NO WAY ! That can’t be true! ... But it is!

[Tikki]

@Scribble

Aspen clones might be bigger. No-one knows, really.

I’d forgotten about aspen clones. Good point!

[jjimm]

The whale is not really a fish!

It is an insect.

[jjimm]

Oh, and massively dropping a name here, a few months ago I had a few pints with John Lloyd, the co-author of the very book glee mentioned*, after having won the QI quiz he’d organised** [/brag] (my team’s won it three times now [/brag brag]), and during our conversation I asked where he did his fact-checking. He said a variety of sources, so I asked him if he’d heard of the Straight Dope, and he said “oh yes, of course, I use it to fact check all the time”. Not sure if he’s been on the messageboard, mind, but he probably has.

So while you nitpick his book, bear in mind that the source might well be Cecil…

*He is also co-author of The Meaning of Liff, having been a close friend of Douglas Adams, and the original producer of The Hitchhikers Guide.

**His worst question: how many eyes does the no-eyed big-eyed spider have? (No googling).

[matt_mcl]

Bangkok is not the capital of Thailand in the (remarkably stupid) sense that its name in Thai is Krung Thep. By the same token, Moscow is not the capital of Russia, nor is Rome the capital of Italy.

The thing about the first POTUS is a bit of equivocating about the “President of the United States in Congress Assembled,” about which Wikipedia says the following:

Before the 1788 ratification of the Constitution, there was no comparable figure with executive authority. Individuals who presided over the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary period and under the Articles of Confederation had the title “President of the United States of America in Congress Assembled”, often shortened to “President of the United States”. They had no important executive power. The President’s executive authority, tempered by the checks and balances of the Judicial and Legislative branches of the Federal Government, was designed to solve several political problems faced by the young nation and to anticipate future challenges, while still preventing the rise of an autocrat over a nation wary of royal authority.

As for Henry VIII’s wives, all I can think of is the fact that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was annulled (by the Archbishop of Canterbury), as was his marriage to Anne of Cleves, meaning that he in the end only had four marriages.

[matt_mcl]

Also, as for the moon, there are a few natural bodies in very weird orbits of the Earth, such as Cruithne, whose orbit is kidney-bean shaped. Whether or not this is a “second moon” of Earth depends entirely on your definition of “moon.”

[AskNott]

If the aspen clones are indeed bigger than the fungus, it may not be true for long. They’re dying off, for some unknown reason.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/13/ap/tech/mainD8K49B281.shtml

Utah has lost an estimated 50 percent of its aspen population since North America was colonized, Ryel said. And the decline runs along the Rocky Mountains from Arizona to Alberta, Canada.

[BMalion]

I believe Dorothy Parker once said that: "If all the girls at Yale were laid end to end…

…I would be a bit surprised."

[Annie-Xmas]

@BMalion

I believe Dorothy Parker once said that: "If all the girls at Yale were laid end to end…

…I would be a bit surprised."

Actually it was “I wouldn’t be a bit suprised.”

[brownie55]

@Annie-Xmas

Actually it was “I wouldn’t be a bit suprised.”

I think it was Vasser.