1600m up the mountain Colletto Fava in Piemonte, Italy we find a quite unusal sight – a giant 60m tall pink rabbit. But before you go “Aww, that’s cute” notice that his woolen guts are spilling out onto the mountainside.

Then giant wool bunny is the work of Gelitin, a group of artists from Vienna, who explain “It’s supposed to make you feel small, like Gulliver. You walk around it and you can’t help but smile.”. The rabbit is expected to stay there until 2025 and hikers are invited to climb atop the “belly-summit” for a view over the village of Artesina below.

Thanks: MrPumpernickel

The Navy Training Centre in San Diego is a closed facility that is currently being turned in to a shopping centre so there’s not much to see, except for the USS Recruit – a destroyer that seems to be a little out of place.

The nearby Naval Outlying Field (NOLF) Imperial Beach has various features for training up Navy SEALs for combat. For a start there’s a grid layout to the north, which is a fake city used for MOUT training (that’s “missions on urban terrain” for the rest of us).

South of that there’s also a disused “Elephant Cage” radio station, similar to the previously posted one at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

But what’s most interesting is that beside some white tents and an archery range further south we see that, using Alien technology first harnessed by the Australians, the US Navy has developed flying pyramids! (or perhaps covered climbing towers).

Thanks: Tom Barr & jmauro

Although not as famous as the nearby Stonehenge the henge of Avebury is larger and older; dating back to around 5000 years ago. The standing stones are arranged in a circle with a 400m diameter, on a raised piece of land which has a deep external ditch, and surrounds the tiny village of the same name.

It is one of the largest Neolithic monuments in Europe but what’s really cool about Avebury is that, unlike Stonehenge, you can walk right up to and around the stones. In fact, in a move that would probably have upset those who assembled the stone circle, the A351 road cuts straight through the middle.

There’s even more megaliths extending to the West and South in two “avenues” and you can follow the southward avenue down to the Sanctury, where another stone circle once stood. At one time there were around 600 megaliths making up the stone circles and avenues.

Thanks: Ben Moore & Dee

I was reading some old comments on the site and rediscovered this fabulous swirling water on Lake Powell. However this beautiful sight isn’t quite as innocent as it first seems.

On closer inspection you can identify the boat that’s causing this swirl, and taking a wander around the area turns up another one, followed by a whole flotilla. This initially deserted-looking landscape is in fact overrun with people – none of whom would be here if several environmental organisations had their way.

Lake Powell is actually a man-made reservoir, which was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon with the Colorado River – an engineering feat accomplished and maintained by the controversial Glen Canyon Dam. Despite the obvious possibilities for damage to the area’s ecosystem, Lake Powell is arguably one of the most beautiful lakes in the whole of America, and each year over 2 million people get to see sights like the Rainbow Bridge, which would otherwise be too remote for most of them to reach.

But reducing the amount of people who make it here might not be such a bad thing of course. Quite apart from the tourist presence upsetting the local Navajo (who consider the Rainbow Bridge an important religious site), it seems that the waters of Lake Powell are further eroding the foundations of the Rainbow Bridge.

Thanks to Jen, JDP and Goomerator.

Frank over at the Google Earth Blog pointed us to a Giant Football (Soccer Ball for you yanks) in Dortmund, which will be hosting some of the 2006 FIFA World Football semi-finals next month.

He suggested it’s the world’s largest football, but at about 50ft in diameter I’d say it’s about the half the size of the Japanese example we posted last month. There seems to be a ramp leading into the ball, can any locals tell us what’s inside?

Thanks: Frank