A Little Sunshine

Dendritic drainage systems are seen around the Shadegan Lagoon by Musa Bay in Iran. The word ‘dendritic’ refers to the pools’ resemblance to the branches of a tree, and this pattern develops when streams move across relatively flat and uniform rocks, or over a surface that resists erosion.

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30°27'24.3"N 48°55'46.0"E

Last month, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this amazing Overview of a swirling green phytoplankton bloom in the Baltic Sea. Blooms like this spread across the northern basins of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans every summer, often spanning hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles. Scientists believe these blooms to be cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae — an ancient marine bacteria that captures and stores solar energy through photosynthesis.

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59°31'40.0"N, 23°21'23.0"E

The Talker Chelsea Rathburn

The details of his story aren’t the point, nor is the listener, who looked as bored as we, two accidental eavesdroppers in a London restaurant. The point is, well, his point, which after ten long minutes he came to abruptly, and with a flourish, saying slowly and in perfect seriousness, “All we are is dust in the wind. All we are. Is dust. In the wind.” I think we bit our fingers to keep from laughing, I know we mocked him through Paris, Barcelona, Rome, and even years later, when one of us became a little too serious, the other would turn and quote his quote again, jabbing the air as he had jabbed the air. I picture him still sitting in some café, proclaiming we were always born to run or urging wayward sons to carry on the way we tried to carry on, the couple at the next table who couldn’t help but listen, with so little of our own to talk about.

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[I was lucky enough to take a writing workshop with Chelsea Rathburn this year, where she talked about using meter, and I wouldn’t have even noticed the iambic pentameter she uses here without that. I think it’s such a great illustration of how meter can structure a poem while still seeming so natural and conversational it fades completely into the background.]

On this day in…

Check out this Overview of Aquatica, a water park in San Antonio, Texas. Constructed in 2012, Aquatica boasts several water slides, pools, a 42,000-square-foot beach area, an aviary, and its signature “Stingray Falls,” a family raft ride that runs through an underground grotto full of stingrays and tropical fish.

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29°27'30.3"N, 98°41'53.3"W