Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 40
March 1, 2023
Nostalgia Was Once Considered A Mental illness?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ah, nostalgia. It’s Spice Girls dolls, Delia’s catalogs, and MySpace for the Millennials out there, but go back a few centuries ago and nostalgia wasn’t a sentimental yearning for the past. Rather than bittersweet memories, nostalgia was considered a much bleaker feeling. Believe It or Not!, in the 17th century, Swiss physician Dr. Johannes Hofer described nostalgia as a “neurological disease of essentially demonic cause.”
Nostalgia’s StartHofer coined the term nostalgia based on the German word Heimweh, (which literally translates to “homesickness”) and soon it became a medical term to describe the sadness Swiss mercenaries and soldiers felt during the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The suffering was so bad, that, according to doctors at the time, armies “infected” with nostalgia would see soldiers suffer from acute insomnia, anorexia, and and the desperate “ongoing desire to return home.”
Horace Vernet’s “The Last Grenadier of Waterloo” via Wikimedia Commons.
In many cases, soldiers would even succumb to nostalgia. According to Columbia University historian Thomas Dodman, as symptoms worsened, clinical depression set in and, “because of lack of hygiene and medicine, [soldiers] contracted diseases that killed them off,” Dodman explains in an interview via Mashable.
Also known as Schweizer Krankheit or the “Swiss illness” (because it was first identified in those Swiss mercenaries longing to go back home to their mountain homes), nostalgia was considered a serious illness because there was little you could do to cure it. For soldiers, the only cure was to return home – not always possible, and definitely not possible as a quick solution.
An Overreaction?It was such a severe problem, that by the 19th-century, both mental health professionals and army doctors were researching the issue non-stop. Medical records from the Civil War show that over 5,200 soldiers in the Union were diagnosed with nostalgia, and 58 succumbed to the disease.
Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (Washington, D.C.) 1858- ?
But nostalgia wasn’t an issue that only affected soldiers away in the battlefield. Women in various job positions (like those who moved away from home for live-in domestic work) and children living away from their mothers also experienced symptoms of nostalgia.
In people away from the battlefields, though, nostalgia appeared in a somewhat different form. Doctors diagnosed it by looking for certain symptoms like a “melancholic expression,” tachycardia, excessive sweating, and even gastrointestinal issues like vomiting or heartburn. The treatment was equally varied, including anything from herbal drinks to using medicinal leeches to hospitalization.
A Better UnderstandingOver the next century, nostalgia changed from being called a disorder to becoming a repressive compulsive disorder, a form of depression, or simply mental frailty. It wasn’t until the late 20th century that nostalgia broke ties with “homesickness” (its original meaning) and gained his modern definition: a longing for the past, regardless of whether it relates to home or not.
Today, scientists agree that nostalgia is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, studies have shown that people recollecting an event from their past often experience nostalgia as a mix of happiness and sadness – a bittersweetness that tends to feel more positive than negative.
Even better? You no longer have to worry about a doctor being called the next time you feel nostalgic!
By Diana Bocco, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!
February 28, 2023
Ripley’s in Talks to Purchase The Cocaine Bear
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Thanks to a video asking Kentucky for Kentucky, a state-devoted souvenir shop in Lexington, to name their price, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is now in negotiations to purchase Cocaine Bear, the taxidermied bear that inspired Elizabeth Banks’ latest film based on a 175-pound black bear who consumed 75 pounds of its namesake drug!
Bring on the BrinksResponding on Instagram, Kentucky for Kentucky commented, “Oh, it is so on. Bring on the Brinks Truck, baby!” but Ripley’s has some competition. Since the film’s recent buzz, Kentucky for Kentucky has received multiple offers, ranging from $10,000 to $300,000.
With over five million followers across social platforms, Ripley’s reached an audience of 250,000 on Facebook and Instagram, polling them on whether the company should try and acquire Cocaine Bear or not. A strong 77.5% of followers agreed – Cocaine Bear is Ripley-worthy.
Ripley’s fans across social media have tried to put a price tag on the trending taxidermy, from “priceless” to estimating the current street value of the drugs ingested. With that input, Ripley’s has decided to offer an undisclosed amount.
Bear With UsRipley’s also touts that, if added to its collection of oddities and historical artifacts, Cocaine Bear would be among some of history’s most curious hibernators, like a black bear found with a tire around its waist currently on display at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Gatlinburg; a grizzly trained in the Russian circus to ride a bicycle; a Kodiak who came face-to-face with a porcupine from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Amsterdam; and prehistoric cave bear skeletons.
Cocaine Bear has gone on quite the journey since he was allegedly discovered in 1985, from storage facilities to pawn shops, even by way of country star Waylon Jennings – finally landing at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in 2015, where they have worked hard to preserve the legend of Cocaine Bear and warn visitors on the dangers of drug abuse.
Ripley’s offer is now officially in the hands of Kentucky for Kentucky.
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For more information on Cocaine Bear’s unbelievable legend, be sure to checkout our recent blog where we go in-depth on the lore that has inspired a full length film that sniffed up $23M opening weekend!
Always in search of unbelievable stories and the items that help tell them, Ripley’s expressed interest in acquiring Kentucky for Kentucky’s Cocaine Bear though a light-hearted request on TikTok, asking the store to name their price. If we were to have moved forward with a formal offer, proof of authenticity and extensive research would have been required.
