Our Favorite Hikes and Gear

View in web browser. Our Favorite Gear Gifts, Secret Ski Towns, and More ADVENTURE BLOG  |  OUR TRIPS Whether you need a gift for your favorite adventurer or an upgrade for yourself, the season's best gear is rare, revolutionary, and clever in new ways to make adventure safer, more comfortable, and more fun. See the Gear ›› EDITOR'S PICKS Vote for the Adventurer of the Year Decide who will be the 2015 Adventurer of the Year by voting every day through January 31, 2015. Vote Now ›› 20 Dream Hikes Outdoor heroes, from Wild author Cheryl Strayed to ultralight hiker Andrew Skurka, share the trails they love. Read More ›› Secret Ski Towns Most people haven't heard of these towns, which is just fine with the skiers and boarders that live and play there. Read More ›› HIGHLIGHTS Myanmar Climb Updates Our team trekked through the jungle to the high peaks of Myanmar to solve a mystery. Video: Paddle to D.C. Adventurers Amy and Dave Freeman arrived in Washington, D.C., last week—by canoe. See their 2,000-mile journey to protect wilderness. GO ON YOUR NEXT BIG ADVENTURE WITH NAT GEO Grab your gear and head out on an active adventure with National Geographic in 2015! Whether you see yourself plunging into deep-blue waters or traversing vast desert landscapes, you'll find adventures of all types designed for travelers who seek to explore actively. Make a break for the tropics and snorkel the turquoise waters of Belize's Blue Hole before heading inland to trek through lush rain forests and climb Maya ruins. Hike from one cobblestoned village to the next in Provence, passing through sun-drenched vineyards, olive groves, and poppy fields. Or track cheetahs, leopards, and rhinos across the deserts and red-rock landscapes of Namibia. Visit our website to see all our active adventures and check out our full line-up of trips for photographers, families, students, wildlife enthusiasts, and more! Belize: Reefs, Rain Forests, and Ruins Learn More ›› Provence Hiking Adventure Learn More ›› Namibia Culture and Wildlife Adventure Learn More ›› FEATURED GALLERY: EXTREME PHOTO OF THE WEEK SHOP | DONATE | TRAVEL You are receiving this email because bpi.hgmp.jusgein@blogger.com is signed up to receive National Geographic communications. If you prefer not to receive emails from us, please unsubscribe. Contact Us | NGS Customer Service | Privacy Policy To ensure that you receive your National Geographic emails, please add ngs@e.nationalgeographic.com to your address book now. Learn how. National Geographic | 1145 17th Street N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036 Copyright © 2014 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Lions and tigers and you — #GivingTuesday

Help save big cats for #GivingTuesday. View in web browser. Dear Friend, You have the power to help save lions and tigers and cheetahs and leopards – and to ensure they survive beyond our lifetime. It's that simple. Please make a special contribution to help save big cats today for #GivingTuesday. Across Africa, the lion population has declined 90% in the last 75 years. And, there are now more tigers in captivity than there are in the wild. But a new wave of committed National Geographic supporters across the globe is standing up for big cats and making possible innovative, sustainable conservation efforts that are saving more animals every week. Friend, I hope you will help save big cats in the wild by making your special tax-deductible donation of $50 or more online now. Your gift will make a real impact by supporting tested and proven conservation strategies to save lions, tigers, and other big cats. We urgently need to raise additional resources for big cats before the end of the year to support the front-line work of conservationists in the field. Your special #GivingTuesday gift will immediately go to work protecting big cats by: Helping to complete more than 250 life-saving bomas before the end of the year. Bomas combine low-cost chain fencing with living trees and other materials to protect livestock from predators and stop the devastating retaliatory killing of big cats by local herders. Training and supporting big cat protectors from local communities. These protectors stop poachers, alert local herders when big cats are near their livestock, and prevent big cat poisonings. They are on the front lines of saving big cats. Providing scientific data and other evidence that local authorities can use to find and prosecute poachers. Working with local people to better understand the key ecological and economic role that big cats play in their communities. More and more people get involved in protecting big cats as they come to see their true value. But saving big cats begins with YOU and your willingness to act now before it's too late. Friend, please make your gift on this special day of giving to help save big cats. You'll feel great throughout this holiday season knowing that you have done your part not only to save lions, cheetahs, leopards, and other big cats in the wild, but also that your generosity will help restore entire habitats as big cats reclaim their essential role as top predators. Thank you, Friend, for your generosity on #GivingTuesday and throughout the year. Sincerely, Sarah Stallings Director, Annual Giving P.S YOU are the essential element in our mission to save big cats. Please make a #GivingTuesday gift to help save these magnificent felines. Give online now. Your gift today means a lot – thank you, Friend. Tiger photo by Steve Winter Did you know? The National Geographic Society is a nonprofit organization that relies on the generous contributions of individuals to help us inspire people to care about the planet. All donations support National Geographic's core programs, including scientific research expeditions, education initiatives, public programs, and the exploration behind stories in National Geographic magazine, on the National Geographic Channel, and other media. Through our work, we help others learn and care about our world, and take action to protect it. Your donation helps us expand our efforts to fund the world's top and emerging scientists, explorers, photographers, and storytellers to discover long-sought answers about our past and solutions to guide our future. The National Geographic Society is a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization. You are receiving this email because bpi.hgmp.jusgein@blogger.com is signed up to receive National Geographic communications. If you prefer not to receive emails from us, please unsubscribe. To ensure that you receive your National Geographic emails, please add ngs@e.nationalgeographic.com to your address book now. Learn how. Manage Preferences | Contact Us | About Us | NGS Customer Service | Privacy Policy National Geographic | 1145 17th Street N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036 Copyright © 2014 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Sunday Stills: Explore an Alien Solar System, High Society in Rome, and More

