Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 453
September 21, 2016
A Cat Was Mailed 260 Miles Over Eight Days And Survived
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
A cat was accidentally packaged and mailed when her owner failed to see her napping in the box. Her trip was 260 miles and lasted eight days, but she survived.
Julie Bagott was packing DVDs to send away and didn’t realize Cupcake had sneaked into the box
The recipients of the package were shocked to see a cat included in their order
Cupcake was identified by microchip and returned home
Cupcake home with her family
MINI BION EXTRAS
Ashera cats, a crossbreed between wild cats and domestic house cats, look like small leopards and grow to 30 pounds
In ancient Siam, when a member of royalty died, their cat was buried with them. The tomb had tunnels so the cat could come and go as they pleased
Robert Ripley received over one million letters a year, and once received 2 1/2 million pieces in two weeks
Four-year-old May Pierstorff was mailed to her grandparents’ house because her parents didn’t want to pay the train fare
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
Source: A Cat Was Mailed 260 Miles Over Eight Days And Survived
September 20, 2016
Laser Gun Cleaning is Very Satisfying to Watch
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
You can clean things with Lasers, and watching it be done is mesmerizing.
The P-Laser QF-1000 is a 1,000 watt laser cleaning gun
It’s used to remove rust, paint, mold, and other contaminates from surfaces
The layer of rust absorbs the laser energy while the metal surface reflects most of the energy
The laser is short pulsed meaning the beam is comparable to small bullets of light
When the light bullet hits the surface, the metal stays cool while the rust heats up
The rust heats so quickly that it’s forced away from the metal and evaporates
When recorded, laser gun cleaning creates a very satisfying video
MINI BION
“BIONs” – short for Believe It or Not – is the word we use at Ripley’s to refer to anything that is unbelievable and worthy to become part of Ripley’s lore and collection.
September 19, 2016
Panjat Pinang: Pole Party
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Embed from Getty Images
Dating back hundreds of years, Panjat Pinang is one of the oldest, most popular celebrations of Independence Day in Indonesia. Every August 17th, towns and villages place the trunks of chopped betel nut trees vertically, hanging a hoop covered in prizes at the top. The trunks are then greased and oiled up before men in teams of four are allowed to scale the slippery trees for a chance to reach the prizes, which include bicycles, buckets, food, and clothing—all luxury items for these communities.
Embed from Getty Images
A Shady Past
Despite the festival fun, the famous Indonesian tradition is not without its controversies. While many believe the challenge of collecting the prizes teaches people to work together to achieve a specific goal, the entire affair has some shady roots in Dutch colonialism.
Embed from Getty Images
In the 1700s, Dutch colonists, as a form of entertainment, started the ritual of erecting the greased poles in villages and hanging trinkets at the top, only to watch and enjoy the spectacle of the locals scrambling to reach the goodies.
With this unsavory beginning, some want to ban Panjat Pinang—yet others want to keep the tradition as is because it has since lost its original meaning.
Whatever side you fall on when it comes to Panjat Pinang, you can’t deny the irony—with Panjat Pinang being an annual event practiced in celebration of independence from colonialism.
Another year, another all-new annual!
We here at Ripley’s had a blast making this new annual, and we guarantee your family and friends will find all-new favorites on every page. Join us back here every week for an exclusive inside look at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Unlock the Weird!
Source: Panjat Pinang: Pole Party
Restless in Peace: The Practice of Temporary Tomb Space
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
A lot of people know what they want to happen to their body after they die. Some might want to be turned into a tree. Or maybe you want to join a sprawling necropolis. Whatever the case, a lot of people find comfort in knowing that when they pass, they’re remains will remain in one place. But that isn’t always the case.
One potential practice is for someone, or a group of someones, to rent out crypt space, creating a kind of temporary tomb. The Carmelite Monks of San Ángel, Mexico were one such group.
The Carmelites were a Roman Catholic religious order. Like others, they raised money by renting out the crypt space in their monastery. The space would be rented out for the span of a few years. After that time passed, the bones would be removed, and the space would be rented out to someone else.
By Elizabeth Harper
Like leasing a car or renting an apartment, you aren’t even the last person to sleep in your grave.
