NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour

So many people against one wretched snake: hardly sporting

Three wooden beehives stand on the roof of Notre-Dame, with three jars of honey of different sizes on the paving in front of them.

NB! · Faith · Observations · Paris · Nature

Beehives have stood on the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris since 2013

Since 2013, bees have been kept on the roof of Notre-Dame. It is an initiative of city activists, endorsed by the cathedral because it shows the beauty of the created world. And I am still afraid to go to church with my own candles

NB! · Geography · Art · Books · Nature

And here is a touching drawing of a bird discovered by that same scandalous seafarer William Dampier, from his 1703 book on the voyage to the shores of New Holland

NB! · Faith · The East · Nature · Ethnography

It is said that the restless souls of the samurai wander the seabed in the form of heikegani crabs, whose shells bear the imprinted faces of warriors

NB! · Observations · Nature

The baby pangolin is an endangered species: the Chinks are actively wiping it out, believing that either the flesh or the scales of the pangolin have curative powers

The baby pangolin is an endangered species: the Chinks are actively wiping it out, believing that either the flesh or the scales of the pangolin have curative powers. What a pity that defenceless animals suffer so much at the hands of man

Eighteenth-century painting of a dark rhinoceros in a pen, with spectators in Venetian masks and tricorn hats behind a wooden barrier.

NB! · Art · Mores · Nature · Humour

The Rhinoceros Clara in a Painting by Pietro Longhi, Venice, 1751

Clara is 13, weighs 3 tons, has been touring all over Europe since the age of 3 in a coach drawn by 8 horses, and her urine is sold as medicine. The year is 1751. The Grimani Family and the Rhinoceros (and a heap of dung), Pietro Longhi, Venice

NB! · Observations · Science · Nature · Humour

The celebrated evolutionary biomechanist Hutchinson with an elephant

The celebrated evolutionary biomechanist Hutchinson with an elephant. But all I can see are the black socks

NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature · Humour

Remains of a Bulbasaur Found in South Africa Date from the Permian Period

Remains of a Bulbasaur have been found in South Africa and date from the Permian period. For more on the find and its classification, see the discoverers' article: https://peerj.com/articles/2913/

Fossil skull of Bulbasaurus held in a hand beside a ruler against a black background.

NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Pop Culture · Nature · Humour

German palaeontologists find skull of new dicynodont Bulbasaurus phylloxyron in Africa

The skull of Bulbasaurus phylloxyron, a representative of a new variety of herbivorous mammal-like reptiles, the dicynodonts. It was dug up in Africa by German palaeontologists, who did not name it after the Pokémon!

NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Science · Nature

Gaston of Orléans was also a naturalist: here is part of his collection at Blois, where he laid out a botanical garden in which the eminent botanists Robert Morison and Paul Reneaulme worked on the classification of plants

NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

Scientists at the University of Oregon discover a new species of ant, Aethiocarenus burmanicus, with a triangular head and bulging eyes that could look backwards

Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered a new species of ant, Aethiocarenus burmanicus, with a triangular head and bulging eyes that could look backwards. The ant was found in amber 100 million years old

NB! · Art · People · Nature

In Jacques-Louis David's famous portrait, Napoleon astride Marengo at the Great St Bernard Pass

In Jacques-Louis David's famous portrait, Napoleon astride Marengo at the Great St Bernard Pass. The horse would outlive his master by 10 years