Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 113
December 8, 2021
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December 3, 2021
Dr. Dan Wasdahl Juggles Patients And Fire
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Most everyone struggles with finding the balance between work and play, but Dr. Daniel Wasdahl seems to have struck the perfect equilibrium between his passions: pathology and juggling. Though no matter what hat Dr. Dan wears for the day, in his heart, he is a performer, through and through.
The Path to PathologyFrom a young age, Dan always admired his father’s work helping and treating others as a pathologist. When it came down to choosing his own career path, Dan found it fitting to pay homage to his father’s legacy by attending medical school himself.
Dan’s father, Dr. Walter A. Wasdahl, working as a pathologist.
During his studies, he found great discipline in the regimented schedule of a pathology student, though the daily routine of classes, textbooks, studying, and constant learning became quite monotonous. It’s during med school that Dan really began perfecting the art of what would come to be his next great love: juggling.
Dan started his journey to juggling at a young age, but little did he know that it would later become a staple in his life and daily routine. For years, he performed with many different passing acts, shows, partners, and stints.
Throughout the years, Dan fell in and out of the juggling and circus scene. With life happening all around him, the talent took somewhat of a backseat to the hustle and bustle of a working pathologist. And while examining slides under a microscope is all in a day’s work, Dan missed the performative element in his life, so he decided to take up teaching.
Professing His Love for PerformingAs a professor of pathology at Northeastern Medical School in Ohio, Dan has always created ways to make learning interesting, all while exuberating with joy and sharing the spectacle of the human heart with his classrooms. For years, he’s paraded across the stage, explaining and demonstrating the ins and outs of our body’s valves, veins, and aortic features, somehow finding a way to transform the nitty-gritty of the study into a true spectacle. It wasn’t until the past year, in accordance with new virtual classroom implementations, that he found himself with a lack of showmanship in his life once again.
After his many hiatuses from the art, Dan was looking for a community to reignite the missing spark of his previous juggling act. It was then that he found the Rubber City Juggle Club in Akron, Ohio. Here, Dan tests, teaches, perfects, and performs his acts with other local jugglers and flow artists from around the area. They go on to entertain local audiences across Ohio with their playful talents and sets.
At 65 years young, it’s safe to say that Dan has plenty of room for more tricks up his sleeve. His most recent stunt? An epic combination trick, balancing atop a rolla bolla… on fire. How does this spectacle play out, you ask? Check out his full feature to watch it in action, and read more about the balancing act that is the life of Dr. Dan Wasdahl — professor, pathologist, and performer — in Ripley’s Out of the Box!
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!Monument Of Love: Man Builds Wife Replica Taj Mahal For Their New Home
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
How do you show someone you love them after 27 years of marriage? If you’re anything like one man in India, you go big and go home with a one-third-scaled replica of the Taj Mahal!
Anand Prakash Chouksey of Madhya Pradesh spent the past three years perfectly constructing a scale replica of Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India’s famed Taj Mahal as a gift to his wife, Manjusha.
The construction of the couple’s new home brings the UNESCO World Heritage Site’s story full circle from when Shah Jahan had it commissioned as a mausoleum for his own wife, Murntaz Mahal in 1631.
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Chouksey’s initial plan was to build an 80-foot-tall home, but $260,000 and a heap of issues getting permission from local authorities later, he scaled it down to a still-impressive 29-foot-tall structure featuring four bedrooms, a library, and an intricate domed roof. For comparison’s sake, the original Taj Mahal stands at 240-feet-tall.
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According to Chouksey’s son, Kabir, creating a perfectly-to-scale replica wasn’t as easy as it looks in a photo, with builders constructing and demolishing walls and arches multiple times to make the mini-Taj exactly as planned. “Sometimes the difference was so tiny that it’s negligible to the eye,” said Kabir, “But we thought that since we are building something good, then there should not be any missed opportunity or regret.”
Manjusha had only one request of the artisans and sculptors from across India Chouksey commissioned to complete the project — a good meditation room. A man who is clearly more than familiar with the phrase “happy wife, happy life” set out to include a meditation room fit for a queen, saying, “It’s the best location inside the house.”
However, it turns out the building isn’t just a gift for Chouksey’s wife, but also “for the town and its people.” Although the construction is on the family’s private land, he allows locals and tourists alike to walk on the lawn and take photos.“I don’t stop them because in our town we are a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone,” Chouksey says, “So, my house is open for all.”
It is yet to be determined if Chouksey will follow Shah Jahan’s mysterious plan to make the legendary Black Taj Mahal a reality for himself, but as it stands, we’re starting to think the eighth world wonder may be where to find yourself a Chouksey!
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!Source: Monument Of Love: Man Builds Wife Replica Taj Mahal For Their New Home
December 2, 2021
The Titanic Never Sank And Other Conspiracy Theories Surrounding The Tragic Ocean Liner
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Calling all conspiracy theorists: did the Titanic really sink? That’s the million-dollar question some people apparently still ponder to this day.
In 1912, the Titanic was reported to have hit the bottom of the ocean, leaving the world in utter shock. It undoubtedly made an impact on culture and is partially why the famous flick Titanic is one of the most talked-about in Hollywood.
In recent years, conspiracy theorists started questioning the validity of this tragedy. It may sound wild, but they do have a few interesting points that we can’t ignore.
It’s true that a ship sank to the North Atlantic’s floor in 1912 and that about 1,500 passengers died aboard that day. Although on the conspiracy front, some say the Titanic wasn’t exactly what British-owned parent company, the White Star Line, had promised. Some say the White Star Line switched up their ships in an insurance fraud scheme, while others contend that the sinking was plotted in order to kill specific people.
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The FactsWhite Star Line had quite the competition. One major company that had a large stake in the game was Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd. They owned both the Lusitania and Mauretania, which were named the largest passenger ships in 1906 and 1907 and beat out White Star’s ship speeds.
White Star was owned by International Mercantile Marine Co., a holding company bankrolled by J.P. Morgan. Morgan granted permission to J. Bruce Ismay to begin working on Olympic-class ships that would match the speeds of Cunard’s ships and surpass them in size and luxury.
The ships commissioned by White Star Line to meet these goals were the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic. The first to be built was the Olympic, which faced a series of non-successful voyages, especially its fifth trip. In 1911, it made an off-track turn and crashed into a military vessel, which ultimately put White Star Line at fault. The ship made it back to the port with a lot of damage and much-needed repair.
The Questionable “Facts”Here’s where it starts to get a bit fishy. Conspiracy theorist Robin Gardiner wrote a book called Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank? outlining the following shady theory. The Olympic damages were causing a lot of economic stress as insurance wouldn’t cover them due to the lawsuit. Theorists, including Gardiner, believe the company fixed up the Olympic a bit and disguised it as the Titanic. By repurposing it with this new identity, it would be able to collect insurance once it sunk. They were going to do this strategically so that it wouldn’t harm any passengers or crew members and they could be easily rescued. Although, things went downhill fast — insert iceberg.
Another set of conspiracists blame wealthy and powerful financer J.P. Morgan for the disaster. The theory states he sunk the ship to kickstart the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and to drown his enemies (who were against the creation of the bank and just so happened to be aboard). Morgan supposedly had a ticket for the maiden voyage of the Titanic, but opted out at the last second, leaving some suspicious.
J.P. Morgan
Not Much Under the SurfaceHistorians and Titanic researchers alike have dedicated time to looking into these theories, totally debunking them. While the conspiracies are intriguing on the surface, once you look a little deeper, they simply don’t hold up.
As for the Olympic/Titanic swap, a few reasons the theory does work include: 1) insurance wouldn’t have even covered 100 percent of the damages, 2) the two ships were not identical, and 3) even if they were, it’s highly unlikely the heavily abused Olympic could have passed for a brand-new liner.
The Olympic (top) and the Titanic (bottom). While similar in appearance, they were not identical. Source: Library of Congress, public domain.
And when it comes to J.P. Morgan’s alleged nefarious intentions, it’s important to remember that not everyone aboard the Titanic died — there was no way to guarantee his opponents would have gone down with the ship. Also, how exactly the businessman supposedly coordinated the sinking of the world’s largest ocean liner at the time is absent from most theories.
There are many other conspiracy theories surrounding the tragic sinking of the Titanic (some of which include heavy sprinklings of antisemitism, an unfortunate feature of many conspiracy theories), including that a cursed mummy was aboard the ship. When tragedy strikes, it’s human nature to question why it happened, making it easy to deduce there must be some larger plan or nefarious plot behind it all. But usually, as in the case of the Titanic, it’s just not that deep and can be attributed to bad luck, incompetence, or a combination of the two.
Intrigued by Conspiracy Theories?Check out our list of the strangest theories the internet has to offer, as well as our coverage on the 27 Club, the Georgia Guidestones, and a cursed mummy (a different one), to name a few. Let us know what conspiracy theory leaves you scratching your chin and we might cover it next!
By Sam McCormack, 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: The Titanic Never Sank And Other Conspiracy Theories Surrounding The Tragic Ocean Liner
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