11:35 – UPS showed up yesterday with about 30 kilograms of chemicals. (Of that, about 8 kilos was four liters of concentrated sulfuric acid.) I now have most of the chemicals I need to make up many more biology, chemistry, and forensics kits.
Speaking of forensics, our production editor just sent us the QC1 PDF of the first half of the book. I’ll be working on that heads-down until I get through it.
And speaking of kits, I got an order yesterday for a biology kit and a chemistry kit from a woman in Calgary, Alberta. I emailed her to say that we can’t ship kits to Canada, and that I’d refunded her money. I also mentioned that Barbara and I were watching Heartland and would love to visit the Calgary area one day. She replied that Barbara and I were welcome to stay with them, and could we bring along the kits. I replied that it’d probably be a few years before we’d have time to make that trip, but I’m pretty sure she was serious about her offer of a place to stay. She was obviously disappointed that we couldn’t get the kits to her.
That got me to thinking. I really hate not being able to ship kits to Canada. I really hate disappointing people, and I’ve lost count of the number of Canadian homeschoolers I’ve had to say no to. It seems so stupid. We can ship Priority Mail (air service) to all 50 states under the 49 CFR 173.4 small-quantity exemption, but that’s unique to the US. If these kits are safe enough to transport that the USPS is willing to put them on planes, it seems to me that we should be able to put them on a truck going over the border into Canada.
So I decided to see what could be done. I’ve spent several hours reading Canadian shipping regulations and talking on the phone to FedEx hazmat experts, and I’m going to do the same with UPS. At this point, it seems there may be a glimmer of hope. Although the USPS says that the ORM-D (Other Regulated Materials – Domestic) exemption is unique to the US, FedEx tells me that they’ll accept ORM-D (Surface only) packages for delivery to Canada. The Section 173.4 small-quantity exemption is a subset of ORM-D. For example, under SQE I can ship up to 30 mL of concentrated hydrochloric acid, while for ORM-D I can ship up to (IIRC) one liter. That being the case, the fact that our kits qualify for the Section 173.4 SQE should mean they automatically qualify under ORM-D. But there are a zillion details to deal with, including the fact that SQE and ORM-D have different packaging requirements. And I’m not sure if packaging that is ORM-D compliant for shipments within the US is also acceptable for shipments into Canada. All told, I suspect I’m looking at several days’ work just to determine authoritatively if this is even do-able. And, even if it is, it’d be ground-only, which means a shipment to Alberta or BC might take a week or 10 days to arrive, versus the typical two or three days via USPS Priority Mail. And, no doubt, it’ll cost more to ship the kits, probably a lot more. There may be surcharges for the hazardous materials. And, of course, there’ll be customs declarations and so on to deal with. But at this point I’m hopeful.
15:11 – The EU has announced its latest imaginary “big bazooka”, €750 billion to buy Spanish and Italian bonds on the secondary market, in an attempt to drive yields down. The problem is, that’s the combined nominal assets of the EFSF and ESM, and those assets are mostly imaginary. So now we have the ridiculous situation of Italy, which is bankrupt, guaranteeing the funds needed to buy Spanish bonds, and Spain, which is bankrupt, guaranteeing the funds needed to buy Italian bonds. Or, I suppose we could look at it as Italy co-signing on loans to Italy and Spain co-signing on loans to Spain. Give me a break. This isn’t going to fool investors. There’s no actual money there. Until Germany agrees to pay not just everyone else’s outstanding bills, but future bills as well, this is going nowhere. Which means it’s going nowhere, because there’s no way Germany is going to agree to sacrifice its own wealth to save the spendthrift rest of the eurozone. This shell game has gone on far too long already. Everyone, including the eurocrats, is perfectly aware that it’s a shell game. They just hope investors don’t notice. That’s the cloud-cuckoo land these people are living in.
Good luck determining the procedures for shipping into Canada! I know a few families who would purchase the kit if it was available to them. If it can happen within the next year, I’ll buy a kit!
It is very frustrating for Canadians to see the choices available south of the 49th, only to be prevented by the difficulties of negotiating the bureaucracies involved. We gladly pay additional freight and duty to be able to access more choices. A fact that is lost on many American online retailers, who refuse to ship to Canada for whatever reason. At least you have (had?) a good reason, given the difficulties shipping chemicals.
I’m only a nine hour drive from Calgary, but you would be welcome here, too!
I bet if you tried to drive across the border with one of the kits you would get the pleasure of an enhanced vehicle search and personal pat down.
I am sure your name is on a “watch list” because to your chemical orders. (WOW, four liters of concentrated sulfuric acid)
Yes, I do believe that Big Brother is alive and well.
