Lateral with Tom Scott - 186: Flaming buttocks

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

Sam Denby, Adam Chase and Ben Doyle from 'Jet Lag: The Game' face questions about culinary caution, ballgame bests and necessary nosegays. 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: Abigail Cline, Patrick T., Rado, Jean, Jan Czechowski, Matt Monitto, James. 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

Before Abigail starts baking, why does she grab a shower cap? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to Lateral, the show where people normally sit still and think, which makes today's guests something of a novelty, because joining us are the team from Jetlag the Game, a show where the entire premise is sprinting through unfamiliar cities, making tactical decisions under pressure,

and treating transit hubs like their escape rooms. So today is a big change of pace. Today, no boarding passards, no surprise challenges, and no one shouting go, go, go, while running down a train platform. Instead, they're here to attempt something far more dangerous answering questions that you can't run away from. We start with Ben Doyle.

Hello, everybody. It's Ben Doyle from Jet Like the Game. Welcome back to the show. How are you doing, Ben? I'm good. I'm raring to go. I sort of, it didn't occur to me until just now that I would have to be thinking. I was sort of focused on the question I had to ask,

and I was like, oh, man, I'm going to trick them so good. But then I was like, oh, no, I got to, like, think about the other ones. That's tough. Also, welcome to the show, Adam Chase. Hi, Tom. How are you doing? It's been a little while. It's been a minute.

Well, you were on our podcast recently, which was a lot of fun. I was. The layover, exclusive to Nebula? It's exclusive to Nebula. If I'm plugging Nebula hard, it's because right now my show's going out of week earlier on Nebula. So nebula. Dot,

I'll just get that in on my code. And you could also go to Nebula. Attv. Yeah. Of course, if you wanted to,

that would be great. One time, I think we as a joke said, like, Nebula. atativ slash real engineering, like as a throwaway joke,

and then I, real engineering got like a decent number of signups off of that. We did actually lose money. Yeah. Well, hopefully there'll be no money

lost on any of the questions today. Sam Denby, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Tom. I'm so excited to do better than we did in Europe. That's always my bar. Spoilers. We always have spoilers.

For a show that's more than a year old now. Yeah, if you don't watch our show on time, that's your fault, you know? Well, also, the Taiwan season will have just dropped, I think, as this episode goes out. What was it like being a new country for the game and a new? network. I feel like the biggest thing for me, and hopefully this is not problematic, is it was really hard to stop myself, and I did not always successfully stop myself from saying, yeah, we'll do that when we get back to Tokyo, or we'll go down when we get back to Seoul. Because I was just like, inflating in my mind the geography of the other rail-based seasons

that we'd done in Asia. But on the other hand, Taiwan was incredibly cool, and it was made incredibly more cool by the fact that I didn't know how incredibly cool it was. I don't know what the capital of Taiwan is. Taipei? Taipei. That's it. That's it. I should, I did know what it was and could not recall it in time, which bodes very well for the questions we've got coming up. Well, good luck to all three of you on the show today. Welcome to a game where you can't win by catching an earlier flight. Please proceed to the gate marked question one.

Oh boy. Thank you to Jan Chahovsky for this question. In 1919. In 1999, why did Polish players of the game Heroes of Might and Magic 3 have the option to choose a game mode called Flaming Buttocks? I'll say that one more time. In 1999, why did Polish players of the game Heroes of Might and Magic 3 have the option to choose a game mode called Flaming Buttocks? Okay, well, here's what I'll say right off the bat. Tom specified Polish players, which makes me think this is some sort of specific. translation thing that happened when it was translated into Polish. This is, this is, this is my starting place.

1990, so do we think this is a video game? It must be, right? I would, I would expect that this is a video game. I feel like game modes, I feel like that's, that only happens in video games, right? Yeah, yeah, I'd say that's fair. What could Flaming Buttox be a mistranslation of? Yeah, well, I guess that's my question, Thomas, is, first of all, can you tell us if this This is a translation issue.

I'm gonna say very little, because you're mostly on the right track here. Okay. I just, I never know exactly how much Tom needs us to figure out on our own. You know what I mean? It's like, how far do we gotta get? Don't metagame this so early on. No, we have to metagame this. That's our thing.

