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it. Date now on Bumble. What

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gadget for removing irritation translates

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to not seeking help from

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others in Chinese? The

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answer to that at the end of the show. My

0:38

name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Okay,

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yep, go now. Yep.

0:47

Yeah,

0:50

we're

0:52

just about to start the show. It's

0:54

actually rude. No,

0:57

you put the phone down first. No,

1:01

you do it. Sorry

1:08

about that, just putting in my pizza order

1:10

for later. Here for a slice of batter

1:12

on this week's show, we have the team

1:14

from Let's Learn Everything, who

1:17

apparently found that joke far funnier than

1:19

I did. Thank you for the raucous

1:21

support there. That was great. For

1:24

me, it was how much of

1:26

a Tom Lumm joke that was

1:28

from someone else. Well,

1:31

yeah, maybe that's my... For me, it was the

1:33

commitment to a visual bit on an audio medium.

1:38

Did I need to have one of my headphones out on a

1:40

phone to my face? It helped

1:42

the character, it helped my motivations,

1:44

darling. It was believable.

1:46

We should introduce yourselves. I mean, you are regulars

1:49

here, it's always a joy to have you on,

1:51

but let's start with Tom Lumm. Hi,

1:53

I'm Tom Lumm. That's me.

1:57

I get worse at it every time. You

2:00

know what, that's all the introduction you get.

2:02

I was going to ask you about, we're

2:04

moving on. Nope, I don't like next time.

2:06

Caroline Roper, how are you doing? I

2:09

do good, thank you. Thank you so much for having

2:11

us back. It was lovely to

2:13

be here. Well, it's always a pleasure. I

2:15

think I made a cameo in your Christmas special

2:17

as one of the people sending in facts. So

2:19

lovely to be back. Thank you. Thank you. Ah,

2:22

so good. Like plug the podcast. What have you

2:24

been up to? Oh gosh, what have we been up to? Nothing new.

2:28

We've been carrying on with the same old,

2:30

same old recently. Ah, we have been covering...

2:32

Good selling Caroline, Jesus. You

2:35

get nothing but consistency from us,

2:37

okay? Also

2:39

here from Let's Learn Everything and

2:42

with a black cat perch just

2:44

behind her, Ella Haber. Hello.

2:47

Hi, I'm Ella. I'm also

2:49

one of the hosts of this

2:52

perfectly adequate podcast. We

2:57

like also, we just had like an

2:59

amazing investigative climate journalist on for a

3:01

really fun episode. Oh yeah, we do

3:04

serious stuff too now. Yeah.

3:06

Since we last on. Yeah, from the podcast that you had to be

3:09

the first person to say the name of Tom, that's what

3:12

you expect. We're too focused on the

3:14

science, we're not great at the other

3:16

stuff, the introduction. Well,

3:19

good luck to all three of you. Welcome

3:21

back to the show. Our questions are very much like pizzas because

3:23

they're hot to handle, a bit cheesy and hard to

3:26

digest. And while you argue about what's

3:28

up and you want, I will deliver the first question,

3:30

which is this question was sent in by Bart the

3:32

Bank. Thank

3:34

you, Bart. Since coming home from a work trip, Mike has a tendency to drop

3:37

things by accident. Why?

3:40

I'll say that again. Since coming home from

3:43

a work trip, Mike has a tendency to drop things by

3:45

accident. Why? How long ago did you have

3:47

a work trip? How

3:50

long ago did he go on this work

3:52

trip? How long has he been back? Like,

3:55

has he just gotten back? Is he

3:57

still carrying stuff? Oh, no, you're I

3:59

thought you're thinking he's been gone for 20 years

4:02

and he's now aged. Everything's

4:05

shit. Ooh, Ella. I like

4:07

that. I'm writing the short

4:09

two sentence horror stories. Short

4:11

stories here. My first thought

4:14

is maybe they were on a boat

4:17

and so they have land lakes, you

4:19

know, and so they're, they're a little

4:21

loose on dropping stuff or late shift

4:23

at the butter factory. Maybe

4:26

they're an astronaut and

4:29

now they're group of foxes. Wow. Oh

4:32

yeah. We learned, you know, muscle mass massively

4:34

degrees. Not even, not even, I'm going to

4:36

call this, it's not even their grip strength, it's

4:38

just they're used to letting go of things because

4:40

of zero gravity. Oh yeah. Oh

4:44

yeah. So every time he goes to brush

4:46

his teeth and then he just lets everything

4:48

just fall to the ground and it just

4:50

stays there. Yeah. It just has to be used to it. Yes.

4:54

You have absolutely nailed

4:56

it. He

4:58

worked at the butter factory in space for 20

5:00

years. Oh,

5:04

I'm sorry. I didn't, I would have held that in if I

5:06

thought that was the right answer. Oh no, no, that was

5:08

a great bit of teamwork in deduction. Thank you. It's

5:10

nice when we get the first one out the way.

5:13

That's brilliant. Um, Mike

5:16

is an astronaut. He's just come back from

5:18

a mission on the ISS. He's having difficulty

5:20

readjusting to objects, obeying the laws of gravity.

5:23

I take issue with that note because

5:25

they have always been obeying laws of

5:27

gravity. It's just that everything else around

5:29

them was also obeying laws of gravity

5:31

at the same speed. It's

5:33

when you say like learning how that

5:35

objects obey the laws of gravity, it

5:37

sounds like they're like relearning object permanence.

5:39

It's like, man, I'm sorry. I

5:44

forget sometimes. There is quite

5:46

a famous comedy sketch about this, uh, of

5:48

an astronaut just repeatedly trying to demonstrate something

5:50

with a pen and being surprised that it's

5:52

not there. That one

5:54

is fictional, but there is the

5:56

true story of Joe Edwards, who

5:58

was pilot of the. space shot

6:00

in 1998, who let go of

6:02

a cup of lemonade when asked to take off his shoes

6:04

before a medical examination. So it is actually

6:06

a thing that happens just not quite

6:08

to the extent that that sketch happens.

