Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 85
May 28, 2022
May 27, 2022
Invasive Worms Get the Jump on West Coast
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Just in time for gardening season, a new worm species has wiggled its way out west, threatening California’s ecosystem with its insatiable appetite and ability to leap from leaf pile to leaf pile, ravaging topsoil as it goes.
Invasive IntruderThe Jersey wriggler. Alabama jumper. Crazy snake worm. Asian jumping worm. A worm of many names, the Amynthas agrestis has as many talents as it does monikers, including self-cloning and shedding its tail like a sneaky snake when handled. Considering these gifted grubs can also jump up to a foot in the air, it may be time to start calling them Wilt Wormberlain!
Native to East Asia, specifically to Japan and the Korean peninsula, these “extremely active and aggressive” worms initially made their way to North America in 2013 when spotted in Wisconsin and New England after hitching a ride on imported landscape plants.
The invasive Amynthas Agrestis. Credit: Njh5880 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Though they have been seen along the east coast over the years, it wasn’t until last July that an entomologist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture identified the first west coast worm in Napa County.
The Forest FearUnlike some non-threatening invasive species, like the Joro spiders that have been flying up the east coast this spring, the jumping worms have given scientists cause for concern about the affect they’ll have on California’s forests, as their “voracious appetite” for fallen leaves often leads to the devastation of the top layer of soil that helps the forest as a whole thrive.
“They are destructive and cause severe damage to hardwood forests, especially those consisting of maple, basswood, red oak, poplar or birch species that rely on thick layers of leaf litter that serve as rooting medium,” said the CDFA in a report, adding that the creatures can snack on the full coverage of organic material in a matter of “two to five years.”
Though earthworms are often considered a gardener’s best friend, they do much more damage than good overall. The CDFA has remarked that the worms will likely “establish a widespread distribution through California’s forest habitat and ornamental production sites, particularly in residential and commercial environments.”
Keeping Cali CleanCalifornians can help protect their forest ecosystems by keeping their eyes on their soil. Growing up to 8 inches in length with a white band around their body, these worms are relatively easy to spot writhing around, at which point it’s best to bag them up and throw them out.
If that’s not your bag, there are a few other recommendations on best preventing the spread of the wicked worms, including sprinkling a mix of water and yellow mustard seeds on the infested soil to drive them to the surface. Once the soil is moist and worms begin to rise to the surface, a polyethylene sheet can be applied for two to three weeks until it heats up to 104F, essentially frying the worms and their cocoons.
As with most things, preventing the worms from spreading in the first place is the best way to keep the trees intact. This means avoiding raking and blowing leaves around and ensuring that your municipality’s compost service isn’t furthering the spread.
Not in California? There are plenty of invasive species to go around! The National Invasive Species Information Center is all eyes and ears, waiting for reports of invasive species across the country.
If you’re in New York, you can even make a game of it by joining one of iMapInvasives’ Mapping Challenges!
Happy hunting!
By Meghan Yani, 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!
May 26, 2022
Mummy Unwrapping Parties Of The Victorian Era
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
During much of the 18th and 19th century, Europeans were fascinated by Egypt, the afterlife, and everything involving mummies. The obsession was so strong and so prevalent, it even has a name: Egyptomania.
This fascination actually dated back to the 15th century, when merchants started trafficking mummies into Europe for bizarre and often macabre reasons — such as in the case of mumia (medicine made using ground-up mummies) and even the creation of a paint color known as mummy brown.
By the 19th century, however, the demand for mummies was at an all-time high, partly because Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and Syria had renewed interest in ancient civilizations. Not in a purely academic way, of course, but more in a “let’s get together and unwrapped some mummies” kind of way.
All Wrapped UpUnwrapping parties were exactly what they sound like: Victorians would get together, have some food and drinks, and then proceed to unwrap a mummy.
As bizarre as this sounds, it was English surgeon Thomas Pettigrew who sort of pioneered this bizarre form of entertainment — although to be fair, there are some reports of mummy unwrapping events that date to much earlier times, but they certainly were not as popular or commonplace.
Credit: Portrait of Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1791–1865), sometimes known as “Mummy” Pettigrew, English surgeon and antiquarian and an expert on Ancient Egyptian mummies. Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0)
Pettigrew was a remarkable scientist who had vaccinated Queen Victoria, was a renowned antiquarian, and would eventually write some of the most in-depth books of the time about mummies and ancient medicine. But he will always be remembered primarily as the guy who made mummy unwrapping parties popular.
