https://about.usps.com/posters/pos138/pos138__v04_revision_0... https://pe.usps.com/PUB52_Archive/NHTML/PUB52_Archive_202204...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-chil...
...I don't think they let you do this anymore.
The delivery date was a range, and I wasn't there on the day of the first attempted delivery. When I called the post office about it, their response (in a thick Boston accent) was, "oh, so you're the tub guy, huh?"
All in all, it was a really convenient way to execute a cross-country move, assuming you don't have a lot of stuff!
oooh, ouch!
I wonder if they have to unload and reload the truck.
* Sell all furniture
* Shove everything in my car
* Put all my books in boxes and send media mail
I’m sure the USPS wants those sacks back, but the post office in the UK, where I had them sent, was just perplexed by them and told me to keep them.
Anyone interested in the history of freight & trade may also enjoy reading Marc Levinson's book "The Box" about the shipping container. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691170817/th...
(The coconut was one of the large, oblong ones, with a smooth surface. Not the small, spherical things in the grocery store. So there was plenty of room for a legible address.)
When we got home, we planted it in a large indoor planter, hanged a lamp over it, and grew a sizable palm tree in our living room.
It's pretty common in Hawaii. In fact, I think the reason you can send them is because of lobbying from Hawaii.
All coconut trees are palm trees, but not all palm trees grow coconuts.
In India, you'd call a coconut tree a coconut tree and an arecanut tree a palm.
You're still confused. Coconut tree and palm tree aren't interchangeable; to be a coconut tree, the tree has to grow coconuts. All palm trees count as "palm trees", whether they grow coconuts or not. The prototypical palm tree grows dates.
This is a mix up on why certain oils are on the current “oils to avoid” list. Palm oil gets a bad reputation mainly because of environmental issues with how it's grown, not because it's unhealthy. But all these concerns get lumped together in the “bad oils” list.
Take a listen.
You say that like you think those are different things.
Years ago, someone tried mailing a lot of stuff through the post office.
I remember they mailed a $20 bill, and tried sneaking something oversized like skiis into a mail truck.
can't find the article though - search has really been SEO'd to death by companies involved in mail.
and
https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/TMP-1...
$20 bill. Days to delivery, 4.
Ski. ... The ski was slipped into a bin of postage that was being loaded into a truck behind a station (a collaborating staff member created a verbal disturbance up the street to momentarily distract postal workers attention). ...
I snorted at this. How meta.
We sent ourselves a postcard from Spain addressed to:
1
S_3 _S_ (redacted)
UK
– and it arrived.
When I was in secondary school, one of my classmates didn't believe a letter would reach me if the envelope had only my name and postcode (no house number or street name), so I gave him a stamp and challenged him to try.
I brought the letter to school a couple of days later.
1 - a post code resolves to something approximating a single physical address, or at least close enough to reliably allow delivery
I've only ever lived in cities.
There are exceptions in rural areas, where one post code covers multiple streets.
Web forms and the in-car navigation prompt first for the postcode, then present a list of the full addresses and you pick one.
Over the phone, "W10 6TR" also avoids needing to spell anything, and I encourage you to search Google for it.
There's also some human readable part. The W means West London, people who live in West or South West London will be familiar with some numbers - W10 is Ladbrook Grove. B is Birmingham, BS is Bristol, BT is Belfast etc.
I've never tried inputting my 11 digit code in an online form but at least the 9 digit one is readily accepted. In my experience the last 4 will usually be completed for me based on the street address and if it can't find a match it gives me an error.
https://www.irishpost.com/life-style/irish-postman-somehow-d...
As a result, most towers (blocks) have their own post code. Even in complexes with 3 towers sharing a common main level (floors B2 through 3), still have their own postcode.
If you go on website and put your postcode, it will autocomplete the address except for the unit number.
The nicest part: Canada Post moved us in! Everything was waiting in our new apartment when we arrived.
A bunch of us used the service to ship cheap PCs and CRT monitors up to New York for HOPE one year. The shipping cost more than the computers, but it wasn't much (a couple hundred bucks). Public Terminal Cluster was a huge success. Afterward we didn't want to ship them back home, so we gave away two pallets worth of old computer gear to whoever passed by on 33rd St. Took about an hour.
Basically if you could put it in a box and it would fit under their bus they would ship it to anywhere on their route.
it was almost as good a service as having a friend with a truck that was going that way. but sadly, no more greyhound in canada.
Cheap postage hack: Nearly all U.S. stamps issued since World War II don’t have value. You can buy old stamps on eBay for about 60–75 % of face value as “face” stamps—and they’re perfectly valid for mailing.
Unconventional postcards: A thin sheet of plywood with a Sharpie address label is a fun postcard. (it just costs a lot more than a normal postcard)
Small Flat Rate Box physics: With a 70 lb limit, you’d need something exotic—say, a primordial black hole—to exceed the weight cap.
