CAROLINA NATURALLY: Mar 20, 2014

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Daily Drift

Today is the Vernal Equinox - Spring arrives at 12:57PM

We didn't think you'd mind a picture of a Naked Lady here on Carolina Naturally ...

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Today is -Ostara

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Some of our readers today have been in:

The Americas

Charlottetown, Whitehorse, Fredericton, Pikangikum, Vancouver, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Thunder Bay, Britannia, Guelph, Winnipeg, Byward Market, Toronto, Quebec, Scarborough, Laval, Sioux Lookout, Prince Albert and Edmonton, Canada

Rio De Janeiro, Curitiba and Salvador, Brazil

Chesapeake, Murrieta, Visalia, Kalaheo and Mascotte, United States

Buenos Aires and Villa Maria, Argentina

Tipitapa, Managua and Jinotepe, Nicaragua

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Mexico City, Monterrey, Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico

Bogota, Medeillin and Cali, Colombia

Santiago and Valdivia, Chile

Europe

Thessaloniki, Athens and Larissa, Greece

Stuttgart, Frankfurt Am Main, Widdern, Frederiksberg and Bornheim, Germany

Ostrava and Vinicne Sumice, Czech Republic

Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, Norway

Alborg,Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, Denmark

Dundalk, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Cork, Derry and Dublin, Ireland

Magala, Zaragoza, Madrid, Cadiz, Seville and Barcelona, Spain

Cagliari, Trento, Potenza, Campobasso, L'aquila, Milan, Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Pisa, Bologna, Perugia, Venice, Turin and Genoa, Italy

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Mostar, Sarajevo and Hadzici, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Istanbul, Turkey

Espoo, Finland

Ventspils, Riga, Latvia

Queluz, Amora, Palmela, Costa De Caparica, Feria, Evora, Braga, Vila Nova De Gaia, Lisbon, Santarem, Porto and Funchal, Portugal

Ploiesti and Bucharest, Romania

Leeds, Slough, Maidenhead, London, Sheffield, London, York and Woking, England

Rouen, France

Kista and Karlskrona, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Minsk, Belarus

Bratislava and Presov, Slovakia

Ryazan and Moscow, Russia

Kiev and Lviv, Ukraine

Sycow, Poland

Asia

Kandy, Pita Kotte, Moratuwa, Colombo, and Gampaha, Sri Lanka

Pune, Goa, New Delhi, Jodhpur, Cuttack, Thiruvananthpuram, Pondicherry, Mumbai, Shillong, Dehra Dun, Patna, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Delhi, Bhopal and Kolkata, India

Rangoon, Burma

Al Kut and Baghdad, Iraq

Kuala Lumpur and Kota Tinggi, Malaysia

Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Denpasar, Palu and Kebon, Indonesia

Tokyo, Japan

Singapore, Singapore

Sanaa, Yemen

Vientiane, Laos

Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Hayil, Saudi Arabia

Africa

Bhisho, Secunda, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Centurion, South Africa

Samannud, Egypt

Algiers and Oran, Algeria

Pacific

Quiapo, Manila and Roxas, Philippines

Christchurch, New Zealand

Surrey Hills, Australia

Today in History

1413		Henry IV of England is succeed by his son Henry V.
1739		In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupies Delhi and takes possession of the Peacock throne.
1760		The Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings.
1792		In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approves the use of the guillotine.
1815		Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris and begins his 100-day rule.
1841		Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story, is published.
1852		Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
1906		Army officers in Russia mutiny at Sevastopol.
1915		The French call off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
1918		The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union ask for American aid to rebuild their army.
1922		President Warren G. Harding orders U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
1932		The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, makes the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
1939		President Franklin D. Roosevelt names William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court.
1940		The British Royal Air Force conducts an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
1943		The Allies attack Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
1965		President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
1969		Senator Edward Kennedy calls on the United States to close all bases in Taiwan.
1976		Patty Hearst is convicted of armed robbery.
1982		U.S. scientists return from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
1987		The United State approves AZT, a drug that is proven to slow the progress of AIDS.