Not that it started that way. Pettigrew’s first unwrapping took place in front of a group of physicians in 1821 (somewhat scientifically excusable), but by the 1930s, he was unwrapping mummies in front of spectators that were more interested in the shock value than the scientific value of it. Eventually, he made the parties smaller and more private — and other well-to-do members of Victorian society started to imitate him.
The unwrapping itself often started with an introduction or lecture, followed by the unrolling of the many layers of bandages and removal of objects and amulets found during the process until the body was revealed. Depending on who was doing the unwrapping, an examination or discussion would follow about everything from the state of the skin to whether there was still hair present.
Examen d’une momie (Examination of a Mummy) by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, circa 1980.
That’s a WrapEventually, mummy unwrapping parties fell into out of favor — mostly as scientists took a more serious interest in mummies but also as more people started to realize these were actual human remains that should be handled with a bit more respect. Still, mummies continued to be unwrapped by scholars for many years, who would take and document their findings.
Mummy unwrapping didn’t really stop until x-rays came along and made it possible for historians and scientists to take a closer look without disturbing the wrappings.
You, Too, Can “Unwrap” a Mummy!Now at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando, guests have the opportunity to, quite literally, unravel history with our latest interactive partnership with Interspectral! Curious visitors will be able to virtually explore Neswaiu, an ancient Egyptian priest whose mummified body is currently in the collection of the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden.
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!
May 25, 2022
The Great LEGO Spill Is Still Washing Up 25 Years Later
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
From classic LEGO themes like Aquazone and Atlantis to recent minifigures like Aquaman, LEGO is no stranger to underwater adventures. Seafaring journeys have been a core aspect of LEGO’s history, both in play and disaster.
On the southwestern coast of the United Kingdom on February 13, 1997, a shipping crate with 4.8 million LEGO pieces spilled into the ocean, resulting in the biggest toy-related environmental disaster of all time with long-lasting consequences.
The Great LEGO SpillDubbed “The Great LEGO Spill,” the container ship Tokio Express was following its usual trade route and on an important mission to deliver the precious plastic cargo from the Netherlands to New York. Recounted as a “once in a 100-year phenomenon” by the ship’s captain, a brick-breaking wave smashed against the vessel, plummeting 62 shipping crates into the sea!
The Tokio Express Container Ship.
A Washed-Up CollectionOf the reported 4,756,940 dumped LEGO pieces, most were coincidentally water themed. This large mass of parts included 418,000 flippers (in blue, black, and red), 90,000 cutlasses, 50,000 sharks, 26,000 yellow life preservers, 13,000 spearguns (in red and yellow), and 4,200 black octopuses. These pieces were likely intended for Aquaraiders, Pirates, and Divers (a sub-theme of Town) sets.
Other non-nautical pieces included 353,262 foursomes of daisy flowers (in red, white, and yellow), 50,000 brooms, and 33,941 dragons (in black and green), likely meant for Fright Knights and Town sets.
Lost and Found at SeaGiven how lightweight LEGO pieces are, an estimated 3,178,807 pieces drifted around the world, many of which built themselves on the shores of Cornwall, England.
Tracey Williams, a frequent beachgoer, and author of Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea, has been around these sandy LEGO bricks for her entire life. From growing up in South Devon, England, to her current home in Cornwall, she still finds LEGO bricks washed up on UK beaches 25 years after the incident!
All these Lego pieces from the spill – 80 in all – were found on beaches in Wales during #2minutebeachclean sessions by hen_ysgol, who posted this image on instagram today. Another flipper was found after the picture was taken. https://t.co/81DDMJCN1r pic.twitter.com/7IFb84vNqU
— Lego Lost At Sea (@LegoLostAtSea) April 13, 2022
To aid in her efforts to track and clean up washed up LEGO, Williams started the “LEGO Lost at Sea” Facebook group. Here, members from across the globe report their beach findings, from LEGO pieces to other toys.
Is Plastic Bricking Our Ecosystem?While bricks washing up on the shore seems like a dream come true for a LEGO fan, it is a part of an ongoing problem plaguing our oceans. Per reports from the IUCN, over 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year! Marine wildlife often mistake plastic for food, causing starvation and other injuries.
