Useful anti-junk mail websites

If you live in the United States and want to reduce or eliminate your unwanted mail there are two websites that will do all the legwork:

Catalog Choice is a free service where you enter your details and select the catalogues you no longer want to receive and they will contact the marketer for you and ask them to take your details off their list. It is a project of the Ecology Center in the US.

41 Pounds is named after the amount of junk mail an American apparently recieves in a year (around 20kg for the metrically minded). It does much the same thing as Catalog Choice but I think attacks more marketers and charges a $41 fee for a five year service. They donate a third of the fee to community and environmental projects.

My next post will be advice on how you can stop unsolicited junk mail.

Manifesto

What is The Return To Sender Movement?
One blogger's crusade to rid the world of unwanted mail.

Who is this for?
Anyone who receives, and becomes irritated by, unwanted mail and wants to know what to do about it.

Why? (short version)

• It's annoying


• Life is too short to sift through unwanted mail


• We can reduce the use of paper by killing off junk mail


• Direct marketers need to innovate


• Less advertising material = less temptation = less material consumption

Why? (long version)
Beyond apathy: The problem with a lot of people who are annoyed by unwanted mail is that they don't care enough to do something about it. So every day they pick up their mail and throw half of it away because they can't be bothered attacking the problem at its source. This movement aims to motivate people into solving the unwanted mail problem with a minimum of effort.

No time: If only you could just grab the contents of your mailbox and be assured that it's all for you and your fellow residents and that it's all useful stuff. If you could cut down on the time it takes to sift through mail by reducing the amount of useless and unwanted mail then that time can be better spent thinking of calm blue oceans instead of wringing a direct marketer's neck*.

(* Thoughts resembling reality may occur)

Eco-friendly: The first tenet of environmental guardianship is REDUCE. So although you may recycle your unwanted mail it is, in fact, better to stop them printing this crud in the first place. Think of it as 'prevention better than cure' for the environment. I doubt that most marketers use environmentally friendly practices in their printing (double-sided post-consumer recycled paper with non-toxic ink). If a bunch of people started telling marketers to stop sending stuff, then this would equate to a reduction in demand for resources.

Innovate or die: Let's face it, direct mail marketing has a low yield, about a 2% response rate for untargeted campaigns. That means, for every 100 letters sent, 2 people respond. That doesn't even mean they necessarily buy, they might ring up and enquire. (And I'm not sure if me ringing up to ask them to take me off their list counts...). That means 98 people are wasting the marketer's resources. Surely there's a better way? Of course there's a better way!

But I'm not a marketing genius but I've noticed that when people take things voluntarily, there's a much better response rate. Think samples, or ads in publications or piggybacking off another product. I'm quite happy to flick through my local paper and look at the ads because the primary reason I pick it up is to read the articles. In comparison, unwanted mail just doesn't rate. It's lazy, it's boring. Marketing is supposed to be the new creative frontier and we're still getting snail mail? Go forth and innovate, dammit!

Resist temptation: Here's one for the shopaholics, like my mum. My mum loves catalogues. It means she can find out what she wants and know where to get it. The problem with this is she comes back from the shops and regrets buying so much stuff that she doesn't need. When I lived at home I started throwing out the catalogues before she got to them. It meant she couldn't find an excuse to go to the shops other than for groceries (and what happened during that trip was out of my control). It meant she wasn't being manipulated by marketing.

I felt manipulated in a different way. I used to look at catalogues and circle the things I wanted. Being a student, I didn't have much money so most of it remained out of my possession, but the lack of having things made me feel left behind. When I realised that this was part of the marketing psychology, I snapped out of it and have been anti-overconsumption since. Note, not anti-consumption, anti-overconsumption.

Anti-overconsumption also fits in with my earlier point about the 'reduce' tenet. The sooner we reduce unnecessary material consumption, the better for the environment.

Manifesto over. On with the other stuff...

Witmol goes North

Well, the election result looks all right - in my opinion, a Labor government (dogged by a stereotype of incompetency) is better than a Coalition government (known evil). Whether Australia's new Rudd-er (ho, ho, ho, bet you've never heard that one before) will turn out to be incompetent is yet to be seen but most of us, it seems, are willing to give him a go. And I think The Greens picked up the balance of power in the Senate so I'm pretty happy with that result.

