No Such Thing As A Fish - 487: No Such Thing As A Short Dalek

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Dan, James, Andrew and Jenny Colgan discuss Doctor Who, Dr. Oppenheimer, detecting dogs and cotton candy. Visit nosuchthingasafish.com for news about live shows, merchandise and more episodes.  Join Club Fish for ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content at apple.co/nosuchthingasafish or nosuchthingasafish.com/patreon

Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of No Six Things, a fish where we are joined by a very good friend Jenny Colgan. Now Jenny Colgan is, well she's on a bit of stand up but she is mostly well known for being a writer, a writer of romantic comedy fiction and of science fiction. If you are a fan of Doctor Who, then you may well know her. She's written all sorts of spin-offs and audio books and stuff for Doctor Who then you may well know her. She's written all sorts of spin-offs and audio books and stuff for Doctor Who. We might get into that in the first fact today, spoiler alert. But what we'd like to let you know about most of all is that Jenny has a brand new book.

It is called The Summer Skies and if it is anything like Jenny's other work, it is going to be absolutely fantastic, just perfect for a summer holiday and you can get that wherever you buy your books. On top of that the usual stuff do join Club Fish if you want a bit of extra fish in your life and some ad free episodes and if you go to notice things are fish.com forward slash podcast then you will find that there are one or two really not many at all tickets left for our show at King's place in September. We are on the verge of booking an amazing guest for that. I promise you you

will not want to miss it. If you can't get down to London then there are streaming tickets available. Okay, I really hope you enjoy this week's show and all that's left to say is on with the podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of No Such Thing as a Fish, a weekly podcast coming to you from the QI offices in Hobern. My name is Dan Schreiber, I am sitting here with James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, and Jenny Colgan. And once again, we have gathered around the microphones with our four favorite facts from the last seven days, and in no particular order, here we go. Starting with fact number one, and that is Jenny.

There is on dot who, a Dalek named after a Dickens character. Wow. Hi, bro. I learned this fact for money. I'm not actually for points, really, because one of my kids' teachers is a great Dickens fan. And he said to the kids, if you bring me a Dickens fact that I haven't heard before, there's something in it for you.

So I can put it out to the world, which was kind of fun. And actually, the most, the conspires that everybody knows, one, he's the first person ever to talk about dinosaurs in fixtures. I did not know that. There is a reference to dinosaur on page one of Blake House. And then the other thing that most people know is that Hans Christian Anderson came to stay with him on holiday and was the worst

guest ever and they both wrote about it in their diaries with Hans going oh I'm feeling so weary and Dickens going how do we get this guy out of my eyes. So obviously they teach you new these very famous Macs but what he did not know is a friend of mine who's an actor plays a Dalek on Doctor Who and they tend to keep the same people because obviously it on Doctor Who and they tend to keep the same people because obviously it's quite skilled and you tend to be in the same Dalek casing because they're really small and it's not a very pleasant spend 10 hours in a really small space so you have your own Dalek and the Dalek is named after you in the props covered and my friend is called Barnaby

and he's named after Barnaby Rudge. And so there is. In the BBC, Dalek Barnaby. Dalek Barnaby, so good. Thanks, sir. I must exterminate you. Yeah, that's amazing. So for anyone that doesn't know Doctor Who James, I'm looking at you.

Yeah, I'm afraid I don't. You know what the Daleks are, though? Yeah, they're like little robots. They're. They're a tall villain. I'm afraid I don't you know the Daleks are though. Yeah, they're like little robots They're a tall villain So I'm a tall they're not little when we say little they remember if I had to describe a Dalek the first word Over there what can you describe them? Yeah, he's tall Anything about the criminal who came up with bad to exterminix-Stone at you. Well, yeah, first of all, he was tall. I was simply addressing your first point of saying that small.

I was simply hitting that off as a busted mess right away. Okay, so that's like Jenny did. She knows Dr. Smith. For paper pot, they're tall. Ah, right. And they have a kind of plunger at front and they are, in fact, they look like they're the monsters, but they're not, they are kind of strange creatures inside, used to be people. So they're like a tank for a...

That is exactly what I wanted to say. When you say pepper pot, I read that when they were designed, the person who decided how they would move, used the pepper pot to kind of move around the table and said, this is how they'll move. Is that right? I think it is. It was Ray Kusik, who designed the look of the day. It's really weird the story of how they were come up with because the creator was Terry Nation, who was involved in working on the very early scripts. And he just described them in the script, but he didn't really describe them very much.

And then Terry Nation was just, and he said, tall, he said, just tall, I guess. And then Ray Cusick took the job to design them, and he worked with a model maker called Bill Roberts, and they actually, they're the ones who built the look as far as I understand it, is that fair? Yeah, and Terri Nation, though, holds the, as it were, the copy rights.

It belonged to what he became hugely wealthy, because he owned the copyright to Dalek's. And to the point where when the new series came back all those years ago with Russell T. Davies, the first one with Chris Reckleston, we didn't know if we were going to get the Dalek's back because the Teri Nation estate said, Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's going to be funny about it, yeah. They had to consider that the Dalek's would not return with Doctor Who.

And what is the very first thing the Daleks do when they come back? I know this one, because that's one of the very little bits of Doctor I've seen. They go up some stairs. They fly up. It was in such a lovely moment when Can Rooza escapes up the stairs in the whole country's going, ah-ha! That one thing I know about Daleks and then the limited edition. I'd love to know if your friend Barnaby, if he's been in the same Dalek for all these years,

whether or not it's like when you go into a small bi-plained, and you know the person's got a picture of their kids up on the, some dice, you know, is he inside? Have they got all these little mentors? It's a lady Dalek. Yeah. This is not the only literary reference that made its way into Doctor Who. The very first companion of the very first series of Doctor Who was Ian Chesterton.

And Ian Chesterton was named after a GK Chesterton, because the original script writer for the show, Coburn, was a devout Catholic and a massive fan of Chesterton. And so gave him that name. Yeah, so Chesterton made it in as well. And Dickens is the first historical figure that turns up a new... I don't really, he's in the second episode I think. Of the original series?

Of the new series. So which of course isn't new anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like really old. I played of course by Simon Callow, who has played Dickens so often I get them very muddled up in my head. Yeah. Don, you just had the first, oh sorry,

Panion was named after who? She can't just get interested. She can't just get interested. So I've got, I thought the first assistant was the doctor's granddaughter. So are we confusing Panion and the assistant guards? Oh my god, I'm sorry. I'm not going to get lettuce.

It's the one who does the inbox. I just feel, yeah. Yeah. I didn't pump quiz recently. And the quiz master, she said, we had a doctor who quiz in here last week. And I barely got, yeah. I didn't pump quiz recently, and the quizmaster, she said, we had a doctor who quiz in here last week, and I barely got out alive. I was just like, famously, the quickest way

to end a punch up in a pop quizist ask, how many doctors there been? Oh, luckily your inbox is bigger on the inside. That's right. Yeah, that might be a technicality, because the granddaughter is the granddaughter. Right, I actually can't. The brief was really interesting for the casting.

