"That's very interesting, Steve"

[Space Commander Travis]

The Rev. W. Awdry, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, got the idea for the Isle of Sodor from the ancient title of Bishop of Sodor and Man, the bishop in charge of the Isle of Man, and the origin of which title is lost in the mists of history. He thought it might be a neat idea to imagine that the Isle of Sodor was a lost sister island to the Isle of Man, rather like Atlantis, only with its own rail system. 

[Space Commander Travis]

The W in Rev. W. Awdry stands for Wilbert. 

[Space Commander Travis]

the real name of the Fat Controller is Sir Topham Hatt. 

[acute]

Tim Staffell, who was in the band 'Smile' with Brian May and Roger Taylor, was the chief model maker for the first series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.

[Matt221]

Thomas is based on Billington E2-Class 0-6-0T locomotives and he is painted blue after the North Western Railway colours

that fact maybe a little geeky

[Matt221]

Kate Bush and Emily Brontë not only both wrote ‘Wuthering Heights’ (the song and the book that inspired the song), but they also share the same birthday. Kate is 57 now, and Emily would be 197 if she were alive today 

[Space Commander Travis]

the Th (and the a) in the name of the River Thames was actually usually pronounced up until the early 18th c ("thaymes"), when King George I, being German, and not speaking a word of English, pronounced it "Tems", and naturally every else did so too, and it's stuck ever since. 

[Matt221]

In 1795, Mary Wollstonecraft (feminist and mother of Mary Shelley), threw herself off of Putney Bridge after her lover left her for an actress.  She survived the fall and her unconscious body was pulled out of the river by a boatman

 

[acute]

"Halley's Comet" is always mispronounced, today.

We know this because Edmond Halley's surname was occasionally written as 'Hawley', which was how he said it.

[Black Monk]

1 hour ago, Manfred von Dreidecker said:

the Th (and the a) in the name of the River Thames was actually usually pronounced up until the early 18th c ("thaymes"), when King George I, being German, and not speaking a word of English, pronounced it "Tems", and naturally every else did so too, and it's stuck ever since. 

Nah. That's not true.

The Thames probably gets its from the Brittonic Celtic "Tamesis", meaning "dark". The English pronounciation has always been a "T" rather than a "Th". In Middle English it was spelled "Temese" and it is written as "Tamisiam" in the Magna Carta.

The th spelling lends an air of Greek to the name and was added during the Renaissance, possibly to reflect or support a claim that the name was derived from the Thyamis in Epirus, from where early Celtic-speaking groups were wrongly thought to have migrated to Britain.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Black Monk

[Matt221]

A BBC News program broadcast in 1957 ended claiming that spaghetti grew on trees on a farm in Switzerland. Many viewers believed the report and called the BBC asking how to grow their own trees. Their response: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

[acute]

41 minutes ago, Black Monk said:

Nah. That's not true.

The Thames probably gets its from the Brittonic Celtic "Tamesis", meaning "dark". The English pronounciation has always been a "T" rather than a "Th". In Middle English it was spelled "Temese" and it is written as "Tamisiam" in the Magna Carta.

The th spelling lends an air of Greek to the name and was added during the Renaissance, possibly to reflect or support a claim that the name was derived from the Thyamis in Epirus, from where early Celtic-speaking groups were wrongly thought to have migrated to Britain.

Thank you, Black Monk, I have 'unliked' Manfred's post.

[Galactic Goatman]

The Kiwi lays the largest egg relative to body size of any bird:

 

[Matt221]

The smallest bird in the world

The Bee Hummingbird and it's nest 

 

[Space Commander Travis]

Rear view parking cameras were made mandatory on new cars in the Land of the Trump not to help you see how far you are from the car behind, but to reduce the number of instances when idiot parents left their small child or offspring on the ground behind their car after loading the shopping, and reversing over them. This is true. 

[Matt221]

Deers haven't got a gall bladder

[acute]

Amy Davidson who played Kaley Cuoco's younger sister in the sitcom '8 Simple Rules' is the elder of the two.

Edited August 8, 2017 by acute
.

[Space Commander Travis]

The holder of the record for the longest production run of any car is the Morgan 4/4, which was first produced in 1936, and, apart from a hiatus during the war, is still in production today.

[Matt221]

Winston Churchill famously stated that he limited himself to 15 cigars per day. That's a very generous limit, even for the British Bulldog himself

[acute]

The Tokyo Sky Tree, the second tallest structure in the world, starts off as a triangle on the ground, then gradually becomes circular.

A mathematical nightmare! 

Edited August 8, 2017 by acute
.

[acute]

North Korea's latest Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile flew higher than the International Space Station.

[Matt221]

There are more fake flamingos in the world than real ones.

[Space Commander Travis]

How does one fake a flamingo? Take a stork or something and dye it pink?

[Matt221]

Fake flamingoes don't work as decoys I put a flock out in a feeding pattern years ago and I still haven't managed to draw any real ones in there bringer than pigeons

[acute]

The US territory of Guam has an interesting ethnic mix:

37.3% Chamorro
26.3% Filipino
9.4% Multiracial
7.1% Caucasian
7.0% Chuukese
4.6% Other
2.2% Korean
1.6% Chinese
1.6% Palauan
1.5% Japanese
1.4% Pohnpeian.

The Chamorro are the indigenous people who have been on the island for 4000 years.