Highest Five

Every culture has their own traditional foods and methods of preparation, but what seems mouth-watering to some can be utterly vomit-inducing to others. While I travelled India for a month this summer, I remember talking with some locals about foods they liked and disliked, asking them if there were any particular Western dishes they found totally disgusting. To my surprise, they were almost all in accord that pizza was by far one of the most repulsive foods, claiming the smell of hot cheese made their stomachs churn. With pizza being pretty well my favourite food in the whole wide world, I became curious to know what seemingly gross dishes are actually considered delicacies depending where you are. Here are some of the notable ones I came across.

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The disastrous earthquake that hit Haiti January 12, 2010 has affected an estimated 3 million people and is one of the most catastrophic natural disasters recorded. Here are some of the most notable natural disasters the human race has ever seen, a little about what causes them and the deadliest ones on record.

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Or Ways Social Networking is Fucking Shit up for Criminals and Assholes

Stories of internet vigilantism are becoming increasingly common, and with social networking sites enabling information to travel as fast as a speeding bullet and spread as quickly as gonorrhea, it’s easier than ever for people seeking revenge to take the law into their own hands. Though law officials are trying to keep internet justice under control, bad news travels fast and the word is always out before they can put a stop to it. Here are some notable cases of vigilantism, possible because of social networking.

With close to a half-billion users, Facebook has become the go-to website for Internet Vigilanties itching to dispense some good old vigilante justice.

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Flying over the cuckoo’s nest can vary radically from culture to culture and after reading a very interesting NY Times article: The Americanization of Mental Illness, I wanted to find out more about some very particular culture-bound syndromes mentioned, most of which were unbeknownst to me. Killing rampages, fear that genitals are retracting, spirits taking over the body… here are some notable cultural illnesses that step outside the Western medical box and can only be understood, “understanding the ideas, habits and predispositions of the mind that is its host”.

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Depression is a word people often use quite loosely in our society to describe feeling down, sad and unhappy. Though these are certainly accurate symptoms of depression, when speaking of depression in a clinical sense, it actually goes much deeper. Depression is a serious medical illness, and studies show that by the year 2020 depression will be the second largest killer after heart disease. Pretty alarming statistics for thinking that depression is no more than an old case of the blues.

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I’ve often wondered if some element of cuckoo was necessary to create astonishing works of art, staggering pieces of writing or masterful musical compositions. This is why I’ve decided to delve a little deeper into hallucinations that have impacted a creators’ work. Hallucinations can be caused by many things aside from dropping acid or drinking mushroom tea. If you asked Freud, he’d tell you that hallucinations are the projection of our unconscious desires, wishes and thoughts. Hallucinations can also be the product of particular mental disorders, sleep deprivation as well as psychosis, and there is unfortunately no inventory software to help get these visions in order. This is no small topic so I’m writing this as a start-off point to a subject I am deeply fascinated by and would like to know more about. Any additional information on other famous hallucinations are encouraged, as well as discussion on whether or not you believe that “being out of one’s mind” has any influence (good or bad) on an artist’s work.

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The Internet provides a wide range of online learning options, whether it’s a language, an instrument or even completing a college degree. After having taken some photography classes in university, I was a wee bit skeptical about how much one would learn about photography in front of a computer. Yet leaping strides in technology have made it easier than ever to communicate and share quality images over the Internet and this has made an enormous difference in the quality of online photography courses. You can take courses specific to your camera and learn alongside students from all over the world. The main thing is to marry the learning with constant practice.

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Supervisors and managers are becoming increasingly aware of the strong correlation between productivity and employee morale. Studies continue to show that employees achieve their highest performance levels when morale is up, the problem is, few of those in managerial positions have adequate experience or training in leadership and interpersonal skills, which are essential to successful employee management.

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Project MK-ULTRA: The CIA’s Program of Research in Behavioural Modification

From 1953 until the early 1970’s, Project MK-ULTRA was the CIA’s code name for a mind-control research program run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. Their purpose was to study mind-control, interrogation methods and behaviour modification. In order to manipulate mental states and alter brain function, doctors administered various types of drugs such as LSD, mescaline, heroin

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Whenever I hear someone talk of gourmet food, I immediately get this mental image of a prissy French waiter named Jean-Jacques, working in some fancy restaurant in Vancouver, lifting the dome of some grandiose platter and exclaiming “VOILA!” to a paltry piece of meat, three baby carrots cut in a fancy way and an itty bitty portion of something colourful and mashed. Though I don’t doubt the effort put into this fine cuisine, all I know is that after I’ve eaten my entire meal in two to three bites, I have to head down to the nearest McDonalds and chow down on a quarter-pounder trio, with a cheeseburger on the side to actually fill my hunger. Is this just the reality of gourmet cooking? Is there simply no room for someone like me in the realms of haute cuisine? Well sorry to disappoint you Jean-Jacques, but I am not giving up that easy and what’s more, I’m going to take gourmet cooking out of the posh restaurant and bring it into my own kitchen.

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