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A Canadian teen wrote an open letter to her principal after she was given detention for wearing a halter dress that she says school officials told her was "inappropriate and a sexual distraction". The full transcript of her response is below:

 

“Dear [Vice Principal] Sturgeon,

I have a concern I would like to bring to your attention. In today’s society, a woman’s body is constantly discriminated against and hypersexualized to the point where we can no longer wear the clothing that we feel comfortable in without the accusation and/or assumption that we are being provocative. This unjust mindset towards women is absolutely absurd. The fact that authority figures, especially males, can tell young women they must cover up their shoulders and their backs because it’s “inappropriate” and “a distraction” is very uncomforting. Schools are the social building blocks in an adolescent’s life meant to teach them how to communicate and develop relationships with others and also learning about themselves and who they want to be. It’s preached upon us to be individual, to be ourselves. The double standard here is that when we try, we are then told we’re wrong. We may not truly dress, act or speak how we want because authority figures, and I use that term very loosely such as yourself, tell us we can’t. Yes, I understand there are restrictions to how much and how little of your body that shows, but that applies when people show up in their bikinis or bra and panties. Though I do believe women should legally be allowed to publicly be shirtless considering males are, it’s mindsets like yours that keep that as something that is shamed upon. So no, Mr. Sturgeon, I will not search for something to cover up my back and shoulders because I am not showing them off with the intention to gain positive sexual feedback from the teenage boys in my school. I am especially not showing them to receive any comments, positive or negative, from anybody else besides myself because the only person who can make any sort of judgment on my body and the fabrics I place on it is me.

If you are truly so concerned that a boy in this school will get distracted by my upper back and shoulders then he needs to be sent home and practice self control.

Thank you, have a nice day.” (Via Buzzfeed)

Overland High math teacher Carly McKinney, who became an instant star after her now-deleted CarlyCrunkBear Twitter account featuring flirty pics and dope-joke tweets was discovered by a local TV station. She's now been suspended much to the chagrin of many students and an online community united under the hashtag #FreeCrunkBear.

A 17-year-old Idaho student reportedly hired someone to overwhelm his school districts computer system with a Distributed Denial of Service attack. A spokesperson for the school district told KTVB that the DDoS attack restricted many schools access to the internet but did not go after any student's data. The general havoc caused by the interruption of service at schools caused many students to lose their work while taking the Idaho Standard Achievement tests. You might think that getting to take a break from standardized testing would be cause to celebrate but that is not the case. Some kids have had to re-take the test more than once during the week and a half that the DDoS attacks took place. The student responsible has been suspended and recommended for expulsion. The teen will most likely serve up to 180 days in a juvenile detention center for the state felony charge that this offense carries and may be facing federal felony charges as well.

The largest solar sail ever constructed is headed for the launch pad in 2014 on a mission to demonstrate the value of "propellantless propulsion"— the act of using photons from the sun to push a craft through space.

While California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, CA isn't the first university to hold a class on beer, it is the first to sell the beer made by the brewing class on campus. The increased interest in craft beer may be the reason behind growing popularity in college brewing courses. Cal Poly is only the beginning, Colorado State University also plans to start selling its microbrews made by students. 

Since the craft beer industry is growing, David Ryder, chief brewmaster for MillerCoors told CBS Los Angeles, “This could be a natural progression for college programs."

To the people of Chelyabinsk, we would like to offer our heartfelt sympathy and wish all injured a swift recovery.

"As of late afternoon local time, the Interior Ministry said about 1,000 people had been hurt, though the vast majority of injuries are not thought to be serious.

Find out more at CNN.

...and she's not going to do it.

Minneapolis teacher, Starri Hedges, is now dealing with upset parents after taking kids from middle to high school age on a field trip to a local adults-only emporium named Smitten Kitten. The store itself offers educational workshops which the students took part in from a library section of the store that was separate, but apparently in view of, the products they offer. Angry parents were not aware of the trip before it took place but since the school in question is a K-12 private school, it is unclear whether any laws were broken.

Hedges herself admitted to the Star Tribune that she "unfortunately didn't’ communicate well enough with parents ahead of time”." While that was unquestionably poor judgment, the rest of the issues surrounding the trip remain in a grey area. Investigation is ongoing to the conditions of the shop and context of the trip to determine if Hedges or the store violated any laws by bringing the students there.

Via BBC:

The vast plume was initially spotted by amateur astronomers in 2012, and appeared twice before vanishing.

Scientists have now analysed the images and say that say the formation, stretching for more than 1,000km, is larger than any seen before.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers believe the plume could be a large cloud or an exceptionally bright aurora.

However, they are unsure how these could have formed in the thin upper reaches of the Martian atmosphere.

"It raises more questions than answers," said Antonio Garcia Munoz, a planetary scientist from the European Space Agency.