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World Bamboo Day
World Bamboo Day
One of the most photographed places in Japan is this otherworldly grove of towering bamboo. The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove on the outskirts of Kyoto is surrounded by temples and shrines along the Katsura River. Rising as a manicured oasis of stories-high bamboo, the grove seems to turn the world green. The former villas and temples of the old noble class are located near the Arashiyama Grove, and its single 500-yard path is usually filled with visitors wielding cameras and selfie sticks, making this serene view a rare one.Desktop Version
The Battle of the Bulge 75 years later
The Battle of the Bulge 75 years later
Seventy-five years ago this week, the Battle of the Bulge began in the forests of the Ardennes, Belgium. On the morning of Dec 16, 1944, the beleaguered German army threw its best remaining troops and armor against a lightly defended section of the Allied line. Bad weather neutralized Allied air superiority and over the first few days, the Nazi offensive produced a "bulge" in the Allies" defensive line west into Belgium. Desperate to hold the line, US General Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to defend the strategically important crossroads in Bastogne. The town was surrounded for nearly 10 days by German forces, but the Airborne held out. In fact, a German demand for Allied surrender was rejected with a single word: "NUTS" (a bit of 1940s American slang that needed to be explained to the Nazi officers). In the end, the German offensive was defeated, with US forces having borne the brunt of the fighting—Americans sustained their highest casualties of any single battle in World War II.Desktop Version
Till the cows come home
Till the cows come home
These stylish cows are decorated to celebrate their annual return from high Alpine pastures to the towns and villages where they spend the winter. Known as the Almabtrieb, the tradition is generally held in late September or early October throughout the Alpine regions of Europe. These cows are in the Tannheimer Tal, a valley of the Allgäu Alps in Austria, where more than 100,000 head of cattle make the seasonal migration.Desktop Version
Behold the blood moon
Behold the blood moon
We"ve heard the phrase "many moons," but never took it this literally. We"re looking at 28 merged photos of our one and only moon over Utah"s Monument Valley: 26 snapshots of its partial phases, plus two layered exposures of the eclipsing moon at center.Desktop Version
Staring down winter
Staring down winter
Feel a chill in the air? Not these two. The first frosty blasts of winter have little effect on Highland cattle thanks to their unusual coats. The long-haired outer layer is oily and slicks off rain and snow, keeping the fluffier undercoat dry and toasty against their skin. These two Highlanders are in a national park in Drenthe province of the Netherlands, but the breed developed by natural selection—only the fittest survived—in the wet and windy Scottish Highlands. The original Highland Cattle Herd Book, which recorded Highland cattle pedigrees, dates to 1885, making Highlanders the oldest registered cattle breed in the world.Desktop Version
Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Here on New Zealand"s rugged South Island, the waters of Lake Tekapo display such striking electric-blue colors because of glacial silt flowing into the lake, carried by the braided Godley and Macauley Rivers, seen at the bottom of our image. These rivers are themselves fed by the melted waters of glaciers in the nearby Southern Alps. As these active glaciers slowly bulldoze the mountainsides, they pulverize rocks along valley floors and walls. All that grinding eventually produces a fine-grained powder of silt, sometimes called glacial flour. Meltwater picks up the silt, carrying it downstream and into lakes like Tekapo. The particles are so light and fine, they"re slow to sink to the bottom, remaining suspended in the water column instead.Desktop Version
The Aomori Nebuta Festival parade, Japan
The Aomori Nebuta Festival parade, Japan
From now until Aug 7, the northern Japanese city of Aomori is celebrating Aomori Nebuta, a festival (‘matsuri’) that features bright, colorful floats like the one seen in our photo. The history of how the festival began depends on who you ask and what you read. But the way to celebrate is to join or watch the parade that is the centerpiece of the observance. The floats depict mythic warriors and creatures, and they move through Aomori accompanied by musicians, often playing flutes and pounding on loud taiko drums. The goal? To ‘awaken sleepy souls.’Desktop Version
A different view of sharks
A different view of sharks
They"ve long been treated as threats, portrayed as villains, and brutally hunted for their edible fins, so we think it"s only fair that sharks get their own day. Shark Awareness Day is meant to highlight the importance of the most fearsome fish in nature, from little dwarf lantern sharks to great whites to these blacktip reef sharks cruising the Tahitian coast.Desktop Version
