Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 295
January 14, 2019
The 17th-Century Plan To Trade With Aliens On The Moon
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Oliver Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in the history of Britain. Following the English Civil War and the execution of King Charles I, he established himself as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. All of this is well-recorded and still much-debated by historians, but what we really want to hear is the story of how his brother-in-law—who married Cromwell’s youngest sister Robina in 1656—thought he was going to get out to the Moon to meet and trade with aliens, way back in the 1600s.
John Wilkins
Interplanetary Trade With Aliens
Let’s start at the beginning with this one. Cromwell’s brother-in-law was John Wilkins, a distinguished scholar and Anglican clergyman who was a founding member of the Royal Society—the world’s oldest national scientific society. He was about as learned as it was possible to be at the time, having attended both Oxford and Cambridge and campaigned to unite scientific advancement and religion (which is one heck of a can of worms, as we know).
He also believed that the Moon and the surrounding planets were all inhabited, and was convinced that he could build a flying machine to reach them. His ambitions were loftier still, though: he hoped to establish trade with the residents of the Moon/other planets, and so contribute to the prosperity of Britain.
Needless to say, four hundred years ago, the whole concept of space travel was just a tad out there. Britain was only just getting to grips with the whole hey, maybe we should shower more than once a season thing back then. Wilkins was through the looking glass with this one, though not as much as you may think.
This was an incredible period of scientific discovery, and with humanity’s knowledge of space as it was at the time, these theories were revolutionary yet plausible. He became consumed by these ideas, and wrote extensively about them in his The Discovery of a World in the Moone in 1638 and A Discourse Concerning A New Planet in 1640.
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
There were two huge, conspicuous, bright purple polka-dotted elephants in the room, then: just how the heck would people get out to those planets back then, and how the heck would they breathe in space?
Don’t worry, though, because wise old Wilkins had the answer to both these dilemmas. As The Vintage News explains, the idea was that “…space travelers would soon grow accustomed to the purer air breathed by angels who he believed inhabited the vast space between planets.” So, there’s one little logical landmine sidestepped. Glad you’ve thought this through, John.
With that solved, we come to the issue of actually flying out to the Moon, at a time several hundred years before even conventional vehicles like airplanes and cars. As for the precise method for securing astral transport to the pale planetoid floating in the heavens? Wilkins explained that flight was well within the capabilities of mankind. They merely need the aid of a flying machine piloted by either a good or bad angel—he didn’t care which. If the angels were unwilling, however, voyagers could instead use a winged chariot to break free from gravity as if opposing the force of a magnet, then snap delicately to the surface of the Moon to greet the aliens who lived there.
Wilkins noted records of 11th-century Benedictine monks proved man could achieve flight.
Brought Back Down To Earth With A Bump
So what became of that moon mission, and those chariots? As the warden of Oxford’s Wadham College, Wilkins had access to a vast ‘inventor’s garden,’ which contained the likes of a rainbow-making device, a statue that could speak and glass beehives through which one could watch the colony in action. Here, as fellow natural philosopher Robert Hooke wrote, the pair worked on various plans and prototypes for flying machines. None of which, needless to say, ever actually made it to the Moon.
In the decades to come, the work of Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke would demonstrate that space was actually a vacuum, and knowledge and understanding of the force of gravity would greatly improve (Isaac Newton and his famous apple were on the way). With this new information in hand, Wilkins was forced to concede that space travel simply wasn’t possible in the 1600s.
As eccentric as these ideas may seem to us now, there’s no doubt that Wilkins’ brilliant mind pathed the way for space travel as we now know it. It wasn’t until 1969 that humanity would eventually set foot on the Moon, and without John Wilkins and scientists like him, maybe we never would have.
By Chris Littlechild, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: The 17th-Century Plan To Trade With Aliens On The Moon
January 13, 2019
January 12, 2019
January 11, 2019
England’s Newest Fatberg Is The Largest Ever Found Outside A Major City
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[January 6th-12th, 2019] A fatberg outclasses the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Australia’s prime minister wears two left shoes, a sonic attack from crickets, and the Vatican gets the Olympic’s blessing in this week’s weird news from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
New Fatberg Is Longer Than The White House
While we covered a London fatberg that made its way into a museum last year, this year’s fatberg, found lurking beneath Sidmouth and Devon in England, is longer than the Leaning Tower of Pisa is tall! The coagulation of hardened fat, oil, wet wipes, and other waste items stretches 210 feet. Service workers estimate it will take them eight weeks to dissect the clog.
