I for one am glad that cultural acceptance for these jokes is fading, mostly because young people generally no longer find the sentiment relatable because they're no longer expected to marry the first person they want to sleep with.
I can imagine what would drive someone to enter one of those relationships (from either side), but I can't imagine that you'd feel good about it (on either side).
It's bad enough dealing with Westerners who seem to be in it for the money.
As for our current cultural expectations, I think the idea is supposed to be that you play musical chairs until you hit your mid-to-late thirties, at which point you give up and marry whoever you happen to be with at the time, silently regretting the one that got away.
Better? I dunno. It does result in fewer children.
People would probably be happier if they married at 18 after their high school prom, and before anyone's fortunes were known.
It's a 'my ex wife is a small, cold blooded but ultimately harmless joke'; 'Other small, harmless, cold-blooded animals' is incredibly vague given the specificity of the other requirements and covers many things.
I obviously dont get young people these days, at the ripe old age of mid 20's I dont really think of myself as old, I am happy to be put in my place by the next generation any day of the week.
Do 'young' people really even think about getting married? If people are to live an extra 10+ years, start professions 2-3 years later, work many jobs more, buy houses 5+ years later, maybe getting married a few years later isnt all that odd?
tbh I did not even think of the mail order bride angle - that would have been much stronger. Do celebrities still do the mail order children thing? Where they pluck some infant out of a refugee camp or warzone and adopt them into the glitz and glamour of hollywood?
We've received day old chicks via USPS several times. The local post office had different procedures. Rather than trying to deliver, we were called as soon as they arrived requesting us to come and pick them up.
It's pretty neat and kind of surprising at first. Of the hundreds of birds we've received via USPS, none of them were DOA.
When I worked in a USPS facility, it was always a mix of emotions when a box started chirping. On the one hand, cute baby birds! On the other hand, they’re going through an ordeal right now (they got special non-machine handling, but it still wasn’t pleasant for them to be packed into cartons) and their destination was most likely a factory farm.
we've mail ordered chicks many times. Pretty normal for backyard chicken wranglers. Our dozen or so birds have two acres of fenced, lush, half tree-canopied land and a barn to sleep in.
In case it's helpful to know, it's highly likely that the baby birds that you helped shipped were destined for pretty nice places! Factory farms don't get their birds this way, but small farms do. Also of note, of the dozens times that we got baby birds shipped to our farm when I was a child, it was very very rare to find more than one or two that didn't survive the trip. And sometimes we'd get shipments without a single loss.
Newly hatched chickens can survive without food for more than 24 hours. They only want to sleep and can travel perfectly at this age, so is the usual way for amateurs to buy fancy chicken breeds or small chicken of known sex.
So, most probably those chicken would end having a happy life destroying carefully the backyard of somebody, one scratch at a time.
There is also a special kind of fishes that lay eggs that can travel perfectly without water in an envelope.
I don't see how anyone could possibly know what the subjective experience of being a day-old chick stuffed in a box would be like. But I can imagine what it would be like to be a human stuffed in a box, and that doesn't seem very pleasant. I don't see how the idea that it might be better for birds (who are pretty clearly sentient creatures) could be based on anything other than rationalization and wishful thinking.
I think the assumption that the fresh chicks just hatched from an egg (or in the case of a human came out a womb) wouldn’t be too panicked about confined spaces.
I think a more apt comparison is to imagine a human being shipped in a padded shipping container with a dozen of her friends to keep her warm and help her feel safe.
I've had chicks shipped to me this way and it didn't appear to be traumatic at all for them. They grew into happy, healthy birds.
They only want to sleep and can travel perfectly at this age...
I'm dubious. There is well-established research on the importance of imprinting for new-born chicks across a wide variety of bird species. Therefore, even if the chick spends most of its time asleep, I would want to see research saying that there is no problem due to intentionally depriving the chick of an appropriate target to imprint on.
I've never noticed anything different between chicks we raised and those that came in the mail. They all come running when when we walk into the back pasture.
"A mailpiece marked “If Undeliverable, Abandon” may not be accepted for mailing."
In other terms, you cannot put a dead animal in a box, then give it to the UPS for them to dispose of. I wonder how many people abused this particular "loophole" before they closed it.
