Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 377
November 16, 2017
Or Not: There’s Pumpkin in Pumpkin Pie
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: There’s no pumpkin in pumpkin pie.
No Pumpkin in Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is Thanksgiving’s biggest lie. Well, there are actually a lot of lies surrounding Thanksgiving in America, but we’ll focus on this deliciously deceptive pie for now.
First, pumpkin makes for a terrible pie. The only way to turn the jack-o’-lantern you procrastinated past Halloween into an even somewhat palatable dish is a lot of hard work and very little pumpkin. A pumpkin pie made with the spherical orange pumpkin bought from your local supermarket is edible only if you use a thin layer of pumpkin and a whole lot of spice.
Appropriately thin pumpkin pie.
Perjurious Pies
So, if people went around making edible pies with real pumpkins in them, the pumpkin industry wouldn’t sell very much of the canned “pumpkin” pie filling that sits on store shelves next to the stuffing and cranberry sauce this time of year.
What did this cabal of gourd growers scheme to convince people their pumpkin pie should be a good two inches thick? The canned squash instead of pumpkin.
Hubbard squash, which is often used to make “pumpkin” filling.
100% Pure LIES
If you just stormed to the cabinet, pulled out your freshly purchased can of pumpkin, and indignantly turned it around to look at the ingredient list, it will most likely read: “pumpkin”.
Just simple, pureed, genuine pumpkin. Most labels even boast “100% Pumpkin”. It’s probably why you bought it. You didn’t want added corn syrup, or spices, you wanted unadulterated jack-o’-lantern blood, but a loophole created by the Food and Drug Administration allows this lie to spread with impunity.
According to FDA policies issued in 1969, any sweet squashes or mixtures of squashes are allowed to use the label “pumpkin”. The FDA makes no distinction between pumpkins—scientifically named Cucurbita pepo variety pepo—and any other “gold-skinned” squash.
While we do admit a pumpkin is also a squash, the popular squashes used in canned pie filling include butternut squash and Hubbard squash. Supplanting these squash with pumpkin is like replacing a golden retriever with a Pomeranian: they’re both golden—and both dogs—but very different.
Watch as Acrobritt Shoots a Flaming Arrow With Her Feet!
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
You can find Brittany “Acrobritt” Walsh among the pages of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Shatter Your Senses! performing her amazing feats of balance. Well, feats and feet—she can shoot an arrow from a bow using her feet!
Today, she’s really kicks it up a notch, setting her stunt on fire—literally! Watch as Acrobritt shoots a flaming arrow from her feet for the very first time!
Brittany’s unique skill comes from decades of dedication, practice, and patience—she has been a professional gymnast and acrobat for over 20 years. One of her specialties is hand balancing, during which she’ll place her hands onto small blocks attached to beams called “canes,” and then, with incredible strength and grace, hoist her body over her head. From there she can accomplish a multitude of impressive stunts, including archery!
“I rarely do any kind of archery with my hands—I have to say, my aim is much better with my feet!”
While it only took her a few weeks to figure out the archery trick, it took at least one year to master the aim. Even now she is constantly finding ways to make the trick new, exciting, and challenging, such as wearing a blindfold, having an audience member hold the target, or shooting at greater distances.
Brittany calls herself a “well balanced” performer, incorporating elements of contortion, balance and danger into her acts. Learn more about Acrobritt in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Shatter Your Senses!
Source: Watch as Acrobritt Shoots a Flaming Arrow With Her Feet!
November 15, 2017
The Tallest Man in the World Ever: Robert Wadlow
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Only 18 people in history are known to have reached a height of 8 feet or more. Measuring in at 8 feet 11.1 inches from head to toe, Robert Wadlow was the tallest man to have ever lived. Even today’s contenders for the title of world’s tallest person don’t come anywhere near his great height. Sultan Kosen, the tallest living man today, would stand 8 inches shorter than Wadlow.
Robert Wadlow
Born an unremarkable size on February 22, 1918, Wadlow showed great growth soon after birth. His elementary school had to make a special desk to accommodate his size, and by age 8, he stood taller than his own father at 6 feet tall. When he joined the Boy Scouts at 13, he had grown to stand 7 feet 4 inches tall, and his uniform required 14 yards of fabric to make!
At age 8, Robert Wadlow stood taller than his own father.
Featured in Robert Ripley’s cartoon in 1926 and 1929, Wadlow became known as the “Alton Giant” for his hometown of Alton, Illinois. He was 8 feet 4 inches when he graduated high school and soon toured the country with the Ringling Brothers Circus. Wadlow could only travel by a specially built car that had its seats removed to accommodate his large legs. In fact, Wadlow had amany items customized due to his height. Not only were his clothes and walking cane unusually large, but so was his chair, shaving brush, lighter and shoes.
Wadlow’s shoes became a focus of his later life. The International Shoe Company provided Wadlow with custom 39AA shoes and Wadlow endorsed the business, showing up to events promoting their footwear.
Wadlow’s Death
Wadlow’s unprecedented growth was caused by an enlarged pituitary gland which caused an unusual production of growth hormones. Wadlow began growing soon after being born and never stopped. Doctors believe that if he had lived past 22, he would have been over 9 feet tall!
