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Photograph by Carsten Peter
December 2010
Germany—Braving fog and snow to visit Bavarian farms in December, a man in St. Nicholas garb leads devilish companions: revelers dressed as Krampus—a mythical Alpine mischiefmaker—toting gift baskets and birch switches.
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Photograph by Cynthia Boll
December 2010
Afghanistan—At a hospital in Tarin Kowt, a newborn boy is weighed by a midwife. Afghan babies are kept tightly swaddled for a year. Local tradition holds that the practice promotes good posture.
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Photograph by Matt Eich, Luceo
December 2010
United States—Stripes and flakes share space at the Wilds, a refuge in Ohio for rare and endangered species. Here, a three-year-old Grévy's zebra named Elvis stomps the winter pen, which adjoins heated indoor quarters.
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Photograph by David Cheskin, Press Association/AP Images
November 2010
Scotland—Peering through glass, visitors at the Edinburgh Zoo regard—and are regarded by—Tibor, a Sumatran tiger. The three-year-old male was born in captivity. About 400 of this subspecies, the world's smallest tiger, live in the wild.
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Photograph by JR/Agence Vu/Aurora Photos
November 2010
Kenya—Aimed skyward from photos atop a train, the eyes of women pierce a rooftop landscape in Nairobi's Kibera slum. The display, part of a global art project, paid tribute to women from Africa, Brazil, India, and Cambodia.
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Photograph by Annie Marie Musselman
November 2010
United States—A 14-week-old male fawn gazes out a window at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center. The Arlington, Washington, facility rehabs regional animals, including up to 30 orphaned or injured young deer each spring.
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Photograph by Jim Patterson Photography
October 2010
United States—Lunar light bursts into view beneath Arch Rock, a 12-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide granite formation in California's Joshua Tree National Park. Naturally beige, the rock is illuminated here by a red LED.
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Photograph by Michael Patrick O'Neill
October 2010
United States—Nearly camouflaged on the debris-strewn bottom of Florida's Lake Worth Lagoon, a six-inch-long male jawfish holds hundreds of eggs in its mouth—a five-day incubation process called paternal mouth brooding.
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Image by NASA
October 2010
The Sun—NASA's new Solar Dynamics Laboratory reveals an erupting plasma plume—aka a solar prominence—looping into the atmosphere along a magnetic field line. Ten Earths could be stacked inside the twisting ring.
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Photograph by Charlie Hamilton James
September 2010
Barbados—Several species of morning swimmers—human tourists, protected turtles, assorted fish—share the azure waters of Paynes Bay. Boat operators here feed fish-strip breakfasts to about 15 young hawksbill and green turtles.
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Satellite image by Geoeye
September 2010
United States—Seen from a satellite, the 2,600-acre "boneyard"—a 64-year-old depot at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, in Tucson, Arizona—looks like parchment lined with toy planes. The site stores some 4,000 aircraft.
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Photograph by Tim Flach
September 2010
England—Membranous wings spanning two feet and head tucked out of sight, an adult male Egyptian fruit bat negotiates netting in a London studio. This nocturnal fruit-eater was the living subject of an anatomical study.
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Photograph by Samar Jodha
August 2010
United Arab Emirates—From the top of the world's tallest building—the 164-story, 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa—an economic history of Dubai is visible. Dense development reflects the recent boom; open spaces are remnants of an earlier era.
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Photograph by Michel Loup, Biosphoto
August 2010
France—Late afternoon finds the shallows of Lac de la Motte awash in amphibian life. As a mature common toad ascends to the sunlit surface, a clutch of frog eggs—set to hatch in a few days—piles the reed-lined bottom.
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Photograph by Paula Lerner, Aurora Photos
August 2010
Afghanistan—In a private shop in Kandahar, where images of modern beauty adorn the walls, a seated woman primps for a Persian New Year party. In public she will honor custom and veil her makeup beneath a burka.
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Photograph by Laurent Mercey
July 2010
Namibia—Its bright pouch agape and two-tone wings spanning perhaps ten feet, a great white pelican in Walvis Bay sets its sights on a fish breakfast. These migratory birds are found in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
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Photograph by Sigurdur Hrafn Stefnisson
July 2010
Iceland—Lightning veins the Eyjafjallajökull volcano's ash plume, which roiled air travel this spring. Such "dirty thunderstorms" may occur when rock and ice particles loosed by exploding magma collide in the atmosphere.
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Photograph by Landon Nordeman
July 2010
United States—Big city, short game: Resident Charlie Bernhaut works on his stroke 34 stories above 63rd and Broadway, on his condominium's 18-by-32-foot putting green—one of several now lining rooftops in Manhattan.
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Photograph by Clark Little
June 2010
United States—Like a glass sculpture forged in the Pacific's eternal churn, a four-foot-tall backwash splash—the result of two waves colliding in the shallows near Kaena Point on Oahu, Hawaii—refracts the saturated glow of dawn.
