Lateral with Tom Scott - 42: Giant concrete balls

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Annie Rauwerda ('Depths of Wikipedia'), J. Draper and Geoff Marshall face questions about rumbling roads, sacred snacks and keyboard quirks. 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: The Podcast Studios, Dublin. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Emil, Hugo Bush, August Sappho, Michael Nebesny. 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

Which key can often be seen in between F and G on a keyboard? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. On today's show, we have three guests who are uniquely qualified to make you laugh, think, and question your life choices. And I will let you decide which one of them is which. We start with, from his own YouTube channel, transport and train expert, Jeff Marshall. Hello, Tom. Thanks for having me.

Yes. Hi. How are you? Thanks for being back on the show. Last time, I accidentally referred to train station instead of railway station in this introduction. What's the difference? Why will nerds get angry at me about that? They're going to get angry about that description as well, aren't they? No, it's fine. No, we're all nerds.

That's fine. Nerds are great. If you're in a pub full of nerds and you bring up the, is it a train station or a railway station? That's pretty much the discussion gone for the whole evening. It's a thing. And I'm on the railway side. It's either you're on railway station or it doesn't matter.

Words are just words. And some people are like, no, it must be railway. So I would go with railway station if you want to look cool and credible. I'm not sure I want to look cool and credible, Jeff. I'm not sure I've ever looked cool and credible in my life. No.

Sorry. You're not meant to agree. You're not meant to agree. Next up. Next on the list next on the list to roast me uh we have from the depths of wikipedia which is uh her twitter and instagram and tiktok and a lot of other places uh we have annie rowder thank you for coming back on the show how are you doing hello I'm very excited to be here. But you've got a cat. I do have a cat here who has come to hang out on my lap and whisper me answers.

If there's any sudden purring on the audio, that is either the train going by Annie's window or the cat just making a growling noise in the background. Last time, Annie, we asked a question about someone you've written a Wikipedia article about. How many have you written? A few dozen. So there are people out there that have written like thousands. I'm not one of those. I wish, maybe someday.

But here and there, if I find something that's not covered that really should be, that has coverage, I'll just quick write up a Wikipedia article. But I can't take true credit for them because then all sorts of other people come and make it lots better. Also making our show lots better. How's that for a segue? Was that smooth enough? It's very smooth. I'm just getting a look from the producer, never mind. We're also joined from the London History Show and her own tours of London and her own TikTok. We have returning Jay Draper.

Jenny, how are you doing? Hello. Good to be here. Yes, I'm very well, thank you. Thank you for having me. And no cat with you in your room? No. Sadly not. You've been doing Tours of London for a while now. When you transitioned to TikTok, was it sort of, I'm going to take people around or was it just, I'm going to show off this thing? Oh, so I was actually studying when I started TikTok I was studying to get my tour guiding qualification and it so happened that the world shut down for some sort of global event for two years and my all my exams. Yeah I remember that. All my exams were suspended and I was like I'm gonna forget everything that I've

revised unless I start you know writing it down or recording it in more ways. So it started off as just me trying to remember bits of trivia for my exam. Well, good luck to all three of you. On this show, we have no GPS and no set destination, so let's embrace the detours and the dead ends and see where the conversation takes us. We have three questions. Fasten your seatbelts. Here's the first. A listener question sent in by Hugo Bush. Faced with falling church attendances in the 1950s, the Antwerp-based company Belgica managed to save their business

by halving the number of units sold, adding dye, and finding younger customers. How? One more time. Faced with falling church attendances in the 1950s, the Antwerp-based company Belgica managed to save their business by halving the number of units sold, adding dye, and finding younger customers. How? Did you say church?

I said church. Is this a communion wine drinking thing? Did they make blue wafers? Nilla wafers? You're all honing in on the right sort of thing. It is Catholicism. It is wafers. Nilla wafers. You're all honing in on the right sort of thing. It is Catholicism. It is wafers. You've solved the first part of that immediately.

And frankly, if it's a food product around church, that was the easy part. The next part is, what did they do with that? So they halved the number of sales. So I'm guessing like they made it more exclusive and seeming like fancier and changed the colour to make them seem fancier as well, like made them purple or brown or something.

And then sold them. Halving the units sold is a sort of fudgy way to describe what they did here. They made them smaller? They didn't add fudge. They doubled the size, perhaps. Diet wafers. Hang on. Or is it a shrink-flation thing?

