Lateral with Tom Scott - 10: The day that cost $700m

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

Marques Brownlee, Wren Weichman and Hayley Loren discuss questions about clever communications, ridiculous registrations and distant destinations. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://www.lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. RECORDED AT & EDITED BY: The Podcast Studios, Dublin. EDITOR: Julie Hassett. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Josh Halbur, Ben Justice, Lewis Tough, Arun Uttamchandani, Eglė Vaškevičiūtė. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Need a great reason to get up in the morning? Well, what about two? Right now, get a small, organic Fairtrade coffee and a tasty bacon and egger breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. One weekend, I noticed that there are four different days in the week that begin with the letter T. What are they? The answer to that frustrating question at the end of the show. I'm Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. As always, I've brought with me an orchestra of three people, and we're going to see if they can think their way to making beautiful, problem-solving music together.

Joining me are, from the Fearless STEM Careers podcast and BBC Earth, How Did They Build That? Hayley Loren. Hello. From Corridor Digital Corridor crew and the Corridor cast, Wren Whiteman. How's it going? Thanks for having me. And from the MKBHD channel and the Waveform podcast, Marcus Brownlee. Hello, hello. Thank you very much for joining me, folks. We are going to go straight into question one. Our questions are lateral thinking. They're like crabs. They move sideways, and once you crack them,

they're quite tasty. Sorry. I love it. I was going to try and say that with a straight face. I just didn't quite get through it. You had no hope. Did you write that?

Did you write that one? No, of course I didn't. I've got to... Our producer wrote that, and I'm sure he's very proud of himself. As always, no prizes, no points. It is just for bragging rights and reputation. So with the best of luck to you, here's the first question of the day. According to the Stress Management Centre in North Carolina, USA, an estimated $700 million of US business was lost on May the 13th, 2005. The situation was three times worse in 2009, 2012, and 2015. Why is that?

I'll give you that again. According to the Stress Management Center, North Carolina, an estimated $700 million of US business was lost on May 13th, 2005. The situation was three times worse in 2009, 2012, and 2015. Why is that? Okay, that happened every three years. Was it three times worse each successive time? So then nine times worse and then 27 times worse? No, just three times worse than 2005 on those years.

It was the same May 3rd date on each of those years? Or it was just during that year? No, it was May 13th, 2005. And then the situation was three times worse years later. So something really good happened every three years then. And progressively better if it was a stress management company that lost money. Oh, no, no. Surely people are very happy.

I realise now... Have I missed this completely? That is ambiguously phrased. The stress management centre does not have nearly three quarters of a billion dollars revenue. This is an estimation of the loss to the US economy on May 13th, 2005. Oh, so the opposite.

Yes, unfortunately. I would love there to be a stress management company that has that sort of revenue and everyone is just really relaxed. I guess I've seen stories of like, like a search engine goes down or something. And then for those 10 hours or however long it was down, could buy things or nobody nobody's ads were working or whatever but yeah i'm not sure if that would happen every three years specifically because i was thinking what if it had something to do with like some time-based thing it can't be leap years because that's every four years um didn't like the the major there were major crashes and recessions so there was one in 2009.

And then wasn't there like a partial double dip recession in 2012? I mean, I'd be surprised if these did something that big. But you're right about there being some sort of repeating pattern here. I wonder if it's... So collectively lost money for the entire country. So they're probably like measuring a bunch of like tiny intangibles, like productivity or something like that. Maybe they, cause I think I've seen something about,

we lose a lot of productivity after or like we lose a lot of sleep after, say, the clocks change. What's it in May? Yes. Daylight savings. Daylight savings, yeah. But that's every year, not every three years. Oh, true. But the time shifts slightly, I think, every year.

I mean, the problem would have happened in other years as well. It's just it was three times worse those years. Was that because it fell on a Monday or something? Oh, funny you say that. Ah, that's just it was three times worse those years. Was that because it fell on a Monday or something? Oh, funny you say that. That's definitely it. If it falls on a weekday, it's going to hit worse than if it falls on a... Although daylight savings is usually a weekend, no? Yeah, isn't it always a Sunday?

One of my issues with this is I'm not sure it lost the US economy, as more moved it. They said it lost. I think it more moved things to other days. Uh-huh. Okay. I'm going down the path of one hour lost every year, or every daylight savings. It's not daylight savings. That's not May.

