Good week for:
Visible evolution, after a gorilla named Ambam was filmed walking upright on two legs for sustained periods in a British zoo. Ambam’s handlers believe he learned to walk like a human in order to gain a height advantage over his rivals and to free his hands to carry more food.
Frank Buckles, the last surviving World War I veteran, who turned 110 this week. About 4.7 million American doughboys served in that war, and Buckles has outlived them all.
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House shopping, after Census data showed that 18.4 million homes in the U.S.—11 percent of all homes—are vacant because of foreclosures, bankruptcies, and a decline in demand.
Bad week for:
Propaganda, after China Central Television aired video that it said showed a Chinese J-10 fighter plane blowing up another plane during a training exercise. The clip was actually filched from the movie Top Gun.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, after he sued the company that runs the House cafeteria, saying a sandwich wrap he bit into contained an olive pit that broke six of his teeth and required “multiple surgical and dental procedures.” Kucinich quickly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.
Terrorism, with the news that a suicide bomber planning an attack in Moscow was blown to bits when an unexpected text message to a cell phone attached to the bomb detonated it. The message was from her phone-service provider, wishing her a happy new year.
