The Top 10 Everything of 2010

In 50 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months
Full List
Top 10 Albums
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening
The National, High Violet
Drake, Thank Me Later
Sufjan Stevens, Age of Adz
The Black Keys, Brothers
Yeasayer, Odd Blood
Big Boi, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Beach House, Teen Dream
Top 10 Animal Stories
Animals Fight to Survive the Oil Spill
The Reign of the Bedbugs
Orca Kills Sea World Trainer
Three Cheers For Paul the Psychic Octopus
Asian Carp Swim Towards the Great Lakes
FDA Considers Genetically Modified Salmon
Contagious Cancer Culprit Found in Tasmanian Devils
Lady Throws Cat in Dumpster, Unleashes the Rage of the Internet
Matador Hero Horrifically Gored
Giant Panda Accidentally Gassed to Death
Top 10 Apologies
Tiger Woods, to Everyone, for Cheating on His Wife
British PM David Cameron, to the Families of Victims of Bloody Sunday
Taylor Swift, to Taylor Lautner in Song
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, to Toyota Buyers
Mark McGwire, to Everyone, for Using Steroids
Veteran White House Reporter Helen Thomas, to Jews
John Mayer, to Everyone, for Using a Racial Epithet
Elisabeth Hasselbeck to Erin Andrews, for Making Light of Her Stalker
President Obama, to Guatemala, for U.S. Medical Experiments
Kanye West, Sort Of, to President Bush, for Calling Him a Racist
Top 10 Biz Deals
United Unites with Continental
General Motors' IPO
Sanofi-Aventis Makes Hostile Bid for Genzyme
MetLife Picks Up a Piece of AIG
Agriculture Bank of China Goes Public
Unilever Buys Alberto Culver
Warren Buffett Acquires a Successor
Private Equity Firm 3G Buys Burger King
Southwest Buys Airtran
IBM Sells 1% Bonds
Top 10 Buzzwords
Vuvuzela
Top Kill/Junk Shot/Static Kill/Top Hat
Bedbugs
Eyjafjallajokull
Austerity
Anchor Babies
Mama Grizzlies
Release the Kraken!
Double-dip
Bunga bunga
Top 10 Campaign Ads
Jerry Brown, "Echo"
Joe Sestak, "The Switch"
Ron Johnson, "57"
Michael Bennet, "Wake Up"
Lisa Murkowski, "Ted Stevens"
John McCain, "J.D. Huckster"
Joe Manchin, "Dead Aim"
Barbara Boxer, "Outsourcing"
Linda McMahon, "What Else?"
Rick Snyder, "One Tough Nerd"
Top 10 Comebacks
Conan O'Brien
General Motors
Eliot Spitzer
Lisa Murkowski
Betty White
Viktor Yanukovych
Paul Reubens
Kanye West
Michael Vick
Jerry Brown
Top 10 Crime Stories
Curtains for Joran van der Sloot?
Borderline Killings: When Murder Becomes Politics
The Broadway Bomber's Rough Opening
Belgium's Skydiving-Murderess Trial
The Trial of Elizabeth Smart's Abductor
Tyler Clementi and the Uproar Over Bullying
China's Epidemic of School Knifings
The Kamikaze Attack in Austin
Tenure Terror: The Case of Amy Bishop
The Murder of Yeardley Love
Top 10 Facebook Trends
The Facebook Movie: The Social Network
500 Million Users
Facebook Places Introduced
Celebrity Doppelganger Week
Zuckerberg Gives Millions to Newark Public Schools
Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigns
Queen Joins Facebook
Instant Messages Revealed
Privacy Snafus
Facebook E-mail
Top 10 Fashion Statements
Lady Gaga
M.I.A.
Venus Williams
Prince
Rihanna
Britney Spears
Rita Wilson
Taylor Momsen
Charo
Heidi Klum
Top 10 Feuds
Sarah Palin v. Levi Johnston
Anita Hill v. Ginni Thomas
The Tea Party v. the NAACP
Andrew Breitbart v. Shirley Sherrod
Jon Stewart v. Rick Sanchez
Bill O'Reilly v. The View
Danielle Staub v. the Rest of the Cast of The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Mia Farrow v. Naomi Campbell
Vienna Girardi v. Jake Pavelka
Lindsay Lohan v. the Judicial System
Top 10 Fiction Books
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
Wilson by Daniel Clowes
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Faithful Place by Tana French
Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
Steven Slater
Ardi Rizal
Alvin Greene
Colton Harris-Moore
Paul the Octopus
Jimmy McMillan
Jason Chen
Abby Sunderland
Jim Joyce
Jack Rebney
Top 10 Food Trends
The New Naturalism
Locavores Gone Wild!
