As 2012 draws to a close, it's very important to figure out what, exactly, 2012 was the year of. The dragon? The election? The Olympics? New practical thermoelectric power generators? To help figure it out we've assembled 58 articles explaining why 2012 was the year of...

Earlier this year, we asked if you remembered Afghanistan. The answer then, obviously but somewhat unofficially, was no. Now, with the release of several news organization's year-end top stories lists, we know that, objectively, no one gives a shit about the 11-year-old war.

Much has been made of Ben Affleck's "possible Senate run" over the past 48 hours, mostly from cable news anchors, and mostly sourced to an interview on CBS' Face the Nation in which Affleck said "one never knows" when asked about possible political ambitions.

The clever editors at the Kansas City Star have come up with a way to make layoffs fun. For them, at least. Reporters Karen Dillon and Dawn Bormann have reportedly been told by management that one of them must go, and it's up to the two of them to decide who it is.

Just over a week since the New York Post ran its hugely controversial cover photo of a man about to be crushed to death by a train—headline: "DOOMED"—another man was killed in New York City, and the Post again decided to broadcast an imminent death on its cover.

The Boston Globe has interviewed Barney Frank, along with some of his friends and fellow representatives, as he prepares to leave office and take up private life, where he will hopefully find a way to capitalize on his increasing resemblance to the late Buddy Hackett. There are a lot of wonderful takeaways in this article, assuming you choose not to focus on the recent redistricting or the current state of the House of Representatives but instead on the fun stuff.

After the quite-good Comedy Issue of Vanity Fair (guest edited by Judd Apatow) was released this week, I was a little surprised to learn that it was only the third single-subject guest-edited issue in the magazine's history. Bono's "Africa" Issue (which focused on just...all of Africa, I suppose) seemed more in keeping with the magazine's general approach of describing lavish fundraisers and celebrity chandeliers than excellent Freaks and Geeks retrospectives and Tig Notaro interviews.

Perhaps you have already been following reporter Paul Salopek's Out of Eden project, a seven-year attempt to follow the migration patterns of early humans as they radiated outward from East Africa's Great Rift Valley across Europe and Asia to the New World. Perhaps you already follow him as he details his preparations for the trip on Twitter and have found your throat enveloped by the haggard claw of envy as you picture how much of the next seven years you'll spend sitting in front of a desk as this intrepid journeyman fulfills the deepest longing of your once-adventurous heart. If you have not yet heard of it, however, you are in for a true delight; as the Nieman Lab reports, Salopek will be broadcasting narratives from his journey every 100 miles or so.

R. Umar Abbasi, the freelance photographer who took the controversial photo of pushed subway patron Ki Suk Han prior to his demise, spoke out today against "armchair critics" who believe he should have done more to help the victim.

A freelance photographer working for the New York Post on an unrelated assignment happened to be standing on the 49th Street station platform when 58-year-old Queens resident Ki Suk Han was suddenly pushed onto the tracks by an as-yet-unidentified assailant.

A thorough, deliberate hatchet job is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is for this reason no one could remove their eyes from Pete Well's review of Guy's American Kitchen & Bar last month; it is for this reason that Adam Mars-Jones was given an award by newly-minted Hatchet Job of the Year for dismantling Michael Cunningham's (of "The Hours? They should call this thing The Weeks!" fame) new book, By Nightfall, earlier this year.

The anchors on Chicago's WGN-TV are certainly no strangers to embarrassing themselves. So it's a good thing they have some experience, because the broadcast this morning was a delight.

What's life without cheap thrills, really? And no thrill is cheaper than a reporter struggling to maintain composure live on television as his world crumbles around him.

For years, the world has gazed at Rihanna's tour plane from a distance — watching the mysterious and guarded vehicle from afar, hearing only small snippets of news from Rihanna-controlled media organs, relying entirely on accounts of refugees and political exiles. But in a historic display of glasnost, the Barbadian pop star has invited hundreds (literally! 200!) of journalists and fans to join her on a Boeing 777 for a seven-day, seven-country, seven-concert mini-tour, called #777Tour (pronounced: hashtag-seven-seven-seven-tour).

Alex Myers is an Australian exchange student currently studying journalism at SUNY Oswego, part of New York's state university system. Last month he was given a class assignment to produce a profile on a public figure. He chose Oswego men's hockey coach Ed Gosek and began in the standard manner: he reached out to Gosek's colleagues in the sport.

Brian Williams thinks Donald Trump has "driven well past the last exit to relevance." He thinks he is "irresponsible." Brian Williams was not amused by Donald Trump's unraveled tweeting.

Two reporters/practical joke columnists (really) who worked for a Kyrgyzstan paper decided to step up their joke game in a normal, reasonable way, which was: by kidnapping the host of an popular entertainment show at gun point and forcing her to strip and dance for them.

The ascent of Twitter has been wonderful for the democratization and quickening of news and information. A few decades ago, it might take days for a person in California to see pictures of a disaster that took place in New York. Today, all a person needs is a smartphone and an internet connection and, with Twitter, they can be their own photojournalist, updating the site's millions of global users with up-to-the-minute images of events like Hurricane Sandy.

Soledad O'Brien welcomed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on her CNN show Starting Point this morning. The conversation was about Libya at first, until it was about Rudy Giuliani's weird spin room denial answers.

As you were reading your paper edition of the Wall Street Journal today, you may have noticed the GIANT ad toward the front of the Marketplace section, in which Billy Graham tells you how to vote in the upcoming election.