Lateral with Tom Scott - 163: Lightning in a bottle

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Evan & Katelyn Heling and Hannah Crosbie face questions about ceramic coins, cartoon cravats and commercial careers. 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://lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Peter Gould, Ray Nothnagel, Neville Fogarty, Thomas Bellekens.. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2020, why was there a sudden surge in adverts for jobs based in a small town in Coos County, Oregon? The answer to that, at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Thank you for calling Lateral. We are currently experiencing high levels of confusion. All our staff are busy, pretending that things are going smoothly. Your download is very important to us. Please wait while we try to connect you.

You are in Q position 1, which sounds impressive, but you're the only one who somehow found our phone number. Our guests today are jamming up their number keypad in frustration, but it is no use because you are still here, and you will still, unfortunately, only get me. First of all, welcome back to the show, wine critic for The Guardian, and among many other wine-related things, Hannah Crosby.

Hello, hello, thank you so much. I think this is my, one, two, three, for a fifth time. Fifth show, yes. Whoa, that was flown back. We have regular guests here. It's a lovely little community we're sort of steadily building. Welcome back. I am always slightly wary of asking, what are you working on?

Because the answer may well be wine, but what are you working on? Yeah, wine, I think that's totally fair, wine-related things. funnily enough today I just got a haircut so I'm going to pretend it's for the purposes of lateral so yeah for those listening along at home you might not be able to see and if ever there was a reason to switch to YouTube

that would be it Spotify, it's Spotify Sorry, sorry Shillate, shillate it How are you finding it being back here after a little while away? Because the questions seem to steadily be getting harder They do, don't they? I feel like

you were kind of easing me in because I remember the first episode that I was on I did really well. You did. Wow, I'm really good at this. And then the last time I was on, I didn't get anything. So I think that it's a real, it's a real ego shave. Let's try and thread the needle on this one.

Let's do about as well as our other two players today. Joining us again, Evan and Caitlin, welcome back to the show. Yay, thanks for having us. We met at Open Source in California just a few weeks ago as we record this. What was the coolest thing you saw there? This was a maker convention. and like a big old adult science fair, what did you see there that you really liked?

The coolest thing we saw was our friends. Hey! Very wholesome. Actually, we had a hard time getting out onto the floor very far, so most of the cool stuff we saw was videos that our friends took. There was a really neat Titanic door simulator where people could get on the door and try to balance and see, like, would you survive or would you succumbed?

to hypothermia because you can't stay up on the door. Was there really room for two on that door? It had a banner on it that said, would you survive the Titanic? And I feel like, no, would you survive the movie Titanic? But it was a really good guy. Yeah.

What are you working on at the minute? We are working on an ambitious project, a dress made out of resin. Oh my God. How? Well, we're still figuring that out. Stupid question, you're still figuring that out. Well, but we are going to be walking it in a fashion show.

Caitlin's going to be on the, like, raised, like, walk. The runway. Yeah, you can see how experienced we are with things like fashion. Yeah, so wish us luck. Well, good luck to all of you today. It is time to put your number keypads down. Who will be the star and who will make a hash of it? Let's patch you through to question one.

Thank you to Neville Fogarty for this question. Why does Huckleberry Hound wear a bow tie? I'll give you that again. Why does Huckleberry hound wear a bowtie? Great start. I've got no idea who that man is. Or a dog. Same here.

No, I know he's a cartoon dog. Yes. He's a cartoon character. I was guessing that from context. And he talks. Like he's not just like a dog dog. He's like an anthropomorphic. Like, well, not really anthropomorphic.

He looks like a dog. But he like talks. Yeah, but not Tom and Jerry who just communicate through bonging and stuff, right? Correct. I'm pretty sure he talks. That's all I got. Is he on a particular TV show, comic strip? I think it's a TV show, but that's not to say, it's old.

That's not to say that it didn't like originate as a comic strip or something, but he's like a TV cartoon character. I wonder if it's due to like some animation trick. Like the bow tie separates the body from the head and it lets them. animated in a more, like, streamlined way or something. Oh, is it because bow ties are really cool? It could also be that. Is that it? Of those two suggestions, yes, Evan, you have pretty much nailed it there.

In fact, I'm going to ask you to drill down a little bit more here. Huckleberry Hound for younger listeners is currently on Jellystone, which is a modern animation series, but he is much, much older than that. Can anyone kind of guess what era we're talking about here? I feel like he was, he came about in like the 50s or something. It's an old cartoon. Yeah. Yeah, what's the name of Mickey when he's on the steamboat?

