The Week

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  • Mitt Romney won. And now he's going to lose

    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:Bullpen
    The Week
    6 Apr 2012 | 5:15 am
    So the hollow man has finally firmed his fragile hold on the GOP nomination, in another of T.S. Eliot's phrases, "not with a bang, but with a whimper." In the Wisconsin primary, the whimper was Mitt Romney's margin — a derisory 4 percent for someone to whom Republicans should rally overwhelmingly since they know he will be their standard-bearer in November.But as I've written before, Romney's will be a grudging nomination, requiring Herculean exertion and Midas-like spending to overcome a clutch of rivals who resemble the cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Wisconsin, like the rest…

  • 10 things you need to know today: May 15, 2012

    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:World News
    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 7:30 am
    1. HOLLANDE SWORN IN AS FRENCH PRESIDENT Francois Hollande was sworn in as France's new president on Tuesday, amid fresh concerns over European debt. The country's first Socialist president since 1995, Hollande has criticized the austerity measures built into bailout plans for flailing countries like Greece and Ireland. At his inauguration, he stressed the importance of stimulating economic growth. After his swearing in, Hollande will head to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a vocal advocate of fiscal restraint who is also known for having a close partnership with…

  • Celebrity weather reports: A video roundup

    The Week: Most Recent Arts & Life:People & Gossip
    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 4:30 pm
    "Now here's Prince Charles with the weather," says Madeleine Davis at Jezebel. BBC viewers in Scotland were treated to a surprise weather report when Prince Charles dropped by the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow this week and made a detour to the weather desk. But the royal is hardly the first celebrity "drafted to point at isobars." Here, a look at six celebrity meteorologist cameos:1. Prince CharlesThe heir to the throne was given a rather predictable report to deliver to Scottish viewers: "Cold, wet, and windy." But he did a charming job of it, says Jessica Derschowitz…

  • The Pebble smartwatch: Kickstarter's record-shattering $10 million project

    The Week: Most Recent Home Page Posts
    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 5:05 pm
    Silicon Valley's Eric Migicovsky had a vision for a watch that would seamlessly and wirelessly sync with his smartphone, alerting him to incoming calls, texts, and emails. His idea, eventually dubbed Pebble, attracted the attention of business incubator Y Combinator and raised $375,000 from a few angel investors. "Then he hit a roadblock," says Mark Milian at Bloomberg. "A big one." Pebble couldn't raise any more money, and the project screeched to a halt. So Migicovsky turned to the popular "crowd-funding" website Kickstarter, and suddenly, Pebble had scored an astonishing $10 million…

  • Barack Obama's 'anodyne' The View appearance: 6 takeaways

    The Week: Most Recent News+Opinion Posts
    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    "I love hanging out with women!" That's what Barack Obama told the hosts of The View during his taped appearance on Tuesday's episode of the morning talk show. (Watch a clip below.) If it wasn't obvious that the president is "trying to shore up his already-strong support among women," says Sarah Frank at New York, he made the effort abundantly clear during his appearance, which covered his gay marriage stance, his support for Title IX, the three most important women in his life, and Kim Kardashian. Here, six takeaways from the friendly sitdown:1. Obama considered announcing his "evolution"…
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    The Week: Most Recent Home Page Posts

  • The Pebble smartwatch: Kickstarter's record-shattering $10 million project

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 5:05 pm
    Silicon Valley's Eric Migicovsky had a vision for a watch that would seamlessly and wirelessly sync with his smartphone, alerting him to incoming calls, texts, and emails. His idea, eventually dubbed Pebble, attracted the attention of business incubator Y Combinator and raised $375,000 from a few angel investors. "Then he hit a roadblock," says Mark Milian at Bloomberg. "A big one." Pebble couldn't raise any more money, and the project screeched to a halt. So Migicovsky turned to the popular "crowd-funding" website Kickstarter, and suddenly, Pebble had scored an astonishing $10 million…

  • The 8 craziest prom stories of 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 4:35 pm
    Prom season is lurching to an end, but the awkward stories are still pouring in. From celebrity dates to cardboard companions, from ill-fated prom-queen campaigns to inappropriate parents, here's a rundown of eight strange prom tales you might have missed: 1. The girl who took an NFL playerEighteen-year-old Joyce Grendel's date backed out at the last-minute... and getting jilted turned out to be the Ohio high-schooler's lucky break. She didn't want to go stag, so, on a whim, she invited her favorite professional football player — Joe Haden of the Cleveland Browns — via Twitter. He…

  • Barack Obama's 'anodyne' The View appearance: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    "I love hanging out with women!" That's what Barack Obama told the hosts of The View during his taped appearance on Tuesday's episode of the morning talk show. (Watch a clip below.) If it wasn't obvious that the president is "trying to shore up his already-strong support among women," says Sarah Frank at New York, he made the effort abundantly clear during his appearance, which covered his gay marriage stance, his support for Title IX, the three most important women in his life, and Kim Kardashian. Here, six takeaways from the friendly sitdown:1. Obama considered announcing his "evolution"…

  • Good day, bad day: May 15, 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:00 pm
    GOOD DAY FOR:One-upping the FrenchIn South Korea, 4,000 children build the tallest Lego tower on Earth. At a height of 31.9 meters, the toy structure bests the previous record of 31.6 meters, held by France. [Tecca]Evolving with Obama Producer-rapper extraordinaire Jay-Z comes out in favor of gay marriage. [The Frisky]Keeping cool under fire A Swiss research institute designs a bullet-proof vest equipped with air conditioning. [Geekosystem]BAD DAY FOR: Wiping down the crime scene A Utah teenager is caught allegedly robbing a house after he leaves behind a backpack containing a USB...

  • Will John Travolta's sex scandal hurt his career?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:42 pm
    The aggressive back-and-forth continues between John Travolta's lawyers and the trio (perhaps quartet?) of anonymous male masseurs accusing the actor of inappropriate sexual behavior. The embarrassing story has made loads of headlines over the past week, leading some industry analysts to wonder if Travolta's career will be damaged by the scandal — even if the claims that he forced himself upon several male masseurs are found to be false. (The latest news is that one alleged victim has filed to dismiss his lawsuit.) The actor, who denies these masseurs' claims, is…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent News+Opinion Posts

  • Barack Obama's 'anodyne' The View appearance: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    "I love hanging out with women!" That's what Barack Obama told the hosts of The View during his taped appearance on Tuesday's episode of the morning talk show. (Watch a clip below.) If it wasn't obvious that the president is "trying to shore up his already-strong support among women," says Sarah Frank at New York, he made the effort abundantly clear during his appearance, which covered his gay marriage stance, his support for Title IX, the three most important women in his life, and Kim Kardashian. Here, six takeaways from the friendly sitdown:1. Obama considered announcing his "evolution"…

  • Good day, bad day: May 15, 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:00 pm
    GOOD DAY FOR:One-upping the FrenchIn South Korea, 4,000 children build the tallest Lego tower on Earth. At a height of 31.9 meters, the toy structure bests the previous record of 31.6 meters, held by France. [Tecca]Evolving with Obama Producer-rapper extraordinaire Jay-Z comes out in favor of gay marriage. [The Frisky]Keeping cool under fire A Swiss research institute designs a bullet-proof vest equipped with air conditioning. [Geekosystem]BAD DAY FOR: Wiping down the crime scene A Utah teenager is caught allegedly robbing a house after he leaves behind a backpack containing a USB...

  • Is Obama using the culture wars to distract from the economy?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:10 pm
    President Obama made history last week by becoming the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage. However, Americans aren't convinced that the president completed his "evolution" on the issue out of the goodness of his heart. According to a New York Times/CBS poll, 67 percent of respondents say Obama made the announcement "mostly for political reasons." That survey bolsters arguments from conservatives that Obama's announcement stemmed from political calculation, and that he is using gay marriage and headline-making cultural issues to distract voters from the country's most dire…

  • People who cross the street while texting: Should they be fined?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 11:20 am
    Studies have shown that texting while driving can be deadly, but up until now texting while walking has mostly just proved embarrassing. Still, police in Fort Lee, N.J. recently decided to crack down on jaywalking texters. Why? Because 23 distracted jaywalkers were hit by cars in the first few months of the year, and three were killed. That sobering number hasn't stopped residents of the New Jersey town from complaining about the $85 fine that comes along with a ticket for "careless walking." And while this kind of law — which has long been in place in Fort Lee — typically fails…

  • Will Republicans 'evolve' on gay marriage too?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 9:45 am
    Just days after President Obama announced his support for gay marriage, a respected Republican pollster urged members of his party to evolve on the issue, too. Jan R. van Lohuizen, who advised George W. Bush during his 2004 campaign, wrote in a memo leaked over the weekend that public opinion is quickly shifting in favor of same-sex marriage — by 5 percent a year since 2010 — and that the GOP needs to change with the times. He suggests that Republicans rationalize their support for gay marriage because "freedom means freedom for everyone," including same-sex couples who want to…
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    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:U.S. News

  • Barack Obama's 'anodyne' The View appearance: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    "I love hanging out with women!" That's what Barack Obama told the hosts of The View during his taped appearance on Tuesday's episode of the morning talk show. (Watch a clip below.) If it wasn't obvious that the president is "trying to shore up his already-strong support among women," says Sarah Frank at New York, he made the effort abundantly clear during his appearance, which covered his gay marriage stance, his support for Title IX, the three most important women in his life, and Kim Kardashian. Here, six takeaways from the friendly sitdown:1. Obama considered announcing his "evolution"…

  • Good day, bad day: May 15, 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:00 pm
    GOOD DAY FOR:One-upping the FrenchIn South Korea, 4,000 children build the tallest Lego tower on Earth. At a height of 31.9 meters, the toy structure bests the previous record of 31.6 meters, held by France. [Tecca]Evolving with Obama Producer-rapper extraordinaire Jay-Z comes out in favor of gay marriage. [The Frisky]Keeping cool under fire A Swiss research institute designs a bullet-proof vest equipped with air conditioning. [Geekosystem]BAD DAY FOR: Wiping down the crime scene A Utah teenager is caught allegedly robbing a house after he leaves behind a backpack containing a USB...

  • Is Obama using the culture wars to distract from the economy?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:10 pm
    President Obama made history last week by becoming the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage. However, Americans aren't convinced that the president completed his "evolution" on the issue out of the goodness of his heart. According to a New York Times/CBS poll, 67 percent of respondents say Obama made the announcement "mostly for political reasons." That survey bolsters arguments from conservatives that Obama's announcement stemmed from political calculation, and that he is using gay marriage and headline-making cultural issues to distract voters from the country's most dire…

  • Ron Paul's quirky political career: A visual history

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:50 pm
    Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) all but bowed out of the presidential race this week, saying he would not campaign in the GOP's remaining primary contests. His departure likely signals the end of his political career, as he has decided not to run for re-election in the House. Paul never had much of a chance to win the nomination, but he has a devoted following, and many of his libertarian beliefs have become keystones for the Tea Party. Here, a pictorial guide to his career: More

  • People who cross the street while texting: Should they be fined?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 11:20 am
    Studies have shown that texting while driving can be deadly, but up until now texting while walking has mostly just proved embarrassing. Still, police in Fort Lee, N.J. recently decided to crack down on jaywalking texters. Why? Because 23 distracted jaywalkers were hit by cars in the first few months of the year, and three were killed. That sobering number hasn't stopped residents of the New Jersey town from complaining about the $85 fine that comes along with a ticket for "careless walking." And while this kind of law — which has long been in place in Fort Lee — typically fails…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:World News

  • 10 things you need to know today: May 15, 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 7:30 am
    1. HOLLANDE SWORN IN AS FRENCH PRESIDENT Francois Hollande was sworn in as France's new president on Tuesday, amid fresh concerns over European debt. The country's first Socialist president since 1995, Hollande has criticized the austerity measures built into bailout plans for flailing countries like Greece and Ireland. At his inauguration, he stressed the importance of stimulating economic growth. After his swearing in, Hollande will head to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a vocal advocate of fiscal restraint who is also known for having a close partnership with…

  • 5 reasons China's economy is slowing down

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 6:22 am
    China recently released data showing an "across-the-board" slowdown in its economy, sparking concerns that it could drag down the global economy, too. "China has been the largest single contributor to global economic growth in recent years," says Keith Bradsher at The New York Times, and it's unlikely that the country's problems can be contained. "Remember: What happens in China, does not stay in China," says Thomas Mucha at Global Post. Here, five reasons why China's economy is faltering:1. Economic weakness in the U.S. and Europe China has long relied on its cheap export machine to fuel…

  • The Syria car bombings: 3 repercussions

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 1:29 pm
    Syrian protesters returned to the streets on Friday, a day after twin car bombings killed 55 people and injured hundreds more in Damascus. The Syrian government blamed the blasts, which hit near a military intelligence center, on "terrorists," while opposition leaders accused the regime of staging the attacks to justify continuing its armed assaults on rebel strongholds. What will the bombings mean for the future of Syria and an already-shaky peace deal? Here, three theories:1. Many more refugees will flee The battle between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels has already sent…

  • Why America shouldn't panic over Putin

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 5:10 pm
    Contrary to what many Americans expect, Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency need not cause a deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia. Many assume that Putin benefits politically from indulging anti-Americanism, and that in his new presidential term, he'll pursue increasingly adversarial policies. This underestimates Putin's willingness to strike pragmatic deals with Western governments. Putin has had a longstanding interest in cooperating with America — so long as Russian interests are respected and acknowledged. It would be foolish to ignore this…

  • 9/11 mastermind KSM's military trial: Already a disaster?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 9:50 am
    The long-awaited military trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is off to a messy start at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On Saturday, Mohammed and four other accused plotters repeatedly disrupted what should have been a routine arraignment hearing, taking breaks for prayers and refusing to answer the judge's questions. A defense attorney wore traditional Muslim garb and asked that female prosecutors dress more conservatively to avoid offending her client. Is the controversial military tribunal already an…
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    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:Bullpen

  • Ron Paul's true endgame

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 8:30 am
    On Monday, the Republican nomination fight finally got reduced to a single candidate. This might surprise people who believed that the departure of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum had already made Mitt Romney the official nominee. But until Monday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had continued to raise funds and campaign in upcoming primary states. That changed with a statement from the candidate himself — or at least it changed somewhat. Unlike Santorum and Gingrich, who suspended their campaigns entirely, Paul has instead decided not to contest any more states. Paul explained that his…

  • Obama's gay-marriage endorsement is a moral and political win

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 8:40 pm
    Forty-nine years ago this spring, as he proposed the landmark civil rights reforms of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy became the first president to declare that ending racial discrimination was a moral issue — that "this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." Now Barack Obama has taken the next step in the unfinished journey toward that ideal: He cut through a cacophony of political advice, the calculus of pre-election caution, to become the first president to endorse marriage equality — and thus to affirm that gay rights…

  • Why America shouldn't panic over Putin

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 5:10 pm
    Contrary to what many Americans expect, Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency need not cause a deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia. Many assume that Putin benefits politically from indulging anti-Americanism, and that in his new presidential term, he'll pursue increasingly adversarial policies. This underestimates Putin's willingness to strike pragmatic deals with Western governments. Putin has had a longstanding interest in cooperating with America — so long as Russian interests are respected and acknowledged. It would be foolish to ignore this…

  • What the Chen Guangcheng debacle reveals about Obama

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 9:40 am
    Talk about poor timing. Last week, during President Obama's well-deserved bin Laden anniversary victory lap, he handed Mitt Romney and his Republican friends a pretty good reason to question the incumbent president's competence on foreign affairs.The issue: The administration's handling of the case of Chen Guangcheng, the human rights activist famous in the People's Republic of China for exposing forced abortions.Chen's story is worthy of any Hollywood thriller. In late April, he fled the provincial home where he and his family had been under house arrest for 20 months (after serving four…

  • How Facebook is reinventing organ donation

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 5:27 am
    What do you use Facebook for? To keep up with friends, share pictures of your kids, or pass around the latest silly video? What if I told you that you can now use Facebook to save lives?As of last week you can do just that.Facebook has introduced a new "status update" that allows you to proudly share with all your friends your intent to be an organ donor. Not already registered as a donor with your state? No problem. With a few clicks, Facebook ushers you to the appropriate registry, where you can quickly make it official. With a permanent and prominent display on your Facebook site,…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:Bullpen

  • Why America shouldn't panic over Putin

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 5:10 pm
    Contrary to what many Americans expect, Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency need not cause a deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia. Many assume that Putin benefits politically from indulging anti-Americanism, and that in his new presidential term, he'll pursue increasingly adversarial policies. This underestimates Putin's willingness to strike pragmatic deals with Western governments. Putin has had a longstanding interest in cooperating with America — so long as Russian interests are respected and acknowledged. It would be foolish to ignore this…

  • The enduring failure of democracy promotion abroad

    The Week
    11 Apr 2012 | 5:15 pm
    Since the end of the Cold War, democracy promotion has been one of the default elements of U.S. foreign policy. Spreading democracy became a particularly important part of the Bush administration's rhetoric in support of its so-called "freedom agenda," which was at the same time far more selective and inconsistent than its universalistic assumptions would suggest. And since the beginning of popular uprisings in North Africa and the Near East last year, democracy promotion has also figured more prominently in the public rhetoric and policies of the Obama administration. But let's face it:…

  • A year later, Libya is still a mess

    The Week
    21 Mar 2012 | 5:25 pm
    One year after the U.S., Britain, and France began their war in Libya, the harmful consequences of Western intervention are readily apparent. The internal disorder and regional instability that the West's assault created were foreseen by many critics. And yet, Western governments made no meaningful efforts to prepare for them. No one planned to stabilize Libya once Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown, and the National Transitional Council (NTC) rejected the idea of an outside stabilization force, which has left Libya at serious risk of fragmentation and renewed conflict. Intervention "on the…

  • Why America should stay out of Syria

    The Week
    7 Mar 2012 | 4:40 pm
    Despite a growing chorus of demands in the media for greater Western involvement in the ongoing civil war in Syria, the official U.S. response has been appropriately slow and cautious. As the death toll passes 8,000 — most of them civilians and armed rebels — and the city of Homs has fallen to a pro-regime assault, there has been even more clamor and agitation for the U.S. to back the armed opposition. But long gone are the pretensions that intervening in Syria would have anything to do with protecting the civilian population. Now it is justified purely in terms of rolling back…

  • The problem with political bloviating on China

    The Week
    21 Feb 2012 | 4:25 pm
    U.S.-China relations are as strained as they have been in more than a decade. The U.S. is suddenly turning its attention back to East Asia after 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq (the so-called "pivot"), only to find that China has been steadily advancing its territorial claims and asserting itself as the pre-eminent regional power it believes it ought to be. Chinese assertiveness regarding territorial disputes with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and others has driven its neighbors firmly to the side of the U.S. Unfortunately, this has encouraged Washington's instincts to…
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    The Week: Most Recent News & Opinion:Bullpen

  • Obama's gay-marriage endorsement is a moral and political win

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 8:40 pm
    Forty-nine years ago this spring, as he proposed the landmark civil rights reforms of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy became the first president to declare that ending racial discrimination was a moral issue — that "this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." Now Barack Obama has taken the next step in the unfinished journey toward that ideal: He cut through a cacophony of political advice, the calculus of pre-election caution, to become the first president to endorse marriage equality — and thus to affirm that gay rights…

  • The GOP lost the European elections

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 11:15 am
    Maybe Republicans are right in the wrong way: Europe is a political model — an unhappy one for them. The easy consolation they can take from the past week's elections there is that Nicolas Sarkozy has just become the latest incumbent leader in the advanced nations, the eleventh in Europe, to lose office since the onset of the financial crisis. Doesn't Obama have to follow Sarkozy and the rest as night follows day?The lessons actually point in the opposite direction. Sarkozy is only the second president of the Fifth Republic to be denied a second term — because voters...

  • Mitt Romney is the Dorian Gray of 2012

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 5:35 am
    As he finally claims the nomination that was his all along, but which was so reluctantly yielded to him, Mitt Romney enters his Etch A Sketch period. He may twist the knobs to try and shift his professed beliefs as easily as the aluminum granules on the screen of one of the last century's most famous toys. But it's hard for the epic flip-flopper to reframe himself again — or it should be. Romney is only doing what comes naturally to a man who once said he was "better" on gay rights than Ted Kennedy, but then later donated $25,000 to the homophobic National Organization For…

  • Mitt Romney won. And now he's going to lose

    The Week
    6 Apr 2012 | 5:15 am
    So the hollow man has finally firmed his fragile hold on the GOP nomination, in another of T.S. Eliot's phrases, "not with a bang, but with a whimper." In the Wisconsin primary, the whimper was Mitt Romney's margin — a derisory 4 percent for someone to whom Republicans should rally overwhelmingly since they know he will be their standard-bearer in November.But as I've written before, Romney's will be a grudging nomination, requiring Herculean exertion and Midas-like spending to overcome a clutch of rivals who resemble the cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Wisconsin, like the rest…

  • Will a Tea Party Supreme Court guarantee Obama a second term?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 8:45 am
    Recall the scorn toward health reform dripping from the lips of Injustice Antonin Scalia. Or think of the tight-lipped Clarence Thomas, who could send a mannequin to sit in his place at the court's oral arguments for all the difference his brooding presence makes. Along with the more plausibly judicious Samuel Alito, he too had more than likely made his decision. And so on the nation's highest court, satire replaced stare decisis in a slightly altered version of the Red Queen's jurisprudence in Alice in Wonderland: First the verdict, then the trial. Some observers, and administration…
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    The Week: Most Recent Business Posts

  • Did JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon break the law?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:00 pm
    JPMorgan Chase, the country's largest bank, continues to reel from its $2 billion trading loss last week, which critics are touting as evidence that Wall Street is still making the types of dangerous bets that caused the financial crisis in 2008. JPMorgan Chase's stock plunged by nearly 10 percent the day after CEO Jamie Dimon disclosed the loss, erasing $13 billion from the company's value. Dimon, one of the loudest voices against government regulation of Wall Street, has been pilloried in the press for what he has described as a "terrible, egregious mistake." And now the Justice Department…

  • California's financial apocalypse: A concise guide

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 8:45 am
    California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has some bad news: His cash-strapped state isn't $9.2 billion in the hole, as projected in January; the Golden State is actually facing a yawning $15.7 billion shortfall. And after years of aggressive budget-slashing and gridlock over increasing tax revenue, Brown doesn't have a lot of options on the table. "The fact is, California has been living beyond its means," he told reporters on Monday. "This is a day of reckoning, and we have to take the medicine." Here, a look at California's bitter pill:Why did the budget gap grow?Tax revenue came in $4.3 billion…

  • Is it a mistake to fire Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 12:51 pm
    Yahoo is letting CEO Scott Thompson go just four months into the job, after it emerged that Thompson's resume inaccurately claimed he'd received a college degree in computer science. (Though Thompson has also been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, it appears the resume controversy decided his fate.) "Resume-gate" is the latest blow to hobble the company, which has long been losing the battle for online advertising dollars against rivals Google and Facebook. Thompson was just the latest in a string of chief executives brought on to mastermind a turnaround, and his dismissal could deepen Yahoo's…

  • The 'Anger Room': The new way to blow off steam after work

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:40 am
    While stress is an unfortunate and unhealthy part of modern life, going on a destructive rampage isn't usually a socially acceptable way of dealing with it. Enter the Anger Room, an inconspicuous storefront in a Dallas strip mall where fed-up Americans can act out. Inside, proprietor and founder Donna Alexander and her staff offer up rooms of stuff — TVs, office furniture, glassware — for patrons to smash. (Watch a therapeutic session below.) Here, a brief guide:How does the Anger Room work?The rooms are filled with donated or found items from garage sales or…

  • JPMorgan's $2 billion loss: Time to fire CEO Jamie Dimon?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:01 am
    Reeling from a massive $2 billion loss on a risky bet, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has launched a campaign of contrition to contain the damage. "We made a terrible, egregious mistake and there's almost no excuse for it," he told NBC's Meet the Press. The country's biggest bank has also parted ways with three executives, including Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, a veteran at the company and reportedly one of Dimon's most trusted allies. However, condemnation is still raining down on Dimon, who's vociferously opposed the sort of strong government regulation of Wall Street that…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Business:U.S. Business

  • Did JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon break the law?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:00 pm
    JPMorgan Chase, the country's largest bank, continues to reel from its $2 billion trading loss last week, which critics are touting as evidence that Wall Street is still making the types of dangerous bets that caused the financial crisis in 2008. JPMorgan Chase's stock plunged by nearly 10 percent the day after CEO Jamie Dimon disclosed the loss, erasing $13 billion from the company's value. Dimon, one of the loudest voices against government regulation of Wall Street, has been pilloried in the press for what he has described as a "terrible, egregious mistake." And now the Justice Department…

  • California's financial apocalypse: A concise guide

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 8:45 am
    California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has some bad news: His cash-strapped state isn't $9.2 billion in the hole, as projected in January; the Golden State is actually facing a yawning $15.7 billion shortfall. And after years of aggressive budget-slashing and gridlock over increasing tax revenue, Brown doesn't have a lot of options on the table. "The fact is, California has been living beyond its means," he told reporters on Monday. "This is a day of reckoning, and we have to take the medicine." Here, a look at California's bitter pill:Why did the budget gap grow?Tax revenue came in $4.3 billion…

  • Is it a mistake to fire Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 12:51 pm
    Yahoo is letting CEO Scott Thompson go just four months into the job, after it emerged that Thompson's resume inaccurately claimed he'd received a college degree in computer science. (Though Thompson has also been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, it appears the resume controversy decided his fate.) "Resume-gate" is the latest blow to hobble the company, which has long been losing the battle for online advertising dollars against rivals Google and Facebook. Thompson was just the latest in a string of chief executives brought on to mastermind a turnaround, and his dismissal could deepen Yahoo's…

  • The 'Anger Room': The new way to blow off steam after work

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:40 am
    While stress is an unfortunate and unhealthy part of modern life, going on a destructive rampage isn't usually a socially acceptable way of dealing with it. Enter the Anger Room, an inconspicuous storefront in a Dallas strip mall where fed-up Americans can act out. Inside, proprietor and founder Donna Alexander and her staff offer up rooms of stuff — TVs, office furniture, glassware — for patrons to smash. (Watch a therapeutic session below.) Here, a brief guide:How does the Anger Room work?The rooms are filled with donated or found items from garage sales or…

  • JPMorgan's $2 billion loss: Time to fire CEO Jamie Dimon?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:01 am
    Reeling from a massive $2 billion loss on a risky bet, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has launched a campaign of contrition to contain the damage. "We made a terrible, egregious mistake and there's almost no excuse for it," he told NBC's Meet the Press. The country's biggest bank has also parted ways with three executives, including Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, a veteran at the company and reportedly one of Dimon's most trusted allies. However, condemnation is still raining down on Dimon, who's vociferously opposed the sort of strong government regulation of Wall Street that…
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    The Week: Most Recent Business:World Business

  • Can a new election save Greece?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 8:55 am
    Greece's anti-austerity Syriza party refused to participate in last-ditch efforts to form a unity government Monday, making it increasingly likely that the debt-burdened country will have to hold new parliamentary elections in June to break the impasse. European finance leaders, who are meeting in Brussels Monday, insist that Greece must stick to the harsh spending cuts that the last government agreed to in return for a massive bailout. But Syriza, which placed second in voting a week ago and could be the top vote-getter in fresh balloting, insists that the austerity measures are…

  • Will Germany cave in to the demands of Greece's anti-austerity parties?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 6:35 am
    In the aftermath of watershed elections this month, Greece's splintered political system is struggling to form a ruling coalition. The main obstacle is Syriza, a fringe party that rode to an unprecedented, second-place finish on a wave of popular anger against the government's harsh austerity programs, which have plunged Greece into its fifth year of a devastating recession. The European Union and the IMF had demanded that Greece put austerity measures in place in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout funds. Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras, says that the bailout terms…

  • Volkswagen's Jetsons-like hover car

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 9:49 am
    The video: While Google is getting a license for its self-driving Toyota Prius, Volkswagen is looking even further into the future, imagining a two-seat hover car, much like the vehicles that so many futuristic movies and TV shows disingenuously promised. The vehicle concept, unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show, is a product of VW's innovative "People's Car Project," a 2011 Chinese crowdsourcing design contest that drew 119,000 submissions. The disc-shaped vehicle would float above a special electromagnetic grid embedded in existing roads, gliding along using zero emissions and special…

  • Francois Hollande vs. Angela Merkel: A looming war over austerity?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 10:30 am
    Francois Hollande will not be inaugurated as France's president until May 15, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already pouring cold water on the signature promise of his campaign. Proclaiming that "Germany doesn't decide for all of Europe," Hollande had vowed to renegotiate a German-backed fiscal pact designed to shrink the budget deficits of European Union members by employing harsh austerity measures — spending cuts and tax hikes — that are now taking a heavy toll on voters and slowing economic growth. Merkel says she "will welcome Francois Hollande with open arms,"…

  • Greece's landmark elections: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    Greek voters sick and tired of restrictive austerity measures delivered a "stinging rebuke" to the debt-ravaged country's two main political parties on Sunday, plunging Greece into political turmoil. The two mainstream political groups, the conservative New Democracy party and the Socialist Pasok party, had backed the harsh conditions of the country's European bailout, but now they have lost their majority in parliament, and fringe left- and right-wing parties opposed to the austerity measures won more than 60 percent of the vote. What does this mean for Greece, and for Europe? Here, five key…
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    The Week: Most Recent Arts+Life Posts

  • The 8 craziest prom stories of 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 4:35 pm
    Prom season is lurching to an end, but the awkward stories are still pouring in. From celebrity dates to cardboard companions, from ill-fated prom-queen campaigns to inappropriate parents, here's a rundown of eight strange prom tales you might have missed: 1. The girl who took an NFL playerEighteen-year-old Joyce Grendel's date backed out at the last-minute... and getting jilted turned out to be the Ohio high-schooler's lucky break. She didn't want to go stag, so, on a whim, she invited her favorite professional football player — Joe Haden of the Cleveland Browns — via Twitter. He…

  • Will John Travolta's sex scandal hurt his career?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:42 pm
    The aggressive back-and-forth continues between John Travolta's lawyers and the trio (perhaps quartet?) of anonymous male masseurs accusing the actor of inappropriate sexual behavior. The embarrassing story has made loads of headlines over the past week, leading some industry analysts to wonder if Travolta's career will be damaged by the scandal — even if the claims that he forced himself upon several male masseurs are found to be false. (The latest news is that one alleged victim has filed to dismiss his lawsuit.) The actor, who denies these masseurs' claims, is…

  • Howard Stern's America's Got Talent debut: Was he too nice?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Legendary shock jock Howard Stern made his debut as a judge on NBC's performance competition, America's Got Talent, on Monday night. Did the network get its $20 million worth? (That's the amount NBC reportedly shelled out to land the self-proclaimed King of All Media as a replacement for Piers Morgan, who left the show at the end of last season.) The Parents Television Council had previously raised a fuss over Stern's hiring, arguing that the radio host's crude, bawdy humor doesn't belong on the family-friendly primetime show. Stern himself teased, "These executives at NBC must be out of…

  • Is Johnny Depp's popularity waning?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:12 pm
    Is Johnny Depp losing his mojo? His latest film, the campy Tim Burton-directed adaptation of the '60s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, finished the weekend below industry expectations, grossing a meager $28 million. Odds of recouping the movie's rumored $150 million are looking slim. It's an undeniable disappointment for the actor once thought to be Hollywood's most reliable box office star — and the latest in a series of missteps that may prove that his popularity is fading. Two of his other recent films, The Tourist and The Rum Diary, both flopped, while last summer's Pirates of the…

  • Strange trend alert: Moms who freeze their adult daughters' eggs

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:05 pm
    Fertility clinics may be getting a bit more crowded, as a growing number of women are showing up with their parents tagging along. Why? Wannabe grandparents can hear their daughters' biological clocks ticking, so they're offering to pay to freeze their eggs to improve the odds of becoming grandparents later in life, according to The New York Times. Is this kind of helicopter grandparenting the next big thing? Here, a guide to this new twist on the family dynamics of fertility treatments:How many would-be grandmothers are doing this?There are no statistics available, but the Times says…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Arts & Life:Film & TV

  • Howard Stern's America's Got Talent debut: Was he too nice?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Legendary shock jock Howard Stern made his debut as a judge on NBC's performance competition, America's Got Talent, on Monday night. Did the network get its $20 million worth? (That's the amount NBC reportedly shelled out to land the self-proclaimed King of All Media as a replacement for Piers Morgan, who left the show at the end of last season.) The Parents Television Council had previously raised a fuss over Stern's hiring, arguing that the radio host's crude, bawdy humor doesn't belong on the family-friendly primetime show. Stern himself teased, "These executives at NBC must be out of…

  • Is Johnny Depp's popularity waning?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:12 pm
    Is Johnny Depp losing his mojo? His latest film, the campy Tim Burton-directed adaptation of the '60s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, finished the weekend below industry expectations, grossing a meager $28 million. Odds of recouping the movie's rumored $150 million are looking slim. It's an undeniable disappointment for the actor once thought to be Hollywood's most reliable box office star — and the latest in a series of missteps that may prove that his popularity is fading. Two of his other recent films, The Tourist and The Rum Diary, both flopped, while last summer's Pirates of the…

  • Will Britney Spears and Demi Lovato revitalize The X Factor?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 4:51 pm
    After weeks of speculation, Fox confirmed Demi Lovato and Britney Spears as the newest judges of its reality singing competition The X Factor during the network's annual upfronts presentation to critics and advertisers on Monday afternoon. The two pop stars will join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on the panel, replacing Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul, who were fired after the show's first season. Both new hires are unlikely choices: 19-year-old Lovato is a former Disney Channel star with only a few mainstream radio hits, while Spears (who will reportedly earn $15 million for one year on the…

  • The billion-dollar movie club: By the numbers

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 2:07 pm
    What do The Hulk, a young Leonardo DiCaprio, and a drunk pirate have in common? Each features in one of the rare movies to earn a mammoth $1 billion at the global box office. The Avengers became the 12th blockbuster to join the club Sunday, after the superhero symphony scored yet another record-breaking weekend. Here's a statistical look at this elite group of movies: 12Films that have grossed more than $1 billion$1,002,082,000Worldwide gross of The Avengers, according to Box Office Mojo. It's already surpassed The Dark Knight, to become the 11th-highest grossing member. The Batman…

  • Desperate Housewives' sentimental finale: A satisfying ending?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 1:39 pm
    The women of Wisteria Lane stayed there long enough to endure a tornado, a plane crash, multiple murders, and dozens of affairs. Then after eight seasons, they all finally just moved away. When ABC launched the primetime soap Desperate Housewives in 2004, the critical and ratings smash about four women's torrid suburban lives revitalized the network and became a watercooler staple. Though the show's popularity has waned, its final two-hour episode, which aired Sunday night, was typically packed with dramatic twists: A murder trial, an emotional death, a wedding disaster, and the birth of a…
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    The Week: Most Recent Arts & Life:Music

  • The classiest flash mob ever?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 11:58 am
    The video: Danish subway riders were treated to a decidedly highbrow surprise last month when members of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra serenaded them with a flash mob performance of Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt" on a morning train. (Watch the video below.) The collaboration between the Philharmonic and the classical music radio station Radio Klassisk was essentially a super-cultured version of a typical flash mob, in which a group assembles for a seemingly impromptu public art performance — be it a Michael Jackson dance, wedding proposal, or massive pillow fight. In this case, a…

  • Remembering Beastie Boys' Adam 'MCA' Yauch: A video tribute

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 4:30 pm
    Adam "MCA" Yauch, one of the founding members of the pioneering rap group Beastie Boys, died Friday at age 47, succumbing to a long battle with cancer. Along with his bandmates, Yauch was "responsible for rap's first big move from the New York streets to the manicured lawns of American suburbs," says Christopher R. Weingarten at SPIN. His death at such a young age hits especially hard, says Kyle Buchanan at New York, as Yauch "managed to pack that short lifetime with so many indelible accomplishments": Grammy Awards, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and more. Among Yauch and the Boys'…

  • The month in Kurt Cobain news: 6 highlights

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 4:32 pm
    Though Kurt Cobain hasn't really left the public consciousness since his 1994 suicide, he's been curiously prominent this April through a strange confluence of rumors and actual news — including reports of possible unreleased solo material and newly surfaced rare images and videos. Here are six reasons people are paying attention:1. The 18th anniversary of his death"It's hard to believe that 18 years has passed since Kurt Cobain's death," says Crystal Bell at The Huffington Post. His inability to cope with his success and its accompanying pressures is a still-jarring reminder that…

  • Remembering Levon Helm: The rock legend's 5 greatest performances

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 2:05 pm
    Levon Helm, a founding member of the groundbreaking rock and roll group The Band, died Thursday at age 71 after a long battle with throat cancer. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was the ultimate rarity, says Jon Friedman at The Wall Street Journal: A drummer who kept time while singing lead. On hits like "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," Helm "epitomized southern rock with his unmistakable vocals." The Band first gained notoriety when Bob Dylan invited the group to Woodstock; not long after, they recorded the landmark folk rock album Basement Tapes. Their farewell…

  • Resurrecting Tupac: The beginning of a disturbing hologram trend?

