Fun Facts to Amaze Your Friends At Parties

Nazi Raccoons OPEN THREAD


Wed Nov 9th, 2005 at 10:31:58 PM EDT
Germany is plagued by an overpopulation of raccoons who are eating the Germans' wine grapes. (I can imagine the raccoons would -- I feed grapes to my neighborhood coonies every night.) But, how did the non-native raccoons end up in Germany? Around 1934, "[t]he move was encouraged by Hermann Goering, the Nazi leader who, apart from being the head of Hitler's air force, was the chief forester of the Third Reich. The raccoons, known as wash-bears in Germany, were seen by Goering as an enrichment to German woodland." See? We learn something new every day! Isn't life exciting?
 
Bush Plays The Bongo

When he met with President Omar Bongo from Gabon, which the state department regularly criticizes for human rights violations.
20040526-2_gabonp40982-6a-515h.jpg
 
A snail can sleep for three years.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. (that explains why old people have IMMENSE ears!)

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile Services(two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not Pre-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.

Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.

When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.

The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola,
and Budweiser, in that order.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.