Lateral with Tom Scott - 33: Crooked camel competitions

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Bill Sunderland and Dani Siller (from 'Escape This Podcast') and Amelie Brodeur face questions about colour-coded kindness, curious keypads and cosmic kit. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://www.lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. RECORDED AT: Podcasts NZ Studios. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Jewis Tough, Jasper Bodycombe, Robert Waelder, Peter Scandrett. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sapphire gemstones occur in a variety of colours, apart from one that can't be bought. What is it? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to the show where three guests are going to drive at high speed towards a wall of difficult problems. It's a lateral-thinking car crash in slow motion, and we start by meeting, from Escape This Podcast, returning to the show, our regular Bill Sunderland.

Hello! I'm excited to be back. Last time, there was less character work than usual from you. We had a long who's on first riff, but at no point do we meet a strange character that you're improving off the spot. Well, you know, you said to me, I hate your character work. I never want to see it again. No more hair nobody nonsense. Just stick to the facts. And I stuck to the facts. None of that's true. But you know what? It's still plausible. Also from Escape This Podcast, Danny Siller. Hello, hello. He's actually covering for me.

I'm the one who did that off screen. I'm the one who told him all of those things. And rounding out the trio for today, from the Flute Channel and, frankly, a world-class flutist in her own right, Amelie Brodeur. Hi. Thanks for having me.

Thank you for coming back. Welcome back on the show. How was it last time? It was your first time here. How did you find it? Oh, I loved it. Very, very funny. And my opponents are very good.

I was impressed. Well, hold on a second. Wait, no, we're all working together here. Yeah, you're right. It's a very poor choice of word. I was looking for a better word, but whatever. The only real opponent is Tom Scott. Yeah, I prefer it when the players are playing against each other

because that way you're not ganging up on me. Our game is all about ignoring convention and connecting the dots in whatever way we like, even if it means we end up with a mad scribble instead of the unicorn we're looking for. And we start with question number one. This has been sent in by Peter Scandrett, so thank you for this. The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, England,

has to do something for a reason that the Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, does not. What is it? So one more time, the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, England, has to do something for a reason that the Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, does not. What is it? Oh boy. Do either of you know anything about the Lovell Telescope, first of all?

Sadly, no. I've never heard of it. The Parkes Telescope, that's the dish, right? Yeah, we've heard of it. The Parkes Telescope. That's the dish, right? Yeah, we've heard of it. Sadly, outside of the movie The Dish, I don't know much about it. Emily, we're Australians. We've heard of what this is. Do you know what this is?

No. Okay. Neither do I, really. But it's just like it's a big satellite dish, isn't it? Yeah, just a huge one. Yeah. There's a classic Australian film called The Dish about the Parkes telescope. And I think I saw it when I was a child.

That's all I've got. It is one of the sites where the moon landing footage was received on Earth. That's what it's best known for. So it's big. It is the size of a very large radio telescope. I started that analogy and I didn't know where it was going. Tom, don't you have a video of you walking around the dish? I mean, I wasn't going to name drop that in, but yes, I might have visited there a few weeks ago. I might have been able to stand on the surface of the dish as it moved. So yeah, giant steerable radio telescope that's maybe, I guess about 50 meters

across, but I'm probably out by almost no magnitude there, but it's a big old bowl. But this feels like we're coming up with new things for the Parkes telescope to do. Like, oh, they've got to wash people's footprints off it every so often and things like that. They once played cricket on that dish nice it might be something to do with like different hemispheres so like yeah yeah because that that's like a that's a clear difference captaining different zones i don't know are they both i don't know the purposes of different telescopes all that much. Are they like what they're even pointing at over time? This is not my field. Does anyone, did anyone get a better read on how this sentence was constructed?

It has to turn for the same reason that Parkes 1 doesn't have to turn. Is this where I'm at? It just has to do something, wasn't it? The Lovell telescope, which is as famous in Britain as Parkes is in Australia, has to do something for a reason that Parkes doesn't. And they are very similar. I'm sure the radio astronomy nerds will be angry at me. There are many, no doubt, incredibly important differences between them. But from a layperson's perspective, they're two big radio telescopes. Neil deGrasse Tyson is composing his tweet right now. So there is a singular reason, there's a singular thing that means that the Lovell telescope does something and the Parkes doesn't. There's like a connected reasoning that makes one do something and one not do something.

Emily, I do like the hemispheres idea. I think I like your hemisphere theory of Earth. Yeah. I don't know. But they're similar, but they have that one difference. I'm sure they've got a few differences. But that's the one we're looking for. We're looking for one difference.