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 2:35 pm
    The late rapper Tupac Shakur came back to life last weekend in a holographic performance at the Coachella music festival — and it hasn't taken long for the music industry to realize it can cash in on the revolutionary technology that made the stunt possible. Indeed, the visual effects factory behind the hologram is now in talks with hip-hop stars Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to take the virtual Tupac on tour, and industry executives are fantasizing about resurrecting other dead celebrities holographically. A jokey "exclusively hologram lineup" for next year's Coachella festival lists only…
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    The Week: Most Recent Arts & Life:People & Gossip

  • Will John Travolta's sex scandal hurt his career?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:42 pm
    The aggressive back-and-forth continues between John Travolta's lawyers and the trio (perhaps quartet?) of anonymous male masseurs accusing the actor of inappropriate sexual behavior. The embarrassing story has made loads of headlines over the past week, leading some industry analysts to wonder if Travolta's career will be damaged by the scandal — even if the claims that he forced himself upon several male masseurs are found to be false. (The latest news is that one alleged victim has filed to dismiss his lawsuit.) The actor, who denies these masseurs' claims, is…

  • Celebrity weather reports: A video roundup

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 4:30 pm
    "Now here's Prince Charles with the weather," says Madeleine Davis at Jezebel. BBC viewers in Scotland were treated to a surprise weather report when Prince Charles dropped by the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow this week and made a detour to the weather desk. But the royal is hardly the first celebrity "drafted to point at isobars." Here, a look at six celebrity meteorologist cameos:1. Prince CharlesThe heir to the throne was given a rather predictable report to deliver to Scottish viewers: "Cold, wet, and windy." But he did a charming job of it, says Jessica Derschowitz…

  • Remembering hairstyling pioneer Vidal Sassoon: A slideshow

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 5:20 pm
    Vidal Sassoon, "the celebrity hairstylist whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray," died Wednesday at age 84, CBS News reports. Sassoon revolutionized haircuts that had shape and architecture, for women who "didn't have time to sit under the dryer anymore" — and became a style icon in his own right. Here, a look back at his milestones:  More

  • Celebrity heroes: A slideshow

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 2:45 pm
    Accidental Hero no more. Dustin Hoffman, who starred in that 1992 film, is officially a real-life lifesaver. The two-time Oscar winner was strolling through London's Hyde Park when a jogger collapsed. Hoffman raced to the victim's side and rang for emergency help — joining the ranks of Ryan Gosling, Patrick Dempsey, and a veritable legion of celebrity superheroes: More

  • Dr. Shaquille O'Neal and 7 other celebs with doctoral degrees

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 4:35 pm
    Shaquille O'Neal has another awfully big accomplishment under his belt. The 7-foot-1 retired NBA legend just graduated from Florida's Barry University with a doctoral degree in education. In 1992, Shaq left Louisiana State University after three years to play in the NBA, finishing his undergraduate degree eight years later, and earning an MBA in 2005. Click through for a look at seven other stars who have earned the right to be called "doctor." More
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Arts & Life:Lifestyle

  • The 8 craziest prom stories of 2012

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 4:35 pm
    Prom season is lurching to an end, but the awkward stories are still pouring in. From celebrity dates to cardboard companions, from ill-fated prom-queen campaigns to inappropriate parents, here's a rundown of eight strange prom tales you might have missed: 1. The girl who took an NFL playerEighteen-year-old Joyce Grendel's date backed out at the last-minute... and getting jilted turned out to be the Ohio high-schooler's lucky break. She didn't want to go stag, so, on a whim, she invited her favorite professional football player — Joe Haden of the Cleveland Browns — via Twitter. He…

  • Strange trend alert: Moms who freeze their adult daughters' eggs

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:05 pm
    Fertility clinics may be getting a bit more crowded, as a growing number of women are showing up with their parents tagging along. Why? Wannabe grandparents can hear their daughters' biological clocks ticking, so they're offering to pay to freeze their eggs to improve the odds of becoming grandparents later in life, according to The New York Times. Is this kind of helicopter grandparenting the next big thing? Here, a guide to this new twist on the family dynamics of fertility treatments:How many would-be grandmothers are doing this?There are no statistics available, but the Times says…

  • The biggest wave ever surfed: The mind-blowing video

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 7:40 am
    The video: Last November, 44-year-old pro surfer Garrett McNamara captured the world's attention when he came face-to-face with a monstrous wave just off the coast of Nazare, Portugal. Now, the Guinness Book of World Records has officially recognized the 78-foot slab of ocean as the largest wave ever ridden; McNamara narrowly edges out the previous record, set by Mike Parsons back in 2008, by a foot. With the aid of a jet-ski to tow him in (waves this size are impossible to paddle into manually), McNamara says he first glimpsed the record-setter rumbling in the horizon behind a smaller wave.

  • Homes with great porches: A slideshow

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 5:00 pm
    Sit back and enjoy the view. Whether land-locked or close enough to the coast to let you smell the sea breeze, these porches give an inviting, intimate feel to even the most expansive of estates. Click through for a look at five of the best veranda-boasting homes on the market. More

  • Should animal abusers be treated like sex offenders?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    Suffolk County, N.Y., has become the first local government in the nation to launch an animal abuser registry, and New York state itself is considering a bill that would require sheriffs in every county to notify anyone living within a half mile of a convicted animal abuser. Should such a system be implemented nationwide, or have animal-rights activists gone overboard? Here, a brief guide:How do animal abuse registries work?They're similar to registries for sex offenders, although not identical. Suffolk County plans to post convicted animal abusers' names, addresses, and photographs…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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    The Week: Most Recent all

  • Barack Obama's 'anodyne' The View appearance: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    "I love hanging out with women!" That's what Barack Obama told the hosts of The View during his taped appearance on Tuesday's episode of the morning talk show. (Watch a clip below.) If it wasn't obvious that the president is "trying to shore up his already-strong support among women," says Sarah Frank at New York, he made the effort abundantly clear during his appearance, which covered his gay marriage stance, his support for Title IX, the three most important women in his life, and Kim Kardashian. Here, six takeaways from the friendly sitdown:1. Obama considered announcing his "evolution"…

  • Is Obama using the culture wars to distract from the economy?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:10 pm
    President Obama made history last week by becoming the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage. However, Americans aren't convinced that the president completed his "evolution" on the issue out of the goodness of his heart. According to a New York Times/CBS poll, 67 percent of respondents say Obama made the announcement "mostly for political reasons." That survey bolsters arguments from conservatives that Obama's announcement stemmed from political calculation, and that he is using gay marriage and headline-making cultural issues to distract voters from the country's most dire…

  • Did JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon break the law?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:00 pm
    JPMorgan Chase, the country's largest bank, continues to reel from its $2 billion trading loss last week, which critics are touting as evidence that Wall Street is still making the types of dangerous bets that caused the financial crisis in 2008. JPMorgan Chase's stock plunged by nearly 10 percent the day after CEO Jamie Dimon disclosed the loss, erasing $13 billion from the company's value. Dimon, one of the loudest voices against government regulation of Wall Street, has been pilloried in the press for what he has described as a "terrible, egregious mistake." And now the Justice Department…

  • Howard Stern's America's Got Talent debut: Was he too nice?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Legendary shock jock Howard Stern made his debut as a judge on NBC's performance competition, America's Got Talent, on Monday night. Did the network get its $20 million worth? (That's the amount NBC reportedly shelled out to land the self-proclaimed King of All Media as a replacement for Piers Morgan, who left the show at the end of last season.) The Parents Television Council had previously raised a fuss over Stern's hiring, arguing that the radio host's crude, bawdy humor doesn't belong on the family-friendly primetime show. Stern himself teased, "These executives at NBC must be out of…

  • Ron Paul's quirky political career: A visual history

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:50 pm
    Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) all but bowed out of the presidential race this week, saying he would not campaign in the GOP's remaining primary contests. His departure likely signals the end of his political career, as he has decided not to run for re-election in the House. Paul never had much of a chance to win the nomination, but he has a devoted following, and many of his libertarian beliefs have become keystones for the Tea Party. Here, a pictorial guide to his career: More
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    The Week: Most Recent 2012 Presidential Race

  • Barack Obama's 'anodyne' The View appearance: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    "I love hanging out with women!" That's what Barack Obama told the hosts of The View during his taped appearance on Tuesday's episode of the morning talk show. (Watch a clip below.) If it wasn't obvious that the president is "trying to shore up his already-strong support among women," says Sarah Frank at New York, he made the effort abundantly clear during his appearance, which covered his gay marriage stance, his support for Title IX, the three most important women in his life, and Kim Kardashian. Here, six takeaways from the friendly sitdown:1. Obama considered announcing his "evolution"…

  • Is Obama using the culture wars to distract from the economy?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:10 pm
    President Obama made history last week by becoming the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriage. However, Americans aren't convinced that the president completed his "evolution" on the issue out of the goodness of his heart. According to a New York Times/CBS poll, 67 percent of respondents say Obama made the announcement "mostly for political reasons." That survey bolsters arguments from conservatives that Obama's announcement stemmed from political calculation, and that he is using gay marriage and headline-making cultural issues to distract voters from the country's most dire…

  • Ron Paul's quirky political career: A visual history

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:50 pm
    Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) all but bowed out of the presidential race this week, saying he would not campaign in the GOP's remaining primary contests. His departure likely signals the end of his political career, as he has decided not to run for re-election in the House. Paul never had much of a chance to win the nomination, but he has a devoted following, and many of his libertarian beliefs have become keystones for the Tea Party. Here, a pictorial guide to his career: More

  • Mitt Romney's Bain defense: A convincing rebuttal?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 9:20 am
    Mitt Romney wasted no time responding to President Obama's attack on the presumptive GOP nominee's record as head of Bain Capital.  Monday, the Obama campaign unveiled a new commercial in which a steelworker, who lost his job when Bain shut down his employer, likened the private-equity firm to a "vampire." (See the Obama video below). Within hours, the Romney campaign responded by releasing a web video touting the success of another Bain-backed steel company, saying that the firm's investment created jobs and helped workers realize the American Dream. (See the Romney clip below). Is…

  • Ron Paul's true endgame

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 8:30 am
    On Monday, the Republican nomination fight finally got reduced to a single candidate. This might surprise people who believed that the departure of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum had already made Mitt Romney the official nominee. But until Monday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had continued to raise funds and campaign in upcoming primary states. That changed with a statement from the candidate himself — or at least it changed somewhat. Unlike Santorum and Gingrich, who suspended their campaigns entirely, Paul has instead decided not to contest any more states. Paul explained that his…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent 2012 Elections:2012 Presidential Race

  • Mitt's Bullygate: Is the media tougher on Romney than Obama?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 10:38 am
    After The Washington Post exposed Mitt Romney as an alleged high-school bully, conservatives are crying foul, arguing that the damaging tale of Romney harassing a presumably gay classmate is proof of liberal media bias. Sure, a recent Pew Research study concluded that Romney gets twice as much favorable media coverage as President Obama, but some on the Right still say the uproar over Romney's prep school behavior, for which he apologized on Thursday, proves that reporters are out to get the presumptive Republican nominee. Is the media unfairly targeting Romney?The media clearly favors Obama:…

  • Gary Johnson 2012: Could the Libertarian Party spoil the election?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 10:21 am
    Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson didn't have much luck in the Republican presidential race — rarely registering as more than an asterisk in the polls, and failing to qualify for nearly every debate — but he's done better since his December decision to jump over to the Libertarian Party. On Saturday, Johnson won the Libertarians' presidential nomination with 74 percent of the vote at the party's convention in Las Vegas. Now, the pro-gun, pro-gay-marriage Johnson will be making a direct appeal to the independents who will decide the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

  • Will Democrats regret holding their convention in North Carolina?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 9:28 am
    If Democrats chose to hold their national convention in Charlotte, N.C., out of political considerations — as opposed to, say, the lovely weather and great hotels — "they goofed," says Stuart Rothenberg at Roll Call. President Obama narrowly won the Tar Heel State in 2008, but it now looks like a "mess" for Dems: Unemployment is 9.7 percent, the unpopular Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) is not even trying to win re-election, the state Democratic Party's executive director just resigned amid sexual-harassment allegations, and the state is about to show its conservative colors…

  • Anatomy of a campaign ad: 'Swiss bank account'

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    The candidate: President Obama.The ad: The spot, titled "Swiss Bank Account," starts by dismissing a recent "erroneous," "over the top" anti-Obama ad that was funded by Americans for Prosperity and casts the president as a ruthless outsourcer of jobs. In fact, "Swiss Bank Account" boasts, the president's "clean energy initiatives have helped create jobs for projects across America — not overseas." The Obama ad then attempts to turn the tables, saying that Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, is the one who shipped American jobs overseas — to China, Mexico, and…

  • Presidential campaign slogans: A visual history

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 5:30 pm
    Only time will tell whether "Forward" will prove as iconic a motto for Barack Obama in 2012 as "Change" was in 2008. And "Forward" might not even last. After all, Team Obama has tried and abandoned several other slogans, including "Winning the Future," "We Can't Wait," "An America Built to Last," and "We Don't Quit." Here, a historic look back at other candidates' memorable (or forgettable) presidential campaign slogans: More
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    The Week: Most Recent Middle East:Afghanistan War

  • Obama's Bush-like Afghanistan speech: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 7:08 am
    President Obama probably had a more interesting Tuesday than you did: Early in the morning, he boarded Air Force One for a surprise visit to Afghanistan, signed a long-term Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, returned to Bagram Air Force base to address U.S. troops and then the American public in a live, prime-time speech, then flew back to Washington. (Watch the speech below.) Not coincidentally, Tuesday was also the one-year anniversary of the U.S. raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Here, five big takeaways from Obama's speech to the nation:1.

  • The latest tweets on Obama's surprise visit to Afghanistan

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 5:16 pm
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  • Obama's surprise visit to Afghanistan: A guide

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 5:15 pm
    President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan Tuesday, in a globe-spanning trip that was shrouded in secrecy, and which coincides with the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death. After landing, Obama met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign an agreement outlining the prolonged cooperation between the two countries, even after the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2014. Obama is also set to make a televised address to Americans at 7:30 p.m. EST. Here's what you should know about Obama's Afghanistan trip:Why exactly is he there?Obama isn't just a commander-in-chief,…

  • The new Afghan security pact: What happens when U.S. troops leave?

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 12:12 pm
    After more than a year of tense negotiations, the U.S. and Afghanistan have reached a draft agreement defining America's role in the country after U.S. and NATO troops officially withdraw in 2014. Neither side has released specifics of the deal, and President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have yet to approve the partnership framework, but an initial picture has emerged. Here, a brief guide:What does the draft agreement say?The U.S. is essentially pledging to support Afghanistan for another 10 years after the withdrawal of the bulk of U.S. troops. The deal is being touted as a signal…

  • The Afghan corpse-photo scandal: A blessing in disguise?

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 6:00 am
    The Defense Department scored at least a partial victory in its fight to quash newly released photographs of U.S. soldiers posing with the corpses of Afghan insurgents and suicide bombers: The Los Angeles Times only published two of the 18 photos an unidentified soldier had given them — reportedly the "least gruesome" ones. The military argued that the widely condemned trophy shots, taken in 2010, endangered the large majority of blameless troops. That's remarkably similar to the reason the unidentified solider says he leaked the photos in the first place: He hoped they would force the…
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    The Week: Most Recent air-travel

  • Are airplane seats dangerously small for fat Americans?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 2:28 pm
    Under safety standards written more than 60 years ago, airplane seats must be designed to accommodate a 170-pound passenger. The trouble is, Americans have grown much larger in the decades since the rules were established, and some engineers are starting to question whether airline seats are strong enough to protect overweight travelers, according to The New York Times. Is flying unsafe for obese passengers? Here's what you need to know:How heavy are we?Today, the average man weighs 194 pounds, making him 24 pounds heavier than the passengers for whom the seats were designed. The average…

  • Ryanair's 7 most ridiculous cost-saving ventures

    The Week
    5 Apr 2012 | 3:23 pm
    Dubbed "the Walmart of the skies," Ryanair embodies the once-glamorous airline industry's new reality as a cattle-car delivery system. Searching high and low for any way to undersell its competitors, the Irish airline, led by outspoken CEO Michael O'Leary, takes a no-frills approach to the extreme. And judging by Ryanair's popularity, fliers are willing to tolerate a little hardship, and perhaps sacrifice a smidgeon of dignity, in exchange for cheaper tickets. Here, Ryanair's seven craziest tightwad proposals:1. Urging flight attendants to lose weight With fuel costs rising, Ryanair…

  • Will airlines finally stop forcing fliers to turn off their iPads?

    The Week
    20 Mar 2012 | 5:00 pm
    Alec Baldwin is hardly the only air traveler who doesn't like it when a flight attendant announces that all electronic devices must be powered down prior to takeoff. Experts and frequent fliers have long suspected that the rule — which ostensibly prevents our gadgets from interfering with the plane's complex equipment — is unnecessary, and might have been created just to torture us. After all, pilots are allowed to use iPads in the cockpit, so why can't we? Well, happier flights might be on the horizon: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is giving the rules a "fresh look"…

  • Petty controversy: Alec Baldwin vs. American Airlines

    The Week
    7 Dec 2011 | 5:32 pm
    The petty controversy: Call it "Words with Friends-gate." On Tuesday, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin said via Twitter that an American Airlines flight attendant had "reamed" him out for playing the popular Scrabble-like game on his smartphone while his plane sat at the gate. The airline said on Facebook that an indignant Baldwin refused to turn off his device, got up and "slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed." Baldwin, who was kicked off the flight, "was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using…

  • The girl barred from flying because her purse was considered a lethal weapon

    The Week
    5 Dec 2011 | 12:15 pm
    The TSA may have shot itself in the foot once again. Vanessa Gibbs, 17, was recently stopped at a Virginia airport by a Transportation Security Administration official because her purse was decorated with a gun motif. TSA agents flagged the handbag as a security risk, and the resulting delay caused Gibbs, who is pregnant, to miss her flight from Norfolk, Va. to her home in Jacksonville, Fla. Instead, Gibbs was diverted to Orlando, sending her waiting mother into a panic. Here's what you should know:What does this purse look like?On the front of the small brown bag is a miniature revolver…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Air Travel:Airplane Safety

  • Are airplane seats dangerously small for fat Americans?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 2:28 pm
    Under safety standards written more than 60 years ago, airplane seats must be designed to accommodate a 170-pound passenger. The trouble is, Americans have grown much larger in the decades since the rules were established, and some engineers are starting to question whether airline seats are strong enough to protect overweight travelers, according to The New York Times. Is flying unsafe for obese passengers? Here's what you need to know:How heavy are we?Today, the average man weighs 194 pounds, making him 24 pounds heavier than the passengers for whom the seats were designed. The average…

  • Will airlines finally stop forcing fliers to turn off their iPads?

    The Week
    20 Mar 2012 | 5:00 pm
    Alec Baldwin is hardly the only air traveler who doesn't like it when a flight attendant announces that all electronic devices must be powered down prior to takeoff. Experts and frequent fliers have long suspected that the rule — which ostensibly prevents our gadgets from interfering with the plane's complex equipment — is unnecessary, and might have been created just to torture us. After all, pilots are allowed to use iPads in the cockpit, so why can't we? Well, happier flights might be on the horizon: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is giving the rules a "fresh look"…

  • The girl barred from flying because her purse was considered a lethal weapon

    The Week
    5 Dec 2011 | 12:15 pm
    The TSA may have shot itself in the foot once again. Vanessa Gibbs, 17, was recently stopped at a Virginia airport by a Transportation Security Administration official because her purse was decorated with a gun motif. TSA agents flagged the handbag as a security risk, and the resulting delay caused Gibbs, who is pregnant, to miss her flight from Norfolk, Va. to her home in Jacksonville, Fla. Instead, Gibbs was diverted to Orlando, sending her waiting mother into a panic. Here's what you should know:What does this purse look like?On the front of the small brown bag is a miniature revolver…

  • Do gadgets really need to be turned off during flights?

    The Week
    30 Nov 2011 | 5:16 pm
    "Ladies and gentleman, we'll be landing soon. All electronic devices must now be powered off." That familiar, groan-inducing announcement is heard on just about every commercial flight. But is it necessary? Can a laptop really screw up a jumbo jet's communication system during takeoff and landing? As the holiday travel season approaches, commentators are asking once again: Is it time to change the rule?This is a pointless rule: "If electronic gadgets could bring down an airplane," says Nick Bilton in The New York Times"you can be sure that the Department of Homeland Security...

  • The deadly Reno air-race crash: 4 lessons

    The Week
    19 Sep 2011 | 9:08 am
    On Friday, a vintage World War II–era P-51 Mustang fighter plane piloted by veteran stunt flyer Jimmy Leeward crashed into the VIP stands at the National Championship Air Races outside Reno, Nev., killing Leeward and at least eight others, and injuring dozens more. (Watch an expletive-laced video of the crash below.) The next day, a post-war T-28 Warbird crashed at an air show in Martinsburg, W.Va., killing the pilot, Jack "Flash" Mangan. What do the crashes tell us about the safety and future of air competitions?1. These races will never be completely safeThe Reno air races are…
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    The Week: Most Recent animals

  • Should animal abusers be treated like sex offenders?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    Suffolk County, N.Y., has become the first local government in the nation to launch an animal abuser registry, and New York state itself is considering a bill that would require sheriffs in every county to notify anyone living within a half mile of a convicted animal abuser. Should such a system be implemented nationwide, or have animal-rights activists gone overboard? Here, a brief guide:How do animal abuse registries work?They're similar to registries for sex offenders, although not identical. Suffolk County plans to post convicted animal abusers' names, addresses, and photographs…

  • Tattoos... for your dog?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 11:03 am
    Getting your dog a salon wash and haircut, pedicure, or even a fruit facial isn't considered pampering anymore, at least according to the National Association of Professional Creative Groomers (NAPCG), a group that advocates brightly colored dye jobs for the discriminating poodle, lab, or golden retriever — or even a dog tattoo. Not a real tattoo — imagine getting a dog to sit still through a long session of ink-dipped needling. These intricate canine designs are airbrushed on your pooch (ideally one with pale fur) using a stencil and special pet-friendly dye. Here's a brief…

  • Uggie the dog's pop-culture takeover: A timeline

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 1:33 pm
    Nearly a year ago, a 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Uggie scampered into the spotlight when silent film The Artist had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In the months since, the scene-stealing canine has enjoyed a guerilla Oscar campaign and a gig as Nintendo's pitchdog, and, now, is the benefactor of a brand new book deal. Here, a look back at the year in Uggie:April 21, 2011Water for Elephants hits theaters. Based on the novel by Sara Gruen, the film stars Reese Witherspoon and Twilight's Robert Pattinson as two love-crossed members of a Depression-era traveling…

  • Driving with a dog on your lap: As dangerous as texting?

    The Week
    10 Apr 2012 | 11:50 am
    Texting behind the wheel may be the new drunk driving, but it appears we have a furry front in the war on unsafe motoring, too: Keeping dogs off drivers' laps. Driving with an unrestrained pet in the front seat is apparently widespread enough, and dangerous enough, that at least two states — Rhode Island and Tennessee — are considering bans on the practice. Here, a look at the issue of driving while under a dog, and why people are trying to stop it: How widespread is this problem?A 2010 survey from AAA has some pretty jarring numbers: 21 percent of drivers who transported…

  • 'Pet Fit Club': The Biggest Loser for fat pets?

    The Week
    9 Apr 2012 | 4:45 pm
    Fifi has a snacking problem. Jack can barely walk. Bobby's double chin prevents her from cleaning herself properly. And these are just three of the 18 contestants with serious weight problems in Britain's "Pet Fit Club" competition. Taking a page from the popular American weight-loss reality TV show The Biggest Loser, a U.K. veterinary charity is putting morbidly obese dogs, cats, and rabbits on a strict diet and exercise regimen to get them back to a healthy weight. (See a video below.) Here's what you should know:How big of a problem is pet obesity?Very big. Excess pounds may make…
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    The Week: Most Recent Animals:Dogs

  • Should animal abusers be treated like sex offenders?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    Suffolk County, N.Y., has become the first local government in the nation to launch an animal abuser registry, and New York state itself is considering a bill that would require sheriffs in every county to notify anyone living within a half mile of a convicted animal abuser. Should such a system be implemented nationwide, or have animal-rights activists gone overboard? Here, a brief guide:How do animal abuse registries work?They're similar to registries for sex offenders, although not identical. Suffolk County plans to post convicted animal abusers' names, addresses, and photographs…

  • Tattoos... for your dog?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 11:03 am
    Getting your dog a salon wash and haircut, pedicure, or even a fruit facial isn't considered pampering anymore, at least according to the National Association of Professional Creative Groomers (NAPCG), a group that advocates brightly colored dye jobs for the discriminating poodle, lab, or golden retriever — or even a dog tattoo. Not a real tattoo — imagine getting a dog to sit still through a long session of ink-dipped needling. These intricate canine designs are airbrushed on your pooch (ideally one with pale fur) using a stencil and special pet-friendly dye. Here's a brief…

  • Uggie the dog's pop-culture takeover: A timeline

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 1:33 pm
    Nearly a year ago, a 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Uggie scampered into the spotlight when silent film The Artist had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. In the months since, the scene-stealing canine has enjoyed a guerilla Oscar campaign and a gig as Nintendo's pitchdog, and, now, is the benefactor of a brand new book deal. Here, a look back at the year in Uggie:April 21, 2011Water for Elephants hits theaters. Based on the novel by Sara Gruen, the film stars Reese Witherspoon and Twilight's Robert Pattinson as two love-crossed members of a Depression-era traveling…

  • Driving with a dog on your lap: As dangerous as texting?

    The Week
    10 Apr 2012 | 11:50 am
    Texting behind the wheel may be the new drunk driving, but it appears we have a furry front in the war on unsafe motoring, too: Keeping dogs off drivers' laps. Driving with an unrestrained pet in the front seat is apparently widespread enough, and dangerous enough, that at least two states — Rhode Island and Tennessee — are considering bans on the practice. Here, a look at the issue of driving while under a dog, and why people are trying to stop it: How widespread is this problem?A 2010 survey from AAA has some pretty jarring numbers: 21 percent of drivers who transported…

  • 8 dogs who saved their owner's lives

    The Week
    9 Apr 2012 | 6:10 am
    Dog lovers like to point out that their four-legged friends are the most loyal companions a person could ever need. That loyalty can sometimes mean the difference between life and death, like in the instance of Staten Island, N.Y., pit bull Kilo, who recently put his own life on the line to save his owner from an armed attacker. Kilo isn't the first canine companion to save his owner from danger. Here, a list of eight dogs that earned extra doggie treats the hard way:1. Kilo, the crime-fighterOn March 31, a robber disguised as a FedEx deliveryman showed up at the apartment of Staten Island…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent The Digital Age:The Tablet Race

  • Microsoft's deal with Barnes & Noble: Is a Windows Nook coming?

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 12:15 pm
    Microsoft announced on Monday that it was investing $300 million in a partnership with Barnes & Noble to form a subsidiary dubbed "NewCo." The venture will house the bookseller's Nook products and higher-education business, and Barnes & Noble will reproduce the Nook's e-reader application and bookstore for Windows 8. Additionally, industry watchers speculate that in the next iteration of the Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble will ditch its heavily modified version of the Android operating system in favor of Microsoft's highly-praised Windows 8 OS, a move that would further differentiate…

  • The self-cleaning, glare-free glass that doesn't fog up

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 6:40 am
    The video: As anyone who has ever whipped out an iPad poolside can attest, the glare-prone displays of shiny gadgets can make them incredibly hard to use outdoors. Those days of straining your eyes or posing awkwardly to see your tablet screen better seem to be coming to an end: MIT researchers have unveiled a new technique that "virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is almost unrecognizable because of its absence of glare." The team released a video of the new wonder glass, which doesn't fog up, easily repels water, and can rid itself of dust and lint. (Watch below.) The…

  • Are tablet-PC hybrids doomed?

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 1:25 pm
    The line between traditional PCs and tablets is beginning to blur, as evidenced by Microsoft's swipe-friendly Windows 8 interface, or Intel's recently unveiled "Letexo," an ultrabook-tablet hybrid with a detachable touchscreen. When asked about the emerging trend in consumer electronics during Tuesday's earnings phone call, Apple CEO Tim Cook offered one of his more memorable quips in the post-Jobs era, firing off a thinly-veiled jab at longtime rival Microsoft: "Anything can be forced to converge," he said. "You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not…

  • Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2: The best cheap Android tablet yet?

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 1:18 pm
    The market for affordable tablets below the $300 price point is alive and thriving, as best evidenced by Amazon's popular $200 Kindle Fire. Now, Samsung is entering the fray with the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2, which actually costs $50 more than the Fire or Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet. The Galaxy Tab 2, however, has some superior features, such as a dual-facing camera, and a not-so-secret weapon: A full working version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, instead of the watered-down operating systems of other so-called "cheap" Androids. Will consumers ignore the slightly more expensive price and…

  • Intel's brilliant laptop-tablet hybrid: Did Apple miss the next best thing?

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 5:14 pm
    Tablet or notebook computer? Soon, tech consumers may not have to choose. Intel recently unveiled its "Letexo" Ultrabook hybrid, a super-thin notebook computer that's also a touch-screen tablet. When the Frankenputer device functions as a laptop, the screen stands erect revealing a full-sized keyboard. But the screen can also slide forward and lay flush on top of the keyboard, creating a typical tablet experience. While it's predicted that the Letexo (also called the "Cove Point") will have a price point of $1,000, there's no word yet on when the device will be manufactured or sold. Should…
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    Apple's iPhone 4.0

  • An iPhone pocket... in your bra?

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 9:22 am
    The video: After noticing that their female friends kept losing their smartphones while out clubbing and drinking, two entrepreneurial University of Washington juniors came up with a purchasable solution: The JoeyBra. The push-up bra has a pouch on each side (hence the name, a reference to a baby kangaroo) for stashing your iPhone, ID, keys, credit cards, or a bit of cash, so women don't have to carry a purse or wear pants. After patenting the idea and making a prototype, business students Mariah Gentry and Kyle Bartlow have surpassed their $4,000 seed-money goal on Kickstarter. (Watch a clip…

  • The Ugly Meter: The iPhone app that rates your attractiveness

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 11:50 am
    "When your friends won't tell you the truth, the Ugly Meter will." So goes the tagline for the latest iPhone app sensation, which recently shot up to second place in the iPhone app store, just behind Angry Birds. The app was also the top seller in China for weeks. Created by Jo Overline and Ryan Allen of Arizona, the app has been around since 2010, but only hit the mainstream after its latest iteration, the Ugly Meter Pro, was featured on Howard Stern's radio show. Here, a guide to the iPhone's newest hit:How does the Ugly Meter work? The app snaps your picture, then "scans" your face,…

  • Apple's next iPhone: 5 rumored features

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 10:25 am
    The iPhone 4S may still be flying off store shelves, but whispers about the next iPhone's potential features are already beginning to surface.  The iPhone 5 (if it's even called that) reportedly will feature a a whole new redesign, and may hit shelves as soon as October, according to reports citing a variety of insider sources along Apple's supply chain. Here, five rumored features Apple could be looking to incorporate into its best-selling handset:1. A new metal bodyApple's next iPhone will feature "a new chassis design," says Christina Bonnington at Wired. It may…

  • 'Girls Around Me': The controversial pickup-artist app

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 1:26 pm
    "Girls Around Me," an app designed for men trying to pick up women, pulls phone location data and personal information from Foursquare, Facebook, and Google Maps to brief users about women in their immediate radius. After viewing a woman's profile picture, users can message women directly or snoop through their profiles. Though the app has been downloaded more than 70,000 times, its developers recently pulled it from Apple's App Store after Foursquare withheld its services. The Girls Around Me creators, I-Free Innovations, say the technology is perfectly legal because it culls information…

  • How Apple's Siri got her name

    The Week
    29 Mar 2012 | 12:23 pm
    It may be a household name now, but the first time Steve Jobs heard the word "Siri," he wasn't sold. That's according to Dag Kittalaus, the Norwegian cocreator of the iPhone 4S' famed virtual assistant, who offered new details this week on how the technology was named, and how it seduced the late Apple founder. Today, 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners say they use Siri each month. But how did the increasingly famous digital assistant end up with her unique name? Read on:Who came up with the name?Kittalaus did. As he revealed at a startup conference in Chicago this week, he planned to name…
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    The Week: Most Recent The Digital Age:The Apple Universe

  • Apple's next MacBook Pro: 4 rumors

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 10:46 am
    If you're thinking about buying a new Mac, you might want to hold off. Apple is reportedly giving its MacBook Pro line of performance notebooks the most drastic makeover it has had in years, according to sources cited on two prominent Apple blogs. The Cupertino-based company will supposedly unveil the new hardware at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), set to take place June 11-15. But at least one analyst says the new laptops may be unveiled even sooner. "I don't see them waiting for WWDC," Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, tells Computerworld. "As soon…

  • The man who implanted magnets in his wrist to hold an iPod

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 6:33 am
    The video: Dave Hurban, a piercing artist by trade, wanted one of those coveted iPod nano watches, but didn't want to deal with the device's cumbersome straps. So he devised a clever (if inelegant) solution to his unique brand of first-world problems: With a needle, a pair of tweezers, and a towel to wipe away the blood, he implanted four tiny magnets directly into his left wrist. The result was something he calls the iDermal, which allows him to quickly clip on Apple's best-selling music player strap-free. (Watch the graphic video below.) "I can go for a run, and it won't come…

  • Would a $799 MacBook Air crush the ultrabook market?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 12:25 pm
    Apple's gorgeous, high-end consumer gadgets have developed a rabid following, and if recent earnings are any indication, the company's reluctance to offer consumers affordably priced options has paid off handsomely. So counterintuitively, a new report from technology news site Digitimes claims that the company is on the verge of releasing a $799 MacBook Air, citing anonymous sources in Apple's "upstream supply chain." That's $200 cheaper than the company's current entry-level portable, and could effectively eliminate the cost advantage of "ultrabooks" — lighter, thinner laptops…

  • Steve Jobs as FDR: The 'impossibly weird' Apple commercial

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 11:35 am
    The video: Apparently, Steve Jobs had theatrical aspirations. In a recently-surfaced short film that quickly went viral Thursday, the Apple visionary puts his spin on former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (Watch the clip below.) The World War II-harkening footage, dubbed "1944," was produced on the heels of the company's landmark 1984 Super Bowl commercial based on George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984,  and follows Apple soldiers' scrappy attempts to bring down a big, bad IBM army. Jobs as FDR pops up for a brief cameo to motivate his troops: "You and your brave…

  • Spotify for iPad: The perfect match?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 1:20 pm
    Put the boombox away: A Spotify app for your iPad is finally here. The popular music-streaming service (free, if you're willing to tolerate ads) launched in the U.S. in July 2011, premiering as a desktop client that encouraged listeners to piggyback on their friends' musical tastes. Spotify soon made its way onto several mobile devices, and now, the new tablet app is free to download, taps into Spotify's an expansive database of tens of thousands of songs, and pairs with Apple's AirPlay, which lets users stream music to wireless speakers without leaving the couch. (Watch a demo below.) Does…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Auto Industry

  • Team Romney claims Mitt saved GM: 'The height of hypocrisy'?

