Chris Weeks / AP
Brent Bloom urges on his frog "Jumping Bob" at the Jumping Frog Jubilee on May 20, 2012 in Calaveras County, Calif.
The Jumping Frog Jubilee at the Calaveras County Fair was first held in 1928, inspired by a short story written by Mark Twain. The event is taken extremely seriously by the competitors, who have to adhere to a long list of rules and regulations.
Chris Weeks / AP
Daz Belt and his frog "Over the Edge" compete at the Jumping Frog Jubilee.
Jeon Heon-kyun / EPA
Glyn Davies, center, U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy, speaks to the media after meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul, South Korea, on May 21, 2012.
"We are obviously in a bit of an uncertain period with North Korea", Davies told reporters. "It is very important that North Korea not miscalculate again and engage in any future provocation."
By John Brecher
We've published a number of photos from today's annular eclipse that happened in Asia and the western US, many of which show telephoto views of the moon's disk obscuring part of the sun. Take a step back with this panorama created by msnbc.com's John Brecher, stitched together from several images, to see some of the other sights that surround you during a solar eclipse: note the ring-shaped shadows on the white van made by light filtering through the trees, the reduced-contrast quality of the sunlight that's been shaped by the moon's edges, and the reactions of people as they use various optics to observe the phenomenon.
Click here to see the above image fullscreen.
Read all about today's eclipse in this piece by Alan Boyle in Cosmic Log.
You can see more images from this and earlier eclipses in PhotoBlog, and more panoramic images from other news stories.
Bullit Marquez / AP
An annular solar eclipse occurs as the moon passes between the earth and the sun as partially seen at sunrise, May 21, from the coastal township of Gumaca, Quezon province, Philippines.
This event held special significance for American skywatchers: It marked the first time in 18 years that an annular solar eclipse could be seen from the United States. Such eclipses occur when the moon is too far away in its elliptical orbit to cover the sun's disk completely, as seen from Earth. As a result, a little ring of the sun remains visible around the moon's dark disk, even at the height of the eclipse. (The term "annular" comes from "annulus," a Latin word meaning "little ring.")
Read more from Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle
Share your eclipse pictures with msnbc.com
Check out this panoramic view shot by msnbc.com's John Brecher
Wally Santana / AP
An annular solar eclipse is seen briefly during a break in clouds over Taipei, Taiwan, May 21. The annular solar eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible to wide areas across the continent Monday morning.
Kimimasa Mayama / EPA
People peer through special glasses to see the annular eclipse of the sun in Tokyo, Japan, May 21. The eclipse was visible from China to Texas.
Yonhap / EPA
This composite photo taken in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, shows the sun being affected by a partial solar eclipse. The natural phenomenon lasted in South Korea from 6:23 am to 8:48 am the same day and reached its peak in Seoul at 7:32 am when the moon covered nearly 80 percent of the sun.
Aly Song / Reuters
An eclipse is seen at the Bund along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, May 21.
Issei Kato / Reuters
An annular solar eclipse is seen at Hirai Daini Elementary School in Tokyo May 21. The sun and moon aligned over the earth in a rare astronomical event - an annular eclipse that will dim the skies over parts of Asia and North America, briefly turning the sun into a blazing ring of fire.
Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
Boston University manager in Facilities Management and Planning and beekeeper William Murray removes a chair covered in a swarm of bees at the Boston University commencement 2012 in Boston, Mass., May 20.
From the University of Nebraska's Entomology Department:
Honey bee swarms are a favorite topic of people who make horror movies. Actually, they are one of the most beautiful and interesting phenomena in nature. A swarm starting to issue is a thrilling sight. A swarm may contain from 1,500 to 30,000 bees including, workers, drones, and a queen. Swarming is an instinctive part of the annual life cycle of a honey bee colony. It provides a mechanism for the colony to reproduce itself.
Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
A swarm of bees covers a chair in the audience seating at the Boston University Commencement 2012 in Boston, Mass., May 20.
Sebastien Pirlet / Reuters
A tightrope walker practices between two spheres of the Atomium monument in Brussels, Belgium, May 20.
