[meteorite-list] What a surprise! (not)

[lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu]

Hi Sterling:

You forgot overnight mail; Pony Express. It took 11 days (Missouri to
California) and initially cost $5.00 for 1/2 oz. Assuming beer was 2 bits
(25 cents), that is a lot of beer!

Larry

On Thu, May 1, 2008 11:37 pm, Sterling K. Webb wrote:

> Postal Doug,

>

>

> Of course, the U.S. Mail is subsidized and

> supported by law -- it's a government service, as the National Posts of

> many nations are. I believe, as Mr. Franklin did, that governments

> exist to provide useful and necessary services for its citizens, and a

> mandate to establish a postal service was part of the Constitution, one of

> the first National Posts in the world.

>

> Originally, the price of post was prohibitive

> for the ordinary citizen. In 1792, long distance mail (450+ miles) cost 25

> cents per sheet of paper, and that 1792 "quarter" was worth many dollars in

> today's money (OK, I didn't look it up). When stamps were introduced in

> 1847,

> the cost plummeted. In 1855, you could send an entire letter of several

> sheets, in an envelope now, 3000 miles for 3 cents, a rate that persisted

> for a century.

>

> It made a single communicative entity out of a

> scattered nation. During that century, telegrams were costly and the later

> long distance phone call was too; they were reserved for deaths, births,

> wars, and occasionally true love, but you could write someone a letter

> every single day of the week for no more than the cost of a loaf of bread.

>

> One consideration to bear in mind about

> overseas shipments is that a single rate applies to an entire nation, even

> though Southern California to London is twice as far as Maine

> to London, whereas any part of the UK is no more distant from another than

> the ends of a state like Illinois. And all National Posts are only doing

> "half" the work when they each

> reciprocally entrust a package to the National Post of any other country.

> (The UK Royal

> Post once directed a 12-string guitar intact to

> my door from London for less money than UPS charged to damage a guitar from

> Wisconsin,

> one state away, in transit.)

>

> As for "sacred" mailboxes, they are sanctified

> by an extension of the personal privacy of the recipient; mail "delivered"

> there has become part of the "every man's home's his castle" right, and the

> prohibition against others entering it long precedes the invention of

> FedEx.

>

>

> Who, since they came up, once "delivered" a

> brand-new hard drive to a mud puddle in my driveway, and tossed another

> parcel behind my neighbor's shrubbery to languish there for a week until

> discovered by them whilst raking leaves, and once, by accident I think,

> they got a package within six feet of my door. Remind me to tip the FedEx

> man next Christmas, will you? In between my drinking toasts to the virtues

> of free enterprise, that is.

>

> Postal Sterling

> ----------------------------------------------------------

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: <mexicodoug at aim.com>

> To: <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>; <meteoritekid at gmail.com>;

> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>

> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:31 PM

> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] What a surprise! (not)

>

>

>

> "Actually cheaper to send overseas for less than one ounce packet, than

> to send to my next door neighbor. The US government shows us how smart it

> is again."

>

> Hi Mike, List,

>

>

> You're mixing apples and oranges.  It should be cheaper, since when

> does reason have place in corrupt systems of any nation?  The US postal

> service is only doing half the work for intentionsl shipments.  They put

> it on a cargo flight from their hub and forget about it.

>

> Meanwhile in the USA they have a monopoly on home delivery so they milk

> the cash cow, so why shouldn't you pay more?  It's a US federal crime for

> anyone to send regular mail through a private service for anyone to offer

> the service, and for anyone else delivering anything to open their sacred

> mailboxes - even though they are the homeowners' personal property and

> expense.  Only urgent mail is excluded from the monopoly; provided the

> competing service charges at least twice as much.  So next time you are

> pissed about fedex, ups, dhl, etc., keep in mind that they are more

> expensive because your government forces them to charge at least twice as

> by law much AND denies them participation in the economies of scale of the

> bulk of mailings.

>

> Something to keep in mind next time you pat the USPS on the back for

> being the cheapest of shipping options.

>

> Going postal,

> Doug

>

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Michael Farmer <meteoriteguy at yahoo.com>

> To: Jason Utas <meteoritekid at gmail.com>; Meteorite-list

> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>

> Sent: Thu, 1 May 2008 2:52 pm

> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] What a surprise! (not)

>

>

>

>

> A 20 gram Henbury can be shipped to the UK for under

> $2.00. The minumum for one ounce to the USA in a

> bubble envelope is now $1.13, yet I can send the same bubble envelope to

> the UK for $1.01. Actually cheaper to send overseas for less than one

> ounce packet, than to send to my next door neighbor. The US government

> shows us how smart it is again. Michael Farmer

> --- Jason Utas <meteoritekid at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>

>> Hello Herman, Dave, All,

>> Regardless of whether or not he discounted shipping,

>> he did still 'lift' a description that was written by someone

>> else - without asking for the right to use it. This has been noted as an

>> issue in the past, and it is clear that (although he did well to find a

>> cheaper shipping service) wayner44 still made a mistake in copying a

>> description which he could easily have, at the very least, credited to

>> the author.  I see no excuse for doing what he did - except for laziness.

>>  Furthermore, who on earth would pay more than a few

>> dollars to ship a twenty gram bit of Henbury?  I think you're looking at

>> this the wrong way; it should have cost only a few dollars to ship it in

>> the first place.  He discounted it $9 from...what, exactly? Needless to

>> say, it would have been ridiculous had he *not* changed the shipping

>> cost. What he did was not a shining example of charity,

>> ingenuity, or intelligence.  What he did was reasonable, nothing more - to

>> say nothing of his plagiarism. Regards,

>> Jason

>>

>>

>> On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 10:01 AM,

>> <Metorman46 at aol.com> wrote:

>>

>>> Hello Dave;

>>>

>>>

>>> Thanks for the positive,pleasant post about

>>>

>> wayner44.He sure made your

>>> day,i'll bet,and you sure made my day with such a

>> positive post about someone  who

>>> did good and we never would have known about it if

>> you hadn't taken the time

>>> to inform us.My hat is off to you.

>>>

>>> Best Regards;Herman Archer IMCA 2770.

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

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>>>

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>>> listings at AOL Autos.

>>>

>>

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>

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