She had to be with it girl of 15 reaching the end of her secondary school career, eager for life, lower than middle class. A void dialect used neutral accent laced with the latest teenage slang. That was the gig. That was the gig. Heck, cat. Yeah, exactly. And then she was made his granddaughter because it was William Hart. Wow. Cat cat. Yeah, exactly. And she was made his granddaughter because it was, it was, it was, was William Hartnall,

the first one. It was. And it was to avoid any suggestion of, it was a bit weird, isn't it? It was all like traveling around with a 50 year old girl. She got me wrong. What's going on? She got me wrong. Really careful with that for so long.

In fact, right up till I started writing for it and I started. Did you change it? Did you? But no, when I went to see them, they were really, because I write romantic comedy and they were really quite funny like, you know, we can't have any kissing or anything like that and I was like, fine, I promise you have a Davy tea, I will not do any of that, then the show completely changed and actually maths, maths spends pretty much this whole time being naked or getting married to folk by mistake or you know, the suddenly became a massive, romantic overtone.

Which had never happened all the time. Yeah, you said. It tends to be faking interesting. It really gets heartbroken. Oh, I think you're knowledge, yes. I just kind of slip in. I even know. Oh, dear.

I did read that there have been doctor who top Trump's over the years. This is interesting, because I do know about top Trumps and Pac-6 has a lot of bad guys in including Adolf Hitler and If you put Pac-6 against Pac-7 you can fight Adolf Hitler against Queen Elizabeth the first So I want you to guess Who is the bravest out of out of Hitler or Queen Elizabeth the first Conning to top drums. Oh Elizabeth

Yeah, I agree everyone. I'll say I'll say I'll say the minority Just Braver braver. Not better. I'll say it. I'll say Hitler deported. No, yeah, right. In fact, bravery was his lowest possible thing. He was good in lots of the things, but the bravery was the worst.

Who do you think is the strongest out of Hitler? Oh, Queen Elizabeth I. Oh, well, I got a completely average last time. I'm going to say Elizabeth I. Stronger. She is the strongest. I got a little bit of an average last time. I'm going to say Elizabeth's first. Stronger? She is a strongest. And Hitler wins on brains and terror.

OK. Just a big red victory for Hitler. Thank you, Doctor. He does spend his entire episode locked in the cupboard. Does he? So I can have got you to the brave everything, but the brains won slightly defeats me. What was Hitler's episode?

Doctor Hewlett? It's got Lines Kill Hitler. Oh wow. Really, gosh. One of the first people involved in the BBC side of things, it was a guy called Sydney Newman, who was the head of drama. He was a really interesting guy. So there was a play that was broadcast in his career

called Underground, right? And it was about a group of nuclear holocaust survivors living in the London Underground. I think this was early 60s or late 50s, like it was quite, you know? It sounds very terrifying and dramatic. But it was a live broadcast, and one of the actors in it died of a heart attack halfway through the television screening off stage. So he wasn't on camera, but it was in between scenes, basically. He was in pastima makeup and you know, he died and the play had to improvise its way through. And Newman was

kind of in charge of it. He said, just treat it like a football match, just play on, adjust. Yeah. So it wasn't like there's been a murder. Like they didn't shift the whole thing to. I don't know. It's like really deathful. Can I just say, if someone dies in the middle of a barmage, they do stop the game. That's a very good point. That's a very good point. Well, that's the end. That's the weird thing.

The character was meant to die over heart attack later in the play. The character, not the hacker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I guess they just have to shift it to him. The gig, I agree to you. This will require you dying. It's going on BBC One, so I'm kind of thinking of a career'm greeting. This will require you dying.

It's going on BBC One, so I'm kind of thinking of your career. Peter Paldy, I think auditioned for the Doctor Who and got the role, but he got it 20 years later. So he auditioned in 1996 when they were casting for the... They made a film, didn't they, then? And that was... Yes. Yeah, and lots of people auditioned. Michael Palin, Eric Eidl, Rick Male. Oh, wow. Rick with a pink frill, although we need to be kind to be the doctor and I think he was a very kind man in real life, but

on the screen he was terrifying at all times. Other others who auditioned Brian Blassard? No. Do you know what? I think it's about English tolerance for Brian Blassard and I have not a bad time. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm English tolerance for Brian Blessed and I have not a better time. Oh, I got a window of being the... The jean, I can't, you know, I get it, everybody loves them. It's one of those English things that I don't get, like, freaking Tim Henry. So, Candy would make a good doctor, I think he would. I think you... yes! Let me see your fingers.

Hold up your fingers. Yeah? Okay. What, I'm sorry, what are you looking for though? They've all got really long fingers. Half-day. Oh! Is that? A requirement.

A requirement. Yeah, that's why Capaldi got the gig 20 years on. He was older. Fingertooler. Fingertooler, Fingertooler, Fingertooler. Actually, very nice thing, a shitty who is the new Doctor Who. It's also Scottish, so we've had the most sensation of running it. Yeah, he's got to wrap it in, in five, yeah. One of the most sensation of running it. So we grew up in Fife, yeah.

One of the most famous things about Doctor Who is the fact that during the 1950s and 60s, or even to the 70s, about 60 to 70% of all BBC video that had recordings of shows were deleted. And so we're missing. It was over 100 episodes of Doctor Who. It's slowly going a bit slow. I think it's under the hundred mark now,

purely because there is a dedicated group of fans who are out there in the world trying to track down all of these missing episodes and it's fascinating. Every few years, we get a message that comes through from fans online saying, a nudge has been found, the BBC will say, nine found in Nigeria in the cupboard of a random TV, local TV station.

And they just find the reels Do they know what they find the old yeah because what they used to do is they used to send out all of these Reels to different countries, but explicitly would say once you've had it through this many months as an expiry date on it Yeah, I burn them up. I have a yeah, I have at home I have a vinyl record of a goon show episode called Yeti, which says on it, smash this in three months time, here's the expiry day, and someone just hand-smash it. So that weatheration in possible films got this message of self-destruct in five seconds or whatever. Could it be?

Could, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know, it might be. But yeah, but so we still have like 97 episodes that are still missing. But I keep getting a fan. If you find one, is it worth like a million quid or something? Oh, that's interesting. No, I do. Not really.

It kind of lost the BBC still. And also it's such a kind of proper Indiana Jones sluther thought, and you know, people have dedicated it. It's extraordinary amounts of time to this thing. It would be seen as bad if you put it on the eBay straight away. Yes. It would be seen as bad, but also I think the kind of glory and honor of finding it. The missing ones, they've been seen as bad, but also I think the kind of glory and honor of finding it.

