Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 367
January 7, 2018
January 6, 2018
January 5, 2018
Sharkcicles Wash Ashore and Canada is too Cold for Penguins
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
[December 31-January 6, 2018] The Browns celebrate a perfect season, it gets too cold for sharks and penguins to handle, and Hitler’s car goes up for sale.
Perfect Season Parade
The Cleveland Browns have done it. They played a perfect season of 0 to 16, losing every single game they played this season. In protest—or honor—of the occasion, Browns fan Chris McNeill has organized a parade around the stadium in hopes of shaming the owner. After pharmaceutical company Excedrin donated $7,683 to his GoFund me page, he was able to provide security and restrooms to an expected crowd of 6,000 people.
Sharkcicles
Sharks are washing up on North Atlantic shores, stranded by cold temperatures. According to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, the sharks end up washing ashore after suffering from cold shock. The group is out in full force, collecting the sharks for study after they’ve been thawed.
Canada too Cold for Penguins
More proof as to just how cold this past week has been, the Calgary Zoo wouldn’t let its penguins outside because it was too cold. King Penguins mostly live on the surrounding islands of Antarctica and are not used to such frigid temperatures. Despite the penguins being locked indoors, a few native Calgarians were seen prowling the icy zoo.
Australia’s Roads Are Melting
While the northern hemisphere shivers in record-breaking lows, the southern half of the Earth is experiencing massive heat waves. Roads in Australia have begun reverting to muddy tar in the summer heat. High temperatures along with busy roads have caused some of the country’s tarmac to become loose and sticky.
Traffic at a stand still on the Hume outside Broadfoard due to melting tar @7NewsMelbourne @Y7News pic.twitter.com/mUocn6vzmN
— Steph Harris (@StephHarris26) January 5, 2018
Hitler’s Car for Sale
Adolf Hiter’s infamous Mercedes-Benz is up for auction. Used by the Fuhrer for parades and personal transportation, the 1939 770K Grosser model is expected to fetch millions of dollars. Believe it or not, the car was once owned by Las Vegas casino owner, Ralph Engelstad, known for throwing Hitler birthday parties in the 1980s.
Source: Sharkcicles Wash Ashore and Canada is too Cold for Penguins
Vampire Attack Sucks Life Out of the Cold War
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
The Philippines was a valuable U.S. ally during the Cold War, but communist rebels were an ongoing problem—until the CIA faked vampire attacks to deter them!
Rebels with a Cause
Marginalized after the end of World War II, members of the Filipino’s People Army became increasingly marginalized when the war ended, despite fighting for years against Japanese occupation. Subscribing to Communist ideals, they began a peasant’s rebellion, claiming independence from wealthy Manilan Filipinos who had grabbed land and worked with Japanese invaders.
Since the Philippines was a primary asset to the U.S. during the war, the CIA sent one of their most effective officers, Edward Lansdale, to help quash the Hukbalahap Rebellion.
Lansdale was an expert in psychological warfare and believed that the best psychological warfare methods must be based on the socio-cultural beliefs of the chosen target.
War Sucks
Aswang sculpture./CC WanderingAngel via Flickr
The CIA chose to exploit the Huks belief in the aswang, a monster, Filipino folklore said to drain the blood of humans. Back in the ‘50s, residents of rural Philippines still very much believed in and feared the aswang, so Lansdale took advantage of this.
A unit of Hukbalahap rebels had taken up a prime position on a hill in Luzon. This was the perfect opportunity for Landsdale to deploy his psywar tactics.
When the unit went on patrol at night, Lansdale ordered his people to silently grab the last man in the group, puncture his neck in two places, hang him upside down to drain his blood, then throw his body back out on the trail, a covert and gruesome action.
The rebels, of course, returned later to look for their missing comrade, only to find an exsanguinated corpse that looked like the victim of an aswang attack.
Winning Tactics
While this might seem like an odd tactic, believe it or not, it worked! The very next day, the frightened rebels fled their hilltop position, losing one of their greatest advantages.
When Robert Ripley visited the Philippines in 1932, people protected their homes with sacred signs.
Although it only took one fake vampire attack to scare the Huks away from that location, it wasn’t the end of things.
Lansdale deployed more psywar techniques, such as painting menacing all-seeing eyes on homes in villages where he suspected Hukbalahap rebels were hiding in the night and broadcasting messages from low-flying planes to make the rebels believe spies were in their midst.
In May 1954, the Hukbalahap surrendered and the rebellion was over, and Edward Lansdale is largely credited with putting an end to it.
While his fake vampire attack wasn’t the only event to end the rebellion, it stands out as one of the strangest tactics used against Cold War combatants.
By Lauren Corona, contributor for Ripleys.com.
January 4, 2018
Ripley’s Guide to Exercise: The Strangest Workouts
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
It’s a new wear and an opportunity for an all-new you! If you’re ready to take your New Year’s Resolution to the gym, we’ve got the perfect workouts to keep you from waiting in line for the most popular machines.
We don’t promise people will be looking at you because of how fit you’re getting, but these exercises are sure to capture attention.
Backwards Running
We’ll start you off with the basics, just some backward sprinting. A man who ran the 100-yard dash in just 14 seconds was featured in Robert Ripley’s very first Believe It or Not! cartoon. If distance is more your thing, you can try walking backward across the whole continent, a feat also featured in Ripley’s first cartoon. We recommend a mirror for beginners and highly caution against using a treadmill.
