Sego Canyon Rock Art

About three miles north of Thompson Springs, Utah is an American Indian rock art site that includes both petroglyphs (made by etching the rock surface) and pictographs (made by painting the rock surface).  You can take Utah State Route 94 north from Interstate 70.  The numbered route ends just south of the town, but the road keeps going and eventually leads into a narrow canyon.  On the left side of the road is a small parking area.  This petroglyph panel is commonly attributed to the Fremont Culture, who lived in what is now central Utah from around 600 to 1250 AD, but whose origins go back further.  Sadly, there are some non-Indian additions.

A large panel of pictographs is thought to have been made by Archaic people, who were in the area between 8,000 and 2,000 BC.  While the Freemont, like their contemporaries the Anasazi, were agricultural, the earlier Archaic people were mainly nomadic hunter-gatherers.  The style of these paintings is called Barrier Canyon Style.

Here are the pictographs from a different angle.

The most recent art was made by the Ute, and includes both petroglyphs and pictographs.  Some of the figures depict horses, thus dating them from after the arrival of the Spanish, who introduced the horse into North America.  Sadly, this panel also contains non-Indian additions.  The Ute lived in the area from around 1,300 AD, and are still around today, largely on reservations.

The Sego Canyon rock art has been subjected to quite a bit of study and speculation.  More about the figures can be found at Climb Utah, Science Views, Ancient Origins and Legends Of America.

Bomb Explodes Near Shrine In Bangkok

Up to 22 people are reported to have been killed, and over 100 others wounded, by a bomb that exploded next to a Hindu shrine in central Bangkok, Thailand.  The Erawan Shrine is popular with tourists, and was crowded at the time of the blast.  The explosive device was reportedly a pipe bomb wrapped in cloth.

No one has yet claimed responsibility.  There is a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, but they are not known for attacking in other parts of the country.

Read more at CNN, BBC News, The Telegraph, The Guardian and CBC News.

Rifle Falls State Park

North of the town of Rifle, along Rifle Creek, a number of miles upstream from the Rifle Gap, is Rifle Falls, within its namesake state park.  The park also includes campsites, hiking trails, and several small caves near the falls.  It was pretty crowded, with its regular parking spaces filled, but the two rangers on duty allowed other visitors such as myself to park our cars on the shoulder of the park's road.  I even got some help from another visitor, who used hand signals to help me position my car in front of his.  From there, it was only a short walk to the falls.

This is the second time I have visited the park.  While staying near Vail in 2004, I took a day trip, going to Rifle Falls and further west.  Back then, I didn't have a digital camera or a blog, but this time, I get to record my visit online.

The falls consists of three streams that go over a cliff, hit some rocks below, and then gather into a common pool.  The left stream appears to be further divided into one part that shoots outward and another that goes more straight down.

From this angle, we can see a large alcove to the left of the falls.  The man standing in it provides some size perspective.

I took the next shot from a position near the right stream, which shows the subdivided left stream and the central stream.  A woman is now in the alcove, just in front of a cave.  In the top foreground are some tree branches.  In the upper left is a projecting metal balcony.

Naturally, I then climbed up to the alcove and took a pic from there.

The Coyote Trail led upwards from the right side of the falls and past several caves.  Upstream from the falls is this pond.

The trail continued just above the top of the falls, from where we could see the stream below.

I continued over to the above-mentioned projecting balcony and took this picture.

At the parking area near the falls, I found the Squirrel Trail, which led over Rifle Creek and then southward along an artificial channel.  This picture looks back to the north.

The trail eventually separated from the channel and went downhill, passing near this boulder surrounded by trees and grass.

The trail would go back over Rifle Creek and led past some campsites.  I followed a gravel road back to the park entrance and then back to my car.  After I drove away from the park, I stopped to see Rifle Gap Reservoir, used for boating and fishing at nearby Rifle Gap State Park.

This last picture shows a parking area on the north side of the reservoir.

More about Rifle Falls State Park can be found at The American Southwest.

I know the time of post will be around 11:30 p.m., but out here in Mountain Time, it's only about 9:30.

Greetings From Western Colorado

I'm out here in western Colorado for a change of scenery and some exploration.  (Thankfully, my flights were not affected by yesterday's air traffic computer glitch.)  As you might expect, the scenery here is very different from that of Maryland.  While driving between Mesa and De Beque, the latter located on both the Colorado River and Interstate 70, on a road known as the "De Beque Cutoff" but whose official designation is "45 1/2 Road", I came across an interesting rock formation, and had to snap a few pics.  It appears to contain at least two openings.

Here's the formation from a different angle.  A few trees are in the way.

I continued stepping around bushes and smaller rocks, and took this shot from a greater distance, with even more trees in the foreground.

Naturally, I'll be putting up some more travelogue posts in the near future.

