A man in a blue jacket and dark face mask, with a blue decoration on his lapel, stands in a hall with a wide staircase.

Cinema · Observations · People

The author agrees with Vladimir Ivanovich in his assessment of the gift

Film director Vladimir Khotinenko on receiving the Order of Honour: “It is such a wonderful New Year’s present; to my mind, not a bad present at all”. Well, what can one say? I agree with you entirely, Vladimir Ivanovich: an excellent present

NB! · The East · Art · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Christmas cards in the style of a Persian miniature by Eyvind Earle, one of the artists of Disney's 1959 "Sleeping Beauty"

NB! · Monarchies · Observations · People

Incidentally, in June Prince Philip Mountbatten will turn 100

Aristocracy · Archive · Museums · Mores · People

Marchioness Arconati-Visconti refurbished Gaasbeek Castle and gave it to the Netherlands

Nothing special, just the elderly Marchesa Maria Arconati-Visconti playing a bored Renaissance page at home, in the Dutch castle of Gaasbeek. A great eccentric even in her youth, in her declining years the Marchesa Arconati-Visconti devoted herself to decorating and refurbishing a castle in the Southern Netherlands, which

Architecture · Cinema · Paris · People

France5tv recently screened the cult documentary "1974, une partie de campagne" (a nod to the story by Guy de Maupassant) by Raymond Depardon, about the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who died on 2 December at the age of 94

France5tv recently screened the cult documentary "1974, une partie de campagne" (a nod to the story by Guy de Maupassant) by Raymond Depardon, about the presidential campaign of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who died on 2 December at the age of 94. The film is of interest

NB! · Archive · People · Humour

Perhaps you would be interested to see Khrushchev with hair

Perhaps you would be interested to see Khrushchev with hair. 1936, for example

Science · People · Nature · Humour

Speaking of feline co-authors, one cannot fail to recall the beloved cat of the great scholar Yury Valentinovich Knorozov: Asya, whom Yury Valentinovich quite seriously regarded as his co-author and signed accordingly, though obstinate editors refused…

Science · People · Humour

In the academic journal Physical Review Letters of 24 November 1975 there appeared a cryogenics paper, "Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He", by members of the Department of Physics of the University of Michigan…

In the academic journal Physical Review Letters of 24 November 1975 there appeared a cryogenics paper, "Two-, Three-, and Four-Atom Exchange Effects in bcc 3He", by Professors J. H. Hetherington and F. D. C. Willard of the Department of Physics of the University of Michigan. Five years

Aristocracy · Archive · Faith · People

Byron family coffins in the family vault of St Mary Magdalene Church in Hucknall

Photograph from the Byron family vault in the Church of St Mary Magdalene at Hucknall. The poet's remains lie in a coffin bearing a small coronet. Beneath it stands the coffin of the previous lord, the Wicked or Sinful Byron, his great-uncle, which in turn rests on

Aristocracy · Science · People

Countess Ada Lovelace, daughter of Byron, and the first attempt at computer programming

The first programmer in history is held to be Countess Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child of George Gordon Byron, whom she did, in fact, see precisely once in her life, when she was a month old. Brought up by the leading scholars of her day, Ada showed a gift

NB! · Art · Mores · People

The judge, politician and antiquary Sir James Whitelocke (1570-1632) in the sumptuous judicial dress still worn in England today, though now with a wig and a collar of a different form: vertical strips of cloth in the swallowtail style

NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies · Museums · Science · People · Rome

A reconstruction of Nero's appearance, based on his bust in the Capitoline Museums, lets us see with what expression on his face he made a hell on earth