Today is the day when I pack for the IRM - which means I have to do some last-minute printing, sorting, and stuffing things into boxes before stuffing them into the car. Yes, I have a list to help me packing. And no, I'm not sure I put everything on that list that should be on there... so it will still be interesting. Plus my foot is still acting up a little (though I don't know where and how I damaged it), so hauling things will probably take a bit longer than normal.

Apart from this, I have just finished an update to the online shop software after a nice client sent me a heads-up yesterday that registration was not possible due to some weird error. My test registration worked, so I hope everything is in good order again now - I will check the language files and tweak the template, if necessary, once I am back from the IRM. (Sometimes, having a staff including a sys admin and shopkeeper would really, really be nice.)

And on a completely unrelated note: Did you know that we already must have had World War 11? And a good while ago, too? No? Me neither - until I received a Nigeria Scam version that totally enlightened me. Here's a snippet of it, emphasis mine:

I am leading a group of other top system analyst/programmers to develop and launch a new fire-wall at the UN`s Central Data Facility, in Geneva.

We have been here since July of 2011 and due to complete our assignment at the end of the year. Sometime in October last year I accidentally stumbled on a
secluded data base containing detailed information of individuals and families whose wealth were confiscated at the end of World War11.

Ever since this discovery, I have been on the look out for any new information and development. Just recently, I noticed that the United Nations have been
systematically releasing these seized individual and family wealth back to relatives and descendants of those originally affected. Those mostly affected were
Germans, Jews alike, and other Nationals that were found or assumed to have supported the Nazi Regime.

On further research I found out that your name matches with one of the listed family names in the said data base, hence am contacting you to inform you of
this and to also find out if you have any knowledge that the wealth of your ancestors was confiscated at the end of WW11. 

Now... I know that I'm not very good at keeping up with modern politics and what is going on in the world, but I think I would know about 9 world-wide wars that took place before I was born... no?

Moral of the Story: Sometimes, randomly clicking on the mails in your spam folder before deleting them can be totally worth it!

It is March 14 - 3/14 in the US notation. And since 3.14 are the first three digits of π, that makes today the Official Pi Day.

Just in case you are not a maths person, π (pi) is used to calculate, among other things, the circumference of a circle or the volume of a cylinder. Which will be a good thing to know if, say, you are doing the maths for building a spinning wheel. Or calculating the drive ratio of your wheel, and figuring out how to change it to a ratio you want. Or calculating weight and MI of spindles from a given material for a spinning experiment. Plus - I love pie. The edible kind.

If you're now frantically looking for some way to celebrate Pi Day, you can find some more information on this website. Look under "Pi Stuff" to find amusing snippets of all sorts. Or just prepare your favourite pie recipe and celebrate pi day. (And if you need an excuse for a prolonged lunch break or very early coffee break, you can always say you need to celebrate Pi Day at the correct time - at 1.59 pm.)

On Saturday, March 10, a castle in Slovakia - Krasna Horka - was badly damaged due to fire. Cause of the fire was possibly burning grass on the slopes close to the castle that somehow managed to ignite the wooden roof shingles.

The castle was a tourist attraction and newly restored - it only opened again for the public last year. It contained a museum as well - now probably mostly lost. It's a tragedy - and one that has been handled like all tragedies are handled in our age: it has been filmed.



So if you have always wondered what it looked like when a castle burned in the past - you can now watch and see. (There are plenty more videos on youtube about it, by the way.)

h/t to schmalenstroer's blog

Google tells me that today is International Women's day.

So, just in case that you have not seen Joss Whedon's acceptance speech for Equality Now yet, I think it sums up a lot of things beautifully, and I really recommend it.

I also really recommend Firefly (should you be into SF at all, or even if you are not into it) - there's wonderful, wonderful characters in this series, and four of the nine core cast members are women. Plus some interesting baddies as well. It's a wonderful thing to watch, and it's a wonderful source for a lot of really nice (and geeky) quotes. And Joss Whedon really writes great strong women characters (and I don't care why).

If you are looking for some place to test your fibre identification skills, you might want to take a look here - and see if you can recognise these cellulosic fibres.

For those of you not only interested in squishy soft textiles, but also in hard stone, there is a Flintknapper Symposium on May 30 - June 2 in the Archaeoparc in the Schnalstal (click link for pdf with info).

And finally, I found out yesterday that Wikipedia (while it can be really, really useful to quickly get a basic idea of something) seems to be a quite not-so-friendly place behind the scenes, editing wars and all. There's an article on Sue Gardner's blog about why women do not edit wikipedia (there are less than 15% openly female contributors to English wikipedia), though the reasons given would apply not only to women, but also to men.
I find this sad. It also makes me think that maybe it would be helpful to do some wikipedia editing... but I have absolutely no desire at all to enter into editing wars, or to work hard at something and then see it disappear again.

Poland and Austria have already raised their voices, and Germany is now getting in on the protests against ACTA. There's a website called http://www.stopp-acta.info/ (German and English), and it includes a wiki with dates for demonstrations in all countries, plus some more information on how you can act.

And there is more: everyone can sign this online petition, hosted by avaaz.org. Please click that link, sign the petition, and spread the word - we have to act quickly to have a chance at stopping ACTA!

After SOPA and PIPA have been shot down due to protests, I have now found that there is something very like it in the making. Here, in Europe, lots of countries already have signed an agreement called ACTA - an agreement that had been discussed behind closed doors.

And what is even worse? There is not much time left to protest against this - it's supposed to be signed in the EU parliament "early in 2012". Which is... about now.



You can read more about ACTA and learn what can be done to do it here. In Poland and Austria, people have protested against it during the last days. I hope we can still stop it. Please do your part - spread the word, join protests, or call an EU parliament member. The Internet must stay free.