When most people picture Australia, the endless brown wastelands of the Outback come to mind; after all, it is the world’s driest country. But there’s a lesser-known landscape nestled far in the country’s remote northeast that’s anything but dry and barren; through the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland run mighty rivers and dramatic waterfalls, ancient rainforests that house 18% of the nation’s bird population in just 0.2% of its landmass, and endure a mind-blowing 250 inches of rain a year — most of which falls between February and April. It also boasts some of Australia’s most beautiful beaches, which are just a dozen or so miles by boat or seaplane from the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.

Cape Tribulation is literally where the road ends — at least for any vehicle other than a heavy-duty 4×4 snorkle truck — and the Reef is how it got its name. Captain Cook ran aground on it on June 10, 1770, nearly sinking, and recorded in his log: that “the north point [was named] Cape Tribulation because here began all our troubles.” He had a bad time of it in the Wet Tropics, giving nearby landmarks colorful names like Mount Sorrow, Mount Awful and Weary Bay. That’s the other side of the coin when it comes to visiting Cape Tribulation, as I did last March — it’s beautiful and remote, but the potential dangers and pitfalls are many. Read on to see what I found there.

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Your brain may need a post-Thanksgiving jump start, so here’s a new Brain Game Math Square to get you going for the week.

The nine squares inside the main red grid should be filled with the digits 1 through 9. Each digit should appear only once in the mail grid. One of these numbers (the 9) is already provided for you. Place the other digits in the correct spots so that the mathematical equations work both across and down. Remember your algebraic rules when solving the problems… multiplication and division should be solved first, then addition and subtraction. Good luck!

Fire in the Hole. Coal mine fires are burning in places all over the globe; some have been burning for decades. (via Metafilter)
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Top Ten Hippie Travel Destinations. I had no idea -but I’ll get my bag packed right away!
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Jalopnik asked its readers for suggestions on what vehicles would be best for surviving and traveling in a post-apocalyptic world. Nine existing vehicles and one semi-fictional vehicle were selected. (via the Presurfer)
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This is the time of year when you might want to start keeping up with Santa Claus’ blog. That is, if you haven’t been following him all along.
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Points for you if you understand this physics-based bumper sticker. Explanations are in the comments.
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Cats turn Shakespeare’s tragedies into comedies! Almost all of them -they don’t really seem to care for King Lear.
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Catching Up With The Plague. Using the disease as a weapon of war is an idea that goes way back.

By David Clark

As the economy sputters, everyone’s looking for new ways to save on food. So, we’ve collected a whole bunch of no-budget meal ideas for those of you daring enough to scrimp.

1. Tree Bark

A classic meal of human desperation, tree bark has become a must-have during periods of scarcity. But you don’t have to eat it al dente the way termites and beavers do. Inhabitants of the Lapland in Finland, for example, are known to make bread with ground tree bark during cruel winter months, and several Native American groups use tree bark as a dietary supplement. In fact, the Adirondack Mountains derive their name from a derisive term for the Algonquin Indians that means “tree eaters.”

Not all bark is equally edible, so you’ll have to experiment with your neighborhood flora. Some popular favorites include aspen, birch, willow, maple, and pine—trees common in cities and forests alike. So sharpen your teeth and dig in!

How to Prepare
For the choicest strips of bark, be sure to go for the nutritious, tender inner layer known as the cambium. (Eating the outer bark would be no more pleasant than chomping into your bookshelf.) If some resin or gum oozes out as you pry off the main course, be sure to lap it up for quick energy. Here are a few fun ways to serve tree bark:

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The internet is full of wonderfully weird and truly bizarre pictures (and often I feature them on the Weekend Links!), so it was only a matter of time before someone created a site that not only features these pictures but asks you, the viewer, to explain them. At the very least it works as both a procrastination and brainstorming tool!
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Jazz up your cuppa joe with unique coffee art (there’s a how-to video at the site)
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Sesame Street is 40, and its impact on our culture has been immense. Like how so many celebrities seem to resemble the Muppets … hmmm ….
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In this market, if you want to sell your house, you’ve got to get creative. Like this guy.
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Were you embarrassed over Thanksgiving by your bad table manners? No worries – take a quick visual refresher course of how to eat and what to eat it with, with Dinning Etiquette 101.
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This Lemondrop list of wine pairings for Thanksgiving works just as well for your Thanksgiving leftovers.
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Chicago Now has a list of 18 Things We Learned About Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer (and a few others) from the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Spoiler Alert: everything on this list is a spoiler.
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Just in case our site ever gets stuck behind a pesky firewall, here’s a video guide to accessing blocked websites.
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Finally, amaze and mesmerize your friends with your extensive knowledge of palindrome words, phrases, and even poems (with help from this list).
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Short links this week because today is my birthday! And what do I want? More links! Submit your great finds in the comments this weekend, and remember that you can always send them to Flossylinks@gmail.com.

