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Jan 19, 2019It’s Art Deco Weekend in Miami

We’re getting Don Johnson vibes from this image of Miami’s iconic Ocean Drive. It’s a landmark that’s appeared in many TV shows and movies over the years while also being home to celebrities like Gianni Versace. This weekend the city is celebrating the neighborhood’s distinct architecture. Art Deco Weekend is a long-running, free community festival that shines a light on the unique architecture here on Ocean Drive and throughout the Miami Beach Architectural District, better known as the Miami Art Deco District. Art Deco style, which reached its peak in the 1920s in the United States, is known for streamlined designs and symmetrical geometric figures, a look that pairs nicely with Miami’s ocean views.Desktop Version

Jan 20, 2019It’s Penguin Awareness Day

In honor of Penguin Awareness Day, we’re featuring the big daddy of the penguin world–the emperor penguin. At about 4 feet tall and weighing up to 100 pounds, it’s both the tallest and heaviest penguin species. The emperor is found only in Antarctica, where it endures wind chills colder than -75 degrees F and blizzard winds of more than 120 mph. It survives these harsh weather conditions by storing lots of fat underneath four layers of feathers. But the emperor penguin truly rules underwater, where it spends roughly half of its life. Studies show that an emperor can dive more than 1,700 feet below the surface, holding its breath more than 15 minutes at a time. It goes to such great depths in search of food, often for its babies back on shore.Desktop Version

Jan 21, 2019A day of service for Dr. King

This statue is ‘Stone of Hope,’ part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial that opened in 2011 in West Potomac Park, Washington, DC. The title of the 30-foot granite sculpture comes from a line in King"s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech: ‘Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.’ Across the country today, volunteers will spend their day giving back in honor of Dr. King. His birthday was made a federal holiday in 1983, and in 1994 Congress designated the event as a national day of service, inviting citizens to observe the holiday by improving their communities.Desktop Version

Jan 22, 2019Is this Minecraft headquarters?

This pixelated-looking building is home to a boutique winery in the Rioja region of northern Spain. Inside, the Bodegas Ysios produces red wine from Tempranillo grapes grown in the area. The building itself was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to echo the outline of wine barrels lined up in a row. Out here in the foothills of the Sierra de Cantabria, it creates a memorable contrast with the rustic environment.Desktop Version

Jan 23, 2019Celebrating Pie Day is as easy as, well…

Can these frosty apples be salvaged in time for National Pie Day today? The annual event—a simple celebration of the beloved desserts–was created by the American Pie Council (APC), a group dedicated to ‘preserving America"s pie heritage and promoting America"s love affair with pies.’ According to a survey conducted by the APC in 2008, more Americans prefer apple pie over any other, and it’s that variety which inspired our homepage today. But while many things may be as American as apple pie, it’s generally believed that the pie itself originated in England. In fact, English poet Geoffrey Chaucer penned a recipe in 1381 for a pie that includes apples, spices, raisins, figs, pears, and saffron. If you have a favorite pie, it sounds like today’s a sweet day to celebrate.Desktop Version

Jan 24, 2019Lights, camera, Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival begins today in Utah, bringing glitz and glamour to the ski town of Park City. When it first launched in 1978, the goal of the festival was to highlight American-made films and attract filmmakers to Utah. Robert Redford has long been involved in the festival, serving as chairman at the first event and in the years since, helping it become the media extravaganza it is today. In 1984 Redford’s Sundance Institute took over management of the festival, hence the ‘Sundance’ name, which comes from the name of the character he played in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ In its 41-year history, Sundance has become perhaps the premier showcase for American independent and documentary film. We look forward to seeing what innovative new films steal the limelight in 2019.Desktop Version

Jan 25, 2019Fighting evil with costumes

Wearing costumes made of furs, fabric, and wood, these performers are known as kukeri. They march and dance, while making noise with the many bells on their costumes. It’s a pagan Slavic custom dating back to ancient times and still takes place each winter in many cities and villages in the Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe. The elaborate costumes and loud noises are intended to keep evil spirits at bay. Meanwhile, a member of each participating family—usually the youngest—conducts a blessing called a survakane; using a decorated staff, he or she lightly pats other family members on the back, giving a blessing of happiness and prosperity for the coming year. Traditionally, kukeri performers were men, though women now participate as well.Desktop Version

Jan 26, 2019Visiting a Maratha fortress

To celebrate India’s independence on Republic Day today, we take you to Rajgad Fort near Pune, India. In the 17th century, this fort near the west coast of India was the capital of the Maratha Empire. Today it’s the reward for a long hike to the top, where some visitors opt to spend the night—a sprawling relic of India’s history, Rajgad Fort is worth exploring for more than a day.Desktop Version

