Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images on www.picapp.com

Neben Wunschzettelmanagement und Geschenkebesorgungsliste fällt mir ein, dass ich eigentlich Adventkalender besorgen sollte. Für meine kids habe ich das schon erledigt, für meinen Freundeskreis suche ich eine orts-unabhängige und individuelle Lösung. Ich bin fündig geworden:  

Die Anbieter

Ich bin sehr beeindruckt, wie viele online Adventkalender alleine im deutschsprachigen Raum verfügbar sind. Da gibt es Listen auf parents.at und und auch eine sehr feine Liste auf linker.ch. Leider ist das aber nicht, was ich suche. Unter online Adventkalender findet man oft Produktwerbungen oder Gutscheinsammlungen von Produzenten oder Händlern, wie zB Schlecker, Interspar, Merkur, aber auch Palmers. Es gibt auch einige mehr altbackene Versionen mit Sprüchen, Advent-Bildern.

Aber ich Suche die individuelle online Adventkalender Variante, wo ich eigene Fotos, Videos, Text, Geschenke hinterlegen kann. Hier kommen die 3 Anbieter, die auf dieser Schiene fahren:

1. Gratis aber sehr einfach: Advientos. Hier kannst Du Fotos, Videos, Text in unterschiedlichem Lay-out hinter den Türchen verstecken. Die Türchen lassen sich erst anklicken, wenn das Datum wirklich das heutige ist. Wenn Du angemeldet bist, kannst Du individuell den Adventkalender gestalten und den link an den Freund verschicken, den Du damit glücklich machen willst.
2. Eine etwas bessere, aber kostenpflichtige Variante ist Advent2null. Leider gibt es hier nur die Möglichkeit, Fotos zu hinterlegen, aber dafür ist das Design ganz ansprechend. Kostenpunkt: 5 EUR.
3. One224 ist dann allerdings der Anbieter, der mir am besten gefällt. Warum? Professioneller Auftritt. Hinter jedes Türchen kann man Fotos, Videos, Text, einen persönlichen Gutschein, ein Geschenk aus einem online Shop, was auch immer stellen. Und noch eines: Du kannst gemeinsam im Freundeskreis einen Adventkalender für eine Person befüllen. Was für eine feine Sache! Kostenpunkt? 4.99 EUR.

Und dann noch die kreativen Ansätze für den Adventkalender: Du kannst eine Schnitzeljagd veranstalten (die Lösung gibt es dann am 24. Dezember) oder hinter jedem Türchen für etwas Spenden. Alles besser als Kalorien sammeln, und noch dazu örtlich unabhängig.

Wenn Dir dieser Post gefallen hat, dann benutze doch auch meinen RSS Feed am Ende der Seite.

Each day, CheckFacebook tracks data reported from Facebook to visualise reach, growth; http://j.mp/8pA2Lg (via @mooose)

Mitschrift des Seminars.

Orga krams. Teilnehmer feststellung.

Womit kann man ein PLE beleben?

PLE besteht nicht nur aus digitalen Inhalten. Aber die digitalen die es gibt können verbunden werden. Verschiedene tools die verwendet werden können. z.B. http://remoteworker.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/prism.jpg

Blogs sind nützlich um vieles zusammenkommen zu lassen. Praktisch um darin zu lesen und selbst zu schreiben, sie sind sehr persönlich. Es können persönliche einblicke über den Bloger erkannt werden, wenn Blogs regelmäßig gelesen wird.

RSS: ist praktisch um auf dem laufenden zu bleiben, ohne die jeweiligen Seiten immer aufzurufen.

Social Bookmarking: z.B. delicious oder mister wong. Es geht darum Lesezeichen zu verwalten. Es können aber auch internetseiten auf das dashboard gezogen werden, sich gemailt werden, auf ein Blatt Papier geschrieben werden und es gibt noch viele möglichkeiten. Aber mit tools wie eben delicious können diese Lesezeichen auch verwaltet werden und mit Anderen geteilt werden.

