Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 458
August 29, 2016
Krystle Missildine Makes Amazing Paintings on Feathers
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Here at Ripley’s, we love realistic paintings. By those standards, Krystle Missildine is already right at home in the Ripley’s collection. Her paintings of animals are wonderfully realistic and evocative. But it’s not her paintings on canvas that brought her to our attention.
Missildine paints portraits of animals on bird feathers!
Boston Terrier on a Hyacinth Macaw Feather
How it’s Done
Anyone who’s held a feather can see it’s not the ideal surface for a painting. Feathers aren’t solid like leaves or butterfly wings. All of the little individual hairs on the feather are called barbs, and those barbs have even smaller pieces coming off of them called barbules. If you’ve ever rubbed a feather against the grain, you’ve seen the effect of those barbs being disturbed. So how would one go about painting them?
For starters, Missildine uses acrylic paint. In comparison to the more classic oil paints, acrylic dries in hours, sometimes minutes, while oils can take days to dry. Getting the base layer of paint onto the feather and dry helps the process move along.
She has to paint everything on the feather freehand because there’s nothing to fit a sketch onto. You’d think painting with the grain of the barbs instead of against it would make the process easier, but Missildine says differently.
It is actually easier to paint at the start by going across the strands rather than with the grain, and helps to fill it in more solidly with the paint.
How about color selection? When you’re painting a clown fish, the colors kind of choose themselves. Missildine’s realism means that she sticks as closely as possible to the real coloration of her subjects. But feathers have a color and iridescence of their own. How does she take that into consideration when painting?
I generally choose colors that contrast against the natural color of the feather, with spots that are light against dark etc.
All of these elements combine to make some of the most detailed and beautiful paintings you’ll find. These feather paintings can take anywhere from three to 10 hours to complete. You can find out more about Krystle Missildine on her website or Facebook page, and see her art on her Instagram.
Painted Feathers
Silky the Cat on a Wild Turkey Feather
European Robin on a blue and gold Macaw Feather
Tiger on a Wild Turkey Feather
Rainbow Lorikeet on a Macaw Feather
Red Panda on a Macaw Feather
Source: Krystle Missildine Makes Amazing Paintings on Feathers
August 28, 2016
August 27, 2016
August 26, 2016
George Mason Students Invent a Soundwave Fire Extinguisher
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Two students from George Mason University invented, and got a patent for, a fire extinguisher that uses sound waves to put out fire.
Viet Tran and Seth Robertson were seniors when they had a radical idea for their final project
Their invention extinguishes fire using nothing but sound waves
Initially, they thought higher frequencies would be better, but they found that bass worked best
Their audio fire extinguisher would be a better option than regular extinguishers
The extinguisher doesn’t rely on chemicals and wouldn’t cause water damage
There’s even an idea to attach it to a drone and using it to fight forest fires
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: George Mason Students Invent a Soundwave Fire Extinguisher
In Iceland, You Can Get Bread Baked in the Ground
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Hverabrauð, or hot-spring bread, is a traditional Icelandic bread that’s cooked by burying it in a geothermal spring for 24 hours.
Another name for Hverabrauð is thunder bread
It’s a kind of rye bread, and every Icelandic family has their own recipe
The bread is cooked in a greased pot, wrapped in cling wrapped, and buried in the ground around a hot spring
The springs reach sustained temperatures of 100° F (37° C) and bake the bread over the course of 24 hours
After cooking, thunder bread is served with smoked trout, salmon, herring, or just plain butter
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.
Unboxing Lee Harvey Oswald & the Kennedy Assassination
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In This Episode
For over 50 years people have been fascinated with the circumstances and mystery surrounding the assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Today, we unbox the bedroom set of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating JFK.
Today: Lee Harvey Oswald’s Bedroom Set
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Ripley’s Lee Harvey Oswald Collection
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was only 46-years-old when on November 22, 1963, he was tragically shot while traveling in a presidential motorcade. Ripley’s has long been fascinated with the Kennedy assassination. Throughout the years, we’ve picked up a few interesting items.
We acquired the mortician’s toe tag of Lee Harvey Oswald directly from the Oswald family via Herman Darvick Auctions of New York in 1994. Shown here is the actual identification toe tag signed by the doctor, nurse, and mortician. A lock of Oswald’s hair clipped by the attending nurse is also affixed to the tag. The tag is currently on display at our San Antonio Odditorium.
We also own the machine used to embalm Oswald. We have a Letter of Authenticity for each item by the Funeral Director, Allen Baumgardner, who assisted on Oswald’s embalming.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s morgue toe tag
Medical instruments used in the embalming of Lee Harvey Oswald
But Perhaps the Strangest…
One of the strangest items in or collection is the bedroom set of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald lived in many locations around the Dallas and Irvine Texas areas months leading up to the assassination of JFK. We acquired this bedroom set from the St. Augustine, Florida’s Tragedy in US History Museum after they closed their doors in 1998. The bedroom set has been shelved in our warehouse ever since, never having gone on display – until today.
Oswald’s bed
We have eight pieces of furniture and five framed papers from the room where Lee Harvey Oswald planned President Kennedy’s assassination.
Mattress and box spring (pictured above)
Wood slat chair
Small end table
Dresser with mirror
Wire mesh trash can
Oil lamp
Bed with head and foot boards
Blanket with two pillows
Vanity dresser
Mary Bledsoe
This bedroom set’s owner is actually Mary Bledsoe who rented the room to Lee Harvey Oswald for just one week a month and a half before the assassination.
Home of Mary Bledsoe at 621 N Marsalis Avenue in Dallas
Mary Bledsoe sitting in the room she rented to Lee Harvey Oswald
At first, Mary had no issues with her new tenant.
At first, he seemed very nice, clean, very neat in the way he kept his room and dressed.
But very quickly her opinion changed.
At this time, is when I begin to think he was somewhat unbalanced. He would seclude himself in his room, only coming out to get drinking water from the refrigerator, very nervous, mad, he would talk in a foreign language. He would make secret like phone calls, talking in a foreign language.
Being an elderly woman in her sixties, she became fearful of her new tenant and asked him to leave. She did not see him again until a month and a half later, on November 22nd…the day of the assassination…stating that he looked excited, nervous and startled.
Read Mary’s Full Affidavit
Mary Bledsoe’s Affidavit
The Car that Drove Oswald
Buell Wesley Frazier was Lee Harvey Oswald’s neighbor and close friend. Oswald did not have a driver’s license and regularly had Frazier drive him to work.
On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, Frazier drove Oswald to the Texas School Book Depository. In the back seat of this car wrapped in papers was the $12 rifle that Oswald used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Frazier thought the package contained curtain rods.
Stricken with grief and haunted by the memory, Frazier sold the car years later for a mere $10. This car is also on display at the San Antonio Odditorium.
Read Frazier’s Full Affidavit
Buell Wesley Fraizer’s Affidavit
The Shot Heard Around the World
Was Oswald working alone? What is all a government cover-up? Was it the Russians, Cubans, or even the C.I.A.?November 22nd will be forever remembered as one of the great tragedies for the American people. The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald was shocking, and conspiracy theories circle this event.
Ripley’s has collected these theories, and other unbelievable facts, figures, and statistics, in our annual, Dare To Look!
Click to open in high-rez
Source: Unboxing Lee Harvey Oswald & the Kennedy Assassination
August 25, 2016
August 24, 2016
In 2014, the Clock in La Paz, Bolivia Started Running Backwards
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
In June of 2014, the government of La Paz, Bolivia ordered that the numbers on the clock on the congress building be reversed.
The hands turn to the left, and the numbers were inverted
Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca dubbed it the “clock of the south”
The clock was made to show Bolivian people that it’s good to be creative and question norms
The government has said that they will not require everyone in Bolivia to change their clocks
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: In 2014, the Clock in La Paz, Bolivia Started Running Backwards
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