Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 219
February 18, 2020
The Tallest Man In The World Ever: Robert Wadlow
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The Tallest Man
Measuring in at 8 feet 11.1 inches from head to toe, Robert Wadlow was the tallest man to have ever lived. Even today’s contenders for the title of “World’s Tallest Person” don’t come anywhere near his great height. In fact, Sultan Kosen, the tallest living man today, would stand 8 inches shorter than Wadlow.
Robert Wadlow
Born on February 22, 1918, Wadlow showed great growth soon after birth. His elementary school had to make a special desk to accommodate his size, and by age 8, he stood taller than his own father at 6 feet tall. When he joined the Boy Scouts at 13, he had grown to stand 7 feet 4 inches tall, and his uniform required 14 yards of fabric to make!
At age 8, Robert Wadlow stood taller than his own father.
Featured in Robert Ripley’s cartoon in 1926 and 1929, Wadlow became known as the “Alton Giant” for his hometown of Alton, Illinois. He was 8 feet 4 inches when he graduated high school and soon toured the country with the Ringling Brothers Circus.
Wadlow could only travel by a specially built car that had its seats removed to accommodate his large legs. In fact, Wadlow had many items customized due to his height. Not only were his clothes and walking cane unusually large but so was his chair, shaving brush, lighter and shoes.
Wadlow’s shoes became a focus of his later life. The International Shoe Company provided Wadlow with custom 39AA shoes and Wadlow endorsed the business, showing up to events promoting their footwear.
Wadlow’s Death
Wadlow’s unprecedented growth was caused by an enlarged pituitary gland which caused an unusual production of growth hormones. Doctors believe that if he had lived past 22, he would have been over 9 feet tall!
Wadlow’s growth was tough on his body. His legs struggled to carry his great weight. He weighed over 450 pounds when he died, forced to wear leg braces and use a cane by 20. It was a sore from his leg brace, which became infected, that actually led to his death. With such a large body, many of Wadlow’s organs and biological systems had trouble keeping up.
Not wanting his body to be stolen, like those of other giants, Wadlow’s family had him buried in a 10-foot 6-inch steel coffin, enclosed in a heavy concrete vault.
How Do You Measure Up?
Carrying on his legacy, Wadlow’s hometown displays a statue of the gentle giant and his shoes adorn many footwear museums. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! has life-sized models of Wadlow in our odditoriums all over the world, letting people stand face-to-knee with the tallest man in the world.
Is Bobby Mackey’s Music World A Portal To Hell?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
What caused supernatural skeptics to doubt their beliefs when they visited a country music hall? Do spirits, from what was once a slaughterhouse, follow people to their homes?
This week on the Notcast, we explore the rumors and claims that Bobby Mackey’s music world is a gateway to Hell. We interviewed the skeptic owner and even sent our own team to investigate. What they experienced set them running away in tears.
Courtesy Ryan Clark
Christmas Ghost Stories
For more weird news and strange stories, visit our homepage, and be sure to rate and share this episode of the Notcast!
February 17, 2020
Nightmare Down Under: New Huntsman Spider Colonies Discovered
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The non-profit organization, Bush Heritage Australia, recently made a shocking discovery in the wooden boxes they built as nests for pygmy possums. Massive colonies of huntsman spiders invaded them! And if these colonies aren’t the stuff of nightmares, then we don’t know what is.
Part of the Sparassidae family, huntsman spiders can grow up to one foot in length and are known for their speed and ability to capture prey. The social species of flat huntsman spiders, Delena cancerides, typically reside beneath tree bark, but some communities have decided they like the possum boxes better. The result? Spine-tingling photos you can’t unsee.
Arachnophobes, you’ve been warned!
Nests Gone Bad
Pygmy possums are tiny tree-dwelling marsupials whose floppy ears and large, inquisitive eyes could melt the hardest heart.
As nectar feeders, they pollinate their habitat while eating. They play a significant role in maintaining ecosystems across Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. Unfortunately, they also exist near the bottom of the food chain. This position makes them fair game for everything from feral cats to dingoes to monitor lizards. Deforestation and loss of habitat have also negatively impacted these environmentally-beneficial little creatures.
Western Pygmy Possum || Photo courtesy of Will Marwick
Since 1991, Bush Heritage Australia has intervened to help restore the Australian wilderness to its former natural glory. They’ve attempted to help pygmy possums in the process. By controlling populations of feral cats, dogs, rabbits, goats, and other animals that prey on the possums or compete for the same limited resources, Bush Heritage Australia has effectively aided in protecting three of the four remaining species of pygmy possums.