Lardcore
Fast-Food Dada
Pop-Up Restaurants
The Culinary Hive Mind
Dude Food
Third-Wave Coffee
It's in the Bag
Black Market, White Milk
Top 10 Gadgets
iPad
Samsung Galaxy S
11-In. MacBook Air
Google TV Via Logitech Revue
Nexus One
iPhone 4
Apple TV
Toshiba Libretto Dual-Screen Laptop
Kinect
Nook Color
Top 10 Green Stories
The Oil Spill — and What It Didn't Change
The Death of Cap-and-Trade
The UN Climate Process Falls Flat
Prop 23 Is Defeated
California Embarks on Cap-and-Trade
Lake Mead Is Drying Up
The IPCC Screws Up
The Electric Car Finally Arrives
Trend Alert! Collaborative Consumption
Nations Agree to Slow Biodiversity Loss
Top 10 iPhone Apps
Netflix
Groupon
iMovie
Springpad
Twitter
Dragon Dictation
Petfinder
Hulu Plus
iBooks
Nike + GPS
Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
Conan v. Leno: Tonight Show Smackdown
Stewart Rallies for Sanity
Colbert Rallies for Fear
Bush Sees the Light
Glenn Beck's Crying Game
Obama: Just What the Republicans Needed
Woods' Wife Wins
An Off-Color Midterm Strategy
Client No. 9 Does TV
Conan's (Basic Cable) Return
Top 10 Magazine Covers
Rolling Stone, November 2010
National Geographic, April 2010
Wallpaper, August 2010
W, November 2010
The New Yorker, March 29, 2010
Mad, May 2010
Harper's Bazaar, April 2010
ESPN the Magazine, October 2010
The Economist, Oct. 9, 2010
Martha Stewart Living for the iPad, November 2010
Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
AIDS Drugs Lower the Risk of HIV Infection
Synthetic Cell
Blood Test for Alzheimer's
FDA Approves Botox for Migraines
Taking the Resuscitation Out of CPR
The FDA Restricts Avandia
Blood Test for Heart Attack
Predicting IVF Success
Artificial Ovary
Creating iPS Cells Safer and Faster
Top 10 Movie Performances
Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Colin Firth as King George VI in The King's Speech
Edgar Ramírez as Ilich Ramírez Sánchez in Carlos
Jacki Weaver as Janine (Smurf) in Animal Kingdom
Tilda Swinton as Emma Recchi in I Am Love
Christian Bale as Dickie Eklund in The Fighter
Chloë Grace Moretz as Mindy in Kick Ass
Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in True Grit
Emma Stone as Olive in Easy A
Angela Wesselman as Abby Pierce et al. in Catfish
Top 10 Movies
Toy Story 3
Inside Job
Never Let Me Go
Life During Wartime
The Social Network
Rabbit Hole
Wild Grass
Green Zone
Waiting for 'Superman'
Four Lions
Top 10 New Species
Beaked Toad
Darwin's Bark Spider
High-Altitude Tree Ant
Mossula Katydid
Pea-Sized Pitcher Plant Frog
Ecuadorean Glass Frog
Giant Woolly Rat
Tube-Nosed Fruit Bat
Bluetooth Tarantula
Five-Foot Penguin
Top 10 Nonfiction Books
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy
Brilliant by Jane Brox
War by Sebastian Junger
Life by Keith Richards
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier
Top 10 Numbers
206 million
466,743
1,951
$16.36
2%
$140 million
$1,424.50
$2.7 billion
$75,000
193%
Top 10 Oddball News Stories
The $8 Million iPhone
The Mystery Missile That Wasn't
The 2-Year-Old Smoker
Kobayashi: From Competitive-Eating Champion to Jailbird
King Tut's Penis: Missing?
Is That a Time Traveler on the Charlie Chaplin DVD?
Fired for Excessive Beauty?