And he's kind of got like that, that's sort of like the era that I'm thinking. Or is it not as old as that? A little lighter than that. A little bit later. He was Hanna-Barbera in the 50s and 60s. Oh, I love Hannah-Bombara. So I wonder, were they hand-drawn back then? Yes.

So I wonder if they had like a common set of bodies and they matched the bodies to the head and two different sheets so that you can mix bodies and heads differently. Absolutely right, you've nailed it. The technical term is cells, animation cells, because they were on cellulose transparencies. And this meant that they only had to draw a new head

for each position and talking. The body could just stay the same. same from shot to shot or even get reused. They did not have to draw the entire character every single time the mouth moved. Oh, well done, Evan. Oh, thank you. You do really good. Now I'm like picturing so many cartoon characters and I'm like, do they have like a collar or something right there? Have a think about other characters from that era and from that studio. We're talking Hannah Barbera in the 50s and 60s. Scooby-Doos. Scooby-Dones. Flintstones, Scooby-Doo. Yeah, have a think about all those characters. What do they have in

Fred's got his necktie. Fred's got a jumper. Yep. Scooby's got his collar. Oh my gosh. They all have separate heads. It's all a lie. Loads and loads of the Hannah Barbiera characters all have some form of neckwear or some kind of disconnect.

Fred from Scooby-Doo has a thing tied around his neck. The ascot, yes. It is all there so they could separate the head from the body on the animation cells. Wow. Smart. Evan, after that spectacular solve, it's your question. This one's wild. In 1921, a 14-year-old boy was plowing a potato field in Utah.

He suddenly had an idea he later called capturing lightning in a bottle. What was his bright idea? In 1921, a 14-year-old boy was plowing a potato field in Utah. He suddenly had an idea he later called capturing lightning in a bottle. in a bottle. What was his bright idea? Wow, that is wild. Bright idea is doing some work in there, isn't it? Yeah.

It's like, I guess, inventions that are helping. Maybe he's doing his potato farming at night, best time to do potato farming. And he is frustrated about the fact that you can't see anything. So maybe he decided to invent something that would make his life a bit easier. Using potatoes. Fireflies. Fireflies. Fireflies.

Yes. which are not a thing in Britain? Like, I'm sure they exist in some rural bit. I was, I'd say, on the trip to Open Source, I've had to a few other places. Like, I'm just walking through, I'm seeing little flashes of light, and I thought there was something wrong with my eyes.

There's just fireflies flashing in sync. I've not seen that in years and years. Anyway, my thought is, has he somehow lured fireflies into a bottle? Like lightning bugs or something like that, which is lit, I mean, it's very literal for a show called Lateral, but like it's lightning bugs in a bottle, and that's how he's illuminating the work at night.

I'm also wondering, because when I hear potatoes in light, I think of like, potatoes can be used as a battery, right? Can you turn a potato into a battery? Oh. Yeah, yeah, because of the, I mean, you can, yeah, obviously in those videos that you can, like, plug things in and make an alarm clock out of them. I mean, you can make one LED light, maybe, if you're lucky, and that was not a thing in 1921.

Like the, 1921, you'd use a candle. Yeah. I'm kind of thinking whether to work backwards, like what the invention is, whether it's like a glow stick or a lantern, and like how that could have been inspired or like 1921. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm going to step in with like a few little clues to help guide in a certain direction. Perhaps.

This is going to be a tough one, I think. He used horses to plow the field. the horses would pull a mechanical plow and they went back and forth across the field. Huh. And that's what he was doing when he kind of had this idea. They were plowing straight lines in the field.

Okay. Back and forth. So it's not necessarily to do with light? It does have something to do with light. Okay. I mean, that certainly helps the mental picture. This is really tricky. I'm like, what does the...

like the horses plowing the field and the fact that they're going back and forth in straight lines have to do with light. Is it something for the horses to aim for so that they can go in a straight line at night? Well, that's true. You're not going to be able to see where you're going, but I don't know, the horses...

Horses generally know where they're going, right? Yeah. The old joke about putting the cowboy back on his horse when he's drunk and just like give him the horse a push and it'll find its way home. It's fine. Or just know what's up. Also, 14-year-old.

Like, I recognize this is the 1920s, but 14-year-old. This is an incredibly smart 14-year-old. And, Kailen, he had like a Evan-level jump from one thing to another thing much, much bigger than you might think. So it's a 14-year-old with ADHD. Perhaps, yeah. Very, very smart 14-year-old. It's automatic.

In terms of, because what is he using? He's using an automatic play. What does that look like? Because even if it's being drawn by a horse, surely that's manual. It's going to be blades digging into the ground. Like maybe there's some rotating system there to churn the earth. I'm wondering if he was looking at like the process of the plow and he was like mechanically, this could do something that would like power light.