Yeah. In what they're doing, it doesn't have to do with their geography. Well, that's the sound of a man who thinks it slightly has to do with their geography, but it doesn't. Give it away. If you put the two dishes next to each other, they'd either both have to do this or neither have to do this. So it is about where they are

rather than some aspect of the dish itself. Are they both observing, as the telescope would, are they both observing the same thing and one of them has to do something and the other doesn't? I'm not sure they can observe the same thing. If they ever can,

it's going to be very close to the equator. Yeah, that's true true on other sides of the planet yeah okay okay so i guess we're on the right track yes except our tracks are leading everywhere so now we've got these other geographic things so we've got northern southern hemisphere we've also got when i think of look to be honest when I think of a lot of things in the UK, I think, oh, that's the zero time zone. Yeah, we are time zone. And so could time be a factor? Is it just one of them has to turn on their night vision goggles if they're both looking

at something at the same time? Everything in space needs night vision goggles. They are radio telescopes. So in this case, they're not being physical observing. Whatever. They're night sound telescopes. Sorry to be all, they're not being physical observing. Whatever. They're night sound telescopes. Sorry to be all Neil deGrasse Tyson here. Are they?

They're captaining sound. They're not emitting anything. They're just... Or radio waves, yeah. Yeah, they're pulling in radio waves from out there in space. So it's a big dish with an antenna at the focal point are the the space stations

communicating with them oh god i get to give a really technical i get a really technical answer this um i'm gonna skip over and say no it's it's nothing to do with nothing to do with the space stations okay no no is it is it to do with the actual process of like being a radio telescope looking into space or is it about like the geopolitics of like once the australian station gets data it has to convert it to a different standard that matches the the british one that it doesn't have to do is it is it about earth politics it is an annoyingly simple answer. You don't need to know anything about radio astronomy or astronomy or, frankly, the stars in general to know this one. Is the repository for all of this information the Lavelle telescope?

Does it not need to send stuff anywhere else, but everyone has to send it to them? No, in fact, you don't need to know, and you already know everything you need to know about all these telescopes to work it out is it just that that they want to cover more area and so that's why you were almost on the right lines earlier when you were working out that yeah one's in the uk one's in australia there's in Australia. There's some differences there. Put down the umbrellas because it was raining more in the UK. Oh, you're very close with that.

Oh, come on, really? You're very close. It's too hot in Australia. There are too many clouds in the UK. They don't have to hire someone to shoot kangaroos. You're naming all the types of weather apart from the right one. Snow, snow. Snow.

Which means? They've got to snow melt somehow. Nearly. They have to salt it. It's a big movable dish. Oh, they've got to tilt it down. They've got to tip it. Yes. Ah, they tip it.

Once or twice a year, the Lovell telescope has to tip out the snow from its side. They go vertical. They point it vaguely in the direction of the sun, but not too close so it doesn't fry any instruments. And they let the snow melt away and out of the bowl, which parks in the middle of the heat of Australia doesn't have to do. Now, Amelie, you live in a snow country, so I'm putting all the blame on you. Yeah, I should have thought of that. This is the competitive spirit that you asked for, Amelie. Today, I taught someone how to walk on the ice without falling.

Oh, that's impressive. Oh, I wish I knew that. I've been through once. Oh, wait, without falling through or without falling over? Because I've fallen through. Just falling on your back. Okay. Yeah, because this poor kid just arrived here a few weeks ago

from a place where there's no snow. And he was like, I'm always falling. I said, you have to walk like a penguin. So if you ever walk on have to walk like a penguin. So if you ever walk on ice, walk like a penguin, just a bit tilted forward. The kid arrives, he falls over immediately and sees Amelie just gracefully waddling across the ice, playing a flute.

Oh, you can't do this yet, kid. Welcome to Canada. Yes, the Lovell telescope in England occasionally has to go on its side and tip out the snow. Our first guest question comes from Amelie today. Whenever you're ready, take it away. Okay, so this listener question has been sent in by Jasper, aged six. Question has been sent in by Jasper, aged six. In which sport do you have to color code your equipment for the benefit of your opponent? I repeat, in which sport do you have to color code your equipment for the benefit of your opponent?

Was that aged six? Because that is one of the best questions we've had in terms of intro. That's amazing. It's so simple, had in terms of intro. That's amazing. It's so simple, but I have no idea. That's so good. Feel free to cut this callback, but I would say chess, as we figured out in last episode, quite important. No.

