BY: KAROUN CHAHINIAN When not distracted by cheap souvenirs, travelling has the power to give you a competitive advantage when it comes to creativity. Many people are convinced that they return from a trip as a completely different person, while…
The first food grown in a floating greenhouse in space was just eaten
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA The first food grown in a microgravity environment—the only lettuce ever harvested without an atmosphere— was just consumed by NASA astronauts at the International Space Station. This means big things for space agriculture, and for the…
This extraordinary Mexican festival is a mecca of witches, shamans, warlocks and psychics
BY: MATTHEW CHIN The small city of Catemaco located in Veracruz, is a mecca for magic in Mexico. The idyllic, scenic town sits by Lake Catemaco, next to the remnants of a rainforest and harbours a community of brujos—sorcerers who…
A woman reads to caged dogs at the pound so they know they’re not unwanted
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA Take a moment to imagine being locked inside a kennel waiting for an owner who might never come. According to the ASPCA, 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, 2.7 million animals are…
A new gang documentary is based on the blood bath of the real-life Warriors.
BY: M. TOMOSKI The Cross Bronx Expressway is a slow-moving six-lane wall of traffic that cuts right through the centre of the northern New York borough for which it was named. It was the brainchild of urban planner Robert Moses,…
Here are the best real-life sex stories from an online database of one-night stands (NSFW)
BY: LISA CUMMING Sometimes the closest thing to action I get is listening to some dude talk about his sloppy one-night-stand on the streetcar. “Dude this chick was like, all over me. She didn’t even want to wait till we…
This tree house community in Costa Rica is the new frontier in sustainable living
BY: ZOE MELNYK With the world slowly coming to the realization that change is necessary in order to prevent an environmental crisis, the idea of sustainable living is growing from a community of nature-loving enthusiasts to a real viable option…
6 unethical life hacks that are ridiculously effective at making society your personal playground
BY: PATRICK SCUTTLESBY “Victimless crime”—a term describing illegal activity that doesn’t have a direct negative effect on another person. If you smoke pot, get discreetly shit-faced in public or steal from Walmart, you’re likely familiar. What I’m about to give…
This artist stitches human faces to animal bodies to prove a disturbing point about animal rights
BY: SHAY ANSARI These chilling sculptures of human faces on real animal corpses are artist, Kate Clark’s, way of uniting mankind with the wild. When you think taxidermy, you probably aren’t thinking ‘what a great way to connect with our…
Chief annuls 300 child marriages so that girls in Malawi can go to school
BY: TYLER FYFE On the outskirts of a border village in Southern Malawi, stands a group of girls with an averted gaze. Some are younger than ten. They are already balancing on the finish line of childhood. There is a…
Dirt biker pulls a Jesus on a new motorcycle that can endlessly surf the ocean’s surface
BY: SHAY ANSARI Stunt rider, Robbie ‘Maddo’ Maddison’s dream came true when he got to surf his dirt bike through soaring waves in Tahiti. It took two years for his vision to become a reality, but after collaborating with DC…
A UN advisor reading what psychiatrists wrote about her will make you question “insanity” (Video)
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA At the end of a long and sterile corridor, Mary O’Hagan feels the noose of madness begin to tighten. As a young woman in the 1970s, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and spent several dark…
Why having anxiety is a blessing in disguise
BY: BENEDICT SMITH I’ve often mulled over why I’m so keyed up. Is it a genetic misfiring? Clusterfucked logical processing? Ritualized naval-gazing? Internalized childhood bullying that’s crystallized into a repressed psychological wedgie? Do I need to pull myself together? If…
The friend zone has deep-seated roots in rape culture
BY: SAREEEMA HUSAIN The infamous “friend zone” is a desolate place, corroded with bitterness. When a woman makes the choice to not get involved with a man who is trying to initiate a romantic or sexual relationship, the man is…
Cigarette butts are being recycled into backpacks
BY: Jack M. Environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy lists discarded cigarette butts as the number one piece of trash found on our roads, beaches, parks, and in oceans and lakes. And a report by National Geographic suggests that New York State…
This couple has spent 15 years living happily in a vintage car and travelling the world.
By: Jack M. In 2000, Herman and Candelaria Zapp set out on a 16-month trip from their home in Argentina to backpack around Alaska. But that trip has turned into a round-the-world saga spanning 15 years that would leave the…
Cheap suburban thrills have weighty consequences
BY: SAREEMA HUSAIN It’s a Wednesday and I find myself sinking into my living room couch. If I stare at my ceiling long enough without blinking, it’ll start to move. An unexpected giggle lurches out of my throat and my…
Family of four gave the middle finger to the banks and built a Hobbit house for less than $5,000
By: Jack M. The world of 2003 was different from the world of today in many ways, not the least of which was the cost of securing a mortgage. Interest rates were more than double what they are today, and…
Cop who didn’t know the law gets owned by three topless sisters
BY: JACK M. What is it about North America’s antiquated, puritanical, prudish and tight-assed attitude towards women’s breasts? Why is it still taboo to even open up the topic? Fuck, it wasn’t long ago – 2002, to be exact –…
This motorcycle can travel 500 kilometres on a single litre of water
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Water-powered vehicles have come a long way from their conception in the early 19th century by Swiss inventor Francois Isaac de Rivas, who built a six-metre-long car that weighed almost a ton and was powered by hydrogen…