So in an earlier post I mentioned that Amazon's profits keep falling, falling, falling. Which might explain why some of their newest projects have a ring of, I don't know, semi-desperation about them? Or at least some head-scratching. There's this new treasure hunt contest they've launched, and now they're getting into the movie producing business by optioning Keith Donohue's THE STOLEN CHILD (which if you'll remember, got farmed out to Amazon's top 100 reviewers for glowing raves, even as mainstream media "ignored" the book - which wasn't even true!)

So no wonder, as AP's Allison Linn reports, investors are getting antsy about Amazon's practices and Jeff Bezos's ideas. "I think a lot of the frustration today is because this company perpetually seems to be in a heavy investment mode," said Philip Remek, an analyst with Guzman & Co. A

nd in an environment with much heavier competition than Amazon faced when it launched nine years ago, having some sort of long-term plan is a good thing - one that investors aren't really sure exists, especially since the company remains so tight-lipped about what it's doing with the money. Analyst Dan Geiman with McAdams Wright Ragen said that makes it difficult to predict when, how or if Amazon.com's spending will pay off. "It's gotten to the point where you just don't know what those returns are going to be," he said. "It's just hard to measure."