However, North Sydney is still stuck with bloody Joe Hockey. Nooooooooooo..! Dammit, maybe I should have defaced that poster of him opposite my apartment block. Then again, he knows where I live so perhaps I would have been suspect #1. I don't suppose Mike Bailey would have been any better anyhow. Ah bugger it. I guess you can't have everything.

I voted absentee in my parents' electorate (the very safe Liberal seat of Mitchell - the new guy there is a young 'un, Alex Hawke) and it gave me such pleasure to walk past all the pamphleteers just to dismiss them with a "I'm sorry, I'm not from this electorate". I recommend it. Especially to the Christian Democratic Party. Seriously people, there's no place for religion in politics. Haven't you ever heard of Estates? I belong to the Fourth.

I then spent the best part of three hours in the thick of transport-related 'disasters' (usual kind...). First was the drive to the petrol station to fill up my dad's car and pump up his tyres and clean up the exterior to hide the fact that his alway-garaged pride and joy has spent about ten days of the last month outside, under a tree, in the rain. I'd saved up a Shell petrol voucher only to find that there was no longer a Shell where I thought there was. Then the squeegee cleaned the back windscreen but squirted dirty water all over the boot of the car, under the freakin' spoiler so I had to use paper towels to mop it all up. Top that off with my struggle with one of the old-fashioned air pressure hoses (I can never be sure whether I'm pumping it right - let's just hope for the best)...

So that my parents could have both vehicles at their disposal when they returned, I decided to catch public transport home. Laden with groceries. It is at this point that I questioned my decision to buy 3kg of grapefruit. Problem was that my parents do not have a bus timetable at their disposal and there was no internet at the house. So I had to call the transport info line which required me to know the bus stop number before I could find out the timetable. After much button-pushing, I managed to talk to a human who found my bus stop number for me and told me that the next bus was at 3:55pm and the next after that 4:55pm.

It was already 3:40pm and it takes 10 mins to walk to the bus stop uninhibited, never mind that I knew I was going to be burdened with four bags full of stuff. So I had to quickly lock up, pack everything together and heave everything up the hill to the bus stop. I only made it because I saw the bus as it entered the roundabout before the bus stop so ran in front of it to catch the driver's attention. Otherwise it was an hour wait...

So I made it to Beecroft Station. The citybound trains usually come at 21 and 51 past the hour on weekends so it was unusual to see the northbound train pull up first at 4:33pm. After it had pulled away, an automated announcement "reminded" passengers that there was trackwork on the line from North Strathfield to Strathfield. Now this particular trackwork is the bane of my existence because it is only one stop's worth of trackwork but the usual three minute ride turns into a 30 minute nightmare when passengers alight at North Strathfield and cram onto an undersupply of buses, negotiate Parramatta Road and disembark at Strathfield Station. It's even harder when you have four bags of groceries. However, I felt even worse for the group of consumers who'd just bought a suite of furniture from Rhodes Ikea.

I waddled onto the platform at Strathfield. I should also note at this point that the milk bar at Beecroft had run out of newspapers and the kiosk at Strathfield didn't appear to sell papers, so I was stuck with loads of dead time and nothing to fill it with. Eventually my train arrived and I reached Waverton just after 6pm. Just love it when a 30-min drive is a 2.5-hour public transport disaster. I'm losing my grip on public transport advocacy, climate change or no climate change.

I was particularly annoyed that the announcement about trackwork did not play until after the northbound train had left the platform at Beecroft because it would have been my pleasure to change trains at Hornsby and travel down the North Shore line instead of having to deal with the North Strathfield crap. Hmph.

