The "Did you know" thread.....

[dbailey]

Originally Posted by T2000

A female ferret will die if it gets in heat and can't find a mate

I believe that in this species ovolation is triggered by the act of procreation.

So without male...intervention..she remains in a hightened pre ovoluation phase.

I did read some years ago about a male ferret called Bill who had been vasectomised so that he was able to trigger the ovulation without actually inpreganating the Jill in question. This is usefull if the Jill is about to be shown in a competition. There was an accompanying photo of the ferret called bill and to my eyes he had a bit of a grin on his face...but it is hard to tell with domesticated polecats....

[Clouddancer]

When man first settled in Iceland in the 9th century, the Arctic Fox was the only native mammal. There are now 150 mammalian species including the Icelandic field mouse, which is the largest field mouse in the world.
Lake Myvatn in northern Iceland also boasts 16 different species of nesting ducks, which is more than any other lake in the world.
There are no reptiles, amphibians, or poisonous animals in Iceland.

[qwerty17]

Originally Posted by dickerbetwixt

John F Kennedy made love in a closet while telling his mistress about another president who did the same. That President being Warren G. Harding, whose hysterical wife was attacking the secret service agent outside the White House office at the time. Franklin D. Roosevelt had an affair with the first lady’s personal secretary. Lyndon B. Johnson made love to a secretary on the oval office desk. Bill Clinton’s contribution – with ardent assistance by Monica Lewinsky – is well publicized but taking the cake is John F Kennedy, who is said to have smoked marijuana with a nude playgirl while he joked about being too wasted to “push the button” in case of nuclear attack.

Don't forget Eisenhower, who maintained the same mistress he'd had throughout WWII, Kay Summersby, until she got married after the first year of his preseidency. Ronald Reagan successfully organized a cover-up (thanks to his connections to the Mob) of his 1952 date-rape of 19-year-old Selene Walters. And why overlook First Ladies? Nancy Reagan was notoriously famous at giving the "best head in Hollywood" and was a "Hostess Escort" callgirl for the studios when they needed to entertain bigshots. She screwed Frank Sinatra (talk about "ties to the Mob!!!") in the White House. They were both in their 60s... Eeewwwww! At least Kennedy and Clinton were young and good looking at the time!

[dickerbetwixt]

The longest distance a man was ever able to shoot with his zipper gun is held by Horst Schultz. He fired over 18 feet. We hope he didn’t hit anyone.

Only one out of every 400 men is flexible enough to give themselves a BJ, but we’re willing to wager all 400 have tried. So, if you don’t like giving, maybe you outta try to find a dude who can bend like a pretzel.

[DTravel]

The US Army uses prolonged exposure to loud music to "soften up" prisoners. The playlist includes Eminem, Metallica and Barney The Dinosaur.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by DTravel

The US Army uses prolonged exposure to loud music to "soften up" prisoners. The playlist includes Eminem, Metallica and Barney The Dinosaur.

I remember something like this being reported in 1986 when the US military invaded Panama to depose General Noriega, sometime protege of the US government, who had, like Pinnochio, learned to walk without their puppet strings. That's the trouble with evil dictators: you can't rely on them to act your Viceroy, they keep getting ideas above their station.

Noriega claimed sanctuary at the Papal Nunciature, the Vatican's embassy in Panama City. The US Army surrounded the building and played I Fought The Law by The Clash over and over again until he came out.

These tactics can backfire. I was taught English at Secondary School by a man who eaked out his student grant at University by working as a labourer on the construction of the M62 TransPennine motorway, the section in the high Pennines on Windy Hill, right next to the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire. This was at the very beginning of construction, in 1970. Stott Hall Farm is on Windy Hill.

Stott Hall Farm

For years, everyone in Yorkshire believed the farmer refused to sell out and rather than go to the trouble of a compulsory purchase order, the Ministry of Transport simply built the road around him: alas, it turns out, more prosaically that the geology was such that building round his house was cheaper than building through it. What is true though is that the farmer was bitterly opposed to the motorway. He even rigged speakers and tried to harrass the construction workers by playing the worst music he could get his hands on.

Poor man. He didn't do his research.

He clearly didn't like reggae. He constantly blared out Bob Marley and the Wailers, Clancy Eccles, Lee Perry etc. But most of my teacher's colleagues on the gang were from Jamaica and would happily dance to this music on lunch and tea breaks.

[Mal Hombre]

The Olympic flame,that symbol of peace and sportsmanship was introduced in 1936 by the Nazis for the Berlin games.

[dickerbetwixt]

No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die.

[dickerbetwixt]

Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties in climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil.

[Davemetalhead]

Originally Posted by dickerbetwixt

Left-handed knights would have had no troubles except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil.

That sounds rather sinister .....