Anatolii Stepanov / Reuters
Anatolii Stepanov / Reuters
Unidentified people beat Svyatoslav Sheremet (on ground), head of the Gay Forum of Ukraine public organization, in Kiev, May 20. Sheremet was attacked after meeting with members of the media to inform them that a scheduled gay parade was canceled. The attackers ran off when they realised members of the media were documenting the attack.
Aaron Favila / AP
Filipino boys use their faces to move a coin close to their mouth during a game as part of celebrations of the feast day of Saint Rita de Cascia in suburban Paranaque, Philippines, May 20. Philippine fiestas, a festive time for family and friendly reunions, are held in towns nationwide traditionally during the hot summer months to venerate patron saints and for thanksgiving in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation.
Pete Souza / White House via Reuters
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain (arms raised), President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, and others watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final in the Laurel Cabin conference room during the G8 Summit at Camp David, Maryland, May 19.
The unlikely storyline of an English team beating a German team on penalties in a high-profile match provided a fitting end to a dramatic night, as Chelsea became Europe's champion club for the first time.
-- Reported by the Associated Press
Related story: G8 lean toward Obama growth, not Merkel austerity
Giorgio Benvenuti / Reuters
The old tower is seen collapsed after an earthquake in Finale Emilia, Italy, May 20. A strong earthquake rocked a large swathe of northern Italy early Sunday, causing serious damage to the area's cultural heritage. The epicentre of the 6.0 magnitude quake, the strongest to hit Italy in three years, was in the plains near Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of the Po River Valley.
"I am 83 and I have never felt anything like this," said Lina Gardenghi, a resident of Bondeno, the town where one of the workers was killed.
Two other people, one of them a German woman, were reported to have died after suffering heart attacks because of the quake, and several dozen people suffered minor injuries.
-- Reported by NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
Shawn Thew / EPA
Anti-NATO protesters fight with Chicago mounted police during an unpermitted march through Chicago streets. This was the sixth day of protests prior to the NATO Summit which runs May 20-21.
Related story: Attacks on Chicago police stations, Obama office were planned, prosecutors say
Eric Thayer / Reuters
Demonstrators clash with law enforcement officers during a protest.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Demonstrators try to break through police lines as they march through the downtown streets of Chicago, Ill., May 19.
Three men were charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism at high-profile locations in Illinois ahead of the NATO summit. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
A worker selects coffee beans from coffee plants during a harvest at a farm in Esp'rito Santo do Pinhal, Brazil. Brazil's coffee crop faces a smaller risk of frost this year, forecasters said, lowering chances that the world's biggest producer will suffer freezes that contributed to 34-year high in prices last year.
The company said Tuesday that it is lowering prices on Folgers, Dunkin' Donuts, Millstone and Cafe Bustelo coffee after sustained declines in the cost of "green" coffee.
-- Reported by the Associated Press
Check out more news regarding the coffee market.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
A worker selects coffee beans from coffee plants.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
A tractor loaded with coffee beans drives through a coffee field.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
A worker rakes coffee beans to dry during.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
Workers unload coffee beans from a tractor.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
Workers pick coffee beans from coffee plants.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
A worker stands next to a sacks of coffee beans at Sumatra factory.
Nacho Doce / Reuters
A worker carries a sack of coffee beans at Sumatra factory.
Use #eclipsemsnbc hashtag on Twitter or Instagram to send PhotoBlog your photos of the eclipse.
If you’re going to be one of the millions of observers in the western United States witnessing this year’s annular eclipse on May 20, then we want to share your pictures with our readers. Whether you’re lucky enough to see the “Ring of Fire” or the picturesque partial eclipse, show us what you saw.
Remember safety first when you take pictures of the rare event, and familiarize yourself with NASA’s guide to photographing a solar eclipse. We'll be more interested in seeing what's around you and the people you're with, so be creative (be inspired by the eclipse slide show).
Submit your photographs on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ECLIPSEmsnbc or #eclipse2012. For you DSLR users, use the box below to submit your pictures.
