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As for place, Churchill, Manitoba and Tromso, Norway come to mind, but until the transporter is invented, most of will be staying closer to home. The simple answer is north and the farther north the better. In the northern border states of the US, auroras occur fairly regularly around the time of solar maximum, when the sun peaks in storm activity. The current solar cycle tops out this summer and fall, so your chances at seeing northern lights are far better now than a year and a half ago when solar activity saw a steep decline during a protracted minimum.

Controversy erupted in Colorado on Wednesday after a Republican legislator was accused of making racially insensitive remarks when she invoked images of barbecue and fried chicken while discussing the lower life expectancy among black Americans. The comments came during a meeting of the state’s Economic Opportunity and Poverty Reduction Task Force. State Sen. Vicki Marble (R-Fort Collins), who is white, took the opportunity to address what she sees as an ongoing health problem among black citizens: “When you look at life expectancy, there’s certain problems in the black race. Sickle cell anemia is something that comes up. Diabetes is something...

The sun unleashed a powerful storm early Tuesday morning (Aug. 20), sending an enormous cloud of superheated particles rocketing toward Earth. The solar eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurred at 4:24 a.m. EDT (0824 GMT) Tuesday and blasted billions of tons of solar particles toward Earth at a mind-boggling speed of 2 million mph (3.3 million km/h). ... Tuesday's blast doesn't appear to have too much disruptive potential. "In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength have usually been mild," NASA officials wrote. CMEs that hit Earth can also ramp up the auroras, also...

Explanation: Why would the sky still glow after sunset? Besides stars and the band of our Milky Way galaxy, the sky might glow because it contains either noctilucent clouds or aurora. Rare individually, both are visible in the above time lapse movie taken over Caithness, Scotland, UK taken during a single night earlier this month. First noted in 1885, many noctilucent clouds are known to correlate with atmospheric meteor trails, although details and the origins of others remain a topic of research. These meandering bright filaments of sunlight-reflecting ice crystals are the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. The above...

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) blasted the Obama administration on Wednesday for suspending tuition assistance benefits for Army and Marine Corps servicemen, and called on the White House to restore funding to the program by paring back U.S. assistance to Egypt. “We are not under any obligation to continue to provide [Egypt] with over a billion and a half dollars in aid every year. Re-prioritizing this funding to our soldiers and Marines is the right thing to do,” said Coffman. Coffman has proposed trimming $500 million from unspent foreign aid to Egypt, and reprogramming the funding to the military tuition...

Went to counter Bloomberg's anti-gun appearance today in Aurora, Colorado. I put most of the pics in the beginning and the videos after. I met a whole bunch of great guys. Had a blast.

Dear Randall, This Friday, July 19th, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, will be doing a rally in Aurora as a part of their nationwide “No More Names” gun control tour. Join us for a peaceful “counter-rally” with other gun rights supporters across the state to tell gun-grabber Bloomberg to keep his hands off of our Constitutional rights. Here are the details: Gun Rights Counter-Rally Friday, July 19th 12:00 p.m. Smoky Hill Shelter Cherry Creek State Park (East Entrance) 4201 S. Parker Road Aurora, Colorado 80014 For your information, there is a $9 fee per vehicle to...

The Sun has unleashed its most powerful eruption of 2013 so far. The solar flare - a sudden release of radiation - peaked at 1705 BST on Monday, and was associated with a huge eruption of matter. When these eruptions reach Earth, they can interfere with electronic systems in satellites and those on the ground. Nasa said this solar explosion - known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) - was not directed at Earth, but it could pass several US spacecraft. The event on Monday was classified as an "X-class" flare - the most intense type - with a designation...

An 18-year-old Aurora man was arrested Friday night before he tried making his way to Syria to join a ‘jihadist militant’ group, federal authorities said. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi was taken into custody without incident late Friday at O’Hare Airport by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force as he attempted to board a flight destined for Istanbul, Turkey, according to the FBI’s Chicago office. Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel G. Martin Saturday for allegedly attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He appeared on Saturday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tounisi,...

Pennsylvanians have a good chance of seeing the northern lights this evening, AccuWeather says, thanks to a solar flare Thursday. Best time for viewing will be around 8 p.m. Saturday, give or take seven hours. Viewing conditions will be best in the mid-Atlantic, specifically for parts of Pennsylvania and the Delmarva, says Accuweather.