It wouldn't have happened three more times. But you're right that it is a repeating pattern. And I've left one very important bit of information out of that question. Gee, thanks. It would also be the answer to the question, unfortunately. So is it linked to the people themselves or is it an external factor that happens every three years? It's an external factor.

It is to do with repeating patterns. It's to do with the calendar. So the days of the week fall on different days of the month every year. Like every three years is a leap year? But a leap year is every four years. Oh. Right. Yeah, and this is every three. And that's every three. This is 2009,

12, and 15. So this is something that happened once in 2005 and three times in those other years. It'll have happened other times as well, but it happened three times in those years oh oh i miss i thought you're saying it was three times worse not three additional times oh um crazy i have no idea you which is you are so close. You were nearly saying it a moment ago.

May 13th? Oh, is it Friday the 13th? And that's it. Ah! May the 13th, 2005 is Friday the 13th. The Stress Management Centre said, well, that costs $700 million because people don't buy stuff. They don't travel. They don't drive the car. They don't go to meetings.

They put off things. They don't drive the car. They don't go to meetings. They put off things. And 2009, 2012, 2015 all had three Friday the 13th's. So according to the Stress Management Center, that is three times worse those years. That's incredible. I do know that every month that starts on a Sunday has a Friday the 13th. I did not know it happened that much.

Yeah. Wow. My wife is a nurse and she says that on the hospital floor, there's a couple, couple times throughout the year, all of her patients go crazy. And it's whenever there's a full moon or it's Friday, the 13th, and it seems completely stupid. Like I don't believe in that sort of thing. And yet she's like, I don't either. Why do all my patients consistently be crazy on those days? Yeah, I've heard that from a friend of mine who's in medical industry as well.

It's like something on full moons and Friday the 13th makes a difference. Is it like a placebo effect though, where people feel like they're allowed to act more crazy? So they unleash their inner craze? Yeah, I can believe that. I'd believe that, yeah. So yes, the Stress Management Centre said that $700 million of US business

was lost because of Friday the 13th. And it was three times worse those years because there were three more Friday the 13ths. Now the tables are turned. One of our guests is going to take over as the host. As ever, I do not know the question. I definitely don't know the answer. I'm going to start this time with Hayley. What's your question, please?

Well, I hope you like cars. So, a Californian car bears the registration plate 710ON. What type of car is it and why? I'm going to do the thing where I go, I've got the answer to this and I'm going to shut up thing where I go, I've got the answer to this and I'm going to shut up. You would know the answer to this. No, because I'm going to shut up about

why and everything. I'm going to let you two handle that because... You probably did some sort of video about this two and a half years ago and it's still sticking around in your head. I'll explain it later. If I explain it more, I will give you the answer. So this one's on you, Marques and Ren. So license plates usually have more characters than that,

unless they're vanity plates. I think. Usually they're like eight characters long, not six. Or five, I guess, right? It could be some sort of government vehicle. Is it an emergency vehicle? Like a fire truck? I do know that there's certain like yeah there's certain signifiers like in the in new york every uh commercial car like a taxi or an uber

starts with o i think so like starting with a certain number in california i don't know exactly what the rules are but 7 11 say it again what it again, what was it? 710-ON? ON, yeah. N for November. Okay, so I could just, I mean, it probably stands for something. Isn't the 710 a highway in California too? What types of vehicles are there? Motorcycles? Cars? Motorcycles.

Hmm. Dirt bikes? Vans. Non-motorized vehicles? Three. Four. So this is probably some sort of classification about a specific type of vehicle. And I don't know.

I feel like that's something I would have to look up. You know, it's like unless the hint is in the name of the license or rather is the license plate name number does that actually give us the hint on what type of vehicle it is i would say that it's not important in terms of classification there's important information in all of it but the 710 specifically i wouldn't get so hung up on the number. But it is a three digit number. Are they like the 710th something in California? I don't know. I'm trying to think of what there could be 700 of in California, like school districts or something.

hundred of in california like school districts or something that could be 710 uh golf courses there's probably a lot more than 710 fire stations okay forget the 710 specifically let's say i like what you you, so near the beginning, you said something about how many digits are in a normal number plate and what a shorter number plate might mean as well. Because I've seen like those government vehicles that look kind of like a police car, but kind of not.

