for £2.50 – not bad at all. 

You can colour your Pellets with Alcohol Inks, or Polished Pigments or Pearlex Powders, permanent ink pens and pads, metal flakes and foils and all sorts of other things.

These images have all appeared before on this blog, but I thought you might like to be reminded of what FP Pellets can do.

Softening and melting the Pellets can be done with hot water, a dry griddle or a heat gun (if you use the latter then make sure they are on a metal tray or something that stops them rolling all over the place with the blast of hot air.

The mould for this oriental piece was made using silicone moulding putty.

You could push it in to bezels (Amate jewellery bezels are great for this), or you could push it in to moulds (see below)

Not only is it wonderful for decorative purposes, but it is also useful for practical things as it can make quick (and recyclable) tools and handles for things (see Jen Lowe’s video)

I hope I have whetted your appetite.  If you like the pellets then I can offer them to you in 40z packets and can also get 28oz jars as well.  If you go for the 28oz jars  at £40, then I know you are hooked!

Wood Wool Excelsior This strawlike substance was used for many years in the first Teddy Bears.  It gave the bear a rigid feel and actually resisted dirt, but it was not washable. Today wood wool. which is actually made from wood slivers, is still sometimes used to stuff the muzzles of Teddy Bears.

Cotton Gin Waste During wartime, Teddy Bears often used an economical stuffing called ‘sub’, which was the waste from cotton mills. The general makeup of cotton gin waste was sticks, leaves, soil particles, and cotton lint.  Silk stockings with runners or tears were also frequently cut up and used inside the Teddy Bear.

Kapok After WWI, soft fiber extracted from seed pods of the kapok tree became a popular alternative to use as stuffing for Teddy Bears. The pods of the kapok have seeds which are surrounded by a fluffy, yellowish soft fiber.  While rather expensive, it gave a soft feeling similar to down, which encouraged bear hugs.

Shredded Plastic Foam This stuffing was not long lasting in use as it did not prove washable and when wet broke down into a sticky powder. There is a shredded soft memory foam that has elastic qualities which make for an interesting stuffing for Teddy Bears.

Plastic Pellets Today that shredded plastic has been turned into plastic pellets that give Teddy Bear Gifts a softer, floppier feel.  They are sometimes mixed with polyester fiber fill to give the bear more additional weight so it can sit up more easily.

Polyester Fiber Fill This is the most common filling today. Premium fiberfill has a soft feeling, which makes it perfect for Teddy Bears for infants and small children.  Sometimes cotton batting that is used in quilts has been successfully used for Teddy Bear stuffing.

Many methods of stuffing Teddy Bear Gifts have been tried throughout the years of the Teddy Bear’s existence.  Next time your Teddy gets a little tear, check out What’s Inside!

Visit Teddy Bear Bubbles of Joy for lots of great Teddy Bears and Stuffed Animals that you can hug.

 At the edge of the abyss

By Juan Chamero, from Caece University at Buenos Aires, Argentine, May 16th 2009

 Subject: Youth Formation, Crime, Terrorism

Source Info: Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More, By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, NYT Published: May 13, 2009

Source: NYT: Explorers ready to enter a building taken by terrorists, in an exercise.

IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked “the discipline of the program,” which was something he said his life was lacking. “I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed,” he said.

Cathy Noriego, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.

“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

If there are critics of the content or purpose of the law enforcement training, they have not made themselves known to the Explorers’ national organization in Irving, Tex., or to the volunteers here on the ground, national officials and local leaders said. That said, the Explorers have faced problems over the years. There have been numerous cases over the last three decades in which police officers supervising Explorers have been charged, in civil and criminal cases, with sexually abusing them.

Several years ago, two University of Nebraska criminal justice professors published a study that found at least a dozen cases of sexual abuse involving police officers over the last decade. Adult Explorer leaders are now required to take an online training program on sexual misconduct.

Many law enforcement officials, particularly those who work for the rapidly growing Border Patrol, part of the Homeland Security Department, have helped shape the program’s focus and see it as preparing the Explorers as potential employees. The Explorer posts are attached to various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police and fire departments, that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops.

“Our end goal is to create more agents,” said April McKee, a senior Border Patrol agent and mentor at the session here.

Membership in the Explorers has been overseen since 1998 by an affiliate of the Boy Scouts called Learning for Life, which offers 12 career-related programs, including those focused on aviation, medicine and the sciences.