I mean, most sports that I can think of do have color coding in some fashion or another. Like for players. A player's equipment? Is a player an equipment in a sport? That's for the benefit of both teams. Like soccer teams wear different colors, so both teams can figure out who's where. On their team, yeah. What would you need to color code for your opponent? Also, equipment, not clothing.

Equipment. Yeah, equipment. One of my first thoughts, right, because if you're mentioning, like, it's for your opponent specifically, is sports where you have, like, asynchronous equipment. So, like, in cricket you have asynchronous equipment because whoever has the bats at one point in time, the other team will not. Whoever has the ball, the other team will not.

There is explicitly like, if you color code the bats in cricket, that is explicitly for the other, like, you know, it affects the two teams differently. How many sports with asynchronous equipment and a phrase that I am enjoying saying, can we name? I was thinking it was more like, not fencing, because that doesn't have much color coding in it, but something where you actually have to fight your opponent so the clues are on your own body.

Like paintball? Oh, that's true. You probably would color code your paintball. If you're on a, no, because you know if you've been hit or not. Like, that'll help in case of friendly fire. But I'm out. Someone on my own team shot me. That's not for the benefit of the opponent.

I went paintballing once a while back on a stag do, so bachelor party for the Americans. And at one point, they lined up all the people who were there for birthdays or, like, the bachelor, the stag, and just did a firing squad. On the assumption that

everyone would kind of go easy on them and that shortly afterwards, they'd all run away. And they all did run away, apart from one who was our bachelor on our group, our stag, who just kind of took it for some reason.

Come on, you cockroaches! Well, after a couple of seconds, we sort of went, that's it, that's enough. And everyone else in the group, you're still firing. Why are you still firing at him? He had to limp down the aisle on the day of the wedding.

Man, they ended up with just black and blue. It was a few weeks before, thankfully, but he never really forgave us for that one. Sorry, that was an unnecessary anecdote about paintball, which is clearly not the right answer here. Then that is some character work. Okay, you've got a color code equipment you were in the right lane when you said like something like fencing where you really but like it's not that but i mean i don't want to say too

much you can ask me questions oh yeah is it like a one-on-one sport? Is it like one person versus one? Okay. I'm back to chess. So it's a one-on-one sport, and presumably it's your own – is it like your own body, or are you holding something that's color-coded? You're holding something. Okay.

What do you – so I was thinking fencing. What other sort of dueling sports are there? It's not like dueling per se, but it's two people. Are you both trying to get each other, or are you both trying to get something else? Like if it were archery and you're both firing at the same target. Could it be archery? Is it just color-coded arrows?

You're against each other. I was briefly thinking biathlon there because you've got to work out what color your target is versus your opponents but that's that's not right that's not a one-on-one sport either let's change tack what sports do six-year-olds watch oh that's a that's a good point okay or play or even play or oh hold on is this like a video game question? No. Okay. See what Tom thinks about kids?

None of them are out there playing sports anymore. I was thinking Fortnite or something like that, where you have colour or silhouettes or hitboxes or something like that to work out where you are so your opponent can see you. But okay, no, it's an actual physical sport. Okay. Should we play like 20 sports questions? Like, can this sport be played in the olympics um i'm not sure

let's take a break while amelie googles all okay the colors help warn you about something warn you that something's about to be thrown at you would you throw the colored equipment at somebody else you keep the colored equipment i'm so frustrated your opponent can't see it is it capture the flag no you want another clue yeah okay yeah we're gonna need yeah but let's but we'll cut it out of the episode so we seem smart um the opponent's equipment has two main colors rival barbers with their two poles spinning spinning is it so it's one-on-one does only one of these people at any given time have the colored thing or things or do both people at the same time have they both have one okay what about jousting different colors a big a big bi-colored lance that's my nominated sport for six-year-olds what's six-year-olds love to joust with like two knights uh riding down their

horses and jousting and falling off on their dad's shoulders or something no yeah dad shoulder jousting is the best six-year-old sport okay okay uh so you are you telling your opponent where it's safe to hit or where the target positions are no you want another clue yes okay yeah oneitionally, the colors were black and red, but that's recently changed. Black and red makes me think, it makes me think boxing. No. Here's a warning. I'm going to hit you. So is it a fighting sport?

Are like people coming into contact here? It's a racket sport. A racket sport? Is it like, okay, do you color code? What are some racket sports? We got tennis. We got squash. We got badminton.

We got high lie. Lacrosse. You might have played it like in high school sometimes or. Table tennis. Yes. Oh, you're right. They are red and black, aren't they? The paddles are red and black.

Yeah. For forehand, backhand. Yeah, because you can see the orientation of the paddle. Oh, my God. That's why they're colored. Yeah, and they don't have the same texture, so the rebound is different. Oh, boy.

So there's a great ping pong anime by Masaki Yuasa. It's a fantastic anime called Ping Pong. Everybody should go and watch it. But they get so intense in that they're just like, this side is red, pips in at this angle, and on this side it's the pips out, but I've shaved the pips down to this, and they get so obsessed with the with the the texture of their of their ping pong paddles we had to get that by running through all the racket sports that's how you play the game i didn't know that's why the paddles were colored

that way i didn't know there's anything to do with that i had a table tennis table growing up yeah and now you can have different colors that have different texture. And so this way they know, oh, it's blue. It means it's going to be like faster or slower. Can you imagine being at a – I mean, obviously there are plenty of people who are, but like being at that high level of ping pong where you're like, wait a minute, what color was that paddle? It flashed me i'm gonna calculate what's the difference in trajectory how's that gonna affect the roll a blue paddle oh my gosh it's gonna be spinning this much i better

get to this side of the table that's an intense table tennis meanwhile there's just anime lines going in the background as a slow motion animated shot comes in specifically of you bill just to be clear this is you starting your own ping pong anime here i don't know why you'd make any different kind of show the regulations of the international table tennis federation allow players to have different surfaces on either side of the bat each surface would impart a different spin or speed on the ball the player can flip the bat during play to vary their returns however the two sides must be colour-coded so that the opponent can anticipate the type of shot coming towards them. One side must be black and until 2021 the other side had to be red. However, blue, green, purple and pink are not allowed as the other colour.

Good luck folks! Next question is from me. At Saudi Arabia's popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, camel owners competed for a slice of $66 million in prize money. However, in 2021, 16 camels had to be ejected from the festival for a problem that has affected the festival in recent years. What? One more time. At Saudi Arabia's popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, camel owners competed for a slice of $66 million in prize money. One more time, at Saudi Arabia's popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival,

camel owners competed for a slice of $66 million in prize money. However, in 2021, 16 camels had to be ejected from the festival for a problem that has affected the festival in recent years. What? Now, I don't remember hearing too much about how many camels got COVID, so I'm going to assume that it's something we should ask. What on earth happens at a camel festival instead? Are there plastic surgeons for camels? This is the wildest question.

I don't know. If it's millions of dollars, you might get a plastic surgeon for your camel to have the best-looking camel and get the money. I don't know. Eyelash implants for your camel to make the have the best looking camel and get the money i don't know eyelash implants for your camel camels do have pretty nice eyelashes yeah the other piece of wording that i found interesting in the question was that it wasn't they're not competing for 66 million they were competing for like a slice of this of a 66 million dollar prize pool so multiple camels can win. Is it a camel pizza making competition?

Amelie, you are much, much closer than you might think with that answer. And Bill, you're right. There are all sorts of prizes here. So Amelie, it's not quite plastic surgery, but you have skipped through most of the hints that i've got on my notes here and you're already dialing into what was done to these camels to make them more likely to win okay so okay so we're doing surgery on camels to win a slice of 66 million i was then going to suggest with some of them not actually camels they They were just disguised horses.

Just surgically putting humps on horses. A big problem plaguing this festival. Wait a minute. This is just another horse. You put eyelashes on a horse. You made me think it was a camel. Okay. So what do you...

Surely, right. Amelie, you seem to go straight to like, it's a camel beauty competition, like, like crufts, but for camels. Yeah, is that right? Is that what is not a camel race? Because my first thought was a race, that they're racing the camels. There are many things that are part of this event, but apparently this was the beauty contest. Beauty is a strong term. You are right that it is in the same kind of vein

as crufts and dog shows. They are looking for certain attributes that are the perfect, the platonic ideal of camel is what they're looking for. I guess it's either like a type of surgery or some makeup or something like that that's not allowed.

Yeah, honestly, if you were finding this after like 15 minutes of discussion, I'd give you the points already. Not there are points, but I'd give you. But you know what? You honed in so fast that I'm looking for a specific thing here. Did they have a preference of what they found more beautiful in a camel for dromedary versus bactrian? Number of humps.

According to my notes, they are looking for long droopy lips, a big nose, and a shapely hump. A shapely hump. Because this was my question. number of humps. According to my notes, they are looking for long droopy lips, a big nose, and a shapely hump. A shapely hump. Because this was my question. I think we should all go around in a circle and start to list off what we think are the main features of a camel that one would judge.