And it says like CA exempt or whatever on it. You are exactly right, Ren, that this is a vanity plate. Assuming that I've not completely got some coincidental answer here, you were exactly right run that this is a vanity plate assuming that i've not completely got some coincidental answer here you're absolutely right this was a chosen vanity plate oh sorry i didn't hear you say that before a real is it is this a current plate or historical it is a current plate yeah so is somebody boasting so maybe this dude has 700 something somethings starting with o and n o and n might be the initials of whatever this is the yeah he has 710 orange nuggets oh i like that. Can I give another hint?

Although the hint would be like a big hint, maybe. So, I mean, are we on kind of the right path here in terms of like... I'm going to come in with a thing here. And there's a reason that I got this immediately. And it's nothing to do with knowledge they already had and nothing to do with anything like that. It's the fact that I'm holding a pen.

Oh, whoa. Huh. And I was taking notes. Well, you can't take notes with a pen if you don't have hands. This guy might be an amputated a doctor who does amputation i thought that was just a threat i thought i thought that was just a threat no i was just taking notes as a question came out and uh just sort of got it it could help oh should i draw seven Loon, seven Loon, Sloon. N-O-O-L-K. N-O-O-L.

Nools. Nools. Nool. Nook. N-O-O-L-T, maybe? I know this is primarily audio, but for those of you who are just in audio, I wish you could see the looks on Hayley and my faces right now, because it's so close.

It's so close. We're so close. It's so close. It's so close. Marques, we got this. We have to get it. We have to get it. I'm drawing it in front of me. So 7-1-0-0-N. 0-0-N is obvious, right?

0-0-N is O-O-N, theoretically. So what is a 7-1? So 7-1, to to me could be a k backwards i need to write it down hold on let me open my notes app are you using an ipad to write this down yeah 7-1-0-0-n you tried reflecting it, and you've tried reading it backwards. Yep. Okay, if I go upside down with it, that's N.

Upside down is still N. O-O. Null. Null. Can't enclave. Seven. Seven would become an L upside down. Yes.

But the... Null? Null? Noile? Noile? Is the one an I or an L upside down. Yes. But the... Noil? No-I-L? Is the one an I or an L as well? Think cars. Newly married? Newly... It's a California car.

Newly... You've literally got it. It's N-O-O-I-L. What do you have to put in some cars? No oil? Yes! Oh my God! Yes! I've seen this one before in some cars? No oil? Yes! Oh my God! Yes, I've seen this one before so many times.

No oil, this is on an electric car. The most cliche of electric car license plate jokes ever. And I couldn't guess it. I've probably seen this car. That's brutal. The first thing I did was, the only reason I got that immediately, I would have been flailing around in the dark as well,

as I just wrote down those, well, that's got all my notes on it, but I wrote down those letters, and my brain just did the inverse, like, oh, no, I've got this, that's a pun. So, sorry, folks. The looks on your face. I've not seen you that angry, Ren. I should have gotten it! You were, like, so there as well for so long.

Oh, man. I was going to say it earlier because we were talking about vanity plates. There is somebody in California with the MKBHD license plate on their car. I don't know who they are or when they got this plate, but it exists somewhere over there. And it is a Tesla. And I was going to bring that up, but I never said it. But now that would have been even weirder. That is specifically the answer.

It's on a Tesla. And it says no oil. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Spring is a great time to start a new workout routine. With the weather warming up, it feels easier to get into the rhythm of things. Whether you have 20 minutes or an hour for a Pilates class or an outdoor guided walk, Peloton has everything you need to help you get going. Get a head start on summer with Peloton

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Come shop the world right here in our aisles with more ways to save at the Super Welcome Store. Real Canadian Superstore. Yeah. Next question is from me. I think Ren is still angry about the last one, so we'll move on. This one is a lot shorter and a lot quicker. Why did some British police forces start giving out free lollipops? I'll give you that again.

Why did some British police forces start giving out free lollipops? Is this when it was a massive heat wave and it was so, so hot and 40 degrees and everybody needed ice lollies? I went to the train station to get a train and people just kept handing me ice cream and it was amazing. No, but I saw both the Americans' brows furrow for a moment when you said it was really hot and 40 degrees. I know, Celsius.

