Oil companies report record profits for 3Q

Oil companies are reporting record profits for the 3rd quarter. Now think about this for a second - a major natural disaster hits the United States in the form of hurricane Katrina, and the first thing oil companies decide is that they should raise prices immediately, taking advantage of a disaster to line their pockets, knowing that the oil-industry friendly White House won't do anything to stop them. Now I normally don't advocate for government getting involved in regulating business, but if business is going to take advantage of people knowing that they can get away with it, maybe it's time that a few company executives get jailed for price gouging and the government takes steps to ensure that this type of nonsense doesn't happen again. Of course, the Bush White House won't do anything, so maybe we need to start there (it's not like they've displayed extraordinary competence or anything...).

Some Star Wars links

Someone did Episode IV as an animated gif. And this page looks at Episode IV taking into account the events of Episodes I to III. Pretty funny stuff, there.

250,000 bouncing balls

A Sony commercial features 250,000 bouncing balls (requires Quicktime and patience, as even high bandwidth takes a while to load). Via Digg.

The first of many posts about nepotism and cronyism

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination today. This is a good thing. She was obviously incapable of doing the job and, much like Ron Brown, recommended for the position because she was a Bush crony. I'm glad that many people saw the absolute absurdity of the situation and applied enough pressure so that it was resolved before becoming even more of a public spectacle.

As you may notice, nepotism and cronyism is one of my pet peeves. There are far too many untalented hacks who only do a good job being an incompetent sycophant. Their blatant incompetence is overlooked by management because they're a "buddy," and the company (or the public) suffers because of it. Look at the FEMA response to New Orleans. And look around you at work - you know who they are.

So what are you reading?

Comics-wise, that is. I'm currently going through a run of Legion of Super Heroes (at issue 300+). Nice Keith Giffen art, OK stories, nothing spectacular. Also, old Gold Key Star Trek are on the list, as well as some old Space Family Robinson (there's something about those old Gold Key comics). On the current comics scene, reading Fantastic Four, Ultimate FF, Flash, and Legion regularly, Heavy Metal for something outside of American mainstream, the Blankets graphic novel (a great read; highly recommended). Ultimate FF was very good for a while with Warren Ellis writing, but the latest issue, introducing Namor, was a sleeper.