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Category Archives: Wellness Live
Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper sails toward ocean moon of Jupiter
NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 12:06 p.m. EDT Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper also is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.
“Congratulations to our Europa Clipper team for beginning the first journey to an ocean world beyond Earth,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA leads the world in exploration and discovery, and the Europa Clipper mission is no different. By exploring the unknown, Europa Clipper will help us better understand whether there is the potential for life not just within our solar system, but among the billions of moons and planets beyond our Sun.”
Approximately five minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage fired up and the payload fairing, or the rocket’s nose cone, opened to reveal Europa Clipper. About an hour after launch, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. Ground controllers received a signal soon after, and two-way communication was established at 1:13 p.m. with NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia. Mission teams celebrated as initial telemetry reports showed Europa Clipper is in good health and operating as expected.
“We could not be more excited for the incredible and unprecedented science NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will deliver in the generations to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and Europa Clipper’s scientific discoveries will build upon the legacy that our other missions exploring Jupiter — including Juno, Galileo, and Voyager — created in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”
The main goal of the mission is to determine whether Europa has conditions that could support life. Europa is about the size of our own Moon, but its interior is different. Information from NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s showed strong evidence that under Europa’s ice lies an enormous, salty ocean with more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Scientists also have found evidence that Europa may host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface.
If the mission determines Europa is habitable, it may mean there are more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than imagined.
“We’re ecstatic to send Europa Clipper on its way to explore a potentially habitable ocean world, thanks to our colleagues and partners who’ve worked so hard to get us to this day,” said Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Europa Clipper will undoubtedly deliver mind-blowing science. While always bittersweet to send something we’ve labored over for years off on its long journey, we know this remarkable team and spacecraft will expand our knowledge of our solar system and inspire future exploration.”
In 2031, the spacecraft will begin conducting its science-dedicated flybys of Europa. Coming as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the surface, Europa Clipper is equipped with nine science instruments and a gravity experiment, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument to look for areas of warmer ice and any recent eruptions of water. As the most sophisticated suite of science instruments NASA has ever sent to Jupiter, they will work in concert to learn more about the moon’s icy shell, thin atmosphere, and deep interior.
To power those instruments in the faint sunlight that reaches Jupiter, Europa Clipper also carries the largest solar arrays NASA has ever used for an interplanetary mission. With arrays extended, the spacecraft spans 100 feet (30.5 meters) from end to end. With propellant loaded, it weighs about 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilograms).
In all, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper mission since it was formally approved in 2015.
“As Europa Clipper embarks on its journey, I’ll be thinking about the countless hours of dedication, innovation, and teamwork that made this moment possible,” said Jordan Evans, project manager, NASA JPL. “This launch isn’t just the next chapter in our exploration of the solar system; it’s a leap toward uncovering the mysteries of another ocean world, driven by our shared curiosity and continued search to answer the question, ‘are we alone?'”
More About Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with NASA JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Find more information about NASA’s Europa Clipper mission here:
The Latest Maternity Leave Figures Sum Up Why Birth Rates Are Falling In The UK
Just weeks after the former women and equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, said that maternity pay is ‘excessive’, new research from Pregnant Then Screwed, and Women in DataⓇ has revealed that 4 in 10 mothers took just 12 weeks or less following the birth of their most recent child — thanks to the low maternity pay in the UK.
According to Citizen’s Advice, statutory maternity pay lasts up to 39 weeks, made up of: 6 weeks getting 90% of your average weekly pay (before tax), 33 weeks getting either £184.03 a week or 90% of your average weekly pay (before tax) – whichever is less. Which is a staggering 43% of the national living wage.
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Excessive isn’t quite the word, really.
The UK’s fertility rate is falling faster than any other G7 nation
Given how poorly parents are treated once they’ve had children, it’s perhaps no surprise that the UK’s fertility rate is falling faster than any other G7 nation – with austerity thought to be ‘principal factor’.
If we can’t afford to look after our babies once they are born, it makes sense that many people are choosing to not have their own children at all.
One person on X said: “Most adults now have to live with parents through their 20s, commonly through their 30s.
“Millennials are the first generation to be poorer than the last in over 200 years, and have had an adulthood of austerity, recession, and a pandemic. Why would they have kids?”
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More maternity support is essential
Pregnant Then Screwed is calling on the government to increase the rate of statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance to the national living wage. An amount which is widely regarded as the absolute minimum someone needs to live on.