Our dump charges $125 per carcass, regardless of size.
But yeah, when they introduced that fee, my wife's family just started burying newborn lambs that didn't survive, rather than, y'know, fedexing them to people.
I do not believe they would be mailed _to_ factory farms. My daughter raised ducks for 4H. We ordered them _from_ a factory farm and they arrived in 2 days (3 days from hatching). They had a stable high-water-content gel in the box for hydration, but it must have been an ordeal.
We've gotten chicks, salt water fish, coral, ladybugs, and live fish food all through the mail. But apparently we can't mail my buddy in a different state some local beer. Oh well, I love my fresh eggs and colorful reef tank :)
Which seems like a missed opportunity for a service all its own: a babysitter who babysits while bringing the child somewhere, rather than in a static location. Which could mean "Uber where every driver has a babysitting certificate and the car has a bassinet and a minifridge" or it could mean "someone who'll watch over your child on public transit." It's fundamentally about the babysitting, not really about providing the transportation.
You can also do this with praying mantises, but they come as an egg nest. Put them under some leaves and a week or two later baby mantises everywhere eating all the bad things. After a couple months there's always a few big ones that stick around. Surprisingly intelligent and curious little things.
Just because postal regulations permit them to be mailed does not preclude other reasons why that action might be illegal or expose you to legal liability.
There are lots of actions that are legal in isolation that become illegal when you do them to other people, particularly when done with malice.
Digging up my residential address or sharing it with other businesses for any purpose other than to render services (e.g. to send a package that I ordered, you might need to share it with FedEx) is harrassment IMO.
There's no pre-existing market for "a bunch of stink bugs", however ladybugs are useful for non-toxic pest control (they'll eat aphids), so they can be ordered via mail.
I love lists like this. I remember waiting for a Greyhound bus and reading the list of prohibited items and imagining the stories behind each one. It ran on for pages. Human heads were not allowed, even if frozen. Martial arts weapons like swords, nunchucks and throwing stars got a section all their own, separate from guns and knives. Each type of bodily fluid was listed separately, lest someone assume that their jar of urine didn't count.
> On February 10, 2017, the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board ordered Li be discharged. Li was granted an absolute discharge. There will be no legal obligations or restrictions pertaining to Li's independent living.
I understand that mens rea should generally be present in crimes in order for convictions but eight years for doing what he did is itself insane.
Reading up on his background, I wonder if he just snapped and killed the guy out of anger for whatever reason and then started cannibalizing the corpse so that he could play the mental illness card at court.
Even if that's true, that's still well beyond a reasonable bound of sanity. Agreed that 8 years seems a bit light though, considering the notoriety of the crime.
If someone has an epileptic seizure or a diabetic goes into hypoglycemic shock whilst driving and gets into a head on collision and kills someone should they go to prison? They call it mental illness for a reason.
I’ve known people with epilepsy who were banned from driving due to this possibly. If they had driven and gotten a seizure and killed someone, they would have been driving with a reckless disregard for the safety of others, which is enough of a mens rea to form intention for some level of murder conviction.
It is likely this is largely true, even if not formally banned from driving, so the answer is probably yes to your hypothetical they should go to prison, or pulling the normative phrase out, likely would go to prison (subject to many mitigating factors).
Perhaps epilepsy was a bad choice. How about for cardiac arrest, stroke, or any number of undiagnosed medical conditions that could cause someone to create dangerous/fatal conditions outside of their control?
Even if we accept your premise that having a mental illness precludes one from taking responsibility for their actions, you still have to deal with the fact that they are a serious danger to society. One of the uses of prison is to take people who would otherwise murder and eat people and remove them from society, so that they can't do that.
There was an incident maybe 30 years ago where a medical school employee went into New York (I think it was) to pick up a batch of human heads to be used for teaching purposes. He left the box in his car while taking care of another errand, and it was stolen.
The box was found sitting on the sidewalk a few blocks away, with the heads still in it.
One can only imagine what went through the thief's mind when he opened his "prize".
Regardless of the thief, it does seem a little concerning that the chain of custody for actual human heads involves being left unattended in a random employee's car.
Once they've been relegated to the heap of experimentation they really don't need to be controlled that much. Oddly I would feel in some way violated if a loved one of mine had died and his/her head were in that box, but if it happened to my own head I would pay it no mind.