We’ll select our favorites and publish a PhotoBlog post on Monday with Sunday’s best pictures, so stay tuned. Update: Click here to see the eclipse photos submitted by our readers.
Mike Segar / Reuters
I'll Have Another, left, with jockey Mario Gutierrez aboard passes Bodemeister and jockey Mike E. Smith to win the 137th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., May 19.
The front-running Bodemeister took command straightaway and set more reasonable fractions of :23 3/5, :47 3/5, 1:11 3/5 and 1:36 3/5 this time around than what he did in the Derby. Jockey Mario Gutierrez settled I'll Have Another in behind and to the outside as Creative Cause kept pace with Bodemeister on the backstretch.
Bodemeister, Creative Cause and I'll Have Another swung around the turn in tandem, but the gray Creative Cause couldn't keep pace as his two rivals faced off yet again. Bodemeister held the advantage for much of the stretch run, but I'll Have Another kept inching closer and just got up in the shadow of the wire to finish 1 3/16 miles on the fast dirt in 1:55 4/5.
-- Reported by Brisnet on nbcsports.com
Related slideshow: Scenes from Pimlico
Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
A woman poses with a painting, depicting Russia's President Vladimir Putin, in front of graffiti illustrating Moscow's Kremlin during an opposition procession organized by painters protesting against Putin's presidency, in Moscow, Russia, May 19.
Wong Maye-E / AP
A model walks the runway at the Audi Fashion Festival Show of American fashion designer Zac Posen's Pre-Fall & F/W 2012 collection on May 19, in Singapore. The annual fashion festival showcases works of top and emerging designers as part of efforts to promote the city-state as a fashion hub.
Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
A sheepdog works in the auction ring as buyers look on at Skipton Auction Mart in Yorkshire, England on Friday, May 18.
Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
A sheepdog watches another dog in the auction ring as it waits its turn to be auctioned at Skipton Auction Mart.
Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
Potential buyers inspect a red and white collie puppy sheepdog before it is auctioned at Skipton Auction Mart.
Craven Cattle Marts in the Yorkshire Dales, England are world renowned for their sheepdog auctions with buyers bidding for some of the country's best bred border collies. In 2010 a world record price of $8,146 (5145 GBP) each was paid for two sheepdogs named Ron and Rex.
•Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter
Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
Buyers watch a sheepdog round up sheep in the auction ring at Skipton Auction Mart.
Erik S. Lesser / EPA
Members of the media view the NASA SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft are seen one day before its scheduled launch at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday.
Space.com reports: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — Nerves are frayed here on Florida's space coast as commercial company SpaceX prepares to launch its Dragon capsule on the first-ever flight of a private vehicle to the International Space Station.
The milestone mission is being viewed as a test not only of Dragon but of private spaceflight in general. It will be the first commercial spaceship test flight for NASA's new plan to outsource transportation of cargo — and eventually crew — to the space station to the private sector now that the agency's space shuttle fleet is retired.
For the first time in history a private company, Space Exploration Technologies, will fly on a NASA mission to deliver much-needed supplies to the International Space Station. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
Reuters
The World War Two Enigma machine used by German military and intelligence services to create what they thought were unbreakable messages can be seen at the "Spy, The Secret World of Espionage" exhibition, in New York City.
Reuters reports: NEW YORK (Reuters) - The mysterious cloak and dagger world of international espionage and its real-life heros and villains are exposed in a new exhibition, the first to be sanctioned by U.S. intelligence agencies. "Spy, the Secret World of Espionage," which opens at the Discovery Times Square on Friday, includes hundreds of artifacts, some from the vaults of the CIA and FBI and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
They range from a World War Two-era collapsible motorbike that could be dropped by parachute and deployed in 10 seconds and a German ENIGMA machine to create secret messages to a camel saddle used by one of the first CIA agents in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks to bugging devices, microdots and surveillance equipment.
Reuters
A kit of tools used by East German members of the Stasi secret police, concealed in a leather case, for spying and surveillance purposes can be seen at the "Spy, The Secret World of Espionage" exhibition, in New York City.