6:12

We rattle straight on then to our first guest

6:14

question, and we'll go over to Ella. This

6:17

question has been sent in by an anonymous

6:19

listener. Between

6:21

1997 and 2006, why

6:23

could you be certain that most 20-year-old

6:25

men in Singapore owned a pair of

6:28

New Balance trainers? Ahhh.

6:31

Once more, between 1997 and 2006, why could you be certain

6:33

that most 20-year-old men in Singapore

6:38

owned a pair of New Balance

6:41

trainers? Tom, you had a

6:43

joyful look on your face and I thought that

6:45

meant you knew it, but instead it was the

6:47

joy of being like, what on earth? What is

6:49

happening? Unfortunately, I

6:51

do know this one. So

6:54

Tom, this is over to you. Okay,

6:57

alright. Okay, guys, come on. Was

6:59

somebody giving them

7:01

away for free at one point? The

7:04

year is 2000, 2001, right? It's

7:07

1997 to 2006. To

7:12

2006, okay. The internet is

7:14

a thing. Oh,

7:16

it's because they all realize that it's one

7:18

of the best shoes. It's, you know, you

7:20

got, you got, it's good sporty, it's good

7:22

all-around shoe. That's the only reason

7:24

why. And today's sponsor is New Balance. What the

7:26

hell's taken out an ad-read on this show without

7:29

my knowledge? Yeah, sorry, are we not allowed to

7:31

do that? No. Should

7:33

we not? Should I not have? If you're getting

7:35

paid for it, absolutely not. We want a cut of that. If

7:38

you just happen to enjoy New Balance

7:40

trains, good luck to me. We're a

7:42

New Balance family. That's not a bad

7:44

scam, is it? Like get product placement

7:46

on other people's... Oh, my God.

7:49

Oh, look. Having

7:51

said that, that's basically just the talk show circuit,

7:53

isn't it? Like you've got a product to promote,

7:56

fine. I am famous. I

7:58

will deign to appear on your... late-night talk show

8:00

plug my movie. I am currently product

8:03

placing right now because I am wearing

8:05

a hat for our podcast. Oh, hello,

8:07

where did you get that amazing hat

8:09

from? Okay, okay, just let me quickly. Tom,

8:11

you were kind of... although you're

8:13

not there, you were kind of writing the

8:15

idea that quality is important. Oh,

8:18

oh, oh, like maybe they're

8:20

maids there? And

8:24

then they can get them like hot off the presses

8:26

or something like that? It's not

8:28

like... Or they can assure fruit, you know? Shoes,

8:31

travel fine. Oh,

8:33

these have gone bad. They've

8:36

turned green already. You just

8:39

want those shoes when they're just straight out of

8:41

the factory, still warm, just mold them to your

8:43

feet. Oh, that new shoe smell. Yeah,

8:45

yeah, yeah. I do because

8:47

when it comes to like guitars,

8:49

I know that like there's one

8:51

makeup guitar from Gibson or Epiphone where like after

8:54

a certain year they switched from making them in

8:56

like Korea to Mexico, I think. And like there

8:58

are people who are like ride or die on

9:00

either side being like, you've got to get it

9:02

from like this place because like they did it

9:05

better back then or something like that. So...

9:08

It's not the location. And

9:11

quality is interesting because my other thought was

9:13

this is some like lottery thing, like

9:17

it's like a Willy Wonka shoe situation.

9:20

Most 20-year-old men in Singapore are

9:22

wearing these. I owned a pair,

9:25

at least. Is it? Around

9:27

this time. Something like... Ah,

9:30

my... You're saying most 20-year-old

9:32

men, is that like, is that a

9:34

demographic of people who do a specific

9:36

type of job and therefore having this

9:38

shoe is better? Oh, oh,

9:41

oh, okay, Ella. I'm

9:44

trying not to say anything because Tom Scott does

9:46

this where he just lets us ask questions

9:48

until we run ourselves in circles. But I

9:51

can't look for makeup things. It's really easy

9:53

to get into where you just keep asking

9:55

individual questions. What's

9:57

better is when there's discussion, there's conversation.

10:00

and someone goes, oh, he's never been doing

10:02

it. Like, that's... OK,

10:04

converse. Oh, so they're converse.

10:07

Oh, I love their new balance. Well done, that was

10:09

very clever. Oh, dear. That's what

10:11

friends of mine call a golf clap

10:13

pun. It's, yep, well done. Is

10:17

it not even like profession, is it just like lifestyle differences?

10:19

Were more people walking at that point? And

10:22

therefore new balances were seen as the

10:25

best shoe for doing that? It

10:27

wasn't like a fad around the time.

10:30

Is this a tax-related or

10:32

import-related? Like, maybe they were

10:35

cheap because they were

10:37

imported under a different category or something like that? No.

10:41

Or is it the opposite that so

10:43

many people worked for new

10:46

balance that they were giving the shoes out

10:48

for free? We're back to here, I'm so

10:50

sorry. Let's see. Were

10:53

every other shoe available just

10:55

awful in comparison? I

10:57

think just trying to think about like the age

10:59

of the men. Was

11:03

like a famous Minecraft YouTuber wearing them? It

11:05

was 1997 to 2006. Was

11:08

an early pioneering Minecraft YouTuber.

11:11

No, no, you're before both

11:13

Minecraft and YouTube there, Tom.