They’ve also established a program of building wooden boxes to serve as pygmy possum nests in the wake of deforestation and loss of natural habitat. Unfortunately, other species affected by the same issues are taking advantage of these boxes. Bush Heritage recently realized these nests face violent overthrow by highly social huntsman spider colonies.
Huntsman Spider Colonies
Huntsman spiders are the largest in the world, by leg span, and display a bundle of bizarre behavior. They don’t spin webs or rely on them to catch prey. Instead, they’re aggressive hunters who live in colonies of up to 300 members. Surprisingly social within their own ranks, they even share prey. When they get around other colonies, however, all bets are off. They turn downright violent and cannibalistic to foreign spiders.
Bush Heritage members started noticing the spiders around the same time pygmy possums began relocating into the boxes. Upon lifting the lids, some of the boxes contained large colonies of the arachnids whizzing around inside. Now that their typical habitat of trees to live inside are in short supply, they’re turning to the boxes for new real estate.
Known equally for their size and speed, these unwelcome guests pose a danger to human beings, although attacks remain rare. For those unfortunate enough to experience the painful bite from these creatures, symptoms include localized swelling, heart palpitations, nausea, and vomiting. Medical attention is recommended.
Pygmy Possums in Peril
Unlike humans, pygmy possum encounters with huntsman spiders prove lethal. In June 2019, a man staying at a ski lodge in Tasmania, Australia, stumbled across a grisly scene—a huntsman spider devouring a Tasmanian Pygmy Possum.
According to his eyewitness statement, and an accompanying photo, the spider clung to the side of the door with its prey clutched in its powerful jaws. The scene couldn’t have been creepier.
Adam Latton was staying at a ski lodge in Mount Field, Tasmania, when he spotted this huntsman spider with a Tasmanian Pygmy Possum. || Photo courtesy of Justine Latton
Since Tasmanian Pygmy Possums are among the smallest of the pygmy possums, the unfortunate victim measured about the size of a walnut, making it an easy and convenient meal for the crawling critter.
That said, researchers believe pygmy possums are a rare feast for the eight-legged creatures. They prefer chowing down on frogs, geckos, and small birds.
Though Bush Heritage has seen one or two huntsman spiders in a box with snuggling pygmy possums, they have yet to see any furry friends cuddled within a colony. The verdict’s still out on whether or not these spiders are preying on the pygmy possums meant to nest in Bush Heritage’s boxes, or if they’ve become unlikely neighbors.
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Nightmare Down Under: New Huntsman Spider Colonies Discovered
February 16, 2020
February 15, 2020
February 14, 2020
Physicists Learned How To Make The Biggest Bubbles
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
This Week
[February 9-15th, 2020] The biggest bubbles, a cornfield proposal, and the rest of the week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
The Perfect Bubbles
While blowing bubbles might be reserved for weddings or childhood play, scientists have taken to determining the best soap for blowing the biggest bubbles. Bubble study has been going on since the 1800s, but modern physicists say polymer strands are the key, and that a mixture of Dawn, guar powder, alcohol, and baking soda is best.
A Corny Proposal
When Steffen Schwarz of Germany decided to propose, he didn’t pop the question over a romantic dinner. Instead, he took a tractor into the field and carved “Wilst du mich heiraten”—Will you marry me?—into the corn growing on his farm. He had his girlfriend fly a drone to see it, and she said yes! By chance, Google Maps snapped a photo of the corny proposal, and now it can be seen by lovers across the world.
Mt. Valentines
At 104 years old, William White of Stockton, California, proves he’s still popular with the ladies. Receiving over 70,000 Valentine’s cards this year, the World War II Marine Corps. Veteran never expected such a huge response when he went to social media to ask for people to send him valentines. An avid scrapbooker, he says the mountain of well-wishes will keep him busy for quite a while.
The Tree Of Love
In 1890, a pair of secret lovers left their letters in the knot of an old oak tree. The girl’s father didn’t approve of the romance, but thanks to the oak, they were able to communicate. Eventually, the father gave in, and the pair were married under the tree. Now, over a hundred years later, the tree is famous and has acted as a letter box that has started countless romances.
CC Armin von Werner
A Gargantuan Gust
While it may not be the Windy City, South Lake Tahoe in California experienced a gust stronger than any other recorded in history. Waves on the lake were topping five feet as the frigid winds of a storm whipped across the lake. A gust of 209 miles per hour broke the previous all-time high recorded just south of Lake Tahoe by nearly 10 miles per hour.
Weirdest Mating Rituals In The Animal Kingdom
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Think your love life is insane? That the lengths you have to go to catch, get frisky with, and/or keep a sweetheart are a bit over the top? Then you might not be privy on the romantic gestures and odd mating rituals of the animal kingdom. These furry and feathery friends put up with more than you can imagine, simply to lock down a lover. Just be thankful you can buy flowers and chocolate and call it a day.
