Sometimes it feels like things are trying to fall to pieces, or go pear-shaped, in nicely regular intervals. These days, though, there's the Power of the Internet that can be harnessed to actually change some things...

so if you have a few minutes to spare today, maybe you are willing to help with these?

First, the biggest issue. There's been ACTA and TTIP, and now it seems to be time for the next one: TISA. Just like the last ones, it has been mostly discussed behind closed doors, and just like the last time, it's high time for us to protest such lovely and helpful ideas as privatisation of water supply or passing bank data on to other countries (at least that's what has been hinted at). I'd say no thanks! (Whatever things are being discussed really, just the fact that it's being done behind closed doors is enough for me to feel uneasy about it.)

There are petitions in Switzerland and Austria as well as in Germany, if you search for "stop TiSA" on the 'net. You can sign for the German version at Avaaz, or at change.org, or at both if you're so inclined. Please help also by spreading the word.

A little smaller, but also in need of signatures is this petition against a very serious budget cut for Swiss archaeology: The government is cutting the budget for archaeology in the Kanton Schaffhausen by more than half until 2018. More than 70% of the regular job positions will be terminated and fixed term positions will not be renewed.  This will be a massive loss of work capacity - and means that it will not be possible to get the necessary archaeological work done. Please sign the petition against this and help keep archaeologists in their (very rare) full-time jobs!

A friend sent me this link to a gallery of superheroes (and supervillains) re-imagined as Renaissance portraits.

In other news from hereabouts, I'm drinking herbal tea, I was just compelled by Neil Gaiman to back a music project on Kickstarter (I blame Twitter for that), and I finally took the photos necessary to update the shop with oillight wicks and hemp strick. I'm working on it now, so the things should be up and available by the early afternoon. Also there's some editing work hanging out here and calling for my attention... which it shall have. Soon.

Good thing it's Friday, and the well-earned weekend is approaching fast!

Some of the links that accumulated here are concerning books or, I should better say, manuscripts. Such as these here:

Medical textbooks from the 16th century! The article is really, really worth a look if only for the multi-layered manikin picture.

Quill Books before Print gives you a nice overview about how books were made back when they were still manuscripts. Erik Kwakkel (who did the text for Quill) also has a very nice blog that is generally deliciously picture-heavy. One of my favourite posts there is the one about bad parchment used in manuscripts. (The pictures include embroidery.)

The Sojourning Spinner has collected directions to some of the most famous spinning pictures from manuscripts.

That's it for today. In non-manuscript news, I am busy with a... manuscript, but not a hand-written one. If things go well, I will have exciting news in the near future. (Keep your fingers crossed, please!)

It's become quiet over the holidays about the EU VAT and VATMOSS (or WhatMess, as it should be titled, probably). The topic is not off the table yet, though, and if you've been on Ravelry recently, you will have noticed the Notice next to the EU flag.

If you are confused now and would like to have a nice analogous explanation on how the new rules work (or don't work), I recommend Hannah's Banana Story.  Carolyn Jewel blogs about her problems with pricing in the new system, especially regarding ebooks, and Cheryl Morgan has similar problems. (Her final thought? Amazon will profit from this, a lot. Which is exactly what I suspect. Say, wasn't the intention of the new rules something along the lines of curbing the advantage of the Big Players, among them said Big River Store who ships from wherever tax was cheaper? Hmmm....)

The new tax regulations are in force since January 1, and I have no idea how all the single traders selling digital content are handling it - since there has been no change in the legislation yet, as far as I know. Personally, I'm very happy that I only have one digital knitting pattern these days, and since it hasn't seen any sales for a while (which is a pity, but there are plenty of hats around, so I can sort of understand), I've just taken it off Ravelry for the time being. (Should you want one, drop me an email.)

I'm staying tuned to the EUVAT Action site and the Digital Microbusiness Group, but there's not much happening on either at the moment, and I hope that means the groups are in contact with those in charge in the EU, busily trying to solve the problem, and too busy to post news.

If you can, please spread the word about this, or fill out a survey on the EUVAT Action site, or take one of the other actions listed there. The more that speak or write about it, the better!

Last week, I finally cleaned the fan in my laptop. The reason I finally did it was that during our hanging-out-with-friends over the New Year, I had brought my little computer, and it had stood out. Not due to being the only one, or the smallest, or the oldest - but it was, by far, the loudest.

So that morning back home, I heaved a big sigh, carried it over to the dinner table, took out the screwdrivers and braced for something nasty... all because of this song:



I love that song. It's hilarious. But it also made me expect a nightmare. I'm very happy to report now that my expectations were grossly mistaken, and it took me only eight screws, two q-tips, a small vacuum cleaner and about fifteen minutes (including getting the vacuum and putting it away again) to get the fan and, more importantly, the totally fluff-blocked fan grille squeaky clean again. It was just a single panel (five screws) and then the fan itself (three screws). Thanks Asus!

While I've been absent from blogging, interesting stuff has accumulated - plus new things came in, like this note today:

The Guardian: German anthropologist exposed as fraud.

The Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands has made its collection of public domain images freely available on the net, and is very content with the outcome. There's a paper about it here.

And the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremburg is planning an exhibition on early modern dress - due to start sometime this year, as far as I understand the plan.

Something technical to round it up - should you be worried that some spammer might have access to your email and personal data, you can use this handy Identity Leak Checker to find out.

Happy new year, everybody! I hope you had a good time during the holidays.

Hereabouts cookies and Stollen and lots of lovely food have been consumed. Outside it has finally gotten wintery, with a bit of snow lying around, and even enough for a snowman and a snowball-fight with friends at one point. We hung out with friends and family, having a good time, relaxing, and playing a few games. And three days ago, I managed to catch the Monster Cold of Doom which knocked me out of action for a day and a half, and led to massive consumption of hot lemon with ginger. (In case you never tried that, it's a lovely winter drink, not only when you have a cold. Peel and cut up fresh ginger, pour boiling water over it, let sit for a while to brew, until the liquid is not too hot to drink anymore. Then add honey and lemon juice to taste - I use about a quarter lemon's worth per cup.)

Nevertheless, meanwhile, progress on the book has been made, and things are very close to a final now. Which is very, very good, since we hope to have it out very soon (which implies an utterly strict and very tight deadline). I'm sadly behind on a number of other things, though!

The new year, as was to be expected, is also bringing new conferences - and here are two calls for papers for you:

The Textielcommissie of the Netherlands is hosting a conference about bio-design in textiles on May 18.

The next CfP is from the EAA - Oral papers and posters are invited for the session ‘Quantitative and qualitative approaches to prehistoric warfare’ to be held at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Glasgow, 2-5 September 2015.

There will also be a textile session at the EAA, where the organisers would like to hear from people who have experience of teaching archaeological textiles at university level, particularly in relation to the following questions: