Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 359
March 1, 2018
CARTOON 03-01-2018
February 28, 2018
The Mysterious and Explosive Tunguska Event in Northern Russia
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
On June 30, 1908, the forest near the Tunguska River in north Russia exploded.
“The sky was split in two.”—local observers
Thankfully occurring in an uninhabited area, no humans were hurt, though the scorched remains of many reindeer were found. The explosion, however, is thought to be the most powerful impact force in recorded history.
The Explosion
Interrupting the tranquility of the isolated forest, 80 million trees fell in an instant. The explosion is estimated to have released 185 times more energy than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and leveled 770 square miles.
Windows 40 miles away shattered as eyewitnesses watched a giant fireball rise over the horizon. Light was reported to be visible as far away as the United States, and seismic waves were felt in the United Kingdom.
As the explosion shook the world, scientists sprang into action to identify the cause of the calamitous Tunguska event.
The Impact
Scientists on the scene noted that the explosion most likely originated from a single epicenter, noting that all of the trees were knocked over in a concentric pattern. One researcher noted a peculiarity at the center, observing that the trees hadn’t been knocked over, but had instead been stripped of their bark.
It wasn’t until 1929 that an expedition would reach the remote location of the destruction. Leonid Kulik, a Russian mineralogist suspected a meteorite was to blame for the whole phenomenon.
The locals had other ideas, they feared that the Siberian god, Ogdy, had rampaged in the forest. Kulik even had trouble convincing guides to take him all the way to the forest, as they feared supernatural danger.
Mystery
After reaching the center of the catastrophe, Kulik found no crater. Noticing there were several concentric lakes in the area, he reasoned that the meteorite had exploded before touchdown, but after draining a bog and finding nothing but an old tree, he was stumped.
Many theories have since been hatched to explain these seemingly strange events, but the area wasn’t able to be studied closely due to its location. Some believe that the damage was caused by a crashing U.F.O. that left before it could be discovered, thus explaining the absence of a crater. Others think that an alien spaceship may have intervened and blown up a dangerous meteorite in order to protect the human race.
Some astronomers offered that a small comet would have left little evidence as its icy mass melted away. Geologists theorized that a plume of natural gas may have been ignited. Historians have even noticed similarities to the blast patterns exhibited by Soviet nuclear models—both leaving a butterfly-shaped burn pattern.
Air-Bursting Meteorites
The most likely explanation, the bursting of a meteorite in the atmosphere was eventually given more credit as modern scientific techniques have been able to detect trace amounts of extra-terrestrial minerals in the ground and trees of the Tunguska event site. Likewise, similar meteor behavior was observed during 1930 in Brazil, and again in Russia in 2013.

Chelyabinsk meteor trace, 2013.
Source: The Mysterious and Explosive Tunguska Event in Northern Russia
CARTOON 02-28-2018
February 27, 2018
Man-Made Meteorite: Titanium Fuel Cell
Sex, Drugs and the CIA: Operation Midnight Climax and Project MKUltra
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Inspiring hundreds of TV shows, movies, and conspiracy theories, the secret CIA project—codenamed MKUltra—is a story of government black ops, drugs, cover-ups, and murder.
Buried beneath divisions and sub-groups in the CIA, MKUltra began as early as 1950, but wasn’t official until 1953, technically falling under the US Army Chemical Corps. Motivated to combat the Soviet “truth serum,” its purpose was to develop techniques and drugs for mind control.
Secrecy

Utilizing a number of fronts, the project tapped into the resources of colleges, hospitals, prisons, mental health facilities, and even brothels.
Many of MKUltra’s activities were illegal, though the details of its operations are mostly unknown. Though the project was officially shut down in 1964, it’s outgoing director instructed the destruction of all of the project’s documents in 1973.
Even before the sabotage to future investigations, however, its members were instructed not to keep thorough records of their activities.
“Present practice is to maintain no records of the planning or approval of test programs.”—US Inspector General, 1963
They had good reason not to record their activities. They were found to not only experiment on people without consent or knowledge of the risks involved, but would also secretly drug people who would later suffer severe repercussions.
Mind Control
Prisoners, mental health patients, civilians, and soldiers were all unwittingly drugged or subject to other forms of “mind control” testing. LSD was their drug of choice, but they also attempted hypnosis, sleep deprivation, isolation, and verbal abuse. Though they never mastered “mind control,” they found many ways to put prisoners under extreme duress, with many of their techniques going on to be used as interrogation tactics in the Middle East.
Hoping to develop a technique to compromise and turn Soviet spies, they drugged unknowing soldiers, some of which were found to develop mental disorders in the face of seemingly unprompted hallucinations. With sparse records, few subjects were ever check up on afterward, and Senate committees would end up paying hundreds of thousands in recompensation to families.
Proving the Project Existed
While carrying out a Freedom of Information Act request, it was a budget office that stumbled across financial records of MKUltra in 1977. Used as evidence in a Senate investigation, it wasn’t until 2001 that some of the documents were declassified. They revealed surface-level information about some of the projects:
Budgeted Projects:
Up to 26 Tests on unwilling participants
8 projects on hypnosis
4 “magician’s arts” projects
1 project on electro-shock, ESP, and aerosols
1-2 projects on controlling animals and organic energy
Operation Midnight Climax
With a true mission relegated to secret bosses and shadow fronts, one operation, directed by Bureau of Narcotics agent, George H. White, became especially questionable.
Essentially, he set up a brothel in which the US government paid for prostitutes to lure clients to a safe house, drug them, and then “watch what happened” through cameras and two-way mirrors in the rooms.
Recruiting a few prostitutes to establish a cover, it’s unclear how willing the sex workers were to drug unwilling participants for the government. White, however, cared little about a participant’s willingness. After his advances were denied by a local club singer, Ruth Kelly, he drugged her with LSD just before she went up to perform on stage to—once again—”see what happens.” She made it through her performance and escaped to a hospital before the agent could intercept her.
“It was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape, and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?”—George H. White

George H. White
Murder and Cover-Up
Killed in 1953, Frank Olson’s family wouldn’t know the secret cause of his death for 22 years. Apparently falling from the 13th floor of a hotel in New York City, newspapers said he committed suicide from stress at his job with the Army.
The truth was Olson had been working for the CIA and was the casualty of a security risk test. Working on anthrax aerosols, they decided to drug him with LSD, and see if he would yield classified secrets. After the bout, he became confused, seeking help from less than scientific means. After facing a litany of “treatment” including hypnosis and alcohol he was found dead days later. According to the Washington Post, a scrap of paper was found in his pocket with the initials “G. W.” and the address of George White’s New York safe house.

Frank Olson
It wasn’t until his body was exhumed in 1994 that forensics experts confirmed he had been struck on the head before being thrown from the window.
Though little is really known about the secret MKUltra project, what is known has been enough to inspire shows like Stranger Things and Wormwood, and to lead to the development of other military programs. Meanwhile, legions of conspiracy theorists and affected families continue to seek answers.
Source: Sex, Drugs and the CIA: Operation Midnight Climax and Project MKUltra
CARTOON 02-27-2018
February 26, 2018
Why are Painted Cars Sprouting out of Nevada’s Desert Sands?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Near Goldfield, Nevada, the International Car Forest of the Last Church looms with 40 cars, trucks, and vans planted in the desert sands just a few minutes off US Route 95. Balanced precariously on their ends or stacked atop one another, the rusted junkers look more like the capricious handiwork of Paul Bunyan’s son playing with giant Hot Wheels than art.
That is, until you drive or walk closer gaining views of the haphazard and exquisitely rendered psychedelic murals painted on many of the cars’ roofs. The realization is sudden and profound: these automobiles sprouting surrealistically from the ground function as huge canvases featuring edgy portraits, political caricatures, and a cross-section of local and tourist-executed graffiti.
DesART
According to co-creator, Chad Sorg, “Most of the original artwork is mine. After I left Goldfield in 2013, other artists showed up, and the art has morphed into new and different things.”
Visitors to the car forest will stumble upon everything from a portrait of Ron Paul to “Kapow,” an explosion “insinuating an alien invasion.” Among Sorg’s other masterpieces is a “red being and a blue being, one looking like a sci-fi alien and the other looking like an angel fighting for domination.” Red and blue represent a duality significant to Sorg’s personal work and one with “deep implications… political, spiritual”—like the exhibit itself.