11:17

They were recording themselves building LEGO on

11:19

VHS. They

11:21

were like, I was born in

11:23

the wrong time, I would have

11:26

been huge. Was

11:28

it a movie star, an athlete, someone that

11:31

was... Ella said it wasn't a fad, which

11:33

makes me think it's none of... It

11:36

wasn't like a celebrity-endorsing thing, it's

11:38

about like the

11:40

shoe itself. Could

11:42

it be like, does it have a secondary use? Were

11:44

they using it for... Oh! Were

11:47

they wearing them? For what? Like

11:49

those shoes that have the little toy in the

11:51

heel? Could people like keep their really chunky phones

11:53

as like the sole of the shoe for a

11:55

bit? No? Okay.

12:00

Okay, I'm less circled around

12:02

you said. You.

12:04

Said paralyzed specifically why they might will

12:06

be wearing the same shape. For.

12:09

Was. In some

12:11

way to they. Like not leave any marks

12:13

or something. If you work somewhere we

12:15

need to be like, why are you

12:17

need to Not leave. A

12:19

shoe marks. Where

12:23

do you? Where do you were? New Balances. Why

12:25

would most men, young men have

12:27

one country be wearing the same

12:29

thing? Was. Wait, what were they

12:31

were they given for? Like be army or

12:34

something. Like. Visit with

12:36

was a mandatory year for the

12:38

Army. Yeah yeah they would

12:40

say would train a slide. The

12:42

military said three ninety ninety seven.

12:47

Through the ages because in Singapore

12:49

Mail citizens and. Permanent. Resident Star

12:51

two year period. Military service at the

12:53

age of eighteen? Not just And and. On

12:55

the new Balances. Just happened to be

12:57

the shoes of provided in that period.

12:59

They've changed Now they can. That new

13:01

balance or a six since two thousand.

13:03

And one or I couldn't have names, new

13:05

balance or any specific shoe but you said

13:07

twenty year old man in Singapore all have

13:09

the same thing that while the Us I

13:11

know something about for your pay that's gonna

13:13

be a guy that the service of home

13:16

and lotta rain for you my daughter. Attribute

13:19

that should be their new logo.on the

13:21

on New Balances is trusted by the

13:24

Singaporean armies since these years and that

13:26

Us but not interested by the Singaporean

13:28

hobby since Two thousand Six when not

13:30

sure was unsettling for the. Night

13:34

of Those are the best of us Years for

13:36

for that. Missing.

13:38

From a folks and what? What's. That

13:41

you could alternatively be represented

13:43

by squid would Tentacles, Doctor

13:45

Bunsen, Honey Do, and Hello

13:47

Kitty in that order. In

13:49

that war Two, I'll say that

13:52

again, with such, you could alternatively

13:54

be represented by squid would tentacles,

13:56

Doctor Bunsen, Honey Do, and Hello

13:58

Kitty in that order. Who's

14:00

Dr Bunsen Honeydew? Yeah,

14:02

that's... That's someone that's losing me.

14:05

Oh, okay. This is one of those questions.

14:08

And then meanwhile, yeah. Someone else

14:10

was like, who's Squidward Tentacall? Yeah.

14:14

They must be... It must be an animal.

14:16

Sounds like a rabbit I would assume, but...

14:19

Yeah, I was like, is this a hydra? I

14:21

think you can work this out without knowing

14:23

who Dr Bunsen Honeydew is. I think the

14:26

other two are enough to get this. So

14:28

I'm not gonna answer that question for you

14:30

right away. Okay, an octopus

14:34

and a cat. You

14:36

said sequentially. And at first I thought

14:38

it was like, all

14:40

these characters have posed as like,

14:43

Michelangelo's David or something like that. Yeah. I

14:45

was like, I was looking like, that's the

14:48

commonality. But... I

14:51

was trying to think if it's like a

14:53

horoscope or something. Oh, yeah. Like a...

14:55

Not one of them. Oh, yeah. Chinese New Year,

14:57

if they were like... I don't think

14:59

octopus is one of the animals. No. It

15:04

does sound like a monstrosity. This is also, I

15:07

gotta say Tom, this is one of those questions

15:09

where we're gonna look

15:11

back at all of our guesses and then laugh at

15:13

our interpretations where I'm like, it looks like a monstrosity

15:15

and it's gonna be like, the

15:18

Mary with like Jesus or something. And we're

15:20

gonna be like, oh, we didn't mean that.

15:23

We didn't mean that. Sorry. No,

15:26

I'll stand by that. So

15:28

is it... Yeah,

15:30

in that... Because the question that

15:33

in that order, not put all

15:35

together in that order, are they like

15:37

holding hands? You know, like... A key.

15:41

A key. It's a

15:43

statue. So it is going to be

15:45

in that order spatially rather than temporarily.

15:48

Okay. I love, I

15:50

love just somewhere in like New Jersey,

15:52

there's a statue of just Squidward and

15:54

Hello Kitty holding hands. That's

15:56

so cute. That

16:00

would be cute. Ocopus, anthropomorphic,

16:02

little cat, and

16:05

something in between them. Is it

16:08

Medusa involved? Because

16:11

octopus, snake, that's snake. I'm

16:13

so dumb, please. Oh, oh man. Oh,

16:16

I thought I was so smart for

16:18

a second. I cannot move past the

16:20

idea of like a hybrid creature between

16:22

these three things. I cannot get past

16:24

that. Yeah, yeah. I can't primarily. Yeah,

16:27

yeah, yeah. I also wonder if

16:29

the original statue is even

16:32

an animal. Or if that's like

16:34

the person who, not the person

16:36

who created all of these things, but like, were

16:38

they the founder of something that then led

16:41

to all of these things being created? Yeah,

16:43

I think they, I mean, Hello Kitty and

16:46

SpongeBob and Sephi. Alright, I'll clue

16:48

you in that Dr Bunsenhoneydew is

16:50

the scientist from the Muppets. Oh,

16:53

right. He's seen the Muppets and there's the

16:55

short scientist and then his tall assistant Beaker

16:58

that goes mee, mee, mee, mee, and keeps

17:00

getting hurt. Mee, mee, mee, mee. It's the

17:02

one that isn't Beaker in that pair, is

17:04

Dr Bunsenhoneydew. Is there

17:07

a statue of a scientist with an

17:09

octopus and a cat? That's, my brain

17:11

is so linear, which is ironic,

17:13

but they should know. I

17:15

was just saying that linear is kind of

17:17

the right tack to take here. If

17:19

you line those three up in that order, you

17:22

could argue they represented this statue. Squid

17:25

science cat, squid, squid, squid, squid cat. But did

17:27

they have to be lined up side by side

17:29

or are you looking like head on at them?

