Rocky Mountain National Park's public information officer Kyle Patterson reports that lightning strikes at the park have killed two people in two days, injuring several more.

Patterson told CNN that both strikes hit people on trails off Trail Ridge Road, at elevations of 10,829 and 11,400 feet. On Friday, eight were hit and one woman—Rebecca R. Teilhet, 42, of Yellow Springs, Ohio—died at the scene. Four were hit on Saturday afternoon, one of whom died later at the hospital.

Dr. Martin Koschnitzke, of the Estes Park Medical Center, spoke to KUSA, via CNN:

"We can't emphasize enough that when it starts getting dark and clouds are forming, it's time to get down," he said. "My understanding is this group was actually in the process of doing that and still got caught, which is really a sad thing."

These were the first lightning deaths in the park since 2000.

[image via Shutterstock]

A story ran in the Washington Post yesterday that is equal parts cringeworthy and baffling. A Virginia man, out of the desire to prove to his children that he'd "go to the ends of the earth to make their wishes and dreams come true," claimed land along the Sudanese border to fulfill his daughter's wish to become a princess.

The story starts like this:

Jeremiah Heaton was playing with his daughter in their Abingdon, Va., home last winter when she asked whether she could be a real princess.

Most parents would then say, "No, you cant. It's just now how things work." Not Heaton. He—for some reason—said yes, okay. Sure, we'll figure it out.

"As a parent you sometimes go down paths you never thought you would," Heaton said.

Like the endless aisles of a Toys "R" Us when you said you wouldn't step into that store ever again. But when Heaton says "paths you never thought you would," he means something entirely different.

Within months, Heaton was journeying through the desolate southern stretches of Egypt and into an unclaimed 800-square-mile patch of arid desert. There, on June 16 — Emily's seventh birthday — he planted a blue flag with four stars and a crown on a rocky hill. The area, a sandy expanse sitting along the Sudanese border, morphed from what locals call Bir Tawil into what Heaton and his family call the "Kingdom of North Sudan."

Nothing to see here—just a man getting some land to give to his daughter. In Africa.

In order for Heaton's "kingdom" to be internationally recognized, he will need a few more things besides a handmade flag (which his children designed): "legal recognition from neighboring countries, the United Nations or other groups to have actual political control of the land," Sheila Carapico, a professor of political science and international studies told the Bristol Herald Courier last week.

Heaton, however, is confident that all will go well with his declaration of sovereignty in an African nation which is not his home and has never been his home.

Heaton, who ran for Congress out of Virginia's 9th district in 2012 and lost, plans to reach out to the African Union for assistance in formally establishing the Kingdom of North Sudan and said that he is confident they will welcome him. Representatives from the Egyptian and Sudanese embassies in Washington did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.

According to Heaton's assessment of the pesky politics in founding his new kingdom, he believes love will conquer all.

"I founded the nation in love for my daughter," Heaton said.

Heaton's journey hasn't been without its complications, though. His initial worry was that he was entering into "a toxic environment." Hm.

Heaton's daughter Emily has requested the kingdom be turned into agricultural production center, which Heaton is certain is the first step in solidifying a positive relationship between the sovereignly declared Kingdom of North Sudan and the Sudanese and Egyptian people.

[Image via Washington Post]

A 16-year-old boy has died after striking a freeway overpass in California while standing up on a double-decker Starline Bus.

According to NBC Los Angeles, the incident happened on Thursday night while the bus was traveling at 45 miles per hour on the San Diego Freeway. A witness told NBC that the teenager, Mason Zisette, may have been standing on his seat:

A witness told NBC4 that the teen may have been dancing on a seat cushion with his back to the freeway signs when his head and hands slammed into the sign. He then collapsed on the floor, the witness said.

About two dozen teens—most under 18 years old—were dancing on the upper level when the incident occurred, while all of the adult chaperones were inside the bus. Zisette was rushed to the hospital and listed in critical condition. He died two days later.

The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.

[image via NBC Los Angeles]

Another day, another barrel of laughs around the city of brotherly love. A coroner's van being driven down a busy road in Feasterville, Pa. in Bucks County had an unfortunate door malfunction on Friday, allowing a dead body to slip out and roll down a road into traffic.

The corpse appeared in traffic around noon on Friday outside of a busy shopping center in the town. It was, as corpses usually are, wrapped in a white sheet and strapped to a gurney.

Jerry Bradley, a witness, captured the above photo of body in the road.

The Bucks County Coroner's Office says the driver realized immediately that the door had opened and retrieved the body within minutes. The office says it "deeply regrets" the incident.

Bradley, a passer-by who helped get the body into the van, said he thought it was a prank, calling it "the most bizarre thing" he'd ever seen.

And just like that, Jackass has come full circle.

[Image via Philly.com]

A breath of fresh air in the form of a young boy really committing to dancing—on stage!—to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."

I feel better. Don't you feel better?

[ h/t Uproxx]

Christopher Walken will star as Captain Hook in NBC's live stage performance of Peter Pan. And he'll be tap dancing.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt is expected to announce Walken's casting at today's Television Critics Association's summer press tour.

This isn't the first time NBC has staged a live broadcast of a Peter Pan musical. The new take on the play comes almost sixty years after the network's live telecast of the Broadway production, which opened in 1954. Sez Walken:

I started my career in musicals and it's wonderful after all this time, at this point in my career, to be in this classic musical I watched as a child and to work with Neil Meron and Craig Zadan again after Hairspray. It's a chance to put on my tap shoes again.

On that last point, Greenblatt has said that Walken's might be "the first tap dancing Captain Hook you've ever seen." Normally, the thought of a toe-tapping Hook would give us pause, but this? This we're actually kind of excited about. I mean, have you seen Walken dance? The man knows how to move:

See also:

[ THR]

Lorin Maazel, a world-renowned conductor and composer, died in his home in Virginia on Sunday at the age of 84. The cause of his death were complications from pneumonia. The New York Times reports Maazel was a child prodigy and had held music directorships in his life at "the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera and several other ensembles and companies around the world."

Allow this very stoked bearded dog in sunglasses remind you that the last event in the 2014 World Cup will begin at 3 p.m. EST today. The World Cup Final, between Germany and Argentina, is the last ever soccer you have to feel obligated to watch for another four years. Enjoy! Image via AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo

Can smelling farts cure cancer? No, right? Right. But also: maybe!

Scientists at the University of Exeter have found that fart smell can potentially offer health benefits in a range of issues, like cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart attacks, and dementia. Oh! Dr. Mark Wood wrote in a release from the university, via Time:

"Although hydrogen sulfide is well known as a pungent, foul-smelling gas in rotten eggs and flatulence, it is naturally produced in the body and could in fact be a healthcare hero with significant implications for future therapies for a variety of diseases."

Although farts are toxic in large doses—and really, what dose isn't a large dose?—small amounts can help protect cells by preserving mitochondria:

"When cells become stressed by disease, they draw in enzymes to generate minute quantities of hydrogen sulfide. This keeps the mitochondria ticking over and allows cells to live. If this doesn't happen, the cells die and lose the ability to regulate survival and control inflammation.

Researchers have created a compound called AP39 to exploit this process and slowly deliver the gas to mitochondria, according to a study published in the journal Medicinal Chemistry Communications. Professor Matt Whiteman writes, "Our results indicate that if stressed cells are treated with AP39, mitochondria are protected and cells stay alive."

The study doesn't specify how many farts you have to smell in order to live forever, though, so I guess just smell all of them? Get all the farts you can into your body, or back into your body as the case may be, and I'll see you in the year 4000!

[image via Shutterstock]

A polar bear named Arturo, who lives in a hot enclosure at Mendoza Zoo in Argentina, has not been having a great two years. After his best friend Pelusa died in 2012, Arturo has responded by exhibiting strange behavior, such as rocking side to side, baring his teeth, and collapsing into a pile with no will to get up. It can reach up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit in his enclosure.

Photos of Arturo have surfaced on The Daily Mail that show Arturo in various states of disrepair and depression. The water pool that is located in his enclosure is barely 20 inches deep.

Via the Daily Mail:

Mendoza Zoo blocked an effort five months ago to move Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Canada - where a new International Polar Bear Conservation Centre is located, reported the Sunday People.

The zoo did not believe the bear would survive the two-day trip, with director Gustavo Pronotto saying the medical board had made a decision - and officials were keen to 'avoid a big mistake'.

Greenpeace has begun a campaign to transfer Arturo, gaining 160,000 signatures of support, but the zookeepers are adamant that he must stay.

