Lateral with Tom Scott - 179: The 3-in-1 adaptor

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Iszi Lawrence, Abby Cox and Matt Gray face questions about eliminated equines, dangerous doors and porridge pools. 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: RedCree, B.A. Wake, Manuel, Griffin Michel, short_c1rcuit, Julian, Chris Wiggins, Matt Howes. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After incidents in 2000 and 2021, which two Olympic events no longer involve horses? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott and this is Lateral. It's a grey day on Geometry Street. All the shapes are indoors, staring at some right angles. Wait, who's this sliding in slowly from the left? Why, it's Mr Square. What's that, Mr. Square? You think the show's run out of budget?

How rude, this show has never had a budget. And look, wobbling down from the top of the screen because the settings are broken, it's Miss Dodecahedron. Oh, no. Oh, dear. Miss Dodecahedron says she feels artistically compromised. Maybe someone shouldn't have signed that contract allowing her likeness to be used on crypto coin. Now, let's look through the parallelogram window. What do you see? It's our friends, the podcast guests.

One, two, three. And they all look really confused by this introduction. Hoping that their brains are going to be in great shape, first we have someone who, when I asked before the show what you want to be introduced as, just said, quote, history, whatever, I don't care at this point. Abby Cox, welcome back to the show. Would you like to be more specific about history, whatever?

I mean, like, I feel like history is pretty whatever at this point. Like, no. I don't know. Like, I'm a historian. I'm a fashion historian. I love myth busting. I love embarrassing myself on media with my friends. I am very passionate about Culvers and Sumer Wrestling too.

I am just multifaceted. I am an enigma. Colvers and Sumer wrestling are two very, very different parts of the Van Diagram there. Oh, or are they a circle? I don't feel like there's a massive overlap there. I think you're incorrect, Tom. I think the Venn diagram. It's a circle. Well, good luck on the show today.

I don't know if we have questions on either of those things. We are joined again by someone who at this point I have run out of things to introduce with. So I'm just going to say, Matt Gray, welcome back. Hello, thank you for introducing me with such flair. I like how much effort. you put into your introduction. I would have had some notes in here, but they were filled in by the entire length of the

children's script that I had at the start. And it was really worth it, that script wasn't it? That was such a funny joke. What do you want me to introduce you, as Matt? I am a digital content creator, YouTuber, whatever you want to call me. And the thing I am most proud of in the last year is that I managed to use YouTube as an excuse to play around in the European Space Agency's mission control center this summer. Matt's also very good at sending funny memes and TikToks on Instagram. He makes me laugh all the time.

Oh, yeah, we send a lot of dark humor between each other. I'm going to move on very swiftly to someone who is not part of that group chat. The third person we have today, part of an increasingly chaotic trio whenever we invite you three on the show. From... Her most recent book is The Doomsday Cows and also from the Talk Like an Egyptian podcast

and the Terrible Lizards podcast, Izzy Lawrence, welcome back. What's the thing you're most proud of in the last year? In the last year, probably I managed to do a book about dinosaurs for kids, which actually has the first

Luopterus terasaur in it that's actually drawn accurately. So that is my most proud thing. He's called Dave. Historically, pedantic. accurate children's fiction is how you've described it. That's basically what I do, and it's not really because, like,

anybody cares other than me, and I really do care too much. I like the rest of this cast. We seem to have just sort of, I don't know, managed to monetise our special interests. Neuridivergents very well. I've got a sticky note pads in your honour, Izzy. It's a dinosaur.

one. Oh, it's beautiful. Just like terrible lizards, it's a terrible dinosaur-sticky note-pad, because it's just blue paper inside and no dinosaurs. Yeah, but that could be like a dinosaur's eye up close. Yes. Well, before any of our geometry street shapes, file a formal complaint, let's begin our own brightly coloured adventure with question one. Thank you to Short Circuit for this question.

Tahir bought a three-in-one multi-charging cable from a busy gift shop in Bloomsbury, London. Why was he amused by the disqualmie? design on the cover. I'll say that again. Tahir bought a three-in-one multi-charging cable from a busy gift shop in Bloomsbury, London. Why was he amused by the design on the cover? I mean, Bloomsbury's quite po-faced anyway, so it could have had anything on it, and that's going to amuse you a little bit. It's quite serious. I mean, Bloom'sbury is where you get places like the British Museum. It's where you get, like, that big street with the bookshop and the other bits on it. Yeah, that is my...

That's big streets with the book shop on it. Don't you live in London? No, I live in Reading for the pun. I'm an author. You have to. I appreciate your commitment to the bit. Thank you. But yeah, no, I do...

