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This March 2, 2013 photo made available by spaceweather.com shows the comet, Pan-STARRS, seen from Queenstown, New Zealand.Minoru Yoneto/The Associated Press

Want a comet close-up?

On March 16, Air Berlin is offering a two-hour charter flight to view comet Pan-STARRS when it passes through our solar system, some 160,000,000 kilometres from Earth. Tickets start at $470 (U.S.). Aboard a Boeing 737-700, 88 passengers will hope to spot a spectacular tail of dust and gas while flying at 11,000 metres. Karsten von dem Hagen, an Air Berlin sales representative, said: "The air there is thinner, clearer and cleaner, which enables better observation of the comet." Experts, however, are questioning why these Germans can't just use binoculars like everyone else.

See Europe with right-thinking folks

Sick of travelling with liberals who yammer on about women's rights and the environment? If so, former Republican Senate candidate Ken Chase's Conservative Tours may be for you. Chase, whose 2009-founded company offers luxury group tours of Europe for U.S. right-wingers, gave an opinionated interview to Outside Magazine this month. The 51-year-old Massachusetts native, who used to operate language schools, claimed "the average liberal has no interest in going to the D-Day beaches," and called his core clientele "traditional Americans" who are "not angry … not bitter … just pleasant." (Except when they can't get freedom fries in Paris.)

Ugh yeah! Me no need move

An aging, 7.6-metre-tall caveman statue in Grants Pass, Ore., symbolizing the city's proximity to the Oregon Caves, has dodged a bullet. The Cavemen, a tourism promotion group that owns the statue and is known for donning animal pelts to get media coverage, voted this month to leave it in its traditional location near the Chamber of Commerce instead of moving it to an area high school. But there's still work to be done. The fiberglass landmark, erected in 1971, reportedly needs an $800 paint job, and the Cavemen, who are down to three remaining members, have just $1,200 in the bank. This could make a heartwarming bad TV movie.

Sources: Outside, Gadling.com, Missoulian.com, Reuters, KGW.

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