MetaFilter posts tagged with grass

Background on the Ball Game

dseaton — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:16:37 -0800

Diamond Artistry. With the baseball postseason about to begin, some folks won't just be looking at the ball, they'll be checking out the backdrop. Red Sox groundskeeper David Mellor gets most of the credit for kicking off a revolution in creating patterned fields for Major League ballparks, with designs including the Sox logo, intricate plaids, and an American flag mowed into the field. Want to do this to your own lawn? He's got a book to tell you how. (Previously.)

Green Grass

neat-o — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:04:30 -0800

Record heat. Extreme drought. But the grass must stay green!

Less Lawn, Better World

taursir — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:59:53 -0800

Here are some ways to shrink your unnatural water- and gas-guzzling lawn and plant something that is beautiful and requires no water usage, no mowing, and is more likely to attract more interesting wildlife. With this much lawn in the U.S., and incessant water shortages, and other water issues and wars in our present and looming in the future, why not go native? Naturally, there are objections, since local ordinances often don't allow for natural prairie lawns, and the neighborhood stick-up-butt committees are quick to remove things they consider eyesores. What is your lawn worth to you?

How I spent the war

afu — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:03:40 -0800

How I spent the war. German writer and Nobel Prize winner, Günter Grass tells the story of his tour of duty in the Waffen S.S. (previously )

Powerpoint with a purpose

PreteFunkEra — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:13:37 -0800

Al Gore trains 1,000 people from around the world to share the message he presented in "An Inconvenient Truth". "The goal had been to train 1,000 "presenters" to show slides of melting glaciers and charts of climbing temperatures, but many more have wanted in. Those selected to gather at the Hilton Nashville Downtown last week included teachers, doctors, a meteorologist, ministers, Wal-Mart employees, actress Cameron Diaz, architects, retirees, veterans and financiers."

whatever you do, don't mention the war

orthogonality — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 05:46:07 -0800

Winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, a peace activist who opposed reunification for fear Germany might once again war against its neighbors, ghost-writer of Willy Brandt's speeches, author of the great fabulist history of World War II and postwar Germany, The Tin Drum, and of My Century, a novel of one hundred chapters, one for each year of the last century, a man considered part of the artistic movement known in German as "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung" or "coming to terms with the past", Günter Grass belatedly admits the history he expunged from his personal narrative: his service as a member of the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg of the Waffen-SS. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Grass explained his service would stain him forever, but that only after the war did he feel ashamed of having been in the Waffen-SS:

for me, because I am sure of my recollection, the Waffen SS was nothing frightful, but rather an elite unit that they sent where things were hot, and which, as people said about it, had the heaviest losses.

It's the Chronic - what? - Polls of Zobgy!

DragonBoy — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:43:08 -0800

Nearly Half of Americans want to let states legally regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling.
Zogby International will pimp there services to just about anyone these days, including NORML for a poll on American's attitudes towards pot. According to the poll 65% of 18-29 year olds and 50% of 50-64 year-olds are cool with weed being legal and controlled like booze. The former slackers of Generation X, 30-49 year-olds, oppose it by 58% and the geezers over 65 oppose it by only 52%.

The pool shows some interesting generational attitudes. Is the 30-49 age group still following Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" mantra or is this the attitude of parents worried about their kids? I thought these folks were supposed to be the slacker generation, and now they're the strongest opponents to legalization.

Watching Grass Grow

RonZ — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 05:24:07 -0800

Watching Grass Grow is an appropriate activity now that the Dog Days of summer are upon us. For those who are watching their grass lawns wilt and turn brown in the hot weather, there's hope that it will recover as pictorially documented on this site.

NORML Releases Most Comprehensive Analysis Of US Marijuana Arrest Data To Date

trharlan — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 08:37:01 -0800

NORML Releases "Most Comprehensive Analysis Of US Marijuana Arrest Data To Date"

Among the reports' findings: * The enforcement of state and local marijuana laws annually costs US taxpayers an estimated $7.6 billion, approximately $10,400 per arrest. * While adult African Americans account for only 8.8% of the US population and 11.9% of annual marijuana users, they comprise 23% of all marijuana possession arrests in the United States.

Grain farming pushed back 10000 years

stbalbach — Sun, 27 Jun 2004 14:46:22 -0800

Farming origins gain 10,000 years. Humans made their first tentative steps towards farming 23,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. Stone Age people in Israel collected the seeds of wild grasses some 10,000 years earlier than previously recognised, say experts.

I call mine my 'sourdough pancake powered mower'

ewagoner — Thu, 14 Aug 2003 08:42:37 -0800

If you're looking for a time machine that also cuts grass, look no further than the Reel Lawn Mower History and Preservation Project. After you mow, you can host a croquet party!

Should gay pets be allowed to poop indoors?

majcher — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 19:25:36 -0800

Pet-a-potty. Want to let your dog experience the thrill of doing their business on nature's own newspaper, but are scared that a great big eagle might swoop down and snatch poor Speckles away from you? Problem solved! Here's a nice square patch of grass! In a box! On wheels! No kidding! Sometimes, I think it's not the pets that are the ones that need to be spayed and neutered...

Keep off the grass

skellum — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 07:52:21 -0800

Keep off the grass These days in London it's okay to smoke grass but not okay to walk on grass. Perhaps it's not all that surprising given that there's been a material breach. Any other current examples of civil liberties being eroded quite so outrageously where you live?

CrazyUncleJoe — Tue, 15 Feb 2000 09:08:45 -0800

The U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association has a pretty detailed site up. On the one hand, It has made me anxious for the roar of the engines and the smell of the fresh cut grass, but it makes me sad too - ever since Sta-Bil bought out the lawn mower racing circuit, it's become way too commercial. My favorite line is a caption from the picture on the front page: "The Webmaster Leadin' the Pack on his Blades of Thunder in Lisle, IL." It's nice to see someone who is able to combine their work with their passion.