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The Amazing, If Not Slightly Over-Engineered, Personal Pizza Factory Made Using LEGO
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
What if you could have a pizza factory in your own home? Well, for those who live for the cheese, sauce, and bread combo, there might just be a way to do it!
Father-son duo, Iouri and Michael Petoukhov, better known as The Brick Wall on YouTube, combined their passion for pizza and love for LEGO to create a plastic, pizza-making machine of our dreams! The pair has created many iconic LEGO contraptions on YouTube, including an Edible Car Factory, a Tapas Factory, and a mini Lawn Mower. And yes, they were all functional!
The pizza-making machine was created to celebrate The Brick Wall’s 5-year YouTube anniversary. It’s made from mostly LEGO Technic pieces, which are intended for more complicated builds than regular LEGO can achieve.
What does it do?The crust is pushed through the machine, while sauce, cheese, and toppings are dropped on top. The only part that must be completed by a human is transferring it to the oven. Once baked and crisp, the pizza is placed back on the conveyer belt, where the machine cuts it into easy-to-eat slices.
The sauce is evenly spread thanks to a clever attachment. Credit: The Brick Wall.
It’s also built to be totally customizable. Open compartments are available for the cheese and toppings, as well as a container for your sauce of choice. So, whether you’re going the classic route with some pepperoni or you’re looking to get creative with some more outlandish toppings, this LEGO pizza factory seriously does it all (except the baking part, but that can be a future project for The Brick Wall).
But… why?Sure, it’s probably just as easy — maybe even easier — to make the pizza yourself, but simplicity is far from why Iouri and Michael build the things they do. As they state in the video’s caption, “Making pizza is an art and love… making pizza with LEGO it is fun and satisfaction.” It’s all about the challenge and having a good time.
LEGO has offered a number of official pizza-themed kits, including this Pizza Van, Pizza Stand, and Pizzeria. But sadly, none of those make anything you can actually eat. Maybe one day we’ll see LEGO partner with the Petoukhovs, and we can all have our own in-home pizza factories! A pizza lover can dream, right?
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 Sam McCormack, 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: The Amazing, If Not Slightly Over-Engineered, Personal Pizza Factory Made Using LEGO
Foodies Flood To Waterlogged Thai Restaurant
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Are you on the hunt for a hip new restaurant? Now’s a great time to jet set away to Thailand, where recent monsoons have foodies flooding to one riverside restaurant’s outdoor dining for a dive-and-dine experience that really makes a splash.
Having secured a prime location along the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi, Thailand, television presenter-turned-restauranteur Titiporn Jutimanon had high hopes for his first dining endeavor, Chaopraya Antique Café, when it opened back in February.
Things quickly turned grim for the new restaurant after a series of tropical storms and monsoon downpours raised the river’s water levels so high that they flooded Chaopraya’s deck to the point where high tides continue to roll into the watering hole on the daily.
Rather than throw in the towel, Jutimanon leveraged the Thai media to transform the vacant chairs and tables into an underwater dining experience described as “hot-pot surfing,” during which diners partially submerge themselves in the pool of river water while served by wait staff clad in rubber boots.
Reservations for the flooded feast begin shortly after the tide takes over the restaurant deck, which is quickly filled with curious patrons chowing down as if sitting in the midst of a 20-inch puddle is par for the course.
“This is a great atmosphere. During this flood crisis, this has become the restaurant’s signature attraction,” said 24-year-old customer Siripoj Wai-inta of the experience.
Chaopraya’s wet and wild wonderland gets an added splash every 15 minutes when passenger boats cruise by, sending waves barreling into diners looking to hang ten.
Though his vision for Chaopraya may have taken a dive, Jutimanon is thrilled that he seized the opportunity to take the restaurant world by storm — and keep his staff employed during the pandemic.
“It turns out the customers have a great reaction. They are happy. We can see the atmosphere of customers enjoying the experience of eating in the water. So a crisis has turned into an opportunity. It encourages us to keep the restaurant open and keep customers happy,” he told AP.
By Megan 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!
October 14, 2021
Bring Your Wildest Dreams To Life With Ripley’s And Kids Invent Stuff Out of the Box Invention Challenge!
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Have your kids ever dreamed up an invention or object that seemed far out of reach? Perhaps, a doorbell that shoots popcorn? Or a karaoke bucket and mop? Or even a three-story bathtub? Rather than keep these quirky inventions and ideas on paper, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and Kids Invent Stuff are eager to transform your child’s on-paper masterpiece into a reality with our Out of the Box Invention Challenge!
Where to begin?Inside the pages of our newest annual, Out of the Box, you’ll find hundreds of stories featuring inventors, philanthropists, innovators, and creators bringing their own ideas to fruition.
Take father-son duo, Iouri and Michael Petoukhov for example. The two create intricate LEGO Technic machines to help carry out everyday tasks like making a pizza, harvesting vegetables, baling hay, and wrapping presents!
Photo via The Brick Wall on YouTube
And speaking of inventions that make life more fun, take this Christmas tree cannon for example! To create a new holiday tradition in their town, two Dutch men built a cannon that blasts Christmas trees into the air! The spectacle has taken place each year since 2016.
Or perhaps you’re looking for a way to bring a silly little symphony to listeners? A Swedish builder named Love Hultén brings joy to all with his music-making machine crafted out of 25 plastic chattering teeth.
How to EnterFor the Out of the Box Invention Challenge, we want to hear your child’s ideas for inventions that make life better, whether it be their own or that of others — their parents, friends, neighbors, pets, or even the world!
To enter, children aged 4 to 11 will submit their ideas to Ripley’s and Kids Invent Stuff including as many details as possible, such as a visual, drawing, and/or video explaining their creative contraption! This contest is open for entry now through November 20, 2021.
What’s the prize?One grand prize winner will be selected following the close of this contest on November 20, 2021, and will be contacted via email given on the submission form.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and Kids Invent Stuff will spend the next few weeks gathering materials, documenting the process, and bringing the winning invention to life! This marvelous machine will then be displayed at a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium for others to see and experience and will be featured — alongside the inventor, of course — in next year’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not! annual book!
The child mastermind behind this piece may also be asked to appear on media visits explaining and sharing their one-of-a-kind invention to the world.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Share your bizarre, extraordinary, Out of the Box ideas with us for a chance to see them come to life! No dream is too big or too small, so submit your drawings, ideas, and videos to Ripley’s and Kids Invent Stuff now through November 20, 2021!The Physics-Defying State Of Matter Known As Time Crystals
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Remember when you sat through science class and learned about the basic states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas? Well, it’s time to revamp your understanding of the world. While it might blow your mind to know that more exotic states of matter exist, they actually number in the dozens. And they include weird and poetic sounding states such as Bose-Einstein condensates, superfluids, neutron-degenerate matter, and more. Scientists discovered some of these states, while others have engineered them.
But if that’s not mindboggling enough, scientists have taken it next level, inventing another state of matter, which they’ve dubbed “time crystals.” Sure, it’s a slightly strange name, but researchers remain obsessively excited with these strange creations. Why? Because they don’t appear to operate within the laws of physics. Here’s what you need to know about these peculiar substances.
What Are Time Crystals?When you hear the term “time crystal,” what do you think of? Perhaps a cheesy invention from an episode of Star Trek, or the basis for a fourth installment in the Back to the Future series? But the reality is far more interesting.
All standard crystals — from ice cubes to diamonds — share the same structural setup in that their atoms are arranged in repeating patterns across the three dimensions of space. But there’s a fourth dimension — time — which has long fascinated physicists. So, they decided to see what would happen if they arranged the repeating patterns of a crystal within the dimension of time. The result? A state of matter that remains in perpetual motion without taking in any energy.
Time Crystal Creation TrialsHow did the time crystal creation process work? They created a standard crystal and then blasted it with laser pulses. The result? The creation of a crystal whose atoms flipped from one state to another and then back again… and again and again. All the while, these flips occurred without absorbing the laser’s energy.
The finished product is a state of matter that remains in perpetual motion. In other words, it can repeat indefinitely without a source of energy, kind of like a perpetual motion machine. This notion is impossible, according to the laws of thermodynamics, which put some scientists in a tizzy.
The Evolution of Time CrystalsHow did the notion of time crystals first come into being? They were initially theorized in 2012 by Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Although his hypothesis attracted critics, a handful of determined researchers devoted themselves to bringing the theory to realization. University of Maryland physicists managed to patch together a crude time crystal in 2016 using a collection of ytterbium ions.
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek. (Credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Over time, others would follow suit. One group relied on Google and a quantum computer. Why a quantum computer? Because this machine depends on the use of properties of quantum physics to perform computations and store data. How? Quantum computers rely on particles or atoms rather than bits of silicon. They permit quantum physicists to do experiments, allowing particles to be multiple things simultaneously and to interact at what seems like impossible distances.
Uses for Time CrystalsWhat has been the result of utilizing quantum computers to create time crystals? The creation of the biggest time crystal to date. What’s more, previous time crystals proved short-lived. But the effort undertaken with the quantum computer has resulted in the most stable crystal thus far.
But what can these crystals do? That’s a question researchers are still grappling with. You probably won’t see them powering nascent time machines any time soon. (Sorry, Marty McFly!) Nevertheless, some researchers do think they could be utilized for memory storage in quantum computing, which promises exciting opportunities moving forward. One thing’s for sure: the obsession with time crystals won’t be disappearing anytime soon.
By Engrid Barnett, 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 Physics-Defying State Of Matter Known As Time Crystals
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