Hump is my first thought of course. Maybe they got hump enhancements. Yeah, they're getting injections into their humps dancing round the right answer it's even to the point of injections you've got that right bill is it did they botox botox danny puts it in the net it is botoxing camels. Now, hang on, hang on. For their droopy lips or for their shapely hump? Lips, apparently. That makes sense, but I won't deny I'm disappointed. Poor camels.

There's no lengths that, you know, humans will be ready to do anything, you know? Yeah. Other camels were disqualified for artificially enlarged body parts that were using rubber bands to restrict blood flow. So there was all sorts of, I guess doping is the wrong term, but artificial enhancement of camels. Because if you give someone that big a prize pot, there is a motivation for doing it.

Tom, you have ruined my mental picture right now. Because all I'm picturing, have you seen those videos where they just keep putting rubber bands around a watermelon until it explodes? But on a camel's hump and you've ruined the internet for me. You've ruined my brain.

Why did I agree to come on this show when Tom Scott makes you ruin camels? Welcome to Tom Scott ruins camels. No, that's on you. That's on you and your brain, that is. I take no responsibility. The camel festival Scott ruins camels. No, that's on you. That's on you and your brain, that is. I take no responsibility. The Camel Festival had 16 camels disqualified because they had been given Botox.

Our next question is from Bill. Whenever you're ready. Okay. In 2005, an establishment in Boise, Idaho, managed to stay open by selling a basic pencil and sketch pad for $15. Why? I'll read that one again. Why? a basic pencil and sketch pad for $15. However, a certain demographic was still very happy to pay for it. Why?

Now, I read something that sounds potentially related, so I'm not going to say, oh, I've got this, but, oh, I'm going to be cagey just in case. It's got to be either alcohol or marijuana or a strip club. Surely. We're in Idaho. It's a conservative state. Although, I mean, to be fair, Boise is a big city and probably is actually quite liberal, I think. So I have a feeling this is someone doing an end run around the law. It's one of those. That's what i was thinking as well is it because they were not allowed to sell their real things so they would say that they're selling that but in reality it was yes you're you're you're you're in the right sort of idea that's why you were saying uh

marijuana maybe yeah if this was if this was thes, it would have been prohibition alcohol. And, you know, you ferment the notepad for a few months and it gives you alcohol at the end of it. But it's, I don't know, it can't be rolling papers for spliffs, but it's got to be something like that, surely. So am I under the impression that $15 in the long distant time of 2005 that would

have been quite expensive for a pencil and sketch pad of these of the types that they were selling yes these are more expensive if you wanted just a pencil and a sketch pad you'd go somewhere else and get them for a few dollars here's my here's my thought i'm going to assume that it's 2005 Idaho, out of the list of alcohol, marijuana, and strip club. I'm going to assume that it's a strip club and they are selling it as a life drawing class. That you go in and- That would be clever.

I've never had $15. That's not right. No, that'd be like 50, 60. So that's got to be more than that, surely. Well, actually, Tom, you've hit the nail on the head it is okay there was no at no point where they think oh let's let's uh take the paper and turn it into moonshine or use it to roll up no it was they used to sketch paper for sketching uh it was illegal to be running a strip club uh so there was a law that banned total nudity in public uh which threatened to shut down strip clubs but there was an exemption

for plays and for life drawing for art classes so you arrive at the strip club they pay you a far too expensive pencil and sketch pad and at that that point, no, no, no, we're just drawing life models. It's art. We're not just going to a strip club. And, yeah, that was their way of getting around the ban. The similar one that I had heard just recently was for marijuana, where places couldn't, you couldn't sell marijuana, but you could have marijuana.

So they would just be selling expensive paper and pencils and saying, and also here's a free gift with every purchase. That's how they get you. It tends not to survive courts of law. It tends to be someone who's got a brilliant idea that then just meets a judge who just goes, no, Come on. It's like the sovereign citizens of strip clubs. The way you said that in my head, it's a TV series like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Welcome to sovereign citizens of strip clubs. I'm Michael, but I don't have a real

government identity. I'm a a person not a personage and you can't charge me with crimes and also now i'm taking off my clothes why are we giving this idea away for free so yes because of a law banning total nudity in public uh a strip club in Boise, Idaho got around the law by selling pencils and sketch pads for nude life art to bypass that ban. Next question then, folks. In 2009, Stansted Airport in London had to repaint something overnight due to forces beyond its control. It will be 56 years before it'll have to do that again. What was it and why had it changed? I'll say that again. In 2009, Stansted Airport in London had to repaint something overnight due to forces beyond its control. It will be 56 years before they'll have to do that again. What was it and why had it changed changed 56 years from 2009 or from now from 2009

