Amazon Rather Than Leasing More Cargo Planes Should Buy UPS, Possibly FedEx.
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by Anura Guruge
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>> “Downton Abbey”.
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Though I have always, as for as long as I can recall, been a huge fan of Amazon, and as of 2011 used them for ALL of my book publishing, it is only this year, as a fully-paid up Amazon Prime member and an AMZN stockholder that I truly started to see that Amazon is invincible — at least over the next few years. These days I am just in total awe of Amazon. Like Google they really are at the top of their game.
Given the amount of online shopping that I do with Amazon, 88 orders in the last 6 months (i.e., 14 orders a month), I know their shipping habits pretty well and, moreover, I keep them honest. IF they miss the 2-day shipping on a Prime item I call them up. So far I have had 2 months of FREE Prime and $10 of gift credit. While they do quite well with UPS outside of the Christmas window, Christmas is always a challenge — as is the number of items now getting shipped directly from China, outside of Prime. I know that AMZN dearly wants to fix that.
That they are thinking of doing some of their own shipping has been an open secret for months. Makes a lot of sense.
But to me what would make sense is for them to buy (or merge with) UPS or FedEx. I am sure UPS shareholders would LOVE IT. Their shares have been going nowhere while AMZN keeps on defying gravity. Also in terms of Market Cap AMZN is 4 times that of UPS and 8 times that of FedEx.
There will be synergies PLUS Amazon can get a piece of the eBay action! Sweet. Talking of which I am surprised that AMZN hasn’t started offering auctions. They could kill eBay (and I own eBay shares too).
So just a thought.
Olympus Cameras Provides Good Tips On Photographing Your Christmas Tree.
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by Anura Guruge
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>> Bought Panasonic Lumix FZ1000.
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Since I do like Olympus cameras, and since Deanna does have an Olympus point-and-shoot (the SZ-16) which she loves dearly, I do subscribe to e-mail posts from Olympus.
I received the above this morning about trying to get good pictures of decorated and lit Christmas trees. Though it is for Olympus camera owners the tips in general, the aperture setting, ISO, ‘hand-held mode‘ etc., should be applicable to most other cameras. So I thought I would share them with you. Taking decent pictures of Christmas trees can be a challenge. One KEY item that Jamie MacDonald, the author of the Olympus post, does not discuss is White Balance (WB). I have found that getting the right WB (of course) can make a huge difference.
We have, as has been the case for the last 8 years, two decorated Christmas trees. I haven’t really spent any time trying to take any serious shots of them. Maybe, inspired by this post, I will do that tonight.
A few random shots of the 2 Christmas trees I have snapped, with my trusty Panasonic Lumix FZ1000, over the last few days. I really didn’t spend anytime messing with the settings. Picture where you can see a paper butterfly … that is a REFLECTION of the tree in a window, the butterfly stuck to the window.
Britain’s Once Mighty Coal Industry — King Coal — Is Sputtering To An End.
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I get British Sky News on our Roku and I try to watch as much of their news as possible since unlike the extremely parochial U.S. cable news the British news agencies make a point of covering the world.
Friday evening, with their being no new cricket of worth to watch, I spent even more timing browsing through the Sky News clips. Then I saw the above.
I was shocked. Wow.
Coal mining, for so long, has been such an integral part of our heritage. Funnily enough, just last week, the Cambridge Revels in their outstanding “Welsh Celebration“, highlighted the importance of coal mining in Welsh culture. One of the major stage props was a huge slag pile — the slag the byproduct of mining.
I still distinctly remember the coal miner strikes in the early 1970s and Margaret Thatcher’s mighty attempts to tame the unions. Those transformatives events for me.
There was the saying among cricket circles how clubs in the Midlands and Yorkshire could just go to the nearest coal mine and whistle down the shaft to recruit a fast bowler. All of that is going.
Cheap coal and natural gas from the U.S.! And they are now talking about Fracking in Britain!
Shame. Yes, mining was a hard, cruel profession and so many, for so long suffered from all the diseases associated with the coal dust. But it was a proud and well-paid profession. It is all coming to an end.
End of an Era.
Though I have no connection with miners I feel the loss. This is so much a part of our heritage.
I wish all the current miners and the ex-miners, and their families, a Merry Christmas and a hopeful 2016.
‘6 images for the day’ — December 19, 2015.
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by Anura Guruge
Related posts:
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Taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ1000. Straight out of the camera.
Refer to this post for image resolution details.
NO post-processing whatsoever.
Straight JPEGs out of the camera.
Click pictures to ENLARGE.
Attribution WILL be enforced.
Enjoy. Thank YOU.