Assorted Links, Once Again.

Here's a collection of links for your delectation!

The weird ways of the Internet occasionally show me things. One of the things that occasionally turn up are figures re-imagined as somehow changed figures - and sometimes, this is interesting, and sometimes it's weird, and most of the times I just go "meh" if I bother to look at it at all. But this is definitely the weirdest re-imagining I have yet seen: Disney Princesses, re-imagined as Cement Mixers.

As you might know, I'm not the tallest person around. Actually, I'm rather small - I'm still shorter than the average German woman who stands 166 cm tall according to here. And that even though I have somehow grown 2 cm in length, bringing me from 161 to 163 cm. (Thank you, bouldering core strength gain and yoga, with your joint result of a much better posture.) From time to time, this means I'll heartily complain about being just not tall enough. There are also days when I wish I could eat more of some deliriously delicious thing, but there's only so much energy I can use up in a day. However, as this article about female astronauts clearly shows, it is not always a bad thing to be small and female, and thus rather energy-efficient. (Which of course doesn't mean that there have been lots of women in space... yet. Hopefully that will change in the future; at least there is awareness about the topic these days.

One more science newsy thing: Alzheimer's might be caused by gum bacteria. I find this both scary (gum bacteria! Of a kind that lots of people have!) and hope-inducing (once you know the reason for something, it's so much easier to find a way to heal or help).

And finally to round this off with something a little textile-related: Have an image of 17th century Spinning Sows, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, plus an explanation of the motif.

Enjoy!