Observations · Heritage · Society · Paris

Colbert statue defaced in Paris, conviction overturned by Court of Cassation

State negrophobia? Or perhaps chronicles of the Great Replacement? In Paris, the statue of Colbert in front of the National Assembly has been defaced. But the vandals will face no consequences. This is not the first act of vandalism against the monument to the finance minister of Louis XIV, who

Black-and-white photograph of a crowd of women in headscarves around an icon outdoors, one of them kissing it.

Faith · Observations

The celebration of Easter falls on 12 April this year

Congratulations to all on the beginning of Great Lent, the Holy Forty Days, in memory of the forty-day fast of Jesus Christ in the wilderness. And Easter this year falls on 12 April

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Here is a question I keep turning over: which is the better role, the protocol droid C-3PO or Joe Biden?

NB! · Observations · Education · Humour

A question: does anyone seriously believe that in Ancient Rus' they could not reduce fractions, and failed to grasp that the Thrice-Nine Kingdom was really the One-Third Kingdom?

Spires of the Sagrada Família with the central tower topped by a cross, above the rooftops of Barcelona and the sea.

NB! · Architecture · Observations

Sagrada Família in Barcelona nearly complete after 144 years

The bandura is nearly finished. After 144 years. Was it worth dragging things out for so long? The question remains open

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Vilgeniy Melnikov and Oleg Maslov’s exhibition “Garden Keeper” at the Ekaterina Foundation on Kuznetsky Most

The Ekaterina Foundation on Kuznetsky Most: city centre, spacious bright halls, not a soul about, so why not go? Two exhibitions are currently running there, and I dropped in to have a look at Vilgeny Melnikov and Oleg Maslov with their walk, "The Garden Keeper". A pleasant, unassuming

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Society

It is frightening to think that people queued for hours in all weathers to look at Lenin's body in its glass coffin

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Humour

The Washington Metro is as clean as Moscow's, only the fare is $6

NB! · Observations · Humour

The Face of a Man Weary of Your AI

Books · Observations · Science · Society · Pop Culture

As early as 1903, the German philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel described the effect of scrolling through a social-media feed:

This results in the nerves reacting with maximum intensity for so long a time that they finally cease to react at all. [ ... ] Thus there arises an incapacity to react to new sensations with the appropriate energy

Books · Observations

French theologian Pierre Charron on the fear of death and the sameness of days

Cowards... are angry that they die young... they are sorry to leave everyone behind, and why? You have seen it all here: one day is like all days; there is no other light, no other night, no different sun, no different order in the world: at most, one may see

Engraving of four figures holding a map of Poland in 1772 and pointing at its lands.

Geography · Maps · Observations · Humour

Three partitions of Poland among Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1772, 1793 and 1795

The History of Poland Consists of Just Three Partitions. The partition of 1772 between Russia, Prussia and Austria, the partition of 1793 between Russia and Prussia, the partition of 1795 between Russia, Prussia and Austria. And then straight on to 1918.