Ripley’s has teamed up with Science North to bring you The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, a 6,000 sq ft highly interactive traveling exhibit. Each week the staff scientists of Science North are going to be blogging the scientific side of Ripley’s!

Tardi-what?

Bugs can be cute, right? Caterpillars, ladybugs, and butterflies have a certain amount of appeal. But this tiny invertebrate has them all beat. Meet the tardigrade, also known as a water bear, a moss piglet or a slow walker. Measuring anywhere from 100 micrometers to 1.5 millimeters, these unbelievably tiny invertebrates can be found in pretty much any habitat on Earth, ranging from marine and freshwater to the moist moss in your backyard.  They have four pairs of legs with claws on the end of each.  These claws make them look like little bears, hence their most common name, water bears.

Teeny Tiny Extremophiles

What is an extremophile?  It’s an organism that can survive the most extreme living conditions that would kill most other living things on Earth.  These tiny creatures can withstand not only the vacuum of space, solar radiation, gamma radiation and x-rays but also temperatures ranging from just below freezing to 120 degrees Celsius!  They can also enter a stage called cryptobiosis where they dry up, curl up into a ball, and create a hard outer shell, with the ability to stay like that for over 100 years.  When living conditions improve and they can rehydrate, they come back to life! Unbelievable!

Make friends with a tardigrade

If you’d like to check one out for yourself, all you have to do is find some moss on a decomposing tree.  Put the moss in a shallow dish and soak it with distilled water for about 24 hours.  Take your dish of water and moss and put them under a microscope.  Be patient, they are very small and their bodies are transparent, but eventually you will start to see a small caterpillar-like animal crawling around over the moss! Winnie the Pooh has nothing on a water bear!

Written by Meghan Mitchell, Science Communicator at Science North

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]]> http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/amazing-science/the-science-of-water-bears/feed/ 1 http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/incredible-feats/the-little-prince/ http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/incredible-feats/the-little-prince/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 17:32:01 +0000 suzanne http://www.ripleys.com/weird/?p=8857 Motionography

Luca is a little boy who just received the most unbelievable gift.  He was photographed as if he were in motion.

Muscular Dystrophy is a disease that causes muscle weakness and muscle tissue loss.  Luca’s condition is quite severe.  The only body parts he can move are his fingers.  However, that doesn’t stop is imagination from running wild!

Minds in Motion

One of Luca’s wishes was to be photographed as if in motion.  Slovenian photographer Matej Peljhan came up with a very creative way to make Luca’s dream of riding a skateboard, or deep-sea dive, come true.

In Peljhan’s series called The Little Prince, Luca is staged in various poses to make him look like he is participating in all the activities he dreams about.  Now the next time Luca wants to ride a skateboard, he just has to look at these spectacular images and he can imagine himself there!

Images copyright of Matej Peljhan

Ted Rosen is a successful lawyer, loving father, caring husband, and military hero.  In 1945 Robert Ripley himself dubbed Ted as “The Indestructible Man”, and Ted claims Ripley still owes him $50 because of it!

Don’t worry Ted, we got you covered!

1945 Indestructible Man Cartoon

An army nurse submitted Rosen’s story to Robert Ripley, who featured Ted in his famous “Believe It or Not!” cartoon.  Ted’s nickname, “The Indestructible Man” stuck…much to Ted’s chagrin.

“What a load of crap” says Rosen

“I was blown out of the Jeep but I didn’t have a single broken bone,” he says. “Look, I grew up poor in Troy, N.Y., and during the war Bob Ripley paid anyone with an unusual story $50 for his syndicated ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’ newspaper column. So a pretty Army nurse wrote down my story and sent it to Ripley.”

“But I got ribbed unmercifully about this ‘Indestructible Man’ crap,” Rosen says. “What p—ed me off most was that Ripley never sent me my 50 bucks!”

Maybe not

Ted Rosen

What’s the inflated value of $50 from 1945?

Michael Hirsch, president and general manager of the Times Square Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium, presented Rosen with a check for $645.00, equaling today’s inflated value of the original $50.00 Rosen claims to be owed by Robert Ripley back in 1945.

In addition to the check, Rosen also received free lifetime admission for him and five family members, granting them access to all Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditoriums across the globe.

“We’re not sure what happened 68 years ago, but we are making good of it today,” said Michael Hirsch.   “We wanted to take this opportunity to salute Ted’s admirable service to our country and honor his incredible story that continues to be part of the Ripley’s narrative today.”

