Ben Franklin is not amused.

Ben Franklin does everything online these days.

I think it's horrifying, actually. There are a lot of people out there who aren't reliably online, and aren't using FedEx or UPS for everything.

It's like assuming everything can be an e-book -- e-readers are fantastic, but it's going to be a long time before every child in this country has reliable access to one.

Yeah, do not love that postal slow. I mean, a LOT of stuff you receive by mail is time-sensitive, and I don't think companies are going to really be sensitive to that.

ION, it's 10:15 am and we still have internet at home! Cross fingers they forgot to flip a switch; I can live without cable until the 15th!!! For sure! Happy to do it if I can keep the interwebs!

ita !, you should put this on your Xmas list: [link]

Well, the USPS is severely limited by Congress as to what they can do to reduces their financial losses. Maybe there'll be an outcry about the slowing of the mail that will make Congress give them other options.

Maybe there'll be an outcry about the slowing of the mail that will make Congress give them other options.

tommy, that is such 70s thinking. They'll privatize all mail delivery with a grotesque bit of cronyish, which will lead to a three tier system of functional mail at high prices, a new Amazon driven delivery system in the middle and Bulk Rate for everybody else.

Maybe there'll be an outcry about the slowing of the mail that will make Congress give them other options.

I may be completely in the dark about this, but it feels like if Congress is now in the business of bailing out failing enterprises, the postal service and libraries should be first in line.

ION, Cat-butt coffee: A critical review

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world. At my local specialty coffee bean store, it sells for $420 per pound—or $10 for a 10 oz. brewed cup.

Kopi Luwak is very different from that cheap, gauche coffee you and I drink every day. This is because each hand-harvested bean of Kopi Luwak has been artisanally shat out of the digestive system of a small Indonesian pseudo-cat.

...

There is a difference in flavor. Kopi Luwak is noticeably not bitter. Swallow a sip, and it's like you just drank some water. There's no sting or heavy flavor left in the back of your throat. That makes sense. Proteins are part of what is responsible for the bitterness of coffee. Kopi Luwak beans have fewer whole proteins than normal beans. So they're less bitter, but still taste good. As my husband put it, "Everything that is wrong with cheap gas station coffee is right about this."

Kopi Luwak is not as tasty (to me) as Blue Mountain or Tanzanian Peaberry. I don't get the hype. But obviously I don't have a wide range of coffee I'll drink (the first sentence is pretty much the whole world of it).

The post office is in trouble in the first place because it was milked to lower the nominal deficit. It was forced to prefund pensions (for 30 or 70 years - I forget which) over the course of ten years. No one else, public or private in the U.S. has that requirement. As far as I know , no one else in the world.

Kopi Luwak might be un-bitter enough for me to enjoy. However, at $10 for a cup it may. E a while before I get around to trying it.