This artist's scoreboard displays a fictional game between Mars and Earth, with Mars in the lead. It refers to the success rate of sending missions to Mars, both as orbiters and landers. Of the previous 39 missions targeted for Mars from around the world, 15 have been successes and 24 failures. For baseball fans, that's a batting average of .385. The United States has had 13 successes out of 18 attempts, or a “batting average” of .722. NASA's Curiosity rover, set to land on the Red Planet the evening of Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT), will mark the United States' 19th attempt to tackle the challenge of Mars, and the world's 40th attempt. (Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“I'm Josh Fancher, a 21 year old with an avid interest in photography, including macro, nature and wildlife, night photography, landscapes, cityscapes and architectural photography. Inspired by the beautiful and amazing water drop photography of Martin Waugh, I started doing water drop collisions in December of 2007. I use a 105mm Micro Nikkor lens for water drops, along with a pair of Nikon SB 600 flashes. I recently got a StopShot system (Nov 2009), which makes timing a lot easier. Before then, timing was manual, with an eye dropper, eye-hand coordination, and a lot of patience” – Josh Fancher. (Photo by Josh Fancher)

A woman at Foyles bookshop looks at a copy of J. K. Rowling's latest novel “The Casual Vacancy” which has gone on sale today starting at 8:00 am on September 27, 2012 in London, England. “The Casual Vacancy” is J. K. Rowling's first book aimed at an adult readership and is centered on a parish council election in a small West Country town. (Photo by Oli Scarf)

Kim Kardashian looks to have left her underwear at home as she heads out for an early dinner with boyfriend Kanye West in Miami on October 14, 2012. As Kim checked out her outfit in the reflection of her car, it became apparent that the reality star was not wearing any underwear as she showed off her see-through grey skirt. (Photo by Brett Kaffee/Thibault Monnier/PacificCoastNews.com)

Kika-evolution, 5, an Auguste clown, poses for a photo during Mexico’s 17th annual clown convention, La Feria de la Risa, in Mexico City, October 23, 2012. Approximately 500 clowns gathered at two local theaters in the capital city to exchange ideas, compete for laughs and show off their comedy performances. (Photo by Anita Baca/AP Photo)

An artwork entitled “Are you still mad at me?” by John Isaacs is displayed at the Death: A Self-portrait exhibition at the Wellcome Collection on November 14, 2012 in London, England. The exhibition showcases 300 works from a unique collection by Richard Harris, a former antique print dealer from Chicago, devoted to the iconography of death. The display highlights art works, historical artifacts, anatomical illustrations and ephemera from around the world and opens on November 15, 2012 until February 24, 2013. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid)

Israeli soldiers pray at dawn as the conflict between Palestine and Gaza enters its seventh day on November 20, 2012 on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. Hamas militants and Israel are continuing talks aimed at a ceasefire as the death toll in Gaza reaches more than 100 and also three Israelis killed by rockets fired by Palestinian militants. (Photo by Christopher Furlong)