On the Romanian Postal Services, With a Twist

Over the last couple of months, there have been several occasions when I've been meaning to make a note of the how annoyingly slow and sloppy the Romanian Postal Services are*, and just how much that bothers me, by getting in the way of my pursuing the Postcrossing path.
I only didn't write anything sooner because I was busy with many other items topping my To Do's, and that just didn't seem to be worth it. Plus, there were just so many other things to rant about, really.

.... And then, this very week, as my levels of annoyance were reaching some sort of a record, all of a sudden, my cards start arriving! On time! A couple of them, in 2-4 days! A-mazing, really! Even more so, as no particular explanation is available as of yet. Further investigation to be undertaken.

* Now, what do I mean by slow? I mean cards such as this one, taking almost 40 days to each another European country.
And what do I mean by sloppy? I mean having to re-send almost one quarter to one third of the cards that I had sent initially, because the first batch never made it. That was -and is, for that matter- quite annoying. And it happened in particular in relation to cards I sent to Russia, China or Ukraine.

Random Return Notes

1. As the big metal bird was doing its last landing manoeuvres, all lights stayed off indoors; and I could notice the real tiny flesh-and-blood bird out the window - lost in a world of big metal birds unlike itself. How does this happen? It's the first time I see lost birds on the airport.

2. The following day it snowed: it was the winter's first snow -I was told- and I appreciated the gift. I did not however appreciate the -12/-15 degrees difference between my point of departure and that of destination.

3. Perhaps an unnecessary assessment, but it happened: on this return's occasion I've come to realise that this blog's readers are not who I thought them to be. What's more, I don't know [nor can I infer] who they are, at all [with a couple of exceptions]. So, here's to spice things up: should you be reading my rantings and reviews, feel free to leave a comment on what is it that you'd like to reader further. I happen to think it's a fair deal for all. Should no comments be left, I'll continue this randomness as previously :)

Have a good Sunday, All!

The reasoning about Uncertainty

Seventy-six years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took to the inaugural dais and reminded a nation that its recent troubles “concern, thank God, only material things.” In the midst of the Depression, he urged Americans to remember that “happiness lies not in the mere possession of money” and to recognize “the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success.”
“The only thing we have to fear,” he claimed, “is fear itself.”
As it turned out, Americans had a great deal more to fear than that, and their innocent belief that money buys happiness was entirely correct. Psychologists and economists now know that although the very rich are no happier than the merely rich, for the other 99 percent of us, happiness is greatly enhanced by a few quaint assets, like shelter, sustenance and security. Those who think the material is immaterial have probably never stood in a breadline.
[...] But light wallets are not the cause of our heavy hearts. [...]

Consider an experiment by researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands who gave subjects a series of 20 electric shocks. Some subjects knew they would receive an intense shock on every trial. Others knew they would receive 17 mild shocks and 3 intense shocks, but they didn’t know on which of the 20 trials the intense shocks would come. The results showed that subjects who thought there was a small chance of receiving an intense shock were more afraid — they sweated more profusely, their hearts beat faster — than subjects who knew for sure that they’d receive an intense shock.
That’s because people feel worse when something bad might occur than when something bad will occur. Most of us aren’t losing sleep and sucking down Marlboros because the Dow is going to fall another thousand points, but because we don’t know whether it will fall or not — and human beings find uncertainty more painful than the things they’re uncertain about. [...]

- more of the above in The New York Times.

Legal Responses to New Psychoactive Substances in Europe (19/2/2009)

For anyone out there who might be curious on what it is that I've been spending my time since starting up with the EMCDDA last year in May, this is the report that has taken up most of my time & that just got published: Legal Responses to New Psychoactive Substances in Europe (19/2/2009).
If you happen to find the time to read it and consequently have any comments or questions or both, bring them on!