Australian Prime Minister Has Two Left Feet
When Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, posted a family portrait on his Twitter account, people took special notice of something hidden in the corner of the frame. The photo showed him wearing two left shoes. Rumors spread that he may secretly have two left feet, but were quickly squashed when sharp-eyed citizens noticed the rather obvious Photoshop work. Admitting the jig was up, Morrison said the ratty sneakers he was wearing had been edited over and relented by releasing the original picture with the original shoes.
The Photoshoped shoes (left), real shoes (right)
Sonic Attack Could Just Be Crickets
In August of 2017, the US embassy in Cuba was evacuated after workers reported nausea and headaches in the wake of what they thought was a series of sonic attacks. After analyzing a recording made by employees at the compound, however, scientists think they were just hearing the sounds of some very loud crickets.
Train Delay Scarf
A woman in Germany has shared her report card for her city’s transportation system in the form of a scarf. Taking the train every day for a 40-minute trip into Munich for work, she used dark gray if the train was up to five minutes late, pink if it was five to 30 minutes late, and bright red if it was any later than that. A single row of thread represents a single commute. A huge block of red represents the summer when it would sometimes take 2 hours to complete her trip.
Meine Mutter ist Pendlerin im Münchner Umland. Und begeisterte Strickerin. 2018 hat sie einen “Bahn-Verspätungsschal” gestrickt. Pro Tag zwei Reihen: Grau bei unter 5 Minuten, rosa bei 5 bis 30 Minuten Verspätung, rot bei Verspätung auf beiden Fahrten oder einmal über 30 Minuten. pic.twitter.com/PpGJiiU8AS
— Sara Weber (@sara__weber) January 6, 2019
Nuns Run For The Olympics
A team of running nuns have their sights set on the Olympics—part of the Vatican’s ploy to demonstrate the athletic prowess of their priests, Swiss Guards, and other apostles of the church. The Olympic Committee gave the team their blessing and hopes the Holy See flag will be able to take home some medals—even if they have to take them from Italy.
Tamara Kulikova/Shutterstock
Source: England’s Newest Fatberg Is The Largest Ever Found Outside A Major City
Thousands Want To Drink The Mummy Juice From An Ancient Sarcophagus
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Adventurous individuals are clamoring to drink contaminated red liquid contained inside an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus with the hopes of gaining mystical powers. The mummy juice petition was posted on change.org by a man named Innes McKendrick from Guildford, Surrey, England.
McKendrick, a video games producer, is imploring the “king of skeletons” in Egypt to allow people to “drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die.”
So far, 34,298 people have signed the petition in hopes of making it happen. And the number keeps growing.
Archaeologists in Alexandria, Egypt, opened the 2,000-year-old unmarked tomb in July 2018. The ancient coffin—made of 30 tons of black granite—is the largest stone sarcophagus ever discovered in the Mediterranean port city.
Some believed that the 8.5-by-5-foot tomb was cursed and opening it would mean certain doom. Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, dispelled the rumors.
“Thank God, the world has not fallen into darkness,” Waziri told the media after opening the sarcophagus. “I was the first to put my whole head inside the sarcophagus… and here I stand before you … I am fine.”
Others hoped there would be a giant mummy inside or that it would contain the remains of Alexander the Great. Instead, researchers found three skeletons floating in a crimson sewage-like substance. They soon determined that the bodies were of two men and one woman stacked on top of each other. The skeletons are either from the Ptolemaic (332 to 30 B.C.) or Roman (30 B.C. to 642 A.D.) periods.
One of the skeletons has a 17-cm wide hole in the skull, indicating the person underwent some sort of surgery. Dr. Zeinab Hashish, director of the Department of Skeleton Remains Studies at the Ministry of Antiquities, believes it was trepanation, which involves drilling a burr hole into the cranium.
“This surgery is the oldest surgical intervention ever known since pre-history but was rare in Egypt,” Hashish said in a statement.
Trepanation was performed for religious and medical purposes and to treat ailments such as headaches, hypertension, and swelling of the brain.
As for the red liquid inside, researchers agree it is contamination from sewage water, which is so potent that it rotted the wrappings encasing the three skeletons.
It’s safe to say that most people avoid coming into contact with—much less drinking—waste water. The people who signed the petition may want to reconsider consuming the red goop. Instead of obtaining powers from the dead, they are more likely to acquire a virus, bacterial infection, or disease from the juice encompassing the decaying bodies.
When asked why he wanted to drink the red mummy juice, McKendrick told Metro: “Many felt let down when the dark and extremely cursed sarcophagus was pried open to reveal only skeletons drenched in raw sewage, which is weird because skeletons are inherently pretty awesome.
“However, I stand true to the hope we were promised, and deeply believe that by consuming the skeleton juice in the form of a carbonated high caffeine energy drink that we can still have the opportunity to enter an era of unending darkness and despair. I’m so glad to see others backing the petition, and sharing in my mission to rapidly bring about the end of all things.”
Meanwhile, the petition continues to gain supporters on a daily basis. It’s unclear whether they want to taste the red mummy juice themselves, hope to witness the petitioner doing so, or think it’s a joke. One user recently quipped: “Yum yum. Mystical mummy powers in my tum tum.”
Other people also believe that consuming certain liquids will make them stronger and more powerful. In 2016, 20-year-old Hungarian boxer Alexander Horvath announced he was drinking snake blood prior to a match with Indian fighter Vijender Singh. Fresh snake blood is used in some areas of the central European country because of its alleged magical powers.
“There is a long and proud tradition of drinking fresh snake blood in my family that goes back many centuries,” Horvath is quoted as saying. “Like my forefathers before me I am a true warrior and will stop at nothing to get my victory. Hungarian soldiers drank snake blood to defeat the Turks all those years ago and now I’m drinking it to beat Singh.”
“The blood of these sacred animals makes me powerful beyond words. With snake blood coursing through my veins there in no way that Singh will defeat me. Since I’ve added snake blood to my diet I have been able to train harder than ever before without tiring and I’m punching harder than ever,” he continued.
Then there’s a Cuban cocktail known as canchánchara, which supposedly has healing elements. It’s unclear whether Cuban guerillas or African slaves developed the drink, which supposedly wards off diseases such as the flu.
By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Thousands Want To Drink The Mummy Juice From An Ancient Sarcophagus
January 10, 2019
Debunking 5 Of The Weirdest Laws We’ve Ever Heard
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The United States has some really odd laws scattered around the country. In Hawaii, for example, people aren’t allowed to put coins in their ears (King Kamehameha enacted the legislation in 1847). And in Texas, you’re prohibited from selling a human eye (this one makes sense because it’s illegal to peddle human organs).
It’s unclear why some of these bizarre laws were created, and many are outdated and not enforced any longer. Still, we all know the Internet has a way of circulating information that isn’t always accurate. Check out some weird laws that you may have heard about that aren’t true at all.
1: In Logan, Utah, women are prohibited from swearing.
Can men really curse and women can’t in Utah? If it was true, it would definitely be sexist. This weird law has been circulating around the internet for quite a while, but no publication has cited an original source. When The Herald Journal searched through the Logan City Code to verify the law, it came up empty.
It’s possible that the law did exist at one point, but if it did it is no longer in effect. Since Utah has a large Mormon population (51 percent of residents practice the religion), it seems plausible that the state would create certain laws about swearing. After all, the religion prohibits parishioners from drinking coffee, tea, and alcohol; members can’t have tattoos; and women can’t wear pants in church.
Meanwhile, Virginia has a law on the books against “profane swearing,” and it applies to both sexes. It’s been in effect since 1860, and at that time people who cursed in public were fined $1. These days it’s a class 4 misdemeanor, and lawbreakers could be fined $250 for the offense.
