Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 54
November 25, 2022
An Ancient Meteorite May Hold the Key to the Ocean’s Origin
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A carbonaceous meteorite that crashed into Earth last year features extra-terrestrial water and other elements that indicate the origin of water on Earth, according to a recent study by the Natural History Museum and the University of Glasgow.
Meteor MemoriesKnown as the Winchcombe meteorite, the space debris, which is in pristine condition, crashed into a driveway in Gloucestershire in February 2021. Scientists analyzed the rare meteorite using detailed imaging and chemical analyses, which provided a “tantalizing glimpse back through time to the original composition of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago,” according to study author Dr. Ashley King of the Natural History Museum.
Meteorite that hit UK town bolsters Earth water theory https://t.co/iNCnNbAZOi
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 17, 2022
Fortunately, researchers were able to examine the meteorite just days after it fell to Earth before it could be contaminated by terrestrial elements. It’s a rare meteorite because it features an estimated two percent carbon, according to weight, and it’s is the first of its kind to be discovered in the United Kingdom. The meteorite also includes 11 percent of extra-terrestrial water in the form of minerals. The water was formed by fluids and rocks creating chemical reactions on the asteroid in which the meteorite was created during the solar system’s earliest beginnings.
Great Balls of Fire!Scientists discovered that the hydrogen isotopes in the spatial matter are similar to that of Earth’s water. Researchers also found amino acids in the object, which are prebiotic molecules that are central for creating life. The meteorite was mostly unaffected by its landing on Earth, and it’s believed that carbonaceous asteroids had a hand in introducing the elements required for the creation of oceans and life on our planet.
The UK Fireball Alliance recorded video footage of the meteorite’s fireball. That footage in conjunction with chemical analysis indicate that the meteorite took about 1 million years to land on Earth after it left its asteroid near Jupiter. It traveled around the sun first in what is known as a pre-atmospheric orbit, which is a rarity for meteorites found on Earth. Only 0.1 percent of the Earth’s meteorite collection feature ones that made pre-atmospheric orbits. As a result, the Winchcombe meteorite provides the most powerful connection to date between carbonaceous meteorites and asteroids in the outer areas of the solar system.
Meteorite MiracleResearchers will examine this meteorite for many years in order to see if it reveals more answers about the solar system’s origins. How life started on Earth is one of science’s biggest questions, noted Dr. Luke Daly, study co-author and a lecturer in Planetary Geoscience at the University of Glasgow. This meteorite is important because it “gives insight into how the Earth came to have water – the source of so much life.”
The meteorite’s fast retrieval by the scientific community was critical in maintaining its integrity. “The combination of such a quick recovery, careful collection, and our ongoing curation of Winchcombe in a nitrogen atmosphere means this incredibly fresh specimen will remain one of the most pristine meteorites in collections worldwide,” commented study co-author Dr. Natasha Almeida, Curator of Meteorites at the Natural History Museum.
Checkout the meteor at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando
You can see samples of the Winchcombe meteorite in several places in the United Kingdom: The Natural History Museum, the Winchcombe Museum, and The Wilson (Art Gallery), Cheltenham. If you’d like to see a meteorite in the United States, you can visit Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando where you can touch a 3,197-pound one!
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: An Ancient Meteorite May Hold the Key to the Ocean’s Origin
November 24, 2022
November 23, 2022
The Real-Life Origins of 15 Movie Monsters
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Most people think superhero movies when it comes to blockbuster films that rake in the big bucks. It’s not uncommon for them to regularly cross the $1 billion line. Although the same can’t be said for horror flicks, that doesn’t mean they should be overlooked regarding revenue generation. Horror movies remain serious Hollywood profit makers. And since they don’t cost nearly as much to produce as flicks inspired by Marvel and DC, they often enjoy better profit margins.
Of course, horror movies would be nothing without the monsters that drive the fear factor. Whether we’re talking classic antagonists like Frankenstein’s Monster, terrifying animals like Jaws, or modern nightmares like Freddy Krueger, villains rule horror. But what you may not know is that these monsters share one thing in common: real-life origins.
Keep reading for the spinetingling reality behind some of Hollywood’s most famous (and frightening) monsters.
1. DraculaIt’s hard to find a monster more famous than Dracula, and there have been plenty of reboots of the character over the years. Notable versions include 1931’s eponymous flick starring Bela Lugosi and 1992’s remake powered by Gary Oldman as the ancient Transylvanian villain. The figure of Count Dracula is based on the historical ruler of Transylvania, Prince Vlad III Dracula (literally “son of the Dragon”). Some historians claim Vlad (a.k.a. “the Impaler”) ordered the deaths of more than 80,000 people while serving as voivode (a royal military leader), the vast majority by impalement.
Prince Vlad III. Credit: Banekondic1996 Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
2. GodzillaWorld War II came to an end with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States. In the wake of these disasters, locals faced new horrors daily, from the initial devastation of the bombings to the birth defects and long-term impacts of radiation. Anxiety associated with the aftermath of atomic bombs inspired Godzilla, a preternaturally massive monster who plagues Japan. As a physical representation of national trauma and anxiety, Godzilla even sports roughly textured skin, echoing the keloid scars of survivors of the nuclear blasts.
