Chuck's message on junk mail was spot on. I would only add the example of unsolicited commercial e-mail, also known as "spam". Having had the same e-mail address for nearly 20 years, I get lots of spam. It is a pain. And it's not going to go away, because nearly all of the costs of sending spam (disk space, data bandwidth, routing, and system administration) are borne by others without their consent. Spam is very cheap for the spammer, and if they get even a few responses, it's profitable.
Junk mail is costlier for the sender, who has to bear the obvious burdens of printing and postage. But the sender doesn't have to bear the costs of garbage disposal on the other end. Sadly, some of the worst offenders are charitable organizations. I have learned that sending a donation to a good cause will usually get you on their mailing list permanently in the future. And the best causes (in my totally subjective view) seem to be the worst offenders. Sigh. Second, on cameras on stop lights: I'm suspicious of "slippery slope" arguments in general, and those against the idea of cameras in particular. They seems to work well in places like Germany, although the situation is admittedly quite different -- getting a German driver's license is like a master's degree and the problem there is speeding, not red light running. I'd rather have real cops than cameras, but if I can't get real cops to address the problem, I'd be okay with cameras. I nearly got killed on New Year's Eve on Washington Avenue around 8:15 by a yahoo in a red van who barrelled through a red light and narrowly missed two cars, one each way! Had there been a camera, maybe he would not have run the light, and if he had anyway, there would have been consequences. -- Peter Klausler, Linden Hills, Minneapolis, Minnesota ',.PY FGCRL Principal Engineer, Cray Inc. AOEUI DHTNS pmk@visi,com, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.visi.com/~pmk ;QJKX BMWVZ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