Exkurs: altes wiederfinden auf  archive.org findet alte webseiten die sich mitlerweile geändert haben.

Twitter: gibt es einen Bildungsnutzen? Ist mit allem zugänglich, messenger, sms, email, twitter, etc. Ist praktisch um andere Meinungen zu kriegen. Feedback von verschieden Leuten über bestimmte Fragen. “virtuelles Großraumbüro”?! Ideen finden und weitergeben, ausbauen, reifen lassen usw. Einblicke in verschiedene Bereiche. Gibt auch Erweiterungen zB Vernetzung googlemaps und twitter oder twitterwallr

flickr: ist das Selbe wie delicious nur für Fotos und Grafiken. Bilder werden von flikr in verschiedenen Größen angeboten, können auch noch bearbeitet werden usw.

citeulike: für Literaturdaten, wie bei delicious für Lesezeichen.

slideshare.net: ist quasi youtube für Präsentationen.

Die heutige Empfehlung kommt aus dem Themenbereich Internet/ Kommunikation/ Computer – WWW: Portale/ Linklisten: webmaster-eye.de – So beschreiben die Seitenbetreiber Ihr Angebot: “Suchen Sie HTML Beispiele? Wie kann ich meine Webseite perfekt mit Design & Grafik in Szene setzen? Wie erreiche ich viele Besucher mit meiner Präsentation? Wie erhalte ich Stammkunden? Diese und weitere kostenlosen Tipps erhaltet man bei Webmaster-Eye.de .”

Und das sagen andere über dieses Webangebot: “viele gute tutorials!” (am 23.09.2008), “Eine sehr Inforformative und Interessante Seite für jeden Webmaster!” (am 19.07.2008).

Weitere Details über diese Website auf dem bunte-suche.de Webportal, ähnliche Webangebote finden Sie in dem bunte-suche.de Themenkatalog Internet/ Kommunikation/ Computer – WWW: Portale/ Linklisten.

I ran into some problems setting up the Enviroment Variables on a Mac.

In my local bash profile file .bash_profile I wrote

##devkitPRO for NDS

export DEVKITPRO="/Users/a128/devkitPRO"

export DEVKITARM=${DEVKITPRO}/devkitARM

export PATH=$PATH:"/Users/a128/devkitPRO/devkitARM/bin"

which works fine.

Before I used the home  shortcut “~” for “/Users/a128/” which does not worked during a make process

In de opleidingskunde bestaan grofweg twee stromingen. De harde, ‘Amerikaanse’ stijl , die de performancegerichte benadering genoemd wordt. Er is een gat tussen wat medewerkers kunnen en wat ze zouden moeten kunnen. En het verschil los je op door middel van training. Typisch taalgebruik: kosten baten analyse, return on investement, trainingseffectiviteit.

Daarnaast de zachte, ‘geitenwollensokken’ stijl, die de constructivistische benadering genoemd wordt. De wereld verandert zo snel, dat je niet weet wat het gat is tussen huidige competenties en gewenste competenties. Dus moet je mensen in staat stellen hun ontwikkeling persoonlijk vorm te geven. Zo zorgen ze zelf dat ze klaar zijn voor de toekomst. Typisch taalgebruik: faciliteren van het leren, leerklimaat en leerblokkades.

Het competentieprofiel wordt door deze stromingen anders gebruikt. De harde stijl stelt op waar een medewerker goed in moet zijn (profiel). Test de medewerker, stelt een opleidingsnoodzaak vast en stemt de opleiding daar op af. De zachte stijl stelt het profiel samen met medewerkers op en gebruikt het om te duiden wat nodig is om goed te zijn in een vak. En laat medewerkers dan persoonlijke keuzes maken voor ontwikkeling.

