Mowed into this field in Canada is a large equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, of a design that has been shown to arise independently in any basket-weaving society. In other words, a 30 metre-wide Swastika.

Despite the very innocent Swastika symbol having been around longer than civilisation itself, these days the symbol has been almost exclusively associated with the Nazi Party, ever since they adopted it as their logo in the 1920s. Given that the symbol in this field is contained within a circle (the actual Nazi symbol is in a circle and set at a 45° angle), the likelihood is that this was indeed created by some nasty Neo-Nazis hoping to promote their evil cause.

Unfortunately for our inept villains, they’ve drawn it with the arms of the symbol left-facing, which despite having plenty of historical precedent is incorrect, as the Nazi swastika had right-facing arms, even on the rear side of their flag.

Previously on Google Sightseeing we’ve seen an unintentional Swastika building, a Swastika fountain and some Dutch neo-nazis who were equally incapable of getting simple shapes the right way round.

Thanks to S.Patrick.

Tucked away on the lakefront of Canada’s largest city is the Toronto Music Garden.

The park, which opened in 1999, was designed to represent the different elements of Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello and was a partnership between landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Six distinct areas represent the dance movements of the Suite and are intended to give visitors a sense of flowing rivers, forest trails, wildflower meadows, a quiet conifer grove, a formal flower garden and an amphitheatre of large grass steps.

Microsoft’s Live Maps has a bird’s eye view, showing the park with it’s more lush summer greenery, which mirrors the view no doubt enjoyed by many people living in the condo towers along Queens Quay.

More information (history, pictures and an excerpt of the music) at the City of Toronto website.

Thanks to Kenway and Chris.

Is that… the word “SLUT” carved into the ground of Nova Scotia?

On closer examination it becomes clear that the “S” is actually a tree shadow – but the remaining letters look to be formed by the shapes of three small ponds.

Since “LUT” doesn’t make a lot of sense, what if the “L” were actually a “C”? Why on Earth would anyone have built three ponds in the shape of the letters of the word “CUT”?

Thanks to hfx_chris.

An erratic boulder is, simply enough, a piece of rock that doesn’t originate from the place where it is found. When these errant boulders are the size of houses however, they take a little more explaining.

The city of White Rock, British Columbia, gets its name from a large white erratic that seems completely out of place sitting on the shore of Semiahmoo Bay.

In fact, boulders like this one were carried to their current locations by glacial ice, often over hundreds of kilometres. Geologists have suggested that landslides or rockfalls initially dropped the rocks on top of glaciers, which then carried the rocks along with them on their journeys. When the ice melted, the erratics were unceremoniously deposited wherever we find them today.

The largest glacial erratic identified so far is Big Rock, near Okotoks, Alberta. Measuring 41 m by 18 m and standing 9 m high, this massive quartzite boulder weighs around 16,500 tonnes.

Geologists believe that Big Rock made its epic journey between 12,000 and 18,000 years ago – all the way from Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park – a journey distance of nearly 500 km.

There’s more about Glacial erratics, White Rock, and Big Rock at Wikipedia.

On the 1st of February 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia tragically broke up on re-entry killing all seven astronauts on board.

However, here it is, seemingly unscathed in a Canadian field!

It turns out that is actually a full-scale model of Columbia at the “Great Island Science and Adventure Park”. It’s claimed that this is one of only such six replicas¹ and the only that claims (rather insensitively) to let you experience “how the astronauts lived”.

But it’s doubtful that the experience will be very authentic, as this replica wasn’t built from any designs, instead being based on a 1/72 plastic scale model kit and a “large number of books”.

Further information on the Science park homepage².

Thanks to Karl M S.