They're missing ones, they're kind of animated. Oh, do they have the script? They've got scripts. Right, okay. Cool. When you think of Doctor Who, largely it's the villains of the old Doctor Who, the Daleks and so on, and Cybermen, thank you, well done, James. But then there's also James, the weeping...

Agile's. That's right. So Stephen Moffett, who created that for the show, created a monster. Well done, James. But then there's also James, the weeping angels. That's right. So Stephen Moffett, who created that for the show, created a monster that was so iconic to the new fans of Doctor Who that when there was a poll done in 2012, it came on top as the best villain of Doctor Who, about the Daleks, which is very rare. It's the first time I think that's ever happened.

So the weeping angels for anyone that doesn't know it, it's basically angels that are effectively weird aliens or something. And if you turn your gaze away from them or you blink, they get closer to you and they get closer to you and get closer to you until they capture you. What are your mother's footsteps? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What time is it, Mr. Wolf? Yeah. And if they capture you, they don't kill you, but they send you to another time on Earth and you're just stuck there and there's no way of getting back.

So it's basically a death to some extent. Also, if you're playing top trumps, then they have the same terror as Adolf Hitler. Oh, there you go. Well, that was the new context, thank you. I've probably had the Weeping Angels as a monster. Oh, yeah. Because I think if we had them now, there'd just be a queue of people closing their eyes and front them saying, could you send me back to Reneku Bayhaves? I have.

I have. But 1981, the man had this fine. Yeah, exactly. But so Stephen Mothat was actually inspired by an original statue that he saw that looks so scary and he had this idea of what a fact kept encroaching on me. So years later, he decided having told his son about the story to go back and show him the weeping angel that had inspired this. And they went there to the exact spot and it was gone. Was it an old slave trade, Eros?

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Okay, my fact this week is when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, George Bernad Shaw wrote to the Times in disgust. He was upset that there was an unnecessary B at the end of the word bomb. Thank you, George. You're a controversial person. Terrific day. I know. It's like Churchill said it was going to save a million lives.

Gandhi said it was a potential suicide of mankind. But George Bernard Shaw wrote, I conscribbled the word bum barely legible 18 times in a minute and bum without the B, 24 times in a minute, saving 25% by dropping this superfluous B. and he reckoned that it would save 131,400 seconds per year in the entire English-speaking world. How soon after the bomb was dropped did he send this letter? It was a few weeks after.

Oh, okay, so he waited for the initial. I think that was more the post. Right. Go. I mean, yeah, talk about missing the point. Yeah it was well he was one of these people who really wanted to improve the language so to speak by making spelling simpler. Pick your moments though mate. What the hell. That's never had anyone ever written BOM for bomb. Was he trying to call back to something or was he trying to call back to something? It feels like it's an Italian-ish word.

I think it goes to the Latin Bumbas meaning it's on a matter of pay-it. It's just like a nice bomb bomb bomb bomb. But anyway, I thought we might talk about the Manhattan Project because Jenny, you are something of an expert. Is that fair to say or not? I would say it's not really fair to say that it's a hostage to poison. However, I did mastermind and I picked it as my specialist subject. Wow.

And I don't really get nervous very often. I have never been so nervous. And I wasn't nervous about the subject, which I thought I knew. And I wasn't nervous about being on... I don't really lost pointless and I don't really lost, you know, whatever that other chasing one is. So I wasn't nervous about that. I was really nervous. You know how every year there's one person that gets zero points and it goes on YouTube and you know, and I just, that was just right

in front of my eyes and particularly I was like, oh they're looking at me and they go, oh my god there's a girl and you know she thought she'd pick this stupid topic. On the headline would have been Corgan Bombs. I think, oh, one who I love. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would have written some of you's heads going, how are you spelling the word bot? You could have saved this much, honey.

And who was your host? It was one of the tall white-haired pointy guys. Humphreys. Yes. Because everyone who watches Doctor Who has their doctor, that they do their grumbly. For me, it's a Magnus Magnus and it's my master. Well you did eat the you know you do the bit of chit chat. Yeah and he said you're right about cakes and I was like

occasionally and he said why aren't you fat? And I was like what kind of a question? Wow. So I think that's the today program training kicking in. I forget before you ask the question. I can't help Andy but notice that Jenny's description of tall there to describe the house. Very useful. Actually, I actually know you're right, Dan. I didn't get one. Sorry, Jenny. You want to run a

trail of describing Humphreys. He's sitting down. Great point. So the Manhattan project. Yeah. Yeah. But Oppenheimer. And Oppenheimer. Just in cookie. He wasn't project, yeah, yeah, but up in Himer. And up in Himer. He was an interesting cookie, wasn't he, up in Himer? He was. He's someone who was a bit of a troubling kid. I keep running into stories where his dad kind of has to bail him out at various different times to sort of save the career that he's hoping to have. He at one point was at Cambridge University, he was studying there, and he was furious with one of his

teachers who was called Patrick Blackett, and Blackett would go on to win a Nobel Prize himself, and Blackett was forcing him to do things that weren't theoretical physics, he was taking him away from his interests, and so... Not applied physics, farce, you know. In a bit of fury, in a bit of rage, often heimer, and this is the story, there's lots of different stories, but roughly this is it. He poisoned an apple and left it on black ats desk for him to eat. I proper will kill you, boys.

Proper poison, yeah. There's a lot of murky sort of territory to the story. What we do know is definitely the dad stepped in and said, if we promise to send him to a psychiatrist, can we keep him going on? And if he keeps his meetings, can he stay? And they said, yeah, sure. And so that's the only reason that he

In those days, wasn't it I know They were the white people who go to these push schools grow up. Yeah Yeah, it is it is crackers. Wasn't that the way that Alan Turing killed himself as well with the poison battle? It was yes, supposedly that's the story sionine into the side of a of an apple A lot of poison apples around, yeah. No, Oppenheimer was very odd. So Oppenheimer is the person who, when they were setting up the man had in project, they came to him and they said, we want you to head this up.

And the location, Los Alamos itself, was picked by Oppenheimer when he was on horseback, going off around and he went, this would be perfect. But even though he was given all of this high clearance and he was the head of this very secret operation, he was under constant surveillance because they also thought that he was a communist because he was very pro-communist. He was never carcaring, but he'd said enough stuff that they thought this guy's going to be stealing our secrets and sending them out. Well the guy that did, there was a guy called Fuchs, who ended up and is possibly depending on how you look at it,

guilty of one of the worst crimes that has ever been done, who did go and sell the stuff to the Soviets or to get to the Soviets. How would you compare against Hitler and the top Trumps, please? That's a yes, one question, James, when you want to get back, isn't that? Sorry.

