Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 308
November 7, 2018
November 6, 2018
Duplicating Edison’s Iconic Invention For Light’s Golden Jubilee
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
As early as 1761, Ebenezer Kinnersley demonstrated the possibility of wire being heated to incandescence. Humphry Davy used a giant battery to make a light bulb with platinum in 1802, and a number of other inventors refined the device over the coming century until Edison commercialized the product.
Edison began working on the light bulb in 1878, even buying patents from other inventors so he could improve their design to make a new, better-patented device. His first product lasted a meager 13.5 hours, but his successive prototypes reached upwards of 1,200 hours. His bulb relied on a carbonized bamboo filament vacuum-sealed inside a glass ball.
Edison didn’t just develop the device, but marketed it, and got the press on his invention’s side. Seen as the father of electricity, Edison’s light bulb spurred a wave of electrification.
In celebration of 50 years of light cast by Edison’s invention, Henry Ford and General Electric organized a grand ceremony for the aging Edison. Attendees to light’s golden jubilee included President Herbert Hoover, Walter Chrysler, Marie Curie, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Charles Schwab, Orville Wright, and even Albert Einstein via radio.
All over the country, people turned off their lights, waiting for the moment a reenactment bulb was lit at the ceremony. When the final wire was connected to an exact replica of Edison’s first bulb, everyone turned on their lights in celebration.
Source: Duplicating Edison’s Iconic Invention For Light’s Golden Jubilee
November 5, 2018
Life Among The Little People Of Dwarf Empire
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Sitting just outside Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, the Kingdom of the Little People (a.k.a. Dwarf Empire) remains a controversial theme park staffed entirely by performers no more than 4 feet 3 inches tall. Since opening in 2009, the park’s staff has expanded from 60 to 140 performers, many with congenital conditions such as dwarfism.
Each day, these performers dress up in costumes and act out everything from fairy tales to Hip Hop dance routines. Dwarf Empire provides a steady paycheck, and it allows staff to showcase their singing, kung fu, and break-dancing talents. But, is it an exploitative human zoo or a humanitarian panacea?
Life in Dwarf Empire
Walking into Dwarf Empire feels like entering a fairytale world of mushroom-shaped houses with whimsical, crooked chimneys. Performers wear fairy tale costumes of every stripe, some brandishing swords and shields. Others wearing brightly colored tutus, butterfly wings, or capes and crowns. Performers range in age from 18 to 40 years old.
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Twice each day, they sing, dance, sell refreshments, and pose for photographs. After crowds leave for the day, they stack up chairs, sweep, and head back to their dormitories via golf cart. Dorms accommodate four people and are custom-tailored and furnished for the shorter stature of residents. Like the dormitories of nearby factory workers, they prove humbly decorated and crowded, but represent a happy alternative to life on the streets.
Criticism of the Kingdom of the Little People has come hot and heavy from organizations around the globe as well as movie stars such as Warwick Davis.
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How It All Started
The brainchild of electronics and real-estate mogul Chen Mingjing, the $14 million park recruits performers from all over China. The idea for the park came to Minjing after speaking with two individuals with dwarfism at a train station. He learned firsthand of their sufferings as small-statured individuals in China. Saddened by their stories of family rejection, intense poverty, and life on the streets, he decided to create a special place just for them. Hence, the idea behind the Kingdom of the Little People.
While some groups, such as the California-based Little People of America, accuse Dwarf Empire of being zoo-like, many of the performers claim they enjoy their new living arrangements and careers. In fact, most find themselves pleasantly shielded from the stigma associated with dwarfism in mainstream Chinese society. Ironically, however, they trade these challenges for life on display before gawking masses fascinated by an all-dwarf world.
The Kingdom of the Little People
Unfortunately, age-old Chinese beliefs leave vulnerable populations behind. A widespread conviction persists that disability represents a punishment in this life for sins committed in the previous ones. As a result, those with perceived disabilities endure brutal treatment at the hands of their families and the general public.
Eighty-three million individuals with disabilities live in China, yet 40 percent prove illiterate. All—educated or not—face extreme prejudice and abuse. They get denied employment, health care, steady work, and societal roles. While Dwarf Empire looks incredibly exploitative on the outside, it represents one of the few places where little people can go to start over.