17:31

So you see the cat in the front. Left

17:36

to right. I'll clue you

17:38

in at this point, left to

17:40

right. Squidward science cat, Squidward

17:43

Muppet cat. Think

17:46

more about what they look like. Tentacles.

17:50

Tall and tentacles. The legs.

17:52

If you have eight legs,

17:55

if you're a scientist, if you

17:57

got like a little bow and you're cute. I really wish I

17:59

could. visualize things right now. Oh

18:02

yeah, Caroline is a fan of Asia so... Here

18:05

is a clue, that won't help.

18:08

That will be incredibly unhelpful

18:10

for this question. I

18:13

don't know why it's so quiet right now because

18:15

I just can't, I can't participate in this,

18:18

I can't see through this. Maybe draw something

18:20

Caroline. Yeah, that could

18:22

help. My A-11 art is going to be

18:24

so hard right now. Depending on how accurately

18:26

you remember those characters, it may well help.

18:29

I'm really stumped. This

18:31

is... They all have something in common,

18:35

rather they're all lacking something. And

18:38

trousers. Is

18:41

that right? I think, I

18:43

think, I think I was right on that. I'm

18:46

pretty sure Hello Kitty wears trousers. I

18:49

don't think she does. Doesn't she wear a little

18:51

dress though? Oh yeah. Which

18:54

then makes the need for trousers. Yeah. So

18:56

is that the answer? No, no it's not.

19:00

Are you drawing it Tom? I need to... A

19:03

good way into this would be,

19:05

Hello Kitty quite famously doesn't have

19:08

something. A mouth? A

19:10

mouth. I have no mouth and I must scream.

19:13

Oh my, oh it's, see no

19:15

evil, hear no evil, like, say

19:18

no evil. Yeah, talk it through Ella, talk

19:20

it through. No ears? Squidward

19:22

has no ears, hear no evil. I

19:25

don't, I guess the Bunsen has no

19:27

mouth. A muppet

19:29

with no eyes. An eyes? With

19:31

no eyes, oh so see no evil. And

19:34

the Hello Kitty has no mouth so say no evil.

19:36

It is the three wise monkeys.

19:39

Wow. Yep, Squidward has

19:41

no ears so hear no evil.

19:43

Doctor Bunsen Honeydew has no eyes so see

19:45

no evil. Hollow Kitty has

19:47

no mouth so speak no evil and that

19:49

is the old saying, the ornament. I

19:52

thought that might be the way into the question. I

19:55

thought that was one thing there that even if you

19:57

don't know the muppets, and even if you haven't seen

19:59

SpongeBob, then... might be a trivia fact about Hello Kitty

20:01

that would get you in there. That's it, she

20:03

famously has no mouth on the screen. Hey,

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boost before your interview. Or

20:49

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21:00

Kohl's. Tom,

21:04

over to you for the next question. This question

21:06

has been sent in by Aiden Krellen. In

21:09

the Xbox game, SpongeBob SquarePants

21:11

battle for Bikini Bottom, speedrunners

21:13

found that it

21:17

was possible to skip certain sections.

21:19

Repeatedly pausing the game made it

21:21

lag on purpose. What

21:24

bizarre strategy did one game

21:26

refine to make this glitch

21:28

happen consistently? I'll read

21:30

it again. In the Xbox

21:32

game, SpongeBob SquarePants battle for Bikini

21:34

Bottom, speedrunners found that it was

21:36

possible to skip certain sections. Repeatedly

21:38

pausing the game made it lag

21:40

on purpose. What bizarre strategy

21:43

did one game refine to make

21:45

this glitch happen consistently? Ella,

21:48

this is right up your alley as a

21:51

fan of watching speedrunners. And

22:00

it was so not something

22:02

I ever would have thought of. Yeah. Yeah.

22:07

As I said back then, I know nothing

22:09

about video games that I can follow it

22:11

up with. I know nothing about SpongeBob SquarePants.

22:13

So I'm taking a non-question. Every

22:18

speedrunning tactic is like a new

22:20

lateral question where it's like, it's

22:23

just an entirely. Yeah, I

22:25

can't say anymore, but I'm excited for y'all to

22:27

guess at this. What console did you say this

22:29

was on? Did you? Xbox.

22:32

Xbox. Okay. So. The

22:35

original Xbox, I believe. Pausing is the start

22:37

button. And

22:41

the strategy. Is it

22:44

a strategy to do with... Is

22:47

it... I'm just gonna... No. I

22:50

wonder if it's a practical thing or not.

22:52

Like, was their cat walking over their, you

22:54

know, controller and that's how they realized it

22:56

happened. Is this a strategy that

22:58

they're using consistently and they just have...