Hoe gaan jij en je leidinggevenden om met jouw ontwikkeling? Of jij met die van jouw medewerkers? Waar ligt je voorkeur? Het ligt vast in het midden. Maar als je nu eens moest kiezen?

• Scientific Calculator

• AIDLT ~ A new voice in ICT Education Site of Australian Institute of Digital Learning and Teaching

• Google Image Swirl A new way to search through Google Images, with a nice interface that let’s you look at images grouped by similarities

• 4Teachers : Educator’s Resources Resources from 4Teachers. Can be used to assist in developing lessons, web pages and calendars to share

• 15 Things All Classrooms Should Have PK-12 – The Educators’ Royal Treatment Tries to come up with a list of everything a classroom should have.

• 25 Great Sources of Blog Ideas & Inspiration | Site Sketch 101 25 good sources of Blog ideas & inspiration

• Parent Advice – Tech Talk: Beyond Internet Safety – Common Sense Media Parent advice and tips on Tech Talk: Beyond Internet Safety Common Sense Media seeks to help parents choose what’s best for their kids

• Stock Photography – Search 5.8 Million Stock Photos, Stock Footage Video Clips, Royalty Free Images, and Illustrations The Fotos earch image search engine saves you time by allowing you to search over 5.5 million images from over 100 stock photography, stock illustration, and video stock footage publishers at one website. Make sure the royalty Free box is checked when doing a search

• e-Learning: What’s Hot and What’s Not? « Performance X Design Overview of current trends in e-learning. According to this post, what’s hot is social media, informal learning, simulations & scenario-based learning, virtual worlds, rapid learning, mobile learning, open source, and performance support.

• Learntrends 2009 Sessions Live Blogging « Online Sapiens Collected links to live blogging posts from LearnTrends Good to have all of them together in one place

• Mr. Higgins’ Blog » Blog Archive » ClustrMaps as Student Motivation A good description from a teacher describing how his students are motivated by the ClustrMap on his class website, including how it inspires them to look up places on Google Earth.

• Blogs Give Students an Audience | Edutopia Interview with an 8th grade teacher about how having an audience for their blog has motivated her students

• Steve Stander :: Blog :: Blogging & Motivation: Psychology of Language Learning Looking at blogging as a way to motivate students to write through the lens of Determination Theory (Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness), examining how to generate and maintain motivation. Also discusses an inquiry-based learning approach with blogging.

• Great Opening Sentences From Science Fiction – Books – io9 A list of interesting opening sentences from sci-fi books 

• Ninjawords – a really fast dictionary Great tool for students to define vocabulary or spelling words or to study multiple meanings of a word. Uses Wiktionary database for definitions instead of the WordNet database. Also has an iPhone app. Case sensitive when looking up words.

• Things That Keep Us Up at Night – 10/1/2009 – School Library Journal Thought-provoking article on current technology & trends and their impact on libraries & information literacy.

• A Way to Teach | The Text is a Terrible Thing to Waste 

• Angela Maiers Educational Services: Great Readers Have Strategies

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I have numerous friends that have recently learned the sex of their little babies, and oddly enough most of them are having baby boys. It’s the opposite of what I’m use to but it’s not a bad change, just different.

Here is a baby shower invite that I came up with tonight. What do you think?

I saw a card similar to this and had to try my hand at it. I think it turned out fairly well and absolutely love the style of it. I will be trying out a few different cards like this soon

To the left you can see what the invitation looks like when you pull it up and out of the card. I’m not thrilled with the star stamps on the invitation itself and will continue to play around with the design a little more.

On the right you can see a up-close shot of the bear from the set Teddy & Trains. I watercolored it with Water Color Pencils. Personally, I prefer watercoloring with the ink pad and blender pen itself but tonight I decided to use this technique.

For the stitching I used our white uni-ball gel pen and did “faking stitching” meaning that I didn’t obviously use my sewing machine but drew them on by hand to give it the look of actual stitches. Now whether or not they actually look like the real thing is up to all of you!

