Why the theory that fears over critical race theory hurt Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey doesn't hold much water. / Vox

More than a century after the Benin Bronzes were looted by the British Army, the Smithsonian has begun the process of repatriating them to Nigeria. / The New York Times

Three Roman busts have been unearthed near a new UK rail project that's been criticized for its potential to impact historic sites. / Hyperallergic

In experiments, psychologists find people think about you more than you realize, and they like you more than you think they do. / Motherboard

Deciphering the ways the pandemic has (and hasn't) affected our dreams. / The New York Times

Using a climate model to simulate Arrakis, planetary scientists find Dune is mostly accurate. / Gizmodo

Photos of landfills show the astonishing amount of garbage humanity is producing. / BuzzFeed News

"As dogs become whoever they are going to become, they won't go back to being wolves." What happens to dogs if humans disappear? / Aeon

Wild animals exploring an illuminated, but unpeopled, suburbia, in paintings by Nicholas Moegly. / Colossal

Are crypto numbers manufactured? In some cases it could happen, possibly in order to buy time until it becomes "too big to fail." / David Rosenthal

Why cassettes sound worse than other audio formats: They simply can't reproduce the same frequency range. / The New York Times

"Big Star weren't as good as The Beatles... but that's almost beside the point." Power pop is camp. / Talkhouse

Beautiful, early 1900s catalogs from the Hirayama Fireworks company. / Present & Correct

"Really small tattoos with really thin lines" and other tattoos people will regret, according to tattooists. / VICE

See also: How to give a tattoo. / The Morning News

A thread of amazing (and amazingly bad) package deliveries. / Twitter