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...price wars have gone nuclear. From Target's $3 coffeemakers to Best Buy's half-price washing machines to Staples's $350 laptops, the theme of this holiday shopping season is, without a doubt, "we sell for less." Even Wal-Mart's commitment to "every day" low prices isn't preventing it from going lower. An online skirmish with Amazon.com that started with $9 hardcover books (books normally sold for three times that amount) has dominoed into other categories, driving down prices on everything from mobile phones to Easy-Bake ovens. The deals are everywhere. (See pictures of expensive things...
...neurotransmitter dopamine isn't quite that powerful, but evidence has been mounting for the past 40 years that its activity is key to helping the brain recognize experiences that cause pleasure. The more dopamine a certain event (having sex or eating ice cream, say) triggers, the more strongly that event gets hard-wired in the brain, and the more intensely your brain drives you to revisit it. (See the best inventions...
...hopeful there's going to be similar deals as there were last year - and almost expecting it, given the current state of the economy," says Laux. She remembers 2008's steep holiday discounts and is unimpressed with the paltry 30% markdowns that are currently being offered. "Seeing 30% isn't going to make me shop earlier," says Laux, who adds that she'll do the bulk of her shopping in the final two weeks before Christmas if the markdowns don't come sooner. "I'm not afraid to wait," she says...
...Zhus selling so well? First, they cost less than $10, a price that is right for the times. This season, families are looking for small, low-cost collectible toys instead the big-ticket item. "There isn't a hell of a lot of high technology in the Zhu Zhu Pets," says Sean McGowan, a toy-industry analyst at Needham & Co. "That's how they are so damn affordable." (See pictures of people shopping on Black Friday...
...Asian image that resonates with me isn't the bow, but the President alone on the Great Wall. That image - the noble loner - is clearly one the White House wants to project. But it raises the specter of isolation. Most Presidents have a significant other when it comes to policy. Bush Junior had Cheney; Clinton had Hillary; Bush the Elder had James Baker; Nixon had Kissinger. Obama's conservative critics poke fun at his overweening ego, but I suspect that the President's need to find an alter ego, an intellectual equal - in addition to the First Lady...