Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 256
August 16, 2019
August 15, 2019
Why Are These Animals Pink? A Process Called Diaphonization
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
A dead snake curled in a circle peers out from a clear glass container as viewers peer back inside. They can see through the glass and the clear solution, and also through its skin to its neat rows of vertebrae and ribs. The bones and cartilage show intimate details of the snake’s anatomy, in the exact same position in the body as they were in life. The only differences are that the snake is dead, the skin is clear, and the bones and cartilage are dayglo pink and blue.
People who prepare animal specimens for museums and schools—as well as for personal collections—can make snakes, frogs, mice, and other small animals into scientific works of art called “diaphonized specimens.” This technique, also known as “clearing and staining,” helps people understand the internal anatomy of an animal in a unique way.
The process is complicated, involves somewhat dangerous chemicals, and takes a lot of training to perfect. Before trying it at home, curious preparators-to-be should start by volunteering at a local museum alongside staff familiar with diaphonization. In one step of the lengthy process, a preparator must soak a dead animal in a chemical called trypsin, which destroys a color-creating protein called casein. No casein, no color. After this part of the process, only a transparent version of the original animal remains.
Then, the preparator colors the specimen with types of dye that are attracted to certain substances in the body. “One has a strong affinity towards collagen, another seeks cartilage,” explains Helen Kairo, an anatomical specimen preparator. “They’re kind of like heat-seeking missiles, but they’re tissue-seeking dyes.”
As a result, depending on what dyes are used, collagen-rich bones can turn red or pink, and the cartilage left can turn blue. The result is a colorful, mystical-looking specimen that is both artistic and educational.
Kairo’s job is to prepare animal remains, including diaphonized ones, for educational purposes. She consults with museums and schools to prepare and repair materials. She also educates the public by posting on various social media platforms like Instagram. Currently, Kairo is working on an anthology about the amazing things you can learn from studying animal anatomy.
Diaphonized specimens, Kairo explains, are especially useful for certain types of animals that don’t turn out well when prepared other ways. Some of them have bones that are too small and fragile to clean and be made into stand-alone skeletons. Animals without hair and feathers are difficult to make into traditional taxidermy.
Some animals are too big for diaphonization—like adult humans. It would simply take too much time and too many chemicals to process such a big creature. However, some have diaphonized human fetuses to study their development.
Computerized imaging can be useful for these types of animals, and it is more popular these days than clearing and staining for educational institutions. Diaphonization is now something of a lost art, but at least their strange and colorful beauty makes them popular for anatomy enthusiasts to collect from Etsy.
By Kristin Hugo, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Why Are These Animals Pink? A Process Called Diaphonization
Earth’s Largest Mirror Can Be Seen From Space
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Stretching for 4,086 miles across the country of Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest mirror—eight times the size of New York City! A salt flat, it has a reflective surface when covered with water. Many people refer to it as “The place where Heaven meets Earth” and they do not exaggerate, this place is truly surreal and out-of-this-world beautiful.
The place where Heaven meets Earth.
The breathtaking location is a growing international tourist destination, not only because it is one of the natural wonders of the world, but because it was also recently featured in an epic battle scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The showdown at Crait, between the First Order and the tattered remnants of the Resistance, took place in a glittering mineral world. This alien planet was brought to life using a this location on Earth—Salar de Uyuni.
Unparalleled scenery at the largest salt flat in the world.
What Is A Salt Flat?
Landscape of the salt flat during the dry season.
About 30 to 40 thousand years ago, a giant prehistoric lake called Lake Minchin went through a series of transformation between several other vast lakes. When it dried, it left behind two bodies of water and two major salt deserts. Among many other salt flats on Earth, Salar de Uyuni sits 11,995 feet above sea level, making it easily visible from space due to its bright white color and enormous size. NASA and other space agencies sometimes use its water-smoothed surface to calibrate satellite orbits. It is even said that Neil Armstrong saw the salt flat from the Moon and mistakenly thought was a giant glacier.
During the rainy season, the salt flat is covered with a thin sheet of water due to the floods and overflows from the neighboring lakes. It reflects light, creating an almost impossible optical “mirror effect” illusion under the vast open sky. Although the salty desert with plated pockets of dry salt is beautiful by itself during the dry season, the addition of water creates an unparalleled visual event. It is especially mind-boggling and splendid on cloudy days where it looks as though visitors are taking a stroll among the puffy, silky clouds.
Taking a stroll among the clouds.
The endless reflective landscape and lack of reference points never cease to amaze visitors. Travelers from all over the world find it irresistible to document the heaven-like scenery with their creative poses, such as a balancing act, jumping for joy, or skating across the lustrous surface that resembles a sheet of ice.
In addition to being the second most popular tourist attraction in Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni holds between 50% and 70% of the world’s lithium reserves. The precious salt flat is predicted to lift the country’s economy as the global demand for lithium-powered lives seemingly increases daily.
The Milky Way’s reflection on Salar de Uyuni
August 14, 2019
The Hidden Mothers In Victorian Baby Photos
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Like spirit photography and death photography, hidden mother photography was another common practice of the Victorian era that looks absolutely creepifying now.
Many mothers, hoping to have pictures taken of their children in the early 1800s, would make a guest appearance in the photographs. However, they were usually obscured or hidden with a piece of fabric strategically draped over their bodies, or sometimes just their heads. It was also common for mothers to be cropped out of the photos, standing nearby but far enough away that they wouldn’t appear in the final images.
Now Hold Still!
As these photographs ranged from looking mildly odd to extremely disturbing; it can be hard to figure out why mothers of the Victorian era wanted to be “seen,” but not seen, in images with their children.
Daguerreotypes, or the photographs of the time, required long exposure periods that could stretch from anywhere between thirty seconds and several minutes. As any parent knows, it can be hard to keep a baby motionless simply snapping a picture with your cell phone. For a solid minute of stillness, photographers were asking a lot of the tykes. So, in many cases, their mothers would have to sit for the photograph as well in order to make sure their children didn’t fidget.
The Picture-Perfect Game of Hide-And-Go Seek
But why did the mothers hide? Why not create a portrait that portrayed familial love and affection? Linda Fregni Nagler, an Italian-Swedish artist and publisher of 2013 book, The Hidden Mother, believes the trend started because parents wanted to create “an intimate bond between the child and the viewer,” thus, leaving the mother out of the equation. Another theory stems from the fact that, in the Victorian era, photographing a loved one was such a rarity. Parents wanted images of their children alone that they could use to send to family members.
Still, others wonder if this could have been part of the long tradition of erasing a woman’s work from the eyes of onlookers. Sure, some of these portraits have been found to include the occasional father, nanny, or photographer’s assistant hidden in plain sight, but the majority of the “pictured” caregivers are mothers.
In most cases, these images are of mothers appearing with their children in their laps or beside them while otherwise being clumsily concealed to look like a piece of furniture.
By Julia Tilford, Contributor for Ripleys.com
August 13, 2019
Wielding Luke Skywalker’s Lightsaber
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Luke’s Lightsaber
Seeking to free the Rebel Alliance’s most iconic weapons from the clutches of dusty old boxes in attics on Hollywood Boulevard, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! has been on a quest to give fans new hope that they can see their favorite props—handled by their favorite characters—in real life.
We purchased Mark Hamill’s lightsaber from Empire Strikes Back for $450,000. This screen-used prop was purchased from the personal collection of Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz.
The model was constructed from a 1930s Graflex flash tube with some buttons and circuitry glued on—humble beginnings for a laser sword. Our model, sadly, isn’t a working one, though who can blame it after taking a tumble down from Cloud City.
The prop has some special characteristics that give away what scenes of the movie it was made for. The addition of a D-ring to attach it to mark Hammil’s belt, as well as notched fins, denote this lightsaber from the ones used in A New Hope. According to some on set in Norway, the fins had to be riveted because the cold snow caused the metal to contract, breaking the glue.
Once filming moved indoors, the rivets were painted black to cut down on their reflection, meaning the Ripley’s saber was likely limited to the snow scenes on Dagobah.
Interviewing Real Vampires – Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast Episode 010
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Could your grocery store clerk, the nurse at your local clinic, or even your priest be a real vampire? Whether it’s biological or not, vampirism has long been used as a way to describe the differences between certain groups of people.
On the season one finale of the Notcast, Brent and Ryan interview real vampires, delving into the bizarre—and sometimes bloody—underground world of these unique individuals.
Elizabeth Bathory
CC Oldbarnacle via Wikimedia Commons
CIA-Staged Vampire Attacks
Show notes are on Ripleys.com. You can join the Notcast conversation on Twitter or drop us a line at notcast@ripleys.com.
Source: Interviewing Real Vampires – Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast Episode 010
August 12, 2019
The Living Legacy of Lucy the Elephant
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Older than the city on which she stands, Lucy the Elephant has spent the last 138 years of her life as many different facades. In 1881, Philadelphia real estate speculator James V. Lafferty began his legacy of pachyderm-patented buildings. The hope behind these uniquely-shaped observatories was that property buyers would visit and choose to invest in available real estate.
The Trunkated History
With the help of Philadelphia architect William Free, Lafferty began drawing up blueprints and designs; the elephant began to take shape. At a reported cost somewhere between $25,000 and $38,000—a considerable amount of money at this time—contractors starting building “Elephant Bazaar,” the original name of Lafferty’s creation.
Lafferty felt so confident in his animal-shaped creations that the U.S. Patent Office granted him a 17-year patent, No. 268,503. This designation gave him the exclusive right to make, use, or sell animal-shaped buildings.
Upon completion, Elephant Bazaar was placed in southern Atlantic City in hopes of luring investors to the empty marshland. For six years, Lafferty publicized his creations all over neighboring New Jersey towns and Philadelphia. Advertisements and newspapers were plastered with real estate and building lots for sale in “fast booming South Atlantic City.”
Unfortunately, Elephant Bazaar’s fame was short-lived. Lafferty seemed to extend himself a bit too far and in 1887, he opted for selling his creations and land to willing buyer Anton Gertzen. Anton’s daughter-in-law, Sophia Gertzen, is responsible for changing Elephant Bazaar to Lucy the Elephant in 1902.
Under this new management, Lucy lived on as a gambling place, a summer home to an English doctor, a tavern, a 40-tent tourist camp, and—until the Volstead Act of 1920—a speakeasy. Following the business’ lawful shutdown, Sophia, the only remaining family member with a connection to the elephant, was left to financially support her family and keep Lucy’s legacy alive.
Sophia decided to change the famed elephant into a rooming house for which she charged a 10-cent admission fee. The registry shows that in 1916, President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, Vincent and John Jacob Astor, the duPonts of Delaware, Henry Ford, and even the Rajah of Bhong and wives from Singapore were all guests of Lucy the Elephant.
After many years of continually changing identities, the hotel, attraction, refreshment stand, bathhouse, and rental cottage was eventually donated to the City of Margate and her land was sold to developers.
In a very rugged and decaying state, Lucy was slated to be demolished until a group of concerned Margate citizens established the Save Lucy Committee. From door-to-door canvassing and donations, they raised enough money to move the 90-ton Lucy. She was loaded onto the back of a truck-pulled trailer and took a leisurely drive to her forever home on South Decatur Avenue.
Building a Name for Herself
Modeled after P.T. Barnum’s “Jumbo the Elephant,” Lucy was not a simple project. It’s said that a million pieces of timber, 8,560 arches, 200 kegs of nails, and four tons of bolts and bars were utilized in her complex construction, in addition to being covered with 12,000 square feet of tin.
Her body is 38 feet long and 80 feet in circumference, and her head: 16 feet long and 48 feet in circumference. Her massive ears measure in at 17 feet long and 10 feet wide. Believe It or Not! it is estimated that each ear weighs 2,000 pounds. Lucy can be seen—without the use of binoculars—from approximately up to eight miles away!
Last Woman Standing
Putting his patent to good use, Lafferty produced three pachyderm projects in his time. Elephant Bazaar, or Lucy, was second in line among Lafferty’s elephant parade. However, she’s the only one still intact and standing on all fours.
Lafferty’s first masterpiece was known as Light of Asia. This 40-foot wooden elephant was built on land near the beach of what is now known as the Borough of South Cape May. Despite the floods of visitors, the structure was never a financial success. By the spring of 1900, the light had burned out on this property. The elephant deteriorated past the point of return and was torn down.
Elephantine Colossus, Coney Island, NY
Elephantine Colossus was Lucy’s second relative in the neighboring state of New York, living as an attraction for the popular, Coney Island. While at first business was booming, the structure’s worth as an attraction faded as new hot-spots grew up around it, competing for visitors’ dollars. Unfortunately, following its slow demise, the building caught fire in September of 1896 and crumbled to the sand.
Lucy’s Living Legacy
Through the financial support and affection of her visitors, Lucy the Elephant continues to tower over the town of Margate City. After 138 years of identity crises, hurricanes, floods, and lightning strikes, she remained a fighter and has been officially deemed as a National Historic Landmark.
Today, visitors can tour the six-story elephant during their visit to Margate, New Jersey. Upon entry of Lucy the Elephant, guests ascend a spiral staircase to the main level of her figure and eventually end at the tip-top: the howdah on her back. Providing a 360-degree view of the shore, it’s the perfect end to a full-scope experience.
From real estate marketing stunt to America’s Oldest Surviving Roadside attraction, Lucy has proven to be an elephant who’s hard to forget.
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