BY: MARLEN MUELLER AND THOMAS ADLER Based in Berlin, we are both freelance photographers and designers. In 2015 we founded Urban Tenting – the digital home of our camping and hiking travels. In September 2015 we took a road trip…
China is building a Great Green Wall of trees to stop desertification
BY: DAVID LAO The Gobi Desert, a sparse, desolate and barren region inhabiting the middle-northern border between China and Mongolia. A vast canvas of cascading sand dunes and wide expanses of dry heat waves, shimmering through are works of natural…
How the strangers you meet while travelling are just like Schrödinger’s cat
BY: EMILY PLEASANCE It was the summer of 2012 in Toronto, and temperatures were reaching all-time highs. The pavement was hot, the people were sticky, and everyone was minding their own business trying to cool down in Union Station while…
Employers can now predict the future of your health by tracking your most private information
BY: CAROLINE ROLF We are surrounded by its unstoppable force and the impending possibility that technology will dictate everything humans do. Yes, technological advancements have solved many of our problems, but they have also raised concerns about our privacy and…
Earth’s continents are turning into giant sponges to keep sea levels down
BY: MARIYA GUZOVA It seems every headline concerning climate change has something to do with the melting of polar ice caps. Images of receding glaciers, emaciated polar bears, and sinking cities are the ones we find shown over and over.…
This new bionic spine could help people with paralysis walk again
BY: MARIYA GUZOVA Australian researchers are hoping to change the lives of millions of people with spinal cord injuries with a 3cm long net of electrodes and wires. This ‘bionic spine’ would allow paralyzed patients to control bionic limbs with…
How a rusty, old Volkswagon bus led this adventure-seeking couple to ultimate happiness
BY: SARAH AND MATT PARK I wake up startled with my face smooshed against the curved side of the van wall. Matt is twitching in his sleep again. Our bed is only slightly wider than a twin-sized mattress, which means…
Freedom or Death in the Granite State: Clinton is trying to guilt feminists into voting for her
M. TOMOSKI On the morning of the New Hampshire primary, rumours were circulating that Bill Clinton had been angry about the way the campaign was being run. That poorly timed leak led everyone in the media to believe that someone…
The CIA once ran a string of LSD brothels to unlock the secret to mind control
BY: M. TOMOSKI Illustration by: Ryan Garcia / The Plaid Zebra In 1975, law enforcement agents, scientists and prostitutes gathered in Washington to talk drugs. They were brought to the Capitol to testify about a CIA project known as MK-ULTRA,…
This service is saving ‘ugly’ produce by delivering it to your door for a fraction of the price
BY: CAROLINE ROLF The base of the squash is a little too round and the sweet potato has a root twice its length – these veggies don’t even come close to matching our standards of beauty. Despite the fact that…
This entrepreneur will pay you $100,000 to drop out of college
BY: CAROLINE ROLF According to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, the key to achieving a successful business quickly is by skipping college, and he’ll pay you to do it. The Thiel Foundation is offering $100,000 fellowships to entrepreneurs under 22 to…
This new technology will allow us to download a dead person’s personality into a robot
BY: STEFANIE AWRONSKI The 20th and 21st centuries have been deemed the innovative technological centuries. From the invention of the World Wide Web to smartphones, the depths that technology has reached have been absolutely endless. Artificial Intelligence (AI), or simply…
Here’s how we should really be talking about depression
BY: EMILY PLEASANCE The image of the dew droplets on the field and how the cool, crisp air felt on my face will forever be with me. If you ask me what it was about that day in high school…
Millennials are using their spending power to force Wall Street to become sustainable or die
BY: TYLER FYFE This generation is twice as likely to buy from companies who choose to positively impact society than from companies whose spines develop scoliosis as they bow to The Dollar. According to two separate studies, Millennials are more…
Meet the Toronto man who went 1,000 days without refined sugar
BY: TREVOR HEWITT It was an addiction over twenty years in the making. Every morning, Jason Holborn would pour at least half a cup of sugar into his cereal – usually Frosted Flakes or Cocoa Pebbles. After school, he’d mix a…
Reddit has raised over $1.25 million for Bernie Sanders
BY: TREVOR HEWITT If Ron Paul popularized the online moneybomb, Bernie Sanders revolutionized it. Reddit has raised just over $1.25 million US for Sanders since he announced his presidential bid last April. That brings his campaign’s total donation amount to…
How I learned that being a full-time traveller isn’t always freedom and adventure
The moment I realized the dream was getting away from me, I was sitting in a Starbucks in Wrocław, Poland, a city with a name that sounds nothing like what you’d expect: vrat-swaf. We were on a long weekend trip…
6 easy steps teach you to confidently love yourself in a society where criticism is fashionable (Video)
BY: EDITOR Why do we continue to compare ourselves to that which we are not? The answer tends to bounce back and forth between inspiration and self-flagellation. While this comparison used to be exclusive to public space and popular culture,…
Freedom or Death in The Granite State: Youth voters are tattooing themselves with Bernie’s face
BY: M. TOMOSKI The alarm began to chime and rattle against the end table on the morning after Super Bowl 50 with the thin light of dawn peeking through my hotel room window. “Where the hell am I?” I thought.…
The Maori Love Song is the most beautiful thing you’ll hear today
BY: CAROLINE ROLF “Pokarekare Ana”, or The Maori Love Song, is a traditional New Zealand love song thought to be the country’s unofficial national anthem. The song is written in Maori, but has since been translated to English. The Maori…