Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
A security guard stands in the installation "Animal Group 2011" at the "Carsten Holler: Experience" exhibit at the New Museum in New York City on Oct. 27.
Giant foam creatures, naked bathing in a so-called "Psycho Tank" and a three-story slide that winds through the museum - it sounds like the new Carsten Holler exhibit in New York has it all. Read more and see more images in Rich Shulman's post from Wednesday.
L'Osservatore Romano / Vatican Pool via Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI travels to Assisi, Italy, by train on Oct. 27. The Pontiff made a pilgrimage to the home of Saint Francis in the Italian town to attend the meeting 'Pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace,' a day of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world.
See more images of Pope Benedict XVI in our slideshows:
Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images
A woman helplessly watches as her home is demolished in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Oct. 27.
Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images
A woman cries in front of a police officer as her shack is dismantled in Tegucigalpa on Oct. 27.
Agence France Presse reports:
Human rights organizations described as inhumane the eviction of 120 families and the destruction by court order of 52 houses on El Estiquin hill, on the southern outskirts of the Honduran capital. The evicted people, mostly low-income single mothers, demanded that President Porfirio Lobo provide them with a decent place to live.
Michael Schumacher / Amarillo Globe-News via AP
Dan Weirich walks through a scenic El Alamo Park after an overnight storm dumped more than 2 inches of heavy, wet snow in Amarillo on Oct. 27.
Amarillloans woke to about 2.5 inches of snow on the ground at about 7 a.m. this morning, which is more snow than usual for the month of October.
Sarah Johnson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Amarillo, said it is uncommon but not unheard of for Amarillo to receive snow in October. The average amount of snow received in October sits at about .3 inches.
She said today's amount breaks the record for the amount of snow received on Oct. 27, which was previously set at 2.4 in 1911. Read more…
Michael Schumacher / Amarillo Globe-News via AP
Brandy Self clears snow from her car after an overnight storm in Amarillo.
Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images
Israeli female settlers pray behind a barrier, Oct. 27, 2011, as they participate in a mass prayer against their government's decision to dismantle the West Bank settlement of Givat Asaf, northeast of Ramallah. Settlers are protesting and calling for a struggle against the Israeli government's decision to dismantle several settlements by the end of December 2011.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
A man walk between tents set up as relief shelters for earthquake victims in Ercis, October 27, 2011. Survivors of eastern Turkey's earthquake pleaded for more tents on Thursday, fearing death from cold after a tremor that killed at least 523 and left thousands sleeping in the open.
Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP - Getty Images
Hunter Halder rides through the streets of Lisbon, Portugal, on Oct. 21, 2001, on a bicycle loaded with food collected from restaurants. Every night, Halder, a 60-year-old American living in Portugal, mounts his bike and picks up food he then distributes to the poor of Lisbon, hit hard by the severe economic crisis in Portugal.
Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP - Getty Images
Hunter Halder talks to a restaurant owner that contributes to the Re-Food project on October 21, 2011 in Lisbon.
Rafael Marchante / Reuters
Hunter Halder looks at the volunteer schedule inside the Re-Food office in Lisbon October 11, 2011. Halder, from the U.S., started a project called Re-Food to distribute unserved leftover food to hungry people and has the support of 100 volunteers. Since March 2011, the project has been implemented in the neighborhood of Nossa Senhora de Fatima, in the heart of Lisbon, where they have identified about 70 families in need.
Rafael Marchante / Reuters
Hunter Halder and Re-Food volunteers hold bags of food to deliver to needy people in Lisbon October 18, 2011.
Rafael Marchante / Reuters
Hunter Halder knocks on the apartment door of a needy family to deliver them meals in Lisbon October 11, 2011.
I've heard of other similar small-scale efforts in New York City. Are there any in your neighborhood?
Marco Vasini / AP
The coffin with the body of late MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli is carried to Santa Maria church during his funeral service in his hometown of Coriano, Italy, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Italian sport was in shock after Marco Simoncelli died following a crash at the Malaysian MotoGP motorcycle race. He was 24. Simoncelli - nicknamed Sic or SuperSic - died of chest, head and neck injuries Sunday after he lost control of his Honda at turn 11, four minutes into the race, and swerved across the track, straight into the path of American rider Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi of Italy.
Kevin Frayer / AP
Tbetan Buddhist prayer flags flutter as thick cloud and fog roll over the area above Tengboche, center, in the Himalaya's Khumbu region, Nepal, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. The village is a main transit route for locals, porters, trekkers and climbers heading into the Mount Everest region.
A renowned South Korean climber has been missing since Tuesday during his attempt to summit Mount Annapurna. Maybe the prayer flags will help. Full story.
