Blue
Commentia: Various opinions on the events of Alpha Complex. And, y'know, the rest of the world.
Two back-to-back quarters of recordbreaking profits for oil corporation Exxon.
Oct 30, 2008
I honestly don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream.
Exxon said net income jumped nearly 58 percent to $2.86 a share in the July-September period. That compares with $9.41 billion, or $1.70 a share, a year ago.
The previous record for U.S. corporate profit was set in the last quarter, when Exxon Mobil earned $11.68 billion.
Revenue rose 35 percent to $137.7 billion.
Their portfolio is diversified, one contributing factor towards their high profits was due to them finally paying off the Valdez cleanup costs, and any company that’s doing well in this economy…yay. Less of a drain on the system.
But at the same time…these folks really cheese me off. Two back-to-back quarters of recordbreakingly high profits? With gas prices as high as they were? Yeah, I’ll just bet they made good money.
(My new house has natural gas and radiant heat - so I’ll be giving these folks as little money as possible. But still…in which direction do I throw the rotten vegetables?)
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...preceded by happytalk.
Oct 17, 2008
After the week I’ve had, I need a meme. Associative thinking sometimes helps clear out my brainpan…and it’s kind of fun. I found this over at Pseudotherapy, where she’d ganked it from Karl’s place, Secondhand Tryphtophan.
- Where is your cell phone? What?
- Your significant other? None
- Your hair? Long
- Your mother? Dreams
- Your father? Plans
- Your favorite thing? Freedom
- Your dream last night? Anxious
- Your favorite drink? Cider
- Your dream/goal? Contentment
- The room you’re in? Office
- Your hobby? Teaching
- Your fear? Dementia
- Where do you want to be in six years? Growing
- What you’re not? Overzealous
- Muffins? Blueberry
- One of your wish list items? Glee
- Where you grew up? Earth
- The last thing you did? Househunt
- What are you wearing? Purple
- Favorite gadget? None
- Your pets? Overlords
- Your computer? Tool
- Your mood? Turbulent
- Missing someone? Minutely
- Your car? Twee
- Something you’re not wearing? Stilettos
- Favorite store? Books
- Like someone? Yep
- Your favorite color? Interference
- When is the last time you laughed? Today
- Last time you cried? Yesterday
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Boy, was there competition for these slots.
Feb 27, 2008
I've been tagged (by She) to, aherm, "Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself."
Since my unofficial motto is "All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance", I'm dropping the "unimportant" bit of that meme. After all, I don't celebrate my birthday because a) I am too amazing to fit all of the celebrations into a single day; and b) if I were to be celebrated properly, the economies of several countries would be destroyed. I am simply not unimportant.
At any rate, the six things:
- I shelve my books alphabetically by author, grouped by genre. (My CDs? Alpha by artist, then alpha by title. My DVDs? Alpha by title.)
- I cannot stand to be around musical theatre, karaoke, or light opera. I have perfect pitch, so if anyone is just the slightest bit sharp or flat, it's as delightsome as a thousand fingers on a chalkboard. (I can dismiss the traditional birthday singing/torture as "a bunch of people making noise which may or may not be vaguely musical"; but anything that either features fewer than three voices or makes any pretensions toward being a performance needs to be pitch-perfect...or I'll wince.
- I'm one of the few people I know who has a fairly good relationship with their own body. I don't hate my weight. I don't even necessarily dislike it, even though I'm medically overweight. I dislike the tone of a few muscle groups, but that's it.
- I own a pair of bellydance pants, even though I'm not planning on making performance-dancing a big part of my life. They were just way too cool-looking not to buy. (See?)
- I tend to volunteer for most conventions that I attend. They're my way of giving back to the community that's encouraged my behavior all these years.
- I keep all my clothes sorted by type (tops, bottoms, jackets, dresses) and sorted by color and hue within those groups. I've actually maintained this organization system for the past 20 years. (If I ever go so far as to sort by style or sleeve length, though...somebody shoot me.)
I now tag...whomever wants to be tagged.
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Literally.
Jun 06, 2007
In a supreme bit of irony, the recently-announced logo for the 2012 Olympics has gotten itself into yet another major scuffle. The first was simply the initial reaction to the logo: people were irritated, confused, disgusted, or simply reduced to shaking their heads in wonderment at the incredible blockheads who perpetrated this weirdity. All at taxpayer expense.
Then, yesterday, an animation clip was pulled from the 2012 website after reports of people being hospitalized. The clip was triggering seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy:
The offending footage was scrutinised by Professor Graham Harding, who “developed the test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in TV material”. He told BBC London 94.9FM: “It fails the Harding FPA machine test which is the machine the television industry uses to test images. And so it does not comply with Ofcom guidelines and is in contravention of them.”
UK charity Epilepsy Action said the images “could affect the 23,000 people in the UK who have photosensitive epilepsy” and that it had received reports they had “even triggered breakthrough seizures where people have a relapse after being seizure-free for a long time”.
full article text at The Register
This is even more ironic when you consider that this logo is for both the Olympics and the Paralympics — the latter being competitive games for athletes with disabilities.
See? Not only is accessibility important, it’s now easier to screw up. Or more properly, with more people creating audiovisual content, there are more people who should take accessibility into account…and yet, they don’t. (Probably because pointy-haired bosses are still convinced that they ‘shouldn’t bother to adjust [their] web site for something that will only affect about 5% of the total population’. That was another award-winning Line of Intense Stupidity which I received from a former boss.)
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Brighten someone else's day. Your own could get brighter, too.
Apr 22, 2007
Are you having a blah, mediocre, mildly annoying, or just outright shitty day? Read this.
Things like this do happen. (And you’d be surprised how much better your day can be made by being someone else’s Anonymous Fairy Godmother.)
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