Marble sculptural group on a slab, showing Hermaphroditus from behind wrestling with a satyr who is falling backwards.

Archaeology · Art · Mores

First-century AD symplegma of Hermaphroditus and a satyr from ancient Oplontis

I Do Not Love You, and That Is My Chief Virtue! A sculptural group of entwined bodies is called a symplegma. The symplegma of the 1st century AD, found in ancient Oplontis, depicts Hermaphroditus and a Satyr. Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, is undergoing an extraordinary metamorphosis, while

Geography · Science · Nature

Bar-tailed godwit flew 13,560 km across the Pacific in 11 days without stopping

This small migratory bird, no more than 40 centimetres long, holds the record for the longest non-stop flight. The figure is phenomenal: 13,560 km. A five-month-old bar-tailed godwit chick flew over the Pacific Ocean for 11 days without stopping, travelling at a speed of about

NB! · Observations · Humour

My compliments to the person who came up with this

The East · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

Eleanor of Aquitaine, the chess queen and the widening of the queen's moves

When in chess the Ferz, meaning vizier, is called the Queen, this alludes to Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of Richard the Lionheart, who is often named as the initiator of the chess reform that changed the name of the ferz. The photograph shows a chess figure of a queen from

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · People

Rollo or Robert I, First Duke of Normandy, Viking by Descent, Great-Great-Great-Grandfather of William the Conqueror

Archaeology · The East · Science

The megalithic complex of Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia, between 9,000 and 12,000 years old

Göbekli Tepe in South-Eastern Anatolia is considered the oldest of the large megalithic structures in the world, its age estimated at 12 to 9 thousand years. The building of temples on this site began as early as the Mesolithic, which attests to the existence of a highly organised society

NB! · Art · Observations

I dream of a kitchen with a view from the window, like the one in this 2017 painting by Jennifer Diehl

Faith · Observations · People · Humour

Edmund Waldstein, son of theologians, and the story of the kiss from Pope John Paul II

There is a popular story about a child who grew up to become a Catholic priest after being kissed by Pope John Paul II. It is usually shared as a headline and a photograph in which the Pope brings his lips to the head of an infant. One would not

Architecture · Art · Monarchies · Museums

Maurizio Cattelan's suspended horse, the 1997 work “Novecento” at the Rivoli museum

Anyone who has been to Turin cannot fail to remember the horse suspended from the dome of the former residence of the House of Savoy at Rivoli, which has housed a museum of contemporary art since 1984. Quite literally the subject of a nature morte, a still life, it is

Detail of an old painting: part of a woman's face in a white headdress with a fly painted on it.

Art · Humour

The Master of Frankfurt portrays himself with his wife in a self-portrait of 1496

When the Landlady Was Telling the Truth About There Being No Cockroaches. Self-Portrait of the Master of Frankfurt with His Wife, 1496

NB! · Art · Observations · Education · Humour

Perhaps everyone has seen this already, but the crib sheets of a Spanish student at the University of Málaga, published by his lecturer, really do look like a work of art

NB! · Art

View of Dresden by Full Moon

View of Dresden by full moon. The Norwegian painter Johan Christian Clausen Dahl, 1839

Alexandr Radayev