Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 108
January 10, 2022
January 9, 2022
January 8, 2022
January 7, 2022
Rare Phenomenon Makes It Rain Fish On Texas
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
After a year full of strange weather patterns with destructive wildfires blazing along the West Coast, tornadoes ripping through the East, and Texas actually freezing over, 2021 ended with a splash as fish rained down over an East Texas town.
Residents of Texarkana thought they were seeing things, only to soon realize they were experiencing weather conditions best described as “cloudy with a chance of mackerel” as a steady stream of fish began falling from the sky.
All My Fishes Rain On TexasThe fin-tastic sighting was caused by “animal rain,” a rare phenomenon dating back to the third century AD, during which small animals like frogs, crabs, and even mussels are carried away by waterspouts or updrafts, morphing into a cloud of creatures before plunging back to Earth.
The splashdown only lasted a few minutes but impacted hundreds of witnesses, who immediately began commenting in the city’s Facebook post about the happening with images of fish splattered across town.
Cats and Dogs: Raining Since 1651While there are many ways to tell someone it’s raining, the phrase “raining cats and dogs” may be the most whimsical. The first recorded use of the idiom dates back to British poet Henry Vaughan’s 1651 collection of poems, Olor Iscanus, in which he referenced a roof being protected against “dogs and cats rained in the shower.”
By 1710, the idiom evolved over the years with Jonathan Swift’s 1710 poem, “City Shower,” describing “raining cats and dogs” as a reference to severe flooding that left animals dead in the streets. Though Swift had other creative ways of referring to heavy rain, including “it’s raining pitchforks,” “cats and dogs” was as catchy as cooties, and the phrase stuck.
Why Cats and Dogs?While we’d take a downpour of cats and dogs over getting whacked in the head by a cob of corn, exactly why our favorite fluffy friends had to be the victims of these storms remains unknown.
Some etymologists believe the phrase is a nod to Norse mythology, in which Odin, the god of storms, was often pictured with dogs, the symbol for wind, while witches were depicted with black cats, which later symbolized heavy rain for sailors. Under this logic, “raining cats and dogs” translates to “a storm with wind and heavy rain.”
George Cruikshank, 1820. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, National Gallery of Art
Another word study traces back to the Greek phrase cata doxa, meaning “contrary to experience or belief,” as in, “you won’t believe how hard it’s raining out there!” It may also reference the Greek word, κατάδουποι, or the Cataracts of the Nile, as if to say “it’s raining waterfalls!”
Get the Smell Out of DodgeTLC taught us not to chase waterfalls, so we’ll go ahead and imagine a world where some lucky kid praying for a pet was blessed with cats and dogs falling from the heavens straight into their arms. Considering that Texas is still trying to get the fish the smell out of their town, maybe it’s not so unbelievable!
By Meghan Yani, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!
January 6, 2022
Keeping The Ancient Tradition Of Eagle Hunting Alive In Mongolia
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In Mongolia, the Kazakh burkitshi (or eagle hunters) hunt using eagles while riding on horseback. It’s a tradition that has been passed down through the generations. As one eagle hunter told the New York Times, “All Kazakhs love to train eagles. Now we keep eagles mostly because it’s a traditional sport.”
The eagle hunters, who are typically male, share a strong bond with their birds of prey. For example, they feed off of each other emotionally, according to another burkitshi: “If my eagle feels bad, I feel bad,” he explained. “If she’s happy, I’m happy. When we go to the mountains, we share everything together.”
Editorial credit: Vlad Sokolovsky / Shutterstock.com
The eagle hunters allow tourists and visitors to witness their ancient practice, which helps support them financially. The Golden Eagle Festival, for example, takes place in the Bayan-Ölgii province every year in October, and it also serves as a way for the Kazakhs to present their culture to others and pass down their heritage to their children and grandchildren.
The Kazakhs have been using eagles for hunting for thousands of years. There are cave paintings from the Bronze Age that refer to falconry, and Genghis Khan reportedly supported the practice. In addition, Marco Polo mentioned eagle hunting with Khan’s grandson in the 1100s, according to Responsible Travel.
The burkitshi wear fur coats to stay warm in sub-zero temperatures, and their golden eagles fly an impressive 200 miles per hour, according to Forbes. During the Golden Eagle Festival, the best of the best competes in a variety of divisions to demonstrate their eagles’ speed, agility, and accuracy.
Editorial credit: Vlad Sokolovsky / Shutterstock.com
Sponsored by the Mongolian Eagle Hunters’ Association, the Golden Eagle Festival begins with 70 to 80 participants who ride horses while holding eagles on their arms, according to travel agency View Mongolia. Many of these eagle hunters travel from long distances in this manner to attend the event. Judges rank participants by their Kazakh costumes’ intricacy, the elegance of their eagles in flight, horsemanship, and nuances in skill.
Golden eagles are known for their excellent eyesight, fast flying, and sharp talons. They are able to see small movements from long distances. Female golden eagles are the preferred gender for this ancient tradition. They have larger bodies, weigh more than the males, and are given a special support so they can perch comfortably on the saddle while on horseback. All of the eagles have names, and after six or seven years, the Kazakhs release them into the wild.