And nobody suspected him, not only that, they all really liked him because he had a car, and he used to give them a lift into town all the time, because obviously the chitchat, you're like, yeah, come on, I'll give you a little lift to the airport and he caught all of them, not a single one, super nice guy. Would he say, I'll just throw you a briefcase in the back of the cow while we drive? Exactly. And there was someone in the back of the cow under a blanket who would then read through

the stuff. Can someone pick up and recall, fair me out? Yeah. God, that was another dad rescue moment for all the open-heimer. He once gone in a car crash because he tried to race a train and failed. Yeah, and so. What do you mean by racing a train?

Are they going alongside each other? It feels like he was trying to outright have gone in. As opposed to, sometimes it would be like, you're trying to cross the fact that you're doing that. I think he was trying to outright, I'm gunnance. As opposed to, sometimes it would be like, you're trying to cross the fact that you're dead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he was just racing. I think he was just trying to get ahead of it. And it left his girlfriend unconscious.

And in order to make up for this and turning into a big story, the father had to go over to the family of the young woman's house and gave a painting and an original saizon drawing as well. Yeah. I do that by the way, that race enough to the train on the M1. You know the last bit of the M1, the train goes on the side of the road. I didn't know that, okay.

But my car, like, it's electric car, so if I go up up 70 miles an hour I lose all my battery, so I tend to lose the race quite quickly. So funny. I really think that this film should probably be about his dad. He has a new one. Yeah. It's a comedy if it's bad or bad, isn't it? I really think that this film should probably be about his dad. He doesn't even know what the name is. It's a comedy if it's bad or bad, isn't it? It's like, oh, it's a comedy. It's like Dennis the Menace movie then.

In this flat when he was growing up, there were three Van Gogh paintings and some Picasso's too, and clearly some says Ernst's. I mean, there were very, very, very wealthy people when he was growing up. But his, Dan, you mentioned that he was suspected of, you know, being a communist or being suspect. He was approached by Soviet intelligence in 1943.

And he said, no, he said, no, I'm not going to show you the secrets, but it still wrecked his career anyway. Because he didn't tell anyone. So he lost his security clearance in 1954. Feels like it's cats have the bag then. I mean, they've got the bomb. So he lost his security clearance in 1954. Feels like it's cast out of the bag then. I mean, they've got the bomb. Anyway, but it was over ties to communism.

It was in the whole McCarthy witch trial period. And but the US Department of Energy did reverse their decision in 2022. Just 55 years after he died, they said, you know what, you can have your security clearance back. Oh, very helpful. I mean, it was a gesture, obviously. Maybe he's still alive.

You don't know what these atomic bombs are going to do to you. Yeah. I would say that there was a movement on to stop people smoking on film, because it wasn't very nice, no, yeah. And it was kind of poopy day. And then I watched Kazoo Blanky, because I'd never seen it. And everyone is chucking on facts.

100% the time, and it's disgusting. It was so disgusting. And Oppenheimer never ever took a breath that didn't have a cigarette on it. So I'm feeling really, white sorry for the actor. Killian Murphy, who's playing down the movie. Yeah, because he never, he was a chain smoker.

He never took a breath of that a second one. That's what he says, part of the prep of trying to become openheimer was basically cigarettes and cocktails with the cigarettes and martini. Oh no! I'm going to have to go met her! It's really weird because when I think about the atomic bomb and I think most people obviously where we see it as one of the worst moments in history and there's obviously the arguments that people make that it may have saved more lives like Churchill and so on. But to sort of actively celebrate it feels

quite an odd thing to me. And if you do go to Los Alamos now, that is very much what they do. Like it's, it's their tourism trade, isn't it? So there's a supermarket there with an atomic bar. You can get a atomic salsa that you can buy and purchase. There's atomic bumper stickers. There's a, you can buy clothing for babies where there's a mushroom cloud on it. That says the words, I've been dropping bombs since day one. Oh, there's all these merch things and it feels a bit out of taste except, I guess it's not to them. Well, I don't know, I grew up in a world where we went to a big room on Sunday and there was a guy with nails in his hands. That's true. I went to Hiroshima, I don't know if I've said this before,

but if you got to Hiroshima, you can go know if I've said this before, but if you go to Hiroshima, you can go where the bomb was dropped to the exact spot. And there's a sign on the wall and it says the first nuclear bomb was detonated, something like a hundred feet above this point. And then you sort of luck upwards and you can imagine the exact spot where the bomb would have gone off and then detonated and killed all those people. It was really amazing. Do you know about trinitite?

Trinitite? I think it's trinitite, because it was the trinitite. I think it's trinitite. Oh, okay, so it's not got three nitrogen atoms. That's why it's called that. No, sorry, no. I just said it wrong. Yeah, trinitite, I'm sure.

Is it a type of stone? It's a type of glass made from the scent of Houston. The sand turned to glass when they tested the first bomb. And it's also called atom site, it's like green glass. And it was just left there. Is it radioactive? I think it is not very anymore, but it's still a little radioactive.

So most of it was bulldozed by the US Atomic Energy Commission and buried, you know, but some of it's still there because ants will bring it to the surface. These tiny beads of glass, because it's under the soil, and they're digging their tunnels and so it just gets pushed up. It's crazy and it's illegal to take it away now. But for a while, it was just thought, oh, it's just, you know, sand, it's just, it's just turned to glass. And so there was a period in 1945 and 1946

where it was marketed in jewellery. You could get, I'm just saying yeah. Trenetite jewellery, there was a designer who made some earrings and hair pins from it, and there was an actress called Merle Oberon, she wore some of it to a fundraiser. Supposedly to, this is quite dark, to discredit Japanese claims about radiation injury. Which is, you know, well, I mean, an action is wearing some of the sand fused glass, so it can't be that dangerous, but obviously. That's terrible.

Yeah. Supposedly, I don't, just because you've mentioned this, I haven't gone this round down, but using one of these bombs is one of the methods that they've been thinking about it to try and get deeper and deeper and boring into the ground, which can get something like 18 miles really quickly just through an explosion. But because of the, what, that's a, what I don't know, as I say, I sort of like not to. For instance, the Soviets were going to use nuclear bombs to open up waterways in

the north of Russia, for instance. So that has been thought of in the past used nuclear for... Oh, no one tell one of those stupid billionaires that's going to be there. And what would happen though is that the surrounding casing of the hull would have fused into this glass like some russets, so it would be like a really amazing slide, like almost immediately. Ooh, that's... You've been spending too much time in soft places, so... Not coming to your soft places, right? That's okay. It's been in too much time as soft plays. It's just that. Not coming to your soft plays, though.