The only type of charges that I've seen, which I'm remotely funny, either have some sort of animal orifice as the connector or some sort of like, you know, appendage as the actual, you know, extender. So is it something filthy like that? Doesn't strike me as something that would, I think to hear is more sophisticated than that. Absolutely. In fact, if you wanted a gag from most sophisticated to least sophisticated joke, complete other end of the spectrum. This is definitely a more sophisticated joke. So they're truck nuts. Yeah, truck nut, Arja. Three and one truck nuts. Three? I mean, they're starting with zero, so I don't know.

anomaly. I mean, you can get hernias that do that, but anyway, sorry. Izzy, you actually identified where this was bought. I did. Is it that book shop? No, no, it's the other one. No, sorry. You mentioned somewhere else. Oh, actually at the British Museum in the gift shop. Actually at the British Museum gift shop. Okay. So we're in the British Museum gift shop where you can buy copies of the cursed tomb by Izzy Lawrence. Thank you very much. Exactly. No one's put a plug in the middle of a question before. That's new.

Well done. Well done. It's true. They have got three gift shops at the British Museum. Three or three? Yeah, they've got three. They've got the main adult book shop. They've got the gift shop, which is in the middle of the bit.

But they've also got the posh gift shop, which is where you can get all of the really spangly. Oh, I thought you said they had a free gift shop. And I only went to the paid for ones. Well, see, I thought when you said adult book shop, I was like, so wait, there's like a place where you can buy. I'm like, is that where he got the charger? Is that where he? There is a lot of adult content. I mean, in the British Museum,

Caneoform romance novel. Chicken scratch, just, the predecessor to Sarah J. Maas. Yeah, it's perfect. Ooh, was the three and one charging cable made out of subpar quality copper? I get the A&A reference. I'm not sure anyone else did.

No. Because is that in the British Museum? It's something from not in the UK. Not at the moment. It's actually on loan. I was going to say, it sounds like something we would have stolen. Because that was one of the oldest written texts,

and it's a complaint letter saying that the person that sold them some copper, it was really bad quality or something like that, wasn't it? It's not the best object that they have, which is a complaint letter, though, because they've actually got a sealed envelope, an Acadian sealed envelope. And inside, it's a guy writing saying, this is the fourth letter I've sent you.

Why haven't you? answered it, which is great, because it was sealed. That is not the object we're looking for, but you are sort of along the right lines here. We're coming to the right bits of... I've got the sort of thing that I think the British Museum would find amusing. So I've got a... So we've got the Rosetta Stone, which has three languages on it. Yes.

So would we have three different USB ports with different things, each in a different language, to indicate which one it is? That is close enough. Yes, I'm going to give you... Charge your tablet with a tablet. It's not quite that fancy. It's just a regular like three-and-one charger, and the design on it is the Rosetta Stone. Just when you say Rosetta Stone, that's the famous... So the Rosetta of Stone is famously how they translated Egyptian hieroglyphs,

because as well as Greek and, I think, Coptic Egyptian on there, it's also got hieroglyph. Hieroglyphic is demotic and ancient... Demotic, not Coptic. So they've got... I've ever even heard of Demotic before. Oh, and it's basically the way you write out Harrographs quick. It's fine.

So the Rosetta Stone on it, it's got Greek, it's got Demotic Egyptian, but it's also got hieroglyph, so they're able to translate it at last from that. It was a bit more than that, to be fair, to Champignan. He spent 20 years on it, but it was a big key. Absolutely right, Izzy. The Rosetta Stone translated between three languages, the USB cable translates sort of between three different connectors. And if they were sold headphones, I'm sure they'd only play the Rosetta's tone.

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Abby, take it away for the next question, please. Okay, let's go. This question has been sent in by B.A. Wake. In the 2014 NFL season, a major U.S. corporal. supplied items to the league's players and coaches as part of a 400 million product placement deal. It backfired due to people who weren't even on the field. How? Again. In the 2014 NFL season, that is National Football League. I know that.

Not soccer, but American Football Diso. I know American Football. I'm calling you out specifically, Izzy. I don't know what you're like... I think I've seen more NFL matches in person than I have actual football. Yeah, I think we might have three Brits on this call who understand just a bit about the NFL here. That's good. Okay, that's good to hear. A major U.S. corporation supplied items to the league, leagues, players, and coaches as a part of a $400 million product placement deal. It backfired due to people who weren't even on the field. How?

Were they really shiny and they got blinded? I know I've seen footage of a of a, I think, I'm going to say South American football player having hundreds of lasers shone at his face when he's taking a penalty. Oh yeah, yeah, that's horrible. Yeah, but I can't see

a major American corporation giving out laser pens as a product placement thing. No. I mean, usually you'd expect, like, something to, their logo to, when they put the shoulder pads on or something like that, it to be distorted, and it's sort of so, if you like corn dogs, say bum or something

and everybody shout bum. But I can't think of a logo that would do that. But it backfired because of people not on the field. Yes. So it had nothing to do. The only thing I can think of like sponsoring wise and venues is like lots of venues have their drinks and snacks sponsored. So like that's how you go to some places and they're a Pepsi place rather than a Coke place.

or if you buy chocolate, you might only find Nestle stuff or cabri stuff or Hershey stuff. One of the things about the American football system is that unlike the British pyramid and the league, it's all kind of one thing. You don't have promotions, relegations, anything like that. So when they're supplying as a product placement, it could be for use off the field. Like they could be supplying them watches or cars or something like that. It doesn't have to be something they're wearing on the field. You can, if you are a very rich company, just sponsor every NFL player as part of their contract.

