Name: Poblamiento del Continente Americano
ISBN: 978-9929-687-90-5

Faith · Books · Observations

Monk Simeon of Athos on suffering, forgiveness, listening and peace of soul

Who is the best teacher? – Suffering. Who is the worst teacher? – Pleasure. What is the rarest skill? – The ability to give. What is the greatest skill? – The ability to forgive. What is the most difficult skill? – The ability to keep silent. What is the most important skill? – The ability to

Books · Observations

Machines and a mechanical doll in Alexander Grin’s 1921 novella “The Grey Automobile”

Beware of things! They enslave us very quickly and very firmly! So Ebenezer Sidney, the hero of Alexander Grin's novella “The Grey Motor-Car”, warns his interlocutor as he reflects on the degree to which mechanical objects (or creatures) may be endowed with life. I recalled the story

Books · Observations · Society · Humour

And the weaver, and Babarikha, and the crooked cook sit round the Tsar, staring like evil toads

A quotation from a Doctor of Sciences on an analytical programme on Channel One about the meeting in Alaska. There will be no other analysis today

Books · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

Yevgeny Yevtushenko on the last mammoth and the Yakutian mummy of Yuka the mammoth

He trod with difficulty along the spur above the ice-bound river. There used to be many of them, the proud ones, many, and he was the last of such. Tried more than once in the storm, today he gave way, as if out of spite. From the arrows sticking

Books · Observations · Society · People

Libraries in public spaces offer surprising finds, such as this rarity: a book by Oleg Sokolov, the infamous killer professor

The attitude to the creative work and writings of people with such a dark biography is, in truth, a thorny ethical question. When it came to Roman Polanski, his films, at least for me, were not something one wished to unsee, but Sokolov's book I would not pick

Books · Observations · Paris · Humour

The Louvre bookshop places cacti between its book tables

Cacti! The Louvre's bookshop has found an original and long-awaited solution to the problem of visitors squeezing between tables laden with stacks of books and knocking them over, catching them with a sleeve, a bag or a hip. Cacti placed between the tables will unfailingly halt the

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

Is It Appropriate to Speak of Hydrophobia in the Case of Odysseus?

Cinema · Books · Humour

“You shall not pass,” he said in an even voice

“You shall not pass,” he said in an even voice. A dead silence fell at once. “I serve the Secret Fire and wield the Flame of Anor. You shall not pass. The dark fire of Udûn will not avail you. Go back to the Shadow!” In short, the Anor of

Architecture · Art · Books · Observations

Gilded statue of Jupiter by Johann Jakob Vogelhund (1723) at Rastatt Palace

It was no accident that I recalled La Fontaine's fable of the statue of Jupiter last night. In an illustrated edition of La Fontaine, the figure of Jupiter was depicted as a sculpture resembling the one installed in the hall of the former residence of the Margraves of

NB! · Art · Books

Illustrations to the Odyssey and the Iliad by the American illustrators Alice Rose Provensen (1918-2018) and Martin Provensen (1916-1987)

Art · Books

A Wondrous Marble Once a Sculptor Bought for Carving

A wondrous marble once a sculptor bought For carving. "Whether I make a god, or a table, Or a vessel for washing, — It shall be a god! Let the sovereign Hold thunderbolts in his hands! Fall to the dust, you mortals, — Behold the master of the universe!" So

Faith · Books · Observations · Education

ORA, LEGE, LEGE, LEGE, RELEGE, LABORA ET INVENIES

Pray, read, read, read, read again, labour, and you shall discover something new