The sensory recreation of history presents an intriguing scientific challenge: How do we know whether we’ve succeeded? http://nautil.us/issue/93/forerunners/what-did-the-past-smell-like

When £2.5m of rare books were stolen in an audacious heist at Feltham in 2017, police wondered, what’s the story? Historically, book thieves have come in two varieties. First, there are the rogue custodians, those who exploit their privileged access to literary treasures. Then there are the academics – or, at least, those who profess an academic interest in the texts they go on to steal.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/13/tome-raiders-solving-the-great-book-heist

Why formal 'business speak' is changing https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201204-how-young-workers-are-changing-the-rules-of-business-speak

I'm tempted to binge watch the original series, but I'm unsure what I'd be like by the end. https://www.vulture.com/article/twilight-zone-best-episodes.html

When £2.5m of rare books were stolen in an audacious heist at Feltham in 2017, police wondered, what’s the story? Historically, book thieves have come in two varieties. First, there are the rogue custodians, those who exploit their privileged access to literary treasures. Then there are the academics – or, at least, those who profess an academic interest in the texts they go on to steal.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/13/tome-raiders-solving-the-great-book-heist

Today's armchair travel... for readers
https://lithub.com/a-visual-tour-of-35-literary-bars-and-cafes-from-around-the-world/

The 1964 The Nation write-up of the now-legendary moment when Fannie Lou Hamer said "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired" at the Democratic National Convention.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/fannie-lou-hamer-tired-being-sick-and-tired/

Colorized Images Can Enrich Our View of History

Whether it’s through colorizing photos or using AI to enhance hundred-year-old videos, technology has made these windows to the past much clearer and brighter!
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/11/no-sweat-tech-colorized-images-can-enrich-our-view-of-history

When Austrian confectioner Eduard Haas III invented PEZ, he set out to corner an entirely different market. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-pez-evolved-from-anti-smoking-tool-to-beloved-collectors-item-180976545/

You can go drive-thru strawberry picking in Tokyo. Other strawberry-themed treats will also be for sale at the pop-up venue. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/japan-coronavirus-drive-thru-strawberry-picking/

Ateliers Jean Nouvel's under-construction Aquarela, in Quito, Ecuador, consists of a series of greenery covered residential high-rises that are meant to echo the topography of nearby mountains. The project is due for completion in 2023. (Also: Pretty pictures!) https://newatlas.com/architecture/ateliers-jean-nouvel-aquarela/

"There are currently objects from Otto Wagner's drawing estate, more than 400 works by Gustav Klimt, photographs by Trude Fleischmann and Robert Haas, large unpublished photo holdings on political Vienna in the 1970s and often sought-after images from the topographical photo collection and the Topics coffee house, Prater, Revolution 1848 and rulers. In addition to known holdings, the search often also yields numerous surprising hits, the museum announced." https://wien.orf.at/stories/3075645/

I wrote a long response to a would-be writer's question, and decided to capture it for posterity. #AmWriting https://estherschindler.medium.com/do-i-need-to-write-an-outline-887f8ad5c9d7

The past and present of self-help literature: Between books on self-actualization, speaking circuits for self-appointed life coaches, high-priced personal growth seminars, and corporate-sponsored self-care initiatives, this is a $10 billion industry https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/self-help-compulsion-beth-blum-review/

This website lets you tune in to a random forest somewhere in the world.
https://www.tree.fm/forest/35

Asked why the nutcracker became so closely associated with Christmas, the museum's owner Uwe Löschner provided a down-to-earth explanation that's typical of the pragmatism of the people of the region: "During Christmas time, poor people used their nuts when they would bake their traditional Stollen (fruit bread) and cookies; and nutcrackers were used to crack those nuts."
https://www.dw.com/en/how-the-nutcracker-achieved-worldwide-fame/a-46529001

I should give a shout out to @corlin
and @erose for their input!