Ted and his wife Jill decided to donate the Ripley’s check, along with a personal check of $355.00 to The One Fund Boston, Inc. to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, 2013. The total donation of $1,000 will be made in Denis Hamill’s name, the New York Daily News columnist who uncovered the story.

“I am totally surprised. In fact, I am almost shocked. Just think if I lived another ten years what Ripley’s would owe me,” joked Mr. Rosen.

Interview snippets of Ted Rosen taken from Denis Hamill’s New York Daily News article.

Ripley’s has teamed up with Science North to bring you The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, a 6,000 sq ft highly interactive traveling exhibit. Each week the staff scientists of Science North are going to be blogging the scientific side of Ripley’s!

Attack of the meat-eating plants

We all know that many animals eat plants, but did you know that around the world, there are plants that hunt and eat animals? Is this a real-life version of the “Little Shop of Horrors”? For insects and other invertebrates, it sure is. Fortunately, we humans don’t have to worry about them suddenly attacking and consuming us. 

Sarracenia purpurea

The purple menace

In North America, one of the most common meat-eating plants is the Purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea).  These small plants are about 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) long.  They have a single nodding purple flower and a number of tubular leaves with bright red to purplish veins.  These tubular leaves act as traps to capture insect prey.  At the bottom of the tubular leaves is a liquid that serves to drown and digest insects. The leaves also have downward pointing “hairs” on the interior surface making it impossible for insects to climb out.  The plants capture insects by attracting them with a smell. Insects come to the plant, climb on the edge of the tubular leaf and fall into the bottom where they are digested.

Living on the edge

These plants live in habitats (such as bogs) where the soil is poor in nutrients so they’ve evolved to obtain the necessary nutrients to survive from the bodies of small animals. In fact, a recently discovered plant in the Philippines is large enough to consume mice and rats, believe it or not!

Brought to you by Bruce Doran (M.Sc.), a Staff Scientist at Science North

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]]> http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/amazing-science/the-science-of-meat-eating-plants/feed/ 0 http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/weird-foods/lunchtime-fun-part-ii/ http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/weird-foods/lunchtime-fun-part-ii/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 22:10:28 +0000 suzanne http://www.ripleys.com/weird/?p=8831 Coolest Mom Ever

Last month we blogged about the coolest dad ever, David Laferriere, who for the last 4 years has been drawing on his kids’ lunch bags.  Well David, we found your counterpart.  Meet the coolest mom ever, Nina Levy!

A professional artist by trade, Nina brings a piece of pop-culture to her kids lunch by drawing well known fictional characters that traverses the nerdistsphere onto napkins.  Sci-fi, cartoons, gaming, comics … pick your poison, Nina covers them all!

I usually get requests, although they are sometimes hard to fulfill- “I want Nightwing and Kid Flash blowing up the Brotherhood of Evil while Batman and Superman watch.”

Check out some of my favorite nerd-approved lunch napkins, then head over to Nina’s napkin blog and check out her other work on her website.

Source: Laughing Squid

As soon as I saw that tweet, I knew Ripley’s needed to be a part of Kelly Mill Elementary School’s 4th grade Believe It or Not! Odditorium.

A couple tweets and an email or two later, and we were in!

Biggest Penguin

Some of my personal favorite exhibits are:

• Longest Beard- sunglasses wrapped with yarn
• Biggest Penguin- papier-mâché
• Largest Dog Eyelash-­ cardboard and yarn
• Largest Mohawk- cardboard and paint
• Longest Fingernails- glove and masking tape

I caught up with the teachers who initiated the project and asked a few questions.

Q: How long have you been teaching

Mrs. Kuhn- 12 years, Mrs. Fulkerson- 9 years, Mr.Walkup-7 years

Longest Beard

Kelly Mill opened this school year.  We are a BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) school and have a lot of parent involvement.  We like to do things “differently” and “dream big”.  Relating the things we learn about to real life is always a goal in our classrooms. We focus many assignments around student interests and offer a variety of choices to students.  The outcome of these goals often lead to project based learning and standards reaching beyond the classroom.  Our student population is incredible and the students come to school wanting to learn.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your project

The project included the students researching several crazy facts, all dealing with measurement. Each child then narrowed their choices to their favorite topic.  Students then researched and wrote an informational piece about their crazy fact and a related topic.  Next they created a visual to go along with their work. We were impressed with their range of ideas and creativity, as well as, problem solving and cooperative work. All students practiced speaking to an audience knowing that they would need to vary their presentations to teach individuals ranging in age from 5-75 years old.  Finally we set up all projects in a museum like fashion and invited our guests in to see our hard work.

