Category: Deep Dives
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Late winter in a wet forest looks mostly inactive. Snow. Mud. Dead leaves. Gray trunks. Then, in a saturated patch of ground, a strange purple hood pushes upward.
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Lake Michigan does not create winter. Canada assists. The jet stream assists. Large-scale pressure systems do most of the atmospheric scheduling.
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The American badger looks irritated because we recognize irritation better than anatomy. Its face has black-and-white markings that suggest intensity.
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The Great Basin sounds like one object. A basin. Large. Simple. Perhaps somewhere near Nevada. This is false in nearly every useful way.
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A Joshua tree looks like someone tried to build a tree from verbal instructions. Tall trunk. Branches.
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The American Woodcock is a shorebird that lives in the woods. It has a long bill, a round body, short legs, eyes placed high and far back on the skull, and a walk that looks like somebody has attached a small motor to…
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Central Nebraska contains an enormous sand-dune field. Not ancient dunes buried under rock. Not little dunes along a river.
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Death Valley contains the lowest point in North America. Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level.
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A mountain goat standing on a cliff produces two simultaneous thoughts. First: Beautiful animal. Second:
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The corpse flower spends years preparing to smell terrible. This is commitment. A mature plant stores energy underground in a corm that can weigh well over a hundred pounds.