Why Sir Tim Berners-Lee gave away the web for free, a South American country pledges to permanently protect 90% of its tropical rainforests, and 40 years of cleanup restore a west Michigan lake are a few of the interesting stories I’ve read and enjoyed in the past month.
I hope you enjoy them, too!
What I Found Interesting
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He was only 34 years old in 1989 when scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and four years later gave it away for free.
Since then, we’ve seen the increase of a few major platforms using the web to gather users’ private data and sell it.
That’s not the vision Berners-Lee had for the web.
Now he wants to save it.
I gave the world wide web away for free because I thought that it would only work if it worked for everyone.
Today, I believe that to be truer than ever.
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When Joann Fabric and Crafts went bankrupt for the second time and closed all its stores earlier this year, I was upset.
Along with thousands of other US folks in the sewing and crafting communities who shopped and relied on Joann for our fabric, yarn, craft and home items, patterns, buttons, etc.
Good news for the sewing community came this month when we learned Simplicity Creative Group will operate the sewing pattern business of the big four brands: Simplicity, McCalls, Vogue, and Butterick.
Led by Abbie Small, former Executive Vice President and General Manager of Simplicity, the company is based in New York City and keeps 78 former employees, many who worked at the company for decades.
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I’ve been active on eBird to track and manage my birding since I first learned about it in 2017.
But I had no idea eBird has grown to become the world’s biggest citizen science project.
Incredible to read about the recent Australasian Ornithological Congress presentation in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia about the Eastern koel.
And how the animated visual presentation used the sightings from ordinary birders, not professionals, to create the data used in the presentation.
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Announced during Climate Week in New York City in late September 2025, Suriname pledged to permanently protect 90% of its tropical forests.
Scientists say Suriname is one of only three countries worldwide that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits — a so-called “carbon sink” — making its forests a critical buffer against global warming.
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I visited Muskegon, Michigan several times in the 1980’s for family events on the west side of Michigan.
And well remember the terrible smells from pollution in Muskegon Lake as we drove by.
Forty years of cleanup have finally taken Muskegon Lake off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Area of Concern list, leaving a restored wildlife habitat, wetlands, and lakebed.
