NASA’s Space Launch System Program, a new heavy-lift, exploration-class rocket aimed at carrying humans to Mars and beyond,  is bound for its first flight no later than 2018.  

An artist's rendition of the Space Launch System. Image courtesy of Wikimedia.

An artist’s rendition of the Space Launch System. (Image courtesy of Wikimedia.)

NASA has recently announced that it has completed its review of the Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift, exploration-class rocket program aimed at bringing humans to deeper depths of the solar system. The program has been approved by NASA to move on from formulation to actual development, which has not happened to any exploration-class vehicle since the space shuttle.

The SLS, at its highest capacity, will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons), which is sufficient to carry out missions to bring humans to Mars and surrounding celestial objects such as asteroids. The program aims to have humans on Mars by the 2030s. The next development phase for SLS is the Critical Design Review, a programmatic gate that reaffirms the agency’s confidence in the program planning and technical risk posture.

Source and more information can be found here.

Studies show teens who smoked marijuana daily were found to be over 60% less likely to complete high school, 60% less likely to graduate college, and seven times more likely to attempt suicide. 

Marijuana has been shown to endanger teen success, in a recent study. Image courtesy of the Huffington Post.

Marijuana has been shown to endanger teen success, in a recent study. (Image courtesy of the Huffington Post.)

In a study published by The Lancet Psychiatry, a British journal of health research, teens who smoked marijuana daily were found to be over 60% less likely to complete high school, 60% less likely to graduate college, and seven times more likely to attempt suicide.  Researchers gathered data from 3,725 students from Australia and New Zealand from their teen years up to the age of 30, finding that negative outcomes increased with the frequency of cannabis use.

Furthermore, they found that this was significant even for infrequent users. This may be attributed to not only the effects of the use itself, but social factors as well. For example, drug users are more likely to be stigmatized by teachers, get into trouble with the police, and are exposed to negative influences from the black market. For teens, there may not be a threshold where marijuana use is safe.

Source and more information can be found here.

President Barack Obama has declared the US will “lead a broad coalition” to “destroy” the ISIS.

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President Barack Obama gives a speech from the White House in response to the ISIS. (Image courtesy of CNN. )

In a speech delivered from the White House, President Barack Obama has declared that the US will take action against the terrorist group ISIS by leading a “broad coalition” to “destroy” the organization. In the past month, the ISIS has publicly executed a number of British and American prisoners, some of them journalists and activists not directly involved in armed conflict. Speculation has been widespread on the executions, including theories that they are taunts to the US to take military action, which the ISIS would then use to bolster their recruitment platform via propaganda.

Source and more information can be found here.

 

The ozone layer is recovering, according to scientific observations. 

The recovery of the ozone layer. (Image courtesy of NASA.)

The recovery of the ozone layer. (Image courtesy of NASA.)

The Earth’s precious ozone layer is no longer rapidly deteriorating and posing increasing health risks to everyone; in fact the situation is quite the opposite. Due to the prohibition of certain chemicals used in aerosol cans and refrigerants, the ozone layer is showing signs of recovery. These chemicals having been banned in the 1980’s, it has taken 30 years for there to be any noticeable change. Depletion of the ozone layer, a trend since the late 1970’s, was due to the release of harmful chlorine and bromine ions from man-made chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) which destroyed ozone molecules in the atmosphere. This increased the cases of crop damage and skin cancer. Luckily for us however, this change is a positive sign; humanity is on the right path to a sustainable future.

Source and more information can be found here.

‘Most famous dominatrix in Canada’ thrown out of Senate hearing after threatening to expose politicians who hire prostitutes.

Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford testifies for Bill C-36. Image courtesy of the Canadian Press

Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford testifies for Bill C-36. Image courtesy of the Canadian Press.

Terri-Jean Bedford, or the self-named “most famous dominatrix in Canada” threatened to exploit politicians who have made use of prostitution services. This comes in the wake over the discussions of Bill C-36, which will determine or alter Canada’s new prostitution laws. Bill C-36 treats the prostitutes as the victims, and the buyers of sex as the criminals. Bedford claims to have evidence of several politicians buying sex and in front of the Senate, promised to expose the solicitors. However, this outburst did not go over very well with chair Senator Bob Runciman and resulted in her being thrown out of the prostitution-law hearing. However, one thing is for sure – the Bill C-36 issue is far from over.

Source and more information can be found here.