diff --git a/app/helpers/contribution_helper.rb b/app/helpers/contribution_helper.rb
index 9e7f417d..8720d52b 100644
--- a/app/helpers/contribution_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/contribution_helper.rb
@@ -13,11 +13,15 @@ module ContributionHelper
   end
   
   def contributed_item(item, adverbial)
-    output do |html|
-      html << 'the'
-      html << link_to(item.name, item, :class => 'contributed-name')
-      html << adverbial
-      html << image_tag(item.thumbnail_url)
+    if item
+      output do |html|
+        html << 'the'
+        html << link_to(item.name, item, :class => 'contributed-name')
+        html << adverbial
+        html << image_tag(item.thumbnail_url)
+      end
+    else
+      "data for an item that has since been updated"
     end
   end
   
diff --git a/config/environments/remote_development.rb b/config/environments/remote_development.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1f690a2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/environments/remote_development.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Mirror of the development environment. Designed to allow the ability to plug
+# in the production database, while still behaving like development.
+require Rails.root.join('config', 'environments', 'development')