Well, I mean, it could. You could, well, no. You could put a dynamo on it, but again, 1921, that is well past that being invented. Like, the hydroelectric plant was well before then. Like, the principle was known, but how are you going to put an electric light on there? When, again, you could just have a candle. Oh, could it be one of those wind-up lights? I don't know. It's hard because I'm, like, trying to figure out what technology existed.

Right. Yeah. In 1920, what did not? That's a good path to go on. Keep on going down that path. What didn't exist in 1921? that someone might invent that is revolutionary will change the world. Not just farming.

It's bigger than farming. It's bigger than farming. And it's to do with light. Is it a different kind of source of light? So maybe like a chemical source of light? Or like, I mean, there's different types of, like, bulbs. He invented the word horsepower.

That was what I was thinking. He's like, come on there. So remember, he's drawing straight lines in the ground. So is it something about the pattern of the lines going back and forth? Does that have anything to do with light in any way that I'm just not understanding because I'm not smart enough? Hold on. That is sometimes what a light bulb looks like on the inside.

Like you have a resistive wire that gets coiled back and forth. What, like, crop circles, but for a light bulb filament. Yeah! He's like, oh, we're going back and forth, like, but... Does he, like, take that design and apply it to something else? Like, he realized, oh, this, this, this back and forth, back and forth can also be used for physics, for heating, for lighting, for something. So this, this 14-year-old boy was an electronics prodigy.

Oh, well, there we go. Right, yeah, all right. It's not just some 14-year-old. Electronics. Because, yeah, because it's not, when you're ploughing, it's not just a straight line, it's you're looping around. Oh, is this late enough for television? Television didn't become mainstream until much later.

But is this like Logie Baird or someone like that? Because I'm thinking you're drawing a line. And that's what old CRT televisions do. They draw a line across the screen, and then they go back, and they draw a line, and they go back, and they draw a line. That's how they do the picture. So was this, the guy who went on to invent television? Ding, ding, ding!

Whoa! I mean, I needed drawing lines back and forth an electronics prodigy. Like, I'll take some of the credit there, but really not much. I was really wondering how I was going to get you guys to guess this with minimal clues as much as possible. I was like, how much do I let them want? You really put the emphasis on back and forth there, that helped.

Back and forth, straight lines. Okay, I'm glad you got it. Who was this? Philo Farnsworth took inspiration from straight rows in the fields he was plowing. As a self-taught electronics prodigy, he realized it might be possible to transmit a television signal by line and reconstruct it somewhere else in the world. That's a huge jump for a 14-year-old plowing the farm, which is crazy. Farnsworth patented his idea in 1927. One year after John Logie Baird demonstrated his more mechanical system in the UK, Farnsworth used the cathode ray tube to display images was a major step towards modern television. After a series of legal patterns with RCA Radio Corporation of America, Farnsworth successfully defended his patent rights. He gave the first public demonstration of his electronic system in 1934. Thank you to an anonymous listener for this next question.

Research from 2024 reported that 12% of US adults under 30 were licensed to operate a class SSGN submarine. Who would find this useful to know and why? And one more time, research from 2024 reported that 12% of US adults under 30 were licensed to operate a class SSGN submarine. Who would find this useful to know and why? I'm going to refrain.

Oh. Do you know? Okay, it's on Caitlin and Hannah. Okay. All right, let's do this, Caitlin. Let's do this. So, 2024, this is recent. 12% of US adults are licensed to use some class of submarine.

Why is this useful? Yeah. An SSGN submarine is a guided missile type submarine. It's the big US Navy. Of course. Of course, my bad. Yes, yes. course. I knew that. I'm wondering whether it's through some kind of freak technicality as

these things sometimes are, because I can't imagine that 12% of Americans have accidentally taken a submarine test. Yeah. And the question, just to clarify, is like, who would be interested in this and why? Yeah. Okay. I'm wondering whether there is a other form of transport that 12% of Americans are licensed to drive that have very similar controls to a submarine. I've never been set a submarine. I don't know what they're like, but maybe it's slightly similar to a certain kind of truck or something else. But I don't know who would be interested in that kind of information, apart from all of us, obviously. Yeah, because it definitely, it sounds like it is bundled with something else. So like you take some sort of, you know, a course to get licensed to

operate some other type of vehicle, and there's just some sort of, like, technical bundle. I'm going to steer you to the path you said right at the start, Caitlin. That 12% figure doesn't make any sense. Yeah. And you're right. It doesn't make any sense. Huh. Now I'm questioning if I am on the roll. Oh.