Yeah, that would be Celsius. Yeah. Yeah. No, this is a story from 2011 that one police force tried really hot and 40 degrees? I know, Celsius. Yeah, that would be Celsius. Yeah. Yeah. No, this is a story from 2011 that one police force tried and then a few others rolled this out. Everyone was being a little too bitter about their lives,

so they tried to sweeten it up. It's the only thing I got. I like that. Okay, but what is the purpose of a lollipop, though, right? It's a sugary substance someone licks on for 10 minutes, and then it's done. Why would they hand those out for free?

Sometimes they have gum in the middle. But maybe not all of them. Some of them. To cheer people up? It sounds like they're trying to cheer people up. And maybe, so some police forces tried it, and it worked, so some more of them did it. But why were they, I mean,

lollipops seems like I was going to say they're arresting a bunch of kids and they're like, Oh, we kept lollipops in the back of the car, but that's kind of dark. The back of their white van. Yeah. Is it? I always remember when I was young that my mom would always say,

you know, stranger danger and never take lollipops of a stranger. So were these police officers pretending not to be police officers and testing whether kids were actually following them? It's not that, but I know way, way back when I was at university, at some point the local, I guess the US translation would be like RAs, the kids whose job it was to keep an eye on the halls of residence, on the dorms, would check people's doors, like knock and see if they could get into an unattended room.

They'd just kind of leave a sticker behind that said, I could have nicked your laptop or something like that. Unfortunately, not quite that sort of thing. But you're all right in that it was a behaviour type of thing. It was trying to get people to do something. To shut up. Well, you say that, Ren. Yeah.

Yes. That was the goal. Why would they want that to happen? This happened in 2011. Yeah, I mean, it could have happened have happened anytime i'm sure some of them are still doing it some sort of like political speech perhaps like a pacifier well i mean you you're not far away you've you've lasered in on this fairly quickly there's there's one key element that's missing which is why would why would the police be trying to get people to shut up?

Were people filming something really important and then there was a crowd and they were shouting? No. Was there a noise complaint? There might well have been, yeah. You've got to remember also this is, particularly for the Americans, this is sort of British community support police. So it's not necessarily investigating

a crime or anything like that. It is trying to quite literally keep the peace. Was there like a concert and it was too loud for the neighbourhood? And they're like, all right, everyone stop yelling. Put this in your mouth. Oh, you're so nearly there. You are so, so nearly there. Yeah. It's absolutely trying to get a big group to be quiet. But there is a particular reason and location and a reason why this would particularly work right then. Is it some sort of a tourist location where people are making noise and the residents want them to be quiet? So the police hand them lollipops and now it's quieter at that location?

Yes, it's not a specific location. It's a place and time. Not like a specific one, but just when you have a rowdy crowd waking people up. Football? It's as quiet as my head go there. Man, this says something about the personal lives and entertainment lives of folks who are on YouTube and doing podcasts right now. I will say that I have seen this firsthand once. Whoa.

Nightclubs? Yes. Just that night? Absolutely. Spot on. The police, as the nightclub was kicking out, as a big group of rowdy drunk people went out into the night, the police handed out lollipops to try and keep people quiet while they got away and didn't wake up the residents. You are absolutely right.

Wow. That was a lovely team effort from people there. Wow. Wow. That's really interesting. That makes a lot of sense. I never had that. Whenever I went back in the day when I used to go clubbing,

I never had that. Yeah, apparently it happened first in Canada. The reference we've got is from Britain in 2011. But yes, I have once left a nightclub. 2011 was after I left university. So honestly, I'm not sure which one it was or where it was, but I was given a lollipop as I left as kind of a, could you just stay quiet for

a bit? And equally, in some cases, the nightclubs started paying for themselves because it was just better than getting all the noise complaints from the residents down the road. Dang. So yes, in 2011, a few British police forces started giving out lollipops to get nightclub goers to shut up after they left. Time for the tables to be turned again. We're going to Ren for this question, and as ever, I've got no clue what this is. So, when you're ready, it's over to you. Alrighty. In 2012, the athlete Maria Dimitrienko from Kazakhstan won a gold medal at an

international shooting competition. However, a mistake at the medal ceremony caused her country's team to complain, so the ceremony was restaged. What went wrong? A mistake at the medal ceremony? I'll say this one more time. So in 2012, the Olympics, uh, I hope I'm pronouncing this name correctly. Maria Dmytryenko from Kazakhstan won a gold medal at an international shooting competition. Uh, international shooting competition. International shooting competition. I was presuming it was the Olympics. Perhaps it's not.

