The online EXARC journal has a short article about bronze spiral decoration in textiles.

Kitty Lux of the Ukulele Orchestra died about two weeks ago, here's her obituary. I'm really sad - and feel very privileged to have seen and heard her live a few times.

The major Roman roads, drawn in a subway map style.
There's a new podcast around: Ask an Archaeologist. (I have not found the time to give it a listen yet, but it's definitely on my list.)

Heritage Daily reports on a Roman bronze figurine that might leave Britain.

Gillian Polack has a post on how to peel oranges... with a fork. Which is intriguing and makes me a little sad that we are currently far from Orange Season here - but it will come, and I will definitely try that.

And that's it for today - I hope there's something of interest for you!

There's been quite an uproar about the new Doctor, and a variety of reactions - including some things that made me flinch.

First of all - the Doctor is an alien that totally changes appearance when regenerating, and while keeping knowledge and experience, also changes character quite a bit. So I'm firmly in the "there's no reason this could not include a gender change" camp.

That also seems to have been the idea of the original creator Sydney Newman, as several articles have stated over the years, like this one. Or this one. That was back in 1986, by the way - so the idea of having the Doctor regenerate as a woman is not new at all.

But what really stuck in my head was a tweet (which I have unfortunately not saved, or bookmarked, or whatever) that more or less said "if you are starting to watch Dr Who because of a woman lead now, you're just as pathetic as those who stop watching it because of it".

And oh, I've mulled that over and over again, coming to the conclusion that this is so wrong. On so many levels.

There is no law that makes someone keep liking something that has changed - and a regeneration in Dr Who always means a change. Just like a new showrunner. Or a new companion. There's also no law that makes someone keep liking something for years and years - people change, too. I remember being totally in love with Monty Python's Flying Circus when I was younger, and utterly amused by The Young Ones. I actually fell off the couch laughing once when I was introduced to them at my guest-parent's home in lovely Broadstairs in Britain. Many years later, we got the DVD, and it was mostly just too absurd for me. I still enjoy the weird and absurd humour of both MPFC and The Young Ones, but only when I'm in the right mood, and only in rather small doses. Those series, obviously, have not changed - but I did. And that is fine; just like some friendships or relationships are fading from our lives, some books lose their personal importance over the years, our taste in clothing changes, old hobbies are given up and new ones are taken up, these things come and fade and new things replace them.

So if somebody is not feeling like a female Doctor will be their thing - it's a perfectly valid personal decision, and nobody should be saying anything against it. Personally, I'd say it would be nice to give the new thing a chance, but if it doesn't work - fine. Stopping to watch something one has fallen out of love with is not pathetic at all; on the contrary, I'd say that going on to watch a series that you have stopped enjoying, just because it was The Thing years earlier, is pathetic. So it irks me, this "if you are stopping because of a female Doctor".

The other half of that tweet, though, irks me even more. I'd assume that the creator of the tweet likes the show. Now... if you like something, shouldn't you be delighted about people discovering it? About new potential fans? More folks giving it a look and deciding that they might like it?

I have stopped watching because I wasn't happy with what Moffat did as a showrunner. Does that mean, following that logic, that I'm not allowed to watch the new season with a different lead writer?

It's not that there is a finite amount of Dr Who available, and having more people discover and watch it would take away from those who already love it. Calling those who consider a first look at the series, or a second one because a female lead sounds intriguing to them, pathetic (or any other names), does a disservice to the makers of the show (because people might just reconsider). It also casts a very, very bad light on the fans of the series. I would not want to belong to a fanbase that is so... weird... about who is allowed to start or stop watching something, and why.

So... if someone is getting interested into Dr Who because of the new Doctor - lovely. If someone is getting interested because of the new writer - lovely. If someone is getting interested because a black cat crossed the street and then caught a mouse? In my view, there's no reason not to welcome anybody to something new that I love. After all, the worst that can happen is that they find out they don't like it after all (and maybe think me a bit weird for liking it). Best case I have someone new to share my interest with, talk about related stuff, and enjoy the thing we now both like. And that's a nice thing for everybody.

A few years ago (well, quite a few by now), I got introduced to Dr Who. And I totally, utterly and completely loved it.

I slowly fell out of love with the current story, first when Matt Smith did the Doctor (I just couldn't get to really like his version), and then more and more as Steven Moffat, as the showrunner, left his marks all over the stories. Monsters changed. Storylines became... weird. We stopped watching. (Which, in our case, also meant we stopped buying - because we have no TV, so any films or series we like, we buy to watch.)

Now, however, Steven Moffat is leaving Dr Who, handing the mighty pen over to somebody else (whose work I don't know at all, so I'll let myself be surprised). And furthermore, a few days ago, the 13th Doctor was revealed... who is, all by herself, a reason for me to give this wonderful series another chance to win its way back into my heart. And onto my screen.

So... 2018. Well, probably a bit later, as we'll have to wait for the DVDs to come out... but then, it's only time, right?

Here's things in links that will hopefully amuse you:

Cat bones found by archaeologists - with traces that hint at their being used as fur suppliers (article in German).

InspiroBot is an artificial intelligence dedicated to generating unlimited amounts of unique inspirational quotes for endless enrichment of pointless human existence. Said quotes are not particularly good, but some of them are - yes, because of this - quite amusing.

The British Library is launching a project to preserve digital comics.

Costumes inspired by "The Handmaid's Tale" are used for protests - and make a stunning visual.

Pineapple fibres are used to make sustainable fake leather, providing pineapple farmers with an extra source of income in the process.

You have probably have it happen to you - somebody you know more or less well will suddenly turn out to be surprisingly good at something that you didn't ever connect with them. A secret superpower, so to say.

Well. I have one, too - my secret superpower is... being able to tie off balloons really, really quickly. The reason for this is my home town's annual fair, where my parents, among other volunteers, have been selling helium-inflated balloons for a good cause for 35 years now. When I was a child, I started helping out a bit, and when my schedule allows, I still go back there to help tying off balloons.

From being a small fundraising thing, this balloon sale has grown over the years, and letting hundreds and hundreds of them fly off at the official end of the fair has become a much beloved tradition. It is a stunning sight to see more than one thousand balloons go up and off with the wind at once, balloons in all kinds of colours (though there are quite a lot of red and blue ones, that being the town's colours). There's an added bit of satisfaction and happiness in it for me, knowing that I've had a hand, literally, in getting hundreds of these balloons ready. (I've calculated that I have knotted at least 700, probably more like around one thousand balloons on that one day. That, at the end of the day, meant very tired fingers, a bit of skin lost even though I've liberally, and very early, used tape to protect the skin, and a blister in one of the weirdest spots I've yet had one, right on the tip of one thumb. And the pleasant feeling of having done a good job.)

And for you, here's a little video of ascending balloons - by far not all of them are visible, as I didn't manage to get to the best spot for filming... but you'll get the idea.


 

It's time for a link roundup again - here you go:

Following in the Jane Austen track, here's a post about shoes in her time.

SFF Audio has the complete unabridged audiobook "Herland" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman for you.

Here's an interview about microscopy on Early Modern textiles with Cristina Balloffet Carr.

Finally, a comic about blogging from Unshelved (which is a strip about a library, and the accompanying librarians).

Just in case yesterday's post made you curious about bouldering, I have some videos for you. First of all one that is showing you an introduction to our usual haunt:

Then there's a recent boulder we did that we ended up with very different solutions. First, the Most Patient Husband climbs it like it was probably intended to be done:

For me, this didn't work. The black volume at the bottom is too far away and too flat for me - I don't get enough pressure on that foot, so it slips. I also have a hard time reaching the next hold from the start hold, so I had to think of something to help me get there. Good thing I have legs, and feet, and a bit of flexibility. Oh, and it only takes me two and a a half time as long... but see for yourself. (Fun, though.)