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.

Lollapalooza is a multi-genre Music festival held each year in Chicago’s downtown Grant Park. The 3-day event draws over 35,000 people each day, and for the 2007 festival the special guest was you, the GSS readers.

We’ll start at the entrance, which is marked with large inflated letters that you can just about read from the aerial shot (ground level pictures). Don’t worry about paying though – we’re Access All Areas!

Let’s head south of the entrance, past these pretty star shaped balloons (ground level picture).

Continue south and we arrive at the “AT&T stage“, which played host to the likes of Daft Punk and Lupe Fiasco¹.

If Daft Punk aren’t your bag then let’s go all the way north (past the previously featured Clarence Buckingham Fountain) to the “Bud Light Stage“, where there’s currently a larger turn out. This stage featured The Roots, Snow Patrol and Amy Winehouse, amongst others.

You can explore Lollapalooza 2007 further with a kml image overlay I’ve created from the official festival map, and complete the festival experience by watching some of the acts on Youtube.

Thanks to Steve H.

Over at the Google Earth Community they’ve found a fantastic sight – not one, but two planes about to be refuelled mid-flight over the California desert.

From their measurements, these appear to be F-16 fighter jets, moving in (or perhaps moving out) from a KC-10 “Extender” – a tanker which is derived from the commercial DC-10.

This sight is also unique on Google Earth in that it is perhaps the largest collection of planes found in mid-air at the same time, with 7 aircraft captured in a single image! Waiting behind the re-fueler are two further F-16s, and another pair are ahead – presumably they’ve already had their fill.

There’s a fantastic photograph of a DC-10 refuelling an F-16 at Wikipedia, and see our previous post showing another mid-flight refuelling.

Thanks to tsb60robert at the Google Earth Community.

I wonder what kind of animal left these tracks on these salt flats in South Africa? Are there any animal trackers out there who can identify the creatures responsible?

Part of the National Geographic African Megaflyover Project, this particular image also features some slightly more identifiable tracks, but not left by an animal I suspect…

See our top-rated post of all time – Google Sightseeing Safari – for lots of animals that were still there when the photographs were taken!

Thanks to lepadekor.

Here in Lake Berryessa, California, we find the largest drain hole in the world, affectionally known locally as The Glory Hole.

Narrowing from 22 metres diameter to 8.5 metres at its thinnest point, this absolutely enormous funnel is technically the largest “morning glory spillway” in the world – an uncontrolled outlet which, should the water level rise sufficiently high, allows up to 1370 m³ per second (48,400 cubic feet) of water to bypass the Monticello Dam. Check out this photo of the spillway in full flow.

The spillway’s horizontal exit is on the southern side of the dam, and this ground level shot demonstrates why this is a popular spot for local skateboarders and bikers during the drier months!

Read more about spillways, the Monticello Dam and Lake Berryessa at Wikipedia, and trophybassonly.com has some fascinating photos of the spillway during construction in the 1950s.

Thanks to Mark and fogonazos.