The other half of the creative team, Michael “Mark” Rippie, conceived the idea for the car forest in 2002 as a means of securing immortality and a world record. While other record holders rely on tried and true methods like growing unnaturally long beards or juggling flaming objects, Rippie capitalized on what he had—80 acres and a collection of inoperable cars, vans, and buses, the recompense for years spent as a ghost-town mechanic. Rippie started plunging vehicles nose-first into the ground, reasoning that enough automobiles face first in the sand meant international recognition. Naturally…
Car Connection
In 2004, Sorg discovered the site and connected with Rippie. Although there were only a few cars in the ground at that point, the larger artistic opportunities available at the site captivated Sorg, co-founder of Reno’s Nada Dada Motel. By 2010, he relocated to Goldfield, jumping into the trenches with Rippie, and they completed the project in 2011. During the process, Rippie and Sorg transformed into expert land and car movers, operating spotlight-accessorized backhoes and trucks at midnight to avoid the oppressive heat of the day.
The International Car Forest of the Last Church soon grew to occupy approximately 40 acres, but record-holding fame proved elusive to Rippie.
“As far as the record, we were simply too lazy with paperwork to make sure that it was true. But from what I have researched, we are the largest car forest in the world.” – Sorg
Ironically, it’s not the scale or the number of cars that draw countless visitors to the exhibit. It’s the inherent mystery and eclectic artistry of a one-of-a-kind creation ensconced in a timeless desert landscape.
Goldfield, NV
Like the Car Forest, twists of fate are nothing new to Goldfield. Located 247 miles southeast of Carson City and 184 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Goldfield was once the wealthiest city in Nevada producing $2,300,000 of ore by 1904 and attracting 20,000 residents at its height. But, you’d never know it today.
Fate conspired against the hotshot metropolis when mine production slowed, several natural disasters hacked away at local structures, and two world wars made gold an inconsequential afterthought. Today, the town boasts 268 citizens, down from 440 just a decade earlier. You’re more likely to hear the whistling of the wind through old power lines or the braying of a grumpy, feral burro than you are any souvenirs of urban life.
But when you do find people, they enthusiastically discuss Goldfield’s history filling you in on its must-see attractions. These include many dilapidated buildings and collected debris retooled into “art.” Once you’ve submerged yourself fully in the local vibe, the International Car Forest of the Last Church makes total sense. Like much of the town today, the car forest represents a natural extension of the Goldfield experience: artistic liberty run amok with desert junk.
Worth a Visit
While Goldfield’s car forest claims no premium on outdoor automotive exhibits (there’s also Texas’s Cadillac Ranch and Nebraska’s Carhenge), Rippie and Sorg’s concept is unwavering in its disorienting vision, mirrored by the site’s official title—a jumble of contradictory references to organized religion and the local landscape. Yet, despite all of the deepness, it’s a fun place to visit, get lost, and maybe even participate. Sorg invites visitors along for the ride.
“Artists are free to continue to paint and decorate the cars as there are no restrictions.”
Intensely blue skies and gorgeous mountain vistas surround the valley of vertical vehicles, providing the perfect playground for artists of all kinds, from painters and muralists to performers and photographers.
No signs mark the site. No explanations are afforded those who wander into the place by accident, and no cohesive theme unites any of it except, perhaps, individualism.
“I am an individualist to the core. So is Mark Rippie… The car forest was the manifestation of individualism. It’s a roadside attraction, meaning that our hope is that it takes people off guard. Our hope is that people stumble upon it and find inspiration in the most unlikely of places. It is a meditation of solitude and selfhood.”
From US Route 95 south of Goldfield, you’ll see a rusty white-and-turquoise school bus pointing at an impossible 45-degree angle from a steep mound of dirt along the horizon. Once you see the bus, turn left onto Crystal Avenue, a gravel road running two blocks into a steep, rocky dirt path. If your vehicle has low clearance, park it. Then, walk for about ten minutes to reach the center of the beauty and chaos.
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Why are Painted Cars Sprouting out of Nevada’s Desert Sands?
CARTOON 02-26-2018
February 25, 2018
CARTOON 02-25-2018
February 24, 2018
CARTOON 02-24-2018
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