Winter 2015

No one likes realizing in the third hour of their international flight that they forgot to pack socks and underwear. With PackPoint, that will never happen again.

Photo by Chris Barnes. cc

When it’s 102 degrees in the middle of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, everything burns. The Playa, as it is known to those who brave the bleak desert conditions, is a dry lakebed, a desolation of acidic dust, and a place of raw self-discovery. Each year at the end of August, this seemingly uninhabitable domain becomes a thriving and vibrant city filled with around 70,000 participants living in tents, RVs, and yurts. Each participant is radically devoted to the Burning Man tenet of selfless gift-giving. Though the desert itself is in some ways a furnace, the real burning happens inside the participants, also known as Burners, as the Playa refines them and pushes them beyond their limits.

Our whole group gathers outside the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Photo by Peace Camp.

Photo by Başak Ekinci. cc

The Whooping Crane is one of the rarest birds in America. Photo by Evangelio Gonzalez. ccWhen winter arrives in Texas, it doesn't come alone. As the new season approaches, hundreds of migratory species, from whooping cranes to monarch butterflies, migrate into Texas, blanketing the Great Plains. Adding to the commotion of winter's arrival are Texas's summer residents, such as the Mexican free-tailed bats, who prepare to darken Texas skies on their way home to Mexico. These wondrous migrations, whether northbound or southbound, paint surreal images that cause spectators to stop and enjoy nature's beautiful creations. By Weston Goggins

ccOne January morning in 1952, Ernesto “Che” Guevara revved up his motorcycle and embarked on a sociopolitical journey into the Argentine countryside. Guevara was searching for an answer to a profound question: Where in this world does South America stand sociologically? Guevara traveled 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) in search of his answer―an answer that led him to becoming one of South America’s most infamous Marxist revolutionaries.

Megan helps conduct fish surveys as part of marine conservation efforts in Madagascar.

Photo by Veikko Wahlroos. When someone mentions winter, we often think of poor driving conditions, snowplows, and never leaving the house. It’s easy to forget the magical side of the season—the crispness of freshly fallen snow, adventures in the chilly night air, and evenings spent sharing stories with loved ones at home around the fire.

Driving by Autumn in Payson Canyon, Utah, United States.

Still jetlagged from my flight home from Paris, I sat down on the couch to read a book. My five-year-old brother, Jason, quickly crawled into my lap and opened up a thin purple book he had checked out from the library. It was titled Miss Rumphius.

When Ann Laemmlen Lewis describes the air in Mali, West Africa, she does it with a smile on her face. “When you get off the plane, it is balmy, hot, warm—and it smells like Africa,” she says, her eyes sparkling. “It’s kind of a musty, earthy smell. It is desolate; it is dry; it is hot; everything is covered in dust. The capital city of Bamako is just wild, crazy, no order—traffic, animals, people. It’s just overload, in a really fun kind of way.” Lewis has lived in Africa for years in the past, but in November 2013, when she and Camille Fronk Olson arrived in Mali, they were excited, for they had come with a very special purpose—to provide sustainable feminine hygiene products to hundreds of women in desperate need.

Chinese New Year celebrations vary around the world.Chinese New Year, a holiday steeped in folklore and tradition, originated from an ancient Chinese legend. As the story goes, the beginning of each New Year brought the Nian, a terrible beast that preyed on livestock and villagers alike. After much suffering, the villagers discovered that the Nian feared loud noises and the color red, so on the first day of the New Year, they lit firecrackers and red lanterns, and hung red paper throughout their village. From that day on, the Nian never plagued the villagers again.

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