Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sand

Breathing holes from a giant undersea Cthulhu

shammack — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:09:58 -0800

What is this thing that we found on the beach? We saw several of these things in the sand during low tide in Panacea, Florida. My wife poked at one and it fell apart. What is it?

Beach Comfort

trashcan — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:03:21 -0800

How can I be comfortable sitting on the beach for a few hours, without my back and arms seizing up? Going on holiday and as much as I love the beach, I really seize up when lying on a beach towel for a long period of time. Any easily packed or widely available items that would aid my comfort. I'm talking where there are no beach beds - but even those after about 15 minutes make me ache!

Obviously I will apply copius high factor - and not stay out for too long....but anyone got any sand implement tips to help me have an even better time??

Ta

Song Name in Trailer for House of Sand

leybman — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:51:55 -0800

Can anyone tell me the name of the song that starts playing 1 minute and two seconds into the movie trailer for The House of Sand (Casa na Areia). The trailer link is here. The song sounds jewish, but I can't remember what it's called.

What is this sand-like dust under my rug?

kmel — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:51:51 -0800

What the hell is the sand-like dust under my rug, and why won't it go away? The rug is from IKEA, Skagen I think. It seems to be shedding a powdery sand and it just won't stop. Seriously, it's been over a year with frequent vacuuming on both sides. And there's a lot of it -- not just a light dusting, I sweep up piles of the stuff every time. Is the backing slowly disintegrating, or is the rug filtering room dirt? (shudder) Can this be stopped, or do we just need to get rid of the rug?

Making a sand mandala for our wedding

desjardins — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:27:51 -0800

We want to incorporate some sort of sand design into our wedding as an alternative to a unity candle. This would be sort of like a Tibetan sand mandala but nowhere near as complex. How the heck do we go about this? We are not Tibetan Buddhists. This will not be a religious thing per se; we simply like the symbolism of intentionally and mindfully creating something together, mixing the colors of sand, and then sweeping it away to remind ourselves of the impermanence of life and that all we have is right now, this moment. There won't be any Buddhists at the wedding, Tibetan or otherwise, that might be offended at our co-opting of this ritual.

We are thinking of something that would be mostly completed ahead of time, since we're not going to spend hours doing it during the ceremony. We'd leave a part unfinished and complete it during the time you'd normally light a unity candle. We don't have a design in mind; I picked a butterfly theme for the wedding to symbolize transformation, so we might incorporate that. Other ideas are very welcome.

Where do we get colored sand? How are we going to transport the unfinished piece to the ceremony without destroying it? What should we sweep the finished piece into? Is this totally insane? This video is awesome but we're not that talented.

Will never take another beach photo

gfrobe — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:29:07 -0800

Sand in my Ixus camera! Should I pay the repair charge or try to fix this myself? I have an Ixus 60 (SD600) that is less than a year old for which I paid £200. I took it to the beach last month and afterwards the lens started making a bit of a noise when closing. It's still under warranty but Canon tells me that it has sand damage, which is not covered, and they want £100 to fix it. Is this worth it? Will a repaired camera be as good as new?

The camera still works fine (apart from the slight noise) so I'm wondering if it will get worse and eventually die. If so, is there maybe a way for me to open it up and blow the sand out with compressed air?

Not a mystery, but a question

macinchik — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 10:11:20 -0800

Looking for the origin of a quote referenced by Dennis Covington in Salvation on Sand Mountain as being something he "read somewhere": "Mystery...is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend." Does that ring any bells for anyone? Is it just basic Christian doctrine?

How to simply refinish an old piano

primer_dimer — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:30:49 -0800

Is it possible for me to refinish my cheap piano (pics inside) I have an upright piano of unknown provenance that has had a hard life. I bought it from a school a couple of years ago, and the finish is extremely battered - lots of dings and scratches - but I like the sound. In a couple of weeks I'll be moving it to a new house, which is going to be empty for a few more weeks until I move in. Hence, I've got the idea of doing a simple refinishing job while there's no-one in the new house to be annoyed by dust, varnish fumes etc.

Now, on to the beast itself. The construction is very simple; as far as I can tell there are no fancy veneers or scrollwork or anything like that. Here are some photos (one,two, three ). I've found some online articles about piano refinishing but they all seem to be dealing with veneer finishes and are consequently more complicated than I think I need. As far I can tell, my piano is just stained pine/maple/something. So, my proposed scheme would be:

1. Take off the bits that will come off easily and do them separately
2. mask of the non-wood bits (i.e. the keys) to stop them getting dusty
3. Sand down to bare wood.
4. Stain/varnish

Does this sound like a do-able plan, given a couple of weeks of evenings to work in? For bonus points, can anyone ID the wood, in case it makes a difference?

Should I sand the binding of my Les Paul?

atmu — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:12:40 -0800

Should I sand the binding of my Edwards Les Paul? I just bought a new Edwards Les Paul - Jimmy Page model. The guitar sounds great and plays great, but the body binding is really sharp. It's practically at a 90 degree angle and rubs the underside of my forearm raw after a few hours of playing.

If you can't picture what I'm describing imagine running your fingers along the edge of your guitar's body. Instead of a smooth edge, it's a sharp line like the edge of a wooden desk.

I don't know if this is normal or if someone at the factory forgot to sand down the body binding. I've never seen another Edwards Les Paul for comparison.

My question is: should I sand down the body binding myself? It seems like an easy enough job. The guitar has a very very thin coat of nitrocellulose so there won't be much between the wood and the sandpaper.

I know once I do this, the guitar will be pretty much unsellable, but it looks so damn good. I'll take the hit. If sanding it myself isn't too hard, how do I do it and what do i need?

Thick, well-made sweatshirts

stewiethegreat — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 15:14:54 -0800

My favorite sweatshirt company has gone out of business - who else makes quality, thick sweatshirts? I have a collection of sweatshirts with college logos on them, all made by a brand called "Galt Sand." They're fantastic - thick, but not lined with an extra layer; not hooded, no extra pocket in the front... Just a great-feeling, thick sweatshirt. Galt Sand, however, was bought out by Starter in 1996 (that may demonstrate the quality of these shirts, I've been wearing them almost every day since the early 90s). But they're getting old, and starting to show their age.

Is anyone else familiar with this brand? Any ideas where I could find similarly-made shirts, or who makes them?

Advance thanks.

Sand and clay animations - AEIOU!

Jimbob — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 16:41:46 -0800

A-E-I-O-U! Does anyone know this old sand animation show and song? What about the red-and-blue clay? Back in the 80s, on the Australian ABC between children's shows, they used to have little animated shorts.

One of them was a series of animations done in sand, with an accompianing song, sung with vowels. I'll do my best impression:

Aaah Aaah A.... E E E.... I I I.... Oh Oh Oh
A A A... E E E... I I I... A E I O U!
La lala lala! La lala lala!

The other animation involved two clay characters - one red, and one blue, who (if I remember correctly) were sort of enemies, and had little adventures turning into balls and walls and messing around with each other, some times banging into each other and becoming...purple!

I think both animations were European.

Does anyone know what these animations were called? Who made them? Bonus love if you can point me to information about them on the net, or a video. Youtube fails me.

What about the ROUS's?

aubilenon — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 03:21:02 -0800

Quicksand without lots of water. What gives? I was walking around the Umpqua dunes in western Oregon last week and suddenly fell in! That is, the previously flat ground gave way beneath me and I fell into a newly formed hole which was about waist deep.

There wasn't a lot of water in the sand, which is what I have heard of as quicksand. There was enough moisture that when I climbed out, the vertical sideds of the whole were able to hold themselves up and not just collapse like totally dry sand would.

I figure ther was some air pocket in the sand that I broke through to and fell in. Questions: Is this common? How big a hole can this make? Is there a name for this phenomenon?

Pomp, or schoolyard sand-tackling

punkbitch — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 15:38:31 -0800

There was a game I played in elementary school which we called "Pomp." At my school we had a sand field. Weird, I know. One guy would stand in front of everybody and yell "Pomp" and then everybody'd charge towards the other side of the sand and the 'pomp'-yelling guy would try to tackle somebody. Kind of a smearthequeer thing. After everybody had crossed the 'endzone' - the guy (or girl, everybody played) who got tackled and the first guy would yell 'pomp' again and back they'd all charge...toward the other 'endzone.'

and the tackling'd go on and on until only one bastard was still standing ... and then he'd be the first guy to yell "pomp"
in the next game.

What the hell is this game? Does anybody have similar stories...histories etc.?
~cheers~

sand art video

arcticwoman — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 18:50:05 -0800

Help me find this short art video online! My partner saw this art video that she later tried to show me using the same link but for some reason it won't work and I really want to see it. It was found at http://media.ebaumsworld.com/sandsicaf.wmv but when the file loads winamp shows that it's 0 sec. long and there's no image.

This video is of a man standing in front of a huge audience with nothing but an overhead projector and a bucket of sand. He spreads the sand on the projector to make various images (animals, trees, etc) with orchestral accompaniment. (by the way, it's apparently amazing if you're interested)

Is there a way to patch a fiberglass sand pool filter?

jasonspaceman — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:06:05 -0800

I have a sand pool filter that is made out of fiberglass. It has sprung a couple pinhole leeks. Is there any easy way to patch it up? [more inside] This pool and filter came with the house I recently bought. After vacuuming out the old sand and placing new sand in the filter, I noticed two pinhole leaks towards the bottom of the filter. I would really prefer to patch the holes in the filter so I can enjoy the pool soon. Is this possible with fiberglass?