But the more than 2,000 law enforcement posts across the country are the Explorers’ most popular, accounting for 35,000 of the group’s 145,000 members, said John Anthony, national director of Learning for Life. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many posts have taken on an emphasis of fighting terrorism and other less conventional threats.

“Before it was more about the basics,” said Johnny Longoria, a Border Patrol agent here. “But now our emphasis is on terrorism, illegal entry, drugs and human smuggling.”

The law enforcement posts are restricted to those ages 14 to 21 who have a C average, but there seems to be some wiggle room. “I will take them at 13 and a half,” Deputy Lowenthal said. “I would rather take a kid than possibly lose a kid.”

The law enforcement programs are highly decentralized, and each post is run in a way that reflects the culture of its sponsoring agency and region. Most have weekly meetings in which the children work on their law-enforcement techniques in preparing for competitions. Weekends are often spent on service projects.

Just as there are soccer moms, there are Explorers dads, who attend the competitions, man the hamburger grill and donate their land for the simulated marijuana field raids. In their training, the would-be law-enforcement officers do not mess around, as revealed at a recent competition on the state fairgrounds here, where a Ferris wheel sat next to the police cars set up for a felony investigation.

Their hearts pounding, Explorers moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, “Separate your feet!” as she moved to handcuff her suspect.

In a competition in Arizona that he did not oversee, Deputy Lowenthal said, one role-player wore traditional Arab dress. “If we’re looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like,” he said, “then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don’t know, would you call that politically incorrect?”

Authenticity seems to be the goal. Imperial County, in Southern California, is the poorest in the state, and the local economy revolves largely around the criminal justice system. In addition to the sheriff and local police departments, there are two state prisons and a large Border Patrol and immigration enforcement presence.

“My uncle was a sheriff’s deputy,” said Alexandra Sanchez, 17, who joined the Explorers when she was 13. Alexandra’s police uniform was baggy on her lithe frame, her airsoft gun slung carefully to the side. She wants to be a coroner.

“I like the idea of having law enforcement work with medicine,” she said. “This is a great program for me.”

And then she was off to another bus hijacking.

Comment: Here we have a sample showing us that certain scenarios and circumstances may break the barrier that keeps us off humanity.  Did you remember the Karate Kid Series?. Two human fighting archetypes were put face to face: the “normal boy” versus the “fascist” super boy and as expected the first won.

Who write these lines is a martial arts expert, a Zen master and a Human Excellence trainer. I have trained many people to excel since soldiers and athletes to executives and people with terminal diseases. In any circumstances we should behave as humans having in mind that the worst enemy is our ego. The human history tells us that concerning extreme situations “saints” always behave as best fighters than wicked and show off people.  I am also admirer of the Scout movement that always from its beginning and along times, and all over the world differentiate deeply from “Hitler youths” and the fascist Mussolini’s “Balilla”, in its principles and even in its compassionate spirit.

The World Crisis may drive us to face ruptures of this kind at exponentially mode. As long as ruptures induce us to imagine new ways of living and survival they could be considered evolutionary positive but negative if they ignite our most primitive instincts.

And lastly concerning Robert Baden Powell, the Boy Scout Movement creator, was a pioneer of the World Peace as a masculine version of the Mother Therese of Calcuta

Its Last Message to Scouts:

Dear Scouts,

If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of good-bye.

Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.

I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. “Be Prepared” in this way, to live happy and to die happy– stick to your Scout promise always– even after you have ceased to be a boy– and God help you to do it.

Your Friend
Baden-Powell

Categories: people, youth, crime prevention, immigration,

Tags: Robert Baden Powell, mother Therese of Calcutta, youth, youth training, crime prevention, scouts training, terrorist fighting, terrorism fighting, Jennifer Steinhauer, Imperial County, Mexican border, Boy Scouts of America, explorers program, illegal immigration, border violence, true blooded, A J Lowenthal, marijuana fields, active shooters, border patrol, airsoft guns, plastic pellets, sexual misconduct, homeland security, homeland security department, April McKeee, learning for life, rescuing hostages, middle eastern terrorist, bus hijacking, karate kid, normal boy, fascist super boy, Zen master, human excellence, Hitler youths, Mussolini’s Balilla, Balilla, primitive instincts, Peter Pan, Last message to scouts