Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 130
August 21, 2021
Could This Be The Derringer Responsible For Abraham Lincoln’s Demise?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Today: Could This Be The Derringer Responsible for Abraham Lincoln’s Demise?
Here at Ripley’s, we’re no strangers when it comes to hair-raising artifacts — hairballs, hair art, hair sculptures, record-breaking hair, and presidential hair. The newest addition comes from the head of President Abraham Lincoln, but unlike the other clippings of our collection, these strands were taken during a postmortem examination on April 15, 1865 — the day after Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theatre. Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln’s cousin and friend to the President, wrapped Abe’s hair in a telegram a place it in his pocket.
Today, many unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions continue to swirl around this tragedy. Were the telegram systems really on the fritz? How did John Wilkes Booth escape the scene? And where is the derringer used in this fatal crime currently located? Tell us your honest thoughts, ideas, and conspiracies after learning about these iconic Abraham Lincoln pieces, straight from the Ripley’s Vault!
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts like this one, and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: Could This Be The Derringer Responsible For Abraham Lincoln’s Demise?
August 20, 2021
Three Alaskan Volcanoes Simultaneously Erupting
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
This Week: Three Alaskan Volcanoes Erupt Simultaneously
It’s getting hot in the Last Frontier as three volcanoes in Alaska continue to spit lava and ash after simultaneously erupting over two weeks ago.
A Triple Whammy Volcanic EventHome to 130 volcanoes, a single eruption in Alaska is nothing to write home about. However, when three of them decide to put on a show at the same time, we’re looking at some seriously newsworthy nature!
It’s been over seven years since three of the Aleutian Islands volcanoes erupted simultaneously, with only one eruption per year on average.
Though the three volcanoes — Pavlof, Great Sitkin, and the volcanic island of Semisopochnoi — have been stirring for weeks, it seems they’re not quite ready to blow. Currently, under a code “orange,” the Alaska Volcano Observatory has classified the eruptions as showing low-level unrest and minor ash emissions, with only the Great Sitkin letting the lava flow while Semisopochnoi is causing major seismic tremors.
“This lava fountain is kind of unusual for Great Sitkin, but it’s been fairly passive at this point,” Alaska Volcano Observatory geologist Chris Waythomas told Fox News.Two additional volcanoes have been placed under a code “yellow” due to showing signs of unrest. As long as these levels remain low, the volcanoes are not a danger to local communities.
Pavlof, Great Sitkin, and Semisopchnoi are three of more than 50 volcanoes that have been active in Alaska since 1760, all of which sit along the Aleutian Arc, a small segment of the Ring of Fire.
The Burning Ring of FireThe Pacific Ocean may have been named “Mar Pacifico,” or “Peaceful Sea,” but its waters are characterized more by violent activities than calmness, with the Ring of Fire being the source of 75 percent of volcanic eruptions and 90 percent of earthquakes.
Roughly 25,000 miles long, the Circum-Pacific Belt, or Ring of Fire, is a massive underwater chain connecting 452 of the world’s 1,500 volcanoes with meeting points bordering over 15 countries, including Antarctica, Peru, Russia, Guatemala, Japan, Philippines, Papa New Guinea, New Zealand, Chile, Canada, and the United States.
As the sight of some of the world’s worst natural disasters, including the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, 1883’s Krakatoa eruption, the Chile Earthquakes of 1960 and 2010, and the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, the Ring of Fire’s got a lot on it’s (tectonic) plate.
It only took tens of millions of years for the origin of the Ring of Fire to be revealed in 2017 when geoscientists took a closer look at chunks removed from Zealandia, an underwater continental crust near Australia.
Their analysis revealed that the continent underwent dramatic changes sometime between 35 million and 50 million years ago when subduction caused parts of Zealandia to rise by 1.8 miles as other sections dropped the same amount.
“These dramatic changes in northern Zealandia, an area about the size of India, coincided with buckling of rock layers (known as strata) and the formation of underwater volcanoes throughout the western Pacific,” wrote study co-authors Rupert Sutherland of Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington and Gerald Dickens of Rice University in Texas.
In other words, this historic shift effectively created the Ring of Fire.
From Supervolcanoes to SupercontinentsThe Ring of Fire may connect volcanoes far and wide, but their activity generally cannot be linked unless they are very close in proximity. For example, the boiling and bubbling in Alaska is completely unrelated to Wednesday’s earthquake 6,000 miles away in Vanuatu.
In 1996, the Aleutian Arc experienced seismic activity spread across 540 miles, which scientists deemed a complete coincidence. However, with nearly 180 miles between the shaking and stirring of Semisopochnoi and the flowing lava of Great Sitkin, scientists are perplexed as to whether this distance could warrant a connection, especially since researchers discovered that some of the Arc’s other volcanoes could be part of a supervolcano just last year.
Even if the seismic events aren’t directly connected, all of this bumping and grinding does have a joint effect on Earth’s geology. The subduction zones in the Pacific are likely to cause the ocean to drastically shrink in the next 250 million years, potentially causing Asia, Australia, and the Americas to converge into a new supercontinent, already named Amasia.
Consider us amazed!
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!
August 19, 2021
Wriggling Worm Blobs Help Scientists Build Better Robots
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The most the average person thinks about worms is probably when fishing or to side-step them on the pavement after it rains—but Believe It or Not!, scientists are studying wriggling blobs of worms to better develop robots.
Swarming Robots are Science-Fiction, Right?Can you imagine a wriggling ball of worms working together to move through dangerous terrain or survive a fall by landing like Silly Putty? The idea of a group of smaller creatures acting like a single big one has influenced fiction for years. As sci-fi fans, we can name plenty of movies and video games that use nanobot technology. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, the robot Gort is actually made up of swarms of insect-like robots that can work together as one. And in some of the Mortal Kombat games, the character Smoke is really made of a cloud of nanobots. These swarming robots that can morph into one powerful creature might seem destined to remain in our imaginations, but this technology might not be all that far away.
Insects Work TogetherGroups of insects (think ants, bees, and termites) all have to work together to survive. If they all did what they wanted, their societies would collapse. In fact, they work together so well that it almost seems like they share one mind. When ants walk along a path behind one another to find food, they do so seemingly without an individual instructing them or an outside force controlling them. And when it floods, fire ants know to join together in order to float on water like a raft. This type of behavior has led scientists to research things like swarm intelligence and superorganisms.
Squirmy Wormy BlobsWorms aren’t insects, despite the knee-jerk “yuck” reactions that many have towards the wiggly dirt-dwellers. But scientists are learning a lot about swarm intelligence by studying them. Worms have been observed grouping together in balls and acting like a liquid.
Together with a phenomenally talented research scientist Dr. Yasemin Azkan-Oydin who was working with Dan Goldman on earthworms and robotics, we started exploring this `living ball of dough’… Yasemin and I playing with worm blobs in lab realizing they act as complex fluids… pic.twitter.com/VDJXX5wBWA
— Saad Bhamla (@BhamlaLab) February 8, 2021
In a presentation at the 2019 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, researchers described how a species of aquatic worm, the California blackworm, can group together with thousands of other worms. The worms (which would not survive long when dry) could join together in a mass and protect each other by keeping the worms at the center of a ball moist. The worms could also move through tubes and bounce off hard surfaces, according to the researchers. Even when twisted and tangled, the worms could quickly disperse.
Building Better Bots
To understand HOW the worm blob actually moves, we looked at smaller blobs with ~20 worms… and we realized that some worms act as pullers (pulling in front) and some as wigglers (reducing friction in the back).. pic.twitter.com/sy07SlX8LM
— Saad Bhamla (@BhamlaLab) February 8, 2021
If you’ve ever watched the TV show “BattleBots,” you’ll know that people take inspiration from all kinds of places to improve their robots. The same is true for scientists looking to improve the way that robots can move around. Bio-inspired robotic locomotion is an up-and-coming focus where scientists study the natural world to improve the robotic one. Students at Georgia Tech published an article after studying the behaviors of the California blackworm — and designed a robotic model to mirror the worms’ behavior.
The key result: we need both crawl and wiggle gaits to observe emergent locomotion of the SLOBS – if only either one, no collective locomotion is observed. pic.twitter.com/2VoNbkdsQp
— Saad Bhamla (@BhamlaLab) February 8, 2021
They found that, by using data from how the worms behaved, they could create robots that had the potential to act without complicated instruction or the need to program a singular robot in charge. The robots showed signs of being able to move similar to the worms, too. By studying the natural world, scientists will soon be able to design robots that seem to be plucked straight from science fiction!
By Kelsey Roslin, 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: Wriggling Worm Blobs Help Scientists Build Better Robots
August 18, 2021
August 17, 2021
On A Roll With Freestyle Skater, Vasilisa Maslova
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Taking the world by storm with her gravity-defying skate tricks is Belarussian freestyle slalom rollerblader, Vasilisa Maslova!
Winner of the 2018 Netherlands world title, Maslova’s smooth moves speak for themselves. Not only can she effortlessly complete a slalom course while freestyle dancing, but she can also do it on one leg while skating backward in a single-wheel squat.
What is Slalom Freestyle Skating?View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (@ripleysbelieveitornot)
Skaters like Vasilisa perform stunts and dance maneuvers in a style known as slalom. Essentially, freestyle skaters maneuver through a line of cones strategically placed anywhere between 1 and 3 feet apart, depending on the event. Each distance requires different skills, precision, and control to efficiently and effectively dodge!
Aside from technique, slalom freestyle skaters must also come equipped with the proper gear for success. Each skate is constructed of a boot, frame, and wheel, all working together to ensure the success of their skater.
Many of the boots today combine comfort and support with a composite carbon or glass fiber material, rather than a typical plastic.
In terms of frame, length, stiffness, and weight all contribute to a successful skate. Most freestyle performers opt for an aluminum frame for precision and lightweight advantages.
And finally, the piece of the puzzle that provides speed and stability amidst risky tricks: the wheels. Depending on skater preference, smaller wheels are used to manage balance and lower the center of gravity, while larger wheels are less stable but require less effort in terms of speed.
What tricks, treats, feats, and stunts will Vasilisa conquer next? Be sure to keep up with her Out of the Box talents on Instagram!
Skate Your Way 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 for pre-order now on Amazon and hitting the shelves at most major retailers on September 28, 2021.
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!
August 16, 2021
10 Facts You’ll Vant To Know About Bela Lugosi, AKA Count Dracula
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó was born in then-Lugos, Hungary, in October 1882. From humble beginnings, dogged by social unrest and smaller performances, he rose to stardom as the emerging Hollywood’s Bela Lugosi.
To many, he’s perhaps known by an even more iconic name: Count Dracula. Defining everything popular culture knows today about the iconic vampire, Lugosi’s brooding presence, good looks, and thick accent stole the show in 1931’s Dracula.
Is there truth to the tale that he was buried in one of the Count’s capes, and what is his connection with Robert L. Ripley himself? Let’s take a whistle-stop tour of some of the most astonishing facts about the actor’s life.
Lugosi Only Played the Legendary Vampire in Two MoviesThough he had played the part in the stage show, Universal didn’t want Lugosi to reprise his role as Dracula on the big screen. William Courtenay, Ian Keith, and Conrad Veidt were among the higher-profile actors the studio considered first. Lugosi fought tooth and nail for the opportunity and eventually did secure the part.
Lugosi has since have become synonymous with The Count, but after his original stage performance as the character and its subsequent movie adaptation, he played Dracula in only one other movie in his lifetime.
He reprised his most famous role in 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and while he played similar parts in other movies, none were truly Count Dracula.
Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'F7-sQNiQQkB_pBDoukN2kw',sig:'4FOwDQlCvUYMdfQV6qbhf_6IvR2LFgDjhN2fZ8TL0QY=',w:'594px',h:'457px',items:'1262777754',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});Lugosi Only Made $500 Dollars a Week While Making 1931’s Dracula.Lugosi may have been typecast and reduced to second billing later in his career, but in Dracula, he was the star of the show. Sadly, though, he wasn’t paid accordingly.
While David Manners made around $2,000 per week for his role as Jonathan Harker, costar Lugosi earned just $500. Hungry for such a role at the time, he allowed the studio to take advantage of him.
His Live-Action Performance Provided the Basis For Fantasia’s Demon, Chernabog.Disney movies are well known for taking some surprisingly dark turns at times. Fantasia’s infamous “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence is probably the most terrifying footage in the company’s long history, and you might be surprised to learn that Bela Lugosi played a huge part in bringing this spooky piece to life.
The monstrous demon, Chernabog’s animation was brought to life by the actor, whose live-action performance provided the reference for Chernabog’s own. Later, it would be claimed that this performance wasn’t used in the final product, but it’s said that Walt Disney personally denied this!
Chernabog Statue at Disneyland Paris. Oldpatterns via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Bela Lugosi Learned To Pronounce Lines Phonetically Before He Could Speak English.It’s tough to imagine the infamous vampire without giving him that characteristic accent. This, of course, derives from Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula, but the Hungarian also found that his background caused unique problems for his acting career.
When he began to make a name for himself as an actor, he struggled with the English language. When starring in Broadway’s “The Red Poppy,” one of his first big performances, he had only the most tenuous grasp of the language. Nevertheless, with some tutoring, he was able to memorize the pronunciation of his lines, delivering them even though he didn’t truly understand the words he was saying!
Bela Lugosi Once Partied With Robert Ripley.Though Lugosi’s life wasn’t all glamor (actually, far from it), with his success came some impressive shoulders to rub. In one instance, he was once photographed with Mr. Believe It or Not! himself, Robert Ripley!
For almost a decade, Ripley owned a boat he named the Mon Lei (“Infinity”). This remarkable craft hosted some lavish events during Ripley’s time with it, and Lugosi was in attendance at one of them! “Lugosi’s charm and personality even took him to a 1947 cocktail party aboard a Chinese junk to swap “Believe It or Not” stories with Robert L. Ripley,” writes Gary Don Rhodes in his Lugosi: His Life in Films, on Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers.
Bela Lugosi (second from left) at one of Robert Ripley’s parties aboard the Mon Lei.
Lugosi Was Once Honorary President of the Los Angeles Soccer League.Even the most revered and prolific actors have lives and passions outside of the craft. One of Lugosi’s perhaps unexpected interests is the sport of soccer.
Though he was granted American citizenship in June 1931, Lugosi never forgot his Hungarian roots. According to his son, Bela Lugosi Jr., his father was a supporter of Los Angeles’ Hungarian soccer team, the Magyars. He even had a brief stint as the president of the Los Angeles Soccer League in an honorary capacity.
Bela Lugosi Was Part of the Hungarian Army’s Ski Patrol in World War I.Lugosi was a man who lived a tumultuous life in a tumultuous time. Having been born in 1882, his adulthood was blighted by the horrors of World War I.
As a stage actor at the outbreak of the conflict, his profession rendered him exempt from conscription, but he joined the Hungarian army voluntarily. He fought Russians near Austria’s border as part of the Hungarian ski patrol.
He Married Five Times Over the Course of His Life.Lugosi’s career was certainly eventful in all kinds of ways, and with that tends to come a “colorful” personal life.
Bela Lugosi was married five times, his first wife being IIona Szmik, whom he wed in 1917. The pair divorced in 1920 (allegedly following a conflict with Szmik’s parents), and he married again to IIona von Montagh a year later. This marriage, too, lasted for three years, before he parted with his next wife (Beatrice Weeks) after four months. Fourth came Lillian Arch, with whom he had son Bela Lugosi Jr. before the pair separated. Finally, Hope Lininger and Lugosi were married for just a year before the actor’s death in 1956.
Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'bDQ8W7TOSTFPuMnbd8EH5A',sig:'-Wwp_L3tdlp4Ls3OY7Cmuu4D4QmwZeW4V7fEQFw3ewI=',w:'479px',h:'594px',items:'515931094',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});Lugosi Almost Played Frankenstein’s Monster, Too.Lugosi had a rather strained relationship with Boris Karloff, another legend of Universal’s classic monster movies. Karloff, fans will know, was a British actor who came to define Frankenstein’s Monster just as much as Lugosi did with Dracula.
In multiple productions together, Karloff claimed top billing, much to Lugosi’s chagrin. Interestingly, though, it’s said that the charismatic Hungarian had an opportunity to play the role of the iconic monster before Karloff! After Dracula, Lugosi was offered the lead role in Frankenstein by Carl Laemmle Jr., but he refused it. Frankenstein’s Monster, he is said to have sneered, was a part that “any half-wit extra” could have played!
Bela Lugosi Really Was Buried in a Dracula Cape.Lugosi, from his mannerisms to his accent (and even unfortunate typecasting), became the infamous Count Dracula. One of the most enduring tales about the actor is that he requested to be buried in one of his trademark capes and that his family obliged.
In truth, however, that’s not quite how it happened. Lugosi passed away of a heart attack on August 16, 1956, and was buried in Los Angeles’s Holy Cross Cemetery. He was indeed buried in a Dracula cape, but it seemed that he didn’t request this. Instead, it was his wife and son’s idea. Lugosi would have wanted it this way, they stated.
Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'GK9UrRvrQJNLRz4vSE1T_A',sig:'J6JaI11nNH7rtEw55rkODMfL9lai2SqmG16oEb0M9bA=',w:'474px',h:'594px',items:'517324154',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});By Chris Littlechild, 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: 10 Facts You’ll Vant To Know About Bela Lugosi, AKA Count Dracula
Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog
- Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s profile
- 52 followers