Non Sequitur

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Brighid

In Irish mythological cycles, Brighid (or Brighit), whose name is derived from the Celtic brig or "exalted one", is the daughter of the Dagda making her one of the Tuatha de Dannan. Her two sisters were also called Brighid, they were associated with healing and crafts. The three Brighids were typically treated as three aspects of a single deity, making Brighid a classic Celtic triple goddess.

The Celtic Goddess Brigid is beloved as the muse of poetic inspiration and the mistress of the healing arts. She is also associated with smithcraft, which held special import for the early Celts. The site of her well still exists in Ireland, and it's eternal flame is still quietly attended by eighteen maidens. The catholic cult made her a saint due to her fervent worshipers, who accepted christ, but could not endorse a religion that excluded her.

Did you know ...

About the sociopathic 1%

Does the south have a battered psyche?

That the repugican cabal really does hate vets

That the Koch bros. pull misleading, easily-debunked Obamacare horror story ads

Obamacare Enrollment Continues To Surge As 5 Million Americans Have Now Signed Up

The Department of Health and Human Services broke the news on Monday that 5 million people have now signed up for healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act. With 14 days left in the open enrollment period, it appears that the final numbers will come close to or even reach the initial Congressional Budget Office estimates of 7 million people signing up in the first year. While the CBO has since amended that number down to 6 million, don’t be surprised if this final push gets it well above that.
Below is the press release from the website of the HHS:

As this historic open enrollment period enters its final weeks, millions of Americans are finding quality, affordable coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Fernando Valdez and Denise Schroeder were part of a weekend wave of consumers signing up for new coverage and bringing enrollment nationwide to more than 5 million through the Federal and State-based Marketplaces since October 1^st.
Fernando Valdez, 25, of El Paso, Texas woke up early on Saturday, after his mother insisted that he walk to an enrollment center and enroll in Marketplace coverage. Now, he will pay $22 a month for his health insurance. Fernando said that he walked away knowing that if “I get into an accident I will not be in trouble with trying to find health care.” Read more about Fernando’s story at: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_25353816/enroll-el-paso-makes-push-get-residents-enrolled?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com.
And Denise Schroeder says she now feels like “I have a whole new life” after enrolling in coverage in recent days. Denise, a small business owner in West Chester, Pennsylvania who runs “Happy Heart Clown N’Stuff” which does balloon decorating and entertainment for parties is also a cancer survivor. Because she had cancer, Denise knew she couldn’t let her health coverage lapse, but the $880 premium she was paying each month wiped out her savings account, and she said it was killing her. But after working with an enrollment navigator, she enrolled on Thursday in a Silver Plan for $22 a month. When she saw the new premium, she cried.
You can find more stories like theirs at http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/mystory/index.html.
Consumers like Fernando and Denise are coming every day to check out their options for affordable health care at HealthCare.gov or seeking help from a trained representative in person or via our 24/7 call center. The last several days have been the busiest since December, with the Call Center taking more than 198,000 calls on Thursday alone -the busiest day since December 23—and more than 130,000 calls over the weekend. Last week, HealthCare.gov saw more than 4 million visits—and an additional 1 million visits this weekend.
With only two weeks to go, we’re continuing to work hard to ensure that every American who wants to enroll in affordable coverage by the deadline of March 31^st is able to do so. So don’t delay; tell your friends and family to sign up today.

