Teen Jailed for Plotting a Copycat of the Columbine Massacre is now Running for MAYOR of a Utah City

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Photo Credit: APA Utah teenager arrested last year in a Columbine-inspired plot to blow up his high school will find out Tuesday if voters in the small city of Roy will take his run for mayor seriously.

Joshua Kyler Hoggan, 18, says he recognizes what he did was wrong but insists that he never had any explosives or intent to bomb the school in early 2012 when he and an older classmate were arrested. He says his six months in juvenile detention helped him deal with personal issues that plagued him then and says that he’s rehabilitated and ready to lead the city of about 37,000 people north of Salt Lake City.

‘People should trust me because I have proven one thing: That I am human,’ Hoggan said in an email to The Associated Press. ‘I have made mistakes, just like the rest of us. We’ve all made mistakes in our pasts, and I am no exception.’

He faces off in Tuesday’s primary against the current mayor, Joe Ritchie, and Councilman Willard Cragun. Most consider Hoggan a long shot to get through the nonpartisan primary, in which voters will choose two of the three to advance to the general election. Ritchie has been mayor for eight years and Cragun a councilman for six years.

The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

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HHS Looking for Hookah Smoking Machine

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Photo Credit: CNS NewsThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) is interested in buying a “Shisa smoke machine.” The National Cancer Institute (NCI) will use it for studies that compare hookah and cigarette smoke.

“The purpose of this contract is Purchase of Shisha smoke machine and LX1 cigarette smoke machine,” the NIH, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a notice on Aug. 2.

“With the purchase of a smoke machine, NCI will do the comparison of Hookah and cigarette smoke condensates (CSC) on DNA Methylation, the Histone Code, and Global Gene Expression, comparison of Hookah and CSC on microRNA Expression, and comparison of Hookah and Cigarette Smoke on Stem Cell Gene Expression and Malignant Phenotype of Lung Cancer Cells,” the notice said.

The machine “replicates water-pipe smoking” and can trap nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide to be analyzed to “to better understand exposure to individuals,” the NIH said.

The agency said the machine will allow them to monitor individuals with a “larger puff range” than traditional smoke machines, with exhales up to 8 seconds.

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The Mystery Continues: Witness Claims Priest Who Vanished After Anointing Crash Victim Looks Like this Hollywood Actor

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Photo Credit: Wikimedia CommonsNews of a mystery priest who supposedly showed up to offer prayers for a young woman trapped inside of a vehicle on Sunday, has gone viral. The individual, who calmed both the 19-year-old and the emergency responders who were feverishly attempting to help her, subsequently vanished. Now, witnesses are speaking out about his appearance, with one claiming he looks like deceased Hollywood actor Walter Matthau.

TheBlaze contacted numerous Catholic churches in the Center, Mo. area to learn more about the incident. One, Rev. Louis Dorn of nearby St. Joseph’s Church, is as perplexed as everyone else.

Dorn said that there are three churches in the area (St. Joseph, St. Clement and St. Williams), but that none of the priests nearby match the description of the mystery man that first responders and other witnesses gave.

“What I heard on the news was he was dark-complected, about 5’7″, just under 200 pounds, with black rimmed glasses,” Dorn said, adding that firefighters and others reported he was “speaking with an accent of some kind.”

Indeed, KHQA-TV reported that one woman who helped at the scene, Wanda Burr-White, described the priest this way, adding that he had dark hair and that she was unsure of his nationality. Her husband, who also saw the man, added that he had black-rimmed glasses and he resembled Matthau, best known for his roles in “The Odd Couple” and “Grumpy Old Men.”

As for whether a priest (or an individual posing as one) is responsible for the rescue or whether it was an “angel” as some have claimed, Dorn is uncertain, but did point out some strange elements.

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2,000-Year-Old Electronics Tech Still Can’t be Matched

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Photo Credit: AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYOver 2,000 years ago, gold and silversmiths developed a variety of techniques, including using mercury like a glue, to apply thin films of metals to statues and other objects.

They developed thin-film coating technology that is unrivalled by today’s process for producing DVDs, solar cells, electronic devices and other products and used it on jewels, statues, amulets and more common objects.

Workmen managed to make precious metal coatings as thin and adherent as possible, which not only saved expensive metals but improved resistance to wear caused from continued use and circulation.

Scientists today say understanding these sophisticated metal-plating techniques could help preserve priceless artistic and other treasures from the past.

In Italy, Gabriel Maria Ingo, senior scientist at the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials of the National Research Council, says that while scientists have made good progress in understanding the chemistry, big gaps in knowledge remain about how gilders in the Dark Ages and other periods applied such lustrous, impressively uniform films of gold or silver to intricate objects.

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Florida Police: Maintenance Man Uses Dying Man’s ATM Card before Calling 911

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Photo Credit:GainesvilleThe maintenance man at a Gainesville apartment complex has been arrested after police allege he found a tenant either dead or dying and, before calling 911, used the man’s ATM card to withdraw more than $600.

Police did not learn of the theft until three weeks after the man’s death on July 1, when the tenant’s brother called to say that on the day of his brother’s death, ATM charges were posted against his Bank of America account minutes before paramedics arrived.

Clarence Davis, 52, of 106 NE Rally Ave. in Micanopy, called authorities on July 1 to report a death at the University Commons apartment complex on Southwest Archer Road, the Gainesville Police Department reported. Shortly after police arrived, emergency medical personnel pronounced J.W. White dead of an undisclosed medical condition, police said.