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 11:20 am
    Mitt Romney's campaign has news for you: It was Romney, not President Obama, who saved the U.S. auto industry. This week, Romney's campaign manager, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the reason General Motors and Chrysler survived the recession is because Obama followed Romney's prescription to put the automakers through a "managed bankruptcy process." That means "the only economic success that President Obama has had," Fehrnstrom said, "is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice." Fehrnstrom is referring to a New York Times editorial that Romney penned in 2008, in which he called for a "managed…

  • Dan Akerson's $7.7 million salary: Is the GM boss underpaid?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 10:35 am
    General Motors had a historically successful year in 2011, posting a record $7.6 billion profit. It's a robust turnaround for the once-enfeebled company, which needed a hefty cash injection from the government to avoid going under, and is still partly owned by Uncle Sam. But GM is less sanguine about a new government pay freeze on bailed-out companies, and in announcing its pay package for CEO Dan Akerson, who received a cool $7.7 million in compensation, GM complained that the restrictions "do not permit us to reward our senior executives in a manner reflecting the level of achievement of…

  • The Ford Mustang's new European look: A big mistake?

    The Week
    17 Apr 2012 | 11:50 am
    Few things are more classically American than a Ford Mustang, the Pony car that spawned dozens of imitators after it was launched in 1964. And today's Mustang still bears strong resembles to the original, part of a years-long attempt by Ford to ride a retro trend that saw baby boomers buying Volkswagen Beetles and Chevrolet Camaros. But all that is about to change, says Mike Ramsey at The Wall Street Journal. Ford is planning a sleeker, "European" look for its new Mustang, in a bid to attract younger consumers who have less affection for muscle cars of yore. The new Mustang will reportedly…

  • Coming soon: Self-driving cars?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 11:03 am
    When will self-driving cars take to the road? They're already out there. For the past two years, Google has been testing computer-controlled cars in California. Its self-driving Toyota Priuses have so far clocked more than 200,000 miles on busy highways, mountainous roads, and congested city streets with only occasional human intervention. (There are always two human drivers onboard, ready to take the wheel in case of a malfunction). "This car can do 75 mph," said Google engineer Chris Urmson. "It can track pedestrians and cyclists. It understands traffic lights. It can merge at highway…

  • Petty controversy: Newt Gingrich vs. the Chevy Volt

    The Week
    23 Feb 2012 | 10:47 am
    The story: Newt Gingrich was all up in General Motors' grill this week. The Republican presidential candidate branded GM's hybrid Chevy Volt an "Obama car" because "you can't put a gun rack in a Volt." His remark, clearly intended to tap into the Right's aversion to subsidizing green technology, prompted GM spokesman Selim Bingo to shoot back that you can equip the Volt with a gun rack. "The real question is, 'Why would you?'" he asked. "Seriously, when is the last time you saw a gun rack in any sedan?" To prove GM's claims, one enthusiastic Volt fan even created a video demonstrating…
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    The Week: Most Recent Auto Industry:General Motors

  • Team Romney claims Mitt saved GM: 'The height of hypocrisy'?

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 11:20 am
    Mitt Romney's campaign has news for you: It was Romney, not President Obama, who saved the U.S. auto industry. This week, Romney's campaign manager, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the reason General Motors and Chrysler survived the recession is because Obama followed Romney's prescription to put the automakers through a "managed bankruptcy process." That means "the only economic success that President Obama has had," Fehrnstrom said, "is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice." Fehrnstrom is referring to a New York Times editorial that Romney penned in 2008, in which he called for a "managed…

  • Dan Akerson's $7.7 million salary: Is the GM boss underpaid?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 10:35 am
    General Motors had a historically successful year in 2011, posting a record $7.6 billion profit. It's a robust turnaround for the once-enfeebled company, which needed a hefty cash injection from the government to avoid going under, and is still partly owned by Uncle Sam. But GM is less sanguine about a new government pay freeze on bailed-out companies, and in announcing its pay package for CEO Dan Akerson, who received a cool $7.7 million in compensation, GM complained that the restrictions "do not permit us to reward our senior executives in a manner reflecting the level of achievement of…

  • Petty controversy: Newt Gingrich vs. the Chevy Volt

    The Week
    23 Feb 2012 | 10:47 am
    The story: Newt Gingrich was all up in General Motors' grill this week. The Republican presidential candidate branded GM's hybrid Chevy Volt an "Obama car" because "you can't put a gun rack in a Volt." His remark, clearly intended to tap into the Right's aversion to subsidizing green technology, prompted GM spokesman Selim Bingo to shoot back that you can equip the Volt with a gun rack. "The real question is, 'Why would you?'" he asked. "Seriously, when is the last time you saw a gun rack in any sedan?" To prove GM's claims, one enthusiastic Volt fan even created a video demonstrating…

  • G.M.'s record-smashing profits: 6 talking points

    The Week
    17 Feb 2012 | 2:29 pm
    General Motors hauled in a record profit in 2011, and regained its status as the world's top seller of automobiles. It's an extraordinary comeback for a company that went through bankruptcy only two years ago, and needed a massive $50 billion government bailout to boot. "So why isn't everyone doing handsprings or uncorking champagne?" asks Michelle Krebs at Forbes. Here, six things you should know about G.M.'s record year and ongoing recovery:1. G.M. racked up hugely impressive sales figuresThe famed automaker made a $7.6 billion profit in 2011, surpassing its previous yearly record of $6.7…

  • Chevy Volts' potentially flammable batteries: Are the cars still safe?

    The Week
    5 Dec 2011 | 2:59 pm
    General Motors' new electric car, the Chevy Volt, has won top customer satisfaction ratings, but it's getting plenty of demerits from the federal government. Days or weeks after the government conducted side-impact tests on Volts, the cars' lithium-ion batteries caught fire, and the government is investigating why. (The same type of battery has been blamed in the past for flaming, over-heated laptops.) Anxious to defend the car's reputation, GM is saying the cause of the fires is still unknown. Still, the automaker is taking the unprecedented step of offering to buy back the vehicles from any…
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    The Week: Most Recent Barack Obama

  • Time for Obama to dump Joe Biden?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 2:57 pm
    Vice President Joe Biden reportedly had to apologize to President Obama last week after he revealed that he supports gay marriage, pressuring Obama to go public with his own endorsement. The president shrugged off the incident, saying that, while Biden had gone "a little over his skis," he'd merely sped up the timetable for a planned announcement. Still, the events of last week have spurred yet another round of speculation that Obama might replace his gaffe-prone No. 2 with someone less likely to make unexpected headlines. Should Obama find a new running mate?Yes. Biden must go: I'm all for…

  • Did Obama really try to bribe Jeremiah Wright?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 10:14 am
    President Obama's controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is back in the news. Edward Klein, a former New York Times Magazine editor and author of a forthcoming unauthorized Obama biography called The Amateur, said in Sunday's New York Post that Wright, by his own account, was indirectly offered $150,000 by one of Obama's "closest friends" to stop preaching until after the 2008 presidential election. Wright told Klein that he turned the offer down. Conservative bloggers are leaping on the story, insisting that Obama tried to "bribe" Wright to deflect attention from the pastor's…

  • What the Chen Guangcheng debacle reveals about Obama

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 9:40 am
    Talk about poor timing. Last week, during President Obama's well-deserved bin Laden anniversary victory lap, he handed Mitt Romney and his Republican friends a pretty good reason to question the incumbent president's competence on foreign affairs.The issue: The administration's handling of the case of Chen Guangcheng, the human rights activist famous in the People's Republic of China for exposing forced abortions.Chen's story is worthy of any Hollywood thriller. In late April, he fled the provincial home where he and his family had been under house arrest for 20 months (after serving four…

  • A young Obama in love: 7 takeaways from a juicy biography

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 3:10 pm
    Vanity Fair has published excerpts from Barack Obama: The Story, a forthcoming biography of the president by David Maraniss that focuses on two of Obama's former flames from his days as a student and young graduate in New York City. Obama dated Alex McNear for a brief period in 1982, and Genevieve Cook from December 1983 to May 1985, and Maraniss had access to Obama's letters to McNear and, perhaps most revealingly, to Cook's diary. The previously unseen documents show Obama wrestling with the issues of identity that would later be addressed in his memoir, Dreams From My Father. They also…

  • Highlights from the White House Correspondents' Dinner

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 6:00 am
    President Obama took his fourth turn as comedian-in-chief on Saturday night, sharing the stage with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at the 98th annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Watch video highlights below) Obama and Kimmel roasted several of the journalists, celebrities, and politicians in the room — including the president himself — and a few who weren't present, most notably Obama's presumptive 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney. Here's a look at some of the evening's best zingers, quips, one-liners, and, yes, dog jokes:OBAMAKimmel's jokes:"Mr. President, remember when…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Barack Obama:Barack Obama

  • Did Obama really try to bribe Jeremiah Wright?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 10:14 am
    President Obama's controversial former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is back in the news. Edward Klein, a former New York Times Magazine editor and author of a forthcoming unauthorized Obama biography called The Amateur, said in Sunday's New York Post that Wright, by his own account, was indirectly offered $150,000 by one of Obama's "closest friends" to stop preaching until after the 2008 presidential election. Wright told Klein that he turned the offer down. Conservative bloggers are leaping on the story, insisting that Obama tried to "bribe" Wright to deflect attention from the pastor's…

  • What the Chen Guangcheng debacle reveals about Obama

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 9:40 am
    Talk about poor timing. Last week, during President Obama's well-deserved bin Laden anniversary victory lap, he handed Mitt Romney and his Republican friends a pretty good reason to question the incumbent president's competence on foreign affairs.The issue: The administration's handling of the case of Chen Guangcheng, the human rights activist famous in the People's Republic of China for exposing forced abortions.Chen's story is worthy of any Hollywood thriller. In late April, he fled the provincial home where he and his family had been under house arrest for 20 months (after serving four…

  • From Jesus to Charlie Brown: 18 ways The Week has depicted Obama

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 1:04 pm
    President Obama once famously compared himself to a "blank screen" on which people could project their views, and the public has often done just that. Over the years Obama's been called a socialist and a savior, a charlatan and a professor — what he represents depends as much on our opinions as what's happening in the world around us. Here, a look back at the many hats and costumes the president has worn on the cover of The Week.  More

  • 9 presidential hot-mic gaffes: A slideshow

    The Week
    29 Mar 2012 | 5:15 am
    President Obama's critics are having a field day with a remark he made to Russia's president when he thought his microphone was off. "Give me space," Obama said. "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility" to deal with missile defense. Critics say it makes Obama look arrogant about a second term, and weak on Russia. Of course, he's hardly the first president to feel the sting of an unexpectedly hot mic... More

  • The 20-year-old video of Obama protesting at Harvard

    The Week
    8 Mar 2012 | 9:34 am
    The video: On Wednesday, BuzzFeed posted a 1990 video of Harvard law student Barack Obama, 29, wading into the diversity fight then roiling the Ivy League campus. (Watch it below.) Obama, the Harvard Law Review's first black president, introduces Professor Derrick Bell, Harvard's first black tenured professor, at a rally supporting Bell's protest against Harvard's dearth of black and female tenured law faculty. Though PBS's Frontline first aired the video in mid-October 2008, it's getting renewed attention now. After BuzzFeed released its clip, the late Andrew Breitbart's…
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    The Week: Most Recent Barack Obama:Obama's Private Life

  • A young Obama in love: 7 takeaways from a juicy biography

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 3:10 pm
    Vanity Fair has published excerpts from Barack Obama: The Story, a forthcoming biography of the president by David Maraniss that focuses on two of Obama's former flames from his days as a student and young graduate in New York City. Obama dated Alex McNear for a brief period in 1982, and Genevieve Cook from December 1983 to May 1985, and Maraniss had access to Obama's letters to McNear and, perhaps most revealingly, to Cook's diary. The previously unseen documents show Obama wrestling with the issues of identity that would later be addressed in his memoir, Dreams From My Father. They also…

  • 8 insights into Barack Obama's pop-culture tastes

    The Week
    5 Apr 2012 | 11:41 am
    Barack Obama "shored up the hardcore geek vote" Wednesday when a photo surfaced of the "first Geek-in-Chief" flashing the Vulcan hand salute alongside original Star Trek star Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura on the series, says TJ Dietsch at Spinoff. President Obama's unabashed love for Star Trek, the most popular sci-fi TV show of all time, is just the latest evidence of his wide-ranging, and some would say impeccable, taste in pop culture. Here, his big Star Trek moment and seven other reasons the nation's often left-leaning critics approve of how he spends his leisure time: 1.

  • Michelle Obama's 'charming' media assault: A video roundup

    The Week
    8 Feb 2012 | 3:28 pm
    If you've tuned into a talk show recently, odds are you've caught a glimpse of First Lady Michelle Obama, who's been granting a slew of light-hearted interviews to promote her Let's Move fitness initiative, her campaign on behalf of military families, and, above all, herself. Perhaps it's an effort to combat her portrayal as an "angry black woman" in Jodi Kantor's controversial book The Obamas, or a move to make herself more relatable to voters as her husband's re-election campaign kicks into high gear. Regardless, Michelle Obama has danced, hula hooped, and joked through a series of…

  • Michelle Obama's rebuttal: I'm not 'some angry black woman'

    The Week
    11 Jan 2012 | 2:43 pm
    The video: On Wednesday morning, CBS News aired a taped interview with Michelle Obama in which the first lady took issue with the unflattering portrayal of her in New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor's "explosive" new book, The Obamas. (Watch the clip below.) The first lady, who told CBS' Gayle King that she hasn't read the book, denied allegations that she clashed with former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary Robert Gibbs, and tried to bully her way into West Wing business. "'I guess it's just more interesting to imagine this conflicted…

  • The new Obama family portrait: 5 talking points

    The Week
    16 Dec 2011 | 9:21 am
    When the First Family had their first official portrait taken in October 2009, President Obama's daughters were 8 and 11. A lot has changed since then for the White House's occupants, who had their second official portrait taken Dec. 11 with a holiday-bedecked White House as a backdrop (see both portraits below). When the new Obama family portrait was unveiled on Thursday, the commentariat was quick to seize on these five talking points:1. This is one convincingly happy-looking familyThe first thing to know about the First Family photo is that "it's basically perfect," say Roxanne Roberts…
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    The Week: Most Recent Barack Obama:The Obama White House

  • Time for Obama to dump Joe Biden?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 2:57 pm
    Vice President Joe Biden reportedly had to apologize to President Obama last week after he revealed that he supports gay marriage, pressuring Obama to go public with his own endorsement. The president shrugged off the incident, saying that, while Biden had gone "a little over his skis," he'd merely sped up the timetable for a planned announcement. Still, the events of last week have spurred yet another round of speculation that Obama might replace his gaffe-prone No. 2 with someone less likely to make unexpected headlines. Should Obama find a new running mate?Yes. Biden must go: I'm all for…

  • Highlights from the White House Correspondents' Dinner

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 6:00 am
    President Obama took his fourth turn as comedian-in-chief on Saturday night, sharing the stage with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at the 98th annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Watch video highlights below) Obama and Kimmel roasted several of the journalists, celebrities, and politicians in the room — including the president himself — and a few who weren't present, most notably Obama's presumptive 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney. Here's a look at some of the evening's best zingers, quips, one-liners, and, yes, dog jokes:OBAMAKimmel's jokes:"Mr. President, remember when…

  • Another Secret Service sex scandal?

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 3:48 pm
    As the fallout from the Colombia prostitution scandal — which has so far cost eight Secret Service members their jobs — continues, news of another possibly damning scandal involving the Secret Service, strippers, and prostitutes is emerging. Already being dubbed the "Salvadoran Sexcapade," the latest incident reportedly took place in El Salvador in 2011, and was uncovered by Seattle TV station KIRO-TV. Here's what we know so far:What happened?Seattle-based investigative reporter Chris Halsne interviewed a U.S. government subcontractor who claims to have worked extensively with…

  • 10 telling details about the Secret Service scandal

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 3:30 pm
    As the fallout from the Secret Service prostitution scandal that broke last week continues, more facts are surfacing about the 11 service agents who are accused of bringing as many as 20 prostitutes to a hotel in Cartagena, Colombia, just days before President Obama arrived to take part in the annual Summit of the Americas. Three agents have already been ousted, while more resignations and firings are expected. Here, the 10 buzziest details to emerge about the scandal over the past week: 1. The club where the agents partied is essentially a brothelBefore allegedly bringing a "harem of…

  • 5 reasons the Secret Service prostitution scandal won't go away

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 2:50 pm
    This week, the Secret Service forced out three of the 11 agents who are accused of bringing as many as 20 prostitutes to a hotel in Cartagena, Colombia, just days before President Obama was due to stay there. One agent was allowed to retire, the second resigned, and the third was fired. Ousting the agents was seen as an attempt by the Secret Service to quell an embarrassment that has dominated headlines, but it's unlikely that the controversy will be swept aside that neatly. Here, five reasons the scandal will stick around:1. A lawsuit is in the worksOne of the three agents who lost their…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent business-giants

  • Walmart's strange online cash payment system: A guide

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 3:35 pm
    Walmart may be in the midst of a huge bribery scandal surrounding its Mexican operations, but business must go on. As such, the retail behemoth is rolling out an odd new program in the U.S. that will allow customers to use cash to buy products online. The only hitch is that customers will have to go to the store to pay up. It "may seem silly to some," but the program actually makes a lot of sense, says Laura Heller at Forbes. And it represents a "hopeful push" by Walmart to catch up with Amazon, which is leaps and bounds ahead of Walmart in the field of online retailing, says Sarah Perez at…

  • Walmart's Mexican bribery scandal: What's next for the retail giant?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 11:10 am
    Walmart is reeling from a New York Times report that outlines a massive bribery scheme that allegedly allowed the company to grease its way to the top spot in Mexico's retail industry. Worse still, the report alleges that top executives in the U.S. covered up the bribes when a whistleblower brought them to light in 2005, instead of coming clean to U.S. and Mexican authorities. Some of the executives involved have since risen to the top of the Walmart ladder, including CEO Michael Duke, who in 2005 was named the head of Walmart's international divisions. Here, a look at what Walmart faces in…

  • Walmart's explosive Mexican bribery scandal: A concise guide

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 8:25 am
    Walmart isn't just the largest retailer in the U.S. It's also a commercial powerhouse and the largest private employer in Mexico, the jewel of its global business empire. However, Walmart didn't come to dominate the Mexican market without spreading around a little shady cash, almost certainly in violation of U.S. and Mexican law, according to a lengthy, blockbuster report in The New York Times. After Walmart learned about The Times' inquiries in December, it informed the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission that it was opening an independent investigation into foreign…

  • Walmart vs. Amazon: Can brick-and-mortar stores hang onto shoppers?

    The Week
    12 Apr 2012 | 12:33 pm
    "A mobile shopping revolution is under way, and brick-and-mortar retailers are worried," says Steve Henn at NPR. The phenomenon of "showrooming" — in which customers go to stores to eyeball and test products before buying them online at a cheaper price, often at Amazon — is taking its toll on Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and other giants in the retail industry. Can Walmart fight the trend and cling to its customers?Walmart can't compete with Amazon's prices: These days, "half of shoppers who buy products online first checked them out in a traditional store," says Ann…

  • Goldman Sachs' 'muppet' probe: A serious effort to reform?

    The Week
    23 Mar 2012 | 11:01 am
    Goldman Sachs is scouring internal emails for the word "muppet" and other slurs its employees may have used to deride the blue-chip firm's clients, according to Reuters. The probe is a response to an op-ed in The New York Times in which former employee Greg Smith accused Goldman employees of "ripping their clients off" and contemptuously labeling them "muppets." The high-profile scandal is a stinging black eye for Goldman, which has long portrayed itself as a haven for wealthy clients' money. Will the "'muppet' hunt" convince Wall Street that Goldman is serious about reforming its "toxic"…
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    The Week: Most Recent Business Giants:Walmart

  • Walmart's strange online cash payment system: A guide

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 3:35 pm
    Walmart may be in the midst of a huge bribery scandal surrounding its Mexican operations, but business must go on. As such, the retail behemoth is rolling out an odd new program in the U.S. that will allow customers to use cash to buy products online. The only hitch is that customers will have to go to the store to pay up. It "may seem silly to some," but the program actually makes a lot of sense, says Laura Heller at Forbes. And it represents a "hopeful push" by Walmart to catch up with Amazon, which is leaps and bounds ahead of Walmart in the field of online retailing, says Sarah Perez at…

  • Walmart's Mexican bribery scandal: What's next for the retail giant?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 11:10 am
    Walmart is reeling from a New York Times report that outlines a massive bribery scheme that allegedly allowed the company to grease its way to the top spot in Mexico's retail industry. Worse still, the report alleges that top executives in the U.S. covered up the bribes when a whistleblower brought them to light in 2005, instead of coming clean to U.S. and Mexican authorities. Some of the executives involved have since risen to the top of the Walmart ladder, including CEO Michael Duke, who in 2005 was named the head of Walmart's international divisions. Here, a look at what Walmart faces in…

  • Walmart's explosive Mexican bribery scandal: A concise guide

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 8:25 am
    Walmart isn't just the largest retailer in the U.S. It's also a commercial powerhouse and the largest private employer in Mexico, the jewel of its global business empire. However, Walmart didn't come to dominate the Mexican market without spreading around a little shady cash, almost certainly in violation of U.S. and Mexican law, according to a lengthy, blockbuster report in The New York Times. After Walmart learned about The Times' inquiries in December, it informed the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission that it was opening an independent investigation into foreign…

  • Walmart vs. Amazon: Can brick-and-mortar stores hang onto shoppers?

    The Week
    12 Apr 2012 | 12:33 pm
    "A mobile shopping revolution is under way, and brick-and-mortar retailers are worried," says Steve Henn at NPR. The phenomenon of "showrooming" — in which customers go to stores to eyeball and test products before buying them online at a cheaper price, often at Amazon — is taking its toll on Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and other giants in the retail industry. Can Walmart fight the trend and cling to its customers?Walmart can't compete with Amazon's prices: These days, "half of shoppers who buy products online first checked them out in a traditional store," says Ann…

  • Walmart's violent Black Friday: 5 'grim' incidents

    The Week
    28 Nov 2011 | 9:50 am
    Black Friday violence at Walmart is rapidly becoming a new holiday tradition. From coast to coast, shoppers rioted and pepper-sprayed to get their hands on cheap waffle makers and Xboxes while, outside the stores, customers were shot over their loot. The goings on are being called a "grim reminder" of a Black Friday stampede in 2008 at a Walmart in Long Island, N.Y. that left one dead and sent a pregnant woman to the hospital. Here, a rundown of some of this year's bargain brawls:1. The waffle maker riotAt a Walmart near Little Rock, Ark., a screaming mob of shoppers tussled over $2 waffle…
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    The Week: Most Recent The Digital Age:Smartphone Wars

  • 8 strange ways to power your cellphone

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 11:21 am
    Sure, you could always charge your phone the old fashioned way by plugging it into a wall outlet. But where's the fun in that? Here, eight strange and ingenius ways to power your mobile device on the go:1. A fuel cell powered by lighter fluidA Zippo-like fuel cell promises 10 to 14 full charges for your iPhone before your charger has to be recharged. Developed by Lilliputian Systems, the pocket-friendly device runs on recyclable butane cartridges, and can restore the juice of any USB-compatible gadget. Better yet: You can take it anywhere (including planes), making the…

  • A Windows-powered Facebook phone: 3 reasons it might happen

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 2:42 pm
    When rumors that Facebook is secretly building its own smartphone began popping up in 2010, CEO Mark Zuckerberg moved quickly to squelch the murmurs. But a new report from Business Insider suggests that Facebook is still considering its own dedicated handset, and one of its longstanding business partners, Microsoft, is petitioning the social network to make the device run on Windows OS. Previous reports about the mythical Facebook Phone suggested that the company was planning to run a modified version of Google's Android, similar to the Kindle Fire. But Microsoft, which owns a stake in…

  • An Instagram for video: Silicon Valley's next holy grail?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 3:16 pm
    After mobile photo-sharing app Instagram was snatched up by Facebook for a staggering $1 billion, many analysts were left wondering, what's next? According to The Wall Street Journal, it's an Instagram for video — an app that would allow you to use your smartphone to capture, upload, and share clips directly with your followers. Sure, video demands huge amounts of bandwidth and minutes (or more) of a user's time to capture and watch. But still, socially-shared clips seem to be Silicon Valley's newest holy grail. Here, a brief guide:Why would a video-sharing app be so…

  • Why Verizon might not want you to buy an iPhone: 4 theories

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 4:50 pm
    If you want to buy an iPhone, Verizon "would really, really like you to consider an alternative," says David Goldman at CNN. According to a growing pile of anecdotal evidence and Goldman's own reporting, Verizon's sales staff is putting serious pressure on undecided customers to go with Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx, the Droid Razr, or the LG Lucid, all of which use Google's Android software. Verizon insists that it has no policy to discourage iPhone purchases, but there are some compelling reasons why the wireless carrier would make such a move. Here, four reasons why Verizon might prefer that…

  • The Samsung Galaxy S III debut: 5 talking points

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 1:45 pm
    Samsung took the wrapper off the latest gadget in its premiere line of smartphones on Thursday, unveiling the buzzy new Galaxy S III at a headline-grabbing London event. The device, which will be available in Europe May 23 and shortly thereafter in the U.S., is now the Korean manufacturer's flagship handheld. The phone comes equipped with expected spec bumps like a new quad-core processor, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a high-contrast AMOLED screen. Here, five things you should know about the new device:1. It's huge"The screen is big, and as a result, the phone is big," says Peter Bright…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Congress

  • Are the GOP's budget cuts anti-poor?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 3:00 pm
    This week, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill to cut nearly $250 billion from the budget deficit over the next 10 years, and a large chunk of the cuts come from programs to aid the poor. The GOP plan — which has no chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but will inevitably become an election issue — would cancel food stamps for two million struggling Americans, cut health insurance for children, and scale back programs for the elderly and disabled, like Meals on Wheels. Such draconian cuts fail a "basic moral test," says the U.S. Conference of…

  • Boehner vs. Obama: Who's really responsible for the mess in D.C.?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 8:55 am
    The long-running feud between President Obama and the GOP House leadership is raging once again. Obama has been telling college students in swing states that Republicans aren't committed to preventing federal student loan rates from doubling, scolding Congress for playing politics instead of passing laws. House Speaker John Boehner responded Sunday by charging that it's Obama who's poisoning the atmosphere in Washington, "diminishing the presidency by picking fake fights" with the GOP. Whose fault is it that the two parties can't seem to work together?That's easy. Republicans are the…

  • 5 reasons deficit hawks should lay off global health initiatives

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 6:10 am
    Government spending is about to get chopped — no matter who wins the next presidential election. President Obama and his GOP challenger Mitt Romney have both prioritized deficit reduction, which, of course, is a worthy goal. However, not all cuts are created equal. And many surveys put global health at the top of the list of things to slash. That's a mistake, and here's why.1. Global health initiatives save lives abroadInvestments in global health pay off a lot more quickly and dramatically that you might think. PEPFAR, initiated by President George W. Bush and strongly embraced and…

  • Is it immoral for Congress to cut food stamps?

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 8:08 am
    The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to the House Agriculture Committee this week, criticizing the House Republican budget for cutting food stamps and other social programs too drastically. Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, says his Catholic faith served as a guide when he wrote the spending plan, and that runaway government debt is what will really damage programs for the poor. But the bishops say making disproportionately large cuts to the food stamp program — $33 billion in reductions over 10 years — fails to meet the church's "moral…

  • How indefinite detention snuck into Obama's defense bill

    The Week
    22 Mar 2012 | 5:30 pm
    In December, President Obama angered politicians of all stripes by signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a broad defense bill that included a controversial provision about indefinite detention. Specifically, the provision gave the president expansive power to seize suspected terrorists and keep them in detention without charge or trial, even on U.S. soil. According to critics, this part of the bill essentially put the controversial policies of the George W. Bush administration into hard law, shattering Obama's previous promise to stop indefinite detention and adhere to…
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    The Week: Most Recent democratic-party

  • Hillary Clinton's 'coolness offensive': 4 highlights

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 1:17 pm
    How does Hillary Clinton top a popularity-solidifying month in which she responded good-naturedly to an internet meme and uncharacteristically partied down in South America, ingratiating herself with a gaga liberal press and young Dems? By "out-charming a charming actor," says Noreen Malone at New York. Jason Segel, star of The Five-Year Engagement, appeared on Jimmy Fallon's talk show last Thursday, and recounted Clinton's unexpected reaction to his joking suggestion that she co-star in his next film: She wrote him a witty rejection letter, the sort of move that's delighting progressives.

  • The John Edwards trial: 4 key questions

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 5:00 pm
    Disgraced two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is finally getting his day in court. Edwards, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004, went on trial in North Carolina Monday for allegedly using nearly $1 million in unreported campaign contributions to cover up an affair with his one-time campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter. Edwards' lawyers say he didn't break campaign finance laws because he used the money to hide the affair to avoid humiliating his cancer-stricken wife, the late Elizabeth Edwards, not to further his 2008 bid for the presidency. If convicted,…

  • John Edwards in exile

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 9:39 am
    LAST YEAR JOHN Edwards sat with a longtime friend in the 10,000-square-foot house that is the centerpiece of his 102-acre Chapel Hill, N.C., estate. The friend, a New Jersey lawyer named Glenn Bergenfield, who had attended law school with Edwards, was one of the select few members of a diminishing club: those whom the disgraced Edwards wanted to see, and those who wanted to see him. Sometimes Bergenfield just listened. Edwards, under criminal indictment, always talked about his children and often of his late wife, Elizabeth, and, after a while, he usually got around to the matter of…

  • Newark's Cory Booker: America's most overachieving mayor?

    The Week
    13 Apr 2012 | 2:36 pm
    Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., takes feeling your pain to a whole new level. This week, he suffered smoke inhalation and second-degree burns after bravely storming into a burning house to save a woman's life. The former tight end on Stanford University's football team (and a Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law grad to boot) later said that the experience was "terrifying," but that he felt "blessed" that everyone in the house was alright. Booker's daring rescue is just the latest example of him going above and beyond the call of duty. Here, five reasons to think he's America's hardest-working…

  • Can Bob Kerrey help Democrats hold the Senate?

    The Week
    28 Feb 2012 | 11:01 am
    In a stunning reversal, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) has reportedly decided to jump into the race for the Nebraska Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ben Nelson, who decided to retire rather than face a tough re-election battle in conservative Nebraska. Kerrey, who said just three weeks ago that he wouldn't run, has yet to confirm his plans, although his former campaign manager says Kerrey is reconsidering. The filing deadline is Thursday. If the popular former governor and senator does run, he would almost certainly offer Democrats their best shot at holding onto Nelson's seat in…
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    The Week: Most Recent Democratic Party:Future of the Democrats

  • Hillary Clinton's 'coolness offensive': 4 highlights

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 1:17 pm
    How does Hillary Clinton top a popularity-solidifying month in which she responded good-naturedly to an internet meme and uncharacteristically partied down in South America, ingratiating herself with a gaga liberal press and young Dems? By "out-charming a charming actor," says Noreen Malone at New York. Jason Segel, star of The Five-Year Engagement, appeared on Jimmy Fallon's talk show last Thursday, and recounted Clinton's unexpected reaction to his joking suggestion that she co-star in his next film: She wrote him a witty rejection letter, the sort of move that's delighting progressives.

  • Newark's Cory Booker: America's most overachieving mayor?

    The Week
    13 Apr 2012 | 2:36 pm
    Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J., takes feeling your pain to a whole new level. This week, he suffered smoke inhalation and second-degree burns after bravely storming into a burning house to save a woman's life. The former tight end on Stanford University's football team (and a Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law grad to boot) later said that the experience was "terrifying," but that he felt "blessed" that everyone in the house was alright. Booker's daring rescue is just the latest example of him going above and beyond the call of duty. Here, five reasons to think he's America's hardest-working…

  • Can Bob Kerrey help Democrats hold the Senate?

    The Week
    28 Feb 2012 | 11:01 am
    In a stunning reversal, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) has reportedly decided to jump into the race for the Nebraska Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ben Nelson, who decided to retire rather than face a tough re-election battle in conservative Nebraska. Kerrey, who said just three weeks ago that he wouldn't run, has yet to confirm his plans, although his former campaign manager says Kerrey is reconsidering. The filing deadline is Thursday. If the popular former governor and senator does run, he would almost certainly offer Democrats their best shot at holding onto Nelson's seat in…

  • Ben Nelson's planned retirement: A big blow to Dems?

    The Week
    28 Dec 2011 | 10:15 am
    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have trouble hanging onto his majority title in the 113th Congress. On Tuesday, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) became the latest moderate Democrat (following Kent Conrad and Jim Webb, among others) to announce that he won't seek another term in the 2012 election. Nelson, who faced an uphill battle for a third term, is the sole Democrat in Nebraska's five-member congressional delegation, and many political analysts believe his red-state seat could now be a relatively easy Republican pickup. The GOP is working hard to wrest control of the Senate from the Dems in…

  • The Left's wrongheaded anti-Semitism debate

    The Week
    14 Dec 2011 | 2:49 pm
    A blogosphere spat is revealing an important fracture in the Democratic Party and liberal institutions.The spat erupted nearly a week ago. The website Salon.com published a story reporting that Josh Block, a former spokesman for AIPAC, America's pro-Israel lobby, had collected a trove of provocative quotes from anti-Israel bloggers.Here's Justin Elliott's breathless Salon lead:The former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is shopping a 3,000-word trove of opposition research against bloggers critical of Israel to friendly neoconservative journalists.I've...
 
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    The Week: Most Recent domestic-terrorism

  • The new World Trade Center: Not America's tallest building, after all?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 10:17 am
    On April 30, One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan became the tallest building in New York City, well on its way to becoming, when fully completed, the tallest building in the U.S. But there's one problem: The building's owners — the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and developer Douglas Durst — are messing with the plans, much to the chagrin of the architect. Because of industry rules, the 104-story tower will only reach its symbolically important 1,776-foot height if its 408-foot needle is enclosed, as designed, in an ornamental white shell. If the shell is scrapped…

  • The 9/11 memorial: 'Poignant' or 'flawed by bad taste'?

