The weather is a formidable foe for all, save one - the United States Postal Service. Herodotus' words on the New York General Post Office near Penn Station often stand in as the unofficial USPS motto, and for the most part ring true regarding mail delivery. Anyone with a cell phone, on the other hand, is at the mercy of wireless towers. What do you get when you cross mail delivery with intermittent cell service? Text message stamps.

To join the craze in putting everything in the entire world on our cell phones, Denmark (and possibly Sweden) is launching a system to allow people to exchange a text message for a stamp. The person sends a message to the postal service, which replies with a code, and the person writes that code on the envelope. Postage paid.

Really?? The opportunities for error abound, not to mention security issues. Could it be done? Sure. Other places in the world have the capability of purchasing items via phone. Should it be done? Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather stick a stamp on a letter myself than risk copying a code down wrong, having mail delayed because my cell phone service isn't working, or losing my phone and racking up a fortune in stamps to mail letters to one of the 'stans. Not to mention the people who don't have cell phones, or don't have phones with text and data plans. Something's rotten in the state of Denmark, and I smell cell phone companies behind all of this. At least give people the option of text message or regular stamp.

Check out the story here. And note the link to another brilliant idea - paying your bar tab via your phone.