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.

When Andrew Gainariu and Eric Stamatin from Michigan went crayfishing in the Clinton River in June they caught a lot more then crayfish.

Eric Stamatin (left)
and Andrew Gainariu (right)

“I thought it was a rock at first, but a couple minutes later I looked more at it, and I didn’t think it was a dinosaur bone, but I wasn’t sure,” said Eric.

When the boys brought home their incredible find, Eric’s mother’s first thought was “oh my goodness, what did they bring home?”

She thought it was just a cow bone, so the ancient fossil sat on the dining room shelf for a few months until she reached out to a paleontologist in November.

John Zawiskie, a geologist and paleontologist at the Cranbrook Institute of Science confirmed that the “cow bone” was actually a specialized second vertebrae found behind the skull in the spinal column of an American mastodon.

The mastodon has been extinct for over 10,000 years, but it used to roam that part of the US.  In fact, Michigan’s state fossil is the mastodon!

What now?

First things first, the Eric is bringing the bone in for show-and-tell to his 6th grade class.  After that, who knows?

“Andrew said maybe we can sell it, and that we could be famous… but I guess we are famous already,” Stamatin said.

“We are still in the thinking process of putting it on eBay or giving it to the museum,” Gainariu clarified.

“I have been thinking of selling it and making money off it,” Gainariu continued, “but who is going to pay 2,000 bucks for a bone?”

Who knows….maybe Ripley’s will!

Source

Eric Stamatin (left) and Andrew Gainariu (right)

Early drawing

Turtle ships participated against Japanese naval forces that supported Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s attempts to conquer Korea from 1592-1598, inflicting heavy losses.

Scale museum replica

Turtle Boat Specs

• Class and type: Panokseon type
• Length: 100 to 120 feet
• Beam: 30 to 40 feet
• Propulsion: 80 oarsmen
• Complement: 50 soldiers
• Armament: Sulfur gas thrower, iron spikes, 26 cannons
  Notes: in full operational conditions cannons ranged between 200 yds to 600 yds

Cross section of deck

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Model ship made from human bones

Left alone for years at the beginning of the 19th Century, French soldiers taken captive during the Napoleonic Wars found an unusually hobby — fashioning ornate replicas of British ships, out of beef and human bone.

The soldiers made use of any bone they came across, to create these fascinating models. These rare “bone ship” models tend to sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, as collectors go nuts for these macabre historical relics. But how on Earth did prisoners of war create such accurate ship models, out of such bizarre materials?

Using pigs to find supplies

French prisoners of war obtained beef and mutton bones from the food rations issued to them by their English captors. After gathering bones for use in model building, prisoners boiled the bones and bleached them in the sun, to make the bones easier to shape and carve.

Bone Ship Close Up

Pigs around the POW camp also helped to supplement the prisoners’ bone supply. Pigs roving the camp often uncovered human skeletons that were buried in shallow graves. The soldiers used any bones they found, regardless of what — or whom — they might have belonged to.

In addition to human, cattle, and mutton bones, prisoners made use of their own hair to fashion sail rigging, and tissue paper to create sails. On several occasions, visitors to the camp from nearby villagers and British officers would smuggle in pieces of turtle shell, silk, tools, and metal foil for the Frenchmen to use.

They used the larger bones they found to carve the body of the ship models, moving on to smaller pieces and sometimes wood scraps for the finely detailed cannons and masts. Many of these artists in shackles built mechanisms into their models. Popular mechanisms allowed for the sails of the models to be raised with ease and retract the cannons into the ship. The prisoners attempted to make the ships to scale, but often failed. Their craftsmanship, however, far exceeds this inability.

Unbelievable stories and things can be found even in the most unlikely places or during the most challenging of times. Believe It or Not!

Using the latest in DNA analyses researchers now have the ability to take a serious look at remains claimed to belong to cryptids (cryptids are species whose existence has been suggested but never confirmed by science.) like the yeti and bigfoot. Now, Oxford University researcher Bryan Sykes thinks it’s time to revisit the issue using today’s advanced techniques.

“Mainstream science remains unconvinced by these reports both through lack of testable evidence and the scope for fraudulent claims…

It is possible that a scientific examination of these neglected specimens could tell us more about how Neanderthals and other early hominids interacted and spread around the world.”

It goes without regard that much of this effort is received with some skepticism from other peers. But in order to circumvent all that, Sykes is intending to approach the investigation with samples collected from museums, scientists, cryptozoologists and Heuvelman’s impressive inventory (Belgian-French scientist and explorer, widely regarded as the father of cryptozoology. Heuvelmans investigated reported sightings of the creature for over half a century before he died in 2001.)

His key point in this investigation will be centered around “rigorous genetic analysis” and publishing results in peer-reviewed scientific journals. By doing so, he hopes to distance himself as much as possible from the pseudoscientific stigma that comes with the territory of cryptozoology. But conducting the investigation under a banner of legitimacy will still be challenging.

Researchers in this project are now under the “submission” phase for the inclusion of any type of cryptozoological materials, as well as hairs and other samples, to do genetic testing and other such tests on them.

