Lateral with Tom Scott - 12: The most-kissed woman in history

Episode Date: December 30, 2022

Trace Dominguez, Nahre Sol and Jordan Harrod face questions about crafty candidates, protective parking and goofy glasses. 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

What is the hottest thing in the known universe? The answer to that, at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Joining me for their second appearance today, we have, working on her PhD in medical engineering and medical physics, and casually running a YouTube channel on the side about AI, Jordan Harrod. Hey, thanks for having me. From his own YouTube channel and from the theory of awesome Trace Dominguez.

Hello, yes, I am from those things. And musician, composer, pianist and YouTuber, Nare Sol. Hello, happy to be here. We have another set of tricky questions for our players today to give them the best exercise their brains can find outside some kind of mystical brain gym that I don't want to think about too hard. Very best of luck to you all, we start with this. After Helen finishes work, everything she sees turns slightly purple for a few minutes, even though no one else around her is affected the same way. What is her occupation?

I'll say that one more time. After Helen finishes work, everything she sees turns slightly purple for a few minutes, even though no one else around her is affected the same way. What is her occupation? For a minute there, I thought Helen had, like, a brain tumor or something, but it doesn't seem like that's what it is. There spoke the medical engineering student. Yeah. I was like, Helen should go see a doctor about that. I mean, just in general, Helen should go see a doctor.

I mean, just in general, Helen should go see a doctor. Like, everybody should once in a while go see a doctor. Get your annual physicals. Get your checkups. It's important things. Have a PCP. I don't know what a PCP is. I only know that PCP is a drug. Well, under

the guidance of your doctor, maybe. Primary care physician. Your point person. We'd call that a GP. All right. Is it because she's wearing those 3D glasses and the screen turns off, so now the red and the blue, it looks purple? You're not quite there, certainly it's certainly along those

lines it's certainly about the the perception of color rather than the color itself yeah when my first thought it was when you look at bright things or like at you know when you're looking through say i don't know like you're a gemologist or something and you're looking at bright lights or you're looking at a light panel and you look away from it, it does look kind of your vision goes all funny. And part of that is, you know, I have always perceived it as purple, but I never assume anybody works the same way because humans are messy. But that's that was what I thought is like, oh, she was looking at a really bright light all day and then she turned away from the bright light

and everything was kind of purple. You're certainly along the right lines here. I'm not gonna give you more hints at this point because you're definitely closer than you might expect already. Hmm, no one else is affected because it's just her perception. So that we've got, we definitely got that nailed down.

Well, it's more, there's no one else with, there's no one else around her at this point. Hmm. Okay. What's the opposite of purple on the color wheel? You were looking at something that was... Yellow? Yeah. Green? What's the opposite of purple you are right there trace the the opposite thing on the color wheel is green oh well i'm impressed with myself if nothing else i won that so what would she be looking at that is green right because

when you ever done done those visual tricks where you're like, look at the American flag, and then look at this white piece of paper, and now you see the opposite colors. So she's looking at something that's green all day, and then she turns away and she sees purple things. What could she be looking at all day that's green? Trees? Grass?

Does she have a scythe? Is she looking at a green screen all day? Why might she be doing that? Is she a video editor or a filmer or something? She works. She's an anchorwoman? Absolutely right. She's a newswoman. Yeah, she's an anchorwoman.

Yep, she's in one of those virtual studios that they use for news. Everything around her is painted green. The walls to the side are painted green because the camera's tracking everything. She is the only person in the giant green room instead of a set. So when she walks out that room, everything's purple for just a little while. Wow. That's so interesting. That really happens.

I want to experience that. I would recommend staring at something green for a long time. Yeah. Part of the reason for it, and the reason I wasn't quite accepting any other answer, is it's the studio lighting as well. It's this massive, bright green thing

that your eyes get used to. The same way if you walk into a room that is lit with daylight bulbs at night, it'll seem really blue. Your eyes just adjust to what's around you. So yes, Helen is a... We actually had weather presenter, but anyone who works in a big virtual studio spends a lot of time staring at a green screen.

