A Wired Vacation Is None at All

The relaxing, recharging vacation is becoming a casualty of the internet age as BlackBerrys and instant messages interrupt more and more employees' breaks, LiveScience reports. An Associated Press poll found that one-fifth of Americans brought a laptop with them for work during vacation—and many more tote cell phones, which are increasingly internet-enabled.

"Using work cell phones and checking company e-mail at the poolside is not a vacation," one organizational psychologist said. And there are real costs to not vacationing: A study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found middle-aged men at high risk of heart disease who vacationed were less likely to die than those who did not.