Hula Hooping a Tractor Tire
Dragging tires is for the football field, flipping them is for Crossfit, but hula hooping them is for the Ripley’s Gym. A tough feat—as attested by stunt performer Paul Blair, also known as Dizzy Hips—you can expect cuts and bruises when you’re first starting out. If you can get to the point where you can sling a 98-pound tractor tire around your waste, however, you’re sure to end up with some seriously shredded abs.
Tandem Fire Truck Pull
Pulling a firetruck with your best gym buddy is the perfect way to build camaraderie. At close to 16 tons, a firetruck weighs more than all the weights in your local gym combined. Strongman Kevin Fast has been pulling firetrucks for years, and though he’s shown pulling one with his son below, he’s pulled two all by himself. His greatest feat to date was pulling a 416,000-pound plane!
Push-Ups on Eggs
Once you’ve mastered the raw strength of yanking around vehicles, it’ll be time for a more delicate exercise. By doing push-ups on raw eggs, you’ll build your core and stabilizer muscles. Bill Kathlan can do push-ups on eggs with ease, and is even able to do one-handed push-ups on eggs without breaking a sweat!
Scroll Work
Another exercise in muscle control, scroll work is a strongman feat that creates art by bending metal with your hands. Chris Ryder, also known as “Haircules” is an expert on shaping cold metal with brute force and technique. People will be astounded when you turn an eight-foot steel rod into a backpack-sized piece of art. This craft will lead you to do all sorts of strongman feats, including phone book ripping, fry-pan rolling, and wrench twisting. Just make sure to bend the barbells back when you’re done.
January Rush
With gym attendance spiking an average of 40% in January, all your favorite machines and free-weights will be taken anyways, so why not try something new? Whether it’s scroll work, backward running, or push-ups on eggs, you can get into tip-top shape for 2018 the Ripley’s way!
January 3, 2018
Or Not: Unicorns Are Real?
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: Unicorns.
Do Unicorns Exist?
Humans have always had a fascination for mythological creatures. One of the most beloved is the unicorn, depicted as a beautiful white horse with a single, spiraled horn (Lisa Frank colors and glitter are optional). Unlike other mythological creatures like dragons or hellhounds, unicorns are portrayed as peaceful animals and symbols of strength or purity.
So, where did the myth of these magical creatures begin and could unicorns possibly be real?
A Myth Gets Its Wings…and Horn
Unicorns have been depicted in art as early as the Mesopotamian era (5000-3500 BC), as well as in ancient Greece, India, and China. Believe it or not, they are mentioned in the Bible nine times! Perhaps a poor translation of re’em, Hebrew for wild ox, the King James versions mentions unicorns by name in the context of other familiar animals like lions, lambs, peacocks, and goats! Early Christians even used unicorns as a symbol for Christ!
Across Cultures:
Greece – The Greek historian Ctesias (c. 400 BC) described a single-horned animal.
India – Lore told of a creature the size of a horse, with a white body, purple head, and blue eyes, with a long multi-colored horn that was white at the bottom, black in the middle and red at the tip.
China – Unicorns were among four sacred creatures, including the phoenix, dragon, and tortoise. Unicorns often heralded a birth or death and legends tell of a unicorn appearing when Chinese philosopher Confucius was born.
Scotland – The Scots designated the unicorn as their national animal in the late 1300s—a symbol that still lasts today. The choice makes more sense than you might think. English royalty had adopted the lion as its symbol, and the unicorn was once seen as the lion’s natural enemy. These two animals came to represent the ongoing conflict between the Scots and the English.
More Than Myth?
In 2016, scientists discovered the fossilized bones of a prehistoric, one-horned animal in the Pavlodar region of modern Kazakhstan. Scientifically named Elasmotherium sibiricum, also known as the Siberian unicorn! While these creatures did have a single horn, they in no way resembled a majestic white horse. More like a rhinoceros, the Siberian unicorn stood about 6-feet tall and 15-feet long, weighing in at a whopping 8,000 pounds!
The Siberian unicorn was not completely unknown in the scientific community at the time. It was assumed to have gone extinct over 350,000 years ago, well before humans populated the earth. The newly discovered fossils reveal these creatures were still around about 29,000 years ago—alongside humans!
Can’t Find One…Make One
German scientist Otto Von Guericke went so far as to create a gaff unicorn skeleton out of bones he found in a cave, even including a sketch of the creature in a natural history book published in the 1700s. More recently, alleged unicorn sightings have been captured on video. The Ontario Science Center even has a video of a “unicorn” that was spotted in the Don Valley on display in their museum.
Sometimes, genetics decide to have fun with us as well. In 2008, the so-called “Prato Unicorn” was born in Italy. Simply a deer with a single, central horn, it was born in captivity, along with a twin that had a typical set of antlers. Cattle breeders have also been known to manipulate the horn buds of their animals as they grow, resulting in a fusing and twisting together.
So, whether through trickery, breeding or a rare genetic abnormality, unicorns do sometimes walk the earth today!
By Kristin Wallace, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Or Not: Unicorns Are Real?
January 2, 2018
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