BY: TREVOR HEWITT Who says that humans and animals can’t become family? Every year, Jinjing the penguin treks thousands of miles to be with the man who saved his life. It was in 2011 that retired bricklayer João Pereira de…
Apparently there are incredible 100-mile wide volcanoes on Pluto that spew ice instead of lava
BY: ALEXANDRIA LEE Among discoveries of blue skies and red patches of ice, Pluto proves to amaze once again. The typical volcanoes spew lava, but the dwarf planet defies normalcy by having its formations emit ice. The New Horizons spacecraft,…
Psychedelic therapy removes the negative experiences surrounding hallucinogenics
BY: SYDNEY MCINNIS Psychedelics: a collection of chemicals that are meant to expand consciousness. This expansion of awareness is explored by people for all sorts of purposes, many of which are explored in the book Be Here Now by Ram…
A 5-year-long vaccination campaign has nearly cured the “meningitis belt” of Africa
BY: LISA CUMMING In 2013, the “meningitis belt” of Africa that spans from Senegal to Ethiopia had reported just four laboratory cases of Type A. In 1996 the deadly disease killed 25,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa within the space of…
Despite what you may think, video games give us the tools to be heroes in real life
BY: ERIK HUSTON With Fallout 4 now released, gamers everywhere will be hunkering down for a long winter of blasting mutants. Video games like Fallout get people really hyped up, and it all has to do with the immersion. The…
This guy turned a 1970s retro caravan into a darkroom to take his photography on the road
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Photographer Paul Alsop lives on the island of New Zealand, where finding anything ‘wet plate’ related is a mission. There is no online community, such as eBay, to search for old supplies, and the chemicals have to…
New video reveals the truth behind female beauty trends throughout history
BY: ALEXANDRIA LEE Seeking to include the roles of everyday women, a costume blogger has created a video showcasing the makeup and outfit styles of “Beauty Through the Decades.” Domowa Kostiumologia (an alias) sought to create a more realistic portrayal…
Muslims are fighting media Islamophobia by tweeting racist stories that actually happened to them
BY: TYLER FYFE Philip Zimbardo once wrote: “sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can sometimes kill you.” Professor Zimbardo is the psychologist known for the Stanford Prison Experiment where he proved that otherwise reasonable people could be influenced…
Here are 10 things you need to know about the UN climate change summit to be environmentally-literate
BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS Talk of the 2015 United Nations climate change summit has been dominating the headlines recently. Maybe you haven’t been reading up on everything you should be, and now it seems like you’re too far behind to catch…
The Lotus Belle tent will let you escape the rent trap for forest luxury
BY: EDITORS The feeling of tentatively stepping out of a dew-damp sleeping bag into daybreak, then stretching a spine like a twisted slinky is all-too-familiar for anyone who has ever slept in a tent on uneven ground. That’s why New…
Arctic zombie plants are coming back from cryogenically frozen death to haunt the living
BY: DAVID LAO The northern reaches of the Canadian Arctic, a barren, beautiful land freezing with life and surprising diversity. There exists a multitude of species up in the North – seals, polar bears, narwhals, House Stark. There is, however,…
Why eating bugs instead of meat could help save the planet
BY: ERIK HUSTON I recently watched a TED Talk by Marcel Dicke, in which he explains how locusts – basically large grasshoppers – are the “shrimp of the land.” At first I thought this talk was another far-fetched solution to…
Japanese art-form is home to the most bizarre “un-useless” products you never knew you needed
BY: ERIC ZDANCEWICZ Follow Eric on Instagram Japan has long been an exporter of the most amazing creations to bless American culture. Aside from the music, food and zen philosophies, Japanese art has deeply influenced cultures around the globe, beginning…
China is fighting “digital heroin” by shipping Internet addicts to a controversial bootcamp
BY: MELISSA BOODOO Young men line up in rows beside barrack-style bunkbeds wearing camo uniforms. But this isn’t some sort of military boot camp, it’s a rehab centre for Chinese addicts of “digital heroin.” It is believed that 24 million…
The Dalai Lama on why prayers can’t end a problem that religious dogma created
BY: TYLER FYFE When the Dalai Lama speaks, you should probably listen. For 50 years he has practiced the buddhist tradition of Bodhisattva, spending his entire life pursuing public service instead of self-benefit. In 1989, he was awarded the…
A new self-sustaining eco-garden is controlled by a swipe on your phone screen
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Instead of compulsively checking your Facebook notifications, why not monitor and control the health of a garden that will supply you and your family or roommates with daily organic, homegrown meals? Aquaponics is a gardening system that…
SeaWorld is now getting rid of its killer whale show entirely – but only in San Diego
BY: SYDNEY MCINNIS If you’ve ever seen Blackfish or have visited a SeaWorld yourself, then you’ve certainly witnessed the theatrical, and extremely controversial, Shamu show, which sees killer whales performing flipping and diving tricks through dancing fountains, led by a…
Mortgage-phobia is changing the way young couples co-exist
BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS Ice covers the winding Snoqualmie Pass in the early winter months, granting only the riskiest of travellers access over the 3,022 foot elevated summit and through to Seattle’s downtown core. The area is part of the Cascade…
Stress and over-tiredness are cracking the foundation of the American Family
BY: TYLER FYFE Overcrowded offices and empty houses—this is a still life of contemporary America. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, the sagging skin under the eyes of the workforce is not a symptom of American…
Addicts of the world’s most dangerous drug are rotting while they are still alive
BY: LISA CUMMING Krokodil will literally eat you from the inside out. This poor man’s heroin, an opiate derivative of codeine, is ravaging the lower class in Russia because a) it’s dirt-cheap and b) it can be made completely from…