    The Week
    13 Sep 2011 | 2:00 pm
    The 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero was 10 years in the making, and over that decade, it experienced more than its share of controversy. (The latest: The name of one of the 2,983 victims killed in the terrorist attacks is misspelled on the memorial.) But on Monday, the many battles over the memorial came to an end of sorts, as the eight-acre park — which features victims' names etched onto dozens of bronze panels surrounding two memorial pools at the site of the fallen towers — finally opened to the public. Is it a fitting tribute?This is a "poignant reminder" of our…

  • The real legacy of 9/11

    The Week
    12 Sep 2011 | 1:47 pm
    Ten years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States continues to define its relationship with much of the rest of the world in terms of what used to be called the "war on terror," or the Long War. More than at almost any time since the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy is defined by the use of military force and large-scale military deployments abroad, and it is conducted with near-total disregard for the sovereignty even of nominally allied states. The real but relatively small threat from al Qaeda has preoccupied the U.S. for a decade, and the responses to it have…

  • Bill Clinton's 'perfect' United 93 memorial speech

    The Week
    12 Sep 2011 | 12:48 pm
    The video: Former President Bill Clinton delivered a moving speech this weekend at the unfinished memorial to the people who died on United Flight 93 when it crashed into a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. (Watch the speech below.) Clinton said the people on the flight stormed the cockpit to prevent the hijackers from crashing the plane into the heart of Washington, D.C., even though they knew they faced all but certain death. The former president likened the passengers and crew of Flight 93 to the Texans at the Alamo and the Spartans of ancient Greece at Thermopylae, who went into…

  • Did conservatives exploit 9/11?

    The Week
    12 Sep 2011 | 11:09 am
    The 9/11 terrorist attacks "should have been a unifying event," says Paul Krugman in The New York Times. Instead, they were hijacked for political gain. "Fake heroes" like ex-New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, his boss Rudy Giuliani, "and yes, George W. Bush, raced to cash in on the horror," using the attacks as justification for an unrelated war in Iraq. Krugman charges that "the memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned," and "even people on the Right know this." While commentators on the Right are livid, calling Krugman a "disgusting" and "deranged" coward,…
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    The Week: Most Recent Drinking and Drugs:Marijuana in America

  • Why Obama got tough on medical marijuana: 3 theories

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 8:40 am
    When President Obama won the White House in 2008, few groups had more more hope for change than proponents of medical marijuana, the dispensaries allowed to sell pot under some state laws, and the cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other patients who benefit from the drug. And in the first two years of Obama's term, things looked pretty good for the medical marijuana industry: Attorney General Eric Holder told federal prosecutors to lay off individuals complying with state laws, and they did. Then the hammer came down, and now, the Obama administration is "cracking down on medical marijuana…

  • Marijuana-infused wine: The new high?

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 7:00 am
    Travelers making their way through California's Central Coast may smell a pungent new aroma coming from their wineglasses — thanks to a little marijuana. What began as a novelty in the 1980s is becoming more commonplace as California winemakers look to ferment grapes with the sticky, THC-laden leaves. Here, a brief guide to the munchy-inducing trend:This practice dates back to the 1980s?"Drugs have been on the periphery of the California wine scene going back a long time," says Michael Sternberg at The Daily Beast. When the Reagan administration was waging its war on drugs in the…

  • Marijuana's 'historic' surge among teens: 4 theories

    The Week
    19 Dec 2011 | 6:30 am
    Teenagers are drinking less and smoking fewer cigarettes than in years past. The trouble is, they're also getting high in record numbers. In a University of Michigan study, half of the surveyed high school seniors admitted to experimenting with marijuana, with about one in four saying they had smoked it in the last month — the highest rate in 30 years. And eighth-graders didn't fare much better, with one in five admitting they had used pot recently. What's going on? Here, four theories on marijuana's "historic" resurgence: 1. The perceived risk is downOne theory for why more…

  • Are Americans ready to legalize pot?

    The Week
    18 Oct 2011 | 1:51 pm
    Legalize it? Half of Americans want to. Support for marijuana legalization now outweighs opposition, for the first time since Gallup began polling the issue 42 years ago. Fifty percent of Americans say pot use should be legal, while 46 percent say it should be prohibited. Compare that to 1969, when just 12 percent of Americans wanted to legalize pot, compared to a whopping 84 percent who were opposed. Will a groundswell of support for pot legalization be enough to change the country's drug laws?America has reached the tipping point: Why not legalize pot? says Henry…

  • Pot-shaped candy: 'Addictive gateway treat'?

    The Week
    11 Oct 2011 | 12:40 pm
    City leaders in Buffalo, N.Y., are launching a war on candy — at least candy shaped like drugs. Pothead Lollipops and Ring Pots are sour-apple flavored sweets that contain no cannabis, but look like marijuana leaves. Anti-drug activists say the candy, packaged in a bag emblazoned with the word "legalize," sends kids the message that illegal drugs are okay. Two city council members are pushing to deny licenses to stores that sell the treats. Andrew Kalan, whose company makes the Ring Pots, responds: "It's just candy." Are the sweets harmless, or an "addictive gateway…
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    The Week: Most Recent east-asia

  • 5 reasons China's economy is slowing down

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 6:22 am
    China recently released data showing an "across-the-board" slowdown in its economy, sparking concerns that it could drag down the global economy, too. "China has been the largest single contributor to global economic growth in recent years," says Keith Bradsher at The New York Times, and it's unlikely that the country's problems can be contained. "Remember: What happens in China, does not stay in China," says Thomas Mucha at Global Post. Here, five reasons why China's economy is faltering:1. Economic weakness in the U.S. and Europe China has long relied on its cheap export machine to fuel…

  • The Chen Guangcheng exile deal: Happy ending or disaster?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 8:48 am
    The diplomatic crisis over Chen Guangcheng isn't over yet. Chen, a blind activist who escaped from house arrest and hid for six days in the U.S. embassy, had hoped to stay in China under a deal brokered last week by the Obama administration, but that arrangement quickly unraveled. Now, Chen says he's hopeful that Chinese leaders will respect a new agreement allowing him to go to the U.S. for a teaching fellowship, and take his family with him. "I still don't know when I'll leave, but it shouldn't be too long," Chen, a self-taught lawyer, tells Reuters. Is this a good deal for all…

  • The Chen Guangcheng deal: Who won?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 8:08 am
    Blind activist Chen Guangcheng has had a "change of heart," U.S. diplomats said Thursday. Chen now reportedly wants to leave China with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's on a high-level visit until Saturday, despite a U.S.-brokered deal in which the Chinese government guaranteed he wouldn't be mistreated. Chen, a rural, self-taught lawyer, had been held under de facto house arrest by local officials, but escaped to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing last week. He left to be reunited with his family and seek treatment in a hospital on Wednesday after receiving assurances that he would be able…

  • Showdown in Beijing: Is the U.S. wrong to shelter a Chinese dissident?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 10:14 am
    The U.S. and China are locked in tense negotiations over the fate of Chen Guangcheng, a blind dissident who made a bold escape from house arrest and reportedly sought refuge in the U.S. embassy. The drama comes at a sensitive moment — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are traveling to China this week for potentially critical strategic and economic talks. Will tensions over a single dissident disrupt U.S. relations with Beijing? Here, six key questions:Who is Chen Guangcheng?Chen is a blind Chinese civil rights activist, a self-schooled legal…

  • Crisis in North Korea: 'Obama's Jimmy Carter moment'?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 9:21 am
    The November election is expected to hinge on the economy, but rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula are pushing foreign policy into center stage. Vice President Joe Biden says President Obama's overseas successes, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, prove he's better equipped to be commander-in-chief than the untested Mitt Romney. But Romney says he'd be tougher than Obama on belligerent countries, including North Korea, which is reportedly set to test a nuclear device in an attempt to shake off the embarrassment of its recent failed missile launch. Will Obama prove his mettle in the…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent East Asia:China Rising

  • 5 reasons China's economy is slowing down

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 6:22 am
    China recently released data showing an "across-the-board" slowdown in its economy, sparking concerns that it could drag down the global economy, too. "China has been the largest single contributor to global economic growth in recent years," says Keith Bradsher at The New York Times, and it's unlikely that the country's problems can be contained. "Remember: What happens in China, does not stay in China," says Thomas Mucha at Global Post. Here, five reasons why China's economy is faltering:1. Economic weakness in the U.S. and Europe China has long relied on its cheap export machine to fuel…

  • The Chen Guangcheng exile deal: Happy ending or disaster?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 8:48 am
    The diplomatic crisis over Chen Guangcheng isn't over yet. Chen, a blind activist who escaped from house arrest and hid for six days in the U.S. embassy, had hoped to stay in China under a deal brokered last week by the Obama administration, but that arrangement quickly unraveled. Now, Chen says he's hopeful that Chinese leaders will respect a new agreement allowing him to go to the U.S. for a teaching fellowship, and take his family with him. "I still don't know when I'll leave, but it shouldn't be too long," Chen, a self-taught lawyer, tells Reuters. Is this a good deal for all…

  • The Chen Guangcheng deal: Who won?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 8:08 am
    Blind activist Chen Guangcheng has had a "change of heart," U.S. diplomats said Thursday. Chen now reportedly wants to leave China with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's on a high-level visit until Saturday, despite a U.S.-brokered deal in which the Chinese government guaranteed he wouldn't be mistreated. Chen, a rural, self-taught lawyer, had been held under de facto house arrest by local officials, but escaped to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing last week. He left to be reunited with his family and seek treatment in a hospital on Wednesday after receiving assurances that he would be able…

  • Showdown in Beijing: Is the U.S. wrong to shelter a Chinese dissident?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 10:14 am
    The U.S. and China are locked in tense negotiations over the fate of Chen Guangcheng, a blind dissident who made a bold escape from house arrest and reportedly sought refuge in the U.S. embassy. The drama comes at a sensitive moment — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are traveling to China this week for potentially critical strategic and economic talks. Will tensions over a single dissident disrupt U.S. relations with Beijing? Here, six key questions:Who is Chen Guangcheng?Chen is a blind Chinese civil rights activist, a self-schooled legal…

  • Is Hollywood bribing the Chinese government?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 6:35 am
    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether major Hollywood studios have bribed members of the Chinese government to get a leg up in the country's fiercely competitive movie market. The SEC is pursuing the probe under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars U.S. companies from making illicit payments to foreign officials. Reports of the investigation are shedding light on the often opaque business deals that proliferate in China, and could become an embarrassment for the Obama administration, which has pushed China to give Hollywood greater access to its…
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    The Week: Most Recent East Asia:Conflict in the Koreas

  • Crisis in North Korea: 'Obama's Jimmy Carter moment'?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 9:21 am
    The November election is expected to hinge on the economy, but rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula are pushing foreign policy into center stage. Vice President Joe Biden says President Obama's overseas successes, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, prove he's better equipped to be commander-in-chief than the untested Mitt Romney. But Romney says he'd be tougher than Obama on belligerent countries, including North Korea, which is reportedly set to test a nuclear device in an attempt to shake off the embarrassment of its recent failed missile launch. Will Obama prove his mettle in the…

  • North Korea's latest threats: Mere bluster or a real danger?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 8:00 am
    After being threatened by its enemy-neighbor to the north, South Korea has put its military on alert and increased police patrols around conservative newspapers and TV stations. The North Korean military on Monday accused the South's government and news media of slandering its leaders, and vowed to reduce "ratlike groups" in Seoul to ashes soon "by unprecedented peculiar means." Is this just typical, over-the-top chest-thumping from the volatile hermit kingdom, or could Pyongyang really mean it this time?North Korea might follow through: Usually, these rants from Pyongyang are just for show,…

  • Kim Jong Un's surprise speech: 6 talking points

    The Week
    16 Apr 2012 | 6:05 am
    North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, presided over a massive military parade in honor of the centennial of the birth of his grandfather, country founder Kim Il Sung — something that leaders of the isolated country have been known to do. But then Kim did something completely unexpected: He spoke. His televised 20-minute address was the first his country, and the world, had heard from the young leader, and it suggested to outside observers that Kim is charting a different course than his late father, Kim Jong Il, and will easily survive the humiliating failure of a satellite rocket…

  • North Korea's mysterious satellite launch: 3 theories

    The Week
    10 Apr 2012 | 10:45 am
    North Korea is moving ahead with plans to conduct a satellite launch — sometime between April 12 and April 16 — to commemorate the 100th birthday of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung. Of course, suspicions abound that the rogue nation is up to no good, and the launch is seen as the most aggressive move that North Korea has made since Kim Il Sung's grandson, Kim Jong Un, came to power four months ago. U.S. officials say the launch is a cover for a long-range missile test, which would shatter a February deal to provide North Korea with much-needed food aid in exchange for a…

  • Will the U.S. regret suspending food aid to North Korea?

    The Week
    29 Mar 2012 | 2:24 pm
    In North Korea, promises are apparently made to be broken. The Obama administration confirmed this week that it had suspended planned food aid to the rogue communist regime in response to Pyongyang's proposed April launch of a satellite-carrying rocket. The U.S. says the hermited nation is violating a February deal that secured aid in exchange for freezing its controversial weapons programs. Will America's food refusal bring North Korea back in line, or merely aggravate the situation? Here's what you should know:How badly does North Korea need this aid?Quite desperately. The government's…
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    The Week: Most Recent Education

  • New Jersey's 'reveal a secret' third-grade test question: The fallout

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 5:15 pm
    State education officials in New Jersey got an earful from parents recently after third graders were given a standardized test question asking them to reveal a secret and explain why it was hard to keep. Several parents complained that the question was inappropriate for 8-year-olds. The state Department of Education reviewed the test, and agreed, promising that the question wouldn't be used in the future. How did such a controversial question wind up on a standardized test in the first place? Here's what you should know:How many kids answered this question?The question appeared on the…

  • Should a teacher be fired for making students wear a doggie 'cone of shame'?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 3:58 pm
    A teacher in Pasco County, Florida, is in hot water for punishing her students... by making them wear a cone-shaped dog collar. Parents saw pictures on Facebook showing 9th graders at Zephyrhills High wearing the collar, and complained. Now schools superintendent Heather Fiorentino has recommended that the physical science teacher, Laurie Bailey-Cutkomp, be fired. Is that a fitting end to this strange story of discipline gone wrong? Here's what you need to know:What was this teacher thinking? Bailey-Cutkomp worked in the veterinary field before starting her teaching job, so she had one of the…

  • Who's to blame for the rising cost of student loans?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 12:49 pm
    This week, Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would prevent interest rates on government-subsidized student loans from doubling in two months — a move that comes at a time of already-intense anxiety over soaring college costs, which show no signs of stabilizing. Outstanding student debt in America recently reached the $1 trillion mark, surpassing the county's credit card and auto loan debt, and economists say it's becoming a burden on the broader economy. Who's to blame for this mess?1. Republicans The GOP says it has no desire to see interest rates on subsidized loans go up,…

  • Princeton's crackdown on frats: Too harsh?

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 3:30 pm
    Hide those kegs. Princeton University officials announced Wednesday that any freshman caught joining, rushing, or pledging a Greek organization — either fraternity or sorority — could face immediate suspension. The policy will be implemented this fall. What does the Ivy League school have against frat life? Here, a brief guide: Why is Princeton cracking down?About 15 percent of the Princeton student body — or about 800 students — belong to one of the 12 fraternities and four sororities loosely connected to the school. But Princeton has never officially…

  • A student debt crisis that cannot be ignored

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 7:00 am
    Last week, in an appearance with smooth and snazzy Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, awkward as usual, did something that made him seem even more robotic. He was about to walk off the stage after a run-of-the-mill speech when an invisible switch was flipped, and Romney, like a wound-up toy soldier, returned to the microphone and added, "I forgot to mention at the very beginning... I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans."You forgot to mention? With a July 1 deadline looming for Congress to act to prevent interest rates on millions of federal student…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Education:School Bullying

  • Does school bullying cause young victims to age prematurely?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 12:11 pm
    Bullying might make school kids old before their time... literally. In a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, scientists say that exposure to violence actually causes cells in the bodies of young victims to age at a faster rate than those of their peers, which could have a profound effect on their health years down the road. Here, a brief guide to the findings:How can being bullied age you?Exposure to violence is, among other things, a form of stress. Like other stresses, it can elevate oxidation and inflammation in the body, says the study's lead author, Idan Shalev of…

  • Bully's planned PG-13 re-cut: So much for principles?

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 3:07 pm
    Though the anti-bullying documentary Bully has dominated entertainment news headlines, it opened this weekend in just five theaters. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) originally gave the film, which chronicles five bullied children and their families over the course of a school year, an R rating because of six instances of the word "fuck." The movie's distributors, the Weinstein Company, argued that the rating would bar the target demographic of adolescents from seeing it, and refused to cut the offending footage, maintaining that doing so would blunt the film's impact. Harvey…

  • Bully: Oscar-worthy documentary or 'extended PSA'?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 1:28 pm
    For months leading up to its Friday release, the anti-bullying documentary Bully has dominated entertainment headlines due to the rating war between its distributors and the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA originally saddled the film (watch the trailer below) with an R rating because of a handful of f-words, barring adolescents — "the very demographic that can best be served, educated, informed and ameliorated by the civic values it teaches," says The New York Observer  — from seeing the movie. Now Bully is being released without a…

  • Bully's unrated release: A big mistake?

    The Week
    28 Mar 2012 | 12:49 pm
    The buzzy new documentary Bully will hit theaters this Friday — but only five theaters will screen it, thanks to a standoff between producers and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). After the MPAA gave the anti-school-bullying documentary a restrictive R rating that would have prevented kids from seeing the film without a parent, its producers made the rare decision to ignore the MPAA and release the film with no rating at all. (The MPAA slapped an R on Bully because of six instances of the word "fuck.") Now, Bully's very limited release might have the same…

  • Bully: Why kids can't see the must-see documentary

    The Week
    9 Mar 2012 | 9:05 am
    Indie film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who steered silent French film The Artist to a Best Picture Oscar against the odds, is waging another crusade: Ensuring that a documentary about the epidemic of adolescent bullying can reach its teenaged target audience. (View trailer below.) The problem? Thanks to the film's six instances of the F-word, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave Bully an R rating. As a result, middle- and high-schoolers can't see it without a parent or guardian, and schools are far less likely to screen the film in class. Here, a guide to the…
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    The Week: Most Recent Energy Issues

  • The first BP oil spill arrest: An instant guide

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 8:04 am
    Almost exactly two years after BP's Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling rig exploded, killing 11 people and eventually sending more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the Justice Department made its first arrest relating to the disaster on Tuesday. Federal investigators charged former BP engineer Kurt Mix, 50, with two criminal counts of obstructing justice for deleting hundreds of potentially damning text messages. What's the story with this curiously belated arrest? Here, a concise guide: How was Mix involved in the disaster?Until he resigned last June, Mix was a…

  • BP oil spill: The 'horribly mutated' creatures living in the Gulf

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 5:01 pm
    Shrimp born without eyes, clawless crabs, and fish with visible tumors are among the "horribly mutated" marine animals found in the waters off the Gulf Coast, according to a new report from Al Jazeera. Scientists say the problem is a side effect of the April 2010 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 people and spilled at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. Here, a brief guide to the damage:Is it just the oil that caused mutations?No. Also to blame are the nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants, such as petroleum distillates and…

  • Can natural gas drive the U.S. economy?

    The Week
    16 Apr 2012 | 11:42 am
    In a few short years, the U.S. has become a major player in the field of natural gas, the cleaner energy alternative to oil and coal. Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — a controversial drilling technique that extracts natural gas from shale rock — the U.S. has a surplus of the resource. As a result, natural gas in the U.S. has gotten cheaper and cheaper, plunging to $2 per 1,000 cubic feet for the first time in a decade. When you consider that the same quantity costs more than $9 cost in Europe and nearly $16 in Asia, it's clear we have an eminently exportable commodity…

  • Why you're wrong about gas prices and politics

    The Week
    9 Apr 2012 | 5:00 pm
    I recently wrote about the many myths and misunderstandings Americans have about gas prices, oil companies, and the presidency. A few folks got upset because the facts and figures I mentioned weren't what they wanted to hear. But as John Adams said: "Facts are stubborn things." With that in mind, here are a few more myths and misunderstandings — about gasoline, renewable energy, politicians — and the facts:Myth #1: Presidents have major power over gas pricesGasoline prices have more than doubled on Obama's watch, from $1.89 on Inauguration Day in 2009 to last week's $3.93 (AAA…

  • Did Obama's EPA kill coal power?

    The Week
    29 Mar 2012 | 5:30 am
    Move over, "Old King Coal." The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the first time has announced greenhouse-gas limits for new power plants, in a move that "could end the construction of conventional coal-fired facilities in the United States," says Juliet Eilperin at The Washington Post. The EPA didn't single out coal plants, but its limits are strict enough that it's unlikely any coal plant will be able to meet them. Natural gas plants, which use a cleaner source of energy, make the grade, while the Obama administration hopes that the new rules will encourage the manufacture of plants…
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    The Week: Most Recent Energy Issues:BP Oil Spill: In Perspective

  • BP oil spill: The 'horribly mutated' creatures living in the Gulf

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 5:01 pm
    Shrimp born without eyes, clawless crabs, and fish with visible tumors are among the "horribly mutated" marine animals found in the waters off the Gulf Coast, according to a new report from Al Jazeera. Scientists say the problem is a side effect of the April 2010 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 people and spilled at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. Here, a brief guide to the damage:Is it just the oil that caused mutations?No. Also to blame are the nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants, such as petroleum distillates and…

  • The return of deepwater drilling: By the numbers

    The Week
    6 Mar 2012 | 10:07 am
    When BP's explosion-wrecked Deepwater Horizon oil rig was bleeding millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from April to August of 2010, an overwhelming number of critics questioned the safety of deepwater oil drilling. Those days seem to be long gone. It's been more than a year since the Obama administration ended its post-spill moratorium on deepwater Gulf wells, and today, deepwater drilling is expanding in the waters off Mexico and Cuba, in the Mediterranean, and off the coast of East Africa. "We need the oil," Rice University energy expert Amy Myers Jaffe tells The New York…

  • Is the Gulf of Mexico really 'back to normal'?

    The Week
    20 Apr 2011 | 5:15 am
    A year after the massive BP oil spill, more than three dozen scientists surveyed by the Associated Press say the Gulf of Mexico is "nearly back to normal." The experts gave the Gulf's overall health an average grade of 68 on a 1-to-100 scale, up from 65 in October and nearly back up to the 71 mark the same researchers had given the ecosystem last summer, as an estimate of pre-disaster levels. Has the damage from the worst oil spill in U.S. history really disappeared so quickly?Real recovery is still far away: The progress made in the year since the spill has been remarkable, says the New…

  • BP's 8 dumbest mistakes

    The Week
    11 Jun 2010 | 12:55 pm
    It is now clear that the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill was eminently preventable. And even since the April 20 rig fire, experts have cited many examples of how poor choices by BP have worsened an already dire situation. Here are eight particularly unfortunate errors that experts say contributed to the biggest oil spill in U.S. history:1. BP never had a realistic plan to deal with a spillThe oil giant's official plan for dealing with a potential Deepwater Horizon spill, and its more general plan for any spill in the Gulf, both wildly overestimated its preparedness and seriously…

  • Punishing BP: 6 brutal proposals

    The Week
    28 May 2010 | 11:45 am
    Eleven people are dead and the Gulf of Mexico has become ground zero of America's worst-ever oil spill. Who's to blame? In the eyes of most commentators, BP tops the list. More than a month after the Deepwater Horizon blew up and crude began spewing into sea, almost three quarters of Americans say BP is doing a "poor" or "very poor" job dealing with the accident, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, and calls to punish the oil giant are gaining in volume. But what's the right penalty? Here are six disciplinary options that have been floated by pundits and advocacy groups:1. Make BP pay…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Energy Issues:The BP Oil Spill

  • The first BP oil spill arrest: An instant guide

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 8:04 am
    Almost exactly two years after BP's Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling rig exploded, killing 11 people and eventually sending more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the Justice Department made its first arrest relating to the disaster on Tuesday. Federal investigators charged former BP engineer Kurt Mix, 50, with two criminal counts of obstructing justice for deleting hundreds of potentially damning text messages. What's the story with this curiously belated arrest? Here, a concise guide: How was Mix involved in the disaster?Until he resigned last June, Mix was a…

  • Has Big Oil learned its lesson from the Gulf spill?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2011 | 5:18 pm
    It's less than a year since the April 20, 2010 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, but BP is reportedly already trying to start drilling there again. The oil giant, one of the leading producers in the Gulf before the accident, is said to be talking with U.S. regulators about resuming work as early as July — a report that energy secretary Ken Salazar has denied. It also emerged over the weekend that Transocean, the operators of the Deepwater Horizon rig, awarded its executives $2.8 million in bonuses for overseeing "the best year for…

  • Is BP guilty of manslaughter?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2011 | 11:38 am
    Almost a year after an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, federal prosecutors are considering legal charges. Eleven workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20 last year, and the Justice Department is now reportedly examining whether negligence makes BP managers guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Is this just scapegoating?If they were negligent, prosecute them: How do you divvy up blame for an accident, asks Stephen Reader at Death and Taxes. Well, it's quite easy when "government regulations are…

  • Did the BP spill kill the Gulf sea floor?

    The Week
    16 Sep 2010 | 7:00 am
    One of the great mysteries of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — "What happened to all the oil?" — is one step closer to being solved: At least some of it, perhaps a lot, sank to the ocean floor, according to University of Georgia researchers. Ominously, the two-inch-thick layers of oily sediment found in seafloor samples are resting over a layer of dead shrimp and small deep-dwelling creatures, raising the question: Did the BP spill kill the sea floor? (Watch an ABC report about the discovered oil)How big is the oil blanket?University of Georgia marine scientist…

  • Is BP shirking responsibility for the Gulf spill?

    The Week
    9 Sep 2010 | 2:55 pm
    BP has released its findings on what went wrong leading up to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last spring, and the company doesn't seem ready to accept much of the blame. Of the eight major causes BP identifies, says the Guardian's Damian Carrington, it takes responsibility for 1.5, blames well-cementing contractor Halliburton for one, and faults rig operator Transocean with 4.5. As the majority partner in Deepwater Horizon drilling project, is BP wrong to try and spread the guilt?Man up, BP: It's "infuriating" to see BP so shamelessly "point blame at other companies and…
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    The Week: Most Recent Fast Food Nation:Fast Food, USA

  • Burger King's shift to cage-free eggs: A game-changer?

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 1:38 pm
    Burger King is winning praise from animal-rights activists after announcing Wednesday that by 2017 it will only buy eggs and pork that come from cage-free animals. Currently, just 9 percent of the chickens that produce BK's eggs and 20 percent of its pigs are cage-free. "Many tens of thousands of animals will now be in better living conditions," says Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. Burger King is the world's second-biggest fast food chain, so the shift is expected to expand the market for humanely produced food and pressure rivals to follow suit. Is this a…

  • The cheeseburger pizza and 9 other Frankenstein fast foods: A slideshow

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 11:50 am
    If you loathe choosing between a meat-laden pizza and a juicy burger, Pizza Hut in the Middle East has you covered. One-upping Pizza Hut U.K.'s recent food wonder — the Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza — Pizza Hut Middle East's Crown Crust Pizza has mini cheeseburgers nestled into its crust. Not feeling the beef? The Chicken Fillet version has a crust made of chicken strips. If you're still hungry, here are nine other fast-food combos to tempt those daring tastebuds. More

  • Should Big Macs be sold in hospitals?

    The Week
    12 Apr 2012 | 5:16 pm
    Feel like gobbling a greasy Big Mac while you wait for test results at the hospital? It's easier than you might think to find a Mickey D's in health-care facilities, which is why the watchdog organization, Corporate Accountability International, is calling for the removal of McDonald's franchises from clinics nationwide, including the prestigious Cleveland Clinic and seven children's hospitals. The group's motion, endorsed by 2,000 health professionals, urges hospitals to end their contracts with McDonald's and "stop fostering a food environment that promotes harm, not health." Considering…

  • Mary J. Blige's Burger King ad: 'Racist' or just 'hilarious'?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 1:02 pm
    Burger King's much-ballyhooed rebranding — part of an attempt to stop a steep slide in sales — is getting off to a rocky start. The company dropped its new ad featuring hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige after it was assailed by fans for being "racist," "scary," and unintentionally "hilarious." (Watch below.) Burger King insists that the spot was scrubbed for unspecified "licensing issues," but that didn't douse suspicions that the negative response forced the burger chain to backtrack. Here, a guide to the controversy:What's in the ad? The clip features Blige standing on a table in a…

  • Burger King's healthier menu: Can BK launch a comeback?

    The Week
    3 Apr 2012 | 11:35 am
    Burger King is rolling out 10 new dishes — the largest expansion of its menu since the venerable burger chain first opened its doors in 1954. The additions include smoothies, snack wraps, and salads, and are notable for being much healthier than Burger King's usual calorie-bomb fare. The shake up is part of a broader campaign to resuscitate the company, which last year fell to the number-three slot in the burger chain hierarchy, behind McDonald's and Wendy's. The overhaul will include a makeover of restaurants that have gone to seed, and a new advertising blitz featuring Jay Leno, David…
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    The Week: Most Recent Foreign Relations

  • Julian Assange's talk show debut: A major letdown?

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 12:50 pm
    Julian Assange, once labeled "the world's most famous whistleblower," is now an aspiring talk-show star. On Tuesday, the founder of WikiLeaks debuted his new talk show The World Tomorrow on RT, Russia's state-controlled news network and website. (Watch the video below.) Because Assange is under house arrest and facing extradition to Sweden on rape and molestation charges, he conducted the interview with his first guest, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, from his British countryside estate via video chat. (Nasrallah spoke from an undisclosed location in Lebanon.) In a press release,…

  • Wikileaks: Does Bradley Manning deserve a Nobel Peace Prize?

    The Week
    9 Feb 2012 | 2:10 pm
    Three members of the Icelandic parliament have nominated accused WikiLeaks informant Army Pfc. Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Manning allegedly put 250,000 Department of State diplomatic cables, Department of Defense gun camera videos, and other classified documents onto CD-RWs, and sent them to WikiLeaks, which posted them online for all to see. The Icelandic politicians say Manning, who is being court-martialed for aiding the enemy, did the world a favor by exposing America's "long history of corruption, war crimes, and imperialism." Does Manning really deserve a…

  • WikiLeaks: Will a 'gay soldier' defense help Bradley Manning?

    The Week
    19 Dec 2011 | 9:05 am
    After 18 months of controversial pre-trial incarceration, alleged WikiLeaker Pfc. Bradley Manning is finally getting to defend himself. A grand jury–like military hearing will determine whether Manning will be court-martialed on 22 counts of aiding the enemy, illegally sharing tens of thousands of classified government secrets, and other alleged crimes. Over the weekend, prosecutors presented evidence, including copies of the leaked files on Manning's laptop, CDs, and memory cards. Manning's defense team argues that the leaks didn't do any real harm. Plus, his lawyers say, the Army…

  • Is the 'broke' WikiLeaks worth saving?

    The Week
    25 Oct 2011 | 9:30 am
    The video: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is holding a pledge drive of sorts, saying that his trailblazing secret-sharing website will suspend operations by the end of the year if it doesn't get more cash. (Watch Assange's fundraising pitch below.) Assange says WikiLeaks has been living off of its cash reserves since December 2010, when an "arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade" by Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Western Union, and Bank of America cut off 95 percent of its donations. The blocking of online donations through these services, which followed the controversial leak of…

  • Irony alert: Julian Assange's 'draconian' confidentiality demands

    The Week
    13 May 2011 | 2:00 pm
    The story: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made his name exposing U.S. government secrets provided by whistleblowers, but despite his commitment to the free flow of information, he forces his own employees to sign a brutally strict confidentiality agreement. The document, obtained by the British magazine New Statesman, imposes a $20 million penalty on any staffer who leaks his secret-spilling website's unpublished material. The rationale: Anyone who does so without authorization owes WikiLeaks the millions it could have made selling the material to broadcasters and publishers. The reaction:…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Global Warming

  • Heartland's ballsy attack on climate-change theory: The fallout

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 1:43 pm
    The conservative Heartland Institute was going for shock value when it mounted a digital billboard in Chicago that combined a mug shot of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, with the message: "I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?" (See the full image below.) After the group faced a fiercer backlash than expected, however, it promptly took down the sign and canceled plans for similar ads. Here's what you should know:What was the point of this billboard?The Heartland Institute was trying to be "deliberately provocative," the institute's president, Joseph Bast, said in a statement, "to turn the…

  • Do wind farms actually cause climate change?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 1:00 pm
    Here's a curveball on climate change: New research published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that large wind farms might have a warming effect on the local climate. Many countries are rapidly expanding their capacity to generate electricity using wind-driven turbines as they try to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels. But are wind farms contributing to the very problem they're supposed to help solve? Here, a brief guide:  How much do wind farms heat up the air?Researchers at the State University of New York at…

  • Global warming mystery: Why are some glaciers growing?

    The Week
    17 Apr 2012 | 1:20 pm
    Glaciers around the world are slowly melting, and scientists are quick to point their fingers at manmade climate change. But new research suggests that a few glaciers aren't shrinking at all, and may even be growing. Here, a brief guide to this counterintuitive phenomenon: Which glaciers are growing?A few glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range along the India-China-Pakistan border are gaining mass, according to a report published in the April issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. "The rest of the glaciers in the Himalayas are mostly melting," lead researcher Julie Gardelle tells…

  • The warmest March in history: By the numbers

    The Week
    9 Apr 2012 | 2:44 pm
    Temperature records were scorched last month, which will go down as the warmest March in history. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than 15,000 temperature records were broken or tied in the U.S., continuing a year-long streak of hotter-than-average temperatures that many scientists are linking to global warming. "Everybody has this uneasy feeling," says scientist Jerry Meehl. "It's a guilty pleasure. You're out enjoying this nice March weather, but you know it's not a good thing." Here's how it all breaks down:15,292Temperature records that…

  • How global warming is changing winemaking

    The Week
    27 Feb 2012 | 5:04 pm
    As global temperatures rise, the grapes in Australia's wine regions are ripening ever earlier, according to a new study in Nature Climate Change. That's a problem for vintners, says lead researcher Leanne Webb, because early ripening "often has undesirable impacts on wine quality." The earlier the grapes mature, the hotter the weather at the time of harvest, and "hot vintages are not good for quality wines," says co-author Snow Barlow. Here's what you should know:How much is climate change affecting grape harvests?On average, Australian wine grapes are ripening 20 days earlier than in…
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    The Week: Most Recent Climate Change:Climate Change

  • Heartland's ballsy attack on climate-change theory: The fallout

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 1:43 pm
    The conservative Heartland Institute was going for shock value when it mounted a digital billboard in Chicago that combined a mug shot of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, with the message: "I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?" (See the full image below.) After the group faced a fiercer backlash than expected, however, it promptly took down the sign and canceled plans for similar ads. Here's what you should know:What was the point of this billboard?The Heartland Institute was trying to be "deliberately provocative," the institute's president, Joseph Bast, said in a statement, "to turn the…

  • Do wind farms actually cause climate change?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 1:00 pm
    Here's a curveball on climate change: New research published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that large wind farms might have a warming effect on the local climate. Many countries are rapidly expanding their capacity to generate electricity using wind-driven turbines as they try to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels. But are wind farms contributing to the very problem they're supposed to help solve? Here, a brief guide:  How much do wind farms heat up the air?Researchers at the State University of New York at…

  • Global warming mystery: Why are some glaciers growing?

