And there are achievements that have been hard-won.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama at Forum on American Latino Heritage

This may be its make-or-break year in terms of reputation, especially as shoppers are looking for a little more than free champagne to get those hard-won Prada wallets to open.

FORBES: Nightmare on FNO Street

Thick, hard-won surfaces, also suggestive of van Gogh, are already crucial in these works.

WSJ: Clyfford Still Museum | Irascible Still | By Karen Wilkin

But many Chileans are no longer prepared to ignore what they see as flaws in their hard-won democracy in exchange for political stability and economic growth.

ECONOMIST: Pent-up frustration at the flaws of a successful democracy

While it may not give you quite the graphic glimpse as some of the recent CT scanners we've seen, a group of researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark think their new and improved x-ray system still won't have any trouble catching on, and the results are certainly hard to argue with.

ENGADGET: X-rays get boost from "dark field" technology