The Week: Most Recent 2011-in-review

The 7 most touching videos of 2011

The Week — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:32:00 -0500

The year may have begun tragically, with a deadly shooting in Arizona, but 2011 still had its share of heartwarming moments. From a Hollywood legend's courageous testimony of elder abuse to a couple's undying love, here are a look at seven stories that warmed (and sometimes broke) our hearts, and the viral videos that helped spread their inspirational messages:

1. Mickey Rooney's tearful plea
In March, the 90-year-old Hollywood legend delivered passionate testimony to the Senate Committee on Aging, detailing the emotional and financial abuse he suffered at the hands of a family member...

The year in political cartoons

The Week — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:38:00 -0500

A horrifying shooting in Tucson, Ariz., in January left six people dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) fighting for her life. (See our full coverage of the Giffords shooting here.) In the wake of the tragedy, Washington's partisan rancor briefly stopped... but only briefly. Click through for more of the year's best political cartoons:

The 3 worst tech predictions of 2011

The Week — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:15:00 -0500

What would we do without the rumor mill? Whether it's a proclamation from a business analyst with "insider" know-how or a whisper strung along by anonymous sources, for every correct tech prediction at least a dozen misguided ones are left out in the cold. Here, a look back at the year's most flat-out wrong guesses — just in case you've forgotten:

1. The "ultra sexy" iPhone 5
Remember how the latest iPhone was supposed to be an "ultra sexy" redesign with a "radical new case design"? In the pre-Siri era back in April, the website formerly known as This Is My Next published a sneak-peek...

The worst political gaffes of 2011

The Week — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:58:00 -0500

After long months of speeches, town halls, cable news segments, newspaper interviews, and a seemingly endless string of debates, the Republican presidential hopefuls (and the Democratic incumbent) have had plenty of chances to stick their feet in their mouths in 2011. Of course, they didn't disappoint. As the year draws to a close, we remember 10 of the most memorable political gaffes of 2011:

1. Michele Bachmann: The Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly" to end slavery
In January, the Minnesota congresswoman said "we know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until...

7 unexpected health benefits of 2011

The Week — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:05:00 -0500

1. Chocolate can protect your heart and your brain. British researchers analyzed studies involving more than 100,000 people and discovered that those who reported eating the most chocolate — whether in cookies, candy bars, or milk shakes — were 37 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases and 29 percent less likely to have a stroke than those who ate the least. Cocoa's antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties may provide some heart-health benefits, and the pleasure of eating chocolate could also reduce stress. Study author Oscar Franco says it's still best...

2011's biggest pop culture moments

The Week — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:58:00 -0500

What was everyone talking about at the water cooler in 2011? From Will and Kate's all-consuming Royal Wedding to Kim Kardashian's equally all-consuming divorce, here's a look at the biggest pop culture moments of 2011:

1. Charlie Sheen's meltdown
Perhaps no star had a wilder roller coaster ride in 2011 than Charlie Sheen. First there was the leaked news in January of a Vegas bender with a trio of "goddesses." That escalated into a bizarre series of rants and petulant behavior. Soon, Sheen was fired from the CBS hit comedy Two and a Half Men, and later replaced by Ashton Kutcher. After...

Health: 7 things we were warned to avoid in 2011

The Week — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:43:00 -0500

1. Multivitamins do more harm than good. A 20-year study found that women who took multivitamins were 2.4 percent more likely to die of any cause in that period than those who didn't. Folic acid, magnesium, and zinc seemed to shorten subjects' lives, and the more iron women took, the more lethal its effects. Study author Jaakko Mursu says nature built us to get nutrients from whole foods, so the solution is simple: Eat "as many vegetables and as much fruit as you can" and you'll get all the vitamins you need.

2. Liposuction won't make you skinnier, and it's hazardous to your health. Researchers...

Remembering those who passed away in 2011

The Week — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:12:00 -0500

As 2011 draws to a close, we look back and remember those celebrated people who died in the past 12 months. The list includes a fitness pioneer, lovable character actors, fearless photojournalists, and the widely mourned genius who transformed the humble apple into a symbol of technological prowess. Read on...