Alexander Joe / AFP - Getty Images
South Africa police stand guard as about 2,000 people demonstrate on Oct. 27, 2011 in downtown Johannesburg to demand jobs, in a protest organized by the militant youth wing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Protesters were bused in from around the country to support the Youth League leader Julius Malema, who accuses his party's leadership of not doing enough to create jobs in a country with 25.7 percent unemployment.
JOHANNESBURG - Young South Africans brought their frustration over poverty and joblessness to the streets Thursday, responding to a call by the tough-talking youth leader of the governing African National Congress who has clashed with older party leaders over economic policy.
Julius Malema led the crowd in chants of "Down with white monopoly capital!" as it approached the Chamber of Mines headquarters.
The Chamber of Mines' chief executive, who is black, accepted a list of demands from the protesters, including nationalization of 60 percent of the country's lucrative mines. Bheki Sibaya later told reporters his industry group wanted to work with Malema to find solutions, including helping pay to educate black South Africans, but rejected the demands of nationalization to address the national economic crisis. Read more…
Alexander Joe / AFP - Getty Images
ANC youth wing leader Julius Malema addresses protesters on Oct. 27, 2011 during a demonstration in downtown Johannesburg.
Osman Orsal / Reuters
Rescue workers carry 18-year-old male survivor named Imdat from a collapsed building after surviving for more than 100 hours, in Ercis, October 27, 2011.
ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
A group of homebuyers protest at a sales office of China Overseas Property after a price drop of 23,000 RMB ($3,600 USD) per square meter to 17,000 yuan ($2,600 USD) per square meter in four months on October 26, 2011 in Shanghai. More of China's key cities saw home prices fall quickly as the pessimistic forecasts under government's tightening measures.
Carlos Barria / Reuters
Women walk in the financial area of Pudong in Shanghai, April 26, 2011.
China remains the world's most populous nation with 1.34 billion people and has grown to No. 2 behind the United States in economic power, but its own policies contribute to potential changes in both rankings.
When the world welcomes its 7 billionth person on Oct. 31, as the United Nations Population Fund predicts, China will still be home to more than one in every seven inhabitants of the planet.
But changing demographics brought on largely by birth-limit rules may slow China's growth, analysts say. The country allows urban women to have only a single child; rural women, two. That's fewer than the 2.1 overall necessary to keep the population count level.
India, with a higher rate of 2.6 births per woman, by 2030 may overtake China as No. 1 in population.
Carlos Barria / Reuters
Students attend their college graduation ceremony at Fudan University in Shanghai on July 2, 2011. A 2011 study by the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences paints a rosy picture of graduate employment, saying only 6.7 percent of 2010 graduates with four-year or vocational degrees were still looking for work six months after leaving campus. The vast majority had found jobs or were pursuing further studies. Unemployment was down almost 3 percent from 2009.
China's birth policy also has made the nation one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world, analysts say. The demographic change may be an Achilles' heel in China's economic growth as well as its population count, CNBC reported.
China over the past 30 years became the world's major manufacturing center. Its export-dependent prosperity lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and into the middle class.
However, a global economic downturn in 2009 reduced demand for Chinese exports. To help keep the economy rolling along, China's 12th Five-Year Plan adopted in March 201 emphasized the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make the economy less dependent on exports.
"The more Chinese population ages, that's more of a headwind against internal consumption," Michael Yoshikami, Founder & CEO of YCMNET Advisors, told CNBC. "There're studies out that suggest the Chinese aging population is going to skyrocket particularly as a result of the one child rule."
Carlos Barria / Reuters
A boy sleeps as he is pushed in a shopping cart at an IKEA store in downtown Shanghai on May 11, 2011. China's headline consumer price inflation slowed to 5.3 percent in the year to April from 5.4 percent in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
China counted its people age 60 and up at 178 million, or 12.5 percent of the total population, in 2010. That figure is expected to double by 2030.
In comments published Oct. 22, Chinese Premier Wen Jibao addressed issues such as inflation, housing costs, weakened demand from rich economies, and the pressure to secure jobs for millions of university students and rural migrants.
"Currently, economic growth is slowing and external demand is falling, and we should make employment even more of a priority in economic and social development, doing our utmost to expand employment," Wen told officials in Guangxi, a poorer region next to export-driven Guangdong province, the official People's Daily reported.
Those efforts would include "ensuring an appropriate rate of economic growth" and supporting labor-intensive industries, small businesses and private firms, he said.
- msnbc.com editors Natalia Jimenez and Jim Gold, with wire service reports.
See our slideshow: China's booming middle class
See more posts and images related to the seven billion population milestone
Carlos Barria / Reuters
A man looks at the Huaxi village, China, on Dec. 2, 2010. In China's richest village of Huaxi, a booming market town of 36,000 in the affluent eastern province of Jiangsu, every family has at least one house, two cars and $250,000 in the bank.
