BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA At 29, Jason Brown was unfathomably wealthy, famous and excruciatingly unfulfilled. Though the NFL had fed him the American dream with a silver spoon, Brown decided that ‘wealthy football star’ wasn’t the message he wanted etched…
An Instagrammer transforms risking his life into an art form
BY: SHAY ANSARI They should rename this building @carrly_patrice A photo posted by roof topper (@roof_topper) on Apr 10, 2015 at 5:48am PDT Life should be lived on the edge. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself…
If 18 states allow medicinal marijuana use, why is weed still classified as Schedule I?
BY: LISA CUMMING The first documented use of Marijuana was in 2727 BC when Chinese Emperor Shen Nung blazed up. Marijuana, or the dried bits from the hemp plant, has permeated popular culture since then. People have smoked it, eaten…
25 activists are biking across America to fight persecution of meditation in China
BY: JESSICA BEUKER I find it difficult to imagine a world where my core beliefs are subject to persecution. A world where I have to walk on egg shells every single day. Where I can’t freely say what I think…
Wedding bakery forced to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing business to lesbian couple
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA In Portland, Oregon, The Bureau of Labor and Industries resolved that a wedding bakery would be forced to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian couple. Sweet Cakes By Melissa…
Bestival is an island paradise of hippies, nudists and lucid dreams (Video)
BY: CONNOR BRIAN, TYLER FYFE, ROB HOFFMAN AND MELISSA GONZALEZ If Salvador Dali and Dr. Seuss had a child born out of wedlock, it would have been conceived at Bestival. On the Toronto Islands, a nature sanctuary and nude beach…
Fathers are tweeting beautiful selfies with their daughters to prove India’s proud of its women
Twitter has become a platform for social change in India, where thousands are posting a #SelfieWithDaughter to fight back against a social stigma that puts a boot to the face of unborn fetuses whose only injustice is failing to grow…
New STI-detecting condom that changes colour might sound like a better idea than it really is
BY: JESSICA BEUKER A new condom is stirring up colourful conversations about sexually transmitted infections and sexual health. The S.T. EYE is an innovative concept that works by changing colour if an STI is detected. Currently, the idea is nothing…
Residents of this underground town live invisible to the eyes of surface dwellers
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Desert temperatures that exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit have left the surface inhospitable—which is why over half of the town’s 2,000 citizens live underground. Coober Pedy, a small town in South Australia, sits upon the edge of a…
Russian tattoo artist turns childhood fears into permanent works of art
BY: SHAY ANSARI Skulls, snakes and ravens are not usually the first thing you think of when choosing a tattoo. However, Russian tattoo artist, Alexander Grim, takes these dark images and turns them into breathtaking pieces of art that will…
Dutch architect is building off-the-grid homes in the middle of the forest (Photos)
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Dutch architect, Raimond de Hullu, is planning on building off-the-grid homes in the middle of an urban forest. His goal is to bring inexpensive eco-friendly homes into densely populated areas. The home design called “OAS1S” utilizes a…
These Dumpster Diving Artists built floating sculptures and sailed them from Slovenia to Venice
All Photos by: Tod Seelie If the love and drug-fueled hippies of the ’70s were ever born again and decided to relive the river-running adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this certainly would have been it. Brooklyn-based street artist, SWOON, and her…
Photographer hitchhikes across Europe to take powerful portraits of self-ruling people
After being swept away in the flow of constant emails, only to be caught in the dead river of early morning traffic, many of us stew and question the overwhelming pace of our lives. Do I really want my life…
Watch 200 average citizens re-build their life off-grid to own a house, not a mortgage
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Photo by: Eric Valli for original photo series called “Off The Grid” Where off-grid living once called to mind visions of reclusiveness, loners and dirty hermits, its reputation has since settled in to the golden throne of…
Africans are fighting media poverty-porn by tweeting beautiful images of their real lives
BY: TYLER FYFE Typecast with bloated stomachs of malnutrition against a backdrop of intrastate warfare, most Westerners know the archetypal image of the unfortunate African other. And while it is true that forms of extreme poverty do exist in Africa,…
Tinker’s Bubble is a sustainable forest community living almost entirely off the wilderness
BY: MATTHEW CHIN On the southern part of the United Kingdom, tucked away in the thick of a 40-acre woodland in Somerset, England, lies a tiny community that thrives in the wilderness. The community began in 1994 when Michael Zaer…
New bionic eyes apparently let you see three times better than 20/20 vision
BY: DANIEL KORN What single cyborg enhancement would you choose, given the option? I ask this because I’m a huge nerd. I’m also a firm believer in the fact that I’ll see cybernetic implants become common by the time I…
Politicians and celebrities are hiring fake fans to fool you into liking them — and it’s working
BY: DANIEL KORN If you were sitting at your computer screen with a look of bewilderment and mockery when you first read the words “Donald Trump Announces Presidential Campaign,” wondering how the sleazy, xenophobic, homophobic, failed businessman could have possibly…
Swiss pilot attempts the world’s first solar-powered flight, spanning five consecutive days and nights
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Swiss pilot André Borschberg from the company Solar Impulse is attempting the first flight across the Pacific Ocean in a solar powered plane, with the hopes of revolutionizing air travel. Borschberg is flying the Solar Impulse 2,…
This old-fashioned bakery/coffee shop, plus $15,000, is going to the best 250-word essay
The Plaid Zebra has already published a couple of well-received articles featuring business owners who, rather than selling their businesses through the more traditional route, have chosen to invite would-be new owners to pen an essay explaining why they might…