We live in an age in which people willingly lube up homemade electrodes, strap them to their heads, and then crank up some voltage to zap their brains. It’s called transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS, and it is very much a thing — there’s some slick consumer products you...
Once upon a time, the internet was made up of awkward personal blogs and weird webpages about string theory. Then, for a while, it was mostly made up of cats (plus some quizzes). But in the past year or so, the internet has entered a new phase:...
World-class athletes are known for their willingness to embrace extreme training regimens and unorthodox treatments in their pursuits of physical excellence — treatments that often look a little outlandish to the mere mortals who watch from the stands. During the London Olympics, beach volleyball players and others drew notice...
We live in a post-tryptophan world. The idea that turkey makes you sleepy because it has a special chemical in it has been a standard part of Thanksgiving small talk since time immemorial. Plus, having a scientific term on hand let us pretend there was a pseudo-medical...
Patrick Nerrant has the “virus for tanks.” He means, of course, a “bug” for collecting tanks — his French interpretation of an old American idiom. Luckily for him, Normandy, France, where he lives and works, is a good place for a World War II tanks collector to be. Nerrant’s...
It’s 3 a.m. on a Monday. As my friends and nemeses drift out of peaceful slumber (or fevered dreams in which I seek my vengeance), I sit on the floor of a small green room. The air conditioner makes a carousel of soft animals — bear, fox, raccoon — dance, slowly...
This is the latest installment in our series Into the Black, where we hear from people who escaped the burden of unpaid bills and loans through sacrifice and ingenuity. This week we talk to Spencer Reese, a U.S. airman who went from indebted college grad to personal...
In March, one week after IMG announced it had signed Zach Miko, its first plus-sized male model, American Eagle Outfitters debuted a new commercial to promote Aerie, its line of intimate apparel. The commercial featured three men lounging about at home in snug boxer briefs. In a...
This spring, The New York Times confidently announced the return of chest hair, contextualizing the trend as an extension of the lumberjack look that brought with it beards and a more rugged, natural approach to men’s grooming. It’s hard to imagine a day of felling trees starting...
The promise of “power posing” was simple: Stand like Wonder Woman for two minutes a day, and you’ll instantly feel more powerful, more accomplished, and able to achieve. In recent years, power poses have become a standard of the productivity-maximizing business life hack literature. You could read...
Since pretty much forever, men have attempted to impress women in any number of ways, from watches to cufflinks to eyeliner to fast cars to flashy clothes to good deeds. None of this, of course, is surprising. Attempting to attract women with glimpses of luxury and acts...
Imagine this: You’re in the audience of the 16th-century edition of Italy’s Got Talent. Some guy from some small village plays a sweet lute riff. Maybe Michelangelo paints a sweet-ass ceiling live. Finally, out struts Vincenzo Cervio, holding a giant fork with a roasted goose joint on...