This is Barra Airport, located on the hebridean island of Barra.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, it’s something along the lines of “No, you idiot, that’s a beach!“.

You’re exactly right: Barra airport is the beach. In fact, it’s the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach.

Of course, that schedule has to change regularly, as the airport’s three runways all become completely unusable during high-tide.

The beach is open to the public, and supposedly good for cockle picking, all you have to do is check at the control tower to see if the airport is currently operational.

More info and ground level pictures here and on Wikipedia

Thanks: Adam Rus & nikitakou

Welcome to the third in a series that has seen competitive homeowners across the globe vying to emulate the affluence of their immediate neighbours – Keeping up with the Joneses Part 3! (Also see part 1 and part 2)

This time we’re in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the residents of Corstorphine appear to have been put under some considerable pressure to become the proud owners of their very own trampoline.

I actually couldn’t believe how many of these things there are – here’s one, and another, and another, and another! In fact the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on! I’d particularly like a shot on one of these ones, just to see if – by leaping from a nearby roof – you could make it all the way to one of next-door’s trampolines…

While we’re on the subject, Wilfred van Breda sent us this link to a barge in Rotterdam harbour, which he claims is owned by a friend and actually has a trampoline on board. Hmmm.

The same vessel actually appears elsewhere in the harbour too. Unless of course, this type of craft comes standard with a trampoline…

Thanks to Wilfred van Breda.

Not to get too political for a website dedicated to things from above, but today I’d like to look into the United Kingdom’s devolved assemblies, if you’ll join me…

Back in 1999, after a couple of referendums, the UK government established devolved assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to make key decisions affecting the lives of local people.

Northern Ireland’s home rule was originally established at Stormont in 1920 until 1974, so in 1999 they already had a suitable building to use. Although, the assembly has been under suspension since 2003 so the building is probably not seeing much use at the moment.

The Welsh Senedd is located in the capital of Cardiff. Designed by British architect Richard Rogers it cost £67 million and was opened March 1, 2006.

Unfortunately Google Earth’s aerial photography was taken sometime before that date and the assembly is seen as just a large building site.

In comparison the Scottish Parliament (designed by the late Catalan architect Enric Miralles), was finished two years earlier than the Welsh assembly, but cost an estimated 431 million pounds.

Despite the staggering cost, in March 2006 the building began falling apart when a roof beam slipped from its hinges during a debate…

Wikipedia: Devolution, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament

Thanks: AndrewAnorak & Myself

Aliens have been trying to communicate with us puny humans for years now, usually via the confusing medium of drawing circles in Britain’s fields.

But a recent trend shows them branching out into more direct forms of communication with actual words being carved into our crops.

Of course they haven’t fully developed a grasp of our primitive languages, as seen in this example of childishly rude crop writing just beside Edinburgh Airport.

What, oh mighty alien lifeforms, are you trying to tell us?

Just after yesterday’s announcement of New Google Earth version 4 betas the team have sneaked out another, as yet unannounced, imagery update.

Although it’s not clear where has or hasn’t been updated it is already clear that this is the best update EVER. Why? This update includes recent high-resolution images from Scotland’s capital city, and home of Google Sightseeing HQ, Edinburgh!

As usual the images haven’t made their way into Google Maps yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long.

Update: The imagery update now been officially announced (along with a terrain update), here’s the rundown:

• Digital Globe updates all over the globe with the most notable being large content additions in Somalia and Australia
• Updated US states: Indiana and Delaware
• Miscellaneous high res cities and counties in North America: Monterey Bay, CA; Yakima County, WA; Summerland, Canada; Greater East Wenatchee, WA; Polk County, IA; Warren County IA; and Bay County, FL
• Small high-res updates in the UK (Swansea, Edinburgh, Doncaster, Gwent) and expanded London coverage
• High-res update in Bremerhaven, Germany.
• Newer imagery for Lanzarote (Canary Islands)
• Google Earth Blog-supplied XPrizeCup flyover and the Sanford, NC airport
• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
• Foo Camp @ O’Reilly Headquarters in Sebastapol, CA