Cats are known for many things, and among these things is the fact that sometimes they pee on things. Now there's a whole lot of reasons for why a cat might pee on something - it smelled like pee before, the cat is stressed, the cat is in pain... but whatever the reason - the result is cat piss on something.

And that something might even be a manuscript. Which they might also not use as a perfect place to piss, but just walk over it.

Go follow this link to see for yourself. Me? I'll be checking on the cat now. Maybe she wants a book.

Thanks to a colleague tweeting, I stumbled across this really nice article about really nice research regarding the influence of our culture on how we perceive, for example, fairness. Or see the world. Or how easily we are fooled by optical illusions.
The research team's paper is titled "The Weirdest People in the World?”, it's 58 pages long (well, including the abstracts) and available for free online (just click the link).

When I read the article, I was instantly reminded of Chimamanda Adichie's speech about the danger of a single story... which sort of goes into the same direction. It's also a beautiful speech, and very thought-provoking, and I can really recommend it.

In case you have no time or no desire to follow those links, I can tell you in a nutshell what I personally am going to take away from this: It's hard to judge people from a distance; it's easy to fall into your own preconceptions that are based on your own background; it's way too easy to suppose that everyone else will see things similarly to you while that is probably not the case. And the further you get away from your own culture the greater the differences will probably be. Which also applies to getting away from your own culture in time - with the added complication that you can travel to pacific islands and try to figure out the cultural differences, but you can't travel back to the ninth century to do the same. So, just to be on the safe side, we should suppose that those medieval folks did think, and act, and perceive things much differently from us today.

I have two very different links for reading material to share with you - first of all, the work-type one:

JSTOR (which is an electronic journal archive) has introduced a new programme "Register and Read" with a limited amount of free journal papers for everyone. You can read up to three papers online, for free, at once; and after 14 days you can choose a new paper to substitute the old one. More information and an Excel list with the journals in that scheme (which I cannot open since it's .xlsx format) are on their info page, here.

And reading pdf texts as well but completely different: Neil Gaiman has made a writing-and-illustration art project together with Blackberry that is currently still running. Apart from having several stories available for download, for free, there's also the possibility to hand in artwork illustrating these stories. And here's the link for your delectation.

It's monday again. I got up way too early (well, in comparison to my usual time). I have a crazy-long list of things to do (yes, still). The cat is sleeping on a chair across the room, and I am getting jealous of her.

But on the other hand... there's progress on several different things on that list, and there are quite a few exciting prospects for stuff that will hopefully all happen later on this year. So. Now? Motivational coffee. And then? Bouts of frenzy actionism.

For you, in the meantime, from my long-overdue link list overhaul, a link to the Historical Needlework Resources Website. Have fun.

Or... wait... maybe they don't. After all, it's not really weird to do a reconstruction of a Bronze Age structure and then test if it's possible to use it for making beer, right?

And completely unrelated but pretty (and both pretty cool that this is possible and pretty intimidating that we produce so much light-smog): A picture of the earth at night, with all the lights on.

Also? I now have a twitter account which I intend to use (occasionally, as in when I feel like it) provided I get some people that are interested in that (which means followers). You find me under the handle @katrinkania (yes, not very creative, I know). And if I manage to find out how, I will try to get a last tweets thingie onto this blog.

And finally, I found a new search portal searching a group of libraries, archives and museums, called BAM (only in German). I have not tested it thoroughly yet, but portals like this are usually a good thing - at least knowing about them does not hurt!

I have finally caught up with the time-critical links on the blog (at least I hope so), and now I can move on to diminish my list of links to stuff again.

So, exciting stuff on the web right now...

- The V&A is still working on establishing the Textile and Clothing study collection at its new centre, and the opening date is (probably) summer or autumn 2013. They do have a lot of their collection accessible and searchable online. Though it's not the same as seeing the stuff up close, you can head to their digital catalogue and search the whole collection.

- Less pictures, more text: the Textile Conservation Centre offers a list of all the thesis titles and abstracts written in connection with their institution on their webpage. The institution has ended its life in 2009, but has a successor: The Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History in Glasgow.

- The Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM) is planning a new exhibition on early modern clothing and textiles, probably starting in 2015 (see the German info page here).

- And finally and totally textile-unrelated, there is a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice running at the moment. It's in form of a video blog made by Lizzie Bennet (plus some blogs from her sister Lydia), plus Twitter and tumblr story bits, and I think it's an awesome and thoroughly well-done adaptation of the story to modern times. You might want to click this link to get to the official page with all the story... but then, if you have work to do, you might not. (Not want to click the link. Because it will eat up your time. Ask me how I know.)

Actually, to be honest, the title of this blog entry should rather read "Baking disasters that could have been completely avoided by thinking a little before substituting one leavening agent by a different leavening agent".

I was baking scones this weekend and used a powder that was not the usual baking powder but baking soda. What I did not know when I substituted the exact amount of baking soda for the amount of baking powder stated in the recipe: Baking powder is soda mixed together with a diphosphate that, upon contact with moisture and heat, will turn into an acidic substance that in its turn reacts with the soda. According to the order of ingredients on the packets, baking powder contains at least as much phosphate as soda, if not more. (Then, in addition, there is some starch in there serving as a stabiliser and separating agent, which according to the Intarwebz can be up to 30% of the total.)

So the result of my scone baking? Inedible scones (tasting weird and really bitter), a little chemistry lesson delivered by the internet, more knowledge about how kitchen chemistry works, a thorough understanding that:

baking soda != baking powder
and that
dosage of baking soda != dosage of baking powder.

Oh, and the total corroboration that our friends are really, really cool and wonderful. Because, when faced with the inedible scones, they took it very calmly, worked out together with me why this had happened, and then one just went to cuddle the cat while the other one helped me whip up a new batch of scones with less raisins (since there were not so many left) but with normal baking powder this time. Which turned out perfectly nice and very, very edible. (Plus that was the fastest scone-baking action ever - it took about 10 minutes until they were in the oven.)

And in the aftermath... I realised that I had used "baking soda" instead of "baking powder" in the recipes on this blog. Which has now been rectified - they all say "baking powder", as they should. So should you have tried one of the recipes (the lemon things or the nougat spritz things) and they turned out... weird (and possibly not very fluffy and/or less than yummy), the blame is totally on me and I am really sorry. I promise that both baked goods are really very, very edible if produced with baking powder.