No Such Thing As A Fish - 576: No Such Thing As A Cursed Cage

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Dan, James, Andy and Anna discuss YOUR facts, including chats about shaking hands, wiggling ears, dancing on mats and prescient macaques. 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

Hello and welcome to another episode of No Such Thing As A Fish, a weekly podcast coming to you from the QI offices in Hoban. My name is Andrew Hunter Murray and I'm here with Dan Schreiber, James Harkin and Anna Terzinski and we have gathered around the table for a quarterly, I think? We aim for that. We only did three last year. There we go.

A triennial show where we go through the FISH inbox, podcast at qi.com, we find the best facts that you have sent to us and we read them back to you. So we've all learned from each other and it's all square. The inbox has had lots and lots of brilliant fact submissions over the last few months. It's overflowing, Andy. It's bulging. We've got a bulging post bag. We have physical things to read.

Yes. So the guys here have not seen the facts that we've been sent. I have brought them in, printed them out on bits of paper and chopped the bits of paper up. We all have a stack of small slips of paper in front of us and we're going to see if this works, which I think it might. So let's have a fact, if anyone's got one. Okay, I'm going to open with a fact from Leander from Switzerland.

Incas, the last Carolina parakeet, died in the same cage as Martha, the last passenger pigeon. Oh, that's interesting. No further info. Crazy. It's, yeah, mad. Are we saying that it's a cursed cage? Must be. It's gotta be, unless they just killed each other, one of those fights of the death where they both... So wait, what was it, the last passenger pigeon and the last what, sorry?

The last Carolina parakeet, which does seem quite specific, but you know, still cool. Still, still, that's two of a kind. Oh actually, when I first read it, I thought that it was Incas, the last Carolina parakeet, and now that would have been even more amazing. All the Incas. All the Incas, the last Carolina parakeet, and that would have been even more amazing. All the Incas died. This sounds like, I hope Stephen King isn't listening, because that sounds right up his street of a murderous cage. The cursed cage, yeah. It could be a sort of like a retirement home of cages, where it's, you know, it's really-

The last of the species goes there. Yeah, it's really pinned down. Yeah. Maybe. They see like little pictures on the cage wall of the previous tenants, you know. Is that what they do in all people's homes and stuff? They have the pictures of the now deceased. Have you ever watched the traitors?

Whenever anyone leaves, they put a big red cross through their face. They do that in all people's homes as well. I didn't know that. That's how it works. You know, you've got to face up to the truth, don't you? Gosh. Well, that's a great fact. It's an excellent fact. Thank you, Leander.

Very cool. Can I do one, Andy? This is from Hedeva, and it says, Dear Anna, you're always my favorite podcast host. Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like I picked up the wrong pile here. It's a good fact. It's not an interesting fact. It's a pretty basic fact.

We've had it loads. If someone else has taken over the mailbox duty, please disregard that. Yeah, thank you. Consider it disregarded. Yeah. I write now to share the most fish fact I have ever learned. There is one extant species of marsupial,

the water opossum, in which the males have pouches. These pouches are not used to host joeys, but serve the exclusive purpose of storing the male genitalia, to prevent them from getting tangled in weeds while swimming. Wow! That's so good. That's incredible. Tangled in weeds. Do you wish you had that? I don't go while swimming like you do, Anna. No, Ken, I don't get stuff tangled in weeds. I'm always getting tangled in weeds. I can't picture the genitals of this particular animal. If it's a marsupial, then it will be quite a big ball sack

kangaroos. I have a kangaroo ball sack purse at home. Who doesn't? To see James tip in a restaurant is quite a sight. He gets out his little Pantsene glasses and opens the clasp on his kangaroo scrotum. I thought you guys knew that I had that. I bought it on tour the first time in Australia. Yeah.

That's ringing a bell now. Yeah. So is it roomy? No, not well, you could probably keep a couple of billiard balls in it. Oh, okay. That is roomy. I don't mean to give away too much. I am impressed. But yeah, the kangaroos have got quite large scrota. And what's this called? This is water possum. But I think generally speaking, marsupials have similar reproductive systems, don't they?

They all tend to have like uteruses with re-openings. Did that specify where the pouch was? Because I'm picturing a kangaroo pouch and that feels like quite a long journey to- Probably not far. Your balls up with- It's probably not far off, though. You can't tuck yours in your top pocket, for instance, can you?

If you've forgotten one of those little handkerchiefs. But the way evolution works is so mad, pocket for instance, can you? Have you forgotten one of those little handkerchiefs? The way evolution works is so mad because that must have started out as a little skin flap or something. Yeah. And presumably fewer male water opossums drowned because they had this little evolutionary skin flap. Or had their testicles torn off and couldn't reproduce. Right, exactly. But there must have been a way in which like, have you heard the latest thing in the water opossum world is this little flap of skin which protects your knackers. I just think that's it's unbelievable.

And then those are the fit ones that survived. It's crazy. And of course, with this entire format, we are relying on the people who wrote to us telling us the truth. Oh, yeah, I've done no quality control on these whatsoever. Do your own research guys. We do it every week. So I haven't taken responsibility.

I believe you. Very cool. Brilliant. Should we do it every week. Still have to take some responsibility. But ahead of that, I believe you. Very cool. Brilliant. Shall I do one? Yeah. This is from Dr. Kevin W. Jennings, Department of Social Sciences, Lincoln Memorial University.