Mr Pronotto said: 'We must avoid a big mistake, like his death during the trip or upon arrival. One must evaluate the risks carefully. He is old, and this would require many hours of anaesthesia.'

Arturo is 900 pounds and 29 years old and serves as the Mendoza Zoo's primary attraction. Are we getting to the point where all zoos need to be closed yet?

Boston Marathon bombing survivor Sydney Corcoran was recently forced to leave a New Hampshire T.J. Maxx after the manager objected to the use of her service dog.

As a result of the bombing that left her lying bloodied near her mother who lost both of her legs, 19-year-old Corcoran suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She spoke to NewsCenter 5, via the New York Daily News, about how it was very clear that the animal was a service dog:

"He had on his service dog vest — bright blue, says 'service dog' all over it. The store manager came over to me and said to me, 'If you want to keep your dog in the store, you have to put him in the carriage.'"

She added, "He's crucial to my everyday life." The manager later apologized, after Corcoran's mom, Celeste Corcoran, got involved, but forgiveness won't come that easily:

"(The manager) said, 'I'm sorry.' And I said, 'That's not good enough. You should have known. You just made someone with an emotional disorder so much worse." ...

"There are so many people with invisible, silent injuries. And the public needs to be aware that their service animals are sometimes their lifeline.

The NY Daily News reports that T.J. Maxx released a statement following the incident to apologize, and vowed to "take steps to ensure employees follow the law to admit service animals."

[image via NewsCenter 5/NYDaily]

How's your workout looking? Think you could still do it in space? A team of astronauts at the International Space Station will now be owners of the newest development in scientific workout gear in a new shipment from a Orbital Sciences Corp. commercial cargo ship.

The workout clothes are not only resistant to bacteria but odor buildup, as well, making it easier for the astronauts to do their daily two-hour workouts (that's right, daily two-hour workouts) without having to change clothes.

In addition to the new technology, the astronauts are getting some other fun gifts in the package, making the delivery something like "Christmas in July," Frank Culbertson, an executive vice president at Orbital Sciences said.

The three thousand pounds of supplies include mostly food, but also "mini-satellites, science samples, and equipment." The most astounding thing is that this big capsule, named The Cygnus, will drop off all the supplies and then come back with lots of trash.

Via the AP:

The Cygnus will remain at the space station for about a month. It will be filled with trash and cut loose for a fiery re-entry. Unlike the SpaceX Dragon capsule, the Cygnus is not built to return safely to Earth.

Saturday, meanwhile, marked the 5,000th day of continuous human habitation at the 260-mile-high outpost. Six men currently are on board, representing the United States, Russia and Germany.

NASA is paying for this round of supplies but more are to come from the European Space Agency next week.

[Image via AP]

Mario Götze found net in the 113th minute to deliver Germany its fourth world cup. Above is the goal as called on German TV broadcaster Das Erste; below is the despondent call from Argentinian TV Pública.

Libya's Ministry of Health reports that at least seven people have been killed and 36 people wounded in heavy attacks by dueling militias near the airport in Tripoli. The fighting is being described as the deadliest the region has seen since the Libyan revolution in 2011.

The attacks on the airport was led by a coalition of Islamist and Misrata militias—called the Libya Safety and Stability force—against the militia hailing from Zintan that has aligned itself with general Khalifa Haftar. Both groups, the Guardian reports, previously worked together in the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and are "nominally under government control and on the state payroll:"

Buildings and fuel tanks were set ablaze by artillery, rocket and anti-aircraft fire in the worst fighting seen in the Libyan capital since the 2011 revolution. Thick plumes of smoke rose into the sky and staff and passengers huddled for safety inside airport buildings as battles left at least six dead and 25 wounded.

TV footage showed vehicles on fire after rockets struck the car park. Smoke swirled around planes abandoned on the tarmac. All flights to and from the airport have been cancelled.

According to Reuters, Libyans are growing concerned about these ostensibly state-controlled militias, who are "seizing oilfields and ministries as they press their own financial and political demands on authorities."

With these attacks in Tripoli and previous battles in Benghazi, flights at both of Libya's major airports have now stopped.

[Image via AP]

A brave human went ahead and asked famed on-set drama queen Katherine Heigl—who was hobnobbing to promote her new NBC show, State of Affairs, as part of the Television Critics Association's summer press tour—whether she considered herself (and her mother-manager) difficult to work with. She doesn't.