i assume actually i don't know the answer to that it'll be a while it'll it'll be the middle of the century before they have to do that so you they have to repaint for something that seems like it might happen periodically every 56 ish years uh some something happens it's like well car control it got to repaint an airport hey tom i think you may have read the question wrong because that doesn't make any sense also how many airports does london have i didn't realize i'd be finding a new one there's a there's Foreman video all about this. But Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, technically Southend, I think that's closed now. And if you really, really push it, Oxford,

which for a while tried to be London Oxford Airport, and they're not fooling anyone. Oh, also London City. So at least five, maybe more. Too many airports yes did they repaint the inside or the outside it's outside okay outside i'm feeling cryptic vibes here would other airports have had to change whatever this is do you reckon this is this is less cryptic vibes and me just avoiding giving too much of a clue too early.

There is a certain demographic of my listeners right now that know this because of someone else's video and will be spending the next five minutes or so just repeatedly screaming it at the speaker. So, good luck. So we're just telling on ourselves. Hmm. the speaker so good luck so we're just telling on ourselves well yeah that's a good question amelie that it's like it's outside or inside because like outside you can start to think about like weather or things that happened you know like something from the outside that is like caused like it could have been damage in some form that they have to paint over yeah um like every 56 years a particular comet flies overhead and the color of the comet mixes with the color of the paint and the paint shrivels and burns away they said why did we use comet paint and then they fix it and and then they

painted the same comet paint i don't know why they wouldn't just use normal paint but 56 years later they're gonna have to do it again. So, Bill, obviously none of that's right. That's not even close. But on a purely like... Spiritual level? Yes, on a spiritual level,

you are closer than you think. Unbelievable. When you say forces beyond their control... Does that have anything to do with birds? I don't know why I have a bird vibe. Yeah, birds jumped into my head as well. I pictured like a migration.

The 56 year migration patterns. Yeah, the flies were right over the airport and all the birds poop at once and cover the airport. Yeah, right. It's like all these Canada geese every 56 years think, let's go to London. That'd be nice. It's been 56 years. They fly over and they poop on an airport. I mean, there are those insects, cicadas, like locust things that hatch every seven or 13 years.

So it's not completely out the question that, unfortunately not. 56 years, the goose trees hatch and all the geese come out. Also, I think those cicadas are based on prime numbers. I think it's 7 and 13 because it means that they don't tend to interact with cycles of predators or something like that. I remember something vaguely about that. That's good. It's actually just because they're big nerds.

All cicadas, huge nerds. So my one thought, and i'm a little bit afraid because this is going into areas that i don't know very well but we seem to be pinpointing the word forces so i wondered is this magnetic shifts or something is this when the poles change oh what what and it strips the paint from the building or they painted no because they're painted for like for like that was for like to use a soccer metaphor that was a perfect cross from the corner into the nine yard box you're right there it's and just completely swings and misses and it goes off into the crowd so you actually think it's about like painting to line up with the magnetic to like what new north is because it's like north is slightly

different something like that yes that's the forces beyond their control so what are they painting and why we know that they're painting the outside of the airport but you want us to be more specific no they're painting something oh no they're painting something else they're painting a specific they're not just oh god the the magnetic poles have shifted a little we're gonna have to whitewash the outside of the airport again this is a very specific thing that's being okay allow allow me to to to take a dip into the into the pool of tom sc Scott viewers that he was talking about earlier. I think of the ones who are also CGP Grey viewers.

There we go. We have seen this. CGP Grey did a fantastic video, but it was all about the very specific ways in which runways are marked and numbered and painted. And it's to do with north-south orientation and angles and all that sort of nonsense. So when it changes, I guess they have to update their runways to be like, oh, okay, hey, all of your equipment says something different now. Let me fix the runways.

You can't go on runway 36 if you're coming in at a bearing of 38 now or something. Yeah, you've got it. So runway numbers are based on the compass bearings that they're on. So if it's a bearing of 234, they'll round it to 230 and then drop the zero. So that would be 23. And then occasionally the magnetic North Pole will move enough that the airport has to go out, scrub off the old runway number, and paint in 22 or 24 or something like that

because it doesn't match up anymore. Dani, the last guest question of the show is all yours. Take it away. This might be a bit of a callback to our last episode, assuming it didn't get cut. A crook or a criminal hangs around the entrance to an apartment block and observes one of the residents going inside. However, when he sees the electronic number pad that secures the front door, he realizes he's wasted his time. Why?