Anyway, today there was more bad news in the north: the result of the NSW vs TAS one-day cricket match at North Sydney Oval. Although NSW totally annihilated Tasmania in their recent test, NSW went down by 9 wickets this evening. A poor effort. To be fair, we batted pretty well even though we kept losing wickets. And fielded magnificently... just no verve in the bowling, Bracken apart. Anyway, here's a pic of Australian captain Ricky Ponting as his typical swashbuckling self:

Lotus & Ming (dim sum)

I'm currently writing a story about niche businesses and one of my interviewees was the lovely Karen Lavecky from Lotus & Ming. She was kind enough to send me some of her product (frozen dim sum) to try and I promised to send her some feedback.

The taste test involved:
Peking duck spring rolls
Shiitake & leek spring rolls
Pork & bok choy dumplings
Scallop & shiitake har gow (dumplings)
Soy fusion dipper
Spicy plum dipper

I should preface this by saying I prepared two rounds of dim sum in different ways. I’m terrible at frying so the first method I tried was baking, as per the back of all four packets. This worked well for the spring rolls but gave the dumplings an unusual crispiness (which wasn’t bad, just unorthodox).

My second attempt was experimental, baking the spring rolls in a sandwich press, which worked and took less time to cook and, since I don’t have any steaming implements, steaming the dumplings using a lettuce leaf on a wire cooling rack perched above a saucepan with boiling water in it, covered by the pan lid. This was more successful than baking the dumplings and it deserves to be said that the scallop dumplings tasted exactly like they do in a yum cha restaurant with the added texture of the shiitake.

Both the Peking duck spring rolls and the shiitake & leek spring rolls under both baking methods maintained their crispiness and went well with both dipping sauces. The triumph here is the balance of the heavier favours – the duck and the leek – with the more delicate ‘top notes’ of the bean sprouts and shiitake respectively. The best combination was the peking duck with the plum sauce and the shiitake/leek with the soy fusion.

My favourite of the lot was the flavoursome pork & bok choy dumplings, which exploited the right balance with the simplicity of the combination, a ‘why didn’t anyone do this before?’ type flavour. It married equally well with both sauces and, like the har gow, worked better steamed than baked.

Overall, the range seemed lighter, fresher and healthier than what you would get at standard yum cha. The option ‘to fry or not to fry’ means that consumers can control the amount of oil in the meal, which means you can walk away, belly full, without feeling greasy but still have your fill of tasty dim sum. I like tasting what’s in the dim sum as opposed to the additives (oil, fat, MSG) so it is great that the true flavours are more prominent in this take-home range.

Yeah, I'll be buying some to keep in the freezer in case guests drop by.

Food rating: 8/10
Enjoyment rating: 7/10 (a personal thing - not that fond of Chinese vege)

Come the election

I've never looked forward to an election so keenly in my life, if only to stop the barrage of political mail invading my mailbox. As previously blogged I have written to Joe Hockey, the incumbent MP of my electorate, and have stated, on no uncertain terms, that he remove me from his propaganda mailing list.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that politicians do not read their mail and therefore we can infer that they also do not listen to the people of their electorate. The following four pieces of mail landed in my mailbox today:



1: "NOT AT THIS ADDRESS FOR MORE THAN 1 YEAR PLS DELETE FROM RECORDS"
On the back of a bank letter for the previous tenant. I send the letters back RTS politely explaining she no longer lives here but they keep coming. Is this where all our bank fees go, chasing customers who no longer live at their previous residences?

2: "NO POLITICAL ADVERTISING"
On the back of a letter from Mike Bailey, the Labor candidate for my electorate. I'm hoping the straightforward message might ring a bell as it is the label that my mailbox has carried for a good four weeks (through heavy rain, I might add - pretty good for removable Scotch tape)

3: "THIS IS HARASSMENT I TOLD YOU TO STOP MAILING ME"
On the back of a letter from Joe Hockey, Sydney South address. Pretty clear, given my previous correspondence to him. Which he clearly hasn't read or 'actioned'.

4: "I TOLD YOU TO DELETE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST. IF YOU DON'T LISTEN, HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO VOTE FOR YOU?"
On the back of another letter from Joe Hockey, North Sydney address. Enough said.

All of these epistles will be sent back RTS tomorrow. Hopefully the Northside Courier has published my vehement letter about mailbox harassment.