I feel like the, but the Polish translation, we don't know Polish, and that would be an unsatisfying answer if it's just... You don't know Polish, no. I don't know any Polish at all. any Polish at all. Oh, it was translated wrong. That's not a good answer. It's got to be, there's got to be a trick. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. I'm with you. I'm with you. So... Actually, it's not a trick here. You're spot on. It's a mistranslation in a video game. But you would like us to figure out what it's a mistranslation of? I definitely want more than that. And 1999 is a bit of a clue there as well. Not much of a clue, but it's that era.

Is it a Y2K thing? No. No, not this time. Um, yeah, I think it'd be fair to say this game mode would be much less important as technology moved on. When you say that the game mode was called Flaming Buttocks, yes. Did it, did it say like in English Flaming Buttocks, or was it that the game mode was some Polish phrase that means flaming buttocks? Yes, that's correct. Okay, it was a Polish phrase that translates to Flaming Butts. Okay, yeah. I've got it.

I've got a theory. It's like an 80% theory, because it doesn't quite make sense. But what if it's like, okay, Tom said that it didn't matter as much these days. I'm thinking like processing power on computers is less than. When computers are thinking really hard, they get hot. So like, if your laptops thinking really hard, your lap will be flaming. Maybe is there a computer that you sit on? You know how you said that was about an 80% shot?

Sam? Yeah? The 20% unfortunately paid off this time. That's not even close. Not even close. Maybe it's a, maybe it's an internet thing. I also, I know that a lot of games in the late 90s were making weird compromises for dial-up internet. Yeah, certainly it couldn't be online all the time. And Ben, you're right, this is to do with the internet stuff. This is because local multiplayer was much more common. Right. It's like Hot Spot or something. So it's not hot Like hot link, hot... Hot... Buttocks.

What is it? Buttocks is the keyword. I'm... Look, Tom, my brain's laser focused on the word buttocks. And I'm trying to get there. Hot... Because this is like a... This is a land mode.

Not even land mode. Single computer mode. Is it like a mistransation for like hot seat? Yes, it is, Sam. Seat. Okay. That is absolutely right. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 had a hot seat mode,

where you would get out of your chair to let the next player have a go. Oh, and you would switch the other person, because you could only do one. Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Polish edition of the game mistranslated that into the Polish for flaming buttocks. Very cool. That sounds so much cooler. Ben, you were very eager for your question, so we'll go over to you whenever you're ready.

This question has been sent in by Rado. The question is, what can a fossilized coral from 420 million years ago tell geophysicists about the number 420? And I'll read that again. What can a fossilized coral from 420 million years ago tell geophysicists about the number 420? So, 420, we all know what that means, right? Right. Well, this, of course, look, we would be, you know, we'd be lying if we didn't all immediately think that 420 is a number that means weed. It means blazing it. There is a reason here in Colorado where, why the road mileage signs, you know, you go 416, 417, 418, 419.99 miles and then 421 miles. People are still stealing the 419.99 signs, though.

Yeah, they definitely are. I'm remembering there's something... I think this is actually ocean floor, but I'm going to say it in case it's close. The Earth's magnetic poles flip every so often, and you can see that in geological records. So I'm wondering if there's something similar in coral growth? Have you heard the thing about how they have, like, no idea

when that magnetism flip would happen? And, like, if it happens, like, everything's screwed. Like, society is, like, screwed. It's, like, one of those things that you should kind of, be like a little bit worried about. It's, I remember there being conspiracy theories about it. I remember there being some book in the public library that was, uh, uh, when I was a kid that was, oh, the earth's poles are going to flip. The full pseudoscience all the way through. Should not have been in that library. But couldn't they? Isn't that the thing? Maybe I'm victim to pseudoscience.

Oh, thank you, producer, David. Every 200,000 to 300,000 years on average. So I don't see why that would be number 420. Okay. So here's, here's, here's what. I'd like to sort of see if we can focus in on. So Ben said that this quarrel taught the scientists about the number 420, right? That was what you said. Yeah, what do you learn about numbers themselves? Yeah, that's what that's what I'm stuck on. It's like, what could you possibly learn about a number? I will note that they're not, they're not just any scientists. They are geophysicists. Oh yeah, that was why I was on like Earth's magnetic pole.

