分类必应美图下的文章

北太平洋弗雷德里克海峡中的座头鲸冲出海面，阿拉斯加 North Pacific humpback whale breaching in Frederick Sound, Alaska (© Tony Wu/Minden Pictures)

Summertime in Alaska

Humpback whales are famous for breaching—leaping out of the water in a spectacular display of size and power. Even though they can weigh more than a house and stretch to 50 feet in length, they still manage aquatic acrobatics that are amazing to behold, as the picture on our homepage captures so beautifully. Scientists don't know why some whales breach but speculate it's a form of communication or a mating display. Or maybe they're just having fun.

Our homepage image comes from Frederick Sound in Southeast Alaska, one of the best places to see humpbacks in July. The whales return to the area in summer to dine on krill, herring, and other delicacies in the cool waters. But as fall approaches, they'll start their long journey south to spend the winter in tropical environs, as would any sensible mammal with the means to travel.

被洪水淹没的温彻斯特大教堂地下室，英国汉普郡 The flooded crypt at Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England (© Oliver Hoffmann/Alamy)

Who left the tub running?

'Sound II,' this sculpture by Antony Gormley, has stood here in the oft-flooded crypt of Winchester Cathedral in the south of England since 1986—not trying to get a plumber on the horn, but quietly standing guard and studying the water in its cupped hands. Elsewhere in the cathedral you'll find another notable statue: The likeness of William 'Diver Bill' Walker, a local hero who—for six years starting in 1906—worked alone in a heavy diving suit to shore up the increasingly flooded structure as it threatened to sink into the boggy soil beneath. Nowadays it's stable, but the lowest level still sees its share of standing water during rainy periods.

We're here on the feast day of Swithin (sometimes spelled Swithun), the 9th-century bishop who's now venerated as patron saint of the cathedral. But St. Swithin is most commonly name-dropped in an old weather proverb that begins, 'St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain, for 40 days it will remain.'

The good news: 'St. Swithin's day if thou be fair, for 40 days 'twill rain nae mare.' But if this all just sounds like hooey to you, try today's quiz and see if you think any other weather folklore holds water.

巴黎的先贤祠，法国 The Panthéon in Paris, France (© manjik/Shutterstock)

Under Paris skies

For Bastille Day, aka French National Day, we examine not the titular prison that was the site of beginning of the French Revolution, but another building inexorably wrapped up in that powder-keg moment of French history. That dome in the upper right portion of this photo is the Panthéon. Construction of the building—intended to be a church—began in 1758. But by the time it was completed, the French Revolution was in full swing and the new establishment decided that it should instead be used as a mausoleum for distinguished French citizens, which it remains today.

奥林匹克国家公园中的可可西里雨林，华盛顿州 The Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, Washington state (© Jorge Romano/Offset by Shutterstock)

Welcome to the Hoh

Don't let this sunny picture fool you. The Hoh, a temperate rainforest on the western side of Olympic National Park in Washington state, sees between 12 and 14 feet of rain each year, making it one of the wettest places in the continental US. But all that moisture creates a lush, even mystical environment. The forest features a mix of conifers and deciduous trees draped heavily with moss, like the arching big leaf maple in our homepage image. A stroll through the forest will also reveal the massive Sitka spruce and western hemlock that may reach more than 300 feet up into the dense canopy. Below, the woods teem with ferns, lichen, and other vegetation. It's an enchanted forest right out of a fairy tale.

埃热泽尔斯湖面上的波纹，拉脱维亚拉特加尔地区 Water ripples on the surface of Ežezers Lake in the Latgale region, Latvia (© Eaglewood Films/Nimia)

A day to take a moment

'A field of water betrays the spirit that is in the air. It is continually receiving new life and motion from above. It is intermediate between land and sky.' So Henry David Thoreau immortalized Walden Pond, but he could have been describing this calming image from Ežezers Lake in Latvia. Today, the birthday of that famous American advocate for pursuing a simple life is also National Simplicity Day, an annual reminder to unplug, slow down, step back, and consider your life. Thoreau's most famous work (that you probably haven't read since high school), 'Walden,' is his account of the two years, two months, and two days he spent away from society in a cabin in the woods by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Through this work he encourages us to take a step back and look for ways to simplify our lives. 'Our life is frittered away by detail…,' Thoreau observed, 'simplify, simplify.'

