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Dec 19, 2021Aurora borealis

You don"t have to go all the way to Alaska to see the northern lights (they"ve been spotted as far south as Hawaii). But based on this stunner of a photo, we recommend it. And the farther north the better: Auroras are more frequent and intense the closer you are to the North Pole.Desktop Version

Mar 26, 2021The wild heart of Tasmania

This boardwalk leads to one of the many lakes that dot Tasmania"s Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park, a crown jewel of the island"s Wilderness World Heritage Area. Covering over 623 square miles in the interior of the island, the park is home to an incredible diversity of flora and fauna. Marsupials like Bennett"s wallabies, quolls, Tasmanian pademelons, wombats, Tasmanian pygmy possums, and the legendary Tasmanian devils, as well as short-beaked echidnas and platypuses, can be found in its ancient forests and lakes.Desktop Version

Nov 26, 2018A little bit of Wonderland in New York City

This statue of Alice in Wonderland is found on the east side of New York’s Central Park, near 75th Street. It was commissioned in 1959 by a philanthropist whose late wife had enjoyed reading ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ to their children. "Alice" was first published on this day in 1865 by the English writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. His story of a little girl who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world was inspired by a real girl, Alice Liddell, and it went on to become a classic, inspiring films, television shows, and artwork like this.Desktop Version

Oct 24, 202075 years of the United Nations

We"re looking at the New York City skyline with the UN"s headquarters in the middle for United Nations Day, marking the anniversary of the date when the UN Charter entered into force. This year is a milestone 75th anniversary of the United Nations, which replaced the League of Nations as the world"s largest and most powerful intergovernmental organization. To mark the occasion, the UN launched its UN75 global dialogue initiative in January, and discussions have taken place around the world in settings ranging from classrooms to the UN General Assembly. COVID-19 has made some of these events a logistical challenge, but it"s also highlighted the need for countries to work together to face global issues. The UN website allows anyone to participate, with tool kits for dialogue, issues briefs, and other resources.Desktop Version

Aug 27, 2021Yabba-Dabba-Doo!

This rock-solid house in the Fafe mountains of northwest Portugal looks like it could be the home of a modern Stone Age family. Known locally as Casa do Penedo (House of the Rock), its prehistoric appearance has drawn comparisons to the Flintstones" dwelling in the fictional town of Bedrock. But the secluded stone structure on our homepage is very much real—it was built as a rural retreat in the Portuguese countryside in the 1970s. The building is sandwiched between four boulders that serve as the foundation, walls, and ceiling of the house, blending in as part of the beautiful natural landscape.Desktop Version

Dec 26, 2020Happy Boxing Day!

That "Boxing Day (UK)" printed on your calendar"s December 26 square has nothing to do with the sport of boxing—although for many modern Brits, Aussies, and other denizens of the Commonwealth, the holiday"s full slate of TV sporting events is the main observance. Folks with enough post-holiday energy might even slide down the hills on the grounds of this historic estate-turned public park, Barnett Demesne, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.Desktop Version

Mar 4, 2021The most wonderful day of the year. Period.

Er, comma—at least it seems like that"s what we"re seeing. And just like a comma breaks up a sentence, this structure called a breakwater interrupts the Pacific Ocean, punctuating waves with a crash before they can disturb this Bali beach. Whether its resemblance to a comma (or is that an apostrophe?) was intentional or not, it"s a fine visual for today"s syntactical celebration. That"s correct: It"s Grammar Day! (Note to hardline grammarians: We know punctuation—like a comma—isn"t exactly grammar, but we"re loosening the linguistical reins a bit in the generous spirit of Grammar Day. So put that red pen down, smarty-pants.)Desktop Version

Oct 28, 2018Do spirits haunt the Gardens of Versailles?

That’s not a ghost in our homepage picture; it’s just a statue (at least, we think it is). But it’s easy to imagine ghosts wandering the vast gardens here at the Palace of Versailles, about 12 miles outside of Paris. One ghost in particular has a reputation for showing herself. In 1901, on a sultry August afternoon, two visitors to the Gardens of Versailles claimed to have witnessed the gardens magically transform to their 18-century grandeur. Then, they said, they encountered the ghost of Marie Antoinette, whom they spotted calmly lounging and drawing in her sketchbook. The queen of course had been guillotined a century earlier. The story was later adapted as an opera, which debuted in 1991.Desktop Version

Apr 29, 2020Spring comes to the Palouse

The Palouse region of the inland Pacific Northwest is an unusually hilly prairie that straddles the state line between Washington and Idaho. Farming seems an unlikely endeavor here, but the soil and weather patterns make it ideal for growing certain crops, especially wheat and lentils. This time of year, when the wheat and barley crops are young, the hills brighten to fresh shades of green.Desktop Version

