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.