Spare the carrier’s back: A Medium Flat Rate Box packed with 10,000 pre 1982 copper pennies tips the scale at roughly 68 lb. Maybe ship the coins another way—your postal carrier will thank you!
I once sued because the jail was selling Forever stamps at 49c but Congress had reduced the price to 47c. The government's argument was that they had purchased 10,000 of them at 49c, so selling them at 49c was legal as they weren't "ripping anyone off." The appellate courts did not agree with that argument.
Also, funny thing in jails, the sticky leftover gutter parts of the stamp books had value because they could be used to repair torn things like books, photos and magazines.
Can confirm, I laser cut wedding invitations out of 1/4" plywood and mailed them out like that. I think it required some "non-machineable" stamp or similar, but they all arrived at their intended destinations.
Sadly this experiment would cost in the high tens of thousands of dollars. We may try with titanium some day. That would only be ten thousand dollars.
Where'd you get the magnesium cube?
Osmium is about twice as dense so yeah that would still be shippable at around 60 lb... I don't think that's even tens of thousands at that point? Isn't it going to be in the millions? I'm just thinking that like if you went for gold instead, 50 lb is 800 oz, at $3300/oz these days doing this with gold is $2.64M, no? And surely osmium blows gold out of the water by like 10x, right?
Jokes on you when the $100 of insurance is all you get back from the post office...
Edit: a sibling comment points out that you can probably do this under $100 with tungsten too and get up into that 50lb+ range.
DU is harmless unless you eat or breathe it but alas it's now illegal to possess more than a minute quantity of it.
Tungsten is actually slightly denser and it has the advantage of being obtainable.
That's why our use of big lumps of DU as door stops was considered "safe" (at that time several years ago) but in labs where people machined the stuff they were a lot more careful.
A buddy of mine used to cast and paint figurines. Well, someone ordered a bunch of lead ones and they used a flat rate to ship it. The box weighed something like 80lbs. It was basically just a block of lead
It's probably coincidence but a few months later a weight limit was placed on flat rate boxes. It's still crazy high. We always thought the timing was funny.
Small flat rate box, 21.9 x 13.7 x 4.12 cm = 1236 cm^3 = 14kg; you can fill 100% with lead and mail it. Tungsten is also allegedly fine, but it will weigh 23 kilos and be quite difficult to pick up (can't get a finger under an edge...)
Medium flat rate box = 95kg; you can fill it 33% with lead, or ~45% with steel and mail it.
Large flat rate box = 144kg; only 22% lead.
For solids at room temperature and pressure the best you could do seems to be osmium or iridium, unless you have access to heavy transactinides.
mass/kg substance
2.57e5 small flat rate box
2.26e5 osmium
2.25e5 iridium
2.65e5 meitnerium (theoretical)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitnerium#Stability_and_half-...
If you've got a particularly slothful postal worker you might consider topping up your meitnerium with a similarly sized sample of roentgenium-282. If you don't have any to hand then perhaps you'll have better luck producing tennessine-294 and waiting a couple of minutes. Amusingly your trip from Tennessee to x-ray land will take you via Moscow and Japan.
(Beware that you might end up making the box bulge a bit, since you'll necessarily go over the size limit by including less dense materials as well as necessary apparatus.)
"Forever stamps" were introduced in 2007. What other stamps before then didn't have a face value? I don't remember any.
E.g. this collection of 8000 stamps is $75: https://www.ebay.com/itm/396477663178
Looking at the pictures, many are more than $.01 value.
Assuming they’re uncancelled, you’ll end up multiples of your money ahead if you rip the collection apart and use it to mail stuff.
The challenge would be having enough surface area on your package to plaster on 6-cent stamps.
It’s not too hard if you mail paper that can’t be folded.
Can also cover what you can and get the clerk to print you a label for the rest.
That's true of pretty much all stamps from all countries since WW2. Postal agencies have discovered that collectors will buy new issues and never mail them, preserving them as "mint". So it's pretty much free money for the Postal agency. Many countries (including the USPS) constantly come up with new designs to sell to collectors.
I noticed that when I began collecting as a boy, thinking the post WW2 issues were all just "soup can labels" and had zero interest in them.
From a set of year 2000 USPS experiments:
> Helium balloon. The balloon was attached to a weight. The address was written on the balloon with magic marker; no postage was affixed. Our operative argued strongly that he should be charged a negative postage and refunded the postal fees, because the transport airplane would actually be lighter as a result of our postal item. This line of reasoning merely received a laugh from the clerk. The balloon was refused; reasons given: transportation of helium, not wrapped.
https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/TMP-1...
Image links are dead, including on archive.org :(
https://improbable.com/annals-of-improbable-research-july-au...
The article has lots of info about what clerks said and did at delivery, but little about when they were sent, which suggests to me that there's something about how USPS works that different from how it works where I live that's assumed to be obvious to the reader. You can't just drop a deer bone or a lemon in a mailbox right? It wouldn't fit, would it?
In the US, post offices generally have drop boxes outside for letters (since you normally just need a stamp), and a larger drop box for packages inside, since you can often get pre-paid labels for stuff like item returns.
TIME
July 4, 1988 12:00 AM EDT
What is the cheapest way to get 6,000 concrete blocks and 4,600 bags of cement to a remote Eskimo village? Answer: mail them. Sam Krogstad, a construction supplier in Anchorage, is sending the individually addressed blocks (postage: $4.33 each) and bags ($4.27) about 700 miles north to Wainwright, where they will be used to build a small harbor on the Arctic Ocean. Krogstad’s bill for stamps will be about $45,000, less than what other shippers would charge.
The Postal Service is not pleased about the shipment, which will cost about $180,000 to deliver by truck and plane. But the agency can find nothing illegal about Krogstad’s parcels, which weigh a few pounds less than the 70- lb. maximum for regular mail.
We could have had our own homegrown Temu, in America.
It helped a bit that my apartment was directly above the Auke Bay PO.
Before forever stamps were introduced people would have to add a 1 or 2 cent stamp next to the 20 or 25 cent stamp in order to reach the current rate for mailing a letter.
Can you elaborate? I don't know what this means, and other commenters seem confused as well.
From your description, it sounds like they very much have value -- 60–75% as you say.
And what are face stamps?
However, the post office apparently forgot to void the stamps (usually they draw over them with a pen), so his next step was to commit mail fraud. He steamed off 60 cents or so worth of unvoided stamps from the box and sent me a letter at school. That one went through just fine too.
USA: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7208 U.S.C. 7208.4
(4)Reuse of stamps
(A) Preparation for reuse
Willfully removes, or alters the cancellation or defacing marks of, or otherwise prepares, any adhesive stamp, with intent to use, or cause the same to be used, after it has already been used; or
(B) Trafficking
Knowingly or willfully buys, sells, offers for sale, or gives away, any such washed or restored stamp to any person for use, or knowingly uses the same; or
(C) Possession
Knowingly and without lawful excuse (the burden of proof of such excuse being on the accused) has in possession any washed, restored, altered stamp, which has been removed from any vellum, parchment, paper, instrument, writing, package, or article; ... shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/479.163#:~:text=prev...
§ 479.163 Reuse of stamps prohibited. A stamp once affixed to one document cannot lawfully be removed and affixed to another. Any person willfully reusing such a stamp shall be subject to the penalty prescribed by 26 U.S.C. 7208.
Canada:
Section 55 of the Canada Post Corporation Act deals with evading payment of postage, and it is an indictable offence under Section 60, punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment. This means that individuals who intentionally avoid paying for postage or who use the postal service without paying are subject to legal penalties, including potential incarceration.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-10/FullText.html Evading payment of postage
55 Every person commits an offence who, for the purpose of evading payment of postage,
(a) encloses a letter or any writing intended to serve the purpose of a letter in mail not paid at the rate of postage for letters;
(b) uses in payment of postage any previously used postage stamp;
E.G. If a letter is prepared to be mailed, but it's realized the address is wrong before it's mailed, would it then not still be the first use if the to be sent envelope had it's stamps removed and placed onto a corrected envelop for the first use of the stamps? (Yeah, this would make no sense today with the cost of labor and general stuff, it's a hypothetical.)
I've got a bunch of water color paper post cards from my days of random vacations and a large format camera. I recall that they also had a slightly more than post card rate postage on them (though not excessively so).
I used Polaroid type 59 film (peel apart) in the field and did a transfer right there. Take a picture in Yosemite? Pull it out, roller it on to the paper and drop it in the mail box. It was a one of a kind. The damage incurred while mailing (blunted corners, scuffs and such) was part of the nature of the art.
There were also families who were curious about the process and I'd sell them a sheet of film at cost for them to do what they wanted - be it have a photograph or go through the process of making a post card themselves. There was also the "this is what an old time camera looks like and how it works" that interested some of the younger children - the heavy black cloth and the upside down image.
I asked if anyone had a stamp and someone suggested I just do that.
Good thing it worked, it was my rent check.
Throughput:
> The operation of the Pneumatic Tube System involved air forced cylinders known as "carriers", traveling in a spinning motion, through a well-greased tube at 30 miles an hour. At its peak productivity six million pieces of mail would whisk through the system daily at a rate of 5 carriers a minute with each carriers maximum load of approximately 500 letters
Shaking out the system:
> The first cylindrical carrier to travel through the New York City [pneumatic tube] system was one that contained a Bible, a flag and a copy of the Constitution. The second contained an imitation peach in honor of Senator Chauncy Depew, a driving force in this project. He was fondly known as "The Peach". A third carrier had a black cat in it, for reasons unknown to this author.