Greater Sage Grouse
So you think you can dance? No one has moves like the greater sage grouse. While showing off their fancy feathers, males take big gulps of air to inflate yellow balloon-like sacs on their chests. This creates a whistle-and-pop sound that can travel nearly two miles over the prairies—a shout out to female grouse looking for love.
Great Grey Shrike
Humans aren’t the only animals that worm their way into their beloved’s heart with a gift. Many males in the animal kingdom offer nutritional nuptial gifts to females. The northern shrike, or great grey shrike, hunt insects and small reptiles and mammals, like toads and mice, and impale them on sticks. Yes—a mouse-pop or toad-sicle for their would-be ladybird.
Cloaca Mating
Almost all birds have sex via cloaca, an opening common to both males and females through which both fertilization and waste elimination occur. Males are usually positioned on top of females, and in the seconds it takes for their swollen cloaca to meet, he can pass sperm into her oviduct. Only 3 percent of male birds, including ducks and ostriches, actually have penises.
Autumn Spiders
Like those great grey shrike, spiders are also “givers.” Many eight-legged suitors give nuptial gifts—usually a dead insect—wrapped up in the male’s own homemade silk. And this hard work seems to pay off! Female nursery web spiders will mate up to 10 times longer with a gift-giving male. But, male autumn spiders, or long-jawed orb weavers, put a twist on the routine. They sometimes kill and wrap up a rival male as an edible gift to his leggy lady friend. Sounds like a his-and-hers gift in one package!
Honeybees
In springtime, when a young queen bee flies through a group of male bees—AKA drones—the fellas say to themselves, “I’m going to get that girl if it’s the last thing I ever do!” And it will be.
A male’s successful aerial mating with a queen means his genitals will explode, pushing the sperm—and part of his severed phallus—inside the queen, possibly acting as a plug to keep other males from entering. The drone literally dies for love.
Clownfish
For humans, sex reassignment is a long process. But many species of fish can switch from male to female, or vice versa, in just a few weeks. Clownfish, for example, are all born male. They live in groups with one large male and one large female as the breeding pair. If the female dies or is removed from the group, the largest male will change sex and become the breeding female.
Now that’s a fish that steps up to the plate!
Argonaut Octopus
Like squid, octopuses use spermatophores to deliver sperm by hand (or by arm). The male Argonaut is much smaller than the female and has a specialized arm, called a hectocotylus, in which sperm is transferred from the “penis” to the female. But, when he hands it over, the arm breaks off and he speeds away without it.
In 2012, a woman in South Korea complained of pain after eating undercooked squid. Doctors found what was causing it—the squid’s spermatophores, which were still inside the undercooked animal, had forcefully expelled sperm, essentially inseminating the inside of her mouth!
Water Boatmen
Many animals perform some sort of mating call. Engaging as they are, none are quite as wild as that of a tiny insect called the water boatman. These little fellows create their love ballads by rubbing their love organs across their ridged abdomen. The result is the loudest sound in the animal kingdom, relative to size. The water boatman is only 3/8 to 3/16 of an inch long, but its song is 99.2 decibels—as loud as a freight train you’re not too terribly far from.
Hyenas
If you’re trying to figure out the sex of a mammal, there’s usually one surefire place to look—unless that animal is a hyena.
Female hyenas aren’t only larger and more aggressive than their male counterparts, but they have pseudo penises.
Males have to perform quite an awkward balancing act in order to get their actual penis into the female’s faux one. If it’s a successful mating, she’ll have to push pups through the fake phallus as well. No wonder hyenas are always laughing!
Deep-Sea Anglerfish
The love lives of deep-sea Anglerfish are the stuff of nightmares, particularly for the male. In the dark depths of the Atlantic and Antarctic oceans, opportunities to find Mr. Right are few and far between. That’s why females and males have to stick together once they find each other. Literally.
When they meet, the male bites into the female and begins to fuse with her, gradually disintegrating until only his reproductive organs are left. Essentially, his nutritional needs are met from absorbing part of her intake, and she has sperm at the ready to fertilize her eggs.
During an aquatic lovers’ spat, she can never say “Honey, get off my back.”
No matter how you choose to catch the eyes and heart of your own love bug, it’s safe to say that human romantic gestures aren’t as over-the-top as other species in the animal kingdom. It might be best to stick with a sweet box of chocolates or a thoughtful bouquet of flowers. But, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can take a page from the spider’s notebook and surprise your honey with chocolate-dipped crickets.
By Liz Langley, contributor for Ripleys.com
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