The Week: Most Recent Home Page Posts

The experimental drug that could prevent Alzheimer's: A guide

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:14:00 -0400

The U.S. government wants to have a cure for Alzheimer's ready to go by 2025, and is prepared to spend big money to get there. An ambitious new international study will begin testing an experimental drug intended to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's, in what could mark a huge shift in the way health experts approach the disease. Here, a brief guide to the big undertaking:

Why is Alzheimer's such a big deal?
The degenerative brain disease affects 5.4 million Americans every year, but that figure could climb as high as 8.7 million by the year 2030. Symptoms generally begin appearing in adults around...

America's increasing support for Syria's rebels: 5 takeaways

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:10:00 -0400

With the help of the U.S. and Persian Gulf nations, Syrian rebels seeking the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad have received an influx of better weapons in recent weeks, say Karen DeYoung and Liz Sly at The Washington Post. The weapons, which include anti-tank artillery, are being provided by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Sunni states in the region that would love to see the ouster of Assad, who has strong ties to the Shiite regime in Iran. But the U.S. is reportedly playing a significant role in the arrangement, too, broadening its contacts with the rebels to better coordinate the weapons...

Good day, bad day: May 16, 2012

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:00 -0400

GOOD DAY FOR:

Moving from Zuck to Jobs
Aaron Sorkin, the snappy writer behind The Social Network, officially signs on to pen a Steve Jobs biopic based on Walter Isaacson's biography of the late Apple innovator. [Death & Taxes]

Relentless strumming
A Texas guitarist breaks the world record for longest guitar solo, surpassing the previous record of 24 hours and 18 minutes. [TIME]

Seeing-eye horses
The Illinois Senate approves a measure allowing miniature horses to accompany people with disabilities. [The Daily What]

BAD DAY FOR:

Extreme chaperoning
Two Colorado moms chaperoning...

Humanizing Mitt Romney: Could James Lipton's master acting tips help?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:58:00 -0400

The video: As Mitt Romney struggles with his stiff, out-of-touch image, at least one observer thinks acting lessons could help. Legendary thespian, drama coach, and Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton offers his own unsolicited advice to the presidential hopeful in a new video and New York column cheekily titled, "How to Act Human." (Watch the video below.) While Mitt must, Lipton says, add warmth to his "mirthless" laugh — "There's no pleasure there, no amusement" — the wealthy politician should give up his attempts to impersonate the common man. He lacks the skill to pull...

Coming soon: An over-the-counter HIV test?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:45:00 -0400

In a potentially huge step in the fight against AIDS, the advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration has unanimously voted to recommend approval for the first over-the-counter HIV test. Carl Schmid, deputy director of the AIDS Institute, said the kit — the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test — could be a "game-changer." Could this really prove effective in preventing the transmission of AIDS? Here, a concise guide to this potential breakthrough:

How does the test work?
It's simple. If the kit gets final approval, you'll be able to pick one up at the local drug store. To take the test...

The Dictator: Has Sacha Baron Cohen's shtick gotten old?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:35:00 -0400

The Dictator introduces moviegoers to the latest outlandish character from Sacha Baron Cohen: Admiral General Aladeen, a despot from the fictional North African nation of Wadiya who takes refuge in New York City after an assassination attempt. (Watch a trailer below.) Following Borat and Bruno, this is Cohen's third attempt to wrings laughs from a foreign character's ignorance of Western culture and societal norms. Is The Dictator, which hits theaters Wednesday, as fresh and despicably delicious as those first two hits?

Cohen's shtick has gotten old: The Dictator settles it, says Rene Rodriguez...

Lightning strikes the new French president's plane... and 4 other bad political omens

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:55:00 -0400

Francois Hollande endured a rough first day as France's president on Tuesday, but the seemingly luckless Socialist is certainly not the first world leader to encounter ill omens on inauguration day. Here, his story and four other tales of higher-office woe:

1. France's Francois Hollande
Brooding rainstorms soaked the new president so thoroughly on his inauguration day that he had to change suits... twice. Hollande told reporters he wasn't afraid of rain or anything else — but that was before lightning struck his presidential jet while he was en route to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel...

