UPS and FEDEX have been the most reliable services I have ever used. My stuff gets delivered, there's someone I can talk to when there is a problem, I can track it along the way, it is affordable, and they only come when there is something worth receiving or shipping (as opposed to every day). I am really bummed any time I find out that I just ordered something from somewhere, thinking it would use courier service, but uses USPS instead.

The sunday service for Amazon is a good idea, though. I would rather trade 90% of the USPS mail delivery days for delivering Amazon packages on Sundays (Delivery my regular mail one day every other week, for all I care -- anything important or time sensitive is getting FEDEXed anyway).

I agree with you that Iran's oil is more valuable. The reliability of the source is somewhat less, given the instability in the region.

I really don't believe that fracking has anything to do with Iran deciding to negotiate.

Remember, fracked sources have a very quick falloff. It's given rise to a term, "Red Queen effect" which means a fracked well has to do more and more fracking just to maintain the same level of output.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/u-dot-s-dot-shale-oil-boom-may-not-last-as-fracking-wells-lack-staying-power

I can understand the US using fracking to try to boost the economy during a slowdown, but I really hope it's never seen as any sort of long-term solution, considering it creates a lot of environmental problems, which are created in a matter of days but take millenniums to go away. That's why I don't want to see the Keystone XL pipeline made. It will just accelerate the fracking and cause the US economy to rely on stripping itself of natural resources which is a recipe for becoming like a lot of failed African shitholes.

Natural resources are like treasure. And once you sell off the treasure, it's gone. The Keystone XL would take that precious shale oil and dump it on the world market where it will do absolutely nothing to ease fuel costs here in the US and will weaken us strategically.

Where are the Chinese oil fields? How much of the world supply of oil does China produce?

I don't think for a second that China could "pick up the slack".

Coincidences do happen, quite often in fact.

I agree that it is a coincidence that our increased oil production has brought Iran to the bargaining table, and that the negotiations have nothing to do with fracking at all.

perhaps not the best marketing terminology for a vehicle, in that area of the world

You only have to walk around certain Virginia suburbs, where the multi-million dollar houses are all owned by people whose companies comprise the intelligence/industrial apparatus, to know that it's all about the money, not about fear.

When you build tanks and planes, you have to have huge factories, lots of space, lots of overhead. Bear Stearns and other companies only need a fancy headquarters and a few cubicle farms, and the rest is profit.

Surveillance is the new defense contracting boondoggle.

I don't believe it's about fear at all. It's about greed and easy money.

As long as it hits one of us, I'm OK.

These are both reference cards. Once Gigabyte and MSI and Sapphire get hold of them, I think the AMD's will run cooler and the nVidia cards will become a little more cost-effective.

All it all, it's great to have them actually competing.

So you mean there's a chance it could come down on my mother-in-law's head?

No, you were right the first time. Toms Hardware is the only site claiming these benchmark victories for the nVidia card. I'm not saying they allow their advertising department to influence their reporting and rankings, but it's a bit fishy that they're such an outlier regarding the flagship video cards of the two manufacturers.

It's also worth noting that comparing these cards without taking AMD's Mantle technology into account is to say the least, incomplete.

Because then you get a cut of everything they buy on that device for the next 2 years, whether it's in your store or not.

Mentioned in some other stories is the fact that a lot of this program was tried first at the Waterstone's chain in the UK. In those stores, they sell Kindle devices, and customers can also bring in any Kindle (bought there or not) and read just about any book on Amazon for free for an hour while connected to the store's wi-fi.

The "selling Kindle devices" part made it to the US, so it seems reasonable that the other bit isn't far behind.

I'm kind of interested in the bookstores I know of that are not going under because of Amazon. At least here in Chicago, the independent booksellers I frequent appear to be doing very well, especially now that the Borders and B&N and other chain bookstores have all but disappeared.

I don't see that they've changed their business model much with the rise of e-books, yet they are still busy, filled with customers, and in once case, even expanding.

If you treat customers right, I think there's still room for booksellers to succeed. Don't compete on price - compete on service.

I agree with you DrYak. China and Russia have probably already gotten the information that Snowden has.

My point is that they did not get it from Snowden.

Actually, it's more likely that the teachers don't want sloppy seconds when they molest their students.