Mark J. Terrill / AP
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, right, goes up for a shot as Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade defends during the first half of their NBA basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010, in Los Angeles.
The disconnected hand adds a nice twist to a fine action shot. The green shoes? Not so much. Full story.
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Members of the Berlin Seals (Berliner Seehunde) swimming club take a dip in icy Orankesee Lake during their traditional Christmas Day ice swim on December 25, 2010 in Berlin, Germany. Club members claim a brief dip in the chilly waters is healthy and improves blood circulation in the body.
Karim Sahib / AFP - Getty Images
A young man swims in the pool of a hotel in the Liwa Western desert, outside Abu Dhabi, on Dec. 25, 2010.
Normally a news photo should show the context of the main action. In this case, the lack of context makes the image all the more striking.
Julio Cortez / AP
John Godzieba, portraying Gen. George Washington, uses a scope as he stands on a Durham boat during a re-enactment of Washington's historic crossing of the Delaware River, Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010, in Washington Crossing, Pa.
Ever wonder if this reenactment and the famous Emmanuel Leutze painting of the crossing are historically accurate?
Daniel Varnado / AP
Floyd Medical Center employee Liberty Todd enjoys the morning snowfall while at work in Rome, Ga., on Saturday, Dec. 25. A rare white Christmas came to parts of the South as snow fell across the region.
While many Southerners welcomed a white Christmas on Saturday, the forecast for snow forced Delta Airlines to scrub 300 of its 800 flights at its home airport of Atlanta.
The snow was moving from the South up to the mid-Atlantic and then the Northeast. Winter weather advisories were in effect Saturday morning from Arkansas to the Carolinas and from West Virginia to central Alabama. Much of North Carolina was under a winter storm warning.
It was expected to intensify and move northeast on Sunday.
Read the full story HERE.
Peter Deconinck / EPA
Little is left standing on Friday, Dec. 25, after the Regina Pacis Church collapsed near Diepenbeek, Belgium. The church collapsed after midnight mass during the night, possibly due to excessive snowfall.
Petras Malukas / AFP - Getty Images
People dressed as Santa Claus take part in the annual Chrismas race in Vilnius, Lithuania on Saturday, Dec. 25.
Catch a glimpse of the many ways St. Nick spreads holiday cheer around the world in our SLIDESHOW.
ISRO via AFP - Getty Images
The Indian GSLV-F06 rocket is seen before its ill-fated launch in Sriharikota, India on Saturday, Dec. 25. The unmanned rocket, which was carrying a communications satellite, blew up in its first stage after launching from the Sriharikota space center.
Babu / Reuters
An Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle blasts off carrying a satellite Saturday, Dec. 25.
AP
A rocket explodes in mid-air shortly after its launch in Sriharikota. This marks the second failure for the Indian Space Research Organization this year. A previous developmental flight of the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle mission failed in April, causing the rocket to plunge into the Bay of Bengal.
A rocket carrying an Indian communications satellite exploded seconds after lift-off from a launchpad in the country's south on Saturday, officials said, in a potential setback for its commercial space business.
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) exploded in the first stage of the flight, leaving a trail of smoke and fire. The initial launch of the GSAT-5P satellite had been pushed back because of an engine defect.
Read the full story HERE.
A Majeed / AFP - Getty Images
A Pakistani military police officer performs a stunt during the opening ceremony of 31st National Games at the Qayyum Sports Complex in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Saturday, Dec. 25.
Rafiq Maqbool / AP
Spc. Charles Moore, left, of Angleton, Texas, along with Spc. Andrew Vanderhaeghen of Rochester, Minn., of 2nd Platoon Bravo Company 2-327 return fire after a sudden attack by Taliban on combat outpost Badel in easteran Afghanistan near the Pakistan border on Saturday, Dec 25.
To see more images from the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, click HERE.
Marco Secchi / Getty Images
A tourists crosses a temporary wooden walkway during "acqua alta" in front of Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy on Friday, Dec. 24. Venetians have spent the last few days dealing with seasonal high water.
NASA
This full-disk picture of the Western Hemisphere, issued on Christmas Day, incorporates imagery acquired by the GOES weather satellite system.
Since the beginning of the month, our Advent calendar has presented pictures of Earth from space going back more than four decades — but today's offering is as fresh as fallen snow on Christmas morning. In fact, it's a picture of our blue planet that incorporates image data from this morning.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites — also known as the GOES satellites — monitor weather phenomena continuously from a 22,300-mile orbit. Infrared and visible-light images of weather systems are overlaid on a full-color "Blue Marble" picture of Earth to produce the kind of view you see above. The detailed GOES imagery is used by meteorologists to figure out, for example, how bad the next winter storm will get. You can check out the latest GOES pictures on NASA's project website, and learn more about the GOES system as well.