Astronaut Steve Hawley's space shuttle launches kept getting scrubbed. He had 15 or 16 launches scrubbed in his career. A record? After one scrub, I think scrub means didn't happen. A record? After one scrub prior to his fourth mission, he remarked that the space shuttle obviously knew he was aboard, so it was refusing to launch. His crewmates agreed, so they made him wear a disguise during the next launch attempt. They're all in spacesuits! How much better a disguise can you get? Yeah, so they made him wear a disguise during the next launch attempt so the shuttle wouldn't recognize him.

It worked and the shuttle launched on that attempt. The crew of his fifth mission forced him to do it again, and it was successful again. Apparently the space shuttle just didn't like him. Pictures for proof, and then Andy's not included the pictures. Oh no. But, um, wow. The pictures seem essential. This disguise, was it a kangaroo disguise? Was it... Yeah.

Or could be a vind? Pesticles were popping out of that. What's he called? Harley, this guy? Steve Hawley. That's amazing. Very cool. God, and that's the scientists who believe that. These are the people who are trusting to build rockets.

People who think space shuttles decide against people. The astronauts don't build the rockets. Oh, do they not? I thought you had to do it all the way through. Dan, was that from an eminent scientist, did you say? That was from a doctor. Okay. It's not eminent, Is it I'll be professor

You get away with nothing in this game a moderately achieving scientist, okay Well this jeez here's an email from Colin McIntyre who says I'm the educator and resident historian at the New England Aquarium in Boston It entertains me and my colleagues no end when our beloved aquarium is mentioned on your podcast, EG, Andre the seal, animal bartering, but we've never heard you refer to it by its actual name. As a friend of the podcast, I believe we've earned the right to be called the new England aquarium rather than just an aquarium in Boston. So fair enough. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and he's, he's included some facts and here's one of them. Um, there is a mummified cod buried in the foundation of the New England Aquarium, but that's not the weird thing about it, I think. What he says is it's called Ichabod. The fish started the construction of the entire aquarium. This is mad. So the fish was the star of the aquarium's groundbreaking ceremony in 1965 when a scuba

diver holding him emerged from nearby Boston Harbor and dropped him into a tank of water. So at this point is alive fish. This electronically triggered the construction equipment on the future site of the aquarium, thanks to a system designed by Harold Doc Eggerton. So the New England aquarium was, the construction was kickstarted by a fish being dropped into a tank of water. It was intentional. That was what it was always going to be, right?

Yes. They planned it. This was meant to be a library. We were going to drop in a book and then we dropped in a fish by mistake. Yeah, it's hard to tell if rockets know which astronauts are going in. So they decided to build this aquarium starting with a fish. Yeah, yeah. A scuba diver comes out of the water holding a live fish, drops it into a tank and that

electronically senses a fish has been dropped in and triggers the construction equipment. That is a very cool opening ceremony. You know, like if you watch the Olympics, they have the word they set off the fire, the flame. Yes. And they always do something really exciting, but actually it's just a guy with a button who's sat next to it, right? Right.

I feel like I would do it in this situation as well. I'm sorry to say it. Do you mean like there was that famous one where an archer shot the flame and we all thought it landed? Yeah, but it was... I see, yes. And who was it? Which president? There was a president who had to turn on the Christmas lights once, remotely. And he thought, I think it was in the 50s, it was maybe it was Lyndon Johnson. And he thought he was doing it remotely, because of this amazing remote light telling on technology. And actually, I think there was just someone that lights in the White House who just like to switch. Yeah, right. Maybe that's how it's happening all over the world. Maybe so you're casting doubt on this, James, I think. I'm just saying that if I was in charge, I wouldn't rely on the fish.

That's fair. When the queen, the true queen, sent her first tweet or whatever, she pressed a button and then I think it just like prodded a nearby intern to send tweet. I seem to remember. Wow, a fister of a Jack in a book. Here's one from Ralph Lynn Sangun. He says he's a big fan.

Thanks Ralph. And... Of yours or of all of us? I've got to assume of mine. What's your doctorate in Ralph? America's just 71 miles long measured from its Eastern most point to its Western most point. And he's talking about that trick facts,

which is the Aleutian Islands, which crossed the 180th meridian. So they constitute the Eastern most and the Western most point, but the other way around to which you'd think. So they constitute the easternmost and the westernmost point, but the other way around to which you'd think. Interesting. Because the easternmost point is the furthest sort of west from where we are. So there you go.

That's great, Pax. Yeah, that's awesome. It is. And I remind you, we were actually just talking about the Aleutian Islands in a podcast we recorded, which may have gone out by the time this goes out, or it may not have. It's about Alaska. But we were talking about something I don't think it was last week. It was last week's show. It was last week's show. There you go. We were talking about something I don't think is well known enough that the only land war fought in America in the Second World War was in the Aleutian

Islands with the Japanese. That was Japan USA. I didn't think any bit of America had ever been occupied in the Second World War. Everyone forgets. Fuel little islands. Yeah. That's the bit where humans walked across, isn't it? You know, there was a land bridge there. Oh, really? From which side? Well, Andy nodded so you get a klaxon because it's not true. And this is recent. They've kind of looked at what it would have been like around the time when humans came over and that would have been pretty much impossible to walk over because it was so like muddy and swampy and stuff like that. So they must have gone across in either boats or, you know, like putting huge tennis rackets on your shoes.