Three weeks ago, ACA enrollment passed 4 million. Since then, we’ve seen another million sign up. No matter how much Republicans try to deny it, the ACA is going to be a rousing success in in its first year. Wingnut screeching heads had a field day laughing at the ‘paltry’ enrollment numbers in October, apparently unaware that fewer people sign up at the beginning of an enrollment period than at the end. The message a few months ago was how there was NO WAY that millions of people would sign up for Obamacare. Wingnuts kept bringing up that 7 million figure from the CBO and pointing out how much lower the final enrollment figure would be.
For months, the narrative, repeated over and over by the mainstream media, was about the ‘botched’ rollout of the ACA and the ‘disastrous’ Healthcare.gov website. While news anchors and pundits were repeating the same talking points day in and day out, whatever glitches that were hounding the website were found and fixed, and people in need of affordable health care continued to sign up.
Now here we are, two weeks away from the final deadline of this enrollment period, and we now see 5 million people have signed up. 5 million people have obtained quality healthcare because of this law. All despite the numerous roadblocks thrown up by repugican lawmakers trying their hardest to make the law fail before it even had a chance to be enacted. How many more would have had a chance to sign up already if the majority of states would have set up their own healthcare exchanges? If Red state governors would have allowed Medicaid expansion to take place, as provided for by the ACA, how many more people would have health coverage right now?
That’s the thing. Even with the petulant obstruction, 5 million people have signed up for healthcare under the ACA, and in the years to come, tens of millions more will. It is the law of the land. It is here to stay.

Canadian Health Care Expert Schools A repugican U.S. Senator

by Eric Lach

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The Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging held a hearing Tuesday on "what the U.S. health care system can learn from other countries," where single-payer health care was discussed. And The Los Angeles Times' Michael Hiltzik caught an exchange between Sen. Richard Burr (r-NC) and Danielle Martin, a Canadian physician and health policy professor.
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Burr came at Martin with a number of questions, pointed questions. But Martin had answers. Hiltzik highlighted some key moments.

"Dr. Martin, in your testimony you note that Canadian doctors exiting the public system for the private sector has had the effect of increasing waiting lists for patients seeking public health care," Burr said. "Why are doctors exiting the public system in Canada?"
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"Thank you for your question, senator," Martin said. "If I didn't express myself in a way to make myself understood, I apologize. There are no doctors exiting the public system in Canada, and in fact we see a net influx of physicians from the United States into the Canadian system over the last number of years."

Later on, Burr asked Martin: "On average, how many Canadian patients on a waiting list die each year? Do you know?"
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"I don't, sir, but I know that there are 45,000 in America who die waiting because they don't have insurance at all," Martin said.

Canadian Health Care Expert Schools A repugican U.S. Senator

Senate repugicans say they'll support aid for Ukraine ... as long as the Koch brothers get some too

No shame:
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A Senate package of aid and sanctions in response to the Ukrainian crisis is being held up by a demand from repugicans to include a provision targeting a pending Obama administration rule to crack down on tax exemptions claimed by political nonprofits.
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Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top repugican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cited the issue involving 501(c)4 groups as one of the outstanding issues left on the Ukraine bill. He signaled that adding the provision could be a way to get the repugican cabal on board with the legislation, especially because it includes changes to the International Monetary Fund opposed by some congressional repugicans.

The repugicans are no longer even bothering to try to hide their thievery

Mitch McConnell Freaks Out and Calls The Police on Reporter Who He Feared Questions From

In an insane abuse of power, the news editor for LEO Weekly, Joe Sonka, had the police called on him, and was threatened with arrest because Mitch McConnell was afraid that he would ask questions at a press conference.
According to the Courier-Journal:

The campaign called on the Louisville Metro Police to make sure that Sonka, who has been critical of McConnell in the past, from entering the conference room at the Hilton Garden Inn, on Crittenden Drive, where the event was held.
Sonka said he was originally told that he couldn’t attend because there was limited space in the room. In fact, there were numerous empty chairs in the room.
Moments before the event, Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, said that Sonka had been barred because other reporters had objected to Sonka asking questions. Benton refused to say who that reporter was.
This wasn’t the first time McConnell’s staff tried to keep Sonka out of an event. On February 14, before a campaign appearance at a Louisville business, Sonka was asked to leave but was allowed to return by the businesses’ owner.
“I think they were afraid I was going to ask him a question that he was going to have difficulty with,” Sonka said in an interview. Benton “said I could come in if I didn’t ask any questions, then when I told him I’d like to, he said he’d get the police to put me under arrest.”

