Current FIFA rankings: Brazil 1st,
Portugal 3rd,
Côte d’Ivoire 26th,
Slovakia 34th,
New Zealand 78th,
North Korea 105th; the last match of the day pits the highest-rated team in the contest against the lowest-rated team in the contest.
Not a great start for the defending champions, was it? Congratulations to
Amazon has been a major force in pushing for a switch from paper to e-books, but I can’t help wondering if it’s stocked up trouble for itself. Amazon’s competitive advantage is its economy of scale and low overheads—but with e-books any publisher can do just as well. Back in the old days of paper books, I used to buy loads of them from Amazon, but now that I mostly read e-books, I check the publisher’s own website to see if I can source the book direct (and without DRM). Amazon made it’s fortune by cutting out the middleman (bookstores) but with e-books publishers are in a position to cut out the middleman (Amazon).