This advice is as sound today as it was 165 years ago when it appeared in print. Some things you can do to mark the day are unplug from your devices (even this one—eventually); declutter your house; take a walk in the woods; and maybe even reread 'Walden.'

Bàu Cá Cái的红树林，越南广义 Bàu Cá Cái mangrove forest in Quảng Ngãi Province, Vietnam (© Robert Harding World Imagery/Offset)

How Quảng Ngãi got its grove back

Could these humble rows of trees prevent a natural disaster? The Vietnamese government hopes so. Mangrove forests like Bàu Cá Cái in coastal Vietnam's Quảng Ngãi Province are an important shield against destructive typhoons that rock the coast each year. Unfortunately, mangrove trees have been depleted over the years by population growth, climate change, and increased use of waters for fish farming. Plantings at Bàu Cá Cái—outlined by bamboo frames to create the neat patterns seen here—have been part of a major initiative to regenerate nearly 10,000 acres of mangrove forest around the country.

雷西亚湖上的钟楼，意大利博尔扎诺 The bell tower in Lake Reschen in South Tyrol, Italy (© Scacciamosche/Getty Images)

Italy's submerged village

A 14th-century church tower peeking above the water offers a clue to the past here at Lake Reschen, in northern Italy. Until the mid-20th century, this site in the Italian Alps was home to the village of Graun, which included some 163 homes. But then in 1939, an electric company announced plans to build a dam and an artificial lake here, which would submerge Graun and part of the town of Reschen. Despite public outcry and delays due to World War II, the towns were eventually submerged in 1950 (with everyone safely removed, of course). These days, the remaining church steeple draws tourists, especially in winter, when the lake is frozen over and visitors can walk across.

High alpine color in Colorado

Songstress Dolly Parton once sang 'wildflowers don't care where they grow,' but we gotta believe the wildflowers growing in Colorado's American Basin, shown here, are pretty delighted with their surroundings. American Basin is in the San Juan Mountains in the southern part of the state, about a 5-hour drive from Denver. Visitors here will find rocky cliffs, streams, unique rock formations, and some spectacular wildflowers. July and August are the best time to see the blooms—it's the time of year when you'll reliably spot the Rocky Mountain columbine (Colorado's state flower), elephant's head, Parry's primrose, and marsh marigold. Bring us back a bouquet, all right?

卡洛里盆地的合成全彩图，水星 Enhanced-color composite of the Caloris Basin, Mercury (© NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Mercury in retrograde

Today we're traveling to outer space to catch a glimpse of the Caloris Basin on the planet Mercury. This small planet—about the size of Earth's moon—is riddled with craters, but none as spectacular as the Caloris Basin. This large crater is about 950 miles across and is ringed by mile-high mountains.

Now, the study of space is called astronomy, and that's generally our focus when we feature stars, planets, and galaxies on the Bing homepage. But according to those who practice astrology, you may have been noticing an uptick in confusion or a spate of misfortune lately. Astrologers will tell you that 'Mercury retrograde' could be the culprit. Lasting through July 12, this is one of three times each year that Mercury appears to be traveling backwards—or what's sometimes called Mercury retrograde. This happens due to an optical illusion caused by differences in Earth's orbit relative to Mercury's. Because Mercury is named after the Roman's Messenger of the Gods, astrology associates the planet with communication. Accordingly, during Mercury retrograde, the astrologically inclined expect misunderstandings, scheduling problems, and disagreements to abound.

Welcome to the Ring of Fire

Today we're visiting the pair of volcanoes known as Tolbachik—the flat-topped Plosky (Flat) Tolbachik on the left of our image, and the majestic Ostry (Sharp) Tolbachik on the right, which soars 12,080 feet above the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia. These are just two of approximately 160 volcanoes that dot the region; 29 of them, including the Tolbachik complex, are still active. In fact, there is so much volcanic activity here that UNESCO calls the peninsula 'one of the most outstanding volcanic regions in the world,' and has designated it a World Heritage Site.

The Kamchatka Peninsula juts out from the Russian mainland between the Sea of Okhotsk to the east and the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea to the west. The sparsely populated peninsula makes up the western edge of the Ring of Fire, a chain of volcanoes along the Pacific Ocean that account for 90% of the world's seismic activity. Wild, remote, and primal, Kamchatka is home to an abundance of wildlife: arctic fox, tundra wolves, reindeer, lynx, huge Chukotka moose, and the Kamchatka brown bear that can tip the scales at 1,400 pounds.

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