Freedom of the press? Not so much in Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky. McConnell can’t run on his record, so he is forced to try to strong arm the press in order to prevent voters from finding out the truth about their senator.
Mitch McConnell is so desperate to keep his Senate seat that he called the police on a reporter because he was afraid that the journalist was going to ask him a question that he could not answer.
McConnell has spent over $10 million on ads that have gotten him absolutely nowhere. He is tied or trailing his Democratic opponent in every single poll of the state. His approval is lower than President Obama’s.
The last thing that all strongmen try to do before they fall is silence the media. Mitch McConnell is now trying to silence the media. Mitch McConnell has ruled over Kentucky politics for decades, but it appears that his reign might finally be coming to an end.

It’s a Fact: repugican Run Red States Have America’s Highest Poverty Rates

According to The Department of Agriculture's measure of poverty, every red state from Arizona to South Carolina has the highest poverty rates in America; between 17.9% and 22.8%.…

During the protests against America’s involvement in the Viet Nam war, it became very popular for warmongers and so-called patriots to tell young men facing losing their lives in a worthless war and those protesting to save them that this is “America, love it or leave it.” The implication was that since Congress adhered to the Constitution in waging war, regardless the devastating consequences, the American people were obliged to either show their love of country and support the war or get out. There is a segment of the population today that hates America, its people, and the nation’s founding document, but instead of packing up and leaving the country, they have tasked Republicans to punish the entire population by legislating that all Americans suffer their lifestyle founded on poverty, bigotry, ill-health, and religious ignorance. Although there are Americans who hate this nation across the country, it is the former Confederacy that is punishing the people because they failed in their attempt to destroy America of their rejection of the United States Constitution they claim to love.
Southern states are still resentful they were unable to rip America apart because the Constitution forbade them from keeping dark-skinned human beings as livestock, so they spent the past 149 years punishing different groups of Americans based on their religion’s instruction manual (christian bible). Over the past thirty years, angry southerners began electing Republicans to strip everything from the people until they relented to a government by bible that drove their attempt to restrict other Americans from their Constitutional freedoms. The repugicans have happily accommodated southerners to bring down the rest of the nation to their level of poverty and distress that southern red state voters embrace so long as they have imaginary enemies who believe Americans deserve more than slave wages, sickness, dire poverty, prayer, and firearms.
It is fairly common knowledge the former Confederacy considered owning human beings a biblically-supported and constitutional right according to their interpretation of the 10^th Amendment. But even after losing the Civil War they persisted in targeting other groups for discrimination with biblical justification. Since their war against America, southern states opposed interracial marriage, women’s right to vote, civil rights, voting rights, women’s right to choose their reproductive health, and recently gay rights. The impetus for their opposition to those rights guaranteed in the Constitution is founded in their religion and since they were prohibited by the Constitution from depriving those groups of their rights, they have taken out their anger on the rest of the population by electing repugicans to Congress who promise to subject every American to conditions red southern state residents live under including poverty, slave wages, sickness and disease, and no hope of ever escaping their chosen lifestyle.
It is difficult for reasonable Americans to comprehend why voters in the South continue electing repugicans that campaign on perpetuating living conditions most Americans consider unacceptable. It is not because they believe all Americans live in poverty and love it, or that they are unaware their miserable plight is unavoidable. Most likely they are willing to live in poverty and ill-health with no chance of escaping because they are angry the rest of the nation will not tolerate their bigotry and hate; their only recourse is electing repugicans to legislate America into one big red state mired in bigotry, religion, guns, and deep poverty.
According to The Department of Agriculture’s measure of poverty, every red state from Arizona to South Carolina has the highest poverty rates in America; between 17.9% and 22.8%. The so-called bible belt is America’s poverty belt including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, nearly one in four children trapped in Southern red states live in dire poverty and parents of those children elect repugicans to make those despicable statistics uniform across America. Part and parcel of conditions driving the South’s poverty is low wages that voters elect republicans to perpetuate across America.
Southern states are hostile to organized labor, five states have no state minimum wage, most are “right to work for less” states, and the 10 states with the lowest average incomes are in the former Confederacy including Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oklahoma according to the Equality of Economic Opportunity Project. Republicans in Congress promote policies that create poverty across the South and red state voters elect them anyway to subject the entire nation to low wages and the poverty they engender.
The depth of Southern voters’ hatred for other Americans and their own families is evident in their support for republicans that rejected expanding Medicaid in most of the South. According to a map by the Urban Institute, counties with the most people without healthcare insurance are in the Southern United States and it defies comprehension why voters support repugicans who prevent their children, parents, brothers and sisters from access to healthcare that does not cost states one cent for the first few years and only 10% (at most) thereafter. The same voters avidly oppose the Affordable Care Act that reveals they want tens-of-millions of Americans to suffer the same ill-health and disease they choose for their families.
It is unfathomable that residents in southern red states reject attempts to help them climb out of poverty and sickness, but religion and guns are powerful motivators for people still holding a grudge over being prevented from owning slaves, restricting women’s rights, and discriminating against Americans according to their religious beliefs. It is no coincidence that the poorest Southern states are also the most religious and have the most firearm violence. In fact, the poorest states have the highest incidence of gun violence to go along with some of the highest gun ownership rates that repugicans take advantage of by joining the National Rifle Association fear mongering that President Obama is coming after their guns as fervently as he is coming after their religious liberty.
Many pundits assert the conditions in southern red states are the fault of repugican-dominated legislatures, but without voters electing repugicans and teabaggers to preserve the deplorable conditions southern states would not lead the nation in poverty. Unfortunately, the same people electing repugicans at the state level vote for repugicans in Congress because they promise to oppose Democrats and President Obama’s campaign to disarm Southern state residents’ of their guns and bibles. It is certain that if President Obama and Democrats supported religious-driven bigotry and gun fanaticism, red southern state voters would reciprocate and support policies giving them decent wages, healthcare, and domestic programs to combat poverty. However, since that will never happen they will vote to elect repugicans to Congress to impose their deplorable living conditions on the entire population and spread their real America to every state in the Union.

