Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 216
March 5, 2020
March 4, 2020
Secrets Of A Greek Fire Grenade From 800 A.D.
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Greek fire was a weapon wielded by the Eastern Roman Empire for centuries. Militaries used the combustible compound to raze ships, besiege cities, and secure the survival of empires. Despite Greek fire’s importance, its chemical composition was lost to history…
Fire has been one of the deadliest weapons of war since ancient times. Everything from fire arrows used against siege engines to napalm used to burn forests in Vietnam, fire has been a near-universal element of destruction throughout history.
Though flammable petroleum mixtures had been slung from catapults and applied to arrows before, the development of Greek fire by the Byzantines proved a step up in thermal warfare.
As the Greco-Roman world fought to repel Muslim Conquest, Greek fire became an indispensable weapon for destroying wooden ships. No one is certain of when or how Greek fire originally came to be, but many believe it was the combined product of chemists and scholars working in Constantinople.
The stories of Greek fire are varied and exaggerated. In some, the compound ignites when it touches water or if it is exposed to sunlight at all. What we’re sure of, however, is that Greek fire was sticky and could burn atop of water.
While Greek fire could be used like older compounds and be slung inside ceramic grenades or pots, Byzantine ships could also project Greek fire like a flamethrower from ship to ship using bellows and siphons.
The fire became such an essential weapon that keeping its formula a secret became paramount. According to some stories, the recipe was whispered to Emperor Constantine himself by an angel, and anyone who attempted to divulge it to enemies would be struck down by holy thunder.
While the mystery of Greek fire’s composition has become a sensation itself, the story of its secrecy likely made it an even more effective form of propaganda. Exaggerated stories, the fire’s ability to burn on water, and the loud noises it made while ignited would have made the Byzantine forces all the more frightening.
Greek fire could be delivered via large ship-mounted siphons, handheld flamethrowers, or in the form of grenades. These grenades were light enough to be tossed by hand, left in the road to be stepped on by horses, or could be hurled nearly 500 yards by small catapults.
A Beast In The Woods: The Legend Of Boggy Creek
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
EDITORS NOTE: This article is a point-of-view story written by Ripley’s contributor and Believe It or Notcast host, Ryan Clark. From vampires in New Orleans to Skunk Apes in South Florida, Ryan has seen it all on his many Notcast adventures.
Fouke, Arkansas—They say that when you come to Fouke, Arkansas, you have to visit the Monster Mart. Besides grabbing a soda or a snack for the road (my travel companion and I highly recommend a slice of their pizza), you can also visit the official museum dedicated to the beast of nearby Boggy Creek.
That’s really what this town is known for—The Beast. I wouldn’t be surprised if this creature was “old news” for many travelers as, for decades, there have been legends of a bigfoot-like creature roaming the swamps and woods of this little southern town.
The Legend of Boggy Creek
The reports of this creature became so popular that, in 1972, a very low-budget movie was made about the topic—a mockumentary of sorts that combined eyewitness testimonies with a bit of Hollywood fiction. It was called The Legend of Boggy Creek.
It grew into a cult classic, literally putting the town on the map. The boom in tourists led to the opening of the Monster Mart, their delicious pizza, and, most importantly, their museum, which features artists’ renderings of the beast, stories, movie posters, and artifacts.
Monster Hunting
Our draw to hunting down all that’s wild and strange was what led us to visit this monster-ridden small town. People have been coming here for nearly 50 years and we wanted to add our names to the list. And it doesn’t take long to find those around town who claim to have seen the monster.
Reba Killian, a regular at the Monster Mart, has lived in Fouke her whole life and was our first encounter. Killian lives in a rural house surrounded by woods just off Highway 71. She says she and a friend first saw the beast when she was about 12 years old but, after telling her parents, she was instructed to keep quiet. Killian’s grandfather was prominently featured in The Legend of Boggy Creek, and her parents knew what kind of attention her story would attract.
The family did not want that kind of scrutiny again.
“He got so much crap,” Killian said. “Then, after we got grown we decided, you know, whatever the consequences, we know what we saw.”
“We’re not trying to convince anyone. We’re just telling our story.”
Courtesy of Raymond Castile via Flickr
“A Thing That Big Could Kill Us”
It was a beautifully sunny Sunday when Reba Killian and her friend Karen were riding in the cab of her parents’ truck. They were looking out the back windows when they noticed something odd step out of the nearby woods.
“It stepped out into the middle of the road, turned, and looked in our direction,” Killian said. “Of course, we both went into total shock; we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. And it just stood there. It seemed like forever, but it couldn’t have been but just a few seconds. And then it turned and walked over into a plum thicket. About three steps and it was all the way across the road. It was huge.”
She explained that it looked human—with a few exceptions. It was very, very tall, much more so than an ordinary man.