[Last Weekend's Links]

You may remember a few posts I’ve done on the remote island nation of Vanuatu, where I visited back in March. The gist of my blogs on Vanuatu thus far have been how strange and fascinating and exotic a place it is — so imagine how surprised I was to learn that not one, but two reality shows have been made about people living on the most remote part of Vanuatu I visited, the island of Tanna. Meet the Natives took five tribal guys from Tanna and sent them to live with families in the UK — to “meet the natives” there. Producers sent along a film crew but also gave the Tanna guys a video camera of their own, to record first-person all the culture shockingly crazy things they would encounter.

In this clip, the guys go to an English pub for the first time. “Pubs” in Vanuatu don’t generally serve beer — they serve a narcotizing liquid made from ground kava roots, called Kava. They’re quiet, dark, contemplative places — called “nakamals” — due mainly to the quiet and contemplative state of mind that drinking kava puts you in, as opposed to beer. It’s fascinating to see the Tannese guys’ reaction to the loud, rowdy world of the “English nakamal.”

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There’s a mental_floss t-shirt for everyone on your list—from the math enthusiast to the math averse (and people who love cheese and monkeys). Check out our store to see the complete collection. Don’t forget, we’re having a 15% off sale this weekend. Just enter the code THANKS before checkout.

To thank you for reading this little commercial interruption, here are four fun facts from the mental_floss Twitter account:

There was a long-lost 4th member of the Snap/Crackle/Pop gang. His name was Pow, and he represented Rice Krispies’ explosive nutritional value.
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America’s favorite casserole dates back to 1955, when a chef named Dorcas Reilly created it for a cookbook designed to promote Campbell’s products. By 2003, more than 20 million families (about one in four households) reportedly served the dish at Thanksgiving.
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Cornelius Crane Chase was nicknamed “Chevy” by his grandma.
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George S. Patton finished fifth in the first-ever Olympic modern pentathlon in 1912. He might have finished first if not for a scoring controversy in the pistol event.

Check out In the Heights lyricist and star Lin-Manuel Miranda giving props to Alexander Hamilton. Not to oversell it, but this is easily the best rap song I’ve heard about the first treasury secretary and his life.

Link via Being Famous

You know the toys. You’ve seen the commercials. But you definitely haven’t heard these stories.* Listen up as game inventor Tim Moodie reveals the glorious, bizarre and scandalous back stories of 7 classic toys.

1. How the Slinky got stuck between a cult and a mid-life crisis

In 1943, Richard James, a naval engineer, invented the Slinky. A spring fell off of his workbench and began to “walk” across the floor. He figured he could make a toy out of it; his wife Betty agreed and she came up with the name Slinky. Introduced in 1945, Slinky sales soared (say that three times fast), but Richard James grew bored.

Despite his success, by 1960 Richard James was suffering from a serious mid-life crisis. But instead of falling for fast cars, dyed hair and liposuction, Richard James went a different route, and became involved with a Bolivian religious cult. He gave generously to the religious order and left his wife, six children and the company to move to Bolivia.

Stuck with the debts left by her husband and a company that desperately needed her leadership, Betty James took over as the head of James Industries. A marketing savant, Betty James was responsible for additions to the Slinky line including Slinky Jr., Plastic Slinky, Slinky Dog, Slinky Pets, Crazy Slinky Eyes and Neon Slinky. It was great for boys and girls around the world that Betty James didn’t suffer a midlife crisis. In 2001, she was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, and perhaps even more laudably, her Slinky dog was forever immortalized in Disney’s Toy Story movies.

2. Why the guy behind the Erector Set Saved Christmas

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Get a jump start on your holiday shopping this Thanksgiving weekend in the mental_floss store. We’ve got something for everyone: a Periodic Table Shower Curtain, The Mental Floss History of the World (now in paperback), the mental_floss board game or, for the baby on your list, a “My First Jackson Pollock” onesie—every spill is a masterpiece!

Or pick up something from our t-shirt collection. Big sellers this month include “I Avoid Cliches Like the Plague”, “Ambiguity: What Happens in Vagueness Stays in Vagueness,” and the always popular “Pluto: Revolve in Peace, 1930-2006.”

Just enter the coupon code THANKS before checkout to take 15% off your order (excluding package deals, subscriptions and outlet store items). Offer valid through Monday, November 30th.