MeraForum Community.No 1 Pakistani Forum Community - Best of October & November 2012

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BEST OF OCTOBER 2012

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Buzescu, Romania
Photograph by Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky
A fantasia of styles, from villa to temple to castle, lines the main street of Buzescu, population 5,000. Men are often away on business; women, wealthy or not, stay to cook, clean, and raise the kids.
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Red Elephants, Kenya
Photograph by Brent Stirton
The "red elephants" of Kenya's Tsavo East National Park owe their color to the red soil, which they roll in as a dirt bath. Across Africa, sustained poaching of bulls and large females makes orphans of the young and distorts the gene pool in favor of weaker, smaller animals.
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Lightning, Oklahoma
Photograph by Mitch Dobrowner
Near Guymon, Oklahoma
Most storms move fast. This one crept over a farming community for more than an hour, bristling with electricity. "No two storms are the same," says James LaDue, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. "No two skies are either."
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Divers, Easter Island
Photograph by Randy Olson
Tourists diving on Easter Island's reef encounter a fake moai, made for a 1994 Hollywood movie and then sunk offshore. The reef is healthy, though it is overfished. Tuna and salmon are imported, primarily for tourists.
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Dragon’s Blood Trees, Socotra
Photograph by Mark W. Moffett
A full moon rises over the Diksam Plateau, where dragon's blood trees grow in scattered groves. The limestone of Socotra's interior plains formed when ancient seas covered the land.
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Moai, Easter Island
Photograph by Randy Olson
Their backs to the Pacific, 15 restored moai stand watch at Ahu Tongariki, the largest of Easter Island's ceremonial stone platforms. Rapanui artisans carved the moai centuries ago from volcanic rock at a quarry a mile away. By the 19th century all of Easter's moai had been toppled—by whom or what is unclear. In 1960 these moai were swept inland by a tsunami, which fractured some (left).
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Emperor Penguins, Antarctica
Photograph by Paul Nicklen
Emperor penguins are Olympian swimmers, capable of diving to 1,750 feet and remaining underwater 20 minutes on a single breath. "I was mesmerized by their beautiful bubble trails," says Nicklen, who braved 28°F water to capture these images.
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Prayer Flags, Wyoming
Photograph by Aaron Huey
Nine-year-old Wakinyan Two Bulls places prayer flags in a tree near Mato Tipila ("bear lodge"), or Devils Tower, in Wyoming. The story of the Oglala—their spirituality and their fight to remedy old wrongs—goes well beyond the Pine Ridge Reservation.
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Monk, China
Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann
A monk seeks shelter from a snow shower in the Shaolin complex, lavishly rebuilt in recent years. Stone tablets throughout the grounds testify to the generosity of patrons from all over the world.
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Hverfjall Crater, Iceland
Photograph by Orsolya and Erlend Haarberg
When Hverfjall erupted 2,500 years ago, no one saw it—no one lived in Iceland. On a March evening photographer Orsolya Haarberg watched alone as a north wind scoured Mývatn lake's thin ice, sweeping snow into a drift that looked like a path to the crater.
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BEST OF NOVEMBER 2012

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Penguins, Antarctica
Photograph by Joshua Holko
Penguins adrift on an iceberg during a heavy snowstorm in Antarctica
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Winter Morning, Yosemite
Photograph by Tony Williams
All that is required to surprise and delight is to go out early on a winter morning in Yosemite and keep your eyes open wide.
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Weedy Sea Dragon
Photograph by Richard Wylie
The camouflage that weedy sea dragons use to hide in the temperate marine vegetation they derive their name from is so successful that once they reach adulthood they have no natural predators. Unfortunately they are still at risk due to habitat destruction. The males of the species carry the bright pink, fertilized eggs underneath their tails for about two months before the fully formed young hatch and are left to fend for themselves.
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Oryx, Namibia
Photograph by Mikael Stiller
Oryx captured in Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia just after sunset. They are heading through the dunes in search of food and water.
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Sunrise, Saxony
Photograph by Jens Elste
Sunrise from the Bastei. It was the first sunny day in our country this year. The Bastei is a rock in our sandstone mountains in Saxony, Germany.
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Tour Guide, Vietnam
Photograph by Matthew Nelson
A Vietnamese lady waits for passengers for a journey on the Thu Bon River in Hoi An Ancient Town. Increasing competition from locals for the tourist dollar means many of the local tour guides are left to wait.
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African Elephant and Queleas
Photograph by Antero Topp
A flock of red-billed queleas coming to drink at the same time as an African elephant
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Hallstatt, Austria
Photograph by Weimin Chu
When the dark falls and tourists rest, the town of Hallstatt comes back to peacefulness. As fog winds around the spire of the famous Parish Church, and the blue tint of the rainy night is decorated by warm light, the town really looks like a fairyland.
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Grand Palais, Paris
Photograph by Lance McMillan
Daniel Buren’s work, "Excentrique(s)," fills the Grand Palais in Paris, an absolutely beautiful work of art in its own right.
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