While I'm on the topic, many pieces of unaddressed mail have been unceremoniously shoved in my mailbox despite my "NO POLITICAL ADVERTISING" sign. I will award a dagger for each unsolicited piece of propaganda...

Joe Hockey/Liberal: 5 daggers (and I will PERSONALLY WRING HIS NECK for the SIX other letters he has sent)
Mike Bailey/Labor: 4 daggers (one letter)
The Greens: 2 daggers (very disappointing)
Climate Change Coalition: 1 dagger (bit of a letdown)

Fucking hell, why can't it be Saturday already?

LOLpollies

I can has cheezburger and the impending election has so much to answer for...

George Michael

I had a dream that I was having tea with an old colleague of mine, Sonya. We were wedged in an alcove at the QVB sitting at what looked like a Baroque style wrought iron garden set painted cream with the appropriate floral flourishes. Then George Michael came by - he was an acquaintance of Sonya's. I tried not to fall out of my seat. Instead I shook his hand and we chatted briefly and I tried to be cool around him. I asked him why he hadn't toured in Australia for a long time and he laughed.

Then I was at the swimming pool downstairs (for those of you who aren't familiar with the Queen Victoria Building, it certainly does not have a swimming pool) getting told off for indecent exposure. Apparently some time in the past I had appeared naked in front of everyone before diving into the pool.

So there you go. George Michael and skinny-dipping at the QVB as part of the same dream.

Occasional Subscription

So I was walking down to the local shop to get my weekly paper when I thought about the whole subscription business and how it could be improved in a number of ways. In my mind, it melded together with the concept of a TravelTen.

For those not familiar with a TravelTen, it is a card that a commuter can buy for ten trips of a pre-determined length on a bus or a ferry. Buying the card gives the commuter a discount compared with buying ten trips separately and also makes it more convenient when boarding the bus as they just need to dip the TravelTen into the machine, which deducts one trip from their balance each time. Just like a debit card, actually, but with a fixed amount.

There are three main problems with the subscriptions business; threat of people stealing the paper/mag, missing out on special gifts and needing to organise a hiatus if you happen to be away or are just swamped by so much reading material that you cannot possibly find time to read the magazine this week.

But there are many benefits for a publishing house to have subscribers - the publisher knows they have a steady readership and can usually monitor the demographics of this readership to tailor suitable content and in turn 'sell' the readership to advertisers to ensure the publication's survival.

What I propose is a subscription card accepted by newsagencies and other places where magazines are sold whereby subscribers pay for a subscription to a magazine and every time they collect the publication from a store, they scan the card to deduct the number of issues left in the subscription. The card can be sold at a discount to reward prepayment and commitment, just like most subscriptions are now.

For the subscriber, this means:

• never having to risk having a paper/mag stolen (the reason I don't have a newspaper subscription);


• being able to get those 'free gifts' that often come with publications that don't get sent in the mail;


• collecting your paper/mag whenever you want (ie not in the mail but at the newsagency on your way home from work so you don't have to read mX on the train);


• not having to stop your subscription if you go on holidays; and


• fostering a good community relationship with the publication sellers

For the publisher, this means:

• retaining prepayment and commitment to the magazine for a given period;


• not paying for postage or dealing with mailhouses; and


• being able to track your subscribers' pick-up habits (e.g. where they picked up their issue, whether they missed an issue etc)

Some additional features to consider:

• having a particular expiry date e.g. for a monthly magazine, publishers might want to say the subscriber must collect 12 issues within an 18 month period to ensure they have turnover;


• loading more than one subscription onto one card so everything can be paid for in one transaction;


• sellers' commission for stocking the paper/mag and handling the card; and


• gifts that let the recipient choose the publication and/or a longer expiry date so that the publisher can see which issues appeal to the recipient

Somebody do this so I can reap the benefits of a cheaper subscription without having to wake up at the crack of dawn to get my paper (with the alternative that it gets stolen). And so when all the free CDs and stuff come around I don't have to see my newsagent, which is a suburb away and inevitably runs out of stock anyway. And so we can save petrol on paper men doing the rounds.

