Friday Links: strange, stranger, and nigh unbelievable

Photographer: Robert Howlett | Isambard Kingdom Brunel, builder of the Great Eastern | ca. 1857-1858 | George Eastman House, eastmanhouse.org

Some stories we’ve been reading this week:

• In 1969, an art history student was scouring through castaways at a used furniture store when she came upon more than 2,500 strange watercolors and collages of flying machines alongside cryptic newspaper clippings, crudely sewn together with shoelaces and thread.
• In 1964, a worker passing through the garden park noticed the famous sculpture of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid had been beheaded. Horrified, he ran for the police.
• In the annals of strange things done in the name of art, an Australian performance artist is quickly making a name for himself by growing a third ear on his arm.

• You probably heard the recent story about the person who bought a photograph on eBay convinced it depicts the Brontë sisters. This article pretty much determines it’s not them.
• Earlier this year we told you museums had begun banning selfie sticks. Our friends at JSTOR tell us why they think that’s not necessarily a good idea.
• You say tomato, I say tomahto. I say Cloud Gate, Karamay’s Tourism Bureau in China say “oil bubble.” Anish Kapoor demands we call the whole thing off.