Google Puts the World at the Tip of Painter's Brush

Bill Guffey has never walked the streets of London, New York or Barcelona. He has never visited the coast of Maine or watched the sun set in Italy over a Florentine villa.

But if you looked around his rural Kentucky studio, you would never know it.

Tableaus from European cities and every U.S. state (except for Hawaii) cover the walls of his home, illustrating the adventures of a presumably well-traveled artist. Yet the self-taught oil painter said he has never physically been to 99 percent of the places he has captured on canvas.

To reach the closest Wal-Mart, Guffey said he needs at least 30 minutes in the car. But with 30 seconds on his computer, he can fly around the world with Google Street View and paint any place his cursor lands.

Not only does the mapping tool give Guffey and other users a street-level window to many places in the world, it lets them navigate 360-degree horizontal and 290-degree vertical unbroken panoramas. LINK

Can get more of his work here and here.

Kentucky's Mystery Castle

There is a castle located in Kentucky. It is on Versailles Road between Lexington and Frankfort. It's a castle built on love. Rex Martin, a wealthy developer, build it for his wife, Caroline. They were in Europe and she saw some castles, and she was taken with them.

So in 1968, Martin broke ground along U.S. 60 in Woodford County. But by the mid-70s, the marriage was over. That's when construction of the 10,000 square foot home with seven bedrooms and baths, three dining rooms and a swimming pool stopped. And the rumors began. LINK

The story of Kentucky's mystery castle.