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Post by jonsdigs on Jul 8, 2009 22:08:46 GMT -5
He shared caves' beautySan Angelo Standard-Times (TX) DAN CIPRIANI Wednesday, July 8, 2009 Jack Burch Jack Burch helped make the Sonora caverns and other caves accessible to the public. In 1955, a group of spelunkers got permission to explore an almost forgotten cave near Sonora. The reason it was largely forgotten is that there was a deep abyss with no way to cross it. Using mountain-climbing techniques, the explorers carefully crossed the pit and found a way into a 45-foot crawlway on the other side. At the end of the long crawl, they found beauty beyond the wildest dreams of spelunkers — there were stalactites, stalagmites and, most unusual, helictites covering everything. Helictites that grow horizontally are a rare find. This cave had so many they were “common.” Jack Burch and a friend, James Papadakis, heard about the discovery and couldn’t wait to explore it. After risking their lives inching across what is now known as the “Devil’s Pit,” they, too, were able to witness the beauty of the cave. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Jul 7, 2009 9:49:26 GMT -5
Magic salary for live-in witch role7/7/09 Press Association (UK) A tourist attraction is advertising in the Job Centre for a witch to live in one of its caves and is offering a £50,000 salary. Wookey Hole Caves, near Wells, Somerset, is looking for a new witch to teach visitors about witchcraft and magic after its previous employee retired. The unique job offer comes with a salary of £50,000 pro rata based on work during school holidays and at weekends. The job advert, which has gone into local newspapers and job centres, states that the successful applicant "must be able to cackle" and "must not be allergic to cats". Article
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Post by jonsdigs on Jun 30, 2009 16:56:10 GMT -5
Cave Artists Were Females, New Research Reveals!MedIndia June 30, 2009 It has been suggested by a recent analysis of hand stencils inside the 25,000-year-old Pech Merle cave that the majority of prehistoric European cave artists were female. This, because the handprints seem to belong to females. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Jun 30, 2009 12:07:26 GMT -5
Biological 'Fountain Of Youth' Found In New World Bat CavesScienceDaily (June 30, 2009) — Scientists from Texas are batty over a new discovery which could lead to the single most important medical breakthrough in human history—significantly longer lifespans. The discovery, featured on the cover of the July 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, shows that proper protein folding over time in long-lived bats explains why they live significantly longer than other mammals of comparable size, such as mice. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Jun 24, 2009 16:47:01 GMT -5
Flutes Offer Clues to Stone-Age MusicBy JOHN NOBLE WILFORD June 24, 2009 Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, showed a thin bird-bone flute carved some 35,000 years ago. (Photo: Daniel Maurer/Associated Press)At least 35,000 years ago, in the depths of the last ice age, the sound of music filled a cave in what is now southwestern Germany, the same place and time early Homo sapiens were also carving the oldest known examples of figurative art in the world. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Jun 23, 2009 12:32:24 GMT -5
Carvings From Cherokee Script’s DawnBy JOHN NOBLE WILFORD New York Times June 22, 2009
Characters in a Kentucky cave that may be the earliest examples of the script.(Photo:Fred Coy and Andras Nagy)The illiterate Cherokee known as Sequoyah watched in awe as white settlers made marks on paper, convinced that these “talking leaves” were the source of white power and success. This inspired the consuming ambition of his life: to create a Cherokee written language. An archaeologist and explorer of caves has now found what he thinks are the earliest known examples of the Sequoyah syllabary. The characters are cut into the wall of a cave in southeastern Kentucky, a place sacred to the Cherokee as the traditional burial site of a revered chief. The archaeologist, Kenneth B. Tankersley of the University of Cincinnati, said in an interview recently that this was “one of the most fascinating and important finds in my career,” yielding likely insights into “the genius of Sequoyah." Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Jun 16, 2009 21:18:51 GMT -5
DeFazio, Wyden seek protection for Devil’s Staircase, Oregon CavesBy Winston Ross The Register-Guard Jun 16, 2009 FLORENCE — U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio introduced a series of bills in Congress Tuesday designed to protect the Devil’s Staircase, a Coast Range forest so steep and rugged that it has evaded industrial logging impacts for much of the past century. Two related bills add protections for the Lower Rogue River and the Oregon Caves National Monument. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Jun 14, 2009 22:33:19 GMT -5
Cookeville caver featured in National GeographicMegan Trotter Herald-Citizen Staff (Cookeville, TN) Sunday, Jun 14, 2009 Kristen Bobo prepares to go down into a cave. Cookeville is getting national coverage this month in National Geographic Magazine, thanks to Cookeville resident Kristen Bobo. Bobo is a caver who has explored more than 700 caves all over the country and many right here in Tennessee. "I certainly wouldn't call it a hobby. It is my life. I work in caves; I play in caves," said Bobo. She not only surveys caves for the private and public sector, she also is one of the leading cave gate builders in the United States, having built more than 50 of the gates that keep out those who would steal or destroy the caves' valuables like ancient human footprints, pottery or the delicate animals and organisms that live there. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 12:16:54 GMT -5
Cherokeee Bluff's Cave nearest spelunking to UTTennessee Journalist, Knoxville By Robert Baldus April 21 2009 The first cave we visited was the Cherokee Bluffs cave system. This underground adventure land is directly underneath the cliff face and extends underground for about 700 feet. The passages snake their way under the thousands of tons of rock above. Full Story & Videos
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 12:06:05 GMT -5
Trapped kayaker freed from caveBBC 20 April 2009 A kayaker became trapped in a Devon sea cave while exploring with a friend. He became trapped in Petit Tor cave in Oddicombe on Sunday afternoon following a tidal surge. His friend raised the alarm at about 1400 BST. Torbay and Teignmouth Coastguard were preparing to lower a man over the cliff when the the lifeboat signalled the man had got clear of the cave. He was taken ashore by the lifeboat where he was assessed by paramedics. Coastguards warned people to take care. Dave Scullion, Watch Manager for Brixham Coastguard, said: "It would appear that the kayaker was exploring one of the caves set in the cliff, when he became trapped by the force of the tide. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 11:52:40 GMT -5
Science of sinkholesSpringfield News-Leader (MO) Tara Muck April 21, 2009 Steve Steele of Steele Excavating Co. drives a track loader to dump rocks to fill a sinkhole near Delaware Street in Nixa in 2006 . A Missouri State University professor is trying to provide some answers about the sinkhole. (News-Leader file photo)Nixa -- It's just an empty lot now. Any sign of what used to stand there is long gone. Cars pass by without a second thought about what happened nearly three years ago. The 75-foot deep, 60-foot wide Nixa sinkhole that swallowed up Norm Scrivener's car, garage and part of his house in August 2006 has baffled geologists. Never in southwest Missouri had such a phenomena occurred in an urbanized area. After a couple years studying the formation, Missouri State University Professor Doug Gouzie tried to provide some answers to the area's most infamous sinkhole. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 11:45:04 GMT -5
Bat Cave focus of wilderness exhibitHendersonville Times-News, (NC) April 20, 2009 Jennie Jones Giles Heritage Museum Mountain peaks, rippling streams, boulder-strewn rivers, serene meadows, gushing waterfalls, all surrounded by majestic trees, colorful wild flowers, and the birds, reptiles and mammals native to the county are part of the heritage of Henderson County. The culture of the early pioneers was shaped by the natural features that surrounded them as they settled into the coves and hollows of the mountains. Each exhibit at the Henderson County Heritage Museum will focus on a natural feature of our county. Bat Cave, the world’s largest granite fissure cave and the state’s biggest cave, is the focus of the first “wilderness” exhibit at the museum. Photographs, early postcards, and information on the cave and its bats are displayed in the first room of the museum. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 11:32:00 GMT -5