    The Week
    17 Apr 2012 | 1:20 pm
    Glaciers around the world are slowly melting, and scientists are quick to point their fingers at manmade climate change. But new research suggests that a few glaciers aren't shrinking at all, and may even be growing. Here, a brief guide to this counterintuitive phenomenon: Which glaciers are growing?A few glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range along the India-China-Pakistan border are gaining mass, according to a report published in the April issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. "The rest of the glaciers in the Himalayas are mostly melting," lead researcher Julie Gardelle tells…

  • The warmest March in history: By the numbers

    The Week
    9 Apr 2012 | 2:44 pm
    Temperature records were scorched last month, which will go down as the warmest March in history. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than 15,000 temperature records were broken or tied in the U.S., continuing a year-long streak of hotter-than-average temperatures that many scientists are linking to global warming. "Everybody has this uneasy feeling," says scientist Jerry Meehl. "It's a guilty pleasure. You're out enjoying this nice March weather, but you know it's not a good thing." Here's how it all breaks down:15,292Temperature records that…

  • How global warming is changing winemaking

    The Week
    27 Feb 2012 | 5:04 pm
    As global temperatures rise, the grapes in Australia's wine regions are ripening ever earlier, according to a new study in Nature Climate Change. That's a problem for vintners, says lead researcher Leanne Webb, because early ripening "often has undesirable impacts on wine quality." The earlier the grapes mature, the hotter the weather at the time of harvest, and "hot vintages are not good for quality wines," says co-author Snow Barlow. Here's what you should know:How much is climate change affecting grape harvests?On average, Australian wine grapes are ripening 20 days earlier than in…
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    The Week: Most Recent Google

  • Google Drive: A slick Dropbox killer?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 5:25 pm
    After years of rumors, Google Drive, the search company's long-awaited entry into the cloud storage wars, is finally here. With an interface that evokes Google Docs, Drive functions much like Dropbox, allowing users to drag-and-drop files they want to store in the cloud onto a desktop folder. Users get 5 GB of free space, and can add an additional 25 GB for $30 each year. Google, however, is late to the race — Dropbox already fulfills the file-storing needs of well over 50 million users, and consumers using competitors like Microsoft's SkyDrive, Apple's iCloud, Box, and SugarSync may…

  • Dangerous trend alert: Self-diagnosing illnesses with Google

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 10:48 am
    Women are more likely to turn to "Dr. Google" or other internet search engines to self-diagnose their health problems than they are to go to the actual doctor for a first opinion, according to a new British study that focused on females. And worse still, one in four women misdiagnoses herself entirely, which often leads to incorrect and dangerous self-medicating. Here, a brief guide to the disturbing trend:What exactly did researchers find?After studying 1,000 women, researchers discovered that women facing unexplained health problems were twice as likely to Google their problems than…

  • The official Google tablet: 4 things we know

    The Week
    11 Apr 2012 | 7:55 am
    Dozens of companies make tablets powered by Google's Android software. One name, however, has been notably absent: Google. Now, in efforts to reduce "fragmentation" — instances when Android glitches occur because of inconsistencies on different hardware platforms — Google is reportedly building an in-house tablet for release later this year. The move could conceivably be a big win for the web powerhouse, which, like Apple, is uniting hardware and software under one roof to create a more streamlined (read: less buggy) product. Here's what we know so far about Google's official…

  • Project Glass: Google's 'terribly cool' augmented-reality glasses

    The Week
    5 Apr 2012 | 12:52 pm
    The video: Google's sci-fi plan to transform a pair of glasses into a wearable personal computer has long threatened to become a reality. On Wednesday, the rumors were confirmed, and the initiative was finally revealed as "Project Glass." The search giant's Star Trek-inspired, augmented-reality specs — which promise to beam data from Google's vast trove of information right in front of your eyes — are slimmer and sleeker than initial reports indicated. According to a demo video (watch below), wearers, apparently through vocal commands alone, can send instant messages, look up…

  • The 'awesome' self-piloted cars that allow the blind to drive

    The Week
    3 Apr 2012 | 5:15 am
    The video: On a clear and sunny day in January, Steve Mahan stepped into the driver's seat of a Toyota Prius to run errands around town. Mahan is also 95 percent blind, far past the legal driving limit for impaired vision. But the car transported him through the drive-thru of a Taco Bell and parked while he picked up his dry cleaning. The vehicle is part of Google's self-driving car project, which can chaperone passengers based on pre-programmed commands (Watch a video below). The vehicle relies on laser range finders, radar sensors, and video cameras to safely navigate roadways, without the…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Google:Google's World

  • Google Drive: A slick Dropbox killer?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 5:25 pm
    After years of rumors, Google Drive, the search company's long-awaited entry into the cloud storage wars, is finally here. With an interface that evokes Google Docs, Drive functions much like Dropbox, allowing users to drag-and-drop files they want to store in the cloud onto a desktop folder. Users get 5 GB of free space, and can add an additional 25 GB for $30 each year. Google, however, is late to the race — Dropbox already fulfills the file-storing needs of well over 50 million users, and consumers using competitors like Microsoft's SkyDrive, Apple's iCloud, Box, and SugarSync may…

  • Dangerous trend alert: Self-diagnosing illnesses with Google

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 10:48 am
    Women are more likely to turn to "Dr. Google" or other internet search engines to self-diagnose their health problems than they are to go to the actual doctor for a first opinion, according to a new British study that focused on females. And worse still, one in four women misdiagnoses herself entirely, which often leads to incorrect and dangerous self-medicating. Here, a brief guide to the disturbing trend:What exactly did researchers find?After studying 1,000 women, researchers discovered that women facing unexplained health problems were twice as likely to Google their problems than…

  • The official Google tablet: 4 things we know

    The Week
    11 Apr 2012 | 7:55 am
    Dozens of companies make tablets powered by Google's Android software. One name, however, has been notably absent: Google. Now, in efforts to reduce "fragmentation" — instances when Android glitches occur because of inconsistencies on different hardware platforms — Google is reportedly building an in-house tablet for release later this year. The move could conceivably be a big win for the web powerhouse, which, like Apple, is uniting hardware and software under one roof to create a more streamlined (read: less buggy) product. Here's what we know so far about Google's official…

  • Project Glass: Google's 'terribly cool' augmented-reality glasses

    The Week
    5 Apr 2012 | 12:52 pm
    The video: Google's sci-fi plan to transform a pair of glasses into a wearable personal computer has long threatened to become a reality. On Wednesday, the rumors were confirmed, and the initiative was finally revealed as "Project Glass." The search giant's Star Trek-inspired, augmented-reality specs — which promise to beam data from Google's vast trove of information right in front of your eyes — are slimmer and sleeker than initial reports indicated. According to a demo video (watch below), wearers, apparently through vocal commands alone, can send instant messages, look up…

  • The 'awesome' self-piloted cars that allow the blind to drive

    The Week
    3 Apr 2012 | 5:15 am
    The video: On a clear and sunny day in January, Steve Mahan stepped into the driver's seat of a Toyota Prius to run errands around town. Mahan is also 95 percent blind, far past the legal driving limit for impaired vision. But the car transported him through the drive-thru of a Taco Bell and parked while he picked up his dry cleaning. The vehicle is part of Google's self-driving car project, which can chaperone passengers based on pre-programmed commands (Watch a video below). The vehicle relies on laser range finders, radar sensors, and video cameras to safely navigate roadways, without the…
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    The Week: Most Recent Health Care

  • Are Democrats abandoning ObamaCare?

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 10:03 am
    With the election looming, many politicians are renewing their attacks on President Obama's health-care reform plan. But it's not just Republicans lashing out. Some of the most stinging rebukes are coming from high-profile, retiring Democrats, including Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia. The complaints echo Republican criticism — Frank says Obama should have tackled economic matters first, and Webb says the president should have led more forcefully and pushed a smaller bill. After botching the health-care debate, Webb said, the president has "had a…

  • Do Republicans have an alternative to ObamaCare?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 12:30 pm
    Republicans charged into the 2010 midterm elections with the battle cry: "Repeal and replace" the Democrats' massive health care reform law. The GOP rode that promise to a landslide victory, but once conservatives took control of the House and were strengthened in the Senate, the "replace" part of the equation sort of disappeared. With the Supreme Court seemingly on the cusp of striking down or neutering ObamaCare, effectively carrying out the "repeal" part of the GOP promise, there's a new urgency regarding what, if anything, would take the law's place to fix America's broken health…

  • Would an ObamaCare defeat pave the way for single-payer?

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 4:52 pm
    President Obama is officially optimistic that the Supreme Court will uphold his health-care reform law as constitutional, but many supporters of ObamaCare are less sanguine. Attempting to find a silver lining in the possibility of defeat, some are asking if a "no" decision would pave the way for a single-payer system in which everyone would get insurance through a vastly enlarged version of Medicare. While it would literally mean a government takeover of the health insurance system, a single-payer system does have the benefit of being clearly constitutional. Would a defeat for ObamaCare make…

  • The skyrocketing cost of U.S. health care: By the numbers

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 10:14 am
    No matter what the Supreme Court decides regarding the constitutionality of President Obama's health-care overhaul, this much is clear: Health-care costs are rising, and will keep rising, so Americans aren't getting much bang for their health care buck. Health consulting firm Milliman Inc. expects 2012 to be the fifth year in a row that U.S. health-care costs will jump about 7 or 8 percent, and while people who pay out of pocket generally are the hardest hit, even Americans with employer-sponsored plans have increasingly seen the costs eat up their salaries. Here, a numerical guide to…

  • The Supreme Court sours on ObamaCare: How did legal experts get it so wrong?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 9:31 am
    A week ago, supporters of the Affordable Care Act and legal scholars seemed certain that the Supreme Court would find the law constitutional, by a 6-3 or even a 7-2 vote. But after three days of contentious hearings this week, such forecasts seem presumptuous: The five members of the court's conservative majority all apparently doubt whether Congress has the authority to force (nearly) every American to buy health insurance (the "individual mandate"), an essential provision of President Obama's health-care overhaul. How did so many people get their predictions so wrong? Here, four theories:…
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    The Week: Most Recent Health Care:Health Care Reform

  • Are Democrats abandoning ObamaCare?

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 10:03 am
    With the election looming, many politicians are renewing their attacks on President Obama's health-care reform plan. But it's not just Republicans lashing out. Some of the most stinging rebukes are coming from high-profile, retiring Democrats, including Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia. The complaints echo Republican criticism — Frank says Obama should have tackled economic matters first, and Webb says the president should have led more forcefully and pushed a smaller bill. After botching the health-care debate, Webb said, the president has "had a…

  • Do Republicans have an alternative to ObamaCare?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 12:30 pm
    Republicans charged into the 2010 midterm elections with the battle cry: "Repeal and replace" the Democrats' massive health care reform law. The GOP rode that promise to a landslide victory, but once conservatives took control of the House and were strengthened in the Senate, the "replace" part of the equation sort of disappeared. With the Supreme Court seemingly on the cusp of striking down or neutering ObamaCare, effectively carrying out the "repeal" part of the GOP promise, there's a new urgency regarding what, if anything, would take the law's place to fix America's broken health…

  • Would an ObamaCare defeat pave the way for single-payer?

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 4:52 pm
    President Obama is officially optimistic that the Supreme Court will uphold his health-care reform law as constitutional, but many supporters of ObamaCare are less sanguine. Attempting to find a silver lining in the possibility of defeat, some are asking if a "no" decision would pave the way for a single-payer system in which everyone would get insurance through a vastly enlarged version of Medicare. While it would literally mean a government takeover of the health insurance system, a single-payer system does have the benefit of being clearly constitutional. Would a defeat for ObamaCare make…

  • The skyrocketing cost of U.S. health care: By the numbers

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 10:14 am
    No matter what the Supreme Court decides regarding the constitutionality of President Obama's health-care overhaul, this much is clear: Health-care costs are rising, and will keep rising, so Americans aren't getting much bang for their health care buck. Health consulting firm Milliman Inc. expects 2012 to be the fifth year in a row that U.S. health-care costs will jump about 7 or 8 percent, and while people who pay out of pocket generally are the hardest hit, even Americans with employer-sponsored plans have increasingly seen the costs eat up their salaries. Here, a numerical guide to…

  • The Supreme Court sours on ObamaCare: How did legal experts get it so wrong?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 9:31 am
    A week ago, supporters of the Affordable Care Act and legal scholars seemed certain that the Supreme Court would find the law constitutional, by a 6-3 or even a 7-2 vote. But after three days of contentious hearings this week, such forecasts seem presumptuous: The five members of the court's conservative majority all apparently doubt whether Congress has the authority to force (nearly) every American to buy health insurance (the "individual mandate"), an essential provision of President Obama's health-care overhaul. How did so many people get their predictions so wrong? Here, four theories:…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Hollywood Blockbusters

  • Dark Shadows: Did Tim Burton's campy tone switcharoo pay off?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 12:57 pm
    Dark Shadows marks the eighth collaboration between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton — and perhaps also the strangest. The film is an adaptation of the cult classic TV soap opera from the late '60s, a show as famous for its uber-serious gothic tone as for its laughable production values. The first trailer for Burton's adaptation threw fans for a loop when it revealed that the director ditched the soap's melodrama in favor of cheeky comedic camp. (Watch the video below.) Depp plays Barnabas, an 18th century vampire who emerges from his coffin in 1972, turning the film into a kooky…

  • The Avengers' record-breaking opening weekend: By the numbers

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 10:42 am
    It took a prickly crew of superheroes to topple the record for the biggest domestic box-office opening of all-time. Marvel's The Avengers, uniting Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, and more, raked in $200.3 million in North America, clobbering the previous opening weekend record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last year. A look at how that historic haul breaks down:$200.3 millionThe Avengers' opening weekend box-office total in North America, a new record$169.2 millionThe previous record, set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 225.6 millionTickets...

  • Summer's 12 most buzzed-about movies: A slideshow

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 9:16 am
    Iron Man, Captain America and their merry band of superheroes kapowed a record-breaking $200 million at the box office this weekend, kicking off the summer movie season with a lucrative bang. But, of course, The Avengers is not the only movie Hollywood will be hyping during the dog days. Here's a look at the most buzzed-about movies hitting theaters this summer:  More

  • The Avengers: For comic-nerds only?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 1:10 pm
    Midnight screenings for The Avengers are just hours away, and the reviews for Marvel's superhero family reunion blockbuster are in — and overwhelmingly positive. The film boasts an impressive 92 percent approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it the "best Marvel movie yet." (Watch a trailer below.) Co-written and directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), The Avengers brings together seven of Marvel's most iconic and bankable superheroes — Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Evans' Captain America, and Mark Ruffalo's The…

  • How big will The Avengers be?

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 1:57 pm
    The Avengers doesn't hit theaters stateside until Friday, but, given that it's already yielded a record-breaking $178.4 million in its international release's first weekend, pundits are predicting a similarly colossal U.S. opening for the flick, which unites Marvel superheroes Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and Black Widow for one special-effects-heavy adventure. In the past 12 months, box office records have already fallen to franchise flicks such as The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, and the summer season is packed with major blockbuster…
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    The Week: Most Recent Democratic Party:John Edwards sex scandal

  • The John Edwards trial: 4 key questions

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 5:00 pm
    Disgraced two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is finally getting his day in court. Edwards, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004, went on trial in North Carolina Monday for allegedly using nearly $1 million in unreported campaign contributions to cover up an affair with his one-time campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter. Edwards' lawyers say he didn't break campaign finance laws because he used the money to hide the affair to avoid humiliating his cancer-stricken wife, the late Elizabeth Edwards, not to further his 2008 bid for the presidency. If convicted,…

  • John Edwards in exile

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 9:39 am
    LAST YEAR JOHN Edwards sat with a longtime friend in the 10,000-square-foot house that is the centerpiece of his 102-acre Chapel Hill, N.C., estate. The friend, a New Jersey lawyer named Glenn Bergenfield, who had attended law school with Edwards, was one of the select few members of a diminishing club: those whom the disgraced Edwards wanted to see, and those who wanted to see him. Sometimes Bergenfield just listened. Edwards, under criminal indictment, always talked about his children and often of his late wife, Elizabeth, and, after a while, he usually got around to the matter of…

  • John Edwards' 'creepy' mug shot

    The Week
    15 Jun 2011 | 2:47 pm
    The image: Earlier this month, John Edwards, the fallen Democratic golden boy from North Carolina, was indicted on charges of illegally spending nearly $1 million in campaign funds to cover up his affair and love child with videographer Rielle Hunter during his 2008 run for president. Edwards pleaded not guilty to six counts of conspiracy, issuing false statements, and violating campaign contribution laws. On Wednesday, his mug shot was released to the press (see a larger version of the photo below), prompting a certain incredulity: Even in a dark hour before a typically unflattering camera,…

  • 5 lessons from John Edwards' fall

    The Week
    6 Jun 2011 | 11:31 am
    John Edwards' indictment Friday, on charges that he used $925,000 in campaign contributions to hide an extramarital affair and love child, capped a spectacular fall from grace for the former Democratic senator and vice presidential nominee. Edwards reportedly turned down a plea deal because prosecutors wanted him to spend six months in prison to avoid a trial. What can other politicians, and all of us, learn from his downfall? Here, five lessons:1. The cover-up is worse than the crimeThough it was undeniably loathsome that Edwards cheated on his then-cancer-stricken wife, the late Elizabeth…

  • John Edwards indicted: What happens next?

    The Week
    3 Jun 2011 | 3:58 pm
    On Friday afternoon, disgraced North Carolina Democrat John Edwards appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges that he illegally raised and spent nearly $1 million to hide his affair with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter. Edwards — the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2004 and a top presidential candidate in 2008 — was indicted on six counts after a two-year investigation of the cover-up, which came during his 2008 campaign for the White House. Here, a brief guide to the case:What are the details of this affair?The basic facts are…
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    The Week: Most Recent Media

  • Why Univision's new Hispanic cable channel is in English

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 1:05 pm
    This week, ABC News and Univision announced the creation of a cable news channel for Hispanics. The twist? All the programming will be in English, which is a departure for Univision, the dominant force in primetime among Spanish-speaking viewers. The new channel, which doesn't have a name yet, will debut in 2013, and a companion website will appear this summer, just ahead of the November elections. Here, a guide to the latest addition to the cable news family:What kind of programming will the network have? Besides news, the channel will feature lifestyle, health, and…

  • Does CNN need to lean further left to win back viewers?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 11:59 am
    CNN's ratings slipped to a 10-year low last month, renewing concerns that the channel, which has positioned itself as nonpartisan, can't compete against its hyper-ideological cousins to the left and right. Liberal-friendly MSNBC is the greatest beneficiary of CNN's decline, and consistently enjoys double the number of primetime viewers. Fox News, the favorite cable network of conservatives, outpaced CNN long ago, and its primetime audience is four times as large as CNN's. Does CNN need to get in on the partisan shouting game?Partisanship certainly worked for MSNBC: While CNN is…

  • The latest insane conspiracy theory: Obama plotted Chelsea Clinton's murder

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 5:20 pm
    Fox News anchor Heather Childers caused quite a stir Tuesday night when she tweeted links to stories alleging that President Obama once threatened to kill Chelsea Clinton. "Thoughts? Did Obama Campaign Threaten Chelsea Clinton's Life 2 Keep Parents Silent?" she tweeted, linking to an article on the birther blog Godfather Politics that spun up an "insane conspiracy theory." Supposedly, the story claimed, during the '08 campaign, the Clintons unearthed proof that Obama was Kenyan and Team Obama threatened to murder Chelsea Clinton in order to silence them. Here, a guide to the…

  • Will anyone hire Keith Olbermann?

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 10:40 am
    Well that didn't last long. Current TV, the languishing cable channel co-founded by Al Gore, fired liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann this week, ending a rocky, eight-month marriage. While Current claims the mercurial Olbermann flouted its values of "openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers," Olbermann is lamenting his "foolish" decision to join Current, and says he'll sue. It's not the first time that Olbermann, a veteran of ESPN and MSNBC, has left an employer on spectacularly bad terms. For all his popularity with liberal viewers, the latest divorce is cementing the perception…

  • America's most loved and hated news personalities: A slideshow

    The Week
    29 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pm
    Once upon a time, a handful of genial anchors dominated television news. Now the media landscape offers picky viewers dozens of options, spanning both the ideological spectrum and the likeability spectrum. Here are the country's favorite and least favorite news personalities, according to a new poll from Harris Interactive:  More
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Media:Cable News Feuds

  • Why Univision's new Hispanic cable channel is in English

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 1:05 pm
    This week, ABC News and Univision announced the creation of a cable news channel for Hispanics. The twist? All the programming will be in English, which is a departure for Univision, the dominant force in primetime among Spanish-speaking viewers. The new channel, which doesn't have a name yet, will debut in 2013, and a companion website will appear this summer, just ahead of the November elections. Here, a guide to the latest addition to the cable news family:What kind of programming will the network have? Besides news, the channel will feature lifestyle, health, and…

  • Does CNN need to lean further left to win back viewers?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 11:59 am
    CNN's ratings slipped to a 10-year low last month, renewing concerns that the channel, which has positioned itself as nonpartisan, can't compete against its hyper-ideological cousins to the left and right. Liberal-friendly MSNBC is the greatest beneficiary of CNN's decline, and consistently enjoys double the number of primetime viewers. Fox News, the favorite cable network of conservatives, outpaced CNN long ago, and its primetime audience is four times as large as CNN's. Does CNN need to get in on the partisan shouting game?Partisanship certainly worked for MSNBC: While CNN is…

  • Will anyone hire Keith Olbermann?

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 10:40 am
    Well that didn't last long. Current TV, the languishing cable channel co-founded by Al Gore, fired liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann this week, ending a rocky, eight-month marriage. While Current claims the mercurial Olbermann flouted its values of "openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers," Olbermann is lamenting his "foolish" decision to join Current, and says he'll sue. It's not the first time that Olbermann, a veteran of ESPN and MSNBC, has left an employer on spectacularly bad terms. For all his popularity with liberal viewers, the latest divorce is cementing the perception…

  • America's most loved and hated news personalities: A slideshow

    The Week
    29 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pm
    Once upon a time, a handful of genial anchors dominated television news. Now the media landscape offers picky viewers dozens of options, spanning both the ideological spectrum and the likeability spectrum. Here are the country's favorite and least favorite news personalities, according to a new poll from Harris Interactive:  More

  • Was MSNBC right to fire Pat Buchanan?

    The Week
    17 Feb 2012 | 3:49 pm
    MSNBC announced Thursday that it was dropping longtime political analyst Pat Buchanan, following a bitter controversy over his book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? The cable news channel had suspended Buchanan four months ago after critics said the book — with chapters such as "The End of White America" — was homophobic, anti-Semitic, and racist. Buchanan called the decision "an undeniable victory for the blacklisters" who lash out at anything challenging liberal orthodoxy. Did MSNBC make the right move, or was it wrong to silence Buchanan?It's about…
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    The Week: Most Recent Middle East

  • The Syria car bombings: 3 repercussions

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 1:29 pm
    Syrian protesters returned to the streets on Friday, a day after twin car bombings killed 55 people and injured hundreds more in Damascus. The Syrian government blamed the blasts, which hit near a military intelligence center, on "terrorists," while opposition leaders accused the regime of staging the attacks to justify continuing its armed assaults on rebel strongholds. What will the bombings mean for the future of Syria and an already-shaky peace deal? Here, three theories:1. Many more refugees will flee The battle between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels has already sent…

  • Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli power play: Winners and losers

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 8:05 am
    On Monday night, Israelis went to bed still expecting to vote for a new government later this year. They woke up Tuesday morning to a radical new political order: Overnight, the centrist main opposition Kadima party had joined the conservative Likud-led government, giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unprecedented control of 78 percent of the Knesset (Israeli parliament). Newly tapped Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz agreed to the deal in exchange for becoming deputy prime minister. Elections have now been pushed back to October 2013. Who wins, and who loses, in this drop of a political…

  • Syria's 'sham election': 3 takeaways

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 9:45 am
    This week, Syria held its first multi-party parliamentary elections in five decades, but leading opposition groups boycotted the vote, calling it a sham, even as President Bashar al-Assad's regime trumpeted the balloting as a milestone on the road to promised democratic reforms. The U.S. State Department took the side of the opposition, saying that holding elections now, as a United Nations-brokered deal to end the government's deadly crackdown flounders, "borders on ludicrous." Here, three takeaways from the controversial balloting:  1. Today, there are two Syrias"Damascus on voting day…

  • Egypt's critical election and uncertain future: A guide

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 9:13 am
    Who rules Egypt now? The military does, in an uneasy rivalry with the country's most powerful Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took control when the 30-year regime of Hosni Mubarak was brought down in February 2011, after 18 dramatic days of public protest. Under the leadership of former Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the junta at first took several popular actions — repealing the repressive emergency laws of the Mubarak era, releasing political prisoners, and organizing last November's parliamentary elections. But it has also…

  • Obama's Bush-like Afghanistan speech: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 7:08 am
    President Obama probably had a more interesting Tuesday than you did: Early in the morning, he boarded Air Force One for a surprise visit to Afghanistan, signed a long-term Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, returned to Bagram Air Force base to address U.S. troops and then the American public in a live, prime-time speech, then flew back to Washington. (Watch the speech below.) Not coincidentally, Tuesday was also the one-year anniversary of the U.S. raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Here, five big takeaways from Obama's speech to the nation:1.
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    The Week: Most Recent Middle East:Israel vs. The Palestinians

  • Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli power play: Winners and losers

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 8:05 am
    On Monday night, Israelis went to bed still expecting to vote for a new government later this year. They woke up Tuesday morning to a radical new political order: Overnight, the centrist main opposition Kadima party had joined the conservative Likud-led government, giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unprecedented control of 78 percent of the Knesset (Israeli parliament). Newly tapped Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz agreed to the deal in exchange for becoming deputy prime minister. Elections have now been pushed back to October 2013. Who wins, and who loses, in this drop of a political…

  • Why the Mitt-Bibi bromance won't affect world affairs

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 5:10 pm
    The New York Times recently published an article on a "quirk of history" — the warm friendship that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed when they worked together at Boston Consulting Group in the 1970s. The "Mitt and Bibi" story has made quite a few waves: Some are even likening the friendship to the famed chumminess between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.It's easy to understand the story's appeal. History is made up of personalities, and nothing can get a historian hopping like the idea of two political figures…

  • Does Israel have a problem with American Jews?

    The Week
    1 Dec 2011 | 10:41 am
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has launched an advertising campaign in five U.S. cities aiming to persuade Israelis living abroad to return home. In one commercial, an elderly couple in Israel with a menorah behind them asks their granddaughter in America, via Skype, what holiday she is celebrating. Instead of Hanukkah, the little girl giddily declares, "Christmas!" The grandparents respond with a concerned look. (Watch the clip, in Hebrew, below.) In another ad, the American boyfriend of an Israeli woman fails to understand her sadness on Israel's version of…

  • Calling Netanyahu a 'liar': How damaging was Sarkozy's gaffe?

    The Week
    9 Nov 2011 | 2:05 pm
    The already tense relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being tested anew this week, following the publication of an exchange Obama had with French President Nicolas Sarkozy when neither realized his microphone was on. In what Obama and Sarkozy thought was a private conversation during last week's G20 summit in Cannes, the French leader told Obama that Netanyahu is "a liar." Obama reportedly responded, "You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day." Will such "trash talk" damage America's relationship with its closest Mideast…

  • UNESCO's 'divisive' decision to recognize Palestine

    The Week
    1 Nov 2011 | 9:40 am
    The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted overwhelmingly Monday to admit Palestine as a member state, stoking tensions as the Security Council prepares to vote next month on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' request for full U.N. membership. The U.S., legally prohibited from giving money to any U.N. agency granting status to the Palestinians, vowed to cut off funding to UNESCO, and Israel said the vote would be an obstacle to Middle East peace. What did this "divisive" diplomatic power play really accomplish? Here, five theories:1. This…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Television:The 'Glee' Phenomenon

  • The ill-fated search for the next Glee: A timeline

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 2:09 pm
    Television history is littered with abortive efforts to bring musical storytelling to the small screen: Cop Rock, Viva Laughin, the list goes on. But after Glee debuted to enormous ratings in 2009, rival networks and studios took another run at the TV musical in a frantic effort to replicate its success. Tellingly, only one of the resulting concepts made it to air: NBC's erratic Broadway soap-opera Smash. The latest attempt, from American Idol producer Simon Fuller, is a musical drama about a fledgling California band. How does it compare to the other would-be Glees projects that have come…

  • Did Glee do Whitney Houston's songs justice?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 3:05 pm
    Glee has made a tradition of paying tribute to music icons like Madonna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Michael Jackson through hour-long episodes devoted to their music and legacies. Tuesday night, the Fox musical series remembered Whitney Houston with an episode that featured seven of her classic hits, juxtaposing the characters' fears about graduating high school and having to say goodbye against their mourning over Houston's death two months ago. The show opened with an a cappella version of "How Will I Know" (Watch the video below.), and also included hits like "I Have Nothing" and…

  • 8 Glee controversies: A slideshow

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 5:02 pm
    On Sunday, Fox celebrated 25 years of envelope-pushing TV programming. No current Fox show embodies that spirit more than Glee, the song-and-dance soap opera that has come under fire for its aggressively frank portrayals of teen sexuality, empowered gay students, and more. As the show's recent arc about a transgender character makes headlines, here's a look at some of Glee's biggest controversies: More

  • Glee's Michael Jackson tribute: 'Unbelievably awful'?

    The Week
    1 Feb 2012 | 1:24 pm
    This songs of Michael Jackson invaded the halls of McKinley High School Tuesday night, when Fox aired its much-anticipated Glee tribute to the King of Pop. Glee has paid homage to musical icons before with mixed results. Thumbs up: Its Madonna episode. Thumbs down: Its exercise in all things Britney Spears. "Michael" was brimming with no less than nine of Jackson's iconic songs, plot twists (including Rachel's will-she-or-won't-she engagement to Finn), and typically cringe-inducing dialogue (Mr. Schu: "Unless you have proof that he tampered with the slushie, the police aren't interested in…

  • Glee's 'touching' sex episode

    The Week
    9 Nov 2011 | 12:22 pm
    Was it good for you? On Tuesday's episode of Glee, two of the series' most popular couples — Finn and Rachel, and Kurt and Blaine — had sex for the first time. Before what's become known as the "sex episode" even aired, it sparked controversy. The Parents Television Council weighed in predictably, calling the show's decision to "celebrate children having sex... reprehensible." Others focused on the fact that Glee's writing staff gave equal weight to both teen couples — gay and straight — as they grappled with the prospect of losing their virginity. Now that the…
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    The Week: Most Recent outer-space

  • SpaceX: Should we cheer private space flight?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 9:42 am
    On the same day that a teary-eyed NASA crew powered down the last space shuttle, Endeavor, for the last time, the U.S. space agency greenlit the May 19 launch of the shuttle fleet's first private successor, the SpaceX Dragon. If all goes according to plan, the unmanned Dragon cargo capsule will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, orbit the Earth, then dock at the International Space Station, whose crew will unload the enclosed supplies and send the capsule back for a splash landing off the coast of California. SpaceX, owned by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, has also announced a partnership…

  • The dark matter pelting your body right now: A guide

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 6:38 am
    Particles known as dark matter are flying through your body as often as once a minute, claims new research. Old theories suggested that these particles collided with particles in our body maybe once in a lifetime, but now, a team of experts argues that the previous estimates were way too low. Here's what you should know:What is dark matter?Think of dark matter as the invisible glue that holds the cosmos together, allowing things like fast-spinning galaxies to retain their shape. Evidence of dark matter's existence first emerged in the 1930s, when researchers tried to calculate the total…

  • NASA's dwindling budget: Why has America stopped reaching for the stars?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 11:35 am
    I STUDY THE universe for a living. I've served on two presidential commissions that studied space exploration, but at heart I'm an academic. Being an academic means I don't wield power over person, place, or thing. I don't command armies; I don't lead labor unions. All I have is the power of thought. And here's my thought: As a nation, we need to keep reaching for the stars, to push back our boundaries and stake out new frontiers. In the current economic and political climate, it might be difficult to imagine much support for a renewed commitment to space — even in the face of a…

  • Asteroid mining: Is there money to be made in space?

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 12:47 pm
    An intriguing new company called Planetary Resources Inc. has some questions to answer at its public unveiling on Tuesday, not least of which is: What does the firm do, anyway? Given its somewhat cryptic pledge to "overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources," most are assuming that the company hopes to pioneer the field of mining asteroids for metals and minerals. If that sounds like a ridiculous "page out of a sci-fi novel or a Hollywood movie scene," says Amir Efrati in The Wall Street Journal, Planetary Resources boasts enough space experts and…

  • The space shuttle Discovery's bittersweet final flight over D.C.

    The Week
    17 Apr 2012 | 4:25 pm
    Applause erupted on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning as a space shuttle mounted on the back of a modified 747 airplane flew over the nation's capital. The space shuttle Discovery was en route to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex near Dulles Airport, its new permanent home. (Watch the video below.) It marked the final flight for the shuttle, which NASA retired in March 2011. Here, a guide to the "extraordinary sight" and the Discovery's legacy:  Why is Discovery important?Discovery first flew in August 1984, completed 39 trips into space, and…
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    The Week: Most Recent Outer Space:Mysteries of Space

  • The dark matter pelting your body right now: A guide

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 6:38 am
    Particles known as dark matter are flying through your body as often as once a minute, claims new research. Old theories suggested that these particles collided with particles in our body maybe once in a lifetime, but now, a team of experts argues that the previous estimates were way too low. Here's what you should know:What is dark matter?Think of dark matter as the invisible glue that holds the cosmos together, allowing things like fast-spinning galaxies to retain their shape. Evidence of dark matter's existence first emerged in the 1930s, when researchers tried to calculate the total…

  • Asteroid mining: Is there money to be made in space?

    The Week
    23 Apr 2012 | 12:47 pm
    An intriguing new company called Planetary Resources Inc. has some questions to answer at its public unveiling on Tuesday, not least of which is: What does the firm do, anyway? Given its somewhat cryptic pledge to "overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources," most are assuming that the company hopes to pioneer the field of mining asteroids for metals and minerals. If that sounds like a ridiculous "page out of a sci-fi novel or a Hollywood movie scene," says Amir Efrati in The Wall Street Journal, Planetary Resources boasts enough space experts and…

  • Coming soon: A telescope that crunches more data than the entire internet?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 2:40 pm
    When it comes to telescopes, bigger is always better. That's why IBM is partnering with Netherlands-based astronomy institute ASTRON to develop the largest and most powerful telescope system the world has ever seen. Here, a look at the massive undertaking:How big would this telescope be?The supercomputing radio telescope, called the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), wouldn't be a traditional telescope. Instead, it would be a system of thousands of dishes spread across 3,000 kilometers, and linked together to get an enormously rich view of our universe. IBM and ASTRON, with the aid of…

  • The gigantic solar tornado that could devour five Earths

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 3:53 pm
    The video: For the first time ever, a massive solar tornado was caught on camera, dramatizing the hellish power of the sun. This isn't a garden variety twister: This gargantuan writhing mass of super-scorching gas, many times the width of our planet, extended 125,000 miles from the sun's surface, or about half the distance between the Earth and the moon, and its temperature ranged from 90,000 to 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit. And while our tornados top out at 150 miles per hour, this monster — referred to by scientists as a "beast" — reached an estimated speed of 186,000 miles…

  • Did a rare 'supermoon' sink the Titanic?

    The Week
    8 Mar 2012 | 6:00 am
    A century has passed since the Titanic sank, killing 1,500 passengers and crew members. But a pair of Texas State University astronomers, Olson David and Russell Descher, have a brand new theory on what set the tragedy in motion. They say a rare lunar event may have put the ship on its catastrophic collision course with an iceberg. Here's how a once-in-a-lifetime "supermoon" may have spelled doom for the most famous maiden voyage in history:What's a supermoon?It's a term used to describe a full (or new) moon that occurs when the moon is making its closest approach to Earth, says…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Outer Space:NASA

  • SpaceX: Should we cheer private space flight?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 9:42 am
    On the same day that a teary-eyed NASA crew powered down the last space shuttle, Endeavor, for the last time, the U.S. space agency greenlit the May 19 launch of the shuttle fleet's first private successor, the SpaceX Dragon. If all goes according to plan, the unmanned Dragon cargo capsule will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, orbit the Earth, then dock at the International Space Station, whose crew will unload the enclosed supplies and send the capsule back for a splash landing off the coast of California. SpaceX, owned by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, has also announced a partnership…

  • NASA's dwindling budget: Why has America stopped reaching for the stars?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 11:35 am
    I STUDY THE universe for a living. I've served on two presidential commissions that studied space exploration, but at heart I'm an academic. Being an academic means I don't wield power over person, place, or thing. I don't command armies; I don't lead labor unions. All I have is the power of thought. And here's my thought: As a nation, we need to keep reaching for the stars, to push back our boundaries and stake out new frontiers. In the current economic and political climate, it might be difficult to imagine much support for a renewed commitment to space — even in the face of a…

  • The space shuttle Discovery's bittersweet final flight over D.C.

