SAND sculptures are created during preparations for the FIESA 2009 International Sand Sculpture. Just take a look at this amazing view by the sand sculptors. Well, am really interested in this and sure want to be there... 

Creation ... a man works on a sand sculpture during preparations for the FIESA 2009 International Sand Sculpture Festival in Pera, Southern US.

Group effort ... an international team of 60 sculptors will turn 35,000 tons of sand into sculptures spread over 15,000 square metres for the festival.

Amazing ... a sculpture of a plane.

Pondering ... a sculptor works on a sand sculpture of "The Thinker".

Massive ... a man works on a sand sculpture of a primate.

Digging deep ... working on the sculptures.

Swirl ... the detail is incredible .

Effort ... sculpting is hard work.

Precision ... fine detail is prominent..

Work of art ... the sculptures .

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This is the world's biggest train set which covers 1,150 square metres (12,380 square feet), features almost six miles of track and is still not complete .

The set covers six regions including America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany and the Austrian Alps.

The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains, Everglades, Grand Canyon...

....and Mount Rushmore

The Swiss section has a mini-Matterhorn .

The Scandinavian part has a 4ft long passenger ship floating in a 'fjord'

It is expected to be finished in 2014, when the train set will cover more than 1,800 square metres (19, 376 sq ft) and feature almost 13 miles of track, by which time detailed models of parts of France, Italy and the UK will have been added .

It comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons .

The longest train is 46ft long .

The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights...

...and 160,000 individually designed figures .

Thousands of kilograms of steel and wood was used to construct the scenery...

along with 700kg of artificial grass .

The 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system which mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off .

The whole system is controlled from a massive high-tech nerve centre .

Twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, 41, began work on the 'Miniatur Wunderland' in 2000 .

The set is on display to the public and is so big that they employ more than 160 people to show visitors around their creation .

In total the set has taken 500,000 hours and more than £8 million to put together, the vast majority of which has come from ticket sales .

Gerrit said: "Our idea was to build a world that men, woman, and children can be equally astonished and amazed in"

Frederik added: "Whether gambling in Las Vegas, hiking in the Alps or paddling in Norwegian fjords - in Wunderland everything is possible" .

It isn't just a model railway, but a world which invites the visitors in different ways to dream and discover" .

Eagle-eyed visitors may spot Herbie the Love Bug...

....or a couple on a blanket in a field of sunflowers .

The Miniatur Wunderland is located next to the River Elbe in the Speicherstadt area of Hamburg, Germany

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A new site, badpaintingsofbarackobama.com, collects terrible portraits of the American president. Here are some of our favourites....

The president portrayed as though he were in a Boyz II Men video ..

While his boyband are on a US tour, Barry poses in his white suit outside the White House.

Barack Obama puts his mansion where his mouth is...

This has to be our favourite. A Mexican tribute to the President of the US, with a taco on his head and, um, a pair of undies in his hand..

The third eye traditionally symbolises enlightenment. Here, it just scares us ..

The artist responsible for this one created a very good likeness of the president... and then decided to 'improve' on it by making him glow and painting the Earth on his forehead. And we don't know what those veins are about...

This isn't Barack Obama - it's Bill Cosby, surely?

Someone sat on the Shepard Fairey portrait. See more at badpaintingsofbarackobama.com

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A TASMANIAN winery has launched a new range of wines with labels featuring terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

Another label reproduces an image that surfaced from the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, of a hooded prisoner with electric wires attached to his hands.

The wines are being produced by the Moorilla winery, owned by millionaire gambler David Walsh, in Hobart's northern suburbs.

The images are taken from political graffiti from the streets of Hobart and Melbourne.

The stencil image of bin Laden goes next to a graffiti message reading "all you need is love".

Beneath the torture image are the words "Iraqi liberation".

Moorilla has previously produced an erotic sex-and-death themed "Muse" wine series.

Moorilla winemaker Conor Van der Reest said, the temporary and contemporary nature of street art suited the drink-now ethos of the new "Praxis" wines.

"It's not a question of us trying to confront people," Mr van der Reest said. "It's more a chronicling of stuff that's current, either in art or world events."

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Check out some of the amazing artwork produced in the 2008 Melounovy Festival in the Czech Republic--amazing and wondrous melon carvings!

15 more crazy art pics on Melon Carvings: Melounovy Festival after the jump.

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