Jan 27, 2019A memorial in Germany

We’re in Berlin for International Holocaust Remembrance Day today, looking at the monument called ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.’ The memorial looks rigid and ordered, with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern across 4.7 acres. But architect Peter Eisenman, who designed the work, purposely skewed some of the grid, so that spaces between the slabs may shrink or grow as you walk among the gray blocks. And the gaps are intentionally so narrow that they allow only individual passage. As the visitor navigates through the grid, the subtle shifts in these spaces are meant to shatter the illusion of order and security.Desktop Version

Jan 28, 2019Ancient groves in Australia

Like mainland Australia, the island state of Tasmania is home to many distinct landscapes and ecosystems, and Mount Field National Park is a spectacular showcase of the island’s diversity. Tall swamp gum forests and massive tree ferns distinguish the base of the mountain, but climbing to higher elevations leads to the temperate rainforests of pencil pine, leatherwood, and other trees endemic to Tasmania along the shores of Lake Dobson, shown here. While rare species of plants and animals call the park home, perhaps the park’s greatest diversity lies with its fungi—the tremendous variety of mushrooms found here is still not fully cataloged, but fungi are increasingly understood to underpin the general health of the park’s ecosystems as a whole. And if all that natural diversity here isn’t enough to draw you to Tasmania’s Mount Field, some of the hills and mountains in the park have ski runs during snowy winters.Desktop Version

Jan 29, 2019A winter’s holiday ends

Should you find yourself in Lerwick, Scotland, on the last Tuesday of January, you’ll witness a celebration to mark the end of Yule called Up Helly Aa. Here in the Shetland Islands, off the northern coast of Britain, the cultural influence of the Vikings is still felt. And when the Yule season comes to a close, many Shetlanders dress up like Vikings—it’s a tradition called ‘guising,’ short for ‘disguise.’ In their Viking costumes, they march the streets of Lerwick singing songs and delivering short comedic performances. Ultimately, a torchlight procession ends with the marchers setting a fake Viking galley ship ablaze. The name ‘Up Helly Aa’ is roughly translated as Up Holy All, an invitation for all to rise and join in the holiday revelry.Desktop Version

Jan 30, 2019Embracing the cold

We’re in St. Paul, Minnesota, for day seven of the Winter Carnival—an 11-day celebration of all the fun you can have during the cold winter months. In 1885, a journalist from New York who had visited St. Paul called it ‘another Siberia, unfit for human habitation.’ This news prompted the people of St. Paul to create the Winter Carnival, which debuted in 1886. When the temperature is cold enough, carnival organizers build a massive ice palace, whose ice-block walls frame the Landmark Center clock tower in our photo today.Desktop Version

Jan 31, 2019A bohemian feline

This young lynx will grow up to be the third largest predator in Europe. (The brown bear and wolf hold the first and second spots, respectively.) The lynx is a crepuscular creature, meaning it hunts mainly in the hours just before dawn and just after dusk. With an adult male lynx growing taller than 2 feet at the shoulder, and weighing more than 60 pounds, it’s capable of hunting roe deer and sheep. And while the Eurasian lynx is a ‘least concern’ status species, habitat loss is affecting how widely dispersed they are across Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. But protected locations, like the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands in the Czech Republic, where our lynx was photographed, help preserve habitat to keep this vital predator thriving.Desktop Version

Feb 1, 2019‘Stepping’ into Black History Month

The African American tradition of stepping (aka step-dancing) uses footsteps, claps, and the spoken word to create intricate rhythms. These dancers are part of Step Afrika!, an American dance company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. They’re shown here rehearsing ‘The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence’ at their home base, Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC. ‘The Migration’ is a show that tells the story of African American migrants who moved away from the rural American South to the more industrialized North in the years between World War I and World War II. On stage, the performance features a backdrop of images from artist Jacob Lawrence’s ‘The Migration Series,’ a group of 60 paintings he made about the same topic in 1940 and ’41.Desktop Version

Feb 2, 2019Groundhog Day arrives—beyond a shadow of a doubt

Do you think this hoary marmot in Alaska’s Denali National Park is wondering whether its relative, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow today? Groundhog Day is an American tradition that originated among the Pennsylvania Dutch, but groundhogs aren’t the only animals believed to predict the weather. It’s said you can predict the severity of an upcoming winter by examining the stripes on a woolly bear caterpillar’s back. And in Germany, folks once looked to the badger to forecast the coming of spring. But no furry prognosticator of the weather has gained as much fame as Punxsutawney Phil. Perhaps we have Bill Murray to thank for that? (Be right back, got to cue up Murray’s film ‘Groundhog Day.’) Say, do you ever have déjà vu? Wait, did we just ask you that?Desktop Version