Oh, okay. Come play. Come play, Evan. Okay, okay. I'm just going to throw this out there. Does it have anything to do with video games? No, it doesn't. Oh, okay, okay.

You can play. What were you thinking? Well, because I know that this is a little random fact I have in my head. The U.S. Navy used to design and manufacture their own custom controllers to operate submarine parts. And it cost thousands, like hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was a wild expense. And then they just switched to Xbox controllers made by Microsoft to save a ton of money. to save a ton of money, and then they have spares, and it works really well.

And it also turns out that most of their recruits already know how to use them. Yes. So I was thinking, like, in my head, okay, there's a portion of people that are already familiar with it. I'm thinking video game players might have the skills. But I think when it comes to... That's about the right number, but yeah, no, in this case, the figure is nonsense. The figure is nonsense. You keep on putting emphasis on the fact that it doesn't make sense and it's nonsense. Was this a typo? Was this not, was this inaccurate data that was put out? Inaccurate data, definitely. Okay. Maybe a decimal point was in the wrong spot. Maybe it's supposed to be 1.2%. Yeah, this was very carefully phrased. Research from 2024 reported that.

Reported, okay. Reported. Oh, reporting doesn't mean truth. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah, so maybe, yeah, maybe you're right, Caitlin. It's a shift at a decimal point, or it was just completely omitted entirely. But then who would be interested? The editor of the submarine magazine that reported it.

The Navy, was the Navy like, wait, what? Hannah, you are closer than you might think there, but they weren't studying anything to do with submarines. Oh. I'm guessing it might have to do with, you said, the editor of a magazine, are they worried about getting sued? Are they worried about legal issues?

Maybe it's the lawyer for whoever published it. Now, not the editor or lawyer, but again, getting closer there. The journalist that wrote it? The way they phrased it, they wouldn't be worried about this. But they'd want to know. It would definitely be useful. It would be useful to know about an incorrect statistic. Oh, yeah, really useful.

The submarine manufacturing company. No, nothing to do with submarines, remember? Is it the... Did they not put the decimal place in because the full stop was not working on their keyboard, so the keyboard manufacturer was of interest to know. Well, even that, 12%, 0.12%, no, that's nowhere near the number. but there's a few thousand people in America.

Oh. Oh. So does it have to do with, like, the database they were using or, like, something that might cause other errors besides just this one report? Yes, and I think... I'll give you that, like, halfway towards the question there. Yeah, half a point.

You're trying to find other errors with this. Okay, so since this was a very obvious error, they're like, wait, 12% this can't be right, that means that they need to look back at their system and find where there are other reports and research that they put out that might also have erroneous data. This is like the herring and the coal mine, right? Well, I wonder if like the whole total population was,

there was like a typo or something on that, and that caused all the percentages to be off. So, Evan, when you say canary in the coal mine, that, absolutely right. That's the first half of the question, sorted. But there's something more specific they're trying to find with this. You're right, it's all sorts of data that's wrong.

But the category isn't just this whole report, or there's a certain category here. Okay. Why might you get that answer? Why might 12% of US adults under 30 licensed to operate a submarine come out of your data? I mean, poor questioning, poor, like, survey?

Something wrong with the survey? Keep thinking, Caitlin. That's it. people answered yes, so the question was misleading in some way. Oh, no, the question wasn't misleading. Oh, people are dumb. Yes! Not, I mean, that's not necessarily the...

I mean, that might not be quite the right word, but you're really close. Okay, okay. Okay, so there was a survey. Yes. And people filled it out incorrectly. Yes. More on the fault of the people. than whoever produced the survey, it seems.

Yes. Is it like people thinking that they could ride a submarine, like how people think that they could take on Serena Williams at a game of tennis? It could partly be that. There are other reasons that someone's going to tick a box to say they're licensed to operate a submarine. Are you licensed to operate a submarine? You are overthinking this, I promise you.

Is it that the question was like split between two pages? Like the first half was on the first? Literally, just imagine a big screen that says, are you licensed to operate a submarine, yes, no. Why are 12% of people clicking yes? Are you licensed to operate a submarine? The question could have been any number of other things. It's just people like clicking yes.

People like clicking yes. What? What? What? That's so funny. There are a few other reasons. You're right, it might just be incompetence. It might be positivity bias. like clicking yes, that's one of the reasons. And also, lying to qualify for more surveys,

and also not caring. If you are being paid to take this survey, you may just go through going click, click, click, click, click, click. Or you may just not really speak English well. And, oh, yeah, I'll get $2 if I fill this online survey. I'll just click some buttons at random. That's such a canary in a cool of mine, because, like, yeah, they should include

a question like that in every survey as the canary and the canary and the... Oh! That's the key. Yes. Wow. 12% of people in the 1829 age bracket said yes. 5% for those age 30 to 60, 1% for 61 plus.

