Archive · The East · Science · Nature

Bulgarian pepper in Russia since the 16th century and theories behind its name

Bell peppers have been known in Russia since at least the 16th century: the crop reached us from Turkey and Iran. According to one version, the name, which in Russian means "Bulgarian pepper", comes from the fact that the peppers were brought by Bulgarian settlers; according to another,

NB! · Observations · Society · Paris · Nature · Humour

Incidentally, Macron never did take the swim in the Seine he promised before the Olympics to prove how clean it is

The Moscow River with a bright green patch of algae along the embankment under a stormy sky.

NB! · Geography · Moscow · Observations · Nature

Patches of algae bloom in the Moscow River and their possible causes

I have many questions about the Tiber and the Seine, as ever; the Moskva, by comparison, is of course very clean, but even it has such pockets of "blooming". I suppose the accumulation of algae may be connected with the high solar activity this summer, with temperatures and

NB! · Geography · Nature

Sørvágsvatn: the lake above the ocean on Vágar, one of the Faroe Islands

Geography · Art · Books · Museums · Nature

Andrey Bely’s poem “On the Mountains” about a hunchback and pineapples on a cliff

Mountains in bridal wreaths. I am in raptures and young. On my mountain-tops there is a purifying cold. Here, up to my crag, a white-haired hunchback has dragged himself. He has brought me as a gift pineapples from the subterranean hothouses. He danced in crimson-bright, glorifying the

NB! · Geography · Maps · Nature

A Map of the Ecosystems of the Soviet Union

NB! · Geography · Science · Nature

Images Published of Water Ice in an 82-Kilometre Crater at Mars's North Pole

Geography · Observations · Mores · Society · Nature

Lobster in America went from food of the poor to a popular product thanks to the railways

Originally, lobsters in America were a very cheap and plentiful food, so much so that they were associated with poverty. They were used as animal feed, and workers campaigned for a limit on the amount of lobster in their weekly rations. The product owed its popularity to the arrival of

White meadowsweet flower clusters on reddish stems among green meadow grass.

NB! · Observations · Nature

Meadowsweet, also called Filipendula, as a fragrant and medicinal wildflower

The beautiful meadowsweet, also known as queen of the meadow and devil-gnawer. Very lovely, fragrant and curative. But since this is not a channel about folk medicine, I shall simply delight you with the perfection of a wild flower

Observations · Mores · Nature

Horses working in European mines and a fortnight of annual leave in France in 1936

The peculiar, suffering fate of horses rarely comes into focus in historical narratives. For thousands of years horses were humanity's constant companion in everything, from farming and manufacture to war. Of course, we never stop to think that often, where man suffered, horses endured still greater suffering, unnoticed

NB! · Geography · Maps · Observations · Nature

In 1539 the Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus peopled his Carta Marina of Northern Europe with fantastical beasts

In 1539 the Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus peopled his Carta Marina of Northern Europe with fantastical beasts. Had the map been drawn in our own day, in place of sea serpents it would have featured garbage patches, oil slicks and offshore platforms

NB! · Archive · Art · Nature