I know I’m not the only one who remembers how, almost exactly 6 years ago at Virginia Tech, mass-murderer Seung-Hui Cho chained and padlocked the doors to an academic building shut. That was so that he could effectively trap his numerous (32 killed and 23 wounded) , defenseless victims inside – except for the handful who managed to breach and exit second story windows, suffering injuries from falling to the ground – and to keep the responding police outside for long, crucial minutes while he conducted his murderous rampage. Cho knew he’d face no armed opponent once he had his...

In a revelation that may have Colorado voters rethinking their state’s push on gun control, court documents revealed that the mass shooting in Aurora that killed 12 and injured 70 more could have been prevented by law enforcement. The psychiatrist for suspect, James Holmes, had warned campus police that Holmes was dangerous and homicidal a month before the shooting took place. Lynne Fenton even told the police that Holmes had begun to stalk and threaten her, and yet no action was apparently taken:

<p>The man who shot up an Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” last summer has reportedly converted to Islam and prays up to five times a day.</p> <p>A prison source say the beard James Holmes sported in court last months represents his new-found faith. The source said Mr. Holmes has turned Muslim as a way of justifying his horrific crimes on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded, the Daily Mail reports.</p>

James Holmes, the gunman who massacred 12 people and left 58 others wounded in Aurora, Colorado last July 20, has decided he is now a Muslim so he can justify his barbarous assault. One prison source said, “He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and that his victims were infidels.” Holmes now prays five times a day, eats a strictly Muslim diet and has grown a thick beard. He also takes hours every day to study the Koran. Apparently some Muslim inmates have taken umbrage at Holmes’ conversion.

Explanation: Some auroras can only be seen with a camera. They are called subvisual and are too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. In the above image, the green aurora were easily visible to the eye, but the red aurora only became apparent after a 20-second camera exposure. The reason is that the human eye only accumulates light for a fraction of a second at a time, while a camera shutter can be left open much longer. When photographing an already picturesque scene near Anchorage, Alaska, USA, last autumn, a camera caught both the visual green and subvisual...

Ginny Burdick, a Democratic state senator from Oregon, called for gun registration while laughing about a shooting victim and insulting gun owners as "Rambos" in a video posted to YouTube on Sunday, Twitchy reported. "There’s a real Rambo complex going on here," she said. "You know my favorite one was the guy who after Aurora [Theater massacre] brought his gun to the same theater so he could get the attacker again and he shot himself in the butt," she added, laughing. "And that's a much more likely scenario instead of heading off an intruder." Ironically, the video starts with Burdick...

<p>THE widow of a victim of the US theatre massacre is suing a psychiatrist for neglect, for failing to have the alleged shooter arrested despite him having "fantasised about killing a lot of people."</p> <p>The lawsuit, also citing the University of Colorado, alleges that Dr Lynne Fenton advised campus police about her concern regarding James Holmes, after he told her about the fantasy in June last year.</p>

MARIETTA — An incoming lawmaker who has introduced several bills calling for loosening of concealed weapons laws in Georgia was told Saturday that his proposed legislation doesn’t go far enough. Carrying a .45-caliber pistol on his side, Guy Bennett said his 22-year-old son was in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater where a gunman opened fire during a July 20 showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. Bennett’s son’s girlfriend was among those hit in the mass shooting, but survived. Bennett, speaking to a panel discussion of eight current, outgoing and future Republican state representatives...

A gunman killed three people before police shot him dead Saturday in a shooting at a house in the Colorado town of Aurora, the same town that played host to a massacre at a cinema last year, police said. NBC television's local affiliate KUSA cited police as saying that one survivor escaped from the house, where an "armed and dangerous" man had earlier barricaded himself inside with hostages, AFP reported. "The barricade situation is resolved. The suspect is dead. There were also three other victims found dead inside," the Aurora Police Department announced on its official Twitter account. Aurora made...

As many as 40 officers, including SWAT teams and hostage negotiators, were on scene at the home in Aurora, Colorado, on Saturday, January 5. An “armed and dangerous” man was holed up inside a suburban Denver home early Saturday, possibly with as many as three hostages, police said.