“I remember he had really long arms,” Killian said, “And his face was humanistic with a slightly prominent brow range.”
While Killian says many report sightings of the Beast as being black or brown in color, the creature she described was a dark red.
“It was gone pretty quickly,” she said. “But it took time to look right at us—not like it was curious. It just looked at us and turned and walked across the road from us.”
The two girls thought about asking the adults to stop the truck so they could go back and look for what they’d seen, “but we knew my parents wouldn’t believe us,” Killian said. “But you know what? As kids, we were in those woods all the time. After we saw that? We stopped going in the woods.”
“It frightened us that bad,” she continued.
“Because a thing that big could kill us easily.”
Theories Behind the Beast
People in Fouke still allege to see, and hear, the creature to this day. Even now, Killian says she and her family will sit on their porches in the evening hours and listen to the sounds of what they think are the Beasts.
“It’s hard to describe,” she said. “It starts out real low and guttural, and then it goes up to big crescendos. The last time, it stopped and grunted twice, and we got the crap out of there.”
Most people around town have theories about what the Beast could be. Is it an interdimensional being that pops in and out whenever it chooses? Perhaps an animal that has somehow survived extinction? Or is it something even older?
“Well, I’ve read the Bible many times through,” Killian said. “And you know, Cain killed Abel. He was marked and thrown out of the garden. And the Bible says he went out and made with the daughters of man. Well, what [were] the daughters of man?
“I mean, this is just my theory,” she continued. “My theory is based on what I read in the Bible and it is just a theory. I mean, there’s nothing to prove it. But maybe the Beast was God’s first creation. So he had to, you know, he decided to try again.”
Maybe. And while we’ll never know for sure, maybe it’s best to visit Fouke for yourself. Just keep your eyes and ears open.
By Ryan Clark, Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast host and contributor for Ripleys.com
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March 3, 2020
The Number One Restaurant That Didn’t Exist – Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast Episode 31
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The Shed at Dulwich is a unique boutique eatery that crawled from the worst-ranked restaurant in London to the number one restaurant in the city on Tripadvisor. Its meteoric rise took just a few months despite the menu’s avant-garde dishes that were based on moods.
This week on the Notcast, listen to the unbelievable—literally—story of how one man’s restaurant earned the top spot on Tripadvisor without anyone ever visiting it.
Gaff Taxidermy
Edward Mordrake: The [Fake] Two-Faced Man
For more weird news and strange stories, visit our homepage, and be sure to rate and share this episode of the Notcast!
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Source: The Number One Restaurant That Didn’t Exist – Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast Episode 31
What Are Spite Houses, And Who Lives In Them?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
They say that home is where the heart is. But, if that heart is filled with malice, “home” might just be a spite house.
As the name suggests, spite houses are structures known or rumored to exist for the sole purpose of annoying neighbors, family, or the city, even at the expense of the inhabitant.
Home On The Rage
The Alameda Spite House, at the corner of Crist and Broadway Street in Alameda, California, is a pint-sized example of such a dwelling. The story goes that a man named Charles Froling built the two-bedroom casita in 1908 out of spite toward the city of Alameda. The California city had used eminent domain to acquire part of Froling’s land on which he meant to build a dream home. His neighbor supported the city and, out of spite, he’s said to have built his home—that’s only 12 feet wide at its broadest point, considerably smaller than the average sedan—blocking the less-than-helpful neighbor’s sunlight and view outside.
The Alameda Spite House || CC Elf via Wikimedia Commons
In interviews, the current owner of Froling’s home has dismissed this tale, saying the city never took possession of the property and the street in question already existed.
Vindictive or not, the house is so locally loved that when it became rundown, a public campaign kept it safe from the wrecking ball.
Let There Be Spite
Our question is, why would anyone go so far as to spend precious time and money to literally live inside their own resentment?
Sometimes, spite can do social good.
“It all depends on the individuals’ aims and motivations,” says David Marcus, the Department Chair of Psychology at the University of Washington.
Marcus is a seasoned researcher when it comes to this seldom-studied element of spite.
People who participate in boycotts, for instance, inconvenience themselves to make a point. But in doing so, they call attention to social issues. So spite, in itself, isn’t always bad.
As for people who would go to lengths of building an entire home based on acrimony, Marcus says there probably are differences between them and those who wouldn’t go to such extreme degrees of aggressiveness or callousness.
Of course, they would also have to have the financial means to wreak that level of vengeance.
Spite Club
In the tale of Plum Island Pink House, revenge was a dish best served salty. The alleged tipping point for this house was during a 1925 divorce proceeding.
Plum Island Pink House
The messy divorce moved a disgruntled wife to demand a replica of the couple’s home. Sure enough, the husband provided one, but in an utterly vacant, New England salt marsh—even the plumbing ran salt water! And it still sulks all on its own on the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newberry, Massachusetts.