Wadlow’s growth was tough on his body. His legs struggled to carry his great weight. He weighed over 450 pounds when he died, forced to wear leg braces and use a cane by 20. It was a sore from his leg brace, which became infected, that actually led to his death. With such a large body, many of Wadlow’s organs and biological systems had trouble keeping up.
Not wanting his body to be stolen, like had happened to other giants, Wadlow’s family had him buried in a 10-foot 6-inch steel coffin, enclosed in a heavy concrete vault.
How Do You Measure Up?
Carrying on his legacy, Wadlow’s hometown displays a statue of the gentle giant and his shoes adorn many footwear museums. Ripley’s Beleive It or Not! has life-sized models of Wadlow in our odditoriums all over the world, letting people stand face-to-knee with the tallest man in the world.
November 14, 2017
Onbashira Festival: It’s Log, Log, Log
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Nineties nostalgia may come to mind when thinking of timber rolling, but Log from Blammo has a lot to live up to! Once every six years, thousands of people gather in the Suwa region to chop, ride, and raise massive 50-foot logs during Japan’s Onbashira Festival—an ancient Shinto tradition that’s been taking place for more than 1,200 years!
Onbashira, or Sacred Pillars, is a two-month-long event to replace the sacred pillars at four shrines, thereby purifying the shrines. The pageantry unfolds in stages:
Yamadashi:
The locating and felling of 16 massive 150-year-old fir trees weighing more than 10 tons each! Branches and bark are removed, and ropes are then attached.
Satobiki:
The most dangerous stage, where hundreds of men drag and ride each log 6 miles down steep hills to a Shinto shrine. It’s an honor to ride the logs and stand atop the attached wooden beams covered in streamers. The danger becomes very real at the steepest hill, where the beams are removed and the loggers hold on for dear life as they tear down the hill at top speed.
Onbashira:
The last portion of the festival and its namesake is the ceremonial raising of the logs in front of the shrine. Unbelievably, the new pillars are raised with the riders still clinging tightly as they ascend!
This log riding and raising often result in serious injuries—sometimes even fatal. However, according to Shinto beliefs, any Onbashira Festival participant’s death is considered honorable and worthy of historical remembrance.
Sensing You Want More?
Filled with remarkable photos and over 1,500 all new—all true—stories to immerse yourself in, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Shatter Your Senses! is the newest book in the bestselling series from Ripley Publishing—so incredible you won’t believe your eyes…or ears…or nose!
Spark your senses here, on the blog, weekly for a feature from the 2018 annual, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Shatter Your Senses! and follow us on social media for a chance to win a copy, among other unbelievable prizes!
November 13, 2017
The Most Poisonous Spider in the World
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Believe it or not, there is no “most poisonous spider” because spiders are venomous, not poisonous. Zoologists and veterinary scientists distinguish “poisonous” from “venomous” depending on the delivery mechanism of their toxins. Since spiders willfully inject toxins, they are considered venomous.
Though the toxicology is complicated, we present the title of most venomous spider in the world so you can justify your fear of all spiders by identifying the deadliest eight-legged creeper.
Atrax robustus, also known as the Sydney funnel web spider, has venom so potent, it can kill in just 15 minutes. While females are normally the fiercer sex among spiders, it’s just the males who possess this wickedly deadly venom.
Sydney Funnel-Web Spiders
Male funnel web spiders only grow to be a couple inches across, but they build their namesake funnel webs up to two feet underground. By digging a hole, and then lining it with sticky silk, they can trap wandering prey and ambush with great effect, all while having a sturdy underground fortress layered with web to retreat into.
Venom
These spiders deliver venom with their large fangs, capable of piercing fingernails and shoe-leather. A bite first causes extreme pain at the site of injection, and within minutes the neurotoxic effects begin to appear. Symptoms include vomiting, profuse sweating, drooling, crying, muscle spasms and an accelerated heart rate with low blood pressure. Though only 10% of severely envenomed patients fall unconscious or into a coma, this outmatches nearly all other spiders in the world.
Bites by the Sydney funnel web spider are considered life-threatening due to the speed at which the venom works. Doctors tell patients to capture and bring the spider in with them to the emergency room if possible.
Though the Atrax robustus’s venom is quite damaging to humans and other primates, it has little effect on other mammals, like rabbits, which are actually used to produce anti-venom.
Intention
It may not surprise you, but to find the world’s most toxic spider, you have to go to Australia, particularly its largest city. Curiously, it seems as though this deadly spider specifically chose the densest human population center on the entire continent to use as its sole habitat. The funnel web spider only lives in about a 60-mile radius around the city, not in the remote Outback of Australia.
A possible reason for the increased toxicity among males, they wander the forest floor and city suburbs looking for a mate. These spiders are also incredibly aggressive towards people, preferring to pounce on a possible predator rather than flee or hide. It’s this increased interaction with people combined with their ornery behavior that has led to their high envenomation rate.
The Deadly Spider Myth
Though the Atrax robustus is the deadliest spider in the world, deadly spiders, in general, are rare. Only 1 in 10 people bitten by Atrax require medical intervention, and since the introduction of anti-venom, not a single person has been killed by this venomous spider. Before that, only 14 deaths were blamed on Atrax.
In comparison, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to suffer a fatal spider bite and close to 73,000 times more likely to be killed by a human than a spider-related injury.
November 12, 2017
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