​2014 is over. Though (as usual) our new headlines were mostly harrowing, with the tragic disappearance of Malaysian airlines Flight 370, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and the rapidly growing power of Isis in the Middle East, just to name a few. Still, the world continues to keep moving forward. Here’s a look back on a few of the highlights of the year.

If it wasn’t for North Korea’s terrible human rights record, after the Sony leak, I’d be tempted to sit down with Kim Jong Un and give him a hug. Not because of the film leaks that the news media capitalized on, but the top-secret marketing slides that North Korean hackers released as well. A quick look at the central ideas for the marketing campaign of Gorwn Ups 2 and Smurfs (featured here on gawker.com: http://gawker.com/sonys-embarrassing-powerpoints-are-even-worst-than-thei-1666403941) show that North Koreans aren’t the only ones out of touch with the rest of the world.

The shooting of Mike Brown in August by police officer Darren Wilson, who despite reasonable amounts of eyewitness testimony failed to be indicted for Brown’s death, resulted in a large-scale protest in Brown’s hometown of Ferguson, Missouri. The details of Brown’s case, as well as the police reaction to the protests, spawned a national movement  which highlighted issues with racial profiling that have resulted in a harrowing amount of unnecessary deaths at the hands of police officers. As the movement grew with the help of social media and protests in solidarity with those in Ferguson were held nationwide, including one at the Mall of America, which resulted in the arrest of 20.