Ripley’s acknowledges that some of Cocaine Bear’s lore remains unclear and has presented the story online with disclaimers for our audience. While Kentucky for Kentucky’s reply confirmed that the bear is not for sale, this piece of taxidermy has become part of that lore, be it authentic or not.
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Ripley’s in Talks to Purchase the Real Cocaine Bear
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Thanks to a video asking Kentucky for Kentucky, a state-devoted souvenir shop in Lexington, to name their price, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is now in negotiations to purchase Cocaine Bear, the taxidermied bear that inspired Elizabeth Banks’ latest film based on a 175-pound black bear who consumed 75 pounds of its namesake drug!
Bring on the BrinksResponding on Instagram, Kentucky for Kentucky commented, “Oh, it is so on. Bring on the Brinks Truck, baby!” but Ripley’s has some competition. Since the film’s recent buzz, Kentucky for Kentucky has received multiple offers, ranging from $10,000 to $300,000.
With over five million followers across social platforms, Ripley’s reached an audience of 250,000 on Facebook and Instagram, polling them on whether the company should try and acquire Cocaine Bear or not. A strong 77.5% of followers agreed – Cocaine Bear is Ripley-worthy.
Ripley’s fans across social media have tried to put a price tag on the trending taxidermy, from “priceless” to estimating the current street value of the drugs ingested. With that input, Ripley’s has decided to offer an undisclosed amount.
Bear With UsRipley’s also touts that, if added to its collection of oddities and historical artifacts, Cocaine Bear would be among some of history’s most curious hibernators, like a black bear found with a tire around its waist currently on display at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Gatlinburg; a grizzly trained in the Russian circus to ride a bicycle; a Kodiak who came face-to-face with a porcupine from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Amsterdam; and prehistoric cave bear skeletons.
Cocaine Bear has gone on quite the journey since he was discovered in 1985, from storage facilities to pawn shops, even by way of country star Waylon Jennings – finally landing at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in 2015, where they have worked hard to preserve the story of Cocaine Bear and warn visitors on the dangers of drug abuse.
Ripley’s offer is now officially in the hands of Kentucky for Kentucky.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (@ripleysbelieveitornot)
For more information on Cocaine Bear’s unbelievable history, be sure to checkout our recent blog where we go in-depth on the legendary story that has inspired a full length film that sniffed up $23M opening weekend!
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!
February 27, 2023
February 26, 2023
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February 24, 2023
Da Vinci Discovered Aspects of Gravity Centuries Before Einstein
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Believe It or Not!, Leonardo da Vinci understood gravity in the 1500s, long before Galileo, Newton, and Einstein came up with their own theories about the mutual attraction between objects, according to new research from Caltech. The findings, published in the journal Leonardo, show that da Vinci’s notebooks included experiments in which he demonstrated that gravity is a form of acceleration. His calculations were 97 percent accurate when it came to modeling the gravitational constant!
“We don’t know if da Vinci did further experiments or probed this question more deeply,” Caltech Aeronautics and Medical Engineering Professor Mory Gharib explained. “But the fact that he was grappling with this problem in this way—in the early 1500s—demonstrates just how far ahead his thinking was.”
Da Vinci’s DiscoveryDa Vinci explored gravity concepts prior to Galileo Galilei’s 1604 theory that a falling object was proportional to the square of time elapsed. In the late 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton created a law of universal gravitation and objects’ attraction to each other. In 1907, Albert Einstein developed the equivalence principle. According to the researchers, what held da Vinci back was that he didn’t have the tools at his disposal to work out his concepts, such as a way to measure time as objects fell.
Gharib came across da Vinci’s experiments in the Codex Arundel, a series of notes covering a range of topics. Gharib was researching a topic for his graduate students when he found sketches with triangles and the phrase “Equatione di Moti” on the hypotenuse of the isosceles right triangle. He and two colleagues examined the diagrams as well as the notes, which were written in Italian and da Vinci’s left-handed mirror writing.
Engineers from Caltech have discovered that Leonardo da Vinci’s understanding of gravity—though not wholly accurate—was centuries ahead of his time.
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Da Vinci’s experiments included a water pitcher dropping either water or a granular material such as sand on the ground. Da Vinci knew that the water and/or sand would accelerate rather than fall at a constant velocity when the pitcher was parallel to the ground. When a pitcher moves at a constant speed, the material falls vertically, so there is no triangle.
When the pitcher accelerates at a constant rate, the falling material slants and forms a triangle. If the pitcher’s motion accelerates simultaneously as the gravity accelerates the falling material, an isosceles right triangle is formed. That is why da Vinci wrote “Equatione di Moti” or “equalization (equivalence) of motions.
Checking the CalculationsDa Vinci attempted to describe acceleration using mathematical concepts but wasn’t completely accurate. Using computer modeling, Gharib’s team found an error with the water vase experiment. While da Vinci’s calculations were incorrect, he used the somewhat inaccurate equation in the proper manner.
Chris Roh, former postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and current assistant professor at Cornell University, explained: “What we saw is that Leonardo wrestled with this, but he modeled it as the falling object’s distance was proportional to 2 to the t power [with t representing time] instead proportional to t squared.”
Considering the tools da Vinci had available at the time, his findings are nothing short of incredible!
By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: Da Vinci Discovered Aspects of Gravity Centuries Before Einstein
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