Antique Conservation, the Voyager 2, and Medieval Monsters

How the British Museum conserves a Burmese offering vessel. (Which is cool, but: thefts and, uh, other thefts)

You’re not alone in feeling lonely: Almost a quarter of the world feels lonely.

NASA recently sent a software patch to the Voyager 2, which was launched in 1977 and is over 12.5 billion miles from Earth. (Image of the craft is from this Ars Technica piece):

People of all ages are becoming pickier about what they post to social media.

In praise of the park bench:

“The bench is the most archetypal item of furniture, street or otherwise. Before there were chairs or even tables, there were benches. The very name flows through our language: a judge sits at the bench, quality is benchmarked, the word “bank” derives from the benches (banca) once used to trade from, Parliament has its front, back and cross benchers, while football subs might come off the bench. But the bench we’re concerned with here is a very particular type—the public bench.”

How to make a medieval monster:

On parasocial aesthetics, the fine art world, and online harassment.

Why online language is so bizarre and rapidly evolving.

The biggest empires in history, in peak land area. (The British Empire was legitimately sprawling at its peak):