Nature · Humour
The Execution of Prometheus, Had It Been Filmed in Present-Day Hollywood
Angela Merkel at the Marlow Bird Park during a visit to her former constituency of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
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NB! · Observations · Science · Nature · Humour
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has published a new photograph of the Moon
The American astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has shared a new picture of the Moon. She is, in principle, a beauty in our own skies too, only not quite so cheerful
Observations · Nature · Ethnography
Two explanations for the origin of the Malay word belanda for primates and the Dutch
In Malaysia and Indonesia the proboscis monkey, or Nasalis larvatus, is called the Dutch monkey, or more precisely simply the Dutchman, literally orang belanda. The curiosity has two explanations. The first is that with their faces these primates reminded the local population of the Dutch, who had once held colonial
Geography · Nature · Humour
Brazilians call the bald uakari the English monkey for its likeness to English colonists
The small New World monkey, the bald uakari, or western cacajao, is known in Brazil by a far simpler name: macaco inglês, that is, the English monkey. Popular rumour has very accurately noticed the outward resemblance of this inhabitant of the tropical forests of Amazonia to English colonists, especially after
Art · Books · Science · Nature · Humour
I don't know why, but pineapples are trying to escape from the pages of one of the greatest botanical books of the eighteenth century
The hand-coloured botanical atlas Plantae Selectae by Christoph Jacob Trew, 1771. The engravings were made after drawings by the outstanding botanical draughtsman Georg Dionysius Ehret
Moscow · Observations · Paris · Pop Culture · Nature
Tree topping in 1960s Paris in a photo of Audrey Hepburn and in Moscow
Bonsoir. Thanks to this photograph of Audrey Hepburn we know that in the Paris of the 1960s, too, there was the ruinous practice of crown-topping trees, which is now applied everywhere in Moscow and within a couple of years destroys healthy, sturdy trees. But note that there, at least,
NB! · Archive · The East · Paris · Nature
The Rhinoceros from Iran, as the Young Merchant Jean Chardin Remembered It While Travelling from Paris to Persia in the 1670s
Nature · Humour
The Cardinal Who Was Not Invited to the Conclave
Cardinalis cardinalis lives in the eastern states of the USA, south-eastern Canada, Mexico and northern Guatemala, as well as in Bermuda, Hawaii and California
In the Press · London · Nature · Humour
Obelisk, a royal guard horse, killed pigeons and was sent for psychological retraining
In 2016 The Field reported that Obelisk, a horse of the Household Cavalry, lured pigeons by spitting oats from his mouth. And when the pigeons came close, he trampled them to death. And he did this regularly. In the end the horse was sent away for "psychological retraining"
Faith · Society · Nature · Rome
The Red Wind in Rome on the day of Pope John Paul II's funeral, 8 April 2005
On 8 April 2005, the day of Pope John Paul II's funeral, a sudden strong wind fell upon Rome, and for a time the Vatican became one solid human mass shaken by the gusts of the elements. The phenomenon went down in history as the Red Wind. Red,
Art · New York · Society · People · Nature
Agnes Denes sowed a hectare of a former landfill in New York with wheat
In 1982, a wheat field sprang up in Manhattan, literally at the foot of the Twin Towers. The territory of a former rubbish dump, which was standing vacant at the time, had been allocated for the creation of an art installation. But instead of a sculpture park, the artist Agnes
NB! · Science · Nature
American astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy photographs the ISS against the Sun
The ISS passes the Sun. Photograph taken by the American astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy