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James Holmes -- the shooter in the Aurora movie theater massacre -- was hospitalized after several "half-hearted" suicide attempts ... this according to law enforcement. According to cops, Holmes ran headfirst into a jail cell wall on Tuesday ... and while he sustained injuries ... they were not life-threatening. Holmes also reportedly stood on the bed in his cell and fell backwards ... in an apparent attempt to crack his skull open. He failed. Holmes -- who killed 12 people and injured 58 more during his July 20 shooting rampage -- has since been released from the hospital.

Explanation: Sometimes both heaven and Earth erupt. Colorful aurorae erupted unexpectedly earlier this month, with green aurora appearing near the horizon and brilliant bands of red aurora blooming high overhead. A bright Moon lit the foreground of this picturesque scene, while familiar stars could be seen far in the distance. With planning, the careful astrophotographer shot this image mosaic in the field of White Dome Geyser in Yellowstone National Park in the western USA. Sure enough, just after midnight, White Dome erupted -- spraying a stream of water and vapor many meters into the air. Geyser water is heated to...

Explanation: North America at night is easy to recognize in this view of our fair planet from orbit, acquired by the Suomi-NPP satellite on October 8. The spectacular waves of visible light emission rolling above the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario in the upper half of the frame are the Aurora Borealis or northern lights. Encircling the poles and extending to lower latitudes, impressive aurorae seen during the past few days are due to strong geomagnetic storms. The storms were triggered by a solar coronal mass ejection on October 4/5, impacting Earth's magnetosphere some three days later. The curtains...

Explanation: What's happening behind that mountain? A convergence of variable sky spectacles. One night in mid-September near Tromsø, Norway, high red aurora could be seen shimmering through lower green aurora in a way that created a striking and somewhat unusual violet glow. Suddenly, though, the sky flashed with the brightest fireball the astrophotographer had ever seen, as a small pebble from outer space violently crashed into the Earth's atmosphere. The glow illuminated the distant mountain peak known as Otertinden of the Lyngen Alps. The bright meteor, which coincidently disappeared behind the same mountain, was also reflected in the foreground Signalelva...

Explanation: Sometimes it's hard to believe what you see in the sky. During the Shelios Expedition to Greenland in late August, even veteran sky enthusiasts saw auroras so colorful, so fast changing, and so unusual in form that they could remember nothing like it. As the ever changing auroras evolved, huge shapes spread across the sky morphed from one familiar form into another, including what looked to be the head of a goat (shown above), the head of an elephant, a strange green-tailed comet, and fingers on a celestial hand. Even without the aurora, the sky would be notable for...

Space Weather Message Code: ALTK06 Serial Number: 294 Issue Time: 2012 Oct 01 0443 UTC ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 6 Threshold Reached: 2012 Oct 01 0439 UTC Synoptic Period: 0300-0600 UTC Active Warning: Yes NOAA Scale: G2 - Moderate Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 55 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude. Induced Currents - Power grid fluctuations can occur. High-latitude power systems may experience voltage alarms. Spacecraft - Satellite orientation irregularities may occur; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites is possible. Radio - HF (high frequency) radio propagation can fade at higher latitudes. Aurora - Aurora may be seen as...

Explanation: September's equinox arrives tomorrow as the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south. The event marks the astronomical beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere and autumn in the north. And though the connection is still puzzling, the equinox seasons bring an increase in geomagnetic storms. So as northern nights grow longer, the equinox also heralds the arrival of a good season for aurora hunters. Recorded on September 20, these colorful northern lights were captured with camera and wide-angle lens near the Norwegian Sea coast outside Tromsø in Northern Norway. Shining at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so, the...

With 12 dead and 58 wounded, the July 20th shooting at the Cinemark Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado was sure to result in a lawsuit. On Friday, the first suit was announced, claiming Cinemark has “primary responsibility.” The theater did have responsibility for the attack, but not for the reasons that the lawyers bringing the case think. The lawyer bringing the suit, Attorney Marc Bern, with the New York city law firm of Napoli, Bern, Ripka and Scholonik, suggested the theater should have had security guards the night of the attack. Yet, checking bags or metal detectors at the...

Shortly following the Aurora tragedy, a non-gun-owner friend of mine, obviously upset, began to question me about why I supported ownership of ‘deadly assault weapons.’ Even as he continued his extended, impassioned diatribe, I could tell that he was yet another victim of the media’s ‘assault weapon’ disinformation campaign. --IMAGE HERE-- When he paused, I asked him what he thought an ‘assault weapon’ actually was. Looking at me as if I were mentally challenged, he said that everyone knows “assault weapons are military-style, fully-automatic guns capable of emptying a 100 round magazine in 3 seconds.” When I told him that...