As regaled by Entertainment Weekly:

"I can't really speak to that. I can only say that I certainly don't see myself as being difficult. I would never intend to be difficult. I don't think my mother sees herself as being difficult. We always … I think it's important to everybody to conduct themselves professionally and respectfully and kindly. If I've ever disappointed somebody, it was never intentional."

Jennifer Salke calls Nancy Heigl, Katherine Heigl's mother, her "momager" and "partner in life." And "so far, so good." #NBC #TCA14

— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) July 13, 2014

Heigl was also asked to elaborate further on her comments, namely to Marie Claire UK last month, that she had "lost control" of her career. After a moment of silence and pressing from State of Affairs producer Ed Bernero ("Seriously, I want to hear from Katherine."), she answered. From Vulture:

"I don't know that I said I felt my career was not under my control," Heigl said. "I think I said I felt I had stopped challenging myself and I was making choices that I loved, that I was excited about. I loved doing romantic comedies, I loved doing them and I loved watching them, but I stopped … exercising different muscles of my ability. And in that moment, I felt that I was sort of letting down my audience, that I wasn't challenging them either."

Heigl continued: "I think that this opportunity is — and I think a lot of people want to know why this show, why come back to television — it's because it's an extraordinary role, it's an extraordinary opportunity, and an extraordinary story, and it's an opportunity for me to flex some different muscles and show a different side of myself as an actor and a performer and a storyteller that I hope my audience will be excited about and love."

And when asked why/how her mother Nancy landed an executive producer role on the show, she explained: "She bakes us cookies." Her mother answered, "[Katherine and I] work as a partnership. I am her mother for sure, so of course I have her best interests, but I'm really learning. But it's been fun and it's been interesting. I'm really new to it."

[Image via Getty]http://gawker.com/katherine-heig...

Deadspin covered the fallout from a television station in New York breaking into the last few minutes of the final game of the World Cup for a tornado warning in the station's viewing area. When it comes to severe weather, news stations put viewer safety over programming every time, and people who complain about it deserve to miss their shows.

Most television stations in the United States have policies in place that require their weather personnel to break into programming when a tornado warning is issued in their viewing area. As tornado warnings are only issued during imminent life-threatening severe weather situations, meteorologists need to get the word out as fast as they can so people in the way of the storms can take cover just in case the worst happens.

@WENYTV you guys are a bunch of fucking geeks. Really needed cut out the last 7minutes for this bullshit??

— J.D. Mac (@ScootMcC) July 13, 2014

Each and every time broadcast meteorologists have to break into programming, dozens and sometimes even hundreds of people take to the internet to chew them out for opting to give priority to safety rather than entertainment. The complaints are almost always from folks not in harm's way, representing the most basic type of selfish screw-you-I've-got-mine mindset — your entertainment is more important than your neighbor's safety. Screw that noise.

Whether it's really selfish behavior or just a sign of immaturity, it's amazing that full-grown adults would send vulgar tweets and sometimes even threaten people's lives on social media and via email when stations have to cut into programming to cover a tornado warning.

The angry, barely-knowledgeable internet user will point out that since the National Weather Service's false alarm rate for tornado warnings is near 75%, stations should ignore most tornado warnings and choose to show scheduled programming, or they should show weather coverage on a different station and just run a tiny crawl across the screen rather than break into the Super Important Life-Saving World Cup Game of the Century.

Again, screw that. Tornado coverage is more nuanced than scrolling "x County is under a tornado warning until 600PM" at the bottom of the screen at size 8 font. It can save lives in the event that the storm really does produce a tornado that hits populated areas.

The right to find out about a potential tornado barreling towards one's house trumps one's "right" to watch the final few minutes of the World Cup or the newest episode of Big Brother.

If these adults — again, I emphasize adults because for the most part these aren't just some fifteen-year-olds mouthing off on Twitter — can't understand that, then they deserve to miss whatever television show they covet more than the safety of others.

Priorities, people. Learn them.

You can follow the author on Twitter and contact him via email.

Hally Yust, nine, of Spring Hill, Kan., died after contracting an infection—called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis—that develops from the rare "brain-eating" Naegleria fowleri amoeba found in warm freshwater lakes and rivers. According to the Center for Disease Control, there have been fewer than 200 reported cases of the infection in the U.S. in the past five decades.

