Zach Wener-Fligner

Across the globe, 2014 was a difficult year that eroded trust in businesses and institutions.

The world’s biggest social media company is rapidly growing its headcount. According to a Reuters report, Facebook is aiming to add 1,200 employees—which would represent a 14% increase to its current workforce—judging by openings listed on its jobs site.

Elon Musk just keeps doing Elon Musk things.

The Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, 3,000 feet of sheer, smooth granite, has been called the most difficult climb in the world.

Editors’ note (Jan. 27): Since this piece was published, the creator of ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com has told the New York Observer that it was an elaborate stunt aimed at drumming up web traffic and media attention. While it appears he did send glitter as advertised, we would have written the piece differently had we contacted the creator, Mathew Carpenter, and gotten his perspective. We are now looking into it further.

Less than a week after gunmen murdered 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the satirical magazine has released the cover of its latest issue. It features a drawing of the Prophet Muhammed shedding a tear and holding a sign with the words “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”), a slogan representing a cry of support for free speech in the aftermath of the attacks. Above Muhammed are the words “Tout Est Pardonné” (“All is forgiven”).

You can soon say goodbye to the tangle of wires that make your backpack or handbag miserable. Tiny, unobtrusive (and perhaps incredibly hard to keep track of) wireless earbuds are about to hit the market in droves.

By all accounts, the Ferrari LaFerrari is a very nice vehicle. It’s got sultry curves and a V-12 engine, can go from zero to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds and zero to 100 mph in 5.1 seconds.

Nike sneakers like the ones Marty McFly wore in the 1989 movie Back to the Future II—with laces that tighten up all by themselves—will likely hit the market in 2015, the same year that they appear in the time-traveling film.

In 15 years, the almost-400 mile trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles may take no more than three hours aboard America’s first bullet train.

The Sony Walkman is back.

D-Link’s new wireless routers look like the future, and they act like it, too.

It’s a Christmas tragedy for video game-lovers.

Christmas is finally here.

In December 1999, NASA launched Terra, the flagship satellite of the Earth Observing System, outfitted with a whole rig of sophisticated instruments for collecting data on our planet.

The Orion, which took its first unmanned test flight Dec. 5, launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida and orbiting for four and a half hours before splashing into the Pacific Ocean, is NASA’s latest human-rated spacecraft project, and probably the most ambitious ever. Its ultimate goal, like the Apollo program 45 years ago, is to take humans to places they’ve never gone before. In 1969, that meant the Moon. This time, the destination is Mars, and the Orion might take a crew there by 2021.

Green Mountain Keurig, the Massachusetts-based maker of coffee machines known for their single-serving “K-Cup” pods, has announced the recall of its Mini Plus Brewing System, due to a malfunction that can make the brewer spray hot water.

Untangling cause and effect can be devilishly difficult.

Lego has catered to young tinkerers and nascent engineers since it first introduced its signature interlocking blocks in 1949. But the Danish firm is now trying to appeal to a more professional crowd with a new product that targets architects and urban designers. Yes, for adults.

US president Barack Obama announced plans yesterday to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and ease travel and trade restrictions. And that means now Cuba’s famed rum and cigars can be brought legally into the US.

Thanks to state and federal grants, public colleges and universities have historically been the most economical way to get a good education in the United States.

British bobbies may soon be ditching caps and tunics for a striking new digital look.

Many of the students now applying to US colleges and universities have almost no idea what it will really cost to go there, should they be accepted.

Another year, another few trillion internet searches.