Their vision will go a little bit purple for a little while after they leave. Which brings us to our first guest question. As usual, I have no idea what the question is. I don't know the answer. I've not seen it before either, so I'm just as much in the dark as everyone else. We're going to go to Nari first this time. What have you got for us? Okay.

A factory made a range of furniture for a particular company that was 20% smaller than full size. The furniture is not for petite people, and in fact, it's unlikely it will receive much use at all. What was its purpose? And I'll say it one more time. A factory made a range of furniture for a particular company that was 20% smaller than full size. The furniture is not for petite people, and in fact, it's unlikely it will receive much use at all. What was its purpose? I am tempted to do the thing where I write down a guess and sit out the question,

because I think I know this, but I'm not confident enough to actually do that there so I'm just going to go for this I'm going to take a punt on this and take a guess which is that there used to be movie sets that were built at smaller scales so uh like the the set for Coronation Street which is a British soap opera, the outside was at like two-thirds scale or something like that. The actors had to walk more slowly, so it looked right on camera when they were outside. It was cheaper and no one noticed. They used to do set tours and everyone was disappointed. So is this furniture for false perspective stuff in movies

or something like that? Very close. Very close. The false perspective stuff in movies or something like that? That's what I was thinking too. Very close. Very close. The false perspective thing. Okay. I'm glad I didn't gamble on that. Not for movies, but very close.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. It's like 20% smaller. It has to be a little bit in the background or a little bit further away from you. But it's a range of furniture as well. Yeah. And it's unlikely it of furniture as well. Yeah. And it's unlikely it will receive much use at all. And it won't receive much use.

So this is why I was thinking movies again. I was thinking like a museum or a theme park where like the furniture sits there and it's just far enough away. Like you go to a theme park and they want you to make you feel like the castle is taller than it is or like the town is bigger than it is but it's really just getting you know the forced perspective as the buildings get smaller as you get closer to the castle or you

know you put them 10 feet away but you make them look with their size like they're 15 feet away so you force people to believe things but is the whole range like exactly 20% smaller? That seems, well, about 20. Like, it's not like they've got varying sizes for varying rooms. It doesn't seem like the percentage is that important. It's just slightly smaller furniture.

Yeah. Slightly smaller. Slightly smaller. Slightly smaller. It's just a thing that people can buy. Slightly smaller furniture. Here, call this number. We'll give you slightly smaller furniture at a 20% discount

because it's 20% less furniture. Confuse your family. Confuse your guests. Give one person the smaller chair so they think they're really tall. Excellent for child pictures. Oh, hang on. Oh, no. I was going to say,

is it for schools or something like that where there are, but it's not for petite people and it's not going to get much use. So that was a terrible idea. I don't know. I was thinking like a model showroom

or something. Like I was also thinking the like set deck, like realm of ideas. I think I'll take that answer. Oh, wait, really? What? Wait, do Ikea just have smaller

things in their showrooms or something the model showroom oh showroom for wait what it's to be placed in the show homes of new housing estates so they look bigger so the room looks bigger exactly wow the illusion huh that's shady that's some shady stuff also kind of a con Exactly. Wow. The illusion. Huh. That's shady. That's some shady stuff. Also kind of a con. Yes.

It's a somewhat dishonest reason. Between that and like a wide angle camera, like. I like it and I hate it. Sneaky. Sneaky. No one's going to lie down in the bed in the show home you're being shown around by the realtor. They're just going to say, oh, yeah, no, this room looks massive. And then suddenly you get your bed in there and it's not.

When I worked at a museum, they had beds in the exhibits and we would always crawl over the exhibit walls and sleep in the beds. But they were three quarter length beds. So they made the room look normal size, even though there was a walkway in the room. So that totally makes sense. Also, the beds were very uncomfortable. I can only imagine. Now we know. Now we know.