It's the same product, but less money. No, the same money, but less a product. No. Or the inverse. What are... Okay, I'm trying to think of little wafer-y things that have colors. Like goldfish crackers. Sometimes you can get the color variety of those,

but it's definitely not that because Pepperidge Farms the company that makes those like breakfast cereal you can get like the multi-grain what's the hoopy cereal well it's got on my head i'm not sure there's a communion wafer breakfast cereal jeff although there's several really sacrilegious jokes that i'm just not gonna tell here later tom afterwards in the post chat we'll do that I'm just not going to tell here. Later, Tom. Afterwards. In the post-chat, we'll do that. Wow. No, just to save me from getting cancelled here, Jeff. No, we won't. Jesus, I was. There we go. There we go. Yeah. Here I was thinking that Froot Loops had originated as communion wafers. Oh, you're all around the right area here. Like, you've got it.

You're just not quite thinking what actually feels like, looks like a communion wafer. There are... But did you also say younger audience? They appeal to a younger audience. So it's what food type appeals more to a younger person than an older person?

Is this like a new food that's been, like a new brand that's been invented? Like they were a communion wafer company and then they pivoted to like Jaffa Cakes or Mooney Cheddars or something. They pivoted to something. Oyster crackers? You're close, but that's not a younger audience.

I'm old. What do kids eat that old people don't? I don't know. No, this was the 60s. I'm still old. Or 50s, excuse me. At this point, you could have candy cigarettes in there and it'd... No, 1950s.

1950s. LSD. You put it on your tongue and it just dissolves. Yeah, actually, Jenny, you're very, very close now. They didn't actually put LSD in it. No, they didn't put LSD in it.

But that's the point of a wafer. You put it on your tongue and it dissolves. And it dissolves. That's not the point of a wafer. The point of a wafer is not that you put it on your tongue and it dissolves. I'm going to get angry letters from Catholics. But that's the point of the product they went with. What else dissolves on your tongue?

Gilbert? Oreos? Oh no, it's Oreos, isn't it? It's not Oreos! That's on communion wafers, Jack! Yummy Dodger? But did Oreo come up with Oreo communion wafers as a brand? Man, that would have increased church attendance if they started giving out Oreos every week.

That's the body of Christ flavour. That would have increased church attendance if they started giving out Oreos every week. Yes. The body of Christ flavour. Would you like Froot Loops for your communion or Oreos? Both. The thing is, you're circling around the right answer. What food item for a younger audience can you make with two wafers and a little bit of something extra? A macaroon. It extra? A macaroon.

It's very... It's not a macaroon. It's very close. An eclair? No, that's not right. Like a cookie sand... I'm thinking like cookie sandwiches, but that's not it.

That's an Oreo. I'm just talking. I'm just talking. I got told off for that. You didn't get told off. I'm riffing with you here, Jeff. It's a yes-am. I got ridic off for that. You didn't get told off. I'm riffing with you here, Jeff. It's a yes, Sam. I got ridiculed for that.

Is this a British thing or is it an American thing, Tom? They have different names in both countries, but I think pretty much all the developed world has this. Oh. Whoa. That seems like it should be a hint. That's a big clue, Annie. Come on.

Oh, I know it. I know it. It's a Dutch company because it's a big clue, Annie. Come on. Oh, I know it. I know it. It's a Dutch company because it's a big Wikipedia thing. Stroopwafels. No, sorry. No! They're a Belgian company

from Antwerp, by the way. So it's unfortunately not Stroopwafels. It would have been regular waffles there. They're going to be screaming at you, so I'll give you one more on this.

It's crates. Pancakes. Two communion wafers. They're not big. They're not even, they're not a different shape. They're not to be screaming at you, so I'll give you one more on this. It's crates. Pancakes. Two communion wafers. They're not big. They're not even, they're not a different shape. They're not a different size. It's just two wafers with some stuff between them that you're going to find in sweet shops. I've got to give it to you.

It's flying saucer sweets or satellite wafers in the US. It's the little things that look like UFOs, which were like 1950s, 1960s. They were in the US. It's the little things that look like UFOs, which were like 1950s, 1960s. They were in the public... Hang on. Don't they have Sherbert inside? About five minutes ago, I said Sherbert.

Wind back the tape. I said Sherbert. All right. Well, I didn't hear it, so I'll get quietly removed. Sorry, Geoff. Tape. Wind it back.

So yeah, it is the flying saucer the satellite wafers which just have sherbet or popping candy or something inside those were invented

because they were communion wafers and that was their new invention they were worried about us being sacrilegious so they they took their communion wafers

and stuck sherbet in between yes in the 1950s Antwerp based company Belgica So they took their communion wafers and stuck sherbet in between them. Yes, in the 1950s, Antwerp-based company Belgica came up with the idea of putting two communion wafers together, putting originally some medicine in there and selling it as a pharmaceutical thing, and then realising they could just put sugar or sherbet in there instead, and they sold those as flying saucers or satellite wafers. All our guests have brought a question with them. I don't know the question.

