Jump to April 2009 archive page: 1 2
  • Olivier Morin/AFP - Getty Images

    The sun shines on a yellow lighthouse outside Reykjavik harbour early in the morning on April 23, 2009.

    We considered this photograph for "The Week in Pictures." While the editors agreed it was pretty, it didn't have that extra element beyond just pretty to make the cut. Check out this week's slide show at 8 p.m. ET Thursday.

  • Jose Mendez/EPA

    A man walks past a statue with protective masks on a Mexico City street, Mexico, April 28. The Federal District closed all its trade and comercial markets, including restaurants, gyms, and movie theaters. The World Health Organization has yet to see concrete evidence that swine flu, believed to have killed 168 people in Mexico, is leveling off.

    Finding some humor in the seriousness of the flu outbreak.

  • /AFP - Getty Images

    A Chinese police officer talks to a man who tried to immolate himself after putting out the fire with an extinguisher along a shopping street in Chongqing on April 29, 2009. The 41-year-old man is believed to have lost all his money in the ongoing financial crisis.

    This rather disturbing picture raises a lot of questions. Is the social support network in China as weak as it was in the U.S. during the Great Depression? Does China rely on unsustainable economic growth to keep its citizens happy?

  • Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters

    Workers gather oil palm fruits at a factory in Sepang outside Kuala Lumpur April 29, 2009. Malaysian crude palm oil futures lost 1.7 per cent to hit a one-week low today as investors cut long positions ahead of the long weekend, adding to earlier losses that were tied to fears of swine flu spreading.

    Palm oil is a economic boon to some east Asian, west African and Central American countries. It's considered by some a "green" biofuel, but its production is also blamed for deforestation and human rights abuses, according to the United Nations. I hadn't seen the interesting texture of the palms before I noticed this shot from Reuters.

  • Rahmat Gul/AP

    An Afghan boy carries plastic cans for sale in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, April 26, 2009.

    When I saw this picture, those old Fruit of the Loom commercials sprang to mind. This boy's work is a somber version of the guy dressed up as a bunch of grapes.

  • /US Air Force via AP

    This image provided by the U.S. Air Force shows the current publicity photo of the presidential plane over Mount Rushmore. The White House plans an inquiry into a low-flying photo shoot by the presidential plane that panicked New Yorkers and cost taxpayers $328,835. White House officials said Obama was fuming mad and thinks Air Force One didn't need a new publicity photo anyway.

    When you see how close Air Force One was to Mount Rushmore for this publicity picture, you start to understand what all the commotion was about this week in New York City. Do you think this is a good use of military aircraft?

  • Joe Raedle/Getty Images

    Father Carlos Ramon wears a surgical mask, to help prevent being infected with the swine flu, as he gives communion during a service at Mercy Church on April 28, 2009 in Mexico City, Mexico. Devotees of the church worship the patron saint of death known locally as La Santa Muerte.

    I was struck by the lowering of her mask to accept communion - I wonder if people visiting church felt hesitation as they approached this moment, or if the familiarity of the act or perhaps the comfort of faith overtook health concerns?

  • /United Photos via Reuters file

    Seven babies sit in tummy tubs filled with water used to simulate a womb-like environment for the infants to experience the warmth and comfort.

    Yet another way to pacify the little ones. Wonder if this works?

  • Detroit Free Press/Zuma Press

    The Michigan Central Train Depot which was built in 1913 is shown, left, on April 15, 2009. The interior of the same building is shown, right, on April 27, 1982. The last train departed on January 5, 1988 and the building was permanently closed.

    It's so sad to see what were once beautiful buildings fall into disrepair. One can only imagine what will happen to Detroit and the rest of its landmark structures if the auto industry completely collapses.

  • Gary Cameron/Reuters

    Launch crew member Tom Erb walks to the launch pad area of rocket builder Steve Eves' one-tenth scale Saturn V rocket in Price, Md., on April 25, 2009. The 36-foot-high rocket, which was a three-year project costing approximately $25,000-$30,000 to build, is the largest model rocket ever successfully launched. Eves' rocket commemorates the 40th anniversary of the July 16, 1969 launch of the United States Apollo 11, which put the first man on the moon.

    What an incredible accomplishment!

  • Olivier Morin/AFP - Getty Images

    A man urinates on April 25, 2009 in the toilets of the Sodoma bar in central Reykjavik where photographs of the former bankers who left their country after the financial crash have been stuck on the urinals. Iceland's general election got underway Saturday seven months after the country's economic collapse, with voters expected to snub the party seen as responsible for the crisis in favour of the interim leftist government.

    Well, I guess that's one way to make a comment.

  • Dirk Waem/AFP - Getty Images

    A photo taken from a helicopter shows the giant artwork by Belgian artist Wim Tellier at the Zuiderdokken (South docks) in Antwerp, on April 24, 2009.

    I love the visual humor of this. It reminds me of the giant in Gulliver's Travels. Of course, you need a helicopter to appreciate it.

