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The University of Tennessee has told its staff and students to stop calling each other ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘him’ and ‘her’ – and to start referring to one another with terms like ‘xe’, ‘zir’ and ‘xyr’ instead. The Knoxville branch of the public university, which has 27,400 students, sent a memo round to its members filled with unusual new parts of speech to avoid referring to anybody’s gender. According to a gay rights official at the university, the new language regime will make the university ‘welcoming and inclusive’ and stop people feeling ‘marginalized’. The university published the instructions on its website … Continue reading →

The beauty of an object can’t guarantee its usefulness. Some of these beauties were left behind by improved technology or changing fashions. Some were odd novelties that were hardly even used in their own day. But all are exquisite samples of the culture they existed in. 1. STRAWBERRY GRABBERS Silverperfect.com via Pinterest A fancy little silver pincher made by Tiffany around 1900. They fit like little gloves on your fingers, to protect your fingertips from the dangers of picking strawberries out of a bowl. Can’t imagine why they didn’t become a kitchen staple. 2. STERLING SILVER SALT SET Oneofakindantiques.com Salt wasn’t … Continue reading →

I could barely move from my prone position on the bed. My head was pounding and my stomach was awash with a queasiness that meant one thing: I was in for a hangover from hell. The room was dark, the TV was on low and from the other bed there was the glow of a lit cigarette. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw a bare-chested guy in jeans, lying on his back, blowing smoke at the ceiling. He turned to look at me. I had a vague memory of being carried up some stairs, over his shoulders. … Continue reading →

A good night’s sleep? Do you even remember what that feels like? When my partner and I agreed to move into a newly remodelled loft condo in the historic Hudson’s Bay building in downtown Victoria, we were thrilled by a few interior features: double bathroom sinks, heated tile floors, west-facing (hello sunsets!) and massive floor-to-ceiling windows that were original to the condo’s historic structure. But while we were busy celebrating our brag-worthy new pad (we might have danced, once or thrice..), there was a nasty secret waiting to reveal itself – those god-forsaken windows. Being historic, the gigantuous glass panes were nowhere … Continue reading →

THE MI6 spy found dead in a holdall had illegally hacked into secret data on Bill Clinton, The Sun on Sunday can reveal. Gareth Williams, 31, dug out the guestlist for an event the former American president was going to as a favour for a pal. The codebreaker — who had breached his security clearance — handed the list to the friend, who was also to be a guest. MI6 bosses raged over the data breach amid growing tensions with US security services over Mr Williams’s transatlantic work. Today, just over five years since his body was found inside a … Continue reading →

Melamine dinnerware is chic, trendy, and popular. It’s for sale across the gambit from Walmart to Williams Sonoma, but that doesn’t make it a good choice. Melamine dinnerware has been linked to a number of significant health risks because the chemicals it’s made from can leach into the food that is in them. If you are going all-out to eat healthy, it’s a good idea to choose a dinnerware that’s much more user-friendly. What is Melamine, Anyway? Melamine is an industrial compound created from one of three chemicals, urea, hydrogen cyanide, or dicyandiamide. The melamine resin from which dinnerware is … Continue reading →

A large tsunami in the Mediterranean could engulf many popular holiday hotspots and threaten the lives of 130 million people living along the sea’s busy coastlines, a new study has revealed. Researchers examining the impact of earthquakes off the north coast of Africa have simulated the impact of the devastating waves one might trigger. They found that if an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit off the coasts of eastern Sicily in Italy and southern Crete in Greece, it would leave large areas of the coastline under water. The animation above shows how an earthquake off the coast of … Continue reading →

Life hacks are a big thing these days. Maybe it’s because we’re all looking to make our complicated lives just a little bit easier, or maybe it’s because we are fascinated by simple bits of creativity that can have a practical impact on everyday life. To me, life hacks can happen in the physical world with useful tidbits like the ones below, or even in the mental/spiritual world by learning more about how to navigate ourselves. Sure, you don’t have to call them life hacks on the mental/spiritual side, as they are simply new ways of thinking about things, but in some sense, they are accomplishing … Continue reading →

Swords into Plowshares – Ron Paul Concealed Carry Lifestyle – Ray H Duncan Worshipping the Myths of World War II: Reflections on America’s Dedication to War – Edward W Wood Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto – Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. The War State: The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite, 1945-1963 – Michael Swanson The Pith of Life: Aphorisms in Honor of Liberty – Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski A Century of War – John V. Denson Battlefield America: The War on the American People – John W. Whitehead Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the … Continue reading →

Getting a good night’s sleep is important if we want to be productive and happy. Our bodies have been telling us this for years and so have countless sleep studies. Now we’re learning that it’s not just the quality of sleep we get that is vital to our well-being, it’s also the sleep positions we choose. According to the latest research, sleeping on our side – as opposed to our back or stomach – could be a healthier position for our brain. If we sleep on our side it allows our brain to clear out waste while we are resting. … Continue reading →

We speak the names of the gods on a daily basis and most people do not even realise it.  Every day of the week, religious and non-religious people alike follow the old pagan tradition of giving thanks to the gods of old. In ancient Mesopotamia, astrologers assigned each day of the week the name of a god. In a culture where days were consumed by religion, it is unsurprising that the days of the week were made in homage to the gods believed to rule the lives of mortals. Many centuries later, the Romans, upon beginning to use the seven … Continue reading →

The online Oxford dictionary has added 1,000 new words to its database. The latest additions have been announced, highlighting the things British people have been talking about in the summer of 2015, such as inconsiderate commuters, solidified waste and unacceptable service charges. Here are ten of the most unexpected words on the list: 1. manspreading (noun): the practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seat 2. awesomesauce (adjective): extremely good; excellent 3. bants (noun): playfully teasing … Continue reading →

“We’re going to push and push until some larger force makes us stop.” David Addington, the legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, made that declaration to Jack Goldsmith of the Office of Legal Counsel in the months after September 11, 2001. Goldsmith would later recall that Cheney and Addington were the first people he had ever met of a certain kind: “Cheney is not subtle, and he has never hidden the ball. The amazing thing is that he does what he says. Relentlessness is a quality I saw in him and Addington that I never saw before in my … Continue reading →

As we rely more and more on technology, Mirror Online meets a survival expert that tells it like it is. These days the world is a scary place to live in. If there’s not an asteroid on its way to obliterate us or terrorists plotting our imminent downfall, there’s the dangers of giant online data hacks or complete economic collapse. But when the end does arrive, there are a few people who aren’t just able to cope with the apocalypse – they’ve been actively preparing for it. These people call themselves ‘preppers’ or ‘survivalists’ and they belong to a vast underground … Continue reading →