In terms of weather, 2011 has made it into the record books. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that during this year, there have been 12 different weather disasters that cost more than $1 billion. The previous record was nine in 2008.

A few more facts from NOAA:

-- "These twelve disasters alone resulted in the tragic loss of 646 lives, with the National Weather Service reporting over 1,000 deaths across all weather categories for the year."

Thousands of jobless Ohioans are in danger of running out of their unemployment benefits early next year, if Congress doesn't renew a federal extension of benefits. Ben Johnson is with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

"70,000 people will exhaust their unemployment compensation in January, another 36, 000, almost 37,000 in February, about 58,000 in March and more than 10,000 between March and June but the numbers are smaller," says Johnson.

A couple of years ago, NPR's Robert Siegel had a 5-year-old kid moment.

He was in the new wing of a hospital watching a workman put up drywall and, as drywall installers are wont to do, the workman reached the top of the wall by walking on stilts.

The 5-year-old inside the radio host was suddenly enchanted by the thought of stilts, so Siegel set out to learn more; first through Google, then from Joe Bowen, who walked more than 3,000 miles across the country on stilts in 1980.

Greece fudged its budget numbers to enter the euro club, and its reputation as a source of accurate financial figures never really improved. As the country's financial crisis has worsened, the joke about its suspect fiscal numbers comes with the punch line, "lies, damn lies ... and Greek statistics."

The country sought to improve its standing last year when it created a new and independent statistical service, the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

The new and ever-changing world of social networking has blurred the lines between private and public, work and personal, friend and stranger. It's becoming a particular challenge for teachers who can quickly rile students and parents by posting comments or photos online.

In some cases, teachers have been fired for statements they've made on Facebook, which is raising free speech issues.

Candidates who want to run for one of Ohio’s 16 Congressional seats have to file petitions today, even though the primary they’d run in isn’t set till June. Ohio Public Radio’s Karen Kasler reports that’s because there’s still talk about merging that primary with the ones set for March into some other springtime date.

This summer, NPR told the story of a young man in Syria who worked a regular job by day and was a protester by night. At the end of that story, the activist made a prediction that was later tweeted to thousands of people: "One day my time is coming. Until the world realizes what's happening in Syria, they will try and get us all."

Many weeks later, his prediction came true.

Reuters reports that today protesters in Moscow faced a huge increase in security presence that essentially stopped a mass protest against last weekend's parliamentary elections.