Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 240
November 4, 2019
Your Airplane Carry-On Can Technically Be Another Person
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Security on planes is tight these days. Unlike almost any other form of transportation, all people and baggage on the carry-on section of a plane are subject to search. No weapons are allowed, and more than 100 mL of liquids are usually banned as well. However, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, has no issues with allowing travelers to take human skeletons on a plane.
TSA confirmed this fact on their Twitter account @AskTSA. When asked if someone could take a human skeleton on board, TSA responded:
A skeleton may be transported in carry-on and checked bags if it’s properly packaged, labeled and declared to your airline. We also strongly recommend that you contact your airline as they may have additional policies on traveling with this item. Safe travels, Kristin!
While we technically carry human bones with us all the time, more often than not, they’re still inside our bodies. Kristi Loyall, on the other hand, had her foot amputated, had the bones professionally cleaned and articulated, and now she takes the foot along on her travels. Loyall says that she has taken it on a plane, and no one at TSA had any issue. Now, could they decipher whether or not the foot was real? Who knows.
However, a TSA agent may stop a passenger if they suspect something is amiss. In 2013, two women returning home from Cuba were stopped when the decorative pots they bought were found to contain some human skull pieces. TSA agents who encounter situations—for which they are not trained—may have to use their best judgment when it comes to deciding whether to stop a passenger.
But isn’t it illegal?
It’s a common misconception that it is illegal to own human remains. However, human remains are common in museum collections and medical schools. Take Ripley’s for example. We have numerous shrunken head displays in many of our museums!
To own human remains privately is neither legal or illegal. The restrictions in place are dependent on where you live. For example, most private ownership of non-cremated human body parts is illegal in Louisiana. This law was enacted after a Louisiana lawyer conducted a study of 454 human skulls found on eBay over the course of seven months. The skeletons of Native Americans are also protected by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
However, there are very few other laws restricting human remains ownership in the US. You can buy them on Amazon, Instagram, and your local oddities shop. Is it ethical to privately own human skeletons? Professionals in medical, forensic, archaeological, and museum communities don’t always agree. But if you decide that you should have one, know that you’re not breaking any flight policies by bringing it to the airport!
By Kristin Hugo, contributor for Ripleys.com
Kristin Hugo is a science journalist with writing in National Geographic, Newsweek, and PBS Newshour. She’s especially experienced in covering animals, bones, and anything weird or gross. When not writing, Kristin is spray painting and cleaning bones in her New York City yard. Find her on Twitter at @KristinHugo , Tumblr at @StrangeBiology , and Instagram at @thestrangebiology .
Source: Your Airplane Carry-On Can Technically Be Another Person
November 3, 2019
November 2, 2019
BlackJacks: Candy For Men
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Gender reveal videos boom in popularity across all realms of the internet. Cutting into cakes, releasing balloons, and popping confetti as the eager mom-and-dad-to-be anxiously await the result—pink or blue. But, before there were gender-specific colors, there was gender-specific candy. Yes, candy was created specifically for men. We’re taking you back to the 1800s: when sugary goodness was a bit too feminine for confectioners.
A Shipwrecked Sweet-Tooth
As the story has it, a woman named Mary Spencer shipwrecked on the shores of Salem, Massachusetts with her son in the year 1806. In an effort to make a living and provide for her family, Spencer began creating candy from a barrel of donated sugar. After many sugary experiments, she perfected the recipe for what she named, Gibralters.
She began selling her confectionery treats from the steps of the Old First Church in Salem over 200 years ago. But, as we can imagine, her candy became quite a hot commodity. Spencer began delivering her candies by wagon in bulk amounts to local businesses, officially making her a wholesaler of the Gibralter. Today, the wagon and firkins she used to deliver the sweets are held at the Peabody Essex Museum in the heart of Salem.
Centuries Of Sweetness
Known for their simple paper wrappers and light, fresh taste, the Salem Gibralters are produced in both a lemon and peppermint flavor. When made fresh, the candies were known to be “almost as hard as their Spanish namesake.”
And, as a result of this rock-hard makeup, they supposedly never go bad! Believe It or Not!, the Pepper Candy Companie displays a glass jar inside the store, filled with nearly 200-year-old Gibralters. This batch of treats was uncovered during the renovations of Salem’s Hawthrone Hotel. For years, the owners of the shop taste-tested the “old” candies and reported that while they lost most of their flavor, they were still sweet and safe to eat.
Peppering In Some Masculinity
After the passing of Mrs. Spencer, the business was passed along to her son, Thomas. He kept ownership of the company for a short time, but in 1830 he sold it to a man named John William Pepper—a local Salem confectioner.
