Lateral with Tom Scott - 104: Hannibal's horns

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper and Tom Lum face questions about creative credits, baffling borders and racing research. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Jabberblock, Owen R., Scott Mitchell, Paul Thorp. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How is frozen the opposite of gravity? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott and this is LATTRAL. Hello and welcome to another episode of LATTRAL. Today we welcome back three people who are experts at calmly and methodically working their way towards the right answer. Wow, okay. That might have been a mix-up.

Yeah, sorry, that's next week's script. So hello and welcome to another episode of Lateral. Today it's another 40 minutes of Chaos with Let's Learn Everything. Welcome back to the show! Yeah! Yeah! Woo! Chaos, chaos!

My producer has simply put the note here, Introduce the guests, it'll be the usual shambles. So please welcome the usual shambles, starting... Caroline Roper, how are you doing? Oh my goodness! A little bit offended, actually, right now, but, you know, I'll take it. It's always a fine line, writing a script that has to welcome the guests, but also apparently slightly roast them.

I didn't write that, it's all I'm saying. What's this all about? Yeah! There's something very sweet about the usual shambles. I mean, it's really nice to have a team of three people who bounce off each other really well. There is a reason we keep inviting you back. It is lovely to have you back on the show.

You should, as ever, plug Let's Learn Everything. Let's go with Tom. Yeah, it's a show where we learn about anything and everything interesting. We've had Tom Scott on. We've also had another lateral guest we've had Hank Green on. So if you want to hear more of them, you can hear them. If you want to hear more of us, though, we're on the other episodes as well. Yeah. And finally, rounding out the trio, Ella, where can people find the show? Let'sLearnEverything.com. We also have episodes without guests where we just talk about science and other miscellaneous topics. It's wonderful and it's chaotic, as you would expect from us.

Well, Caroline Roper, Tom Lum, Ella Hubber, welcome back to the show. Before we start, I do just have to do my usual pre-show routine for when you three are on. Remember, Tom, you're in charge. Tom, you're in charge. If you're in charge. All right, I'm back with you. Let's do this. Just by watching the movie, how can you tell whether the writers on a Hollywood film collaborated as a team or worked separately? I'll say that one more time. Just by watching the movie, how can you tell whether the writers on a Hollywood film collaborated as a team or worked separately?

I mean, if you walk out of the film and go, huh, the writing there was really weird, I wonder why. I might then be thinking maybe they didn't work together. But it's interesting you say it's not like a specific movie. This is sort of more general than that. It seems like. Yeah. But just by watching the slang, like different people using different slang, like the same language in general. Yeah. Yeah, like the same characters. Or even just the language in general. Yeah. Yeah, like the same character, using the same words differently, like the same. Does the technicality count in, do the credits count as part of the movies? Yes, they do.

Okay, that makes more sense. Now. Does it? Oh, are you trying to say that like in the credits it will say if it will be like a something and someone or they'll have separate title screens in the credits? Is that what you're thinking there? Yeah. Because I know, I don't know if it's this one. I know there is a distinction between story by and written by in credits. Like the wording there

is very specific about whether you just like came up with, I forget the specific one, but it's like one of them is like you came up with just the idea or versus actually writing it versus like, so I don't know if there's like a secret code word that's like a Hollywood lingo that means they worked separately. Is it like an ampersand or an and? Oh, Ella! Yes, it is! Yes, it's exactly that!

Ella! Slim! Just wow! Yes! Bombset spike, baby! I was going to go into a rabbit hole about like, story and teleplay and all the words and union rules and everything like that, but that would have been a distraction because you're absolutely right.

It is whether and or an ampersand is used in the credit. Oh! If it's credited to Alice, ampersand, Bob, then they were a writing team. They worked together. If it is Alice and, A and D, Bob, then they worked separately. Most likely one of them rewrote the other's work. Oh, wow.

And there's some kind of union contractual dispute. You can occasionally see both in the same credits. Oh. Particularly for, like, TV shows where they've got a big writing team. You will sometimes see story by A. Ampersand B. And C. Oh, cool. Because the team worked on it and then the individual rewrote it. And at some point, the union will come in in Hollywood and go,

all right, they get credit, they get credit, they don't get credit anymore. They did not provide enough in this script to actually get the line. That's so interesting. They should make that a little clearer, I think. I'm going to look into that now. I'm going to have my eyes on that every time I watch something. We will rattle straight on to the next question. Ella, I'll hand it over to you.

