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Photos of the Week (1/11/09)

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Jan. 11, 2009

Photos of the Week

 

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama waves as he boards his plane for Washington, DC at Chicago Midway Airport January 4, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois. Obama will join his wife and children who are already in Washington as he prepares to take office on January 20. (Photo by Tannen Maury-Pool/Getty Images)

President-elect Barack Obama, center, followed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., stops to greet five-year-old Cartz Metz, from Rogersville, Tenn. on Capitol Hill in Washington Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

 

President George W. Bush watches as troops march by as he attends a military appreciation parade at Fort Myer in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

 

President George W. Bush, center, meets with former President George H.W. Bush, left, President-elect Barack Obama, second from left, former President Bill Clinton, second from right, and former President Jimmy Carter, Wednesday, January 7, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Chuck Kennedy/MCT)

Senate appointee Roland Burris, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's choice to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama, waits for his car after leaving the U.S. Capitol Building after a brief visit in Washington January 6, 2009. Burris failed to gain entry on Tuesday when the chamber's secretary rejected as incomplete his credentials for the seat. (Photo: Reuters)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (L) accepts the gavel from Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) during the first session of the 111th Congress in the House Chambers January 6, 2009 in Washington, DC. The Democratic party holds a majority of the seats in the House and the Senate just as President-elect Barack Obama is prepared to take the charge of the administration on January 20. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

 

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich talks to the media at his home in Chicago, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. The Illinois House voted Friday to impeach Blagojevich. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

 

Tom Smithson of Redford, Michigan, waits to talk to an agent at Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency Problem Resolution office in Livonia, Michigan, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. The U.S. lost more jobs in 2008 than in any year since 1945 as employers fired another 524,000 people in December, indicating a free-fall in the economy. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state. Photographer: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg News

David Gorge who has been looking for work over the last year holds a sign with the words written,,"Need Food For Family God Bless You Will Work," as he receives a handout at an intersection January 9, 2009 in Miami, Florida. The Labor Department released a report that showed the nation's unemployment rate was at 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in 16 years. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

 

Protesters hurl a huge shoe effigy towards the Israeli Embassy at Manila's financial district of Makati city on Tuesday Jan. 6, 2009 in continuing protest against Israeli attacks in Gaza. Protesters condemned both Israel and the United States for the alleged "brutal and bloody all-out military invasion of Gaza" and urge the United Nations to sanction Israel for bombings. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)


 

 

A couple makes their way across a breakwater at Spring Point light in South Portland, Maine, after watching the full moon rise beyond Peaks Island at dusk, Saturday, January 10, in South Portland, Maine. (ROBERT F. BUKATY, ASSOCIATED PRESS) 

Tom Ettzle, of Jonestown, right, attends to Princess a Belgian mare after she crashed through glass doors and windows to the rear of the equine arena at the 93rd annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa., Saturday, January 10. Princess was being unharnessed when she was spooked and bolted away from her handlers. Princess was unable to stop on slick concrete and slid into the door. The horse only suffered a cut lip and minor cuts from the accident. Princess is owned by Whispering Dreams Farms in Millersburg. (VINNY TENNIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS)







President George W. Bush's pets India, left, and Miss Beazley, right, appear to square-off during a walk on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. The White House announced Monday, Jan. 5, 2009, that the 18-year-old black American Shorthair died Sunday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

 

Lun Lun holds her 4-month-old cub, Xi Lan, the newest panda cub at Zoo Atlanta on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009. He has just learned to walk and zoo officials say he'll learn to climb soon. (AP Photo/The Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Louie Favorite)

 

Nuremberg's celebrity polar bear cub, Flocke (left, has a new friend: a Russian bear. The city's zoo says it introduced the unnamed male polar bear Wednesday to 1-year-old Flocke, who was raised by zookeepers after her mother rejected her. (Tiergarten Nuernberg via AP)

 