Living on the same street in Salem, the Spencer and Pepper families were quite close. It’s said that Thomas and John worked together when it came to developing a new candy for the company to sell. The men thought that the original Gibralter was a bit too feminine with its soft look and flavor. So, they sought to produce a candy with a more masculine taste and feel.
What they created—a candy far opposite the Gibralter—was a black-strap molasses stick candy. They called it the Black Jack. And while it was successful, it didn’t quite live up to the reputation of its Gibralter predecessor. Many adored its flavor, but others described the taste as “too strong a flavor of liquorice,” and “intentionally burnt.” How’s that for a masculine, man’s candy?
The Pepper family continued to make both Gibralters and Black Jacks for two generations. From John Pepper, the business was passed along to his son George.
From George To George
It was in the late 1800s that a man named George Burkinshaw went to work for the George Pepper Companie. At this point in the story, it’s important to keep our “Georges” straight.
A young Burkinshaw, very eager to learn, entered the businesses as an assistant candy maker. As he grew older, he mastered the craft of candy making under Pepper’s watchful eye. During this time, Burkinshaw met Alice—a candy packer for the Pepper Companie.
And, as you may have guessed, the two fell in love and married around the turn of the 20th century. The newlyweds ended up purchasing the Pepper Candy Companie, along with the Gibralter and Black Jack recipes.
Today, Ye Old Pepper Companie is owned by fourth-generation Burkinshaws. The family continues to make both Gibralters and Black Jacks to be sold to the shop’s visitors and passersby. Both candies are produced using their original recipes and packaging, preserving the history of the company and its founders.
So the next time you’re in Salem, put your masculinity to the test. And you tell us: are you team Gibraltar or team BlackJack?
Source: BlackJacks: Candy For Men
November 1, 2019
The Inflated Intestines Of Human Sacrifice
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Long before Michael Faraday invented the first rubber balloons in 1824, “balloons” were created by inflating the intestines, stomachs, and bladders of common animals. But, they weren’t used to spice up the décor at a child’s birthday party. They were burned and sacrificed to the gods!
The Inflated History
The earliest “balloons” weren’t just made into animals—they were made out of animals. From pig bladders to cat intestines, there was nothing to party about when it came to the Aztecs’ balloon-like figures. Researchers have found that beginning in the 1300s, the Tenochtitlan people began using common animals as sacrifices to the gods.
Painting of Tlaloc (left) and Huizilopochtli in their temple
As animals were considered a vital part of Aztec religion and symbolism, they were used as offerings to a higher power—specifically, Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, whose twin shrines stood atop the Templo Mayor. The more rare and difficult an animal was to catch, the greater the sacrifice. Animals ranged from shellfish and birds to larger species like crocodiles and jaguars.
All They’ve Shaped Up To Be
To maintain the shape and beauty of their offerings, there’s evidence that the Aztecs practiced a form of taxidermy. In some cases, this meant the inflating of the animal’s intestines to create a balloon-like appearance. According to Great Balloons! The Complete Book of Balloon Sculpting by Jean Merlin, the bowels were cleaned, dried, turned inside out, and sewn with a vegetable thread that stuck to itself when left out to dry in the sun. This process produced an almost airtight seal, very much like the balloon structure we know today.
But, animal sacrifices weren’t the only inflated piece of the puzzle. Human sacrifice was also very much alive and well. The evidence lies in the gruesome illustrations found in Spanish texts, preserved temple murals, and stone carvings of the inflated remains of human sacrifice.
Defeating The Darkness
The Aztecs believed that sacrificing both animals and humans was necessary to ensure the continuity of the world. Legend has it, the god of sun, Huitzilopochtli, was waging a constant war against the darkness. In order to keep the sun moving across the sky, the Aztecs had to feed the sun god with hearts and blood. Should Huitzilopochtli go hungry, the darkness would emerge victoriously and the world would end.
So, ironically enough, the practice of killing animals and humans was a process necessary for maintaining life. And while much of the Tenochtitlan history has been preserved and discovered amidst ancient temples, the gruesome stories surrounding Aztec sacrifice continue to be uncovered.
This twisted part of history has inspired us to “Do as the Aztecs do,” and inflate a few animal insides of our own. Can a modern-day balloon animal be shaped from hog intestines? Find out on this week’s episode of Cool Stuff, Strange Things!
October 31, 2019
We’ve Been Sleeping On The Facts Behind Bear Hibernation
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Every year, Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska holds a competition like none other: Fat Bear Week. A summer’s worth of gorging on fatty salmon at Brooks Falls means the brown bears of this park really pack on the weight. In fact, they pile on hundreds of pounds in preparation for prolonged winter slumbers. This year’s “Princess of Pudginess”? Holly, a blond-colored beauty who appears to have doubled in size in recent months.
Of course, this fattening up process represents a crucial component of wilderness survival for these brown bears.