I definitely don't know the answer. We will start with Geoff whenever you're ready. Okay, when Matthew Lunn started his new job in 1992, he screwed his shoes to a wooden rectangular board, got onto his office desk and then leapt off. Who had just employed him? I will read that again. Matthew Learns started his new job in 1992. He screwed his shoes to a wooden rectangular board, got onto his office desk and then leapt off. Who had just employed him? It's brilliant.

My first thought is, it can't be because this was 1992 but my first thought was red bull and this is just a really good marketing campaign for them because they because i feel like extreme shoe nailed jump from a height is probably a thing they'd have done or would have done you like they put a skate park under a hot air balloon they've done a load of it was either that or jackass i like the idea of a of a red bull stunt done in an office where it's like escape you know escape corporate life and turn everything into your skate park speaking of skate parks though i think it could be a skateboarding company or a snowboarding company like burton or a wakeboarding company something where you're boarding but i can't think of any skateboarding companies off the top of my head vans like vans off the wall tiny hope there's loads of things like that what was the name matthew lunn matthew matthew lunn 1992 the year is a clue

wait how did he do you say attached like nailed how did he, did he say attached, like nailed? How did he connect his shoes to the board? I've got a picture here that you can't see, but so there's like a wooden board. Yeah, like a skateboard. The shoes are nailed to it. And then he then obviously put his feet inside the shoes. So his feet are rigid on the board and then jumped off.

I just had a flashback to something I haven't thought about in years, which is an advert that terrified me as a very young child. And it was an advert for some sort of glue. And I can't remember the details of it, but they are like stuck. So I'm sure there were loads of safety precautions. You couldn't see it was not actually done that way, but they like super glued a stuntman's shoes upside down to a board and then like dangled him out over a shark infested waters or something. Clearly these days,

like that's a stunt with a load of safety precautions. As like a four or five year old child, that genuinely terrified me. Like it was one of those things that you watch on television and it just, as a child, scares the hell out of you for some reason. Tom, back me up on this.

There was also a guy in a white jumpsuit stuck to a board. It was to do with Supergirl or something, and they dangled him over a volcano. Is it No More Nails? I don't know. All I know is that there's some horrible childhood television trauma bubbling up in the back of my brain now. I'll search on YouTube later.

It's clearly not relevant to the question. But that's just to go and give me the shudders for a while when I go and on YouTube later. It's clearly not relevant to the question, but that's just to go and just give me the shudders for a while when I go and look it up. Go down a YouTube rabbit hole later of old 1980s adverts. Yeah, that's always fun. Some archivist will have put that up on the internet somewhere, probably with an obnoxious watermark over it. Sorry, tangent anecdote.

You've seen the one where John Noakes' Blue Peter climbs up Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square without any safety harness. And you're like, oh my God! It's not just that, though. The cameraman! The cameraman is doing it! It's terrifying! With a 1980s camera, one hand on the ladder. Apparently he had to

do it twice, because the first time the film didn't work or something like that. They had technical problems. That's insane! Just to fill in for people who don't know, Blue Peter is like a magazine program for kids. Like, here's interesting stuff in the world. It's one! Just to fill in for people who don't know, Blue Peter is like a magazine program for kids. Like, here's interesting stuff in the world.

It's one of the things that inspired me. And I was a bit too old. I didn't see the footage from this until years later. But one of the presenters was working out how they cleaned Nelson's Column,

the big column in Trafalgar Square. And yeah, it turns out they just, before harnesses were a thing, they just went up on ladders including like one where you have to climb like dangling like backwards on a ladder and if you don't do it right you fall and they just kind of took him up there and there's a camera guy doing it back i assume none of this is relevant to the question, Jeff. No, but he's kind of... Okay.

And it's been five minutes now. I think Penny said something like... She said to skateboard, it's nothing to do with skateboarding. Okay. Sorry. And it's far too early for jackass or anything like that. Okay.

I don't know what your jackass was. Yeah. That would have been early 2000s. Shoes, nailed to board, jumps off desk. He then proceeds to walk and crawl and run around the office like this whilst he's being videoed. So he's being filmed. Has he been hired by Pixar and he's being one of the little army guys?

