Dark silhouette of the International Space Station against the orange disc of the Sun, with sunspots and a fibrous surface texture.

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

Illustration of a man in a dark frock coat seated by a cradle, with a woman sewing and another woman at a window behind him.

NB! · Art · Books · Observations

British artist Angela Barrett and her illustrations for “Anna Karenina”

Illustrations by the British artist Angela Barrett for "Anna Karenina". Better than any screen adaptation

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Heritage

The Athenian Acropolis in Photographs of the 1890s and Today

Engraved page of an old book with musical staves and images of a rooster, a hen with chicks, a cuckoo, a quail and a parrot, with notation of their calls.

NB! · Archive · Science · People · Nature

Jesuit Athanasius Kircher notated birdsong in the seventeenth century

The seventeenth-century German polymath and Jesuit monk Athanasius Kircher is known for his description of China, his microscopic researches and his unsuccessful attempt to decipher Egyptian writing. But we understand that this man was a genuine genius when we see his musical notation of birdsong

NB! · Art

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus, 1550s, and Michelangelo's David, 1504

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus, 1550s, and Michelangelo's David, 1504. They gaze at one another outside the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence

NB! · Faith · Books · People · Rome

Before taking his degrees in philosophy and theology, Pope Francis took a degree in food chemistry

Before taking his degrees in philosophy and theology, Pope Francis took a degree in food chemistry. The subject of food production, papal-style, is explored in the book “Tavola con Papa Francesco” (“A Table with Pope Francis”), “tavola” meaning the gathering around the table.

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Humour

It seems that the dog with the human gaze, from Georges de La Tour's portrait of an old man in the Berg Museum, deserves a portrait of its own

NB! · Faith · The East · Museums · People · Pop Culture · Ethnography

Pope Francis in a bespoke anime haori, presented to him during his visit to Japan in 2019

NB! · Humour

The Ears Are Showing

NB! · Art · Rome

Romulus and Remus, a painting by Alexander Novoselov

NB! · Archive · Mores · People · Humour

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife, Louisa Hawkins, on a tricycle in 1892

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife, Louisa Hawkins, on a tricycle in 1892. Thank God, not on a scooter

NB! · Faith · Observations