Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 155
March 16, 2021
The Hellish History Of St. Patrick’s Purgatory
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Saint Patrick is one of the most fascinating figures in Irish history. As with many saints, the stories surrounding him have been told for centuries—altered and embellished countless times along the way. It’s tough to separate fact from fiction, but one thing’s certain: he didn’t drive the snakes out of Ireland.
Somewhere on a small Irish island, though, there’s said to be a portal to the gates of Hell. Saint Patrick’s involvement with this grizzly gateway, and the monastery built above it, dates back quite a long time.
Who Knew Purgatory Was This Pretty?Mythological interpretations of purgatory paint pictures of grim, desolate no-places. Lough Derg, in County Donegal, Ireland, couldn’t be further from this image. Like much of the British Isles, it’s a beautiful, lush area—though certainly remote and more than a little windswept. Nevertheless, this lake is home to St. Patrick’s Purgatory and one of the most grueling Christian pilgrimages on the planet.
Station Island, Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland || CC: Andreas F. Borchert
It’s said that, on this small, unassuming island, St. Patrick was visited by Jesus himself. He took the Saint to a secluded spot where he was subjected to a first-hand glimpse of the underworld. Needless to say, such images spurred Saint Patrick and those who supported him to new levels of piety. A monastery was constructed on the island, and while there’s no historical evidence that the Saint was ever here himself, it bears his name.
As befits a Saint, the tales of Patrick’s life are marked by triumph over adversity and great deeds. He is also forever associated with Croagh Patrick, another of Ireland’s most revered holy sites. On this magnificent mountain in 441 AD, the priest fasted for the 40 days of Lent, and pilgrims continue to follow this example today. It’s a challenging climb that isn’t for the faint-hearted, but this is exactly what makes the holy site such a draw.
Not So Saintly?While the Saint is frequently credited with tackling Paganism in Ireland and converting the country to Christianity, it’s important to remember that such a process took centuries. The Celtic peoples had their own religious beliefs and practices, often portrayed as primitive and barbarous, but Saint Patrick was no stranger to Paganism himself!
The design of the Celtic Cross is often attributed to Saint Patrick, perhaps resulting from the need to combine Christian and Pagan iconography to ease the transition. It’s easy to see how the circle, an image of the all-powerful Sun, could have been incorporated. He is also believed to have encouraged the celebration of Easter with the lighting of fires, a traditional Celtic manner of honoring the gods.
Celtic Cross at the Artillery Park
While this appears to have been an effective manner of ensuring conversion was as palatable as possible, Patrick was not the man who brought Christianity to Ireland—there were already Christian communities, though they were small—and some of his practices were distinctly un-Christian through necessity.
On the mountain of Croagh Patrick, the Saint is said to have summoned all manner of loathsome creatures, from snakes to dragons, leading them to their deaths over the precipice. While Ireland was snake-free (and assumed to be dragon-free), this highlights the curious dichotomy of Saint Patrick again: in some respects, he is as associated with Paganism as he is with Christianity.
This mountain itself, prior to Christianity becoming widespread in the country, was a sacred spot to Pagans, too. Previously dubbed Cruachan Aigli (Eagle Mountain), it was a place of pilgrimage in deference to Lugh, God of farming, agriculture, and the harvest.
It has been claimed that St. Patrick’s Purgatory on Lough Derg is situated on the wrong island and that the church used another after finding the original Pagan site inhospitable. Whether this is truly the case or not, pilgrims have been visiting the sacred site annually for centuries. It’s a grueling spiritual challenge that spans three days of fasting and the simplest accommodation, with cell phones and other devices strictly forbidden. The good news, however, is that Patrick’s infamous snakes, dragons, and other terrible critters aren’t going to be there to hound worshippers.
The monastery complex on the island looks markedly different today, but the remains of the 15th-century building can still be seen in places. Tourists are generally forbidden from visiting, lest they disturb worshippers. While there’s no historical record that Saint Patrick was ever truly there, it’s fitting that the country’s Patron Saint would be strongly associated with one of its most hallowed places of worship. Needless to say, there’s no evidence that a portal to Hell itself exists here either!
CC: Nheyob via Wikimedia Commons
Still, it’s a spooky tale worthy of Patrick, a man who was steeped in Paganism and not above summoning ghastly hordes of demonic critters—albeit to expel them from the realm. Patrick was not a true Saint; he wasn’t officially canonized by the church as no such process existed during his lifetime. He didn’t banish those snakes or actually introduce Christianity to the country, but this mysterious Irish icon played a crucial part in the country’s religious growth. Intriguingly, the macabre stories surrounding him didn’t even end with his death!
As with many Saints, several relics of Patrick’s still exist. A magnificent silver box, which is said to have housed his jawbone, can be seen in the Catholic church of Derriaghy, County Antrim. A tooth and his bell are in Dublin’s National Museum. A shrine that is said to have once held an arm bone of his rests in Belfast’s Ulster Museum. His Crozier, with which he is alleged to have eradicated snakes from the country, was revered for hundreds of years before being burned in public in 1538, during the Reformation. Those who gaze upon these artifacts sometimes have no idea of the fascinating, grisly stories associated with Patrick or of the pilgrimage and portal that bears his name.
By Chris Littlechild, contributor for Ripleys.com
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March 15, 2021
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March 12, 2021
What Was The Definitive Worst Year In History?
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Could the worst year in history have been mired in a global pandemic, experiencing quickened climate change, ravaging explosions, and people fighting for food and goods at the grocer? You may think we’re describing 2020, but we’re actually talking about the year 536—the year discovered to be much worse than 2020 and that earned the title of the worst year in history.
It took us some time to arrive at our final candidate, however. So, first, let’s run down a list of some honorable mentions…
1945, Atomic Bombings
While 1945 might be considered a good year, as it included the end of World War II, the end of those wars didn’t leave human civilization with good portents. Not only were both sides of the planet engulfed by conflict, but the systematic killing of 11 million civilians and the invention and use of nuclear bombs had effects on the world that we’re still grappling with to this day.
The proliferation of nuclear weapons alone represented the first man-made existential threat to the world, one that is unique even in the timeline of the worst years in history.
Despite the relative carnage of war and atomic weapons, however, humankind bounced back pretty hard after 1945. The Medical Revolution, in concert with the establishment of the United Nations, has largely steeled humanity against many of the potential dangers facing the world, including Pandemic response and famine—two factors that will be far larger factors in later worst-year candidates.
1520, Smallpox In America
CC Alejandro Linares Garcia
In April of 1520, conquistador Panfilo de Navarez arrived in Mexico to assist Hernan Cortes in a war with the Aztec Empire. A secret stowaway was aboard his ship, however. Unknowingly, he brought smallpox to the New World. Cortes was unequivocally outmatched by conventional means of subjugating the native Empire.
Cortes was actually defying Spanish orders to come to the continent and had only managed to come meagerly provisioned. The disease, however, did most of the work for him. Diseases brought to the New World are believed to have killed 90-95% of the native population. Empires throughout the Americas were brought to ruin. Spreading death ahead of the Spanish, the Incan Empire was practically in ruin before having a chance to defend themselves.
While the Aztecs fell, elsewhere, North American Natives fell victim to Smallpox. Resulting in a very distinct skin rash that makes the skin look as if it is covered in bumps, these pustules were able to form over the eyes, swell the joints, and even crack bones. American colonists at Fort Pitt would later intentionally try and disperse the disease by giving Delaware tribe members linens from their smallpox hospital.
While it’s no doubt a tragic moment in history, the smallpox epidemic really raged for centuries before being completely eradicated in 1979.
1349, The Black Death
The Triumph of Death, by Bruegel the Elder
While the Black Death is the most deadly epidemic in history, killing an estimated 60% of Europeans during its pestilence, it lasted a long time—spread across eight years as it ravaged Europe. Whereas we talked about recovery in the wake of WWII after 1945, the Bubonic Plague set European population levels back nearly 200 years. Like COVID-19, the disease was spread mostly from person to person, albeit via human fleas once the plague made it to Europe in the fleas on black rats.
Like smallpox, the black plague had some horrifying symptoms. Along with seizures, fevers, and gangrene, painful lymph swelling could occur under the arms and on the groin, turning purple and painful. These so-called “bubos” were just the beginning and were soon followed by the extremities literally starting to rot off the body.
536, The Dark AgesSo, if even what was called “the Great Mortality” doesn’t earn the title for worst year in history, what does? Well, what if we combined disease, famine, natural disasters, and climate change all into one year? The year 536: a year that probably wasn’t in your history textbooks.
It all started with a volcanic eruption of massive proportions, so massive, in fact, that there are no direct records of its explosion, only trace amounts of its ash stored in arctic glaciers and early-civilization silver.
The volcano erupted in Iceland and coated the planet in a cloud of ash. Since we don’t have any records of people surviving close enough to the volcano to give an account of the blast, let’s review a volcanic eruption we do know about.
In 1883, Krakatoa, a volcano in what is now Indonesia exploded with a force loud enough to burst the eardrums of sailors on a passing ship 40 miles away. This eruption altered weather for months changed atmospheric pressure around the world and ejected enough ash into the atmosphere to inspire the Scream painting by Edvard Munch in Europe—halfway around the other side of the world.
All we know about the Icelandic volcano of 536 is that it was even bigger and even more catastrophic. A mysterious and deadly fog then enveloped Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. This resulted in the lowest temperatures in these regions in 2600 years!
This literally kicked off what became known as the Dark Ages. True darkness covered the world, causing crops to fail, snow to fall in summer, drought, and even an early outbreak of the Bubonic plague.
“A most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness… and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear.” —Byzantine historian Procopius
Scandinavians deposited hoards of gold in tribute, hoping to appease the gods and stave off the darkness. While Krakatoa may have inspired the Scream, this real-life event is thought to have inspired the entire idea of Ragnarok in Norse mythology. The Plague of Justinian would eventually wipe out upwards of 60% of the Mediterranean’s population and several states fell to civil unrest and disease. The Mongols are thought to have been driven west by these events and some scholars go as far as to say the establishment of Islam was a result of the power vacuums created in 536.
All of that, and the official title for this climactic event? The late Antiquity Little Ice Age. Which is, Believe It or Not!, the worst year in history.
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!Explosive Meteor Shakes Vermont With A Bang Equal To 440 Pounds Of TNT
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[March 8–March 14, 2021] Body regenerating sea slugs, a 160-mile-long city, and a mysterious bathroom discovery—all round-up in this week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Sea Slug Grows Itself A New BodJapanese scientists recently discovered two sea slug species that can pull off the ultimate party trick—popping their heads off and becoming a whole new slug.
Doctoral student and lead study author, Sayaka Mitoh, from Japan’s Nara Women’s University, first witnessed the odd sight accidentally while working in the University’s Yusa Lab in 2018. After noticing the separated head of an Elysia cf. marginate slug, circling its own body, Mitoh assumed the poor thing was dying. Fast forward a few days, and the slug’s head wound had begun sprouting a brand-new identical body, even growing a new heart! By three weeks after detachment, it had already transformed 80% of its body, complete with vital organs.
While many animals can regrow limbs lost to predators, the full-body regeneration of the sacoglossan slugs is in a class of its own for many reasons. Along with the fact that they appear to decapitate themselves at will, some individuals of the Elysia atroviridis species can go through the process twice!
Sacoglossan sea slugs don’t mind losing their heads. Not only can the sea slugs elect to detach their heads and survive, but they can regrow a whole new body. Read more in @CurrentBiology https://t.co/7ueo5HL0Vn@NaraWomensUniv
Video: Sayaka Mitoh pic.twitter.com/oL5bh9psQ7
— Cell Press (@CellPressNews) March 8, 2021
But just because they’ve lost their head doesn’t mean they’ve lost their minds. Thanks to their rare ability to photosynthesize, the slugs’ severed bodies can live autonomously for days to even months!
Why the slugs would want to behead themselves remains unclear, but researchers suspect that the slugs may ditch their bodies to get rid of a parasite infestation. As far as how they accomplish such extreme regeneration, scientists theorize that it has to do with stem cells.
One thing that is for certain is that regeneration is a “use it or lose it” situation, as only young slugs have the energy to survive the process.
Brazilian Doctor Traverses Volcanic Lake for World RecordBrazilian medical adventurer and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! star, Karina Oliani, set a world record after using a rope to traverse 329 feet across the world’s largest volcanic lava lake.
Oliani traversed her way across Erta Ale in Ethiopia, hovering only 11.76 inches above the lake’s simmering lava, earning her a Guinness World Record, announced Monday in celebration of International Women’s Day.
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A power-packing medical doctor, wildlife enthusiast, and avid adventurer, this isn’t the first time Oliani’s dipped her toe into piping hot lava territory. Her previous endeavors include rope climbing across a lake in Afar while sporting a suit to protect her from lava bubbling at 2,168 below her suspended body. She was also the first Brazilian woman ever to brave climbing the K2 mountain!
“I hope that all the things I have accomplished in my life today can empower girls and women from all over the world to go after their dreams,” said Oliani.
Experts Suspect of Saudi Arabia Sustainable CitySaudi Arabia has big plans to build a 106-mile-long “line” city, but urban designers have major doubts—predominantly because the technology to build such a city does not yet exist.
So far, the city only exists in theory—and on the internet—after a website was launched coinciding with a January 10 press announcement where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman proposed The Line as a utopia of sorts, citing a city without cars or lengthy commutes.
The Saudi government intends to develop the strip through the planned city of Neom in northwestern Saudi Arabia, an area described as undeveloped—which doesn’t sit well with the 20,000 members of the Huwaitat tribe who call it home. The Huwaitat residents have protested the planned megacity—AKA their eventual eviction.
If all goes according to plan, The Line will be built as a multi-level city, consisting of a pedestrian layer featuring parks, a “service layer,” and a transportation layer where “ultra-high-speed transit” will thrive. All layers would create a system where no commute is over 20 minutes.
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The construction is facing major challenges before even breaking ground, as many experts describe the goals as “unfeasible,” with University of Chicago urban design researcher, Emily Talen, going as far as to say it will be an “Awful. Nightmare.”
The infrastructure of a miles-long line with a narrow enough width to walk in five minutes has been deemed architecturally unrealistic as cities tend to grow outward. Regarding “ultra-high-speed” railways, traveling 106 miles in a short 20 minutes would require technology that allows a speed of 318 mph. The fastest rail trains that currently exist travel at a max speed of 236 mph. Even the underground Hyperloop pods, Virgin and SpaceX, are developing at a maximum of 288 mph, and that’s without passengers on board.
Unless Saudi Arabia has a super-secret plan for making this work, it appears they may have crossed the Line on creative urban development.
Woman’s Bathroom Mirror Reveals Hidden New York Real EstateReal estate is a hot commodity in New York City, so imagine Samantha Hartsoe’s surprise when she found a vacant two-bedroom apartment hiding behind her bathroom mirror!
After noticing a cold draft in her Roosevelt Island apartment, Hartsoe grabbed her phone and began documenting the hunt for the source of the chill on TikTok.
@samanthartsoeHOW IS THIS IN MY BATHROOM WALL ##mystery ##nyc ##apartment ##secret ##storytime ##fyp♬ Mysterious – Andreas Scherren
She eventually tracked the breeze to her bathroom, where she decided to remove the mirror only to discover a large hole leading to a mysterious dark room.
Naturally, Hartsoe continued to investigate, climbing through the hole into a two-bedroom apartment whose only residents were an uninstalled toilet, a bunch of trash bags, and an empty water bottle.
Hartsoe was quick to skedaddle out of there, but not before locking the apartment’s front door, located in a different area of her complex from her own residence. She immediately called for maintenance to close up the hole in her bathroom and reported the discovery to her management office.
Explosive Meteor Shakes VermontA 10-pound meteor exploded through Vermont’s sky just as the sun was setting Sunday, lighting up the heavens and shaking the Earth when it smashed into the atmosphere.
According to NASA, the meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere at about 42,000 mph with a bang equivalent to 440 pounds of TNT. Despite its massive impact, these numbers suggest that the meteor was only about 6 inches in diameter and weighed about 10 pounds.
For anyone who was wondering about the big boom / meteor earlier today in #btv #vermont , I dug through some webcam footage and found this on the WCAX / BTV Airport webcam- watch the upper left. pic.twitter.com/oyVLSoVahP
— Jeremy LaClair (@JeremyLaclair) March 8, 2021
Local news stations received reports of a “loud boom and body-rattling vibration” as the meteor soared through the sky, with other witnesses describing the sight as “extremely bright and absolutely spectacular.”
Facebook comments on NASA’s initial post about the event include claims of sightings from Saratoga, New York, Watertown, Massachusetts, and Quebec.
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: Explosive Meteor Shakes Vermont With A Bang Equal To 440 Pounds Of TNT
March 11, 2021
Did John F. Kennedy’s Back Brace Cost Him His Life?
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Today: John F. Kennedy’s Back Brace
Ever since he was a boy, John F. Kennedy suffered from severe back pain, and, Believe It or Not!, we have his back brace here in the Ripley’s collection! But was this supportive device potentially a contributing factor to his death?
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!The Curious Creature Crew of Sputnik 9
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Today, confident scientists can at least venture a possible explanation for almost every phenomenon. Humanity’s collective knowledge is expanding at an extraordinary rate. Nevertheless, there are two particular areas in which we remain largely in the dark about (literally): the depths of Earth’s oceans and outer space.
The Moon landing of July 20, 1969, remains one of the most significant events in human history. Courageous astronauts, guided by brilliant, often unsung minds like Margaret Hamilton, reached the Moon’s surface for the first and only time to date. And they did so with remarkably unsophisticated technology—Apollo 11’s computer had a rope for memory!
The Furriest Crew Ever AssembledNeedless to say, though, the United States wasn’t the only nation with its sights fixed on space travel. The Soviet Union achieved its own incredible feats during the space race, with its Luna 2 becoming the first artificial object to reach the surface of the Moon a full decade before Apollo II did. An even more intriguing tale is that of Sputnik 9, which orbited the Earth with one of the most incredible (and furry) crews ever assembled: a guinea pig, mice, reptiles, a dog, and a mannequin!
Sputnik 9, alternatively known as Korabl-Sputnik 4 or Vostok-3KA No. 1, was launched on March 9, 1961. This test flight took off from Kazakhstan’s Tyuratam Missile and Space Center, a relatively routine operation that continued the line of Sputnik craft—the first of which made history on October 4, 1957, as the first satellite built by human hands.
During this period, the concept of space travel was in its infancy, and stringent safety precautions and tests were being carried out. Before the Soviet Union’s cosmonauts could take off, space dogs, such as the iconic Laika—the first animal to orbit the planet aboard Sputnik 2—were utilized. Sputnik 9’s launch was four years later and had its own canine cosmonaut… along with a whole menagerie of other animals.
The 9 March marks 60 Years since the launch of Sputnik 9, which carried Chernushka the dog and a human dummy into space, demonstrating to the world that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight projects. https://t.co/wP3chJkUwR pic.twitter.com/bLTmdqKppp
— British Pathé (@BritishPathe) March 9, 2021
Chernushka, or Blackie, set off to orbit the planet aboard Sputnik 9. The dog was joined by another bold, unusual traveler: Ivan Ivanovic. Ivan was no man, however. He was a mannequin that had been named by the craft’s technicians!
These may have been the most high-profile members of the ship’s creature crew, but there were several more too! Sputnik 9 was also home, for a time, to the world’s first guinea pig cosmonaut, not to mention a number of mice and reptiles!
Laika’s LegacyThe Soviet Union’s space dogs were acclimatized to, and trained for, the kind of conditions they would experience in space. The legendary Laika, for instance, was a part-Siberian Husky that had been a stray in Moscow, having already experienced the sad reality of low temperatures and hunger. Prior to Laika’s space mission, the courageous canine was fed a unique sort of gel that would serve as doggy space food on the journey!
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Veganismo Descomplicado (@larissamaluf)
Sadly, Laika did not survive her extraordinary trip of November 3, 1957, but her memory still lives on, as something of a national hero in Russia. The good news is that the incredible mix of creatures aboard Sputnik 9 returned home safely.
As a test flight, the craft’s goal was to orbit the planet a single time, which it successfully accomplished. The trip took just under an hour and 45 minutes, with poor Ivan having a heck of a bumpy landing. The dummy was launched from the craft by its ejector seat, in another test of the technology, making its way back to terra firma independently.
Mission SuccessfulAs remarkable as the tale of Sputnik 9 is, brave spacefaring animals spent decades paving the way for human space flight. It was once believed that human beings would perish in such a hostile environment—with or without sophisticated safety equipment. And so the remarkable experiments began.
The flight of Albert I on June 11, 1948, is an often-forgotten event. This rhesus monkey was aboard a V-2 Blossom, the first such venture the United States embarked upon. The trailblazer that is Albert I seems to have been left behind by history, but he was followed by several other fellow primates, including Yorick three years later. Yorick took flight aboard an Aerobee missile, along with 11 mice, and reached heights of 236,000 feet before returning safely—the first monkey to do so!
Albert I paved the way for many other chimpanzees in space. Enos, the third great ape and only chimpanzee to orbit the Earth, is seen here preparing for launch on Mercury-Atlas 5 (November 29, 1961) || Photo by NASA
From Laika to Albert I and Chernuskha, the spacefarers of the animal kingdom deserve endless kudos. Humankind may never have made their first tentative steps into space without them. They certainly wouldn’t have the fantastic mental image of a spaceship piloted by a dog, a guinea pig, mice, reptiles (though the latter aren’t mentioned in some accounts of the flight), and a mannequin to enjoy.
By Chris Littlechild, contributor for Ripleys.com
THE STRANGEST STORIES OF THE YEAR Now that you’ve read the strangest stories of the week, how about the strangest stories of the year? Ripley’s all-new annual is an all-true collection of incredible facts, unexpected stories, and stunning photography!Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog
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