It’s commonly quoted as fact that in nature, no food or vegetable is naturally blue.

This information was again disputed recently by the re-introduction of blue Smarties¹, this time using 100% natural seaweed extract to create the blue colour.

Additional support for the “blue-in-nature” brigade comes in the form of blue trees spotted on Google Earth. Firstly, in Australia’s Mount Annan Botanic Garden there’s a strikingly-blue tree.

The Garden’s website explains that the tree has been dead for many years, but is home to various types of termites and slaters.

So, it’s the termites that make the tree blue? Well, no. Further investigation reveals that the tree was in actual fact painted blue. For no particular reason.

Perhaps we’ll have better luck with this blurry shot of a blue tree in Northern California.

Unfortunately, this isn’t natural either. It’s the work of artist Claude Cormier, who decorated a perfectly normal tree with 70,000 blue Christmas baubles. Again, for no particular reason it would seem.

So perhaps natural blue is restricted to seaweed after all!

See a ground level pictures of the Australian tree and the American one on Flickr.

Thanks to Felippo, Logan and James.

As the summer wedding season gets into full swing, even Google is muscling in on the action, and has managed to capture a rather charming shot of the newlyweds – probably much to the disappointment of the photographer who wanted the exclusive!

In my opinion, a spectacular photo opportunity, as this is Columbus Circle in New York City, a famous landmark which is surrounded by amazing skyscrapers – not least the Trump International Hotel and Tower behind the party.

Along with the 44 story luxury hotel, Columbus Circle features the New York home of CNN as well as The Time Warner Centre, two striking glass towers which each top out at 229m. This is also home to a record-breakingly expensive penthouse that was sold in 2003 for $54.7 million.

Thanks to the new imagery which allows for nearly 360 degree views, you can see all of New York’s skyscrapers instead of the first 5 floors of them, so get hunting and tell us!

Find out more about the history of Columbus Circle at Wikipedia, as well as more on The Time Warner Centre and Trump International Hotel and Tower.

Thanks: streetviewfun

Syria’s Damascus Gate restaurant has recently been certified by Guinness as the “World’s largest restaurant”, stealing the crown from Thailand’s (previously featured) Mang Gorn Luang.

Seating up to 6014 diners at one time, it easily tops the previous holder’s 5000 capacity.

Damascus Gate employs 1800 members of staff to cover the 54000 m² outside seating area, which is decorated with waterfalls, ponds, and replica archaeological monuments.

However, what strikes me about the “World’s largest restaurant” is that it looks so small, especially compared to all the World’s largest x that we’ve previously featured.

Read more and see a rather dull video on the BBC’s article.

Thanks to Anthony Silverbrow.

The skeptics amongst you might initially think that this bizarre twisted lake isn’t natural real, but rather that the Google engineers have just discovered Photoshop’s Twirl feature. However I assure you that it is real, as it’s only a few minutes down the road from where I work!

This is actually a sculpture, “Landform” by Charles Jencks – an immaculately sculpted earth, grass and water monument in the grounds of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. The artist describes it as being “based on a strange attractor and the flow of earth and traffic”.

The best thing about Landform though, is that you can wander around all over it, as several people can be seen doing on the day this image was taken.

Read more about Charles Jencks and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Fred B.

Here in New South Wales, one of the most popular sights are the famous Three Sisters – three spectacular rock pinnacles which tower over the Jamison Valley in the Blue Mountains.

The rock spires are named Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m) and the view of them from the nearby observation platform at Echo Point is pretty dramatic. Apparently there’s a metal staircase here that leads down to the valley which is made up of 1,000 individual steps.¹

The Blue Mountains aren’t actually a range of mountains, but rather a vast plateau – with cliffs up to 760 metres high. There is truth in the “blue” part though – when viewed from a distance, the valley seems filled with an eerie blue haze that can also be seen in photos.

It’s widely believed that the blue colour has something-or-other to do with evaporating oil from the Eucalyptus trees that swamp the valleys, but in fact the hue is down to a process known as Mie Scattering which occurs when UV radiation is scattered by atmospheric particles.²

Read more about The Three Sisters, Jamison Valley, the Blue Mountains and Katoomba Scenic Railway at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Mr. Stokes and Glenn Baker.