Holiday sex: Christmas season is peak for mating

The Christmas-New Year's period produces a year-high spike in sexual activity and conceptions in the U.S., according to biorhythm researchers and makers of sex-related products. They attribute the increase to holiday leisure and New Year's resolutions to have children. New Year's irresolution fueled by alcohol and partying is another contributing factor. | 12/19/08 15:45:00 By - Frank Greve

Is Obama's Web-based political revolution real or smoke?

Has a presidential adviser ever before asked you to tell her where the economic crisis is hurting you personally? Has a future Cabinet member ever sought your ideas for improving health care? Barack Obama's incoming administration does both on its transition Web site, change.gov, and the appeals are drawing thousands of e-mail respondents. | 12/10/08 16:07:00 By - Frank Greve

Obama calls on his Internet campaign army to march again

President-elect Barack Obama's 3 million campaign volunteers got re-enlistment notices this week. Campaign manager David Plouffe, in a mass e-mail sent Wednesday to former workers, asked how much time they can spare for four missions integral to Obama's effort to transform his victory into a broader political movement. | 11/20/08 16:16:00 By - Frank Greve

Eco-urinals' problem: they're complicated (and they stink)

Concerns over water shortages have turned flushless urinals into the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. urinal market. But an inconvenient truth hovers over the no-flush urinal industry: many buyers and one-time fans say that the urinals are icky, tricky and costly to maintain. For one thing, urinal drain cartridges need changing after 7,000 uses. But who counts urinal uses? | 11/17/08 15:13:00 By - Frank Greve and Queenie Wong

Obama will use YouTube to reach out directly to voters

Saturday, in the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct, Obama's radio address will be posted on YouTube. Obama's transition team is also considering other ways to use the Internet, including allowing users a chance to question him directly. | 11/14/08 17:38:00 By - Frank Greve

Obama's change begins with transition Web site

President-elect Obama's got a new Web site, www.change.gov, that gives people a chance to say what they think his priorities should be, track the transition to his new administration, tell their personal stories and even apply for federal jobs. | 11/07/08 13:53:00 By - Frank Greve

How will President Obama deploy his Internet army?

A powerful new lobbying force is coming to Washington: Barack Obama's triumphant army of 3.1 million Internet-linked donors and volunteers. But what Obama will do with them is unclear. One idea: Obama could use his forces, first and foremost, to intimidate congressional foes of his agenda. | 11/05/08 11:07:00 By - Frank Greve

Bush administration has housed many homeless

On a cold January morning in 2001, Mel Martinez, who was then the new secretary of housing and urban development, was headed to his office in his limo when he saw some homeless people huddled on the vents of the steam tunnels that heat federal buildings. | 10/26/08 06:00:00 By - Frank Greve

Cop cameras don't just catch speeders, they raise cash

The leafy Washington, D.C., suburb of Chevy Chase Village is a great place to live but you wouldn't want to visit there. At least not by car. Easy-to-miss automated speed cameras on its half-mile main drag, where the speed limit is 30 mph, caught 3,500 speeders on their first day of operation last fall. Before that, the norm was six tickets a day. That means $250,000 a month in fines versus the previous $8,000 monthly. | 08/11/08 14:16:00 By - Frank Greve

As seniors live longer they find 'love expectancy' also grows

Romance is booming among the nation's older set. Longer life expectancy is partly why. There are more men around, thanks to treatments for heart disease and cancers of the prostate, colon and rectum. They also have more money. Finding partners is easier, too, thanks to the Internet. Seniors join online dating services at the highest rate of any age group. | 07/16/08 14:48:00 By - Frank Greve

Can Gallup's new happiness index make us a better nation?

The Gallup Organization and a health industry partner now offer a detailed daily measure of U.S. happiness and stress that you can look up on the Internet. They hope that it'll be as influential an indicator of national progress someday as the gross domestic product. | 06/09/08 13:39:00 By - Frank Greve

Stuck in traffic? Muse on this

WASHINGTON — Here are some things about traffic congestion to think about while waiting for the light to change:

| 05/13/08 15:45:00 By - Frank Greve

There is something that can be done about the traffic

Fine-tuning traffic signals would cut U.S. road congestion by as much as 10 percent, transportation experts estimate. It would also reduce air pollution and save thousands of man-hours in lost time, to say nothing of easing the frustrations of the commute. So why don't local traffic departments do it? | 05/13/08 15:46:00 By - Frank Greve

Drugs in drinking water: Do we need to care?

The unending list of contaminants in water and elsewhere is a growing public burden. Asked if they faced more health risks than past generations, majorities of Americans polled in 1980 said yes. Asked a similar question in 2003, they said yes again. So why are experts relatively unfazed? | 04/11/08 14:53:00 By - Frank Greve

Fathers doing more at home and with the kids

Fathers are taking on bigger shares of chores and child care, recent surveys show, and marriage experts say that it's probably good for their love lives. | 03/06/08 10:33:00 By - Frank Greve