The Vitruvian Man (Wikipedia) was drawn around 1487 by Leonardo Da Vinci, and has since become not only the most famous of Da Vinci’s works, but also one of the most famous images ever created. The drawing depicts a male nude in two superimposed positions within a square and a circle – the archetypal ‘perfect man’. Da Vinci was a talented anatomical artist, and was apparently rather partial to regularly cutting up corpses to help hone his skills.

In fact the Vitruvian Man is more than just a pretty picture – it’s also an extremely clever mathematical triumph, as it correctly relates the man’s proportions to historic measurements, such as the foot (six of which add up to his height), the cubit, hand and fathom. The complexity of the design will forever ensure that no overly-ambitious artist attempts to re-create it on Google Earth using the medium of “crop maze”.

Oh. Damn.

To give them their due credit, the people responsible for this German crop maze have done a pretty amazeing job – although, putting my ruler and pedantry skills into action showed that the “square” is more like 80 x 83m… and the circle is a bit wobbly compared to the original… but the positioning of the navel exactly in the centre is impressive!

This is actually the 2001 version of the town’s annual hemp labyrinth tradition, which in the past has seen a particularly spectacular map of Europe, a portrait of Albert Einstein and a tribute to the 2004 Athens Olympics. You can see aerial photos of them all at the maze’s website.

Thanks to godlike.

Somebody must have had a major crush on Gina to go to the effort of creating this massive, brightly-coloured graffiti on a disused highway overpass here in Seattle, that reads “I’m A FOOL 4U. GINA I ♥ U“

Usually when someone goes to the effort of creating a personal message this large and detailed it’s to ask for their sweetheart’s hand in marriage, as we’ve seen several times before. In this case however we have a simple dedication of love¹ executed on an impressively grand scale – which tells us that whoever executed this artwork must really ♥ Gina!

So, who is Gina, and is she still with the person who “hearted” her so much?

Thanks to David Leech.

This sparse forest in Denmark bares a uncanny resemblance to a face, could it be just a coincidence?

Unfortunately not, as it’s man-made. But the face is the work of famous 1800s Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, who originally created the design by cutting some holes in a bit of paper.

Titled “The Sun as a Face”, I doubt he ever expected to have the crude artwork recreated in the medium of forest. Neither would he have expected a “nature playground”, as seen in this smaller representation to the north.

The forest was planted in 2005 as part of Odense’s celebration of the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth.

However, the city officials went completely overboard, and plastered this design all over the city!

Further information is available in PDF leaflets for the wood and the celebrations.

Thanks to DJoe.

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.

Today is Earth Day, a global observance started by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 as a nationwide protest intended to thrust the environment onto the political agenda. Considered the birth of the modern environmental movement, the continuing mission of Earth day is to raise awareness of and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.

Hundreds of millions of people in around 175 countries will be taking part in events which have been organised at every corner of the globe, and you lot don’t get out of doing your part either! Show your support for Earth day and leave a comment with a link to a globe of the earth, somewhere on Google Earth – like this great big one in Berlin.

Check out the The Earth Day Network website for more information, and thanks to Tom Hooten for our starter globe.