Three unrelated stories from Today's WSJ

I offer these news articles without comment except to say that they are all true, IMHO.

So, don't worry so much about things you can do nothing about. Conclusions, Oil is going to drop like a rock, there is nothing holding it up there. It's a good thing to prosper. There is no blessing in being poor but you can be blessed in poverty and blessed out of it. And, your ADHD may not be ADHD but normal. Quit taking those pills.

From today's Wall Street Journal.

ENERGY

Soaring Oil Is Seen to Be Running on Fumes
PORTFOLIO -- JANUARY

Economics writer John Cassidy has a message for consumers who are contemplating giving up their sport-utility vehicles to save on gasoline: not so fast.

Oil prices, which hovered near record levels this fall, are to set plunge 50% or more in the next two or three years, Mr. Cassidy says. The downturn could be even steeper after that -- $30 for a barrel of oil is a distinct possibility in the future, he says.

Mr. Cassidy, who writes about economics for Portfolio and the New Yorker, bases his prediction on one essential idea: the steep rise in crude prices during the past four years has been prolonged enough to fundamentally alter the behavior of oil producers and consumers.

Many economists have forecast a pullback from the $90-$100-a-barrel levels of the past few months to $70-$85 next year as producers increase output to meet demand and a slowing U.S. economy reins in consumption. Most oil watchers also say burgeoning demand from big developing economies like China and India will keep prices from falling too far.

In Mr. Cassidy's view, the supply picture will soon shift from shortage to glut as energy companies go after hard-to-reach crude reserves that until recently weren't considered economically viable. "When experts claim that oil is running out, what they really mean is that cheap oil is running out."

Alternative fuels, such as ethanol, nuclear power and solar energy, are popular and are abundantly available, he says. Skeptics, says Mr. Cassidy, should remember that the oil market has experienced sudden plunges before. Production cuts in the late 1970s caused a run-up in prices that suppressed demand, and sent once-lofty prices into a slump that lasted for most of the 1980s.


RELIGION

Pentecostalism Sets Path To Draw Guatemala's Poorest
• CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR -- DEC. 17


For a growing number of impoverished Guatemalans, it is a matter of faith: God doesn't want them to be poor.

In a traditionally Roman Catholic country with one of the highest poverty rates in the Western Hemisphere, a conversion is afoot -- nearly 20% of Guatemala's population is now Pentecostal, the highest proportion in Latin America. The growth of Pentecostalism has come about thanks in part to a new entrepreneurial ethos being preached from the pulpit known as "prosperity theology," reports Sara Miller Llana in the Christian Science Monitor.

The movement is more often associated with middle- and upper-class worshippers at some North American megachurches, but it has caught on at even the more traditional Pentecostal churches in Guatemala. Worshippers are told that being poor isn't a blessing, and at churches like Showers of Grace, a megachurch in Guatemala City, worshippers are offered business classes and are taught how to manage their money.


SCIENCE

Concentration on the Job May Call for Distractions
• NEW SCIENTIST -- DEC. 15


For people who find it difficult to concentrate at work, some scientists suggest the problem is too few distractions, not too many.

Scientists used to think that the act of concentrating itself might screen out distractions. But researchers such as Nilli Lavie at University College London believe that making a deliberate effort to concentrate isn't enough to filter out irrelevant information.

Instead, the brain becomes more engaged in tasks as the visual demands of the problem increase and effectively block additional stimuli. In practical terms, the research could be used to improve children's textbooks, or to add textured backgrounds or moving images to enhance dull slide presentations.