This question has been sent in by JabberBlock. A set of US community groups found banks costly to maintain and harder to find. To improve access, in recent decades they have adapted their activity to use flat rooms instead. Which activity? Flat rooms? Say that again. A set of US community groups found banks costly to maintain and harder to find. To improve access, in recent decades they have adapted their activity to use flat rooms instead. Which activity? Harder to f- Every word of this is. I'm confused at every level.

Okay. Just to be clear, you said banks and flat rooms. Yeah. Is it banks as in financial banks or banks as in like bank staff or something like that? River banks. Yeah. Would I be giving too much away to stay that straight out of the gate?

Oh, okay. You're going to make us work for that? Okay. Using flat rooms. Well, sorry, what was it? Harder to find and what was the other problem? Costly to maintain. Okay.

So that costly maybe initially think financial banks, but maybe it's... I mean, are financial banks that hard to find? That was my thinking was, no, surely they're on Google Maps and you can just go to them. Flat rooms is so funny. Is flat rooms like a room in a block of flats or is it like a flat pack room? No, no. Not in the US because there'd be apartments over there. Oh, of course.

Yeah. So a room that is flat. Every part of this is a puzzle here. What's a flat room? As opposed to a round room? Yeah. What is... Now, part of me is wondering is like, is it like the room, like, you know, like a chamber

like of a gun, like a room of a something that would be not like a room. When is a room not a room? These are rooms. Is it rooms in real life? Or is it rooms in like a digital sphere or something like that? Interesting. No, it's in real life.

And by LSK genus, I assume we all think it's not financial banks at this point. It must be, yeah. I can confirm it is not a financial bank. Okay. River banks. Yeah, hard, because they're harder to find, so you need to... Banking on... Tom just started to do, Tom Scott just started to do something a little bit with his... I'm thinking like banking on a track of some kind.

Yeah. Yeah. Because the alternative to a bank is flat. Right, right. Like on a racetrack or on something. Yeah. Oh my god, okay wait wait, now I'm realising, because Ella said US community group, and I'm realising that's going to be something, isn't it?

Because if it is like, you know, like NASCAR fans or something, like that would def, that's, I guess you could call that, that would be under the Wikipedia group of U.S. Community Groups, right? Well, I mean, you're getting closer in the sense that this is a high-speed activity. Okay. Oh, interesting. Velodromes. Cycling has banked corners.

It sure do. But I don't know why you'd use flat rooms instead. Ice skating, ice hockey, something that involves speeding round a course that's banked. It is speeding round a course, I can tell you that. My thought was, what if you had a flat had a flat room, but the room itself could rotate so it's like a simulator ride, and then that would help. And Elle's laughing because it's spot on. Because then that would make it easier to maintain. Roller derby.

Yeah, Tom Scott. You've got it. It's roller derby. It's roller derby. It's roller derby. It's roller derby. Because there aren't many roller rinks anymore. There certainly aren't roller rinks with banked corners, so they don't have to use a roller rink at all. I know someone who's vaguely involved with one of the London roller derby groups, and they just meet in a sports centre in a flat room.

This is a perfect question for Ella, because... I used to play roller derby. I know two people who've been involved in roller derbies. So roller derby is a sport, dominantly a women's sport really. There are men's teams, but it's very predominantly a women's sport and it's played on roller skates obviously and you have jammers, they have stars on their helmets and they have to try and pass the blockers to score points. Actually, if you had heard the name of the person who sent the question in, Jabba Block, I assume that that is their roller derby name.

Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. Wow. Roller derby began in the US, and it's still huge there there and it started on banked tracks while it was still, you know, easy to find those things. But now it's, as I said in the question, it's very expensive to maintain. It's really hard to find those kinds of tracks. So more and more communities have started moving to flat areas, flat tracks. So you can just do it in a community center, like you said, Tom. flat areas, flat tracks. So you can just do it in a community centre like you said, Tom. Ah!

Wow! Yep. That's amazing! If you want to see some fun roller derby action on bank tracks, the film Whip It includes this. And that's actually what got me into roller derby. Next question's been sent in by Scott Mitchell. Thank you very much. In 2017, a six-year-old in Dallas, Texas asked for and received a Kidcraft Sparkle Mansion Doll's house. As a result, a few people in the San Diego area

were surprised to receive a doll's house shortly afterwards. Why? And one more time. In 2017, a six-year-old girl in Dallas, Texas asked for and received a Kidcraft Sparkle Mansion Doll's house. As a result, a few people in the San Diego area were surprised to receive a Doll's House shortly afterwards. Why?

Her name is, er, like, street name San Diego. Her name's Sandy. Oh! So, A-go. San Diego? Her name's San Diego. Heir to the A-go fortune. Yeah, Yeah.