Yeah. Like pogo sticks. Oh, pogo sticks could have done it. Yeah. But there's no way you could have walked across. It wasn't a bridge in the modern sense of the word. Okay, right. So here's the fact that I think could have walked across wasn't a bridge in the modern sense of the word So here's a fact that I think could have been for you Dan because they referenced two of your facts from history Okay

It's from Vic old and they say I've been meaning to send in this fact for a long time and have been after hearing your recent facts about Harry balls and Willie hole I Believe I have a female name to rival them. About time we had some representation on this show Dan. In 1943 a horse called Count Fleet achieved the US Triple Crown in horse racing. His owner slash trainer was called Fanny Hertz and I believe it does sometimes when you ride horses. Very strong. Very strong. Fanny Hertz. Famous Hymen breaker. You're always told as a kid. Is that right? You're always told as a girl, don't worry. Your hymen doesn't always break when you lose your virginity because you might have been a horse rider.

Yeah. And that probably would have broken it. Gross for the horses. You're not doing it naked, are you? Well, it depends which riding school you attend. Yeah. Should I do my next one? Yeah, we probably had enough Heimann chat. I was curious about the name Sherlock and how common it was in general use in the UK. Turns out very not. According to... Did you write the C-mail, Dan? Very not?

Did I say very not? Yeah. Who wrote the e-mail, Tan? Very not. Did I say very not? Yeah. Who wrote the e-mail? I'll come to that in a bit. It turns out, not very. Oh. According to Free BMD, Births and Marriages and Deaths, there were seven children registered

with the name Sherlock between 1837 and 1887 when Conan Doyle first published The Fictional Detective. Between 1890 and 1920 there were sixteen Sherlocks born, half of whom also had the surname Holmes. So families called Holmes seemed to like having a son called Sherlock. One family in Pontefract had both a Sherlock and a Mycroft. The sons of Richard Holmes and Martha, nay Belch. So fan worship isn't anything new. It goes on, but the last Sherlock Holmes was born in 1942 in Stoke. I believe he is still alive and if so would be the last of the gentlemen still standing.

That's from Guy Holmes. Ah, lovely. That's very cool. Yeah, really cool research. Um, right, here's one. Evan Friedman. American actor Jerry Halever has appeared as Saddam Hussein in six separate films. In fact, Saddam Hussein is the only character he's ever played. Right.

That's very good. Typecasting. I have a typecasting fact that I was going to suggest for a future show. Well, maybe I'll say it now. Yeah. So the woman who won Best Supporting supporting actress for Gone With the Wind in 1939 was Hattie McDaniel and she played the same role in I think it's about 130 other movies basically, not the same character but the same style of character because she was typecast as like this sort of matriarchal

African American mother. And you know that in the Tom and Jerry cartoons when there's a lady standing there, she's going, Thomas, Thomas. That's based on her as well. But she won this award. And actually, I think she couldn't go to a lot of parties because they were still segregated at the time. But when she won that award, the parties because they were still segregated at the time. But when she won that award, yeah, basically they put her as exactly the same character in everything. What a shame it's not literally the same character, like, combining all these universes of film together as one person.

That's amazing. That's incredible. Yeah. Japan's crown jewels probably don't exist, according to Steve McCabe. And he would know. He says that Japan has three Imperial sacred treasures. And then he lists those. And apparently they're handed over to each new emperor, his coronation, but they've not

been seen by anyone outside the imperial household in centuries. Wikipedia notes that the actual historical status of these legendary treasures is unknown and they're intentionally kept from public view. So Japan's telling us they're real, we're not allowed to see them, it's not certain where they're kept, and the three treasures are a sword, a mirror, and a jewel with special names. What do we think? I think that's...

There must be lots of things in this country that we don't know where they are. Yeah, we've never seen. That we've never seen. Yeah, there must be, right? I don't know what they are. Head of MI5. Oh yeah. Do they exist?

Oh, you think there's a... We have a prop head and there's a secret actual head. Yeah. Wow. I didn't think it until he said that, but that's so convincing. It is when you say it, yeah. What's the point? Because crown jewels are something that's to show off, isn't it? What's the point in having that if no one's allowed to see it?

I wonder if in the olden days you could leverage against it, you know, borrow stuff from your barons. I bet you could. Because, oh, I've got this really old spoon here. Isn't that the last bit of the old crown jewels that still survives? The only one and everything else has been lost in the wash. There was the wash and then there was the civil war. I'm sorry, which is by the way not in a washing machine.

We've been putting on too high a hint. Where's the wash again? Is it Lincolnshire? Off the coast of Norfolk isn't it? Oh it's off the coast of Norfolk. There's a bit Lincolnshire. Maybe it's Anningshire. There's a very marshy bit and King John lost, supposedly lost the crown jewels in The Wash. Do people still look for it then? No. Why not? I feel like do they not? If we know a specific location. I think it's probably a bit bigger than is easily searchable. You're right. There should be detectors out there.

I actually thought detectors were. I kind of assumed that was a place where if you went then you would see lots of detectives desperately hoping. Maybe all the detectives are just assuming that all the other detectives are going for it and they're like, oh, that's too obvious. I'm going to look in this field instead. They're actually poking out of the ground there. It's just that they could not be easier to find. Stop the podcast.

