• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

It's official: mail is slow as snails

WARSAW
Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:06am EST
Petit Gris snails are fed at the snail farm of French breeder Dominique Pierru near Soissons, northeast of Paris, December 19, 2007. An IT worker, after receiving a letter on January 3 that was sent on December 20 as priority mail, calculated that a snail would have made it even faster to his home than the letter. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

Petit Gris snails are fed at the snail farm of French breeder Dominique Pierru near Soissons, northeast of Paris, December 19, 2007. An IT worker, after receiving a letter on January 3 that was sent on December 20 as priority mail, calculated that a snail would have made it even faster to his home than the letter.

Credit: Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

WARSAW (Reuters) - It's official. Postal delivery is as slow as snails, at least in Poland.

Oddly Enough

An IT worker, after receiving a letter on January 3 that was sent on December 20 as priority mail, calculated that a snail would have made it even faster to his home than the letter.

Daily Gazeta Wyborcza said Michal Szybalski calculated that it took 294 hours for the letter to arrive at his home. He also said the distance between his home and the sender was 11.1 kilometers.

Given the distance and the time, the speed of the letter was 0.03775 kilometers per hour. Szybalski calculated that a garden snail travels at around 0.048 kilometers per hour.

(Writing by Karolina Slowikowska; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)



More from Reuters

Photo

Euro zone holds intensive talks about Greek rescue

BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) - Euro zone countries were holding intensive talks on Wednesday about a possible financial rescue for debt-stricken Greece as civil servants staged the first major strike against Athens' crisis-driven austerity plan. | Video

 A protester marches next to a banner during an anti-government rally in Athens February 10, 2010. REUTERS/John Kolesidis
Analysis:

Will IMF step in on Greece?

Europe is loathe to turn to the International Monetary Fund to help bail out Greece but it may have little choice.  Full Article 

A worker drives a Toyota Motor Corp's newly assembled Prius hybrid vehicle onto a trailer near the company's plant in Toyota, central Japan February 9, 2010.REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
Reuters Breakingviews:

Toyota's troubles in overdrive

The cost of Toyota's recall nightmare is nothing compared to the price of fixing its battered reputation.  Commentary