Under a search interpretation, like, I feel like the things you learn about a number is like, I'm thinking like, you can learn like, okay, this is like a prime number, right? And various math things like that, right? Yeah, what's Carl going to teach you about that? Oh, oh, here's a thought. Isn't there, what's the, this is another thing where it's like, it's not quite this, but it's in the right direction, I think maybe. Aren't there corals that are like, what is that like, uh,

geometric structure where like you zoom in and it looks the same way. Fractal. Fractal. Yes, fractals. Are we in the, is this fractal related, Ben? You stopped mid-thought there. Look, I'm going to say that what you're saying, you're saying some cool, cool-ass stuff. It has absolutely nothing to do with the answer to this question.

What? I was sure that it was going to be a thing where it was like, it was like the coral because of its shape proves that the number 420 is like, you know, prime or something. I know it's not prime. I'm going to redirect you. Permission to give a clue. Permission granted. Wait, I'm not in charge of this.

You're in charge, Ben. Sam has given me permission, and he is my employer, so I am listening to him. Look, coral, they're kind of like trees. They've got growth rings, okay? You can look at a coral. But trees are also fractals. I don't care. Okay.

Okay, wait, wait. Let's let's let's, let's, you said that the coral is 420 million years old, right? And we said that we learned something about the number 420. Surely this means that it relates to like something that happens every million years or like, right? It can't be a coincidence that it's 420 million years old. And the thing we learned was about the number of. 420, right? Those things are related. It can absolutely be a coincidence. This is lateral. It can 100% be a countenance.

I'm trying to read Ben's face, which isn't good audio. I feel like it's getting redder and more excited. Because Ben did say that he thought his thing was, I forget exactly what he said, but he was really excited about his thing and its ability to mislead us. He said that Coral has rings. Okay. So like, They're like their growth rings like trees, but they're much, much finer. And what? Like, once you get 420 of them, then something happens?

Like, I would say, I would think about like, what could the growth rings reflect? They reflect something that happens regularly in the environment of the coral. Yeah, so same as trees. It's going to be the ocean heating and cooling. Presumably, that's what causes growth rings in trees. It's the summer and winter cycle. So I assume it's heating and cooling of the water? No.

Oh, what if it was something about the moon? What if it's something about the moon, right? Because the moon affects the ocean, right? And it affects the tides and stuff. And maybe what this teaches us, here's what I've got. I think that this teaches us, like, how quickly, like, something about the way that the moon's orbit is changing. That, like, the moon is, like, getting slightly closer to, further from the Earth at some rate of 420 years, and that affects like the water levels

and the tides or whatever, and you can see that in coral. Final answer, lock it in. You're definitely on the right track. Did the lunar month used to be 420 days, and we can track that through coral? That is, again, close. It is not what we've learned about the number 420. But it relates to the cycles of the moon. It's not, I would focus still on the Earth, but it has to do with the Moon. They're geophysicists, right? Is that helpful?

They're geophysicists. Ben emphasized that. So there's something that happens, there's something that happens as relates to the Earth and the Moon. Could it be eclipses? Could it have to do with how often there's a lunar eclipse? Or earthquakes, or some geophysical thing. This statistic is now a little bit smaller.

Huh. What the hell does that mean? In the modern day. Every 420. This number was 420. This number is smaller now. Is it that something happens once every 420 years on average? Is that what they learned?

No. Is it that something happens every 420 somethings? Yes. Okay. Is it 420 units of time? Yes. Year, days in a year. There used to be 420 days in a year?

Oh. That's it. Yes. Wait, we know that from coral? We know that from coral that there used to be 420 days in a year. Basically, they would, you could tell from the layers how many, like, lunar cycles would fit into one annual year. And this reveals 420 daily growth bands in a year,

indicating that Earth once completed a full orbit around the sun in about 420 shorter days, meaning that the planet was spinning faster. Thank you to Matt Monito for this question. In an amateur baseball game from 1960, Alfred hit a fly ball to right field, but he wasn't ruled out until the following day. In what way would a home run have been an amazing achievement? I'll say that again. In an amateur baseball game from 1960, Alfred hit a fly ball to right field,

but he wasn't ruled out until the following day. In what way would a home run have been an amazing achievement? What it sounds like to me is that did it take them time to litigate whether or not it was a home run or out? And it probably had something to do with like, this is probably a weird baseball field in some way, where like Berlin Wall. I feel like it's like a baseball field, like on a, it's on a boat or something, you know? Are they in freaking space? They are not in space, but you have drilled down to the important parts of this question very quickly. Okay, not space baseball. But they're almost in space.

They are not in space, but you've drilled down to the important parts of the question. Okay, so it's like a weird baseball field. Definitely a weird baseball field. And Sam, you said boat. Yeah. I think that's technically true. Aircraft carrier. Aircraft carrier.