Oh, my God. Yes, exactly. Exactly. I thought of the army guys, like, 10 minutes ago, before the tangent, but I was like, that's not from 1992. What? That's, you've just... It is, that's like 1994, 1995, Toy Story came out,

so they would have been starting development in it back then. You've nailed it. Yay! Like his shoes. Like his shoes. That's freaky that you got... Well, I had more clues lined up. Thank you for holding off on that

until we got through the tangents there. That's fine. I didn't know. I didn't know that was going to be right. Jenny, I want you on my pub quiz team. You're my new best friend. Come to all quizzes that I now go to. I'm fine as long as we have someone for the sports round.

I'm all good. Would you like to know some of the more details? Yes, please. In 1989, Matthew Lowe was employed by Pixar. He was one of the first 12 animators employed by Pixar to work on their first animated film, Toy Story. And his first assignment was to animate the Little Green Army Men. So to do that, he rigged up this shoe contraption and videoed himself and played it back to get the animation correct.

That's brilliant. Next up, we have a listener question from August Sappho. Thank you very much. In February 2014, a flurry of various mobile phones were offered on eBay for around $1,000 more than identical phones of the same models. Why? One more time. In February 2014, a flurry of various mobile phones were offered on eBay for around $1,000 more than identical phones of the same models. Why?

So they're identical. So this isn't that, like, you know, the keyboard spells out, like, fart or something. They're identical. I like how that was your go-to for what the keyboard spelled out. Wait, like, there'd be a misprint on them or something. No, these are identical. So I'm clearly not very good at knowing when my answers are correct and when they're not.

So I'm not trying to do another false positive, but I do think I know it. So does it have to do with an app? It does. So Annie, I will ask you to sit out for this one. Having given several of my clues in one word there to Jeff and Jenny. I was the perfect age to care about this thing a lot. There are limited edition apps which only sell so many units and then it stops. So a company provided a phone with an app on that was a limited edition.

Was this when iTunes put out U2's album as standard on all their iTunes and you had to buy, they were buying one without the album on it? Oh, no, but I know someone who still has that on their phone and cannot get rid of it because there's a webpage you can go to to have it removed from your Apple account

but that doesn't work with like two-factor authentication so unless you did that in like the first six months you cannot remove it from your music library it's still there it just follows him from phone to phone to phone one of my favorite online memes is someone's created a mock-up a picture of bono sneaking into someone's room late at night with a vinyl collection and inserting the album and it's like if you don't own iTunes, here's how we're doing it. I'm thinking there's a terrible world, which we do exist in,

where there was a limited edition phone years ago from Nokia where- Sorry, capitalism, I think is the- Yes, there we go, yes. Scarcity. Where you could pay for a really expensive phone. And the idea was it was the rich person's lazy man phone and you got this phone, it was limited edition, and you rang it and there was like an operator on the other end of the phone that was there to help you with whatever you wanted so i can't help think is it it's not the

app that cost a million pounds just for the sake of it to prove how rich you were was it and it was on the phone in this case no it was it was a regular phone they were paying about 1500 for a phone that should have been going for about 500 so. So it was like, I've never heard of this, but it was, you know, when you used to text any question to a number, but they had like a personal person just for them. Yeah. Yeah, there was a couple of concierge apps, I think, on various phones, and one that just had a magic concierge button where they,

and frankly, if you've got that amount of money, you probably already have a personal assistant, so you don't need a magic concierge app. Amazon's tablets had that for a while. If you needed customer support on it for something with your Amazon account, they just had a magic button that would video call someone to help you

set up your device. But this is not that. This is an app. An app that's worth $1,000. It wasn't officially limited edition. At least it wasn't sold not that. This is an app. An app that's worth $1,000. It wasn't officially limited edition. At least it wasn't sold as that. There was a mistake in one version of the app, and it got updated.

So these have the old version on it, where in the app it spells out fart. And that's what you're paying the extra thousand dollars for. The app wasn't available anymore. It had been removed. What got taken down in 2014? Is it your Emojli app, Tom? Actually, that is about the right date.

I can't remember when Emojli was. I set up a thing with a friend that was an emoji-only messenger about Venn. And never build an app. It's a terrible, terrible idea. It was nothing but customer support hassle. We made no money from it. It was just complete pain in the ass. We did shut that down, but we also shut down all the backend systems that went with it.

So it wouldn't have worked anymore. And I suspect this is either something you remember the news story about, or you don't. I know you haven't said an actual brand of phone. You just said phone, smartphone. I'm thinking, is it Apple-specific? Is it iPhone, or is it Android? iPhone, Android.

