(no subject)
For the curious, after an hour on the phone and a talk with two people plus a manager, the oil situation has been resolved in an intolerable fashion. (They want to double our monthly payment and charge a minimum $2.89/gal for oil that I already know another company is selling for $2.59 right now. Mentioning the latter fact didn't get them to budge from their position, nor did any amount of arguing.) So I'm looking around for a new company. Fortunately, we have a $300 credit with them and a few months' worth of oil in the tank, so I don't have to run around crazily.
Because I'm feeling uncharitable, I'll mention that meanwhile, ExxonMobil posted recordbreaking profits of a hair under $10 billion this quarter, an increase of 75% over profits this time last year.
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-earnsoil1028.artoct28,0,6657213.story?coll=hc-headlines-business
(Highlight : "To put its performance into perspective, Exxon's revenue for the three-month period was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil-producing nations.")
It's interesting to compare that article (it's AP, so it's the source of much of the coverage across the print media) with http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1402979,00.html . The moneymaker *there* is the quote from the president that Exxon was able to "capture the benefits of favourable market conditions." Those conditions being, of course, the same ones which justified enormous price jumps for consumers and great market volatility.
In better news....
good for George Takei!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/28/people.georgetakei.ap/index.html
And of Consumer Reports' 31 cars given the top reliability rating, 29 are Japanese and of those 15 are Toyota. :) At the bottom, of the least reliable, 22 were domestic, 20 European, four Japanese, and two South Korean.
(full list here : http://tinyurl.com/9ugrv )
Because I'm feeling uncharitable, I'll mention that meanwhile, ExxonMobil posted recordbreaking profits of a hair under $10 billion this quarter, an increase of 75% over profits this time last year.
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-earnsoil1028.artoct28,0,6657213.story?coll=hc-headlines-business
(Highlight : "To put its performance into perspective, Exxon's revenue for the three-month period was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil-producing nations.")
It's interesting to compare that article (it's AP, so it's the source of much of the coverage across the print media) with http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1402979,00.html . The moneymaker *there* is the quote from the president that Exxon was able to "capture the benefits of favourable market conditions." Those conditions being, of course, the same ones which justified enormous price jumps for consumers and great market volatility.
In better news....
good for George Takei!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/28/people.georgetakei.ap/index.html
And of Consumer Reports' 31 cars given the top reliability rating, 29 are Japanese and of those 15 are Toyota. :) At the bottom, of the least reliable, 22 were domestic, 20 European, four Japanese, and two South Korean.
(full list here : http://tinyurl.com/9ugrv )