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Terms and conditions apply. On with the podcast. On with the show. Um, here's, here's one. Uh, this is from Eddie Edwards. I was listening to your audience fact special and you were talking about that prop nuclear bomb that was too accurate. Well the fake money used in Rush Hour 2, the second Rush Hour movie, thank you Eddie, was

so good that a bunch of people working on the movie spent some on the Vegas strip and the Secret Service ended up getting involved. It led to a bunch of rules being put in place about prop money going forward. I remember this because they are incredibly strict now. Yeah, great scene in the film as well. It's a good film, Rush Hour 2. Absolutely a decent movie. It ends with this money shower showering all over the place. You know, the suitcase full of money explodes or whatever. And it's this huge great room they're in and the money is going absolutely everywhere. So I'm sure

a load of people could have just pocketed some. It's a big thing in films that they worry about on set when they're using a lot of money. And actually, if you look at the money that you have to use in films, it looks absolutely nothing like real money. It's got to be about 1.5 times the size and have, you know, because they've even done ones like British money with kind of a dog instead of the queen on it or weird stuff like that, I think. And they've still said that's too similar that could be passed off as real money. Very rude. It's so different.

Can I cheekily pull off a double now? I just have two thematically very linked ones. Sure. I thought it might be fun. So Lake Berg writes, I've come across the following. Apollonia was a Christian martyr who had her teeth pulled out as torture in 249 CE. She later became the patron saint of dentistry. Uh, unsure how deep cut this is and you've probably looked into saints plenty before, but I find it funny that she got qualifications in the technical field of dentistry by just having her teeth pulled out. I think that's fair. That's a good point. Um, and then David and

Katie write, hi, just writing in with the fact in dedication to our friends Scott and Doris, who've just had a baby. So quite a lot of names flying around, but congratulations, Scott and Doris and hello, David and Katie, who write the phenomenon of babies being born with teeth already erupted brackets natal teeth has an occurrence of around 0.05 percent. In other words, there is approximately one case every 2000 birds. Lovely stuff. How good is that? NB, yes, it's a bit of a stretch because the prevalence varies between studies, but roughly,

roughly one every 2000, that's stunning. That's really good stuff. Lovely. Thank you, David. You know what I tried to find the other day, and I couldn't, is a picture of a baby's skull. You know how babies are born with all their teeth, and then you get photos of baby skulls, which do the rounds where you can see all their adult teeth up in their gums that haven't come down yet. But actually, I'm not convinced that those pictures are real. There's only about two of them floating around, and they don't seem to be very well verified. You know,

there was one science writer who tweeted one. So I really want to know if anyone's ever seen an x-ray of a baby's skull. Yeah, I have a feeling that's not true. Because I wonder if they're smaller at the time and then they grow in your head. We're not saying you're not born with all your teeth. No, I think you definitely are born with all your teeth, aren't you, and they descend, but maybe they're tiny. They can't, well, they're not full size, aren't they?

Because you've seen a baby, they're small. The head would be all teeth if they had 32 adult sized teeth. In the pictures that they show, the head is all teeth. Like it's full size adult teeth, not in the baby's cheek. It's scary shit. And I've believed it for years. So yeah, please, if you've seen an X-ray.

Yeah, I'm interested that James also seems to maybe have seen it. So what are we saying? I think some of those are fake pictures. I believe it. I feel like I've heard that before. Maybe I have. But how do the teeth get in then? If they sneak in, the tooth fairy brings them. I think when you eat more calcium as a baby, for the first seven years of your life, you take in the calcium and that helps them to grow.

The same way that you don't have knee caps and stuff like that. Right. And then all the milk gives you all the calcium. Yeah. Huh. There we go. I think. I can't really. Wow. That would be blowing shit wide open because I've seen that image of a side profile of a baby's skull. God, that's incredible. It is all tooth. Yeah. Yeah. The whole tooth. Nothing but the tooth.

It was when I showed that. that is all is all tooth. Yeah. Yeah. Just the whole tooth. Nothing but the tooth. It was when I showed that. So anyway, if you know about that stuff, because we are speculating a little bit here, to podcast.qa.com. This is a fact from Andrew Kirkland. And he just says that his favorite fact this week is that according to Wikipedia, the Irish invented whiskey in the 14th century, and then they didn't invent anything else for another 300 years. And that's understandable. He's got a point. Well, exactly. You've reached your peak, haven't you? And it's true, the Wikipedia page on Irish inventions does have a 14th century section where they have three inventions. They have the precursor to modern Gaelic football. They have the Northern Reginians anthem,

a huge invention I think we can all agree, and whiskey, and the next invention is 17th century. And what was that? The piracy to both? We don't know it's the whiskey that did it though it might be the Northern Reginians anthem is so catchy, everyone was singing it for the next 300 years. Northern Virginians anthem is so catchy. Everyone will see it for the next 300 years. I have a whiskey related one. Okay, so this is from Chris Patterson and he thinks that he might be the first outside voice to be ever heard on No Such Things As A Fish. Chris Patterson, the former governor of Hong Kong. So that's Chris Pattern. Yeah. Okay. Carry on. Could be his son. Yes. Can you remember, so this was someone we did a live show and this person shouted out. Okay. We were in

Scandinavia somewhere. Can you remember anyone who shouted out in Scandinavia? We went Gothenburg and we went Stockholm. I think it was in Gothenburg. Gothenburg. Oh no, in Stockholm. He says it in the email. I can't remember. Did they shout out something other than... Yeah, so, we were discussing cyborgs and asked in the audience if there were any cyborgs in the crowd, and he got to shout out, I'm a cyborg. And this is because he had an RFID chip put into his body. You know, like you could get a little chip in your body so you could use it as a credit card or something. Yeah. Anyway, he never got to tell us the

whole story that time, but I've got the whole story here. He went to an event called chips and whiskey thinking that it was potato crisps and alcohol that he was going to get. But in fact, it was someone giving you these implants. And he said, after a few whiskies, it seemed like a good idea. And I got the largest needle I've ever seen injecting a chip into my hand. I've used this as a gym card and not much more. That's so great. Do you know what that guy called? Chris Patton's son.

