The cat, sleeping contentedly beside my desk again (lucky cat) just looked at me a minute ago, slightly confused. The reason for that? This video:




(Sorry for the facebook-link - I'd have preferred to link the video directly, but could not figure out how to do that.)

I laughed so hard I had to cry. Which, in turn, made the cat stare at me. (Weird humans.)

In other news: the library at Erlangen has digitised manuscripts available online, I have a medieval event coming up, I've finally managed to re-stock my beeswax pieces, and am planning to fire a batch of spindle whorls the coming weekend.

Also it finally rained during the last two days - finally! The garden was really parched, so it was high time. (The lawn outside has been in crunchy summer edition mode for a few weeks now, and as usual, it will recover - but the strawberries and tomatoes and flowers don't take the heat and drought so well.)

The weekend's over (already, sigh), the sun is shining, I have a pot of tea in front of me, and a heap of work lurking inside my computer, while the cat is taking her morning nap (lazy cat).

In case you, too, need something to procrastinate a little, I recommend this graphic of our solar system - the moon (our moon) is one pixel large, and you can scroll your way out to the other planets and get an impression of how much space there is in space. (Hint: I've yet to reach Jupiter. My scrolling finger needs a break.)

I stumbled across this video, purely by chance, and if you've ever wondered about DNA or why all calico cats are female... you really will want to watch this.



Plus it has really cool graphics... and you get to go "aaaw" about the smallness of the Y chromosome.

Semi-related to this: Medieval Beasties, special edition, over at the British Library blog.

We all know that human beings do weird and often not really healthy things in the name of fashion... and the past was no exception. There's an interesting article about "if looks could kill", so to say - here, titled "Deadly Victorian Fashion".

If you'd rather prefer looking at healthy stuff, you can guess which of these MRI scans of fruits and vegetables is which edible thing. And be amazed at what modern imaging technique can do.

Or look at snails instead, lovingly photographed... here. (I quite like snails, as long as they don't eat my salad and plants.)

The last three weeks were... well, let's call them "full" - quite a bit of things going on, and quite a bit of travel, with very little time at home inbetween. Which means that, once more, I am sitting in the middle of a medium-sized chaos that begs to be taken care of.

Also, orders have to be sent out, and I have to plan for the next events (yes, already). Nothing about the relative slowness last year warned me that this year would be so busy! Don't get me wrong, though: I quite like having to be busy. It's just a matter of coping with the peaks in business (and the accompanying chaos) that I struggle with.

So, for you, while I try to stow all the things that have been on tour with me, and get the washing done and packed away again, and sort out all the other things that need sorting out, here's a link so you know where the nearest airport is. As a Voronoi map. Just in case you feel like getting away from it all. (You can turn that globe with your mouse, if you, like me, are more interested in the European 'ports.)

If you like coffee, you might also be amused by the story the Yarn Harlot posted on her blog. Something rather similar happened to us once, but with much less attending ills: we found out after buying the next glass of our preferred instant coffee and seeing them both beside each other - resulting in a new appreciation of the quality of the product we bought because we did not pay attention, and now having an alternative to the normal one.

It's Friday, hooray! And since it's Friday, you are getting a list of links. Friendly links. That might or might not begin with an F, such as:

Fablab. I've posted about my visit to the FabLab Nuremberg, and just in case you are interested in learning more about these labs, here is the website of the international association of FabLabs, and here is a list with all of them, sorted by location. In case you are planning to make something on your first visit, I'd recommend checking out the website of your intended lab and preparing as much as possible - for instance, drawing the thing you're planning to lasercut or 3D print beforehand; these things eat more time than expected as a rule.

Finalist list for the Hugo Award, with links. I'll be going to LonCon this summer, together with Margit from Alte Künste, and that means I'll be a Hugo voter. I've linked to this list before, but in the meantime, I have actually managed to read some of the pieces, and they are delightful reading, so I link it again. Plus Finalist starts with an F.

Friends, as painted by Bob Ross. I've never watched more than a small snippet of his videos or shows, but this article about statistics in Bob Ross' work is delightfully geeky, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Fernsehen. That's German for Television, but if you need me to tell you, this link is not for you - it's a show of a series of educational television called "Experiment Mittelalter", with each episode about 15 min long. I've taken a glimpse into the first one and I'm not so sure about whether to link to this or not: It's a mix of commonplace knowledge without mentioning the many nuances, living history scenes that are not really bad but still cater to quite a few typical expectations and misconceptions (such as rough-hewn undecorated stone walls in the dining parlour and drab brown garments worn by almost everyones), but also nice glimpses at modern crafters working on replica pieces and with historical techniques. I'd recommend taking what is said with a grain of salt, maybe a bit more than a grain, and enjoy the pretty pictures - especially those of the crafters doing their thing. Having said this, go take a look and decide for yourself what you think of it, and I'd be happy to hear your opinion. It's here, and it's all German.

We have a regular (weekly, usually) session of "get excited and make things". It's a fixed day and time of the week, and most of the time, one or several friends drop by. They bring their projects and we all sit together and work on our things - knitting, sewing, woodworking, paper-related stuff. There's been miniature painting and programming done, too, as well as the very mundane task of mending socks and darning clothes.

Last week, our meeting went on an outing - into the FabLab in Nuremberg. Just in case you have never heard about a FabLab, it's short for "fabrication laboratory". Usually, a fablab is an open workshop where you can make things, for a very small fee.

Most fablabs have a set of tools for mechanical and electronic stuff, a laser cutter, and a 3D printer. You might also find a large drill, a CNC machine, a sewing and/or embroidering machine, a few computers, and some other stuff. Plus a stash of materials you can buy for your projects.

So, last week, I sat at the FabLab, designing new whorls and a new flyer and new bobbins for my little Finnish spinning wheel. I got that wheel back in 2012, and it's been running with the roughly tweaked flyer and bobbins since. They do work, but they are a waste of space in the spinning assembly, since the flyer is huge and the bobbin is tiny. (The wheel seems to be called the Varpapuu Toika, and someone else was so nice as to post a video of it.)



As you can see, the flyer is... less than elegant. A waste of space, and energy, and I am going to replace it with a lighter one, with longer wings to accommodate a bigger bobbin. I'll space the hooks closer to each other too, and fit it with smaller whorls. Someone at the FabLab has offered me help with the metal axle, and the rest... I'll laser cut wooden parts for the bobbin ends and the flyer, probably drill holes through some leftover dowels for the bobbin cores, and the whorl bits will be 3D-printed. (3D-printing takes ages, AGES, so as I'm an impatient person and want several bobbins, I will just print the whorl disks.)

If you have a FabLab in your region - go check it out. They are fabulous!