NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour
BBC News reports an elephant on the loose near a supermarket in southern Italy
Are elephants roaming Italy again? All we needed was another Punic War
Section
· 625 stories
Nature
Faith · Art · Books · Science · Nature
Next!
Next! Comrades, let us not hold up the queue! Engraving by Jan Luyken from the frontispiece of Cornelis van Dyck's Osteology, 1680. A tortoise, a hedgehog, a rabbit, a dog, a horse and a camel are leaving the frame. It is no accident that the almost biblical scene
Archaeology · Heritage · Nature · Rome
Ruins of the Curia of Pompey, where Caesar was killed, open to tourists and home to cats
Caesar defeated Pompey, and Caesar's partisans disgracefully deprived Pompey of his life. Caesar himself was murdered in an assembly hall attached to the largest of Rome's theatres, the one named after Pompey. And the place survives to this day. The ruins of the so-called Curia
NB! · Geography · Observations · Nature
Summer solstice on 21 June 2023 at 17:57 Moscow time, the longest day of the year
The summer solstice in 2023 will occur on 21 June at 17:57 Moscow time. A reminder that today is the longest day of the year.
NB! · Books · People · Nature
Mark Twain and Cats
Art · Monarchies · Museums · Nature
A Plant-Made Replica of Elizabeth II’s Coronation Robe Is on Show at Sandringham House
Sandringham House is displaying a replica of Elizabeth II's coronation robe made from plants. Twenty-four florists selected a variety of leaves and blooms so that they could be arranged into a robe and patterns closely resembling the royal originals. Pampas grass, a great many cereal grasses, ferns,
Observations · Society · Nature · Ethnography
Cacique Raoni awaits help from French presidents in creating a park in Amazonia
Macron embraces Chief Raoni, founder of the movement to save the Amazon. Thanks to Raoni, 12 foundations for the rescue of the rainforests have been created. One of his main goals is the creation of a national park in Amazonia covering some 180,000 square kilometres, for which he has
Faith · Art · Science · Nature
The Prophet Jonah and the Whale
The Prophet Jonah and the whale. By Tommaso di Antonio Finiguerra, an artist of the early Italian Renaissance and the Florentine school. It is curious that, in place of a whale, Finiguerra drew the heraldic dolphin of Florence, enlarged to improbable dimensions. As for the likelihood of surviving inside the
Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Nature
Criticism of Bosco Vertical in Milan and the author's advice to try Virginia creeper
Most contemporary architectural projects look far better as visualisations than as built reality. So it was with the luxury residential complex Bosco Vertical in Milan, literally a "vertical forest", which in practice turned out to be not quite so green or so mysterious. Once construction was complete, the
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Nature
Oaks up to 600 years old under museum supervision at Kolomenskoye
The Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve preserves the remnants of Moscow's oldest oak grove. The oaks of Kolomenskoye may remember the Russian sovereigns who lived and stayed here: Peter I, Alexis Mikhailovich, Michael Fyodorovich, Ivan the Terrible, Vasily III and Ivan III. The oldest oaks of the estate are fenced
Nature · Ethnography · Humour
The Wolpertinger and Other Fabled European Chimeras Known from Stuffed Specimens in Germany
The little wolpertinger is a folkloric creature of the Alpine forests of Bavaria. This tiny mammal, furnished with horns, wings, claws and webbed feet, belongs to a whole family of European fairy-tale chimeras, which includes the dilldapp, the rauracle, the raselbock, the squonk and the elwedritsch, each assembled from
NB! · Books · Mores · Nature