Hardwired to Acquire
It's the national day of spending, and thank goodness for that. Dubai has announced to their creditors that they're going to take a 6-month time out on payments, and as a result the stock markets are prepared to plunge. That's the last thing we need, as shoppers are heading out to play quick-draw with their wallets. We need to spend our way out of the economic mess, the way we have every other bad economic time. I'm not even planning to shop today, but still I lend an ear every time the TV commentators wind into another account of wild shoppers fighting one another over bargains. But they're just doing what their brains tell 'em to do, and their brai

Hardwired to Acquire
It's the national day of spending, and thank goodness for that. Dubai has announced to their creditors that they're going to take a 6-month time out on payments, and as a result the stock markets are prepared to plunge. That's the last thing we need, as shoppers are heading out to play quick-draw with their wallets. We need to spend our way out of the economic mess, the way we have every other bad economic time. I'm not even planning to shop today, but still I lend an ear every time the TV commentators wind into another account of wild shoppers fighting one another over bargains. But they're just doing what their brains tell 'em to do, and their brai

The Sex Disruptors
Four months ago, our ace contributing writer Melody Petersen asked if I'd ever heard about the Indian reservation near Detroit that was suffering a boy shortage. I hadn't, so she explained the possible reason why fewer boys were being born there: Toxins from nearby "Chemical Valley," in Sarnia, Ontario,  had been dumping all kinds of industrial effluent into local air and waters, and now

A Slow Train Comin', Now Looking More like the Eurostar
I'd caught wind of this on my late night news peruse, but couldn't actually believe it would happen. Then this morning on the Slatest news digest, I found it was true: We, as a country, might actually be taking steps to guarantee health care to the 43 million Americans who now struggle without it. We may finally help the untold millions who face the threat of losing their jobs in this still-fragile economy, and hence risk bankruptcy every time they roll out of bed in the morning. One slip on the sidewalk on the way to pick up the newspaper (some people still do that, right?), and their financial fate could be sealed. And a

The Best D-fense against Depression
It's early morning here at Men's Health. The sun's just barely up. But I'm here at my desk, hoping to improve your life with the January issue of the magazine. We're about to send it off the the printing press. (That's right, we still print it. Isn't that cool?) Thank goodness I have a useful job, and that I took my vitamin D supplement last night. Otherwise a guy could get a little depressed.That's right, vitamin D. It turns out the vitamin our bodies produce in reaction to natural sunlight, is linked to how happy you are at any given moment. And once the sun goes into it's annual run-and-hide-mode, in winter, you&#