The U.S. Postal Service is in trouble. It’s been struggling with financial and structural problems for a long time, facing competition from private companies and paperless communication methods. Now, drastic changes are recommended. The Government Accountability Office placed the post office on the list of high-risk federal agencies in need of change, and the independent [...]

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I found a really great article on grist yesterday, written by Alan Durning. He’s long been a proponent of cutting junk mail and giving Americans and Canadians a choice to opt out with a Do Not Mail registry (similar to the Do Not Call list we already have). He made an effort to cut his [...]

read more from " Junk Mail Experiment makes for interesting results "

Today marks yet another postage increase from the U.S. Postal Service! It’s now 44 cents for a first-class stamp to mail a standard letter. I can remember when stamps were just 19 cents each, and you still had to lick them to get them to stick… those were the gummy-tongued days. Stamps are self-adhesive now, [...]

read more from " The Postage Rate Increase: Details About the Cost of Stamps "

Today, April 22, is Earth Day! If you want to know more about Earth Day, Wild Singapore has a great list of facts from John Roach at National Geographic, and Soropedia has some quotes that bring out the spirit of Earth Day. But the main thing is that it’s a day to remember that every [...]

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Are you still receiving junk mail? If you haven’t signed up for The Privacy Council yet, you probably are. Most Americans get more than 10 pieces of junk mail a week, or over 500 pieces a year. That’s a lot of cut trees that usually end up in landfills.
Of course, some people look for alternative [...]

read more from " More interesting uses for junk mail: Couture "

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day!
According to Wise Herb’s Random Jottings, Johnny Appleseed was born John Chapman in 1774. He was known for traveling around the Midwest and introducing apple trees to the area, all while spreading a message of conservation, generosity and keeping life simple.
Many of us grew up hearing stories about Johnny Appleseed and [...]

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Monday, a woman in Stamford, CT, was attacked and mauled by a pet chimpanzee. Travis the chimp, which belonged to Sandra Herold and which had appeared in TV commercials, was shot and killed during his violent rampage, and the woman he attacked, Charla Nash, is in critical condition. Attacks such as these are startling because, [...]

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This does a great job of illustrating junk mail.

Junk Mail PSA – watch more funny videos

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The latest news in the fight on junk mail: a mailman is taking sides in the battle.
Steven Padgett, a mailman in Apex, NC, received probation in federal court last week for refusing to deliver junk mail to the people on his route. For at least seven years, he took the junk mail home, stored it [...]

read more from " Through rain, or snow, or sleet, or hail… This mailman won’t bring the junk mail "

I received this spam email a few days ago. The subject line caught me first: “Cleanse and Flush up to 20lbs from your colon!” The rest of the email reads like this:
Lose Weight With Your Mate! – Flush out up to 25 pounds – Remove Deadly Toxic Buildup – Relieve Constipation and Bloating – Best of [...]

read more from " Marketing Hall of Shame: Cleanse Your Colon (And Your Grasp of Reality) "