After being removed from the graves, the bones would be placed in an Ossuary. This can be anything from a box to an entire building that serves as the final resting place of human skeletal remains.
If they were really lucky, maybe the bones would be fashioned into a cool chandelier like this one.
By BrokenSphere via Wikimedia
Contemporary Temporary Tomb Space
The Carmelites were secularized in 1857, and their monastery was eventually turned into a museum. Elizabeth Harper, who graciously provided the images for this post, writes more about this and other topics on All the Saints You Should Know.
But don’t assume that this practice ended with the Carmelites. Today in Brazil, there’s an option to lay loved ones to rest in style.
The Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica is the world’s tallest above ground cemetery. It’s more like a swanky high rise than a necropolis. The building is 108 meters (354 feet) tall and features 25,000 units.
They offer burial plots for a term of three years at rates between $5,900 and $21,000. But then what happens after those three years?
Presumably, you’ll have the ability to renew the lease, but what happens if you can’t pay? The tombs at the Carmelite monastery were in an environment that aided decomposition. But if the air above Brazil isn’t as agreeable, family members might be left to collect the mummified remains of their loved ones.
By Elizabeth Harper
Source: Restless in Peace: The Practice of Temporary Tomb Space
September 18, 2016
September 17, 2016
September 16, 2016
Top Five Weirdest Things Named After President Obama
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Whatever your stance on politics or his policies, the fact is that President Barack Obama is historical.
His unique and singular status has made a lot of people fascinated with him. Amongst the groups most interested in the 44th American President is the science community. He and his administration have done a lot of things to push forward science education and natural conservation efforts. Because of this, scientists love to name new discoveries after him.
Here are the five weirdest things named after Barack Obama in the eights years of his presidency.
#5 The Nystalus Obamai
By Joao Quental via Flickr
The striolated puffbird is found in Brazil. When a new subspecies was found in Western Brazil, it was commonly called the Western puffbird. But in order to be official, everything has to have a complicated Latin sounding name. When deciding on that moniker, researchers thought it would be a good idea for the bird to be named after Barack Obama, and they settled on Nystalus Obamai.
#4 Etheostoma Obama
By Joseph Tomelleri
The darter fish is a large and varied species. They’re small fish that typically live in rivers and creeks. They got their name because of their ability to dart around and under rocks in a fast-moving current.
While they were studying the difference in the coloration of certain darter fish, researchers noticed that some of them were so different that they actually belonged to a different species. With this discovery, researchers decided the new discoveries should be named after presidents. One of them is the Etheostoma Obama.
#3 Caloplaca Obamae
Caloplaca Marina, a lichen in the same family as the one named for Obama.
If a bird and a colorful fish seem normal, now’s the time where we start to get into the weird. While doing a survey for lichen diversity in California, Kerry Knudsen discovered a new species. As anyone would when looking at a new kind of moss, he decided to name it after Obama.
I named it Caloplaca obamae to show my appreciation for the president’s support of science and science education.
#2 Aptostichus Barackobamai
By Jason E. Bond via Wikimedia
Nope! This is just a whole lot of Nope! The Aptostichus barackobamai is a species of trapdoor spider discovered in California along with 33 other new species. This begs the question of why anyone would want to find 33 new spiders at all?
Trapdoor spiders live in burrows underground so you won’t see them very often. At least not until they spring out at you and drag you down to feed to their creepy offspring. I wonder if Mr. President wouldn’t mind giving this namesake back.
#1 Baracktrema Obamai
Ben Hanelt Matthew G. Bolek Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa: Going Solo: Discovery of the First Parthenogenetic Gordiid
And then there was one. A team of American parasitologists (which is an actual thing) discovered a new species of parasitic flatworm. The Baracktrema obamai infects turtles in Malaysia. The parasite can be fatal, but it’s discovery also opens the door to understanding a common disease that debilitates millions of people.
It might seem like an insult to have a parasite named after you, but it’s actually a great honor. And for people who study parasites, the reasoning is clear.
[Parasites] face incredible obstacles to complete their journey (life cycle) and must contend with the immune system of the host in order to mature and reproduce. -Dr. Thomas R. Platt
So there you have it, the President should be honored to have a parasite, as well as all the other species, named after him.
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