Feb 3, 2019A crane for good luck in today’s big game

It’s Super Bowl Sunday and this Japanese crane looks like it’s getting into the spirit of things. Also known as the red-crowned crane, the species is among the rarest cranes in the world. It’s known in some cultures as a symbol of luck and longevity, making it an ideal football mascot. This particular crane seems to have a pretty good punting leg, to boot. Other animals that have served as good luck symbols around the world include the pig, the mandarin duck, and the albatross. Do you have a good luck charm?Desktop Version

Feb 4, 2019Sitting down and taking a stand

Here at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, you can sit down next to a sculpture of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who was born on this day in 1913. Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiant action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the longest and most successful movements against racial segregation in our nation’s history. At the time, African Americans made up most of the ridership on Montgomery city buses. The year-long protest finally ended when the US Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s laws enforcing segregation on city buses and other modes of transportation were unconstitutional.Desktop Version

Feb 5, 2019Welcome to the Year of the Pig

Today marks the start of Chinese New Year festivities, which begin on the first day of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. The celebration culminates 15 days later with the Spring Lantern Festival. According to the Chinese zodiac, 2019 is the Year of the Pig. These lanterns were photographed in Xi"an, China, but celebrations will occur throughout the vast nation as well as in neighboring countries. And other parts of the world with significant Asian populations will also see large public celebrations. It’s traditionally a time to reunite with relatives, and the period sparks one of the largest annual human migrations, with millions of people from major cities journeying home to see their families in more rural areas. Happy New Year!Desktop Version

Feb 6, 2019Watch your step

For Waitangi Day, we’re on New Zealand’s South Island, where a limestone formation known as the Pancake Rocks buffers the land and sea. Waitangi Day is New Zealand’s national day, established to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840. The document was signed by representatives of the British Crown and some 500 Māori chiefs to establish British law on the islands. The treaty also created the framework for political relations between New Zealand’s government and the indigenous Māori people. It’s considered New Zealand’s founding document and a cornerstone in the country’s history.Desktop Version

Feb 7, 2019A wonder in winter

Chichibu, Japan, attracts many visitors during the winter by capitalizing on the cold temperatures that bring unusually large icicles to the terraced banks of the Arakawa River. The attraction, called ‘Misotsuchi no Tsurara,’ is only open from mid-January through mid-February, and includes colored lights after dark, to enhance the otherworldly feel of the scene. Since much of Chichibu sits in or near the Chichibu Tama Kai National Park, there’s abundant nature to see after you’ve witnessed the illuminated icicles on the Arakawa’s banks.Desktop Version

Feb 8, 2019A winter light show

Come to Yosemite in February and you may be shoulder-to-shoulder with photographers hoping to get a shot of Horsetail Fall in the evening. When conditions are right, rays of the setting sun align with the falling water to set the cascade ablaze with light—a natural display called the ‘firefall.’ And in a bit of added mystique, Horsetail Fall itself is an ephemeral waterfall—it flows only for a short time in the winter and early spring.Desktop Version

Feb 9, 2019A tale of almonds and bees

Every February in California, the almond trees bloom, sparking a massive migration of commercial beekeepers to the Golden State. With box hives stacked high onto semi-truck trailers, they transport their honeybee colonies to almond orchards in the Sacramento and San Joaquin areas of California’s Central Valley, renting the little workers out to farmers. In recent decades, this practice has grown to become the largest managed pollination effort in the world, sometimes called the ‘Super Bowl of beekeeping.’Desktop Version

Feb 10, 2019Groovy!

Our photo today shows a colorized scanning electron microscope image of a phonograph needle in the groove of a vinyl record. The texture inscribed along the walls of the spiral groove replicates the soundwaves as they were recorded, thus making a reproduction of sound that can be played over and over. Why are we traveling into the microscopic world of analog sound reproduction? Because tonight, lucky artists nominated by the Recording Academy will win Grammy awards—with a trophy depicting the early record player, or phonograph, later known as the gramophone, which inspired the nickname of the award.Desktop Version

Feb 11, 2019There’s a dog in there somewhere

Komondors, also known as Hungarian sheepdogs, have a strong instinct to herd and protect livestock. They’re famous for their distinctive coats—when left untrimmed, a komondor’s fur ‘cords’ up, creating the unusual, mop-like appearance seen here. The Komondor in this photo was competing at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. The 2019 Westminster competition begins today.Desktop Version

Feb 12, 2019To Roswell, and beyond!

Tourism in New Mexico is fueled in part by attractions such as the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell—seen here in our photo today. Recognizing the revenue potential in embracing popular interest in UFOs, in 2003 the New Mexico State Legislature declared the second Tuesday in February each year to be Extraterrestrial Culture Day. Why New Mexico? The answer lies in the city of Roswell in the southeastern corner of of the state.Desktop Version

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