I think it was available on both, but it wouldn't really matter at this point. Gosh. Now, Annie, they've set it up. You tap it into the goal. Are you ready? Are you ready? Oh, no.

I feel like we're close. Another minute, we might get there. All right. You're very close. I'll give you one more. It is a 2014 craze that then went away. It's not like the app of... It's like a virtual Tamagotchi or something, is it?

I need Tap It Home. Flappy Bird. Correct. You can't get Flappy Bird anymore? Oh no, you're so late to this news. I'm so sorry. This is how you had to find out. How can you...

Why isn't Flappy Bird still going? What? Yeah, his name was Don Gwynn. He felt guilty that he was earning $50,000 a day on something that people were finding so addictive that it was affecting their lives. So with a day's notice, he said, I'm taking the app away. I'm removing it from sale. 10 million people downloaded the game and then it vanished.

And just for a brief period in 2014, people put their phones on eBay and sold them because that phone still had Flappy Bird. Was there ever like a crowned Flappy Bird champion? Who was the winner of Flappy Bird? Who had the high score? Who had the all-time high score on Flappy Bird? Is that a known thing?

I don't know. I know it went back on sale because immediately there were a thousand clones of it. Like he was just using basically off-the-shelf assets. The game is not a new game mechanic. It existed for ages. He just happened to hit a magic formula at the right time. So after a thousand people cloned it, he put the original back up. My favorite variant, by the way, is Flappy Wordle or Flappy Birdle. Where you have to solve a wordle, but your key presses cause the bird to flap. So it is this horrible nightmare of a game that I got to enough points to get past some milestones

just like I'm never touching that again. If you were 15 when this happened, then this is your truth. I mean, this is like a traumatic event. I'm sorry. That was a sentence that just made me age like the guy at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Just dust.

Just absolute withering dust. Thank you. You should boot me. You should banish me for this. Thank you to our producer. The Flappy Hood world record is 9,813 points. What? No way.

Mine was like 23. What? Props to him for giving it all up, though. He's like the Jonas Salk of apps. I don't get that reference. Should I get that reference? Sorry. You're too old, Tom.

No, no, definitely not. I might be wrong. A producer can check me, but I believe Jonas Salk was the person who patented the polio vaccine and then gave it away for free. They have a polio vaccine now, guys. Yay.

Tom's just learning about this. Yeah, I just learned about Flappy Bird and Tom just learned that there is a vaccine. He's like, yes, finally, I'm getting rid Flappy Bird. Don't patronise me. And Tom just learned that there is a vaccine. He's like, yes! Finally, I'm getting rid of this iron lung. Yes, the mobile phones. Thank you, youngsters. The mobile phones were put on the electronic auction site eBay

for 1,000 downs because they contained Flappy Bird. Tom, you know the Beatles split up, right? Our next question... Our next question... Annie, you know what? You can let the oldsters have this next question. Why don't you give us one and see if we can... see if we can work our way through this with our walking frames.

All right, well, sit back, relax, grab some prune juice. Speak up, dear. I can't hear you. It's all right. Matron will be along in a minute. Well, sorry, I'm too busy multitasking with my flappy bird game on my phone. Are you ready for the question? Yes, dear. While driving on a rural road in the Philippines,

Evelyn heard a low rumbling noise for a few seconds, probably similar to the train that's passing my house right now. Her car was fine and no roadworks had taken place. When repeating the journey a few days later, the noise had gone. Why? Aliens. One more time. This is absolutely an alien abduction.

One more time. When driving on a rural road in the Philippines, Evelyn heard a low rumbling noise for a few seconds. Her car was fine and no roadworks had taken place. When repeating the journey a few days later, the noise had gone. Why? Was it seismic movement? Was it like a rock fall?

Was that a landslide happening nearby? Something like that? No. Later, the noise had gone. Why? Was it seismic movement? Was it like a rock fall? Was that a landslide happening nearby? Something like that? No. It wasn't like an underground volcano. Underground volcano. But, like, it's a volcanic area, right? I mean, I was going to try and think of Filipino stereotypes, but A, I don't have any, and B, I'm not doing those jokes.

So I don't know what that could be could it just have been a plane flying over head is it what some or some kind of what no we don't have a date for this though so it's not like it's not like an airport moved or some historical event we could it's not an airplane and it also so in terms of date it really doesn't matter when when this happened, because this seems to happen regularly. So it's something to do with that specific part of the road, because you said when she came back it had gone.

