XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, uk.tech.electronic-security   
   From: XSJCLSIAEMCA@spammotel.com   
      
   On 1 Nov 2005 03:54:33 -0800, joseph.hutcheon@virgin.net   
    mysteriously appeared thru the usenet mist to inform us thus...   
      
   >Stephen Glynn wrote:   
   >   
   >> Diversity Isn't A Codeword wrote:   
   >> > "banana"  wrote in message   
   >> > news:Tohcy+A7mzZDFwPv@borve.demon.co.uk...   
   >> >   
   >> >>I'd be grateful for info as to what electronic gadgetry is installed in   
   >> >>UK postboxes.   
   >> >>   
   >> >>How are visits by Royal Mail workers to empty the boxes logged   
   >> >>electronically?   
   >> >>   
   >> >>Presumably the vans are all satellite-tracked. But what gizmo do the   
   >> >>workers use to 'shake hands' with the gadgetry in the box?   
   >> >>   
   >> >>And what about 'business postboxes' - the ones for franked mail only?   
   >> >>Just try using your car radio near one. You probably won't be able to,   
   >> >>because of the electromagnetic interference.   
   >> >   
   >> >   
   >> > they use special X rays to scan every piece of mail and record every   
   letter   
   >> > everybody sends, it's all done by secret MI5 operatives, just ask Mike   
   >> > Corley.   
   >> >   
   >> >   
   >>   
   >> Does anyone remember the old 'Candid Camera' joke years ago when they   
   >> had the talking postbox?   
   >>   
   >> They had a microphone and loudspeaker rigged up inside it and would   
   >> attempt to engage passers-by in conversation.   When they found someone   
   >> who was prepared to talk to the postbox (thus earning rather strange   
   >> looks from other people) they'd try to pursuade him to get someone else   
   >> to talk to it and, if he did, would stop talking when he fetched them.   
   >   
   >Indeed.  I also recall the story of J B Morton ('Beachcomber') who   
   >would attract a crowd by walking up to a postbox and shouting into the   
   >letter slot 'It's safe to come out now!'   
      
   Was it David Blunkett inside the box I wonder? ;-)   
      
   --   
   "Turkey should join the EU 'because it is a European country'"   
   ...Jack Straw 2nd October 2005 in Luxembourg.   
   BBC: "only 22% of citizens across Europe want Turkey to join the EU"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)