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IMAGE: Alex Tabarrok/X Imply ‘only those with a historical tie to the land have a right to belong’ A British museum owned by the University of Cambridge recently “overhauled” its displays with “new signage,” one of which states paintings of the British countryside can conjure up sinister “nationalist feelings.” According to The Telegraph, the Fitzwilliam Museum underwent a “refurbishment” over the last half-decade with “an emphasis on reflecting the ‘evolution of its collection.’” The museum reopened last week with galleries based on themes rather than chronology. A sign for the new “Nature” gallery reads Landscape paintings were also always entangled...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

The problem with string theory, according to some physicists, is that it makes too many universes. It predicts not one but some 10500 versions of spacetime, each with their own laws of physics. But with so many universes on the table, how can the theory explain why ours has the features it does? Now some theorists suggest most—if not all—of those universes are actually forbidden, at least if we want them to have stable dark energy, the supposed force accelerating the expansion of the cosmos. To some, eliminating so many possible universes is not a drawback but a major step...

New book Masters of Landscape Photography contains the work of 16 renowned photographers Each photographer explains how they got the shot, including technical details The book, published by Ammonite Press, is designed to inspire and even set you on the path to photographic success

There are few things more beautiful than an artfully composed photograph of nature. And Daily Mail has more than its share of images of landscape art. To the music of Joseph Blanchard.

Its spring time in America - a time when the musky marxists residue of a long winters night is washed away by the cleansing flood of purer more forgiving capitalism. So as you begin searching for plants to purchase for your landscape, lets discuss: -New and exciting plants for the landscape -Ways to recover from freeze damage -Techniques for planting trees, shrubs, perennials and other plants -General lore, tall tales, and history of gardening

It turns out I underestimated Metro bureaucrats’ capacity for folly. Two weeks ago, I wrote that the transit system would look silly if it let perish 1,000 flowers planted secretly at the Dupont Circle station by local garden artist Henry Docter, the self-described Phantom Planter. I feared that Metro would merely neglect the flowers. Instead, last Sunday, it sent workmen to yank them out.

Absolutely gorgeous photography, particularly the landscapes... http://www.yiminghuphoto.com/portfolios.php

The Aztecs who conquered the city of Xaltocan in ancient Mexico around 1435 may have fundamentally changed the genetic makeup of the people who lived there, new research suggests... Xaltocan was the capital of a pre-Aztec city-state ruled by the Otomi, an indigenous people who lived in Mexico. The period before the Aztec conquest was a tumultuous time for the Otomi, when a century of warfare led to the collapse of their capital city. Colonial records from the 1500s onward told tales of the Otomi fleeing the city en masse in 1395. Those records suggested that the city was abandoned...

Here's the tour around Iceland's Myrdalsjökull ice cap I promised; this ice cap is on top of Katla volcano, which has apparently erupted every time after Eyjafjallajökull erupted (historically). Katla is bigger and reputedly nastier. (click for full-size unless otherwise indicated) I Heart columnar basalt: Skogar stream (this one's full-size) 360-degree panorama of the Solheimajokull glacier: Hraftinnusker, looking like what I imagine the Martian polar regions look like: Myrdalsjökull from the air: from the side: Colored valleys and blue lake Axlafoss

Couldn't sleep last night, got out early and just roamed around with my cup of black coffee. The high seasonal tides are still here, we call them marsh hen tides because the high water pushes the Rails out so they can be hunted. Didn't see any marsh hens but the Great egrets were perching in the Black Mangroves, the water is too deep to wade. The Snowy egret was chasing grasshoppers by the pond. If they can't hunt in the water they do fine on shore. This is a young Snowy egret, still some yellow showing on the legs. Mature...

OK, so I'm serendipitously looking at a topographic image of a place generated with data acquired during the Space Shuttle topography mission. And I see a location that intrigues me topographically. And I say to myself "Where is that?". And so I do some investigating -- something you can do on the Internet, of course -- and I find out this is a very nice place. And so I'm going to let you guess where it is. It might be easy. After the guessing is done, I'll show the image that led me to it. 3 clues. Part of the...

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) said Friday that Senate Republicans face a "very promising" landscape in 2010, despite several open seats where Democrats have good chances. "There are some incumbent seats that we must defend and open seats that we must hold, like in Ohio, Missouri and Florida," Cornyn said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "But we may also have opportunities in some unexpected places: New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada and California." The three open seats, vacated by retiring Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Mel Martinez...

I can remember my mother talking about the victory garden she had in the backyard of their home during World War II. My dad was in the Navy in the Pacific theater during the war and my mother felt that she was supporting the war effort with her little garden. If you look up victory gardens you will find that during World War I and World War II, the government asked the residents of the United States to plant gardens in order to support the war effort. It was one way to bring the people together in support of a...

SACRAMENTO -- The California Public Employees' Retirement System, which poured about $1 billion into a troubled real estate deal, is in negotiations to keep a related loan default from turning into a bankruptcy. CalPERS, the nation's biggest public pension fund, and its partners acquired a controlling interest in 15,000 acres of undeveloped land in the Santa Clarita Valley early last year, before the meltdown in the housing market. The land, once owned by Newhall Land and Farming Co., was appraised at $2.6 billion at the time of the CalPERS investment but has dropped considerably in value since then. CalPERS chief...

The thing about Texas weather is that it won't stay in Texas, it showed up here this morning, thunder and lightning, wind and rain, gonna get cold, too. Oh Well, we had a couple of nice Florida days.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30, 2007 – The general who oversees training for Iraq’s security forces called the country a “mosaic,” and said each of Iraq’s regions poses unique challenges to security efforts. “I think every one of the provinces could be rated as having places that are pretty difficult fights,” Army Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told military analysts during a conference call. “The country is not a one-size-fits-all, a one-description-fits-all. It’s much more a mosaic.” Dubik dismissed “blanket assessments” that predict how long it will take Iraq’s entire security force to function independently...

HOUSTON — A few short weeks ago, Garden Guy was just a mom-and-pop landscaping business that promoted itself as "making Houston beautiful since 1991" and promised to treat its customers with respect and honesty. Since then, though, the business has been vilified around the world as a bunch of bigots because its Christian conservative owners refused to do work for a gay couple. Michael Lord and Gary Lackey, a gay couple requesting bids for a landscaping job at their new house, received a polite _ and, well, honest _ e-mail from Sabrina Farber, a co-owner of Garden Guy: "I need...

I accidentally saw a picture of this waterfall over the weekend, and tracked it down. The first image puts it in "landscape" context. This is size-reduced, click for the full-size. It looks very other-worldly. Doesn't this picture make it look like the river is flowing uphill? The second is a close-up with people for scale, unlike last week's lava falls.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 Whole yard stolen Arrested man accused of taking sod, sprinklers, landscaping items from home under construction By KATHERINE ROSENBERG Staff Writer ADELANTO — Logic would dictate that one of the tricks to avoid getting caught stealing is to take small, discreet items. That usually rules out stealing something as large as, say, an entire front yard. A local man was arrested Monday after reportedly stealing sod, sprinklers and other landscaping items from a home still under construction, according to Staci Johnson, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Adelanto station. The victim reported that the materials...