Books · Observations · Society

Workers switched off a loader robot, as Levin's peasants spoiled machinery in Tolstoy

Sergey Kazakov, Director of the Industrial Development Fund of the Chelyabinsk Region, declares that the robotisation of industry is being held back by business itself:. "We had a case where a loader robot was installed at one of the enterprises. On the second day it broke down. They began

Books · Museums · Science

Jan van Musschenbroek's magic lantern in the Boerhaave Museum and Gravesande's 1720 book

The forerunner of the television: the oldest known “magic lantern” is recorded in the Physices elementa… of the Dutch physicist Willem Jacob 's Gravesande. 's Gravesande, a former lawyer from The Hague who became a professor of mathematics at Leiden, was the first of Newton's followers

NB! · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour

And the captain of the Titanic says: “Where was Gondor when we needed help?”

NB! · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

It feels as though Joffrey Baratheon resembles Caligula even more than Caligula himself

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour

When I posted to my stories a photograph of a work from the collection of the New Tretyakov Gallery, "Our Goal Is Communism! Komar, Melamid"

When I posted to my stories a photograph of a work from the collection of the New Tretyakov Gallery, "Our Goal Is Communism! Komar, Melamid", a woman I did not know wrote back: "no, it isn't". I asked her: "what do you mean,

NB! · Cinema · Books · Humour

Even Frodo Has His Chinese Counterpart

Map fragment of Rome showing the Bocca della Verità, the Forum Boarium and the Cloaca Maxima beside the river.

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Rome

In Rome the Bocca della Verità and the Cloaca Maxima lie close to the Forum Boarium

From the Mouth of Truth to the Cloaca Maxima is a stone's throw. Eternal, all the same, this city of Rome

NB! · Observations · Humour

Everyone has a friend who pulls them up and a friend who pulls them down; as ever, the main thing is not to mix them up

Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

London, Paris, Poland, Banana

The singer Irakli would have done better to sing about Kiribati

Painting in blue tones: a woman in white holds a paper wrapping of fried potatoes while a man in white works with his back to the viewer.

NB! · Observations · Humour

Fried potatoes of English cuisine in a painting by Eric Satchwell

Tonight's supper is fried potatoes. Thanks to Eric Satchwell (1926-2012), it is the finest dish in English cuisine