NB! · Moscow · Museums · Observations

The Pushkin Museum Turns 112

Cinema · Observations · Education · Pop Culture

Arnold's finger method for multiplying by nine and the Chinese rule

An unexpected method of multiplication is offered by Arnold from "Hey Arnold!". The method works for multiplying by 9 and, it would seem, corresponds to an old Chinese rule of multiplying on the fingers: To obtain the result of multiplying by nine, hold both hands open and fold

Observations · Society · Nature · Humour

In Kazakhstan, Przewalski's horse, described in 1879, will be called kerkulan and kertagy

Przewalski's Horse Renamed in Kazakhstan. Equus ferus przewalskii, made known to science and described by the Russian traveller and geographer Nikolai Przhevalsky in 1879, is henceforth to be called in Kazakhstan "Przewalski's horse – kerkulan, kertagy". I would suggest coming up with a name for

Books · Observations · Humour

The Lake School of poets, its name and Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey

A Peredelkino leaflet asks: who among us does not know the Lake Poets? Still, in case there are doubters, the poetic fellowship that emerged at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries was called the Lake School after the Lake District in the north-west of England, where the

NB! · Observations · Humour

And These People Will Be Judging Your Restaurant

Observations · Nature · Humour

Paranormal experts suggest a werewolf portal in Cannock Chase forest in Staffordshire

Paranormal experts say that English woodland may hide a werewolf portal. Cannock Chase in Staffordshire is known for its eerie sightings of supernatural beings, including ghosts, werewolves and the notorious “black-eyed child”. Surprised? Not in the slightest. England is as much a hub of the uncanny as Bohemia and

Marble statue of a seated goddess in a crenellated city-wall crown, holding ears of wheat, with a male figure at her feet.

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Rome

Statue of the Goddess Tyche as the Seleucid Capital in the Vatican Museums

I photographed this statue in the Vatican Museums some time ago because of its extraordinary crown. It turns out that this Roman copy of a Greek bronze depicts the goddess Tyche in the allegorical guise of the capital of the Seleucids. On her head sits a city wall, complete with

NB! · Observations

Good Old Versailles

Books · Observations · Science

Instant photography since 1923, from bulky apparatus to Agfa and Polaroid

Instant photography appeared in 1923, but books of 1927 already give the word "shapshot" in the sense of "taking instant snapshots". What a swift entry of a neologism into everyday speech. Though originally this required a most cumbersome contraption, in effect a portable photographic laboratory combined

Observations · Nature

On 30 May 1977 the tree was struck by lightning; the plant survived and lives on

The plaque by the Roxburgh pine in the Sukhumi Botanical Garden

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg

I watched the new Major Grom: what is the film actually about?

In the first film, the protagonist, Igor Grom, an officer of the Saint Petersburg police, appears as a veritable Russian superman without any evident weaknesses or, as critics noted, motivation. One is left with the impression that people endowed by nature with incredible willpower and a sense of justice invariably

Geography · Observations · Science · Nature

The history of Canis Major and Sirius, from bow and arrow to the hound Lelaps

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, but in fact it can be seen in the daytime sky too, if you know where to look. It is also known as the Dog Star, or Alpha Canis Majoris, for its reliability, constancy and unrivalled ability to help people find