A whale of a picture
A whale of a picture
The family drama you see playing out here in the Pacific Ocean near Maui, Hawaii, is a humpback whale calf getting a little nudge from its mom. She presumably wants the sleepy youngster to practice surfacing, something these amazing marine mammals are famous for doing in dramatic fashion. Winter is calving season for the Hawaiian population of humpbacks. Thousands arrive from their feeding grounds in the North Pacific to swim and breed in the warm Hawaiian waters, making them a common sight from November until April. Because they"re known to hang around near the ocean"s surface, breaching or slapping the water with their tails, humpbacks are a favorite of whale watchers everywhere.Desktop Version
And the skies filled with bats…
And the skies filled with bats…
As if right on cue for Halloween, this is the time of year when millions of straw-colored fruit bats begin to descend on Zambia"s Kasanka National Park. They come in such vast numbers that it"s thought to be one of the largest concentrations of mammals in the world. From the end of October to mid-December, these large fruit-eating bats pack into a small area in the forest to roost. But when the sun begins to set, they start to swarm, darkening the skies as they head out to gorge on fruit in the Mushitu swamp forest. Experts believe their migration starts about 2,000 miles north, in Congo.Desktop Version
Best fronds forever
Best fronds forever
Each of these tiny fern appendages, known as fronds, is made up of even tinier leaves—but they won"t be tiny for long. Ostrich ferns like this one, named for their tapering fronds that resemble feathery ostrich plumes, can be almost 6 feet tall once mature.Desktop Version
Composite of photographs from the Apollo 15 mission
Composite of photographs from the Apollo 15 mission
Today is National Moon Day, commemorating the day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. Eleven other astronauts have gone on to follow in his bootsteps, including Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin, who took these historic photos during the Apollo 15 moon mission in 1971. We’ve stitched together their images to create this composite panorama of the landing site, where they spent three days conducting research. (If only they had selfie sticks back then.) Look for the ‘play’ button on our homepage to hear actual transmissions between the crew and the Mission Control Center in Houston.Desktop Version
May we have this dance?
May we have this dance?
Dancers have been waltzing across the mahogany floors at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, in Lancashire, England, for more than a century. For those on this side of the pond, Blackpool is a popular seaside resort in the UK, home to the 518-foot-tall Blackpool Tower, a tourist destination built in 1894 and inspired by the Eiffel Tower. These days, when people talk about the tower, they may be referring to the building’s many associated venues–a circus, theater, and the ornate ballroom shown here.Desktop Version
The (Inca) empire strikes back
The (Inca) empire strikes back
It"s the 1530s. Spanish conquistadors are cementing their hold over the lands of the Inca Empire, including the massive 12th-century stone fortress in today"s image: Sacsayhuamán, in the old Inca capital of Cusco. The Spanish hold prisoner a man named Manco Inca, the puppet leader they"ve installed over the Incans. But in April 1536, he escapes.Desktop Version
The roots of invention
The roots of invention
Living root bridges like this can be found in the tropical rainforests of Meghalaya, a state in northeast India that is among the wettest places on Earth. The gentle waterways that flow through the region’s valleys become gushing torrents during the summer monsoon season and will wash away traditional bamboo bridges. So, generations of indigenous Khasi people have devised a way of building root bridges by shaping living trees, like this one near the village of Mawsynram.Desktop Version
A temple, preserved
A temple, preserved
The temples at Abu Simbel, commissioned by Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II around 1264 BCE, would not be around for us to photograph if it weren"t for the efforts of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). A couple centuries after the Abu Simbel temples were completed, Ramesses" empire had collapsed and the sands of the Nubian region of North Africa began to consume them. European explorers "discovered" Abu Simbel in the early 1800s, leading to massive efforts to excavate and preserve the ruins of the great pharaoh"s monument to himself.Desktop Version
Oh, the places you’ll go
Oh, the places you’ll go
Here on the runway at San Francisco International Airport, the travel possibilities are practically endless, thanks in part to early innovators in aviation, whom we honor today for National Aviation Day (three cheers for the Wright brothers!). Even if you don’t leave the runway, this airport is a destination unto itself. It’s home to its own museum, with a permanent collection on aviation history as well as rotating art, history, and video exhibits. If that’s not your thing, find your inner peace in the airport yoga room, or keep an eye out for the ‘wag brigade,’ a team of airport dogs on hand to boost the moods of travelers.Desktop Version
