Light pollution peaked in 2020 (before the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing) and then dipped last year as workplaces shuttered during the pandemic. Since then, CPRE says light pollution has continued to drop as more people continue to work from home. https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/17/23093996/uk-night-sky-stargazing-light-pollution

Several centuries later, these tea caddies, along with ones that followed them in the 19th and 20th centuries, became the obsession of a modern homemaker named Marnie Bramble, who collected more than 400 tea caddies from China, England, Europe, and the United States. https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/antique-tea-caddies/

"A highly anticipated new online database listing works of art looted from the Kingdom of Benin has launched, shining a light on more than 5,000 looted objects housed at more than 100 museums worldwide." https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/07/benin-bronzes-online-database-goes-live-with-details-of-thousands-of-looted-artefacts

In November of 1947, the Saturday Evening Post reported on a phenomenon that had become the scourge of parents everywhere. No, it wasn’t juvenile delinquency, drugs, or comic books. The menace was bubble gum. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/11/the-bubble-gum-king-of-america/

I know some of you are into Christmas Tales. If you are among them, this short story from Rhys Bowen will make you smile.

(And it's a Kindle freebie for Amazon Prime at the moment.)
https://amzn.to/3TGbszR

I can't argue. https://www.wired.com/story/andor-best-star-wars-disney-plus/

The rise, fall, and resurrection of the humble leech.
https://sciencehistory.org/distillations/medicinal-leeches-and-where-to-find-them

Back-to-back meetings are messing up our brains.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/brain-research

Useful advice, and a pep talk I needed.
"When you’re nice to people, you earn their trust. And with trust you can develop relationships, and being successful in business at the end of the day is all about relationships." https://switchthefuture.com/2022/09/01/being-the-nice-girl-is-a-superpower-oh-and-stop-saying-sorry/

Things to make you feel better about the world https://time.com/best-inventions-2022/

Anybody going to Re:Invent? Because my company will be there. (Not me, alas.) https://redis.com/blog/redis-at-reinvent-2022/

Although they have a number of potential uses, spent coffee grounds typically just end up in landfills – or at best, in compost heaps. According to a new study, however, they could soon be utilized to both support and feed biodiesel-producing algae. https://newatlas.com/science/coffee-grounds-feed-support-biodiesel-algae/

Back in 2008, I wrote a passionate blog post about the mistakes companies make in online communities. I stand by every word. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2373699/enterprise-software/6-stupid-mistakes-companies-make-with-their-online-communities.amp.html

"My attention fixed on a headline glued to the page to which I’d randomly turned: FAMOUS ARTIST DIES PENNILESS AND ALL ALONE. Curious, I carefully leafed through the tome and found myself spellbound by a panoply of heartbreaking tales." https://lithub.com/metropolitan-museum-artist-death-archive/

Overheard:
There is throwing your team under the bus, and there is putting your team ON the bus, and then parking the bus at a level crossing:
https://twitter.com/williampietri/status/1591502124977950720

“One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception--at least some of the time--incompetent or crazy. By the nature of their profession they read too much, with the result that they grow jaded and cannot recognize talent though it dances in front of their eyes.” --John Gardner

A growing body of research suggests that human behavior on social media — coordinated activism, information cascades, harassment mobs — bears striking similarity to this kind of so-called “emergent behavior” in nature: occasions when organisms like birds or fish or ants act as a cohesive unit, without hierarchical direction from a designated leader. https://www.noemamag.com/how-online-mobs-act-like-flocks-of-birds/

Light Saber Duel at the World Fencing Championship (from 6 years ago but who cares)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmR5LoyZ4jw