NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour
Blue whale flipper in a museum display and its resemblance to a human hand
The flipper of a blue whale. Isn't it practically a hand?
Alexandr Radayev
Archaeology · Moscow · Observations · Science · People
Moscow bids farewell to Ekaterina Devlet, specialist in early forms of art
Today in Moscow we bade farewell to the distinguished scholar Ekaterina Georgievna Devlet. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academic Secretary of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Centre for Palaeoart, Professor Ekaterina Devlet was a leading specialist in early forms of art and in
Archive · Books · Mores · People
Turgenev described the life of Louise Héritte, eldest daughter of Pauline Viardot
Turgenev described in some detail the madness of Pauline Viardot's eldest daughter Louise Héritte, who, instead of marrying the Frenchman with whom she was involved, married, against all persuasion, a certain Héritte and very soon came to hate him. Allegedly for his narrowness of mind. She bore a
NB! · Museums · Palaeontology · Paris · Nature
The Giant Deer, or Irish Elk
The giant deer, or Irish elk. It became extinct about 20,000 years ago. The antlers of the animal spanned as much as 5 metres. This skeleton is kept in the Palaeontological Museum in Paris
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris
Church of Saint-Roch in Paris, linked to Anne of Austria, in poor condition
Found the famous Parisian church of Saint-Roch in a sorry state. A church founded in the sixteenth century and rebuilt in the seventeenth under royal patronage. Anne of Austria herself appeared with the infant Louis XIV at the laying of the foundation stone of the new building. Here, in
NB! · Faith · The East · Mores · Ethnography
The mystical movement of the sheep-eaters in early modern India prescribed eating raw meat straight from the carcass, tearing off pieces with the teeth and using no auxiliary implements, and moreover in strict order
Monarchies · Observations · Society · Saint Petersburg
The cholera riots in Saint Petersburg in June 1831 and Nicholas I's address to the crowd
In June 1831, popular riots broke out in Saint Petersburg. Terrified by the cholera epidemic, people supposed that the physicians were sprinkling some poison into the water and the wells, and that this was what made the disease spread. Nicholas I himself undertook to quell the riot, addressing the crowd
NB! · Archive · Society
Five per cent bond for 960 roubles of 1822 issued to Nathan Rothschild
A 5% bond for 960 roubles dated 1 March 1822, issued to Nathan Rothschild, whose signature appears in the upper right corner of the document. In all, bonds of this kind were issued to the Rothschilds to the value of £3.5 million sterling
NB! · Art · Society
The State Porcelain Factory Named After the Newspaper Pravda! 1937, the "Constitution" Vase
The State Porcelain Factory Named After the Newspaper Pravda! 1937, the "Constitution" vase. Peasant women with loaves and peasant men with pipes beneath golden sheaves of wheat. So this is what you look like, Stalin's constitution.
NB! · Observations · Humour
Beauties Come in All Kinds
Architecture · London · Heritage · Mores
Lenin's London House on Percy Circus and the Fate of Its Memorial Plaque
In 1841-53 London's Percy Circus was laid out on the circus plan: 27 curved houses were built wall to wall around the square. The residential complex was conceived as good property for the lower stratum of the middle class, and local history records show that it housed
NB! · Art · Museums · Society · Humour
Porcelain revolutionary chess set of 1933 with red and white pieces
Porcelain revolutionary chess set, 1933. Reds against Whites. The Red pawns are peasants; the White pawns are shackled by the bourgeoisie. As for the Red king and queen, they are, of course, the worker and the collective-farm woman