    The Week
    17 Apr 2012 | 4:25 pm
    Applause erupted on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning as a space shuttle mounted on the back of a modified 747 airplane flew over the nation's capital. The space shuttle Discovery was en route to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex near Dulles Airport, its new permanent home. (Watch the video below.) It marked the final flight for the shuttle, which NASA retired in March 2011. Here, a guide to the "extraordinary sight" and the Discovery's legacy:  Why is Discovery important?Discovery first flew in August 1984, completed 39 trips into space, and…

  • Does space travel damage eyesight?

    The Week
    14 Mar 2012 | 11:46 am
    If you were eyeing a $200,000 Virgin Galactic ticket to the stars, you might want to read on. A new study from the University of Texas suggests that astronauts who spend more than 30 days in a weightless, outer-space environment encounter serious ocular problems. Here's what you should know:How does outer space affect the human body?Researchers already know that spending long periods of time in a zero-gravity environment — such as that inside the International Space Station (ISS) — results in loss of bone density and damage to the body's muscles. That's partly why stays aboard…

  • The 'chilling' new home video of the '86 Challenger explosion

    The Week
    12 Mar 2012 | 2:05 pm
    The video: In January 1986, Jeffrey Ault, a 19-year-old Disneyland employee, traveled from California to Florida to witness the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger — and brought along his Super 8 camera. "I was hoping to see an event that I would remember for the rest of my life," Ault tells The Huffington Post. "I did. Just not the way I would have liked to." The vintage footage that Ault captured depicts the tragic explosion — caused 73 seconds after liftoff by a faulty seal in one of the shuttle's rockets, and killing all seven astronauts onboard — from…
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    The Week: Most Recent Reality TV

  • Howard Stern's America's Got Talent debut: Was he too nice?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 1:22 pm
    Legendary shock jock Howard Stern made his debut as a judge on NBC's performance competition, America's Got Talent, on Monday night. Did the network get its $20 million worth? (That's the amount NBC reportedly shelled out to land the self-proclaimed King of All Media as a replacement for Piers Morgan, who left the show at the end of last season.) The Parents Television Council had previously raised a fuss over Stern's hiring, arguing that the radio host's crude, bawdy humor doesn't belong on the family-friendly primetime show. Stern himself teased, "These executives at NBC must be out of…

  • Will Britney Spears and Demi Lovato revitalize The X Factor?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 4:51 pm
    After weeks of speculation, Fox confirmed Demi Lovato and Britney Spears as the newest judges of its reality singing competition The X Factor during the network's annual upfronts presentation to critics and advertisers on Monday afternoon. The two pop stars will join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on the panel, replacing Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul, who were fired after the show's first season. Both new hires are unlikely choices: 19-year-old Lovato is a former Disney Channel star with only a few mainstream radio hits, while Spears (who will reportedly earn $15 million for one year on the…

  • Who should win The Voice?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 2:30 pm
    This year's breakout reality TV star isn't a particular person, but rather the hit singing competition The Voice. NBC's American Idol rival has outdrawn its Fox counterpart in the ratings, and received rave reviews from critics. On Monday night, the show's four remaining contestants competed in the finals for a shot at a record contract and big cash prize, with the winner to be announced Tuesday, after Americans vote. One performer from each celebrity coach's team is left: Christina Aguilera's Chris Mann (a classically trained opera singer); Blake Shelton's Jermaine Paul (an R&B…

  • Is Joshua Ledet really the best American Idol singer ever?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 11:55 am
    American Idol's judges are playing favorites. After 20-year-old belter Joshua Ledet unleashed his version of the Bee Gee's "To Love Somebody" on Wednesday night's show, the trio of easily wowed adjudicators reacted as if Jesus had returned to earth. (Watch "To Love Somebody" below.) "I've been doing this for 11 years, and you're one of the best singers ever on this show. Ever!" proclaimed Randy Jackson. Steven Tyler called Ledet "one of the two best Idols of all time." Jennifer Lopez, who's 42, defied space and time by declaring him one of the "best singers I've seen in 50 years!" The…

  • American Idol: Is Ryan Seacrest worth $15 million a year?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 1:00 pm
    Ryan Seacrest just got a whole lot richer. The American Idol host, who's emcee'd the show since its 2002 premiere, just renewed his contract with the reality TV juggernaut for two more seasons, and is set to earn $15 million annually, up from his current $10 million-a-year haul. The raise reportedy puts his salary on-par with judge Jennifer Lopez's yearly fee. "He is an integral part of why American Idol is a true phenomenon, and we can't imagine doing this show without him," a Fox exec said in a statement. Still, Idol's current ratings are barely half of what they were at its peak, according…
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    The Week: Most Recent Reality TV:American Idol

  • Is Joshua Ledet really the best American Idol singer ever?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 11:55 am
    American Idol's judges are playing favorites. After 20-year-old belter Joshua Ledet unleashed his version of the Bee Gee's "To Love Somebody" on Wednesday night's show, the trio of easily wowed adjudicators reacted as if Jesus had returned to earth. (Watch "To Love Somebody" below.) "I've been doing this for 11 years, and you're one of the best singers ever on this show. Ever!" proclaimed Randy Jackson. Steven Tyler called Ledet "one of the two best Idols of all time." Jennifer Lopez, who's 42, defied space and time by declaring him one of the "best singers I've seen in 50 years!" The…

  • American Idol: Is Ryan Seacrest worth $15 million a year?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 1:00 pm
    Ryan Seacrest just got a whole lot richer. The American Idol host, who's emcee'd the show since its 2002 premiere, just renewed his contract with the reality TV juggernaut for two more seasons, and is set to earn $15 million annually, up from his current $10 million-a-year haul. The raise reportedy puts his salary on-par with judge Jennifer Lopez's yearly fee. "He is an integral part of why American Idol is a true phenomenon, and we can't imagine doing this show without him," a Fox exec said in a statement. Still, Idol's current ratings are barely half of what they were at its peak, according…

  • 4 reasons The Voice is blowing American Idol away

    The Week
    8 Mar 2012 | 3:30 pm
    For the first time ever, The Voice surpassed American Idol in the ever-desirable 18-49 ratings demographic two weeks ago. And critics aren't surprised. Especially after watching Monday's Battle Rounds episode of The Voice, which featured a thrilling vocal duel between two remarkably gifted contestants, they're making the argument that The Voice is simply better than Idol. From a stronger talent pool to the charmingly combative dynamic between the celebrity mentors, here are four reasons why The Voice is gaining momentum:1. The coaches are more valuable — and entertainingOn The Voice,…

  • American Idol's 'hopeful' return: 4 burning questions

    The Week
    19 Jan 2012 | 12:46 pm
    The original singing competition, American Idol, returned for its 11th season Wednesday in a bid to prove its ratings dominance over upstart rivals, The X Factor and The Voice. Did the "hopeful" first episode — which featured judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, and Randy Jackson critiquing contestants in Savannah, Georgia — start the season off right? Here, four burning questions:1. Have the new judges learned how to judge?In a word, no, says Jodi Bradbury at The Christian Science Monitor. Last year, newly appointed judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler reinvigorated the show...

  • Would American Idol still succeed without Ryan Seacrest?

    The Week
    10 Jan 2012 | 12:35 pm
    Seacrest, out? During a press conference for American Idol over the weekend, producers revealed that Ryan Seacrest's contract as the show's longtime host expires at the end of the upcoming season (which begins next week), and that getting him to renew will be "a tough negotiation." In addition to his Idol gig, Seacrest hosts a morning radio show, produces several reality series — including Keeping Up With the Kardashians — and co-anchors E! News Live. Beyond that, there's rampant speculation that he's being wooed to join the hosting team at Today, should Matt Lauer leave at…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Religion

  • Are highly religious people less compassionate?

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 3:08 pm
    Here's a new study that might not go over well in church: Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, say atheists and agnostics are more likely than highly religious people to show compassion for strangers. Are the faithful really less generous than non-churchgoers? Here, a brief guide:Why do researchers think non-believers are more generous?They looked at the results of three studies: In one, people's attitudes about compassion were measured against the frequency of their own acts of generosity; in another, participants were shown one neutral video and one showing children in…

  • The Vatican's crackdown on 'radical feminist' nuns

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 5:28 pm
    The Catholic Church is reprimanding and reorganizing an umbrella group of U.S. nuns for what Vatican investigators say are "serious doctrinal problems" regarding the promotion of "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." An investigation into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) was launched in 2008, and scrutinized some nuns' habit of speaking out on policy issues pertaining to social justice. Here's what you should know:What exactly is this nuns' group?The group was formed in 1956 at the Vatican's request, and today, four out of five American nuns…

  • The rise of atheism in America

    The Week
    13 Apr 2012 | 10:07 am
    How many atheists are there? It depends on your definition of the term. Only between 1.5 and 4 percent of Americans admit to so-called "hard atheism," the conviction that no higher power exists. But a much larger share of the American public (19 percent) spurns organized religion in favor of a nondefined skepticism about faith. This group, sometimes collectively labeled the "Nones," is growing faster than any religious faith in the U.S. About two thirds of Nones say they are former believers; 24 percent are lapsed Catholics and 29 percent once identified with other Christian denominations.

  • What Ireland can teach the U.S. about separating church and state

    The Week
    29 Feb 2012 | 6:10 am
    I never thought I'd find myself living Rick Santorum's dream, but here I am. After all, I live in Ireland, where there has never been any of the "absolute separation of church and state" that Santorum and a politically significant, passionately committed bloc of like-minded religious conservatives abhor. Far from limiting state involvement in religion, the Irish constitution enshrines it. There isn't just prayer in most public schools; there is full-on Christian — almost always Catholic — education. (Just last week, on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, my 6-year-old skipped in…

  • Is illegal file sharing a religion?

    The Week
    5 Jan 2012 | 12:54 pm
    To many internet users, illegally downloading the latest Lady Gaga album or Showtime series is a legal indiscretion committed in haste and secrecy. To a select few, it's a holy act. In Sweden, a growing number of people have argued that file-sharing is sacred — and they've recently been granted official religious status. Here, a brief guide: What exactly is this piracy religion?In 2010, a philosophy student and "religious file-sharer" named Isak Gerson founded the Missionary Church of Kopimism, a group that believes copying files is a sacred act. In the last six months, membership has…
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    The Week: Most Recent Republican Party

  • Will Republicans 'evolve' on gay marriage too?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 9:45 am
    Just days after President Obama announced his support for gay marriage, a respected Republican pollster urged members of his party to evolve on the issue, too. Jan R. van Lohuizen, who advised George W. Bush during his 2004 campaign, wrote in a memo leaked over the weekend that public opinion is quickly shifting in favor of same-sex marriage — by 5 percent a year since 2010 — and that the GOP needs to change with the times. He suggests that Republicans rationalize their support for gay marriage because "freedom means freedom for everyone," including same-sex couples who want to…

  • The GOP lost the European elections

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 11:15 am
    Maybe Republicans are right in the wrong way: Europe is a political model — an unhappy one for them. The easy consolation they can take from the past week's elections there is that Nicolas Sarkozy has just become the latest incumbent leader in the advanced nations, the eleventh in Europe, to lose office since the onset of the financial crisis. Doesn't Obama have to follow Sarkozy and the rest as night follows day?The lessons actually point in the opposite direction. Sarkozy is only the second president of the Fifth Republic to be denied a second term — because voters...

  • Is Paul Ryan the most powerful figure in the GOP?

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 5:58 am
    The message from two new profiles of House budget chief Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), in New York and The New York Times, is pretty unmistakable: This is Ryan's GOP, and Mitt Romney is only along for the ride. Ditto for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Romney has pledged to enact the controversial budget plan authored by Ryan, and powerful anti-tax activist Grover Norquist says the only qualification the next (Republican) president needs is "enough working digits to handle a pen" to sign Ryan's fiscal prescriptions — which would slash…

  • Is the GOP waging a war on... sex?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 10:08 am
    Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is putting a new spin on the election-year battles over contraception and abortion. For weeks, Democrats have accused Republicans of fighting a "war on women." But now, in an editorial in the May issue of Playboy, Hefner argues that what "repressed conservatives" are really trying to do is turn back the clock on our "hard-won sexual liberation" — waging an all-out "war against sex," from Rick Santorum's attacks on contraception to Mitt Romney's call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Fair assessment or over-the-top caricature?Hef…

  • Are Republicans better informed than Democrats?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 9:30 am
    The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press recently posted the results of a survey on political knowledge, broken out by age, education level, gender, and perhaps most intriguingly, political affiliation. Not only did "Republicans fare substantially better than Democrats on several questions in the survey," Pew says, but that's "typically the case in surveys about political knowledge." (Take a short version of the quiz yourself.) Republicans answered 12.6 of 17 questions correctly, versus 11.4 for Democrats, and Democrats only outperformed the GOP respondents on one policy question.
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    The Week: Most Recent Republican Party:Future of the GOP

  • Will Republicans 'evolve' on gay marriage too?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 9:45 am
    Just days after President Obama announced his support for gay marriage, a respected Republican pollster urged members of his party to evolve on the issue, too. Jan R. van Lohuizen, who advised George W. Bush during his 2004 campaign, wrote in a memo leaked over the weekend that public opinion is quickly shifting in favor of same-sex marriage — by 5 percent a year since 2010 — and that the GOP needs to change with the times. He suggests that Republicans rationalize their support for gay marriage because "freedom means freedom for everyone," including same-sex couples who want to…

  • The GOP lost the European elections

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 11:15 am
    Maybe Republicans are right in the wrong way: Europe is a political model — an unhappy one for them. The easy consolation they can take from the past week's elections there is that Nicolas Sarkozy has just become the latest incumbent leader in the advanced nations, the eleventh in Europe, to lose office since the onset of the financial crisis. Doesn't Obama have to follow Sarkozy and the rest as night follows day?The lessons actually point in the opposite direction. Sarkozy is only the second president of the Fifth Republic to be denied a second term — because voters...

  • Is Paul Ryan the most powerful figure in the GOP?

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 5:58 am
    The message from two new profiles of House budget chief Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), in New York and The New York Times, is pretty unmistakable: This is Ryan's GOP, and Mitt Romney is only along for the ride. Ditto for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Romney has pledged to enact the controversial budget plan authored by Ryan, and powerful anti-tax activist Grover Norquist says the only qualification the next (Republican) president needs is "enough working digits to handle a pen" to sign Ryan's fiscal prescriptions — which would slash…

  • Is the GOP waging a war on... sex?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 10:08 am
    Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is putting a new spin on the election-year battles over contraception and abortion. For weeks, Democrats have accused Republicans of fighting a "war on women." But now, in an editorial in the May issue of Playboy, Hefner argues that what "repressed conservatives" are really trying to do is turn back the clock on our "hard-won sexual liberation" — waging an all-out "war against sex," from Rick Santorum's attacks on contraception to Mitt Romney's call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Fair assessment or over-the-top caricature?Hef…

  • Are Republicans better informed than Democrats?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 9:30 am
    The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press recently posted the results of a survey on political knowledge, broken out by age, education level, gender, and perhaps most intriguingly, political affiliation. Not only did "Republicans fare substantially better than Democrats on several questions in the survey," Pew says, but that's "typically the case in surveys about political knowledge." (Take a short version of the quiz yourself.) Republicans answered 12.6 of 17 questions correctly, versus 11.4 for Democrats, and Democrats only outperformed the GOP respondents on one policy question.
 
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    The Week: Most Recent sarah-palin

  • A brief history of Bristol Palin's controversies

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 9:49 am
    When Obama endorsed legal gay marriage this week, he cited his daughters Sasha and Malia as factors in his evolving stance, noting that some of their friends have gay parents in admirably committed relationships. That was enough to provoke Bristol Palin, who fired off a blog post chiding Obama for being influenced by what "teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee." Instead, she said, the president should have explained "to Malia and Sasha that, while [their] friends' parents are no doubt lovely people, that's not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage."…

  • Sarah Palin's 'oddly charming' Today show appearance

    The Week
    3 Apr 2012 | 11:08 am
    Sarah Palin's one-day stint as co-host of the Today show was billed as a showdown of sorts between the former vice presidential nominee and Katie Couric, the interviewer who caused Palin endless embarrassment during the '08 campaign and who was co-hosting rival morning show Good Morning America on Tuesday. Sorry, Katie: Palin may have won this round, with critics hailing her performance as "oddly charming," "magnetic," and "poised." During her Today cameo, Palin predictably blasted President Obama, interviewed Tori Spelling, and weighed in on pop culture issues like Oprah Winfrey's failing…

  • Sarah Palin vs. Katie Couric: Morning show edition

    The Week
    2 Apr 2012 | 11:07 am
    How does NBC top ABC's gambit of bringing in former Today star Katie Couric to co-host Good Morning America this week? By having one of Couric's most storied interview subjects, Sarah Palin, guest host the Today show on Tuesday. After their infamous 2008 interview, in which Couric stumped the vice presidential nominee simply by asking what newspapers she reads, the irony of pitting the two against each other anew "is just too sweet," says Chris Ariens at MediaBistro. When Palin was asked how it feels to face off against Couric when Today's ratings dominance is vulnerable for the first…

  • Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin: The 'uncanny' side-by-side footage

    The Week
    15 Mar 2012 | 11:09 am
    The video: Long before the March 10 HBO premiere of Game Change, the movie adaptation of the eponymous book, HBO released the first photo of Julianne Moore in her role as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Did she look the part? "You kinda sorta betcha!" said James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly. As the film proved, however, Moore's ability to channel Palin went well beyond looks, says Troy Patterson at Slate. Aside from nailing the accent and the intonation, she "aced the immodest task of humanizing the media beast called Sarah Palin," and delivered a performance "so…

  • Game Change: Fair to Palin or an offensive cartoon?

    The Week
    9 Mar 2012 | 4:18 pm
    Game Change, the buzzy TV movie premiering Saturday night on HBO, may be racking up strong critical notices, but a certain former Alaska governor is unlikely to tune in. The film is based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's 2010 bestseller about the 2008 presidential race, zeroing in on the chapters devoted to John McCain's hasty decision to add Sarah Palin to his ticket and the crash-and-burn fate that befell the duo, played by Ed Harris and Julianne Moore. (Watch the trailer below.) Palin herself maintains she won't see the film, blasting it as "Hollywood lies." And while her PAC is…
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    The Week: Most Recent Sarah Palin:The Palin Family

  • A brief history of Bristol Palin's controversies

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 10:49 am
    When Obama endorsed legal gay marriage this week, he cited his daughters Sasha and Malia as factors in his evolving stance, noting that some of their friends have gay parents in admirably committed relationships. That was enough to provoke Bristol Palin, who fired off a blog post chiding Obama for being influenced by what "teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee." Instead, she said, the president should have explained "to Malia and Sasha that, while [their] friends' parents are no doubt lovely people, that's not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage."…

  • Was Bristol Palin date-raped?

    The Week
    27 Jun 2011 | 12:01 pm
    In her new memoir, Not Afraid of Life, Bristol Palin writes that Levi Johnston, her ex-boyfriend and father of her son Tripp, "stole" her virginity in a wine-cooler-induced haze — even though he knew she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. Palin says she isn't accusing Johnston of date rape, but, under Alaska law, a man who has sex with a woman who is "incapacitated or unaware" of what's happening is committing second-degree sexual assault. (Johnston has not commented on Palin's version of events.) Does the encounter, as described by Bristol, qualify as date rape? (Watch an NBC…

  • Bristol Palin's new memoir: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    21 Jun 2011 | 3:42 pm
    Bristol Palin may be only 20 years old, but the most famous daughter of Alaska's most famous politician is already releasing a memoir. Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far hit bookshelves Tuesday, and juicy details are already being teased. Palin's divulgence that she was drunk on "girly flavored wine coolers" when she lost her virginity to Levi Johnston already ignited the blogosphere over the weekend. Now, even more details are being shared. Here, five of the most talked-about revelations:1. Bristol's son has a siblingWhile she was dating Johnston, Palin writes that he "cheated on me…

  • Levi Johnston's 'hot' and 'hilarious' book cover

    The Week
    12 May 2011 | 3:45 pm
    At last, the moment the world has been waiting for: A look at Levi Johnston's book. On Wednesday, Amazon released a cover image for the forthcoming memoir from the father of Bristol Palin's child — Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs. The book itself won't be released until Sept. 27, but the title and cover image alone — the stud dressed in camo in the woods — has ignited a barrage of wisecracks, with delighted observers calling it both "hot" and "hilarious." Here, a sampling of wit:Having it allThis is "everything I hoped the rumored tell-all's…

  • Bristol Palin's 'bafflingly contrived' new reality show

    The Week
    10 May 2011 | 11:54 am
    Like mother, like daughter. After many a memorable turn on last season's Dancing with the Stars, Bristol Palin (the oldest daughter of Sarah) is set to continue her reality TV career with a new show on the cable network Bio — a show that commentators are already calling "bafflingly contrived." The series will focus on the single mom and abstinence advocate moving to Los Angeles with her young son Tripp, starting a new job at a charity, and living with Dancing castmate Kyle Massey and his brother Chris. According to a Bio channel statement, the three have become "best friends" since…
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    The Week: Most Recent Relationships:Sex and Relationships

  • Yogurt: The secret to male sexual prowess?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 6:35 am
    Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were using mice to study how eating yogurt affects weight gain when they noticed something strange. Not only were yogurt-fed rodents noticeably slimmer than their peers, but the males exhibited a distinct sexual "swagger," complete with shinier fur and more pronounced... features. Here, a brief guide to the unexpected development:What was the original point of the study?MIT researchers wanted to examine how the healthy microbial bacteria in yogurt fight off age-related weight gain. Mice were divided into three groups and given three…

  • Stendra: A guide to the new FDA-backed Viagra rival

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 6:57 am
    Last Friday, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new erectile dysfunction drug, Stendra, which its creators are touting as a superior alternative to Viagra. Erectile dysfunction, or the inability to keep an erection, affects more than 30 million men in the U.S., and sales of treatment drugs exceeded $5 billion last year. Here's a look at the potentially lucrative newcomer:What is Stendra exactly?The FDA-backed medication, known chemically as avanafil, is in the same class as drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra. All "inhibit the same enzyme, PDE5, and work by increasing blood…

  • Overestimating the effects of birth control: By the numbers

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 1:12 pm
    Many women may be putting too much faith in birth control pills and condoms. Nearly half of the women questioned in a new study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, thought these methods were better at preventing pregnancy than they really are. Just how far off were they? Here, a look at misconceptions about contraceptives, by the numbers:9 Annual pregnancy rate, in percent, for women who take birth control pills, but fail to take them every day as directedLess than 1Annual pregnancy rate, in percent, for women who take the pill as directed18 to 21Annual…

  • America's sharp drop in teen births: 4 explanations

    The Week
    11 Apr 2012 | 4:55 pm
    The teen birth rate in the United States has declined for the third straight year. From 2009 to 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, the U.S. birth rate among women aged 15-19 fell 9 percent, to 34.3 births per 1,000 women, an all-time low since data was first collected in 1946. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the decrease was consistent across all racial and ethnic groups, although birth rates tended to be highest in the South and Southwest and lowest in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Mississippi had the highest teen birth rate, with 55…

  • Divorce expos: A sign of the times?

    The Week
    3 Apr 2012 | 1:20 pm
    The expo has become a staple of the insatiable wedding industry, with stalls upon stalls helping the newly engaged make the myriad decisions that go into their special day. But blushing brides-to-be were in short order at a related expo in New York City this weekend. Titled "Start Over Smart," it was the city's first-ever expo for divorcees, many of whom are wrestling with some pretty serious decisions of their own. And while "Start Over Smart' doesn't dwell on the happiest of events, the hundreds of attendees weren't engaged in long harangues or bitter fist-shaking. Instead, the expo…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Issues

  • The disturbing shooting targets featuring Trayvon Martin

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 1:42 pm
    The controversy: An unidentified businessman is selling gun range targets designed to make people feel like they're shooting Trayvon Martin, reports Mike DeForest of WKMG Local 6, a Florida television station. The unarmed black teen was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in February, and Zimmerman, who claims he was acting in self-defense, has been charged with second-degree murder. The targets (see the image at right) do not feature a photo of Martin himself, but show a silhouette in a black hoodie — the outfit Martin was famously wearing when he died — with a huge…

  • Obama's gay-marriage endorsement is a moral and political win

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 8:40 pm
    Forty-nine years ago this spring, as he proposed the landmark civil rights reforms of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy became the first president to declare that ending racial discrimination was a moral issue — that "this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." Now Barack Obama has taken the next step in the unfinished journey toward that ideal: He cut through a cacophony of political advice, the calculus of pre-election caution, to become the first president to endorse marriage equality — and thus to affirm that gay rights…

  • 4 reasons Obama's gay-marriage support is pure symbolism

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 1:50 pm
    President Obama made history this week by supporting same-sex marriage "from the tallest and most important bully pulpit in the world," says Frank Bruni at The New York Times. With a few words, Obama was able to offer gay couples "a new, heightened degree of respect," and his announcement was a "poignant and compelling marker" of America's progress on civil rights. That said, it's not guaranteed that Obama's evolved views on gay marriage will have any impact on gay rights or the November election. Here, four reasons why his endorsement is mere words:1. It won't change the dynamic in…

  • The Republican trying to save Planned Parenthood

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 8:20 am
    Planned Parenthood doesn't have many friends in the Republican Party: House Republicans have tried to strip it of any federal funding, and several GOP-controlled state governments have approved bans on all state support for the women's health group, because it performs abortions. (The procedure makes up 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services.) But then there's freshman Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.), who not only wants Planned Parenthood to keep its funding, but also just introduced a bill that would prevent agencies and governments from denying it family-planning dollars just because it…

  • Obama's gay-marriage stance: Is he leading from behind?

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 6:00 am
    On Wednesday, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to endorse gay marriage, completing his much-derided "evolution" from being a supporter only of same-sex civil unions. As historic as the occasion was, Obama is hardly the first mainstream politician to come out in favor of marriage equality: Vice President Joe Biden recently beat Obama to the punch (forcing the president's hand), as did two of his Cabinet secretaries — even former Vice President Dick Cheney backed gay marriage in 2009, as gay Republicans like to point out. Popular opinion seems to have evolved…
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Issues:Arizona's Immigration Law

  • Arizona's immigration law: A Supreme Court disaster for Obama?

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 12:05 pm
    For the second time in as many months, President Obama is clashing with the highest court in the land. In March, skeptical conservatives on the Supreme Court appeared to doubt the constitutionality of Obama's 2010 health care overhaul. And this week, the court seemed ready to uphold the most controversial provision of S.B. 1070, a tough immigration law that Arizona passed in 2010. The provision in question requires police officers to determine the immigration status of any person they "reasonably" suspect is an illegal immigrant, which critics (including the president's Justice Department)…

  • Will the Supreme Court overturn Arizona's tough immigration law?

    The Week
    25 Apr 2012 | 7:42 am
    The Supreme Court is preparing to hear oral arguments over the constitutionality of S.B. 1070, a controversial immigration law passed by Arizona in 2010. The law is considered to be one of the harshest of its kind in the country, and liberals argue that it encourages discrimination against Latinos. Conservatives, on the other hand, say the law is necessary to plug holes in a broken immigration system. The case is prompting an emotional, polarized reaction, the likes of which were last seen just a month ago, when the court weighed whether to strike down President Obama's health care law.

  • The Supreme Court takes on Arizona's immigration law: Bad for Obama?

    The Week
    12 Dec 2011 | 3:51 pm
    Add a fiercely polarizing immigration law to the list of controversial topics being tackled by the Supreme Court in its "potentially epic" term. The nation's highest court announced Monday that it would rule on the constitutionality of Arizona's headline-making crackdown on illegal immigration, virtually assuring that the issue will become a key point of contention in the 2012 presidential race. The review adds to an already high-profile caseload that includes challenges to President Obama's health-care reform law. A decision on the immigration law, which was strongly opposed by the White…

  • Do Arizonans secretly oppose the state's immigration law?

    The Week
    8 Feb 2011 | 2:57 pm
    The video: On ABC's "Primetime: What Would You Do?" actors play out a scene with moral or ethical implications to see how ordinary citizens will react. Last week, the show journeyed to Arizona, home to the country's toughest — and most controversial — immigration law. Actors posing as a Hispanic civilian and an off-duty security guard repeatedly enacted a scene at a Tucson restaurant, the "guard" aggressively pestering the Hispanic man for his identification papers. The restaurant's customers consistently intervened, said a publicist for the show: Over a two-day shoot, "we... More

  • Did Mexican drug lords really put a bounty on Sheriff Joe Arpaio?

    The Week
    5 Aug 2010 | 11:50 am
    Arizona's notoriously tough and media-savvy Sheriff Joe Arpaio says Mexican drug cartels have put a $1 million bounty on his head, presumably for his trademark sweeps for illegal immigrants in Latino areas of Maricopa County. The threat was delivered via a slightly garbled text message, reportedly from a disposable cell phone in Mexico. Is this death threat against a U.S. law officer a dangerous escalation of Mexico's spreading drug war, or a publicity stunt? (Watch a local report about the alleged threat)This smells like a stunt: "This is just the latest supposed threat against…
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    The Week: Most Recent Drinking and Drugs:Drinking in America

  • The mouth spray that gets you drunk... for a few seconds

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 2:52 pm
    A collaborative effort between a French designer and an American scientist has produced a portable mouth spray that results in instant drunkenness. The big catch, however, is that the purported buzz only lasts a few seconds. So, uh, what's the point? Here's what you should know:How does it work?The "WA|HH Quantum Sensations" system, presented at a French exhibition, delivers alcohol via a tiny aerosol spray, which spritzes a 0.075 milliliter dose of boozy chemicals directly into your system. A typical drink, by contrast, contains 40 to 60 milliliters of alcohol, meaning that you'd need to…

  • Soft-serve frozen foam: Can it keep beer colder longer?

    The Week
    12 Apr 2012 | 1:15 pm
    Treating yourself to a nice cold brewski in the summertime is all very well... if you guzzle the beer down before it turns warm. It's an issue that every even slightly sluggish drinker has had to contend with — but maybe not for much longer. The good people at Kirin, the Japanese brewing giant, have developed a frozen beer foam that can be dispensed atop a glass of beer the same way soft-serve ice cream is swirled into a cone. (Watch a demo video below.) The manufacturer says the frozen foam can keep a stein of beer cold for 30 minutes. Here, a guide to the invention:What is the foam…

  • Coors Light's 'absurd' iced-tea-flavored beer

    The Week
    8 Mar 2012 | 3:05 pm
    Molson Coors is rolling out a new product: Coors Light Iced T. The drink is a standard Coors laced with citrus and iced-tea flavors, all with a relatively meek alcohol level of 4 percent. "We've got the world's most refreshing alcoholic beer sort of meeting up with the most refreshing non-alcoholic drink in the world. Those two things go really well together," says Peter Swinburn, the chief executive of the company. Plenty of beer purists, of course, are less excited. Here's what you should know:Why is Coors mixing beer with iced tea? It's part of a broader plan to win back customers who…

  • Pong Beer: The new drink designed for beer pong

    The Week
    17 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
    "Behold, Pong Beer," says Kim Bhasin at Business Insider. In case college kids don't have enough options for cheap swill, a brewing company has designed a beer exclusively for beer pong. You know the game, where competitors loft ping-pong balls, preferably coated in the dust found under frat-house couches, into a pyramid of wide-mouth cups brimming with Keystone Light or Milwaukee's Best. The company estimates that 50 percent of college students play beer pong, and that beer pong-related products have raked in $20 million in sales. Here, a guide to the latest in America's favorite drinking…

  • How drinking vodka makes you more creative

    The Week
    16 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am
    Too much vodka will make anyone slur his sentences, but groundbreaking new research suggests that just the right amount could make a guy wittier with his words. Thanks, science? Here's what you should know should you choose to imbibe… for creativity's sake, of course:    How much vodka are we talking about?Not a lot. Researchers tested 20 men using a "moderate" amount of vodka mixed with cranberry juice, cutting the volunteers off when their blood alcohol level reached 0.075 percent (or just below the legal limit in the United States).How did they test something as…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Issues:Gay Marriage Battle

  • Obama's gay-marriage endorsement is a moral and political win

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 8:40 pm
    Forty-nine years ago this spring, as he proposed the landmark civil rights reforms of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy became the first president to declare that ending racial discrimination was a moral issue — that "this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." Now Barack Obama has taken the next step in the unfinished journey toward that ideal: He cut through a cacophony of political advice, the calculus of pre-election caution, to become the first president to endorse marriage equality — and thus to affirm that gay rights…

  • 4 reasons Obama's gay-marriage support is pure symbolism

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 1:50 pm
    President Obama made history this week by supporting same-sex marriage "from the tallest and most important bully pulpit in the world," says Frank Bruni at The New York Times. With a few words, Obama was able to offer gay couples "a new, heightened degree of respect," and his announcement was a "poignant and compelling marker" of America's progress on civil rights. That said, it's not guaranteed that Obama's evolved views on gay marriage will have any impact on gay rights or the November election. Here, four reasons why his endorsement is mere words:1. It won't change the dynamic in…

  • Obama's gay-marriage stance: Is he leading from behind?

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 6:00 am
    On Wednesday, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to endorse gay marriage, completing his much-derided "evolution" from being a supporter only of same-sex civil unions. As historic as the occasion was, Obama is hardly the first mainstream politician to come out in favor of marriage equality: Vice President Joe Biden recently beat Obama to the punch (forcing the president's hand), as did two of his Cabinet secretaries — even former Vice President Dick Cheney backed gay marriage in 2009, as gay Republicans like to point out. Popular opinion seems to have evolved…

  • Obama's historic same-sex marriage endorsement: 5 consequences

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 3:55 pm
    President Obama upended the debate over gay marriage on Wednesday, telling ABC News' Robin Roberts that he now believes "same-sex couples should be able to get married." (Watch the video below.) Obama, who previously supported recognizing civil unions but not gay marriage, said his views on the hot-button issue went through an "evolution" over several years as he talked to "friends and family and neighbors" and considered the issue in light of the gay "members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships." How will Obama's shift affect the fight over same-sex…

  • The latest tweets about Obama's endorsement of gay marriage

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 9:00 am
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Issues:Immigration Reform

  • Exodus to Mexico: Is America's illegal immigration problem solved?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 3:05 pm
    In a potentially historic shift, more Mexicans are now leaving the U.S. than entering, according to a Pew Hispanic Center study. The reversal appears to mark the end of a four-decade immigration wave that pushed the Mexican-born population in the U.S. to a peak of 12.6 million in 2007, before sliding back to 12 million since then. Pew listed a host of factors contributing to the trend, from falling Mexican birth rates to increased border control and deportations to a decline in jobs on this side of the border since the Great Recession. Does that mean that the hot-button issue of illegal…

  • Is Arizona's Sheriff Joe a racist?

    The Week
    16 Dec 2011 | 10:16 am
    Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., was handed an ultimatum on Thursday: Clean up his department's rampant and illegal racial discrimination or the federal government will see him in court. After a three-year investigation, the U.S. Justice Department accused the controversial immigrant-hunting sheriff of illegally jailing scores of Hispanic residents, often after trumped-up traffic stops; abusing Spanish-speaking inmates and denying them basic rights; and retaliating against critics. Arpaio shot back that the Obama administration was just using him as a "whipping boy," and…

  • Immigration paranoia: Why are Americans being arrested?

