Caution arachnophobes, many parts of the world appear to be home to giant spiders, thankfully all in the name of art.

First up, a giant bug on top of a building in Reno, Nevada.

This spider sculpture was created by artist David Fambrough. It consists of the body of a VW beetle / bug (depending where you live) with huge metal legs. Some people wanted to squash the impressive looking bug, but it has been granted a reprieve and will instead be moved to another part of the city.

Controversy can also surround the bronze or steel casts of Louise Bourgeois‘ sculpture Maman, which can currently be found in 8 different location worldwide. In my home town, Ottawa, there’s a 10m tall Maman which cost $3.2millionCAD, though it quickly became a popular local icon.

Maman can also be found outside art galleries in Bilbao, Tokyo and Seoul.

In Kansas City Maman isn’t visible on Google Maps, but Street View reveals that she is happily menacing two women and a (doubtless quite traumatised) baby in a stroller.

Maman also lives in St Petersburg, Paris and Havana, but I can’t track her down on Google Maps or Google Earth. Let me know if you can!

Finally, giant spiders must spin giant webs … like this one in Colorado, which appears to be at least a couple of hundred metres wide.

Thanks to Steve and Bleij.

Vladimir Shukhov was a Russian engineer, scientist and architect whose pioneering structural engineering work led to the design of the world’s first hyperboloid structures.

In mathematics, a hyperboloid is a quadric (”a D-dimensional hypersurface defined as the locus of zeros of a quadratic polynomial”) defined by, er… this complex-looking equation. Basically it’s a type of three dimensional surface that is most commonly seen as the shape of power station cooling towers.

The first ever hyperboloid structure was a water tower that was built for the All-Russia exhibition of 1896. The design consists of straight beams in a lattice arrangement, meaning tall towers could be built with minimal wind resistance.

Today seven of Shukhov’s towers remain standing in Russia, including the 160-metre-high Shukhov radio tower in Moscow which was built between 1919 and 1922 during the Russian Civil War. Currently under threat of demolition, the tower is at the top of UNESCO’s ‘Endangered Buildings’ list, and fans have begun a campaign to save it.

The 128 metre Shukhov Tower on the Oka River is the only original surviving hyperboloid electricity pylon, which was a part of a 110kV powerline built between 1927 and 1929. Because of the lattice-style design it’s barely visible in our thumbnail image, but if you click through to the map you’ll be able to see the shadow of the latticework.

The use of hyperboloid structures wasn’t limited to Russia however – in Spain the 158 metre Pylons of Cádiz, completed in 1960, remain as a fantastic example of this method of construction. Here the method was chosen because at the time the Spanish had no way of transporting large steel beams, and Francisco Franco’s regime prohibited the import of anything that was up to the job.

Here’s a KML file of all of the 7 remaining Shukhov towers (or on a map) and there are many other hyperboloid structures in various guises around the world. Wikipedia also has more on Hyperboloid structures, as well as Vladimir Shukhov himself.

With the recent launch of Google Street View for Spain and Italy the locals have been debating whether or not they think it’s a great mapping tool, or an evil invasion of privacy.

This first guy loves Street View, and wants to give the passing car a great big hug. Awww.

In Italy there’s a whole family of Street View fans, all happily waving for the camera.

These guys can’t quite decide what to make of the Street View car, so much so they haven’t noticed the reversing car about to run them over.

However, this moped driver who is following the car is certainly not impressed.

Finally, these 7000 Spanish fisherman hate Street View so much they’ve organised a mass protest¹!

On the whole, it seems that the public are happy to welcome Google into their cities, but only time will tell how well the service is received as the inevitable privacy concern stories come to light.

As predicted, Spanish Street View Images have just launched across the major Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia!

The images seem to be generally excellent quality, affording us some spectacular view’s of architect Antoni Gaudí’s perpetually-unfinished masterpiece in Barcelona, La Sagrada Família.

So, what else have you found?

In the city of León, Spain, you’ll find MUSAC, or rather the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.

The Castile and León Museum of Contemporary Art opened to the public in April of 2005 and showcases a wide range of visiting contemporary art exhibits; none of which are permanent. What is permanent is the architecture, which is a work of art itself with the dizzying zigzag pattern of the building. To add to the interesting external view of the museum, one side of the building is covered with panes of brightly coloured glass.

Inside the museum, in contrast to the rectangular-shaped galleries at most museums, there are instead large interlocking rhombus-shaped rooms that contain the exhibits.

You can see many more images of both the inside and outside of this museum at the Flickr MUSAC photo pool.

Thanks to bruv.