Sep 25, 2018Walking among the giants

Sequoia National Park was founded on this day in 1890, and while the park’s 128 years is nothing to sneeze at, some trees in the giant sequoia grove had called this home for thousands of years before they were given the protection of a national park. The Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park is where General Sherman, the largest tree in the world, stands. It is estimated to be 2,300 to 2,700 years old—a silent witness to both natural and human history. By the time Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa ‘found’ the Pacific Ocean in 1513, General Sherman had been growing for more than 1,500 years.Desktop Version

Jan 24, 2021These patterns tell a story

Is it possible for an article of clothing to express the essence of an entire people? Well, not usually, but for the Indigenous Guna people of Panama, the colorful handwoven textiles seen here may be an exception. Molas, which means "clothing" in the Guna language, are traditionally displayed on both the front and back of women"s blouses. Even today, many Guna women prefer to wear them instead of modern attire. The textiles often feature abstract geometric patterns, as well as images from nature such as turtles, flowers, birds, and fish. Guna women of yesteryear were known to paint their bodies with those same geometric patterns and designs, and by the late 1800s they had begun weaving them onto cloth instead of painting themselves. Today, the production of molas is still generally done by women, who use an intricate process called reverse appliqué, where as many as seven layers of fabric are sewn together to form a panel, which is then hand-cut to create the vibrant designs.Desktop Version

Aug 30, 2020Hay, what s up?

Whenever summer turns to autumn, the hay harvest is at the front of farmers" minds. To mark the change of season, we"re ambling through a hayfield full of beautifully rolled bales. This particular pastoral patch is in Jutland, the agrarian mainland of Denmark that "juts" into the North Sea. But if you could—hay presto—snap your fingers and teleport to any hayfield at sunset, you"d surely see similar neat rows of dry, amber-tinted grass.Desktop Version

Aug 22, 2018Summer’s in home stretch

When people talk about the ‘dog days of summer,’ they’re referring to the sultry, hot days of the season that sometimes seem to stretch on forever–just like those long legs on the star of today’s homepage. This is a maned wolf, also known as a ‘fox on stilts,’ and it’s the largest species of canid in South America. As a canid, it belongs to the same family as the domestic dog, wolf, and coyote, and we think it makes a fun spokescritter for summer’s ‘dog days.’Desktop Version

Jan 4, 2024Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California

An iconic feat of engineering, the Golden Gate Bridge stands like a sentinel at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. Pictured here blanketed by fog above the waters of the Golden Gate Strait, its towers, adorned with Art Deco elements, reach a height of 746 feet. The bridge opened in 1937, thanks to the efforts of engineer Joseph Strauss, architect Irving Morrow, and others who wanted to connect San Francisco to Marin County. It wasn"t an easy vision to accomplish during the Great Depression, but the investment paid off as its construction created thousands of jobs and boosted growth. It was Morrow who picked the striking color, International Orange, an unusual choice at the time when many bridges were gray or black. He felt it would contrast well with the surrounding hills, sky, ocean, and fog. The Golden Gate Bridge, a testament to human innovation, is a timeless masterpiece blending functionality with beauty.Desktop Version

Sep 29, 2019Falling for Rioja

While today"s image of beautiful fall colors in Rioja is serene and peaceful, the people of this area are hard at work harvesting grapes at 14,800 different vineyards across the region. And soon the 600 wineries in this smallest Spanish province will begin the lengthy process to turn this year"s grape harvest into its world-famous Rioja wines. (To get an idea of how tiny La Rioja province is, it makes up just 1 percent of Spain"s land area and only about 0.67 percent of Spain"s population lives here.) While winemaking techniques have evolved and improved over the thousands of years that wine has been made here, each year around this time locals and visitors gather in the region"s capital of Logroño to celebrate the wine harvest and see a traditional example of the first, uh, step of this process—crushing newly harvested grapes by stomping them with bare feet.Desktop Version

Jan 29, 2020Staircase of turquoise pools

While it"s snowy and cold in much of the Northern Hemisphere this time of year, December and January are popular months to visit Guatemala, where the skies are clear, but everything is still green and lush from autumn rains. Nestled in the Guatemalan jungle, Semuc Champey is a hotspot for adventurous tourists. Its name means "where the river hides under the stones" in Q"eqchi", a Mayan language spoken by local communities.Desktop Version

Sep 24, 2018Mooncake time

In ancient China, moon worship was tied closely to fertility and the harvest. So the full moon that happened closest to the fall equinox became the holiday now called Mid-Autumn Festival, also called Moon Festival by some. Originally a celebration of the harvest and a plea to the gods for rains to ensure a good harvest next year, the festival has become a more secular bit of autumn fun, with children and adults alike eating sweet mooncakes, lighting lanterns, and giving thanks for all they have. Really, they had us at ‘mooncake.’Desktop Version

Aug 13, 2020Life in the slow lane

The first humans to settle in this area of what is now southern Italy took up residence in natural caves along the walls of the ravine formed by the Gravina River. Beginning around 9,000 years ago and continuing into the 20th century, the caves were further carved and expanded by these human occupants into an elaborate settlement. It"s now called the Sassi di Matera, a pair of districts in the city of Matera, Italy.Desktop Version

Jul 2, 2021A meerkat stands alone

Meerkats, also called suricates, are members of the mongoose family native to the southern African plains. They live in mobs (yes, that"s what a group of meerkats is called) of 20 to 50 animals that work together and share extensive networks of underground burrows. Our friend today, photographed in Namibia, appears to be on sentry duty, which is when a meerkat stands lookout for predators as the rest of the group forages for food, such as insects, small reptiles, and other delicacies. A sentry shift usually lasts about an hour, after which another meerkat takes over and the now-relieved sentry gets to focus on filling its belly.Desktop Version

Nov 8, 2018Manatees rebound

We’re in Florida’s Blue Spring State Park for Manatee Awareness Month. As winter approaches, Blue Spring becomes a safe harbor for manatees, aka sea cows, looking for warmer inland waters. It’s also a protected area for the manatees, where they can eat and swim without fear of injury from boats. In fact, researchers identify many of the manatees in Blue Spring by the scars they bear from accidental boat collisions and motor blade cuts. Identifying individual manatees has been crucial to tracking the population rebound of this once endangered species. A 2016 census of manatees in Florida’s springs counted 6,250 of the large, surprisingly graceful beasts.Desktop Version

Apr 14, 2020A day for the dolphins

We"re celebrating World Dolphin Day with a small pod of pantropical spotted dolphins. Award-winning photographer Christian Vizl captured this serene scene off the coast of Ixtapa, Mexico, where these cetaceans can be, er, spotted in abundance. As their name would suggest, pantropical spotted dolphins live in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. They"re the second-most common dolphin after the bottlenose and grow between 6 and 7 feet long. That may seem big if you were swimming next to one, but it"s really pretty small compared with the big kahuna of the dolphin family—the orca. Orca bulls can be up to 32 feet long and tip the scales at 11 tons. Let"s all take a moment today to spread the love of dolphins big and small and recognize their importance to our ecosystem. To see more of Vizl"s stunning nature photography, select the link below.Desktop Version

Oct 31, 2020Twas a night just like tonight

In the late 18th century, a wealthy landowner built an estate in County Antrim in what is now Northern Ireland. To make a scenic but imposing entryway, he had 150 beech trees planted on either side of the road (90 trees survive). The trees grew to form the Dark Hedges—an arboreal tunnel leading up to the property. In the right conditions—say a gloomy autumn night with the moonlight casting shadows through the tree canopy—this road can be a little spooky.Desktop Version

Oct 27, 2018Don’t get lost in there

Look closely at today’s homepage picture and you might spot some adventurous folks searching for the way out of this elaborate corn maze in Northern California. Corn mazes—known as ‘maize mazes’ in the UK—are a popular fall-time tradition that allows for much creativity. A Massachusetts farm draws visitors to its Tom Brady tribute maze, designed to look like the Patriots quarterback throwing a football. And a farmer in Illinois built a 6.5-acre maze shaped like a vintage Indy 500 race car. We’re still holding out for a corn maze inspired by search engines. Anyone game?Desktop Version

Nov 11, 2018Poppies for Armistice Day

This is part of ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,’ an art installation created by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of World War I. Crafted of thousands of ceramic poppies, the touring exhibit has been seen by more than 4 million people in 16 locations around the United Kingdom. One large section of the installation, ‘Wave,’ is currently at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England, which is where our image was photographed. We’re showing it today to honor Armistice Day, the day exactly 100 years ago when the Allied Forces and Germany signed an armistice that ended the war. The US renamed the holiday Veterans Day in 1954 to honor veterans of all its wars. To the roughly 20 million veterans in the US today–thank you.Desktop Version

Dec 1, 2020Giving Tuesday

These common terns sharing a fish have the right idea for today, which is Giving Tuesday. Held annually on the Tuesday after the US Thanksgiving, the global movement serves to encourage acts of generosity during the holidays, when consumerism seems to be the focus for so many. Giving Tuesday was founded in 2012 by New York"s 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. Originally observed only in the US, it"s grown into a worldwide celebration of generosity promoted by a newly independent organization. There are several ways you can participate: Donate to the cause of your choice, volunteer your time, or just do something nice—even sharing a fish counts.Desktop Version

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