So it's not anything wrong with her car. Exactly. A car is fine. It's something with that area that's wrong, or perhaps fine, actually. Is Evelyn important? Is the specific name important in this question or is this just evelyn happens to be someone from the philippines not at all you could swap out the name for tom if you wanted if that makes you feel better okay i'm not sure it does but sure um was she by herself in the car does does it say? It doesn't matter. The first clue is that during the month, the location where the rumbling noise was heard kept changing.

There's an escaped animal nearby that is moving about a bit and makes a low... It's the lesser spotted Philippines growling tiger spider. And that's a horrible idea. I don't know why my brain went to tiger spider. I picked two animals that rhymed, and I don't like the implications of that. And it was just kind of hunting in the area and growling at the car. And this is completely wrong, isn't it? It was not the tiger spider. Thankfully.

My producer has told me there is such a thing as a tiger spider, but it's just a regular spider that has some stripes on it. So that's OK. It's not some horrible hybrid from a science fiction show. We're OK. Can you tell if it wasn't an animal? Not an animal. It wasn't an animal of any not an animal it wasn't like something geological like an earthquake or a volcano it has it has to do

with the road surface well then the road had been resurfaced that the the maintenance crews have been along and changed something to the road surface whoa that was a big that was a big step forward that was a big leap for for mankind right there you you're onto something it was the first road in the philippines to be tarmac or something it was a stony road that wouldn't be a low rumbling in different locations my my head is stuck on the musical road that i filmed that once where you it has particular grooves in the road and it plays a tune very badly as you drive over it but that's not the sort of thing that moves around was it was it a prank with some kids pranking road users by putting something on the road and then moving it no it

was not a prank there are people that do this you're right that it's people that are unauthorized that are doing something was it some kind of protest organized by people it was you did the eyebrow thing well i was just thinking like that would be an interesting way to protest like oh you know raise the minimum wage i'm gonna remind you by putting rumble strips everywhere um but no it was not a protest oh wait are these rumble strips though. But no, it was not a protest. Wait, are these rumble strips, though? Are these put down by road maintenance to warn of something that's moving around? No, they are not put down by anyone official. It's not a road maintenance thing.

And it's not anything permanent, like a rumble strip. It's a thing that's more temporary so is it like warning of something people have put like sticks down in patterns to to get people to slow down because there's children nearby or something like that is it like vigilante road maintenance oh that would be so cool but no is it vigilante marketing advertising saying our ice cream booth is coming up in half a mile at a time and it's to alert people to that no it is not that i'll tell you that

it has to do with the so it's rural philippines the rural road in the philippines near um a lot of farming so is this like the farm animals doing oh no is there like is there is there like such a big um hatching of i don't know like such a big crowd of animals that they rumble as they walk past like oh no hold on the the hatching is that one of the places where you get the the turtles going to the ocean or something like that? Like animals have to cross the road and this is a warning to drivers? That's basically the same as a slowdown for kids one, only with turtles. No, that's honestly cooler than what it really is.

I wish it were that. I wish everyone just stopped their cars and watched the turtles. There's a lot of, I'm not going to say it. There's a crop that's grown that needs to go through some treatments before it's ready for consumption. Oh, so is this like the farmers putting their crops on the road to squidge the grape juice out or whatever it is? You're on the right track.

Can we guess the crop? Is is it wheat corn what i'm just remembering the only crop i know that makes noise is like bamboo as it grows and i don't think that's the philippines is it corn it's not corn but in china this system is sometimes used for corn kernels but in the philippines it's something different. But it's like a very basic thing that you have definitely had a lot. Yes, rice. Rice. I don't know anything about how rice, the rice plant. But I guess it's, yeah, I guess they were putting it down to make people get it off the stem.

I have no idea what rice is. I think you've basically gotten it. were putting it down to make people get it off the stem. I have no idea what rice is. I think you've basically gotten it. Yeah, I think you've got three people who know nothing more about rice here other than it comes in a packet at the supermarket. I think you're going to need to fill in the gaps here. Okay, so Evelyn, our possibly real, possibly fake person who was driving in the rural road in the Philippines

had been driving over rice. And the reason that the road was covered in rice is because Filipino farmers use the road to dry out their rice crops. Surprisingly, the action of driving over the rice doesn't seem to damage it nor cause it to spread out. After a few days, the farm workers bag up the rice for storage and the practice was banned in 1973, but it still happens regularly. So you could eat rice that's been driven over by rubber tires. That's weird. Gotta wash your rice, Jeff. Yeah. Well, great. That is the answer. Next time you have rice,

beware. Maybe it has been driven over many times. A listener question now then, sent in by Michael Nebersney. The ceiling of Grand Central Terminal, New York, was to receive a star atlas design for its 1913 opening. When the painters got the plans in their hands, they knew it would be an impressive sight. However, a commuter soon spotted a glaring error. What was it, and what was the cause?