Life in the Time of Vuvuzelas
The Way of the Samurai Porn Star
The U.S. Wishes the Queen Happy Birthday — on the Wrong Day
Top 10 Overreported Stories
Being Sarah Palin
Chelsea Clinton's Wedding
Bewitched by Christine O'Donnell
The Mortalizing of Barack Obama
Gordon Brown's 'Bigotgate'
Giving Terry Jones a Platform
LeBron James' 'Decision'
Bieber Fever
Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite
Kanye's Beautiful, Dark Twittered Fantasy
Top 10 Pictures
Nameless Victim
Tragedy in Haiti
The Chilean Miners are Found
Volcanic Eruption in Iceland
Flooding in Pakistan
Afghanistan Votes
Uprising in Kyrgyzstan
Troop Drawdown in Iraq
Southern Sudan Prepares to Vote
A Soldier's Final Resting Place
Top 10 Plays and Musicals
When the Rain Stops Falling
Venice
The Little Foxes
La Cage aux Folles
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
A View from the Bridge
A True History of the Johnstown Flood
Come Fly Away
Mistakes Were Made
The Scottsboro Boys
Top 10 Quotes
McCain Makes a U-Turn
VP Says It Plain
Hayward "Apologizes"
George Bush Really Cares About Kanye West
A Papal Apology
An Exasperated Obama
Don't Put Your Hands on Me
Hawking Shocks with Predictable Statement
Make Up Your Mind Already!
Putin's Just Sayin'
Top 10 Political Gaffes
Joe Biden and the BFD
Harry Reid's Bad Delivery of Good News
Michael Steele's Short-Lived Afghan Withdrawal
Gibbs and the "Professional Left"
Jan Brewer Draws a Blank
Christine O'Donnell Flubs the First Amendment
Martha Coakley's Unforced Error
Sharron Angle's Ethnic Eye Test
Obama Plagued by the Middle East
Palin's North Korean Allies
Top 10 Reality-TV Moments
Simon Signs Off
A Real Housewife Crashes a White House Party
A Look Behind the Curtain on The Hills
Bridalplasty Bombs
The Watermelon Incident
Sister Wives Investigated
A Death in the Family
Bristol Palin Dances in a Gorilla Suit
Sarah Palin's Alaska Premieres
The Jersey Shore Takes Miami
Top 10 Religion Stories
Park51: The "Ground Zero Mosque"
The Vatican and the Child Abuse Scandal
The Bankruptcy of the Crystal Cathedral
Franklin Graham vs. the Muslims
The Rev. Terry Jones Threatens to Burn Korans
Women Priests, In Spite of the Vatican
The Pope Doesn't Quite Endorse Condoms
Christians Under Attack in the Middle East
Obama Decides Not to Visit the Golden Temple
The Vatican and Homer Simpson
Top 10 Scandals
Woman Returns Son to Sender
Sarah Ferguson Sells the Prince for a Price
Jesse James Cheats on Sandra Bullock with Tattooed Lady
Mel Gibson Loses His Cool — and Any Vestigial Public Goodwill
Small City, Big Pay Scandal
Flight Attendant Goes Awol
Charlie Sheen Trashes Hotel Room
Katy Perry Barred From Sesame Street
Dora the Explorer Sues Nickelodeon
CEO Loses Job Because of Money and Sex
Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
The Horniest Dinosaur That Ever Lived
Big News About a Small Particle
Our (Sort of) Watery Moon
The Robot Sleuth and the Mexican Tunnel
Getting Old? Blame This Gene
Planet Population Explodes
The Ultimate Magician's Cape
Meet the Ancestors
A New Element — Maybe
The Drinking Cat
Top 10 Songs
Cee Lo Green, "F___ You"
Janelle Monáe, "Tightrope"
Kanye West, "Power"
Arcade Fire, "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
Eminem featuring Rihanna, "Love the Way You Lie"
Yeasayer, "Ambling Alp"
Jónsi, "Animal Arithmetic"
Drake, "Find Your Love"
Elizabeth Cook, "All the Time"
Sleigh Bells, "Rill Rill"
Top 10 Sports Moments
Baseball's Imperfect Game
LeBron's Bad Decision
A College Basketball Cinderella Comes Oh So Close
Football Uses Its Head
Ghana's World Cup Giveaway
McDowell's Ryder Cup Magic
Saints Come Marching On
The Three-Day Duel at Wimbledon
Rochette Brightens the Games for Canada
Making Cricket History
Top 10 Talented Web Videos
Happy Together/Paper Planes Lip Dub
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
OK Go, "White Knuckles"
Up & Over it: We No Speak Americano
Last Minutes with ODEN
Carly Sakolove: Broadway Divas "Send in the Clowns"
The Johnny Cash Project
35mm
Take Care
2 Guys 600 Pillows (Backwards Music Video)
Top 10 Toys
Sing-a-ma-jigs
Morphology
LEGO Board Games
Toy Story Mania
Paper Jamz
Doodle Track Car
Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera
Razor Sole Skate
Computer Engineer Barbie
Disney Princess & Me Doll
Top 10 Travel Moments
Iceland's Volcano Snarls European Air Traffic
Steven Slater's JetBlue Freak-Out
"Don't Touch My Junk" and the TSA
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Kills New York–New Jersey Tunnel
4,500 Carnival Cruise Passengers Stranded
China's 62-Mile-Long Traffic Jam
Virgin Galactic's First Commercial Spaceflight
World's Longest Tunnel Completed in Switzerland
Kevin Smith: Too Fat to Fly Southwest?
