Year in Review: E.U. wins Nobel Prize for developing vending machine that accepts all 27 members' coins

"It's simply remarkable that a single vending machine can accept that many different coins," said Thorbjørn Jagland, the chairman of Norway's Nobel Committee. "I mean, talk about advocating peace. I can't tell you how frustrated I would become when my Austrian coins would not work in France, or Italian coins in Belgium. All twenty-seven E.U. members pitched in to make this happen. The machines even accept Norwegian coins and we're not even in the E.U. Congratulations on a job well done, you deserve it."