One more time. A crook hangs around the entrance to an apartment block and observes one of the residents going inside. around the entrance to an apartment block and observes one of the residents going inside however when he sees the electronic number pad that secures the front door he realizes he's wasted his time why is this literally the anecdote i did last time i was here he could get it to 50 50 but if he got it wrong once the police would come it is not that thankfully no no tom obviously this is uh johnny no fingers who was casing the joint that now i'm gonna get in there later they're gonna have the door it's gonna be unlocked i'm gonna get in i'm gonna the only thing that could stop

me is some kind of security device that requires me to use my fingers to push it but oh no it's an electronic lock i'll never get it ah Ah, Johnny No Fingers loses again. The character works back. It took two episodes, but the character work is back. I don't even know why I chose this career path! I got no fingers to hold the loot! What am I gonna do? I got a cash bag full of money. I got one of those big bags that has a dollar sign on it.

It keeps slipping out of my hands! Amelie, please save us from the shtick. It was a natural career path because he couldn't leave fingerprints anywhere. That's why I chose it. I thought I'd be safe, but of course I can't do any crimes. Just to be clear,

this is not the story I told last time about how the numbers are worn off and he could just tell which numbers were being used a lot on the keypad. No, because that seems like it would be a bonus for him, if anything. Right, okay. Yeah. Okay.

So he saw the pad and he's like, I lost my time. Yeah, he said. And he hasn't wasted his time as in, oh, I could have done this much faster. He's wasted his time and is leaving. Oh, right. Okay, I misunderstood that. I assumed that it i assumed that that it was a pad that you looked at and like oh i don't need to have cased the joint at all i could have

just walked in yes i gather that i'm glad we clarified okay because like if you're a thief you went up to the to the pad and then you saw that all the numbers it was like a four digit code but the label was hey the code is everybody's net worth. And you're like, four-digit net worth? What am I going to steal from these people? And then it leaves. What kind of information? I'm setting up the question of what kind of information could you get from an electronic lock pad that would make you be like, ah, not worth breaking into? So there's something about the code or the way it's entered that means, does it mean that you turn away because you know there's nothing valuable in there

or you turn away because you know you will never make it inside or it's too secure? Very fair question. Or is it just one of those things like, when you talk about like security systems, a lot of security systems are set up to be like, oh, hey, this is the security system or there's a camera on you

or there's this that or the other and half of those are lies but they're there just specifically so that this happens right you go up to the lock and then you lean in you look at it and it says this has a camera we now have your face on camera you're like ah well if i break in now they got my face um i'm not i'm not trying to know face they can't identify me by the face. That's my one weakness. Is there something that's like, ha-ha, if you do this crime, you're going to get caught now? I wouldn't say that, no.

And I think a little bit to focus on is what was the criminal's plan initially? Based on what we heard, he observed one of the residents going inside and then went to try it himself. So what was he planning on doing? So did he notice that that person maybe wasn't worth the risk? No, the person didn't particularly matter. They were just a resident of this building. So it's really about the pad.

It is about the security. So he's looking at the pad and I've assumed he, you know what? Not all criminals are men. They are shoulder surfing. Yeah, but Johnny No Fingers is a real man's man. They're shoulder surfing the password or the passcode that goes in. I've realized that shoulder surfing is a term from like hacker movies in the 90s but i'm going to stick with it um to try and see what the code is that's being typed in so

could that code be a could that code convey information somehow could that code be a number that gives a clue about something i'm gonna going to go with, they were probably not quite shoulder surfing exactly. They probably, I assume they were wearing the full typical thief's getup, so they might have hung back a bit. They didn't want to be seen quite that much. It's a normal pad with numbers? Define normal.

Oh, come on. One to nine with a little star and a hashtag. It does have the numbers zero to nine with a little star and a hashtag. It does have the number zero to nine plus the, you know, I guess a backspace and a yes button. Oh, I feel like I've got nothing to grasp onto with this question. Now you know how Johnny No Fingers feels. God damn it. I hate that your callback worked that well. That's really annoying.