It's good thought. You could play baseball on an aircraft carrier, probably. Maybe they were in a submarine. What was the year again? 1960. And Adam, submarine is right, because they are boats, not ships. They weren't playing on board, though. Were they playing, like, using vehicles, like vehicles as, like, the elements of the game?

Oh, that would be so good. It's not, unfortunately, but I would love to see some version of submarine baseball, with like a periscope tracking the hits. Yeah. Yeah, next jet lag season is submarine baseball. It was 1960. It was the, what? So it's like, it's the Cold War.

Is that relevant? Yeah, yeah. USS Sea Dragon was the name of the submarine that they were from. Did, like, Cuba? Cuba loves baseball. It does. Are we in like Guantanamo Bay? No, nowhere even close.

A long, long way from, well, a long, long long way. from Cuba, a long, long way from home. Okay. All right. What about, okay, what about, okay, hear me out. Icebergs. Getting closer. Oh, icebergs.

Definitely getting closer. I'm going to give you the question one more time. Alfred hit a fly ball to right field, but he wasn't ruled out until the following day. Oh, oh, North Pole. Keep going, Sam. Why would a home run be an amazing achievement? International Day. Time zones.

Freaking time zones. They're at the North Pole. He shot it. across the international date line into tomorrow. Into right field? Yeah. Yes. So why would a home run in that game be technically an amazing achievement?

Because you would hit it into a different day or something? You could do that hit a ball into next day joke anywhere on the dateline. What can you only do with a home run at the North Pole? Because the definition of a home run, it's like, I don't know exactly, but I assume it's like you hit it out of the designated... It goes over the wall. Yeah. That's actually not the important part of this.

There's something else you do here. Oh, you have to run in a circle around the different date lines. Which means you would... I mean, I don't know. It means that you would, like, you would... It would take you a whole day to run the bases or something? We're talking about space rather than time, and you've done this for your own show. You would have circumnavigated the globe.

You have circumnavigated the globe. You have circumnavigated the globe. Yes, you have. I mean, not under the... definitions where you have to a certain amount of mileage, that's fair enough. But a quote from Captain Alfred McLaren of the USS C-Dragon, if you hit a home run, you'd circumnavigate the globe. If you hit into right field, you'd hit into tomorrow. And if the right field had caught the ball, he'd throw it back into yesterday. I'm still not sure what day the game ended. Sam, we will

go to your question, please. Great. Okay. This question has been sent by Patrick T. The Chamberlain family with a successful dynasty of obstetricians in the 17th century. Why did they use blindfolds, bells, and bellows while delivering babies? I'll repeat it again, the Chamberlain family was a successful dynasty of obstetricians in the 17th century. Why do they use blindfolds, bells, and bellows while delivering babies? You're asking this on an episode of Lateral, where you have four people who read as default ma'am. Good luck, everybody. We'll get through this. I'm an alternative man, Tom.

Yeah. I'm weird as hell. Immediate thought is like, okay, there's a dynasty of OBGYNs, right? And so if they're delivering babies, maybe because it's old timey times, they needed to, like, wear a blindfold so that, you know, people felt comfortable being examined or whatever. That's my starting place. Is that anything? Oh, would you examine them if you have a blindfold on? just...

I don't know. You would be able to... They did a lot of weird stuff back then. Yeah. Blindfolds, bells, and bellows reminds me of, like, a Victorian seance. So the mediums who were claiming to communicate with the dead would put on blindfolds, and they would mysteriously make bells ring, and I guess you could use bellows to create, like, drafts of air or some sort of effect.

I don't know how that goes back to obstetricians. in what year was this? 17th century. I don't know how that goes back to 17th century obstetricians, but it's the recipe for a Victorian seance. This would be a lot easier if Sam just told us what it was. Yeah. That's true.

Tonight on Straightforward. Okay, it's like, I feel like back then, they were also doing all kinds of like... Literal was right there. Literal would have been good. That would, that would. Hey, it's Tom, you got to a pretty quick. You should feel good.