Back in 1968, the "Earthrise" picture served as a reminder of Earth's beauty and fragility. Today, near-real-time Earth images such as this one remind us that the legions of satellites in outer space bring good things to all of us here on this good Earth. May the new year bring us still more good things, from Earth and from space.
Click on the links below for a recap of this year's Cosmic Log Advent Calendar, plus other Advent calendar offerings with space themes:
It would be difficult, but I think worthwhile, work to bring joy to these young patients.
Inti Ocon / Reuters
Clown Ernesto Aguirre (L) jokes with a fellow clown while visiting a young cancer patient at the La Mascota children's hospital in Managua on Dec. 24. Aguirre has been visiting the hospital at Christmas for the last five years to bring joy and gifts to children suffering from cancer.
Inti Ocon / Reuters
Clown Ernesto Aguirre (R) tries to cheer up a boy suffering from throat cancer at the La Mascota children's hospital in Managua on Dec. 24.
Inti Ocon / Reuters
Clown Ernesto Aguirre applies face paint at the La Mascota children's hospital in Managua on Dec. 24.
This is the type of thing that feel-good Christmas movies are made of. Even First Lady Michelle Obama is helping field phonecalls this year. Check out NORAD's tracking system here as well as msnbc.com's own Santa tracker to see when jolly St. Nick will be in your neck of the woods.
Ed Andrieski / AP
Air Force Lt. Col. David Hanson, of Chicago, takes a phone call from a youngster in Florida at the Santa Tracking Operations Center at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colo., on Dec. 24. Volunteers take as many as 80,000 phone calls from youngsters and adults around the world with questions about Santa and his travels. Lots of military secrets are hidden behind the gleaming walls of NORAD'S headquarters building, including this one: Just how do they get Santa's flight path onto their computer screens every Christmas Eve?Tracking Santa's travels is a celebrated tradition at the North American Aerospace Command, and it unfolds Friday for the 55th year.
noradsanta.org / AP
In this image provided by noradsanta.org, the official NORAD tracking of Santa Claus is shown on a satellite map of the world on Dec. 24. NORAD Tracks Santa, the official name of the exercise, began in 1955 when a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to talk to Santa on a hotline. The phone number had a typo, and dozens of kids wound up dialing the Continental Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, the predecessor to NORAD.
The AP reports:
The officers on duty played along and began passing along reports on Santa's progress. It's now a cherished ritual at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command that monitors the North American skies and seas from a control center at Peterson.
"It's really ingrained in the NORAD psyche and culture," said Canadian Forces Lt. Gen. Marcel Duval, the deputy commander of NORAD, who pitches in to field French-language calls on Christmas Eve. "It's a goodwill gesture from all of us, on our time off, to all the kids on the planet."
Last year, NORAD Tracks Santa answered 74,000 calls and 3,500 e-mails, and organizers expect to top that this year.
It's nice to see the fire department helping these children have a merry Christmas when they believe it's too dangerous for St. Nick to come this year. Read more here.
Gael Gonzalez / Reuters
A child bundles up against the cold as she waits with her family for care packages filled with wooden horses, dolls and stuffed animals in Ciudad Juarez, early morning, Dec.24. Children in Ciudad Juarez are telling a dark joke this Christmas: Even Santa Claus is too scared to stop in Mexico's most violent city because drug gangs will charge extortion fees on his toys. So, firefighters took Santa's place, trying to bring some holiday cheer to the beleaguered city across from El Paso, Texas, where more than 3,000 people have been killed in drug violence this year.
Gael Gonzalez / Reuters
A fire-fighter unloads children's bicycles from a truck in Ciudad Juarez on Dec. 24.
Gael Gonzalez / Reuters
A boy carries his gift as fire-fighters look on in Ciudad Juarez on Dec. 24.
People skate on an ice rink while pedestrians look at the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve, Friday, Dec. 24, 2010.
Many New Yorkers avoid 30 Rockefeller Center this time of year, but as someone who works there, I don't have much of a choice. That said, watching from a dozen stories up is a peaceful and fulfilling substitute.
Holiday greetings from msnbc.com, we hope your lives are filled with joy, wherever you are this time of year.
And hey, while you're here, check out a roundup of Christmas celebrations around the word in our SLIDESHOW.
I'm sure nothing this soldier receives for Christmas will top this hero's welcome.
Bryan Patrick / Sacramento Bee via Zuma Press
At terminal A at the Sacramento Airport, left to right, wife of Darryl Oleson and daughters Kyli center, and Cieva, get excited as their husband and father Darryl Oleson makes his way down the escalator escorted by an honor guard. Oleson, a Citrus Heights police officer who's in the military reserve is home early from a tour in Iraq. Police officers and his family meet him at the airport for this Christmas Eve surprise on Dec. 24.