Will Sixth birthday and also in the last two. Okay, it is time for fact number three, and that is my fact. My fact this week is that the actor John Candy was born on Halloween Okay, it's time for a record and his name is candy. His name's candy. What do you go of Halloween? There you go You called John Skeleton Candy Terrifying I wish yeah, so John Candy Most of you should know him the candy man

What no John Candy man John Candy, most of you should know him. The Candyman. What? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, which is all about that period of when SNL in America exploded, so you had Steve Martin and Dan Acroid and Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy and John Belushi and Chevy Chase and so on. And John Candy obviously a big player in that area. And yeah, so it's just a little detail in that book and I thought I'd love to talk about John Candy. Right, well we're not going to. Yep, let's be on to. I will text the candy. Also, going on Halloween, John Keats. Yes, so who? So in that episode, I think I might have mentioned, was possibly a grave robber, John Keats, because he was a medical student, and at that time they lead it to bodies to do their experiments on, and possibly he could have been one of the bodies stealers.

At Rock of the Beastie Boys. Add Rock of the Beastie Boys. Oh, yeah. Beastie Boys. Nice. Yeah. Sipney Park, who's an actor from the Walking Dead. Blondon Halloween. Blondon Halloween.

And Kirk Noble Blutzworth, who was the first American census death to be exonerated post-conviction. So was supposed to be executed and then turned out the NA testing meant that he hadn't done it, so he got off. And the Halloween link is that he's got blood, didn't he? Death, oh yeah, blood, yeah. Yeah.

Come on, that was really stretching, yeah. Yeah, I felt the spread. That's an afternoon to work. No. But it's unusual, because fewer people are born on Halloween than on a's on the show. Is that so? Do people kind of hang on or push through or...

It's really miserable in February? I've seen the obvious. That was right. Yeah, yeah. It's in January and I'm really miserable. Yeah. And I'm sex, that's what we're talking about. It's like, he doesn't know when Halloween is.

Well, actually, in February, that is the one of the most common days days Valentine's Day is a very common day for births Which is when my daughter was born actually on Valentine's Day, but there's a 3.6% increase on births in Valentine's Day And a 5.3% decrease of spontaneous births on Halloween. Is that like the Christmas thing where it's just that hospitals are a bit quieter and then? I think it's a bit of that perhaps. The other thing is that Sciserians is a big difference. Right. You wouldn't not because Sciserians are in for Halloween, would you? We might, if you were given three dates to choose, you might decide not to go for Halloween. Really? They have to do emergency ones, obviously.

Oh, so don't forget that in some places, not necessarily here, but in some places, that's quite a big drinking night So you may not possibly want a bunch of student medics Yeah, that's a big wow that's very cool. Yeah, can we talk about Camely? Yeah, okay. Yeah, no dad You've got a lot of stuff on junk. No, I just want to quickly just say because he died very young He was 43 when he died of a heart attack and it's I just want to quickly just say because he died very young. He was 43 when he died of a heart attack and it's He was he was you know, he was in home alone He was in a lot. There's so many seminal movies of the 90s that he was in he was known a sweet tooth when he was a kid So he did love candy as well as he was growing up. Oh, kids love candy all kids love candy

But he was called John candy and he was called sweet tooth. Are they all called candy a sweet tooth? No He he wanted to be a sports star. That was his big thing. And so he had an injury which meant that he couldn't do that. I'll do it. He played American football, right? Yeah, he played American football.

So he had the physique which was trained to be someone who was going to play that game. So all the cast members of Saturday Night Live and all the other things he did, always used to say that if you saw John Candy and you approached him, people like Dan Acroid say this, he would lift you up with one hand vertically and spin you around like a pizza like with me prepared.

Yeah, he used to, every one said that if you saw John Candy, he would lift you up with one hand, hold you above his head and spin you around. First of all, American footballers don't do that. No, true. But the point is is that he had a physique whereby lots of other people say that one of their favorite things to do was to act like an NFL ball, and if John Candy came into the room, he'd throw you in 100 yards.

What is the, no, they would run at him, jump at him, tuck, and he would catch them as if they were at a foul ball. Come on. He was a grown adults, you know, Accroyd 6-Wit-3. He was an offensive lineman in America Football I read. Right. So that means that he's basically a blocker. You get the ball to a ball back who's trying to do something and he's trying to stop everyone

from coming towards him. So he must have been big. He was, yeah, he was taught, I mean, he was 6-Wit 3 himself. He was a big guy, but he was also just, he was physically ready to catch humans. Yeah, I just don't think any of that stuff happened. He did? He did? He's a multiple people, said it.

Like it's not like, it's a, yeah, like he fans saying. I do actually, to be fair, I was looking a little bit into on Kenny. I did read that if, like, if you ran at him, he would put you on a big wooden pallet and he'd slide you into an oven. LAUGHTER Horrible.

Just like, I think they're exaggerating the story. These are the stories they say. Maybe it was gingerbread. Should we talk about candy? No, I'll just say one really sweet thing is that when he died, again he was very young, he had a heart attack while he was making a movie in New Mexico. Did he die from the atomic bomb? Oh, no. Was he in that movie that Andy was talking about left people had a heart attack?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Wow. Lots to chew on. But he had a few, a few, a little sunset boulevard. And then they went down to the cemetery and they took the 405-3 way. And it was completely clear. They had no idea why it was completely clear. And what it turned out was that the highway patrol had stopped all road access to anything

but this and it was their choice to do that. And it was then tipping their hat to say, we loved him, we miss you. And it's because in ten of his movies, and you know, he didn't live that long. So it's a short time he made these movies. He played a law enforcement officer in ten of these movies. And so they felt like there was a friend that they'd lost, you know, one of them, yeah anyway, R.A.P. John Candy. I know I'm a bit late in saying it, but yeah, condolences to the family.

All right, do you have candy now, you have candy? Addy, give us some candy. Um, what was just thinking, Jenny, you're from a great confectionery nation, Scotland. Yes, we have some tonics on the table. We have some tonics in front of this very exciting. We've been making it and not diving in a few hours. Yeah, I'm opening one now. Okay, I might do as well.

Yeah. Okay, one everyone's finished. Okay, so get this. This is a sort of scientific thing about sugar. People who are from Northern Europe are some of the most sugar sensitive people in the world and there might be a proper Evolutionary writing for that sense have you been as in it's bad for us? No as in second can detect it can detect it more easily

So this is really interesting. There are particular variations in a sugar sensing gene and people from northern latitudes Have that more than people who live in tropical areas. And the theory is one theory is that it's not certain, obviously, but in higher latitudes really sweet fruit and vegetable are a bit less common. And they're necessary to survive. It's not like a tropical region where you have really sugary sweet things and it's easy to find them and survive.