Anal soothing cream. Very important, Matt. Back fired. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Put this together, Matt. You can do it. So it's got nothing to do with a rogue t-shirt. Canon. No, no. Or Pop-Tarts, unfortunately. I wish has had something to do with the Pop-Tart Bowl, but it doesn't.

Um, so it, um, Tom, you are heading in a, and you're like heading in a direction. It's a pretty good direction. Okay. The direction being off the field, which is the correct place for me to be in any sporting event. Yes. And I was thinking of food and drink because of people not on the field is the audience. And they're there. You go there and you have your beer and your hot dogs and everything.

Okay. Well, keep in mind, NFL is played on TV. So it is. Like, it's not people, like, it's people who aren't even on the field, but don't just imagine that it has to do with people in the stadium. So is it like a thing where people are calling up and crashing whole, like, systems or something or tuning in to get a particular number, and somehow that messes with the cable and everybody can't see it?

Okay. And this was for the whole of 2014 NFL, not just a sponsor for the Super Bowl or something like that. Yeah, no, it was for the whole season. Am I right, it's something they've given the players, to take off the field? Or are they wearing this while they're playing? It's something to take off. It's not something you can wear.

Doritos. And it's not something you can consume. Ooh, you can't wear it, you can't consume it. They're not going to write with it, are they? They're American. Then it's technology. Technology companies always sponsor stuff like this. I remember there was a football team in the UK

that were sponsored by Wang Computing, I think, and they had Wang written. on them as they were running around. But if it's not written... No, it's not written on like jerseys or anything. Oh, is it something like it backfired? Product placement that backfired. So it could be like...

It was sponsored by Twitter, but then everything on Twitter was saying that the NFL's crap. Or back then, talking about Twitter, as was. It used to show what device you posted from. So there were lots of sports people, celebrities, influence, who would say, oh yeah, this is my new not iPhone, show it off, show up, posted from Twitter for iPhone.

Yeah, it's sponsored by BlackBerry, but all of the tweets from, from NFL will come from an iPhone. You guys are like so close, but not quite. But like, you're heading in the right. Is it to do with Twitter? No, it has nothing to do with Twitter, but it has something to do... Is it smartphones? Not smart phones. Is it watches?

No. You guys are... It's laptops. Internet? It's tablets. It's a tablet situation. It's a tablet situation. They gave all the players a tablet.

An iPad or like... A Chromebook. It won't be Apple. They don't really do that. Yeah, they don't do that. But it could be like a Google... Apple is related, but... Apple music does the halftime show.

It's not... It's... it is Apple has... ...plays a part in this. They play a part in this. Okay. Was it like all Samsung tablets, but all of the... Not Samsung. A major US corporation.

Google? tablets? McDonald's. I feel like this is also backfiring for this company at this particular moment. Microsoft. There we go. There you go. I forgot they did hardware.

I forgot about real computers, even though I forgot about real computers, even though I'm using one. They all got a Microsoft Surface tablet. Okay. Yeah. So who messed up this brand deal? Well, I was thinking like, everyone's really used to having Apple devices

or have got Apple devices with them always. Like, people always have their iPhone on them, even if they're, like, Samsung sponsors. Is it the commentators? Is it the people up in the broadcast box? Yeah. Because if you watch an NFL broadcast in the US, like we have different product placement rules in the UK,

if you watch an American feed, all the time, like Zazas are sponsored by something. Like, every aspect of this is sponsored. Oh, no, they've got Microsoft products in front of them, and they're using that on TV for their notes. The commentators are just saying they've all been given iPads by Microsoft. Everyone called them iPads. Yeah. Yes, because iPads were the only really usable tablet back then, weren't they?

They all got given an iPad by Microsoft. Yeah. Yes. There you go. So what it was is, yeah, they were given surface tablets, so yes. And then what happened is, as notes say, but in the opening week of the season, multiple broadcasters casually refer to the surfaces as iPads or iPad-like devices on live TV. So Microsoft had to issue reminders for them to correct the branding. But the slip-up just continued to the amusement of. of tech journalists and to the frustration of Microsoft.