State leaders recognize spelunkers for exploring, mapping local cavesGroup hopes its efforts will help preserve area being eyed for developmentThe Bend Bulletin (OR) By Kate Ramsayer April 18. 2009 One lava tube southeast of Bend — once used as a garbage dump — has both a spacious cavern and a smaller, lavacicle-filled room in the back. Another cave was “hard to see unless you really got down and poked your head in,” said Matt Skeels, the chairman of the Oregon High Desert Grotto caving group. He and other cave explorers had to crawl through a tight passage to reach a little room. The High Desert Grotto members explored and mapped these and six other caves on the Department of State Lands’ Stevens Road property just outside Bend’s city limits, and for their efforts the group received the State Land Board’s 2008 Partnership Award earlier this week from Gov. Ted Kulongoski, State Treasurer Ben Westlund and Secretary of State Kate Brown. The three make up the State Land Board. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 11:25:41 GMT -5
Cave divers explore deepest parts of Weeki Wachee SpringsSt. Petersburg Times (FL) By Logan Neill and Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writers Monday, April 20, 2009 Brett Hemphill, a cave diver with Karst Underwater Research of Tampa, begins his descent to explore the Weeki Wachee Springs cave system Saturday. [WILL VRAGOVIC | Times]WEEKI WACHEE — Picking up where he left off two years ago, Brett Hemphill pushed even deeper and deeper into the underwater abyss Saturday. Already, no one has ever made it any farther into a spring than Hemphill and his diving team. Yet the work in — and underneath — Weeki Wachee Springs is only beginning. "Everything went pretty well out there," Hemphill said Sunday. "But we had to tone things down a bit. We're going to try to get back into the deep section." Of course, deep is relative. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 21, 2009 11:07:48 GMT -5
Positively Wisconsin: Cave of the MoundsWKOW Madison (WI) April 17, 2009 MT. HOREB (WKOW) -- Seventy years ago this August, quarry workers blasted a hole in the earth near Mount Horeb searching for limestone. What they found instead was a miracle of nature. A miniature Grand Canyon... underground. Today, it's known as the Cave of the Mounds. "It's right below your feet" says General Manager Joe Klimczak, "but you have no clue it's there." It was a secret uncovered with a bundle of dynamite. "They just thought they had a routine day at the quarry" he says, "and instead to discover this fantastic cavern." Researchers immediately knew it was something to be protected. A series of tunnels leading to one amazing sight after another. And they wasted no time posting an armed guard. Klimczak expands, "Actually a shotgun the first couple nights until they could build a structure and get a door on it because it was an immediate sensation." Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 16, 2009 4:37:36 GMT -5
Region's wells top in E. coli bacteriaArkansas Democrat-Gazette BY ROBERT J. SMITH Posted on Sunday, April 5, 2009 Retiree Roland Trietsch moved back to Arkansas after years of drinking water in Riverside, Calif. His move to rural Mena in Polk County raised a question about the quality of the water flowing into his 90-year-old house from a 45-foot-deep well dug in the 1970s. Trietsch lived in the home for two years before deciding last August that he had to know what was in his water. The Arkansas Department of Health tested it that month. "It came back positive with coliform and E. coli, and we've not changed our home consumption at all," said Trietsch, 60, who was a city engineer in Hemet, Calif. "We figure if we lived here for two years and didn't find out, it's not going to hurt us now. No one gets sick." "You would expect to find E. coli-type organisms in places with sensitive hydrogeology and areas with animal farming," Davis said. "The northwest part of the state has karst geology and things like E. coli can travel long distances. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 16, 2009 4:24:29 GMT -5
Morning Blaze Destroys Landmark Investigators Suspect Arson In Caverns FireDAILY NEWS RECORD (VA) 4-14-2009 By Pete DeLea ROCKINGHAM COUNTY - Throughout the day Monday, Shenandoah Valley residents stopped along the side of North Valley Pike near New Market to stare at a pile of charred rubble that was once an Endless Caverns gift shop. An early morning fire, which investigators are on the verge of ruling arson, consumed the local landmark Monday. The structure, in northern Rockingham County about 1.5 miles south of New Market, was built on the corner of Hulings Lane and North Valley Pike nearly 90 years ago to greet visitors to the caverns. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 16, 2009 4:18:21 GMT -5
