Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 320
September 7, 2018
Squirrel Monkeys Put Would-Be Kidnapper In Hospital
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[September 2-8th, 2018] A DIY poster child, celebrity body mods, crime-stopping squirrel monkeys, and no place like home for Dorothy’s ruby slippers.
DIY Advertising
When Jevh Maravilla decided to pick up an order of fries at his local McDonald’s in Pearland, Texas, he noticed the posters on the walls didn’t represent him. As an Asian-American, Maravilla wanted to see some of himself on the walls and took the task literally. He and his friend posed for a photo, added some design elements, and printed up a poster. With a uniform he bought at Goodwill, he snuck it into the restaurant and hung it up. Nobody noticed for over a month, and when the manager did learn of the prank, he said he’d leave it up!
i noticed there was a blank wall at mcdonald’s so i decided to make this fake poster of me and my friend. It’s now been 51 days since i hung it up. pic.twitter.com/5OTf5aR4vm
— JΞVH M (@Jevholution) September 3, 2018
Body Mods
Modeling accessories is nothing new for celebrities, but accessories that look like they’re growing under their skin is. This past week, A-list influencers like Kim Kardashian West, Chrissy Teigen, and Tan France appeared with photo-realistic prosthetics that look as if they are part of the model’s body. Chokers that look like they’re worn under the skin, fleshy feathers, and crystalline gills were all displayed, and the creator even teased incorporating LED technology that mimicked a heartbeat.
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September 6, 2018
Howling At The Moon In Light And Shadow: Deviant Art’s Unconventional Art Contest Winners
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is one of the largest collectors of art in the world. With Odditoriums containing over 10,000 pieces of unique art, we’re always on the hunt for art that will inspire and amaze. While we have our own internal art department that crafts our wax figures and builds anything you could dream up, we also wanted to reach out to artists all around the planet to see what odd art they could come up with.
Inspired by our book, Odd Is Art, Deviant Art’s Unconventional Art Contest put out the call for their artists to show us their stuff, and with great excitement, we’ve got our three winners!
3rd Place: Toothpaste Moon
User RAINBOW-FALLS takes the third place spot with an eerie moonscape painted with toothpaste! The piece was made using both regular white toothpaste as well as black charcoal toothpaste over dark construction paper. The paste adds unique textures and is absolutely an odd choice of paint, we love it!
Possibly inspired by Navid Baraty’s out of this world food photography in Odd Is Art?
2nd Place: A Whole Other Cat
User JODEE also decided on a unique medium. Not only does her needle felted creation portray her cat, Señor Stevie Nicks, but it is also made from her cat’s hair! She notes Stevie sheds each year for summer, and that the hair is enough to make a whole other cat. The fur was meticulously placed to create a lifelike fur pattern and accompanied with various bits to complete the look.
Purr-haps she can collaborate with dog hair artist Jean Ford?
1st Place: The Wolves Come Out At Night
This iridescent Moon needs just the right light to yield its secrets. Artist Pam Hage, known as QUEENOFEAGLES on Deviant Art, made this interactive piece so that when a light is angled just right, a howling wolf appears in its shadows! Hage made the Moon itself from simple aluminum foil but then shaped its surface to project lupine shadows. The piece requires both darkness and light to be shown to its full potential!
“The thought behind this piece is what makes it incredible. Having one wolf created by light and the other by darkness is an especially nice touch!”—Judge’s comment
You’ll soon be able to see “The Wolves Come Out At Night” at the Ripley’s Odditorium in Los Angeles, and Hage is invited on an all-expenses paid trip to view it himsef, as well as a behind-the-scenes visit to the Ripley’s Art Department in Orlando, Florida.
Thanks to all the artists who participated in Deviant Art’s Unconventional Art Contest, and remember we’re always on the lookout for submissions to the Ripley’s collection!
Source: Howling At The Moon In Light And Shadow: Deviant Art’s Unconventional Art Contest Winners
Are There Bodies Buried In The Hoover Dam?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Or Not
In today’s world many misconceptions have been perpetuated—becoming modern day “facts”—when, in reality, myths and hearsay have taken over. Sorry to burst your bubble, but in this weekly column, Ripley’s puts those delusions to the test, turning your world upside down, because you can’t always…Believe It!
Today: How many bodies are buried in the Hoover Dam?
Hoover Dam Deaths
Built during the Great Depression, between 1931 and 1936, the Hoover Dam—then known as the Boulder Dam—was one of the biggest construction projects of the era. An enormous concrete arched structure, measuring over 725 feet high and 1,244 feet long, the dam cost 49 million dollars to complete and was responsible for over 100 deaths.
Hoover Dam Memorial
The Reality
The high number of fatalities is the source of many of the stories of workmen being buried/entombed within the Hoover Dam. Deaths were unusually high, even for a project of this magnitude, and so it took hold of the American collective imagination—that the bodies of workers would just be tossed into the concrete mix, never to be seen again.
Comprised of nearly 4.5 million cubic yards of concrete, the Hoover Dam is broken up into sections containing thousands of yards of concrete apiece. Each one of the slabs had to be allowed to set before the next one could be poured. Between the pouring of the concrete and the setting, it would often take hours before a section would be finished. Giving a not-so-sure-footed worker, plenty of time to get themselves out of an eternity of holding back the Colorado River.
But, even if that’s not convincing enough, engineers would do their best to keep a body—dead or alive—from being set in the Dam’s concrete. The human body is comprised of degradable organic material, unlike steel rebars typically used in large concrete projects. That decayable material causes quite the issue for a large block of concrete. A decaying body would eventually form an air pocket within the concrete, decreasing the stability of the block over time. The weight of the surrounding concrete, coupled with the force of the restrained river could eventually compromise the structural integrity of the dam.
