Buckley Air Force Base is home to the 460th Space Wing Staff and features loads of these giant radar golf balls, which I guess are used for communicating with their “Defense Support Program” satellites.

The base also hosts the Colorado Air National Guard, who we can see here performing a rescue training exercise. It would appear that a rescueman is being lowered from a Blackhawk helicopter to the lake below, where the helicopter’s downwinds are creating circular waves.

Thanks: Mark Eaker

Milan’s Central Station is covered with giant steel canopies, 341 metres long and covering an area of 66,500 square metres, which look amazing from above.

Milan’s tallest building, the shiny Pirelli Tower is just in front of the station. In 2002, a light aircraft crashed into the tower but it has since been restored and apparently looks better than new.

Thanks: Jonathan Rawle

Now this is truly “Large Type” - Perscombinatie printing works in Amsterdam print a lot of newspapers, so when they were decorating the car park they opted for a neat newspaper-like 6 column layout. Brilliant! Submitter “Koos van den Hout” helpfully provided us with a translation for the headlines:

• “Entree” = “Entrance”
• “Afhalen kranten” = “Pick-up newspapers”
• “Parkeren vrachtwagens tot 5m” = “Parking trucks up to 5 metres”
• “Papier” = “Paper”
• “Aanvoer goederen” = “Supply Goods”
• “Uitgang” = “Exit”

Thanks: Koos van den Hout

A year ago today we posted about a Giant Alien Dolphin in the Pacific Ocean. It turned out that this was actually a group of islands known as French Frigate Shoals, which has since received a small image update on Google Maps. Although there’s still not very high-res imagery, you can now more clearly see the islands, and they no longer look like a giant alien dolphin.

Now they look like an embryonic earth-dwelling dolphin

The islands consist of a 20-mile long crescent-shaped reef with twelve sandbars, and other than the numerous plant, bird and marine life, they’re currently inhabited by a total of 2 biologists.

More on French Frigate Shoals at Wikipedia.

P.S. You can always see what we posted a year ago by using the “one year ago today…” feature in the sidebar.

Floating above the Parc André-Citroën in Paris, France, we find a gigantic tethered hot-air-balloon. If you look closely at the shadow you can see that the “basket” has no bottom! Have the occupants plummeted to their untimely deaths?

No, rather un-dramatically this balloon’s gondola has been designed as a circular platform with a huge hole in the middle. Here’s a good gallery with some on board shots (from which I also realised that all the little rectangles of white in the park are actually people’s picnic rugs).

Thanks to Craig Simpson.

In 1977 the Soviets began construction of a fleet of nuclear submarines that were to hold the title of “World’s Largest Submarine” for nearly 30 years (and counting!) - the Typhoon class.

The fictional “Red October” that was hunted in the movie was a Typhoon class sub but in reality there were only six completed (construction of a seventh was aborted half way through).

Despite their age we can see three Typhoon Submarines in reserve service at Zapadnaya Litsa Naval Base. However, it was reported in 2004 that these last three were to be decommissioned, so they may have since been finally dismantled.

If you scroll further up the river you’ll also find Oscar-II & Victor-III class submarines and there’s a ton more info on the Typhoons at Global Security.

Thanks: Eddie

Yesterday was the 20 year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and Google has marked the occasion by providing high-resolution imagery of the whole area. In our thumbnail you can see the concrete sarcophagus which was built to attempt to contain the worst of the radiation within the destroyed reactor room.

We previously posted Chernobyl in June last year, but this new image update really gives you an idea of just how desolate this area has become.

Or has it? According to this article at the bbc the area surrounding Chernobyl has become an unexpected haven for all manner of wildlife, with hardly a Blinky in sight! In fact, even the sarcophagus itself has become a nesting ground for birds. Just to the north west is the deserted town of Prypyat where you can see the woods are slowly taking over from the abandoned tower blocks.

See Wikipedia for the full history of the Chernobyl Disaster.

Thanks to Juras Michiod, biseptol, Randall Berg, Eddie, Joshua Szentpaly, Yuri, Marco Olivo, Anton Matt Clark and Andrew Barrett.

This is a crop maze in Dingle, Ireland which celebrates the local hero, Fungi the Dolphin (it’s supposed to be a picture of a dolphin, and the text reads “Fungi 20 years in Dingle”). Apparently, Fungi is a bottlenose dolphin who took up residence in Dingle Harbour in 1984 and has been entertaining locals and tourists ever since. The Do Dingle Website says:

He is a curious and friendly animal, and has been photographed bringing gifts to divers of still living fish, clasped gently within his jaws

Make of this story what you will

Thanks to Tom.