You got there pretty fast. Okay. I feel like back then they were doing lots of like, people were like, would like go, maybe this was, maybe I've got my times wrong, but people would go like see like surgeries for fun. It was like, there was like a lot of like anatomic entertainment. Is this like a circus? It's like the, it's like Cirque to Soleil, but they're getting, they're having babies. But this is pre-anesthetic as well. I'm pretty sure 17th century's pre-anesthetic. Oh yeah. Well, that, yeah, could that be it? It's. It's like you blindfold the patient and then you play bells and you like blow air on them just to distract them while you got to do whatever you're doing. Nope. It's a 17th century equivalent of jangling keys in front of the new. No. Yeah.

I mean, that might have worked. I don't know. But this is in fact not for the benefit of the patient at all. Okay. Does it have anything to do with like trying to announce something? Because, like, bells would be used, like, is it to, like, try to alert, you know, whoever needs to know that, like, a baby has been born. It's like they would ring bells, so then the husband knows to come and meet the baby. Because I was thinking little hand bell.

We don't know the size of this bell. It could be a big old church bell. No, it's not for the sake of informing. And, in fact, in some ways, I think it's kind of for the opposite. For keeping it a secret. Oh, is it, was it, oh, okay, is it to make a lot of noise so that people aren't hearing like the pain and difficulty of childbirth? Yeah, you're getting closer, but again, it's not for the patient's benefit. It's really actually specifically for the Chamberlain family's benefit.

Maybe like people lived in this house and they were always delivering babies and they were like, I don't want to see babies getting delivered. So if I walk through that room, I'm going to wear a blindfold. No. Is it somehow, are these, okay, are these things being used to distract people in some way? Kind of, but yes. So they are a distraction, or they are meant to, are they meant to drown out the noise of childbirth in some way? Most of that is correct, what you just said. Kind of.

Is it, is it because, like, they were, it was a secret practice, like, they weren't supposed to be doing this and they had to, like disguised operation. Hold on, that's a really good idea because I'm sure there were like guilds of, I'm just to say medical people, because I don't know the right terms, who treated it as a very tight-knit community

that shared skills and inducted new members. Rather than today's science like teach anyone who wants to, it would be this is to protect our craft and our revenue and our skills. We need, like you said, to stop the secret getting out of what we do? What I would like to say, Ben, sort of in response to your question, it's not a secret practice, but they did have a secret practice.

At this time, they were basically innovators. They were doing, you know, they were baby-birthing innovators or whatever. That does fit to the tune of Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. Mm-hmm. And that's something. Do you do that math in your head every time anyone says anything, Tom? If it has... It's a curse. It's an absolute curse. What, eight syllables?

There are multiple patterns in my head that my brain just pattern matches. Okay. They, they, what was their innovation? In the world of childbirth, right? We are discussing childbirth, right? That's what they're, that's what's occurring. Yeah. Okay.

So what did they invent that aided in childbirth? So I think you guys basically have it. You have all the pieces, just putting it together. Like, what is the purpose of the bells, blindfolds, bellows, et cetera? Presumably it is, they are distract. I guess before we were saying it was to distract people just who didn't want to experience the noise. But I think what we're landing on is it's so that people don't. discover whatever the innovation is in childbirth that they have developed, right?

It's like to keep it secret. I think that's it. They blindfold anyone in the room. They blindfold the mother, presumably. Yep. Then the bells and the bellows are just additional stuff they bring in and make noise with and do stuff with to obfuscate. That's the word.

It's not a distract. It's to obfuscate. It's so you can't tell... what the thing is. Exactly. Yep. So what was the thing? Metal forceps, which I guess are just like baby tongs, I guess.

Sure. How are bells going to prevent you from realizing that the force? Because it's metal. They don't want to, they want to hear like the metal clanking. So you do like other, you know. Oh. But they just like, yeah, they just made a bunch of sounds and like, you know, like blue air around and blindfold. Do you think they, do you think the.

baby got a blindfold when it came out. I hope so. It would have looked so cute. Yeah. So, so, you know, with all that distraction and, and everything, apparently the forceps came in this like large ornate box and it was

presented as like a secret device and they managed to keep the secret for 100 years. Wow. No one, no one else came up with middle forceps for a century? Yes not. I could come up with that right now. Come up with it then, do it.