"The amoeba goes up through the nose and into the brain and once it's there, there's really nothing anybody can do. There's only been one case that actually lived through this. All the other cases have passed away," Tiffany Geiger, an investigator with the Johnson County Health Department, told WDAF.

Yust had apparently been swimming in a number of the lakes and rivers near her home, about 30 miles southwest of Kansas City. As reported by USA Today, chances of amoeba infection rise in the summer:

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday that Hally was only the second known case of a person contracting the infection in Kansas. The amoeba grows at higher temperatures, so the risk rises in summer, and it most commonly occurs in lakes and rivers in southern states, particularly Florida and Texas.

"You are more likely to die from drowning than you are from ever dying from this organism, it's like a one in a billion, this girl's one in a billion," Hally's father, Shon Yust, told WDAF.

[Image via Weather Channel]

Twenty-seven-year-old Freddie Alexander Smoke III (really!) is accused of having started the wildfire that has burned nearly six miles of land in Northern California. According to the California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection, exhaust from the truck Smoke was driving around an illegal marijuana farm ignited a patch of dry grass.

The fire has been burning since Friday and still hasn't been completely contained by firefighters. From the Associated Press:

The so-called Bully fire has since grown to 3,700 acres and destroyed six structures, CalFire officials said. The blaze, which is burning in steep terrain, was just 10 percent contained Sunday morning.

More than 1,000 firefighters, aided by aircraft, are battling the blaze in hot, dry conditions.

The wildfire had prompted evacuations and road closures, but CalFire said all residents have been allowed to return home and all roads have been open to them.

According to Reuters, the fire has already caused $1 million in damage. Smoke was arrested by police on recklessly starting a fire and illegal marijuana cultivation charges, both felonies. Police have seized 180-odd marijuana plants from the site Smoke was working at.

[Image via Shasta County Sheriff's Dept.]

A new piece in Italian newspaper La Repubblica purportedly quotes Pope Francis saying that one in 50 Roman Catholic priests, about two percent, are pedophiles. Vatican officials, however, question the provenance of the quotes and information in the story.

The journalist who wrote the story, Eugenio Scalfari, is apparently known for not recording his interviews and relying purely on memory to piece together his stories. The quote by Pope Francis in question, according to CBS News' translation:

"The 2 percent of pedophiles are priests, and even bishops and cardinals," the pope allegedly said. "And others, even more numerous, know about it but keep quiet, they punish without saying the reason why. I find this state of things untenable and it is my intention to confront it with the severity it requires."

The story was published Sunday, and News.va, the Vatican's official news site, questions the accuracy of these quotes, but falls just short of completely denying them. News.va cites Vatican Press Office Director Father Federico Lombardi SJ's release:

Lombardi says that, just as in other similar occasions, Scalfari quotes the Pope's words using quotation marks; however – he points out – Scalfari relies only on memory as the conversation is not transcribed or recorded, nor does the Pope check or revise the article before it is published.

Therefore, Lombardi says, one must not consider it an "interview" in the habitual sense of the word as the journalist's questions and the Pope's answers are not related "word for word". In this regard one must be especially careful, he continues, regarding some "quotes" that seem to affirm there are cardinals amongst the pedophiles, and that the Pope says he will find solutions regarding the celibacy of priests.

Lombardi points out that reading the article published in 'La Repubblica', these statements are clearly attributed to the Pope, but – curiously – the quotation marks are opened at the beginning of the paragraph and never closed… "A lapse of memory or an explicit acknowledgement the naïf reader is being manipulated?"

And according to the Los Angeles Times, more than two percent of priests may be pedophiles:

Meanwhile, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the "real percentage of predator priests" is much higher than 2% and called on the pope to defrock clerics who participate in cover-ups.

"I'm convinced that no threat of penalty will deter a child molester," David Clohessy, executive director of SNAP, told the Los Angeles Times. However, he said, "defrocking a bishop or cardinal who hides abuse would have an enormous deterrent effect."

The story in La Repubblica comes a week after Pope Francis met with a group of sexual abuse victims to ask for their forgiveness.

[Image via AP]

A Kashmiri woman looks from behind curtains in Srinagar, India, Sunday. A strike was called by separatist groups in observance of Martyrs' Day, held in honor of the 22 Kashmiri Muslims executed by the order of Maharaja Hari Singh in 1931. Photo by Mukhtar Khan via AP.