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The Sexy Sicilian Nun.

It was on August 1st 902 that the final Byzantine stronghold on Sicily fell to the Muslim invaders. Today Taormina is famous with visitors as the location for season 2 of the White Lotus, but it ha…

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AI orientalization of pricing

When I was in Egypt I wrote about my frustrations with the toxic pricing and haggling culture in Luxor. I commented on how Uber should look at the culture where taxi drivers are cancelling trips an…

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We know what we think we know!

This post is about ageism in the workplace – but let me warm it up first. Back in the nineties and the noughties I did a lot of market research with Telecom Eireann, Irish Energy Centre and B…

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The weight of an Heirloom

Carol Rumens used to write the “Poem of the Week” column in the Guardian, and it has been a rich source of inspiration for me. Sadly Carol passed away this year. A poet herself she lect…

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The Tiffany Effect

The Odyssey, the latest Christopher Nolan epic, was released last Friday. So far the dominant conversation about the movie has been driven by racism. Right wing conservative voices call out the mov…

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Strip Club Study

Back in 2015 when I wrote Eye Contact I was unaware of the Strip Club Study. The 2007 study published in the Journal of Evolution and Human Behavior is properly called: Ovulatory cycle effects on t…

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Dutch Maid

Instantly iconic as a view of the Netherlands; the canal, the windmill and the milkmaid wearing clogs and a dutch cap, carrying jugs of milk on a yoke over her shoulder. This well turned out, order…

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The final frontier

The last of the photos from my visit to the Deutsches Museum is an ESA module. I can imagine many American visitors to Munich being puzzled by the idea of a European Space Program. To watch US medi…

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Heidi Ho

Up at the top of the Deutsches museum is the Agri-Science room. This would be a fantastic trip for Irish Leaving Cert Students who take that option. In the photo above I am standing in front of a w…

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Don’t mention the war.

For me the highlight of the Deutsches Museum was the aircraft exhibit, which tells the story of the development of aviation through a German lens, from Icarus to Ariane. There is no getting away fr…

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German Bridge Models

One of my favourite parts of the Deutsches Museum in Munich was the room containing models of bridges. Since I had only just arrived from Regensburg this is the bridge I sought out. You can see the…

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Greek Water Clock

For this exhibit the Deutsches Museum Workshop studied the automated water clock of Ctesbius. The “father of pneumatics” was an Alexandrian Greek who lived in 3rd Century Egypt. He is m…

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The South-pointing Chariot

Originating with a Chinese legend it is said that Emperor Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, was able to guide his army through fog using a magical chariot that always pointed the way south. Huangdi is a…

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A museum for engineers

The Deutsches Museum is housed in this landmark art deco building on an island on the Isar river. It is the largest museum in Munich and was the brainchild of Oscar von Miller, an engineer who was …

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Egyptian Artifacts

An Artifact (or Artefact) is an object that was shaped, fashioned or constructed by human hand and is generally associated with objects that are uncovered by archeological investigation. The word c…

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Egyptian Gods

The headdress on this bust of Ptah is one I commonly associate with the priest class, not only in Egypt but also in Ancient Rome. Ptah was the god of the north part of Egypt, his centre of worship …

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Weights, measures and games.

When I was in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo I joked about how a votive offering table looked like an ancient form of beer pong. In Munich visiting the State Museum of Egyptian Art this dish re…