So maybe if you move north, you will benefit from having that sensitivity. Like if you, carrots and parsnips are quite sweet. But if you can't detect that, then you might not realize and you might not grow those foods or you might not seek them out and you'll be less likely to survive. So journey off from further north

and the rest of us around the table. Do you feel that that's true? Judith, that does, well, I'm very aware of things that feel true. But that does actually kind of's true. Janet, that does it. Well, I'm very aware of things that feel true. But that does actually kind of feel true. And whilst it's kind of touching in a way, it's also horrendous that the number one operation performed in children in Scotland is tooth extraction. Oh wow.

So, I read that you know like how dogs are good at detecting things. We might call onto that later. But everyone thinks that you know, like dogs have got amazing smell compared to humans. We say do, but it's for certain chemicals and for certain chemicals, humans are better. And I think like, for instance, if you were to put a bar of chocolate in the middle of a field and train the humans to look for it and train the dog to it, look for it, the human might come out on top. Wow. Because we're really good at looking for sugar and looking for fans and stuff like that. That's so cool.

Don't know if that's true. We might come onto that later. Do you know, I was looking for what's the most popular candy. I hate that word. Sweet. Sweet. So my husband says lollies because he's from New Zealand.

Am I John Zaybonwo? Because they're from France. Sorry, can I just stop and just, I think the way that you're eating this tonics tea cake, Jenny. You do it upside down too. That's all I have. This is basically what my ugly fans is. So Jenny has taken, if you know what a tea cake is,

it's marshmallow with a bit of biscuit on the bottom of cake covered in chocolate. Jenny has sort of separated the cake and the marshmallow and it's 30 seconds. I'm now terribly self-conscious. You're like turning it into a naked burger where you just take the buns off and leave them on the side.

Well, you know, just shoving it all in my go-up doesn't work very well, no? It's not Jenny, I do the same thing. There we go. I have the same method, yeah, yeah. I was just bit an intro it. No, I haven't. I've done it carefully. I know what I'm doing. I debase it. I have the same method. Yeah, yeah. I'm just, I'm just bit an intro. No, I haven't.

I've done it carefully. I know what I'm doing. I debase it. And by the way, Andy's family are from Scotland as well. Yeah. They're the old skills. They kick in. Genetic.

Yeah. I'm just speaking about teeth stuff, Shetty. This is an interesting thing. Candy Floss was popularized by a dentist. Woo! Oh. That's interesting. Actually, do you know when you were talking about John Candy, you know, nominate a determinism

how tedious it is, because it makes us all look like really boring humans. It's literally made us are fortunate with podcasting. Oh my god. We get a lot of correspondence about it, so please be careful. The inbox will just be recurring from the Doctor Who on the Switch. I was only going to say it, and I, I hope this is not too controversial because it is true, that dentists' first names are vastly overrepresented by for women Denise and for men Dennis. That's so good. Oh, it's so nice.

It's just such a kind of, you're a big meat sack. Dicks the easiest route out there. You can possibly think of, human. It was called Fairy Fl floss at the time. I just have to say, it was William J. Morrison teamed up with a Nashville confectioner in 1897 and despite being president of the Tennessee State Dental Association no small thing.

When was he trying to drill up more business? Drill up? Very good James. No, he's not. Sometimes you're going to have to be the one to acknowledge. How good it was. He's drilled up in that sense. Nobody! Sometimes you're going to be the one to acknowledge. It's real up in that sense. Nobody! I don't know what came out, I'm being there.

You didn't even give us time, you got to laugh. True I'm too. Do you know what candy floss is in Greek? Oh, no I don't actually. Well it translates as old woman's hair. Oh, because it's wispy. Yes, and in Afrikaans, I love this. It's ghost breath.

Lovely. Do you know what the Mexican term for eye candy is, if you say they're a bit of a like candy? No. Eye taco. Stop it. Yes. Eye taco.

That says like a new apple. It's like the revolutionary eye taco. After just six hours of charging, you can enjoy the taco for 10 minutes. I was reading about my favourite confectionery, which is Popping Candy, which I genuinely think is completely underused in the world, and I think you

should really pretty much put it on everything. And it was invented by a guy who was trying to make an instant soft drink. This is amazing. So it's trying to make something like let's say Coca-Cola and what his idea was he wanted some like cordial you would have something and you would pour the water on it and then when the water comes in it turns automatically into a fizzy drink and so he got some sugar and he heated it up really really high put it under a load of pressure, added a load of gas into it and then cooled it down and then theory what a great idea is so you put the water in the gas will get released and it will be really fizzy it didn't work that's so cool though but he started eating it and it gave him these sort of

explosions in his mouth. Oh. So his experiments went wrong and he went, I'll just stick it in my mouth. I know. Good. Good science, everyone. That's so cool.

And then everyone, all of the other people in his office saw this was happening. We used to have competition to see how much they could put in the mouth of this stump. They've got bigger and bigger rocks of it and see how much they could do. But immediately, as soon as they went on sale, Pop Rocks, they called it America. There was rumors that children's stomachs were exploding. Oh, I'm guessing the first fatality was yeah, it was all over the place and the Pop Rocks Company had to take out full page appetisements in more than 40 publications around the country to say. These will not make your child explode, honestly.

That's a good one. And the head of the company wrote 50,000 letters to school principals saying, can you please stop danically saying... That's a new marketing genius. Yeah, that's amazing. That's almost certainly won't kill your kids, marketing genius. Yeah, that's amazing. That's an almost certainly won't kill you, kids bring it!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Does anybody want to hear my worst Japanese Kit Cat's Lair? Yeah, yeah. You know what, there's now over 300. Yeah. OK, wow. And I was looking down the list, and there's

some pretty bad ones in there. I think European cheese. Oh, wow. What is European cheese? There's no such thing as European cheese. I believe the Dutch would like a word with you. No, sorry, there are European cheeses, but there is not one archetypal European cheese. There are hundreds of them. I guess in Japan you might lump a sort of yellow,

pungent cheese as a European cheese, right? Because there is not that big in Japan, right? Or China? Well, American cheese comes in single shrink-wrap slice form. Yes, but it's different types of cheese. But that's... But, what? But no, sorry, no, no, no, I'm not having it. Here's the thing, this is something interesting, I think.

And I might butcher this, but I'll try my best. So, when cheese first came to Japan, because it wasn't to traditionally eat and over there, they called it something like dairy tofu, something like that, and when tofu first came to France, they called it soya cheese. Brilliant. I think that's right. That's really good. That distracted me from my anger about the other day. James always manages to find a fact to calm you down. It's really, really. Yeah, yeah. Get to one top of it. Yeah. Well done, James.

Yeah. Have you guys ever had an Aniseed ball? Yeah. No. What's that? What's that tiny bit in the middle? Right. Is that what you're going to tell us? No. That's an Aniseed.

See that? I think you're thinking it is. Yeah, yeah. And you describe it to me, I don't know. So it's a small round purple ball, very, very hard, and it's layer after layer of slightly flavoured licorice boiled. Yeah, they're very unpopular with lots. So they're quite 1930s, you know, not just obvious.