  • Photo courtesy Chris Jordan Photographic Arts/Business Wire

    Crushed cars from Chris Jordan's collection "Intolerable Beauty."

    This photo moved on the wire yesterday to promote the National Social Responsibility Initiative on Earth Day. It's from Chris Jordan's "Intolerable Beauty - Portraits of Mass Consumption." I wonder if this image will become a metaphor for the state of the American auto industry.

  • Denis Farrell/AP

    An aerial view shows people queueing to cast their votes in the Katlehong township east of Johannesburg, April 22, 2009. Some 23 million South Africans are registered to cast their votes to elect a new president.

    I can guarantee you that Americans would not stand in lines like this to exercise their right to vote. Then again, non-white South Africans only got the vote in 1994, so they know what is at stake.

  • Saul Loeb/AFP - Getty Images

    President Barack Obama uses a pick in preparation of planting a tree as part of a service project at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington after signing the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, on April 21, 2009.

    The President pitches in on Earth Day. Any alternate captions out there?

  • John Brecher/msnbc.com

    Thomas Clark aims a thermometer at a can heated by focused sunlight during the Earth Day celebration at the Elkhart Environmental Center. After last year's high gas prices, Clark started a side business to create solar heating kits, and had more time for the project when his hours at his regular cabinet making job were cut by a third in early 2009.

    By the way, his thermometer registered a temperature of 560 degrees F. For more on what we're doing in Elkhart see: http://elkhartproject.msnbc.com

  • People Gather To Look For Employ/EPA

    A woman rides a tricycle loaded up with many polystyrene foam boxes in the southern Chinese manufacturing city of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, 03 April 2009. This week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut its forecast for China's economic growth this year to 6.3%, from the 8% it projected in November 2008.

    Another installment in my occasional series on impressive loads on small vehicles.

  • Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP - Getty Images

    Cambodian vendors ride bikes loaded with baskets on the national road number 5 in Phnom Penh on March 27, 2009. Cambodia's economy will shrink by 0.5 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said on March 6, 2009 lowering its earlier prediction as the country is hit by the global financial crisis.

    Another installment in my occasional series on impressive loads on small vehicles.

  • Matthias Hiekel/EPA

    A box with artificial eyes from World War I lies in the new special exhibition 'War and Medicine' at Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden, Germany, April 3, 2009. By presenting photos, art and witnesses, the exhibition deals with the contradictory relation between human destructive force and the self-conception of medicine to heal people.

    Some pictures are so weird, I just have to put them in the blog.

  • Jack Delano/

    September, 1940: Chicago & Northwestern Railway workers cultivate a small Victory garden in the Proviso yard, Chicago, Ill.

    Do you see the tiny gardeners in the tiny garden? They're at 12 o'clock from the parked automobiles.

  • Joel Boh/Reuters

    The Oklahoma City Fire and Police Departments Joint Color Guard march during the posting of the Colors at the 14th Annual Remembrance Ceremony in Oklahoma City National Memorial, April 19, 2009. On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb ripped away the north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, claiming 168 lives.

    It's hard to believe it has been 14 years since the Murrah building was bombed. I was so struck and saddened by the images that came out of Oklahoma City that day. I can remember exactly where I was when it happened: in the living room of the sorority house with my mom, as she had come down to school to take a bunch of stuff home for me for the summer before our final move-out date. Where were you?

  • John Gress/Reuters

    Lars Stromberg launches his kite as he takes part alongside 1,182 participants in an attempt to set the world record for the most number of kites aloft at the same time in one location in Wheaton, Illinois, April 18, 2009.

    When I saw this picture, it reminded me that when I was a five-year-old kiddo, getting a kite airborne wasn't as easy as it looked. Later when I was in my mid-twenties, I was camping at a concert with friends and somebody had a kite that not only took to the air easily, but zipped around like a small jet. Either kite aerodynamics came a long way, or my ability to fly them did.

  • Seth Wenig/AP

    Patrons of the new Yankee Stadium watch butchers preparing meat for one of the premium food stands at the first regular season baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium on Thursday, April 16, 2009. The new stadium has a decidedly upstairs-downstairs feel that grates on critics who see it as catering to the rich and famous - but opening day fans may not really care.

    While the new Yankee Stadium manages to preserve many of the best features of the old stadium, I was struck by the symbolism of this image. I guess hot dogs and beer don't cut it for this crowd. But Babe Ruth would probably have approved of this fine beef.

  • Alison Simpson/Laramie Boomerang via AP

    A pair of deer peers through a drive-in liquor store window Friday, March 27 in Medicine Bow, Wyoming.

    Let the caption contest begin. . .

  • Ints Kalnins/Reuters

    New cars are parked at a storage yard in front of a cargo vessel in Sillamae port, about 109 miles from Tallinn. About 38,000 cars are currently waiting to be exported to Russia. The collapse of the Russian car market deepened in March as sales of new cars decreases by half.

    It's too easy to forget that the economic downturn isn't limited to the U.S. It's being felt all over the world.

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