Amazon's Problems

 Amazon used to be dependable. But now:

1. Amazon Services LLC seems to be some entity that loses every package transported. It appears to be a logistics entity serving, I assume at exorbitant prices, third party vendors. In my opinion and in my experience this is one of the most grossly incompetent entities in shipping ever! If one sees this in a planned purchase my suggestion is run as fast as possible away from it!

2. Third party vendors are all over turning this into some type of bazaar where the buyer must beware! Especially for the ubiquitous Chinese products

3. What used to be at most 2 day deliveries is now almost 20% lost packages and one week deliveries. I am just 14 miles from the Newark Airport Center so distance it not a problem

 4. Remediation is near impossible

5. It appears that the old management team is gone replaced by God only knows what....

6. Tracking no longer works and is unreliable at best. The old delivery rules no longer apply and the information is generally grossly in error. 

7. It also appears in my opinion that Amazon "sells" something they do not have. The accept the order, represent that they have shipped it while they go about finding a way to meet the order. This may in my opinion almost be a bait and switch type of sale.

8. But the core problem in my opinion and in my experience is that Amazon tells you what the progress of the deliverable is when they know or should know that what they are representing is materially false. In fact it is a gross misrepresentation that the consumer relies upon and which is unachievable.

For higher end things I go directly to the manufacturer! Try it, it is cheaper, faster, more reliable.

The next step will be a Federal Trade Commission investigation on the basis of false advertising, gross misrepresentation, and so forth! I would not go any where near this stock!

Waking Up!

 The NY Times has a piece on the complexities of adding "green" power to the grid. They note:

In the largest grids, such as those in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic, a regional operator manages the byzantine flow of electricity from hundreds of different power plants through thousands of miles of transmission lines and into millions of homes. Before a developer can build a power plant, the local grid operator must make sure the project won’t cause disruptions — if, for instance, existing power lines get more electricity than they can handle, they could overheat and fail. After conducting a detailed study, the grid operator might require upgrades, such as a line connecting the new plant to a nearby substation. The developer usually bears this cost. Then the operator moves on to study the next project in the queue.

 We have been arguing this for years. The current grid was never designed to work this way. Power companies have at best a 19th century mind set, central generating and tree and branch network. If a branch fails, too bad.

If the Greens demand all electric we will experience a horror show. The network will fail, it will lack capacity, and the costs will be unbelievable.

We had US Department of Energy people whose sole purpose is to regulate and pontificate. They lack any technical competence, except the weapons folks. No one has thought through this, and especially at the Secretary level we have just religious zealots which may very well result in total collapse.

Prostate Cancer and Chromatin Conformation

 

We just posted an interesting report on the impact of chromosome conformation on prostate cancer, PCa. The issued discussed is based upon some recent papers which discuss how the genes in the nucleus can get intermixed resulting in changes that lead to cancer or make an existing malignancy metastatic.

We seem to be finding new interactions by the month if not week. Worth a look.

Eliza vs ChatGPT

In the late 1960s a group at MIT AI Lab created a program called Eliza. It simulated a psychotherapist. It would ask you a question and then you would respond and then it may be something like, what do you mean by sad? 

It was human interaction. Simple but useful.

Some Details

Click Here

 I have noticed that many vendors seek to have a customer survey. Laudable but they do the "Click Here" routine. Namely they have the customer click on some URL that is not the company. Rule No 1 in computer safety, never click here anywhere! 

I try to explain that to folks. The Click Here is almost always from some other site. Possibly safe but why take the chance.