23:01

Because I do know there used to be those controllers

23:04

you could be that would

23:07

repeatedly send button presses for you so you

23:09

didn't have to hammer the fire button. Like

23:11

I remember those for like Nintendo

23:13

64 because a friend had one when I

23:15

was a kid. Yeah. Like if

23:17

you just wanted to fire a lot, you could just hit the turbo

23:19

button. But I don't think there was ever

23:21

like turbo start button or anything like that. Yeah,

23:25

like gluing down the start button

23:27

so it just repeatedly... On

23:30

the scale of turbo button

23:32

to a cat stepped on my

23:34

controller, it's actually more a cat stepped on

23:36

my controller. Oh! Okay. So

23:39

this is a weird one. Was

23:42

this something that like one person in

23:44

particular was doing or was this something that

23:46

this person was doing and then it became

23:49

like a vape? Like everybody then started doing

23:51

it. That's sort

23:53

of a thing. You need to

23:55

repeatedly, quickly hit the start button then. You

23:57

need to just keep bashing that as fast as

23:59

possible. during some sequence of the game. I'll

24:02

be honest, that's sort of the baseline

24:04

strat for this. This was sort of

24:06

something that made that

24:09

work even more consistently,

24:11

right? I see. Repeatedly

24:13

pausing the game made it lag on purpose,

24:16

but this allowed that to happen more

24:18

consistently. And I will say, Tom, I

24:20

think you will have some info on

24:22

this because this is sort of a

24:24

like, hardware-y thing.

24:27

Okay. So was it like, if you

24:29

did it at a specific point in

24:31

the game, like during a cutscene or

24:34

something like that, would it then make

24:36

it lag more? Or is it like, specifically

24:38

in the gameplay itself? It's

24:41

more general purpose than

24:43

that, because like, I think you can

24:45

use this glitch in multiple places. If

24:47

you want something to lag more,

24:51

then there's a few ways to do that. Like, this

24:53

is just general computer stuff. You can put more

24:55

stuff on screen. You can have

24:58

more things for the computer to deal with.

25:01

You could also do stuff in the

25:03

background. Like, an Xbox is just a

25:06

PC with some extra stuff grafted on or

25:08

less stuff grafted on one of those two

25:10

things. So you could run... Don't let the

25:12

console people hear you. You

25:15

could run Xbox and special, and it's

25:17

better than PlayStation and computers. You could

25:19

run additional stuff in the background. Or

25:23

you could just like, heat it up.

25:26

Like, it's a computer. If it runs

25:28

too hot, it will slow stuff down.

25:30

So you could just like, put your

25:32

Xbox on top of a heater and

25:34

get it close to the maximum operating

25:36

temperature so the chip throttles down, and

25:38

that makes it lag more. You're

25:41

getting there, but it's

25:43

dumber. It's okay. You did...

25:49

You deliberately scratch up the CD. Oh!

25:52

Oh! So

25:55

it's rubbish. Ella, you're

25:57

correct. Oh! You're... You're

26:00

90% there. Okay,

26:03

okay. It's just a

26:05

slight minor detail. You can't

26:08

easily have a scratch data disk. An

26:11

audio CD can skip sometimes, or

26:13

the laser will lose its focus, but it can

26:15

usually come back. Exactly. But

26:18

data, you'll lose a lot of stuff. But

26:21

some old games used to work. Right,

26:23

so you can't just scratch it. Some old games

26:25

used to work that you had a different data

26:28

and audio section. Like, the data

26:31

would load in and then it would just play the music

26:34

off the disk. But that

26:36

wouldn't cause that. Would doing something

26:38

really dumb like smear

26:40

and get in Vateline or something like that

26:43

cause it's... You

26:45

know? Caroline, you're... Basically,

26:48

I'm not gonna make you guys guess it. There

26:53

is one specific person who is attributed

26:55

to licking their disk. Oh

26:59

my goodness! Oh! Come

27:02

on, man. Tom, you're right on the

27:04

money because this isn't something that you

27:06

can permanently damage it,

27:08

like a vinyl record. This

27:11

is something that you just have to make it a

27:13

little harder to read so that maybe 50% of

27:16

the time it doesn't read correctly. So

27:20

yeah, the way a lag glitch

27:22

works is if you lag the

27:24

game enough, if you make the game

27:26

wait two seconds, the physics engine is gonna be like,

27:29

oh man, two seconds have passed and

27:31

I haven't run anything. And so it'll

27:33

try to do less good physics and

27:36

less good math. And one

27:38

of the theories is that when

27:40

you unpause the game, it would

27:42

read the music from the disk.

27:46

And so if you can make it harder to read, it would

27:50

lag the game more consistently. There

27:53

is, I think... Oh wow! I mean,

27:55

it's gross, but it's good. Oh! That's

27:59

a slow... And I don't know what it's

28:01

a slogan for. I

28:05

don't know, like Cheetos or something, something like

28:08

a messy theme. Well,

28:10

I say that along with all

28:13

great speedrunning stories, this is attributed

28:15

to swagmaster Doritos, I

28:18

believe. Fantastic. Oh,

28:21

brilliant. And I

28:23

think they would use thumb

28:25

prints in like a pattern became the

28:27

more consistent way. Looking

28:30

for disk. Yeah, yeah. And

28:33

a lot of this info came from a great

28:35

video from shift on YouTube, who talks about the

28:37

this speedrunning strat. I know we're done

28:39

with the question, but just quickly, normally when you

28:42

start the time on a speedrun, you start it

28:44

from where it can be, and you

28:47

can lose time. So I

28:49

would think that you would have to they would have to

28:51

recall themselves putting the thumb prints in the disk. Because

28:54

technically, you can lose time by doing that. Oh,

28:57

yeah. All

28:59

right, good luck with this one. In 1676, why

29:03

did Robert Hook publish a nonsense word

29:05

spelt C E I I I N

29:07

O S S S T T U

29:09

V. You do not need to

29:11

write this down. Thank you. In

29:14

1676, why did Robert Hook publish a

29:17

nonsense word spelt C E I I I

29:19

N O S S S T T U

29:21

V. Well, very, very

29:23

sing songy. I liked that. No,

29:26

it just had a certain amount of poetry the way I

29:28

said that there's a triple I and a triple S in

29:30

there. It kind of had a kind of cape on to

29:32

it. I

29:36

still have the jingles for the phone in

29:38

numbers like kids TV shows in the 90s

29:41

in my head, because they're always just played

29:43

out multiple times a show. We

29:46

don't need to remember what the word is.