Deer forage for food as the winter sun sets over Tatton Park, Cheshire, on January 6 2009 in Knutsford, England. Much of the UK has been suffering a heavy frost and sub zero temeperatures with weather forecasters saying the daytime temperature is unlikely to rise above freezing point in some areas. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

 

Keeper Jenny Spencer counts Biggie the giant tortoise during the annual New Year animal stock take at Bristol Zoo Gardens on January 7, 2009 in Bristol, England. The mammoth task involves a complete head count of every animal in the Zoo which includes more than 450 different species, from tiny leaf insects, hundreds of fish, dozens of penguins, masses of monkeys and Jock, the 150kg male lowland gorilla, who lives on Gorilla Island. Added to this year's list will be the Zoo's 2008 new arrivals which included a orphan gorilla, a tiny turtle, a baby lemur, an armadillo, hundreds of tropical butterflies and the smallest deer in the world. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images Europe)

 

Clinton Duffy, standing to right of shark , from the Department of Conservation (DOC) addresses a crowd of more than 1,500 onlookers before dissecting a protected great white shark at the Auckland Museum in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. During the autopsy, DOC workers looked at the shark's stomach contents and measured its internal organs which was broadcast to over ten million people on the internet. The shark died accidentally after being entangled in a gill net last week. (Richard Robinson/New Zealand Herald via AP)


 

 

A surfer watches closely as a large orca (Killer Whale) swims close by him, accompanied by two smaller orca, at Stent Road surf break near Cape Egmont, Taranaki, New Zealand, Saturday, January 10. Nothing happened to the surfer as the orca swam past him. (JANE DOVE JUNEAU, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

 

The astronomy observatories atop the snow-capped mountain of Mauna Kea are seen Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009 near Hilo, Hawaii. Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano and home to an astronomy community. A plume of smoke from the Halema'uma'u crater at Volcanoes National Park can be seen in the background. (Tim Wright/AP)

 

A Russian man, covered with plastic bag forming a tent for protection from the wind and cold, fishes through an ice hole on a lake as children slide in sledges just outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. The temperature in St. Petersburg was -13 C (9 F). (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

 

A skier practices on the race trail in the subzero weather at Kincaid Park in Anchorage, Ala. Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009 before the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships were canceled due to the frigid weather. Alaska is experiencing the third longest cold snap in its history with temperatures in some parts of in the interior have dipping to -65. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)

 

Bulgarians jump into icy water to catch the holy cross at a lake in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Tuesday, Jan. 06, 2009 . The Eastern Orthodox priests throw a cross in the river and the men take it out. It is believed that those who dive in the river will be healthy throughout the year. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

 

Five-year-old Isabelle Doyles cools herself in a fountain on the Corso in Sydney's Manly Beach, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. While temperatures in Sydney's outer suburbs soar to a maximum of 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit), those at the beaches enjoy a milder 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)







A member of the Edo Firemanship Preservation Association balances on top of a bamboo ladder as he performs a ladder stunt during the New Year's fire review conducted by the Tokyo Fire Department at Tokyo Big Sight on January 6, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. The annual event, featuring various demonstrations of the latest firefighting and emergency rescue techniques, aims to promote the prevention of fire and disaster. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

 

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow celebrates winning the BCS Championship Game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens.(STEPHEN M. DOWELL, ORLANDO SENTINEL / January 8, 2009)

An exhibitor polishes a 'Luxury Crystal Benz', the customized Mercedes-Benz SL600 with 300,000 Swarovski crystals, displayed at a booth at Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 at Makuhari Messe on January 9, 2009 in Chiba, Japan. More than 300 companies, associations and groups are displaying more than 600 custom cars in the auto exhibition, which takes place between January 9 and 11.  (Getty Images/Kiyoshi Ota / January 9, 2009)

And finally,

I feel the need to at least mention that the following picture might be offensive to some, but probably not many. At any rate, you've been warned.




 

In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding. The Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair's botched boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair. Photo: Thesmokinggun.com