The Islamic terror group ISIS has started to now recruit children to add to their ranks. As horrifying as this sounds, it’s true. ISIS is posting horrifying videos, of children they have recruited, shooting weapons, training and  murdering others who rebel against them. ISIS is brainwashing these kids to believe in the ideology of ISIS. Most children that do mange to escape to freedom say it’s like “hell” being there. To get to freedom most kids have to swim over the Orontes river, in the night, undercover, risking their lives. Children are brainwashed, turned into suicide bombers, and are made into soldiers that battle on the front line when walking into battle.

Children that are recruited range in ages 5 to 18. These children follow a very rigorous routine. According to the British website Mirror, they are awakened at 4:30 A.M. for prayer, go back to bed and are awaken again at 8 A.M. for breakfast. At 9 A.M. they are taught  lessons in the Quran and ISIS’ so-called Islamic doctrine. At 12 P.M. they have lunch and from 1 to 5 P.M. they have training including military, and physical drills.

These routines have been confirmed by kids that were able to get to freedom like Raghib Al-Yas Ahmed, age 14, said “They taught us how to slit throats and how to blow ourselves up. We put our hand on their forehead, lift the head up and put the knife on the neck and slaughter (them). 10-year-old Hamada Shihab Ahmed added that “Military training included how to use the machine gun and undisciplined children were punished by leaving them under the sun or lashing them with a hose. ”

This article from CNN further explains what ISIS is trying to do.

“ISIS is integrating children into its project in a way that is more reminiscent of a state than a non-state actor. It’s thinking with the long term in mind. It’s not just bringing children into its ranks and using them immediately on the battlefield. What it’s doing is bringing them in, indoctrinating them, training them, spending a lot of time instilling them with jihadist ideology.” ISIS wants to make sure that they really put their ideology into the minds of these kids to create the next generation of jihadists. ISIS calls these kids the “cubs of the caliphate”.

While there are kids who voluntarily join following in their father’s and brother’s footsteps, there are boys who are taken away from their families and forced to be in the group. ISIS uses propaganda videos, cash, toys, and other means at their disposal to lure children from their families. Their emphasis on youth makes eradicating ISIS much more imperative as children who grow up under their influence may not be able to be reasoned out of an ISIS mode of thinking.

With the global stock market off to its worst start of the year ever, many are wondering what is causing this trend and what it means for the United States economy. The answer can be found in the oil and gasoline industry, where we are seeing some of the lowest prices for these items in the last decade.

Oil and gas prices have been dropping so much because, simply, there is a large supply of it. This sudden drop in price is great for consumers like us, but hurts the global stock market because the companies that sell the gas and oil are not making as big of a profit as they once were before. This in turn has brought down the energy companies’ shares in the stock market by nearly 10 percent. The price of oil has now fallen so low that investors believe that this could mean global economic growth is much weaker than expected, which could hurt all companies.

Normally, lower prices on gas and oil would signal that the economy is in good shape. However, in this instance, one could argue that since the profit drop is so low it could drag down entire companies and indexes within the stock market. The production of oil in the U.S and many other countries has not changed significantly during this time, and with international sanctions against Iran being lifted, there could be even more oil resources available than before. Nearly 10 years ago, during the financial crisis, U.S consumers were worried about gas and oil prices being too high, and now with prices decreasing as they are, we have become worried about prices being too low.

It sounds like a joke, but unfortunately it isn’t: The deaths are a tragic reminder to travelers that focusing on their phone screens instead of paying attention to potentially dangerous surroundings. The BBC reported that a Japanese tourist reportedly died of a heart attack after falling down a staircase at the Taj Mahal’s Royal Gate while attempting to take a selfie. Another man recently shot himself while posing for a selfie, and in 2014, a couple fell off a cliff while trying to snap a picture of themselves. It got to the point where Russia had so many people being injured or killed while taking selfies, that the Russian police published a guide on how to take selfies without killing yourself.

A trend in selfie deaths was noticed, and it was found by the website ‘Mashable’ that more people died while trying to take a selfie this year than were killed by sharks. In 2015, 12 people died while attempting to take a selfie and eight people died from shark attacks. This is a scary fact because being afraid of sharks is a very common and widespread fear, but the reality is that being distracted by something as everyday as a phone is more of threat to us in this technologically advanced age. The bottom line is that your life is more important than some daredevil selfie in front of a train to post on Instagram.

