Garry Kasparov wrote a commentary about his retirement in the WSJ [whcih you need a subscription to read] but you can't really tell if it was a political campaigne advertisement [he's getting into Russian politics], a book promotion, a consulting teaser or a sincere announcement of his retirement from 30 years of professional Chess? It looks like it might be all of the above. That's too bad. I would like to have seen a brilliant guy like Kasparov retire more gracefully.
I got tired of the hype about "excess" oil company profits and decided to get the facts. It turns out that the oil and gas industry generally is near the middle of the pack of American industries earning about 8% on sales in the 3rd quarter of 2005 as compared to the average of about 6.5%, but far lower than, for example, the semiconductor industry which earned about 14% on sales in the same period, or pharma & banks which both earned more than 18% on sales.
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