Eventually, it's like, people like, you know, got it figured out. But for the while there, yeah, they were accidentally calling all those Microsoft services iPads or iPad-like devices. Thank you to Julian for sending in this question. When performing the end of Chopin's Prelude in D minor, Allegro Appaschanato, some concert pianists depress two keys without making a sound. How does this help? Give you that one more time. When performing the end of Chopin's Prelude in D minor, Allegro Apassionato,

some concert pianists depress two keys without making a sound. How does this help? I'm going to sit out because I haven't, I don't know the answer, I don't know the specific piece, but I feel like I have an idea that might come too close. Is it something to do with resonance so that certain keys actually resonate with other keys? And so if you don't press them and actually lower the, because the way of piano works is you've got strings inside the the piano and it gets, you know, it hits the string. So if you don't actually muffle the string a bit by pressing them, then they could resonate. That is exactly what I was going to say. I know nothing about music. So this is pressing and holding down in a piano key releases the felt

damper off the strings, which means that they can ring, which means you could put down, uh, hold down notes that are a harmonic of the one that you're playing or an octave or something like that and it could ring sympathetically and make it louder. Or literally, like, if you're really bored, you can just go to piano and see how slowly you can press a key and not make a noise and it's really fun. I mean, really fun. That sounds fun. I think you may be overthinking that a little, but you've got some key bits there.

The ending is fortissimo. The ending is very, very loud. You got that bit. Okay. But that's not quite the technique we're looking for. Okay. So it's very, very loud and it doesn't make a sound. This sounds more like a Buddhist question. I'm sure there are other keys being...

Ooh, wait. There is a piece where the very ending of it is you slamming the lid of the keys down. At the piano lid? Yeah, but you can't do that while you're holding a note down. You could do if it needs to end in a scream. I've seen Tom and Jerry. I've seen the Cat Concerto. You can absolutely do that. Your fingers just come out in a weird shape.

That's how you get the depression and the whatever, depresio. But if you hold down the keys to remove the dampers and you're percussively using the piano, then that would give something to resonate and be louder, but that's not very Chopin. It would, but that's not why they're holding down the keys. Is it because somebody else is plucking the piano from the inside and holding down the keys changes that sound a bit?

Yeah, a small mouse going along with... I like this plan. The prepared piano that is known as if you're putting extra things in your piano, such as mice and rulers and things to make your piano sound weird. Prelude and D ends with a big old bang, we reckon. It's a really loud ending. It is fortissimo. It is very, very loud.

Is he just screaming? It's like the pianist just screaming at the end? It's... No, it's regular musical notation here. There's nothing... It does not have a note that says pianist screams or anything like that. that. Too bad. And only some concert pianists

do this. It's possible to play without doing it. Do you need an extra finger to do it? Is it a bit of showing off? Do you use your foot? Do you actually use your foot at the end? Are you playing with like... I think that's more cabaret. If you're doing it this way, honestly, you could. Is it a stretch thing?

Did Chopin have really wide hands? And they're pressing the notes down but not making a sound because they can't quite reach it? No, you're actually only playing one You're playing one note. You're using two keys. You're not making a sound and it's really noisy. And it's not for extra resonance to create more noise. I'm going to separate out. Don't forget, some concert pianists depress two keys. So I'm going to separate out, like this technique is not like written on the musical staff or anything like that. This is just to make it easier to play the last bit. And this is specifically key. Oh! If you press down two keys, I'm not.

Either side, if you've got a black note, you press down two keys either side of the black note, the two white notes. You've got more space to whack it. Yes, you have. Now, it's not a black note. The ending is a D. So do you want to just change your mental picture a little there in that, but you've got it? So that'll be the C and the E then, either side of it. So the D definitely stands out so you can whack it with your fist or something, rather than just using a single finger.

Correct. This is called safety netting. Yes. Wow. Some pianists... Oh, so you don't accidentally play the wrong note while you're whacking the last note so hard? Yep.

The final bars of Chopin's Prelude number 24 end with three, I'm quoting here, explosive low Ds, requiring the pianist to lift the arm high and strike the key with maximum force. Yeah, you don't want to end on a sour note if you're whacking one out in front of an audience. My God.

Well done, Matt. I appreciated that. Well done. I'm just going to read my notes. I'm just to read my notes. The dramatic motion, while easy musically, increases the risk of clipping one of the adjacent keys. To prevent this, some pianists quietly depress

the two neighbouring white keys with their other hand just before the climax, which is called safety netting. Some pianists... Some pianists, Matt, even use their fist to hammer the final few notes. Matt, we will go to you for the next question. This question, please. This question has been sent in by Manuel. Stefan finishes his shift on a Munich

construction site and steps through a special doorway before heading home. When a friend surprises him with a free Caribbean holiday departing shortly, he must refuse. Why? Stefan finishes his shift on a Munich construction site and steps through a special doorway before heading home. When a friend surprises him with a free Caribbean holiday departing shortly, he must refuse. Why? Like nuclear power plant stuff? Or like types of seed that's not allowed in the Caribbean or some sort of fungi that's... Yeah. But why the doorway? The special doorway. So like clean you off. Yeah, but if you've gone through... If you've been cleaned off in a special doorway, though, then you could get on a flight to go somewhere where a substance isn't allowed.

