I was staring at my collected news chum while eating lunch, when suddenly a common theme came to me: All of these articles have some element of external changes impacting something that has long been standard:
- Water Wars. Mark Twain once said, “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over“. I’ve been reading about Wm. Mulholland, and know the water fights well. So my eye was naturally drawn to this article on how Lake Mead is at its lowest level in years. This is the lake behind Hoover Dam, and is the source of water for California, Nevada, and Arizona (as well as lots of hydroelectric power). Why is it low? Climate change and overbuilding. Water wars, here we come.
- Stamping It Out. We’ve all been reading about the problems of the US Postal Service, potential cutbacks eliminating Saturday delivery, and such. We often here it is due to the pension funding requirements. That may be part of it, but it is not all of it. This is demonstrated by the fact that postal services all over the world are struggling with lower use.
- Reducing Use. The increased awareness of plastic and environmentalism has led to a push to be greener — to use less plastics and to resue. SodaStream is attempting to take advantage of that trend to battle Coke and Pepsi. Whereas their message did not gain traction in the past, it is gaining traction now. We have a similar product in our house — we never use the presupplied syrups (yuk – HFCS), but instead use all the wonderful Torini and similar syrups to make great Italian sodas.
- Mapping It Out. This is an anniversary year for the London Underground, and it also happens to be an anniversary year for its iconic map. This map has been forced to change as new lines have been added; these changes have been things users do not always like.
- Telegraph Changes. My daughter goes to UC Berkeley; in fact, her dorm is near Telegraph Ave. It is an interesting and quirky street… but it is also dying and the city is attempting to revitalize it. The problem? Most students these days aren’t into counterculture, used book stores, and such. They want Target and cheap prices.
- Driving Fast. Americans love driving fast. In fact, we love it so much so we want our speedometers to create the illusion that our cars can go at drag race speeds. The problem? Most speedometers lie: the car cannot go that fast.
Music: Portraits – The Best of Amanda McBroom (Amanda McBroom): “Dreaming”
I’ve been watching the whole thing with post offices, too. I’m also a participant in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Letter Writing Challenge (this is the second year; happens in February). I don’t use the post office as much because postage is so expensive. I did the pen-pal thing all through middle and high school and most of the way through college. I had pen-pals across the US, Europe, and in Japan. With stamp prices the way they are now, a whole book can last me several months. The only bill we don’t pay online is our rent, but that will change once they make that option available, so there’s not much outgoing any more.
I still pay all my bills with stamps — in fact, I go out of the way to get nice commemoratives from USPS.com. Overall, it is a small price to pay to support an important institution (especially as I gave up stamp collecting years ago because it got too expensive having to buy sheets of 20 to get plate numbers).
Here’s my thing. I don’t have a car, nor do I have a conveniently located post office or any place I can easily buy stamps – the price of stamps notwithstanding. Also, I don’t really like ordering online from USPS. I don’t mind paying an extra $1 for delivery. But I DO mind the extra, unnecessary packaging that comes with today’s stamps. 9×11 envelope, a cardboard insert wrapped in plastic. So much waste. Given the cost, the waste, and the time it takes to get to an actual post office, it’s better, on my end, to push a few buttons and save some stress. Besides, what bills we do have, we save $2 a month that often comes in handy somewhere else – like for a trip out somewhere on the bus and home again.