Surfers riding large wave, Hawaii — Warren Bolster / Stone / Getty Images

• These guys wouldn’t be surfing today if it weren’t for Duke.
  His first boards weighed up to 114 pounds
• Don’t like to surf alone?
  Try it with a partner
• Surfing’s not as much fun when the ocean is full of junk.
  The Surfrider Foundation says it best
• Looking for waves like this one?
  You can find them here

The Horsehead Nebula, a dark nebula in the Orion constellation. — Stocktrek Images / Getty Images

• One day humankind may truly explore space, colonize planets, and discover new life.

  But there’s one planet we should never visit

• A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, and plasma.

  They’re prettier than they sound

• Willamina Fleming first spotted the Horsehead Nebula in a photo taken at the Harvard College Observatory.

  That was back in 1888

• Want to learn more about space?

  Spend some time with Dr. J

Porcupine Northern Saskatchewan, Canada — Wayne Lynch / All Canada Photos / Photolibrary

• Where do you find a 30-pound rodent that climbs trees and can withstand winter temperatures that drop below -0˚ F?

  Nope, it’s not Antarctica

• Rodents come in all shapes and sizes, from large to small, from covered in quills to completely naked.

  Some rodents can even do magic

• Porcupine quills are covered with tiny barbs that will pull the quill deeper and deeper into your skin.

  Pet porcupines very carefully

• This rodent loves salt so much that it might eat your sweaty socks and lick your salty winter tires.

  A salt lick will keep it from damaging your property

Mt. Everest Base Camp — Stefen Chow/Aurora Photos

• Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest on this day in 1953.

  They were the first to do so

• Tenzing Norgay was a Nepali-Tibetan sherpa and Edmund Hillary was a mountaineer from New Zealand.

  Together they succeeded where many others failed

• People who want to climb Mount Everest work through a series of base camps as they acclimate to the high altitude.

  It can take weeks to get properly adjusted

• “…When you climb this mountain you have to climb…as…a child crawling up to its mother’s lap.” —Jamling Norgay

  Where is this mother of a mountain?

The Rio Grande River, Big Bend National Park, Texas — Ian Shive / Aurora / Getty Images

• This park is one of the largest, most remote, and least visited of all the national parks.

  It’s an ecological treasure

• The Rio Grande failed to reach the Gulf of Mexico in 2001 for the first time in recorded history.

  What we do in the cities affects the wilderness, too

• Not everything in Texas is about cowboys and untamed desert landscapes.

  Sometimes people talk about art and stuff

• There are only five paved roads leading through the 1,200 square miles of this park.

  It shares 244 miles with Mexico