The photo above shows what the invitation looks only half way out of the holder so you can get a idea how I’ve made this card. If you would instructions please feel free to ask

Once again everyone have a wonderful night.

]]> http://fitconundrum.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/tirerific-ll/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:36:32 +0000 Otto http://fitconundrum.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/tirerific-ll/

This is the beginning of a new tool I’ll be using to train. I’m getting some climbing webbing and will use it to pull a fully loaded tire. Sand and other objects to make it heavy. This will work my arms, lower back, shoulders, legs and my cardiovascular system for sure!

Otto on the move.

What is the big deal? I think there is plenty to be excited about.

Cloud Computing
I have a work computer, personal computer, and a cell phone. Trying to keep these synchronized is a difficult, so I stopped trying and now use web applications as much as possible. Web 2.0 continues to provide more and more applications online. This will help the consumer more and more as they find applications without the need to keep them updated and maintained on their computer.  For Documents and Spreadsheets I now use Google Docs which allows me to store as much as I want and access it on any computer.

Do you need to store music on your computer? Wouldn’t it be better to store it on a server you could access anywhere? There is still a lot to be done in this area, but over the next couple of years we will see a continual shift to cloud computing. Cloud computing essentially outsource security, storage backup, and so much more. The average computer user does not do these well and this would allow them to stay ignorant, but have the benefits of doing these well.

Complexity
How many people truly understand the complexity of Windows? How many Windows users understand what a Kernal is? There is too much complexity and for most of it is not necessary. for consumers it makes sense to simplify the operating system.

This simplicity also allows for the computer to boot in 4 seconds, according to Google.

Consumers
Most consumers do not need the complexity of a Windows Operating System. More and more people will move to the simplicity of using “the browser as the operating system”. Thither is may be especially true if you set up the computer to allow it to boot in either Windows or Chrome. Consumers would likely find themselves more and more starting Chrome. The simplicity of the Chromium OS offers with the familiar interface of a browser.

Enterprise Versions
Companies might also find cost benefits- cheaper computers, more efficient storage, and simplicity for computer users. A call center that uses just one web application could buy cheaper computers. They potentially are easier to maintain, the only software is the operating system itself.

What will this mean for Microsoft?
Nothing is going to change over night. However, Microsoft is losing the operating systems battle outside of computers. Think cell phones, iPods, servers, and other devices that have embedded software. Microsoft is secure in its dominance of computers, unless we change the way we use them. This is exactly what the Chromium OS does. Even if it takes only 5% of the computer market, that will be a problem. Will it compete with Apple? Not likely a computer with Chromium OS will likely be with netbooks and other less expensive computers. Of course, one should also remember that Chromium OS is not there yet and should probably only be used through Virtual Box or VMware. It is likely not ready to install on a computer.

CITATION PUNCTUATION

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be talking about some specific punctuation rules for research papers. Last week, we talked about how to use punctuation with quotation marks. This week, we’ll talk about how to use punctuation when citing sources within your paper.

In-text citations is the official name for what happens when you cite sources within your papers. In-text citations are the references you use after a quotation or paraphrase from your research. In MLA citations (for English and other humanities classes), you’ll include the author’s surname and the page number in parentheses, like this (Obama 46). Here’s what an in-text citation would look like after a direct quotation and after a paraphrase:

Direct Quote: “I don’t waste time thinking about things more than once” (Allen 22).

Paraphrase (when you put it in your own words): It’s not efficient to think about things repeatedly (Allen 22).

We’ll talk more about how to quote and paraphrase in future posts, but for now, I want you to look at the punctuation. Notice how, in both the quotation and the paraphrase, the period at the end of the sentence doesn’t come until after the citation is finished. The idea is that, when you cite a source, the citation is part of the sentence. Also, it looks neater, doesn’t it? Try it next time you’re citing sources for a paper.

