We’ve all been there - the camera is on us, and we suddenly feel a burning desire to impress it. Sadly, not everything turns out how we plan.

Take for example this cool customer - he spots the Googlemobile cruising down his street, and decides his patented bicycle ’skid and turn’ manouvre should be executed, maybe with the objective of sending a small puff of dust into the eyes of the unsuspecting driver.

As our intrepid daredevil starts to make the turn everything seems to be going perfectly - but suddenly the stunt falls apart, and moments later he lies in a bizarre tangle with his two-wheeled friend.

As the camera car moves on - rather heartlessly I might add - we see the boy in further distress as he presumably tries to free himself by way of a reverse roly-poly.

As the Google car continues on down the street the poor lad appears to be lying flat on his back, presumably regaining his composure. I do hope he was alright.

Thanks to Jason O and Streetviewfun.

While capturing Street View images in Cleveland, Ohio, the Google team drove past a car in flames.

The incident that caused the car to burst into flames took place before the Google car arrived on scene, as the smoke from the fire is visible all the way up the street. It’s worth pointing out though that the frame that should have shown the wreck in most detail has been replaced with a shot taken on a different occasion.

What might have happened here?

Via Virtual Globetrotting.

See our previous posts Expensive Car Crash and Multi-Vehicle Car Accident Captured on Google Street View.

It’s been just over a month since Google added 12 new US cities to Street View, and yesterday we got new imagery in another 13 cities, and interestingly, a US national park! Here’s some of the highlights, including links straight there:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Austin, Texas
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Rockford, Illinois
• Richmond, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington
• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Tampa, Florida

Finally, Google have also added imagery for the few roads that run through Yosemite National Park, California, which enables us to see some pretty stunning scenery.

Here’s El Capitan, a 910 metre vertical rock formation that’s a popular challenge for rock climbers, and some spectacular Giant Redwoods living up to their name!

Read the full story at the Google Lat Long Blog, read more about El Capitan and Giant Redwoods at Wikipedia.

The number of cars in the drive, and the number of people in the pool at this house in Cleveland, Ohio, can mean only one thing… Pool Paaaaarty!

I wanted to illustrate what this pool party might look like from the ground, and I found this QuickTime VR image of a pool party in progress. Now I’m wondering what kind of geek makes a Quicktime VR image of a pool party?

Thanks to James Boorman-Padgett.

We get lots of submissions from people who claim to be able to see faces, animals or even aliens in the natural landscapes of Google Earth, but often the images are so open to interpretation that we unfortunately can’t see what it is that our readers are seeing.

On the other hand, when we’re sent something that’s clearly recognisable, in virtually every case the sight has been man made. So when we received this submission that bears an undeniable¹ resemblance to the profile of a face in a field in Ohio, we initially assumed this was the work of a particularly adventurous crop-circle artist.

On closer inspection however, this face might not be so obviously man-made. Are the “eyes” actually islands of trees? Is the “mouth” just a naturally darker patch of ground? And yet, the “chin” must surely have been created by a trail left by a tractor, right?

So whilst it’s possible that a farmer was getting creative, we think the most likely explanation is that this is just a particularly freaky combination of natural formation and man’s influence, which is playing on our natural predilection to assign meaning wherever we look.

Still, it does look an awful lot like a face.

Thanks to Jennifer.

Zanesville in Ohio claims that their Y-bridge is “the only Y-shaped bridge in the world!”

Now in its fifth incarnation, the bridge spans the Licking river to the West and the Muskingum river to the East. Allegedly this makes the Y-bridge the only place in the US where you can cross a bridge but stay on the same side of the river.

Hang on, Ohio actually have another Y-bridge! Not too far from Zanesville, the Akron Y-bridge is where two roads come together to share a bridge. Officially titled the “All-American Bridge”, its other unofficial title is sadly the “Suicide Bridge”.

Uh, hang on again. The “Galena Y-bridge” in Galena, Missouri has been closed to vehicles since 1986 (when a new bridge was created to the North), but nevertheless it’s still a Y-shaped bridge. In this case the Y-shape was created to allow traffic heading East across the bridge to go either North or South, as heading straight on would involve driving straight into the side of a mountain…

More info on the Y-bridges in Galena, Akron and Zanesville.

Thanks: onTypes

For tonight’s dinner we’re following what might well be the world’s largest recipe - as it’s written in large type all over the surface of Google Earth.

To start with, on the coast of Nova Scotia a vineyard uses the fields to do more than grow the grapes - they also advertise wines and their website.¹

So we’ve got some wine. Next, if you happen to be driving down this motorway on the Danish island of Zealand, and feel a little peckish, you can stop off and buy some peas from the top of the hill.

You’ll know when you’re at the right place by the giant advertising for “Ærter” (that’s Danish for peas), but it sometimes it says “Æbler” instead (apples).

Lastly, a roof in Columbus urges us to “Eat Trout“. Clearly not a trout farm, from what I can gather the building is (or at least was), some sort of night club - so perhaps it’s just a public service announcement?²

So there we have it, a complete meal in Google Earth: fish, peas on the side and a glass of wine! But can anyone find me some dessert?

Thanks to Greg_Yetman, sladys and Dave Collins

(This post was updated 8th September to correct the location of the peas. Thanks to those in the comments!)

Lots of the DigitalGlobe satellite photos around the world have small lens flares like this one in Reykjavik which appear to be simply the sun reflecting off a shiny surface - no big deal there.

But reader Andrew Grannis brought our attention to this example of one such flare in Cincinnati, which is much larger than any other examples we’ve seen. If this is the result of a reflective object on the ground then it would have to be the size of a field. Any suggestions?

Thanks: Andrew Grannis