Oh, I’m sure kits would sell to Canadians. I get several queries a month from Canadians asking if we really, truly can’t ship to Canada. Given that the order pages say US sales only, I suspect that for every query I get from Canada there are many others who simply didn’t bother.
And thanks for the offer. We may actually take you up on it, although it’ll be a few years.
I’m sure you’re right. I’m probably on the no-fly list as well. Not to mention DEA and other TLA government agencies. And I haven’t done anything wrong, nor do I have any intention of doing so.
The Bob I know wouldn’t cross a border at an actual border crossing. I picture him on an ATV, trailing a sleigh full of chemicals, ho-ho-hoing and accompanied by a pack of Border Collies all toting a weapon crossing the border in the wilds.
Bob, you should go to Calgary, it’s a beautiful place. Some very dark skies not far away, too.
I never said how I was going to cross the border.
Actually, I’m waiting for Amber Marshall to invite us to stay with her. She has a ranch southwest of Calgary, and I’m betting she has some pretty good skies.
If the international red tape turns out to be too complicated, might I suggest that you sell some Canadian the right to make and sell the kits in Canada? I don’t know if there would be enough volume to make it worthwhile, but I just thought I’d throw the idea out there.
I’ve actually thought about that, although by selling kits in bulk to a distributor in Canada and shipping them there truck freight.
The problem with that is that we intentionally priced the kits with very little gross margin to keep them as affordable as possible. That means that a kit that we offer in the US for $160 would have to be priced at probably $275 in Canada to cover hazmat transportation from us to the Canadian distributor and that distributor’s margin. And that’s not even counting the transportation cost from the distributor to Canadian customers.
I’m going to do my best to ship kits directly to Canadian buyers. The price will be the same as for US buyers except that there will be additional costs for shipping and other factors. Still, it’ll be cheaper than using a distributor.
The entire problem could be solved if the USA would just annex Canada. 🙂
Actually, the other way around might be better.
Bob beat me to it, but on the whole we’re in better shape, and quite a number of us are waking up to the realization that social programs run out of money very easily.
The problem with all of the social (redistribution of wealth) programs in the USA is that no one else on this planet has ever tried to run a social program for 300 million people. Canada has Alberta which generates so much hydrocarbon wealth compared to the size of the nation that they can afford to continuously throw dollars at their social programs for 1/10th of the people. If the USA had one more Texas, California and Alaska (each), we could afford to throw dollars also instead of t-bills.
Of course, if the USA started taxing weed and cocaine instead of burning it, we might have enough money to kick the can down the road for 20 years or more.
Isn’t the EU a social program for 500 million?
And it doesn’t matter how big or small the number, you still run out of other people’s money.
Lynn, taxing people for the weed they buy is so obvious it probably will never happen. It’s a win-win for the US gov’t. Not only can they start generating revenue, it ultimately ends up burned!
And you would think that here in Vermont, politically one of the most liberal states in the country, they would at least decriminalize pot, but no, they have state cop choppers roving the river valleys looking for growing plots and they bust people for it. Ridiculous. And as a street cop from long ago and an ex-drunk myself, I know full well that booze and ciggies are far, far more dangerous and cause more harm to people. What a win-win for revenue it would be here, but like everywhere else, apparently, we have cretins and shit-for-brains hacks running the place. What a waste.
As for annexing Canada I still like Joel Garreau’s old idea in “The Nine Nations of North America,” in it, the northern New England states would be united with the Atlantic Provinces and some of our western states with the western Canadian Provinces. The Left Coast would link up to Seattle and Vancouver, and of course Megalopolis would be the same entity. All these like-minded and -cultured regions would be associated in a loose confederation, and while Megalopolis and the Left Coast may wish to model their politics on Das Kapital, Mao’s Little Red Book and Lenin’s “What Is To Be Done?,” maybe our area up here and the western regions would be able to resurrect some form of our original Articles of Confederation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_America
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/articles/cover.html
One Wall Street Seer Says the Greek Tragedy Is Near
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/one-wall-street-seer-says-the-greek-tragedy-is-near/
Never mind taxing weed. The savings in just abandoning the war on drugs (or at least weed) would result in substantial savings. And then there is the expense of incarcerating all these people. Now true enough, quite a few of these characters are going to be total fuckups. That’s why they were into drugs in the first place. But this is properly a local public health problem and should dealt with at a local level.
I’ve always liked the divisions in “The Nine Nations of North America.” Ontario has far more in common with New York State or Michigan or the Atlantic Provinces. Certainly from an economic standpoint. The value of trade that goes over the Ambassador Bridge, dwarfs almost all other trade between Canada and the US, including petroleum. Perhaps Ontario should take over Michigan although it might be like West Germany taking over East Germany.
