111–120 of 255 posts
That said, it sure wasn't fun for the mail person when they had to deliver me those two boxes of lead ingots.
My friend worked at UPS. He said you could always tell when someone had bullets shipped because of the rattle and heavy weight. He said those were probably the most common heavy shipment they saw.
*'Other Regulated Materials - Domestic'
An implosion-type nuclear weapon can compress matter to some multiple of the density of osmium. This isn't useful for USPS box packaging; I just think it's neat. edit: Also, inertial confinement fusion plasmas go up to about 1,000 g/cm³, https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0008231 ( "Unified first-principles equations of state of deuterium-tritium mixtures in the global inertial confinement fusion region" )
Can this overcompressed material continue to exist at room temperature and pressure? It would be remarkable, but I guess it's hard to imagine how that could work.
Like a balloon exists at STP despite being internally at higher pressure, but balloons also pop. Tempered glass also exists and significantly higher pressure and likewise explodes. Often metal structures will retain some stress (sometimes quite high) after manufacture.
The amount of energy released at some of those other materials if they had the magical property of staying together... would be terrifying if popped.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, we've removed the (redundant, I suppose) word 'physically' and squeezed in 'small' in the title above.
I don't think "physically" is redundant. It could be legally impossible, or practically impossible. I played around with the title and character limit for a minute, and managed to get: "A small flat-rate USPS box's weight limit is physically impossible to exceed". How's that?
I've taken another crack at it. Now someone will complain about USPS being missing, but "flat rate" implies someone's rate, and it's not as if USPS is a misleading surprise.
(Submitted title was "It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a USPS flat rate box".
First edit was "It is impossible to exceed the weight limit for a small USPS flat rate box".)
p.s. If anyone wonders why HN spends so much obsessive energy getting titles right - I wondered that for years, too. Then it eventually made sense: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20429573. It's like this tiny corner of the universe where one's voice can be heard and correctness actually matters.
That's my theory anyhow. All I know for sure is that the beast likes it if you soothe it about titles.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is more due to safety and security requirements of the package than the economics or shipping itself. FedEx and UPS will be very happy to ship you something for a steep discount without any assumed liability, but there would be no takers for it. Providing a trusted chain of custody for the package all the way from point A to B is the real value add.
I don't know about that... shipping heavy and/or large stuff becomes very expensive even without insurance (= no assumed liability). Big shippers get big discounts from UPS and FedEx so as the little guy you get screwed by price discrimination. Airlines are a much more competitive market.
Another case is for shipping products to customers. With how insurance works, the insurance would cost you more than just sending the item again. However, proof of delivery is really nice for if a customer claims something was never delivered.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My friend worked at UPS. He said you could always tell when someone had bullets shipped because of the rattle and heavy weight. He said those were probably the most common heavy shipment they saw.
The big ORM-D* sticker was a pretty good clue as well. *'Other Regulated Materials - Domestic'
Earlier quoted context omitted.
« It is physically impossible to exceed the 70-pound domestic weight limit for a small flat rate box. The interior dimensions (8 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 1 5/8") are ~75.333 in^3. If you filled the box with pure osmium, the densest substance known to man, it would weigh ~61.48 lbs.»
Followup Tweets: Should have said densest substance on Earth. Fill it with neutron star and you’ll be approx. 30 trillion kg overweight. Had to post this correction before @neiltyson popped in with an "Actually..." I don't have anything to plug, so just try to be a little bit better than normal if you happen to think of it, but don't make a big deal out of it--no one's asking you to be a saint.
Or you could have not and actually let him do it, then you could say it happened.
What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…
The specialty pharmacy fucked around and found out. I social engineered my way up the chain of command, interrupting the medical director’s dinner. They ended up hiring a courier to fly it halfway across the country. A dude showed up the doorstep at 4AM (four hours before it was needed) with a box packed with dry ice. The poor courier dude had a three hour cab ride, which probably cost more than the drug.
I made the courier and driver breakfast and coffee. The courier was fascinating, he had great stories and basically had a career mostly built on corporate screw-ups.
Since I discovered the availability of anvils on Amazon, I have always wondered about the economics of shipping them. Right now, I can order a 66lb "Happybuy" anvil for $153 with free prime shipping. One assumes that the $153 includes the cost of shipping it all the way from China in the first place. For comparison, a similarly sized anvil from a reputable local dealer costs $949 plus tax and shipping at the lowest r…
My friend once ordered a hot tub with 2 day shipping on Amazon Prime, and has often wondered about the economics of that purchase.
Semi related - a few months ago, while not fully sober, I was aimlessly browsing through Amazon and ended up owning a set of two 1.5inch cubes - one aluminium, one tungsten. It’s kind of a silly purchase considering it’s a lot of money for 2 metal cubes, but it’s honestly very impressive just how heavy that small cube is - both objectively, and when compared to the aluminium cube. Also makes for a great talking point…
When I heard that the crypto millionaires were buying Tungsten cubes for fun, I checked into the prices. Amazon lists a 1.5" cube (weighs 1 kg) at $199 and a 4" cube (that weighs 18.9 kg [0]) at $3499. There's no way I'm spending that, but I will admit to wanting to experience their density for myself. [0] free Prime shipping for the win
What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…
Back in 2000, our SF based company had a server in a datacenter in the UK die. The quickest and cheapest way to fix it was to have our IT guy take a replacement server in a suitcase and fly to the UK to replace it.