In 1927 Ed Smith was accidentally sent two registration forms for his enrollment at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia. He decided it would be an epic practical joke to enroll this fictitious person along side with his own enrollment. This was but the start of an unbelievable career for “Burdell” that most notably “earned” him a Bachelors and Masters degree, a stint in the US armed forces, a seat among Mad Magazine’s Board of Directors and even a close race to be Time Magazine’s Person of the Year!

As soon as Burdell was accepted, Smith signed him up for all the same classes he had. Smith would do all schoolwork twice, changing the content and handwriting slightly to avoid professors catching his sham. When he had a test, he would take it twice and then turn it in under both names. By 1930, Burdell had earned his bachelor’s and, only a few years later, received his master’s degree. He became an official alumnus, even though his name has remained on the active student rolls ever since!

Pranks of note

• One of the first pranks to use Burdell’s name came after someone had been rejected by a fraternity he had intended to join. That really pissed him off. So he went out and ordered a truckload of furniture to be delivered c.o.d. to that fraternity. As you would figure, the order was made by George P. Burdell. LOL.
• George P. Burdell was listed on Mad magazine’s Board of Directors from 1969 until 1981. Also, when Time magazine was attempting to select their Person of the Year for 2001, George Burdell was the leading candidate (holding at least 57% of the votes) until the magazine removed him from the running.

• In 1969, Georgia Tech computerized its class registration, believing it had successfully found a way to keep George from registering for class that semester. As it turned out, hackers registered him for every class in the Institute that quarter, a heavy load at over 3,000 credit hours. And despite subsequent fail-safe procedures to prevent it, he did so again in 1975 and 1980.
• Burdell is most recently listed as a production assistant for the South Park website, www.southparkstudios.com

Burdell’s Spirit Lives On

Today, Burdell is a GT campus icon, and his name is revered among the students on campus. Incoming students are introduced to him as one of the greatest alumni to graduate from the school. You might catch Burdell in local bars, airports or hotels as students continue to use his name as an alias whenever they don’t want to disclose their real name.

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Henot was one out of the estimated (wait for it…) 25,000 alleged sorcerers incinerated on the premise of practicing witchcraft! By comparison, the amount of deaths in the Salem Witch Trials was just a tiny fraction of that of Cologne’s!

At the time, Katharina Henot was said to have been very influential in the city of Cologne. The post office was an inheritance between her and her brother of which in itself caused disputes at the Imperial Court about the creation of a single central post office. She was later accused of sorcery amid a great witch trial in Cologne between 1626 and 1631. Both she and her brother were arrested by the archbishop in January 1627 and were accused of using magic to cause several cases of death and sickness.

She was thrown in jail and despite suffering horrible sickness and injuries from torture – she never admitted to anything. Regardless, she was found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned at the stake for sorcery.

Better Late than Never!

Now after more than 300 years, this case has been re-opened by evangelical priest and religious education teacher, Hartmut Hegeler. He was the one to make the request for the trial to be reheard.

“Katharina held her own reputation in high esteem, she would want to have it cleared. As Christians, we find it challenging when innocent people are executed, even If it was centuries ago.” Said Hegeler

Evidence from the time will be re-examined and a panel of local politicians, clergy and lay people will decide on her guilt or innocence. One of her relatives, Martina Hirtz, said:

“I do think she should have her name cleared. But I think of the endless amount of people still living who are being mistreated and find that much worse.”

If the case is successful it could lead to similar hearings across Germany, the European country which burned more witches than any other.

Lucky Shot

The shot was slowed by a glasses case and a bundle of manuscript in the breast pocket of Roosevelt’s heavy coat – a manuscript containing Roosevelt’s evening speech. Schrank was immediately detained and reportedly offered as his motive that “any man looking for a third term ought to be shot.”

If not for the case for the spectacles of Teddy Roosevelt the name of John F. Schrank might be as well known as that of John Wilkes Booth.

Roosevelt, who suffered only a flesh wound from the attack, went on to deliver his scheduled speech with the bullet still in his body. After a few words, the former “Rough Rider” pulled the torn and bloodstained manuscript from his breast pocket and declared, “You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose.” He spoke for nearly an hour and then was rushed to the hospital.

Sultan Tipu

He  had French engineers build a mechanical tiger for his palace.The device, known as Tipu’s Tiger, is on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Tipu’s Tiger or Tippoo’s Tiger is an 18th century automaton or mechanical toy created for Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in India. The carved and painted wood casing represents a tiger savaging a near life-size European man.

Mechanisms inside the tiger and man’s bodies make one hand of the man move, emit a wailing sound from his mouth and grunts from the tiger. In addition a flap on the side of the tiger folds down to reveal the keyboard of a small pipe organ with 18 notes.

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Originating out of the need to build military hardware from available materials, the tank was built from corrugated iron on a tractor base.

The Original Do-It-Yourself Tank!

Despite this, it has become something of an icon of the New Zealand ‘do it yourself’ mentality.