BY: JESSICA BEUKER Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently urged the Indonesian military to abolish what is known as the “two-finger test” or virginity test for its female recruits. The test involves a medical professional checking to see if the…
Science says laziness is killing you
BY: SWIKAR OLI You may want to stand up for this. And maybe wear some running shoes and run a few laps around the block. A new study has found that laziness, sleeping too much or not enough are all…
This is what the dark side of gentrification looks like (Photos)
By: Rob Hoffman Photos by: Fredrik Lerneryd Follow Fredrik on Instagram. The children watched from the second floor windows of the industrial building as the Red Ants unloaded from pickup trucks and cars with tinted windows. They wore red jumpsuits…
Proud mom posts India’s first gay marriage ad to prove a point about her son’s happiness
BY: LISA CUMMING Padma Iyer made history when she posted the first-ever gay marriage ad in a Mumbai newspaper’s matrimonial pages. The subject of the ad, her son Harrish Iyer, is a leading gay rights campaigner in India. What made…
For a weekend of summer festival shenanigans, you can now rent a custom Gypsy Caravan
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Greg’s Gypsy Bowtop Caravans is a Bristol-based company that specializes in selling and renting unique, car-towable caravans. Known as Bowtops, Gypsy Wagons, Whoopie Wagons and Romani Caravans, among a long list of other names, these beautiful structures…
A female magician cursing patriarchy is the closest thing to Hogwarts reality has to offer
BY: EDITORS Filled with dead bats, rusty medical equipment and a glass eye dislodged from its owner’s socket, Misty Lee’s garage is a collection of everything that rattles in the dreams of an overactive mind. Whereas some may feel imaginary…
This zero-waste grocery store has no packaging, plastic or big-name brands
BY: KHADIJA KHAN Forget Whole Foods. The Germans have created a store with eco-conscious customers in mind. Well, at least in Berlin—the newest home of Original Unverpackt (Original Unpackaged). You won’t find any paper or plastic bags here—or any kind…
You can make $960 a day picking post-wildfire mushrooms
BY: ROB HOFFMAN The Yukon has always captivated our imaginations, both with visions of the untamed wild and a market of untapped resources leading thousands each year into a treasure hunt on the prophetic heels of the late 1800s. However, it…
New pick ‘n’ mix bins for veggies eliminate home waste and healthy eating excuses
BY: JESSICA BEUKER A handful of New World grocery stores in New Zealand are now offering peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, cucumber, onions and an endless list of other veggies pre-cut in clear, plastic containers. The traditional pick ‘n’ mix formula, similar…
This breathtaking home is a nature lover’s dream come true
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Ashland, Oregon, a town nestled in the foothills of mountain ranges, surrounded by beautiful rivers and granted perfect weather all year round is the epitome of the ideal living place. To further the fantasy, the ultimate…
High school sweethearts-turned-vagabonds found the meaning of life by picking fruit
BY: BEN SCHUYLER AND DANIEL VOLLAND We were roommates when we decided to set out across the American West this summer for our project, When the Road is Home, never dreaming of all the places we would explore or the…
The spiritual teachings of a part-time hotdog vendor and full-time wizard
BY: AIDAN MACNAB Photos © Eric Zdancewicz & Aidan Macnab / The Plaid Zebra “Before you talk to me,” he says. “Forget everything you know.” I’m not sure how to do that. An empty mind is conducive to awareness of…
I travelled an entire year on $1000 to find out what hitchhikers and train hoppers really think
BY: MIKE QUAIN Like many millennials, I grew up believing I could do anything I wanted. I suppose all children grow up believing they could do anything they want, but I think millennials are special in the way that the…
Bernie Sanders’ latest campaign video will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck
BY: EDITORS They told us we were categorically confined to traits that we inherited, had us check off boxes in census surveys, as if what we were could be contained inside a pie graph. They told us we were separated…
This map of free food around the globe will help you harvest your local landscape
BY: CAROLINE ROLF There used to be a crabapple tree growing in the back yard of my family home. Every year when the apples would fall to the frosted grass below, squirrels would come running for this bountiful feast. What…
A look into the hippie caves of Matala that Joni Mitchell called home
BY: JESSICA BEUKER There is a fishing village on the island of Crete, Greece dotted with manmade caves carved into the sandstone cliff. The village is known as Matala and, in the 1960s and ’70s, it was a community for…
VICE is stepping up their game in the maple-syrup heartland of counterculture
BY: EDITORS There comes a time when you need to hang up your leather jacket and Converse lest you become that middle-aged youth-parasite crashing college freshman house parties. And while some publications have lamented the death of VICE’s brand of…
John Baird promoted mining giant’s interests while in office, and now he’s working for them
BY: MITCHELL THOMPSON Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird accepting a job at Barrick Gold—the world’s largest gold mining company that lobbied him several times while he was in office—raises questions as to whether this is a part of…
This little green leaf is draining Yemen’s economy and its water
BY: M. TOMOSKI Every afternoon in Sana’a, nearly all of its 1.7 million inhabitants feel as though they are on top of the world. In the Middle East’s poorest country, where half of the population lives below the poverty line,…
Incredible female photographer approaches men who catcall her and takes their portrait
Photography: HANNAH PRICE Writing: CONNOR BRIAN Moving from the white picket fences of suburban Colorado to the constant flow of verbal harassment on the streets of Philadelphia was no easy transition, but instead of keeping her head down and briskly…