    The Week
    15 Dec 2011 | 5:34 pm
    An already controversial Obama administration push to find and arrest illegal immigrants is facing a new round of criticism from civil rights and immigrant groups, who say that documented U.S. citizens are being detained under the program. How often is this really happening? Here, a brief guide to the federal government's immigration crackdown, and some of its unforeseen consequences:Are immigration agents really detaining U.S. citizens?Yes, at least in a flurry of recent cases. These people are typically picked up by local police for other reasons — U.S. citizen Antonio Montejano of…

  • Should 'citizen juries' decide illegal immigrant status?

    The Week
    28 Nov 2011 | 10:07 am
    When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed creating a legal mechanism to allow millions of long-term, established illegal immigrants to gain permanent residency, his GOP presidential rivals pounced, attacking him for supporting "amnesty." Gingrich denied that, explaining in Florida over the weekend that under his plan, the onerous "path to legality" would run through local "citizen juries" that would ultimately decide the legal status of eligible immigrants with deep community ties. "It requires trusting citizens rather than bureaucrats," he said. Is his idea smart?Even hard-liners…

  • The 'dramatic' decline in illegal immigration: 3 theories

    The Week
    17 Nov 2011 | 5:10 am
    Politicians have long engaged in bitter debates over how to stop illegal immigration. But new data from the U.S. and Mexico suggest the problem may be fading away on its own, at least temporarily. Mexican census figures show that net migration to the U.S. border is nearly zero, as fewer Mexicans make the trip north and many who have crossed the border return to Mexico. And the U.S. Border Patrol arrested only 304,755 people trying to cross into the Southwest without papers in the 11 months that ended in August, down from a peak of 1.6 million in 2000. What's behind the "dramatic" change?
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    The Week: Most Recent Parenting:Parenting Controversies

  • Strange trend alert: Moms who freeze their adult daughters' eggs

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 12:05 pm
    Fertility clinics may be getting a bit more crowded, as a growing number of women are showing up with their parents tagging along. Why? Wannabe grandparents can hear their daughters' biological clocks ticking, so they're offering to pay to freeze their eggs to improve the odds of becoming grandparents later in life, according to The New York Times. Is this kind of helicopter grandparenting the next big thing? Here, a guide to this new twist on the family dynamics of fertility treatments:How many would-be grandmothers are doing this?There are no statistics available, but the Times says…

  • TIME's jaw-dropping breast-feeding cover: Too provocative?

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 2:23 pm
    TIME magazine sent a jolt through the blogosphere when it unveiled the cover image of its latest issue: A 26-year-old mom breast-feeding her 3-year-old son, who's standing on a chair to reach her nipple. (See the image to the right, and larger below.) The accompanying article, "The Man Who Remade Motherhood," examines the rise of attachment parenting, a style of child-rearing that abides by three main tenets: Extended breast-feeding, co-sleeping, and "baby wearing," or attaching infants to the parent as often as possible with a sling. "To me, the whole point of a magazine cover is to get your…

  • Parents who pay their grown children's bills: By the numbers

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 11:18 am
    In the popular imagination, the money from mom and dad stops when you leave home at age 18 or soon thereafter. In reality, according to a new study, leaving home is optional, and the money flows to most young adults even if they do make their way into the big, wide world. Even more surprising, says lead author Patrick Wightman at the University of Minnesota, parents play favorites, and are "more likely to help those who, even at a young age, help themselves." Take that, common sense! Here's a look at the largesse of today's parents, by the numbers: 62Percent of young adults (age 19-22)…

  • The cost of overprotective parenting: Breaking children's legs?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 12:08 pm
    Many worried parents go the extra mile to try and keep their young children safe, but sometimes overprotective moms and dads are more problem than solution. Case in point: Slides. "When your toddler is clamoring to ride down the big-kid slide at the playground, most parents assume that the safest thing to do is put her on your lap and ride down with her," says Lylah Alphonse at Yahoo Shine. In fact, that's a great way to break your child's leg. "It's so common, but parents say: 'How did I not know about this?'" says Dr. John Gaffney. Here, a look at the unintended dangers of parents at the…

  • Drinking hand sanitizer and 9 other unsettling teen substance-abuse trends

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 6:30 am
    A half dozen teens in California have ended up in emergency rooms after drinking alcohol that had been extracted from hand sanitizer. Through a distillation process, the kids were able to create a moonshine with a whopping 60 percent alcohol content. If that seems dumb and dangerous, here are 9 other surprising ways teens are making the legal illicit: More
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Issues:The Abortion Battle

  • How TV shows deal with abortion: A timeline

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 5:10 pm
    It's been 40 years since Bea Arthur's outspoken liberal Maude Findlay was the first television character to have an abortion in a 1972 episode of Maude, but televising the divisive issue still courts controversy. On Sunday night's episode of Girls, Jemima Kirke's free-spirited global nomad made an abortion appointment, but conflicted feelings kept her from showing up for it. Indeed, while the hot-button issue surfaces frequently on TV these days, says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, characters rarely go through with abortions. "Four decades after Roe v. Wade, are we ever going to…

  • Sarah Silverman's 'vile' before-and-after abortion photos

    The Week
    16 Apr 2012 | 9:59 am
    The image: The comedian Sarah Silverman just fired the latest salvo in the so-called War on Women. Known for making edgy jokes about rape and the Holocaust, Silverman created an uproar by tweeting a fake before-and-after picture of herself with the caption, "Got a quickie aborsh in case R v W gets overturned." Referring to Republican promises to roll back the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion, the "before" picture shows her with a distended belly (taken, she says, just after she ate a bloating burrito), while her stomach is flat in the "after" image. The…

  • Is it reckless to publicize the names of doctors who perform abortions?

    The Week
    20 Mar 2012 | 12:45 pm
    In the latest attempt by lawmakers to curb abortions, the Republican-controlled Tennessee Legislature is considering a bill that would require the state to publish the names of doctors who perform abortions, along with demographic statistics that critics say could "out" some patients and potentially subject doctors and women to intimidation or even violent attacks. The bill's sponsor says he only wants to use information the state already collects to give the public a better sense of how prevalent abortions are. Is this about informing the public, or painting a bulls eye on abortion…

  • Time to outlaw 'wrongful birth' lawsuits?

    The Week
    14 Mar 2012 | 1:02 pm
    A jury last week awarded an Oregon couple $2.9 million for the "wrongful birth" of their 4-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome. The parents, Ariel and Deborah Levy, say that they would have aborted the pregnancy had they known the child would be born with the chromosomal abnormality, but that a Legacy Health lab botched a prenatal test. The couple says they now face a lifetime of expenses they can't afford, from speech therapy to medical care, so the company should pay. The case — one of a handful of "wrongful birth" suits filed each year — has sparked heated debate over the…

  • Doonesbury's 'graphic' abortion comic strips: 'Tasteless'?

    The Week
    12 Mar 2012 | 5:25 pm
    Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau is no stranger to controversy, but he's stirring up one of the most tense debates of his long career this week with a series of strips on Texas' new law requiring women to get ultrasounds before having an abortion. In one of the strips (see it below), which some newspapers are refusing to run, a clinic employee tells a woman to "please take a seat in the shaming room." In another, a doctor about to conduct a vaginal ultrasound with a "10-inch shaming wand" tells a patient, "By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape." A spokeswoman for…
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Issues:The Retirement Crisis

  • Are 401(k)s a failed experiment?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 5:20 pm
    Baby Boomers latched onto 401(k)s in the late 1970s, when companies began switching from traditional pension plans to employee-funded retirement accounts tied to the ups and downs of the stock market. But now, many Boomers eager to quit working haven't saved nearly enough, and are heading toward a "faith-based retirement," says Joe Nocera at The New York Times, in which they have little to go on but faith that everything will be fine once they leave the workforce. Only 22 percent of workers over 55 have more than $250,000 socked away for their post-work life. And a shocking 60 percent…

  • How 401(k)s are failing millions of Americans

    The Week
    20 Apr 2012 | 9:34 am
    What's the case against 401(k)s? They're failing to provide enough money for older Americans. As the country's principal way to save for retirement, the 401(k) program allows employees to set aside a portion of their paychecks, often supplemented with matching funds from their employers, and to defer taxes until they start withdrawing funds. But most of the nearly 80 million baby boomers — the oldest of whom are just now starting to turn 65 — haven't put aside nearly enough, and are in danger of exhausting their savings within a few years of retirement. "It has already become…

  • Is Social Security really facing an imminent crisis?

    The Week
    31 Oct 2011 | 1:37 pm
    While Republicans and Democrats haggled over budget deficits last year, the Social Security system quietly went "cash negative" — a "treacherous milestone," says Lori Montgomery in The Washington Post. For almost all of its 75-year history, the program has collected more in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits. But now, with the economy sinking and baby boomers beginning to retire, Social Security is "sucking money out of the Treasury." Is the program really in dire straits?This is a phony crisis: "This 'treacherous milestone' is entirely the Post's invention," says Dean Baker at…

  • Social Security: Did AARP sell out its seniors?

    The Week
    23 Jun 2011 | 3:07 pm
    AARP went into "full damage-control mode" this week, after news reports said the powerful seniors lobby would be willing to support some cuts to Social Security. While Democratic allies in Congress expressed shock, AARP leaders insisted the group's position hadn't changed, saying they still oppose reducing retirement benefits as part of a deficit reduction bill, but acknowledge the need for long-term adjustments to keep the Social Security trust fund from being drained by 2036, as projected. Is this a sellout, or is AARP merely recognizing the need to fix the system?AARP's position is just…

  • Can virtual reality convince Americans to save for retirement?

    The Week
    29 Mar 2011 | 5:20 am
    Stanford researchers have created old-age avatars for the young, in an effort to encourage them to prepare for their financial future. Their research has found that simply showing people a retirement-age version of themselves made them say they were likely to save 30 percent more money than the control group, whose avatars were not aged. Now, asset management and investment groups say they plan to put the technology to work for their clients. Here's a brief guide:How did the study work?Some participants saw avatars of their current selves, while others glimpsed digital, aged versions of…
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    The Week: Most Recent Health:War on Obesity

  • The heavy price of obesity in America: By the numbers

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 8:12 am
    The obesity rate in America is skyrocketing, and according to new statistics from the Campaign to End Obesity, along with increased health risks and health care costs for those struggling to control their weight comes a huge economic toll on the U.S. With hospitals widening bathroom stalls for severely overweight patients, and the Federal Transit Administration testing new steering and breaks on mass transit systems because of an increase in the number of heavyset riders, the estimated national cost of accommodating obese citizens is approaching $190 billion a year. Here's a look at some…

  • Disturbing trend alert: The feeding-tube diet

    The Week
    16 Apr 2012 | 2:14 pm
    Plenty of brides try to lose weight, hoping to pull off tightly fitted wedding gowns. Some go on crash diets, others combine a hard-core cleansing regimen with a brutal gym schedule. But these days some women are taking dieting to a new extreme by having a feeding tube inserted into their noses, which funnels a slow drip of liquid protein and fat (with no carbohydrates) through the esophagus into the stomach. Is this a safe and effective way to shed pounds? Here, a brief guide:Really... a feeding-tube diet?Yes. Patients following the K-E (ketogenic enteral nutrition) diet wear a feeding tube…

  • Should hospitals ban obese employees?

    The Week
    9 Apr 2012 | 7:43 am
    Citizens Medical Center, a health-care facility in southeastern Texas, is refusing to hire any person who has a body mass index over 35, which means that in order to work at the hospital, a 5'5" applicant can weigh no more than 210 pounds. Officials say the measure is meant to promote healthy living, so that employees can set an example for patients. The rule is legal in Texas, and the medical center is hardly the first company to institute weight-related policies — in 2010 grocery chain Whole Foods started offering workers with low BMIs better employee discounts. Considering how…

  • Are we underestimating how fat Americans are?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 12:50 pm
    It's no secret that America has a bit of a weight problem. The most recent statistics say 35.8 percent of Americans are overweight, while 35.7 percent are obese. But a new study published in the journal PLoS One suggests that those estimates are wrong, and that we may be severely underestimating how many of us are obese. Is the obesity epidemic actually worse than we thought? Here, a brief guide:How did the researchers determine how fat we really are?Doctors normally look at body mass index, or BMI, for a quick indication of whether a patient is obese. (Calculate your BMI, which is a…

  • The green coffee bean: A miracle weight-loss drug?

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 5:30 am
    Coffee may be the lifeblood that keeps most workplaces humming, but new evidence suggests that the drink's unroasted beans might also hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss. In a study presented to the American Chemical Society in San Diego this week, scientists said that a supplement extracted from green coffee beans helped patients drop significant poundage. Here's what you should know about the findings:How was the research carried out?This small preliminary study looked at 16 overweight young adults in India. Over 22 weeks, the participants were given, in turns, a low dose of…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Social Media

  • Apple's next MacBook Pro: 4 rumors

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 10:46 am
    If you're thinking about buying a new Mac, you might want to hold off. Apple is reportedly giving its MacBook Pro line of performance notebooks the most drastic makeover it has had in years, according to sources cited on two prominent Apple blogs. The Cupertino-based company will supposedly unveil the new hardware at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), set to take place June 11-15. But at least one analyst says the new laptops may be unveiled even sooner. "I don't see them waiting for WWDC," Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, tells Computerworld. "As soon…

  • The man who implanted magnets in his wrist to hold an iPod

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 6:33 am
    The video: Dave Hurban, a piercing artist by trade, wanted one of those coveted iPod nano watches, but didn't want to deal with the device's cumbersome straps. So he devised a clever (if inelegant) solution to his unique brand of first-world problems: With a needle, a pair of tweezers, and a towel to wipe away the blood, he implanted four tiny magnets directly into his left wrist. The result was something he calls the iDermal, which allows him to quickly clip on Apple's best-selling music player strap-free. (Watch the graphic video below.) "I can go for a run, and it won't come…

  • The New York Times' Mark Zuckerberg profile: 4 intriguing revelations

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 3:18 pm
    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned 28 on Monday, kicking off what's set to be the biggest week in his social network's eight-year history. The company is preparing to launch its initial public offering on Friday, and the IPO is expected to value Facebook at a stratospheric $100 billion, more than McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, and dozens of other venerable companies. Investors are questioning whether Zuckerberg is mature enough to run a publicly traded company, and whether he can thrive under the ruthless glare of Wall Street. In pursuit of that question, The New York Times looks for answers…

  • Bing's Facebook-inspired redesign: A better way to search?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 11:57 am
    Bing is about to get more user friendly thanks to a Facebook-inspired makeover. The new three-column results layout, set to debut over the next few weeks, is Microsoft's first foray into social search-results. The main column will still emphasize core web results, while a center "Snapshot" section provides instant access to services like restaurant rankings or hotel comparisons. On the far right is the most notable addition, a grey-colored "Sidebar" that allows a searcher to scour Facebook and other social networks for answers. (To see examples, click here.) The new Bing has a clear…

  • 8 strange ways to power your cellphone

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 11:21 am
    Sure, you could always charge your phone the old fashioned way by plugging it into a wall outlet. But where's the fun in that? Here, eight strange and ingenius ways to power your mobile device on the go:1. A fuel cell powered by lighter fluidA Zippo-like fuel cell promises 10 to 14 full charges for your iPhone before your charger has to be recharged. Developed by Lilliputian Systems, the pocket-friendly device runs on recyclable butane cartridges, and can restore the juice of any USB-compatible gadget. Better yet: You can take it anywhere (including planes), making the…
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    The Week: Most Recent The Digital Age:Facebook

  • The New York Times' Mark Zuckerberg profile: 4 intriguing revelations

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 3:18 pm
    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned 28 on Monday, kicking off what's set to be the biggest week in his social network's eight-year history. The company is preparing to launch its initial public offering on Friday, and the IPO is expected to value Facebook at a stratospheric $100 billion, more than McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, and dozens of other venerable companies. Investors are questioning whether Zuckerberg is mature enough to run a publicly traded company, and whether he can thrive under the ruthless glare of Wall Street. In pursuit of that question, The New York Times looks for answers…

  • Should Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg lose the hoodie?

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 10:57 am
    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with potential investors in the lead-up to his company's hotly anticipated IPO, and not all of them are happy about the fact that he rolled up to meetings this week wearing his standard black hoodie. "That's a mark of immaturity," Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, tells Bloomberg News. "He's showing investors he doesn't care that much," raising concerns about the wunderkind's ability to run a publicly traded company and respond to shareholder concerns. Should Zuckerberg start wearing a suit and tie?Zuckerberg's clothes are totally…

  • Should you draft a 'social media will'?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 3:25 pm
    What happens to your Facebook account when you die? Or your Twitter? Who gets the rights to the thousands of songs in your iTunes library? Or access to your email? These are questions the U.S. government is hoping Americans will begin to consider, and Uncle Sam is now suggesting that every web-savvy citizen create a "social media will" to lay out what exactly your loved ones ought to do with your online accounts in the event of your death. Here's what you should know:What would happen to my accounts if I died without a will?Sites like Twitter and Facebook let a friend or relative remove a…

  • How Facebook is reinventing organ donation

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 5:27 am
    What do you use Facebook for? To keep up with friends, share pictures of your kids, or pass around the latest silly video? What if I told you that you can now use Facebook to save lives?As of last week you can do just that.Facebook has introduced a new "status update" that allows you to proudly share with all your friends your intent to be an organ donor. Not already registered as a donor with your state? No problem. With a few clicks, Facebook ushers you to the appropriate registry, where you can quickly make it official. With a permanent and prominent display on your Facebook site,…

  • 7 suspected criminals who got themselves caught via Facebook

    The Week
    26 Apr 2012 | 11:48 am
    The "stupid criminal" story has long been a staple of local crime reporting, late-night talk shows, and comedy-news programs such as NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! And now, the magic of social networking is giving ne'er-do-wells a new venue to thwart themselves, often in front of large audiences. Call it "cops-and-robbers 2.0," says Winston Ross at The Daily Beast. Driven by "a self-destructive combination of ignorance, narcissism, and generation-specific disregard for their own privacy," Facebook-posting crooks are making life much easier for cops. Here, seven suspected crimes…
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    The Week: Most Recent The Digital Age:Twitter Revolution

  • Is Twitter censoring conservatives?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 5:36 pm
    Conservative Twitter users unleashed their fury Sunday night, after the social networking giant suspended the account of Chris Loesch, the husband of right-wing Breitbart.com and CNN pundit Dana Loesch. His account was disabled following a heated exchanged with some liberal Twitter users — proof, he believes, of left-leaning Tweeps gaming the site's policies to censor conservatives. Does his theory hold water? Here, a brief guide: What started this Twitter spat?Chris Loesch and his wife were engaging in a war of words with several antagonistic Twitter users on Sunday…

  • Are teens ditching Facebook for Twitter?

    The Week
    31 Jan 2012 | 10:48 am
    Has Facebook lost its cool? An increasing number of teenagers, apparently turned off by the graying of Mark Zuckerberg's 800-million+ user social network, are making the digital trek over to Twitter. Here's what you should know:What's going on?A newly released report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found a "slow, but steady" increase in the number of teens using Twitter, says Martha Irvine for the Associated Press. Two years ago, just 8 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 were using Twitter. By last July, that number had doubled to 16 percent.Why are teens flocking to…

  • Twitter's new censorship plan: A 'betrayal'?

    The Week
    27 Jan 2012 | 4:35 pm
    A year ago, Twitter was being heralded as a game-changing, freedom-promoting platform capable of organizing a noble revolution across the Arab world. Now, the expanding company seems to be having second thoughts about just how committed it is to unfettered, unconditional free speech. In a blog post Thursday, Twitter announced that it would start abiding by individual countries' censorship rules by selectively blocking controversial tweets from appearing to local users. For instance, in France and Germany, pro-Nazi content is illegal; pro-Nazi tweets there will now be banned. (Twitter users in…

  • Does Twitter prove we're getting sadder?

    The Week
    21 Dec 2011 | 12:20 pm
    Happiness is trending downward. That's what University of Vermont scientists have found by analyzing the "emotional temperature" of tweets from 63 million Twitter users since January 2009. Here's what you should know:How was the study conducted?Researchers analyzed more than 46 billion words from the tweets of 63 million people. Every word was given an "emotional temperature" on a scale of one to nine, with nine being the happiest. A word like "laughter" would get a ranking of 8.5, while "terrorist" got a 1.3. Once all the words were ranked, researchers looked for patterns related to the…

  • Twitter's 'major' redesign: 4 talking points

    The Week
    9 Dec 2011 | 4:45 pm
    The tweets, they are a-changing. This week, Twitter announced a "major" redesign of its popular micro-blogging service, in a move aimed at attracting new users and big brands with a simpler, more intuitive interface and more opportunities for companies to show off their stuff. The new look will be rolled out in the coming weeks across Twitter.com, Twitter apps, and TweetDeck. (Watch a video demonstration here.) Here, four things you should know:1. It's (supposed to be) easier for new tweetersTwitter's message to "newbies" here is "try it, you'll like it," says Stephen Shankland at CNET.
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Sports

  • The biggest wave ever surfed: The mind-blowing video

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 7:40 am
    The video: Last November, 44-year-old pro surfer Garrett McNamara captured the world's attention when he came face-to-face with a monstrous wave just off the coast of Nazare, Portugal. Now, the Guinness Book of World Records has officially recognized the 78-foot slab of ocean as the largest wave ever ridden; McNamara narrowly edges out the previous record, set by Mike Parsons back in 2008, by a foot. With the aid of a jet-ski to tow him in (waves this size are impossible to paddle into manually), McNamara says he first glimpsed the record-setter rumbling in the horizon behind a smaller wave.

  • Junior Seau and the disturbing NFL suicide trend

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 11:26 am
    The suicide of former NFL linebacker Junior Seau Wednesday at age 43 is once again raising questions about the links between violent NFL play, head trauma, mental illness, and suicide. After Seau's girlfriend discovered the former star at his southern California home Wednesday morning with a gunshot wound to the chest, police are investigating the incident as a suicide. If that's the case, Seau would be the second retired NFL player to commit suicide in recent weeks. Here's what you should know:Who is Junior Seau?He's a 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker, and generally considered "one of the best…

  • The London Olympics opening ceremony: What we know so far

    The Week
    2 May 2012 | 12:55 pm
    London is gearing up for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and with fewer than three months until the opening ceremonies on July 27, organizers have started the long tease. The big opening presentation is being rehearsed in a giant, heavily guarded circus tent set up in a vacant Ford factory in east London. Ceremony artistic director Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, is keeping tight-lipped about what he has planned, but as acts fall into place and organizers try to build excitement for the upcoming sporting bonanza, details are dribbling out. Here's what we know so far:1. Britain is…

  • Should Saudi Arabia's all-male team be banned from the Olympics?

    The Week
    1 May 2012 | 1:50 pm
    Activists have launched an internet campaign calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Saudi Arabia from the Summer Olympics in London because the kingdom prohibits Saudi women from competing at the Games — or even participating in organized sports at all. Saudi leaders had hinted that they might let women represent their country for the first time this year, but ultimately decided against it. Human rights activists say the Saudi policy violates Olympic rules against discrimination. So is there a chance Saudi Arabia will be barred from competing? Here, a guide:Is Saudi…

  • Time for the NFL to scrap the Pro Bowl?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 12:05 pm
    Could the Pro Bowl be over? ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that the NFL will likely end the annual all-star game next year. This speculation, attributed to unnamed league sources, comes after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in February that the quality of the game must be improved or he would eliminate it. The Pro Bowl is typically played in Hawaii the week before the Super Bowl, and with many players taking it easy to avoid injury, fans booed loudly during this year's game. Plus, 20 players who were selected opted not to play at all, raising "the question of whether the game is…
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    The Week: Most Recent Sports:The NFL

  • Junior Seau and the disturbing NFL suicide trend

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 11:26 am
    The suicide of former NFL linebacker Junior Seau Wednesday at age 43 is once again raising questions about the links between violent NFL play, head trauma, mental illness, and suicide. After Seau's girlfriend discovered the former star at his southern California home Wednesday morning with a gunshot wound to the chest, police are investigating the incident as a suicide. If that's the case, Seau would be the second retired NFL player to commit suicide in recent weeks. Here's what you should know:Who is Junior Seau?He's a 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker, and generally considered "one of the best…

  • Time for the NFL to scrap the Pro Bowl?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 12:05 pm
    Could the Pro Bowl be over? ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that the NFL will likely end the annual all-star game next year. This speculation, attributed to unnamed league sources, comes after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in February that the quality of the game must be improved or he would eliminate it. The Pro Bowl is typically played in Hawaii the week before the Super Bowl, and with many players taking it easy to avoid injury, fans booed loudly during this year's game. Plus, 20 players who were selected opted not to play at all, raising "the question of whether the game is…

  • The NFL's pay-for-pain scandal: Does 'disturbing' new audio doom Gregg Williams?

    The Week
    5 Apr 2012 | 2:26 pm
    The NFL's pay-for-pain scandal — dubbed "Bountygate" — has become even more villainous, thanks to an "extremely disturbing" audio clip that's surfaced implicating Gregg Williams, the former defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. (Listen to the NSFW audio below.) Williams was suspended from the league indefinitely for running a bounty pool that awarded players bonuses for brutally tackling members of opposing teams in the hopes of injuring them. Filmmaker Sean Pamphilon, who gained access to the Saints while filming a documentary, released the expletive-ridden audio…

  • Nike's new NFL uniforms: Revolutionary or yawn-worthy?

    The Week
    5 Apr 2012 | 11:57 am
    Nike pulled off a huge coup in 2010 when it wrangled the apparel rights for the NFL from Reebok. At a cost of $1.1 billion, Nike will produce uniforms for all 32 of the league's teams for five years, depriving Reebok, now a division of Adidas, of some $250 million in annual revenue. And though plenty of fans were excited to see the uniforms once they were wrung through the "Nike design centrifuge," the new duds have met with decidedly mixed reviews. Are they a bust?Move on, there's nothing to see here: With the exception of the Seattle Seahawks' outfits, the uniforms "look exactly the…

  • The Jets snag Tim Tebow: 5 reasons football fans are baffled

    The Week
    22 Mar 2012 | 12:20 pm
    As soon as the Denver Broncos signed legendary QB Peyton Manning to a five-year contract this week, football fans immediately wondered what would happen to the Broncos' other quarterback: Tim Tebow. Though Tebow's running skills are as celebrated as his passing accuracy is derided, he was last year's surprise breakout star, leading the middling Broncos to an AFC West title and a playoff win over the heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers. But now, to make room for Manning, Tebow has been unceremoniously and confoundingly traded to the New York Jets. Here, five reasons why this is…
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    The Week: Most Recent supreme-court

  • The Supreme Court's historically low approval ratings: 4 theories

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    The Supreme Court's favorability rating is at a 25-year low, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center. The survey shows that only 52 percent of Americans view the court favorably, and while Congress can only dream of such a stratospheric number, the court enjoyed an 80 percent approval rating as recently as 1994. Remarkably, a roughly equal percentage of Democrats and Republicans approve of the court, a rare show of agreement in this age of hyper-partisanship. Here, four theories about why the Supreme Court's popularity is waning:1. The court has become increasingly politicized…

  • Would striking down ObamaCare hurt the Supreme Court's credibility?

    The Week
    29 Mar 2012 | 10:50 am
    After three days of intense debate, President Obama's sweeping overhaul of the health-care system is now in the hands of nine black-robed justices. The Supreme Court's conservative judges clearly expressed their doubts about the law's constitutionality, leaving Obama's supporters fretting about ObamaCare's fate and the president's re-election chances. Meanwhile, liberals are warning that a decision by a conservative court to strike down a Democratic president's top domestic priority would hurt the court's credibility, cementing the perception that the law's scales are being tipped by…

  • Do 14-year-old murderers deserve life in prison without parole?

    The Week
    22 Mar 2012 | 4:35 pm
    This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case featuring two convicted murderers who committed their crimes when they were just 14 years old. Sentenced to life in prison without parole, the killers argue that the sentences amount to a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment. The case is just the latest to showcase the court's evolution on juvenile punishment — the Supreme Court abolished the juvenile death penalty in 2005, and barred life without parole for crimes other than murder in 2010. Here, a guide to the latest debate:How many teen…

  • Will affirmative action survive the Supreme Court?

    The Week
    22 Feb 2012 | 3:19 pm
    In 2003, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote a landmark decision upholding the use of race in picking whom to admit to universities and graduate programs, and predicted that the ruling would stand for at least 25 years. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court cast doubt on O'Connor's forecast by accepting an affirmative action case from a white student at the University of Texas at Austin. The Roberts Court will probably hear college student Abigail Fisher's discrimination claim in October, just a few weeks before a heated presidential election — and the outlook is somewhat grim for…

  • The Supreme Court ruling on warrantless GPS tracking: 'Simply wrong'?

    The Week
    24 Jan 2012 | 5:02 pm
    On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that police must obtain a warrant before using a GPS device to track a vehicle — a major victory for privacy rights supporters. "The government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a 'search,'" said Justice Antonin Scalia, representing the five-justice majority. (The other four arrived at the same decision but wrote other, concurring opinions). The ruling has some Americans outraged, since the extra steps police must take to get a warrant might allow…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Supreme Court:Supreme Court

  • The Supreme Court's historically low approval ratings: 4 theories

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    The Supreme Court's favorability rating is at a 25-year low, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center. The survey shows that only 52 percent of Americans view the court favorably, and while Congress can only dream of such a stratospheric number, the court enjoyed an 80 percent approval rating as recently as 1994. Remarkably, a roughly equal percentage of Democrats and Republicans approve of the court, a rare show of agreement in this age of hyper-partisanship. Here, four theories about why the Supreme Court's popularity is waning:1. The court has become increasingly politicized…

  • Would striking down ObamaCare hurt the Supreme Court's credibility?

    The Week
    29 Mar 2012 | 10:50 am
    After three days of intense debate, President Obama's sweeping overhaul of the health-care system is now in the hands of nine black-robed justices. The Supreme Court's conservative judges clearly expressed their doubts about the law's constitutionality, leaving Obama's supporters fretting about ObamaCare's fate and the president's re-election chances. Meanwhile, liberals are warning that a decision by a conservative court to strike down a Democratic president's top domestic priority would hurt the court's credibility, cementing the perception that the law's scales are being tipped by…

  • Do 14-year-old murderers deserve life in prison without parole?

    The Week
    22 Mar 2012 | 4:35 pm
    This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case featuring two convicted murderers who committed their crimes when they were just 14 years old. Sentenced to life in prison without parole, the killers argue that the sentences amount to a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual punishment. The case is just the latest to showcase the court's evolution on juvenile punishment — the Supreme Court abolished the juvenile death penalty in 2005, and barred life without parole for crimes other than murder in 2010. Here, a guide to the latest debate:How many teen…

  • Will affirmative action survive the Supreme Court?

    The Week
    22 Feb 2012 | 3:19 pm
    In 2003, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote a landmark decision upholding the use of race in picking whom to admit to universities and graduate programs, and predicted that the ruling would stand for at least 25 years. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court cast doubt on O'Connor's forecast by accepting an affirmative action case from a white student at the University of Texas at Austin. The Roberts Court will probably hear college student Abigail Fisher's discrimination claim in October, just a few weeks before a heated presidential election — and the outlook is somewhat grim for…

  • The Supreme Court ruling on warrantless GPS tracking: 'Simply wrong'?

    The Week
    24 Jan 2012 | 5:02 pm
    On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that police must obtain a warrant before using a GPS device to track a vehicle — a major victory for privacy rights supporters. "The government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a 'search,'" said Justice Antonin Scalia, representing the five-justice majority. (The other four arrived at the same decision but wrote other, concurring opinions). The ruling has some Americans outraged, since the extra steps police must take to get a warrant might allow…
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    The Week: Most Recent terrorism

  • 9/11 mastermind KSM's military trial: Already a disaster?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 9:50 am
    The long-awaited military trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is off to a messy start at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On Saturday, Mohammed and four other accused plotters repeatedly disrupted what should have been a routine arraignment hearing, taking breaks for prayers and refusing to answer the judge's questions. A defense attorney wore traditional Muslim garb and asked that female prosecutors dress more conservatively to avoid offending her client. Is the controversial military tribunal already an…

  • The foiled al Qaeda underwear bomb plot: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 2:40 pm
    Al Qaeda is alive and well — in Yemen at least. U.S. authorities say they've foiled a plot by the terrorist network's Yemeni affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), to blow up a U.S.-bound plane with an "underwear bomb." It's the second time AQAP has tried to use an underwear bomber to target an aircraft — on Christmas Day in 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian militant linked to AQAP, tried to bring down a plane over Detroit, but his bomb fizzled. Here, five takeaways from the latest failed scheme:1. The bomber never made it to the planeU.S. officials…

  • Ordering the bin Laden raid: Was it really a tough call?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 10:40 am
    The raid that killed Osama bin Laden has become quite the political football this election season. Obama's campaign brought it up, suggesting in an ad that ordering the raid deep inside Pakistan was a bold and risky move that GOP challenger Mitt Romney would not have made. Romney countered by saying that any president, "even Jimmy Carter," would have done the same thing Obama did. Donald Rumsfeld, Defense secretary under George W. Bush, backed up Romney this week, saying that ordering the raid wasn't a "tough call." Was it really an easy decision to send in the SEALs?It took guts: No…

  • The bin Laden document dump: 7 highlights

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 2:30 pm
    The U.S. Army has released a trove of letters and documents captured in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden at his safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a year ago. The documents — numbering roughly 200 pages and dating from September 2006 to April 2011 — offer a revealing glimpse into the terrorist mastermind's worldview, his plans for al Qaeda, and his reactions to pivotal developments in the Arab world. Here, seven highlights from the cache:1. He wanted to kill Obama and Petraeus Bin Laden exhorted his followers to take out airplanes carrying President Obama and General David…

  • Has a California treasure hunter found bin Laden's body?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 8:50 am
    Last spring, days after a team of Navy SEALs shot and killed Osama bin Laden, helicoptered his body out of Pakistan to a Navy warship, then dumped it somewhere in the Arabian Sea, California undersea treasure hunter Bill Warren decided to go find it. A year later, Warren tells Spain's El Mundo newspaper that he's nailed down the spot where the Navy heaved the body overboard, and will mount an expedition this summer to drag bin Laden's corpse up from its watery grave, photograph it, and take DNA samples. Here's what you should know about Warren's strange quest:Who exactly is Bill Warren?He…
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    The Week: Most Recent Terrorism:Osama Bin Laden

  • Ordering the bin Laden raid: Was it really a tough call?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 10:40 am
    The raid that killed Osama bin Laden has become quite the political football this election season. Obama's campaign brought it up, suggesting in an ad that ordering the raid deep inside Pakistan was a bold and risky move that GOP challenger Mitt Romney would not have made. Romney countered by saying that any president, "even Jimmy Carter," would have done the same thing Obama did. Donald Rumsfeld, Defense secretary under George W. Bush, backed up Romney this week, saying that ordering the raid wasn't a "tough call." Was it really an easy decision to send in the SEALs?It took guts: No…

  • The bin Laden document dump: 7 highlights

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 2:30 pm
    The U.S. Army has released a trove of letters and documents captured in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden at his safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a year ago. The documents — numbering roughly 200 pages and dating from September 2006 to April 2011 — offer a revealing glimpse into the terrorist mastermind's worldview, his plans for al Qaeda, and his reactions to pivotal developments in the Arab world. Here, seven highlights from the cache:1. He wanted to kill Obama and Petraeus Bin Laden exhorted his followers to take out airplanes carrying President Obama and General David…

  • Has a California treasure hunter found bin Laden's body?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 8:50 am
    Last spring, days after a team of Navy SEALs shot and killed Osama bin Laden, helicoptered his body out of Pakistan to a Navy warship, then dumped it somewhere in the Arabian Sea, California undersea treasure hunter Bill Warren decided to go find it. A year later, Warren tells Spain's El Mundo newspaper that he's nailed down the spot where the Navy heaved the body overboard, and will mount an expedition this summer to drag bin Laden's corpse up from its watery grave, photograph it, and take DNA samples. Here's what you should know about Warren's strange quest:Who exactly is Bill Warren?He…

  • Osama bin Laden's life on the run: 5 new revelations

    The Week
    30 Mar 2012 | 3:05 pm
    Nearly a year after American commandos killed Osama bin Laden, new details are emerging of the notorious al Qaeda leader's life in hiding after the 9/11 attacks. The additional pieces of the puzzle come from an interrogation report of Amal Ahmad Abdul Fateh, bin Laden's 30-year-old Yemeni widow, who is currently in Pakistani custody. Experts warn that the report is not totally reliable, given that Fateh's words are paraphrased by a Pakistani police officer. Nevertheless, it is "the most detailed account yet" of bin Laden's post-9/11 life, says Declan Walsh at The New York Times. Here, five…

  • Kathryn Bigelow's bin Laden movie: Obama campaign propaganda?