Altaf Qadri / AP
A Thai woman struggles to walk as floodwater gushes through a market place near the Grand Palace Bangkok, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011.
Joan Manuel Baliellas / AFP - Getty Images
A woman crosses a barrier made of sand bags as she leaves a shop in the financial district of Bangkok on October 27, 2011.
Joan Manuel Baliellas / AFP - Getty Images
Residents walk past near empty shelves at a supermarket in Bangkok on October 27, 2011. Thailand's premier warned nervous Bangkok citizens that incoming floods could last for four weeks.
Damir Sagolj / Reuters
Buddhist monks and other passengers travel on a bus through the flooded streets of central Bangkok October 27, 2011. Thailand's prime minister said Bangkok was fighting the forces of nature on Thursday as floodwater threatened to break through dikes protecting the capital and residents took to the road after the government told them to leave if they could.
As the five day 'public holiday' begins and the water continues to rise, residents were scrambling to find supplies or leaving the city. Full story.
See more images of the flooding on PhotoBlog.
Sharon Smith / Pool via AFP - Getty Images
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II watches Aboriginal dancers as she visits the Clontarf Aboriginal College in Perth on October 27, 2011. The queen, who arrived in Perth on October 26, will officially open the 54-nation Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on October 28 where revamping succession to the British throne will be discussed, concluding her 10-day tour.
Daniel Munoz / Pool via Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II looks at an Australian rules (AFL) football during her visit to Clontarf Aboriginal college on October 27, 2011 in Perth, Australia. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are on a 10-day visit to Australia went to Canberra, Brisbane, and Melbourne before heading to Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. This is the Queen's 16th official visit to Australia.
I think I would feel a little awkward dancing or handing the Queen a football.
Human rights, food security and economic growth will be on the agenda at the meeting of Commonwealth nation leaders in Australia which the Queen will officially open on Friday. More from AP.
Ali Uzun / Turkish Ministry of Health via Reuters
Earthquake survivor Semiha Karaduman holds her two-week old baby girl, Azra, at a hospital in Ankara October 26, 2011. Rescuers pulled Azra alive from a collapsed apartment block on Tuesday, two days after the earthquake in southeast Turkey. Semiha and the baby's grandmother were also brought out alive.
They are still looking for survivors as well as rushing to provide shelter to those left homeless as temperatures drop and snow falls. Full story.
Watch the video below to hear how she managed to save her newborn.
A mother, trapped underneath rubble after the earthquake in Turkey, fights to keep her two-week old baby alive for more than 50 hours. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
John Moore / Getty Images
A man sits covered against the cold and snow at the "Occupy Denver" protest camp on October 26 in Denver, Colorado. Some 25 protesters slept at the camp overnight as a winter snow storm moved in, and several demonstrators have been taken to the hospital for hypothermia. Despite the severe weather, protesters have vowed to continue their demonstration, now more than a month old. The heavy snowstorm hit Denver and the Rockies' front range after record high temperatures in the 80's earlier in the week.
Pundits have been wondering what would happen to the Occupy Wall Street movement when the weather turned cold.
Latest developments in the Occupy global protests.
Previous PhotoBlog posts on the Occupy protests.
Previous PhotoBlog post on the Colorado storm.
When I see pictures of heavily armed riot police, something bad is usually happening. This offbeat situation in Bogota reminds me of the famous "flower power" image by the late Bernie Boston.
Guillermo Legaria / AFP - Getty Images
Students hug riot policemen during a protest against an education reform bill, in Bogota on October 26. Thousands of students, on strike for the past two weeks, took to the streets to protest against the bill to reform higher education put forward by the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.
Guillermo Legaria / AFP - Getty Images
A student hugs a riot policewoman during a protest against an education reform bill, in Bogota on October 26. Thousands of students, on strike for the past two weeks, took to the streets to protest against the bill to reform higher education put forward by the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.
No doubt conservation groups and recreation enthusiasts are celebrating the removal of these antiquated dams.
AP and KGW report:
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Crews on Wednesday blasted a hole in a nearly century-old hydropower dam in Washington's south Cascades, marking another step in efforts to restore habitat for threatened and endangered fish in the Pacific Northwest.
The more than 12-story Condit Dam on the White Salmon River is the second-tallest dam to be demolished in U.S. history. Its two turbines produce about 14 megawatts of power, enough for 7,000 homes, but its owner, Portland-based utility PacifiCorp, elected to remove the dam rather than install cost-prohibitive fish passage structures that would have been required for relicensing.
PacifiCorp via AP
A hole is breached in the century-old Condit Dam on the White Salmon River near White Salmon, Wash. Wednesday, Oct. 26. The 12-story dam is the second-tallest dam in U.S. history to be breached for fish passage, according to the advocacy group American Rivers.