29:48

So that means it's

29:51

not like a different word

29:53

that's on the jumbled up or something like

29:55

that. Yeah. What?

29:58

Where did he publish it? I

30:00

didn't say the letters weren't important. I'm just saying Who

30:07

who was the author again I apologize

30:09

Robert hook to Robert hook

30:11

DC I Yeah,

30:20

one eight seven seven cars for kids, baby Oh

30:23

don't get me started. That's a crime

30:27

It's one of the things right if I'm driving in

30:29

the US and I hear just one note of that

30:31

It's like an instant reflex don't slam the radio off

30:34

button. It's that's Demolished

30:37

man earworm. It's awful I listen to like

30:39

a lot of podcasts from LA and and

30:41

there's like a jink a regional jingle for

30:43

like the County of Van Eyes and I

30:46

have that now like that's how pervasive they

30:48

are. It's like I don't even live there

30:50

and I now know keys on van I

30:55

Tom you're really getting us off track

30:58

and I'm getting stressed We

31:02

haven't gone anywhere is

31:04

this are these Roman numerals? Yeah,

31:09

because that's all that's always it Always

31:12

remember new rules Not all

31:15

of these letters of Roman new rules. No, I was gonna

31:17

say some of those I don't remember being yeah There's

31:19

no N or T in Roman new rules. I

31:21

know of is it a chemical.

31:23

No way too early No, it

31:26

could be chemical element formula and

31:29

I kind of like that. I'm

31:31

getting up. I'm getting a subtle shake of the head I Published

31:36

a word is it like a key

31:38

a secret key to a

31:40

book? Where

31:44

he buried his family treasure

31:46

they are an alphabetical order. I don't know if

31:48

that's relevant Letters

31:54

They don't have to be an alphabetical order for this but

31:56

you're right Tom that is a bit of a clue Interesting.

32:01

Are they? And, Ella,

32:03

you said secret key. Yeah,

32:05

like a... I don't know the word for

32:07

that. What's it called when you have a... Like a codex?

32:10

Yeah. Where did he publish it? Did we

32:12

hear that? Was it like a newspaper? I

32:14

don't know where, but just generally

32:16

published and made public. Okay, because

32:19

I wonder if he's like 60...

32:21

Did anything happen in Portland around that time? Was

32:24

there a war happening? Probably, because it's that... Mmm...

32:27

Wasn't it? Of the world.

32:30

A printing press thing, a

32:32

dictionary thing, a book-related thing...

32:36

Yeah, he just ran out, like the keys

32:38

on his typewriter just broke and that's all

32:40

he could type. So,

32:42

did he print those letters in that

32:45

order? I don't know enough

32:47

history to know whether that would be printing press

32:49

or whether it would be

32:51

handwritten and published out. My history dates

32:54

aren't great. But it was

32:56

more important that those letters

32:59

got out into the world and had his name attached

33:01

them. And, Ellie, you said secret key. I

33:03

just don't know what the key would be for,

33:06

unless... Well, what's... This is why

33:08

I should have written letters down, Tom. It

33:10

would not make a blind edit of it. C-E-I-I-N-O-S-S-S-T-T-U-V.

33:15

I am astonished at how well that

33:17

jingle worked, Tom. You weren't reading that.

33:19

I wrote it down. Oh.

33:22

Oh! No, I just defied your rule. He's

33:25

only had news on me. I'm enjoying it,

33:27

Tom. I just said you didn't need to.

33:29

You will not be able to deduce the

33:32

meaning of this. OK, so

33:34

it's not like if you were to shuffle those letters

33:36

around, they spell something out. No. That's

33:39

not what I said. I just said you won't be able

33:41

to work with that. So,

33:43

maybe it is that. It's totally

33:45

that. So, it's like a secret key and

33:48

if you figure it out, it's an

33:50

anagram. It's an anagram, yeah. It's

33:53

the location of the Declaration of Independence. Do

33:55

not try to solve the anagram. You

33:57

will not be able to solve the

34:00

anagram. I'm not working on it, I'm

34:02

not working on it. You

34:06

may be able to find other bizarre anagrams in

34:08

there, but you won't find the actual one because

34:10

it's in Latin. Oh, okay, fair enough. That

34:12

mix would feel better. Thank

34:15

you for saying that, because I would just be staring at

34:17

this for the next 10 minutes, otherwise.

34:20

Does anyone know who Robert Hook was? No.

34:23

Okay. And no. Pirate?

34:26

But it does have those pirate names. You would have found lots of words hooked there.

34:28

Yes. No! Robert!

34:31

A famously piratey name. Robert

34:37

Hook was a scientist, and lots of other

34:39

scientists use this technique as well. But

34:41

it's not chemical, it's not like elements. Oh,

34:44

it's Latin. Oh, oh. Scientific

34:46

Latin anagram. It was just

34:48

to like, make a patent for something, or like

34:50

to prove that you came up with something

34:53

but in a code? Yes.

34:57

Well, talk through it. Why

34:59

might that be the case? You wanted to

35:01

like... Edison is around stealing everyone's

35:03

idea. Is

35:06

this like, um... Is

35:08

this like the equivalent of like holding a newspaper

35:10

up in a picture or something? Yeah, Ella, Tom,

35:12

between the two of you, like it wasn't Edison,

35:14

it's a little early for Edison. But

35:17

yes, this was a way of him protecting

35:19

his work and saying, I got there first.

