Sunday Links

Image:  Beach Academy CIC

Hundreds of Mysterious Victorian-Era Shoes Are Washing Up on a Beach in Wales.

Nobody knows where they came from. (image above)

This is pretty darn weird: 12 dental training heads via everlasting blort

Prisoners of Fortune A story about the filthy rich and the freedoms they are willing to forfeit to avoid paying taxes.

The Tortoise Who Won Hide-and-Seek for 30 Years

The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls - by Adam Bonica analyzes how the US compares to 30 other wealthy democracies. He sees an America that is not some utopian dream but as a set of solutions waiting to be implemented. He begins with his earliest political memory of watching the Berlin Wall fall when he was six years old and he wanted a hammer. It’s a good read. Via Kottke

The Goblin XF-85: the world's tiniest (and cutest) fighter jet.

What are the machine elves? You pass through a membrane of some sort, and you’re in a place. You’re pushed through, and you see the tykes, as I call them. The self-transforming machine elves that are singing in a hyperdimensional language. They surround you and say, “Welcome, we’re so glad to see you.” Via Memo Of The Air

 The lion in me. Roarrrr!

The "New Brunswick Neurological Syndrome of Unknown Cause": Five hundred people in a small Canadian province were diagnosed with a mystery brain disease. What would it mean for the patients if the disease was never real? Read more BBC 

To make basil pesto you need a kitchen slide rule Via TMN

War Atlas: Mapping 3,500 years of conflict.

Freud’s Begonia An interesting story about the roots that tie us together. 

Twenty historical words that should be brought back.

Do you think that the updated, meat-heavy US food pyramid goes against everything you know about healthy eating? That’s because input came from a newly formed review board, two thirds of whom have ties to the beef, dairy, and pork industries. NYT gift articles.

Paying a visit to Europe's last dictatorship A long read about taking a bus to Minsk and back. (Better than it sounds.) Via Web Curios

Less interesting podcasts

50% of World GDP vs 50% of World Population -A map

TYWKIWDBI explains the brutal origins of a phrase used by Homeland Security.

This poor little possum was trapped on the median of the Cross Island Parkway in New York City and looks absolutely terrified. Fortunately an animal rescue worker was able to help. 

Canada’s oldest hiking trail covers 560 miles of urban and rugged views I live at the base of the Niagara Escarpment and every day, when the weather is good, I hike a small bit of the Bruce Trail.