They may not have Q in their corners, but real spies do have gadgets that would fit right into a James Bond movie. Msnbc.com's Rosa Golijan tours an exhibition of spy tools.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters
Rudimentary weapons confiscated by the police are displayed during a news conference in Caracas. Venezuela's Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said about 1,800 firearms were seized this year in various operations in the Caracas metropolitan area as part of police efforts to combat crime.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters
A worker destroys a weapon confiscated by the police during a news conference in Caracas.
Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters
Weapons confiscated by the police are displayed during a news conference in Caracas.
Mark Duncan / AP
The home on East 125th Street in Cleveland that Sharice Swain crashed into sits damaged on Friday. Swain, 29, was stabbed during an argument while sitting behind the wheel of a car Thursday night, tried to drive away and struck her attacker's 2-year-old daughter before crashing into the house. Swain and the girl both died, and the toddler's mother was found naked several blocks away and arrested.
The Associated Press reports that the driver and the two-year-old girl's mother were friends:
The nature of the argument involving Black and Swain wasn't disclosed, and it wasn't clear if Swain hit the children intentionally or accidentally.
The women were "best friends since birth" and Swain considered Black a cousin, according to the victim's mother, Anita Swain.
Anita Swain said her daughter did not have any children and was employed as a factory worker. She said she didn't know what started the argument and declined to comment further.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola waves to people as he takes his self-made bicycle for a spin through downtown Havana, Cuba on Friday. Girola says his bike measures 3.45 meters (11 feet) tall.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola climbs up his self-made bicycle as people help steady it as he prepares to take it for a ride in Havana.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola leads his self-made bicycle to take it for a ride in Havana, Cuba.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola welds a bicycle that he says will measure 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall as he works on it at a friend's iron workshop in Havana, Cuba.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola checks the alignment of a bicycle he is building that he says measures 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall.
See more images of bikes and their riders in PhotoBlog.
Dolores Ochoa / AP
An orchid is part of the Petal Madness exhibition at the Quito Botanical Garden in Quito, Ecuador on Friday. Ecuador is recognized worldwide for their diversity of flower species known to be home to hundreds of orchid genres.
Dolores Ochoa / AP
These blooming orchids are part of the Petal Madness exhibition at the Quito Botanical Garden.
Dolores Ochoa / AP
A Nepenthes truncata is part of the Petal Madness exhibition at the Quito Botanical Garden.
Dolores Ochoa / AP
The Ecuadorean orchid Telipogon Sarae is part of the Petal Madness exhibition at the Quito Botanical Garden.
Richard Ellis / Getty Images
Volunteers from the South Carolina Aquarium release a rehabilitated Loggerhead Sea Turtles on Friday in Isle of Palms, South Carolina. The turtle was one of two that were rescued and nursed back to health by the sea turtle hospital at the aquarium.
Richard Ellis / Getty Images
Volunteers from the South Carolina Aquarium release a rehabilitated Loggerhead Sea Turtle.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A man prays during the "Rogativa por la Lluvia" or Prayer for Rain ceremony at Chicabal Lagoon in San Martin Sacatepequez, Guatemala.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
An offering of flowers and a cross are seen during a downpour on the shore of the Chicabal Lagoon in Guatemala. The lagoon was formed on the crater of a former volcano and considered by Mayan people as a sacred place.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A woman prays as she shields herself from the rain during a Mayan rain ceremony on the shore of the Chicabal Lagoon in San Martin Sacatepequez, Guatemala.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A woman heats tortillas over an open fire while shielding herself and a child from a light drizzle during the Prayer for Rain ceremony.
The "Rogativa por la Lluvia" or Prayer for Rain ceremony takes place annually, 40 days after Holy Week, on the shore of the Chicabal Lagoon, a body of water formed on the crater of a former volcano. The lagoon is considered by Mayan people as a sacred place, in San Martin Sacatepequez, Guatemala.
All photo were shot on May 17, but were made available to msnbc.com today.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
A drunken man sleeps face down after attending a Mayan rain ceremony on the shore of the Chicabal Lagoon.
E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS