There are many types of radio beacons that are still in use today, but the majority are called VHF omnidirectional radio range or VORs. There are VOR stations all around the world, and given how widespread they are, you may well have passed one by without realising. The most common shape of the ground station resembles something of a bowling pin on a circular building. Pilots use the signal which is broadcast from these towers to fly to and from stations, therefore navigating across the sky.

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Most beacons are located either at the airport, or placed out in far-away regions to avoid any interference on the signal. Some examples of these remote beacons include the Mitbee VOR in Oklahoma and the McComb VOR in Mississippi.

Take a look at the Babylon NDB (Non-directional beacon) on Long Island near New York. This beacon is situated right in the middle of a densely packed neighbourhood, and since it is only used as a directional beacon and not an omnidirectional range, it doesn’t have the classic bowling pin shape like the VORs. Due to the congestion around this beacon the FAA has declared its signal unusable beyond 15 nautical miles, which isn’t very far at all from a pilot’s point of view.

It’s not unusual to find beacons in very remote and rugged areas of the west of the US as well. Remember, some of the aeroplanes flying over these sparsely populated areas still need beacons to navigate, and thanks to this we see some interesting locations for these VORs. Out in the barren desert we can find beacons like the Sod House VOR in Nevada and the Peach Springs VOR in Arizona.

If you start looking deep in the mountains however, beacons like the Salmon VOR in Idaho and the Red Table VOR in Colorado (which is almost completely buried under the snow!) can be found. Notice how the Red Table VOR is painted in dark colours to contrast with the snow.

Pilots use these different types of beacons to navigate across the sky when they can’t see the ground. For example, let’s say we were going to pilot an aeroplane from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Orlando, Florida. If we chose to use radio beacons for navigation, we could depart to the north using Fort Lauderdale’s own VOR as an initial direction (flying away from it), then switch over and fly towards the Palm Beach VOR as our initial waypoint.

After we cross over the Palm Beach VOR, a slight turn to the west and radio beacon frequency change would allow us to lock onto the Vero Beach VOR, then another shallow west turn and switch would take us directly to the Orlando VOR. During this entire flight, we would not need to see the ground at all (until we land anyway) just as long as we have functioning navigation equipment in the cockpit.

Aviation beacons are all around us, but the reality is that radio navigation is quickly becoming a thing of the past. With technological advances like GPS navigation, existing radio beacons are more commonly being used as a waypoints rather than actual navigation aids. For more information on aircraft instrument navigation, be sure to check out Wikipedia. If you would like to try and fly to a VOR yourself, try this free web based simulator.

Thanks to Runway Finder for helping me locate some of the above beacons.

Locations: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma / Categories: Aircraft

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So, today Google Sightseeing presents a collection of the most ‘creative’ neighbours¹.

First up: the small Colorado town of Antonito, where we find Cano’s Castle.

After repeated complaints from neighbours about the growing pile of beer cans on the property, the owner decided to put them to good use … nailing them to the walls and roof of the increasingly ramshackle buildings, along with hubcaps and other assorted scrap metal and assorted signs about the evils of alcohol and tobacco! It’s now a fairly well-known tourist attraction.

Following the same general idea is the imaginatively-named Beer Can House in Houston, Texas.

Owner John Milkovisch has used an estimated 50,000 beer cans (and has the beer belly to show it) in the decoration of his home, which is open to visitors on the weekend.

In the same city, but a different neighbourhood, we find the Orange Show.

A bizarre testament to one man’s love for citrus fruit, which has manifested itself in the form of garish folk art, much of it made from recycled junk. Jeff McKissack worked on it for 24 years until his death in 1980, at which point the neighbours may have hoped to see it disappear. Instead, a community association purchased the property which is now a thriving tourist attraction named the “Orange Show Center for Visionary Art”. Mr Milkovisch’s Beer Can House is apparently included in their definition of ‘visionary’.

While many people love Elvis, most don’t go quite so far as Paul McLeod – the owner of Graceland Too, a house in Holly Springs, Mississippi, which is about 70km from the real Graceland.

Once bright pink, the Street View cameras captured this modestly-sized replica painted white (and with a large election sign outside). We can, however see the lion statues and fake Christmas wreaths which echo the original. The interior is full of Elvis memorabilia, with the owner happy to give visitors a tour of his collection.

For something a little different, we have a perfectly normal house … which happens to be surrounded by nightmarish concrete and stone sculptures – the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas.

Samuel Dinsmoor created this ‘sculptural environment‘ in the early 20th century, and thoughtfully included a 12m high limestone mausoleum, where his embalmed body is still on display decades after his death.

Some people take their creativity to rural areas, where they have more space to express themselves, as in the case of the Golden Pyramid House in Wadsworth, Illinois.

This is a private residence, so any curious passersby have to content themselves with the view from the road, where the pyramid can be seen in the distance beyond a giant statue and a wall covered in hieroglyphics.

Even more remote, and likely not even vaguely concerned about the neighbours, is Jim Bishop, who has been building a castle in the wilds of Colorado for more than 40 years!

While visitors are allowed, they are greeted by a long list of rules and a host with what are described as ‘extreme views’, who has been battling with authorities who control the state parks where he gathers stones for his creation, and the local tourist office which refuses to officially list it as an attraction.

We end with a couple of examples of property owners responding directly to complaints from their neighbours…

First to Youngwood Court in Los Angeles.