I hate that your callback worked that well. That's really annoying. It is basically just as you are going through this picture in your head of exactly what is happening and exactly as he gets up to this number pad, something about your assumption about this visual might not be correct. Emily would know all about this. He got up to the pad and he was just like, I can't put in this code because these numbers are ridiculous because they were all english translations of french numbers where they were like

four tens and a 50 like no i don't i don't want i want 90 you mean four tens and a couple of 20s no i don't yeah four 20s and a 10 exactly that's how we say it's fine you're not you're not dan Danish. Danish is far worse. Really? I think the Danish for 70 is something like three and a half twenties, except the way they say three and a half is four minus a half.

So it's four minus a half times 20. I have done a video about this in the past. Now I can't remember the details. I apologize to the Danes for getting it wrong, but it's four minus a half times 20. I have done a video about this in the past. Now I can't remember the details. I apologize to the Danes for getting it wrong, but it's something like that. It's weird. I'll never apologize to the Danes. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you to my producer who's just fact-checked me. Yeah, 97 in Danish is seven plus minus a half plus five times 20. That's the order in which you say the number. And of course, that's not what their brain's doing. You just hear it like any other number. But that's where the word comes from. That's the word. So yeah, is that it? Did we solve it? On this number pad, the numbers do indeed look like numbers that you would be familiar with. We're going to need more hints, Danny. We're completely... Tell me in explicit detail what a normal number pad should look like.

Okay, so you have little square metal numbers. Like you have this zero and then one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, I guess. And then here you have like other little things. You said there was an arrow. Amidst this, there have already been two things that are not true about this number pad oh my god so what's the layout of the numbers are they in a weird layout yes the zeros here the ones here the the twos here and it doesn't have numbers on it because it does have numbers on it. It has zero to nine. The other thing was it is not those metal buttons that you might expect. Is every button a fingerprint scanner?

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. You're getting closer. It's not a fingerprint scanner. It is still, they need to input the correct number code to open this door, but you are blazing hot. So if you're not an authorized person, you wouldn't be able to activate that pad? No, you could if you knew what you were doing, but the way this thief went about it and the way he thought he could figure out what the code was, was not enough in order to get in there, in order to figure out what it was.

Is it one of those number pads where each button is actually its own little screen and the numbers constantly change places all the time? So the one is here and the next time you go to put the code in, it's down here and it's up here. So you can't you can't shoulder surf. That is exactly what it is. Oh, it wasn't about seeing the numbers. This thief tried to see the positions that the person's hand moved. But this is a little LCD screen lock.

And so the numbers shift every time so never will the wearing away of numbers be the problem i've even seen one of those damn it we won i believe we did it we beat tom in the last building that we lived in it was a a brand new building, which I don't know if it's the same way you live, but here that means loads of problems. Our key card would not let us swipe it to get into our building. We would always have to go in via the garage or via another building. But one day I got home at exactly the same time that a workman was arriving and he had the special workman's code to get into the building.

So I did a sneaky shoulder surf, and from then on, never needed to use my key pass for the rest of the time we lived there. And we never got it functioning, so that keypad was all we had. And that number was 24328, if anyone would like to get into 97 Acacia Avenue. Well done. This thief realized he had wasted his time because the keypad randomizes the number positions each time you look at it. Our last question then was the one that I asked the audience right at the very start of the show.

Sapphire gemstones occur in a variety of colors, except for one that can't be bought. Does anyone know what that is? Do you want to take a quick guess before we head onwards? Is sapphires the one that... They're the same as rubies, technically? So you can't find a red one because that will always be listed as a ruby?

Absolutely right. There we go! Red sapphires are rubies because they were discovered before chemical analysis figured out that they are actually just the same mineral. I'm leaving now, finishing on a high note. We're done. Mic drop.

On that high note, let's start with Amelie. Tell us what's going on in your life. Where can people find you? So you can find me on my YouTube channel, The Flute Channel, where you can listen to some flute or get better at playing the flute. And there's also The Flute Talk podcast. And next up, this time, let's go to Bill first. Plug the podcast, plug what you're doing.

Yes, if you want to check out other stuff that Danny and I are doing, you can check out Escape This Podcast, where we have guests on to solve audio versions of escape rooms. And the other half of that podcast is Danny Seller. Our other one is Solve This Murder, where we create and then solve fictionalized crime for when all the true crime becomes a little too real. And if you want to know more about this show,

you can find us at LateralCast.com, where you can send in a question of your own. You can find video highlights at YouTube.com slash LateralCast. And we are at LateralCast pretty much everywhere. Thank you very much. It is goodbye from Bill Sunderland. Goodbye. Danny Silla.

See you next time, I'm sure. And Amelie Brodeur. Thanks for the game. It was very fun. I've been Tom Scott and that was Lateral.