2: It is illegal for women to take more than three steps backward while dancing in Bellingham, Washington.
Here’s another weird law that penalizes females, but it too is false. A student at Marquette University Law School recalled coming across this unusual law while playing a game of Balderdash with her family. Again, it’s possible this law may have existed at one time but no longer does.
A look at the municipal code of the City of Bellingham proved there are no current laws prohibiting women from performing this particular dance move. In fact, there was no information about when (or if) the law existed or if it was ever enforced.
However, a Massachusetts law passed in 1917 prohibits people from dancing to the “Star Spangled Banner.” The law says in part, “Whoever plays, sings or renders the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, or any part thereof, as dance music, as an exit march or as a part of a medley of any kind, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars.”
3: It is against the law for an alligator to bathe in a bathtub in Arkansas.
It’s not illegal to put an alligator in your bathtub in Arkansas. The reference librarians at the University of Arkansas’s Young Law Library searched the Arkansas Digest, the Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated, the Arkansas Statutes 1947, Digest of the Arkansas Statutes of 1937 (Pope), and didn’t find a statute or case regarding alligators in bathtubs. The librarians conceded there may be a local ordinance prohibiting alligators in bathtubs, but “even if such a local law existed, state and federal law would control.” However, in Arkansas—and in many other states—it is against the law to keep alligators as pets. If a lawman found an alligator in your tub, you’d be apprehended for possessing the animal, not bathing it.
4: People can’t kiss for more than five minutes in Iowa.
This made-up law has been circulating online for over 10 years. Numerous websites include it on their lists of dumb laws, but it seems to have been created by a joke website and has no basis in fact. If a couple was caught sucking face in public for more than five minutes, it could be a bit uncomfortable for bystanders but that doesn’t make it illegal (just ask Justin Bieber, who is the king of PDA).
An unusual law in Utah allows first cousins to not only to kiss but to marry—if they’re over the age of 65. First cousins who are unable to reproduce can tie the knot if they’re over age 55, according to Utah Courts. The state draws the line at other relationships—individuals are not allowed to marry their siblings, parents, children, aunts, uncles, nieces or nephews.
5: It is illegal to set a mouse trap in California without a hunting license.
This strange law has also been debunked. It came about after the state passed hunting legislation in 2002. If you look into the actual law you will learn that residents of California are absolutely allowed to trap mice, particularly for health and safety reasons. Mouse and rat traps are exempted from the Department of Fish and Game’s license tagging rules.
By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com
January 9, 2019
Castells: The Catalan Art Of Human Towers
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Each year, hundreds of acrobatic individuals show up for Catalan festivals to build human towers called castells. Far more serious than a human pyramid, these towers can reach 50 feet into the air and consist of 300 people.
The gravity-defying structures have their roots in the 18th-century and originated in Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands. What started as a fun community event at celebrations throughout the year has trend into a serious sport, dominating stadiums in Spain.
Catalan for “castle,” the structures serve as an important cultural symbol for communities, requiring people to come together and demonstrate cooperation to build something bigger than just themselves. The festivities surrounding the castells also bring people of all walks of life together, whether they are businessmen, unemployed, young, or old.
Credit: LLUCO/Shutterstock
Castellers wear white pants, black sashes, and colored bandanas that indicate their team or region. The traditional sashes are wrapped tightly around their abdomens to act as a type of weightlifting belt and to provide a handhold for other climbers. Modern tower teams are able to reach taller heights thanks to the inclusion of women starting in the 1960s. With access to lighter bodies, towers now can stretch up to ten people high.
Credit: LLUCO/Shutterstock
The base is formed by the most people and must support the heavy tower during the entire construction—and deconstruction—process. The circle of people at the base keep the tower together but also are there to break the fall of higher-up castellers in the event of an accident.
In many festivals, the last person to climb the tower and sit on top is a child of four or five years old. They make the climb as the crowd looks on in silence. Once they reach the top, they stretch an open hand to the heavens above and music erupts! The traditional Catalan music plays as the tower is carefully deconstructed. To many climbers, this stage is the most dangerous part.
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