Finding a balance between wetlands and water treatment
Finding a balance between wetlands and water treatment
Take a stroll through the Wakodahatchee Wetlands and you"ll likely spot great blue herons, like the fluffed-up pair we"re featuring today. Located in Delray Beach, Florida, and created on 50 acres of wastewater utility property, the park first opened to the public back in 1996. A three-quarter-mile boardwalk takes visitors over ponds and through marshes, offering the chance to see more than 150 bird species, plus turtles, fish, frogs, alligators, and other Floridian fauna. Every day, the Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department pumps about 2 million gallons of highly treated wastewater into the wetlands. Then algae and other plants naturally finish the purification process before the water seeps back into the water table. Quite an upgrade from a yucky wastewater pond.Desktop Version
A long, erratic commute
A long, erratic commute
Don’t set your watch to the migration timetable of the Galápagos giant tortoise—it doesn’t follow a predictable schedule the way so many other animal migrations do. Scientists first tracked the migration of giant tortoises in the Galápagos Islands in 2013, and they’ve discovered that not only is it marvelously slow, it’s kind of erratic, and flies in the face of human understanding as to why and how most animals migrate. Only the older tortoises make the roughly 6-mile climb out of the soggy jungle up into the hills—in this case, the slopes of Alcedo Volcano on Isabela Island. The journey is loosely related to mating, but researchers think there may be many other unknown variables at play. Whatever compelled these two lumbering giants up here, in about six months, they’ll start the slow climb back down to the jungle.Desktop Version
A notorious advocate for women
A notorious advocate for women
Today is March 8, which means it"s International Women"s Day, the UN-sponsored celebration of women"s achievements and a push for gender equity around the globe. To honor this year"s event, we turn to New York City"s East Village, where Brooklyn-based street artist Elle painted the mural you see here as an homage to one of America"s most notorious advocates for women, the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, affectionately called RBG.Desktop Version
A peek behind the royal curtain
A peek behind the royal curtain
In today"s image, we"re featuring a view of the East Front of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial to highlight a seasonal event and a historic one. On Friday Buckingham Palace began its official summer tourist season, offering visitors a chance to tour the magnificent state rooms used for official and ceremonial events in this working royal residence. This year, to mark the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria"s birth, visitors can also see artifacts from her reign and artwork depicting her life at Buckingham Palace in a special collection called Queen Victoria"s Palace.Desktop Version
Chocolate Hills
Chocolate Hills
In late November, the dry season arrives in the Bohol province of the Philippines to create a magical confection: The green grass that covers these rolling, conical mounds begins to turn brown, transforming the area into what looks like endless hills of chocolate. At least 1,260 of these "Chocolate Hills" are spread across about 20 square miles. The unusual landscape has become a robust tourist attraction, leading the regional government to construct a viewing complex amidst the hills in the town of Carmen.Desktop Version
Goðafoss waterfall, Iceland
Goðafoss waterfall, Iceland
Goðafoss is one of the hundreds of show-stopping waterfalls Iceland is blessed with. And though it isn"t the island"s highest waterfall—that would be Morsarfoss at over 787 feet—or most powerful (the thundering Dettifoss), Goðafoss, has, within its swirling waters, its own story to tell.Desktop Version
Sharp-dressed bug
Sharp-dressed bug
Sometimes to be left alone, you just have to act prickly—like a thorn bug. Looking like a plant"s painful parts, this sneaky insect wards off predators simply by being itself. Thorn bugs are found in the countries of Central America, such as Honduras, where this photo was taken, as well as Mexico, and parts of Florida…but only if you can spot them.Desktop Version
A river on the tundra
A river on the tundra
This mesmerizing expanse captures a small stretch of the 95-mile-long Ivishak River in northern Alaska. The Ivishak flows in the Philip Smith Mountains and the foothills of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The entire run of the river is in a region called the North Slope Borough, Alaska"s northernmost borough (Alaska is divided into boroughs, not counties). Look at the magnificent colors and textures this photo captures—it"s a view that"s preserved and protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.Desktop Version