The specific types of day-old poultry named in 526.31 are mailable subject to the following requirements:
Poultry that is not more than 24 hours old and is presented for mailing in the original, unopened hatchery box from the hatchery of origin.
The date and hour of hatching is noted on the box by a representative of the hatchery who has personal knowledge thereof. (For Collect on Delivery (COD) shipments made by a hatchery for the account of others, the name or initials and address of the hatchery or the Post Office box number and address of the hatchery must be prominently shown for this standard.)
Box is properly ventilated, of proper construction and strength to bear safe transport in the mail, and is not stacked more than 10 units high.
Day–old poultry is mailed early enough in the week to avoid receipt at the office of address (in case of missed connections) on a Sunday, a national holiday, or the afternoon before a Sunday or national holiday.
Day–old poultry can be delivered to the addressee within 72 hours of the time of hatching.
Day-old poultry sent via surface transportation, must include special handling service fees, in addition to regular postage.
Day-old poultry sent via air transportation must meet all provisions of the airlines. Delivery of the mailpiece is dependent on the availability of air carriers having available equipment to safely deliver the day–old poultry within the specified time limit.
Day–old poultry that is first shipped via a commercial air express or air cargo service and then presented for mailing to a final destination must be in good condition and properly packaged as specified in 526.32a-e.
Boxes of day–old poultry of about identical size, securely fastened together to prevent separation in transit, may be accepted for mailing as a single parcel, provided the total length and girth combined does not exceed Postal Service limits.
I keep insects as pets, and this seems to be a common way to get live insects from point A to point B. I felt a little bad about having them go through the surely-unpleasant process of being in the mail for a couple days, but they came out on the other side healthy enough that I didn't lose any.
Makes the idea of keeping pet insects that no store or breeder sells near you a lot more affordable, which is nice, since a lot of insects make such easy and practical pets.
If you expand your definition of "mailing" things, all sorts of creatures can be sent.
I once mailed a cat via Delta Airlines. Brought the kitty in a carrier to a special desk at the airport with the forms and certificates and a fist full of cash and a few hours later, he was in New York.
I know that sharks and elephants and such can be shipped via FedEx, but I don't consider that "mailing" because the handlers stay with those high-value critters.
There's an interesting British tv show "animal airport" that covers the 24/7 operation at Heathrow airport that deals with the animals coming through.
Lots of paperwork issues, but occasionally random zoo animals turn up on planes due to misdirected air cargo/shenanigans. As well as the scheduled exotics and tons of domestic animals to be quarantined.
Far less handlers than you'd expect for the exotics. Mostly just really sturdy crates.
I worked in the campus post office while in college, and one of the most memorable days during my time there was when a box of live bees was delivered. It was about the size of a small loaf of bread, wooden on four sides and covered by screens on the other two.
We set them aside from the other boxes, near the counter where students would come to pick up their packages. It sat there buzzing quietly all day and generating a lot of surprised looks. Pretty neat.
I remember going in late to work, in order to receive my daughter's lizard via delivery. I was very concerned, but several years later he's doing just fine.
I’m surprised to not see fish listed. When I was a kid my dad would receive live fish from saltwaterfish.com. They would show up in insulated containers, alive, if a bit stressed. I guess they must’ve come via one of the private mail carriers.
In general we tend to over-pack and over-engineer a lot of our shipping and handling processes. Turns out many things just aren't that big of a deal (like shipping bees).
My friend was stationed in Hawaii. She mailed me a coconut. No box, just a stapled a first-class shipping label to it. Delivered without issue.
Wired magazine used to feature an odd mailed item each month, which included a coconut, among other things. Some of them were pretty cool and creative. Many would likely cause some kind of terror alert if attempted today:
Reminds me of a story I can’t find online at the moment: apparently when Games magazine still was published, people would address letters to them with the address encoded as a puzzle.
I guess the USPS finally just started sending them any mail with a sufficiently confusing destination address.
I don't understand.. where did the context for an etch-a-sketch getting mailed come from? Why does every day of travel decrease the chances of it getting to its destination?