Diagnosing and fixing stalls in the network:
> The occasional carrier stalls in a tube it could be easily detected. Each receiving machine was equipped with a "tell-tale" fan. If a carrier failed to arrive on time the air pressure would fall to level that would cause the fan to stop revolving. The operator at the affected station would call the switchboard at the telephone number PE 6-7000. On a control board there, the blocking carrier could be located through colored lights designating each station. In 99% of the cases the arrested carrier could be made mobile again by increasing the air pressure behind the blockage and decreasing air pressure in front of it. This would in effect cause a vacuum. In the 1% of the time that these methods did not work a maintenance crew would have had to go out and dig up the streets.
Perks for staff operating the system:
> Recently I met an old friend who told me her father was once a rocketeer [responsible for the sending and receiving of the carriers]. In conversation with him I learned that he had spent some time working on the Pneumatic Tube System at the Bronx General Post Office. [...] He told me something off the record. Since there was a renowned sandwich shop in the vicinity of the Bronx General Post Office, they often got orders from the downtown postal stations. The sandwiches were delivered through the system. Now that's what I call a real submarine sandwich!
The local foreman was giving us a lecture about safety and things not to do in there, and we were standing there listening to him. To my right about 10' away were a couple of boxes around 2' tall each. I was listening and my eyes were wandering, taking in the gigantic space when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the box move! It like tilted a little and there was definite movement inside (it had a slit in it)! I yelped like a little kid: "that box moved!"
The foreman nonchalantly dismissed it saying, "yeah those are ducks being mailed". I was shocked to say the least.
Never heard of one getting out. Bet it would have been exciting if one did.
If you could opt out of having a mailbox and use email for police and government correspondence then it wouldn’t be so offensive, but as far as I know you are practically required to maintain a hole where they can shove their ad spam.
It is the only universal (in the USA) communications service, and therefore a necessary service which is not filled or reasonably filled by private alternatives.
How many people does the post office unalive?
The post office is loved by children, young adults, and senior citizens. Is the profitable military as popular amoung the people who call our veterans loosers? This comes from a propoganda machine of the oligarks who want, instead of government service, want only their own selfish profits.
War is a waste of money, and arguing about it is a waste of time.
To the many who think mail to rural people is a waste of money? I would rather recieve a letter from someone than a list of war dead.
Thr many who think that profit is the reason for the existence of the post office, left a Marine for dead in Africa, lied about it, and never learned to pronounce his name to his mother.
At least a coconut in the mail is not as empty headed as most of the political party that wants to run the entire government as a profitable business only to bankrupt it like a casino.
How do they bankrupt a casino?
Show me the first politician who ran on a platform of a profitable war machine? Pretty sure it was the German socialist Democratic party, who were never thet socialist not democratic.
Another comment mentioned M-bags: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-M-bag-Service
You're right. Hallmarked.
Promises you can eat (after proper prep)
The URL is at usps.com, so I'm guessing this is about as official as it gets.
I've mailed a coconut before and it worked. Never done a potato.
- Potato: write the address directly on the skin and add postage - Coconut: often mailed from Hawaii gift shops - Brick: just needs postage and an address - Inflated beach ball: address it directly, ships like a parcel - Plastic Easter egg: fill it, tape it shut, and label it - Flip-flop: address the sole and send it off - Small pumpkin: allowed if it’s dry and not restricted by ag rules - Live queen bees (plus attendants): surface mail only, special label - Day-old chicks: special packaging and timing required
The queen cage is placed in a Bee Bus: https://bee-pros.com/beeBus.html
Postage is affixed to the Bee Bus which is filled with 3 lbs. of bees, which is about 10,000 to 12,000 bees: https://www.mannlakeltd.com/carniolan-honey-bees/california-...
Also in the late 90s I remember my favourite computer mag having a picture of a 5 1/4 inch floppy sent to them. Complete with postmarked stamp. Allegedly it survived the procedure.
I don't think I'd have risked it with 5¼" floppies though, they were a lot less robust and I can't imagine the franking machines would have been good for them.
Err, why? Potatoes will keep for weeks before sprouting and turning green. Months if they’re away from light.
https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm
(You can mail baby chickens and honeybees, though.)
The first set didnt' do well at all. I probably lost more than 60% of the 5 lbs. of bees, and that hive never thrived. My most recent ones are still going strong and I think I can officially say at this point that they made it through the winter :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/obv56n/s...
They tried mailing all sorts of things, including things which should not be mailed. Collectively, the USPS seems to have a sense of humor.
[A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail (2016) ](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24957499)
pmags•1d ago
I now know with certainty what sort of "card" my siblings are getting for their next b-days!
mooreds•1d ago
annoyingnoob•1d ago
pmags•1d ago
exogenousdata•1d ago