Science · Society · Humour
The Commission for Combating Pseudoscience of the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences has issued an 11-page memorandum on the pseudoscientific nature of astrology. The memorandum concludes: - Astrology does not meet the methodological requirements imposed on a scientific discipline. - Experimental tests of astrologers' claims yield negative
Archive · Books · London · Observations · Heritage · Society
The Ministry of Justice in England is planning to digitise historical documents from its archives. We are speaking of wills covering at least the last two hundred years. This is held to be a boon for historians and genealogists, who will gain access to the documents. Where does this initiative
Interviews · Cinema · Society · People
Last year saw the publication of a long interview by Yury Rost with Otar Iosseliani, who passed away today in his 90th year. The director describes how he found culture and cinema in Russia. — You haven't been in the country for a long time. What has changed in
NB! · Archive · Society · Humour
Art · Observations · Society
Yet what, if not such provocative, even nauseating art, can compel us to reflect? The question is not a new one, but ought art, after all, to be beautiful? What function do such works serve? Beauty awakens feelings familiar to everyone: at the sight of a butterfly fluttering over a
Books · Observations · Society · Humour
A Thousand Years of War, War Without Any Particular Cause. So it turns out the Germans have been terrorising the whole of Europe for a thousand years. "The seizure and plundering of foreign lands, the enslavement and extermination of other peoples have from time immemorial formed the essence and
Art · London · Monarchies · Society
The plot was to have been carried out while the King was away from London, but he returned from the races considerably earlier than planned and so saved himself. The conspirators were executed, as were many influential Whigs who had no direct part in the attempt on the King'
Cinema · Science · Society · People · Humour
Beethoven, Cleopatra and Hannibal have already been black, so why not Newton this time?
In the Press · Interviews · Observations · Society
How does the flow of information affect our lives? Veronika Kandaurova asked me about my attitude to it for a piece in «RBC Style». In short: I have never been dependent on the existing formats of media distribution on the internet, and I advise no one else to be. On
Heritage · Society · People
Winston Churchill
NB! · Art · Society
Observations · Society
The right to issue currency has in every age been a source of colossal revenue for those who held it and of incredible injustice for everyone else. In medieval Europe there existed the practice of withdrawing coins from circulation. It happened constantly, sometimes twice a year. People were obliged to