A new and rising company Celestis offers the chance to honor the deceased in a new and unique way. Celestis gives families a chance to send the cremated remains of their loved ones into space. Celestis offers multiple services ranging in prices from $1,295 to $32,500. Celestis has an “Earth Rise” service, an “Earth Orbit” service, a “Luna” service, and the “Voyager” service.

The “Earth Rise” service gives families the opportunity a chance to launch a symbolic portion of their cremated deceased into space, which will then return back home to the family.

“Earth Orbit” offers families the option to send the cremated remains of the deceased into orbit where it is estimated to stay anywhere from 10 to 240 years, after which it will reenter the atmosphere where it will harmlessly vaporize like a shooting star.

The “Luna” service will be sending cremated remains to the surface of the moon.

Lastly the “Voyager” service will send cremated remains out of Earths orbit and onward and outward to the depths of space.

Like Celestis, a company called Elysium Space offered more affordable plans for the same concept. Elysium Space sends the created remains into orbit for months or years, and like Celestis’s “Earth Orbit” service, the remains will eventually reenter the atmosphere, and vaporize. Elysium Space’s service is a low price of $2,000, where as Celestis offers the same service for $4,995. $2,000 is a great deal compared to the average $6,000 it cost to host a funeral, according to the National Funeral Director’s Association.

Elysium is working closely with commercial space flight companies, and soon hopes to widen their variety of services, much like Celestis. Much like Celestis, Elysium hopes to allow families the choice to send their deceased family to the moon, deep space, and even the sun.

As space funerals are gaining more popularity, other creative forms of spreading cremated remains are surfacing. Entrepreneur Steven Mitchell is developing a service to launch the cremated remains into the sky, using mini rockets, which it will then explode, scattering the ashes. Mitchell is working on developing a “do it yourself” version, along with a more advanced version that should travel the speed of sound.

Earlier this month, Ahmed Mohamed, a freshmen in Irving, Texas was arrested for building a bomb and bringing it to school. The incident instantly went viral when the teenager was pictured confused, handcuffed, and sporting a NASA t-shirt.

The day began with Ahmed showing his engineer teacher his new project, a homemade clock. His teacher was impressed but advised him not to show any other teachers, so Ahmed stuck it in his pencil box until it began to beep later that day in his english class. Ahmed took it out to try and shut the beeping off which is when things turned awry. Ahmeds english teacher mistook the home-made clock for a bomb and called the front office. From then the school neglected to evacuate the school, call the bomb squad, or isolate the “bomb”. Instead they called the police and held Ahmed and his clock in the office. From there the police proceeded to handcuff Ahmed and bring him to the juvenile detention center. What did they do with this ticking time “bomb”? They put it in the back of a police car and took pictures of the young man’s creation.

America rallied for  Ahmed Mohamed posting #istandwithahmed over 40,000 times the day following the incident. Ahmed received invitations and praise from Google, Facebook, Space Camp, MIT (his dream college), and the White House. Bobak Ferdowsi, American systems engineer at NASA even offered Ahmed the chance at a job working with Nasa; “Hey Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could always  use smart, curious & creative people.”

Not everybody stood with Ahmed, however. Some of whom included former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. “If that’s a clock, I’m the Queen of England” said Sarah Palin after reviewing the event. “Yep, believing that’s a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent administration in history.” She also proceeded to call President Obama “childish” for supporting the young entrepreneur.

Ms. van Duyne, Mayor of Irving, Texas, stated “I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat. They have procedures to run when a possible threat or criminal act is discovered. They follow these procedures in the sole interest of protecting our children and school personnel. To the best of my knowledge, they followed protocol for investigating whether this was an attempt to bring a hoax bomb to a school campus. Following this

investigation, Irving PD has stated no charges will be filed against the student. I hope this incident does not serve as a deterrent against our police and school personnel from maintaining the safety and security of our schools.”

Ahmed does not believe he will be returning to Irving High school but he does intend to continue to create new technologies and continue in his engineering path.