The web is abuzz today with news that an English animal sanctuary has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have one of their bullocks, “Chilli”, recognised as Britain’s tallest cow.

The giant Friesian apparently measures a staggering 6ft 6ins (1.98 metres), which raises the question - can we pick Chilli out amongst all the other cows at the Ferne Animal Sanctuary?

The current world record holder for tallest living cow is 6ft 8in Italian “Fiorino”, who was unavailable for comment.

Also see our previous coverage of the World’s Largest (model) Cow.

Thanks to Rob

Just outside of Lebanon, Oregon, it appears that a lorry has shed its load of white liquid all over the road.

This could however be foam from the nearby fire engine, which may have been used to douse flames, or perhaps toxic or flammable substances. After all the spillage has been deemed serious enough to require the attention of multiple fire units, police cars and ambulances.

The road has been closed by the scene, and looking a few kilometres down the road, they’ve closed it off fully there as well.

To me the liquid looks like paint, or something else that would leave that sort of puddle. Any ideas?

See our previous post Truck Spillage. Thanks to Michael L for finding this one.

Last Sunday saw the swearing in of Boris Johnson, conservative MP for Henley (and renowned committer of gaffes), as the new Mayor of London. This means that, not only will he have power over nearly everything in Greater London, he will also take up office in London’s rather spectacular City Hall.

Opened in 2002, the glass clad building contains a 500 metre helical walkway, which eventually reaches ‘London’s Living Room’, a large space 10 floors up which affords rather spectacular views over the River Thames, and which also played host to Boris’ acceptance speech at the weekend (and unsurprising trip-up beforehand!).

Perhaps the new Mayor will be more accepting of the Norman Foster design than Ken Livingstone, who famously likened the building to a ‘glass testicle’. Boris however is said to refer to it as ‘The Onion’ - which fits, since the nearby ‘Gherkin’ is another work by Foster and Partners.¹

Here’s a link to the Live Maps Bird’s Eye view of London City Hall which really demonstrates the tower’s bizarre shape, or you can see lots of pictures and read more about it at GreatBuildings and wikipedia. Thanks to Krusader.

Two more incidences of sabotage discovered - see the end of this post

Many people have voiced their concerns regarding the privacy implications of Google’s Street View service - but what if there were a way to “opt-out” of having your neighbourhood displayed online?

Yes, it appears that some enterprising resident of Fairbanks, Alaska, has worked out how to completely disable the Street View car’s onboard recording device! Even better, the process doesn’t involve any technical wizardry - all you need to do is stick a plastic bag over the top of the camera.

We can be quite sure this is a plastic bag too, because it actually says “plastic bag” on it. Unfortunately we’re not familiar enough with Alaskan plastic bags to tell you exactly what shop it’s from.

(Image rotated 180°)

The saboteurs must have been extremely quick on their feet of course, as the bag appeared without any warning while the car was travelling at speed along College Road.¹

The bag remains in place for quite a long way actually - right along College Road, onto the Old Steese Highway and halfway up Minnie Street, where it finally disappears at the junction with Clara Street.

Hopefully the discovery of this exciting technique will allow privacy advocates everywhere to finally thwart Google’s endlessly evil efforts to provide us all with really useful driving directions!

Update: It seems those sneaky Alaskans are disabling Street View cameras with anything they can get their hands on - as proven by these images captured by a vehicle in Anchorage. Thanks to Alaskan in the comments.

Update 2: Again in Anchorage, commenter Barry from Alaska caught the Street View camera wearing what looks like a tin-foil hat.

Thanks to Alden.

Just off the coast of Portsmouth, England, we can a group of sailing vessels engaged in some competitive harbour or buoy racing.

The vessels just rounding the buoy as the image was captured were facing some stiff competition, but the leaders of the pack appear to be way out in front.

On the beach we can see the Seafarers Sailing Club, and according to Google Earth the image that captured the race was taken on April 21st 2007 - which would mean that we’re seeing the 3rd race in the Seafarers Sailing Club Spring Series, which was won by sail number 1178 with K. Stares at the helm!

Given that Portsmouth has such a long naval history¹ is hardly surprising that there’s about a hundred zillion different kinds of boats to see in the area, so why not go for a virtual wander and see what interesting boats you can find?

See our previous post about Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower and some of the ships on display there, or brush up on this kind of Yacht racing and the Racing Rules of Sailing at Wikipedia.

Thanks to ZaberNS.