The 5 best fiction books of 2011

The Week — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:00:00 -0500

1. The Tiger's Wife
by Téa Obreht
(Random House, $15)
Téa Obreht's debut novel is "unusual in content, wise beyond its author's years, and completely engrossing," said Maya Muir in the Portland Oregonian. Set in an unspecified Balkan country in the aftermath of a brutal war, The Tiger's Wife follows a young doctor named Natalia who travels many miles to deliver medicine to orphans while she deals with the news of her grandfather's death. As she works, she recalls the "fantastical stories" the old man used to tell. In one, he met what he called a "deathless man." In another, a...

The 5 best non-fiction books of 2011

The Week — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:46:00 -0500

1. Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
(Simon & Schuster, $35)
Steve Jobs was both brilliant and a "complicated, peculiar personality," said Michael S. Rosenwald in The Washington Post. Granted full access to the Apple CEO during his last months, Walter Isaacson this fall put the finishing touches on a comprehensive biography that gives us a Jobs who's "charming, loathsome, lovable, obsessive, maddening." Isaacson "clearly admires" his subject — crediting the late business innovator with revolutionizing how we interact with technology and "putting him in a league with Thomas Edison and Henry...

The 8 wackiest inventions of 2011

The Week — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:41:00 -0500

If necessity is the mother of innovation, then novelty must at least be its cousin. Just look at some of the last year's rather odd inventions, from polar bear robots to a cyborg-like eyeball:

1. The disturbingly accurate mask of your own face
A Japanese startup called REAL-f began selling "three-dimensional photo forms," or frighteningly realistic masks of human faces made from a chloride resin modeled on several photos of a person's face taken from a variety of angles and positions. (See some samples here.) If you have a spare $4,000, said Mariella Moon at Tecca, it's essentially "the best...

The most memorable film performances of 2011: A slideshow

The Week — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:45:00 -0500

Jennifer Aniston left her good girl image behind, Ryan Gosling portrayed one of cinema's most charming Lotharios, and a 9-year-old Jack Russell terrier ran away with moviegoers' hearts. In a year brimming with memorable performances, here's a look at the ones that were the funniest, most touching, and hardest to shake:

The 'worst Congress ever'? 8 low points of 2011

The Week — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:45:00 -0500

Back in July, longtime Washington watcher Norm Ornstein pegged the 112th Congress as the "worst Congress ever," and it hasn't improved much since. By October, a CBS/New York Times poll clocked the legislative branch's popularity at an abysmal 9 percent, making it less popular (according to various polls) than the idea of the U.S. turning Communist (11 percent), BP during its massive 2010 Gulf oil spill (16 percent), banks (23 percent), King George during the Revolutionary War (an estimated 15 to 20 percent), and even the IRS (40 percent). Why is the tax man four times more popular than Washington...

The 8 craziest lawsuits of 2011

The Week — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:26:00 -0500

America is a notoriously litigious nation. A 2005 study showed that our nation has 3.3 lawsuits for every 1,000 citizens. And while many suits are noble and just, countless legal battles seem to be pointless wastes of time, money, or both. Here, eight of 2011's more ridiculous lawsuits:

1. The couple who sued over a mid-air cockroach sighting
A North Carolina couple sued Air Tran Airways for $100,000, claiming that they saw cockroaches on a flight. Harry Marsh and Kaitlin Rush say the sight of cockroaches crawling out of an air vent "caused great distress," and forced them to throw away...

The most captivating animals of 2011: A slideshow

The Week — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:28:00 -0500

Though global protests, gala weddings, and various human shenanigans generated the bulk of 2011's headlines, plenty of animals captured our attention this year as well, thanks to their displays of bravery, adorableness, and — in at least one case — the love that dare not speak its name. From Toronto's "gay" penguins to the short and troubled life of Knut the polar bear, here are eight of the year's most intriguing animals.

The 7 biggest political downfalls of 2011

The Week — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 09:37:00 -0500

If global politics had an annual awards show, the segment devoted to eulogizing those statesmen we lost in 2011 would be long and impressive. From deposed international despots to sexually reckless U.S. politicians who were forced to leave the political sphere, it was a bad year to get caught on the wrong side of revolutions and popular revulsion. Here, seven of the most dramatic, unexpected falls from power in 2011:

1. Hosni Mubarak
Egypt's president for 30 years, Mubarak was forced out on Feb. 11, after 18 days of mostly peaceful protests centered in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Mubarak was hardly...