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Sutter's Mill, once the heart of California's famous Gold Rush, is in the news once again for its mineral finds. But this time around, its treasure is celestial.

A meteor explosion last April scattered bits of space rock all around the historic mining area. And the trove of data gleaned from this event is proving to be a gold mine for researchers.

The meteor exile from the asteroid belt was tracked by radar reaching speeds of 64,000 mph. It then exploded with the force of a 4-kiloton atomic bomb and generated temperatures reaching 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Gathering up more than 70 fragments of the shattered meteor, analysts discovered that, unlike most stony meteorites, these leftover bits of our solar system contain organic compounds like glycine, aniline, and fatty acids—the building blocks of life.

Correction, Dec. 21: This post originally suggested that the April 22 meteor weighed about 2 pounds. In fact, the meteorite fragments collected in Sutter's Mill do.

A week after the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 schoolchildren dead, the NRA has broken its silence. Speaking to a roomful of reporters, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre expressed sympathy for the families of the victims—and then proceeded to cast the gun lobby and gun owners as victims of the media.

“Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws, and fill the national debate with misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action and all but guarantee that the next atrocity is only a news cycle away,” he said.

He also blamed media conglomerates for creating “blood-soaked” movies and video games that corrupt the culture and sow violence.

But the main point was a call for immediate action to keep children safe by installing armed guards at every school in America. And the NRA wants to help: “The NRA is going to bring all of its knowledge, dedication, and resources to develop a model National School Shield Emergency Response Program for every school that wants it,” LaPierre added.

Not surprisingly, LaPierre didn’t mention anything about who would pay for putting a guard in every school in the country. Nor did he comment on renewed discussions of a possible assault-weapons ban. He also ignored two hecklers who were removed from the event, and he then refused to take questions afterward.

How long after a scandal does a politician have to wait to mount his comeback? Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is about to find out.

Sanford is reportedly gearing up for a bid for the House seat currently held by Rep. Tim Scott, who was just appointed to the Senate by Gov. Nikki Haley. Sanford held the same seat from 1995 to 2001 and still has $124,000 in his congressional campaign account.

If Sanford enters the race, he will likely do it soon: The primary to replace Scott would take place within 11 weeks of Scott’s resignation, set for early January. The Republican primary winner is virtually assured to win a special election in May.

Sanford famously disappeared for several days and resigned as governor in 2009 after he revealed an affair with an Argentine woman, to whom he is now engaged. His now-ex-wife, Jenny, is also considering a second act in politics, but aides said Sanford would not run against her.

In his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, Pope Benedict XVI denounced efforts to grant gay people the right to marry and adopt, branding them an attack on the traditional family.

The pontiff had already made a similar denunciation earlier in the week, during his annual peace message, calling marriage equality a threat to world peace. His harsh words come as fewer and fewer governments seem to be paying attention—Spain, Britain, and France have all recently moved toward legalizing gay marriage.

Even right-wing politicians in the United States realize that attitudes are shifting toward greater acceptance of equal marriage—Newt Gingrich made waves this week by suggesting the GOP "accommodate and deal with reality" on the issue. But don’t expect the Vatican to come around anytime soon.

After 32 petitions asking for more gun control were filed on the White House's We the People website in the past week, the president has responded.

The video was posted Friday, a week after the Newtown school shooting claimed the lives of 20 children. He echoed many of his earlier statements on the issue, including closing loopholes used to buy guns and reforms for mental-health treatment. Watch the full video here.

The president dispatched Vice President Joe Biden this week to lead a task force to come up with concrete ways to curb gun violence.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is worried about porn. The Conservative Party leader has proposed a filtering system that will accompany all new computers, requiring users to answer certain questions before setup.

New computers would first ask "Are there children in the house?” then lead users through a series of prompts based on their answer. If users opt to skip through without answering the questions, a default filter would be set up to block porn and other “objectionable” sites.

Competing British newspapers had very different reactions to the proposal, with one declaring “victory” and another calling it “creepy” and a step toward state censorship.

Cameron says the filtering system is a necessary step against the Internet’s “silent attack on innocence,” though even he acknowledges that “no other government has taken such radical steps before.”

The list of people who consider Sarah Palin influential just lost another person: Sarah Palin herself.

Speaking to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, Palin lamented Time magazine's selection of President Obama as its 2012 Person of the Year, calling the list irrelevant. She laughed off the magazine's suggestion that the president is creating "a more perfect union," then added that she had been on the list. “That ought to tell you something right there regarding the credence that we should give Time magazine," she said.

We suspect many people agree with Palin and look forward to the time when the rest of her adherents at Fox do, too.

As numerous scientists and governments have assured us, the world will still be here this weekend. But Chinese police apparently want to make that extra clear: State authorities arrested nearly 1,000 members of a Christian doomsday cult after the group persisted in spreading rumors about the coming end of the world on Dec. 21.

Predicting three days of darkness, members of Almighty God urged its members to rise up and overthrow Communism. Followers believe tomorrow will bring earthquakes, tsunamis, and other disasters, and have warned of the second coming of a female Jesus.

Of course, the United States has its share of crazy too—Michigan officials are closing 33 schools for the holidays two days early because of potential "threats of violence against students" tied to end-of-the-world fears.

The humble palm tree may hold the key to longevity—at least for plants.

New research has discovered palms possess cells that can remain viable for the entire life of the tree. Most organisms have cells that remain active only a portion of its life, then generate new cells as the old ones die off.

Plants and trees keep this cycle going even better than animals, because they can continuously grow new organs and tissue. But while trees, like some pines, may be up to 3,000 years old, their trunks are made up of mostly dead cell tissue acting as a supportive skeleton, with new cell growth occurring only deep at the trunk’s core. The cells in the palm tree's trunk, however, have been found to live more than 700 years, possibly the longest-lived organic material known.

Future comparative studies between palms and conventional trees may yield human benefits like improved crop production.