Of course. I've always thought those people have got chips inserted in a kind of douche bags to be honest, but that is the best excuse for doing it I've ever heard. I almost got one. Exactly, exactly my fault. Moving on. Well, I did years ago, I did this little taster tape that was filmed whereby it was looking into all of this world of cyborgs.

And as part of it, they wanted to put a chip into me. And then right at the last minute, they had someone come in with the device and they, the health and safety didn't allow for the chip itself to go in but they still injected me with the thing to put it in. So painful. So I was filmed as the process as if I had the chip in me and then I had to put in there nothing. It was just empty. So they say. Yeah. They still And then I had to put in there nothing. It was just empty. Yeah. But yeah, they still and then I had to sit there and pretend that I was turning a lamp on with my hand. And they like we're talking about with the Queen having someone press the button. There was someone on the floor out of shop pressing the button of the lamp flickering as I was

going to look at me. I'm a cyborg. So TV is full of lies, isn't it? Yeah. You and David Attenborough. I just, I can't believe with you, Dan, that however many years I know you, there's always a new anecdote I've never heard. I'll do one now. Derek Bailey writes, I heard the weirdest fact about albatross that may be fish worthy. They knew from finding remains of birds that the main thing that they eat are squid.

But they've never been observed catching them. They can't dive, so they decided to tag some birds to see what was going on. The signatures of these tags show they swam for a bit, and then the line went into crazy squiggles. A young scientist showed his professor, and he said he thought the tags were broken. The prof decided they needed to go and watch what was happening. They went out to see at night to observe. They found these huge birds swimming around in tight circles, pulling and pushing with their large webbed feet. They were creating phosphorescence, which was drawing the squid to the surface and there

was their buffet. Cool. Like moths to flames. Very cool, Derek Bailey. How are they creating phosphorescence with their feet? was their buffet. Cool. Lovely. Yeah. Like moths to flames. Very cool. Derek Bailey. How are they creating phosphorescence with their feet?

Well, you get those little sort of like bacteria and stuff and algae that live in the water. And when you move your hands and make waves, they light up. You get them in Mexico. Do you remember that whole thing of- Like trails of ships. Yeah. Can sometimes glow. Yes, I know, I know.

But I didn't realize that another animal who didn't have it could deliberately would swish it up. Oh it's just water churning isn't it? Yeah. Actually because I was walking on a beach in Hobart in Tasmania a couple of years ago I've never seen anything like it. It was at nighttime and as you put your foot down on the sand it glowed fluorescent blue Wow. All around it. It was absolutely extraordinary. It's like Avatar. That's very cool. Is that what happens in Avatar? I actually can't remember. Andy? Yeah.

There we go. It actually reminded me more of those, you know, those disco pads where if you step on a glowing bit, a bit glows and you step on it. Those dance machines. I used to love those things. Yes. Oh my God, I used to love them so much. Oh, they're good.

I still do the occasional dance. Do you? Yeah, if I'm passing an arcade. What? God, I... What? Is that right? Because I find them very exhausting. Oh, they're tiring, yeah. I guess probably you're a bit younger than me, but yeah.

Well, no, it's a tiring. You both still do dance? No, I don't know. I haven't done it for years, no. But like, would you hold on to the bars when you did it, or were you like, hardcore? No, I don't think I do. Is that like having the walls up in Berlin? Exactly. When's the last having the walls up in Berlin. Exactly. When's the last time you did it, Andy? I would say within the last year.

On your own. Walking past an arcade. With my wife? We went to a video game arcade. Okay, no, that's different. Did you do it where you were like on the same team? She didn't participate. She didn't want to.

She said, I'll just watch you, darling. I'll watch you take on that nine year old. Yeah, that was really fun. It was really fun. It was great. It was a video game bar, a video game sort of bar slash arcade thing. I wasn't drinking obviously, but no, your wife ordered three large vodkas at the bar. Do you guys remember that great story about Jim Lovell from Apollo 13?

So obviously the story of Apollo 13 is insane. They break down in space on the way to the moon, they need to get back. But he had a situation back on Earth when he was a fighter pilot that was equally as dangerous. He was on his plane over the sea, got lost, and managed last minute to find his way back to the ship to land on because he followed the trail of phosphorescence that was being left in the wake of the ship. I thought that was what you're referencing. Yeah, it was when he was, um, landing on an aircraft carrier, wasn't he? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Astonishing. Very, very cool. So where does the dance mat fit into that? Once he got out. Um, all right, here's one. Alexis Beckett from British Columbia. I'm a long time listener. I've never written in before, but for some reason, Andy, demanding we do, persuaded me this Saturday afternoon. I had nothing good to say. Welcome to the podcast recording, mate. So I reached for a weird fact. I remember being told in high school in the Yukon, it's illegal to push a moose from an airplane in flight. It's also illegal to watch a moose be pushed from an airplane in flight. I'm not certain whether this is accurate, but I've always found it entertaining and we shouldn't

let the truth get in the way of a good story. Thank you, Alexis. That feels a bit cheat. Yeah, I don't know, Andy. That doesn't sound true. It would be hard to prosecute people who've watched it. And now the prosecution is going to bring in some witnesses. Ha ha! Yeah, okay, no, it's almost certainly nonsense, isn't it? Thank you Alexis, regardless. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it. Nice try. From James Milne.