So a factory makes slightly smaller furniture than usual to be used in show homes of new housing estates. For the next question, it's back to me. So good luck, folks. estates. For the next question, it's back to me. So good luck, folks. How did the face of an unknown young woman from the 1880s become the most kissed woman in history? I'll say that again. How did the face of an unknown young woman from the 1880s become the most kissed woman in history? Who is the most kissed woman in history? Is this like one of those, rosary isn't the word but like some woman who was a like i like where you're going revered figure and so her face got printed on everybody's like religious thing and part of that was that you had to kiss the face whenever you prayed or something

you are right in a couple of the details in there. It's not a religious thing, but yes, this is definitely something that's been preserved and copied. So my thought from that, that makes me think of like, oh, this woman was a model or like hired to do something. You know, they took her picture or they like sculpted something and then they made a bunch of those. And the point of it is that people kiss it. something and then they made a bunch of those and the point of it is that people kiss it and they so they put it all over the place but she's just some some model or some woman who was hired or some you know somebody who somebody's you know sister or something very much along the right lines do people kiss her for good luck um superstition What year was it again? An unknown young woman from the 1880s. Do we know where she was from?

France. Unknown French woman in the 1880s. So what thing gets kissed a lot? You know, like that's a very specific action. Kissing something. The question might be playing a little bit fast and loose with the definition of kissed, but she's known as most kissed woman. Her face is on the inside of a mask

that everyone wears during COVID, so she's been kissed a million times. God. Her face is on the inside of everyone's KN95s. It's actually in the eu specifications just the face has to be no um i gotta stop saying things in my authoritative voice that are jokes i can't i can't do that hmm i don't know so we're on the right track but i'm i'm i don't know why yeah kiss is a very kiss is being used very loosely here was this were people kissing loosely to find her face as part of like some sort of event

so yeah i was thinking like a carnival or money money Does somebody, do they kiss money? Hmm. We're always told not to put money in our mouths because it's dirty. I'm going to rephrase the clue. Like, kiss is very vaguely defined here. Like, the common saying, yes, most kissed woman in history, it's more that lips are being pressed together. It's not, I wouldn't call this a kiss It's a trumpet

She is a trumpet And that's every trumpet This is played This is a 3D representation of her face This is a mask Is it one of those masks that you wear at a carnival with like the feathers and all of the thing, like at new year or something like that? It did become a widespread design. It may have been used for other things. It's not this particular face that you normally see for that though.

Those wax lips. Do they have those in the UK? They're really gross. I put wax. Wax lips that you put over your, that you put in your mouth. I don't know. We had them growing up and I hated them. Does anyone know? Does anyone other than Trace know what that is? Cool! We're just going to move on from that. Trace's childhood lip trauma. Yeah, I don't like it. All right, I'm going to give you a bigger clue here.

There is a situation where you might touch lips with someone that you might have to train for. That you might have to train for? CPR. Yes. She's the face of a CPR doll. She is the face of many CPR dolls. Yes.

Annie, Annie, are you okay? Rissassiani. Yes. Rissassiani. That's her name. Was that a reference to a thing you... Yeah. We had to take CPR.

Annie, Annie, are you okay? That's my Eagle Scout stuff. I've only heard that in the context of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. Yeah. Also true. But yes, this is the body of an unknown woman who was pulled out of the Seine in the late 1880s. No one knew who she was.

The pathologist thought she was beautiful and made a plaster cast of her face. That became a common design. That was used for masks. So when a toy maker was asked to make a full-size CPR doll, that's the mask he used. It can still be used to this day, and it is known as Rissussi Anne,

and no one knows what her name was. That pathologist was creepy. Yeah, that was weird. Hey, got this lady. We just pulled her out of the river. Oh, she's a looker. Let's make a mask of her face. Nope.