35:22

But why wouldn't he just publish it? Is

35:25

this like a proof or a chemical thing

35:27

that like, he

35:30

had to like still figure it out to solidify

35:32

it or he like wasn't sure? That's

35:35

it. That's the missing piece. Yes. He

35:38

needed to double check his work. He'd

35:40

had the idea. He'd done the first

35:42

experiment. But this is the 17th century.

35:46

Like, there's a lot of scientists

35:48

working on a lot of stuff.

35:50

So he puts out this anagram.

35:52

You can discover anything. Yeah, it

35:54

resolves to... Wow. I'm going

35:56

to butcher my Latin because I don't know Latin pronunciation, but

35:58

it resolves to 10CO6. this as

36:00

the extension so the force it

36:02

is a measure of elasticity that

36:04

became known as hooks law and

36:07

that is him going wow I

36:09

got that first if someone else

36:11

out there figures this out I

36:13

can reveal the anagram and

36:16

say actually this shows I got

36:18

here for that. Wow! Oh

36:20

that rule! That's really clever! Is

36:23

it because I could

36:25

say I could bring out an anagram

36:27

about anything and be like yeah I

36:29

invented this thing first. You'd

36:32

have to find something. Yeah it is also just a

36:34

phrase. It is a

36:36

phrase. It needs

36:38

to be difficult enough that someone's not

36:40

going to work out the anagram but

36:43

also simple enough that

36:45

it is obviously just about that when

36:47

it is resolved. Right, okay. These days

36:49

people use computer algorithms to reduce hashes

36:52

of particular things. There's a fancy couple

36:54

of times someone has just tweeted out

36:56

what looks like a random series of

36:58

letters and numbers but it

37:00

is a phrase that's been run through a particular

37:02

cypher so in future they can prove that they

37:04

knew a thing at a time. Hey

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37:37

Caroline, it is over to you. This

37:39

question has been sent in by Jacob. Lovers,

37:43

Casey and Richard hate to be apart

37:45

so they agree to think about each

37:47

other at a memorable time before they

37:49

go to sleep that evening. However,

37:51

Katie does this exactly 49 minutes

37:53

later than Richard. Why?

37:57

I'll say that again. Katie

38:00

and Richard hate to be apart, so they agree

38:02

to think about each other at a memorable time

38:04

before they go to sleep that evening. However,

38:08

Katie does this exactly 49 minutes later

38:11

than Richard. Why? Katie

38:13

doesn't love Richard as much. Katie's

38:16

just by 49 minutes. Katie's

38:18

just really bad at time management.

38:23

My immediate thought was time zones, but there's

38:25

no 49 minute time

38:27

zone that I can... There

38:30

is one 45 minute

38:32

one, I think, somewhere, unofficially. Is there? Is there?

38:34

It's in the middle of Australia. And it was

38:37

always going to be a video at some point

38:39

if I ever got there, but it is like

38:41

two days drive across the

38:43

Nullarbor plain. And it's called

38:46

the Nullarbor because there's nothing there. It's just

38:48

a straight road for day. And

38:51

it's this little town that is on the border of

38:53

two states and just split the difference

38:55

between them and had an unofficial time zone.

38:58

And it was not worth the effort

39:00

to drive out there for one video

39:03

that doesn't really have much visual about

39:05

it. It's a very

39:07

kind of early Tom Scott video that...

39:12

Well, here I am. And

39:14

when you look at it, look at the clock. Yeah.

39:17

That's a short few days.

39:21

I was thinking sunset. I was thinking that they both

39:23

agreed on something sunset,

39:25

but that seems like an obvious thing.

39:28

Well, because I was on the

39:30

wording like memorable event, I think

39:33

is the phrase you used before

39:35

bedtime. And so that does feel

39:37

sunset. Her watch was upside down. So she

39:40

didn't read it properly. I'm

39:43

really bad at reading analog, I'll be

39:45

honest. So yeah, that's like a classic

39:47

lateral thingy is like analog watch versus...

39:51

Wait, what did she both just say? Analog.

39:54

Analog watch. Interesting. Her

39:57

watch was slight. Is

40:00

it actually? I was going to say it's a joke.

40:02

I feel like that's like a... They were using a

40:05

sundial and like Tom said, the sun... they were in

40:07

different places and the sun hit differently. No,

40:10

it's nothing like that. But analogue

40:12

watches close somehow. It's

40:14

thinking about like, types

40:17

of watches or things like that, yeah.

40:19

Is there any way you can accidentally

40:21

have a clock upside down or something

40:23

like that and permute it so

40:26

that the numbers accidentally

40:28

read something similar? Like,

40:32

I don't know what that would be. Oh!

40:35

Like you read the minute hand and hour

40:37

hand backwards or something, you reverse them. No,

40:39

if it said like a digital clock, it'd

40:41

be like six and... well, what's four upside

40:43

down? That's not a thing, is it? But

40:45

it doesn't have to be 49. It could

40:47

be like half past four. Oh,

40:50

yeah. Oh, yeah, of course,

40:52

yeah. It could be like 18...

40:55

I'm drawing this in front of me and there's

40:57

got to be some sequence of

41:00

numbers where if you read it upside down or

41:02

in the mirror or something like that, it looks

41:04

like it's 49 minutes later. So

41:06

I think I've sent you down a bit of

41:08

a rabbit hole here by thinking specifically about analogue

41:11

clocks. You don't need to go quite that

41:13

far down, but thinking about like, what

41:16

they might be looking at rather than thinking

41:18

about like a specific time. Like they weren't

41:20

picking 11pm, you

41:23

know, they were looking at clocks.

41:25

Stars? Were they looking at a star?