At Beijing’s huge Capital International Airport, it looks as if disaster is about to strike. As one unsuspecting propeller plane begins its take-off, it seems completely unaware that a large jumbo jet is hurtling towards it, also ready to leave the ground.

Thankfully, the images were taken at different times, and, with some relief, we can report an incident was avoided - nevertheless, a rather disconcerting sight!

In time for the controversial Olympics this summer, the new - Norman Foster designed - Terminal 3-E has also just been completed, and holds the long winded title of the largest airport terminal building complex built in a single phase, with a floor space of almost one million m².

This image was collected when the terminal was nearing completion and, as you can see, the two main parts and the gates are not yet complete. However, Foster & Partners have lots of images showing the completed design in all its glory.

Thanks to Al Cohole.

A star fort or trace italienne is a type of military fortification first introduced in Italy around the mid-fifteenth century. Traditional medieval castles, towers and ring forts had proved extremely vulnerable to increasingly mobile cannons, and star forts were introduced specifically to better defend against them.

The tiny Italian town of Palmanova was founded in 1593, and using all the military innovations of the 16th century was built in the shape of nine-pointed star. You can still see quite clearly how the shape of the ramparts allows the points of the star to defend each other. Originally a moat surrounded the town (which partially remains today), and three heavily guarded gates (1, 2, 3) were the only way in.

Palmanova, Italy (Wikipedia)

Cannons were most effective when they were fired perpendicular to the walls of the building under attack, and the star shaped design meant that to best position their weapons, attacking forces would have enter the space between the points of the star - where they would be fired on from both sides!

The judicious use of moats could further thwart the attacking forces, as demonstrated superbly here at Naarden, Netherlands.

Naarden, Netherlands (Wikipedia)

By the late seventeenth-century star forts reached the pinnacle of their development, as shown by this complicated example in Bourtange, Netherlands, which has been fully restored to how it would have been in 1742. Here we can see that the design provides defence in depth, with tiers of ramparts that an attacker would have had to overcome to be in with a chance of taking the fort.

Bourtange, Netherlands (Wikipedia)

This ingenious design quickly became the gold standard for defensive forts, and went on to spread across Europe and the Americas:

Fort Manoel, Malta (Wikipedia)

Fort McHenry, Maryland (Wikipedia)

Fort Jay (Wikipedia) and Fort Ticonderoga (Wikipedia), New York

Castillo de San Marcos, Florida (Wikipedia)

The design even reached South Africa, where today the Castle of Good Hope can be seen right in the middle of the city! It used to be on the coast, but land reclamation allowed the city to expand around it.

Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa (Wikipedia)

In the nineteenth century the development of the exploding shell changed the nature of defensive fortifications forever, and the star fort soon became utterly obsolete. Which is why several are today used for completely different purposes - like this example in Slovakia where they now spend their time trying to keep people inside rather than out.

Leopoldov Prison, Slovakia (Wikipedia)

And finally, what is probably the world’s most famous star fort isn’t actually known for being a star fort at all - as Fort Wood is today the distinctive star-shaped pedestal underneath New York’s Statue of Liberty.

Fort Wood, New York (Wikipedia)

We’ve previously featured just one star fort several star forts, including Kastellet in Copenhagen, Citadel Hill in Canada, and the aforementioned Fort McHenry in Maryland. If that’s not enough, there’s a whole page about them at Wikipedia too.

Thanks to Dan W, Manuel Hewitt, RB, tom schuring, Stefano Bertolo and Federico Cretti.

Ira Rennert is the billionaire founder of Renco Group¹, who is best known for the palatial property he had built in the Hamptons, New York. It is the largest privately owned house in America It is purportedly the largest privately owned and occupied house in America, and is estimated to be the world’s most expensive home.

The beach-front complex is known as Fairfield, and it nestles in a mere 255,000 m² of land (63 acres). The buildings themselves have over 10,000 m² of floor-space, and contain 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, a 28 m long dining room, a bowling alley, a squash court and by all accounts a $150,000 hot tub!

Outside we can see the obligatory tennis and basketball courts, a modest-sized swimming pool and this ground level picture proves that money can’t necessarily buy good taste…

In 2007 Mr Rennert reportedly paid a staggering $397,559 in tax on this property, and based on these figures, the building has been estimated to be worth at least $170 million.

Read more about Mr. Rennert and his house at Wikipedia. Thanks to Bob and mesmart.