In a press statement, the charity said: “We know that maternity leave more than 12 weeks has huge benefits for a mother and her child. It decreases rates of maternal physical and mental health issues, decreases infant mortality and improves rates of breastfeeding.”
Joeli Brearley, CEO and Founder of Pregnant Then Screwed commented, “The perinatal period is critically important to the health and well-being of a mother and her child, and I think we should all be deeply concerned that due to severe hardship, we are now seeing a degeneration and a degradation of this vital period.
“Ultimately, It is a false economy to not pay parental leave at a rate on which families can survive and thrive.
“We need a government that will listen to parents, creating policies which ensure they can survive and thrive, particularly in those early days. Right now we are falling way behind our European counterparts, and it is not only this generation which is suffering the consequences, but it will be the next.’’
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Vladimir Putin Personally Ordered The Salisbury Poison Attack, UK Government Believes
Vladimir Putin personally ordered the Salisbury Novichok poisonings, the UK government and one of the victims told an inquiry into the attack today.
Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who offered up Moscow secrets to the UK and his daughter Yulia fell unconscious back in 2018 after touching the nerve agent which had been placed on the front door handle of their home.
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Both of them, along with a police officer who went to visit them, fell critically ill but recovered.
Four months later, a member of the public, Dawn Sturgess, died after being exposed to the poison after her partner found a counterfeit perfume bottle which authorities believe was used to smuggle the nerve agent in.
Her partner also fell ill but recovered.
Skripal, who has not spoken publicly since the incident, sent a statement to the inquiry into Sturgess’s death today which pinned the blame squarely on the Russian president.
He said: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack.”
He added: “I have read that Putin is personal[ly] very interested in poison and likes reading books about it.”
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However, Skripal admitted he had no concrete evidence to back up his claim.
“I do not know for certain how Putin personally viewed me. As far as I know I never spoke to him, although I was in the same room as him two times many years ago,” he said.
He added: “I never thought the Russian regime would try to murder me in Great Britain”.
A senior foreign office official, Jonathan Allen, also gave a statement to the inquiry suggesting the UK government had come to a similar conclusion based on “current assessments”.
“In light of the required seniority under Russian law to approve assassinations of suspected terrorists outside Russia, and that this incident concerned a politically sensitive target (Mr Skripal was a UK citizen, and was targeted on UK soil), it is HMG’s view that President Putin authorised the operation,” Allen’s statement read.
Three Russians – and alleged GRU military intelligence officers – have been charged in absentia by the UK over the attempted murder of the Skripals, although all three deny it, along with the Kremlin.
No formal case has been brought against them over Sturgess’s death.
Lawyers for her family called for Putin not to “cower behind the walls of the Kremlin” and to look her relatives “in the eyes and answer the evidence against him”.
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However the legal representatives acknowledged the chances of that were “very very small”, seeing as there is an International Criminal Court arrest warrant out for Putin over his alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children in the regional war.
Nightmare Before Christmas’ Director Has Settled The Debate Of Whether It Is A Halloween Film
If you’re from a certain generation, you’ve likely spent the final months of the year in an ongoing debate about whether the 1993 flick The Nightmare Before Christmas counts as a Halloween or Christmas film.
No, you can’t say both.
Unlike most silly debates, there are two healthy points of view here — the film is exploring the themes of Christmas and what it means to families and communties.
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However, crucially… It’s set in a place called Halloween Town which is inhabited by traditionally scary creatures that count down to Halloween every year.
However, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas weighed in on this debate and I’m sorry to all the Christmas fans but you might be disappointed…
If you’ve ever found yourself embroiled in this debate, we have exactly the bit of trivia you need.
When the director was asked whether he considers it to be a Christmas or Halloween film at a 2015 Q&A at Colorado’s Telluride Horror Show film festival, he said: “Oh, boy, it’s a Halloween movie.”
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So that’s that. We can debate over other things this festive season, like whether Love Actually is good, actually.
While we’re on the topic of The Nightmare Before Christmas…
It was Henry Sellick that directed the film and not Tim Burton, as many people believe. Tim wrote the story but the direction was all down to Henry, who also directed Coraline.
Speaking about this common misconception in 2022, Henry said: ”[It] was a little unfair because it wasn’t called Tim Burton’s [The Nightmare Before Christmas] until three weeks before the film came out.
“And I would have been fine with that, if that’s what I signed up for. But Tim was in LA making two features while I directed that film.”
Let’s consider the record straight: it’s a Halloween film, directed by Henry Sellick.
Happy Halloween!