41:28

Was one of them in space and they had

41:30

time dilation? Oh, they did! Were

41:34

they in different places

41:36

when a gravitational wave passed through them?

41:39

No! Nothing that exciting, Ella!

41:43

And it's not my rotation thing. OK,

41:45

fine. No, it's not your rotation thing.

41:47

Sorry, it's your clock. I've

41:49

lost the clock. It's an event,

41:51

a momentous event. Like New

41:54

Year's Eve. It's not

41:56

an event, Tom. It's a

41:58

memorable time. them before they

42:01

go to sleep that evening. Like

42:03

11-11? That's like a cute time.

42:06

Oh, that would be 49 minutes

42:09

before midnight. It's

42:11

not the fact that it's just before midnight. That's

42:14

wild, yeah. But thinking about different...

42:18

Oh, I don't want to give too much away, but Tom, you're really, really

42:20

close. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which Tom? Tom,

42:24

yeah. Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, yeah.

42:26

One of them is looking at... One of them

42:28

has 11-11 as the time in their head. Why

42:32

might the other person not have that in their head?

42:35

Did they think they meant 11? 11?

42:37

Don't forget, it should be 11.

42:39

11! These

42:43

are digital clocks though, right? These are like

42:46

numbers. Yeah. Oh,

42:48

okay. So why

42:50

might they have different numbers in their

42:52

head? Oh, they have different types of

42:54

military time, 24 hour time versus 12

42:56

hour. Yeah,

43:01

and so you are absolutely

43:03

spot on. 23-11. Wait, that doesn't make sense. Yeah,

43:08

that's more than 49 minutes, right?

43:12

Because... Oh, I'll leave you to try and

43:14

figure out that last little bit then. How

43:16

does that work with the 24

43:18

hour versus...? Think about 11-11.

43:24

Think about what that number looks like when you're

43:26

looking at it on a digital clock. Yeah.

43:31

Think about it on a 12 hour clock, 11-11. What does

43:33

that look like when you're looking at a clock? It's

43:36

a series of vertical lines. It's

43:38

1-1-1-1. 1-1-1-1. Yeah, uh-huh. And

43:42

then on a 24 hour clock it would be... is

43:44

it 23-1-1? So

43:48

on 1-1-1-1, all of them are the same.

43:52

Is it 23-23 or something? Or like 2-2-2-2? What

43:57

was that, Tom-Lum? 2-2-2-2. Yeah,

44:02

so shall I

44:04

explain it? Wait, one do it on 1111

44:06

and one on 2222? Yeah,

44:09

absolutely spot on. Of

44:12

course it is, because

44:14

if you go the other way, I said it was

44:16

49 minutes before midnight, of course it is, you go

44:18

49 minutes back, your two zeros change to 11. You

44:21

go 49 minutes back from that, of course they're going

44:24

to change to 2 and 2 as well. I was

44:26

right, I was going the wrong way. Yeah.

44:29

Absolutely spot on, yeah, yeah, yeah. When

44:32

all the numbers are the same. When all of the

44:34

numbers are the same, that was their memorable time.

44:36

They had both agreed to look at the clock

44:39

and think of each other when all of the

44:41

numbers on the clock were the same. One

44:43

of them had a digital clock that was

44:46

on the 12 hour clock, so it was 1111 and the

44:49

other had a 24 hour clock or a

44:51

military clock, so they helixed at it at

44:53

2222, so it's 49 minutes

44:56

apart. They still made their love

44:58

work in spite of that. I have no

45:01

differences. I cannot express

45:03

how dissatisfied I feel doing so.

45:08

Listen, love works in mysterious ways, when you

45:10

find it, you know. Which

45:16

leaves us with the question from the start of the

45:18

show, thanks to Gerhard Katarius for sending this in. What

45:21

gadget for removing irritation translates to

45:23

not seeking help from others in

45:25

Chinese? A back scratcher.

45:27

Yes, it's a back scratcher.

45:31

Oh! Spot on, then. Oh!

45:33

Wow, Tom, take all the fun out of it. It's

45:36

genetic! Yeah,

45:42

I asked our question team to double

45:44

and triple and quadruple check this, because

45:46

it sounds like one of those weird

45:48

anecdotes about isn't the Chinese language funny,

45:50

but no, the three characters in Back

45:52

Scratcher, if you break it down, it

45:54

is not to seek and person, not

45:57

seeking help from others. I do. Wow!

46:00

Oh, it was two on me, so that makes

46:02

sense. I

46:05

literally was like thinking back to

46:07

my dad and my grandparents. It

46:10

might have actually helped, because that

46:12

is a thing. Thank

46:15

you very much to all of our three players. Where

46:18

can people find you? What's going on with

46:20

the show? We'll start today with Caroline. You

46:22

can find us. We are Let's Learn Everything and

46:25

you can find our podcast, all

46:27

of our socials, our Discord server on

46:29

letslearneverything.com. Tom, what kind

46:31

of things can they find there? You can

46:33

find a lot of stuff similar to the

46:35

show. We've covered birds in space. We've

46:38

covered speed running. And very

46:40

recently we also talked about copyright.

46:43

So that could be something similar

46:45

to the, we didn't cover that

46:47

that codex that Robert Hook had,

46:49

but we cover similar stuff. And Ella, you

46:51

can't tell me what's coming up. Why not?

46:54

Because every episode we surprise

46:57

each other with wonderful and

46:59

interesting science, miscellaneous topics. And

47:02

if you want to know more about

47:04

this show, you can do that at

47:06

lateralcast.com. We are at lateralcast, basically everywhere

47:08

on the internet. And you can see

47:11

video highlights at youtube.com/lateralcast. Thank

47:13

you very much to Caroline Roper. Alahaba.

47:16

Tom Lom. I've

47:20

been Tom Scott. That's been Mario. This

47:23

has been lateral.