The crowd laughed at the yacht

A luxury yacht owner got stuck on the Thames in front of hundreds of people enjoying the sun on Sunday afternoon. A crowd of onlookers watched as The Victoria, thought to be worth at least £1million, collided with Richmond Bridge in south-west London.

Strong currents were blamed as the river tide came in quickly and the water levels rose by up to 7ft. Witness Lesley-Anne Berthon said: “We saw the boat coming and thought ‘there’s no way he’s getting through in that’.

YouTube link. Part two.

“There was a man standing on the back trying to gauge the height. They tried to reverse and got caught. Every time they tried to move the boat just hit the side of the bridge.” The crew’s misfortune attracted little sympathy from crowds lining the banks.

Lesley-Anne said: “Some people were jeering. People were laughing at him.” The vessel suffered considerable damage with much of the top level ending up in pieces on the deck. The Victoria later managed to float free when the river level subsided under the bridge.

Woman knocked out robber with child-sized mannequin

An attempted robbery at a Brazilian dressmaking store came to a swift end when a bystander hit the alleged thief on the head with a child-sized mannequin.

Ex-convict Claudionor Castilho Batista and an accomplice entered the store in the city of Maringa on March 7 and told staff they were armed. The duo took cash and mobile phones then fled.

YouTube link.

Surveillance footage newly released by police shows Batista, 36, returning to the store soon after the alleged robbery to harass employees. In the video, Batista starts arguing with shop owner Jose Rangel Silva, who pulls out a handgun hidden in his waistband.

The two begin tussling for the gun, and Batista almost overpowers the store owner - until a brave passer-by picks up a child-sized mannequin knocked into the street and marches into the store to end the scuffle. During the incident Batista was reportedly shot twice, once in his left thigh and then in his left hand. He was taken to hospital then transferred into police custody.