However, a mistake at the medal ceremony caused her country's team to complain. So the ceremony was restaged. What was the reason for the restaging? There's a bunch of things that happen at the medal ceremony. I think National Anthem is always one of them. They might have played the wrong one or something. They could have also pronounced their name wrong, which would be, you know, rough. But I don't know if they would restage the whole thing for that.

Did they, you know how you stand on those podiums? Did they like mess up the flag or like put them on the wrong podium or something like that? Yeah, I feel like there's a limited number of things that can go wrong at the medal ceremony, unless you bring the medals in by, like, eagle and it flies off with them. There's not much.

Are we anywhere close? Perhaps. I think it's important to note that Dmitryenko had not been expected to win, so the tournament organizers were not really prepared for it. Oh, they've... Did they not have the flag? Did they just not have

flag or anything ready and they had to like just improvise it with someone else's? Yeah, if you're not expected to win, sometimes they're like pre-set some different

version of the ceremony. Like a lot of trophies will have like the name of the winner carved in it right as they're walking off the final thing or whatever. But I don't... What year was this?

This was in 2012. Okay, so I was weirdly, for some reason, I was going to say Napster. Someone went on YouTube and downloaded the wrong national anthem because they typed the wrong country or something because they were panicking. You're giving me a look into the camera there. because they were panicking. You're giving me a look into the camera there. I mean, this happened to the winner. It wouldn't have happened to second or third place.

It's got to be flag or anthem. It's got to be. Surely, Ren. I mean, yes, you're on the right course. Absolutely the correct course. Is it something to do with the medal itself? Did they not have the appropriate gold medal or the wrong one? I believe she received the correct medal. Okay.

What was the country? Kazakhstan. He's smiling. Ren's got a smile on his face. There's a clue there. All right. Kazakhstan is very relevant. Do we know what the flag is? I don't know. It's the sort of thing that a quiz nerd would know immediately, but I don't have the Kazakhstan's the sort of thing that a quiz nerd would know immediately, but I don't have the Kazakhstan flag or national anthem in my head. Yeah. Does anyone know what the Kazakhstan

national anthem is? I mean, it's going to be to the tune of God Save the Queen. They all are, but. Yeah, I have no idea. That's a good question. Kazakhstan. That's the biggest hint you can have. Kazakhstan. I can't believe this actually happened. Did they play a different country's national anthem? Hmm. Close. Is it like an internet prank thing where there is like a wrong version of Kazakhstan's national anthem and they just like, like someone quickly Googled it and went, oh my God, we're just going to play this out.

Who do you think might have made a different kazakhstan anthem oh it wasn't like bull rats kazakhstan's anthem was it it must have been ren's got a smirk on his face no no way i can't believe it instead of Instead of the actual Kazakhstan national anthem being played, a parody anthem from Borat was played at this event. So, of course, Maria Dmytryenko was a little upset over that. Yeah. Of course. Understandably.

Oh, my goodness. Wow. I don't know if there was malicious intent here or not. Like maybe it was exactly what you said. Like, oh, what is the anthem? We didn't expect her to win. YouTube it. Here's.

Oh, yeah. Kazakhstan anthem. Cool. That is so bad. Somebody got fired. So, yes. Somebody got fired. So yes, in 2012, Maria Dementchenko from Kazakhstan won a shooting competition and they weren't really prepared for it. So the anthem they played was from the movie Borat. Very controversial film at the time, makes fun of Kazakhstan quite a bit.

So, of course, her team was not pleased and they had to restage the ceremony. The last big question from me then, one left from a guest, but the last big one from me, why might a company advertise a telephone number that is one digit longer than its actual number? I'll give you that again. Why might a company advertise a telephone number that is one digit longer than its actual number? I believe that it won't actually input the last number. So maybe they want it to like spell a word and you spell the word and it's got an extra letter, but like, doesn't matter. You type the right number anyway.