It implies they're blasting him with an illegal substance that you can't take to the Caribbean. Maybe that's the cleaning fluid. Maybe it's a doorway that erases your passports. Or is it... But then why are just the Caribbean? Is it something to do with not being able to get on a plane because of radiation level? But you don't have radiation detect... Well, you do have radiation detectors at airports, but not unlike the TSA security line.

You do get done for dynamite. Yeah. So you've spoken about contaminants like radiation and gunpowder and stuff like that and that is not the right line to be going there. Is it seeds and plant matter? It's not really contamination or anything like that. Hold on.

Is this... No, it's Munich. So it can't... I was going to say if this was coastal, he could be working on some like deep sea construction site or something like that because I remember... If you've been diving, you cannot go on a plane afterwards.

There's like warnings if you go to places where they'll do like diving expeditions and things like that, because you'll get the bent. You've got to adjust to that pressure. Yep. Yep. Oh. It is basically that, Tom, you've got it. It is so then they don't get the bends. Is he working in a pressurized environment then?

Yes. In Munich? Yeah. Yeah. You've basically just gone to. and got the question there, and you nearly didn't even say it because you thought Munich wasn't the right place for it. Yeah, this confused me, because I've only seen that for diving.

Let's see if we can guess why. It's to do with the geology and water. Is this that boat that people keep telling me about, and I've never been able to get on board? Nope. Ah, there's a boat on the Rhine. I don't know if that's the right city in Munich, that they can inspect the river bottom by...

lowering a cason down, pressurising it, pushing the water out, and then you can just stand on the sea back? Oh, I've seen a boat that flipped 90 degrees to do that as well. Oh, different boat. Different boat. Yeah, people have told me about both of those boats many times back when I was doing regular science videos,

never been able to get on board, but it's not that. I was going to just very briefly ask if it's got something to do with, like, medical stuff and, like, iron lungs and things like that, and having to be under pressure for that reason. Okay. No, it's a construction site. So the reason for this is, Is it where they have to blow up the inside of a building?

They do really quick construction where everything's really flat and they just fill it really quickly. So like the ceiling inflate. So you get a perfectly crisp like aluminium. That's what I'm imagining. Absolutely not. But actually that's the closest we've had yet to lie. So Munich has a very high water table.

When constructing underground commuter train tunnels, compressed air is used in some sections to prevent the groundwater for entering. and the workers entered these areas via an airlock door. When they were building some of the first tunnels under the Thames, they called it case-on disease, because they didn't understand what the bends was, because they were pressurising the tunnel that people were working in, and then they would come back at the end of the shift

and get what we didn't know was called the bends. It was case-on disease. I didn't know that was still a thing. Yep, yeah, in Munich. So in this kind of construction site, the air is set to one and a half times atmospheric pressure. If a work went somewhere with lower air pressure, they would risk developing the decompression sickness known as the bends, which happened when gases, like mainly nitrogen, form bubbles in the blood vessels due to a rapid drop in pressure.

And that can cause joint pain, diseasiness, paralysis or even death if it's not treated promptly. As such, these workers are strictly forbidden from flying or mountaineering soon after working. Thank you to Chris Wiggins for this next question, and Matt Howes also sent in a similar idea. In 1939, Cecil Clark went to a public swimming pool in Bedford, England. He took an aluminium washing-up bowl filled with porridge, magnets, and, crucially, some aniseed balls. How did this improve national security?

And I will give you that question. That glorious question one more time. In 1939, Cecil Clark went to a public swimming pool in Bedford, England. He took an aluminium washing up bowl filled with porridge, some magnets, and crucially, some aniseed balls. How did this improve national security? Good luck. Well, the things I know about Bedford, that's where the Panacea Society was based,

who were expecting the second coming of Jesus Christ. I think Octavia was their leader, but that's at the turn of the centuries, We're about 30 years out of date. They still have the Panacea Museum there, and you can, I don't think you're allowed in Jesus's bedroom anymore for when he comes back, but they do have an onsuit for him, which is really cool. That's really badful.

I'm imagining like a full avocado 70s bathroom set ready for TV. It's kind of, well, it's a bit earlier than that, but yeah, sort of the Ed Wallian equivalent. It's really kind of like weird. They also have like, because in order for this all to happen, they have to have 14 bishops staying with them, so they've got this sort of amazing. but the museum is amazing, so you should go to that

if you're ever in Bedford. But it is meant to be, say, from the apocalypse Bedford within that certain region. They laid out, there's Octavia breathed on some special bits of paper which he buried around Bedford. And curiously enough, house prices are higher within that arena

than they are outside it. So there is that. So this is perfectly normal behaviour for Bedford as far as I'm concerned. I was just thinking of the, I think it's Caddyshack and the public pool scene with the candy bar. So I'm like, maybe it has to do with body functions in public pool.

