The Post Office isn’t doing so well…

If losing a mere $2.2 billion last quarter is any indication.

Daily delivery and pickup at every address in the US is bound to be unprofitable; that’s part of the reason the government was authorized to establish it (in Article I).

However, if I were in charge, I’d stop that nonsense immediately, and move to emulate what Japan Post does.

If you’re receiving mail, it’s delivered to your house (just like we do now); otherwise, the mailman doesn’t show up. If you want to mail something, you either take it to the post office yourself, or drop it in a mailbox (in Japan, each neighborhood had a mailbox that you could send mail from, if you already had it stamped, IIRC).

Given the amount of junk mail that goes out, this might not work; it’s bound to be more cost effective than what we’re doing now, though.

Field of the Machinae

Xenoblade (originally Monado: Beginning of the World) is a JRPG for the Nintendo Wii.

As I don’t own a Wii, I have no idea if it’s any good (though it did receive a 36/40 from Famitsu); setting aside the region-locking of the system, it hasn’t come out in the US (with no release in sight), and has only been announced for release in Europe. I’d have to have a Japanese Wii to play it, and while Tetsuya Takahashi might be good at game directing, he’s not good enough to convince me to jump on that grenade.

I’ve made up for not being able to play the game by listening to some of the music on youtube. Is there anything the internet can’t do?

Canada is criminalizing the hyperlink? Has the world gone mad?

This dovetails nicely (?) with yesterday’s post regarding the CSGV’s campaign against civil rights; Canada is considering criminalizing hyperlinks to “hateful” material.

Mark Steyn is eloquent (as always), and makes plain his contempt for bureaucracy run amok, and the invasive, controlling laws that result.

Bryan Lilley, writing in the Toronto Sun, closes his column with this:

We used to say: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Now it seems like Canadian society believes “I disapprove of what you say and I’ll prosecute you.”

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance; once rights have been negated, it’s nigh impossible to get them back.

If they can pull it off properly, anti-civil rights activists only have to win once.

Pro-rights activists have to win every time.

More anime news, this time from Falcom!

The official site for the upcoming anime adaptation of Trails in the Sky has gone live!

Other than the fact that the game’s original cast will be reprising their roles, it doesn’t have much information, just links to the various other Sora no Kiseki incarnations (games and manga), and to Falcom’s 30th Anniversary site.

Thanks to twitter, I knew about it the instant it went live; no waiting for me!