The Cat Empire - So Many Nights (gig/album)

The Cat Empire
Metro Theatre, Sydney (14th, 17th October, 2007)

So Many Nights (2007)
By The Cat Empire (EMI)

On first listening to the album So Many Nights, I had moments where I thought "I kinda like that", such as the string/scratch 'turn' on the title track and the rumble behind Harry's vocals on The Darkness but nothing stood out until the soaring emotional pull of The Ocean Takes Us All.

It's always the way, isn't it? You have a band you love and you know all their existing albums off by heart and they have a new collection that you know you should love - but you don't yet. Since I'm of the old school of listening, whereby I will play albums through, and repeat, instead of skipping songs that I don't like to begin with, then I get a thorough aural education when a new album comes out.

Eventually I added Radio Song and Voodoo Cowboy to my favoured list but it took about four listens to discover those. The thing with TCE is that you need to go to a live show to consolidate an album because then you really appreciate the nuances in the music through the energy that the boys inject into the lyrics and their musical relationship.

So my flatmate and I went to two very different gigs at The Metro, Sydney (part of their record-breaking series). The Sunday was the first night of this series so they were fresh, rolling out the new songs with aplomb and mixing it up with a few old favourites. Here I gained an appreciation of Fishies, previous to the gig a 'meh' kind of song but one that carried well to rhythmic movement. Harry nursed an excellent The Darkness that must have lasted about 10 minutes but which deserved to be showcased.

As with all their gigs I've see thus far, it was executed with the kind of enthusiasm and energy that you'd only expect from consuming chemical substances. The wonderful thing about TCE is the interplay between the different band members, and even their ring-ins, The Empire Horns, where no one on stage is left behind. The tangents that come from the songs are a delighful mix of raw and polished talent so rare in popular bands these days.

The second show we went to was on Wednesday, which was touted as 'fan night' featuring a set list voted on by the fans. Before the show, fans could submit questions to be answered sporadically throughout the show. Ross Irwin was in charge of reading out the questions and found most of them to be crap except one of mine, which was 'Which song would you never play live?' (I can't remember what my other question was but I think it was pretty cliche). It was the only question that was answered before the exercise got scrapped and the answer, according to Felix, was "I don't think we've ever played The Wine Song live".

I must beg to differ, Mr Riebel, as I fell in love with The Wine Song during the first TCE gig I ever went to, coincidentally at The Metro about five years ago. I distinctly remember a female singer and Harry acting out the 'run, run, run' part. Prior to that I'd never really noticed it on the album.

Anyway, as the set list was nominated by fans it was of course dominated by older stuff, which was a pity as I quite liked listening to the new stuff in a live context. As I said, it's almost necessary to do so to consolidate an album in mine consciousness. Thus, Wednesday was most definitely Harry's night, with lots of 'Harry' songs and impro interludes, including a 15-minute The Car Song and starring a fan doing the trumpet intro to How to Explain. The night finished with two takes of the new single So Many Nights, filmed for the video clip.

The other thing I would like to mention is Felix's sustainability session, which I attended after the Saturday matinee (I didn't go to the show, I just went to the session). Sadly, it was a bit too beginner for me, though I did get to pose the question "If Felix from The Cat Empire can't get The Metro to stop using incandescent light bulbs, what can the rest of us do to change the habits of others?" The answer was a bit philosophical: "Set a good example and don't forget to tell people why you do what you do."

And the other other thing I'd like to mention is the support act, The Bamboos, were fantastic – worth both admissions prices alone. I will definitely try and see them again when they are next in town. Their too cool blend of funk with jazz sensibilities had my feet almost worn out even before TCE mounted the stage. So much rhythm, such a short set...

Gig rating: 9/10
Enjoyment rating: 10/10

Album rating: 7/10
Enjoyment rating: 8/10

First Tuesday

I bet on the Melbourne Cup every year, just like millions of Australians. It's an expensive three-and-a-half minutes, let me tell you. This year my outlay was $1/win and $2/place for three horses - Tungsten Strike (led for half the race, then like most early leaders CAME LAST), Sirmione and Eskimo Queen = $9.