Man Killed By Roller Coaster

At the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, a man was killed when he was struck by a roller coaster train.  After losing his cell phone while riding the roller coaster, named the Raptor, he entered a restricted area apparently thinking that he could retrieve it.  Instead, he became eligible to receive a Darwin Award.

Read more at CNN, USA Today and the Sandusky Register.

Israeli Newspaper Misidentified U.S. Senator As "Gay"

Earlier today, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz referred to Senator Al Franken (D-Minn) as "gay" in an entry on Twitter.  This, of course, would be a surprise to his wife Franni.  Why Franken was identified as "gay" is not known, but one reported possibility is that he was confused with openly gay former Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass), who has never been a U.S. Senator.  Franken has recently come out (if you'll forgive the expression) in favor of the recently-negotiated nuclear deal with Iran.  Besides being a Senator, he has also written and performed for NBC's Saturday Night Live, and has written books and screenplays.

Read more at The Hill, MarketWatch, the Washington Examiner and Sputnik International.

[Edit: As pointed out in a comment, Congressman Frank represented Massachusetts, not Connecticut, as I previously mistakenly indicated.]

Some Science News Items

Here are some news stories of a scientific nature:

From The Christian Science Monitor, scientists have discovered the smallest exoplanet seen by a telescope.  (It still has twice the mass of Jupiter.)

From Science Daily, researchers from the United States, Ireland and Singapore have altered the magnetic properties of a film of LaMnO₃ by changing its thickness.

From The Daily Star, listening to music before, after, and even during surgery has been shown to decrease the need for pain-killers.

And from Mashable, the European spacecraft Rosetta, currently orbiting Comet 67P, has remained healthy after experiencing the comet's perihelion.

Wastewater Spill Threatens Navajo

The EPA-caused spill of wastewater into the Animas and San Juan rivers is now threatening the livelihoods of the Navajo Nation, many of whom normally depend on the San Juan for drinking water and irrigation.  The Navajo have responded by suing the EPA.  The Navajo president and tribal officials have accused the EPA of trying to cheat some Navajo people by getting them to sign away their rights to make future claims against the EPA.  Some stories:

From CNN, the damage done to the Navajo's water "goes beyond money".

From The Washington Times, Navajo President Russell Begaye has alleged that EPA officials have been asking Navajo people to sign waivers.

From Time, President Begaye discusses his tribe's lawsuit.

From the StarTribune, experts predict "long-term health risks" from the spill.

And from the Chicago Tribune, the Navajo are "bearing the brunt" of the spill.

Tuesday Links

Some more stuff going on out there:

From NBC News, at the crash site of MH17, shot down over Ukraine last year, some of the debris might be fragments of a Russian missile.

From Engadget, NASA is seeking more ideas for its CubeSat nanosatellites.

From the Los Angeles Times, a report on the benefits received by illegal aliens in California.

From The Rakyat Post, police use force against migrants on the Greek island of Kos.

From Haaretz, talks between Saudi Arabia and Russia over Syria fail to reach any agreement.

From Reuters, presidential candidate and former Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) can't pay his campaign staffers.

From ABC News, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R) will appeal his convictions to the U.S. Supreme Court.

From FrontpageMag, violence once again breaks out in Ferguson, Missouri.

From The Times Of Israel, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is accused of treason for opposing the Obama administration's deal with Iran.

From Live Mint, a disease spread among tadpoles is threatening worldwide frog populations.

From Sky News, ISIS directs lone wolves in the U.K. to carry out terror attacks.  (via Fox News, who report possible plots to attack V-J celebrations)

From The New York Times, in various states, the Democratic Party is removing the names Jefferson and Jackson from their official gatherings.

From Yahoo News, two British cops join go on the beat on the Spanish island of Majorca.

From Epoch Times, two residents of Mississippi have been charged with trying to join ISIS.

From The Street, the U.S. Army and Helius Medical Technologies will launch the third phase of their traumatic brain injury clinical trial.

From the International Business Times, Russia has signed a contract to spend $1.6 billion on fighter jets.

And from SB Nation, players at the PGA Championship will be reminded of the rules even while relieving themselves.

White House Staffer Allegedly Involved In Domestic Violence

This post illustrates how I occasionally must follow a trail to get to the original source, or at least an original source, of a story.  This one comes via Conservative Byte, who got it from Breitbart's Big Government, who got it from the Hill Blotter blog at Roll Call, who in turn refers to NBC Washington.  From the last link:

A White House staffer threatened her boyfriend, a U.S. Capitol Police officer, with his own weapon during an argument, according to police.

From what I can gather from the linked articles, the argument was over another woman that the man was allegedly seeing, and took place at the staffer's home in Marlboro, Maryland.  Read more at any of the links above.