How did this improve national security? People learned to go to the bathroom and not use the pool as a public toilet. That helps with national security. That's health and safety. We're talking 1939. So that is just at the break of the Second World War. immediately. So that's how you know

did Nazis poop in the pool. Well, the big thing at the time was they were concerned that the Blitz had happened immediately, which is why they gave out loads of gas master people, but the Blitz didn't happen for about six months. So this is, there might be a way that you can detect aerial bombardments

through aluminium bowls, porridge, and anisee balls. However, I don't know how you do that. So I can, I was going to say, well, you can pretend to be wearing a helmet if you've got an aluminium bowl. But with you saying detecting, that's made me think of the, oh, come on, brain, what's it called? Denge. What they call?

The sound mirrors. Thank you. Wait. So like, in keeping with like what Izzy said, like national safety and stuff, would they float the bowl in the pool with the porridge and then drop the ball. and then drop the balls to like kind of get an idea of like impact? Oh, I've got an idea. It might be to do with, because it's got a magnet there. You've got an aluminium ball.

You've got porridge. Porridge is a non-Newonian fluid, I believe. If you put the ball in the middle of the water and you've got a magnet, could you make it into a sort of giant compassy type situation and actually maybe detect some sort of magnetic fields or like different radio or something that's going on? We've got so many angles here. Yes, and you've got so many angles on sort of odd military inventions.

You are absolutely in the right area with that. But you've all kind of gone with Army and Air Force. We're in a swimming pool. So Navy? We're in a swimming pool. Navy. So are we looking at a way to detect mines? So aniseed balls are very solid, dense,

and I would expect they would sink. They might float. Wouldn't be strictly relevant here. What is important is the type of candy and how it behaves. Jelly babies wouldn't have worked. So it's solid and it's like layers and layers and layers of sugar. Does it bounce? Are we talking about that's not for ages in the Second World War

where they bounce the bouncing bombs? Oh, bouncing bombs. Oh, Barnes-Wallis and the bouncing bomb. Much later. Much later, yeah. But again, that same kind of military invention going on here. Oh, aluminium bowl, is that like a boat? And did they throw the aniseed balls at it

as if those are, I don't know, shot, cannonballs? But it's like post-canon. I don't think they had cannonballs in the second wall. I know. No, but what did they have? What might Captain Cecil Clark have invented? Torpedo. Using the P from the pool.

Magnet's poured an aniseed ball. Sticky mines. Yes, Matt. Keep talking. You can get, yes, boats are made of ferromagnetic materials. And if he had magnets, you could use a magnet to stick something explosive onto a boat. And maybe he also experimented with porridge as a gloopy thing to stick it in. I think that's ballast for the boat, I thought.

So you've got the, you know, if we're having the aluminium bowl as the boat, you need ballast to keep it in the water at the right level, presumably. And that's what the porridge is doing in my head. but I might be wrong about that. And aluminium's not ferromagnetic, so... Matt, you have identified that this is the inventor, or at least an inventor of the Limpit mine. That's absolutely right.

This is an explosive that gets attached to an enemy ship using the magnets. That's what the bowl is for. It's simulating the mine. That's what the magnets are for. Why the porridge and the aniseed balls? Porridge is like brain matter or... Is it non-Newtonian possibly? Because it's got certain...

Is it got a right density for something? I'll give you that. That represented the main payload. The explosives that's in there. That's wet. It's the right density. It's the right everything to make up the rest of the mine. The last thing we've got are these aniseed ball candies.

Lead shot. Do they stick to stuff when you melt them with fire, but don't dissolve in water? They do dissolve in water. Okay. But very slowly. Yes, keep going, Matt. Because it's very solid and not very porous. So is this...

Oh, is this a triggering mechanism? Yes, it is. Is it triggered by the sugar slowly melts away, giving you enough time to get away from the boom? And that's it, yes. How do you attach a limp at mine? You limp? No.

Yes. I mean, presumably you train dull... Yeah, you've got to swim up to it and put it on. Yeah, someone's got to swim up to the boat, attach the mine, start it going, and then get out before it explodes. One of my favourite phrases, frogmen. Frogmen.