Neighbours weren’t happy when the owner Norwood Young erected a single replica of Michaelangelo’s statue of David. He responded to the complaints by installing a further 18 statues … and from time-to-time he decorates them in seasonal attire such as Santa outfits! The property is also known as the House of Davids!

Finally to St. Paul, Minnesota and a rather unusual triangular house.

The property at the corner of 3rd St and Gotzian is rather unconventional due to the angle at which the streets meet. The owner tried to build a normal house on the lot, but the neighbours, perhaps having enjoyed an empty space nearby for some years, objected to the plans.

Eventually the owner gave up trying to apply for variances and just built his home to the exact dimensions allowed, resulting in a house that must have some very interestingly-shaped rooms!

Locations: California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas / Categories: Buildings, Street Views, Weirdness

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The concrete model was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s, and initial earthwork was carried out by German POWs. It was eventually completed in 1966.

By the 1980s the model was superseded by computer modelling techniques, but it was widely agreed that the model had been a success: helping to solve numerous flood-control problems and thus saving lives.

Thanks to Ned Mitchell.

Locations: Mississippi / Categories: Structures

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Now in its fifth incarnation, the bridge spans the Licking river to the West and the Muskingum river to the East. Allegedly this makes the Y-bridge the only place in the US where you can cross a bridge but stay on the same side of the river.

Hang on, Ohio actually have another Y-bridge! Not too far from Zanesville, the Akron Y-bridge is where two roads come together to share a bridge. Officially titled the “All-American Bridge”, its other unofficial title is sadly the “Suicide Bridge”.

Uh, hang on again. The “Galena Y-bridge” in Galena, Missouri has been closed to vehicles since 1986 (when a new bridge was created to the North), but nevertheless it’s still a Y-shaped bridge. In this case the Y-shape was created to allow traffic heading East across the bridge to go either North or South, as heading straight on would involve driving straight into the side of a mountain…

More info on the Y-bridges in Galena, Akron and Zanesville.

Thanks: onTypes

Locations: Mississippi, Ohio / Categories: Bridges

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Then, in September of 2006, the images were updated with higher-resolution shots of the city – images which were pre-Katrina. Nobody really noticed until the March 2007 image update, and suddenly everyone was up in arms over Google’s disrespect for those who suffered. In response Google provided new, high resolution, post-Katrina images of New Orleans.

Outside the newly updated area you can still see some of the devastation Katrina wrought here, like this derailed train, or these flattened houses just over the border in Mississippi.

Inside the updated area however, the images are very high quality, and the first thing that caught our eye was this fantastic shot of an F-15 fighter coming in to land at the New Orleans Naval Air Station.

We also wondered what was going on on the Bonne Carre Spillway Bridge?

Thanks: 2468Scotty and C.P. McDill.

Locations: Louisiana, Mississippi / Categories: Aircraft, Bridges, Other Vehicles

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Shoreham Nuclear Power Station

This is a plant that was never completed due to community opposition. In the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident residents were increasingly worried about proximity to nuclear power stations. Shoreham was never finished because residents argued that if anything did go wrong, the population of Long Island couldn’t be evacuated with only one direction to go (west) and only one major road to take (the Long Island Expressway).

Thanks Chris & Thomas Paul

Sequoyah Nuclear Plant

I know you’ve already done a “Nuclear Power Megapost,” but I just ran across this, and think it’s cool that you can almost see directly down the cooling towers. BTW, it’s TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant.

Thanks Jay K

Chinon Nuclear Power Plant

This is the nuclear power plant of Chinon, a french town best known for its Cabernet Franc wine, with four very pretty cooling towers churning out steam.

Thanks Julien

Weldon Springs

The Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail and Museum at Weldon Spring, Missouri is where the government opened the Weldon Spring site to the public in 2002. The huge waste tomb spans 45 acres and is seven stories tall.

Thanks Bill

Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant

This is Bohunice nuclear power plant in Slovakia. A proper old-skool soviet era reactor. In February 22, 1977, the reactor suffered a major accident during refueling. Because of its age and old design the plant is currently undergoing a decommissioning process.

Thanks FeroG

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant

This is the Iranian nuclear power plant under construction near the city of Bushehr. These two plants are one of the reasons that Iran and the west don’t get along. In 1995, Russia signed a contract to supply a light water reactor for the plant. Although the agreement calls for the spent fuel rods to be sent back to Russia for reprocessing, the US has expressed concern that Iran would reprocess the rods itself, in order to obtain plutonium for atomic bombs.

Thanks Paul, Bunsen, Pejvak DehDari & Bubba

Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant

This reactor is named after the first physicist to create a nuclear reactor and is located between Detroit, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. On October 5, 1966 a 94MWe prototype fast breeder reactor called Fermi-1 suffered a partial nuclear meltdown here. Thankfully no radiation was released off-site, and no one was injured.

Thanks David & Joe

I’m sure there are still plenty more interesting nuclear power sites so keep them coming!

Locations: France, Iran, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Slovakia, Tennessee / Categories: Shadows, Structures

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The worst affected states, by this, the third most intense system to strike the United States in recorded history, are Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It is believed that Katrina is, (in monetary terms) the most costly hurricane to affect the USA, and sadly may yet also become the most costly in terms of human lives.

For more information about these events, I recommend the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Katrina, which is updated continually as information becomes available.

Locations: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi / Categories: Bridges, Stadiums and Sport

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