possession of brown sugar and envelopes illegal ?

[georgemw at speakeasy.net]

On 14 Oct 2001, at 10:28, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 10:12:38PM -0700, Morlock Elloi wrote:
> > Maybe the high density living that we are so used to is incompatible with new
> > weapons. Maybe societal structures based on projectile-throwing weaponry are
> > passe. New weapons always changed rules, and it was called progress.
> 
> I think that's an interesting argument, but you'll note that the Florida
> Anthrax case targeted a firm that was hardly in a "high density living"
> situation. Apparently it was a nondescript suburb.
> 

Since Anthrax isn't human to human conatgious, population density
is pretty much irrelevant, at least if you're delivering it by mail.

> Throughout history people have congregated together, in family groups
> and small tribes. It strike me as hardly likely that we'll give up
> that pleasure because of some vague fear of anthrax. (Maybe huge
> island cities like NYC, however, will see a sudden erosion of
> residents.) 

If they can survive rent control, they can survive anything.

>Instead we'll take proper precautions and continue
> meeting.
> 
> This is a perfect market opportunity for a "mail opening and detoxification"
> firm that would be employed by media groups and large, hated computer
> companies as a contractor. Think food tasters, but different.
> 
> -Declan
> 
>
The kind of food irradiators used to make the milk that doesn't spoil
should be able to destroy anthrax spores, I think.  You might have
to cook it a little longer because spores are harder to
kill then wet bacteria, but if your letters are just letters you can get
away with cooking it longer, you don't care if you denature some 
proteins.    I'm guessing if all mail was sterilized at the post office
the cost could be held below 2 cents a letter.

Of course, you'd still have crop dusters to worry about.

George