Turns out, bears don’t hibernate at all. Instead, they partake in a type of rest known as torpor. Here’s what that means and why you’ll never think about a bear’s seasonal sleeping pattern in quite the same way.
Say What?
We get it. You’re probably feeling a little “shook” right about now. After all, bear hibernation is one of those things we all take for granted. Just think about all of the Looney Tunes gags that could never happen if bears didn’t hibernate, right? But science tells a different story.
Instead of hibernating, bears languish away the coldest months in torpor. Like hibernation, it comes with a decrease in body temperature, breathing rate, and heart rate. But it’s not nearly as extreme as actual hibernation.
One crucial difference? Unlike hibernating small mammals and reptiles, bears can easily wake up. Mother bears do so to birth their cubs before returning to peaceful slumber. The ability to rouse also helps bears of both sexes to respond quickly to potential threats.
The dens, caves, and hollow trees that bears use for torpor take between three and seven days to prepare. They line their winter escapes with leaves and branches, which keep the bears warm during their extended periods of inactivity.
But while the superficial aspects of torpor might look similar to “true hibernation,” that’s where the similarities end.
The Physiological Rigors of True Hibernation
Animals such as ground squirrels, bats, snakes, and marsupials are known as “true hibernators.” And what they undergo during seasonal slumber is truly extreme. In fact, their metabolic shifts prove so pronounced, you’d be hard-pressed to find signs of life… at all.
What does “true hibernation” look like?
During hibernation, squirrels can drop their heart rates from 350 beats per minute to as few as four. Dwarf lemurs do something very similar. Their heart rates can decrease from 300 beats per minute to just six, and they can go for up to 10 minutes between breaths! What’s more, their brain activity becomes undetectable. That means no dreaming, either.
The body temperature of a true hibernator also undergoes a dramatic drop, often nosediving below freezing! What keeps their blood and body tissue from crystallizing? Their salty bodily fluids. So, instead of thinking about hibernation as a lovely extended nap, it’s more akin to a refrigerated coma.
True hibernators wake up every few weeks to pass waste and eat small amounts of food. They also interrupt these severe hibernation cycles to actually get some sleep because, when it’s all said and done, hibernation is very different than the gentle resting state that we all know and love.
The Yawning Difference Between Torpor and Hibernation
No doubt, torpor represents an important part of the bear survival process. Bears can enter this deep resting state for up to 100 days without drinking, eating, or going to the bathroom. That’s because bears boast a physiological mechanism that allows their bodies to convert urine directly into protein.
While bear torpor does involve a lowered body temperature and slower breathing and heart rate, it never approaches the physiological rigors of true hibernation. What‘s the deal-breaker? Body size.
Diminutive body mass means small mammals and reptiles can rapidly lower their temperatures and enter a hibernation state. Massive bears? Not so much. Remember Holly, Fat Bear 2019? It would take a LONG time for that gal to cool down.
Of course, the superficial similarities between torpor and true hibernation have tricked people over the years. These survival mechanisms can look awfully similar in action. And few people, apart from biologists, risk taking the pulse of a “sleeping” bear. Nonetheless, Yogi and Boo-Boo don’t snooze or even hibernate. They torpor away Jack Frost’s favorite season.
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: We’ve Been Sleeping On The Facts Behind Bear Hibernation
October 30, 2019
Using Psychic Abilities To Solve Potential Murders
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
We’ve seen it on television: government officials contacting individuals with psychic abilities to aid in solving a crime. But, does this happen in real-life situations? Do police officers truly seek out psychics to aid in solving crimes? Have government agencies recruited people with abnormal powers of insight to be used in intelligence investigations? Not only does it happen, but the US government and its many facets have used psychics in law enforcement for a long time.
Chuck Bergman: Psychic Cop
Chuck Bergman, a current Florida resident, was once a police officer in Salem, Massachusetts. “I wanted to be a patrol boy at five years old, and when I was playing in my backyard, I made myself a badge.” During his play, the badge fell off, and Chuck started to cry. Then, he heard a voice saying, “Don’t cry, Chuck. One day, you’ll be wearing a real badge.”
Chuck says hearing this voice for the first time began his understanding of his psychic gift and that it was “a reminder that we’re not alone.” He found out later that both his mother and grandmother had also possessed the gift but never encouraged him to hone his own. He thinks this was due to the fact that Chuck’s aunt had been committed to an asylum before he was born, potentially as a result of trying to tell others about her psychic powers. Over time, though, Chuck learned to not only embrace but refine his skills in order to become a professional medium.