Let’s Settle This ― Are Oats Bad For You Or Not?
You might have read that the SNP categorised porridge oats as “junk food” under new government advertising rules.
To nobody’s surprise, Brits didn’t seem to agree with that categorisation ― according to a YouGov poll, only 2% reckon the classification is appropriate.
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But even though we all seem to think porridge isn’t junk, does that mean it’s actually good for us?
After all, only 16% agree that fruit juice ― which often has the same sugar content as fizzy drinks, albeit with more nutrients ― fits that description.
So… what’s the verdict?
Speaking to the American Heart Organisation (AHA), Candida Rebello, director of the nutrition and chronic disease research program at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, said porridge has “many, many good qualities.”
Dr Frankie Phillips, a dietitian at The British Dietetic Association, seems to agree, telling HuffPost UK: “There isn’t a single dietitian who would consider oats to be anything but a valuable food for all ages.”
Oats are high in fibre, which Dr Phillips says “we eat far too little” of in the UK (20g on average rather than the recommended daily 30g).
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They’re also a cheap source of vitamin B1, phytonutrients, and manganese.
Studies have linked the consumption of oats to lower harmful cholesterol and better weight management.
Additionally, the type of fibre oats have (beta-glucan) is a soluble fibre that helps you to stay fuller for longer and feeds your good gut bacteria.
“The fibre component alone is a nutritional wonder as it is a type of fibre called Beta-glucan, which studies have shown to be effective in helping to lower blood cholesterol levels and may also help to reduce rises in blood glucose levels after a meal,” Dr Phillips shared.
Beta-glucan is “quite unequivocally” good for our heart and gut health, Rebello says.
What about processed oats?
“Even when they’ve been refined as porridge oats they remain a highly nutritious, low-cost and versatile food containing fibre, B vitamins, a range of minerals and antioxidants,” Dr Phillips told HuffPost UK.
Instant oats may have a slightly higher glycemic index than their less-refined alternatives, Rebello says, meaning they’ll cause your blood sugar to spike a little more.
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But it’s very hard to avoid any processing with oats ― even jumbo oats that take longer to cook have been steamed and rolled flat.
Oats aren’t like wheat, though. Their inedible hulls are always removed, but the fibrous bran makes up part of the body of the food rather than encasing it.
“In other whole grains, like in wheat, you can remove that bran layer,” Rebello shared.
“But in oats, this groat is very soft, so that bran layer cannot really be removed.”
That means all oats are wholegrain.
“Clearly, adding a heap of syrup or sugar to a bowl of porridge isn’t a great way of achieving balance, but a topping of chopped nuts, berries or dried fruit can pack in even more nutrients to an already top-notch breakfast choice,” Dr Phillips shared.
“If you’re limited to instant pots of porridge though, I’d suggest going for the plain type and adding your own toppings rather than pre-mixed pots which have added sugars,” he added.
But as for the oats themselves? Those are pretty great, experts seem to agree.
Man says he has been ‘left to rot’ after Covid vaccine
Larry Lowe used to have an active life but says everyday tasks are now beyond him.
Neither Kemi Badenoch Nor Robert Jenrick Can Lead Tories To Electoral Victory, Polling Guru Claims
Polling expert John Curtice believes neither Kemi Badenoch nor Robert Jenrick will be able to win back voters and lead the Tories to electoral victory.
The long race to replace Rishi Sunak as the Conservative Party leader is now in its final round and party members have until the end of the month to vote for one of the two remaining candidates.
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It comes after the more centrist candidate and then-frontrunner, James Cleverly, was unexpectedly voted out of the contest in the final MPs’ ballot earlier this week.
As the party faithful try to select a candidate who can pull the party back from the brink of their historic electoral defeat back in July, Professor John Curtice examined their pros and cons for The Independent.
He wrote: “Despite their ideological stance, neither Ms Badenoch nor Mr Jenrick is necessarily well set to heal the electoral divide on the right.”
Both are on the right of the party; Badenoch has often slammed “woke” ideas and recently claimed “not all cultures are equally valid”, while Jenrick has been repeatedly calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to help the country crack down on immigration.
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But, according to Curtice, they are both “unknown quantities” for most of the public.
Indeed, an Ipsos UK poll from August found 62% of Brits surveyed were not interested in following who would replace Sunak.
He added that they do not appear to understand why the Tories performed so poorly in July, and so are unlikely to try and take the steps “needed for their party to regain voters’ trust”.
