Ice Wagons. Eight-Track Tapes. Stamp Machines. Historic Global Enterprises.

The United States Postal Service has been behaving lately like an institution trying to put itself out of business. Having installed in the Decatur, Georgia post office a wave-of-the-future digital machine, which weighs all classes of mail and dispenses appropriate postage and tracking labels upon insertion of a credit or debit card, the authorities have removed the coin-operated stamp machines from all the neighborhood offices in the vicinity without providing a digital substitute in these other offices.

[This reflection on social class, the unevenly distributed future, micronations, world's fairs, and the Olympic torch relay suddenly seems worth LJ-cutting. You will, as always, be bemused to find out where this shorter than usual post is going, if you choose to click]

( here )