Bryan Patrick / Sacramento Bee via Zuma Press
At the bottom the the escalator, Citrus Heights police officers salute in the background, as Darryl Oleson hugs his daughters Cieva, and Kyli, as his wife Lea, wipes tears away. Darryl Oleson, a Citrus Heights police officer who's in the military reserve is home early from a tour in Iraq at the Sacramento Airport Terminal A. Police officers and his family meet him at the airport on Dec. 24.
Norm Dettlaff / Las Cruces Sun-News via AP
Josiah Waikiki, 2, cries as he sits with a man dressed as Santa in Las Cruces, N.M.
Poor guy. For more kids terrified of seeing St. Nick, check out our slideshow HERE.
Sonny Tumbelaka / AFP - Getty Images
A surfer dressed in a Santa costume surfs at Kuta beach on the Indoensian resort island of Bali on Friday, Dec. 24.
Thierry Roge / Reuters
Two kids play together as they stand in line at Zaventem International Airport near Brussels on Friday, Dec. 24. Heavy snow caused delyas across Europe Friday.
This photo made me laugh a bit. Kids can be shameless. And weird.
For more on snarled travel in Europe, read our full story HERE.
Chris Carlson / AP
A U.S. Secret Service agent runs along a street near where President Barack Obama is spending his holiday vacation in Kailua, Hawaii, on Thursday, Dec. 24. A man led officers on a high-speed chase that crossed a security checkpoint near the neighborhood where the president is staying. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the man was arrested a short time later and incident was not related to the president's visit, in Kailua, Hawaii.
Rhea Yamashiro / AP
A Secret Service agent draws her handgun on a man evading arrest by Honolulu police on Thursday.
msnbc.com staff and news services report: A man fleeing from local police drove through an outer perimeter checkpoint set up near President Barack Obama's Hawaii vacation home Friday, officials said.
Photographers took pictures of a Secret Service agent sprinting toward the scene and pointing a gun at a vehicle.
The driver wasn't trying to get near the president or his family and the incident had nothing to do with his Hawaii visit, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said.
"Honolulu police was going to arrest someone they had traffic violations for," Donovan said. "He was able to get away from them and led them in a high-speed chase which ultimately led to one of our checkpoints."
You can read the full story HERE.
Reuters
A keeper brushes a hippo's teeth at the Shanghai Zoo on Nov. 3. The hippo has its teeth cleaned three times a week to reduce the chance of mouth diseases.
I voted for this hippo image to be included in the Year in Pictures. Yes it's a zoo picture, yes, it's an animal -- so some would say it's not "serious" photojournalism and doesn't stand up against all of the important news of the year. Yes, all that is true, but also, it's nice to take a moment to appreciate the lighter moments that were captured. This picture makes me smile, in part because the hippo seems a little happy about the attention and the carrot is a fun, whimsical detail. See the images that did make the cut here.
Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images
An Indonesian man smokes a cigarette as he keeps himself warm in the ash-covered village of Cemoro Lawang on Indonesia's central Java island early on Friday, Dec. 24. The active Mount Bromo volcano, a popular tourist attraction, began rumbling late last month and a series of eruptions occured on December 19, with the volcano shooting columns of ash some 1,000 metres into the sky.
Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images
Mount Bromo shoots ash into the sky on Friday, Dec. 24.
The AP reports: A smoking volcano on Indonesia's main island of Java has forced the closure of a local airport.
Mount Bromo came back to life last week after a yearlong lull, unleashing a powerful blast of volcanic debris but causing no injuries or serious damage.
State volcanologist Surono warned, however, a bigger eruption may be on the way.
Read the full story HERE.
Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters
Students riot during a half-day strike to disrupt traffic in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Friday, Dec. 24. Police scuffled with students today to stifle the strike called by students in the capital.
NASA
This "Earthrise" picture was taken by Apollo 8's crew on Dec. 24, 1968, and is considered the first color photograph of Earth taken by humans in deep space.
Thousands of pictures of Earth have been taken from space, but few have had as much impact as the picture taken by Apollo 8's crew exactly 42 years ago. The "Earthrise" photograph, showing our planet hanging in a black sky, was taken as the mission's three astronauts swung around the moon on Christmas Eve 1968. It's considered the first color photo of the full Earth made from deep space. The late photographer Galen Rowell called it "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."
The view from the moon fosters the realization that this one planet is our one home — a home that must be protected and treasured. In fact, such views are said to spark a phenomenon called "the overview effect," a feeling of spiritual transcendence and universal connection that's often experienced by astronauts during spaceflight.
During the Apollo 8 astronauts' Christmas Eve broadcast, the astronauts took turns reading from the Book of Genesis — and commander Frank Borman ended with this wish: "From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth."
Such are our wishes for you on this Christmas Eve.
One more picture of Earth from space remains to be revealed in our Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar — a final treat for Christmas Day. Click on the links below to see the previous pictures in this series, as well as images from other space-themed Advent calendars:
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