In another circumstance, the Skinny House at 44 Hull Street in Boston pits brother against brother. One of the boys returned home from the Civil War to find the other had built himself a large house on their mutually owned land. The returning brother used the small leftover lot to build himself a home, just 10 feet wide and 30 feet long, and only accessible from an alley. But, the pleasure of blocking his jerk brother’s view of the harbor was probably worth it.
The Skinny Spite House in Boston, MA
America isn’t the only land of spiteful real estate. In 1892, the new Austro-Hungarian empire decided to show off Sarajevo with a flashy new city hall on the river Miljacka. However, part of the land they needed for the construction was owned by a very reluctant seller named Benderija. After lengthy negotiations, Benderjia got quite a deal. He received a bag full of gold ducats and the promise that the city would move his home, brick by brick, across the river—a personal parade he’s said to have monitored every day.
Inat Kuća, the House of Spite
Today, his house is a popular tourist restaurant called Inat Kuća, the House of Spite. Revenge seems to have been truly sweet indeed.
While we can admit, we’ve all done and said things out of spite, it’s difficult to measure up to the ceilings of building and infrastructure to prove a point!
By Liz Langley, contributor for Ripleys.com
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March 2, 2020
The Secret Card Game Used To Train CIA Operatives
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Working as a CIA operative isn’t easy. It takes guts, determination, and a finely-honed set of skills earned through a lifetime of top-tier training and dedication. In other words, it’s not all fun and games.
Well, except for the time that it was, and agents were trained and vetted by a secret card game.
Upper Deck
As you might imagine, civilians had no idea about this game’s development and ongoing use until it was declassified. Presented at the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) film, media, and music festival and conference, during a presentation titled “Cloaks, Daggers, + Dice: How the CIA Uses Games,” information about a game called Collection Deck was shared by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
According to the presentation, games like Collection Deck were used “as a training tool” and to serve as “a model for thinking.” What’s more, they were designed with complexity in mind.
Via National Archives and Records Administration, provided by Allison Fong, CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator
“Playing games is part of the human condition,” CIA Senior Collection Analyst, and Collection Deck creator, David Clopper shared at SXSW.
“Given the human propensity to play games…it seems to make sense to take advantage of that as part of the work process.”
Collection Deck players use their cards to affect or counter those of competing players, and the special Collection Manager Challenge cards require an explanation of how a particular technique could be used to address real-world issues. There were also Reality Check cards, “used to modify a technique or problem to create matches that would otherwise not be possible.”
Mitchell Kotler of non-profit government transparency-minded news site MuckRock took interest in this revelation and promptly submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the powers that be.
Deal Me In
Before long, Kotler got word back that they’d be willing to share a great deal about the card game with him. In fact, the response included over a hundred pages with images of the playing cards mostly intact and game challenges fairly easy to identify. Redactions, of course, are certainly present—but it’s pretty easy to get the gist of the game.
Redacted versions of Technique and Intelligence cards./Via National Archives and Records Administration, provided by Allison Fong, CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator.
This game summary seems innocent enough, right?
Collection Deck is a training game designed to teach about various collection capabilities. Students playing the game use cards representing various collection techniques to solve intelligence problems, but their efforts to do so may be hindered by other players using cards representing challenges or obstacles that analysts face when driving collection. Collection Deck has been described as a cross between classic card games like Bridge, Hearts and Whist and collectible card games like Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon.
Get this—here’s how the game wraps up. “The game ends when one of the players solves 10 points worth of intelligence problems, or until everyone has had enough and wants to go do something else.”—that’s straight from the CIA.
Reality Check cards./Via National Archives and Records Administration, provided by Allison Fong, CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator.
Try This At Home
Once news of the release hit websites around the world, the fine folks at TechDirt entered the fray. Fascinated by the reports of Collection Deck, they couldn’t wait to develop their own CIA-centered game.
Advanced via a Kickstarter campaign, and based on the information Kotler was able to obtain, Masnick created a lookalike game and called it CIA: Collect It All.
Via CIA: Collect It All Kickstarter campaign
Drawing from a deck of over 150 cards, players start each round with a hand full of intelligence tactics and must devise strategies to successfully defuse various crises. The tactics and crises all contain aspects—Political, Military, Economic, and Weapons—and players can only tackle crises if they have tactics with matching aspects. However, rival players also have “reality check” cards that they can play to complicate their opponents’ efforts.
Interested? You’re in luck—CIA: Collect It All is available for purchase from Diegetic Games, who helped develop the game with Kotler.
And, while a great deal about the CIA remains shrouded in mystery, never to be shared with a gawking public, it’s perhaps a bit refreshing to imagine secretive spies shuffling a deck of cards in an underground bunker.
By Bill Furbee contributor for Ripleys.com
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Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!
March 1, 2020
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