Smallest Van

The children love the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! books.  They are the most popular books, by far, in our classrooms.  Our school has a “multi-purpose” room that several teachers have used throughout the year for “museum like” projects.  We figured it would be a fun experience for the kids to recreate a museum based on the facts they have learned about in these books.

Q: How did the kids react to the project

This has been one of the top projects we have ever done and the kids have LOVED every minute of it.  We believe this is a project they will never forget!

Q: Were the kids fans of Ripley’s before the project

YES!!!!!! HUGE FANS! Most were at least, and those that may not have been, are now!

Q: What was the students biggest takeaway from the project

Logest Fingernails

Q: Anything else you would like to add

We believe this project would not have been possible without “Ripley’s” being established.  We estimated approximately 1,500 visitors have come thru our museum. They all loved it and learned something new, young and old.

We ♥ U, Kelly Mill Elementary!

We were so impressed with the creative thinkers at Kelly Mill Elementary, we decided to send the kids a little gift.  Each student went home with one of our RBI books, and we we donated a collection of other Ripley books to the library. We hope the kids like them!

Kelly Mill Teachers

Ripley’s has teamed up with Science North to bring you The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, a 6,000 sq ft highly interactive traveling exhibit. Each week the staff scientists of Science North are going to be blogging the scientific side of Ripley’s!

Acidic and non-parasitic

Who doesn’t enjoy a healthy dose of vinegar with their French fries? While most people would disagree, and say that ketchup is their condiment of choice for crispy fried potatoes, consider the second ingredient in ketchup after tomatoes. (Hint: it’s vinegar.) Well the next time you have vinegar, whether it’s in ketchup, salad dressing, or on its own, think about what could be living in it – a non-parasitic microscopic organism called the vinegar eel (Turbatrix aceti).

What a vinegar world!

Vinegar Eel

• as a cleaning agent
• as a natural herbicide
• to help manage diets by increasing satiety (the feeling of fullness)
• for medicinal purposes (managing diabetes, as a clotting agent, healing burns and skin inflammations, or for relief of headaches caused by heat)

But what’s living in MY vinegar?

Vinegar Eel

The good news is that vinegar eels are normally filtered or pasteurized prior to bottling and don’t make it into the meals of most consumers. Rest assured the next time you pour some dressing on your salad or bite into a pickle, the vinegar eel didn’t make the cut and you won’t have any extra protein floating its way into your mouth.

Vinegar eels at home

Looking to see these worms in action anyway? The good news is that raising your very own vinegar eels is easy. Place an apple into a glass container large enough to hold one part water to one part apple cider and leave the experiment for about a month. Make sure to put a lid on the glass container so that no other bugs or critters fall victim to your yummy science experiment. You can put a small hole in the lid if you wish. You can use tap water for this experiment; however, you should let it stand for a few days to let the chlorine evaporate from it.  The apple will provide some extra nourishment.  All you need now is a microscope and a few friends to witness this unbelievable event, as hundreds of little eel-like nematodes swim through your very own homemade vinegar, believe it or not!

Brought to you by Stephen Smith, Staff Scientist at Science North.

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]]> http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/amazing-science/the-science-of-vinegar-eels/feed/ 1 http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/a-curious-man/ http://www.ripleys.com/weird/daily-dose-of-weird-wtf-blog/a-curious-man/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 20:35:41 +0000 suzanne http://www.ripleys.com/weird/?p=8774 The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley

Neal Thompson recounts the life of Robert Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist-turned-globetrotting-millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world’s strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable.

New Ripley bio will be released
May 7, 2013

A shy, insecure, bucktoothed boy, Robert Ripley willed himself to become a man of the world: a talented artist, an athlete, a rabid traveler, an unlikely ladies’ man, a heavy drinker, a playboy-millionaire, a shrewd businessman, entertainer, and media pioneer.

We recently caught up with the author, Neal Thompson, and asked him his take on the man who was once voted, “The Most Popular Man in America.”

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Q: What sparked your interest in Robert Ripley?  Why write a biography on him?

Neal: For starters, I was shocked and psyched to learn that no full-fledged biography of Ripley had even been written. I discovered this one day in 2007 when I read a New York Times article about the opening of a Ripley’s museum in Times Square. The story included only a brief mention of Ripley, but it was the first time I had given any thought to the real man behind the Believe It or Not franchise.