This is... This also reminds me of the time when they... I think it was the Russians tried to do this to tanks with dogs. And the dogs came running back with the mine still on them because they were hungry and blew everybody up. Oh, the story I heard is they did indeed train the dog. but they trained them with Soviet tanks, so when they released on the battlefield,

they went for the Soviet tanks. I don't know which of those stories, if either, is true. It's a lovely thought. So, yes, I will paint a picture for you here. Captain Cecil Clark had invented an early limpet mine. He needed a time delay. Amosied balls, these kind of old-school candies, have a uniform and predictable dissolving time

of about 30 minutes. So drill holes into them, put the detonation capsules inside, and then the porridge represented the main payload. And that was how they tested one possible limpet mine. Beautiful. Izzy, whenever you're ready, your question please. This question has been sent in by Red Cree. In 1822, Greek revolutionaries in Athens were fighting an Ottoman-Turkish garrison

who held the strategic upper hand. Why did the Greeks supply their enemies with lead ammunition? I'll say it again. In 1822, Greek revolutionaries in Athens were fighting an Ottoman Turkish garrison who held the strategic upper hand. Why did the Greeks supply their enemies with lead ammunition? Oh, Greek revolution is Giros. That's an incredible joke, Matt. Unbelievable good.

Because heroes, like, giant. How do you pronounce it? That, that, revolutionary. It's a reticeree meat. That's a 10 out of 10 dad joke right there. That was amazing. It's a pun upon a pun.

It's a, and in another language. Yeah. Did they like to eat lead paint because it tasted good? Were they just trying, were they just playing a really long game strategy with lead poisoning here?

Yeah, they're like, eat the chips. They're delicious. I'd love this to be the answer. In 10 years, this is, going to be a disaster for your recruiting. We can wrap it up nicely with a bow of asbestos cloth. I put that inside an asbestos horse and send it into...

Perfect. I believe this is before they even knew that lead poisoning was a thing. So... I know there's a theory about Roman emperors being driven insane by lead in the aqueducts. Again, not sure if that's true. But that's a modern theory. Yeah. I don't think Roman emperors were very water-based in terms of their consumptuous.

of drinks. Yeah, fair. What if we threw some arsenic in for good measure? Some green wallpaper? Maybe the horse was like decorated in lead paint and arsenic green wallpaper. And then it had asbestos snow come out for the holiday season. Well, while we have the right nations, I mean, certainly the Trojan horse was against Turks and Greeks. This is in Athens, not in Troy.

And yeah, a few millennia after date. Yeah, 1822. Oh, 1822. So it was Victorian Greece. No, they still kind of knew about lead poisoning by then. But, but yeah, the... And they did have the... I don't think they did.

No, they did, because I read about makeup. Sorry, this is like a side quest. Okay, yeah, fair enough. Yeah. Like, they were like, hey, don't wear lead makeup. Like, this will mess your face up. But they, like, you know, they're still like, it makes good colors.

Ammunition is an interesting word there. Because if you say lead ammunition, I'm thinking lead shot. I'm thinking like the things that were... You made basically... bullets by getting a very big tower, melting lead, and dripping it off the side. It would solidify on the way down, hit water, you would just get a load of lead shot to fire. But I'm wondering if it's some other kind of ammunition, like bigger cannon balls or something like that. But again, 1822, it's going to be guns. Surely it's going to be guns. So just a second, so there's

Greek, Athens, that's saying Olympics to me and track and field. So shot put. No, no, no, no, you don't get confused by the word shots there. We're talking, we're talking definitely there is a battle happening. It is with Greek revolutionaries in Athens, and they're fighting the Ottoman Turkish garrison who held the strategic upper hand. I think strategic upper hand is probably a key here. Ottoman was an empire.

It was an empire, and it was in charge of Greece at the time. Was it? Was it? Was it? Was it? Upper hand could mean they've got high ground. There's a big hill in Athens, isn't there, with a crop? Is Athens one of the ones built on seven hills or is that Rome?

That's Rome. That's Rome. I thought that was New Zealand. Listen to Matt. Oh, high ground. Acropolis. Upper hand. Upper.

So it's a high ground. And you said the word to them. Oh, oh. Wait, if they've given them lead ammunition, you have to take your ammunition to where you're going to fire it from. Did they just knack of them out by making them? them carry heavy things up the hill. And then they all just need a nap so they go to bed. That would be, that would be, you know, a nice idea. But the key point to do is you've got

the location correct. You've got the ammunition type correct. So the lead shot. And you've also got the, yeah, those two things you've got correct. You've got the location and you've got the and the reason that they need to do it. Hold on, what was the question? What was the actual key to this question? What are we looking for? And for the reason they... Why did the Greek supply their enemies with lead ammunition?

But their enemies are on the high ground. So it's not like they're worried of damage the Acropolis and lead is softer or something like that because they're not firing that way. But it's supplying an enemy with lead ammunition. Wait, supply. Do you mean shooting? Because the way you supply an enemy with ammunition is to shoot them.

No, they would be shooting with the lead. Is it to have something to do with like the lead travels so far that they can just kind of stay under? No. Is the lead soft enough that it won't damage the Acropolis? Are they worried about cultural heritage? The Turkish are not fighting, they're fighting down the hill away from the Acropolis.