TEACHER JOURNAL

I’m sorry I missed my post last Thursday! I owe you all an apology. The truth is that the end of the quarter is just as busy for teachers as it is for you. We’re grading papers, planning classes, getting all the assignments ready to explain to you. I’ve also been working on something for our website, though. I’d like to start offering more tools to help you as students, and I’ve been busy at work, preparing the details for you. I’ll unleash the full plan in my Thanksgiving post on Thursday. In the meantime, thank you for being so patient with me!

If you’re into tools, you’ll love Fine Homebuilding’s Tool Hound section. An insider’s guide to tools and materials for home builders, Tool Hound includes videos, photos, reviews, articles and even a daily blog.

Tool Hound is hosted by Justin Fink, Fine Homebuilding’s Senior Tool Editor.

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I have been away for a couple of weeks, but couldn’t wait to get back to play on my shiny new PlayStation 3.

The main reason I bought it was not for the games but to stream movies from my MacBook and Windows 7 PC to the TV. I had been using an old laptop with its screen removed for this, but it looked pretty ugly and didn’t play nice with the wifi in the house.

So, if you’re looking for a way to do this on your Mac try PS3 Media Server, which is also available for Windows. However, for Windows I prefer TVersity which does so much more than simply stream your own media, it also gives you the ability, for example, to stream podcasts.

Both are free (there’s a pro version of TVersity for ‘premium internet content’).

What do you use for streaming your media?

Microsoft announced at PDC09 that they will support more platforms than just .NET on Windows Azure. Azure now has an interoperability page where they show some of the options.

SDKs’ for

• PHP
• Java
• Ruby

Tools for

• Eclipse
• Java
• Ruby
• PHP

This really broadens the potential customer base. Pair the Eclipse Tools for Windows Azure with the newly acquired TeamPrise offering and Java developers can start developing for Windows Azure today. Welcome into this cloud Javas!

If you’ve grown a brand, built and marketed a website and are now only getting on the social media bandwagon, you might have made a mistake. Your company name, brand, product name (whatever) might have been swallowed up in regards to profile name availability.

I suppose this is both a lesson and a must-have tool overview.

First, The Lesson:

Be proactive instead of reactive. Get all of your online eggs into a basket from the get-go rather than playing the lazy game (not offense) and figuring no one has taken your awesome name already. First of all, jerks do this on purpose. Some do it by accident. All in all, you should be the one ‘owning’ brand mentions online for your own benefit (long and short-term).

Second, The Tool Overview:

Use this tool to check hundreds of social sites within a couple of keystrokes: http://knowem.com/

From the knowem.com About page (hey, knowem.com – don’t yell at me for paraphrasing a bit):

“KnowEm was developed to assist…in discovering where their names, brands, or trademarked terms are available (or stolen) on Social Media networks. KnowEm will not only help you secure your name across the vast social media landscape but we can also show you how to contact each site in order to have the name released and returned to you…”

If you’re in the planning stages of a product or brand, this tool is massive in its value. If you’re already in past the gills of online presence, this will give you:

(a) an idea as to how your brand/product name is being used, and

(b) How to counter those who are using your brand/product name by salvaging some value. Plus, you can always keep things consistent by building in new value to an already used name through consistent use of a profile name (the building of value comes with the other words or phrasing you use along with your brand/product name).

This is one of my projects for key stage 3 Design and Technology using sheet metal.  The design uses the steel sheet in a way to optimise the material and reduce wastage, bringing in issues of sustainability into the design and make.

In this design and make I remember marking out with blue dye and scriber, cutting using the guilatine and tin snips, pillar drill to make the initial holes and then the coping saw. Filing was needed to smooth the cut edges starting with a bastard file, moving onto the 1st cut, then 2nd cut file and finally the finishing file.  As steel tends to rust I finished the product with a primer and a few coats of spray metallic blue paint.

