Black-and-white photograph of an elderly grey-haired man with a moustache, in a short-sleeved shirt and braces, standing in front of bookshelves.

Observations · Science

Albert Einstein on intuition and the rational mind in society

Intuition is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is its faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift. Albert Enstein

NB! · Archive · Art

Dionysus Slays the Alchemist Who Drew a Shadow out of a Ray of Light

Dionysus slays the alchemist who drew a shadow out of a ray of light. Apollo bears his soul up to the sun. From an alchemical treatise of the 17th century

Black-and-white drawing of a yellow ring with a red eye amid wispy flames. The yellow title The Lord of the Rings runs above; Tolkien and Christopher Lee are named, with credits below.

NB!

Cover of The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs & Poems, illustrated by Queen Margrethe II

Art · Books · Monarchies · People

Tolkien kept the drawings of Ingahild Grathmer, who turned out to be the Queen of Denmark

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark Proves to Be One of the Acknowledged Illustrators of "The Lord of the Rings" Tolkien once received a letter from a certain Ingahild Grathmer, who sent him her drawings, inspired by the universe of Middle-earth. Although he preferred his books to have

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · New York · Humour

The Statue of Liberty in 1886 and Now

The Statue of Liberty in 1886 and now. Live with that.

NB! · Education

Sit Down, Five

A bearded crowned king sits on a bench holding a lance with a banner showing a horse before a sun disc. A youth before him offers a sword; the scroll reads “Take this sword, my lord”.

NB!

King and a youth offering a sword, in the style of a medieval miniature

Icon-style illustration of a grey-haired haloed saint with a sword facing a crowned skeleton in a black cloak, with a fortress between them.

NB! · Archive · Art · Books

Sergey Yukhimov’s illustrations for “The Lord of the Rings” in the 1993 Russian edition

The greatest illustrations to "The Lord of the Rings", 1980-1990, by Sergey Yukhimov. They were published in the 1993 Russian edition

Aristocracy · Books · People

If you like me, let them read me; if I offend, let them cast me into the fire: I seek no trumpet of praise

Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov

Hall interior with black Corinthian columns, red walls and ceiling beams adorned with gilded griffins; caryatids in the windows and a colonnade open to a garden beyond.

NB!

Drawing of a classical hall with Corinthian columns and griffin ceiling beams

Archive · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage

A project to remodel the Acropolis by the celebrated Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, whom Otto, the first King of the Greeks, invited to design a royal palace in Athens, a small provincial town of some 10,000 inhabitants…

Schinkel was far ahead of his time in proposing that the palace be built literally on the site of the ancient temples, folding the ruins of the age of Pericles into a residential and administrative royal quarter. In effect, this would have meant the destruction of the Acropolis with all

Aristocracy · Architecture · Art · Observations · Humour

Ceramic pavilion “Wedding Cake” by Joana Vasconcelos at Waddesdon Manor

The 12-metre ceramic pavilion "Wedding Cake" by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. The present day. Waddesdon Manor in the English county of Buckinghamshire, property of the Rothschild Foundation. The author calls her work a building, an immersive sculpture. At first glance it appears a rather striking structure,

Alexandr Radayev