The completed dam photographed by Ansel Adams.
Another possible explanation for the urban legend comes by way of another large dam project being built around the same time: Montana’s Fort Peck Dam. At the time the world’s largest earth filled dam—as opposed to Hoover’s concrete kind—eight workers were buried alive. On September 22, 1936, a section of the dam broke loose and slid into the man-made Fort Peck Lake. Of the eight workers, only two were ever recovered from the accident, and while Fort Peck, Montana, is a bit of a stretch from the Nevada/Arizona border, it’s easy to understand how the accident location might have gotten confused way back in 1936.
Fort Peck Dam
Still, one thing’s for certain: There’s no dam way any bodies are buried in the Hoover Dam.
By Jesse Gormley, contributor for Ripleys.com
How Did Portugal’s First Serial Killer’s Head End Up In A Jar?
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Over 177 years after his execution, serial killer Diogo Alves still frightens unsuspecting passersby who meet his cold gaze. His perfectly preserved head sits in a glass jar a the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Medicine.
Born in Galicia in 1810, Alves worked from a young age as a servant in the homes of wealthy citizens in the capital. At age 26, he began working in homes along the Aqueduct of Free Waters, a giant waterway that not only carried water into the city, but also acted as a bridge and roadway for farmers and merchants entering to trade. This is where Alves began his string of murders.
Alves would wait on the bridge for people returning with the money they had sold their goods for. After robbing his victims, he pushed them off the 213-foot tall aqueduct. At first, police thought it was merely a series of copycat suicides, but local residents soon began whispering of an aqueduct killer. Over the next three years, Alves sent 70 people to their doom, and police eventually shut the bridge down. Alves wasn’t done, however, he formed a gang to murder and rob the wealthy residences he had worked in but was eventually caught.
The Aqueduct Killer was executed by means of hanging, but his story didn’t end there. At this time, an era of enlightenment fueled many people’s curiosity about what could be learned scientifically about the workings of the mind. Many felt they could explain what made Alves evil by pursuing phrenology—a study of the bumps on one’s head. After Alves was dead, doctors severed his head and preserved it for study.
Though the secret to evil wasn’t discovered in the preserved head of Diogo Alves, the specimen itself has become a curiosity at the college.
Want more stories to lose your head over? You can find a century’s worth in our newest annual, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! A Century of Strange!
QUIZ: WHICH A CENTURY OF STRANGE PERSONALITY ARE YOU?
Want to find out if your head belongs in a jar? Find out which friendly (or freaky!) face from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! A Century of Strange you are! Take this quiz to find out!
Source: How Did Portugal’s First Serial Killer’s Head End Up In A Jar?
September 5, 2018
The 1950s Science Kit That Had Real Uranium
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In 1950, American inventor—and magician—Alfred Carlton Gilbert sought to bring the marvels of nuclear physics to the playtimes of children all across America.
Gilbert was no stranger to producing playsets for children, becoming most famous for producing the commercially successful Erector sets in the 1920s. While the popularity of the Erector brand would last to this day, Gilbert had much higher hopes for the sophistication of children’s playtime.
As America entered the age of the atom, it seemed as though there was no problem that wouldn’t be solved without the help of nuclear physics. While atomic gardening was marketed to housewives, the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was meant for the kids.
The kit included a cloud chamber for viewing particle physics, a Geiger counter for monitoring radiation levels and measuring radioactive decay, as well as radioactive ore.
Despite containing radioactive uranium, he claimed the kit posed no danger to children. Then-popular comic character Dagwood even appeared in an included comic book explaining the very basics of atomic energy.
The kit really let anyone set up their own nuclear lab at home. The cloud chamber specifically allowed people to observe alpha particles moving 12,000 miles per second. To make things more fun, he suggested kids play a game of hide-and-seek with a gamma-ray source.
The kits cost a mere $50, which would be about $400 adjusted to today’s dollars. Despite this steep price for a children’s toy, Gilbert advertised that children could use it to prospect for uranium. At the time, the United States government was offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who identified new sources of fission material.
When the kits launched, children were generally overwhelmed by their complexity, and Gilbert later admitted that some of the kit’s features may have been a bit advanced for young children at home. As safety concerns mounted, the kits were quickly removed from store shelves, though an estimated 5,000 made it out into the world.
September 4, 2018
New Guinean Finger Chopper Used To Mourn The Dead
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The death of a spouse has severe emotional repercussions, but for the women of New Guinea’s Danai tribe, it also can mean great physical pain. It is typical for widows in New Guinea to isolate themselves in self-imposed exile while they grieve, shutting themselves out from the eyes of their fellows, but for some, this expression of grief isn’t enough. To deal with their sorrow, and make their internal struggle end, they undergo a brutal ritual on their physical bodies. Some chop off their own fingers.
The stone blade featured here is made from volcanic obsidian and was used in at least two finger-chopping rituals. Collected in 1930, it’s a relic of an era now mostly bygone by New Guinea tribes.
To complete the ritual, tribeswomen would enlist the help of a fellow tribe member to cut off their finger or would do the task themselves. The finger would be cut in the middle of the knuckle, and the stump quickly cauterized into a bulbous shape. No fingerprints would remain, and their reach would be severely shortened, but the treatment left their crippled hands fairly reliable for everyday tasks. Details vary as to what would happen to the severed finger itself. Some reports say it would be worn as a necklace, while others say it would be ceremoniously buried.
A brutal ritualistic expression of grief, tradition says this keeps evil spirits away, a statement western anthropologists say can be interpreted as keeping away depression. This practice, however, isn’t always exclusive to widows. One Dania woman has been found to have chopped off six of her own fingers. One was to grieve for her dead husband, but the others were in grieving for her dead children.
Credit” Olga Yarovenko/Shutterstock
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