NB! · Museums · Observations · Nature

I had only ever seen the European anglerfish in Donat Naumov's "The World of the Ocean" and in the children's encyclopaedia "Pochemuchka", and I am greatly impressed by this handsome grump on display at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco

NB! · Museums · Observations · Palaeontology · Nature · Humour

The Giant Fossil Turtle from the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco: This Is How I See Russian Officialdom

A pale stone vase with relief decoration on a short pedestal, with long green blades of grass hanging beside it.

NB! · Observations · Humour

Vase on a veranda in Monte Carlo with a relief resembling both a duck and a ribbon

A vase on our veranda in Monte Carlo has made me look afresh at the "duck or rabbit" puzzle. So then: duck or ribbon?

Through a wrought-iron grille: a gallery with a painted ceiling, a column, a stone wall with arched windows, palms and the glass roof of a conservatory.

NB!

Winter garden with a glass roof and palms, seen through a grille

Architecture · Observations · Heritage

Riviera Palace in France partly converted into apartments as restoration work continues

The Riviera Palace is not in the best of states at present, of course. The century of its grandeur has passed, when expensive motor cars crowded before the main entrance, celebrities lounged within and fountains of iced water bubbled. Now part of the building has been remodelled and the public

Architecture · Observations · Mores

I Was Lucky Enough to Stay in One of the Most Beautiful Buildings in Monte Carlo

I was lucky enough to stay in one of the most beautiful buildings in Monte Carlo. Formally, of course, this is France: the town of Beausoleil, founded in 1904, which was even proposed to be called Upper Monte Carlo. But in the end the name Monte-Carlo Supérieur went to

Archive · Science · Society

A group of American scholars has created a 3D model of an eighteenth-century slave ship

A group of American scholars has created a 3D model of an eighteenth-century slave ship. Judging by the description, the model is based on the only fully surviving plan of a typical vessel used to transport slaves from Africa. Dr Nicholas Radburn, lecturer at Lancaster University and historian of

NB! · Observations · Humour

relatable

Books · Ethnography · Humour

Another Alarming Superstition

Another alarming superstition. From a book of 1903: to carry unsalted meat across a road or a stretch of water will make the devil follow you. So do take care, and safe travels

Books · Observations · Ethnography · Humour

The author issues a warning without specifying its subject

Welsh Folklore of 1909 records this omen: if you wish to die, eat cabbage in August. As they say, I have merely done my duty and warned you.

The East · Geography · Art · Observations · Nature

Senchikhin's 1969 painting of the Aral and the disappearance of the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea, a boat, 1969. This picture hangs in my home in one of the most prominent places, beside several similarly unassuming subjects, all of them from the Aral. It is a fairly simple specimen of the genre study in the Impressionist manner, by an author who is not

Architecture · London · Mores · Society

Britain abolished the window tax, in force since 1696

On 24 July 1851 Britain abolished the window tax, introduced in 1696. In the intervening years the tax was raised more than once, and it led to houses being built with no windows at all. The tax was levied not on each window but on the total number of windows

Alexandr Radayev