When another old cave is discovered in the south of France, it is not usually news. Rather, it is an ordinary event. Such discoveries are so frequent these days that hardly anybody pays heed to them. However, when the Lascaux cave complex was discovered in 1940, the world was amazed. Painted directly on its walls were hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals, such as bison or wild cats. Other images depict birds and, most noticeably, horses, which appear in more than 300 wall images, by far outnumbering all other animals.

    Early artists drawing these animals achieved a monumental and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried their painting materials to spaces that required climbing steep walls or going on hands and knees into narrow passages in the Lascaux complex.

    Unfortunately, the paintings have been exposed to the destructive action of water and temperature changes, which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux caves have many entrances, air movement has also damaged the images inside.

    Although they are not out in the open air, where natural light would have destroyed them long ago, many of the images have deteriorated and are hardly recognizable. To prevent further damage, the site was closed to tourists in 1963, 23 years after it was discovered.

    A company in San Francisco, California, has found a way to turn used plastic bottles into women's shoes.

    Every day, millions of Americans drink water and other liquids from plastic bottles. More than 60 million of them are thrown away each day. Many of the plastic bottles end up in landfills or are burned with other waste products.

    A San Francisco start-up company called Rothy's, however, turns this plastic waste into environmentally friendly shoes. Roth Martin is the company's co-founder. He explains how they turn plastic into soft material for women's feet. They take the plastic, clean it, and break it down into small pieces. Then they press them through a device that makes soft fibers. Those fibers are then combined together. This is done by a 3D machine. It is designed to reduce waste while making the shoes. The knitted stuff and the inner part of the shoe are then attached to the shoe's outer part, called the sole (鞋底). This outer sole is also made from environmentally friendly material: responsibly sourced no-carbon rubber.

    Rothy's shoes are sold online. They are flat shoes, with either a rounded or pointed toe. They come in different colors and designs. They cost either $ 125 or $ 145 per pair, depending on the design. After American actress Gwyneth Paltrow discovered them last year, the demand for the shoes grew. Martin says there is no shortage of material to fill that demand. “We're not going to run out of water bottles any time soon. So we have a limitless supply of material, and I think that is a good sign for our future.” When the environmentally friendly shoes wear out, customers can return them at no cost to a company that uses the recycled materials to make other products.

    For now, the shoes are only available to be shipped in the United States. However, the company says it will add international shipping in the near future.

    Violette Childe, 67, is a dining companion who helps serve patients lunches. The role was introduced ten years ago by a dietitian concerning that some patients were not eating their meals.

    "Many of our patients are elderly and can be confused by the noisy, busy environment of the hospital and so won't focus on eating." explains Yvonne Donglas-Morris, head of volunteering, who oversees the activities of all 528 of the trusty volunteers. "Staff are busy with the clinical side of things, so the dining companions were introduced. They will assist the patients and encourage them to eat."

    Violette, a retired library manager, has been helping out for six years. "It makes me feel a bit more complete," she says simply. "Helping with the meals frees up the nurses to get on with other things. I believe in being a part of the community and this hospital is part of my community."

    Another key role is played by the discharge volunteers, who offer support to the elderly, especially those aged 70 and over-leaving hospital to return to an empty home. The team has a budget of ￡10 per person and will pop to the shops and buy milk, bread and a meal to tide them over for the first few hours. They then call the patients regularly, for as long as they need, to check how they are getting on and if they need extra support.

    The volunteers in Kingston work from a dedicated office-a small room in one of the buildings on the hospital grounds, where a Christmas tree decorated with baubles (小饰物) bearing the faces of volunteers sits in the corner. "All the volunteers come and gather here, it gets very busy at times," smiles Nicola Hutin, 67, a discharge support volunteer. A mother of two, and grandmother of four, she was a membership coordinator (协调员) for a trade association until she retired, and has since volunteered at the hospital one morning a week for 18 months.

    Over the past couple of days, on our local Freecycle page there have been a lot of wanted posts, all from the same person, basically asking for everything you'd need to set up a house from scratch.

    One of the things they asked for was a queen-sized bed. At that time we just happened to have an extra one, so I messaged them. They immediately came in the afternoon. The people who came, two ladies and a man, are actually friends of another woman named Jenny who owned a young boy. This woman has escaped from a dangerous, violent relationship and these friends of hers are helping her and her son start over again, with everything from furniture to toothbrushes on their list of needs.

    While they were here, I also gave them one of our spare bookcase and some coffee cups. I even asked them to keep in touch in case they needed anything else—I have a way of connecting people with things. I offered the woman a cupboard we had as well; her friends just needed to see if there was a place and/or a need for it in their friend's new home.

    I was so excited to meet those loving people, who were obviously willing to help their friend. It was clear how protective they felt of this woman and her boy, how much they love her and wanted her to have a happy and safe life, and to spend even a few minutes with people like that is an experience I'll remember for a long, long time.

    A quick thank-you to all who have sent more donations over the last couple of days, as well as lovely messages of thanks and blessings. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with it all, but it's a problem I'm happy to have.

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Unhealthy health care bills, long emergency-room waits and inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.

Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and costs. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialists rather than the primary care physician.

A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare Beneficiaries(老年医保受惠人). The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors — two primary care physicians and five specialists — in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don't guarantee better care. Actually increasing breakup of care results in a corresponding rise in costs and medical errors.

How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he's reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount of a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient's disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.

Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.

Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.

How do we fix this problem?

It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive food to medical students by forgiving students loans for those who choose primary care as a career and harmonizing the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.

We're at the point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of 76 million Baby Boomers will become qualified for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.

Who will be there to treat  them？