I know we started being careful about them in the US around the time of that white powder thing...Oh Anthrax attacks in 2001 (I had to look it up). It was just after 911, and they started being extra careful about mail after that. They started asking about the contents of what you were mailing and I know my local post office wouldn't let you mail anything without putting a return address of some kind on it.
Of course these packages were light so they could have been dropped in a mailbox but still our postal system tends towards the paranoid last I checked and even if it got past all that I'm surprised that at least one scientist wasn't paranoid enough to not open an unknown package with no return address.
After 911 we started getting more vigilant about that sort of thing in general here. Though not all the scientists were in the US if I remember correctly.
So, yeah, It's probably because you're in Canada that you don't remember. It's a paranoid post 911 US thing I think :)
Re: 1.07 Size Matters
Of course these packages were light so they could have been dropped in a mailbox but still our postal system tends towards the paranoid last I checked and even if it got past all that I'm surprised that at least one scientist wasn't paranoid enough to not open an unknown package with no return address.
After 911 we started getting more vigilant about that sort of thing in general here. Though not all the scientists were in the US if I remember correctly.
So, yeah, It's probably because you're in Canada that you don't remember. It's a paranoid post 911 US thing I think :)