Everyone knows, he says, and I think he's correct, that Oslo gives a tree to London for Christmas every year, which it does, has done since World War II. But James Milne says, it's not the only tree gifted to a British city from a Norwegian city, and I didn't know this, the city of Bergen gifts a tree to Newcastle every year as well, also in recognition of World War II. And it's because Oslo started gifting London this tree, and other parts of Norway wanted

to recognise it wasn't just London. It was the whole of the UK that contributed to World War II. And so actually there are quite a lot of cities in the UK that get free trees from Norway. There's Grimsbury, Edinburgh, Orkney, Shetland. Grimsby. What did I say? Grimsbury. Grimsbury.

That's a local cheese, they make. That is a really good fact. Yeah, I know that. It also is, people always complain about the Trafalgar Square tree because it's this particular kind of coniferous tree that the Norwegians send over and it doesn't look as glossy as some of the really thick branch trees. People say, oh, it looks so scraggly. And you just think, learn some history, you know.

But I also think they put some not very good lights on it. You know, like when you do your tree, you put like bubbles in really nice places and put tinsel all the way around. They just kind of hang it from the top. These sort of lights coming down. They just do some strings down, don't they? I think it looks crap. That's probably us though.

I'm sure we do the lights. Oh, yeah, I'm not blaming the Norwegians for that. But I just think they don't help themselves. I think it looks crap. That's probably us though. I'm sure we do the lights. Oh yeah, I'm not blaming the Norwegians for that. But I just think they don't help themselves. Yeah, I've always thought that you've got to embed the lights. They're not for draping. It's mad. Probably a health and safety thing.

Just on war thanks things. When we were on tour in Australia not so long ago, we went to Melbourne and I had a day of sightseeing before the show and Melbourne has a present that the British provided in thanks for years of support during total war. Britain gave Australia a small model village. Really? Yeah, and you can walk around it now. That's fantastic. Which village? Which village?

It's a generic village. So there's, you know, the Shakespeare Arms Pub and there's a little post office. But honestly, you go there and you think this is not a good thank you present after quite a lot of sacrifice. Everyone loves a model village. Yeah. Yeah. What's an appropriate thank you for you? After six years of support, you're total war. Giant dance match. That's a good point. You got to point. Maybe Melbourne really wanted a model village,

but it's very sweet. It's really sweet. If you're anywhere near Melbourne, you got to check it out. That is quite strange. What was it? Do you remember that thing where there was a gift exchange between Gordon Brown and Barack Obama? Gordon Brown gave Barack Obama an incredibly beautiful, I think it was a pen holder carved from the wood of an anti-slaving ship after Britain outlawed slavery and was cracking down on the illegal slave trade. Yeah. So it's very symbolic. And Obama gave Gordon Brown a bag of DVDs.

Yeah. Rush Hour 2, I think. Which were in the wrong zone to be played on British DVD players. Yeah. Really? A golden age of translates. Obama's one misstep, I'd say. Yeah, absolutely. Just actually, can I say on war related gifts? Gernika, the battle started by Pablo Picasso. Just so that he had something to paint. You've got to create your material sometimes. No, Gernika went to battle in the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish right wing side had a lot of help from fellow fascists from Italy and Germany.

And the reason the Nazis got involved was because it was a birthday present to Hitler from the head of the Luftwaffe, who I think was at Goering. It was Goering, head of the Luftwaffe. Yeah, it was. Yeah, so it was a happy birthday. And actually, it really fucked up because the weather screwed it up. So it had to be delayed by about five days. So if you look at the dates of Hitler's birthday and the dates of Gronika, there were five days late.

But apparently Hitler was very understanding about that. I mean, sometimes you can't have your birthday party on the day of your birthday, can you? You've got to wait till the weekend. If it's on a Tuesday. That's a call back to last week's show. The Luftwaffe's involvement in a battle was a birthday present. Yeah, because I think Gary knew that Hitler would be really pleased. And it was like a surprise.

You know, I decided to get involved. Did they arrive in a giant cake? They came out of a cake. They flew out of a cake. And here's a fact from Mark Wybird, after whom the Playbus stop is named. That's a bit of a niche one. People of a certain age. There's a kids show called Playbus and they have the Wyburd stop.

Anyway, Mark Wyburd says there is a recently completed Australian legal case establishing an important legal principle that is called tickle versus giggle. Come on. He says it is an important and serious for reasons of establishing trans rights but it is purely the name that makes me smile. Do we get any more details or is it like details too dry and serious? Name very funny. I don't have any more details. It feels like it would be dry and serious but tickle versus giggle.

Tickle versus giggle. Lovely. I wonder who's the good guy there, tickle or giggle. Gotta be giggle. Tickle is the bad guy always, right? Mr. Tickle? Yeah, no one likes being tickled. He's a good guy. He's misunderstood. What about John Tickle, the ex-Big Brother housemate who then went on to do gadget shows? Quite a lot of amazing niche references coming in one.