Man named 'Face' snatched $1,000 hidden in woman's bra

Athens-Clarke County Police are looking for a man who goes by the name of “Face” who they say snatched more than $1,000 from a woman’s bra.

According to police, the alleged robbery occurred on March 10 at the Days Inn in Athens, Georgia. An Augusta woman told police she met “Face” a few days earlier.

On March 10, he came to her room asking to “come in for a drink” and she let him in. While in the room, he allegedly snatched $1,030 from the woman’s bra. There was no word from police on why the money was there or how he knew it was there.

“Face” pushed the woman to the floor and fled. According to police, two people nearby heard her call for help and chased the man, but couldn’t catch him. “Face” is described as a black male, 5-foot-7 with short hair and a receding hairline.

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You Are Not 'Left-Brained' Or 'Right-Brained'

From self-help and business success books to job applications and smartphone apps, the theory that the different halves of the human brain govern different skills and personality traits is a popular one.

No doubt at some point in your life you've been schooled on 'left-brained' and 'right-brained' thinking - that people who use the right side of their brains most are more creative, spontaneous and subjective, while those who tap the left side more are more logical, detail-oriented and analytical. Too bad it's not true.

Ziggy

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Feds investigate graffiti at historic Nevada cave

Federal officials are offering a $1,000 reward after someone spray-painted phrases including "I love Rachael" at an archaeological site east of Fallon, Nev.

This undated image provided by the Bureau of Land Management shows the vandalized Hidden Cave near Fallon, Nev. Federal officials are offering a $1,000 reward after someone spray-painted phrases at the archaeological site. Public tours to Hidden Cave are temporarily suspended while law enforcement investigates [Credit: AP/Bureau of Land Management]
Officials with the Bureau of Land Management say graffiti was found inside and outside Hidden Cave. Thousands of artifacts have been found at the cave, which archaeologists say was used by humans from 800 to 5,000 years ago.
Authorities say they've also found bullet holes in the informational kiosk and damage to interpretive sites and lighting.
Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Jason Wright says this is the first instance of modern vandalism to the cave, and it is "most disrespectful." He says the act is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Public tours to Hidden Cave are temporarily suspended while law enforcement investigates.

Spain re-opens Altamira Cave to public

The amazing prehistoric Altamira cave has re-opened for limited public viewing after being closed for over a decade.

Painting of a bison in the cave of Altamira

The cave is located in northern Spain and contains jaw-dropping, well-preserved polychrome prehistoric cave paintings. The cave was discovered in 1868 by a hunter and contains abstract shapes and animal depictions painted some 13,000-to-35,000 years ago by cave dwellers. Altamira is located in Cantabria, Spain and is a World Heritage site managed by UNESCO.
In 2002, when experts determined that the quality of the cave paintings deteriorated due to large amounts of carbon dioxide expelled by human breath, the cave closed. UNESCO has now determined that groups of five people a week visiting for eight minutes will be allowed for a limited time. UNESCO will allow the visits until August to see if there is any negative impact from the limited public viewing schedule. During the testing period some 190 visitors will be allowed inside the cave.
The cave is nearly 900 feet long with the “great lateral chamber” containing most of the paintings. The roof of the chamber is covered with paintings, mostly of bison, painted in vivid colors of red, black, and violet. There are also wild boars, and some horses depicted. The property represents the peak of Paleolithic cave art that was located across the European continent.

Unmanned aircraft reveals 2,500 year old petroglyphs in Utah desert

Some drones have a bad reputation for snooping on people and facilitating acts of war.

An incredible collection of 20 petroglyphs has been revealed by a drone flight in southern Utah.

They are believed to be the work of the basketmaker people who lived some 2,500 years ago

But unmanned aircraft can be used to give experts a new view of inaccessible and remote locations to uncover lost treasures.
An incredible collection of 20 petroglyphs has been revealed by a drone flight in southern Utah.
They are thought to be the work of the basketmaker people who lived some 2,500 years ago and made rock etchings in a very particular style, with depictions of humans often having broad shoulders and skinny legs.

