page 8
daily nebraskan
friday, april 3, 1981
Postmaster indicates rate may increase again
By Sue Jepsen
The recent postal rate increase will be enough tor now,
but more than likely there will be another rate increase
proposal next year, according to Lincoln postal officials.
Postal rates on first-class mail increased from 15 cents
to 18 cents on letters and from 10 cents to 12 cents on
postcards as of March 22.
U.S. Postmaster General William Bolger doesn't appear
to be considering a service decrease, Lincoln Postmaster
Jerome Wieser said.
"1 guess we (the postal service) didn't thin k the way to
cope with the reduction of appropriations is to cut ser
vice," Wieser said, adding that a cut in service such as
Applications for
Daily Nebraskan
Editor in Chief for
the fall 1981 semester
now are being accepted.
Deadline for applications
4:30 p.m. April 7
Applicants should be familiar with the
Guidelines for the Student Press adopted
by the NU Board of Regents (copies a
vailable upon request).
Submit application and resume to the
Daily Nebraskan Business office, 34
Nebraska Union.
UNL does not discriminate in its academic admissions or
employment programs and abides by all federal regulations
pertaining to same.
3
r
SPORTS
J NEBRASKA
1981
INTERCOLLEGIATE
RODEO
Highlights of this exciting competition
held earlier Sunday at Nebraska State
Fairgrounds Coliseum in Lincoln.
Commentary by: Hadley Barrett,
Randy Corley, Ann Helberg.
10 P.M. SUNDAY, April 5
NEBRASKA
U A ETV NETWORK
Ad made possible bv Nebraskans for Public Television and
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
eliminating Saturday mail service, is a possibility in the
future.
Since the postal reorganization of 1971, the Postal
Service is required to be financially self-sufficient.
Wieser said rising costs because of general inflation
necessitated the rate increase.
"We have to raise enough money to take care of our
operations," he said.
Requested 20 cents
Originally the Postal Service requested a rate increase
to 20 cents, but that was denied by the Postal Rate Com
mission, a group that oversees postage rate and wage in
creases. "There was a question of what the Rate Commission
would allow," Wieser said, and, therefore, the service
printed the "B" stamp that carried no monetary markings.
The same design appeared in 1978. The "A" stamp was
orange on a white background. Wieser said he suspects the
Postal Service will continue using that system if it is ever
unsure of what a new stamp rate will be.
Since the increase, Wieser said a "couple million"
stamps have been sold and he received Vz million more
March 27.
Wieser said that if a letter is mailed without the requir
ed 18 cents postage, the balance will be collected on
delivery, unless the sender mails a large number of letters.
In that case they will be returned for the needed postage,
he said.
To help keep costs down and keep rate increases
farther apart, the Postal Service is pushing for nine-digit
zip codes.
Public library
to host sale of
used books
The Lincoln Public Lib
rary will have its 10th
annual used book sale April
9 through 1 1 . The pre
view sale is scheduled for
Thursday, April 9, from 4
to 8:30 pjn. Although the
preview is open to the
public, it is primarily for
buyers and collectors. A
S10 admission fee will be
charged.
The regular sale will
take place on Friday and
Saturday from 9 a.m. to
5:30 p.m., there is no
admission charge.
Adult books and pap
erbacks are priced at 50
cents, and children's books
at 25 cents. Other mis
cellaneous items including
phonograph albums also will
be on sale.
The sale is sponsored by
the Lincoln City Library
Foundation, a non-profit
organization. Money raised
at the sale this year will
go to the record library,
because not enough money
was appropriated.
The nine diuit will consist of the original five numbers
in the present zip codes plus four add-ons, Wieser said.
Switching to the new longer zip codes is part of a plan
to switch to mechanized mail sorting, he said.
A machine will read the zip codes and route the letters
directly to carrier routes. Presently, the letters are
machine-sorted to zip code zones then hand-sorted to
carrier routes, Wieser said.
The Postal Service estimates the new zip codes will
allow a 48 percent return on the investment of the sorting
machines.
Help contain costs
"This is not to speed up mail, but rather to help us to
contain our costs," Wieser said.
The Postal Service would like to have the four-digit
add-on in use five years from now, Wieser said. However,
at this time, some members of Congress arc opposed to
the new zip codes, he said.
Wieser said that 85 percent of all mailers are "big mail
ers." In Lincoln, for example, someone who mails 1,000
pieces of mail per day is a large mailer.
If those mailers used the longer zip codes that alone
would save the Postal Service money. As an incentive to
convert to the new zip codes the Postal Service is offering
a discount of Vz cent per letter for large mailers.
Even without the longer zip code, Wieser said the
Postal Service is doing a good job. He said that the last 10
years the volume of mail per year has increased from 80
billion to 106 billion, and productivity has increased 34
percent in the same 10 years.
"We still provide an affordable service, if it were un
affordable they wouldn't use it," he said.
J r '
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Photo by Kent Morgan Olson
Eugene M. Shoemaker delivers a lecture entitled "Recent Results of the Voyager
Mission to Jupiter and Saturn" in conjunction with the Barbour-Schramm Lecture
series.
I
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-1 1 LJ
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Coming Mundav. April 6 in Vie Datlv Nebraskan
I v
Voyager flight results
explained by lecturer
By Patty Pryor
The flight of the Voyager spacecraft
that passed Saturn and Jupiter was a
unique mission, a U.S. (ieological Survey
representative said Wednesday night in
Morrill Hall Auditorium.
Eugene M. Shoemaker, who spoke
on the scientific results of the mission,
was at UNL as part of the Barbour
Schramm Lectures, sponsored by
alumni of the UNL Geology Department.
"We will never have another mission
quite like this (Voyager mission)," he
said.
"The reason we could send spacecraft
so far," he explained, "was because of the
gravitational force of the planets."
Each time the spacecraft neared a plan
et, he said, the gravitational field of the
planet pulled the spacecraft nearer to the
planet, and then pushed it further on its
way.
Shoemaker brought with him numerous
slides from the mission's three encounters
with Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager I, before
completing the mission, took pictures
of both planets; Voyager II has only vis
ited Jupiter so far.
Voyager II was actually launched first.
he said, but it was sent on a longer orbit,
so it will take more time to complete
its mission.
The slides of Jupiter gave a close-up
view of the Great Kcd Spot on Jupiter,
which is larger that the diameter of the
Earth, Shomaker said.
Extreme close-ups of Jupiter's four
closest moons were also shown in the
Voyager slides.
All four moons can be seen at this time
of year with a good pair of field glasses,
he said.
The slides of Saturn revealed extremely
complicated bands of gases on the sur
face, which Shoemaker said have not yet
been fully explained.
Saturn is not nearly as massive or as
colorful as Jupiter, he added.
"The ring system of Saturn is classic
ally divided into three bands." he explain
ed, "called the A ring, the B ring and (
ring," which are all visible through a long
focal length telescope.
"The ring system is enormously more
complicated than any intimation had
ever allowed." he added.
Voyager II will reach Saturn on Aug
ust 25, 1981, then will reach Uranus
in 1986 and Neptune in 1989.
"St the excitement isn't over vet."
Shoemaker said