Will it ever stop? Not at the rate we’re going. Will it stop with absolutist arguments from either side on the gun debate? Not with the ‘You’ll-only-pry-this-weapon-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands’ mentality nor with the ‘Make-all-guns-illegal' argument either. Why? Why does Aurora happen? What does it say about us as a culture, that this kind of thing happens here? That it happens here more than it happens any other place in the world? We’re not at war at home. We’re not in a place where suicide bombings happen, and we’re not currently engaged in a religious or territorial war within our own borders. Why...

Following the Aurora shooting, the subject of gun control has returned to our national dialogue. Earlier this week, I wrote about my plan for firearms safety. The article itself was quite popular in terms of readership, but not so much when it came to reader commentary. What I proposed was quite simple; that a thirty day waiting period for firearm sales be mandated by the government. During this time, law enforcement officials would conduct a series of comprehensive background checks on all purchasers. If nothing negative were to turn up, then an individual could retrieve his or her gun after...

HUDSON — Gun sales in Colorado skyrocketed immediately after the shooting deaths of 12 people at a movie theater early Friday, July 20. Background checks for firearm buyers in Colorado were reportedly 25 percent higher than the average Friday-to-Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent higher than they were during the week before the shooting. In New Hampshire, an increase in gun sales was also seen, but it was mostly along the southern tier of the state. Mike Goyette, owner of Pete's Guns and Tackle in Hudson, said gun sales were up 30 percent in the wake of the massacre....

Cutting Rampage Killers Short: What would Patton Do? The short answer? George would have killed the pansy bastard and spat on the corpse. The Long Answer? George would have employed the same tactics he learned in Mexico and the trenches of WWI as a young officer. George would have coolly applied as an individual the same solution to the problem of a vicious surprise attack on a soft target as he did with his armies in WWII France. The Prepared: Foremost, George would be mentally and logistically prepared. He wouldn’t expect to be attacked in that theater, but he would...

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy five years ago, the University of Colorado and other schools across the U.S. created "threat assessment teams" to identify and take action against students who might turn violent. Now, in the aftermath of the movie theater rampage in Aurora, some are wondering whether the system broke down.

The university psychiatrist who was examining accused movie theater shooter James Holmes found his behavior so erratic that she brought it to the attention of a group that measures the possibility of violent campus threats.

James Holmes came to the attention of the threat assessment committee at the University of Colorado but no further action was taken because he left the school more than a month before the attack that killed 12 and injured 58, sources told ABC News. ABC News has learned that Dr. Lynne Fenton, the psychiatrist who was treating Holmes, 24, at the school, was also a key member of the university's threat assessment team. The group of experts were responsible for protecting the school from potentially violent students. KMGH-TV, ABC News' affiliate in Denver, reported exclusively that, according to sources, by...

A screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Cookeville., Tenn., was halted on Thursday after a theater worker reported seeing a moviegoer with a gun. According to the Cookeville Herald-Citizen, a police officer who arrived at the auditorium discovered three men with handguns. The men didn't think they had done anything wrong: Each was one of the state's 344,000 handgun carry permit holders. They were told to put their guns in their vehicles, in accordance with theater policy, and then the movie resumed. The story didn't make national headlines, unlike the July 20 "movie massacre" in Aurora, Col., that left...

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) -- A family member says the woman who lost her 6-year-old daughter in the Aurora theater shooting and suffered a miscarriage is expected to be paralyzed as a result of her injuries. MaryEllen Hansen says doctors still hope her niece, Ashley Moser, will have use of her arms.

By Mr. Curmudgeon: The Windy City has always felt a little like a second-class citizen when compared to the Big Apple. That's why Chicago's other nickname is the Second City. But the greatest force in the universe - stupidity - is helping to level the playing field.After the Aurora, Colorado, shooting, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared on CNN to speak with host Piers Morgan."I don't understand why the police officers across this country don't stand up collectively and say, 'We're going to go on strike. We're not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do...

............On Monday, the judge issued a gag order barring the defense team, the prosecution team and law-enforcement agencies involved in the case from speaking to the media. On Wednesday, the judge reaffirmed his original order after several media outlets, lead by Fox News.com and the Denver Post, reported that Holmes had sent a notebook to a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz campus. The notebook reportedly contained details of the planning for the shooting rampage, according to unnamed law enforcement sources quoted by the media. That could be important for the prosecution in showing that the suspect acted...