One of the drones used by the firm to capture the stunning markings

The Colorado resident filmed the voyage and close-ups of the carvings, but will not reveal the location of the ancient drawings until he has spoken to the landowner.
Jerry Spangler, who heads up the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance told Fox News that the petroglyphs are of the San Juan basketmaker style with broad shoulders and stick-like legs.
‘It’s a very classic style made by the basketmaker people from about 500 BC through around 860AD.’
They could have been unseen for thousands of years. ‘It’s possible that what he’s found has never been formally documented by archaeologist,’ said Mr Spangler.

He believes that there are hundreds of sites in the Utah desert which have yet to be discovered and that drones could be used to investigate inaccessible areas that are sometimes too dangerous for humans to explore.
‘Some of these sites are so incredibly difficult to get to, just for safety reasons we can’t get to them,’ he said.
However, he has reservations about the sharing of locations of hidden gems as looting and vandalism of sites is a real problem, despite the fact that it is illegal to tamper with or remove anything from an archaeological site on public property.

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Daily Comic Relief

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Springer spaniel saved choking owner by accidentally performing Heimlich

A Springer Spaniel has been hailed a hero after saving her owner from choking on a sweet. Rachel Hayes thought she was going to die after a strawberry pastille went down the wrong way as she sat in her kitchen. But as she gasped for air, her faithful springer spaniel sprung into action and accidentally performed the Heimlich. “She’s an absolute hero,” she said. “It happened when I sat down to have a sweet.”
“But then it got stuck in the back of my throat and I couldn’t get it back up,” she said. Rachel, who lives alone with Mollypops in Drefach Felindre, near Llandysul, Carmarthenshire, wales was unable to call out. “It must have gone down the wrong way,” she said. “I couldn’t phone anyone because I couldn’t talk. I was having difficulty breathing and was doing my best to get it out. But Mollypops’ sixth sense, or doggy sense, kicked in and she knew I was in trouble.”

Mollypops then showed off her secret paramedic skills. “She was insistently trying to help me and I kept pushing her away,” Rachel said. “But she kept coming around me because she could see I was trying to get something from my throat. But I kept pushing her away because I couldn’t really breathe.” Rachel ran into the toilet to try to cough up the candy. “Then Mollypops came up behind me put her paws on me and bashed on my back with such a force that the sweet came out,” Rachel said.
“This went on for a few minutes – I can’t say for sure how long. I was just glad I could breathe. I just burst out crying and said, ‘I love you.’ She came over for a cuddle and I cuddled her. I told her she was a hero.” Mollypops was baffled. “I don’t know what she made of it,” Rachel said. “I think she’s glad to have me alive otherwise she would have been left all on her own. But I don’t think she knows quite what she has done. I gave Mollypops lots of cuddles and as a thank you I bought her a squeaky chicken.”

Surfer injured after colliding with dolphin

A bodyboarder was airlifted to hospital after colliding with a dolphin while riding a wave on the New South Wales south coast in Australia.

27-year-old John Wolfson was surfing at Bawley Point, 250 kilometers south of Sydney, when the collision occurred.“He has come over a wave and as he did so, a dolphin has come through and hit him in the pelvic area,’’ New South Wales Ambulance duty operations manager Wayne Dunlop said. “The force has been enough to tear the patient’s wetsuit.’’

Paramedics treated Mr Wolfson, who had made his way out of the water, at the scene before he was airlifted to a hospital in Sydney. Mr Dunlop said the full extent of his injuries was unknown and he would require further assessment. While shark attacks sometimes occur around Australia, incidents involving other marine animals are not common.

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Marine research group ORCCA’s president Ronny Ling said it was hard to tell whether the dolphin had deliberately struck Mr Wolfson. “They (dolphins) can always miscalculate,’’ he said. “There is a possibility of error there on the animal’s behalf.’’ By law, swimmers are required to stay 50 meters away from dolphins and 100 meters from whales.