In Fylingdales, among the black-faced sheep of northern Yorkshire, sits a radar station built by the U.S. If expanded, it could well become an outpost much needed to track missiles on their way to North America and to plot their interception.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Safire makes the case for a missile defense for allies and US

Pinot Gris (pronounced "gree") is the black sheep, or anyway, the purple-brown sheep, of one of the grape world's most noble families.

FORBES: Pinot Gris makes the Pinot family proud.

The GAO speculates that the dollar coin might cause a renewed interest in that black sheep of the currency family, the two-dollar bill (which features Thomas Jefferson).

FORBES: GAO Proposed Ditching Dollar Bill in Favor of Coin

She wears the traditional fine-woven, huge-brimmed hat and her gathered black skirt sways as she guides the sheep through the pasture in a circuit back to the village for the night.

BBC: Peru's famous yarn

Anne Niederkorn is the black sheep of her IT department, where she enjoys educating her co-workers about fashion and Bravo TV.

FORBES: Connect

It has not helped that China has jealously guarded its political prerogative to deal with its own black sheep: foreign regulators were denied access to the bosses of Shanghai Land, Euro-Asia and Bank of China's Hong Kong subsidiary, even though these companies had foreign investors.

ECONOMIST: A reminder of the risks of investing in Chinese companies