One more time, the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal, New York, was to receive a star atlas design for its 1913 opening. When the painters got the plans in their hands, they knew it would be an impressive sight. However, a commuter soon spotted a glaring error. What was it and what was the cause? I've got to say, it's a train station question, isn't it? It's a railway station question. I believe, Geoff, it's a train station question isn't it it's a railway i believe jeff it's a railway station question um to which i don't know the answer so we're gonna have to we're gonna have to work it through um i've been to grand central many times annie i'm assuming

you have i sure have i have never looked up Okay. Have you ever done the whispering gallery there? No. There's an archway, I think it's in the basement, that is a whispering gallery as good as the one at St. Paul's. Like, it's perfectly curved. But it works over a dome. So, provided you've got someone to talk to, you can whisper so, so quietly at one corner of that, and it will be heard like someone's whispering in your ear on the other side. That's so cool.

Ugh, next time I need to tell a secret, I'll go to Grand Central. So did you say it was 1913? 1913. They've got this design on the ceiling. Do they to this day have stars on the ceiling at Grand Central? I've never been. I don't know. So this never got put up?

Oh, it was definitely put up. i think it's still there yes you you say stars i'm thinking well is it anything to do with stars and stripe obviously the the usa flag oh like star atlas um i'm sure i'm sure there's a formal formal astronomical name for it but star Star Atlas, map of the sky. They'd done the wrong hemisphere because they're in the Northern Hemisphere and they'd done the Southern Hemisphere or something. Was there a weird mistake? Did someone, like, make a constellation, did the artist, like, make a constellation of their nan or something

and try and sneak it in? Oh, that would be lovely. Grandma Major just sat up in the corner as You can see there's the head there's the body, there's the knitting Yeah, actually that does sound like a constellation. We should have modern constellations The three cowboys Yep, the iPhone

This one looks like Flappy Bird Oh no, I like that idea I like the idea that we just rename the constellations every century or so for whatever's currently there. There's Flappy Bird. Yeah, instead of the Big Dipper, it's the Selfie Stick. Yeah, yeah. What's your start sign?

Steam Locomotive. We've got 10 years till we rename them again. In our current capitalist hellscape, they would probably all be owned by Coca-Cola and Samsung. Oh my God. Oh no. Yeah, like the crypto.com arena. It's going to be like the...

Or Ursa Major brought to you by Amazon. Oh no. Oh yeah, no, I can see. There you've got those stars there. They line up, they make the golden archers. Oh yeah, no, I take back that idea entirely. Let's stick with the Zodiac. So they've made a mistake,

which they obviously haven't noticed at the time. Yeah. One person spotted it or many, many people spotted it? The story goes that someone told them. In practice, you don't need too much specialist knowledge. You don't have to be a professional astronomer to know. And you haven't said, was it corrected? Is the mistake still there to this day?

It's still there, yes. They gave an excuse as kind of, yeah, we totally meant that. said was it corrected is the mistake still there to this day it's still there yes uh they they gave an excuse as kind of it's yeah we totally meant that does it have a rude word on it does it does it i'm sorry i keep bringing this up but did it say fart somewhere it's got to be right sometime again i like the idea that the constellations is joined up to spell to spell letters or you know like ursa major was called some i don't know i had a misspelling but maybe i can't think of a good pun that's a constellation under and a family friendly swear at the same time

pollux that's the way the standards the standard star map joke it's the name of a star. It can't be like south up on accident because in space, it's all space. Right? Is there a standard up direction? If you're looking from the station it can be wrong, right?

So, like, if they've got it the wrong way round from what the stars are above the roof, that would be a mistake. That was pretty much the mistake. But I'm going to need a little bit more than that. Why would it have happened and what exactly did they do to cause that? But you're right. Big error. Something's in the wrong direction. Did they flip it, mirror it?

Yep. Yeah, they did. East was west, west was east. So why did that happen? The only thing I can think of is that Manhattan, we say north and south, but really it's on an angle. But I don't know if that would have resulted in mirroring it. Because the guy who designed it, designed it looking down, instead of looking up.

You've basically got it. Yeah, I'll give you that. The painters had the plans in their hands. They looked down at the plans. Oh, no. They copied that looking up and so mirrored the entire scene as they went by. The excuse that station officials gave

was that it was from God's point of view. I absolutely would have done the exact same thing. That, I totally would have gone, yep, that one goes there, that one goes there. Yeah. So yes, the sky of Grand Central Terminal is flipped east-west because the painters held the plans in their hands and looked up at the sky.