I reckon AI could just listen to me in the last 10 minutes and work out exactly when I was born. John Tickle. John Tickle, I always remember what I liked. I think this was his first so-called invention after Big Brother was the toaster. Do you remember the toaster that delays the second bit of toast? So you put it down, but it doesn't start cooking the second bit of toast until your first one's ready. Very sensible. I know, because you've got to deal with the second cold bit of toast so you put it down but it doesn't start cooking the second bit of toast until your first one's ready. Very sensible. I know because you've got to deal with the second cold bit of toast. Yes. Where is he now? Where is he? Well you can retire

after that toast moment, can't you? Because we've all got one now. We've really shaken off any international listeners. I've got one here from Nina De Villiers. Long time listener of the podcast. I used to work on seahorses. No, on seahorses. Very, very small, wet, grad national. That's how I broke my hymen. In South Africa. Actually, I should say, how would you pronounce that? South Africa.

Actually, I should say, how would you pronounce that? South Africa. I wouldn't, I'd guess, Kenizna. Ah, okay, Kenizna. So I used to work on seahorses and Kenizna, and a while back I learned from a colleague that seahorses make vocalizations. They make clicking noises during courtship and feeding. But they also growl to startle predators. This is followed by quivering their bodies.

At one point there was research investigating seahorses to determine where the sound were produced. I briefly got involved by taking a dried seahorse to be scanned at our local hospital in the x-ray and CT machine. Other than a very cool looking scan where you could see all of its baby teeth, I'm not actually sure it helped the researcher. But she took it. But it did help the hospital waiting list, queue of ambulances outside waiting for you to scan your seahorse. This is a very recondite one. I love it. It's from Isabelle Starling. Any relation to Mark Wybert? No.

Something fun I heard the other day. William Jones, the man generally credited with the use of the Greek letter pi for the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter was the father of William Jones, another William Jones, one of the first to suggest the existence of the Proto-Indo-European language known as Pi. Oh, no way. How good is that?

Hang on. Is that a coincidence? What did one of them name it after the other? No, it looks like a... Because why do we call Pi Pi? Because after the letter. Just the letter. That's how far we've got. Because you don't have all the alpha to Omicron, do you? No, there is a reason. I can't remember what it is. That is just really odd. I think that's a cracking fact. Thank you, Isabel. She finishes her email. I also discovered that Shirley Ballas's ex-father-in-law invented the strimmer. Although I suspect that one is only interesting to me. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. And for international

listeners, Shirley, I can't explain Shirley Ballas. There's no one left. There is no international listener left. I don't know who that is. So she's on strictly. Former dancer. Yeah. Got it. Asking of Shirley Bassey. Got it. Right. This is from a guy called Matt Lowry. A new pre-print by some folks at the University of Pennsylvania claims we can use Reese's maacks to predict the winner of elections. And it's a pretty interesting discussion about behavioral neuroeconomics, is it now? But it's basically judging on how long they look at each candidate. He also says that the area of behavioral neuroeconomics is a field in a bit of crisis at the moment. So I think

actually, because he works in that field, he's just angling for some funding. But there you go. How long Areasus Macaack looks at a candidate, I guess must mean they're more likely to win, although he doesn't specify. So do you reckon if you want to be president, if you sell a table load of bananas to your face, that gives you more of a chance? That'll do it. I you more of a chance. That'll do it. I can think of a country where I was like, yeah.

We've seen worse Canada, that's all I'm saying. While the Swedish Minister of Equality is going, no! Two week callback. Lovely. Oh, well, here we go. He says, so the paper's filled with a number of amusing quotes, such as, here we show that Reese's macaques, who have no knowledge about political candidates or their policies, implicitly predict the outcome.

Why would they? Is it different though, when they do understand their policies? If they've read the manifesto, then yeah, it does change their responses. Implicitly predict the outcomes of US gubernatorial and senatorial elections based solely on visual features, and our findings have implications for political campaigns, which should strategically use photos emphasizing or de-emphasizing jaw widths and cheekbone widths. I don't know which they prefer. Oh, wide or narrow. Oh, probably wide, nice wide cheekbones. Yeah. Got to be. Well done,

my cats. Let's get them to vote. Isabella Remmott writes at the Gothenburg Universium, we support Manso of Universe and Museum, and which I went to when we're in Gothenburg, text messages are sent to the sharks so they don't get scared when the nearby train tunnel under construction blasts in the rock. So they've got a warning text, like when someone comes around the cafe saying we're doing a fire alarm, it's just an alarm. Like when the government sends you a message saying this is a test alert. Honestly, it's fine. There's no nuclear weapons on the way. Just a test.

I mean, we've obviously got no more to go on here, but I wonder what the text says. Probably in Swedish. It says, duh duh. And also, would you not get, if I was a shark, I would think a text message would scare me quite a lot. That would be very scary, yeah. I just don't feel they work underwater phones, do they? You get these really cool packets that you can put them in now with a... A pouch? Yeah. Yeah I mean

I keep my genitals in mine but... Who's turn is it? Oh it's my turn. That was a good one. Antonio Mantica says just finished listening to episode 559 where you mentioned that the Catholic Diocese of Orlando claims jurisdiction over the moon since that's where Apollo 11 launched from. I'm surprised nobody, brackets Dan, didn't mention that Buzz Aldrin, a Texas freemason, established a Masonic lodge on the moon called Tranquility Lodge number 2000 under the Grand Lodge of Texas, who now claim Masonic jurisdiction to the moon. According to their official website, meetings are held quarterly in various cities around Texas until such time as the lodge may hold its meetings on the moon itself. Can I just say, I did randomly select these things out of the pile. I've never heard of that.

