"Reaction [beta]"
USPS delivers the goods! 12 Jan 2007
Having long admired the reliability of the United States Postal Service (USPS), Improbable Research decided to send a variety of unpackaged items to US destinations to see if they'd turn up.
"We knew that an item, say, a saucepan, normally would be in a package because of USPS concerns of entanglement in their automated machinery. But what if the item were not wrapped? How patient are postal employees? How honest? How sentimental? In short, how eccentric a behavior on the part of the sender would still result in successful mail delivery?"
Items sent included a $20 bill (delivered!), a brick (undelivered), a pair of expensive tennis shoes (delivered!), a rose (beat up, but with bud intact!), a bottle of water (drunk by the postman after collection!), a small bag of kitty litter (undelivered!), a deer's tibia (delivered!) and a rancid wheel of cheese (delivered in a plastic bag!).
Get the full story at Improbable Research.
[via Didn't You Hear]
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2 comments so far
LM 12 Jan 2007 02:04 PM
Laminating the bill surely helped reduce its theft-appeal! (Is a laminated bill even legal tender?) Cool idea tho!
Simon 12 Jan 2007 02:09 PM
@LM: I'm pretty sure the bill isn't laminated (although it does look like it from the picture). The Improbable Research site implies that it's a clear plastic envelope.