Jump to March 2009 archive page: 1 2
  • Emilio Morenatti/AP

    Relatives of Raheel Fayz, one of the police killed on Monday's attack, react during his funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, Tuesday, March 31, 2009. The commander of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy.

    Though the pictures from the event were striking, this picture from the funeral of one of the policeman killed in Monday's attack is even more moving. A good photographer can make you care about people in faraway places.

  • Ivan Alvarado/Reuters

    March 25: Huge machines are digging a cavern the size of a small stadium at Chile's Andina copper mine, deep in the Andes mountains.

    Our largest human creations can still seem tiny in the face of mountains.

  • /AP file

    Edouard Daladier, the Premier of France, centre, stands with the French delegation to the World Economic Conference in London, June 12, 1933. More than a thousand of the world's top finance and government officials squeezed into London's stuffy Geological Museum in 1933 to set about trying to save the world from the Great Depression. Six weeks later, the World Economic Conference gave up. Without any major agreements, it adjourned amid squabbling and finger-pointing between the world's democracies.

    My apologies for another old picture, but if we can't learn from history, we're doomed to repeat it. You have to wonder if these dapper finance ministers in their pinstripes and top hats have any more of a clue than the current financial experts.

  • Stefan Rousseau/AP

    The President of Mexico Felipe Calderon inspects guards on Horse Guards Parade in London on the first day of his state visit to Britain on Monday.

    The British empire may not be what it once was, but those folks still know how to put on a military ceremony. President Calderon seems to be a little lost among the trees.

  • Dorothea Lange/FSA / Library of Congress

    May, 1939. Between Tulare and Fresno on U.S. 99. Farmer from Independence, Kansas, on the road at cotton chopping time. He and his family have been in California for six months.

    We produced a slideshow of images from 1930s Fresno today, and coming across this gentleman's good-natured smile again made me think about the ways folks are handling today's difficult economy. By the way, I really do look at 21st-century picturesI guess today just turned into "old picture Friday."

  • Mathew Brady/Library of Congress

    Mathew Brady's photo outfit in front of Petersburg, Va., around 1864, from the Library of Congress glass negative collection.

    Watching the video essays on historic photographs at Mechanical Icon led me to this picture depicting how much gear the preeminent Civil War photographer needed to make pictures. TGIF, and for compact cameras too!

  • Adi Weda/EPA

    Two Indonesian workers walk on a construction site in Jakarta on March 24, 2009. After sinking deep during the financial crisis, Indonesia has now entered the club of the world's fastest growing economies.

    I generally don't like reflection shots, but there is something fascinating about the optical illusion this one creates. I guess these workers don't suffer from acrophobia, but some safety equipment would be nice.

  • Tiffini M. Jones/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

    The Los Angeles-class submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760) rests on the Arctic Ocean after breaking through three feet of ice during Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2009 March 21, 2009 in the Arctic Ocean. The U.S. Navy teamed with the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory to train in the arctic environment.

    I guess the Navy knows what it is doing when it brings a sub to the surface through Arctic ice. It makes me wonder what happens if they get stuck. I don't think AAA has an icebreaker.

  • Mohammed Zaatari/AP

    Palestinian men carry a body away from a burning car where a senior Fatah official, Kamal Madhat, and at least three bodyguards were killed in what appeared to be a roadside explosion outside the Mieh Mieh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Monday, March 23, 2009.

    Some spot news pictures just jump off the screen. There is so much going on in this image you just want to know the story behind it.

  • Brian Snyder/Reuters

    Karen Bradner (R) waits with other job seekers to be interviewed at a job fair at the Foxy Lady Gentleman's Club in Providence, R.I., March 21. Bradner, who was applying for an office job, has been looking for employment for a year. The club is looking to hire entertainers, bartenders, floor hosts and disc jockeys.

    Would you consider taking a job in this industry if things got financially tough for you and your family?

  • Andrew Biraj/Reuters

    Goldsmiths craft gold ornaments at a traditional jewellery manufacturer in the old part of Dhaka March 22, 2009.

    This looks like very soothing work to me for some reason. What do you think?

  • /AP

    Firefighters hose on a FedEx cargo plane after it crashed and burst into flames Monday on landing amid heavy winds at Narita International Airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, Monday, March 23, 2009. A pilot and co-pilot were aboard but their safety could not immediately be confirmed.

    I certainly would not have wanted to witness this from the terminal as I waited to depart. Watch the video here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29828648/

  • Themba Hadebe/AP

    A woman carries bread rolls on her head as she walks past a poster of Pope Benedict XVI in Luanda, Angola, Friday March 20, 2009. As Pope Benedict XVI makes his first pilgrimage to the continent this week, the church faces enormous challenges. Yet the church has ballooned in the last century from under 2 million to nearly 140 milion, making it the most fertile ground in the world for Catholicism.