Nope. Greg, Greg, don't do it, Greg. Don't do it. I. Don't do it. I don't know why he's called Greg, but you're absolutely right. It feels like he should be called Greg. Yeah. That feels appropriate. So yes, the face of an unknown young woman from the 1880s became the most kissed woman in history

because her death mask was used as the template for CPR dolls. Next up, we have a guest question, and this one's from Trace. Whenever you're ready. Okay, here we go. This is clearly a pre-pandemic question. A person drives to work in their car.

After hearing something on the radio, they leave their car at work and drive home in something else at the end of their shift. They park in a schoolyard some distance from home and walk the rest of the way. Why? Read it again. A person drives to work in their car. After hearing something on the radio, they leave their car at work and drive home in something else at the end of their shift. They park in a schoolyard some distance from their home, and they walk the rest of the way. Why?

The price of gas has just gone up 50 times. Inflation. Well, what would you take home? I mean, it's either... They drive home in something else, right? It does say drive home. It does say drive home in something else. right? It does say drive home. It does say drive home in something else. Okay, things you can drive.

Trains. Motorbikes. Bus. Wait, so they hear something on the radio? After hearing something on the radio, they leave their car at work and drive home in something else. Okay. Wait, did you say bus?

I did say bus. Because I'm thinking school bus. I'm thinking it's a snow day. Like they hear the forecast for the weather coming in and it's snowing. And so I don't know why you'd leave your car at work. This doesn't add up now I say it because you wouldn't drive the school bus home. But you'd leave it. I don't know. Maybe the bus can get through the snow drifts Trace is not nodding at me so like I'll just leave this one

on the side I'm just letting you guys figure this out before I give you some hits but you know what that's I would say uh to use a phrase you're in the ballpark like there's you've got some details that i think are important there i'll leave it as that just leave it there weather forecast uh so if it's not snow could it be flooding um like rising waters or something like that the road is closed so you can't go that way um i really like where you guys are going with this. There's definitely, you know, the thing that they can hear on the radio is important. And I think you kind of got there a little bit. Weather forecast. It's got to be the weather forecast. So it's wind or rain or snow or fog? Like, what means you leave your car at work? Where did you all grow up?

This is, I think, an important part of this question. Middle of the UK. The suburbs. The suburbs, like, in like a, like, what part of your, in a more warm weather, a a, like, what part of your, in a more warm weather or more cold weather? What kind of? Northern Jersey.

Warm. Okay, so, Jordan, you definitely would have experienced something like this. I grew up in Michigan, so we definitely did. It's got to be a snow day or something like that then, surely. It's an ice day. The roads are too icy. The snow day or something like that then surely it's an ice day the roads are too icy the snow day is definitely related so does does he hear something on the radio and it's like below freezing i don't know what this is called but like the people who salt the roads the gritter plow the roads or the snow plow yeah you guys got it

that's it yeah yeah so the bad weather is coming and they are the driver of the snow plow so they have to drive the snow plow so they can do that in the morning that's great that's lovely you guys are so smart you had it right away with the radio and the weather stuff that you already were like already in there it was great so let me recap the question a person drives to work in their car after hearing something on the radio in this case it's the weather report they leave their car at work and they drive home in something else the snowplow and they park in a schoolyard some distance from their home and walk the rest of the way. So the snowplow is there. Because you don't want to park your snowplow directly outside your house. Yeah, so that way when they wake up in the morning,

they can go walk to the snowplow, and they can start the great job of plowing all the streets to make sure that they're not snowed in, and neither is anyone else. The last question from me, then. We have one remaining from our guests, one for the audience, but this is the last big question from me then. We have one remaining from our guests, one for the audience, but this is the last big question from me. In January 1990, two men from Seattle hit on an idea for a new design of eyeglasses. After selling a million pairs, they closed down their company in 2009,

after which time their designs would hit a problem. What were they selling? I'll say that again. In January 1990, two men from Seattle hit on an idea for a new design of eyeglasses. After selling a million pairs, they closed down their company in 2009, after which time their designs would hit a problem. What were they selling? I wonder if it's related to like, somebody just shut down recently,