I have to know.. :)
*EDIT: ahhh, non-linear commenting! I went to the wired article from the other comment and found what you're referring to. I thought maybe they mailed it with a picture... they mailed it with an address?! that's one hell of a stress test.
I grew up rural and we fairly frequently ordered chicks by mail. I told the story in college of one time, a message left on our answering machine pleading "please, come get your chicks!" with incessant peeping in the background, as we must have not been at home during the mail delivery. For folks who grew up in the city, even the thought of the whole thing was a very powerful (and funny) story.
There's a number of different "monthyl random box of stuff in some category" services these days. I had one for international snacks for a while. My wife did one for cat toys. I've seen one for fishing gear.
Clearly, what the world needs is one for animals. One month: adorable baby chicks. Peep peep. Next month: S C O R P I O N S.
I understand that you are probably joking. For anyone less clear, please remember that animals have complex needs in terms of environment, food, and care to live healthy and pleasant lives. Adorable baby chicks are not a pet to be adopted lightly, without appropriate preparation. Chickens are in many ways much more demanding than a cat or dog.
As a chicken owner myself, I've heard far too many sad stories of people implulse-buying a chick at a hardware store or livestock show, only for it to perish soon after due to easily-avoided oversights or misunderstandings.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 200 ms ] threadSounds like a bit like my ex wife.
But maybe that's just my cultural biases speaking.
I can imagine what would drive someone to enter one of those relationships (from either side), but I can't imagine that you'd feel good about it (on either side).
It's bad enough dealing with Westerners who seem to be in it for the money.
As for our current cultural expectations, I think the idea is supposed to be that you play musical chairs until you hit your mid-to-late thirties, at which point you give up and marry whoever you happen to be with at the time, silently regretting the one that got away.
Better? I dunno. It does result in fewer children.
People would probably be happier if they married at 18 after their high school prom, and before anyone's fortunes were known.
I obviously dont get young people these days, at the ripe old age of mid 20's I dont really think of myself as old, I am happy to be put in my place by the next generation any day of the week.
Do 'young' people really even think about getting married? If people are to live an extra 10+ years, start professions 2-3 years later, work many jobs more, buy houses 5+ years later, maybe getting married a few years later isnt all that odd?
tbh I did not even think of the mail order bride angle - that would have been much stronger. Do celebrities still do the mail order children thing? Where they pluck some infant out of a refugee camp or warzone and adopt them into the glitz and glamour of hollywood?
It's pretty neat and kind of surprising at first. Of the hundreds of birds we've received via USPS, none of them were DOA.
So, most probably those chicken would end having a happy life destroying carefully the backyard of somebody, one scratch at a time.
There is also a special kind of fishes that lay eggs that can travel perfectly without water in an envelope.
I've had chicks shipped to me this way and it didn't appear to be traumatic at all for them. They grew into happy, healthy birds.
But then you go on to pretend to do exactly that.
You’re projecting a negative human experience onto birds.
I'm dubious. There is well-established research on the importance of imprinting for new-born chicks across a wide variety of bird species. Therefore, even if the chick spends most of its time asleep, I would want to see research saying that there is no problem due to intentionally depriving the chick of an appropriate target to imprint on.
"A mailpiece marked “If Undeliverable, Abandon” may not be accepted for mailing."
In other terms, you cannot put a dead animal in a box, then give it to the UPS for them to dispose of. I wonder how many people abused this particular "loophole" before they closed it.
But yeah, when they introduced that fee, my wife's family just started burying newborn lambs that didn't survive, rather than, y'know, fedexing them to people.
At one time you could send human children by US Mail as well.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-chil...
When I had security clearances involving classified documents and dealt with radioactive materials, BOTH of those were shippable by US Mail also.
https://www.history.com/news/mailing-children-post-office
I wonder what happens if you sneak a few more non-queen honeybees?
So it's legal to just, say, mail a bunch of stink bugs and roaches and fruitflies to businesses that send you junk mail or <insert business you hate>?
careful with that one - there are interstate restrictions on transporting insects that are unrelated to the USPS.
I always thought about putting one in someone's locker in high school, but never did it.
There are lots of actions that are legal in isolation that become illegal when you do them to other people, particularly when done with malice.
... abuse of customers?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean
Reading up on his background, I wonder if he just snapped and killed the guy out of anger for whatever reason and then started cannibalizing the corpse so that he could play the mental illness card at court.
