Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 138
July 2, 2021
Mystical Shaman Snake Staff Charms Archaeologists
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[June 26–July 4, 2021] Poop-induced pettiness, disappearing waters, and the oldest known plague—all round up in this week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Town and Former Media Mogul Settle Yabba Dabba Doozy of a LawsuitA years-long battle for the Stone Age has come to an end after the town of Hillsborough, California, and homeowner Florence Fang quietly settled a lawsuit over her choice in landscaping—a fully decked out Flintstones fever dream.
Fang, a retired media mogul, began renovations after purchasing the home in 2017, adding statues of the famous characters, massive metal dinosaurs, a parking strip, and a sign that reads “Yabba Dabba Do” to compliment her vibrant, bulbous-shaped home.
The San Francisco suburb was not a fan of the cartoon-themed décor, calling it a “highly visible eyesore,” and claimed that Fang had violated local code in her reimagining of the town of Bedrock.
Photo credit: Alexander Komlik via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The city sued Fang, stating that she did not file for permits or ask for approval on the changes, which covered over 10,000 feet of property. They also accused her of ignoring three “stop work” orders that were put in place. Winning the lawsuit would have resulted in Fang being forced to remove the new additions from the property.
Fang was quick to countersue, accusing the city of racial discrimination during her attempts to receive permission and permits.
On June 25, the Palo Alto Post broke the news that the case had been settled quietly on April 12 and dismissed by the courts on April 27, with Fang receiving $125,000 from Hillsborough. In addition, Fang will be able to file new permits for the changes, which are guaranteed for approval.
In return, Fang will drop her claims, and both she and the town have agreed never to discuss the matter publicly—a yabba dabba doozy of an order for a media mogul!
Neighbors to Chop Tree in Half Out Of Poop-Induced Pettiness
The “Flintstone House” in Hillsborough can stay caveman-themed after a lawsuit between the town and the home’s owner was settled. https://t.co/067VIUWaGs pic.twitter.com/fclhONFfD2
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) June 28, 2021
A U.K. couple resorted to petty means to stop noisy birds from pooping on their property, chopping down half of a 25-year-old tree shared with their neighbors.
The 16-foot-tall fir tree is planted directly in between their house and the home of Bharat Mistry, who said the tree has been there for over 25 years.
According to Mistry, the neighbors asked to have the tree removed during the pandemic lockdown last year, as they were bothered by the noise and poop being produced on their side. Mistry tried finding a resolution where they could keep the tree while minimizing the bird issues, including offering to get it trimmed back and adding a net to keep birds from living in it, but the couple would not budge.
On the weekend of July 18, the couple informed Mistry that they would be hiring an arborist to cut it down, which Mistry begged them not to do. By Friday, the tree had been chopped—albeit in half.
The oddity has drawn a lot of attention, becoming somewhat of a local attraction, with neighbors changing their dog-walking routes to catch a glimpse.
Mistry has not spoken to the neighbors since the big chop, which he says is unfortunate since they had never had issues until those darn birds came along.
Hydrofracturing Depletes Massive Antarctic Lake in 3 Days
A neighbourly dispute over this tree turned into a “war” when one homeowner cut it in half.
Bharat Mistry, 56, said his next-door neighbour had complained of nesting pigeons dirtying his side of the divide in Waterthorpe, Sheffield.
Read more here: https://t.co/hbyaYxIiZc pic.twitter.com/BUqJ8UXzDo
— BBC Yorkshire (@BBCLookNorth) June 24, 2021
An enormous Antarctic lake that once held twice the volume of San Diego Bay formed a fissure, leading it to be completely drained in just three days!
In April 2019, scientists noticed a massive ice-covered lake atop Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf. By June that same year, the 21–26 billion cubic feet of water the lake once held had been replaced by a doline after the weight of the contents caused the ice shelf to fracture and drain.
Scientists used satellite imaging to observe the shocking disappearance and now estimate that it only took three days to drain from the time the ice shelf fractured.
While this isn’t the first time an ice shelf has fractured, it is the first time it has happened on a shelf of this size—the Amery Ice Shelf is 4,590 feet thick.
The rare event has given scientists a cause for concern, as warming temperatures will likely lead to further hydrofracturing, which will ultimately contribute to already rising sea levels.
Beaver to Blame for Earliest Known Plague
Because #ICESat2 orbits Earth with exactly repeating ground tracks, its laser beams helped the team as they analyzed the rugged landscape change before and after the lake drained. https://t.co/y5e6LreWdI
— NASA Ice (@NASA_ICE) June 23, 2021
The earliest known strain of bubonic plague bacterium has been discovered in the skull of a 5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer in Latvia.