United and Continental Merge, Forming World's Largest Airline
Top 10 TV Commercials
Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Snickers: Betty White
Nike: Write the Future
Google: Parisian Love
Windows Phone: Really?
Nike: What Should I Do?
Subaru: Baby Driver
Coca-Cola: Hard Times
GEICO: This Little Piggy
Bridgestone: Bachelor Party
Top 10 TV Episodes
Friday Night Lights, "The Son"
Mad Men, "The Suitcase"
Community, "Modern Warfare"
Breaking Bad, "One Minute"
Fringe, "Peter"
Louie, "Bully"
Lost, "The End"
Treme, "Do You Know What It Means" (Pilot)
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, Final Episode
Justified, "Fire in the Hole" (Pilot)
Top 10 TV Series
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
Parks and Recreation
Louie
Boardwalk Empire
Party Down
The Pacific
The Good Wife
Rubicon
Terriers
Top 10 Tweets
John McCain
Sarah Palin
Kevin Smith
Kanye West
Lindsay Lohan
Angie Jackson
Roger Ebert
Bill Cosby
Russell Brand
Dustin Curtis
Top 10 Twitter Moments
Kanye West Joins Twitter
Conan O'Brien's Twitter Wit
Justin Bieber, Trending No More
Library of Congress Archives Tweets
New Twitter Design
From Twitter Feed to Hit Sitcom
Journalist Freed After Tweets
MTV Selects Twitter Jockey
Ivy Bean, Oldest User, Dies
@BPGlobalPR: Oil-Spill Satire
Top 10 World News Stories
Haiti Earthquake
WikiLeaks
Chilean Miners
Pakistan Floods
North Korea's Year of Bad Behavior
South Africa World Cup
Yemen: New Front of the War on Terror
Europe Austerity Measures
Mexico Drug War
Thai Red Shirts
Top 10 Underreported Stories
The Outcome in Iraq
Jihadists Take Somalia
Mass Rape in the Congo
Health Care Fraud
Iran's Internal Power Struggle
Transparency in Medical Research
America's Natural-Gas Boom
The Rise of Europe's Anti-immigrant Right
Another War in Sudan?
No Shame on Wall Street
Top 10 U.S. News Stories
The BP Oil Spill
Rise of the Tea Party
Obama's Quagmire: Health Care
Obama's Quagmire II: The Economy
U.S. Islamophobia
McChrystal and the War in Afghanistan
Arizona's Strict Immigration Law
US-China Tensions
The Arrival of the iPad
The Supreme Court Sides With Citizens United
Top 10 Video Games
Alan Wake
Angry Birds
Red Dead Redemption
Halo: Reach
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Limbo
Super Meat Boy
Super Street Fighter IV
Starcraft II
Mass Effect 2
Top 10 Viral Videos
Double Rainbow
Merton on Chatroulette
Bed Intruder
OK Go, "This Too Shall Pass"
Old Spice, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"
General Larry Platt, "Pants on the Ground"
Insane Clown Posse, "Miracles"
Next Media Animation
"Trololo" Guy
Phil Davison
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