Archive · Observations · Mores · Humour

How the Hebrew Press in 1944 Explained the New Term Veganism to Readers

The term "veganism" appeared in 1944 to distinguish vegetarians who eat dairy products and eggs from those who do not. Why do I mention it? Because the Hebrew-language press at once began to produce amusing explanations of what it all meant, and they still seem timely today.

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · The East · People · Humour

Why Haven't You Written Your Tablet or Done Your Homework? Serua-eterat, Sister of the 13-Year-Old Ashurbanipal, to His Wife, 672 BC

NB! · Archive · The East · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Britney Spears in Tel Aviv Tonight

Tonight Britney Spears is giving a concert in Tel Aviv. In her honour I have dug up a mention of a Spears from 1945, in a notice about the arrival in Israel of Sir Edward Spears, who was a prime minister and an ambassador in Syria and Lebanon

Page of a printed book with diary entries from October 1941 about the dog Silva, cats and hunger.

NB! · Archive · Mores · Society · Saint Petersburg

A girl's diary from the first months of the siege and the fate of the dog Silva

The first months of the siege. A little girl keeps a diary. In the end they decided to salt the dog Silva, but then did not, and salted the cat instead. In December poor Silva was stolen and eaten

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Rome

Plan of the Church inside the Colosseum, Carlo Fontana

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg

Nicholas II as Alexei Mikhailovich, Alexandra Feodorovna as Maria Miloslavskaya at the costume ball of 1903 in the Winter Palace, and Jared Leto at the Gucci Cruise 2018 show in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Nature

There is a legend that the hurricane of 1904 carried a horse and cart across to the other bank of the Moskva River

There is a legend that the hurricane of 1904 carried a horse and cart across to the other bank of the Moskva River. At any rate, it lifted houses into the air, wooden and brick alike

NB! · Archive · Heritage · Nature

Many parks and groves were destroyed completely, ancient trees splintered to matchwood or were torn up by the roots

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Nature

Several villages were destroyed entirely by the Moscow tornado of 1904; in several others only a couple of houses were left standing

Archive · Geography · Moscow · Nature

The Moscow tornado of 16 June 1904, over 100 dead and Gilyarovsky's description

On 16 June 1904 a tornado struck Moscow; the force of the wind that day is estimated at 25 m/s, that is 9 on the 12-point Beaufort scale (or a storm). More than 100 people were killed that day and more than 800 were injured. Gilyarovsky described the

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · Museums · Society

Stele inscribed with a law against tyranny; in the upper part, the figure of Democracy crowning the people, 337 BC

NB! · Archive · Science · People · Nature