Analysis of the skull, which belonged to a 20 to 30-year-old man (called RV 2039), revealed the presence of Yersinia pestis, a strain of bacteria that decimated Europe’s population in the form of the Black Death.
Based on the lack of bacteria in three bodies surrounding the man, the Y. pestis discovered appears to have been less transmissible and lethal than later variants. However, it does appear that it was the cause of RV 2039’s death.
The discovery disproves a 2018 theory about the plague’s responsibility for the Neolithic decline, with evidence now suggesting that a more chronic infection caused it.
“It caused, for sure, some deaths, but it’s maybe not as severe as it became in the Middle Ages,” said University of Kiel biochemist and archaeologist Ben Krause-Kyora, who authored the study.
As for how RV 2036 contracted the bacteria, it appears a beaver bite is to blame, as evidenced by animal remains found at the same site.
The bacteria would eventually mutate enough to wipe out entire populations in the form of the Justinian Plague, Black Death, and a lesser-known pandemic that killed over 12 million people in India and China.
According to a study released on Monday, a perfectly preserved 4,400-year-old snake-shaped stick discovered in a lake in Finland may have been a shaman’s staff used to perform mystical rituals.
Found buried in a layer of peat at a prehistorical wetland site about 75 miles outside of Helsinki, the sss-scarily accurate carving of a snake is about 21 inches long and only an inch thick at its widest point.
The closest comparison ever found in the Baltic region was a couple of snake figurines, but they are still vastly different, as they don’t look like real snakes.
“I have seen many extraordinary things in my work as a wetland archaeologist, but the discovery of this figurine made me utterly speechless and gave me the shivers,” said archaeologist Satu Koivisto, an archaeologist with the University of Turku.
Sonja Hukantaival, a postdoctoral Nordic folkloristics researcher at Åbo Akademi University, who did not work on this study, noted the artifact’s resemblance to a viper, saying, “This is interesting since the viper has an important role in much later (historical) folk religion and magic.”
Overall, the researchers involved in the study believe the staff to be a religious relic, as snakes are heavily symbolic in the Finno-Ugric and Sámi cosmologies of eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia, with the belief that shamans can transform into snakes!
Archaeologists will need to work fast to determine if there are any more slithering artifacts in the wetlands, as their vulnerability to climate change puts them at great risk of drying up before these bites of history disappear for good.
4,400-year-old life-size wooden snake unearthed in Finland may have been a staff used in “magical” rituals by a Stone Age shaman, according to a new study. https://t.co/PrAS0rlsIM
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 29, 2021
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!
July 1, 2021
Stepping Into The Life Of Sitcom Star Lucille Ball
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
A true class act, loved by millions worldwide, Lucille Ball has left her mark on generations to come with her timeless sitcom I Love Lucy. Throughout the show’s six seasons and 180 half-hour episodes, Ball graced audiences with her charm, wit, and talent. Today, 64 years later, viewers continue to enjoy Ball on their television screens as numerous streaming services continue to share her comedic gift!
It comes as no surprise that, aside from her appearance on this classic television show, Lucy lived quite a full and interesting life. Stick around, as “we’ve got some ‘splaining to do” when it comes to the unbelievable life of Lucille Ball.
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Lucille Ball’s signature feature is, without a doubt, her famous red hair color, but what you may not know is that she wasn’t born a true red-head! Ball originally dyed her hair red for a previous role in Du Barry Was a Lady. However, headshots snapped prior to her appearance on the show reveal that Lucy once had brown hair!
The red was toned back a bit for her role on I Love Lucy. “A lot of people think of it as red—it’s not red at all,” explained Irma Kusely, the show’s hairstylist who dyed Lucy’s hair using typical hair dye, eventually switching to henna. “She met a very wealthy sheikh and he had heard about her problem [getting the right coloring], he said he would send her a lifetime supply of henna, which he did! [We kept it] in my garage, locked away in a safe.”
Lucy ended up keeping her trademark hair for over four decades, until 1989.
Lucy followed her acting career to New York City at the young age of 15.At the age of 12, Lucy’s stepfather encouraged her to audition for a role in a local stage production. After being cast, the rest was history.
When she was only 15 years old, Lucy moved to New York City to attend drama school and focus on furthering her career. Though it may seem unconventional, this young start is common in showbiz. Other successful stars who followed in similar footsteps include Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, Katy Perry, John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise, and many more.
Lucille Ball was the face of Chesterfield Cigarettes.Following her move to New York, Lucy’s drama school dreams weren’t progressing the way she had hoped. She decided to turn to modeling where she began work for fashion designer, Hattie Carnegie. This lead to her career as the face of Chesterfield Cigarettes.
Her modeling career was short-lived, and in the early 1930s, Lucy decided it was again time to change her path. She dyed her hair blonde and moved to Hollywood to try to become a star.
Slowly, opportunities arose including a stint as one of the 12 “Goldwyn Girls” to promote the 1933 Eddie Cantor flick Roman Scandals. Then came a role as an extra in the Ritz Brothers film The Three Musketeers, followed by her part in Stage Door, starring Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, in 1937!
Lucy was the first pregnant actress to play a pregnant woman on TV.After many guest roles and brief appearances, Lucy finally hit her career stride at 40 years old. Her “big break” was none other than the show we know and love her for today, I Love Lucy!
Believe It or Not!, when I Love Lucy first aired, a pregnant woman had never appeared on television before. In fact, the show also forbade the actors and actresses from even using the word “pregnant” in their lines. Lucy had her first child, Lucie, prior to the show filming, but when she was pregnant with her second baby, Desi Jr., the show writers decided to keep her pregnancy as a part of the story rather than try to work around it. Her baby bump was very clearly visible on set, though writers still had one strict condition—they had to use the term “expecting” rather than “pregnant” (for some unknown reason).
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And speaking of motherhood, Lucille’s mom, DeDe, was so proud of her daughter’s success that attended the filming of every single I Love Lucy episode!
Lucy and Ethel had somewhat of a love/hate relationship off the screen.Vivian Vance played Lucy’s sidekick and best friend, Ethel Mertz, on I Love Lucy. Many believed that since the pair had such great chemistry on screen, they must’ve been close in real life—but this wasn’t exactly the case. While they did support each other’s careers, they remained competitive throughout the run of the show.
Lucy cofounded Desilu Productions with her husband Desi in 1950. The studio was built on $5,000 of the couple’s own money. Three years later, the company was worth $10 million. First, they bought 2 studios–one next to Paramount Pictures and the other next to Sony. That same year, Desilu sold the I Love Lucy rights to CBS for $4.5 million!
In 1962, Ball bought out Desi’s share of the production company, making her the first female president of a Hollywood production company! Some popular projects from Desilu Productions include The Untouchables, December Bride, Whirlybirds, Our Miss Brooks, and the revolutionary Star Trek.
Photo credit: blacque_jacques via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Lucille Ball and Jack Palance were costars on The Greatest Show on Earth.Desilu Productions’ The Greatest Show on Earth featured Johnny Slate, played by Jack Palance, and his traveling show, modeled off stories from the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Featured in an episode named “The Lady in Limbo,” was none other than Lucille Ball herself!
Johnny Slate is trying to decide which of his circus acts to send to Russia for a cultural exchange program with the Moscow Circus. Horse trainer Kate Reynolds, played by Lucille Ball, is seeking the opportunity for this coveted spot.
Believe It or Not!, Jack Palance’s circus and sideshow roots didn’t end with Desilu. You may remember him as the host for the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! television series in 1982.
Television set trailers still pay homage to Lucy and Desi’s relationship.On many film and television sets, you can often find trailers with the doors either labeled with either “Lucy” or “Desi.” Believe It or Not!, the “Lucy” door signifies the ladies’ room, and “Desi” is labeled on the mens’. As the couple left a huge impact on the entertainment industry today, their legacy will clearly live on forever!
By Michela Pantano, 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!
June 30, 2021
June 29, 2021
Unraveling The History Of The Ancient Ibis
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Egyptian culture has always fascinated people and, as a window into the past, mummies never cease to amaze. Through Ripley’s latest collaboration with Interspectral, the new Lost Civilization Gallery at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando will be a place for visitors to virtually explore beneath the wrappings of mummies. It will enable them to study the inside of a mummified priest, as well as an Ibis bird mummy that is totally unique to this exhibition. But before we can physically unwrap history with Interspectral’s 3D-visualization technology, let’s travel back in time to ancient Egypt and the age of the mummy.
The figures are staggering. Millions of mummified ibises (hook-billed shorebirds) were sacrificed to Thoth, one of the Egyptian gods. At Saqqara, near Memphis (the ancient capital of Egypt), archaeologists have uncovered the mummies of Egyptian pharaohs and nobility along with upwards of 1.75 million mummies of African sacred ibises. These discoveries have led to plenty of questions but fewer answers.
For example, why were ibises so significant to Egyptian culture? What role did ibises play in the afterlife, and what can these mummies tell us today? Let’s unravel the history of these ancient mummies, revealing fascinating insights into ancient Egyptian culture along the way.
The Significance of Thoth to Egyptian CultureThe African ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) held sacred associations for the Egyptians, especially in relation to the god Thoth. These connotations proved so significant that depictions of Thoth in hieroglyphs often depicted him with a human body and an ibis-like head. Thoth was the Egyptian god of magic and wisdom. But his responsibilities didn’t end there.
According to the Egyptians, Thoth reigned over hieroglyphs, science, judgment, art, and the dead. Thoth also played a prominent role in maintaining the universe. Over time, depictions of the deity evolved, and he became closely associated with other roles, including the judgment of the dead.
The patron of educated scribes, Thoth was thought to help these important members of society fulfill their various administrative duties. The god also acted as the reckoner of seasons and time. The lunar disk atop his head represented the crescent moon.
The Role of the Ibis in the AfterlifeNow that we have a better understanding of the significance of Thoth in the Egyptian faith, let’s take a closer look at the role of ibis mummies in Egyptian cosmology. What role did the African sacred ibis play in the afterlife? These mummies reminded the god, Thoth, to take care of individuals as they transitioned into death and faced judgment.
These mummies also held the potential to assist the living. The desiccated birds interred in Egyptian necropolises as votive offerings were left for Thoth so that he would cure illnesses, assist with romantic troubles, and even gift the offeror with long life. Archaeologist Francisco Bosch-Puche likens offering African sacred ibis mummies in ancient Egypt to lighting candles in a Catholic church.
At the catacombs of Tuna el-Gebel, researchers have uncovered more than four million sacred ibis mummies. And more than six million of these bird mummies have been recovered in total, with sacrifice to Thoth enjoying its heyday between 450 and 250 BC. But how did Egyptians have ready access to such a massive supply of birds for these rituals?
That’s a question that researchers continue to wrestle with. One of the most popular theories is that ibises were domesticated and raised specifically for this purpose. We know this was the case with other animals used heavily for mummification and offerings such as dogs, cats, and even crocodiles. Archaeologists have discovered some of these ancient facilities, but there’s been much less in the way of evidence supporting the idea of large-scale ibis hatcheries.
Unraveling the Mystery of Ibis MummiesBut that doesn’t mean there’s no evidence of ibis domestication. Instead, it proves contradictory. As Antoaneta Roussi with National Geographic has argued, some written evidence about large-scale ibis operations does exist in historical Egyptian documents. However, a new genetic study published in the journal PLoS ONE finds that the sacrificial mummies contain birds captured in the wild.
In other words, think of the large-scale operations alluded to by Roussi as halfway houses, where captive wild birds stayed until getting harvested to make mummies. How did DNA prove the birds were wild rather than domestic? According to researchers, domestication comes with telltale genetic markers, even during relatively short periods of captivity. Why? Animals experience reduced genetic diversity. But these markers aren’t present in the mummified birds.
Recent CT scans have shown that the avian mummies received the same careful treatment as their human counterparts. For example, they had internal organs removed and embalmed so they’d function in the next world. In the case of the birds, embalmed adult gizzards contained snail shells and other evidence of last meals. These items would have been replaced during the embalming process by the mummifiers.
What’s more, Egyptians stuffed mummified body cavities with grain, kind of like packing a lunch pail for the final journey. Besides embalming and replacing the bird’s digestive organs, they also did the same with the lungs. These preparations indicate that Egyptians believed birds could travel into the afterlife with their human counterparts.
Unwrap History at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! OrlandoNow at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando, guests have the opportunity to, quite literally, unravel history with our latest interactive partnership with Interspectral! Curious visitors will be able to virtually explore Neswaiu, an ancient Egyptian priest whose mummified body is currently in the collection of the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden.
Unlike many others, Neswaiu’s mummy has been resting inside his intact wrappings for more than two thousand years. It is not until recently, with the aid of Interspectral’s modern scanning and visualization technology, that we can investigate the remains of Neswaiu and his burial equipment, inside-out. This is all performed without disturbing these ancient remains!
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!
June 28, 2021
June 27, 2021
June 26, 2021
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