On July 22, White’s brother contacted police to report the ATM transactions, which took place across the street from White’s apartment at 8:19 a.m. and 8:20 a.m., eight minutes before White was found dead.

Video footage from the ATM showed Davis conducting a balance inquiry and making two withdrawals from the victim’s account for a total of $611.90 including transaction fees, police reported.

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Luxury Skin Care in Mike Bloomberg’s Manhattan: Bird Poop Facial

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Photo Credit: Mary AltafferOnly in Mike Bloomberg’s Manhattan. Craving a Big Gulp? Better have a good lawyer. Want to do something special for your face? Treat it to a bird poo poultice at a luxury spa.

At Shizuka New York skin care salon off Fifth Avenue, roughly 100 clients a month are shelling out $180 each for a traditional Japanese facial “using imported Asian nightingale excrement mixed with rice bran,” reports Verna Dobnik for the Associated Press. The treatment is touted as “a way to keep the face soft and smooth using an enzyme in the poop to gently exfoliate the skin.”

While the spa’s eponymous owner Shizuka Bernstein has been offering the Geisha Facial for only five years, the beauty secret is thought to date back to the 1600s, when it was stumbled upon (but how?) by Japanese geishas and actors.

The AP supplied this account of 35-year-old New Yorker Mari Miyoshi’s first fecal facial:

“The treatment begins with steam to open the pores and soften the skin. Cream is applied. And then comes what Bernstein calls ‘the nightingale part.’

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Your TV Might be Watching You (+video)

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Photo Credit: espensorvikToday’s high-end televisions are almost all equipped with “smart” PC-like features, including Internet connectivity, apps, microphones and cameras. But a recently discovered security hole in some Samsung Smart TVs shows that many of those bells and whistles aren’t ready for prime time.

The flaws in Samsung Smart TVs, which have now been patched, enabled hackers to remotely turn on the TVs’ built-in cameras without leaving any trace of it on the screen. While you’re watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world could have been watching you. Hackers also could have easily rerouted an unsuspecting user to a malicious website to steal bank account information.

Samsung quickly fixed the problem after security researchers at iSEC Partners informed the company about the bugs. Samsung sent a software update to all affected TVs.

But the glitches speak to a larger problem of gadgets that connect to the Internet but have virtually no security to speak of.

Security cameras, lights, heating control systems and even door locks and windows are now increasingly coming with features that allow users to control them remotely. Without proper security controls, there’s little to stop hackers from invading users’ privacy, stealing personal information or spying on people.

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Literally Tons of Quarters Used to Pay Court Order in Wrongful Death Case (+video)

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Photo Credit: Sh4rp_iA strange payment rolled up to two local law offices in Southern Illinois. A truck carrying $150,000 in quarters. It was part of a protest by Roger Herrin about a court ruling in a wrongful death case.

Herrin’s son, Michael, died in a car accident in 2001. The 15-year-old was in a car with three other people when a truck failed to stop at an intersection. Since then, the families have been in a legal battle over how insurance money should be distributed.

Each one of the bags of quarters weighed 50 pounds and contained $1,000 worth of quarters. There were 150 of them on the truck…

This was Roger Herrin’s protest, 7,500 pounds of quarters, part of the amount he was ordered to pay by an appellate court in his son’s wrongful death case…

The legal battle between victims stems from the distribution of underinsured motorist coverage. The Jeep was covered up to $800,000. A judge ruled Herrin should get most of that money, $600,000, because his son died. The other victims appealed the decision and won.

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Blind No More: ‘It’s Like I’m a Child All Over Again’

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Photo Credit: The Montreal GazetteWhen Pierre-Paul Thomas was a boy, he could not play hockey with his brothers and it broke his heart.

For Thomas had been born blind. He endured the triple misfortune of suffering from congenital nystagmus — a condition in which the eyes move from side to side involuntarily — along with damaged optic nerves and cataracts bulging behind his pupils…

But two years ago, at the age of 66, Thomas fell down the stairs in a St-Henri apartment building and fractured the bones of his thin face, including those around his eye sockets. He was rushed to the Montreal General Hospital with severe swelling around his eye.

A team of doctors operated on him and repaired those bones. One day, months later, he was examined by a plastic surgeon at the Montreal General, Lucie Lessard, renowned for her skills in micro-suturing.

During the consultation about repairing his scalp, Lessard asked matter-of-factly, “Oh, while we’re at it, do you want us to fix your eyes, too?”

…And so during two dates in February, Thomas underwent surgery at the Montreal General to remove the cataracts from his eyes. The operations, to put it mildly, were a success, for Thomas could now truly see for the first time in his life.

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Scientists Grow New Teeth Out of Urine

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Photo Credit: MSNWhatever the reason, you may be missing a tooth. But a typical dental implant costs several thousand dollars — and as much as $10,000 if there are complications or bone grafts are needed. And most dental insurance policies don’t cover the bulk of implant costs.

So, the news from China about new research showing that new teeth can actually be grown is nothing short of astounding, and such a process could remake dentistry as we currently know it. As Medical News Today reports, Chinese scientists have successfully used stem cells to grow solid organs, including teeth, from stem cells. The study, first published in the journal Cell Regeneration, also details just how the organs and teeth were regrown: Using stem cells from . . . urine.

The scientists mixed mouse cells and human cells to create the different types of cells that make up a human tooth: pulp, dentin and enamel. The little creations were physically and structurally “quite similar” to human teeth, the study says, though they are not as strong — yet — as natural human teeth.

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