I just did. Damn, in my head. That's awesome, dude. Congrats. Thanks to James for this next question. In Putten, the Netherlands, James pulls on a large metal ring connect to a stone

that is set into the ground. An inscription says, lift the Netherlands by this ring and no one will notice. Why is it there? I'll say that again. In Putten, the Netherlands, James pulls on a large metal ring

connected to a stone that is set into the ground. An inscription says, lift the Netherlands by this ring and no one will notice. Why is it there? The Netherlands is obviously known for a bunch of artificial land. You know, like, they did all these like water management projects to basically do like a bunch of like Rand reclamation and stuff, which they know exactly how that fits together, but that's like my first thought since we're talking about land in the Netherlands. I mean, is this like a public art project or something? my initial thought. It's like it's, it's meant to, it would seem to me that this has no actual

practical purpose, but that it like is meant to demonstrate an idea, which is like, it's a big metal ring that goes into the ground and you can grab it and pull it. And if you were to do that, it would, it's like, it's meant to suggest that you are lifting the Netherlands up higher or something in some way, which I don't know what that would represent, but like, that's what it sounds like. Well, the inscription translated, lift the Netherlands by this ring and no one will notice. Right. So I guess the question is, why would no one notice if you lifted up the Netherlands? Is it because the Netherlands, the definition of sea level is set in the Netherlands? So if you lifted it up, sea level would change everywhere and then it would, I don't know. Is there some

standard? Is there some measurement standard or something that is set in the Netherlands? So if you, you know what I mean? Does that make sense? I keep thinking that way. Probably not measurement standard. But yeah, you're definitely circling the right area there. There is also, like, I'm pretty sure, doesn't the Netherlands also have a bunch of land that's like below sea level? It does, yep. But it's like, But it's like if someone raised that land, you wouldn't be able to tell. Like, how would that be possible? Well, if you actually could lift that ring, any significant distance, but people would notice.

But the inscription is like you said out of it. Then what that's a freaking inscription is lying to us? Well, land is heavy. Land is pretty heavy. Yes. Yes. If someone could actually lift the Netherlands by that ring, people would notice. But the inscription is, like you said, Adam, it's artistic. I think it's still true.

Okay. It's meant to represent something. Is it accurate? Accurate enough, yeah. Okay. Yeah, accurate enough. Because I would argue that no one would ever notice because you would, you can't lift land very much, but it's heavy. So you're saying if you did actually manage to lift the land, people would notice. But... Yeah, they would absolutely notice if the Netherlands was somehow a bit higher. than it used to be. Well, okay. Okay. All right, Tom, you're acting like I'm crazy for thinking that if you lifted the land, no one would notice when you told me that it said that if you did it, then no one would notice. Well, all inscriptions are true, you know? That's true. I would say this is true in an artistic sense,

and that will make sense once you clock the answer. Did you say where this ring is? If it's in Putten, which is about 50 kilometers, 30 miles east of Amsterdam. East. East. So inland. Inland. East of Amsterdam. And that is important. Is it relevant where in the Netherlands the ring is? Like where geographically?

Oh, yes. Is it at the geographic center of the Netherlands? Yes, it is, Adam. So if you lift the Netherlands by that ring. No one would notice because it'd be perfectly balanced. It would stay level. Correct. Yes.

That is absolutely right. That is the gravitational center of the Netherlands as calculated. But by the wonderfully titled, computer geologist Franz Storbeck in 1984. He worked out the central gravity, and the same year, a stone with a ring was placed there. And so in artistic terms, if you like, if you were to lift the country from that point, nothing would topple over. I would argue that Germany would notice. Yes, Germany would certainly notice. Anyone on the border, definitely noticing. Whoever wrote this inscription thinks that anyone not in the Netherlands doesn't count as a person.

It's very much cartoon physics here, but question submitted James says, I have personally lifted the country from this ring, and I can confirm none of my friends noticed. Adam, your question, please. All right, folks, buckle up. Uh-oh. This question has been sent in by John. Certain 1990s video games contain the phrase, nose gay is a word in their data.

How did this potentially help speed up game development in a sneaky yet legal way? And I'll read that one more time. Certain 1990s video games contain the phrase, nose gay is a word in their data. How did this potentially help speed up game development in a sneaky yet legal way? Can you clarify what exact portion of that is the quoted phrase? Yes, the quoted phrase is, nosegay is a word. And then in their data is after.

