Art · Observations · New York · Humour

Mosaic of typical characters at Prince station on the New York subway

Saw a great big station, Stretched and said: "What station is this? Dibuny or Yamskaya?" And from the platform they said: "This is the city of New York. This is the city of New York, they say." Literal translation And, accordingly, a mosaic in the New

Art · Observations

Uninhabited geometric landscapes by Krüger, a painter of the New Leipzig School

It seems I have a new favourite contemporary artist: Markus Matthias Krüger, the German reformer of academic landscape painting, born in 1981 in Gardelegen. Krüger received his professional training at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig (the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst), under Professors Annette Schröder and Ulrich Hachulla.

NB! · Art · Observations · Nature · Humour

Pyotr Konchalovsky's painting is called "Begonias", but actually there is a gloxinia standing beside the begonias, and behind them, it seems, some alocasias

Art · Museums · Heritage

Chagall's 1924 etching goes to Besançon museum after twenty years in French customs

Marc Chagall's 1924 etching L'Acrobate au violon spent twenty years in a French customs warehouse and has now been handed over to the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon. In 2006 the French authorities stopped a lorry that was taking works of art out

A wide river reflecting clouds, with construction machinery and sand on the far bank. A granite parapet with petunia planters in the foreground, trees beyond.

NB!

Construction work on a city riverbank beneath cumulus clouds

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Observations

I continue to keep watch over my favourite building site in Moscow, the pedestrian bridge on Bolotnaya Embankment

I continue to keep watch over my favourite building site in Moscow, the pedestrian bridge on Bolotnaya Embankment. The bridge is taking on convincing outlines, and soon we shall be testing the new promenade route

NB! · Society · People

President of Italy Sergio Mattarella Turns 85

The President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, is 85 years old. He has held the post since 2015. In Italy the president is elected by secret ballot, at a joint session of both chambers of parliament and special delegates from the regions, for a term of seven years

Archaeology · Observations · Science · Nature

In an article on how the inhabitants of southern Norway could make wooden fish traps at least seven thousand years ago, I came upon a suggestion that at about the same time people carried commercially valuable salmonids, namely brown trout, into mountain

In an article on how the inhabitants of southern Norway could make wooden fish traps at least seven thousand years ago, I came upon a suggestion that at about the same time people carried commercially valuable salmonids, namely brown trout, into mountain lakes. The hunter-fisher-gatherers, according to the

Observations · Science · Ethnography · Humour

Misiak and Tureček build a model of cannibalism as an economic practice

A Polish-Czech team of scholars investigates the complexities of cannibalism. They are, of course, careful to stipulate that they are merely modelling, not conducting fieldwork. The aim is to explain why cannibalism never took hold as a regular strategy, and why a taboo arose in different cultures. Why, indeed?

Five stacks of old books tied with twine sit on a whitewashed wooden shelf. Below hangs a cured ham, and a folded white towel lies to the left.

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Stacks of old books on a shelf and a hanging ham in a wooden interior

The East · Monarchies · Mores · People

Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari, wife of the Shah of Iran, and her divorce over the lack of an heir

Empress or Queen of Iran: Soraya in 1953. Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary was born in 1932 to an Iranian diplomat and a German aristocrat. She spoke several languages fluently, received a European education and from her youth stood out for her extraordinary beauty. In 1951 Soraya married Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah

Archaeology · Art · Science · Nature

That Magdalenian art is not a random jumble of animal figures but a specially ordered structure is, on the whole, not a new idea

That Magdalenian art is not a random jumble of animal figures but a specially ordered structure is, on the whole, not a new idea. André Leroi-Gourhan wrote about it in the 1960s. He arranged the Stone Age herd around the horse and the bison. The scheme was discussed from

Alexandr Radayev