Wow. 17% of adults under 30 also said that they had recently purchased a private jet, climbed the Karakoram Mountains, learned to cook Haluski, which is an East European noodle dish, or played high a lie. Wow. I don't even know what that is. No.

Neither do they. Wow. So surveys are of, you always got a question now. You've always got to have the canary in the coal mine. Hannah, whenever you're ready, you've got the question. Let's go. Pamela owns a large ceramic coin, about two inches in diameter with a pronounced edge. Why does she sometimes put it in water?

I'll say it again. Pamela owns a large ceramic coin about two inches in diameter with a pronounced edge. Why do she sometimes put it in water? I'm trying to picture what it means to have a coin with a pronounced edge.

So just like a raised lip. A raised lip? So in front of me I have one of the little silicone coasters that I put my mug on. Yeah. Which is, yeah, it's a little bit larger than that but it's circular with just a rim to stop the mug falling off

if you knock it or something like that. I'm guessing that's what it looks like. Okay. So I'm guessing this ceramic coin has some function to it. About five centimeters across and ceramic. You two of the makers, other than Caitlin, what's special about ceramic? Ceramic absorbs water.

Oh. Well, it depends on how it's finished. Yeah. You know, because it has a glaze on it. Because ceramic is just the base material. It can be finished in all sorts of ways. But I'm guessing if she, does she get the whole thing?

wet? The whole thing does get wet. I'll say that much of this early on. The whole thing does get wet. It's in the water. Ceramic would slowly evaporate that and it would get cool. Like once you take it out of the water. Yeah, once you take it out of the water.

Ceramic is pretty fragile to impacts, but water wouldn't really change that. I wonder if it's like, you know how there's like self-watering planter things? That's what? self-watering planters. So it's like planters that, like, absorb or slowly give water to the plant via some method. And so I wonder if it's like you take this little coin disc and you put it in water and then you put it on top of your planter and it releases the water at a more slow and controlled rate so you don't overwater your plant. I will say that you're in the, well, I don't know where, what room of the house that you keep plants in. but I will say that the room that she uses this little ceramic coin in

is the kitchen. The kitchen. Okay. Okay. There is. No, that's completely different. I was thinking of the lucky fish. There is a fish made of iron.

And in areas with iron deficiencies, you put it in the cooking water, and that gives people enough iron. But it doesn't work with ceramic that. You don't have ceramic levels. Do you get the ceramic coin wet? on purpose, or is it just an incidental thing that it gets wet as a result of something else?

It's on purpose, this coin serves a function. Okay. I'm still stuck on, like, it goes in boiling water for some reason, like for a cooking thing. Hmm. Yeah, like, would something ceramic, like, if you're, like, cooking pasta or cooking rice, would that do anything?

I'm trying to think, like, ceramic. Or would it help, like, your pan, like, hold up over time? I don't think so. Also, it's only, like, what, two inches, five centimeters. So, like, it's really small. It's really small. It's very, really small. Are there more than one that they use, or is it just that one?

She only needs one. She only needs one, okay. Coin-shaped with a ridge or a lip around the end. Yeah, because if you're just putting it, it in water just to like float why does it have the lip it almost feels like it wouldn't float i think it would sink well no sorry no what i'm saying is if you're just putting it in water yeah it doesn't need a lip like why would the lip be added if it's just if you're just putting it in the water i was thinking it's like a spoon rest but like there's no brain twistiness around that

well and then why would you put it in water maybe i'm too lateral pilled like it needs to like have a twist what's the twist could this be an accessibility thing It is. Okay, because there are a load of kitchen gadgets that are, like, as seen on TV, like those infomercials. The story is, I don't know if this is true, the story is that a lot of those as-seen on TV gadgets that seem, well, why would anyone want this,

are designed because someone might have limited motor skills or limited strength, and the market is made bigger by also selling them as convenient stuff for home shopping. So what is a two-inch ceramic disc with a lip going to let you do if you have limited motion mobility, something like that? Yeah, so you're right,

you're walking down the right path. Pamela, it does have an impairment, but it doesn't have to do with motor skills. Okay. I wonder, is it like, if you put it in boiling water, like by the time, or in water, cold water, by the time it's boiling, is the ceramic doing something else?

Like, do the bubbles knock it around the pan? And then you can, like, well, I guess you could hear the water boiling. Then you can hear the water boiling. That's it. Well, that's it. Yes. That's it. Well, that's it.

