Check out this fantastic capture of a plane towing a banner message past a packed beach in Italy.

Here’s another plane towing a message off the coast of South Carolina (where there’s also a great shot of someone parasailing too).

I don’t know what messages these planes were flying, but at North Perry Airport in Florida someone’s left one of these plane-banners lying out, and you can clearly read the message “CAT I LOVE, YO!“…

Thanks to mlc1us, nicolor and Mark Ralston.

The Cutty Sark was the last of the extreme clippers, built in 1869 to transport tea from China.

Probably the most famous ship in the world, the Cutty Sark was this morning severely damaged by a large fire, which police are treating as “suspicious”.

Luckily the masts, which can still be seen in the aerial photograph, had already been taken off the ship to be restored elsewhere so were not damaged in the blaze.

BBC News has the latest on the boat.

Thanks: Phil Britton & Dee

This is the small island formerly known as Cayo Blanco de Sur, Cuba. The island is around 15 km long, about 500 metres wide, and is uninhabited save for the indigenous birds and iguanas.

In 1972 while on a state visit to East Berlin, Fidel Castro gifted this island¹ to the former socialist country of East Germany, and renamed it Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann, after the leader of the German Communist Party, Ernst Thälmann.²

Of course, East Germany ceased to exist in 1990 when the (East) German Democratic Republic was absorbed by the Federal Republic of (West) Germany. Well, that’s what everybody thought.

It transpires that Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann wasn’t actually mentioned in the unification treaty – West Germany never made a claim to it – meaning this Caribbean island is arguably the only remaining piece of East German territory.

You can read more about this bizarre story at the excellent Strange Maps blog.

Synchrotrons are just a fancy type of particle accelerator.

I’m not the world’s greatest physicist but, as far as I understand it, they are circular accelerators that use an electricity field to speed up sub atomic particles to something near the speed of light and a synchronous magnetic field to rotate the beam (hence the name).

The resulting synchrotron radiation is a million times brighter than normal sunlight and a billion times stronger than your everyday X-ray – making it great for looking inside stuff.

One of the first dedicated synchrotrons was built underground in Daresbury, UK, but will close next year.

However, until then you can get a live status display of the beam. I don’t understand it either but it looks cool to leave it on the screen at work.

Lightsources lists 69 different synchrotrons around the globe, so we’re only going to look at a few of the most attractive.

ESRF, Grenoble, France:

NSRRC, Hsinchu, Taiwan

BESSY, Germany:

And finally, Diamond is the UK’s new synchrotron near Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Although on Google Earth construction has just started, the Diamond “light source” (radiation sounded too dangerous) was first used earlier this year.

Coincidently, we last looked at particle accelerators around this time last year. I hereby name this particle accelerator week!

Google Earth Community member ChrisJHall also put together an excellent collection of Synchrotrons.

More info: Back to basics, Synchrotron (device), Synchrotron radiation & Diamond Light Source.

Many thanks to ChrisJHall

Astute readers will point out that we’ve already had part four of the famous series “Keeping up with the Joneses“, but I’m going back to trampolines for the missing part – get ready for the stupidly titled Keeping Up With The Joneses Part 3 and a half!

First, some history: set in the massive 45 km² private gardens, Eaton Hall has been home to the Grosvenor family since the 15th century and in this time has served as a War hospital twice and had its fair share of being demolished and then re-built.

In 1874 Queen Victoria created the title “The Duke of Westminster” for Eaton Halls owner, Hugh Grosvenor who, thanks to inherited property in central London, was the richest man in Britain.

These days the Duke title is held by Gerald Grosvenor, who also previously held the “Richest” title but in recent years has slipped to No. 5. However, the Duke has managed to cling onto the title of Richest Man in Britain (who was born in Britain).

Of course, even billionaires have to keep up with the Joneses, and the Duke of Westminster is no exception; outside the back of the stately home there is a large blue trampoline, just like those found throughout the rest of the UK!

Don’t forget that he’s rich though, the Duke has 2 trampolines!

The full 2007 rich list will be published this Sunday.

Thanks: Mrb