    The Pope's road show moves to Angola today. I like this photo because it conveys his bigger than life presence. Many critics claim that he is out of touch with the realities of Africa when it come to AIDS and contraception. Do you think these tours serve any constructive purpose?

  • Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

    A soldier runs while holding a weapon, after two tanks backed by troops forced their way into a presidential palace, in Antananarivo March 16. Tanks successfully forced their way into the presidential palace in the centre of Madagascar's capital on Monday, but the president was not in the building.

    I'm struck by how much this photograph looks like a screen grab from a video game.

  • Andy Rain/EPA

    A school child looks up into the mouth of a life-size moving T-Rex dinosaur at the 'Walking with Dinosaurs' media launch in London, Britain, 18 March 2009. Walking with Dinosaurs, based on the award-winning BBC Television series will see real size dinosaurs come to life in a show that will tour Europe beginning in July 2009.

    I have to wonder if this incredible animated dinosaur isn't going to scare the living daylights out of the children it was designed to educate. Welcome to Jurassic Park.

  • Noah Berger/AP

    Disused newspaper racks clutter a storage yard in San Francisco, Friday, March 13, 2009.

    Is this the future of our ailing newspaper industry?

  • Robert Hood/msnbc.com

    The vividly painted interior of a foreclosed house in Elkhart, Indiana on March 17.

    What does the mortgage crisis look like? For me, it has looked like "For Sale" signs in front yards. However, today I got to tour several foreclosed houses while on assignment, and I was struck by the cheerfulness of this one. The colors seemed to echo what must have been a happy and hopeful home owner.

  • Omar Sobhani/Reuters

    Afghan honor guards carry a picture of Afghanistan's first president, Mohammad Daud Khan, during a ceremony to rebury him, in Kabul March 17, 2009. Daud Khan was shot dead in the presidential palace in a military coup in 1978. His remains and those who were killed with him were found at a mass grave recently.

    There is something very disconcerting about the goose-stepping soldiers at such a solemn ceremony. If you read a little bit about the history of Afghanistan's first president, you realize he's no George Washington.

  • Kyle Auclair/Getty Images

    Henrik Stenson of Sweden plays his second shot from deep mud at the 3rd hole during the first round of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship on March 12, 2009. If you are saving a shot, that has to be worth taking your shirt and trousers, Stenson said.

    Now this is something you don't see very often in professional golf. I wonder if they have a rule about it. Read about it here: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/29666364/

  • Mario Tama/Getty Images

    People are covered in colored powder and dye during Holi celebrations March 15 in the Queens borough of New York City. Holi is originally an Indian festival marking the arrival of spring and is also called the Festival of Colors. Many of the New York participants are of Indo-Caribbean descent from Guyana and Trinidad where the festival is known as Phagwah.

    Their showers are certainly going to be a mess, but this definitely looks like a lot of fun!

  • Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

    Men pose with rattlesnakes inside the holding tank at the World's Biggest Rattlesnake Round-up in Sweetwater, Texas March 14, 2009. The round-up was started 51 years ago by the Jaycees as a way for ranchers to rid the abundance of snakes that were threatening their livestock. The Jaycees is a leadership training organization for young men and women between the ages of 21-39.

    Does anyone know if this is still done out of necessity or is it now done simply as a part of the town's tradition?

  • Michaela Rehle/Reuters

    A man looks at Beretta guns during the International Guns Exhibition "IWA & OutdoorClassics" in Nuremberg, Germany, March 13, 2009. The fair opens today and runs till March 16, 2009.

    A day after a 17-year-old killed 15 people in a shooting rampage in Germany, it's business as usual for the opening of a major gun show in Nuremberg. I wonder how many would had to have died before they considered canceling the event?

  • Peter DaSilva/EPA

    A full Sap Moon sets behind the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn as a commuter ferry and a cargo ship navigate San Francisco Bay on March 11, 2009. The Sap Moon marks the time when maple sap begins to flow and the annual tapping of maple trees begins.

    After all the violence in the news yesterday, I'm ready for something surreal and beautiful. I didn't realize that Native Americans had names for all twelve full moons. You can read about it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22727948/

  • Reuters Tv/Reuters

    A Sri Lankan Muslim boy performs during a Muslim religious festival the instant a bomb exploded in Akuressa March 10, 2009. A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed 14 people and wounded 35, including Sri Lanka's telecommunications minister.

    This picture is a still from video, so the quality suffers. That said, it is one of the most striking images of a suicide bombing that I've seen. UPDATE: see the whole sequence here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3917677/displaymode/1107/s/2/framenumber/9/

  • Jad Saab/AP

    A huge sand storm engulfs the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, March 10, 2009. The storm, which was still raging hours after it started, disrupted flights at the city's King Khalid International airport, with weather authorities announcing that visibility would drop to zero.

    I know that sand storms are a part of life in the Middle East, but the sight of this one approaching is particularly dramatic. It reminds me of the pictures of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

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