The problem with the Nine Nations is it tosses the oil resources of Alberta into the Empty Quarter.
BC, Alberta, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Northern California would make a dandy country, though!
Agreed, Rolf. Abandon this stupid and wasteful and hypocritical War On Some Drugs. Also abandon the similarly stupid, etc. wars overseas.
70 here right now but we have been warned: 94 tomorrow and 95 the next day. This is nearly unheard of up here at this time of year. Someone ring up Algore immediately.
Of course, the Empty Quarter isn’t nearly as empty now. Everyone forgets now (especially in the West) that in the 50’s and 60’s Alberta couldn’t even give it’s oil away. The Trans Canada Pipeline created a market for Alberta oil and the pipeline was created by the federal government. Alberta was assured of a market, all of Canada west of the Ottawa Valley. Without that federal decree, development would have been much slower. When the book was written, tar sands extraction was barely economic. A good part of what was the Empty Quarter would now be the “Power Quarter.” And it isn’t just petroleum. Saskatchewan is the world’s leading producer of uranium.
There have been quite a few changes since the book was written. Detroit would no longer be the capital of the Foundry. Now it would be Toronto or perhaps Hamilton.
Rolf wrote:
“Australia is the world’s leading producer of uranium.”
There, fixed that for you.
News Limited is the 800 Pound Gorilla of the Australian print media, and Fairfax is the 500 Pound Gorilla. The latter has just announced that 1900 jobs are going, two large, modern printing presses are being shut down and the two major papers are going tabloid.
According to this report two of the giants of Australian newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (in Melbourne) are worth less than nothing. The regional newspapers are where the value, such as it is, resides.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-20/fairfax-am/4081560
The revenue stream from the classified ads of these papers were once known as “The Rivers of Gold”. That’s gone now, the execs weren’t paying attention when these rivers started drying up 10 years ago.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4078134.html
If there was one campaign promise I more-or-less expected Obama to keep, it was reigning in the war on drugs. Not least because it disproportionally hits blacks, who are surely one of his more important voter blocks.
If anything, the WoD has intensified since he’s been in office. Is there any rational explanation for this? Prison guard unions donating heavily to his campaign, or something?
The Bureaucracy often takes over people with the best of intentions. If Obama took the axe to the WoD he’d have to sack a lot of people who vote Democrat. Doing so is inconsistent with political self preservation.
About 25-30% of my ham radio related electronic kit business is export. Fortunately, I don’t have the hazardous material problem, but the customs form part of the business isn’t too difficult. I ship by mail and use the post office’s on-line customs form generator for packages requiring the “long” version. Small packages (mostly 000 padded envelopes) either ship without a customs form if they have a small kit or with the “short” version customs form that I complete with a pen.
I’ve learned from experience that some countries want an invoice included with the customs form – France for example – once the amount exceeds some small limit.
You also have to be concerned with customs clearance fees some carriers charge the recipient. From what customers tell me, UPS can be particularly bad in this regard, but I can’t confirm that with direct experience. Packages shipped by post seem not to have clearance fees assessed, but I don’t know if that is universal.
Miles, according to Wikipedia, Canada (meaning Saskatchewan) produces 23% and Australia a mere 21%.
Nice try to elevate Australia above it’s rightful place though. You’ve earned one free Walkabout, to be used before the day is out. 😀
Oh well, we’ll just have to invade and conquer Saskatchewan (as well as Alabama.)
“Australia is the world’s leading producer of uranium.”
Not quite. Australia has the largest reserves of uranium but currently Saskatchewan is the largest producer. These numbers can (and do) shift with time but in any event, Saskatchewan can supply all of North America’s need.
Rolf, I grew up in Edmonton and had family in Calgary. The natural gas flares of the Bow Valley were a landmark. True, the major expansion of the Sands hadn’t happened at the time of writing, but gee, aren’t these writer types supposed to be able to peer into the future? If you’re going to write a book redefining national boundaries, you should think about the potential growth, not just the historical.
Now the Trans Canada Pipeline is used to control the price of fuel. Right now they cut the flow to the Chevron refinery in Burnaby to less than a third, keeping prices artificially high for the summer.
“You also have to be concerned with customs clearance fees some carriers charge the recipient.”
Yes. Both UPS and DHL do that to me here in Switzerland, with charges of $40 or $50. If I call the offices on this end and say “but I already paid full international shipping”, they say “customs clearance not included”. However, if I call their offices in the US, and even if I provide a copy of the charges, both companies vehemently deny that any such charges exist. It is just surreal.