The games contained that phrase in their data. Well, I'm just trying to figure out, like, is this, like, a computer science logic thing where, like, they don't want the program to be unable to recognize the word nose gay for some reason? Or is it, like, for the sake of programmers? So, yeah, so nosegay is a word. I know what you're referring to, which is like, you know, if you were coding and it was like, you're trying to tell it like, this is a string, like, view this as a, that's not what it is doing. The phrase is meaningless. Okay, so it's, it's the literal phrase. The meaning of that sentence is entirely irrelevant. And this is 1990s video games. So this is back when everything had to be incredibly optimized. Like, you had to get,

every little bit of performance out of machine to try and just play a basic game. I would say that is not, that's not relevant, though. Oh, okay. And just to be clear, do we spell this, N-O-S-E-G-A-Y, no space? That's correct. So I've written out Nosegay and like no SEG. I'm trying to work out for it. I can't see.

This is lateral. This is not going to be deep computer science knowledge. It's been years since I had deep computer science knowledge. Certainly not deep computer science knowledge. But wait, Adam, what did you say was the purpose of this? It sped up the... So it sped up game development in a sneaky yet legal way. Sneaky yet legal way, okay.

I'll even give you a little more help, which is that they were trying to... This was a workaround for a certain restriction. And 1990s implies that this is going to be something by like either Sony or Nintendo or one of the console makers who are... put some... It's by one of the console makers. They put some restriction on there that this magically gets around

because... Yes. Yes. You've... You've got it with the purpose, right? That this... There was a console... What you said, Tom, it was basically all right.

There was a console. It had a restriction. And having this phrase... Sega! There is. It's not Nintendo. It's not Sony. No.

Right. So, nozge is a word contains the string Sega. I don't know what to do with that, but they definitely made game consoles. Yeah, yeah. So just work through it. So you've got this phrase, right? It includes the phrase Sega in it, right? Why? What would that do? How would that be sneaky but legal? And how would that be a sneaky legal way to work around a restriction? Does it make the console think that this is some official Sega thing? Yes. Yeah. Yes.

So. And why, why would, why would developers need to do that if they want to develop stuff for Sega? Oh, is that the only way they could get the video game to run on a Sega console in order to test it before they published it? It has to pretend to be official. And it's got a, and I bet that that string is right. at the start of the data, isn't it? It's the first thing it has to load. It's got to have Sega in there somewhere. That's what it's checking for. Yes. So in the 90s, Sega added a trademark security system to the Sega Genesis. And when it was powered on, the console would look for the

word Sega, this specific memory address. And it wouldn't run the game if it wasn't there, because it only wanted licensed software to display Sega's trademark. Right. And so, in order order to work around this, they would put the phrase nosegay is a word. I guess the is a word part was relevant to the spacing or something at this memory location. And that contained Sega at the memory address. And that would let it clear the check. And then you could test stuff without having actually like a licensing agreement yet. Right. It allowed you to test it. The final part of the show then at the start, I asked the audience this question from Abigail Klein. Thank you, Abigail. Before Abigail starts baking, why does she grab a shower cap?

Anyone want to take a quick guess at that before I give the audience the answer? Ben, you love to bake? I didn't know Ben love to bake. I do love to bake, but I've never worn a shower cap. Anything you bake mess up your hair? Maybe. Oh, did, no, this is making sense. I was thinking about those New York City apartments where they have like the shower in the kitchen.

and I was like, maybe she's doing both at the same time. She lives in one of those apartments. But suppose you wouldn't have to be taking a shower. So I take it back. I don't know. I said she grabbed a shower cap, not that she wore a shower cap. He's doing suvide.

That's not how suvied works. But it should be. Is it to cover something? Like, there's something in the kitchen that needs to be covered while she bakes. And that thing is, of course, the smoke detector. Yes, it is.

Lateral does not recommend overriding your smoke alarms, but Abigail, the question submitters smoke detector is very sensitive, so when she opens the oven while baking, she has to have a shower cap over the smoke detector.

Thank you very much to all of our players. You should plug jet lag the game. We will start with Sam. What is it? It's a travel competition show where we turn the world into our board for board game type game things.

Nailed it. Adam, what's the new season about? Well, the new season takes place in Taiwan, and it is a race to claim the most rail stations. And it's very fun because for the first time since season, what, season five, we have location-specific challenges. So all of our challenges are tied to specific locations, which means we really, we really, really see Taiwan, and we see all of the cool stuff that there is to see. And Ben, where can people see it? You can watch it on nebula.tv or YouTube a week later if you're a freaking chump. 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 lateral cast basically everywhere, and there are full video episodes every week on Spotify. Thank you very much to Ben Doyle. Goodbye. Adam Chase. Bye. Sam Denby. I think Tom.

I've been Tom Scott, and that's been... Oh,