Troy Wayrynen / The Columbian via AP
Attendees rejoice while watching a live video feed of the breaching of Condit Dam at Freeing the White Salmon River Celebration Wednesday October 26 in Husum, Washington. The celebration was part of events scheduled for the breaching of Condit Dam.
Steven Lane / The Columbian via AP
Davis Washines, Inter Tribal Fisheries Enforcement, is overcome by emotion as he watches a live video feed of the breaching of Condit Dam at an invite only event near the dam, Wednesday, Oct. 26 in White Salmon, Wash.
Steven Lane / The Columbian via AP
The White Salmon River cuts its new course through the sediment of Northwestern Lake after the breaching of Condit Dam, Wednesday, Oct. 26 near White Salmon, Wash.
Troy Wayrynen / The Columbian via AP
From left, Giani Benevento, Jonathan Blum, both Wet Planet river guides, and Temira Wagonfeld, dress up as salmon at the Freeing the White Salmon River Celebration Wednesday Oct. 26 in Husum, Wash. The celebration was part of events scheduled for the breaching of Condit Dam.
Nick Lippert
Nick Lippert of Tumwater, Wa. shot this photo of Mount Rainier from his home at 7:40 a.m. with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 camera. This unusual shadow is visible at certain times of the year when the mountain blocks the sun.
I can see Mount Rainier from my house, so I know how unusual it is to capture an image like this. Lippert lives in Tumwater (near Olympia), which is almost directly west of the mountain.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI
Four moons of Saturn are visible in this image from the Cassini orbiter: Bright Dione is in the foreground, with Titan in the background. The dot just to the right of Saturn's nearly edge-on rings is Pandora, and Pan is just a speck embedded within the rings, to the left of Titan and Dione.
The Cassini mission to Saturn has done it again, with a beautifully composed picture of Saturn's rings and its moons, captured on Sept. 17 and unveiled this week on the Cassini imaging team's website. Can you spot all four moons? The brightest of the quartet, 698-mile-wide Dione, is front and center. Saturn's biggest moon, 3,200-mile-wide Titan, lurks directly behind Dione and the rings. You should be able to spot 50-mile-wide Pandora, just beyond the rings toward the right side of the image. And the fourth moon? That's 17-mile-wide Pan, a shepherd moon that's embedded in the rings' Encke Gap, to the left of Dione.
Over the past seven years, Cassini has sent back a steady stream of spectacular images from the Saturnian system. Here's just a sampling:
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP - Getty Images
A honor guard marches during a rehearsal of a military parade in Moscow, on October 26, 2011. The parade, which is scheduled on November 7, is to mark the 70th anniversary of the 1941 Moscow parade, when Red Army troops marched past the Kremlin and then went directly to the front line fight the Nazi Germany troops at the gates of the Russian capital.
I'm sure it's hard to underestimate the significance of the Battle of Moscow and the history of the November 7 military parade.
This museum strikes me as part amusement park. But getting naked at the museum? No thanks.
Mary Altaffer / AP
A visitor to the Carsten Holler: Experience exhibit at the New Museum in New York rides "Untitled (Slide)" during the press preview.
Mary Altaffer / AP
An employee of the New Museum floats in "Giant Psycho Tank" during the press preview of the Carsten Holler: Experience exhibit at the New Museum in New York.
Mary Altaffer / AP
"Singing Canaries Mobile" hangs overhead while a New Museum employee, left, gives a visitor instruction as she begins to ride "Untitled (Slide)" during the press preview of the Carsten Holler: Experience exhibit at the New Museum in New York.
Chuck Beckley / The Jacksonville Daily News via AP
Researchers led by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources' Underwater Archaeology Branch recover a 2,000-pound cannon from the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's ship, which has been on the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast for nearly 300 years, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in Beaufort, N.C. (AP Photo/The Jacksonville Daily News, Chuck Beckley)
AP reports:
BEAUFORT, N.C. — A 2,000-pound cannon pulled from the waters near Beaufort Wednesday will give archeologists and historians more ammunition for separating fact from legend surrounding the infamous pirate Blackbeard.
The Queen Anne's Revenge Project brought the massive gun ashore and displayed it to the public before taking to a laboratory at East Carolina University. Onlookers cheered as the 8-foot-long gun was raised above the water's surface.
Gerald Herbert / AP
Frankie Thevenot, 3, plays with an iPad in his bedroom at his home in Metairie, La. on Oct. 21. About 40 percent of two- to four-year-olds have used a smartphone, tablet or video iPod, according to a new study by the nonprofit group Common Sense Media.
It's not alarming that as technology and devices penetrate every aspect of our lives, they have become a pacifier for young kids.
Related story: Squirmy toddler? There's an app for that
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