some like computer company just shut down and unexpectedly in the smart home area and so then all of their smart home stuff stopped working so what if this is a smart wait what what were the years 19 1990 to 2009 much much as i like the idea of smart home glasses yeah i think i know this go for it were they new year's glasses yes they were straight in there jordan absolutely right 1990 was the first year they came up with the idea obviously you could have done it in the 80s but that was that was when they came up with the idea they sold a lot of them and 2009 after that you start getting a one in the way and that just covers up it hasn't stopped other people doing the design. This was Richard Sclafani

and Peter, I'm going to hope I'm pronouncing it right, Sicro, who hit on an idea for novelty glasses after a music jam in January 1990. The market became oversaturated with knock-offs, so they left the industry in 2009, and after that, there wasn't really a hole in the

numbers to look through. So, Jordan, straight in there, you're absolutely right. It was novelty glasses. Wow. That's great. Do you wear a lot of novelty glasses, Jordan? Are you a big novelty glass wearer? I've known you for a while.

I don't feel like you are. No, I'm not. I was just trying to think of like what kind of glasses like would run into a problem. And I was like, well, the first thing that came to mind was like, when hard contacts were a thing, but that's not glasses. And then it was like bifocals, but I feel like that hasn't run into a problem. So then I was like, I don't know, let's think a little bit outside of the box.

So with that success, Jordan, it's on to your guest question. Last big one of the show. When are you ready? So my question is, in 2015, Canadian politician Sheldon Bergson completely changed his name to trick people into voting for him. What unusual name did he use? And I can repeat the question. In 2015, Canadian politician Sheldon Bergson completely changed his name to trick people into voting for him. What unusual name did he choose? He wanted to trick people into voting for him. So it's a name that people would want to vote for. And he changed his name to whoever was the person he was running against.

Or something. Where it's just like, oh. Yeah, his original name was Sheldon Burke. This reminds me of a thing I heard on the radio once. It was in the 90s and I was driving in Detroit and this guy came on the radio and said, if you legally change your name to Mace Windu, the baddest Jedi in the galaxy, we will give you $5,000. Just come with your paperwork to the radio station.

I don't know if anybody ever did it, but I think about it a lot. That feels like the sort of thing where we're going to have five or six people turn up, and there's going to be lawsuits because only the first Mace Windu gets the money. I don't know. Yeah. Or they have to split it. Back when I was at university, we had a voting system where it was some complicated version of ranked choice. And so you would have all the candidates,

and then you would have one called Reopen Nominations, or RON. And every single year, some jackass would run a campaign for RON. There would be a photo of some famous RON. There would be a big Vote RON banners everywhere. Someone would take it upon themselves to, as students do, as frankly I did, to waste everyone's time with a completely useless campaign. Can you tell that I've got a bit more cynical over the years since then? So, like...

Someone would do this. It was absolutely what it is, yes. It was 100%. Somebody would do this it was it was it was absolutely it was 100 somebody would do this crazy thing yeah but to be fair every year someone took up that mantle whoever it was um and you would see like first choice was someone second choice for someone and then when you didn't want any of the other candidates you would put reopened nominations in there so was it was it like Ron or like... Yeah, none of the above. I've always wanted to be able to vote for none of the above. Closer. Pretty close.

Okay, so is there something that's like a valid name? Yeah. No name Bergson. Other? A-N-other. No, but you're thinking in the right way. Because Canadians are indecisive.

I'm kidding. Sorry. Vague. Sorry. This was recently too. Wow. 2015. Like that's dedication to a joke to actually change your legal name so it shows up on the ballot.

That's. Yeah. I mean, if you put Mace Windu, the baddest Jedi in the galaxy, I would vote for that guy. I don't know who that guy is, but... I feel like that would get cut off on the ballot. Please,

please, my... Please, my father was Mr. Windu, baddest Jedi in the galaxy. Call me Mace. It's a long name. You're almost exactly right. You just need to swap things around. What did I say?

