Weekend break - other sand in the news

Put the words "Louisiana sand berms" (or even simply "sand") into Google news search, and it's apparent that the rhetoric around what is now being termed "The Great Wall of Louisiana" continues unabated (see, for example, The Seattle Times and the LA Times). But it's time for a break from this saga, a little light relief.

As the opening of the Football World Cup rapidly approaches (England's first game is against the US - the latter, of course, playing soccer rather than football), celebration in South Africa takes many forms. Including a collection of sand sculptures of the different stadiums hosting the games - above left, the brand new stadium in Durban.

And, in Moscow, six men have now been locked in a sealed complex of containers for 18 months (at least, that's the plan) in order to simulate a manned mission to Mars. One of the many facilities within the complex is a "Martian surface simulator" - otherwise known as a glorified sand box.

Oh, and please note that I now added, long overdue, a widget on the sidebar of this blog to link posts, should readers wish, directly to networking and bookmarking sites.

[Sand sculptures from Jon Saintz, originally published in The Observer; Mars experiment image from the project website, further information from many sources, for example the BBC news]

Comments

[weekenderz]

These sand sculptures are awesome, really great post, thanks.