Plastic pollution has led to microplastics making their way into seafood, drinking water, and other beverages like beer. According to the WWF, humans ingest up to five grams of plastic a week!
Building on their Sustainability Efforts“I’d love to go back 25 years and not let anything get in the ocean,” says VP of environmental responsibility at the LEGO Group Tim Brooks, in an interview with Williams.
Brooks has made monumental efforts in the LEGO Group’s role in environmental and sustainability. In 2017, he accomplished the LEGO Group’s goal of using 100% renewable energy three years early. In 2021, Brooks unveiled a prototype LEGO brick made from recycled plastic. He currently seeks to eliminate single-use plastic in all LEGO sets by 2025.
Despite the tragic accident of the Great LEGO Spill, thanks to people like Williams and Brooks, they are building a brighter future in keeping LEGO sustainable and out of the ocean. If you happen to find yourself walking along the shores of Cornwall, consider grabbing a few pieces for your collection. Just be careful not to step on any LEGO bricks accidentally.
By James Whelan, 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: The Great LEGO Spill Is Still Washing Up 25 Years Later
May 24, 2022
Students Invent Edible Tape That Keeps Burritos Wrapped
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
What comes to mind when you think about the most important inventions of the past millennium? Maybe the wheel, the compass, the printing press, or penicillin? While life would feel unimaginable without these innovations today, they’re just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the devices and technologies that make our lives livable. Other top-ranking picks include the internal combustion system (making cars possible), the light bulb, and the telephone.
Essential to daily life, these inventions make each day easier and better. After all, could you imagine a world without antibiotics? Or one where you had to pull a horse out of the barn to go somewhere? One thing’s for sure, humans have a long history of dreaming up incredible creations, and we’re seriously over the moon about the most recent one: Tastee Tape.
Wrap the perfect burrito with Tastee Tape (dyed blue for demonstration purposes) https://t.co/LjaQH6vvNV pic.twitter.com/goCzRduGhp
— Nerdist (@nerdist) May 18, 2022
Here’s what you need to know about the invention you’ll never want to live without, especially if burrito leakage has got you down.
The Burrito ConundrumEleven percent of all restaurants in the U.S. serve Mexican food, and approximately 25 percent of these fall into the fast food category, including Taco Bell, Qdoba Mexican Eats, and Chipotle Mexican Grill (via Brizo FoodMetrics). In other words, America boasts more Mexican restaurants than Chinese kitchens, Italian bistros, or seafood shacks. Of course, the cuisine is so delish, these statistics contain few surprises.
But some Mexican-inspired cuisine can get pretty messy, especially when you’re attempting to eat after exiting a drive-thru. At the top of the sloppy list sits the iconic burrito — a food we can’t get enough of despite the fact it likes to find its way onto the front of clothes and into laps. No matter how big the tortilla is, when stuffed with our favorite goodies, it seems to bust at the seams at the most inopportune times. This translates into burrito leakage, which is never a good thing.
Taming the Notoriously Messy BurritoEnter an enterprising group of students from John Hopkins University. To make the world a better place, they decided to tame Mexican food’s messiest on-the-go meal with a revolutionary breakthrough: edible tape. After plenty of trial and error, the Whiting School of Engineering students designed a game-changing eating aid, which they dubbed “Tastee Tape.”
Tortilla: taped
Burrito fillings: secured
Let’s taco’bout Tastee Tape, an edible adhesive created by biomolecular and chemical engineering students which allows for a mess-free meal for wraps, gyros, and more. (2/6) pic.twitter.com/HB1o6VBHVB
— Johns Hopkins University (@JohnsHopkins) May 10, 2022
Described unappetizingly as a “fibrous scaffold,” the students are looking to patent the best Mexican food accessory since pico de gallo, per KOMO News. Tyler Guarino, one member of the team, explained that the adhesive contains ingredients that are all food grade and safe to consume. What’s more, they’re commonly used dietary additives. Best of all, the tape is activated by moisture and designed to stay in place, even during the cooking process. That means no more microwave scrubbing after a reheated burrito explosion!
The invention has other applications, too. It’s already shown excellent promise when it comes to wrangling soft tacos and keeping wraps of various types in one piece. And the students believe the tape may have applications for just about any food that requires securing. In other words, it has the potential to change the way we interact with messy foods forever. Move over, Thomas Edison!
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: Students Invent Edible Tape That Keeps Burritos Wrapped
May 23, 2022
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