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Books · Observations · Nature · Humour
Who would have thought that Elizabeth Bowen could be so popular among wasps!
More precisely, among the sceliphron wasps, that is, the digging kind, which make out of clay such charming capsules, as though excavated in the land of Lilliput, and stuff them with little spiders and small insects. The growing wasp larva feeds on the provisions stored in these mud-walled cells,
Books · Observations · Science · People
Michel Henry’s “Barbarism” Republished Through the Efforts of Jean-Luc Marion
Evil is not the absence of good, but a force in its own right, full and substantial. "Barbarism" by Michel Henry (1922-2002). Henry is the greatest representative of French phenomenology, and sadly little known in present-day philosophical circles. Happily, however, he has very recently been reissued
NB! · Books · Observations · Science · Humour
Incubator shaped like a brooding hen in a description from a 1786 book
An eighteenth-century incubator: I came across a description of an egg-hatching machine in a book of 1786. To lend it a harmonious appearance, the author proposes that it be made in the shape of a broody hen. Yet another confirmation that the technologies of the past were far
NB! · Faith · Art · Books · Observations
Caravaggio's "Sacrifice of Isaac" on the Cover of Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling"
Caravaggio's "Sacrifice of Isaac" on the cover of Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling". A marriage made in heaven
NB! · Faith · Observations · Humour
So "he flew away, but promised to return" is, quite literally, about Christ
Cinema · Books · Observations · New York
The ending of the 1968 film “Planet of the Apes” and how it differs from the original novella
Do you remember the ending of the 1968 film Planet of the Apes? When the ruined Statue of Liberty appears on screen, we learn that the action is taking place not on some distant heavenly body but on Earth, which has fallen under the rule of cruel and narrow-minded
Books · Observations · People
My independence, which is my strength, gives rise to my solitude, which is my weakness
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Observations · Science
Why the silent letter b appears in the English words debt and doubt
It turns out that the strange silent “b” in “debt” and “doubt” is a fairly late addition. Borrowed from the French “dette” and “doute”, the words displeased the English intellectuals of the sixteenth century, who resolved to add a “b” to the spelling in order to point to the Latin
NB! · Observations · Society
The Cryptocurrencies That Really Interest Us
NB! · Observations
Have you made up your minds?
NB! · Art · Observations
Mercury in a Chariot Drawn by Cockerels as Patron of Wrestlers in a Manuscript Miniature
Mercury in a chariot drawn by cocks. The cock appears here not only as a companion of solar deities but also as a symbol of combat, through its association with the cockfights so popular in the ancient world. Mercury, among other things, was the patron of wrestling and wrestlers.