Well, that's it. Well, boiling water assistive device. So it makes it more audible. Yeah, so Pamela is visually impaired. The pot minder, also called a boil alert disc, is used by visually impaired people to know when their pan of water is boiling. When the water boils, the air bubbles cause the ceramic coin to move slightly, creating a distinctive rattling sense. So yeah, that's why you need the lip so that the air bubbles can pool underneath. Oh, so I wonder, so it's probably lip on both ends symmetrically.

Yeah, and it sits on the bottom. The air bubbles form and it just lift, lift, lift, think, lift, lift, dittal, oh, so clever. And I'm guessing it's probably not metal because metal would be too heavy. And it might scratch your pan. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the ceramic slider. Now, ceramic is very hard also. Okay. It probably wouldn't work for like a non-stick pan. Hmm. I think it's also probably a more pleasant sound. Like, if your past is ready, you don't want to be like a clank. You're like, oh, God. Past is ready. Here's some nails on the chalkboard.

Exactly. Well, that's really cool. So interesting. Thank you to Thomas Bellakins for this next question. One winter, Jackson is bored and decides to join the 300 Club. This involves getting naked and walking around a pole. Vladimir hears about this and plans to join the two. 200 club, which is even more extreme.

What do the numbers mean? And one more time. One winter, Jackson is bored and decides to join the 300 club. This involves getting naked and walking around a pole. Vladimir hears about this and plans to join the 200 club, which is even more extreme. What do the numbers mean? So it's interesting that the numbers descend as it gets more extreme, which makes me think maybe it's like related to like, oh, only 300 people have done this, or like, then when you get more extreme, only 200 people

have done this. That doesn't make sense if people can just join on their own, because then the number would change, but it is interesting to note that the numbers descend. Did you say the poll or a poll, Tom? I said a poll. A poll. I thought it said the poll the first time. Why would you think that? Just because you said the poll, I was like, oh, maybe it's kind of like, as you're saying,

Hightland, sort of like a deadly arduous task. Maybe they're kind of going around like one of the poles on the earth. Like north or south pole? Mm-hmm. Keep thinking that. Keep going. Is it some kind of like horrible Christmas hazing ritual where in order to open your presents, you need to go around the, in order to get your presents,

you need to go around one of the poles, the North Pole? So, not a hazing ritual, but you're, most of the way there already. Yeah. Is it Christmassy? Well, it's wintertime, certainly. Yeah. Winter time.

Okay, so it's not hazing per se, but it does seem like maybe something people do to, like, impress others. It's kind of like the polar plunge, right? Is what I'm thinking. Yeah. It's like a challenge. It's like, oh, yeah, can you do this?

But yeah, why would the more extreme be lower? That's kind of what I've been harder the whole time. It's like, is it 300 Kelvin? versus 200 Kelvin? No, that still doesn't make sense, no. Is it how many degrees it is from the pole? So, however many meters or kind of like

degrees of latitude, it is from the pole? If you were to combine what Hannah said and what Evan just said, you've basically got it. It's not Kelvin. Yeah, is it another unit of temperature? Jackson is in the 300 Club. and Vladimir is in the 200 club. Three hundred.

Two different areas of the world. Yep. Obviously, I don't think Jackson and if we're kind of going off names alone, maybe they're living in two different spaces. Yes, they are. They're about 800 miles away from each other. 800 miles away.

But they're both on the same continent. And you're right, Hannah. It's the South Pole. Jackson is at the South Pole. So Jackson is, if we're going based on what you were saying earlier about it being like, like, the angle of degrees, like, from the pole. Evan's right. It's, it's, it's not Kelvin, though. Oh, yeah, I was like, I think, like, I know that there are lots of different ways to measure temperature. Um, and I'm trying to, like,

rack my brain for, like, I'm trying to like, you don't need to, rustle it off. Okay. Are we talking about Celsius and Fahrenheit? Yes. Yes, we are. It's 300 Fahrenheit. and 200 Celsius. So, why is the 200 one more extreme? And what are they doing that has numbers that big? Wow. Yeah. 200 Celsius.

I was thinking, like, negative temperatures. Yeah, I was thinking cold temperatures. Yeah, like 200 Celsius is B, ha-ha. So maybe it's something that, like, since the temperature is so high, you can only do it at a place that's really, really cold. Spot on, yeah. What fun, hot things can you do in a cold place? a very hot piece of metal through some ice,

which always looks really fun when I see it online. And it has something to do, like he went around the pole. Yes, it involves getting naked and walking around a pole. There's one other step as well. Is it like walking on coals? No, you're not walking on them. You're laying on them? You're very near them.

You're naked, there's coals, there's a pole, you're spinning around it. This sounds like a party. Well, I mean, I wouldn't associate this with the Antarctic. I'd associate it more with Scandinavia. Oh, is it like a sauna? Yes. Yay! Oh!

So what is the 300 Club and the 200 Club? What's the temperature there? Is that kind of the upper end of, like, how hot a sauna can get and how much people can handle? I mean, sort of. Like, you've basically got all the bits. Okay. There's a sauna.

So it involves a sauna, then running outside and running around a pole, then probably going back into the sauna. Yes. But the temperatures, is it the temperature differential? It's the temperature differential. The 300 Club is having a sauna at the South Pole and then running around outside and experiencing a temperature differential of 300 Fahrenheit. Yes.

At Russia's Vostok Station, which is also in Antarctic, The equivalent is the 200 Club, a steam bath at 120 Celsius, followed by a spell outside where the temperature regularly goes as low as minus 80 Celsius. That sounds horrible. Yes, it does. People need hobbies.

They need a different hobby. Well, it's very boring out there isolated. You know, people go a little crazy. That's wild. Caitlin, whenever you're ready, over to you. This question has been sent in by Peter Gold. In 2024, the city of Nagoya employed people to stand still for around 30 seconds at a time while wearing a giant yellow foam hand on their back. What was this for and what was written on the hand?

In 2024, the city of Nagoya employed people to stand still for around 30 seconds at a time while wearing a giant yellow foam hand on their back. What was this for and what was written on the hand? Were they like stop guard crossing people, or like crosswalk people? I know from time in Japan a while back that there are a lot of Japanese jobs that simply do not exist or have been automated away in the UK and the US. Like there were some roadworks that involved like pedestrians having to step out briefly into the traffic lane.

And it's all signed off and it's all buried off. There's no way. But there is still. someone parked at each end of this like 20-30-meter diversion with a little, look, hive is best, flash and lights, pole, just telling everyone, watch your step, watch your step, watch that's the entire job. The human touch. So I'm wondering if it's, if it's some sort of like information service reminder thing like that.

It is like a, like, public information reminder kind of thing. So this place is in Japan? It's in Japan. Okay, okay, um... Yeah. Well, we should just go and find out. I guess they'll have to go to Japan. Oh, no.

I guess they'll have to go to Japan now. Okay, stand still for 30 seconds at a time implies they are moving between these times. Like, stand still for 30 seconds, then you've got to do something, move somewhere else, cross the street. I'm obsessed with, like, road safety at this point for some reason. And then for 30 seconds, you stand still...

So where are you moving? I think the fact that it is 30 seconds at a time does kind of make me think traffic to some degree or construction, you know? And why do they have to kind of keep swapping? Is it something that only happens a few times a day? Is it not something that's constantly happening? Is it something that only happens for 30 seconds out of a day? And why is the foam finger on the back? Or 30 seconds at a time?

Yeah, 30 seconds at a time, not necessarily 30 seconds. It's not just 30 seconds of a day. And why is the foam finger on the back? Why not just on their hand? I'm envisioning one of those things at sports games where you've got like the giant foam hand with one finger raised. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that. It could just be a giant anatomically correct model of a finger.

I think it was an entire hand, right? Yeah, it's a... Each person wears an entire hand. It's a yellow foam hand. Yellow foam, I forgot yellow foam. Yeah, okay. Like, you're not exactly on the right track with, like, construction and stuff,

but it does happen in a busy area like a train station. Busy area like a train station. Is it like like people management? I know sometimes it gets really crowded in Japan. It might be like for like for the flow of people and everything like that. Like I would say you're on the right track with that. Yeah. Foot traffic management.

Yeah, you need to keep your distance at the length of this hand. So you can't be going up behind someone less without bumping into the hand. Or a follow me thing. Follow the giant yellow finger to lead you somewhere. So, so just because you are getting hung up on it being a finger, I'll describe the shape that the hand is in. All five digits are extended.

Like this. Oh, okay. Oh, okay, so that's a stop. That's a stop. And is it on their back stuck out like a fin? or is it on their back, like, flat? It's flat against their back. I think it's probably to prevent people from crossing a road

or from crossing, like, some, something dangerous. And I think that they must, like, hold people back behind them for 60 seconds. 30 seconds. Oh, sorry, 30 seconds. And then they, like, turn or move or whatever. But I think that, like, Haley was receptive to the fact that it's, like, people movement management. Now, I've seen something like this, leaving a concert at Wembley Stadium. It is not a giant foam hand.

