Off topic: A gallery of 14 paintings of polar landscape from 19th & 20th century

Visions of the ice caps before climate change at New Scientist. Stunning pictures - at least in the eyes of someone used to scenery of the tropics; some of them don't quite look like the earth I'm familiar with! Even the ones that don't look so beautiful at first sight show a different world when read with descriptions alongside.

But they are kind of small - so cannot use as desktop background.

PS: I'd never seen a picture of northern & southern lights before.

[via Boing Boing]