A BUBBLE IN THE OIL MARKET?

Yesterday on this broadcast, our colleague Anthony Mason pointed out that the price of crude oil has gone up so far so fast that it looked to some people like a bubble.

In other words, commodity traders were buying up oil futures, because the price was going up ... and the more it went up, the more they bought. 

The bigger a bubble gets, the closer it is to popping.  Billionaire investor George Soros thinks all the signs are there,

"There is definitely a speculative bubble..." he said.

So does oil trader Phil Flynn, "We could see oil below $100.  We could see it back to 80, you know.  And you remember when oil was back at 80. That was way back in the good old days of January."

Since January, the price of gasoline across the country has jumped from less than three dollars a gallon to more than four, while the demand for gasoline has actually dropped ... and the world is not running out of oil.  Says energy trader John Hall, there's plenty of it. "If you look at fundamentals, you'll actually find it isn't a problem at the moment. And it may not be a problem for another 10 years or so."

Yet the high price of gasoline can cause a scarcity at the pump.  Chris Canavan told Anthony Mason he had to close his Connecticut station for two days, because he couldn't afford the 40,000 dollar payment for the next delivery. "So as a consequence, we ran out..." He used cones to keep the cars away.

Chris Canavan with CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason

Canavan: "This is how we block all of our islands when we don't have any gas."

Mason: "So you had to put all these out and shut down the station?"

Canavan: "That's right."

Anthony, is there a speculative bubble?

Anthony Mason says, "There is a real debate even with the oil trading community about whether this is in fact being driven by supply and demand solely, or is in fact speculators that have created a bubble --- and there's no easy answer."


ANOTHER REASON TO GET MORE VITAMIN D


In a new study, men classified as deficient in Vitamin D were two-and-a-half times more likely to have a heart attack than those with higher levels of Vitamin D.

Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard University School of Public Health, "Vitamin D level seems to be real predictor of heart disease."

The study's author, Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard University School of Public Health offered, "We really need to increase the Vitamin D intake levels for most people.  We may need to go three to four times higher than what most people get currently..."

The Harvard study relating Vitamin D deficiency in adult men to heart attacks comes as no surprise to our CBS News Medical Correspondent, Dr. Jon LaPook.

Dr. Jon LaPook, CBS News Medical Correspondent, "More and more over the years, we're seeing more things associated with a low Vitamin D --- anywhere from breast and colon cancer to of course brittle bones --- now depression, high blood pressure, and perhaps heart attack is associated.  The million dollar question:  is it cause and effect?"

Finding out whether you're deficient in Vitamin D can be expensive.

Dr. Jon LaPook, "More and more, people are coming in and saying, 'Hey - what's my Vitamin D level?'  It's not standardly being done now as part of the routine set of blood tests.  It turns out that it can be anywhere from 60 bucks to up to 300 bucks for a Vitamin D level (test).  Now if your insurance company pays for it, that's fine.  But if it's out of pocket, you may find yourself paying 150 to 200 bucks out of pocket."

How do we get Vitamin D?

Dr. Jon LaPook, "You can get it from sunlight in as little as five to 30 minutes, twice a week, just exposure to your arms and legs.  But of course, you don't want to be out there too long --- you can get skin cancer."

How about foods?

Dr. Jon LaPook, "You can get it in fatty fish like mackerel, tuna and salmon.  There is Vitamin D in milk, but it's 400 units only in a whole quart.  So you'd have to drink a lot of milk in order to get enough Vitamin D."

And by the way, says Dr. LaPook, "When they add the Vitamin D to milk, they do it at the very end of the process.  And when they make cheese and yogurt, they take out the milk before they add the Vitamin D.  So, you're not getting Vitamin D from cheese and yogurt, generally."


TEENS AND THEIR ETHICS

For the last five years the auditing, tax consulting and financial advising firm of Deloitte and Touche --- together with Junior Achievement --- have done a national survey of teenagers to find out whether they feel prepared to make ethical decisions when they enter the work force.  And the results have been somewhat disturbing...

Ainar Aijala with Deloitte & Touche said, "Seventy-one percent feel they're ethically prepared to make decisions.  But a third of those believe that even though they think they're ethically prepared to make decisions, it's necessary sometimes to break the rules - and cheat, steal or behave violently."

More about the survey from Ainar Aijala --- who has been global managing partner at Deloitte and chairman of Junior Achievement Worldwide.

There's always pressure to succeed at work, as there is at school.  And the poll suggests many American teens are willing to cheat if that's what it takes to succeed.

"For those that think that cheating is acceptable sometimes, 54 percent think a personal desire to succeed in school is justification.  That number goes up to 66 percent if they feel an overwhelming desire to succeed." Says Ainar Aijala.

Does that bother you?  It bothers me!  It bothers David Miller, ethics professor at Yale.  He says, "It suggests an attitude of ethical relativism and rationalization of whatever actions serve ones immediate needs and purposes."   

And when it comes to violence, there's little comfort about that in the survey, either.

Ainar Aijala offered, "Seventy-seven percent feel that it's okay to behave violently to defend themselves, twenty-seven percent to settle an argument, twenty percent for revenge."

What are today's teenagers impressions about ethical role models of the grown-up world of today?  

Mr. Aijala said, "Sixty-four percent think that politicians are unethical, and professional athletes --- 41 percent."

Aijala himself finds all this quite disturbing. "These are the people that are going to be future parents.  They're going to be future employees -  running companies, in politics."


MOVE OVER, X-RAYS:  HERE COMES T-RAYS
 

Everybody knows that they'll have to take their shoes off at some point going through the airport security clearance.  But hardly anybody does it until they're told to, and taking off your shoes while you're standing up takes longer than when you're sitting down --- and a lot longer to put them back on again.

So, this is one of the things that holds the line up, and a lot of people know they look foolish trying to stand on one foot while they remove or replace the shoe on the other one.  Well now, a government lab says that using a T-Ray --- rather than an X-Ray --- machine, they could examine your shoes without your having to take them off. 

X-Rays, as you know, are dangerous.  They can cause cell damage that can lead to radiation sickness or cancer.  T-Rays, or terahertz radiation, are a harmless  electromagnetism that can't see through metal or water but can see through leather or fabric.

Researchers at the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory - and also in Japan and Turkey - have found a simple new way of generating T-Rays, without the bulky equipment that's been needed up to now.  This is a compact unit that could examine your shoes without your having to take them off.  

And by the way, T-Rays can also see through human skin, so a variation of this device could be used to detect cancers beneath the skin.  

And you know those X-Rays your dentist takes every so often?  It takes lot of X-Ray pictures to cover all your upper and lower teeth.  And you may notice that dentists always minimizes the danger of dental X-Rays, but either step out of the room or off to one side when they push the button and zap you with the machine.  Well, T-Rays can also see detect tooth decay.

There's still a lot of fine tuning to be done, say the scientists at Argonne Labs.  But X-Rays at the dentist - and hopping up and down on one foot on the airport security line - may soon be things of the past.