It’s commonly quoted as fact that in nature, no food or vegetable is naturally blue.

This information was again disputed recently by the re-introduction of blue Smarties¹, this time using 100% natural seaweed extract to create the blue colour.

Additional support for the “blue-in-nature” brigade comes in the form of blue trees spotted on Google Earth. Firstly, in Australia’s Mount Annan Botanic Garden there’s a strikingly-blue tree.

The Garden’s website explains that the tree has been dead for many years, but is home to various types of termites and slaters.

So, it’s the termites that make the tree blue? Well, no. Further investigation reveals that the tree was in actual fact painted blue. For no particular reason.

Perhaps we’ll have better luck with this blurry shot of a blue tree in Northern California.

Unfortunately, this isn’t natural either. It’s the work of artist Claude Cormier, who decorated a perfectly normal tree with 70,000 blue Christmas baubles. Again, for no particular reason it would seem.

So perhaps natural blue is restricted to seaweed after all!

See a ground level pictures of the Australian tree and the American one on Flickr.

Thanks to Felippo, Logan and James.

It’s been a whole year since Google first launched their controversial Street View service, and we posted our first Street View sight. Since then we’ve seen the rate of discovery of the most bizarre and unusual finds increase as Google has added more and more US cities to the roster.

With the service due to launch soon in Canada, Italy, Spain, Australia and Japan, we thought we’d mark the one year anniversary with a roundup of the best 10 Street View discoveries that we haven’t already posted to the site.

10) Google camera gets stuck in tree

Yes, this driver forgot he had a giant camera stuck to the top of his car, and drove it into a low-hanging tree.

9) The giant finger of doom

Arrgh! The giant finger of doom! Actually, if you pan round you can see that this is actually an image of a normal-sized man with the world’s biggest hand.

8) Working girls, working

Well, not actually in flagrante, but rather hanging around waiting to possibly um… service some customers?

7) Scuba diver on city street

Well he isn’t a Scuba diver unless he’s in the water. Walking along the road like this just makes him a bit of an idiot.

6) Segway convoy

Rubby ducky rubber ducky, come in, this is ageing geek! We got ourselves a convoy!

5) Usin publik transport: ur doin it rong

Is this the cab’s driver, or a passenger in need of some assistance? Perhaps this person has been subjected to a particularly lethal LOLcat attack?

4) Having to explain the enormously suspicious camera on the top of your car to a police officer

“Yes officer that’s right, taking photos to put on the internet!” *Click*.

3) Man with giant head stomps all over Street View car

A relative of the man with the world’s biggest hand, this man must surely have the largest head on the planet.

2) Post-it attack!

A couple of teenage girls take brilliantly surreal revenge upon somebody, and don’t blink as a car passes recording their actions forever…

1) How not to get IN a car

We’re stunned, we have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on here. Brilliantly bizarre and a worthy winner of the top spot!

Yesterday a large fire tore through the Universal Studios backlot, injuring 3 people and destroying numerous sets.

Thankfully no-one was seriously injured, but the fire did destroy a key piece of movie history: Courthouse Square.

Courthouse Square has been used in numerous films and TV shows, including Gremlins, Bruce Almighty, Knight Rider and, most recognisably, Back to the Future.

As you can see from the aerial shot, the square looks just like it did in the 1985 film, including the clock tower to the East of the square. Initial reports of the fire starting when the famous clock tower was struck by lightning have been denied.

“It looked like a disaster film” said Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, which isn’t surprising as most of Universal studios looks like a disaster film; scroll South a bit and there’s the wreckage of a plane crash as featured in War of the Worlds.

More on the story from the BBC or explore more Back to the Future filming locations.

Over at the Google Earth Community they’ve found a fantastic sight - not one, but two planes about to be refuelled mid-flight over the California desert.

From their measurements, these appear to be F-16 fighter jets, moving in (or perhaps moving out) from a KC-10 “Extender” - a tanker which is derived from the commercial DC-10.

This sight is also unique on Google Earth in that it is perhaps the largest collection of planes found in mid-air at the same time, with 7 aircraft captured in a single image! Waiting behind the re-fueler are two further F-16s, and another pair are ahead - presumably they’ve already had their fill.

There’s a fantastic photograph of a DC-10 refuelling an F-16 at Wikipedia, and see our previous post showing another mid-flight refuelling.

Thanks to tsb60robert at the Google Earth Community.

Here in Lake Berryessa, California, we find the largest drain hole in the world, affectionally known locally as The Glory Hole.

