Across the globe there are various land reclamation projects which aim to create new building sites by dredging up the seabed.

However, in the small English town of Happisburgh that process is being reversed, as the waves tear apart the coast and drag the land away into the North sea.

The rate of erosion is so fast that houses are being abandoned as they fall into the sea, and homes that once boasted a long garden up to the sea edge now hang precariously over it.

In 1959, work began to build sea defences along the edge of Beach Road to stop the tide eroding the cliff. As you can see, the defences had all but disappeared by the early 90s and in some places Beach Road now lies over 80m into the sea.

It’s a similar story near the small Brazilian city of São João da Barra, where high temperatures have accelerated coastal erosion and 183 buildings have fallen to the sea in the last 30 years.

The most recent building to be lost at Atafona beach is this high rise which just yesterday it finally gave up the struggle and collapsed. Local news broadcast a video clip of the building falling.

There’s more history and pictures of Happisburgh on the official website and pictures of Atafona and the fallen building on Flickr.

Thanks to Rob and Leo Carbonell.

Since 1925, the Goodyear Blimp has been an integral part of American sports culture, probably more famous than the tyre company whose logo is along the side.

Goodyear have built more than 300 blimps over the years and today there are three which officially share the “Goodyear blimp” name.

The “Spirit of America” has been California’s blimp since 2002 and has a full-time crew of 18, which covers pilots, engineers, cameramen, etc.

The ‘Spirit of Innovation‘, seen here flying over its hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida, was named last year in a web-based public poll (and that was the best they could come up with?).

The third of the fleet, ‘Spirit of Goodyear’ sadly can’t be seen on Google Earth as yet. However, worldwide there’s at least another 3 blimps with the Goodyear emblem.

In Brazil, flying over the city of Sao Paulo, is ‘Spirit of the Americas‘.

And roaming around Europe somewhere are two blimps, both called “Spirit of Europe“. Here’s one of them, parked in a English airbase.

On a slightly related note, can you guess which company produces the most tyres annually. Goodyear? Michelin? Pirelli? All wrong: the correct answer is LEGO, who produce 306 million tiny tyres each year

More Goodyear blimp info on the Official Website, Wikipedia and MyAirship.com

Thanks: JosieNorden and Virtual Globetrotting.

It would seem that someone has spent a lot of time and money to create this lake, in the shape of an extremely happy looking man! I’m not sure what he’s got to be so happy about though. I mean, this guy’s manhood isn’t a patch on the Cerne Abbas Giant

Anyway, I haven’t got the slightest clue why somebody went to all this effort. Has anyone got any ideas?

Thanks to whoever these guys got this location from in the first place (they seem to have a bad habit of neglecting to include any attribution you see).

Nestled within the trees of this suburban park is a crashed plane, that’s been there since 1985!

The story goes that the pilot ran out of fuel over the city of Sao Jose dos Campos and was forced to land in the small park. Then, for some unknown reason, the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia was never removed.

Embraer’s headquarters are actually located just down the road from the crash site, but it’s not a very good advertisement for their products…

Updated: It would seem that this plane didn’t crash after all, it is a prototype model of the Embraer 110 Bandeirante on permanent display. You can see ground-level pictures on airliners.net and Flickr.

Thanks: Cerávolo & Marc

Some classic ‘Large Type’ action in Brazil - Casas Bahia is the largest retail chain in Brazil, and proudly display their logo on the roof.

They have a complex numbering scheme for their buildings - you’ll see that this is number 1 and to the West is number 2. I spent a while considering why they’ve numbered the buildings on the roof but I gave in and decided to post it anyway

Thanks: Ivan

The Iguazu Falls are situated on the border of Argentina and Brazil, who both claim the falls as one of their top tourist destinations. In peak flow the water has a massive surface area of 1.3 million square feet, split over about 270 separate falls.

Iguazu Falls are wider in area than the Niagara or Victoria falls and despite being reportedly more spectacular than both have failed to achieve as much fame. When the First Lady Mrs. Roosevelt saw Iguazu Falls she exclaimed “Poor Niagara”, yet to be honest I hadn’t heard about Iguazu until about 10 minutes ago. Still, I’ve learned my lesson now and read the Wikipedia page.

Thanks: PZ, Doug Olson, Vinicius Lage, Zara, Román Gorojovsky, Michael Walter & Spamboy

Damming the Paraná River on the border between Brazil and Paraguay sits an incredible engineering achievement - the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, Itaipú.

Itaipú is 196 metres high and contains enough iron and steel to build 380 Eiffel Towers. It took 40 thousand people to build it, and they had to move 50 million tons of earth and rock to do it.

In 1995 Itaipú provided 25% of the total energy requirement of Brazil, as well as 78% of Paraguay’s! The facility has been constantly upgraded since then, and the expansion is expected to bring the amount of energy produced next year to over 100 million megawatt-hours.

Make sure you zoom in on the flow from the spillway, and there’s more fascinating facts at Wikipedia!

Thanks to floki, Oliver Dueck, Luciano A. Ferrer, Rhaffael C. C de Barros, Bong Laden, Doug Olson, Vinicius Lage, Juliano Oliveira, Olaf van Zandwijk and Manuel Fernandez.

Rio de Janeiro’s location within steep mountains makes it perfect for the sports of hang and paragliders. Here on Pedra Bonita (”Beautiful Rock”) is one of over 50 launch ramps in Rio where those who are brave enough leap off and glide allllllllll the way down to the beach below.

Thanks: Wagner Fajardo