Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 11

Today I Learned…

A 25-ton humpback whale appeared to protect American marine biologist Nan Hauser from a 15-foot long tiger shark while she was swimming off the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. As the shark circled, the huge whale lifted Hauser right up out of the water with its head, then shielded her with its pectoral fin for nearly ten minutes before pushing her through the ocean to safety while another whale warded off the shark with its tail. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Lights Out #111: Hellfire Caves

Ready for another episode of Lights Out? Great, me too! Pretend you’re a wealthy English lord in the middle of the 18th century. You’ve just gotten back from a Grand Tour of the Continent, and you want to keep the party going. How do you do that? You start up a not-so-secret club, and you build yourself a super cool underground cave fort for you and your friends to hang out in. Let’s visit Sir Francis Dashwood’s Hellfire Caves with our guide, Cieran O’Keeffe, host for 14 seasons of Most Haunted. https://youtu.be/9k-mMZ6hTJM

Today I Learned …

Convicted Missouri deer poacher David Berry Jr. was ordered to watch the Disney movie Bambi at least once a month during his year-long jail sentence. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Today I Learned …

When Roland Hendel and his family were forced to flee their Sonoma County, CA, home to escape the wildfires that devastated the area in October 2017, they had to leave behind their dog, Odin, who refused to be parted from the family’s eight goats that he guards from coyotes and mountain lions at night. The next day, Hendel returned to his incinerated home, expecting to find that Odin and the goats had perished, but found that Odin not only survived, but also managed to rescue all eight goats and some baby deer by guiding them to a clearing that was protected from the flames by high rocks. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Today I Learned …

A cliff near Gulu, Guizhou Province, China, is said to “lay” mysterious egg-shaped stones every thirty years. Part of Mount Gandeng, Chan Da Ya — Mandarin for “egg-producing cliff” — is 20 feet high and 65 feet wide. It has an uneven surface, and every three decades, erosion causes each hollow to emit an oval-shaped, perfectly smooth rock, which eventually falls to the ground, like a hen laying an egg. These are collected by villagers who believe the stones bring good luck. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Today I Learned…

Defying odds of one in 2.1 million, a baby girl was born on Leap Day just like her father. Ivan Rebollar Cortez was born on February 29, 1988, and daughter Camila entered the world on February 29, 2020, just as her 32-year-old father was celebrating his eighth leap-year birthday. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Escape the Ordinary)

Today I Learned …

It is estimated that 24,568 gallons — equal to 195,419 pints — of beer are lost in facial hair each year in the United Kingdom alone. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Beyond the Bizarre)

Today I Learned…

A calf born at James McAuley’s farm in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Valentine’s Day 2020 had a perfectly shaped heart pattern on her forehead. Her owners named her Be My Valentine. (from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not: Out of the Box)

Today I Learned …

There is a church in Brazil that is made out of wine. Brazil’s Vale de Vinhedos (Valley of Vineyards) was settled in the late 1800s by Italian immigrants, who grew grapes and made wine just as they had done in their native country. In 1904, construction began on Capela Nossa Senhora das Neves, or the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snow. Soon into the project, the area suffered a drought, which meant no water for mortar. To keep construction on the chapel going, each of the twenty families that were working on the building project donated 300 liters of wine, which was kneaded with clay and wheat straw to make mortar. The chapel was completed in 1907. (from Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide, by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras)

Today I Learned …

A woman in Sweden who lost her wedding ring found it sixteen years later — around a carrot that was growing in her garden. She lost it while cooking Christmas dinner in 1995. She looked everywhere, and even had the kitchen floor pulled up. While gardening in 2012, she was digging carrots, and there was the ring … with a carrot growing through it. Her best guess is that she’d lost the ring somewhere in a pile of vegetable scraps that were then put into the compost bin. The ring sat quietly in the bin while the scraps rotted into compost, then was spread onto the garden, where it turned up years later.