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There's a benefit to rising oil prices. "High prices at the pump are finally giving oil empires the incentive to make long - and expensive - bets to find new supplies," Forbes says. To capture new supplies, the largest oil companies are drilling farther into the sea and bedrock. Some companies are looking to "unconventional oil" taken from marginal locations made feasible by higher oil prices, including sites in Canada and Venezuela. ChevronTexaco thinks there are some 2-trillion barrels of this kind of oil, or more than the world's remaining reserves of conventional crude, the magazine says.
The likelihood of continued gridlock in Congress means investors will benefit no matter which party wins the White House next month, Barron's financial weekly says. But it predicts that Republicans will pick up seats in both House and Senate, "which should translate into higher stock prices."
Here's something good for you to do today: nothing. Today is Take Back Your Time Day, a day author and national coordinator John DeGraaf hopes Americans will set aside to retreat from their lives of overwork, overscheduling and overconsumption to reflect on what's important. Observances are planned in several cities nationwide, though the www.timeday.org Web site lists none in Florida.
One in three baby boomers reaching retirement age are starting second and third careers instead, according to American Demographics. One reason is the prospect of less Social Security money, but it's also because people are living longer. Second careers are especially prevalent in the West (39 percent of boomers there) and Midwest (32 percent), the magazine says. The figures in the South and Northeast are 26 percent.
You can make a big dent in your power bill by thinking about product features you need before buying a refrigerator. Models with the freezer on the bottom use about 16 percent less energy than side-by-side models. Top-freezer models use about 13 percent less energy than side-by-sides.
When office temperatures drop, typing errors rise. That's what a study by Cornell University ergonomics professor Alan Hedge found. When the temperature of an office was lowered from 77 to 68 degrees, typing mistakes rose by 74 percent and typing output fell by 46 percent.
- Compiled from Times wires and Web sites.