Comments on: Postman’s Nightmare

By: The Top Ten at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:56:24 +0000

[...] Hilarity: On the Amazon reported on one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. And this followup reported on one of the saddest. If you want a good giggle, you might also check out Postman’s Nightmare [...]

By: Tom Wire

Tom Wire — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:18:59 +0000

If houses are on both sides of the street, I believe that would make the network Eulerian and a Chinese Postman Tour would be the shortest route… Not a nightmare at all for a mathematician!

By: Mrs. H.

Mrs. H. — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:32:10 +0000

Would love to blame this on the crazy Floridians, but my weekend place in Connecticut on South Drive keeps getting the mail that should have gone to South Street or South Trail — all within the same zip code. Is it really so difficult to come up with more ideas??

By: Al V.

Al V. — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:31:28 +0000

There must be some truly lazy real estate developers out there.

By: Lukas

Lukas — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:43:15 +0000

The Big Question, of course, being “Why the [expletive]?!?” Any answers? Why would anyone do such a thing?

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:01:37 +0000

I will add again that once you've followed Bill Drissel's link, you should try panning eastward. It just keeps getting worse. Or: Here, I think, is a better view of Bill Drissel's magnificent find; click on the small map to bring up a readable one.

By: Bill Drissel

Bill Drissel — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Somehow, the link to Goggle Maps was swallowed up. I’ll try again:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1604+%26+culebra,+san+antonio,tx&sll=29.424122,-98.493628&sspn=0.312791,0.617294&g=san+antonio,tx&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Culebra+Rd+%26+N+w+Loop+1604,+San+Antonio,+Bexar,+Texas&ll=29.495101,-98.689306&spn=0.009768,0.01929&t=h&z=16

I think I see geoCoordinates in the URL. Questions for readers: Will non-techies be able to use geoCoords? How will they handle the minus sign for W longitude? Without looking do you know the Coords of your home, office, meeting places, restaurants? I don’t know any telephone numbers any more. Will we handle geoCoords the same way?

Regards,
Bill

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:33:43 +0000

For readers (like me) who don’t initially get the point of this: Use Google Maps to find the address in Bill Drissel’s comment, then start dragging the map westward (so you are looking farther and farther to the east). It just keeps going and going. Thank you for this, Bill.

By: Bill Drissel

Bill Drissel — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:11:08 +0000

Here’s another in San Antonio, TX:

Culebra Rd & N w Loop 1604, San Antonio, TX 78253

Link:

This email was sent to you by a user on Google Maps (maps.google.com)

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:43:49 +0000

It must be something with the name Silver Springs, because the Silver Springs in Calgary is almost as bad!

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=silver+springs+calgary&sll=49.225215,-123.027981&sspn=0.011015,0.01929&ie=UTF8&hq=Silver+Springs&hnear=Silver+Springs,+Calgary,+AB&ll=51.10751,-114.192753&spn=0.021179,0.038581&t=h&z=15