Parent page: Service Functions – XML (QTP, VBScript) 

Note. Although there could be no “reusable function” that would construct XPath for you, I store current post under “XML Service Functions” category, as it’s closely related to it. XPath is fairly simple to learn and very powerful in use. 
You can use free XPath Designer Tool to validate queries you constructed.

What is XPath? The each element in XML tree has its own unique address.
The XPath expressions provide the ability to navigate around the tree, selecting elements (groups of nodes, single nodes, attributes, text values, etc.) by a variety of conditions.

What does it mean? You can address any XML tree element without looping through the tree, i.e. as you use array[index] notation to get an element of the array, for XML you would use XML[XPath].

How basic XPath syntax looks like? You will see that it is very similar to a disk folder/file addressing, as it’s a tree structure too.
For example, filepath “c:\documents\personal\pictures\1.jpg”  in XML-XPath notation would look like “./documents/personal/pictures/picture[1]“.

What are the differences?
If we can address only one file with a single pathstring, in XML we can address a collection of elements with a single pathstring. If in any folder there could be no duplicated filenames, in XML it’s allowed: elements will be referred by index. 
If we can address an element of an array only by index value, in XML we can address elements by index value or by element value. If with arrays all indexing is absolute, in XML it could be relative.

Examples.
Get a collection of book items in a library XML structure. Xpath = “./library/book”.
Get first book in the collection. Xpath = “./library/book[1]“.
Get a collection of book items written by James Bach. Xpath = “descendant::book[author/@firstname='James' and author/@lastname='Bach']“.

Documentation and references.

W3C XML Path Language

W3Schools XPath Introduction

Using XML Queries and Transformations

ESADE is all based on team work as we all know. However ESADE makes sure that the team work is not perfectly smooth and forms teams of 6-8 team members instead of the efficient 3-5. ESADE also ensures that the cultural and professional backgrounds are very diverse to make things even more tricky. This is done on purpose in my opinion but it has been extremely beneficial for our learning experience to be confronted with all those difficulties, different opinions, backgrounds, etc..

Another issue with team work is finding the time to meet and having the right tools to collaborate. Google docs and calendar, Yugma, Skype, Msn, etc. have been extremely useful but how about a tool that allows brainstorming for? I am still looking for the program or application that combines all the common online collaboration tools.

AND Google has done it again!!!

Check out the latest product of Google, called “Google Wave“. It is difficult to describe because it seems a little bit like a revolution on the web. It is an open source email service, wiki, blog, chat, collaboration tool, photosharing, IM, etc. in one! You don’t believe me? Have a look at this stunning piece of tool that is currently still in beta but will have an amazing future, of which I am sure! Check it out here.

I am curious what the feelings will be in 2 weeks when the first euphoria has settled but as of now it looks great! Create your own waves!

An international crackdown on the use of woods from the world’s rain forests to make musical instruments bubbled over to Music City on Tuesday with a federal raid on Gibson Guitar ’s manufacturing plant, but no arrests.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Webb said the search warrant was obtained based on information in a sealed affidavit outlining the investigation.

Agents of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service made a midday appearance and served a search warrant on company officials at Gibson’s Massman Drive manufacturing plant, where it makes acoustic and electric guitars.

Some hardwoods traditionally used in making premium guitars, such as rosewood from the rain forests of Madagascar and Brazil, have been banned from commercial trade because of environmental concerns under a recently revised federal law.

Under the U.S. Lacey Act, trading in such banned woods is a federal offense, punishable by civil and criminal penalties or the seizure of property. Last year, the U.S. Congress amended a turn-of-the-century wildlife protection law (the Lacey Act) to extend its reach to endangered timber species and plants. See the next post Where Were You When Wood Became A Felony?

…for some other project.

Yes, I can finish the story I mentioned on Friday. But it got a little funnier over the weekend.

