http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/namibia-pomona-kolmanskop-sands/

On her first trip to the house, she had brought nothing and, to her dismay, found nothing. She felt betrayed. Her information had come from reliable sources. She’d done her due diligence and confirmed from two sources; one human, one not. Both had supplied her with the same location. Surely, this must be the place.

And yet here was a house abandoned. Sand rolled through the emptied rooms. Some doors were missing, perhaps carried off by looters. Others sat half buried in the sand in an analog of her current plan that she felt was discomfitingly accurate. With care, she searched the house. She walked outside, and found a long pole in a nearby shed. She returned to the house and poked down into the sand in the living room corner, under the foyer’s dangling, rusted chandelier, even into the drifts that had filled the open oven.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/waterfall-canyoning-adventure-indonesia/

There was a woman whose husband had recently asked for a divorce
And she was sure the trouble began with the scar she got on her face
The story was not a memorable one, she lamented
It had not happened during some grand adventure
At the hands of a nefarious villain
Or from the tip of a famous, named sword

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/sheep-portrait-new-zealand/

Encyclopedia Fauna – S
Entry 14.1 – Apparition Sheep
Scientific name: Ovis Aries Polyphemus

Synopsis: A subspecies of the standard domesticated sheep, the Apparition Sheep is not a breed of the standard ovis aries despite a great deal of debate in the 20^th century on the subject. The advent and application of genetic sequencing has unequivocally proven the Apparition Sheep are their own subspecies, dubbed ovis aries polyphemus by Dr. M.G. Venit who ran the initial genome sequencing.

Their evolutionary history, diet, individual and flock behavior as well as their reproductive patterns are nearly identical to their parent species, ovis aries, and will not be repeated here. You can refer to the previous entry (S-14) for that information.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/reflection-salt-desert-bolivia/

Blue skies streaked with the occasional cloud blemish ran to the horizon in every direction. Tires rolled with a low hum across the pristine, flat ground. Days from the IPT gate and they had seen nothing of note. It was two trucks, five people, and their own reflections off the strange ground that never ended.

“I was sure she liked me,” Galon said. He slouched in the passenger seat of the lead truck, feet hanging out the window. All around him, screens spit out the same dull information about air quality, temperature, ground composition, and a host of other data that told them the same thing – there was nothing here.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/cheetah-windhoek-namibia-sunset/

A small group hurried through the temporary tent city erected on the stream’s north bank. A local politician assigned to help run the outfit, a big cat expert, two security officials from the national government, and the Syphon. She had been the country’s Syphon for four years, and she’d already seen more action than the first dozen Syphons combined.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/northern-flicker-bird-alberta/

A shiver ran through Woodrow as he settled in for his watch. He kicked off a few bits of snow before he decided the endeavor was hopeless. Snow was everywhere, it was freezing, and he was just going to have to live with it. At least he’d come prepared.

A voice crackled in his earpiece. “I have a question.”

“It had better not be about my sweater,” replied Woodrow.

“Were you able to haggle down at all, or was Cruella de Vil pretty firm on her price?”

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/do-fishing-craft-vietnam/

In ages past, the Voken harvest was the spring’s second major festival after the celebration of the seed planting. The entire town would turn out shortly after dawn exactly one week after the seeds went into the ground. Kids would bustle about, making a game of spotting the tan and brown husks. With groggy parents in tow, children would dash from house to house in a frantic search. Behind them, mom or dad would gently cut down the stiff cocoon and toss it into their basket. Most clung to the bamboo gutters that lined the houses in town, but occasionally they would turn up in the temple rafters or under a tent in the market.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/unterthiner-italy-graian-alps/

Internal Memorandum
Site L.I.P.
Location #17 – 45° 30′ 10.5″ N x 7° 08′ 48.6″ E
Scout Lead: P. Fawcett
Viability: FEASIBLE – Strongly consider

Project: Rodin Gate

Mission Purpose: Scout location for Rodin Gate project. Lab work has reached it’s final stages. If we’re going to establish the connectors to heaven & hell, we need a removed place to ingest and house divine/demonic entities. Requirements include space, relative isolation without being inaccessibly remote, water source. Should the Gate succeed as a pathway between the two afterlives and Earth, we will require space to engage in diplomatic relations, to temporarily or semi-permanently house OtherWorlders, and act as a de facto seat of government.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/south-africa-lion-cubs/

A hush spread among the few gathered observers. They stood behind a low fence under enormous umbrellas that were opened to protect them from the punishing sun. Only an hour after dawn and it was already pushing 90 Fahrenheit. Two distressingly young girls fanned the group with gigantic green palm fronds. It did little to provide comfort, but the two guests of honor thanked them repeatedly anyway. Catholic guilt was a strangely applied phenomenon.

In the pen before them, two lion cubs circled one another. Ears pinned back, their butts rose up in the air as each tried to make himself as big as possible. One growled a low warning, and the other responded in kind.

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http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/venice-sunset-canal-gondolier/

Venice in early summer was a place of light. At 9pm, the sun still clung to the sky, its withdrawal beneath the horizon a protracted affair. In a month’s time, tourists from the Far East and the US would descend on the city. Its waterways would overflow with gondolas rented at peak rates, their occupants defying the city’s elegance with fanny packs and khaki shorts and selfie sticks. Their noise would reverberate off the stately old facades, roll across the canals and infect the twilight peace that lit the city, if only briefly, with pure magic.

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