Our last big question of the show then, we go to Jenny. What do you have for us? So this listener question has been sent in by Emil. In Münster, in Germany, there are three white concrete spheres, each 3.5 metres in diameter, in a grassy park. There should have been 13 more of them spread around randomly, and possibly more colourful too. What are they representing? So I'll read it again. In Münster in Germany, there are three white concrete spheres,

each 3.5 metres in diameter, in a grassy park. There should have been 13 more of them spread around randomly and possibly more colourful too. What were they representing? Bonds from World War II. Planets. Atoms. Ooh, these are all good answers, but no, not quite.

And they're all wrong. I was trying to work out which atom had like three things in its nucleus and 13 electrons spinning around it, but I don't think there's an atom that has three and 13. Hang on, how many balls are there in pool and snooker? Is it like a giant game of billiards or something? It is a giant billiards game. Yeah.

Oh, I just got out. All in one to mix our metaphors. It is a giant pool game. So yeah, in pool, there are 16 balls. The cue ball. I forgot the cue ball. I don't know how I did that.

Well done, Jeff. That was fantastic. No, but there's people on the internet now going, hey, how did he get that? So I just, what, that's weird. This is an artwork by an american artist called i believe class oldenburg clears oldenburg um and he often makes sculptures of larger than life things um he has like a giant ice cream cone that's on top of a building

um and this one was supposed to be giant billiards or giant pool balls, but they ran out of money. And so there are only three and they're not coloured. Oh, the pool balls are coloured. Yeah, and in billiards, there's only two reds and a white. There's only three balls. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know it.

I was just workshopping it in my own head. It sounds like a game. It's pool, not billiards, so it would have been stripes and spots. It's the brightly coloured ones. Yeah, you're quite right to correct me. It's pool, not billiards, so it would have been stripes and spots. It's the brightly coloured ones. Yeah, you're quite right to correct me. It's pool rather than billiards. I actually had to look this up while sort of researching this question because I'm familiar with snooker, which has, I think, 22 balls.

And I was shocked, shocked to learn that eight ball pool has 16 balls. Because it's eight each. It's not eight each. It's seven each plus the cue ball plus the eight ball pool has 16 balls. Because it's eight each. It's not eight each. It's seven each plus the cue ball plus the eight ball. It's just because the eight ball is like the special one.

That's why it's called eight ball pool. Yeah, either team can pot that. Either team. It's not a team sport, Tom. You've played... I mean, it is when you're playing it in a bar with 10 people, but... Yeah, so these balls are supposed to be giant pool balls

made by the artist Klaas Oldenburg to represent a huge pool game. Which brings us to the question I asked right at the start. Which key can often be seen in between F and G on a keyboard? I hate this question. I really, really hate it because I didn't get this. And I have just seen on the call we're on, three people put their hands up who've clearly got the trick that I didn't. All together now.

One, two, three. F sharp. F sharp. F sharp. We're talking about a musical keyboard. Did everyone else do the same thing I did when he read out the question, immediately looked down at the keyboard in front of us?

That was meant to be the trick. I looked at the keyboard behind me that you can see in my room back here. What did you have, Annie? I confess I was completely wrong. I thought it was the little red think pad. I think they call it the little nipple or something. So I was totally wrong.

There are many names for it, depending on how rude you want to be. Yes. But no, it's F sharp. Thank you very much to all our players. Where can people find you? What's going on in your lives? We'll start with Jeff this time.

Yeah, I run a YouTube channel. And my name, Jeff Marshall. I do sort of travel and transport videos, visiting railway stations and just traveling around the world and random places. And my name, Jeff Marshall. I do sort of travel and transport videos, visiting railway stations and just traveling around the world and random places. Look me up, Jeff Marshall. Also on Twitter as Jeff Tech. And Jenny.

Hi, I'm Jay Draper London on TikTok and YouTube. You can find me doing videos about London history and British history. And Annie. I'm DevsofWikipedia on Instagram and Twitter and TikTok. And my name is Annie and I have a sub stack too. And if you want to know more about this show or send in a listener question yourself you can do that at lateralcast.com

We are at lateralcast on pretty much everything and you can find video highlights every week at youtube.com slash lateralcast With that, thank you very much to Annie Rowder. Yay, thank you. To Jay Draper. Thank you so much. Annie Rowder yay thank you to Jay Draper thank you so much

and to Jeff Marshall thanks Tom thanks everyone my name's Tom Scott and that's been Lateral