The Animal Kingdom Has Been Up to Some Freaky Sexual Antics Lately

Some seals have taken a liking to sex with penguins while an octopus was found to have strangled its lover; meanwhile, 2014 was filled with protests and strikes along with technology failures. These discoveries and more below.

Seals Discovered Having Sex with Penguins Fur seals have been caught engaging in an extreme form of sexual behaviour. Specifically, trying to have sex with penguins.

The Octopus That Strangled Its Lover to Death In a single, extraordinary act, a female octopus surprises her mate, and changes how we think of her kind.

The Appalling Career of Michael Grimm Michael Grimm’s pugnacious career in government service ended with a whimper on Monday night, with an after-hours statement announcing his resignation from Congress.

Is Bernie Sanders’ Best Option to Run for President As a Green? Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s independent U.S. senator, last week told a home state reporter that he will decide by March if he will run for president as an independent or a Democrat. But there’s a third major option Sanders hasn’t mentioned: running as a Green.

The Top Technology Failures of 2014 What do the latest technologies to flop, fizzle, and flame out tell us about innovation?

Fox News’ #OverIt2014 Twitter Campaign Hysterically Backfires Fox News asked people on Twitter to share what they are “over.” Guess what happened next?

100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year Before you start on getting on with 2015, have a look back at the BBC’s almanac of the best unexpected facts of 2014.

2014: The Year in Troublemaking The year had a spirited and determined feel. Every time we turned around there was another sit-in or strike, ingenious job action or raucous flash mob.

What Hillary Seems to Have Known in 1994, but Since Then Forgot? Hillary Clinton once said, “I believe that by the year 2000 we will have a single payer system,” with regards to health care in the U.S.

The Meaning of ‘Culture’ There’s something innately funny about Merriam-Webster’s announcement, earlier this month, that “culture” is their 2014 Word of the Year.

Are We Living in the Age of the Brain? Understanding the brain won’t be done simply by mapping it down to the last synapse.

What Is the Point of Academic Books? Ultimately, they’re meant to disseminate knowledge. But their narrow appeal makes them expensive to produce and harder to sell.

The Weird Connections Between Hearing and Taste Sound guides us every moment of every day.