READ: Penguin Robots View in web browser. Sunday Stills ISSUE 28 Sunday, November 16, 2014 News Children of the Civil War PHOTOGRAPHS BY WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND PETER ESSICK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC “They’re a true link to another part of this country’s history. Whether Confederate or Union, they’re a treasure. The stories they tell today are the stories they heard as they sat on their daddy’s knee.” —Gail Lowman Crosby, president of the Real Daughter Club for the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) How many people alive today can say that their father was a Civil War soldier who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln in the White House? Fred Upham can. Despite sounding like a tall tale and a mathematical impossibility, it’s documented truth. Fred’s father, William, was a private in the Union Army’s Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was severely wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, in 1861, and later personally appointed by President Lincoln to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Fred’s in exclusive company—the dwindling group of children of soldiers who fought, North against South, 150 years ago. READ STARSTRUCK The Birth of an Alien Solar System PHOTOGRAPH BY ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ); C. BROGAN, B. SAXTON (NRAO/AUI/NSF) Astronomers have snapped the best image ever seen of the actual birth of new planets around a young, sunlike star. The astonishingly detailed photo reveals the planet-forming dust disk around the infant star HL Tau. Only one million years old, HL Tau sits in the constellation Taurus, the Bull, and is some 450 light-years from Earth. READ Proof Umberto Pizzi’s Rome: High Society, Paparazzi Style PHOTOGRAPH BY UMBERTO PIZZI Legendary Italian paparazzo Umberto Pizzi has spent a career documenting the excessive lives of the elite. “I wasn’t really interested in celebrities,” Pizzi says. “I was really just interested in taking photos and telling people’s stories, regardless of their social status. The photos I took of the socialites were often more of a critique of their behavior than anything else.” LOOK NEWS Fierce Women Who Smoked Pot, Got Tattoos, and Killed—and Loved—Men PHOTOGRAPH BY DEAGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES The real Amazons were long believed to be purely imaginary. They were the mythical warrior women who were the archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Every Greek hero or champion, from Hercules to Theseus and Achilles, had to prove his mettle by fighting a powerful warrior queen. We know their names: Hippolyta, Antiope, Thessalia. But they were long thought to be just travelers’ tales or products of the Greek storytelling imagination. A lot of scholars still argue that. But archaeology has now proven without a doubt that there really were women fitting the description that the Greeks gave us of Amazons and warrior women. READ THE EXPLORER PROJECT Biological Illuminations Marine biologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer David Gruber studies animals that glow and shine underwater. Using special filters, he captures dazzling sights of marine creatures that use light—through bioluminescence or fluorescence—to interact in dark habitats. WATCH Show Your Support: SHOP DONATE SUBSCRIBE TRAVEL BECOME A MEMBER You are receiving this email because bpi.hgmp.jusgein@blogger.com is signed up to receive National Geographic communications. If you prefer not to receive emails from us, please unsubscribe. To ensure that you receive your National Geographic emails, please add ngs@e.nationalgeographic.com to your address book now. Learn how. Contact Us | Privacy Policy | About Us | Customer Service National Geographic | 1145 17th Street N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036 Copyright © 2014 National Geographic Society. All Rights Reserved.