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The myth of Orestes and the Erinyes as a sign of declining blood feud and a stronger state

The myth of Orestes, Electra and Clytemnestra is regarded as an illustration of the weakening of the custom of blood vengeance. Responsibility for it lay with the goddesses known as the Erinyes, who unfailingly overtook anyone who had killed a blood relation. Hence the goddesses of vengeance, for example, did

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!

Archive · Faith · Observations · Science

Vladimir's wives and mother in the chronicle compilation and names invented by Tatishchev

As for Vladimir, I would be cautious here and cite what is written about him rather than what is thought, for example. One respected historian countered my sallies in the spirit of "he is a semi-mythical figure altogether" with the argument of Vladimir's RELICS. Very

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! · Observations · Science · Humour

A week of leave, taken to finish my first work since the dissertation, has come to an end

A week of leave, taken to finish my first work since the dissertation, has come to an end. I never did finish: there are 4 chapters written, and 8 in draft. Is that not a tragedy! Do get distracted along with me: https://clck.ru/AWjYs

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

Observations · Science · Education · Humour

Most people see only a colourless spot through a microscope, as in the school laboratory

You cannot simply glance into a microscope and cry "Eureka!" Most people will see nothing there but a colourless smudge. Recall how you gazed in vain at onion vacuoles in the school laboratory, slyly reporting that of course you had seen everything

NB! · Observations · Science

Expressions in the spirit of "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" have a right to exist in science too: to make out anything meaningful even through a modern microscope, a certain "inner" preparation is required

Science · Mores

Execution in the brazen bull from Phalaris of Sicily to Rus in the early modern era

Execution by roasting alive inside a brazen bull has been known since the 6th century BC. It was first introduced under the Sicilian dictator Phalaris. The dreadful irony is that the coppersmith Perilaus, who by tradition built the first brazen bull for executions, ended his own life in it. As,

Archaeology · Observations · Science

There are two views on the origin of syphilis: that Columbus's sailors brought it from the New World, and that Europeans had known the disease since ancient times

Each version has its evidence: the first epidemic of syphilis did indeed break out after the American expedition, yet diseases resembling syphilis are described by Cornelius Celsus, Claudius Galen and Avicenna, and besides there have been finds of afflicted Neolithic bones. Be that as it may, similar diseases were treated