Mount Fuji One of the world’s most recognizable mountains, Mount Fuji is nearly synonymous with Japan. Rising 12,389 feet above sea level, Fuji is also the High Point of the nation. Situated on the island of Honshu, the peak is a mere 62 miles southwest of Tokyo. On clear days, the mountain starkly dominates the capital and largest […]
May the Forces Be With You Yeah, I’m a day late. When you write articles on specific days of the week you can’t fight the calendar. And this year 4 May landed on a Tuesday. Nobody likes to read about a holiday, no matter how fourced, after it happens. I could have posted this episode on
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WildEarth As much as I enjoy exploring the world with my own eyes and ears, I also love engulfing nature media. Great photography, such as Unnatural Lighting (Issue 94), kindles similar feelings to reading poetry. The same is true with moving pictures. I can watch David Attenborough-narrated films nearly endlessly. My internal globetrotter can devour hours
The Benld Meteorite The scene: Benld, Illinois. The date: 29 September 1938. This story offered two strange things to my world. The larger anecdote we’ll get to in a bit, but let’s start with the second, smaller interesting point. How in the world do you pronounce Benld? What is a Benld? Who is or was
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The Tasmanian Devil Repossesses If you’re like I am, your first awareness of a Tasmanian Devil arrived thanks to the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies character often nicknamed Taz. He grunts, growls, and sucks up anything and everything through his tornadic locomotion. The figure first appeared in 1954, but really picked up cultural steam when it reappeared in the 1990s.
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Setting Records at Furnace Creek With a 2010 tally of 20 people, Furnace Creek, California, is so sparsely populated that it is not a town, or village, or hamlet, but, instead, it’s called a “census-designated place.” The lack of home dwellers here might seem a bit anomalous, as it contains the headquarters, visitor center, and
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The Mt. St. Helens Eruption Today is the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Located in southern Washington’s Skamania County, the stratovolcano is 50 miles northeast of Portland and 100 miles south of Seattle. In early 1980 the mountain was 9,677 feet high, making it the fifth-highest peak in the state. Rising
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The Power of Jubilee Sometime in the 1930s, a father in London gave his daughter, instead of the usual teddy bear, a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee. According to the young girl, her mother’s friends were “horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten” her and give her “nightmares.” That father was Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and his
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Grandma Gatewood In 1955, 67-year-old Emma Rowena Gatewood decreed to her adult children she was going for a walk. She didn’t offer details and, facing a stubborn and resilient woman, her children didn’t demand any. She grabbed an army blanket, a raincoat, and a plastic shower curtain, stuffed them into a handmade denim bag, doffed a pair
Denali – The High Point of Alaska, the United States, and North America Eventually, as we continue to explore this fantastic orb of ours and, especially, its craggy splendors, we’ll investigate the high points of the continents and all 50 states in America. Since one spot scratches both itches, today we will gaze upon Denali. Situated
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