NB! · Coming Up · Archive · Moscow · People

Andrei Sakharov's Nobel Certificate

Andrei Sakharov's Nobel certificate. A facsimile copy is on display at the Ground Solyanka gallery

NB! · Archive · Society

People Receive the Smallpox Vaccine in Fear

NB! · Observations

Incidentally, a good author: don't laugh

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

A Maestro Fresh off the Press

A maestro fresh off the press. Enthusiasts and admirers have a unique opportunity to acquire Ponasenkov's second book, in its 2007 edition, for a mere 115,000 roubles. True, only recently this same book was sitting on Ozon for 419. Nevertheless. My business is to inform.

Black-and-white photo of a smiling man in a suit waving a hat from an aircraft doorway while a woman behind him holds her hand over his head.

NB! · Archive · Mores · Society

Nancy Reagan shields her husband's head after his recent surgery, 1989

Nancy Reagan shields her husband's head as he, forgetting his recent head surgery, takes off his hat to wave to the crowd. 1989

Tall limestone building with a colonnade near the top and a stepped pyramid roof. The sign «Civil Courts» is above the entrance; trees, a street and cars are in the foreground.

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Civil Courts Building in St. Louis with a colonnade and pyramid roof

Two workers on scaffolding high above the city guide a large stone Ionic capital, hung from cables, onto a column, with city buildings behind.

NB! · Archive · Architecture

Installing an Ionic capital on the Civil Courts Building in St. Louis in 1930

Installing a capital on one of the 32 Ionic columns, nearly 13 metres high, on the top of the Civil Courts Building in St. Louis, 1930. The roof of this building was modelled on one of the wonders of the ancient world, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

NB! · Archive · Science · Society · Humour

A Nineteenth-Century Caricature of the Anti-Vaccinationists

A row of ancient stone lions on stone bases, lit by warm light, against a night sky with the Milky Way and countless stars. A hill is visible in the distance.

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The Terrace of the Lions on Delos under the Milky Way

NB! · Art · Observations · Nature · Humour

The two most beautiful things I have seen this year are the sumptuous cake at my birthday party and these incredible photographs by the astrophotographer Lukas Hapsis from the Greek island of Delos

NB! · Books · Monarchies · Moscow · Observations

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, recommends on her Instagram blog Amor Towles's "A Gentleman in Moscow", a book about the life of Count Rostov, confined by the Bolsheviks in... the Metropol Hotel

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, recommends on her Instagram blog Amor Towles's "A Gentleman in Moscow", a book about the life of Count Rostov, confined by the Bolsheviks in... the Metropol Hotel. Well, for a third recommendation it is an interesting choice. One can hardly refuse Cam,

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Science · Humour

Napoleon, elected to the National Institute of Sciences and Arts, somehow recalls the fashion among rulers of our own day for getting themselves elected to every academy and scientific presidium going, though without such style and class, of course