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I've had a TV monitor beaming CNN at me for most of the night, with sound muted. Every so often, a group of clips has been shown with a tantalizing title along the lines of "what we've missed." When it came on a few minutes ago, I punched in the appropriate loop, at a low volume, and listened in.

The segment touched upon news stories that we may have missed in the massive media storm surrounding the events of September 11. I scored 100% in my knowledge of these current events.

I hadn't known about any of them.

Among the events of the day that flew by my ears:

a. The first operation done completely by remote. A surgeon in New York, manipulating special waldoes, performed a gall bladder operation on a patient in France.

b. The Pentagon's top intelligence analyst on Cuba turned out to be a top Cuban spy.

c. China's soccer team qualified for the World Cup competition.

d. The Postal Service wants to raise the first-class rate to 37 cents.

Of these items, only the last two surprise me. I'd heard a lot about the promise of remote surgery before this, and as far as the second item is concerned, well... I hope the Feds do a better job vetting prospective airport security employees than they have checking out the backgrounds of people working in sensitive intelligence positions.

As I'm not much of a soccer fan, item three doesn't excite me that much.

Item four is of interest, especially as all these rate increases (two so far this year) have made our life at the store harder (e.g., having lots of people come in to buy odd quantities - for example, four or thirteen - of 1-cent stamps). Not to mention having people ticked off at us (as in, personally) for raising the rate.

Cheers...

Date: 2001-10-14 06:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com
Grumble grumble. Is it truly important to raise the rates yet again?? Maybe it wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't experienced some spectacular failures on the postal service's part this year. Like the certified letter I needed to mail cross-town, which a month later appeared in my own mailbox.

But I don't blame you. ;)

Date: 2001-10-14 08:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] volkris.livejournal.com
Simple solution: make it legal for private companies to deliver the mail. Right now it is illegal.

THe private companies can then try to undercut the USPS. Let's see what happens then.

Oh yeah, and let's stop using tax money to pay for the USPS's deficit. I heard the other day that for every penny you spend on postage the government matches it. Not like that, but it ends up being the same.

Date: 2001-10-14 02:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] days-unfolding.livejournal.com
Thanks for the info. I missed those stories too.

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