While men traditionally train the eagles, the occasional nine or 10-year-old boy is also seen taking part in the practice. In addition, some girls and women also participate, including a teenager named Aishlopan Nurgaiv, who has won against male adult hunters during the Golden Eagle Festival.
Mongolian eagle huntress Aishlopan Nurgaiv. Editorial credit: Carlos Mauer / Shutterstock.com
Director Otto Bell, who helmed the documentary The Eagle Huntress about Aishlopan, told National Geographic of the ancient tradition: “There are generally accepted to be only around 250 practicing eagle hunters left in the world and most of those are concentrated in Aisholpan’s corner of the Altai Mountains.”
He noted how tough Aishlopan was while his crew was filming because she had no problem carrying a 15-pound eagle through -50-degree temperatures through large snow drifts. He commented that she was “the first Mongolian female to compete at the Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii. And she’s the first woman in 12 generations of her own family line to commit to the process of becoming a master eagle hunter.”
Find the burkitshi of Mongolia and explore other cultures from around the world inside our latest book, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Out of the Box.
Take Your Own Step Out of the Box!Challenge yourself to get a little weird, try new things, and step out of your comfort zone with inspiration from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Out of the Box, available now on Amazon and at most major retailers.
By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com
STEP OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE Experience the stories of adventurers near and far, from a three-year-old mountain climber to hair-hangers and acrobats. Leave inspired by unbelievable talents, breathtaking bucket list-worthy locations, and curious discoveries, all from people just like you as you uncover the pages of Ripley’s newest annual book!Source: Keeping The Ancient Tradition Of Eagle Hunting Alive In Mongolia
January 5, 2022
January 4, 2022
Retrofuturism: Where We Thought We’d Be Vs. Where We Are
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
From the iconic Back to the Future Part II sneakers to Tesla’s Cybertruck, retrofuturism encompasses many aspects of our lives. A creative movement depicting how previous generations envisioned how their future might look like one day, retrofuturism impacts everything from fashion and technology to design and culture. It also serves as societal retrospection and a merging of technology and nostalgia.
But are we living life the way our predecessors predicted? According to the absence of flying hoverboards on October 21, 2015 (they’re actually available now, but not to the masses), the answer may seem like a resounding “no.” But surprisingly enough, where we thought we’d be is stacking up pretty close to where we are today.
What is Retrofuturism?Despite humanity imagining what the future might hold since the dawn of civilization, the term “retrofuturism” was first coined in a 1960s book titled Retro-Futurism by T.R. Hinchliffe. In 1983, Bloomingdale’s ran an ad in the New York Times that described their jewelry as “retro-futuristic.”
Today, retrofuturism can be broken into different subgenres, including:
Steampunk: Refers to a future in 19th-century settings, complete with steam-powered machines and Victorian-era garb.Cyberpunk: A genre that explores a dystopian retrofuture that’s ripe with uber-advanced technology but full of misery because evil corporations control the world.Atompunk: A fusion of mid-century aesthetics (think big-finned Cadillacs and soda fountains) and that era’s ideas of what the future would be like (those Cadillacs can fly!).Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'MIi6Rjh-TMVEPm49uLPU7g',sig:'gQYK_9BB2FmcYpnDBlIqLEdyP1NWf3uNxaqL8h_0qeg=',w:'507px',h:'338px',items:'143921354,1343626165,508393421',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});
How the Past Imagined the FutureDepictions of the future have and will continue to fascinate us. When will I be able to book an Airbnb on Mars? Will I ever be able to purchase cybernetic body parts at wholesale prices? Such novel concepts about future technology, fashion, and architecture spawned retrofuturism.
The folks of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s were obsessed with floating highways (à la Rainbow Road in Mario Kart), flying cars, and transportation concepts that look like those colorful tubes meant for hamsters. But while intergalactic roads, tube transportation, and personal spaceships are still out of reach, some of the predictions of the past are well within our grasp. Heck, we’ve already managed to make self-driving cars and enhance our homes with robotic helpers!
Even some of our fashion choices can be considered retro-futuristic. Many people envisioned the garments of the future to be skintight or one-piece (or both!) and paired with chunky plastic boots. Many also assumed that the outfits of the future would be highly uniform.
While latex and PVC clothing have been popular since the early 1970s, recent Hollywood parties have seen an onslaught of retrofuturism fashion. Stylight, the global fashion search platform, has even experienced a surge of inquiries on pieces that are both retro and space-inspired, a trend the company has dubbed “Retro-Galactica.”
What We Could Have HadWhile robot maids, hovering cities, and condos on the moon seem silly, retrofuturism does serve an important role in showing us what our world could have been but isn’t. It’s a unique scrapbook of our history and documentation of constantly evolving societal decisions and expectations.
By exploring different versions of our future, we can learn a lot about where we currently stand and where to go from here.
By Stephanie Weaver, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: Retrofuturism: Where We Thought We’d Be Vs. Where We Are
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