Ship's captains and outside monitoring firms have reported waves of GPS jamming around Shanghai's ports, on a scale and of a severity never seen before: the jamming causes ships' locations to be incorrectly displayed and to jump around; the observations were confirmed via an anonymized (sic) data-set from a short-hire bike firm, whose bikes are also mysteriously appearing and disappearing at locations all through the region. The spoofing has created a massive local shipping hazard and has led to spectacular shipwrecks.
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Need to relax for a couple of minutes? Don those headphones and head over to Sand Tagious for some very satisfying slicing and smooshing of kinetic sand. Read the rest
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this giant Martian sand dune that has a turquoise blue hue in enhanced color. Read the rest
With snowpack disappearing and desertification expanding globally, the Global Warming Riders are making the best of a bad situation and shredding some challenging dunes. Read the rest
Pats of Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova was covered with orange snow this weekend. The odd hue was caused by sand blown into the atmosphere from the Sahara Desert that mixed with snow and rain. The same Saharan dust also resulted in a very orange tint to the Greek island of Crete, seen below.
"African Dust Turns Snow Orange in Eastern Europe" (Weather.com)
Второй день после выпадения загадочных осадков. Самочувствие хорошее, аномалий не обнаружено, третья рука не выросла. Полагаю версии о токсичных отходах/цементе/или чего-то там ещё, о чем холят слухи в интернетах, можно отсечь. Самый что ни на есть настоящий песок⛰ #sandboarding #nofilter #moodygrams #justgoshoot #aov #artofvisual #artofvisuals #heatercentral #agameoftones #fatalframes #hypebeast #pic #citysquad #gameoftones #createexplore #all_shoots #madrussians #rosakhutor #gorkygorod #krasnayapolyana #горкигород #розахутор #вотэтода #snow #mothernature #naturelover #goodvibes. #инструкторкраснаяполяна #инструкторсноуборд #инструкторпосноуборду
A post shared by Алексей Козин (@slivi4) on Mar 24, 2018 at 4:23am PDT
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Here's a sandbox with a topographical map projected onto it. Move sand about, and the map moves with it, like an insane tech demo of some augmented-reality version of classic God-game Populous.
Your very own AR sandbox costs $7,050 and it comes with the laptop, projector and camera rig. The software, though, is free of charge. Here's a detailed project report on the prototype if you fancy shaving a few grand off that tag. [via r/interestingasfuck]
Correction: this post originally likened the shaping of land to the activities of God. Slartibartfast is the correct object of comparison. Boing Boing regrets the error. Read the rest
Calvin Seibert makes modernist sandscastles on Coney Island. At Little Atoms, Caroline Christie interviewed him about his remarkable creations.
I like making things and tend to work with whatever is at hand. Building sandcastles at a beach to me is a very natural thing to be doing. As a child, I saw photographs of the French ski resort of Flaine. I was very taken by the brutalist buildings, designed by Marcel Breuer. Since then I have always gone out of my way to see brutalist architecture and when I build sandcastles I have them in mind.
Technique:
A five-gallon paint bucket is essential. Paint buckets are particularly rigid and have a nice sharp edge for digging with. Then it is used for carrying water. Lots and lots of water. The tools are all made of plastic. I have a couple that are nothing more than a small rectangle of 1/8-inch plastic with a beveled edge and then a couple of trowels of different sizes.
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YouTuber IncredibleScience has a great at-home science project that's kid-friendly: making waterproof sand. Read the rest
Last week, Cory posted about Dr. Gary Greenberg's marvelous microscope photography of sand grains. Greenberg literally wrote the book on sand grain microphotography, titled A Grain of Sand: Nature's Secret Wonder. Above, is a beautiful video promo for the 2008 book. Read the rest