I don't even remember now. Oh, because the names on the ballot are surname first. So he had to change his name to above none of the, or something like that. Very, very close. You're missing a letter. Above none, none of, above none of. Above all. The name was above Z none of the.

So he wanted his name to be at the bottom of the ballot for people who pick none of the above. So Tom was on the right track with the Ron thing. Yeah. So he had to put the Z there first. The Zed there first. He's Canadian. He had to put the Zed there first.

So he's on the bottom of the ballot. So it's like Zed. Yeah. It's the opposite of the trick where you put like loads of A's in your company name to be at the start of the phone book. You got to be at the bottom. And then, oh, that is dedication to a joke, that is.

That is pretty good. And you put like an underscore so you can be at the top of the... Exactly. Did he get any votes? Well, so he tried to pick up votes from people who thought that they were voting for none of the above. It didn't really work. from people who thought that they were voting for none of the above. It didn't really work.

In the 2021 Canadian federal elections, ZNoneofthe stood in the same electoral district as Justin Trudeau. Trudeau received 22,848 votes. ZNoneofthe received 418. So didn't quite work. I mean, that's still 418 people who were either fooled or were spoiling the ballot. Like, that's not bad. True.

It's a lot. None of the above does appear on some ballots, which is awesome. Like, I think it's great that that's an option. In some places, in the US at least, you can vote for none of the above as like an option in an election. Yeah, ranked choice voting is a wonderful thing that Britain turned down many years ago.

We were going to do alternative vote. We had a referendum on it and it overwhelmingly failed, which is deeply frustrating for those of us who like complicated voting systems. Also failed in Massachusetts. Yeah. We have it here. California. So yes, the name that he changed his name to was above Z, none of the, and his idea behind that was that he wanted to pick up votes from people who thought that they were voting for none of the above in an effort to effectively make use of political apathy. And it did not quite work in his favor

as he was not elected. Which just brings the last order of business, which is the question I asked to the audience at the start. What is the hottest thing in the known universe? Any suggestions from the panel? Just quickly going around, Jordan? Stars exploding. Like, is that what a supernova is? A star exploding? It is. It's not exploding? It's even hotter than that. Trace? I mean, my first thought is something like a neutron star or the space around a black hole, you know, a Grecian disk kind of thing. It's a lot closer to Earth.

Last call, Nare, anything for you? Some kind of chemical reaction? Oh, Trace, I can see Trace putting his hand up. It's a physics experiment. You're absolutely right. Do you know which one? Off the top of my head, I can see Trace putting his hand up. And you know what? It's a physics experiment. You're absolutely right. Do you know which one? Off the top of my head, I don't. It'd probably be at the Lawrence Livermore Lab or ITER. It's the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Oh. It's the Large Hadron Collider. In 2012, they achieved a temperature of 5.5 trillion degrees Kelvin, which is roughly 5.5 trillion degrees Kelvin, which is roughly five point five trillion degrees Celsius, which is about three hundred and fifty thousand times hotter than the center of the sun and the hottest thing in the known universe. With that, thank you very, very much to our guests. What's going on in your lives? Where can people find you? We're going to start with Nari. I'm always working on music and you can find all of my material on YouTube. Nari's soul. Also on Spotify, but mostly YouTube.

Jordan? I'm making videos about artificial intelligence and machine learning over on YouTube, and then you can follow Shorter Form Stuff on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, all of the above. You can just search my name. And Trace? I make science-y type videos or education videos on my channel on YouTube. Just look for Trace Dominguez. You can also find me on the Twitters,

the socials of all the types, pretty much. I don't know what I'm working on now, but it's going to be fun. Thank you very much to all of you. Congratulations on surviving the show and getting through it. If you want to know more about this show or submit an idea for a question,

you can do that at lateralcast.com. You can find us at Lateral Castcast basically everywhere and you can catch video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast thank you so much we say goodbye to jordan harrod thanks for having me to trace dominguez bye-bye to nare sol bye i've been tom scott and this has been lateral