He said: “Both candidates appear to believe the fault lies in a failure of the last government to be true to Conservative values.”
But, Curtice noted, that it’s clear from the polls the “party’s precipitous fall from grace was not occasioned by a failure to be truly Conservative” but by Partygate and Liz Truss’s mini-Budget.
And, according to the pollster, neither of them are strong enough to even win back all of the votes the Tories lost to far-right group Reform in July.
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He added: “Still, as largely unknown quantities, perhaps either Ms Badenoch or Mr Jenrick will prove able to surprise us – though in order to do so, they are both certainly going to have to reveal a wider range of political talents than they have so far.”
The Tories currently have just 121 seats in parliament, the lowest total ever recorded in the party’s history.
Kremlin Hits Back After Kamala Harris Calls Putin A ‘Murderous Dictator’
The Kremlin has hit back at the White House after vice president Kamala Harris called Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator”.
The Democratic nominee, who is up against Donald Trump in November’s US presidential election, slammed the Russian president in a radio interview this week.
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She criticised him earlier this week while discussing reports Trump sent the Russian president Covid tests at the height of the pandemic – claims the Republican nominee has denied, but Moscow says are true.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Harris’ remarks with a fresh dig on Saturday, according to Reuters news agency and Russian outlets.
Peskov reportedly told a Russian TV interviewer: “The lofty political establishment of the United States of America, to all appearances, is infused with such a political culture.
“This is probably the quintessence of the very model of international relations that they are trying to foist on the entire world, a model that most in the world are beginning to like less and less.”
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Russian state news outlet TASS also suggested Harris was following “the example of her boss”, Joe Biden.
The current US president has previously called Putin a “crazy SOB [son of a bitch]” and described him as “not a decent man” but a “dictator”.
Tensions between the US and Russia have been in decline ever since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.
The US, along with the rest of the West, has regularly supported Kyiv via investment and sending weapons to Ukraine.
For the most part, the West has tried to avoid being directly involved in a conflict with Moscow – and by cutting most diplomatic relations, Europe and the US have left Russia pretty isolated on the world stage.
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Moscow has regularly attacked the West, and particularly the US, in retaliation.
Putin sarcastically endorsed Harris to be the next US president because of her “infectious laugh” last month, triggering the White House to tell Moscow to stop commenting on the US election.
The Democrats have also used Trump’s supposed friendship with Putin during the election campaign.
When slamming both Trump and Putin this week, Harris told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show: “I believe Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator.
“He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they’re his friends.
“And they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery.”
She added: “This guy who was president of the United States is sending them to Russia to a murderous dictator for his own personal use.
“This person who wants to be president again who secretly is helping out an adversary when the American people are dying by the hundreds every day and in need of relief.”
‘No Evidence!’ Ian Hislop Angrily Called Out Ex-Tory Minister Over BBC Audience Bias Claim
Political commentator Ian Hislop slammed a former Tory minister when she tried to accuse the BBC of bias this week.
On the comedy quiz show, Have I Got News For You which aired on Friday night, Andrea Jenkyns – who lost her seat to Labour in July – clashed with Hislop, even though they were on the same team.
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As host Amol Rajan asked the panel if they thought ex-PM Boris Johnson would come back to frontline politics, Jenkyns said: “I don’t think it’s over for him, no.”
She added: “I still think Boris was one of our better prime ministers.”
That triggered a wave of boos from the crowd, to which Jenkyns said: “I see you’ve selected the audience to people who don’t like Boris or Conservatives.”
As the crowd laughed, Hislop hit back: “You can’t just say, ‘you’ve selected the audience’. You’ve got no evidence for that!
“No proof, it’s just bollocks. This isn’t GB News!”
Hislop sat back, frowning, as the audience cheered.
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Jenkyns later clipped the moment and put it on her Instagram account, writing: “I clearly played well to the Conservative and Boris loving audience on #HIGNFY @haveigotnews 😉.”
The former MP, who served as a minister in Johnson and Liz Truss’s cabinets, was also reminded of the time she put her middle finger up at crowds outside No.10 in July 2022.
Rajan joked: “It is amazing isn’t it, how one moment can capture a political career,” before the photo of Jenkyns’ swearing appeared on screen.
He asked her: “What’s going on there?”
Jenkyns said at the time she just thought “sod you” to the protesters who had “got what you wanted” after Johnson resigned.
“Did it feel good?” Rajan said.
She replied: “The funny thing is I don’t really swear, I don’t really use my fingers!”