No, it's like a very small gobstopper, but it's quite strong tasting and aniseed, right? Sorry. OK, this is very cool. They slightly helped to win the Sack of World War, anacity balls. Mm, brilliant. In 1939, the war office, they wanted to build a limpit mind

that you could stick to the hull of the ship, swim away from and it detonates later, right? Yeah. And the war office, they contacted a science magazine editor called Stuart McCray, and he contacted someone he knew and invented called Cecil Clark, who was also a caravan maker, detail. They started working together, right? They had the details of the mine, and they had the explosive, and they had the way to attach

it to the ships, and they were doing really well. But what they needed was something to keep apart the hammer and the detonator, right? So that when you're swimming up, when you're a frogman swimming up, you attach the mine, and you prime it, it doesn't go off immediately. So you need something that slowly dissolves and separates the hammer and the detonating. Oh! And Clark's kids were eating anisee balls

and they tried them out and they found they dissolved in about half an hour in water. So... But you didn't have to suck the grenade. No, it wasn't. Yeah, it's a mouth activated. Yeah. No, no, no, no. So Clark and McCray, they bought every

amnesty ball in Bedford, right? And they just, because they're from their experiments. But the problem was they also needed something to keep the amnesty ball dry until the mind was in place, right? So they also went around buying all the condoms in Bedford. And they got it. Imagine getting to the supermarket check out. It just got a trolleyhole of condoms and I said awesome.

At Clarkson, we got to completely undisurbed reputation as sexual athletes because we were. And then anyway, the ante- And the ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante-

The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- The ante- And the M&D commissioned them, the War of its Commission them, and they started buying anisee both directly from the manufacturer, and I love this.

Clark also commissioned some miniature condoms from a rubber factory to cover the firing mechanism. Oh! I'm glad you're about the pharmacist to begin with going, do you have any smaller? I love smaller. I love how we've gone from the biggest bomb the world has ever known. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, it is time for our final fact of the show and that is Andy. My fact is that there are only three newt detecting dogs on the planet.

Hmm, really in there. Yeah. This is a woman called Nicola Jane Glover. She's a dog owner and she's got a spaniol called Freya and another dog called Nuki and this was in a article in the Guardian recently but it's actually been going on for a few years so I think at least in 2018 Freya was detecting newts and the reason you need to detect newts is that there's a species called the Great Crested Newt, which is protected.

And if you're developing land, you have to show that there are no newts there. So, because, you know, they don't want to endanger them. And it's really hard to find them because they spend a lot of their time underground and in the water, because they're amphibious. So, Nicola Glover, she and her colleagues, they trained Freya, the Spaniel, to detect live newts they trained Freya, the spaniel, to detect live newts

and Freya can do it really, really well now. 90% detection rate. And it's a good method of saving the newts. Saving the newts and saving a lot of time and fuss and newt detection work. And the other thing about the story, although there's a third one who's Rocky from Flintshire who was also trained separately in 2020. There was

a correction in the Guardian article about the dogs which I think you saw, Jenny. This article was amended. An earlier version said that Great Crested Needs reached an adult overall length of 17 metres. I didn't know that's the one I read and I thought, well, why did you need to do all of this? She should have been 17 centimeters. She's 17. Yeah, I read an article from 2011 that said that they were starting to do this with the crested news, but also Desert Tots is Kiwis, Kakapo's, bats, cheaters, I don't show why.

Brown, tree snakes, seals, and bed bugs, so dogs would be in torts to look for all these things with various different reasons. The cheaters, I think, are looking for the scat for the poo. Not actual. Oh, one webcast about five minutes ago. Who's a dog, Paris, and who's a cat, Paris? A cat. You're a cat, Paris. It's not a bit embarrassing when someone goes,

oh, my dog just discovered the ancient caves at Leslew, and you're like, yeah, my cat ate a curtain. Yeah, my cat doesn't give a fuck. Yeah, I mean, I would say I'm probably not really either, but I've had cat sports upon me, so. But don't do it, I mean, I went following the story in terms of things dogs do. I believe a pulled stuff all the time. Yeah, you're a dog person, I mean. I'm a dog person, but by dogs of crap,

they're absolutely rubbish. You've got dogs. I've got two dogs, each idiot. Fight seals on a regular basis. Fight seals. There's a lot of seals where we live. Wow, how cool. Yeah, well it's not cool,

because the seals just go see later, swim off and then you have to go and rescue your dog who's the moron. But thought they're constantly... Maybe you've not given them the chance to work out if they're like, semen sniffing dogs or if they are. That's all my list. That's all my list.

That's all my list. Why would we give that first on your list to say? To generally... That just was fine. It's got a little... Is that when you say to anyone who's walking and dog in the park, have you ever given it a chance to be a Siemens? I'm gonna poke it from an advocacy bulls I've got another fucking full of mini condoms.

You've got a seatless thing, dog. Let's talk. It's not with an A. Are you feeling it with an A? No, I don't think that is. No, no, no, no. Jenny, you're right, romantic novels, don't you? Have you ever seen the sniffings? Just here for the inspiration? Hang on, tight, tight. She was a girl from the

city with a sea of sniffing dog in a heart and a girl. So, okay. So, I would say it's used for, you know, unfortunately it's used for terrible, terrible reasons, yeah, for crimes and so on, but that's an important thing. They need to sometimes have a dog detect whether or not someone might have recently have let some seeming out because it can find the traces on it, and it can detect as little as 0.016 milliliters of seminal fluid, so they're very good at it. And so what I'm saying is you're talking. Might not have been given the chance to show that it could smell semen or fine whale poo because they do that as well. They sit on boats and they can find whales.

I think clever dogs like Spaniels. Spaniels are like real teacher pleasers. Oh yeah. Parabas and their dogs. One of your dogs. Kind of just terrifying half-cougar things that we find in the Spaniards are like real teacher pleasers, and they're like, parrots and they're like, one of your dogs. Kind of just terrifying half-cougar things that we were finding lately by now.

But they're not. No, they're, they're terriers. Okay. So, but they're kind of, they're theoretically ratters. Mm. But they're kind of, they're just a bit rubbish.

What does that fit in your? I'd need to see a photo. There's a game called Hound Poochall, but I need to almost any dog fits into those categories. Oh, Hound's their Hound. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. When Mellus sang, you ate nothing but a Hound dog. Yeah. He was playing that game, wasn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He'd already recorded a version called, you ate nothing but a pooch dog. I don't think rubbish. There was an interesting story about, man, I'd never heard of, really, really amazing.

