It begins with a dance. The wind playing games with the sand and the sand playing along. Ephemeral flurries, a shape-shifting fabric of turbulence, scurrying grains. It’s a compelling and alluring show, but, at the same time, as the wind...
A somewhat blurry photo of a beach at night, clearly some kind of alcoholic beverage in the hands of at least two of the people, one of whom seems be in a state of some excitement, the other two staring...
What do all these images have in common? Well, immediately, it’s quite obvious: they are all 3D models of landscapes. But the thinking, the execution, and the technology behind them is fascinatingly different. And yet all are enticing in some...
Sand boxes are for kids (of any age), and, if they are specifically for adults, particularly military ones, they are referred to officially as sand tables (but they’re still sand boxes). Military planners in any vaguely arenaceous terrain have always...
So, I ask myself, how could this blog possibly miss the “dune week” celebration on the geoblogosphere, an arenaceous festival if ever there was one? The great thing about asking yourself is that a credible answer should be forthcoming –...
Cute, huh? Astroscopus y-graecum, the southern stargazer (hence the astroscopus bit), is, in reality, hardly the romantic that its name implies, never mind incapable of actually perceiving any celestial objects; but is just about as nasty as it looks. It...
The following are entirely reputable and independent pieces of advice for managing a safe and environmentally benign holiday culinary process: Partially frozen turkeys will cause the oil to bubble over, possibly covering the entire deep fryer in flames......If the fryer...
All in all, it’s been an abrasive week. No, I’m not referring to my day job, but rather an emerging theme that started with my last post on the stories of three indefatigable women and a mystery Gobi sand. So...
For one reason or another, I have been reading The Gobi Desert by Mildred Cable and Francesca French. In the history of exploration and enquiry into far-flung parts, it’s easy to overlook that regiment of indefatigable women – particularly Victorian...
Each year, Nikon holds its Small World microphotography competition and the results can always only be described as stunning. This year is no different – but with the added element of sand appearing as the 14th place winner, the image...
Once in a while, out of curiosity, I just go to Google News and enter “sand.” More often than not, among the reports of the latest exploits of one of the Junior High School basketball teams from Sand County, Nebraska,...
No, these photos are not photoshopped – these are the real colours of this beach on Komodo Island: Simply spectacular, macroscopically and microscopically, and a place to just wander, as I did – for some time. And what’s going on...
It’s happened again – a topic that I touched on in my Milan talk shows up in a New Scientist report from earlier this year (I only just caught up with it). In the talk, I commented on the profound...
Having returned from exhorting my geoscientific colleagues to converse with the physicists who are exploring the bizarre behaviours of granular materials, I am now endeavouring (hopelessly) to catch up on the piles of journals and magazines that were awaiting me...
On the opening night of the AAPG International Conference in Milan, I was lucky enough to be invited for a guided tour of the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci," followed by dinner in the part...
The calligraphy above translates from the Japanese as “sand sand sand sand.” Why my sudden interest in suna, as the Japanese word is transcribed? Simply because I very much appreciate that the first (and, so far, only) foreign translation of...
In addition to my hyper-sophisticated new camera, knowing that there would be snorkelling on our recent trip, I also treated myself to a very modestly priced little camera that is good to 3 meters underwater – and wow, am I...
A week shipboard, tossed about in a small cabin, simple and basic, always creaking, and with the ever-present and heady aroma of diesel fumes (I won’t go into any details on the bathroom), was worth every minute for the experience...
I am now returned from what can only be described as an utterly memorable and spectacular trip. Although it began with some uncertainty when we found that our original transport/hotel, the Ombak Putih, was belching noxious black smoke after an...
When you live in an archipelago, what better way to travel than by boat? And, Indonesia being the world’s largest archipelago, seafaring is undoubtedly the way to go – although with over 17,000 islands, ambitions must be modest. Since I...
