It would seem that we have finally reached the absolute pinnacle of our continuing quest to discover the latest and greatest “World’s blankest blank“, as seen by satellite!

Yes you lucky people, prepare yourselves for… The World’s Largest Cow!

This is actually Salem Sue of New Salem, North Dakota, who is 38 feet high, 50 feet long, and was constructed from six tons of reinforced fiberglass back in ‘74 for the primary purpose of, um, bigging up the local dairy farmers I guess.

Over in the UK we have our own famous Concrete Cows sculpture, which were created four years after Salem Sue by Canadian-born artist Liz Leyh, but are only about half life size.

More about Salem Sue at Roadside America and more about Concrete Cows at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Simon Cope and Jason Smith.

Oh dear, it looks like an articulated lorry has rolled over near Bismark. I hope no-one was hurt.

The lorry in question is owned by Jim Palmer Trucking, and was blown over by winds in excess of 180kph.

If, for some weird reason, you enjoy seeing traffic accidents from above, you’ll love our previous post 9 (Possible) Traffic Accidents.

Thanks: a67
Updated: With thanks to Gary Powell and others in comments.

Boing boing have recently featured stories about people who refuse to sell their homes to developers, no matter what the price.

This first house in Bismark was once part of a residential area, but as the nearby St. Alexius Medical Centre expanded they needed more and more parking space and bought up the land of all the adjacent houses. With the exception of one.

The house and its garden space are now directly opposite the emergency room so the owner must be either deaf or he really likes the sound of ambulance sirens.

Our second homeowner in San Jose refused to sell up to the developers of the nearby HP Pavilion indoor arena so is now completely surrounded by parking. I wonder if he gets free tickets on gamedays?

Previously on Google Sightseeing: The Man Who Lives in the Middle of the M62.

Thanks Boing boing and its readers.

“We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” but we are in the much more magical Fargo, North Dakota where there’s a real-life Yellow Brick Road.

Originally laid in the 70s for Trollwood Performing Arts School’s Wizard of OZ performance the real yellow bricks have since been replaced with concrete. The road still doesn’t go anywhere though, just around in circles to spell out “OZ” when viewed from above.

Trollwood homepage and Minuscule ground level photo

Thanks: Jeremy & Derek

If you were going to use trees to graffiti the landscape with the name of your town, city, university or company… what font would you use?

Arboreal sign-writers agree that uppercase lettering is a no-brainer, as legibility is obviously impaired due to the decrease in the letter size… Here in Bismarck, North Dakota, the typographer has decided on a Grotesque sans serif face, not dissimilar to URW Grotesk Extra Light Condensed, and has chosen to set it at 261,354 point (approx.)

Over in Indiana, the Studebaker typographer has chosen a heavier typeface with tighter tracking, but a smaller size at only 216,850 point. Again the chosen face is a Grotesque sans serif, very similar (though not identical) to Franklin Gothic Heavy. What’s most interesting is the way trees have grown since their initial planting in 1937, creating some really nicely distressed letterforms.

There’s about 5,000 pine trees in the Studebaker sign, so just imagine how many make up the 2,592,000 point Luecke sign…

Thanks to Tim, Jason Signalness, Ryan J, Mark Donnell & aard.