I don’t know about you guys, but I am fascinated by sand sculptures. It’s just amazing that people put so much time and effort into creating something beautiful but extremely temporary. That’s why these photos from the World Championship of Sand Sculpting are so great -it’s a way to actually make these works of art last forever.

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Ako Tsubaki, a Japanese artist, works with sand. In this amazing video, he arranges sand in layers so that the cross section reveals a landscape. -via reddit | Artist’s Website

Handtrux Backhoe – $17.95

Can’t keep your kids out of the dirt?  If you can’t beat them join them. Get them the HandTrux Backhoe wearable digging tool from the NeatoShop.  Playing in the dirt or sand just got a whole lot more fun.

Handtrux Backhoe sold individually.  Remember to buy 2 for both hands.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Toys & Games.

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Early in their relationship, Kelly Riplinger and Jason Fordley encountered Andres Amador at work on a beach in San Francisco. It was a special memory for both of them, so when it was time for Jason to propose to Kelly, he commissioned Amador to create a mural doing just that:

Three years later, Jason tracked down the artist via the Internet and asked him to create a wedding proposal sand mural on February 12. The artist conceptualized the design and directed a handful of the couple’s friends in raking it into Ocean Beach. It took them, according to Amador, about an hour and a half to get the job done; then everyone took cover on the sidewalk above the rocks.

Meanwhile, Jason was luring Kelly back to the picnic spot. “As we walked down the beach, we talked about the mural we’d seen years ago,” Kelly says. “When we came upon the patterns in the sand, I couldn’t believe the artist was back!”

Because the design was so large, Kelly couldn’t read the message until she climbed up on the rocks (which took some coaxing). The waves were just starting to erase the edges of the mural when Jason pointed out the words and got on his knee. “I was in total shock,” says Kelly. “I mean, after five years I was getting a bit impatient, but I had no idea he would do anything like that! He told me that he’d made me wait so long, he knew he had to make it really good.”

And, as I said at the beginning, she said “yes.” Jason slipped the ring he’d designed on her finger, their friends (and the small band of onlookers) cheered and the champagne started flowing by a fire pit on the beach.

Link via Craft | Photo: 7x7SF

Previously by Andres Amador: Sand Circles

Mouser Williams collects sand from different parts of the world. He photographs his samples using a macro lens to get up close and personal, labeling their composition. This lovely sample is called Star Sand.

This sand, found only on a few beaches in southern Japan, is made up entirely of the calcified shells of tiny organisms only a few milimeters across. It is one of the more sought-after sands for sand collectors despite being readily available on eBay.

Link -via Jason Kottke

(Image credit: Flickr user Mouser Williams)

National Geographic cameraman Bob Poole was filming elephants in Mali, West Africa, when something quite unusual happened: a giant dust storm rose up and swallowed all the light, turning day into pitch darkness. Naturally, he kept on filming!

Hit play or go to Link – Thanks Minjae!

In any case, it’s trivial to say that science has “debunked” quicksand. If anything, recent work on unstable granular media has revealed a far more diverse and complex set of phenomena than anyone imagined. Traditional scientific accounts describe just one type—the classic “artesian quicksand” shown in the MythBusters episode. That’s ordinary sand that has been saturated with upwelling moisture: Given enough water, the sand liquefies, and the grains start to flow like a viscous fluid. But in the past 10 years or so, physicists have started looking at more interesting formations of sediment, in places where grains of sand or clay are assembled in delicate, latticelike structures. Step in one of these, and it collapses like a house of cards—before reforming in a dense pack around your feet.

Quicksand survives in movie fan clubs and fetish groups who avidly collect footage featuring quicksand. Daniel Engber put together a look at the phenomena of quicksand itself, quicksand fans, and a history of quicksand in the movies. Link

You’d think that after a few thousand years of thinking, all philosophical problems would be solved, but that isn’t so. Road Tickle has a list of 4 unsolved philosophical problems for you to ponder. For example:

Sorites Paradox

What’s the problem? Language uses many poorly defined predicates. A fine example is measurement; assume that you define a heap of sand as having one-million grains. You then establish that taking away a single grain doesn’t unmake the heap and it is still defined as being heap. If you accept both of these as fact then what does your definition of a heap actually mean? When does it stop being a heap?

By not giving the heap an precise definition you are simply stating that the heap does or does not exist in some form. Meanwhile, you realize you’ve been sitting and counting individual grains of sand for the sake of a hypothetical question.

What’s the answer? Defining a change in the object require you to set specific boundaries. If you can say that a heap of sand is only a pile of sand if it contains nine-thousand or fewer grains then you can say that a pile is only a heap when it contains more than nine-thousand grains.

At least, that’s one answer. Sorites paradox is what’s referred to as an unsolved problem in philosophy, meaning there is no one method of approaching the question as to solve it universally. Because it’s hinged on definition and perception, the answer is going to vary from individual to individual without a commonly accepted answer overlapping.

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Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who creates sand drawings in front of audiences. Here she is performing on Ukraine’s Got Talent:

Here, she recounts Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war. She brings calm, then conflict. A couple on a bench become a woman’s face; a peaceful walkway becomes a conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier. Simonova looks like some vengeful Old Testament deity as she destroys then recreates her scenes – with deft strokes, sprinkles and sweeps she keeps the narrative going. She moves the judges to tears as she subtitles the final scene “you are always near”.

Link via TigerHawk

Women’s Day has a fantastic collection of sand sculptures all of which have interesting faces carved into them. I think sand sculpting is so amazing, it’s so much work for something that will be destroyed so quickly after its creation. While the one above is my favorite, I think they are all work a second, even third, look.

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I had some sandbags in the backyard that I used in November during a rainy day. I was moving them to a different spot when I heard the noise of the sand. I thought that maybe I could try a new sound design technique so I bought some piezo film transducers and started to experiment with them.

The entire track is created only out of tuned sand tones. No additional sounds or waveforms. I emphasized the inner notes of the sand grains and mapped them on a sampler as a series of instruments. The grooves are all played live with various techniques, including taping two piezo films to my fingers.

Link -Thanks, Diego!

This Persian rug is made of colored sand and is located beside the Straight of Hormuz. Life In The Fast Lane has some great images of the “carpet” being assembled as well as some largest sand carpets of the past and some neat sand sculptures.

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