Well, yes, that is the correct answer. Okay. Whoa, my cats. Tight. Wow, okay. Here I was thinking they just, like, didn't want anyone to actually call them. Normally we have some discussion at this point, but Marcus, your knowledge of telephone exchange protocol

means that you got that exactly right immediately. Yeah, 1-800-MATRESS is one letter too long, but it doesn't matter because by the time you press the second S, it's through. 1-800-CONTACTS, there's all sorts of numbers like that where they just add an extra one. It's called vanity over dial. So, cool.

Well, that question got beaten. Congratulations. I'll just screw that up and we will move on. Yay, come on, guys. Which means we move on very rapidly. Marques, it's your question. Take it away. All right. Here's a fun one. Metallica's tour took 11,592 days to do this.

Cola Alramethi did this in just over three and a half days. What was the feat? So let me give you one more time. So Metallica's tour took 11,592 days to do this. Kola Al-Ramaythi did it in three and a half

days. What did they do? I'm pretty sure I know this because I know a notable thing. If you think you know it, do you want to take that risk and just leave Hayley and me to go for this? Because we've already lost one question to Marques just getting

it right. If you want to take the gamble on this, write down your answer. We'll see if we get it. Okay. I'm going to write down what I think the answer is, and it has everything to do with the final concert of Metallica. I was going to say down what i think the answer is and it has everything to do with uh the final concert of metallica i was gonna say is it metallica specific okay final concert but the final concert of this feat is notable okay ren ren has metallica knowledge and has got this it's on Yeah. 11,592 days. I mean, that is, I mean, back of the envelope maths, that is 30 years?

Yeah. Yeah, that's correct. But we know from Ren, it's something about the last bit of the tour. They completed a feat. Yes. What sort of things do bands do on tour? Get drunk. Have fun.

Bike the head off a bat. It's the wrong group. But it took... So it's something that can be done in three and a half days, but can also take 25, 30 years. But it's a feat. So it's an accomplishment, is it? Yeah, it's not like they suddenly started crowd surfing or something like that.

Could they have done this on day one, Marques? Or is this something you'd have to have worked up to and built up to? This could not have been done on day one, and they did have to work up to this, yeah. All right. But then it can also be done in three and a half days. So is this the loudest cheer or something like that in decibels? Breaking the world record or something like that for the loudest crowd, loudest amplifier. Or the loudest guitar solo.

It's funny you mention a world record. record. Okay. Largest, biggest crowd? Something like that? Did they, what was the other band person's name? So Metallica took 11,592 days to do this. Kaola El-Ramethi did this in three and a half days. So it does need to build up as well. Three and a half days to rattle through something that can be done in 25. Is it like accumulating something here? I am nodding. Okay. So what can you accumulate that slowly or that quickly? Out of interest as well, is Kaula, is she in a similar area as Metallica?

Is she like heavy metal, heavy rock? No. She is the master of puppets. Yeah. What they've both done is very impressive. Some might assume reasonably costly. Both parties were recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. Is it something specifically to do with Metallica?

Could any band have done this or is it quite specific to Metallica? Any band could have done this, but Metallica was the right band to do it. Okay, so it's pretty crazy. It's pretty crazy. Ramethi, is that the same genre of music or is this like something completely different? Ramethi is not playing music. She wasn't even performing. Oh, I should have asked that question a lot earlier.

Okay. That kind of changed my thought a little bit here. Oh, this. Oh, a tiny bit. I can tell you're still correct, but you might be learning about Carla. Yeah, I think that's it. I didn't know about her. Okay.

Oh! Remember, it took them that long to do the tour. Most locations in a tour? Like, Ramayfi just did a whistle-stop tour around 100 stadiums in three and a half days? Oh, you're warmer. You're very warm. Okay. Going around every single warm. Okay.

Going round every single country. Spicy. You're hotter. Spicy. I like that. Wait, Metallica had a single tour that lasted 25 years? More or less. Their touring career.