I didn't think he was a Mason. I mean, you can be a Catholic and a Mason, of course. What a surprise. Yeah, that rings a tiny bell. I don't remember. We did quite extensive research on him when he came on our radio show. Yeah.

That never came up. Well, it wouldn't do. Or did it? Mm-hmm. It feels like the 20th century was big for the Masons, and it's now not quite as big a thing. Yeah, have they gone downhill a bit, do you think? I think a little bit.

That's a shame, isn't it? I think all the forces are at large now. Internet. Yeah, the Masons of the modern day, the Internets. Well, it's just a shame to lose those exciting handshakes. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I agree with that.

Here's one. How do you know them? How do you know they're exciting? Yeah. You are not allowed in. What's going on? Any, any handshake is exciting. That's not a conventional handshake, right? If you shake someone's hand and anything happens, that's not just them grasping your hand and shaking it. You're excited. I don't know that one where the finger goes and gives you a little tickle. I'd rather giggle than tickle in that case. Here's a great one from Andrei Rybak, regarding pink noise and the human ear bracing for impact

of a louder noise? Yes, I mentioned that where cars have a pink noise that they release just before impact so that your eardrums don't shatter. Brilliant. I was very surprised that none of the hosts mentioned the tensor tympani muscle. It's one of the most no such thing as a fish muscles in the human body because a portion of the population has voluntary control of it. The other portion who only have the automatic reflex that was mentioned on fish can never fully know what it's like. So this is what Andre says and it turns out I can do this. Tensing the tensile tympani

muscle allows you to make a rumbling noise in the ear on demand, a noise that only you can hear. So you sort of tense your inner ear, you can hear that rumbling. Oh my God. You can do that. Hold on, so I tense my inner ear. Just make the rumbling noise in your ear. Oh yeah, just did it.

Yeah. No, I can make a ringing, a high ringing noise, but not a rumbling. You can't join the secret club then. Oh, come on. Oh, we had such an amazing handshake plan. I love that thing that they said of the most no such thing as a fish muscle. They say.

Yeah. He said most most no such things fish class QI muscles, but I edited it down. Oh, okay. But still, it's quite a cool thing that we've built off the back of finding these interesting facts. And that's another book idea. You know, the most no such thing as a fish thing. You know, I love that.

Can I give an alternate muscle? Just while we're in the ear area. And that is recently, you know, like some animals can move their ears. And humans can move their ears, but really they're just moving their jaw and their ears kind of go. But we have the muscles that can move your ears

in the same way that a dog or a cat can move their ears, but the muscles are not strong enough. They did an experiment where they played some sound in an area and they looked at what like muscles were tensing and they could see that these muscles were moving, but they weren't moving their ears. So we are like, if you hear a sound, if you hear someone, you say your name behind you to the left, your body is trying to move your ear around towards it, but the muscles aren't strong enough. Is there something we could like, if we snipped a bit of the top and bottom off your ear, do you think it could swivel?

Oh yeah, like a tongue tie. We've got an ear tie. What if you just spent your life training and then you spent your life training your children to try and move their ears and they spent their life training their children. How long would it take before we could get this back? We would probably have to find... That's not how evolution works, I don't think. You're thinking of Lamarckism. Yes, you are.

Has Lamarckism been overtaken? Sorry? What would be better is if some people genetically modified so that they could move their ears and then they found each other really sexy. Will they hear more people saying, do you want to have sex? And then they found each other really sexy. Well, they hear more people saying, do you wanna have sex? And then they are more fertile as a result. Exactly, that's it. That's not what you think's been holding you back.

I'm on the dance mat. I can't hear a thing. All right. All right. All right. All right. Well, shall we wrap up? Yeah.

Thank you so much to everyone for sending in your facts and for listening. And please keep sending them in. We are podcast at qi.com. We love getting facts. We get a load of great ones. These are the absolute creme de la creme. This is the standard really. You should be matching.

Variable. Just like us. It's the nicest tribute anyone could pay. So thank you again. We will be back in a week with a regular broadcast. Between now and then, I guess it's just time to sing the song as we always do, Andy. Yeah, just go to just, I mean, just, you know. Don, you want to wrap us up? OK, that's it. That's all of your facts. Thank you very much for listening.

You'd like to get in contact, Andy, take over. You can get in touch with us on the Internet. I'm I'm on. I'm back in. You can get us on our various social media accounts. I'm on Instagram on at Shriverland. James, my Instagram is notice. I think it's James. Andy, I'm on blue sky at Andrew Hunter M

Yeah, and at it working they get to us as a group Instagram I know such things a fish Twitter are no such thing or email podcast at QI calm I can do it. We also have a website don't we and yet? Like such things a fish calm is it yeah And if you go to those things official commcom, there's all sorts of stuff there. Lots of previous episodes, some merch. There's the portal to Clubfish, which is our members club where you can get all sorts of bonus content. Really fun ad free episodes.

Oh, do that. Get back in, Dan. Tag me, tag me. We're also playing a live show in Sheffield in July. You should come too. It's called the Crossed Wires Festival. It's a podcast festival. Very exciting.

But otherwise, just come back next week. We'll have someone who actually knows how to helm this show. We'll see you then, Andy. Bye. Goodbye? What? Did I get that wrong? Thanks for watching.