    The Week
    11 Aug 2011 | 10:06 am
    When is a movie not just a movie? Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) is demanding that the Defense Department and CIA investigate whether the White House is giving special access, and possibly classified information, to Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and scriptwriter Mark Boal for their upcoming film about the killing of Osama bin Laden. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote on Sunday that "the moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history," and that the film's Oct. 12, 2012, scheduled release date is "perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost"…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Terrorism:War on Terror

  • 9/11 mastermind KSM's military trial: Already a disaster?

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 9:50 am
    The long-awaited military trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is off to a messy start at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On Saturday, Mohammed and four other accused plotters repeatedly disrupted what should have been a routine arraignment hearing, taking breaks for prayers and refusing to answer the judge's questions. A defense attorney wore traditional Muslim garb and asked that female prosecutors dress more conservatively to avoid offending her client. Is the controversial military tribunal already an…

  • The foiled al Qaeda underwear bomb plot: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 2:40 pm
    Al Qaeda is alive and well — in Yemen at least. U.S. authorities say they've foiled a plot by the terrorist network's Yemeni affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), to blow up a U.S.-bound plane with an "underwear bomb." It's the second time AQAP has tried to use an underwear bomber to target an aircraft — on Christmas Day in 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian militant linked to AQAP, tried to bring down a plane over Detroit, but his bomb fizzled. Here, five takeaways from the latest failed scheme:1. The bomber never made it to the planeU.S. officials…

  • Norway's Anders Behring Breivik prosecution: A model for U.S. terror trials?

    The Week
    19 Apr 2012 | 8:32 am
    Anders Behring Breivik, Norway's confessed mass killer, appears to be making good on his plan to turn his trial into a "circus" to showcase his extremist, anti-Muslim views. Breivik admits to killing 77 people last July, but says he did it to defend his country against multiculturalism, likening the young Labour Party members he gunned down to the Hitler Youth. Norway's prosecution stands in stark contrast to the U.S. policy of barring high-profile terrorism suspects from civilian courtrooms altogether. Is the Breivik case an example of how not to handle high-profile terror cases? Or does…

  • Is al Qaeda publicizing a planned attack on New York?

    The Week
    4 Apr 2012 | 10:17 am
    The story: A glossy graphic with 3D effects threatening New Yorkers showed up this week on terrorism-linked foreign websites. The NYPD and FBI are investigating the movie-like poster — which features the Manhattan skyline and the warning, "al Qaeda coming soon again in New York" — but as far as they know, "there is no specific or credible threat to New York at this time." (See the image at right and below.) Still, the image was first found on a website "where serious al Qaeda people communicate and exchange information about techniques, about explosive devices," NYPD intelligence…

  • Bin Laden's 'chilling' plot to kill President Obama

    The Week
    16 Mar 2012 | 3:55 pm
    Up until his death last May, Osama bin Laden was hoping to pull off his most audacious attack since Sept. 11, 2001: the assassination of President Obama. Or so says a report by David Ignatius in The Washington Post. What's unclear is how he hoped to organize such a long-shot scheme given his relative isolation in Pakistan. Soon-to-be-declassified documents seized by the U.S. commando team that killed bin Laden indicate that the al Qaeda leader was still commanding his terrorist network from his walled hideout in Abbottabad, even though it sometimes took months for him to receive replies from…
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    The Week: Most Recent The Economy

  • Did JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon break the law?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:00 pm
    JPMorgan Chase, the country's largest bank, continues to reel from its $2 billion trading loss last week, which critics are touting as evidence that Wall Street is still making the types of dangerous bets that caused the financial crisis in 2008. JPMorgan Chase's stock plunged by nearly 10 percent the day after CEO Jamie Dimon disclosed the loss, erasing $13 billion from the company's value. Dimon, one of the loudest voices against government regulation of Wall Street, has been pilloried in the press for what he has described as a "terrible, egregious mistake." And now the Justice Department…

  • California's financial apocalypse: A concise guide

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 8:45 am
    California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has some bad news: His cash-strapped state isn't $9.2 billion in the hole, as projected in January; the Golden State is actually facing a yawning $15.7 billion shortfall. And after years of aggressive budget-slashing and gridlock over increasing tax revenue, Brown doesn't have a lot of options on the table. "The fact is, California has been living beyond its means," he told reporters on Monday. "This is a day of reckoning, and we have to take the medicine." Here, a look at California's bitter pill:Why did the budget gap grow?Tax revenue came in $4.3 billion…

  • The 'Anger Room': The new way to blow off steam after work

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:40 am
    While stress is an unfortunate and unhealthy part of modern life, going on a destructive rampage isn't usually a socially acceptable way of dealing with it. Enter the Anger Room, an inconspicuous storefront in a Dallas strip mall where fed-up Americans can act out. Inside, proprietor and founder Donna Alexander and her staff offer up rooms of stuff — TVs, office furniture, glassware — for patrons to smash. (Watch a therapeutic session below.) Here, a brief guide:How does the Anger Room work?The rooms are filled with donated or found items from garage sales or…

  • JPMorgan's $2 billion loss: Time to fire CEO Jamie Dimon?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:01 am
    Reeling from a massive $2 billion loss on a risky bet, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has launched a campaign of contrition to contain the damage. "We made a terrible, egregious mistake and there's almost no excuse for it," he told NBC's Meet the Press. The country's biggest bank has also parted ways with three executives, including Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, a veteran at the company and reportedly one of Dimon's most trusted allies. However, condemnation is still raining down on Dimon, who's vociferously opposed the sort of strong government regulation of Wall Street that…

  • JPMorgan's shocking $2 billion loss: Proof we need stronger financial reform?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 12:00 pm
    On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon revealed that the banking giant lost a whopping $2 billion due to a massive trade that went sour, and that the losses could climb by another $1 billion in the coming days. Dimon attributed the loss to "errors, sloppiness, and bad judgment," and asserted that "we will fix it and move on." But critics of the financial industry say the loss is more than a mere error, and that JPMorgan is engaging in precisely the type of risky behavior that brought the financial system crashing down in the fall of 2008. Specifically, the loss stemmed from a…
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    The Week: Most Recent U.S. Economy:The U.S. Recovery

  • 5 reasons new graduates face a grim economic future

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 5:00 pm
    While many college graduates aren't exactly eager to give up a life of beer pong and afternoon classes for the daily drudgery of 9-to-5 office life, this year's batch of newly minted adults faces an even greater problem: The possibility of no job at all. The unemployment rate remains above 8 percent nationwide, and young graduates are entering a market that's more competitive than ever. "Truly, this is a terrible time to be young," says Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Here, five reasons new graduates might wish they could put off graduation:1. The job market isn't growing fast…

  • America's first tourism ad campaign: Will it bring back visitors?

    The Week
    3 May 2012 | 1:08 pm
    This week, America launched its first-ever tourism ad campaign in Japan, Canada, and Britain, and is planning on expanding the feel-good media blitz in the coming months to Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, and South Korea. In one ad, a guitar-strumming Roseanne Cash, backed by an almost-too-diverse-to-be-believed band of musicians, beckons tourists to "come and find your land of dreams" over burnished shots of vintage Cadillacs, elderly dominoes players, and wedding celebrations — largely in lieu of classically tourist-friendly activities. (Watch the clip below.) The campaign,…

  • Are government spending cuts slowing the recovery?

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 9:51 am
    Last week, the government reported that gross domestic product (GDP) — the broadest gauge of American economic activity — grew at a tepid pace of 2.2 percent in the first quarter. While the data seems to confirm that the recovery is trudging along, its progress is too sluggish to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate. So what's holding the economy back? The Obama administration says the private-sector economy actually grew at a rate of 3.5 percent, and argued that government budget cuts — largely in the form of reduced spending — are hampering the overall…

  • Paul Krugman vs. Ben Bernanke: Is there a dangerous 'hive-mind' at the Fed?

    The Week
    27 Apr 2012 | 8:30 am
    The economy-focused corner of the web was enthralled this week by the "Battle of the Beards": Paul Krugman vs. Ben Bernanke, says Paul La Monica at CNNMoney. The first salvo came Sunday, when Nobel-winning economist Krugman took Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke to task in The New York Times Magazine for being more timid in juicing the economy as Fed chief than he'd advised as an academic, leading to unnecessarily high unemployment. Krugman then "geeked out," hypothesizing that his former Princeton colleague had been "assimilated by the Fed Borg, like Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in a famous Star…

  • Can Obama revive America's manufacturing industry?

    The Week
    24 Apr 2012 | 7:00 am
    In his State of the Union address this year, President Obama promised to create "an economy built on American manufacturing," and he has spent a lot of time touring factories across the country to underscore his commitment to the industry. Administration officials are now rolling out proposals to "put some analytic meat on the bones" of Obama's manufacturing goals, says Matthew Yglesias at Slate, to convey that the White House's focus on manufacturing is more than a feel-good campaign slogan. But with China and other Asian countries offering cheaper labor costs, can America really resurrect…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent U.S. Economy:Unemployed in America

  • April's disappointing jobs report: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 10:08 am
    The jobless rate in April fell to 8.1 percent, its lowest level since President Obama took office in 2009... but don't expect the White House to start whipping up champagne cocktails. The stubborn economy added a worse-than-expected 115,000 jobs last month, not nearly enough for the labor market to claw its way out of its deep hole. Indeed, many analysts now fear that we're living through a rerun of what happened to the economy in early 2010 and early 2011, when the recovery appeared to be accelerating only to stumble and lurch. Here, six takeaways from the latest jobs report:1. Labor force…

  • 3 ways the job market is still in trouble

    The Week
    13 Mar 2012 | 6:45 am
    "America is coming back," President Obama declared on Friday, hours after the government reported that the economy added more than 200,000 jobs in February. You can hardly blame the president for tooting the economy's horn — his re-election in November largely hinges on rising job numbers. But is the labor market really healing? Some analysts say a closer look at the data reveals some worrisome trends. Here, three ways the job market recovery is not as healthy as it appears:1. The economy is not adding the right jobs Job numbers are rising because the economy is adding…

  • February's 'terrific' jobs report: 6 takeaways

    The Week
    9 Mar 2012 | 9:50 am
    It's getting better all the time. The Labor Department announced on Friday that the economy gained an impressive 227,000 jobs in February, the latest in a spate of reports indicating that the economic recovery is "growing stronger." The feds' revised stats for December and January also show that the economy added 61,000 more jobs than previously estimated. (The December number jumped from 203,000 to 223,000, and January leaped from 243,000 to 284,000.) The jobless rate, however, remains unchanged at 8.3 percent, as more unemployed workers returned to the labor force to look for jobs. Here,…

  • Unemployment benefits: Should drug testing be required?

    The Week
    17 Feb 2012 | 4:12 pm
    In a rare show of bipartisanship, Congress passed a measure extending unemployment benefits through the end of 2012 — but the two parties made compromises to get the legislation through. Controversially, for instance, the bill allows states to subject certain applicants to drug testing: Namely, those who were laid off for flunking an employer's drug test, and those seeking jobs that require such tests. An earlier version passed by the GOP-controlled House would have allowed states to drug-test all applicants. Should Republicans have stuck to their guns?Yes. Businesses shouldn't have to…

  • The 'unequivocally strong' January jobs report

    The Week
    3 Feb 2012 | 10:19 am
    Happy new year! The Labor Department announced on Friday that the economy gained an "incredible" 243,000 jobs in the first month of 2012, shocking many analysts who expected modest gains of about 150,000 jobs. The unexpected January hiring spree pushed the unemployment rate down from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent. Not since the first days of the Obama presidency has the jobless rate been this low. (The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in January 2009, 8.3 percent in February 2009, and then spent nearly three years bouncing between 8.5 and 10 percent.) The January job gains were broad —…
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    The Week: Most Recent U.S. Economy:Wall Street

  • Did JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon break the law?

    The Week
    15 May 2012 | 2:00 pm
    JPMorgan Chase, the country's largest bank, continues to reel from its $2 billion trading loss last week, which critics are touting as evidence that Wall Street is still making the types of dangerous bets that caused the financial crisis in 2008. JPMorgan Chase's stock plunged by nearly 10 percent the day after CEO Jamie Dimon disclosed the loss, erasing $13 billion from the company's value. Dimon, one of the loudest voices against government regulation of Wall Street, has been pilloried in the press for what he has described as a "terrible, egregious mistake." And now the Justice Department…

  • JPMorgan's $2 billion loss: Time to fire CEO Jamie Dimon?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 11:01 am
    Reeling from a massive $2 billion loss on a risky bet, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has launched a campaign of contrition to contain the damage. "We made a terrible, egregious mistake and there's almost no excuse for it," he told NBC's Meet the Press. The country's biggest bank has also parted ways with three executives, including Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, a veteran at the company and reportedly one of Dimon's most trusted allies. However, condemnation is still raining down on Dimon, who's vociferously opposed the sort of strong government regulation of Wall Street that…

  • JPMorgan's shocking $2 billion loss: Proof we need stronger financial reform?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 12:00 pm
    On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon revealed that the banking giant lost a whopping $2 billion due to a massive trade that went sour, and that the losses could climb by another $1 billion in the coming days. Dimon attributed the loss to "errors, sloppiness, and bad judgment," and asserted that "we will fix it and move on." But critics of the financial industry say the loss is more than a mere error, and that JPMorgan is engaging in precisely the type of risky behavior that brought the financial system crashing down in the fall of 2008. Specifically, the loss stemmed from a…

  • Has Obama been too tough on Wall Street?

    The Week
    4 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    President Obama's 2008 run was successful, in part, because of grassroots support, with millions of backers chipping in whatever they could — even as little as a $1 — to fuel his historic campaign. But Obama also raked in millions from titans on Wall Street, outraising John McCain $16 million to $9 million, says Nicholas Confessore at The New York Times Magazine. Four years later, Wall Street is pouring money into super PACs that support Mitt Romney, after Obama boosted government oversight of the financial system and called for higher taxes on the rich. Former donors are saying…

  • How Citigroup shareholders smacked down their CEO's massive bonus

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 12:49 pm
    Citigroup shareholders dealt a harsh blow to CEO Vikram Pandit on Tuesday, rejecting his $15 million pay package at Citi's annual meeting in Dallas. The vote is non-binding — meaning that Citi's board of directors could ignore it — but it's still a rare slap in the face for the head of a major U.S. company, and the directors say they're going to take another look at pay for Pandit and four other senior executives. What brought about this unprecedented display of investor rancor? Here, a brief guide:Why did shareholders revolt?Citi's directors had agreed to sweeten their CEO's pay…
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    The Week: Most Recent the-tea-party

  • After Dick Lugar: Who will the Tea Party target next?

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 9:30 am
    Energized conservative activists reveled in their power this week after the GOP primary defeat of Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) at the hands of Tea Party-backed Richard Mourdock. The Tea Party has struggled for visibility since its heyday leading up to the 2010 midterm elections, but grassroots activists crow that their victory over Lugar, the longest-serving Republican senator in Washington, will reinvigorate the movement. "We're already starting to see the momentum carry to other states," Jackie Bodnar, spokeswoman for the Tea Party umbrella group FreedomWorks, tells The Wall Street…

  • Michele Bachmann's Swiss citizenship: The best jokes

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 3:10 pm
    Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the former presidential candidate and conservative darling, is officially a Swiss citizen. Bachmann's husband Marcus has long been eligible for dual citizenship due to his parents' Swiss origins, and he went through with it in March, automatically making his wife and three of their young children dual citizens as well. Bachmann is even eligible to run for office in the Swiss "canton," or district, of Thurgau. The improbable development was sure to strike the funny bones of bloggers everywhere, given that Bachmann has suggested that President Obama holds…

  • The Tea Party's waning influence: 4 theories

    The Week
    7 Feb 2012 | 9:22 am
    Nevada was a hotbed of Tea Party activity in the 2010 midterms, but in the weekend's GOP presidential caucuses, the Silver State activists' least favorite candidate, Mitt Romney, trounced the field. In Colorado — which, along with Minnesota and Missouri, picks its preference for the GOP presidential nominee on Tuesday — the Tea Partiers who dominated the political scene two years ago are no longer holding many rallies. And now an Ohio Tea Party leader tells The Daily Beast that while the movement may have been a giant killer in 2010, it's "dead" and "gone" this year. What…

  • Is the GOP presidential field a Tea Party failure?

    The Week
    17 Jan 2012 | 5:15 pm
    More than a year ago, the Tea Party capped an incredible 18-month run with a historic midterm election that took a whopping 68 House seats away from the Democrats, and handed the speaker's gavel to Republican John Boehner. No party had lost more seats in a midterm election in 72 years. While that outcome didn't surprise many activists in the Tea Party movement, it certainly appeared to catch many others off guard.Now the shoe seems to be on the other foot. Fourteen months after that singular achievement, the Republican field for the presidential nomination seems to have no real Tea Party…

  • Does Herman Cain's rise prove that the Tea Party isn't racist?

    The Week
    18 Oct 2011 | 12:13 pm
    Of all the things Tea Partiers hate — socialism, President Obama, Big Government — perhaps none wrankles them more than the allegation that they're racist. Now, many Tea Party backers are lining up behind a black man, Herman Cain, as their choice for president. In a new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, 69 percent of Tea Party supporters gave the former Godfather's Pizza CEO a "favorable" score. Does this prove once and for all that the Tea Party isn't racist?Yes. This confirms the racism smear was bogus: The Left can't deal with "Herman Cain's rise to Tea Party favorite and top-tier…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent The Tea Party:Michele Bachmann

  • Michele Bachmann's Swiss citizenship: The best jokes

    The Week
    9 May 2012 | 3:10 pm
    Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the former presidential candidate and conservative darling, is officially a Swiss citizen. Bachmann's husband Marcus has long been eligible for dual citizenship due to his parents' Swiss origins, and he went through with it in March, automatically making his wife and three of their young children dual citizens as well. Bachmann is even eligible to run for office in the Swiss "canton," or district, of Thurgau. The improbable development was sure to strike the funny bones of bloggers everywhere, given that Bachmann has suggested that President Obama holds…

  • Will Michele Bachmann's latest gaffe hurt her?

    The Week
    14 Mar 2011 | 10:37 am
    Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) presidential ambitions may be on the rise, but so is her tendency to commit embarrassing gaffes. This weekend, the Tea Party darling twice told audiences in New Hampshire that the shot "heard around the world in Lexington and Concord" was fired in their state. In fact, the famous Revolutionary War battle took place in Massachusetts. Bachmann later apologized via Facebook: "It was my mistake, Massachusetts is where they happened," she wrote. "New Hampshire is where they are still proud of it!" Will this error set her back? (Watch an ABC report about Bachmann's…

  • The GOP's Michele Bachmann 'nightmare'

    The Week
    5 Jan 2011 | 11:26 am
    Michele Bachmann is on a roll, says Noreen Malone in Slate. She kept her Minnesota House seat by a wide margin and raised more campaign cash than any of her colleagues. "Her savviest move of the year, though, was turning her anti-tax rhetoric into Tea Party stardom and forming the Tea Party Caucus in the House...." But then House Speaker John Boehner failed to bring "Bachmann's fringe" into the GOP tent by granting her request for a leadership post. If he hadn't pushed her away, "Bachmann might have been tempted to move past Mama Grizzly extremism." Now she's sticking with it, writes…

  • Palin and Bachmann: 'New face of the GOP'?

    The Week
    8 Apr 2010 | 2:37 pm
    For the first time, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) appeared side by side to the raucous approval of 10,000 supporters at an April 7 Minneapolis rally. While each took turns blasting Obama and congressional Democrats, Palin paused to praise Bachmann's repudiation of health-care reform and called her "inspiring." Fox News host Sean Hannity once put it another way, describing Bachmann as “the second-most-hated Republican woman in the country, second to Gov. Palin, which is a good position.” Could an alliance between the Republican…

  • Michele Bachmann: Don't pay taxes!

    The Week
    17 Mar 2010 | 9:50 am
    Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R, Minn.) has urged opponents of ObamaCare to stop paying taxes if the House passes the health care reform bill using "deem and pass," a controversial procedural shortcut. "They want us to pay for this? We don't have to," she said over the weekend. "We don't have to follow a bill that isn't law." Is Bachmann's advice crazy?SOMEWHAT CRAZYBachmann's a repeat criminal offender: This isn't the first time "Mama Che" Bachmann's tried to "incite Americans to revolution," armed or otherwise, says Rick Ungar in True/Slant. If she wants to flout the…
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    The Week: Most Recent The Tea Party:Tea Party Nation?

  • After Dick Lugar: Who will the Tea Party target next?

    The Week
    10 May 2012 | 9:30 am
    Energized conservative activists reveled in their power this week after the GOP primary defeat of Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) at the hands of Tea Party-backed Richard Mourdock. The Tea Party has struggled for visibility since its heyday leading up to the 2010 midterm elections, but grassroots activists crow that their victory over Lugar, the longest-serving Republican senator in Washington, will reinvigorate the movement. "We're already starting to see the momentum carry to other states," Jackie Bodnar, spokeswoman for the Tea Party umbrella group FreedomWorks, tells The Wall Street…

  • The Tea Party's waning influence: 4 theories

    The Week
    7 Feb 2012 | 9:22 am
    Nevada was a hotbed of Tea Party activity in the 2010 midterms, but in the weekend's GOP presidential caucuses, the Silver State activists' least favorite candidate, Mitt Romney, trounced the field. In Colorado — which, along with Minnesota and Missouri, picks its preference for the GOP presidential nominee on Tuesday — the Tea Partiers who dominated the political scene two years ago are no longer holding many rallies. And now an Ohio Tea Party leader tells The Daily Beast that while the movement may have been a giant killer in 2010, it's "dead" and "gone" this year. What…

  • Is the GOP presidential field a Tea Party failure?

    The Week
    17 Jan 2012 | 5:15 pm
    More than a year ago, the Tea Party capped an incredible 18-month run with a historic midterm election that took a whopping 68 House seats away from the Democrats, and handed the speaker's gavel to Republican John Boehner. No party had lost more seats in a midterm election in 72 years. While that outcome didn't surprise many activists in the Tea Party movement, it certainly appeared to catch many others off guard.Now the shoe seems to be on the other foot. Fourteen months after that singular achievement, the Republican field for the presidential nomination seems to have no real Tea Party…

  • Does Herman Cain's rise prove that the Tea Party isn't racist?

    The Week
    18 Oct 2011 | 12:13 pm
    Of all the things Tea Partiers hate — socialism, President Obama, Big Government — perhaps none wrankles them more than the allegation that they're racist. Now, many Tea Party backers are lining up behind a black man, Herman Cain, as their choice for president. In a new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, 69 percent of Tea Party supporters gave the former Godfather's Pizza CEO a "favorable" score. Does this prove once and for all that the Tea Party isn't racist?Yes. This confirms the racism smear was bogus: The Left can't deal with "Herman Cain's rise to Tea Party favorite and top-tier…

  • Will the Tea Party abandon politics?

    The Week
    13 Oct 2011 | 5:07 am
    Remember the Tea Party? It used to be a very big deal in this country. Yet here we are, weeks away from January Republican primaries that are likely to be decisive, and one by one the Tea Party candidates for president have fallen away.Sarah Palin: Bowed out.Michele Bachmann: Campaign imploded.Donald Trump: Remember him?Ron Paul: Too odd for prime time.Newt Gingrich: Dead on arrival.Tim Pawlenty: Miscast in the role.Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour: All declined the part.Herman Cain: At minute 13 of his 15 minutes of fame.And the messiah who was supposed to turn things... More
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    The Week: Most Recent U.K. Politics

  • Grading Kate Middleton's first year as a royal

    The Week
    30 Apr 2012 | 11:51 am
    On Sunday, Prince William and his wife, Catherine Middleton, celebrated their first anniversary as a regal couple. In the year since their controversially lavish wedding, royal-watchers have been scrutinizing "commoner" Kate to see if she can pull off her high-profile gig more than 30 years after William's mother, the late Princess Diana, charmed the public with her own debut. Critics have been more than charitable. Here, a sampling of their enthusiastic impressions:1. Kate is saving the monarchyRecent decades have seen the popularity of Britain's monarchy plummet, says Autumn Brewington at…

  • Queen Elizabeth's diamond anniversary: By the numbers

    The Week
    6 Feb 2012 | 3:25 pm
    On Monday, Queen Elizabeth II marked the 60th anniversary of her accession to the British throne by watching schoolchildren in an eastern England town perform a play in her honor. The U.K. will also host a glitzy, days-long Diamond Jubilee in June to more formally and lavishly honor the Queen. In the meantime, here's a statistical look back at her six-decade reign:25Elizabeth's age when she became queen85Her current age12British prime ministers during Elizabeth's reign12U.S. presidents during Elizabeth's reign6Popes during her reign30Corgis Elizabeth has owned during her reign. Currently, she…

  • Queen Elizabeth's royal pay cut: By the numbers

    The Week
    7 Dec 2011 | 3:23 pm
    Not even the royal family is safe from Britain's plummeting economy. For decades, Queen Elizabeth II has been receiving a little less taxpayer funding each year. But now, under new austerity measures, she'll have her pay frozen until 2015. Instead of receiving tens of millions annually in taxpayer money, she'll receive 15 percent of the profits from the Crown Estate, which collects rents and taxes on Regent Street, a prime retail area, and much of the United Kingdom's shoreline. While many predict that the Queen's income will dip even further, it's hard to get exact estimates. "You don't…

  • Using Facebook to incite London riots: Is a 4-year sentence too harsh?

    The Week
    17 Aug 2011 | 5:03 pm
    Swept up in the London riots last week, 20-year-old Jordan Blackman created a Facebook event advertising "massive Northwich lootin'" at a specific date, time, and location. Nobody showed up. A tipsy Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, posted a similar message, but removed his post from Facebook the next day. Even though their Facebook activity provoked no actual crimes or riots, both men were arrested and have just been handed four-year jail sentences for using the social-media site to "organize and orchestrate" disorder. That's the harshest penalty yet in the post-riot aftermath, part of the "tough…

  • Punishing London's looters: Will tough love work?

    The Week
    16 Aug 2011 | 2:09 pm
    British Prime Minister David Cameron is blaming last week's riots in the U.K. on the "slow-motion moral collapse" of his nation, and promising tough new measures to turn things around. Among his contemplated fixes: Imposing curfews, blocking social networking sites from smartphones, and evicting looters from public housing to discourage lawlessness. There’s even talk of naming William Bratton — America's "supercop" — to head London's Metropolitan Police. But critics say a harsh response might simply aggravate the root of the problem: A contempt for authority. Is Cameron's…
 
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    The Week: Most Recent Foreign Relations:WikiLeaks

  • Julian Assange's talk show debut: A major letdown?

    The Week
    18 Apr 2012 | 12:50 pm
    Julian Assange, once labeled "the world's most famous whistleblower," is now an aspiring talk-show star. On Tuesday, the founder of WikiLeaks debuted his new talk show The World Tomorrow on RT, Russia's state-controlled news network and website. (Watch the video below.) Because Assange is under house arrest and facing extradition to Sweden on rape and molestation charges, he conducted the interview with his first guest, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, from his British countryside estate via video chat. (Nasrallah spoke from an undisclosed location in Lebanon.) In a press release,…

  • Wikileaks: Does Bradley Manning deserve a Nobel Peace Prize?

    The Week
    9 Feb 2012 | 2:10 pm
    Three members of the Icelandic parliament have nominated accused WikiLeaks informant Army Pfc. Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Manning allegedly put 250,000 Department of State diplomatic cables, Department of Defense gun camera videos, and other classified documents onto CD-RWs, and sent them to WikiLeaks, which posted them online for all to see. The Icelandic politicians say Manning, who is being court-martialed for aiding the enemy, did the world a favor by exposing America's "long history of corruption, war crimes, and imperialism." Does Manning really deserve a…

  • WikiLeaks: Will a 'gay soldier' defense help Bradley Manning?

    The Week
    19 Dec 2011 | 9:05 am
    After 18 months of controversial pre-trial incarceration, alleged WikiLeaker Pfc. Bradley Manning is finally getting to defend himself. A grand jury–like military hearing will determine whether Manning will be court-martialed on 22 counts of aiding the enemy, illegally sharing tens of thousands of classified government secrets, and other alleged crimes. Over the weekend, prosecutors presented evidence, including copies of the leaked files on Manning's laptop, CDs, and memory cards. Manning's defense team argues that the leaks didn't do any real harm. Plus, his lawyers say, the Army…

  • Is the 'broke' WikiLeaks worth saving?

    The Week
    25 Oct 2011 | 9:30 am
    The video: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is holding a pledge drive of sorts, saying that his trailblazing secret-sharing website will suspend operations by the end of the year if it doesn't get more cash. (Watch Assange's fundraising pitch below.) Assange says WikiLeaks has been living off of its cash reserves since December 2010, when an "arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade" by Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Western Union, and Bank of America cut off 95 percent of its donations. The blocking of online donations through these services, which followed the controversial leak of…

  • Irony alert: Julian Assange's 'draconian' confidentiality demands

    The Week
    13 May 2011 | 2:00 pm
    The story: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made his name exposing U.S. government secrets provided by whistleblowers, but despite his commitment to the free flow of information, he forces his own employees to sign a brutally strict confidentiality agreement. The document, obtained by the British magazine New Statesman, imposes a $20 million penalty on any staffer who leaks his secret-spilling website's unpublished material. The rationale: Anyone who does so without authorization owes WikiLeaks the millions it could have made selling the material to broadcasters and publishers. The reaction:…
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    The Week: Most Recent world-economy

  • Can a new election save Greece?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 8:55 am
    Greece's anti-austerity Syriza party refused to participate in last-ditch efforts to form a unity government Monday, making it increasingly likely that the debt-burdened country will have to hold new parliamentary elections in June to break the impasse. European finance leaders, who are meeting in Brussels Monday, insist that Greece must stick to the harsh spending cuts that the last government agreed to in return for a massive bailout. But Syriza, which placed second in voting a week ago and could be the top vote-getter in fresh balloting, insists that the austerity measures are…

  • Will Germany cave in to the demands of Greece's anti-austerity parties?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 6:35 am
    In the aftermath of watershed elections this month, Greece's splintered political system is struggling to form a ruling coalition. The main obstacle is Syriza, a fringe party that rode to an unprecedented, second-place finish on a wave of popular anger against the government's harsh austerity programs, which have plunged Greece into its fifth year of a devastating recession. The European Union and the IMF had demanded that Greece put austerity measures in place in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout funds. Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras, says that the bailout terms…

  • Francois Hollande vs. Angela Merkel: A looming war over austerity?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 10:30 am
    Francois Hollande will not be inaugurated as France's president until May 15, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already pouring cold water on the signature promise of his campaign. Proclaiming that "Germany doesn't decide for all of Europe," Hollande had vowed to renegotiate a German-backed fiscal pact designed to shrink the budget deficits of European Union members by employing harsh austerity measures — spending cuts and tax hikes — that are now taking a heavy toll on voters and slowing economic growth. Merkel says she "will welcome Francois Hollande with open arms,"…

  • Greece's landmark elections: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    Greek voters sick and tired of restrictive austerity measures delivered a "stinging rebuke" to the debt-ravaged country's two main political parties on Sunday, plunging Greece into political turmoil. The two mainstream political groups, the conservative New Democracy party and the Socialist Pasok party, had backed the harsh conditions of the country's European bailout, but now they have lost their majority in parliament, and fringe left- and right-wing parties opposed to the austerity measures won more than 60 percent of the vote. What does this mean for Greece, and for Europe? Here, five key…

  • Francois Hollande: Is a Socialist French president a threat to the global economy?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 5:55 am
    François Hollande beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in France's run-off election on Sunday, becoming only the second Socialist Party president elected in post-war France, after François Mitterrand (1981-1995). Sarkozy, for his part, is only the second president in that same period to not win re-election. In his victory speech, Hollande reiterated his vow to renegotiate Europe's recent fiscal austerity–focused pact to save the euro, pledging to shift the EU's economic focus toward growth. "Austerity need not be Europe's fate," he told supporters. But the markets were…
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    The Week: Most Recent World Economy:Europe's Economic Crisis

  • Can a new election save Greece?

    The Week
    14 May 2012 | 9:55 am
    Greece's anti-austerity Syriza party refused to participate in last-ditch efforts to form a unity government Monday, making it increasingly likely that the debt-burdened country will have to hold new parliamentary elections in June to break the impasse. European finance leaders, who are meeting in Brussels Monday, insist that Greece must stick to the harsh spending cuts that the last government agreed to in return for a massive bailout. But Syriza, which placed second in voting a week ago and could be the top vote-getter in fresh balloting, insists that the austerity measures are…

  • Will Germany cave in to the demands of Greece's anti-austerity parties?

    The Week
    11 May 2012 | 7:35 am
    In the aftermath of watershed elections this month, Greece's splintered political system is struggling to form a ruling coalition. The main obstacle is Syriza, a fringe party that rode to an unprecedented, second-place finish on a wave of popular anger against the government's harsh austerity programs, which have plunged Greece into its fifth year of a devastating recession. The European Union and the IMF had demanded that Greece put austerity measures in place in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout funds. Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras, says that the bailout terms…

  • Francois Hollande vs. Angela Merkel: A looming war over austerity?

    The Week
    8 May 2012 | 11:30 am
    Francois Hollande will not be inaugurated as France's president until May 15, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already pouring cold water on the signature promise of his campaign. Proclaiming that "Germany doesn't decide for all of Europe," Hollande had vowed to renegotiate a German-backed fiscal pact designed to shrink the budget deficits of European Union members by employing harsh austerity measures — spending cuts and tax hikes — that are now taking a heavy toll on voters and slowing economic growth. Merkel says she "will welcome Francois Hollande with open arms,"…

  • Greece's landmark elections: 5 takeaways

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 4:15 pm
    Greek voters sick and tired of restrictive austerity measures delivered a "stinging rebuke" to the debt-ravaged country's two main political parties on Sunday, plunging Greece into political turmoil. The two mainstream political groups, the conservative New Democracy party and the Socialist Pasok party, had backed the harsh conditions of the country's European bailout, but now they have lost their majority in parliament, and fringe left- and right-wing parties opposed to the austerity measures won more than 60 percent of the vote. What does this mean for Greece, and for Europe? Here, five key…

  • Francois Hollande: Is a Socialist French president a threat to the global economy?

    The Week
    7 May 2012 | 6:55 am
    François Hollande beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in France's run-off election on Sunday, becoming only the second Socialist Party president elected in post-war France, after François Mitterrand (1981-1995). Sarkozy, for his part, is only the second president in that same period to not win re-election. In his victory speech, Hollande reiterated his vow to renegotiate Europe's recent fiscal austerity–focused pact to save the euro, pledging to shift the EU's economic focus toward growth. "Austerity need not be Europe's fate," he told supporters. But the markets were…
 
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