FYI & FWIW -- Exxon-Mobil isn't the world's largest corporation - WalMart is.

CNN/Money.com Fortune Global 500

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"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." - Groucho Marx

with respect to profit making - EXXON has produced the LARGEST profit by a single corporation EVER - in the last 2 financial years.

THe main point stands though - I can see why you avoid the main thrust of the point being made and concentrate on petty trivialities.

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Supreme Executive for the I.S.S.F

I would like to see some sources on that. Because according to money mag their profit margin is only 10%.

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Jones:- We're going to teach them climbing, abseiling, canoeing, archery, shooting...

Interviewer:- Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible isn't it?

Jones:- I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the range.

Interviewer:- Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?
You're equipping them to become violent killers.

Jones:- Well, you're equipped to be a prostitute but you're not one are you?

The Fool is correct when he says Exxon-Mobil is the world's most profitable corporation - Exxon made $39.5 billion in profits in 2007, up a little over 9% from 2006. If you'll click on the hyperlink I originally posted, it's a little further down on the page.

Nonetheless, there is a difference between being the world's largest corporation, and being the world's most profitable corporation - a fact that seems to have earned me the wrath and scorn of Foolosophy...

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"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." - Groucho Marx

I'm not avoiding anything, I'm still trying to ascertain what "Peabody's Law" you are referring to. The only reference to a "Peabody's Law" I can Google pertains to puppy mill legislation in Wisconsin...

I think what I've inadvertently stumbled into is an example of Heisenberg uncertainity principle - the act of observing disturbs the observed.

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"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." - Groucho Marx

Well, you really have to define most profitable. Are you talking total profit, or the percentage of profit to total revenue? If the latter is the case then Exxon is not the most profitable. And that is how most companies judge their profit.
You are obviously talking about total profit and not the percentage of revenue to profit.

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Jones:- We're going to teach them climbing, abseiling, canoeing, archery, shooting...

Interviewer:- Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible isn't it?

Jones:- I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the range.

Interviewer:- Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?
You're equipping them to become violent killers.

Jones:- Well, you're equipped to be a prostitute but you're not one are you?

It wasn't my claim. I already knew before it was posted that 1998 was an unusually hot year. I simply remarked that its humorous how you alarmists like to use 1998 as proof of warming when its convenient, but when the tables are turned its a fluke.

The whole time its just been a bump in the data, but try telling a dellusional enviromentalist that climate is usually measured in 30 year chunks and they go ape-(*)(*)(*)(*). You guys aren't interested in the science unless it agrees with your pre-conceived notions. You guys aren't interested in solving any enviromental problems unless it brings big buisness to its knees. (Nuclear Power is a big no-no in spite of its lack of Co2 expulsions)

So try something Foolosophy, read my posts, and if you want evidence for anything I say, try posting some of your own. I don't see any purpose of wasting my time since you guys never bother to read anything I post.