- December 21, 2011 • 5:30 am PST
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Life is tough. Pictures help. Click through for the top 10 illustrated rule sets that helped us get through 2011, from to a pregnancy test play-by-play to 10 steps for stopping (and starting, and stopping) smoking.

1
A Geodesic Dome Promises Fish from the Sky
2
Debunking 'Green Living': Combatting Climate Change Requires Lifestyle Changes, Not Organic Products
3
TED's Taboo: What's Too Controversial for the Hipster Confab?
4
Billr: The App for Dining on a Budget (Without Annoying Your Friends)
5
What Country Has the Best Higher Education System?
1
In a Majority-Minority Nation, Numbers Aren't Everything
2
Facebook Doesn't Need Your Money; Invest in Africa Instead
3
Juilliard Brings Online Music Education to the Masses
4
Sleep Better: 4 Ways to Manipulate Your Melatonin Levels #30DaysofGOOD
5
A Place in the Sun: 5 DIY Projects for Summer Lounging
today's top stories from our friends at pitchfork

This pamphlet is worth looking at—even if you're not selling hot dogs, used books, or knock-off designer handbags.

Ten food stories you should read this year (or next year).

It was a record year for solar power, but we also had the Deepwater Horizon spill. A look back at the major events in energy in 2010.
Terrible news coming out of North Korea: After a five-day closed trial, the two journalists nabbed by NK authorities were sentenced to 12 years in...

From foraging to First Lady's anti-obesity campaign, the year in good eating, drinking, and thinking.

Nine steps toward staying calm when you're freaking out.

Abby Falik wants a year abroad between high school and college to be as mainstream a pursuit as Teach for America.
Erin Hanson is a photographer and artist who's trying to live a healthier, happier life. For a series of works called "Need to Want Less," she...
From Boing Boing comes this video, by Al Jazeera, which offers one look at a legal battle between a resident of the polluted Niger Delta and...

Almost every major urban school districts saw leadership shakeups this year. Here are some of the biggest.
Samy is in Bangkok—over 100 miles away from the one place he’s ever legally allowed to be. After Google Latitudes abruptly alerted me to the...

The state that brought you Lauren Conrad, the Black Eyed Peas, and gangster rap goes hard with education reform, too.

Designer Caz Hildebrand and chef Jacob Kenedy's new cookbook pairs Italian recipes with her striking black and white drawings.

Calling all artists! We're challenging you to illustrate the news.

We asked you to visually depict a news story. Here are some of our favorite entries.

Another phenomenal (if incomplete) infographic from The New York Times. Remember PanAm?
In this, another of those fantastic RSAnimate videos from London's Royal Society for the Arts, the Marxist sociologist David Harvey explains how...

The "Bush tax cuts," enacted in 2001 and 2003, are set to expire at the end of the year. Democrats want to let them expire for families with an...

The camp may be gone, but Occupy Oakland lives on.
What exactly are you getting when you go for a doctoral degree? Several years of schooling? For sure. Hyper-specialization in a particular...