iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ciaran Conliffe

@shinyemptyhead.bsky.social

He/him/history nerd. Also infosec sometimes (professionally), and writing about history, pop culture, and other weirdness (compulsively).

Posts Replies Media

Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Bran is such a handsome dog. He photographs well, mostly because you can't hear him barking in an image.

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

happy 20th anniversary to this unfortunate choice in wording by McDonalds

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

PIG TRAP

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

I’m not saying Blue Prince has broken my brain, but I did instinctually start trying to solve this exhibition at the MAC art gallery.

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

I'm guessing this was designed by one of the stage magicians of the era, it feels like that sort of trick.

A woodcut illustration of a clown brandishing a severed head.

The explanation of the severed head trick - one clown plays the head, another the body.

A woodcut of a magic trick where a woman is being removed through a panel in the wall.

A woodcut of a magic trick where a woman slides out from beneath a cloak and through a trap door.

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

nothing beside remains

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Classic error, should have jailed the real one.

BBC headline: "Fake £4m Xanax drug gang boss jailed".

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

game of the year

Goro the tiger cub from the new Yakuza Pirates game wearing a pirate hat

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Google's AI summary is a menace.

A direct message asking for a post from four years ago about malware on a site to be removed, because Google's AI summary is reporting it as a current issue.

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 31/10/2023

Doing a talk this evening (about the history of Irish witch trials), so have the traditional out-of-context slide.

Slide with a picture of a demonic boy, and the text:
"December 1710: The demonic boy appears
12th February 1711: The demonic boy returns"

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 12/10/2023

“...include(s) stand-out essays by the likes of Cathy Pickens (a ‘Southern Gothic’ mystery) and Ciaran Conliffe, who explores the legendary Ruth Snyder case.”—Martin Edwards, Edgar-winning author of The Life of Crime Pre-order your copy now!

Cover for "Women Who Murder, An International Collection of Deadly True Crime Tales"

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 04/08/2023

Someday I will progress past posting random images here. Today is not that day.

A flat model of the sun, with a sign pointing at it saying "Please do not touch the sun."

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 29/07/2023

A couple more.

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 28/07/2023

A quick summary of my thirties.

An still from the 2019 anime "Boogiepop And Others" of a woman sitting at a desk, with the caption "A lot of stuff happened, and I quit being normal."

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 28/07/2023

I'm basically just posting random pictures off my hard drive to here at the moment. This is covers from the magazine "Calling All Girls" when they decided that what girls really liked was dogs and dress-up.

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 24/07/2023

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Ciaran Conliffe @shinyemptyhead.bsky.social · 24/07/2023

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