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Photograph by Åsa Sjöström, Moment/Sydsvenskan
June 2010
Sweden—Near the village of Enviken, where nostalgia for mid-century Americana runs deep, 17-year-old Fanny Bergman (at left) and mother Ulrika Dotzsky, 48, head to a rockabilly concert in their 1959 Mercury Montclair.
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Photograph by Jordan Siemens, Aurora Photos
June 2010
United States—Over the past 17 years a decidedly sticky situation has developed in Seattle's Post Alley, where countless colorful wads—pressed down with coins or used to spell out names and places—form the "gum wall."
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Photograph by Cesare Naldi
May 2010
India—Silhouetted in the Andaman Sea, a 60-year-old elephant named Rajan—here with his handler, Nasru—takes a morning dip in the warm waters. The now retired pachyderm hauled timber in the Andaman Islands for 30 years.
Read more about Rajan
See this photographer's winning International Photography Contest shot -
Photograph by Wen Ran, Reuters
May 2010
China—Vehicles form a line for natural gas on a spiral bridge in Chongqing. Supplies of the fuel were diverted to snowed-in northern China last November, sparking a shortage in the central and eastern provinces.
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Photograph by Mark Pickford
May 2010
Indonesia—In waters off the Raja Ampat Islands, a honeycomb coral glows green. The archipelago is a hot spot of coral diversity—some 75 percent of all known coral species can be found there.
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Photograph by John Stanmeyer
April 2010
Laos—A boy swings over a turquoise pool at Kuang Si, a cascade-fed, sun-dappled sanctum 20 miles from the city of Louangphrabang. Located in a park near a wildlife-rescue center, the falls are famed for their limestone formations.
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Photograph by Amit Dave, Reuters
April 2010
India—Parched people mob a vast well in the village of Natwargadh, Gujarat. In this drought-prone western state, yearly monsoon rains can total less than eight inches, and summer temperatures have topped 115°F.
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Photograph by Theo Allofs, Corbis
April 2010
Australia—Brown with sediment loosed by seasonal rains, the King River snakes through coastal mudflats of the Kimberley, a remote northwestern region. In the dry months of May to September, the 76-mile meander is bare.
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Photograph by Gerd Ludwig
April 2010
United States—In 2007 high levels of bromate—a carcinogen formed when bromide and chlorine react with sunlight—were found in Los Angeles's Ivanhoe Reservoir. Today three million black plastic balls help deflect UV rays.
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Photograph by Stefan Austermûhle
March 2010
Peru—Forty miles southeast of Lima, against a winter tableau of wave, rock, and sky, four bottlenose dolphins vault in sync through the shallows. Fed by the nutrient-rich Peru Current, these coastal waters teem with marine life.
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Photograph by Miguel Villagran, Getty Images
March 2010
Germany—Upside-down thrill seekers ride the Top Spin at Munich's 176th Oktoberfest. Despite terrorist threats, the 16-day beer festival—the largest fair in the world—drew 5.7 million people last year.
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Photograph by Jason Lee, Reuters
March 2010
China—Like a gleaming egg adrift in ink, Beijing's glass-and-titanium National Center for the Performing Arts is reflected in the pool that surrounds it. The two-year-old, $336-million dome seats 5,452 people in three halls.
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Photograph by Maxim Shatrov
February 2010
United Arab Emirates—In Dubai natural and man-made electricity illuminate the night. As jagged needles of lightning darn an overcast sky, the sail-shaped, 1,053-foot-tall Burj al Arab hotel glows green on the edge of the Persian Gulf.
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Photograph by Stephanie Lane
February 2010
United States—Looking like a lemon torte on a plate of petals, a lotus blooms in a Maryland garden pool. The chartreuse circle, three inches in diameter, is dotted with 23 seed holders and ringed by immature pollen sacs.
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Photograph by Julie Adnan, Reuters
February 2010
Iraq—Some 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, in a Sulaymaniyah music hall ravaged by war, looting, and neglect, a violin-playing boy sounds a note of hope. His teacher, Azad Maaruf, lives there, instructing scores of students.
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Photograph by Fabi Fliervoet
January 2010
St. Maarten—Landing at Princess Juliana International Airport, a looming 747 thrills those on Mahó beach. The white-sand stretch on the Caribbean island's Dutch side—the rest is French—is a famous plane-watching perch.
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Photograph by Biel Alino, EPA/Corbis
January 2010
Spain—Sliding headlong through a tomato-juice torrent, a young man celebrates La Tomatina in Buñol on August 26, 2009. The event is a one-hour food fight that last year used 275,000 pounds of tomatoes.
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Photograph by Magnus Lundgren, Wild Wonders of Europe
January 2010
Portugal—Near the Azores, just below the sunlit Atlantic surface, sperm whales float in vertical repose. Scientists think "drift dives" are a form of communal slumber. This species may sleep the least of any mammal.
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