Mysterious ailment plagues U.S. bats, could reach OklahomaLoss of night fliers could mean more mosquitoesNewsOK BY SONYA COLBERG Published: April 16, 2009 A white fungus like that on this little brown bat’s nose is caused by white nose syndrome. The newly discovered disease has already killed 1 million bats. PHOTOS PROVIDEDBats may be the stuff of nightmares, but they are facing a nightmare of their own. A mysterious disease is wiping out bats in caves in the northeast United States, and experts say it could reach Oklahoma. "It’s not safe to say that any of our bats are safe at this point,” said Merlin Tuttle, founder and president of Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas. "This is by far the most devastating threat that’s ever been seen to bats in our history.” The worst-case scenario is that white-nose syndrome could be here in less than two years, Tuttle said. It certainly will reach the state in several years unless scientists stop it, he said. "It would be really irresponsible to not be watching for it, but we don’t need to panic,” said Mike Caywood, park manager at Alabaster Caverns State Park near Freedom in northwest Oklahoma. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 16, 2009 4:03:18 GMT -5
Caver has seen heaven under the EarthGraham Leader (TX) Tuesday, April 14, 2009 By Gay Storms National Park Association survey team members Kevin Ferguson of Graham, third from left, and fellow cavers Dean McClung, Barbe Barker and Carl Pagano inventory items left by bat guano miners many years ago. (Courtesy photo)Kevin Ferguson's volunteer work requires the daring of an Indiana Jones and the technical savvy of Wall-E. As a member of the Cave Research Association, he has volunteered as a member of survey teams in Carlsbad Caverns for 20 years. The fanciful names of different cavern rooms trip off his tongue like a nursery rhyme. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 16, 2009 3:51:03 GMT -5
What rocks tell us about our past, present, and future An Ocean of Stoneby Laura Stokes Charleston City Paper (SC) "Mark's Passage Wolftever Cave" by Jeff Whetstone, winner of the Gibbes Museum of Art's annual factor Prize Post-Pleistocene On display through July 19 Gibbes Museum of Art 135 Meeting St. (843) 722-2706 www.gibbesmuseum.orgWhen we're young, the threat of mortality escapes our effervescent minds. The older we get, the more we notice how fleeting time becomes. We begin to search for ways to make a mark on the world. Some seek fame and fortune while others pursue knowledge and enlightenment. Most explore more mundane ways of recording their lives. Post-Pleistocene, Jeff Whetstone's photography exhibit at the Gibbes Museum of Art, provides a glimpse into our culture's search for immortality. Whetstone, the winner of the 2008 Factor Prize, awarded every year by the Gibbes to an outstanding Southern artist, is a cultural explorer. These large chromogenic prints of cave graffiti document a network of caverns in Tennessee and Alabama. Miners looking for saltpeter, the main ingredient of gunpowder, discovered the caves during the Civil War. Whetstone grew up near one of them, and he wasn't the first to explore it as a teenager: There are 160 years' worth of graffiti scrawled onto the cave walls. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 16, 2009 3:30:02 GMT -5
Prof. makes NKU her caveNKU Northerner (KY) Chelsea Nichols April 15, 2009 Hazel Barton Edward Morris/PhotographerHazel Barton, a microbiologist, commits a room in her lab to reasearching bats and their affect on people. On the third floor of the New Science Center are the offices of Northern Kentucky University’sbiology professors. Tucked away in the corner of a narrow hallway is a crowded office. The cherry oak desk is too big. There’s barely room for the two offices or chairs for guests. Cave maps cover the wall above the chairs. Even stuffed animals fight for room on the desk. Live jellyfish sitting on the bookshelf looks scared, almost as if the microbiology books will shove its tank onto the floor. None of it seems to bother the professor sitting behind the desk though. She points out that there’s a stalactite hanging from the ceiling abover her (not to be confused with stalagmites that come from the ground because they “might” grow up). “It’s not real though,” she says. The rock hanging straight above her came from the set of The Matrix. Full Story
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Post by jonsdigs on Apr 2, 2009 8:38:53 GMT -5
Here's another April Fools article. Story
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