3. ZombiesThankfully, reanimation of the dead isn’t really a thing. But that doesn’t mean zombies don’t have real-life roots. Haitian voodoo priests have long had a reputation for administering drugs to hapless victims to slow their bodily functions until they appear dead. After the near-dead cadavers endure funerals and burial, they get dug up and forced into drug-induced slavery.
During the summer of 1916, New Jersey beaches became the sight of a bloodbath. During two weeks, a shark killed four individuals and severely wounded a fifth. The attacks rocked the idyllic Eastern Seaboard, but even more shockingly some of the attacks took place far up the freshwaters of the Matawan Creek. After dissecting an eight-foot-long shark with human remains in its stomach, locals had their man-eating culprit.
5. WerewolvesA string of serial killers inspired the legend of werewolves. These included individuals such as Pierre Bourgot, Michel Verdung, Giles Garnier, Peter Stubbe, and Jean Grenier. In some cases, the murderers confessed to being werewolves further exacerbating the hysteria surrounding their brutal acts.
Stephen King is known for crafting horror stories that get under your skin. One of his most famous and disturbing tales is 1990’s Misery, the story of a famed author held hostage by an obsessed fan, Annie Wilkes. King took inspiration for Wilkes from the true crime story of Genene Jones, a nurse convicted of murdering approximately 60 children from 1977 to 1982 during hospital stays.
7. The MummyWhether you prefer to call him The Mummy or Imhotep, the idea of Egyptian mummies coming back from the dead has chilled people’s blood since the turn of the 20th century. That’s when King Tut’s tomb was uncovered along with a curse to those who opened it. After members of the archaeological team that excavated Tutankhamen’s tomb started dropping like flies (nine total), many came to believe the hype about the curse of the mummies, providing fodder for the story of The Mummy.
Tutankhamen’s Coffin
8. Freddy KruegerWhere did Wes Craven turn when dreaming up the disturbing character of Freddy Krueger? Craven’s inspiration included somniphobia (fear of sleep) and Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome(SUNDS). In the 1980s, SUNDS became a serious problem among members of the Hmong community with 130 casualties.
9. Frankenstein’s MonsterIn the 19th century, the upper crust frequented gruesome yet fascinating science shows. During these spectacles, some scientists used electricity to temporarily reanimate animal remains. One attendee of these shows was Mary Shelley, the author of 1818’s Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus.
10. PennywiseAnother iconic Stephen King villain is the killer clown Pennywise. The concept of the murderous clown came from the real-life story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Gacy regularly dressed up as Pogo the Clown (when he wasn’t luring young men to violent deaths). Between 1972 and 1978, Gacy killed at least 33 victims before interring them in his backyard. That said, law enforcement officials continue to link new victims to him thanks to DNA technology.
Booking photo of John Wayne Gacy taken by the Des Plaines Police Department – 1978.
11. Leatherface, Norman Bates, and Buffalo BillThe notorious serial killer and grave robber, Ed Gein, has inspired many silver screen monsters, including Leatherface, Norman Bates, and Buffalo Bill. Like these characters, Gein (a.k.a. the Butcher of Plainfield) enjoyed sporting his victims’ skin, and he also made trinkets out of their bones and various body parts. Besides all of this, he fostered a weird obsession with his mother. After her death, he began donning his female victims’ skin so that he could become his mother, taking the whole Oedipus complex next-level.
12. TremorsWho can forget the gigantic earthworm creatures that terrorize the deserts of rural Nevada in 1990’s Tremors? But you might not realize the sandworms’ mouths were inspired by the powerful jaws of snapping turtles.
Alligator Snapping Turtle.
13. The BlobIn 1950, two police officers, Joe Keenan and John Collins, reported witnessing a “strange object” fall from the sky in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Where the mysterious object landed, Keenan and Collins found a pile of purple goo. When they touched it, the goo vanished. Sure, the account ruined the police officers’ reputations. But it also inspired a true B-rated blockbuster, 1958’s The Blob.
14. AnnabelleIf you’ve seen 2014’s Annabelle, then you understand vintage dolls can be no bueno. Although the Hollywood version of the story relies on a much creepier vintage doll, the original inspiration for this story came from a Raggedy Anne doll circa the 1970s. Implicated in paranormal activity, the doll has even been fingered as the cause of a motorcyclist’s death. Fortunately, infamous paranormal couple Ed and Lorraine Warren neutralized it, and the “toy” remains housed behind priest-blessed glass so that the evil entity within can’t harm visitors to the Warren’s Occult Museum.
Our list of Hollywood monsters wouldn’t be complete without a bonafide missing link. It comes in the form of a prehistoric fish-like beast, the titular character of 1954’s The Creature From the Black Lagoon. This humanoid figure with marine adaptations symbolizes the original missing link that eschewed the waters of the deep for a terrestrial life.
By Engrid Barnett, 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!
