Going Postal The Imminent Death of the U.S. Postal Service?

Going Postal  The Imminent Death of the U.S. Postal Service?

Georg Jensen tears into the USPS in The American Interest Online.  He builds the case that the USPS is running as a spam-mail distribution company, and is subsidized by first-class letter mail.   

"When you tax something, you get less of it, and when you subsidize something, you get more of it. That is part of the reason the USPS now handles less first-class mail, because it is in effect taxed, and more junk mail, because it is subsidized."

Now that business is bad, the USPS is going to do the same as General Motors, ask the government for a bailout.

How different is Canada Post's business model?

From Kottke

The truth about running shoes

 The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money?

An article from the Mail Online about the perils of running shoes.  Surprisingly, there is no evidence to prove that expensive shoes prevent running injuries.  Some of the researchers other findings may surprise you more...

Ban Comic Sans?

Typeface Inspired by Comic Books Has Become a Font of Ill Will

The Wall Street Journal interviews the designer of one of the world's most controversial fonts... Comic Sans.

How to Revise an Email So That People Will Read It

How to Revise an Email So That People Will Read It

 

Would I like my emails to be more effective?  Sure!

 

Some of the points in this post from Harvard Business are so good, they cut a little close to the bone.  Knowing what I know now, I’m embarrassed by how poor some of my previous emails have been.

 

Number of times that I’ve revised this message:  3

Found quotes

Found Quotes – Kevin Kelly

 

Here’s a round-up of insightful quotes on our current society, from a range modern figures and philosophers. 

 

My favourite quote is from Tom Steinberg:

"When people use your electronic systems to do anything, renew a fishing license, register a pregnancy, apply for planning permission, give them the option to collaborate with other people going through or affected by the same process. They will feel less alone, and will help your services to reform from the bottom up."

 

Although the notion of Web 2.0 is a little stale, I’ve not heard it explained as succinctly as this.  The quote also shows that most websites still have a long way to go towards fully incorporating collaborative tools, and improving the lives of their customers.

Best animated gif

Sometimes, this is exactly how I feel.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/primenumbers/9tjskp.gif

Tofino

Someone from work is going to Tofino this weekend, so I wrote up a list of my favourite things in and around Tofino.

 

Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet – Lighthouse Loop

Beautiful 45 minute trail with a lighthouse and crashing waves.

http://www.longbeachmaps.com/wildtrail.html

 

Boat trip to Hot Springs Cove

Boat trip to an island. 30 minute board walk through an old growth forest to natural hot springs pools in the rocks beside the ocean.  Good chance of seeing whales on the boat trip.  It’s more expensive, but when are going back to Tofino?

http://www.tofinowhalecentre.com/hotsprings.html

http://www.gotofino.com/tofinohotsprings.html

 

Trilogy Fish Co - Tofino

Great fresh, locally caught seafood, including oysters

http://www.trilogyfish.net/

 

Sobo restaurant – Tofino

Phenomenal food.  Best to go at lunch when it’s a bit cheaper.

http://www.sobo.ca/

 

Or you could spend the whole time surfing. 

iPhone's Gold Rush - NYT

The iPhone Gold Rush

From the New York Times, an article on the iPhone boom, where a pool of developers are cashing in.  This includes Ethan Nicholas, whose iShoot game has earned him $800,000 in 5 months.  Statistically, that’s pretty impressive!

 

Movie recommendations

Clerkdogs

If you like X movie, you'll love Y, as well as A, B, C, D, E...   Surprisingly accurate recommendations for some of my favourite films:  Pulp Fiction and Princess Bride.  

I'm not sure how useful this will be for picking great new movies out of thin air; I think it will be most useful for rating movies when deciding to watch/ rent/ buy them.  It's like Gigli? Ewww....

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s No-Cash Cover Deal With U2

Photographer Sugimoto strikes a Stone Age deal with U2

Surprisingly, the artist that created the photograph that was used on U2's No Line On The Horizon album cover, has requested no money for the use of the illustration.  "I gave myself just a second to think about it, " Sugimoto recalled,  "and I said 'How about a Stone Age deal — no cash?' "

Google's Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE)

CADIE

Yesterday Google announced the world’s first true artificial intelligence, CADIE, which is short for “Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity”. 

 

You can read about CADIE here, or check out CADIE’s website which “CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.”  Brilliant.