BY: PILGRIM 364 days Santa Claus waits patiently preparing for his big night in the icy seclusion of his frozen Northern estate, until finally, on December 24th, it is time. He descends from his winter fortress, burlap sack slung over…
Sitka Clothing Company protects the planet before profits
BY: VANESSA NIGRO Founded on Canada’s beautiful West Coast in 2002, Sitka Clothing Company promotes a life lived through sustainability and finding balance between industrialization and nature. “We decided to name the company Sitka after the Sitka spruce tree that…
Vertical gardens are the key to self-sufficiency in the city
BY: KATY WILLIS For many, the term “urban living” or “city living” means cramped living environments, no urban gardens, pollution, grim, grey, ugly exteriors, and concrete and glass as far as the eye can see. These people assume – including…
Turns out bee venom could be used to fight cancer
By JACKIE HONG A component in honeybee venom could become the new key in the fight against cancer, a team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced at the 248th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San…
The dominatrix under the leather; What is a Domme?
BY: JESSICA BURDE The minute you read the word “dominatrix” you imagine skintight leather, fishnet stockings, a horsewhip and a ruthless attitude. Words like “worm” spill out of her mouth and she survives by feeding on cowardly whimpers and grinding…
The death of the server, the rise of the e-table
By: KATY WILLIS Introducing the e-Table – a touch screen table that negates the need for servers waiting to take your food and drink orders. Customers no longer have to hurry their choice of appetizer, main, or dessert orders while…
I am the Trivago Guy (and so are you)
BY: LUC RINALDI Earlier this month, I was at my parents’ place watching TV when the Trivago ad came on. The spokesperson started doing his thing—talking about hotels, dodging onscreen text, and interacting with virtual graphics—before my dad chimed in…
Why travelling turns you into a decent human being; the benefits of travel
BY: LAURA ROJAS I remember looking up into the Amazonian night – lungs filled with pure air, feet digging into cold earth, seeing the hazy violet dust of the Milky Way. I remember meeting people who knew the curves and…
Your laptop could be killing you: Electromagnetic poisoning in the digital age
By: KATY WILLIS In the Digital Age, electromagnetic radiation is everywhere. Even though you can’t see it or “feel” it, electromagnetic radiation is found in natural phenomena such as sunlight and in the form of visible and invisible light waves.…
This 18-year-old hopped trains for 5 years and caught it all on camera (Photos)
BY: ROB HOFFMAN In 2003, Mike Brodie, aged 18, left home to hop freight trains across the USA. Freight train hopping – a form of travel that is equal parts illegal and romantic – is thought of by most to be…
The Toronto condo boom that killed community
by RYAN BOLTON I was in a CBC documentary about condos last fall. A film crew followed my lady and me around asking questions about condo life for some eight hours. They filmed us in our local dog park with…
Uniformity is not our friend: The Centre for Social Innovation
BY: ATLAS The chairs in the basement lounge of the Centre for Social Innovation’s Annex location don’t match. Not a single couch in the rustic, exposed-brick space looks like its neighbour, nor do any of the worn wooden tables share…
The performers of Dundas Square: The life of a contact-juggler
BY: JACKIE HONG PHOTOS BY: LISA MACINTOSH Jordan Kells performs in Dundas Square most days during the summer, but his act is quicker to drop jaws than, say, Toronto Batman or Spiderman. The 24-year-old’s act is a form of contact…
A day in the life of a gay Toronto street kid
BY: GARY SEWARD It’s a humid summer night and the street is littered with the day’s newspapers, Starbucks cups, trash and all things discarded. The gleams from the streetlight strike the damp concrete creating an amber glow in the dusk.…
An open letter to introverts and extroverts: Can you be both?
BY: KESTREL French writer Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote “Hell is other people”, and he was fucking right. The truth is that human beings can be awful to one another. There are prisons where people have to eat each other to…
Teams tow hospital beds to win Golden Bedpan in the Danforth Dash Bed Race
By JACKIE HONG Twenty teams are gathered behind the starting line. The rules are simple: there are ten squads; there are two teams per squad. At the sound of the horn, they’re going to make a 200 ft.-dash down closed-off…
These dangerous playgrounds turn kids into fearless adventure seekers (Video)
BY: LUC RINALDI At the end of your street, imagine there’s an old, vacant lot, wrapped by a rickety wooden fence. A pile of tires sits on the shore of the murky stream that cuts through the space, littered with…
How to Hitchhike: 10 must know tricks for hitchhiking across the Country
By: TED BARNABY Hitchhiking is a great way to travel cheap. It’s also a one-way street to unforeseen and unabridged adventure. Sometimes half the fun is figuring things out as you go along, but there are definitely a number of…
My first time at a sex club and I brought my girlfriend
The Victorian mansion towered above us as nervousness bubbled and churned within my stomach. The sounds of schoolgirls’ giggles and splashing water filtered over a tall wooden fence and I began to think that maybe I should have made…
The ultimate defense against date rape fits inside your pocket
BY: VANESSA NIGRO One of my earliest memories is of my cautious mother warning me of what perils may ensue if I kept refusing to wear my helmet when riding my bike. A few years later I was warned of…