It is likely this is largely true, even if not formally banned from driving, so the answer is probably yes to your hypothetical they should go to prison, or pulling the normative phrase out, likely would go to prison (subject to many mitigating factors).
Even if we accept your premise that having a mental illness precludes one from taking responsibility for their actions, you still have to deal with the fact that they are a serious danger to society. One of the uses of prison is to take people who would otherwise murder and eat people and remove them from society, so that they can't do that.
The box was found sitting on the sidewalk a few blocks away, with the heads still in it.
One can only imagine what went through the thief's mind when he opened his "prize".
Body parts are only super custody tracked when they are still viable lifesaving tools (ie organ transplant). Besides that they aren't a huge deal.
Poultry that is not more than 24 hours old and is presented for mailing in the original, unopened hatchery box from the hatchery of origin. The date and hour of hatching is noted on the box by a representative of the hatchery who has personal knowledge thereof. (For Collect on Delivery (COD) shipments made by a hatchery for the account of others, the name or initials and address of the hatchery or the Post Office box number and address of the hatchery must be prominently shown for this standard.) Box is properly ventilated, of proper construction and strength to bear safe transport in the mail, and is not stacked more than 10 units high. Day–old poultry is mailed early enough in the week to avoid receipt at the office of address (in case of missed connections) on a Sunday, a national holiday, or the afternoon before a Sunday or national holiday. Day–old poultry can be delivered to the addressee within 72 hours of the time of hatching. Day-old poultry sent via surface transportation, must include special handling service fees, in addition to regular postage. Day-old poultry sent via air transportation must meet all provisions of the airlines. Delivery of the mailpiece is dependent on the availability of air carriers having available equipment to safely deliver the day–old poultry within the specified time limit. Day–old poultry that is first shipped via a commercial air express or air cargo service and then presented for mailing to a final destination must be in good condition and properly packaged as specified in 526.32a-e. Boxes of day–old poultry of about identical size, securely fastened together to prevent separation in transit, may be accepted for mailing as a single parcel, provided the total length and girth combined does not exceed Postal Service limits.
Makes the idea of keeping pet insects that no store or breeder sells near you a lot more affordable, which is nice, since a lot of insects make such easy and practical pets.
I once mailed a cat via Delta Airlines. Brought the kitty in a carrier to a special desk at the airport with the forms and certificates and a fist full of cash and a few hours later, he was in New York.
I know that sharks and elephants and such can be shipped via FedEx, but I don't consider that "mailing" because the handlers stay with those high-value critters.
Lots of paperwork issues, but occasionally random zoo animals turn up on planes due to misdirected air cargo/shenanigans. As well as the scheduled exotics and tons of domestic animals to be quarantined.
Far less handlers than you'd expect for the exotics. Mostly just really sturdy crates.
Used to be available streaming.
We set them aside from the other boxes, near the counter where students would come to pick up their packages. It sat there buzzing quietly all day and generating a lot of surprised looks. Pretty neat.
Edit: Whoops, I can’t read!
Goldfish
Tropical Fish
- Fish must be held in a securely sealed primary receptacle.
- Fish must be held in a securely sealed primary receptacle.
- Primary receptacle must be cushioned with sufficient absorbent material to take up all liquid in case of leakage.
- Primary receptacle and absorbent cushioning material must be sealed within waterproof outer (shipping) packaging.
My friend was stationed in Hawaii. She mailed me a coconut. No box, just a stapled a first-class shipping label to it. Delivered without issue.
https://www.wired.com/2008/12/st-15returntosender/
I guess the USPS finally just started sending them any mail with a sufficiently confusing destination address.
I have to know.. :)
*EDIT: ahhh, non-linear commenting! I went to the wired article from the other comment and found what you're referring to. I thought maybe they mailed it with a picture... they mailed it with an address?! that's one hell of a stress test.
Clearly, what the world needs is one for animals. One month: adorable baby chicks. Peep peep. Next month: S C O R P I O N S.
As a chicken owner myself, I've heard far too many sad stories of people implulse-buying a chick at a hardware store or livestock show, only for it to perish soon after due to easily-avoided oversights or misunderstandings.