November 22, 2022
Study Suggests T. Rex 70% Larger Than Previously Thought
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Regarding the king of the Late Cretaceous jungle, few animals compared to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. This massive and toothy monster once stalked the planet, striking terror into the hearts of other dinos. Part of the reason for the fear factor was the girthy size of the animal. The weightiest T. Rex on record was (up until recently) “Scotty,” coming in at a hefty 19,555 pounds. Not the kind of apex predator you’d want to wrestle for your life.
But paleontologists recently announced an earth-shattering discovery. As it turns out, “Scotty” proves puny compared to other members of his species. Here’s the full scoop on the scale-tipping, ruthless predators of the prehistoric world.
Scotty: The PipsqueakOn November 5, 2022, researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada, announced a startling find at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists’ (SVP) annual conference. They argued that scientists have long underestimated the actual size of the Tyrannosaurus.
Life-size cast of Scotty the T. Rex – Discovery Centre in Eastend, SK. Credit: Muhsatteb Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Instead of a mere 20,000 pounds like Scotty, these scientists now believe the carnivorous critters weighed in at 33,000 pounds. That’s the equivalent of three whale sharks, 6.6 African elephants, or 16.5 hippopotamuses!
Jordan Mallon, co-author of the study, puts this figure into further context, explaining the behemoth would’ve been 70 percent larger than previously thought. That’s double the size of older finds! This discovery makes the Cretaceous Period a whole lot more dangerous, especially when you consider the fact roughly 2.5 billion of the master hunters once stalked the globe.
Weighing in on T. Rex PoundageWhy has it taken researchers so long to speculate on the enormous size of T. Rex? Despite the billions once swarming the planet, only 32 fossilized adult specimens exist today. As a result, scientists have remained hamstrung by the limited data available from these specimens. Of course, this raises other questions.
For starters, what caused scientists to so radically revise their previous beliefs about the size of the Tyrannosaurus? Co-authors Mallon and David Hone examined data about population numbers. From there, they considered average life spans, designing a “growth curve” encompassing the lifetime of your average T. Rex. This led the research pair to hypothesize a new top size for the species.
A new study by @MuseumofNature researchers estimates that the largest T. rex may have weighed 15,000 kg, even heavier than an average school bus which weighs around 11,000 kg!
Further, they were 70% larger than existing fossils.
Read: https://t.co/kBHkbDbLlZ
: via Canva pic.twitter.com/aZaszg5a3A
— The Weather Channel India (@weatherindia) November 18, 2022
Initially, their findings resulted in a figure of 53,000 pounds. This massive calculation assumed that male and female dinosaurs showed marked gender differences, especially in the size category. But the researchers ultimately eschewed this model. Why? They rationalized that much larger fossilized specimens should be available for study today. Because of the dearth of these giant creatures, they revised their figures to the more modest number of 30,000+.
A Modest PropositionMallon and Hone hope their research will lead to more discoveries, even though it appears to have opened a Pandora’s Box of questions. Summing up this latest contribution to our understanding of the Cretaceous giant, Vertebrate Paleontologist Thomas Carr states, “This reminds us that what we know about dinosaurs isn’t much at all, since the sample sizes are so small. Right now, we are nowhere near the sample size needed, especially when compared to other species of animals.”
The EqualiT-REX at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! in Hollywood.
If you’re hankering to get a better grasp of just how big T. Rex once stood, check out Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Their iconic Tyrannosaurus statue has more than girth. It goes through regular seasonal updates to celebrate the holidays, festooned for everything from Easter and Pride Month to Christmas.
By Engrid Barnett, 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: Study Suggests T. Rex 70% Larger Than Previously Thought
November 21, 2022
Tracy Ealdama Makes Lifelike Miniatures
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Meet Tracy Ealdama, a self-taught artist from Toronto, Canada that crafts miniature models of stores, buildings and more found in and around Toronto.
MINIATURE BUILDINGSUsing everyday objects like wooden coffee stirrers, card stock paper, barbecue skewers, plastic bottle caps, and toothpicks, Tracy Ealdama handcrafts her miniature models with her main focus being on recreating the exterior beauty of the iconic stores, diners, and other businesses of Toronto.
Checkout some of Tracy’s incredible work down below:
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A post shared by Tracy Ealdama (@urthlings)
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More recently, Tracy has expanded beyond Toronto architecture and, in doing so, has created some incredible pop-culture miniatures ranging from the movie Joker to The Mandalorian and even an action packed take on The Avengers!
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A post shared by Jax Navarro (@plasticaction)
We here at Ripley’s approached Tracy about recreating one of our iconic buildings, the Tower from Ripley’s Odditorium at Niagara Falls and let’s just say we couldn’t be more impressed with what she cooked up!
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A post shared by Tracy Ealdama (@urthlings)
If you want to stay up to date with Tracy’s work, check out her Instagram where she is most active and always keeping her audience in the loop regarding her newest creations!
Escape the Ordinary With Ripley’s Latest Book!Find this story and more inside Ripley’s all-new book! Escape the Ordinary‘s 256 pages spark curiosity, challenge perception, celebrate differences, and curate a sense of wonder for the weird world around us! Available now on Amazon and at most major retailers.
November 20, 2022
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