When viewed from above, much of the landscape of South Carolina is clearly covered in mysterious oval depressions that aren’t obvious from ground level. Known as “Carolina Bays”, nobody really knows how these unique geological features were formed.

Despite their name, Carolina Bays can also be found in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and northcentral Florida. They vary in size from one to several thousand acres, and are often gathered in groups. Many are filled with water and named as lakes, but most contain vegetated wetland.

Most striking however, is that every single one is invariably aligned in almost exactly same direction - which has led some people to claim that they might be the result of a meteor impact. It would have to have been a pretty serious impact, as there are estimated to be over 500,000 of them. This is Lake Waccamaw, north Carolina, which is widely considered the largest Carolina bay.

George Howard (a bit of a Carolina Bay fanatic), has created an exhaustive KML file that marks the location of many thousands of the bays in North Carolina. This image was taken in Google Earth, and shows the white outlines that have been used to mark the locations.

So, who here can solve the mystery of the Carolina Bays?

You can read more about Carolina Bays at Wikipedia. Thanks to Keith Wright, david and Ogle Earth.

A star fort or trace italienne is a type of military fortification first introduced in Italy around the mid-fifteenth century. Traditional medieval castles, towers and ring forts had proved extremely vulnerable to increasingly mobile cannons, and star forts were introduced specifically to better defend against them.

The tiny Italian town of Palmanova was founded in 1593, and using all the military innovations of the 16th century was built in the shape of nine-pointed star. You can still see quite clearly how the shape of the ramparts allows the points of the star to defend each other. Originally a moat surrounded the town (which partially remains today), and three heavily guarded gates (1, 2, 3) were the only way in.

Palmanova, Italy (Wikipedia)

Cannons were most effective when they were fired perpendicular to the walls of the building under attack, and the star shaped design meant that to best position their weapons, attacking forces would have enter the space between the points of the star - where they would be fired on from both sides!

The judicious use of moats could further thwart the attacking forces, as demonstrated superbly here at Naarden, Netherlands.

Naarden, Netherlands (Wikipedia)

By the late seventeenth-century star forts reached the pinnacle of their development, as shown by this complicated example in Bourtange, Netherlands, which has been fully restored to how it would have been in 1742. Here we can see that the design provides defence in depth, with tiers of ramparts that an attacker would have had to overcome to be in with a chance of taking the fort.

Bourtange, Netherlands (Wikipedia)

This ingenious design quickly became the gold standard for defensive forts, and went on to spread across Europe and the Americas:

Fort Manoel, Malta (Wikipedia)

Fort McHenry, Maryland (Wikipedia)

Fort Jay (Wikipedia) and Fort Ticonderoga (Wikipedia), New York

Castillo de San Marcos, Florida (Wikipedia)

The design even reached South Africa, where today the Castle of Good Hope can be seen right in the middle of the city! It used to be on the coast, but land reclamation allowed the city to expand around it.

Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa (Wikipedia)

In the nineteenth century the development of the exploding shell changed the nature of defensive fortifications forever, and the star fort soon became utterly obsolete. Which is why several are today used for completely different purposes - like this example in Slovakia where they now spend their time trying to keep people inside rather than out.

Leopoldov Prison, Slovakia (Wikipedia)

And finally, what is probably the world’s most famous star fort isn’t actually known for being a star fort at all - as Fort Wood is today the distinctive star-shaped pedestal underneath New York’s Statue of Liberty.

Fort Wood, New York (Wikipedia)

We’ve previously featured just one star fort several star forts, including Kastellet in Copenhagen, Citadel Hill in Canada, and the aforementioned Fort McHenry in Maryland. If that’s not enough, there’s a whole page about them at Wikipedia too.

Thanks to Dan W, Manuel Hewitt, RB, tom schuring, Stefano Bertolo and Federico Cretti.

Air Force One is the callsign for any aircraft that has the President of the United States on board, most commonly one of two specially adapted Boeing 747s.

One of them is seen here in Yuma, Arizona, where the President was making a speech about Immigration Control on May 18, 2006 (Yuma is on the US/Mexican border).

(Incidentally, there are lots of Police closing all of the roads south of Yuma on Avenue B, so the President’s motorcade must be around there somewhere!)

The fleet consists of two Boeing 747-200B aircraft, designated VC-25, specially fitted to enable the President and his entourage to conduct its business from the air. Inside, there are separate areas for the media, Secret Service and the President’s family, which includes bathrooms and dining quarters. Unlike a regular Boeing 747-400, the VC-25 can refuel in midair.

Usually its home is Andrews Air Force Base, Washington DC. The ‘President’s Wing’ can hold both of the VC-25 aircraft, as well as 3 Marine One helicopters.

In order to train the Secret Service how to protect the President when he is onboard, there is a mockup VC-25 at the James J. Rowley Training Center, near Washington DC, as well as a mockup of Marine One next to it. Once in the air however, it’s up to the anti-missile systems and electromagnetic pulse resistors to keep it safe.

Naturally, there is much more information on Air Force One over at Wikipedia. There’s even a nice floor plan available. If you really want to get a good look inside, the film Air Force One is said to have a particularly accurate recreation of the interior.

Thanks to Aaron, Adam J, Airman, Cr@X, Dan Hadad, david, gmr2048, KLashNekOff, PapaPenguin, patrick, PoopyPants, Rob, Siavash Shiva, SnowManson, Stephan, Tim, Travis Mitchell and TVGenius.

This is God’s Ark of Safety in Frostburg, Maryland. The brainchild of Pastor Richard Greene, this is a church… that’s also a full-size replica of Noah’s Ark.¹

Well it would be… if Pastor Greene had ever gotten round to finishing it. Construction began all the way back in 1976, and even today it’s little more than a frame. Clearly the Pastor isn’t expecting the next Great Flood to happen anytime soon.

More at the official site and the Wikipedia page. Thanks to Aprillo and Eric Bennett.

With the continually increasing quality of images on Google Maps/Earth, it’s hardly surprising that the cameras are capturing ever more private moments of people’s lives. Perhaps then it was only a matter of time before the very end of someone’s life was published on the Internet for the whole world to see.

Here’s two examples of funerals taking place, one in the Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Chicago, and the other at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Washington DC Silver Spring, Maryland. In both shots you can see a crowd of mourners surrounding the grave and also the funeral procession parked nearby.

Update: From the comments, Chris pointed out a third funeral in progress at the Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, CA (where several notable San Franciscans are buried, including Joe DiMaggio).

Thanks to Yoshi, Don Bruns and Chris.

At a capacity of 91,665 FedEx Field is the largest stadium in the NFL. This explains the VAST amounts of parking around the stadium, there’s even helicopter parking.

Thanks: Tony Scida, Peter, Duncan McKenzie, Steve & Charlie

And the nominees for this year’s Google Sightseeing ‘Coolest Looking Bridge Shadow’ Award are as follows…

Ironcladlou for the wallet-burning Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York, New York.

Punk floyd, Greg Small, Duane Homick, PegO and TZ for the fantastic Ambassador Bridge which links Windsor, Ontario with Detroit, Michigan. (Windsor is on the south and Detroit is on the north side of the river.)

Steve Hale for the the world’s (second) tallest suspension bridge, the Fred Hartman bridge in Baytown, Texas.

But the winners are… (Drum-roll please!)

Tim, Dave Isaacs and khendron for the 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland!

Congratulations guys!

This is Fort McHenry in Baltimore. It was during the Battle of Baltimore, September 13-14th 1814, that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” which was later renamed “The Star Spangled Banner” and adopted as the national anthem of the United States.

Thanks: Ross Hendry