Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month.
Hope you enjoy them, too!
What I Found Interesting
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Imagine you’re an 11-year-old child searching for treasure in a local dump in southern England. You find an interesting print, and put it away in your home.
Over 10 years later, you take it to a book dealer, who identifies the print as the work of Albrecht Dürer, a Renaissance artist and contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci.
And is expected to fetch $26,000 at auction.
That’s exactly what to Mat Winter, who rescued a mysterious artwork from the dump, which turned out to be a 500-year-old Renaissance print.
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How cool! The US National Security Agency (NSA) released a 1982 video of then-Captain Grace Hopper discussing the potential future challenges of protecting information in an internal lecture “Future Possibilities: Data, Hardware, Software, and People.”
Hopper was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. Among her many achievements: her work in computer programming led to the development of COBOL, an early high-level computer programming language.
Note: it’s a low resolution video. NSA didn’t have the equipment needed to access the original recording, and asked for help from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The video is 48 minutes long.
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Good news for folks who use the Smart Custom 404 plugin, like me and 100,000+ other WordPress users!
NerdPress acquired Smart Custom 404 plugin from Peter Raschendorfer (who retired the plugin in October 2023) and will continue to update and maintain it.
This plugin aligns with our mission at NerdPress: To help people do what they love so they can lead richer, more fulfilling lives.
Somehow I missed the news in October 2023 that Raschendorfer retired the plugin.
Good reminder for everyone who owns a self-hosted WordPress site: do a plugin review quarterly and check the plugin support site for news updates.
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Attending conventions or conferences can be challenging for people who can’t afford the cost of attending industry events.
Con or Bust from The Dream Foundry offers memberships to creators and people of color who can’t afford the travel, food, registration, and other costs associated with attending.
If you’re a member of an association who isn’t attending their annual convention, you can donate your membership to Con or Bust so someone else can attend.
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The independent nonprofit digital news source focusing on food, agriculture, and food justice news Civil Eats dropped their paywall and made their entire site free, for the next year.
For the past 15 years, we have led the charge in creating robust conversations around food and farming, and worked to make complicated, underreported stories more accessible to a mainstream audience.
Their news is free to everyone now, but they’re still counting on your support.
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I enjoyed reading southwest Michigan native and bike-touring aficionado Mark Wedel’s three-part series about spending his weekend bicycling and touring Detroit, Michigan.
Loved his photos and stories about the RiverWalk, Belle Isle, El Moore, and Midnight Marouders BC (a bicycling group with rides that begin at 11pm at night).
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There’s a lot to learn about bee populations, as biologists in the Pacific Northwest discover new bee species.
But identifying the new species is detailed, meticulous work as scientists use microscopes to review wing venation (similar to the lead used in stained glass) and the hairs that collect pollen.
Did you know there are over 3,000 known species of bees in western North America?
(Obviously not the same level of study, but it reminded me of my college ecology class when I collected bees and used a microscope to study the different types of pollen in bees’ pollen sacs.)
