Art · Monarchies · Museums

Golden bees as Napoleon's imperial emblem and the Bonaparte family arms

The portrait of Napoleon at the recently closed exhibition "Salon 1819" at the Girodet Museum in Montargis, France, is strewn with golden bees, the emblem Napoleon chose as his imperial sign. Of no small importance to Napoleon, of course, was the fact that golden bees resemble the golden

Cinema · Observations

Review of the Netflix series “Dracula” with Claes Bang and Dolly Wells

Watched Netflix's "Dracula": three ninety-minute episodes are just the thing for a weekend. It is a pity that each episode is weaker than the last, but it remains an engrossing spectacle: a splendid acting partnership, with the Bond-type looks of the towering Dane Claes

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Museums · Heritage

Pretium Laborum Non Vile: The Reward Is No Less Than the Deed. Ante ferit quam flamma micet: The Blow Falls Before the Flame Flashes. Non Aliud: I Desire No Other

These are the mottoes of one of the most prestigious and respected honours in Europe, the dynastic Order of the Golden Fleece, founded on 10 January 1430 by Philip the Good. In the portrait from the Dijon Museum of Fine Arts, the duke is shown wearing the Order of the

Books · Observations · Society

But

But. You see, "the trouble is not with the personality of the despot who oppresses his family and everyone around him. He is powerless and insignificant in himself; he can be deceived, removed, thrown into a pit at last... But the point is that with his destruction despotism does

Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Society

In an 1855 letter, Herzen asks Alexander II for freedom of speech and the abolition of serfdom

Sire, give freedom to the Russian word. Our intellect is cramped, our thought poisons our breast for want of space, it groans in the stocks of the censorship. Give us free speech... we have something to say to the world and to our own people. < > Wash from Russia

Science · Nature

The name penicillin comes from Latin penicillus, brush, and is related to the word penis

Penicillin is so called because of its appearance: under the microscope, a colony of Penicillium looks like a brush. The name of the genus, Penicillus, comes from the Latin penicillus, "paintbrush". Oddly enough, penicillin is a kinsman of the word penis, from the Latin penis, "tail"

Back cover of a 1990 booklet with text in a red frame about cashless payments by the public through the Savings Bank of the USSR.

NB! · Archive · Books · Observations · Society

Savings Bank of the USSR advertises cashless payments on the back of a 1990 issue of the Ogonyok Library

1990: Sberbank of the USSR advertises cashless payment (the advertisement itself is on the back of an Ogonyok poetry collection, incidentally). As you can see, the automatic payment of utility bills was invented long before debit cards became ubiquitous and Sberbank Online was ever thought of.

NB! · Archive · People · Pop Culture · Humour

Igor Stravinsky has knocked back a whisky and is delighted with life

Igor Stravinsky has knocked back a whisky and is delighted with life. To your health, naturally

Cinema · Pop Culture · Ethnography

Dumbledore's Cave Journey for the Horcrux and Slavic Beliefs About the Death of Sorcerers

Particular attention is drawn to Dumbledore's final expedition with Harry Potter to a cave on a rocky seashore, which turned out in the end to be a quest for a false Horcrux. The most interesting details emerge when one recalls that at that moment Dumbledore already knew of

NB! · Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Ethnography

One would like to recall the death scene of Albus Dumbledore and look at those events from the standpoint, let us say, of Russian folk demonology

Monarchies · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Vandals paint the lips of the Louis Philippe statue with lipstick at Les Invalides

How do you like Louis Philippe with painted lips? I never cared for the Pear King, but I see nothing amusing in the fact that someone has rouged the lips of his statue at Les Invalides. The saddest thing about this act of vandalism is that lipstick scarcely comes off

The East · Mores · Society · Humour

There is a tale about Soviet diplomats in China in the 1950s: they refused to ride in rickshaws, since to them the rickshaw seemed the very embodiment of the exploitation of man by man, even though giving up this transport meant endless lateness

There is a tale about Soviet diplomats in China in the 1950s: they refused to ride in rickshaws, since to them the rickshaw seemed the very embodiment of the exploitation of man by man, even though giving up this transport meant endless lateness. In those years China still suffered from

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