A woman in a traditional costume stands on a blue carpet before an honour guard in front of a columned building.

NB! · Observations · Society · Humour

Introducing the ambassadors of Norway to Estonia and of Poland to the Netherlands

Meet the ambassadors of Norway to Estonia and of Poland to the Netherlands. Life, Netflix style

NB! · Observations

Oh, You Have Rather Outstayed Your Welcome

Archive · Observations · Education · Society

Tuition fees in Soviet upper secondary schools and universities abolished from 1 September 1956

Fees for study in the upper forms of secondary schools, in specialised secondary institutions and in the higher educational establishments of the USSR were abolished only from 1 September 1956. My grandmother always used to tell how hard it was for her parents to pay for her schooling, and the

Cinema · Moscow · Observations · Society · Nature · Humour

Letter from Petya and Vova to the Crocodile about the Berezayka river and a chemical factory

Dear Crocodile, we need you very much. We have a little river. Next to it there is a big chemical factory. It is spoiling the river, and soon there will be no river, only one big inkwell. We are writing to you because you are held in great esteem. Come

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour

I Am Not Quite Sure How Gena the Crocodile Meant to Wear Swimming Trunks

Archaeology · Observations · Science · Humour

History teacher Adrian Targett shares a maternal ancestor with Cheddar Man

Read in a newspaper 19 years old how a British history teacher, Adrian Targett, learned that he shares mitochondrial DNA with Cheddar Man, found in Gough's Cave in 1903 and some 10,000 years old. What is more, Targett and his family had lived all their lives literally

NB! · Art · Moscow · Observations · Humour

Something Strange at the Institute of Art History

Something strange at the Institute of Art History. No one will own up to whose brushes these are

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Observations

Gosha Ostretsov’s exhibition “Utopia” opens at the Institute of Art History on Kozitsky

At the Institute of Art History on Kozitsky Lane, Gosha Ostretsov's exhibition "Utopia" has opened, a sort of itinerary through the artist's universe, with works from the 1990s to the 2020s. In the absence of a curatorial text, all that remains is to watch

Observations · Science · Society · Nature

Kazakhstan Is Restoring the Tiger Population Lost at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

I have already told in detail how the last Turan tiger of the Great Steppe was killed by hunters in the last century. In 2025 I wrote that the actual release of tigers into the wild of Kazakhstan was still a long way off, and now it has come to

Books · Observations · Science

"It Was Forever Until It Was No More"

There was such a good book, if you remember, by the Russian and American anthropologist Alexei Yurchak

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

In Case You Didn't Know, Larisa Ogudalova Invented Cringe

In case you didn't know, Larisa Ogudalova invented cringe. Or rather, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky did.

Cinema · Observations · Society

You may express your opinion, provided it is the right sort of opinion; otherwise it will not be taken into account

What a disgrace. Not content with cinemas openly infringing copyright and charging admission for stolen films, we now have online platforms deciding for themselves how film output is to be rated. - We are here -