Exxon Mobil, Shell Post Record Profits — SFGate/AP

High prices for oil and natural gas propelled Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to their best quarterly results ever on Thursday, with Exxon becoming the first U.S. company ever to ring up quarterly sales of $100 billion.

To put Exxon’s performance into perspective, its third quarter revenue was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The world’s largest publicly traded oil company also set a profit record for U.S. companies by posting net income of almost $10 billion, according to Standard & Poor’s equity market analyst Howard Silverblatt.

Gas prices are only now dipping back below $3 for regular; the premium required by the OMNIMVR is still around $3.10 or so. By the way, the OMNIMVR turned 100,000 yesterday.

Getting used to SBC Park? Just wait, AT&T; name is coming — SFGate

After having just two seasons to get used to calling the Giants’ home ‘SBC Park,’ baseball fans soon will be asked to refer to the ballpark on the bay by a name that includes ‘AT&T.;’

SBC Communications Inc. said today that it would adopt the name AT&T; Inc. after it acquires the company, a $16 billion deal expected to be official by the end of the year. The name will spread to all of SBC’s properties.

Pacific Bell paid $53 million in 1996 for naming rights to the ballpark through 2019, and for four seasons after the stadium opened in 2000 it was called ‘Pacific Bell Park.’ The naming rights were transferred to SBC, based in San Antonio, Texas, when it bought the local phone company.

It’s unclear whether the park could be renamed in time for the 2006 season.

I still call it Pac Bell, but it really needs a nickname now; “AT&T; Park” is even more ungainly than “SBC Park”.

U.S. casualties — SFGate/AP

As of Tuesday, at least 2,000 members of the U.S. military had died in Iraq since March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Okay, it’s been fun, but I really think we should go now.

Woman Says Cat Saved Her From Fire — SFGate/AP

Linda Froning’s cat may have shared one of its nine lives. Froning said she was asleep on a couch last Thursday morning when her cat jumped on her, waking her up to a house full of smoke.

Watson, Linus, and sometimes Rita (but mostly Watson) wake us up bright and early every Saturday morning, apparently confused because we’re still asleep at 8:00.

Thanks to C|Net News.com’s Esoterica blog for linking to this “Damn cool illusion”. It worked for me just as the text on the page described, which surprised me because similar illusions (notably those “Magic Eye” images) don’t work for me at all.