So why are the Greeks supplying them with ammunition? And you're very close. Are they going to refine the ammunition? ammunition and they can use it once it's been fired back at them? Nope. They're going to steal stuff from the Acropolis to melt down as ammunition? Oh, to stop them looting. Not to stop them looting so much, but Tom, do you want to continue that idea?

Um, because it's... They might take apart bits of the Acropolis as rocks to throw down on them. Not so much rocks, but there are definite things The Acropolis, you know, you've got to imagine it's stone. How is that stone being held together? By the scaffolding brought in by the British Museum? No, this is pre-British Museum. I believe the bits of the Acropolis that the British Museum got are indeed sold by the Turks.

So no politics here. However, so if you've got a lovely pretty statue, have you got a column, are you just stacking stone on stone or are you doing stuff with it? Mortar. Not just mortar Like is there rebar in it And what's that made out of Gravity

I've never been agreed I feel like I should know this But I genuinely As it's the answer to the question Let's Boom Really? Oh is it like lead roofing

It's clamps and dowels and things That holds a stone in place Really? I didn't know that There you go I thought it was like a dry stone wall That's just made to fit I mean it's quite

When you've got like a horse's dangling hoof and that sort of thing, it's kind of like you have to structurally put these things together and that sort of bits. So, so put it, does anyone to put it together or shall I just give the answer? Because you've got it. They were worried about lead looting from the Acropolis. There you go. And that was built into all of the statues and stuff to get all the appendages and stuff.

So why were they worried about that the Turks would use that lead? Because they're on the high ground and they're surrounded. They're surrounded and they've got no... ammunition of their own. So they'd run out of bullets but weren't surrendering. Hell, we'll give you some lead so then at least you don't... Okay, you're still fighting, but at least you don't ruin the history. Exactly. You can kill us, but not the, don't hurt the, you know, statues. So there you go. Did it work? Did it, did it work? Did it actually stop them from doing it?

Well, do it, I will give you the full answer. During the Greek War of Independence in 1822, a Turkish garrison was besieged by Greek Revener. in Athens. The garrison held the strategic high ground, literally, because they were entrenched on the Acropolis, the rocky outcrop that supports the Parthenes. When the Turks exhausted their bullets, they began prying lead clamps and dowels out of the Parthenon and other ancient buildings on the Acropolis to melt them down into musket bulls. To prevent irreversible damage to Greece's most treasured ancient monuments, the Greek besiegers sent new lead ammunition so they would stop dismantling the buildings. This decision is traditionally attributed to, and sorry to his name and his

friends, but Chiracos Petakis, later prominent archaeologist and keeper of antiquities, the Turks eventually surrendered anyway. Which brings us to a question sent in by Griffin Michael from the start of the show. Thank you very much, Griffin. After incidents in 2000 and 2021, which two Olympic events no longer involve horses? Water polo. I was going to go, I was going to go judo and basketball. That was shot put. High jump. Target shooting.

Oh, wait, no, that's a thing. Yeah, it could be an archery thing. They still do. They shoot on horses still, don't they? Well, I was thinking actually, oh, I'm going to lose, I'm going to lose the triathlon type of, you know, where. When you do, when you do the hunting and the walking and the swimming type thing. That is one of the events. And like, it's a standard quiz question.

If ever you're asking about Olympic events, people forget the modern pentathlon. That's... At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, a German coach was seen hitting a horse in frustration. And the sports governing body voted just replace horse riding with a new obstacle course discipline. Oh, they should have replaced it with a pommel horse instead.

And that, Matt, is the other one. Just the horse. They changed the pommel horse in gymnastics. It's a different shape now. Yes, absolutely right. In gymnastics, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, they used the vaulting horse, which is the padded block on legs. It was accidentally set five centimetres too low,

which threw off the gymnast's timing, caused concussions, back injuries, and officials replaced the narrow high horse with the sloped vaulting table. Congratulations to all our players, some wonderful solves there. Where can people find you, what's going on your lives? We will start with Matt. I am at Matt Gray-S on all the socials,

or if you go to matg.com. You can find links to me everywhere and all my YouTube videos. Abby! You can find me on YouTube, just search Abby Cox, or you can find me on Instagram. I am Abby Cox.

If you search Abby Cox and you get the First Lady of Utah, that is not me. I am not the First Lady of Utah. I am a fashion historian. Have you ever met the First Lady of Utah? You should. No.

And Izzy Lawrence. If you just put ISZR, spelt, so Izzy spelt stupid, into, not spelt stupid, spelled ISEDR. But if you put that into any search engine, you'll probably find me. I'm quite, I'm quite good, but Izzy.com, and you can listen to my podcast, Terrible Lizards, and talk like an Egyptian.

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com. We can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at lateral cast basically everywhere, and there are weekly video episodes on Spotify. Thank you very much to Izzy Lawrence, Abby Cox, Magray.

Again, again, can we play again? I've been Tom Scott and that's been lateral.