See, I finally decided on a color scheme for the petals for Kellie’s Joseph’s Coat Quilt-along. I’m going for the colors in Kaffe’s Umber Lotus Leaf fabric. After making some fabric selections, the colors fell flat on the grey above. So, I ordered a darker Kaufman Kona grey — coal, to be exact. My story was going to be about my penchant for dithering when it comes to background fabrics.

Heehee, but before my new fabric arrived, I saw Cathy’s post. The coal color wasn’t working out for her. I laughed. She could have just sent me hers. heehee!

Anyhoo, a Very Important Parcel arrived on Saturday:

I mean to tell you, I LOVE the urgent yellow color of Hancock’s of Paducah’s packaging! I love it! It says Coming through, urgent and important stuff inside!

And, voila:

Much better!

I’ve left this on the dining room table all day. Each time I pass by, I get a smile on my face. Yes, that’s the grey I needed for this project! The lighter grey will definitely be put to good use. In another project.

Speaking of finding the right color… I’m short on all kinds of thread these days. Today was the day to admit that I need more piecing thread. I’ve been avoiding it only because, well, you see, I have several-many wayward Aurifil caps but wasn’t quite sure which belong to my two “go to” colors. I selected the four below based on number of occurrences in the pile. After some investi-guessing, I have concluded that I need a cone of 5011 and a cone of 2605. I think. Well, that’s what’s been ordered so that’s what is right right now.

I’m sure there is a better system for this.

To help promote environmental initiatives, jobs, and overall sustainability, it remains vital to encourage our students and young professionals from all backgrounds through program incentives and rewards. Helping our energy sector curb dependency on foreign oil and fossil fuels will help create and begin the process of establishing a sustainable-based economy, but it is within our students and young professionals that we should be putting equal or greater importance towards.

They are the ones who will bring about the innovation, invention, and implementation of new design needed to help a sustainable economy become a reality. Scholarships, directed student programs, and rewards, are a great way to help our young and future generations get not only the tools they need to implement a sustainable future, but also the motivation. Here are 10 such scholarships.

The following is a excerpt from the Classical Values Blog. It is very interesting and I highly recommend you read the entire article at http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/10/where_were_you_2.html

The 2008 Farm Bill (also known as the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, aka Public Law 110-246).

This amendment [to the Lacey Act] deals with illegal plants — the primary thrust being illegal wood. Henceforth, all wood is to be a federally regulated, suspect substance. Either raw wood, lumber, or anything made of wood, from tables and chairs, to flooring, siding, particle board, to handles on knives, baskets, chopsticks, or even toothpicks has to have a label naming the genus and species of the tree that it came from and the country of origin. Incorrect labeling becomes a federal felony, and the law does not just apply to wood newly entering the country, but any wood that is in interstate commerce within the country. Here are some excerpts from a summary:

The Lacey Act now makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any plant, with some limited exceptions, taken in violation of the laws of a U.S. State, or any foreign law that protects plants. The Lacey Act also makes it unlawful to make or submit any false record, account or label for, or any false identification of, any plant.

The definition of the term “plant” includes “any wild member of the plant kingdom, including roots, seeds, parts, and products thereof, and including trees from either natural or planted forest stands.”

[...]

Anyone who imports into the United States, or exports out of the United States, illegally harvested plants or products made from illegally harvested plants, including timber, as well as anyone who exports, transports, sells, receives, acquires or purchases such products in the United States, may be prosecuted. In any prosecution under the Lacey Act, the burden of proof of a violation rests on the government.

[...]

Violations of Lacey Act provisions for timber and other plant products, as well as fish and wildlife, may be prosecuted through either civil or criminal enforcement actions. Regardless of any prosecution, the tainted plants may be seized and forfeited.

Everyone means everyone, which includes every reader of this blog.

Obviously, this means that in the future, the Fish and Game guys will be able to accompany SWAT Team raiders to check all wood in homes and businesses for possible violations. Even if they’re wrong in their suspicions about the wood, it can still be confiscated. (Might that be a goal? To beef up employment at Fish and Game?)