Narrowing from 22 metres diameter to 8.5 metres at its thinnest point, this absolutely enormous funnel is technically the largest “morning glory spillway” in the world - an uncontrolled outlet which, should the water level rise sufficiently high, allows up to 1370 m³ per second (48,400 cubic feet) of water to bypass the Monticello Dam. Check out this photo of the spillway in full flow.

The spillway’s horizontal exit is on the southern side of the dam, and this ground level shot demonstrates why this is a popular spot for local skateboarders and bikers during the drier months!

Read more about spillways, the Monticello Dam and Lake Berryessa at Wikipedia, and trophybassonly.com has some fascinating photos of the spillway during construction in the 1950s.

Thanks to Mark and fogonazos.

Here in San Jose, California we find the bizarre sprawling complex known as The Winchester Mystery House. It is the creation of Sarah Winchester (the widow of gun magnate William Winchester) who began expanding this country farmhouse when she moved here in 1884. Supposedly Mrs Winchester was so terrified of the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles that she consulted a spiritualist, who told her:

build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon, too. You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die.

And build she did - allegedly around-the-clock, without interruption for the next 38 years until her death, Mrs Winchester built, rebuilt, altered, changed, constructed and demolished one section after another. The ‘mystery’ of the house is found in its weird and nonsensical architecture - staircases that lead nowhere, hidden rooms, doors that open on to sheer drops, cupboard doors that open to solid brick walls, and a myriad of secret passages!

Despite an earthquake taking down 3 floors in 1906, today the mansion still comprises 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys, 950 doors, and 40 staircases! The Winchester Mystery House’s unusual history, combined with the unsurprising rumours that it is haunted, have firmly planted this place into American popular culture.

You can read more at Wikipedia, check out this birds-eye photo, see a photo of the front or even browse a whole section devoted to the house on Flickr.

Thanks to Jen, Tim, seamus, Tim Derby, Yoshino, Tim, Patrick, Mel Matsuoka, Lady Kalessia, Stephanie, Michelle, Martin, Eric, Chris Branagan amongst many others!

Way out in the Mojave Desert lies California City. With an estimated 2007 population of little more than 12,500, the name suggests a hope for much more than it ever became. Nevertheless, the city’s area is a massive 203.6 square miles, which actually makes it the 34th largest city by area in the United States!¹

In 1958, property developer Nat Mendelsohn had his eyes on this patch of desert with the hope of founding a rival to Los Angeles, and promptly gobbled up 80,000 acres of prime Mojave sand. Mendelsohn had grand plans, and even went to the effort of laying out acres of street blocks, but the city wasn’t a success.

Today, a large proportion of California City’s residents are employed at nearby Edwards Air Force Base but the city is still so small it doesn’t even have its own grocery shop!

Amazingly, even though there are no houses outside the central development, developers have gone to the trouble of naming every single street, and have designated parks for miles around. One such, “Borax Bill Park” is named after the leader of the Twenty mule team, which became famous in the late 19th century for carrying minerals from mines further inland to the west of the Mojave, passing through this area during their expeditions.

California city’s main claim to fame (apart from its startlingly pathetic population growth), is the Hyundai-Kia Proving grounds, a new $60 million dollar test track based over 4300 acres. The cheap land and privacy of the desert makes this an ideal location for test tracks - just a few miles away is the even bigger Honda Proving Center of California, where the company’s concept cars are tested and tweaked before release.

There’s more on California City at both Wikipedia and from their official community website. There’s also a great aerial shot which shows the proving grounds and the vast emptiness of the city.

Thanks to Ross Burnett and seer.

Continuing the thread of unique plane finds is this sighting of a Northrop YF-23 .

Specifically, this aircraft is YF-23 model PAV-2, which was nicknamed “Gray Ghost”. We know for a fact that it’s this model as only two were built, and the other one was painted black.

What’s interesting about the YF-23, apart for its brilliantly bizarre wing-shape, is that it came very close to being a staple fighter of the American Air Force.

Looking for an upgrade to the aging F-15 Eagle model, the US Air Force awarded contracts to two potential replacements: the YF-23 and the now-common F-22 raptor. It’s not been revealed why, but the F-22 won the competition and the YF-23 model was scrapped.

After the engine was removed PAV-2 was placed on display here, in a car-park outside Northrop Grumman’s factory in El Segundo.

Further information on the plane is, of course, available on Wikipedia.

Thanks: McMaster_de.