Back in 1946 (that’s 62 years ago) George Mikes, the author of the undying classic of How To Be An Alien, in the chapter titled How Not To Be Clever, observed, with the usual for the book irony,...
We talk of taxes, and I call you friend; Well, such we are, but well enough we know How thick about us root, how rankly grow Those subtle weeds no man has need to tend, That flourish through neglect a...
I have been writing about my home country every so often on my blog. I know that I have almost never reacted to either critical or positive comments in the media on Russian politics and economy. There...
The symbols of our religious festivals aren’t as innocent as we’d like them to be. Recently the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg exhibited the works by Yuri Khrzhanovsky, a Russian ar...
Earlier this week I read on TechCrunch‘s article about the Encyclopaedia Britannica giving out free one-year subscriptions to web publishers. Michael Arrington writes, “As an outsider, Bri...
In the space of the last three years it’s been twice that I came across the appeal to vote to make St George’s Day a public holiday. The campaign is still going on, and this day is still n...
I read “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind twice, although I still haven’t seen the film. The opinions of some people whom I trust did play a certain role in delayi...
Sarah Hills from Metro.co.uk reports that the UK scientists have finally succeeded at creating “hybrid embryos that are part-human and part-animal”. In November 2006, a group of scientists...
I’m writing a copy about Belgium for a website, and I’ve come across the name of the Belgian actor and writer Noel Godin (left) who is famous for entarting diverse and sundry celebrities. The BBC stat...
They say that the tickets to Slavoj Žižek ‘s lectures sell out almost as quickly as those to the pop stars’ concerts. The lecture at the University of Leeds on 18th of March was free, and ...