There’s a nice story on Vanity Fair about how the author, Nick Tosches, spent more than a year attempting to track down the shot location of a desktop picture called Autumn that came with his copy of WIndows.

Eventually Nick managed to track the image back to the Corbis library, and in turn to the photographer, Peter Burian. With a little coaxing, Peter eventually remembered that he took the photo in the village of Kilbride, near his home in Milton, Ontario.

Of course once we had the address, we managed to find the exact tree-lined path and barn in a couple of minutes - thanks to Google Maps

And although these particular trees are still green, there’s thousands in this area that have started to turn a fantastic shade of orange!

Via Kottke.org.

Cockburn Island is a ‘ghost’ island in Ontario, which despite the apparent signs of life (there’s a small town and marina) has an official population of zero. The 1996 census listed a population of just two, but both people had left by 2001, making this the least populated incorporated municipality in Canada.

Some of these abandoned houses are supposedly still used as holiday homes, but what interests me if the makeshift airport to be found deep in the forest. It’s evidently still in use but I’ve found no mention of the airport around the internet. Most websites say that the marina is the “only way of getting on the island”, but it’s clearly not. If you asked me, an abandoned island would be the perfect place for an evil empire to keep its headquarters…

Thanks: Matt Blum & Taylor

Here’s a neat trick - this is a satellite photo of the great lakes, the largest fresh water lakes in the world etc, etc.

Now if you click to the great lakes and them zoom in step-by-step you’ll arrive here:

which are the tiny-great lakes! Cool, huh?

Thanks: Tristan

Quick, somebody fetch Neo, as it would appear that The Matrix is leaking into Canada.

Thanks to nousagi and Mark.

Another great farm maze here, this one is west of Toronto in Canada. I’ve rotated the image in thumbnail so you can make it out. It shows a farm, with barn and silo and wee tractor pulling a trailer at the bottom. Cheekily, there is also a URL which I worked out to be www.downeysfarm.on.ca.

Thanks: Shaun Hill