JPMorgan's billion-dollar loss: Time to break up the big banks?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:04:00 -0400

In the aftermath of JPMorgan's $2 billion loss, which could bloat to as much as $4 billion in the coming weeks, critics of Wall Street have pressed the government to strengthen its oversight of the financial industry. But would that be enough to prevent a repetition of the financial crisis? Some say the very existence of JPMorgan and other too-big-to-fail banks represents a constant threat to the global economy — as well as the taxpayers who will have to rescue them if they collapse. Is the best solution to cut big banks down to size?

Yes. Regulation alone can't save the banks from themselves...

Weird news photo quiz

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:34:00 -0400

Should kindergarteners be allowed to evaluate teachers?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:33:00 -0400

A the tender age of 5 some kids are just learning how to spell "cat." In Georgia, though, 5-year-olds will soon be tasked with filling out surveys that could help determine which teachers get raises — or get fired. Under a pilot program, students from kindergarten and up will be asked whether their instructors know a lot about what they teach, and if they provide help when their pupils need it. The littlest ones will be guided through the process, circling smiley faces — or neutral or frowning ones — to indicate their opinions. Georgia is at the forefront of a movement to make...

Rock of Ages first listen: Can Tom Cruise actually sing?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:10:00 -0400

The audio: Tom Cruise is, apparently, "hot sticky sweet." But can he sing? Ever since the Mission: Impossible star was cast in the upcoming musical Rock of Ages, based on the jukebox Broadway show of the same name, critics wondered whether he had the vocal chops to pull off the role. In the film, out June 15, Cruise plays Stacee Jaxx, a bare-chested, chaps-wearing rocker in the mold of Poison's Bret Michaels, who is tasked with belting out rock and roll classics like "Paradise City" and "Wanted Dead or Alive." The first audio clip of the actor singing the Def Leppard track "Pour Some Sugar On Me...

Jay-Z's gay marriage endorsement: More influential than Obama's?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:10:00 -0400

The president isn't the only world-famous person whose stance on gay marriage has evolved. Hip-hop king Jay-Z also just publicly announced his support of same-sex marriage: "I've always thought [of] it as something that's still holding the country back," the rapper told CNN. "It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination, plain and simple." The remarks come as pundits weigh whether President Obama's endorsement of marriage equality will hurt him with black voters. Obama won 95 percent of the black vote in 2008, but only 39 percent of black voters support...

GM yanks its Facebook ads: Will it hurt the social network's IPO?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:05:00 -0400

General Motors announced this week that it will no longer pay Facebook to advertise on the social network, an embarrassing setback for Mark Zuckerberg and Co. in the run-up to their fanatically hyped IPO on Friday. GM says paid ads on Facebook, which constitute the bulk of the social network's revenue, "have little impact on consumers' car purchases," says The Wall Street Journal. The paid ads cost GM $10 million a year (it spends another $30 million creating ads and content for its own Facebook pages), which is a drop in the bucket compared to Facebook's revenue of $3.7 billion in 2011...

The Carlos DeLuna case: Definitive proof that Texas executed an innocent man?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:27:00 -0400

Supporters of the death penalty routinely dismiss the notion that innocent people can get ground up in the wheels of justice. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, wrote in 2006 that not "a single case — not one — [exists] in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit." Well, "Scalia may have to eat his words," says Ed Pilkington at Britain's The Guardian. In Columbia Human Rights Law Review, law professor James Liebman and five of his students lay out over 436 heavily footnoted pages in support of their case that Texas executed the wrong...

The Trayvon Martin case: A timeline

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:50:00 -0400

This article — originally published on March 29, 2012 — was last updated on May 16, 2012. Scroll down for the latest updates.

The February shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old staying at a gated community in Sanford, Fla., was a minor local news story for weeks before exploding into the national media. Since then, the killing has both fascinated and repulsed the nation, touching on all sorts of cultural and racial issues, and becoming nightly fodder on the cable news shows. Here's a look at what happened, and when, in this complicated, still-unfolding...

The $60,000 custody battle... over a dog

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:39:00 -0400

Breaking up is hard to do. And for Craig Dershowitz, it's getting awfully expensive. The 34-year-old New Yorker's ex-girlfriend, Sarah Brega, took their dog, Knuckles, when she moved to California after their split, and he's suing to get the puggle — half pug, half beagle — back. So far, he has spent $60,000 on the cross-country legal fight. Here, a brief guide to this canine custody battle, and the increasing number of cases just like it:

Why is this guy so desperate to get his dog back?
Dershowitz says Knuckles is more than a pet to him... the animal is his "son," his "baby boy," his...