Just think about the law enforcement possibilities alone. After kicking through and impounding your illegal wooden door, a federalized army of government termites could literally strip all wood paneling and flooring from every raided house as suspicious contraband, and haul away all the furniture, wood carvings, picture frames, tools, musical instruments! I can’t think of a better harassment tool. The list of potentially regulated items is mind-boggling:

the scope of products that will require a declaration under the Lacey Act is broad and includes certain live plants, plant parts, lumber, wood pulp, paper and paperboard, and products containing certain plant material or products, which may include certain furniture, tools, umbrellas, sporting goods, printed matter, musical instruments, products manufactured from plant-based resins, and textiles.

[...]

After September 30, 2009, based on experience with the implementation of the electronic system for declaration data collection, we will phase in enforcement of the declaration requirements for additional chapters containing plants and plant products covered by the Lacey Act, including (but not limited to) Ch. 12 (oil seeds, misc. grain, seed, fruit, plant, etc.), Ch. 13 (gums, lacs, resins, vegetable saps, extracts, etc.), Ch. 14 (vegetable plaiting materials and products not elsewhere specified or included), Ch. 45 (cork and articles of), Ch. 46 (basket ware and wickerwork), Ch. 66 (umbrellas, walking sticks, riding crops), Ch. 82 (tools), Ch. 93 (guns), Ch. 95 (toys, games and sporting equipment), Ch. 96 (brooms, pencils, and buttons), and Ch. 97 (works of art). We will announce a specific phase-in schedule for those chapters in a subsequent Federal Register notice.

Did they mention shipping pallets and cargo braces? Wood is not only in stuff, it’s in the stuff that the stuff comes in! Nearly everything is regulated.

Oh, and you firearm owners out there, let’s not forget gun handles!

Ch. 93 Headings (arms and ammunition).
9302 — Revolvers and pistols.
93051020 –Parts and accessories for revolvers and pistols.
Ch. 94 Headings (furniture, etc.).
940169 — Seats with wood frames.
Ch. 95 Headings (toys, games, & sporting equipment).
950420 — Articles and accessories for billiards.
Ch. 97 Headings (works of art).
9703 — Sculptures.

Glad I don’t own an art gallery, but my picture frames are not labeled, which means there are probably multiple potential felonies in progress in my home. (Perhaps I should be more careful about what I say.)

And while the NRA might not have noticed the impending crackdown on gun handles, at least IKEA is starting to speak up.

Between Wood Control and the Consumer Product Safety Nazis, I pity anyone in the secondhand business, including all Ebay and Craigslist sellers as well as people holding garage or yard sales.

In short, I pity the American people. This is not their fault, though, for no one has any control over what is going on. Not even the despicable fools we call “legislators” who cannot read the “laws” they pass because they are not meant to be read. As to the enforcers, they are only doing their job. They have to earn a living. And we are supposed to respect them, because they lay their lives on the line, “protecting” the public! From felonious wood!

Obviously, the full implications of this dramatic loss of freedom are beyond the capacity of a single post. After all, I am just one blogger, doing this by myself, without the kind of access to data that media organizations and think tanks might have. So, I cannot possibly hope to analyze everything. As things stand, I became exhausted last night just reading through the Lacey Act Amendment stuff pertaining to wood — and that was one mere fraction of an execrable, unreadable monstrosity. I don’t mean to whine, but slogging through such horrors is not exactly my idea of Saturday night fun. But who the hell else is going to do it? Flooring and furniture industry blogs? Who the hell reads them except people in the business? They’re all greedy tree haters and have no credibility. Besides, all big business is the enemy right now. We need to stand up not only against Big Cereal, but now Big Flooring! Big Siding! Big Furniture! (Is there such an industry as Big Chopstick?)

To read the entire article please go to: http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/10/where_were_you_2.html