You’ve probably heard many stories about Rapa Nui (a.k.a. Easter Island) and about the moai, theories on how they were made, why they were made, and how they were transported around the island. But how much of that is really true? This summer I spent ten days on Easter Island and I’ve learned so much …
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” ~Nelson Mandela~ I strongly believe this affirmation to be very true and that we can indeed change the world through education. The more people have access to education, the more informed we are about the world and the more we can …
Louvre Abu Dhabi, a truly universal museum, is a marvelous construction where art and architecture meet science and engineering to create a unique space that unites cultures. One of the things I love about Abu Dhabi, and the UAE, is that this place represents a universal multicultural center that unites people from a large variety …
A MOUSE??! No, this is not a real living mouse that runs freely around cultural heritage sites if that’s what you have in mind. Nor is it a computer mouse to facilitate interaction between humans and computers. So what is it then? The NMR-MOUSE stands for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance – MObile Universal Surface Explorer. I …
The ancient city of Palmyra is an excellent representation of human desire to preserve history and culture. You might be wondering why I take this optimistic view of the Palmyra ruins and all the destruction caused to this site throughout the millennia… The answer is that, after all the destruction it suffered, people always worked …
Sunsets on the beach in Bali are stunning, so many beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow and purple covering the sky and merging into the ocean. This is what you see if you look at the sky and water, and it’s amazing. However, if you take a look instead at the beach, the view is …
Spending my holidays in Indonesia I got the chance to learn about the local culture, savor the delicious local cuisine and explore many of the cultural sites of this beautiful country. One of the sites I visited is the Borobudur Temple, a symbol of reaching enlightenment in Buddhism. The Borobudur Temple in Central Java province …
The answer is not $999,900. Well, it is… but that’s only the minor difference between the $1,000,000 and $100 violins. The big question is: what causes this enormous price difference between the old master violins and the new ones? The birth of a master violin The art of creating violins originates in the 16th century …
The most expensive Heinrich Campendonk painting was sold in 2006 for a price of $3.7 millions. The surprising element here is not the record price of this painting, but the fact that the most expensive Campendonk is not really a Campendonk. Its author is Wolfgang Beltracchi, and he could have kept on earning millions and …
Whenever I go to a new place, one of my favorite things to do is visiting museums. I love museums and I can spend days in museums (but also in bookstores) without ever getting bored. That’s because I love learning about the past and present cultures. I love imagining how people used to live in …
