The days are getting shorter, and it's dark out when you leave work. If you look out your window at 5 pm and it's dark - I'm not sure how it is on the West Coast, but here on the East Coast this is the case - it can be rather disheartening. Most people sigh and go about their business, but for about 6% of Americans (18 million people), the darkness of the fall and winter months mean depressed mood, increased anxiety, fatigue, increased need for sleep, decreased energy, weight gain, difficulty concentrating, loss of interest and desire to be alone, increased craving for sweets, thoughts of death or suicide - symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Missouri can proudly claim it is first in the nation - first to test a new "diverging diamond" interchange that improves traffic flow by eliminating problematic left turns. Sound boring? I admit, the story didn't jump out at me at first. But the myriad diagrams with tiny cars moving across the screen got me hooked, and now I hope that the experiment, if successful, spreads across the country. Even Popular Science reported on the action.

The Wall Street Journal published a list of 20 medical advances for which we should be thankful. WSJ says that amid all the bad news about medicine in the media - H1N1, failed miracle drugs, etc, contentious health-care reform issues - it's easy to overlook how much progress has been made in recent years.

Without further ado: