Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 208
April 13, 2020
April 12, 2020
Cracking The Classic Egg Dance
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Looking for a new egg-cellent family tradition to celebrate springtime? The Egg Dance could be a household favorite. But fair warning: most of us wouldn’t want to attempt this joyous romp while wearing our Sunday best.
Before a colorful rabbit began leaving chocolate versions in baskets, eggs were known for their symbolism in both pagan and Christian cultures. They represented a rebirth of both the spring season and the rebirth of man on Easter Sunday. Today, many households still celebrate the history of this new life with a frolicking tradition known as The Egg Dance.
“In the days before electronic entertainment and ease of traveling, recreation centered on common activities and objects,” says Dr. Ron Houston, Trustee of the Society of Folk Dance Historians. “Consider, for example, egg races and egg tosses,” which we’re sure many people are most familiar with. “The Egg Dance,” he adds, “was commonly performed in Britain and Europe as an entertainment in the 15th to 19th centuries.” That’s right—we’re taking the games at your next family reunion to a whole other level.
There are two versions of this spectacle, both with the same end goal: to break as few eggs as possible. In one version, the dancer must tip an egg out of a bowl into a chalk circle. They then must cover the egg back up with the bowl using only their feet! The egg cannot touch any other objects on the floor and must remain in the drawn circle for the entirety of the game.
In the other version, eggs are spread about on the ground and the dancer must prance around them attempting to break as few as possible. The Guild of Play Book of Festival and Dance II from 1901 describes it as being like a “horn-pipe jig.” The book also provides sheet music and step-by step-instructions, noting that it should be “danced with great energy.” The dance is full of hopping, leaping and jumping, ending with the dancer instructed to “fall down exhausted.” In a similar novel written in 1825, author Jehoshaphat Aspin used the horn-pipe comparison as well but described the dancers as being blind-folded.
A Dance of Love?
“When couple dancing—waltz, polka, schottische, mazurka—became popular in the 19th century, couples would dance among a field of eggs as social recreation,” but not as a blindfolded horn-pipe dance, Houston says.
Indeed, a 1895 text from The American Magazine, Volume 39 describes the egg dance as being common in Switzerland in that era. It also recounts how this tradition sparked an aristocratic marriage as far back as the early 16th century.
Philibert the Handsome, Duke of Savoy went to pay a call on Habsburg ruler Marguerite of Austria at the Castle of Brou during the Easter Monday festivities. There was dancing on the green, including a special Egg Dance where 100 eggs were laid out. If a couple could dance amongst them, without breaking a single one, they were able to marry, and no one could object. After three couples failed, Philibert beseeched Marguerite to try the dance. All the eggs survived and the two were wed.
The Delicate Dance of Politics
In 1795, a story concerning the egg dance appeared in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. This literary source is where the phrase, “To perform a true egg dance,” took on a new meaning—that of maneuvering deftly through difficult situations. It frequently applied to political situations, as in this wood carving by Sir John Tenniel, “The Political Egg Dance,” from an 1867 issue of Punch magazine. The cartoon depicts Benjamin Disraeli skillfully managing the redistribution of seats after the success of a Conservative party reform bill.
And should anyone ever ask you, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” hit them with this party fact. The Egg Dance originated centuries ago while the more-popular Chicken Dance (AKA the moment every guest dreads while attending a wedding) only became popular in the 1970s.
By Liz Langley, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Cracking The Classic Egg Dance
April 11, 2020
April 10, 2020
The Most Expensive Cup Of Coffee Is Made With Cat Poop
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
If you are a die-hard coffee fan, you have probably heard about the fascinating—and kind of gross—civet cat coffee, also known as kopi luwak coffee. It’s a method of producing coffee that was discovered in Indonesia under Dutch colonial rule.
During this time period, native farmers and plantation workers were banned from harvesting coffee for their own use and had to resort to scrounging around for it. This led them to an astounding discovery about civet cats—the native South East Asian mammals that look something like a cross between house cats and weasels. Due to their keen sense of smell, they naturally pick out and eat only the ripest coffee cherries. As they digest the coffee cherries, the enzyme in their bodies breaks down the cherries and removes the pulp, leaving behind just the coffee beans. During this process, some kind of fermentation also occurs that gives the civet cat coffee its special flavor. After about 24 hours, the coffee beans are defecated by the civet cats. Having noticed this phenomenon, some frustrated farmers decided to wash the beans and roast them. They were amazed by the richer and more mellow drink than those simply harvested from the field.
Why Is It So Expensive?
So how much does civet cat coffee cost? Fetching from $180 to $600 per pound, it claims the title of the world’s most expensive coffee. For instance, a cup of civet cat coffee in the US can go for up to $90.
The hefty price tag seems to come from the “specialty” nature of the coffee. Collecting wild civet cat droppings is very time-consuming as it is hard to find and accumulate. In addition to this, many people believe that it’s a superior coffee with a more aromatic and smooth flavor resulting from the process it went through inside the civet cat.
Concerns Regarding Civet Cat Coffee
As the civet cat coffee quickly gained popularity worldwide, demand for this delicacy increased significantly, which in turn has spawned a cruel industry. As a result, farmers started capturing wild civets and shoving them in tiny cages to force-feed them coffee cherries.
Keeping The Taste, Freeing The Cats
As a solution for the unsustainable and inhumane treatment towards civet cats, a Vietnamese coffee brand partnered up with a team of German scientists in 1996 to study the effect of the civet cats on coffee and duplicate a natural enzyme soak process that would approximate the same effect. This allows them to produce civet cat coffee taste without the civets, resulting in an ethical and sustainable method of production. Now, is it worth a taste test? We’re going to find out.
Source: The Most Expensive Cup Of Coffee Is Made With Cat Poop
Easter Bunny And Tooth Fairy Are Essential Workers
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
This Week
[April 5-11th, 2020] Alligators and exploding whales to enforce social distancing, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy hard at work, and the rest of the week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
Six Feet, But Make It FL
The CDC recommends people stay about six feet apart to avoid spreading COVID-19. To help their residents visualize this distance, Leon County, Florida, likened it to a common sight—the length of a large alligator. They have dubbed it “Alligator Distancing.”
Dressed From Head To…
In a tux or in a birthday suit—whatever you choose to wear or not wear—a face mask is still mandatory in the Czech Republic. A group of sunbathing nudists found out the hard way when they were reprimanded by the police. The cheeky culprits were violating the regulation to wear protective face-masks in public spaces.
Essential Workers
In a media briefing on Monday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took a moment to reassure all Kiwi children that the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy are both considered “essential workers.” The mythical figures will be allowed to work during lock-down, but Arden made sure the “bunnies” and “fairies” of each household had a scapegoat. Ardern explained, “If the Easter Bunny doesn’t make it to your household, we have to understand it’s a bit difficult at the moment for the bunny to get everywhere.”
Plague In Yellowstone
Throughout history, millions of people have perished from the plague, but a new study has revealed that the deadly bacteria is now infecting a different victim: cougars living in Yellowstone. Researchers tested 28 cougars and found that nearly half had been exposed to the plague. Don’t fret—it’s not another contagion to worry about at the moment. With little to no interaction between humans and cougars, it’s unlikely that the plague would pass onto humans.
Lessons In Exploding Whales
In November 1970, officials in Oregon, USA decided to blow up a rotting whale carcass. The whole thing went horribly wrong.
Why do we bring this up? Well, this story can teach us 3 things about #coronavirus ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/9MOeRESkzx
— Doncaster Council (@MyDoncaster) April 6, 2020
In an effort to encourage residents to stay home and let nature take its course, a town in England shared a bizarre anecdote: Oregon’s exploding whale incident.
In 1970, a sperm whale washed ashore near the city of Florence. Unsure how to properly handle the carcass, city officials attempted to blow up the 8-ton mammal with a whopping 20 cases of dynamite—a plan that went terribly wrong. Experts urged against the plan, but the Oregon State Highway Department decided this was the best way to dispose of the 45-foot whale.
Crowds gathered from a distance to watch the blubber-blasting spectacle. Onlookers were left covered in remains and soaring pieces caused quite a bit of damage, all while the whale remained pretty much intact. Officials spent the rest of the day burying it on the beach.
Moral of the story, according to Doncaster, England? “When you ignore expert advice and act like an idiot, you cover everyone else with decaying whale blubber.”
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April 9, 2020
Is Space Really a Zero-Gravity Environment?
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From Apollo 12 (1995) to Contact (1997) and the aptly titled Gravity (2013), we’ve all gotten used to the visual of astronauts floating around in zero-gravity environments. You could say that the idea of space having no gravity is common knowledge, at this point. Many people wouldn’t think twice about why astronauts appear weightless.
The perceived weightlessness of astronauts is a misnomer, though. So is the concept of space as a zero-gravity environment. Space contains what’s known as microgravity. Here’s what it is and how it relates to the images we’re all so familiar with of buoyant astronauts.
Space and Microgravity
Let’s start with the number one question on everyone’s mind, “What the heck is microgravity?” Microgravity refers to the condition of objects or people appearing to be weightless. For example, we see the effects of this phenomenon in videos from the space station, showing individuals and the objects around them suspended in midair.
This condition occurs not only within spacecraft and space stations but also outside during spacewalks where astronauts must stay tethered to avoid floating away. Because they hover above the ground, astronauts only need to wear soft boots. When involved in extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), they secure their shoes with foot restraints to avoid drifting away.
Six astronauts who had been in training at the Johnson Space Center for almost a year are getting a sample of a micro-gravity environment || Photo by NASA
But just because these individuals and the objects around them are floating doesn’t mean they exist in a zero-gravity environment. Everywhere in space, a small amount of gravity exists. Gravity keeps the sun in place within the more massive Milky Way, and it’s why the Earth orbits the sun. It also holds the Moon in place as it revolves around the Earth.
That said, gravity does weaken due to distance. For example, if you could take a spacecraft far enough from Earth, you’d eventually reach a range where the planet’s gravitational pull diminishes. Nonetheless, this is not why people and things float in space.
Why Objects Float in Space
Orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 200 to 250 miles, the International Space Station experiences about 90 percent of the gravity felt on the planet’s surface. In other words, if you could climb stairs from the Earth to the space station, you’d weigh approximately 90 percent of what you do once you hit the top of the staircase.
This illustration begs the question, “If 90 percent of the Earth’s gravitational pull reaches the space station, then why do the astronauts live and work midair?” The answer is an eye-opener.
These individuals appear to be floating because they’re falling through space. If you’ve ever experienced an amusement park ride where you enter a cabin that gets dropped from a tall tower, then you know this feeling well. The same goes for the sensation you get when a roller coaster encounters a sudden drop on the tracks. Of course, for us terrestrial-bound beings, this sense of weightlessness proves very temporary.
Freefalling Through Space
Why do humans and objects fall at the same rate in space, creating the appearance of weightlessness? That’s because they’re falling through a vacuum. In a vacuum, all objects plunge at the same rate. Gravity, not mass, dictates this rate.
Things operate differently on the Earth, however. If you’ve ever dropped a feather and a metal ball from a tower at the same height, you already understand this. The ball will crash into the ground much faster than the feather. What gives? On Earth, air resistance alters the rate of descent for various objects. Removing this resistance, however, permits the feather to fall at the same rate as the ball.
Let’s take the amusement park ride that we mentioned earlier. Imagine riding it again, only this time you have a quarter in your hand. If, during the descent, you let go of the quarter what do you think will happen? It‘ll fall at the same rate as your body, giving the impression that it’s floating directly in front of you. The same thing happens to all objects in space.
Falling Toward and Around the Earth
Think of the space station, its crew, and any objects within as freefalling towards the Earth. They all descend at the same rate, and that’s why they appear to float. The gravitational pull of the Earth is not the sole force acting on these objects and individuals, however. The space station is traveling at upwards of 17,500 miles per hour, moving at a speed that matches the curve of the Earth’s surface.
As a result, the space station is both moving towards the Earth and around it. This movement towards and around the Earth keeps the space station from plummeting into the planet. This principle also explains why the Moon orbits the Earth instead of colliding with it. In other words, the Moon is also falling around the Earth.
Why Microgravity Matters
Organizations such as NASA study microgravity. Why? To gain a better understanding of what happens to equipment and individuals in space. What do we know about the effects of microgravity on the human body so far? For one, long-term exposure leads to weakened bones and muscle atrophy because microgravity offers so little resistance. Understanding the negative physiological impacts of this environment will prove critical to future space exploration. After all, astronauts must stay healthy and robust despite extended journeys, say to Mars.
Besides human beings, microgravity also has some interesting impacts on other natural phenomena. For example, crystals grow better in space, and flames take on a round shape because of the decreased pull of gravity. Conducting such experiments in space will help scientists to continue honing their understanding of microgravity environments and their impacts on physical objects.
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
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April 8, 2020
The Apollo 14 Moon Trees That Traversed The Galaxy
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Stuart Roosa was destined to become an astronaut.
In 1953, the Oklahoma native first worked as a U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, parachuting out of airplanes to fight forest fires. He moved to Oregon in the mid-1960s, where he worked as an Air Force test pilot and fell in love with the state’s thick forests.
Roosa landed a coveted seat aboard Apollo 14. Actually, he landed about 500 seats—he brought with him hundreds of various plant seeds!
Around the Moon in 34 Orbits
“In those days every Apollo astronaut was permitted to take a few small personal things into space with them,” reads the Oregon Travel Information website. “What they chose varied greatly. Alan Shepard chose golf balls. John Young, on Gemini 3, took a corned beef sandwich. Stuart Roosa took tree seeds.”
But he did so for science. There were many questions regarding the seeds. Would they sprout when they returned to Earth? What would happen to them if they went to the Moon?
In 1971, Apollo 14 launched, and Roosa took with him about 500 different kinds of tree seeds. While he did not walk on the Moon—he commanded the orbiting space module—his seeds orbited the Moon 34 times. When they returned, many of the seeds were planted for the country’s bicentennial, including a Loblolly Pine at the White House.
Some of the seeds were also given as gifts to other countries like Brazil, Switzerland, and Japan.
The problem, of course, was that records of the trees were not properly kept, so only 50 of the trees are officially accounted for around the world.
Six of the 50 known trees are in Oregon, known as The Apollo 14 Moon Trees; Roosa claimed the town of Coos Bay, Oregon, as his adopted hometown.
Douglas Firs are located at the State Capitol Building in Salem, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, the Veteran’s Hospital in Roseburg, and two more at a private residence in Salem. Governor Bob Straub planted the state capitol tree on Arbor Day, April 30, 1976, and now, the Fir is a State Heritage Tree.
Bicentennial Moon Tree, located in the Northeast corner of Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA.
Space Seeds
Surprisingly, the trees never exhibited any special qualities from being in space.
In 2011, NASA Astronomer David Williams told Wired Magazine that “no one knew for sure whether being exposed to weightlessness or radiation would do something to the seeds. They grew control trees right next to each other to see if they grew differently. But they didn’t find anything.”
Still, the legend of the trees lives on.
“Sadly, Stuart Roosa passed away in December 1994,” reports NASA. “The Moon Trees continue to flourish, a living monument to our first visits to the Moon and a fitting memorial to Stuart Roosa. No list was ever kept nor any systematic tracking made of the disposition of all the trees.”
You can find a list of all the known Moon Trees across the country here. And if you know the location of a Moon Tree not listed, please send a message to dave.williams@nasa.gov
By Ryan Clark, Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast host and 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!
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