I also bought a horse in the office sweep for $5 and pulled Zipping, which is the exact same horse that I got in last year's sweep. AND GUESS WHAT? It came FOURTH. JUST LIKE IT DID LAST YEAR. Fourth is the first loser, you don't get anything but you have the ignominy of knowing that you were pretty close to getting a small prize.

Still, I suppose it's a good thing that the boss took us to lunch at the pub and paid for drinks. That way no one loses. (Anyway, he won the sweep).

Those Muslims again

Christian Democratic Party
GPO Box 141
Sydney 2001
Phone 9114 6674

MEDIA RELEASE
TUESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2007

CLOSE ISLAMIC SCHOOLS

Macarthur CDP candidate Godwin Goh and CDP Party Leader Reverend the Hon Fred Nile MLC have applauded the efforts of local residents in opposing the construction at Camden of a school for 1,200 Muslim children.

Senior Christian Democratic Party members attended the Monday 5 November meeting at the Falcons Soccer Club where local residents overwhelmingly rejected the plan.

"Muslim schools in Britain and Europe are breeding grounds for anti-Christian and anti-Jewish hate and terrorism," said Godwin Goh. "The safest thing is to have no Muslim schools here.

"The advocates of exclusively Muslim schools want to impose educational apartheid. I am greatly encouraged by the local popular backlash at this attempt to breed Islam in Camden."

The Christian Democratic Party is campaigning for a ten-year moratorium on Muslim immigration and no more mosques.

Reverend Nile concluded: "Instead of opening new Muslim schools we should be closing existing Muslim Schools. The only way to stop Muslim brainwashing is for Muslim children to mix with non-Muslims at school.

"In the Bankstown Municipality, Muslim children will outnumber Christian children in ten years. The problems will be greatly exacerbated if Muslim children and Christian children are kept separate during their formative years. The answer is NO MUSLIM SCHOOLS."

((ENDS))

INTERVIEWS:
Fred Nile 0418 619 731
Godwin Goh 0414 463 138
Media spokesman 0402 558 947

* * * * *

WHOA. Did I miss that scripture class on tolerance or does that not get taught any more? This media release, which I assure you has been faithfully reproduced here UNABRIDGED, is just too outrageous for me to know where to start. I'll do my best starting from the beginning...

"Muslim schools in Britain and Europe are breeding grounds for anti-Christian and anti-Jewish hate and terrorism" - Evidence please! And while I'm here, might I remind Mr Goh that the biggest terrorist concentration in the UK/Europe in the past 50 years did not come from Muslim schools but from the Catholics and the Protestants in Northern Ireland?

"The advocates of exclusively Muslim schools want to impose educational apartheid" - You mean, unlike Christian schools? Or Catholic schools? Or, say, girls' schools or boys' schools? Or Montessori schools? - I mean, their type of education is really different from 'normal' schools...

"The only way to stop Muslim brainwashing is for Muslim children to mix with non-Muslims at school" - The only way to stop the CDP from brainwashing the public about Muslims is to stop issuing ridiculous, offensive and erroneous media releases.

Did the CDP ever stop to think that their hard line stance against Muslim schools and against the religion in general (reduction of Muslim immigration and "no more mosques") could lead to Muslims feeling, well, unwelcome here in Australia? Could it be that frustration from being unable to practice one's religion may push some of the more, shall we say, extreme faithful to lash out at those who curb their freedom? Is it so much of a stretch, then, to say that it is not the Muslim faith itself that incites "anti-Christian hate and terrorism" but the anti-Muslim sentiment peddled so ferociously at one religion by the very Christians who are accusing Muslims of hate?

Hypocrites, these CDP candidates! They are courting self-fuilfilling prophecies through their ignorance. I, for one, hope that the Muslim community has enough sense to speak calmly against this verbal attack and come off the better for it. And quietly go about their faith through whichever education they feels suits their child best and attend their local mosque as they see fit. And I hope we live in a society that remains free enough for them to do so without fear of retribution from an intolerant, uninformed "Christian" "Democratic" Party leader who has no right to have the title 'Honourable' preceding his name.

You may have noticed that I felt it necessary to print contact details of the perpetrators. Please, if you feel so inclined, tell them what you think.