He was a German diplomat, he was sort of sided on the side of the Nazis at the time and he was an attache for the Nazis. He's called George Ferdinand Duckwitz. Duckwitz, must have been from the wrong time at school. Ferdinand Duckwitz, is asking for a spoonerism. He's an amazing character. He sits in the world of Oscar Schindler. He was someone who helped to save a lot of refugees

who were stuck in Denmark. And supposedly 95% of their Jewish population was successfully taken out of the country to a safe place in Sweden because of this guy. And he risked his life to do it. So he's an amazing character. And you called him a fuck-weight James. LAUGHTER

Oh, OK. Sorry, that quits here, yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to trivialize it in memory. Not well done, James. LAUGHTER OK, so where's the dog coming in here? The dog comes in here?

The dog comes in here because when they were taking them out on all the boats and they were hiding them in the cargo, a lot of dogs had been trained up in order to sniff out any humans that were on board, so this is a problem that they had. So what they did was they came up with an idea that they could deceive the sniffer dogs by placing semen and... You've given me that look like it to the fisherman. They gave it to the fisherman. Who would coat it in handkerchiefs. And then they would hold the handkerchiefs and the dogs would race towards the handkerchief. They would ignore any of the other smells that were on the belt.

Wow. And so as a result, they would have no other interest than what was going on here. And that would become the main focus. Why did they go to the handkerchiefs? I mean, rabbit blood, I guess dogs. Yeah. And then they would hold the handkerchiefs and the dogs would race towards the handkerchief. They would ignore any of the other smells that were on the belt. Wow. Yeah. And so as a result, they would have no other interest than what was going on here.

And that would become the main focus. Why is it cocaine? I mean, rabbit blood, I guess dogs. Like, like, dogs hunt rabbits. Well, rabbit blood is to attract them. And the cocaine is to just not interested. It's not interested, it's not interested. They talk to you about themselves.

They talk to you about themselves. They talk to you about themselves. I can tell you about some rabbits. Like, what, come on, rabbits, do you want to be rabbit blood? I'm a blood brain rabbit, I was a co-early, what a big rabbit, what a big rabbit I've got here. It's supposedly temporarily would not go smell. Wow, so that would...

God, that's so clever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, so he's a huge hero. He saved 7,200 Jewish refugees. Wow. Can I say something about the great crested newt? Oh, yeah, so... Right.

So they have a very colorful belly. Okay, no one really knows why they've got a colorful belly. If you're a newt and you're colorful, often it's because you want people to know your toxic and it turns out they are toxic. They're what contain chemicals and there was a naturalist called Eleanor Ormerard who tested it by biting a live Newt's tail. Just the tail and the tails will grow back and stuff and then she recorded all of her symptoms. So she was foaming at the mouth, she had shivering fits and so she proved that they were toxic. It's a lot of scientists putting stuff in their mouth. It's a lot of scientists putting stuff in their mouth. LAUGHTER

So we found that they are toxic, but the weird thing is, they're new, so they walk around a lot with the belly pointing to the ground. And so no predators can see their belly's anyway, and so no one knows still to this day why they have a colourful belly. That is so strange. I'm sure it wouldn't. Moles and stuff come up and eat them. The moles, yeah, they can hurt. On the ants, they swim.

They swim, so maybe fish. They've been fished. They're pretty tough, but you're right. Normally you'd feel like birds would be descending. Alonar Amarad, anyway, she's really famous. She was an agricultural entomologist, because she was living in Victorian times, so it couldn't really be a professional scientist in those days if you're a woman. famous. She was an agricultural entomologist because she was living in Victorian times, so

couldn't really be a professional scientist in those days if you're a woman. But she found a kind of a role where she could use her skills and apply them to agriculture. So you know, like if people's crops are dying, she could say, well, you should get rid of these newt, so you should get rid of these moles or whatever, stuff like that. And she was so famous that Virginia Woolf wrote a story about her called Miss Armourade, which is named after her. Just a pretty cool person. That's very cool. Things women had to do to be scientists and not stay. I know, I know. Just go bite the poisonous.

We know it's poisonous, but we don't know how poisonous. So, Eleanor, if you could... I'm going to mention one last thing before we wrap up. I don't know if it's useful, but just in case you're wondering, we've been talking a lot about dogs sniffing humans. And I discovered that there's a job whereby a user human can sniff a dog. Bleh! Are we loving for the dog, or is that the idea?

No, no. That's a chocolate life. Hi! This is for people who work in factories that are making dog food because one of the things that owners hate about dog food is the breath that it can leave on their dog. Oh look. And if they make a very concerted effort not to make food where chemicals are altering the smell of a mouth of a dog so that it's very pungy. So one of the jobs that if you work in one of these factories is to go up

and sniff dogs mouths who are experimenting with new tastes and new formulas and so on. And then if a dog has ejaculated recently, you've been, no it's not that. I just love how excited the dogs were to get their jobs. I'm a taste or decent dog for factory. Yeah. The dogs let, oh wow, that's insane. That's cool. What do they sniff you?

God, that's not a lovely job, I think. No, can I ask another question? You won't know the answer to this, but you know, it's not just important, presumably, that their breath doesn't smell. You don't want their farts to smell bad. Oh, I guess. It's a really good point, that their breath doesn't smell. You don't want their farts to smell bad. Oh, I guess, right. It's a really good point, you don't want that.

So do you not have someone whose job is to smell all the dog farts? I do. Just like you must. You must, right? They're probably just... They just know you must. It's probably... I think he's right, it's probably the unspoken ass-wrestling.

That's what they tell you once you got the gig. They're such by the way. There's a second hatch over there. That one out. once you got the gig, that's by the way. There's a second hatch over there. That's the last one out. Okay, that's it, that is all of our facts. Thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to get in contact with any of us about the things that we've said over

the course of this podcast, we can all be found on our Twitter accounts. I'm on at Shribland. James. At James Harkin. Andy. I'm Andrew Hunter M. And Jenny. At Jenny Coggen.

Yep. Or you can go to our group account, which is at no such thing or our website. No such thing as a fish.com. All of our previous episodes are up there. And just a quick reminder, Jenny, your latest book is out now. It is. It's called the Summer Skies. The Summer Skies. And of course, all of Jenny's other books are available to buy as well. And so do check them out and also check out her Doctor Who stuff as well. There's numerous Jenny Colgan books that are out there and audio adventures. Jenny M Colgan is the

Jenny T Colgan. Jenny T. Is the pseudonym if you want to look for those. So yeah, also we are playing a live show for fish on the 14th of September at Kings Place, part of the London Podcast Festival and we're going to be live streaming it. So you're able to buy live stream tickets for that by going to know such thing as a fish.com slash potfest, check out tickets there and of course, check out Clubfish. It's our secret members club where we do all sort of bonus extras, compilations, drop us a line, which Andy does, which is a show where we go through all the correspondence that you've sent in. It's a really complex.

But that's it. We'll be back again next week with another episode. We'll see you then. Goodbye.