Ripley in Honolulu, Hawaii

Ripley with two shrunken heads

Neal: The first 15 years of my writing career were spent as a newspaper reporter, so that was my first exposure to Ripley. I had also read the occasional Believe It or Not books as a kid, but I had always been a fan of the funny pages – even before my journalism career – so I had kind of soaked up the Ripley vibe: the appreciation for the strangeness of the world, and for the weird things people do for kicks.

Q: Your narrative is so rich and full of small details. What was your research process like? How did you capture of the essence of his era in your writing?

Neal: Again, my journalism background came in handy here. I really enjoy the research part of a book project. I love playing detective and digging for clues. And I strongly believe that aggressively and meticulously researched stories allow a writer to do more with the storytelling.

I received a lot of help in this regard from the Ripley Entertainment company, whose archive of Ripley materials was a treasure trove. I spent many hours there, reading Ripley’s own handwritten notes and travel journals. I read his first impressions of Baghdad and his remorse after a drunken night in Johanessberg, for example. Getting those intimate, first-hand details was invaluable when it came to the writing.

As for my process, I’m a big fan of the three-ring binder. I think I filled about fifty of them for this book. I’ve since donated them to the Ripley archives. I still kind of miss them.

Ripley surrounded by a throng of fans

Neal: Oh, there are so many, it’s hard to narrow it down. I have a few favorites, though. For example…

• Ripley traveled more than 100,000 miles in 1933-34 alone, but never drove a car.
• He once bumped into Will Rogers at a bazaar in the middle of the Syrian desert, en route to Baghdad.
• Though shy and bucktoothed, Ripley became a renowned ladies man who sometimes had a few girlfriends living with him at one time—an actual harem.
• At his private island and mansion, he’d host days-long Hefneresque parties.
• As a radio pioneer, Ripley once broadcast a show from the bottom of the Grand Canyon, an event that helped launch Barry Goldwater’s political career.
• Ripley was the model for Bugs Bunny’s nemesis, Elmer Fudd.
• Even his final resting place has an eccentric twist: he’s buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Ripley with his 'harem' of women

Neal:  I think he’s referring to Ripley’s influence on pop culture, how he gave his fans what they wanted – a titillating look at bizarre people and accomplishments. He loved to shock people, and he know his followers wanted to be shocked. But he also loved proving that his shockers were true. That taste for the strange-but-true, the stranger-than-fiction, the unbelievably true… those are all at the core of the reality TV phenomenon, again, from Mythbusters to Jackass to Fear Factor. So I think Ben was commenting on what another early Curious Man reviewer (David Shields) said: “the world Ripley created is the world in which we now live.”

Q:What was your biggest takeaway from the book?

Neal: My biggest take away – and this is what I hope readers will experience – is that Ripley enjoyed life, was constantly amazed by it. So for me, it was amazing to experience the wild ride of Ripley’s rambling life and over-the-top lifestyle, and I hope readers will experience the same unexpected sense that I developed, which is that Ripley’s influence is all around us, sixty-plus years after his death.

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The book has exclusive videos of Ripley that can only be seen through the FREE Ripley’s Believe It or Not! app.

Amy and Katie just might be the most unbelievable twins ever. Although they are very healthy now, there were complications during the pregnancy which caused the sisters to be born 87 days apart!

“I always felt I was going to have twins and even as soon as I found out I was pregnant Chris said: ‘Oh that’ll be twins then’ as they run in the family,” -Mother, Maria Jones–Elliott

The parents, Chris and Maria Jones-Elliot, were already proud parents of two when they found out two more members were to be added to their family.

23 weeks into the pregnancy is when complications started to arise.  Maria gave birth to Amy, and at 1lbs 3oz, she was put into intensive care.

The doctors tried to deliver the second child, but Katie wasn’t ready to meet the world yet! 87 days later, Katie was ready to join her parents and twin sister.  She arrived into the world weighing 5lbs 10oz.

“Our friends and family helped us – Chris’s colleagues even worked hours for him. I don’t know how we’d have got through it without them,” Maria

These resilient twin sisters are truly unbelievable!

Jones-Elliot Family

But the woman sure did.  The 55-year-old woman from India went to the hospital because she had been experiencing a tickling sensation in her lower throat for about a week.

Finger Lickin’ Good

The lady had eaten some chicken and she assumed a bone had become lodged in her throat.  Boy, was she wrong!

Upon examination, the doctors found a centipede in the upper part of oesophagus, the passage between the pharynx and the stomach.  The most bizarre part is that the centipede was still alive!

No word on how the centipede survived living in the woman’s throat.   What would you do if you found a centipede in your throat?  Release it into the wild, or dispose of it by some other means?

Source: Indian Express