Okay. Okay, so visiting every single country, or every single city in the world. Every single state, every single something, every city, every arena. They've completed a grand slam of something in the world. And the look on your face, Marques, is that we cannot identify the damned something. They've managed to do every... So again, Carla did this in three and a half days really impressive guinness world record and what metallica were the first to ever do it and so she's the fastest and they're the first okay okay is it more impressive kala doing it in three and a half days in a physical sense yes metallica did this so walking

oh you're so close to every single country just keep going down that trail running around every single country um literally walking around the world running around the world help Help me, Tom! I don't know! I don't know! This is deeply, deeply frustrating. Oh, man. Ren, you might have to just save us here. There's one

specific location that makes it very difficult to complete this challenge. Hawaii. Space. The... Under the sea um antarctica playing in every continent that's it that is it that is the one oh that was like pulling teeth oh my goodness i wrote concert on every continent but perhaps concert isn't the correct word since uh this other performer didn't sing or perform music so kala simply had to she simply had to visit all

seven continents in three and a half days which is incredibly impressive, which is the fastest that anyone's ever done it. So Metallica's concert started in Anaheim, California, March 14th, 1982. And in 2013, they played their final concert for 120 scientists and competition winners in a transparent dome in Antarctica. The concert was called Freeze Them All. That's so cool. So it wasn't a performance. It was just getting

to all the continents. Metallica did it first and she did it fastest. Metallica did it first and she did it fastest. So they completed that same feat. That's so cool.

Kala's route, by the way, unbelievable. Kala started in Antarctica, then did Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas before setting foot in Oceania. Dang. Wow.

I would have expected Antarctica to be the last one because that is like you do all these ones that are close together then go to Antarctica. That's far away. No, because you don't want

the plane to have to wait for you. You do the difficult journey first and you start the clock just as the wheels go up. Yeah. Sounds like you've done this before. I love that it's for the scientists as well, because yeah, all of those folks who are out in Antarctica, they don't come back for six months or even a year because they can't get

access to them. It's amazing. In fact, being in Antarctica is almost being more distant and further away than if you go to space because there's more communication in space. Yeah, super isolated. But less Metallica. Yeah, exactly. So Metallica's tour took 11,592 days to perform in all seven continents.

And as we know now, Ramethi was able to visit all seven in three and a half days. Both world records. One last order of business then, folks, which is the deliberately frustrating riddle of a question that I got at the start of this, which is that one weekend I noticed that there were four different days in the week that begin with the letter T. What are they?

And I just, I feel like I should have put, this is the audience question. I'm not going to ask you to pour over it for ages, but does anyone have any ideas what the little trick in here is? There's only two, there's only two days in the week that start with T, Tuesday and Thursday. Yes.

Unless there's Tunday and Tatterday. There's clearly a trick here. And I'm pointing out that I said that this was noticed on the weekend. The weekend. Days of the week. So there are some other words you can use to describe days. Oh, thirsty... Oh, no, that is thirsty Thursday.

Thirsty Thursday. Thirsty Thursday. The top of the week. But you're thinking the right... With top of the week and with 30th... I can't really let you have 30th and 31st. That wouldn't work. But there is some other words being used to describe days of the week here. So there's Tuesday, Thursday. There's probably two more fun tricks. You use these words all the time. Oh, that's definitely something for Friday then. On the weekend.

Yeah, this is just a really, really riddly horrible question. It's going to be some sort of, okay, you said it's a common word we use frequently, so it's probably not some sort of...

You'll have used, you'll have used it today, you'll use it tomorrow. Oh, that's it, today and tomorrow. Yes, it is. It is. I knew I was going to get

more anger out of that from Ren. It is Tuesday, Thursday, today, and tomorrow. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's in my script. That is infuriating. Blame our question editors for that one. That's a good one, though.

I like that one. Thank you very much. With that, tell us what's going on in your world. Marques, let's start with you. Where can people find you? I'm out here making tech videos on the internet slash MKBHD anywhere.

That's me. Hayley, go for it. You can find me on the Fearless STEM Careers podcast if you're a scientist, an engineer, or anybody working in STEM. And I am at the Hayley Loren.

And Ren, what have you got going on? You can find me at Corridor, Corridor Crew. We do a lot of filmmaking videos, technology, AI-driven stuff. It's pretty fun. That is our show for today. Thank you so much.

Ren, I'm sorry for making you so, so angry there. If you want to know more about the show or send in a question, you can do that at lateralcast.com. You can find us at Lateral Cast on basically everywhere, and you can catch video highlights of the show at youtube.com slash Lateral Cast. Thank you to Ren Weichmann. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'll never forget no oil.

To Marques Brownlee. See you later, y'all. And to Hayley Lorraine. Thank you so much. It's been super fun. Thank you very much. I've been Tom Scott and this has been Lateral.