Friday Open Road

Mount Rushmore Goat

Faroe Islands

Nuts, but fun

Find the tortoise.

She's a genius!

Looks like a good candidate for a bush plane.

Not my daily commuter

Turkey Rump

Unusually early snow in Tokyo - Al Gore's credibility hit hardest

Tokyo woke up Thursday to its first November snowfall in more than half a century, leaving commuters to grapple with train disruptions and slick streets.

Snow began falling before dawn with the mercury approaching zero as a cold weather system moved south.

The Japan Meterological Agency said it was the first time snow had fallen in November in central Tokyo since 1962.

Amounts were greater in suburban areas closer to mountains but even central Tokyo saw brief accumulations, which the agency forecast to be as high as two centimetres (one inch).

That was the first November accumulation since records began in 1875, the agency said.

"I was surprised to see snow at such an early stage of the season," said Hiroko Tanaka, a Tokyo resident.

Can't get dizzy in space

Bonneville Speed Week, 2010

The Agena Target Vehicle is tethered to the Gemini 12 spacecraft as they orbit high above Earth, November 13, 1966.

The tip of Baja down below.

British Racing Green

High Fight

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.