Observations · Science · Nature

I Have Two Pieces of News for You

I have two pieces of news for you. The first. The age of sharks is determined by the annual rings on their vertebrae. Sharks have a cartilaginous skeleton, but the vertebrae are mineralised with enough calcium to lay down visible annual layers. In a cross-section of a vertebra, concentric

NB! · Observations · Humour

A Serbian Lady Is Quite Something

Black and white photo of a man in a suit and a blonde woman with a guitar sitting close together in front of a carpet, with two glasses on the table.

Archive · Cinema · Observations

Retouching in a photograph from the film “Once Again About Love” with Lazarev and Doronina

Can anyone explain why half of this photograph has been painted in? The hand has come out very strangely, both on Alexander Lazarev and on Tatyana Doronina. From the film "Once More About Love" by Georgy Natanson

Faith · Cinema · Books · Observations

The Russian title “Project End of the World” loses the meaning of Project Hail Mary

Several acquaintances, having read my complaint about the Russian title of Project Hail Mary, have written to say that it is not actually "Ave Maria" but sporting slang, meaning a desperate pass in American football, or a last hope. My dear Ted Lassos, my very own Utkins! The

NB! · Observations · Society · Humour

If only one could now be cheerfully applauding the wise policy of Lenin and Stalin, instead of all this

Observations · Science · Society

On 28 April the Trump administration dismissed the entire US National Science Board with a single letter: 22 scientists who oversaw the National Science Foundation, with its budget of 9 billion dollars a year

On 28 April the Trump administration dismissed the entire US National Science Board with a single letter: 22 scientists who oversaw the National Science Foundation, with its budget of 9 billion dollars a year. The NSF has been without a director since the spring of 2025, and Trump's

Observations · Society

Social guarantees of the Soviet May Day and the meaning of the holiday in Russia after 1991

What exactly are we celebrating today? It is a question to which, by and large, nobody has a coherent answer. In the calendar the day is called “Spring and Labour Day”. To quarrel over spring seems odd, particularly since everyone marks its arrival on 22 March already, while the notion

Faith · Cinema · Observations

The 2026 American film Project Hail Mary, which is, incidentally, excellent in every respect, and was based on the novel of the same name, reached Russian cinemas not under its original title, «Project Ave Maria», but in an adapted version, on what ground

The 2026 American film Project Hail Mary (incidentally, excellent in every respect), based on the novel of the same name, reached Russian cinemas not under its original title, «Project Ave Maria», but in an adapted version (on what grounds, it is unclear), «Project End of the World», which in principle

The East · Observations · Society · Humour

With a Light Wave of the Hand, Donald Trump Becomes an Elegant Turkmenbashi, Whose Face Stood at Once on Banknotes, School Textbooks and State Documents, and in Whose Honour the Months of the Calendar Were Renamed

For the 250th anniversary of the United States, the State Department will issue a special print run of passports bearing Trump's face and signature on the inside cover, over the text of the Declaration of Independence. American passports have never before carried a living president. Trump's

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Nature · Humour

And what is wrong with the short-term memory of all those Muscovites who have fallen into hysterics over snow at the end of April?

And what is wrong with the short-term memory of all those Muscovites who have fallen into hysterics over snow at the end of April? It falls, as a matter of fact, quite regularly even in June

NB! · Architecture · Observations

Well, that particular Russian sky-scraper can hardly, even with the most generous stretch, be called an adornment of the city's skyline

Moscow · Observations · Society · People

Remembering Election Night in March 2018

I remember Election Night in March 2018. It was his sixth presidential defeat, yet Zhirinovsky climbs onto the stage without any visible disappointment. A short speech on how the political landscape would change in the years ahead. We applaud more out of inertia: the result has been announced, though everything