BY: ZOE MELNYK We’ve all heard the phrase in Fight Club, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.” We hear that, and many of us nod in agreement, but then…
This former NASA engineer will use drones to plant 1 billion trees a year to save the world’s forests
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Deforestation is one of the largest contributors to global warming, with the forestry industry valued at $606 billion globally, according to the UN Food and Agricultre Organization. Not only are forests being cut down, but much of…
Why “Maple Syrup Rebels” are being prosecuted worse than drug dealers in Canada
BY: ZOE MELNYK Canada may be known for its easy going, low key demeanour, but there is an issue within Canada’s borders that is taking away people’s right to privacy and ruining the lives of private producers in a multi-million…
In the next few decades, babies could be born from artificial wombs outside the body
BY: DANIEL KORN Ectogenesis is the process of raising a fetus in an artificial womb outside the body. According to a 1987 paper by David N. James, the term was coined by British pop biologist J.B.S. Haldane in 1924. The…
Meet the man who is the only resident of this abandoned Irish island
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA Omey Island is a tidal island located on the western edge of Connemara, in County Galway, Ireland. The island is almost hidden from the mainland although it is possible to drive or walk to. In the…
Welcome to Henn-na, the world’s first robot-staffed hotel
BY: DANIEL KORN It’s probably best to just accept the fact that the world we live in IS the future envisioned by 1960’s science fiction writers. One signifier of this is the increasing use of robots as human replacement, as…
14-year-old is assembling a Youth Army to take down the fossil fuel industry (Video)
BY: EDITORS When talking about the environment, oftentimes we tend to focus on the bitterness of men rather than the people playing to win, despite the poor hand they were dealt. “I’m a 14-year-old kid going up against a multi-million…
Liberland is the world’s newest self-proclaimed micro-nation where taxes are optional
BY: TJ MOREY As general knowledge, it’s a preconceived notion today that there is no piece of land that exists that is not already bound by the shackles of any particular nation. Either the land is already owned by a…
This modern family lives in a treehouse with trapdoors and zip lines (Photos)
BY: MATTHEW CHIN As a child growing up in the suburbs, a treehouse was only a distant fantasy since most trees would be next to a nearby road or in government-owned parks. I would watch shows like Arthur, red with…
In Thailand, violent prisoners can prize fight to reduce their life sentences
BY: DANIEL KORN PHOTOS BY: Aaron Joel Santos The prisoners of Thailand’s Klong Prem jail are murderers, gangsters, and drug traffickers. They’re also, occasionally, Muay Thai fighters. In prisons all around Thailand, the more physically-able convicts are given the opportunity…
Tattoo and street art giants gather at Denmark’s biggest underground art convention
BY: LEAH HANSEN Photos by: Galleri Grisk and Aarhus Art Convention His hands are speckled with colour from the spray of the can he’s been using for the past two days. What isn’t on his hands has made it onto…
Meet the couple that quit their jobs to become travel bloggers and haven’t stood still since (Photos)
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA Jenna Spesard, 28, and Guillaume Dutilh, 30, didn’t want to fall in the mortgage debt hole that many find themselves stuck in with a greased up ladder. She was an executive assistant for a movie studio;…
Vintage mugshots of the gangster kings that ruled 1920s America
BY: LAURA ROJAS If you’ve ever watched HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, a heated drama based around the prohibition era gangsters of the 1920s, you understand why this mafia counter-culture is so endlessly fascinating and was such an integral part of American…
By wearing this small sticker, humans can now harness the power of telekinesis
BY: ZOE MELNYK There are currently designs in circulation for a small adhesive sticker device that will monitor users’ brain functions and use the brain’s activity to access and utilize the devices around oneself. That’s right, we’re talking about telekinesis…
Audi just invented a renewable fuel source from water and CO2
BY DANIEL KORN I don’t have to explain to you why gasoline is a crappy way to power cars, right? We can all just agree that a new fuel method is important to the future of our planet? Okay, great.…
Mining asteroids for resources has become a very real possibility
BY: ZOE MELNYK Images by: Bryan Versteeg and SpaceHabs.com With limited resources on Earth, private business and countries around the world are starting to consider the possibility of mining asteroids. It seems far-fetched to imagine that we’ll resort to space travel…
Skateboarder uses a loophole in Afghan law to give girls back their freedom
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Afghanistan is considered the most dangerous country in the world for women. This is due to a number of threats including: health issues, violence and economic discrimination. It’s a country where over 50 percent of the population…
5 places on the Internet where you can educate yourself for free
BY: DANIEL KORN Everybody is self-taught. Whether you’re a guitarist who’s never taken a lesson or an engineering undergrad at the University of Wherever; regardless of its level of formality, all education hinges on the student’s ability to internalize concepts…
I was below Everest Base Camp when the avalanche hit and buildings started collapsing around me
BY: MATTHEW MCLOUGHLIN “I was just below Everest Base Camp when the avalanche hit. I just barely escaped two collapsing buildings.” At just 19-years old, Dylan Sartor stood in the shadow of the Himalayas, uninjured among the flattened houses and…
Your one stop guide to ditching your day job, selling your sh*t and taking life on the road
BY: ZOE MELNYK The Internet changed everything. With this in mind, an increasing number of people have innovated ways of taking their lives on the road on the permanent pursuit of adventure. Though it seems unfeasible to ditch your day…