18F: Imagine receiving a text message every time a new letter was placed in your mailbox, or your city receiving a notification when there was a new pothole in your neighborhood — courtesy of a sensor that had been placed on your neighborhood mail truck. These are the types of things that Amanda Weaver and her colleagues think up at the Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC) at the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General’s Office.  Her team operates like a government think-tank, writing white papers on everything from 3D printing to the Internet of Postal Thingsto ways that post offices could provide financial services for underserved populations. They basically think about what a post office could be and how it could operate — and then research and write up reports that are relevant to the Postal Service.  We reached out to Amanda after learning about her work to see if she would tell us more about what the RARC thinks about and does on a daily basis.  Read more.