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Of course, with an estimated eight million short-statured individuals living in China, the Kingdom of the Little People only addresses a minuscule percentage of the population. Yet, many residents feel grateful for a steady paycheck and the company of like-statured peers. The park represents an oasis of sorts, far removed from stigma, public abuse, and cruel neglect. In the outside world, most dwarves endure crippling poverty, often begging on the streets or playing instruments for money.
At Dwarf Empire, salaries start at 800 yuan a month, a cut above the standard wage for the region. The average pay packet comes in at 1,500 yuan, the equivalent pay earned by college graduates. Some employees make even more including the King Dwarf who earns the park’s biggest pay packet at 3,000 yuan.
Besides their salaries, workers can also participate in extracurricular activities and counseling. No wonder Dwarf Empire has attracted employees from all over China. What’s more, Mingjing has ambitious plans to expand the park to house even more little people from all over the world. In fact, he’d like to increase resident numbers to 1,000.
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By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
November 4, 2018
November 3, 2018
November 2, 2018
The CDC Says It’s Safe To Put Chickens In Costumes
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[October 28-November 3rd, 2018] Reese’s offers trade-ins on candy, a man paddles a pumpkin downriver, and chickens can be safely costumed.
Reese’s Candy Converter
If you’re picky about your candy and always find yourself dissatisfied with the bottom-of-the-barrel treats left in your trick-or-treating bucket, New York City has a vending machine that can help. The machine accepts unwanted candy and converts it into Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Dry Iceland
Preparing to participate in a NATO war exercise, several thousand US troops were put up in Iceland. Apparently unprepared for this influx of thirsty soldiers, breweries were forced to empty their emergency reserves to satisfy the thirsty mob. The soldiers alone increased the city’s population temporarily by about six percent.
Captaining A 1,400-Pound Pumpkin
Tom Pearcy, who lives near York, England, decided to take his pumpkin to the water after the Halloween holiday. He cut a hole in the nearly 1,400-pound pumpkin, climbed in, and started sailing paddling down the Ouse River.
We will be going live on @SkyNews and here, from @Yorkmaze with Farmer Tom at 1:45pm this afternoon!! Watch this space…
November 1, 2018
The 19-Year-Old With Over 100 Crazy Pets
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Tomas Pasiecznik—better known as Tomas Pasie—has owned more than 100 different species of animals! The 19-year-old YouTuber lives in New Jersey where he keeps his amazing pet collection. Most of his pets are exotic or extremely rare, so he uses his channel to share his collection with others. He offers tours of his animals, feeding videos, educational sessions, and pet-care explainers.
His collection is filled with spiders, snakes, scorpions, lizards, millipedes, and of course a couple dogs. Feeding all these animals alone is a monumental task, but because of the special requirements and potential dangers his pets present, Pasie has had to become an animal expert. Whether it’s getting scratched by an Argentine black and white tegu or sprayed with acid, it’s just another day of pet care for the prolific collector.
Vietnamese Centipede
The most venomous animal in Pasie’s collection, the Vietnamese centipede requires particular attention. Describing the invertebrate as an expert escape artist, he keeps it in a locking enclosure with high sides to keep the centipede—and himself—safe.
Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tarantula
Pasie has owned over 110 tarantulas so far, but he admits the gooty sapphire ornamental tarantula is his all-time favorite. Though they’re readily available in pet shops, this spider is critically endangered in their home country of India. Pasie actually owns a pair of the tarantulas, which he hopes to mate.
Tailless Whip Scorpion
Perhaps one of the scariest arthropods in Pasie’s collection, the tailless whip scorpion is actually quite harmless to humans. Unlike most scorpions, they don’t have a stinger. Instead, they have a sac on their abdomen that shoots acid! Pasie says he’s been sprayed before, but says it’s no big deal as long as you wash it off.
Pasie hopes his videos and pets can help teach people that pets besides cats and dogs are cool too. Likewise, he’s trying to help revitalize some species that are facing existential peril at the hands of the exotic pet trade and habitat destruction.
“I hope that people realize that my animals aren’t as bad as the mainstream media makes them out to be. I want people to love all animals, not just the furry ones.”—Tomas Pasie
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