It's the mounted police on horses, and it's the most effective crowd control. When the tube station is full, and no one can go any further, the police officers just turn their horses to block traffic, like there's some sort of rotating gate, and then when it is safe to continue, they move the horses around, so they're facing the crowd, and there's gaps to go through. Is this something like, this is a giant, this is a row of people

with giant foam hands on the back, all going, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. And then when it's safe, they can turn to the side and let people buy. I like your idea. That is not it. Oh, that's good, I was like, oh, this is going to be great. That's so creative. Are we right with Stop and Go, though? You're right that it does mean stop.

Okay. there's not necessarily a like go option there's not like a movement or something that indicates go um so for 30 seconds at a time it's indicating stop and i'm guessing that's towards people where would it be a situation where every for 30 seconds people need to stop in japan Okay. For some reason, I've still, I've kind of hung up about it being a train station. Yeah. But it would definitely be at a train station. That's one of the places that could be used. Okay. So there's a whole bunch of people in a whole bunch of areas that have stop on their back that are stopping some amount of people for 30 seconds. It's interesting that it's 30 seconds. Yeah. What's a 30 second activity?

or scenario. Train stopping, doors opening. Okay. You need to stop for. So while the clue doesn't outright say other places, this could happen. Based on context clues, this could happen in a busy area, like a mall as well. Yeah, maybe airports, perhaps like a large convention center. Is it like people fainting and like the like the vast.

stop to, like, give people space or something like that? People don't faint for 30 seconds. It's fine, guys, I'm okay. Although the people with the foam hands on their backs were standing still, they were moving. It's the conveyor belts. No, no, escalators. People, people, you know, you don't want them running up the escalators. They're like, don't rush past me.

Oh, and it's an escalator. It takes about 30 seconds. Yes. Oh, well done. I was holding off in that clue for so long because it's like, y'all were so close. You were so close. And I knew that that would give me away.

I would never have got to that. I'm in London. If you block an escalator that people want to walk up, you will get elbowed out of the way. That's why I didn't cross my mind too. Normally in America, it's like you stand on the right, you go on the left, right? Yes.

So the purpose of the hands on the backs were to stop people from walking on escalators, and they said stop. Nagoya's authorities felt that standing on escalators would reduce accidents and improve the overall capacity. So they had a stand-and-stop core of people paid up to 18,000 yen per day, which is 110 U.S. dollars, to ride the escalators and discourage people from walking on them. So they had giant yellow foam hands on their backs with the word stop in English and in Japanese. Wow. They've tried, not with the giant foam hands, but in London, the tube network

tried a pilot at one station where they're just like, we're changing the rules here, you should stand on both sides and more people will get through. And they are right. If both sides the escalator is standing, the crowd will get through faster. And no one followed it. Everyone was angry. Like, that concept of doing it that way is so foreign to all of us that none of us even, like, imagined a scenario of like, yeah, that's what they're going for. We're all walking on escalators here. You know, it depends on the energy levels.

But, like, yeah. Which means we are back to the question from the start. Thank you to Ray Nuthnagle for sending this in. In 2020, why was there a sudden surge in adverts for jobs based in a sales? small town in Coos County, Oregon. Anyone want to take a shot? COVID. You are right, but I'm going to need a bit more detail than that.

Remote work was possible. This was a town with, like, a low cost of living, and they're like, and they had excess of housing for some reason, and they're like, come stay with us. We got good internet. Escape the city. I thought you'd got it in the first sentence there, Evan. You haven't, but I thought you had.

Okay. So it does maybe have to do with remote work. That was the beginning of your sentence. Yeah, absolutely. All right. COVID and remote work. Yep. And remote work?

Yep. But it doesn't have to do with cost of living per se. No, no. Definitely to do with remote work. Is the place important? Yes. Yes. Small town in Coos County, Oregon.

Is there a town called remote work? Yes, there is a town called remote. It's not remote work, Oregon, but it is remote in Coos County, Oregon. So when adverts were being posted online, the local location would be advertised as remote and automated systems did the rest. Yeah. Oh, my God. Wow.

Oh, that's great. I finally got one. It was the dumbest question of the show. Thank you very much to all our players. Where can people find you? What are you up to? We will start with Evan and or Caitlin, whoever wants to do it. You can find us on YouTube at Evan and Caitlin. And everyone else at Evan and Caitlin. And what sort of stuff's there, Evan?

We do DIY projects, but we also do gaming projects. We do cooking. We have, like, a lot of channels, so just search Evan and Caitlin and see what comes up. And Hannah. You can find me on Instagram at Hannah Crosby, C-R-O-S-B, and every week at The Guardian. And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcass.com. We can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at Lateralcast, basically everywhere, and there are full video episodes every week on Spotify.

Thank you very much to Hannah Crosby. Thank you very much. To Evan and Caitlin. Thanks for having us. I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral. Thank you. Thank you.