Natasha recently had a piece of mail returned by NZ Post stamped "no delivery point". "Knowing mailboxes on Waiheke Island can be interesting I went on Google Maps to see if I could work out why it wasn't delivered. Ah! The "delivery point" was unobstructed byfoliage, the requisite height from the ground and so clearly numbered you could read it through Google's fuzzy lens. Makes me wonder if anyone even tried!"
Let's get to seat of the problem
From a reader: "We've watched the Selwyn Ave, Mission Bay, bus stop receive a makeover: concrete pad and smart new seat. No shelter, just the seat. As my 12-year-old astutely pointed out, this stop is used only at morning rush hour and with no shelter, regardless of the weather, this seat will ALWAYS be wet, because of dew or rain, so NOBODY is ever going to use it!"
Taxis lighting an airstrip in Peru reminded Maurice Burney of this: "Growing up in Taumarunui in the 50s, local topdressing pilot Jim Evans would sometimes arrive home in low light and be unable to land on the airstrip behind the hospital. A couple of runs over Cross St on Hospital Hill would see several parents rush off in their cars to the airstrip to provide lighting. The same pilot would, once a year, advise all at Cross St, where he lived, to get in their washing and children after 4pm after which he would topdress the whole street. Green lawns and gardens."
New mobile phone app - saving trees
A start-up company in Austin, Texas, also serving San Francisco, takes its customers' incoming US mail three times a week, photographs it and delivers it via mobile phone app, for $4.99 a month. Outbox also provides some value-added services, such as removing the customer from junk mail lists and paying bills. Still, Outbox's unorthodox business model assumes a growing number of people absolutely hate opening, filing or discarding pieces of paper. Co-founder Will Davis told CNN in February that at least he doesn't fear competition: "No one is crazy enough to do what we're doing." (Source: News of the Weird)
It's a long way from cow to cup
In response to Mike Honey, who reckons his milk isn't out of the darkened fridge for long, Jeremy Bennett writes: "Unless you have a cow squatting in your fridge, I'm assuming you get your milk the same way as everyone else. From the moment it leaves the tanker, is bottled at the plant, transported to the distribution centre, and driven to supermarkets, it is exposed to light. It then sits in full light on the supermarket shelf for a day or more."
But if it ain't broke ...
Many readers think Anchor's new 'light proof' milk bottle is pointless. Most-liked comment yesterday: "I've never had my milk go off in the 15 years I've been buying it. Sounds like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist."
