Sunday - May 01, 2011

the check is in the mail

Away 2daze and boy is “daze” correct.

Kudos Drew. Your comments re. the wedding very well done and made the wife’s day. Only time in all the years here she’s ever made direct comment in reply.

Christopher: Good post re. Trek. Interesting stuff and great response.  If there’s one thing about sci-fi that has always confused me, it’s why authors must make up names that are barely pronounceable. Did I say barely? Hmmm. Usually fits the case.  It’s almost as though writers believe that if they don’t use spaghetti
alphabet, then nobody will enjoy the work. Can’t they still have odd names but ones that are easier to say?

JimS, who hit the nail on the head re. LOUD music and FX making it near impossible to hear the dialog. And that’s true of much besides SciFi movies.  There are times when the dialog can’t be heard at all. They even do it here on radio when running a documentary or some kind of news/interview/public interest etc. Music and fx. That’s when we switch off.

Now howz that for a starting Sunday post. That is, I’m off topic before I even start.

None of the above was planned when I originally found this bit of silliness a couple of days ago. But I needed to write it while the thought was there.
Anyway ... how is this for bizarre?  Worth a laugh er what?

The secret service: Royal Mail refuses to tell customer where post boxes are

By Daily Mail and Daily Mail Reporter

A radio presenter who wrote to Royal Mail asking where his nearest post boxes were received an astonishing reply to say: ‘Sorry, it’s a secret’.
David Heathcote was fed-up scouring the streets looking for a place to send letters to his listeners - and thought that, as most post boxes are bright red, over four feet tall, and have been a familiar sight on Britain’s streets for well over a century, it would be a simple request.

But the 61-year-old was told by a Royal Mail ‘Freedom of Information Support Officer’ that precise post box locations couldn’t be ‘released into the public domain’ because doing so would ‘undermine their commercial value’.
The extraordinary two-page reply went on to claim that, as Royal Mail is a publicly-owned company, there was a ‘significant public interest’ in keeping the information private.

Today, Mr Heathcote, who is also a retired deputy headteacher, said: ‘It just beggars belief. All I wanted to know was where I could post a few letters.
‘I had to re-read the letter to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood. It’s unbelievable. For the Royal Mail to say they don’t their locations releasing into the ‘public domain’ is ridiculous - they’re already in the public domain by virtue of the fact they stick out like sore thumbs. It just strikes me as being very, very silly. It’s a bit Monty Python-esque’.

Mr Heathcote, who works as a presenter on High Peak Radio, a commercial station in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, made his request under the Freedom of Information Act after becoming fed-up at scouring the streets looking for post boxes.

He added: ‘It’s a 45-minute drive home from the station through a number of Peak District villages, and I like to drop listener correspondence I’ve completed while I’m at work off on the way. It’s one less thing to do the following day.

‘There is a post box at the end of the road close to the studio, but sometimes I just fly out of there and remember I need to post something later in the journey.
‘I don’t have that much to post, but I just thought it would be useful to know where local mail boxes are in the area. Sometimes I don’t know, so I end up looking all over for one, and they are very hard to find sometimes.’

However, a month later, he received a reply from the Royal Mail’s Freedom of Information Unit, based in Sheffield, confirming it had the information - but wouldn’t be releasing it because it was ‘prejudicial to commercial interests’.

The letter went on to say: ‘Royal Mail has gathered the information requested using it’s own business resource and there is continuous investment in updating and improving the accuracy of the information held.

‘We believe this (releasing the locations) would clearly be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Royal Mail; significantly reducing, if not completely removing Royal Mail’s ability to exploit the information commercially.
‘Whilst we recognise there is a public interest in promoting the access of post boxes, and informing the public of their location, we believe that the overwhelming majority lies in maintaining the exemption.
‘As a publicly-owned company there is a significant public interest in protecting the commercial interest of Royal Mail Group and its ability to provide public mail services.

‘In the face of declining mail volumes, Royal Mail is reliant on revenue from all possible avenues.
‘As Royal Mail has developed this data at i’s own expense, and continues to invest in updating and improving the accuracy of the information, we believe it would not be in the public interest to deny Royal Mail of the full potential value of this information in future commercial use.’

Mr Heathcote, of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, said: ‘The closest analogy I can think of was the location of bus stops: every single bus stop in the country can be found, for example, on Google Maps - so why not Royal Mail boxes?

‘And rival bus companies are in competition with one another, so I can see an argument why bus operators might want to keep the location of their stops a commercial secret.

‘But the Royal Mail enjoys a monopoly: no-one else in this country can set up a network of letter collecting boxes.
‘In their response, the Royal Mail point out that the volume of post is declining - well, I’m not surprised, if they won’t tell us where the mail boxes are!’

DAILY MAIL

Posted by peiper     on 05/01/2011 at 03:05 AM   
Filed Under: • UK •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner