NB! · Humour

What a Top-of-the-Range Motor Really Looks Like

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Moscow · Observations

On the site of the cosy "Zvon" coffee shop in the basement of the seventeenth-century bell tower of the Church of St John the Baptist on Pyatnitskaya Street, a different coffee shop has opened following a change of rector: it is called "Perezvon"

NB! · Science · Nature

Why Are Men Dying Out?

Medieval miniature: bare feet in a pink robe below a cloud in the sky and two footprints on a green mountaintop beneath.

NB! · Faith · The East · Heritage

Footprint of Christ's right foot on the Mount of Olives and the left one in Al-Aqsa Mosque

On the Mount of Olives, from which Jesus Christ ascended, a stone slab bearing the imprint of Christ's right foot remains. The relic is called the "Little Footprint" ("Stopochka"). The part of the stone with the imprint of Jesus's left foot was

NB! · Books

May this day endure through the ages as a union of friendship, glory and valour…

NB! · Observations · Society

But in fact the Russian army took Berlin three times: the first in the course of the bloody Seven Years' War, on 12 October 1760; the second on 4 March 1813, during the Russian army's Foreign Campaign of 1813-1814; now, unjustly…

A dark-haired woman in a black jacket smiles with her arms crossed beside a sculpture pedestal in a park.

NB! · Interviews · Books · People

Donna Tartt in an interview compares good books to an off-road vehicle on rough terrain

Donna Tartt, in a recent interview, likened reading and writing good books to an off-road vehicle driving over terrain so rough that it is unclear whether the machine will ever make it back. "It ought to be fun, I think," the writer remarked.

NB! · Archive · Observations · Education · Society

In today's presidential decree "On Approval of the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Sphere of Historical Education", I noticed an important clause on the digitisation of archival documents and the creation of a nationwide

In today's presidential decree "On Approval of the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Sphere of Historical Education", I noticed an important clause on the digitisation of archival documents and the creation of a nationwide platform for archival search. We shall

Narrow gallery with brick walls and domed vaults; gilded mosaics with figures cover the arches, blue light enters the windows, and a visitor stands far off.

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Mosaics on the vaults of a gallery in an old brick church

NB! · Faith · Art · People

Crucifix from the church of San Domenico in Arezzo, wood, tempera and gold

Crucifix from the church of San Domenico in Arezzo, wood, tempera and gold. The work of Giotto's teacher, known under the pseudonym of Cimabue, dated to roughly 1268-1271

NB! · Monarchies · Moscow · Museums

Vladimir Putin and the Diamond Cap of Peter I Alexeyevich

Old photograph: carved columns with capitals in the shade of a temple court, broken stone blocks in the foreground, a figure seated at a column's base.

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