Psychics in the Government
Many different government experiments have been conducted in order to determine if psychic individuals could be recruited and their abilities honed as a tool for espionage. But, none of these tests attracted as much attention as the CIA’s Stargate Project. The Cold War created paranoia that the Russians might have a monopoly on individuals with psychic abilities working as government intelligence agents, so the US felt the need to pursue the same. The resulting undercover army unit was created in the early 1970s. Though the Pentagon denied experiments of this kind receiving government funding—even after reports began to leak in the 80s—the program was finally dismantled and declassified in 1995.
Although Chuck was never an FBI agent or part of the Stargate Project experiments, he has worked with government agencies on occasion in order to solve what seemed like unsolvable cases. While giving a reading to a woman whose brother-in-law was missing, Chuck saw the man lying on his back in shallow water with a bullet in his head. Soon after, Chuck received a phone call from a former FBI agent. He told Chuck he had heard the recording of the reading he gave, and he wanted Chuck to know the body of the same man had been found lying on his back in shallow water. According to Chuck, the FBI agent told him, “You said so many things that were accurate.” At first, the death was ruled a suicide, but after receiving a court order to consult another coroner, the bullet was found. The man had, in fact, been murdered.
Psychics in the Military
When we think about the idea of law enforcement agents investigating psychic powers, it might all seem like old news—thanks to countless crime movies and television shows. But as recently as 2014, the Navy was putting money into investigating the possibility of soldiers and sailors who had a sixth sense for impending danger.
Although military personnel swore this was really about making sure “Sailors and Marines… [could] harness their gut instincts in situations where they need to act quickly,” identifying some sort of psychic ability among their soldiers seemed to still be very much on their minds.
Chuck himself went into the Navy after graduating from high school. Afterward, he followed the ship on which he had been sailing to Boston. “I liked it there,” he said, and eventually, he moved to Salem, Massachusetts “of all places.” In fact, he says this big move was part of what gave him the education he needed to truly refine his gift.
“If I’d been living in Florida then, there would have been no education for me.” In Salem, however, information about the paranormal was everywhere.
“Police officers in Salem still have the emblem on their armband of a witch riding a broomstick,” Chuck says. “That’s Salem history.” And in many ways, psychics are part of law enforcement history too.
Psychics in the Police Force
Many people are familiar with popular TV shows such as Psych, The Mentalist, and Ghost Whisperer. And while these shows might seem fanciful, some police departments do consult psychics in order to try and crack certain cases. Most of the time, psychics are first contacted by the family members of a missing person, or mediums themselves call up police stations to offer information on investigations they found online. In many cases, police officers are reticent to turn to psychics for help, but it does happen. A document written by the Justice Department and released by the CIA outlines the proper ways to choose a psychic for an investigation, why one might choose to do so, and what should be expected when engaging a medium in a police investigation. As one would assume, the document and its contents are a bit odd…
When Chuck finally did begin working as a police officer, he kept his gift under wraps for many years. “Cops can be tough, cynical, likely to point blame.” In essence, he felt he needed to protect himself. Even after he began to hone his gift and his coworkers started to find out about it, he was often ridiculed. In one instance, Chuck was able to help a coworker connect with his late daughter, only to find out afterward that the same man was belittling him to others.
Now that Chuck’s a full-time medium, however, he says there have been plenty of instances where he’s helped with police investigations—only now they come to him. “I don’t have to prove to someone I can do it,” he says. “They’re begging for my services.” Unfortunately, psychics who assist in criminal investigations aren’t usually compensated. Once, Chuck was offered the opportunity to become involved in a case on the other side of the state. He was told his compensation would be half of his fuel expenses. He declined.
First a Cop, Now a Medium…
Still, Chuck feels it is always important to be open to helping people as much as he can, and officers on the police force in Salem even reach out to him for assistance from time to time. He was recently asked to weigh in on a disappearance case that had been cold for years.
At an officer’s request, Chuck spoke with the son of a woman who had disappeared ten years prior to determine what had happened to her. The case began when Chuck was still with the department, although Chuck himself wasn’t the officer assigned to it. There was a strong belief in the department that the woman had been murdered by the boy’s father, which had been intensified by eye-witness testimony from neighbors who said they had seen him bringing large bags to the trash bin around the time of her disappearance.
When Chuck sat down with the young man, he was able to connect with his mother and to tell him things about both of his parents that Chuck never could have known on his own. “At the end of the reading, the young man was crying, and I just knew things were going to change for him; that they were going to get better.” This was partly because Chuck was able to uncover information about the mother that indicated she hadn’t been murdered at all.
“I saw her crossing the border into Canada and then a sign for a specific city in Canada. The young man told me that’s where her sister used to live.” The family always suspected the sister had been involved in hiding her, but because of the eye-witnesses, there had been a belief for a long time that the father had killed her instead.
Chuck says “it’s wonderful” to be able to help people with his gift, which has allowed him to continue serving his community and people beyond it, even after hanging up his badge.
By Julia Tilford, contributor for Ripleys.com
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