BY: TYLER FYFE Philip Zimbardo once wrote: “sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can sometimes kill you.” Professor Zimbardo is the psychologist known for the Stanford Prison Experiment where he proved that otherwise reasonable people could be influenced…
Global Stage
Here are 10 things you need to know about the UN climate change summit to be environmentally-literate
BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS Talk of the 2015 United Nations climate change summit has been dominating the headlines recently. Maybe you haven’t been reading up on everything you should be, and now it seems like you’re too far behind to catch…
Why eating bugs instead of meat could help save the planet
BY: ERIK HUSTON I recently watched a TED Talk by Marcel Dicke, in which he explains how locusts – basically large grasshoppers – are the “shrimp of the land.” At first I thought this talk was another far-fetched solution to…
China is fighting “digital heroin” by shipping Internet addicts to a controversial bootcamp
BY: MELISSA BOODOO Young men line up in rows beside barrack-style bunkbeds wearing camo uniforms. But this isn’t some sort of military boot camp, it’s a rehab centre for Chinese addicts of “digital heroin.” It is believed that 24 million…
The Dalai Lama on why prayers can’t end a problem that religious dogma created
BY: TYLER FYFE When the Dalai Lama speaks, you should probably listen. For 50 years he has practiced the buddhist tradition of Bodhisattva, spending his entire life pursuing public service instead of self-benefit. In 1989, he was awarded the…
SeaWorld is now getting rid of its killer whale show entirely – but only in San Diego
BY: SYDNEY MCINNIS If you’ve ever seen Blackfish or have visited a SeaWorld yourself, then you’ve certainly witnessed the theatrical, and extremely controversial, Shamu show, which sees killer whales performing flipping and diving tricks through dancing fountains, led by a…
Stress and over-tiredness are cracking the foundation of the American Family
BY: TYLER FYFE Overcrowded offices and empty houses—this is a still life of contemporary America. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, the sagging skin under the eyes of the workforce is not a symptom of American…
The world’s last all-white humpback whale is still dodging harpoons in the Southern Pacific
BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS What weighs nearly 36,000 kilograms, stretches over 12 metres in length, was born 30 some years ago and is white all over? If you guessed Migaloo the albino humpback whale you’re either an Australian who’s really into…
Climate Change skeptic witnessed the largest evidence of climate catastrophe and caught it all on video
BY: DANIKA MOIR Photographer James Balog was with his crew in Greenland when they captured a massive chunk of glacier snap off and fall into the ocean. Balog and his crew were in the area hoping to capture some moments…
This Muslim woman shuts down haters by donating $1 to UNICEF for every hate tweet she receives
BY: KASSANDRA DZIKEWICZ She is a sociologist with a PhD at Monash University, but her intellectual level doesn’t stop people from undermining her based on her religious status. Susan Carland converted to Islam at the age of 19, and at…
Grab your baseball bats and pitchforks: Tennessee is releasing an animal abusers registry
BY: ROB HOFFMAN If there’s anything more cowardly than an animal abuser, it’s an animal abuser forced to face an angry mob of baseball bat-wielding, pitchfork-flailing, gasoline-pouring activists thirsty for revenge. It’s a vision that will hopefully come to life…
Peru is building a jungle conservation area larger than Yosemite and Yellowstone combined
BY: DAVID LAO There are rivers gushing as far as the eye can see, their banks and tributaries pocketed with fragrant flowers and uncontrollably large plants. Along the streams is another expanse, one made of thick, lush jungle, sweltering in…
This business is granting redemption and reducing crime by employing gang members and felons
BY: TYLER FYFE Father Greg Boyle has buried 183 kids in 26 years living in his neighbourhood. But this tragedy is twofold—each one of these kids was killed by another kid. In the 1980s Boyle, a Jesuit priest, began walking…
Germany aims to phase out the practice of shredding male baby chicks in factory farms by 2017
BY: KASSANDRA DZIKEWICZ The egg industry follows the idea of “ignorance is bliss,” but in reality what goes on behind the doors of factory farms is far from blissful. In Germany 45 million baby chicks per year are thrown into…
Why this One Percenter thinks the only cure for wealth anxiety is working for the 99
BY: AIDAN MACNAB “With great power comes great responsibility.” These were Uncle Ben’s dying words to his nephew Peter Parker. So why am I quoting Spiderman? Because it is an essential lesson for anyone with any kind of power or…
Meet the man who cares for 4,000 wild parakeets, after a deadly tsunami left them displaced
BY: JESSICA BEUKER As 2004 was coming to a close, a deadly tsunami rocked the eastern world. On December 26, the Indian Ocean Earthquake triggered a series of deadly tsunamis along the coast. It was one of the deadliest natural…
The driest desert on the planet just got a makeover courtesy of Mother Nature (Photos)
BY: MELISSA BOODOO What is usually known to be the driest desert on the planet, found on the coast of Chile, South America, Atacama Desert has been blossoming. Generally, blooms such as this usually occur every five to ten years,…
This prison debate team schooled Harvard’s finest to prove a point about education behind bars
BY: M. TOMOSKI With the construction of Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary in 1829 America’s prison system became a model for the world. Its wagon wheel design allowed guards to monitor the entire prison from a tower in the centre while…
Why masculinity should be reframed to protect the planet, not dominate it
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Gender affects our lives in a variety of ways, including climate change—and more notably, who is contributing to it. Men overall tend to have higher carbon emissions than women. This is likely because they eat more meat…
Photos show that zoos are more like animal prisons than a conservation effort
BY: CONNOR BRIAN Photos: Gaston Lacombe The last time I visited a zoo, I got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Between visions of children gawking, and snotty teens smacking the helpless animals’ glass enclosures it felt…