Or even something as silly as, like, part of the address is very, very similar, and the parents were like, man, it's not showing up, I guess we'll just order another one. Man, it's still not showing up, I guess we'll just order another one. And that keeps happening until multiple children have dolls houses. It's a lovely story. What was the toy called? The toy set? The Kidcraft Sparkle Mansion. But the other dolls houses were unlikely to be the same model.

Oh, I was going to say, I was wondering maybe if it was like, there's a street in San Diego called the Kidcraft Sparkle Mansion. Did you say Dallas, Texas or just Texas? The six-year-old girl was in Dallas, Texas. The other people who were surprised to receive a doll's house, they're over in San Diego. San Diego. I was wondering if this, because I know there's like a Paris, Texas, so I don't know if that was going to be the mix-up, but this is interesting.

Did the other people who received doll's houses, were they, did they also have children? Were they also young? Or was it adults who ended up with these Doll's Houses really randomly? Those were adults. They were very surprised to receive them. Kids Craft Sparkle Mansion Dollhouse? Strange. It's interesting because this happened in 2017, right?

And I feel like before online ordering, it would be easier... You'd be looking for a different kind of mix-up, right? So is this anything... Is this a very digital mix-up? Or is it versus like... This is a very, very digital mix-up. Oh, is she... Is her name like Sarah Drop Tables?

Like that XKCD joke? And it just messed up the system. Her name is Brooke Nitesell. So, no. But you are very much in the right ballpark with digital mix-ups here. Okay. How can you goof up an ordering system like that? Oh, did she like sign into a different account or something like that? A classic like, like was on someone else's online account and then ordered it through there. Or even the family's previous addresses that they accidentally ordered them to. Also, this is a six year old. And so maybe she put in, she didn't really understand, she should not be ordering stuff online. So maybe she put in like an address. Was it like, because with the name of the house

that she had, it's like five words in, right? So she ordered five ones that were like kids, dollhouse, craft dollhouse, sparkle dollhouse to random addresses. Did she put the name of the dollhouse in the address field as like, yeah exactly like Ella was saying. I love that we're assuming the child ordered this. Yeah I love that. It's phrased very carefully that she asked for and received a dollhouse. Did Santa mess up? Classic. Something a little more concrete than Father Christmas. What's more concrete than Santa?

The Easter Bunny. Um... LAUGHS For a birthday, for, um... I think you're all envisaging a kid on a tablet, or something like that. Yeah. They've stolen from the parent.

And I think the picture in your head is not quite right. She called up on... No. Oh. She was on a chat. She was on a chat... It was 2017, so she was on a... She was on a chat with a real person? Not a real person. Oh, a bot. So, like, an ordering bot. Oh.

Oh, Alexa. It was an Alexa or a... Yes, it was. And... Nailed it! For the listeners that wondered what was just kind of fuzzed out there because we don't want to set off all your devices, that was Amazon's ordering system that is tied into the little device that sits on people's desks that sounds like the female version of Alex.

That's... Yes, Brooke Nitesell accidentally ordered a $170, well, you say accidentally, accidentally ordered a $170 doll's house and four pounds of cookies while talking to her mum's Amazon F.O. That is the first part of the story. Okay.

You've worked out the first bit. Why were a few people over in San Diego surprised to receive a doll's house a few days later? Could there have been like, the news was on at the same time and someone's address has been shitted in there? The news is definitely involved, that's not quite how the story went. Well, because how do you put in an address to an order from that, from the name of the name that shall not be named? I've never done that.

So do you actually have to say a specific address? Or do you have to… No, wouldn't work that way. I don't think you can say an address into it. You'd have to say it all beforehand. Is it like a default address in the system or something? Well, yeah. like a default address in the system or something? Well yeah, my thinking was like, is that, did they have a home address and then like a work address? And maybe something in the background said, deliver to work. And it was

sent to a parent's work address or something like that. Dial in on news, Tom. You were right there. Interesting. Really? She had, no, because you said you can't give... I was about to say that she had a newspaper and she just started saying things to it, but no, so no one has said... How might a message reach the population of San Diego specifically? Do San Diegans have a different news delivery system to everyone else?

Yeah. They'll have a different station to Dallas, certainly. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! The person on the news, did the person on the news say this? Like, say the phrase, you can use your blank phrase, and then it triggered this person's... Was it not even the six-year-old's fault? Or like, did the newscaster say the phrase that triggered it?

Why would the newscaster say that? Oh my goodness! So did the child order on Alexa, and then that news story was reported, and then that then spits off other people's things? Yes! Caroline. This was a team slam dunk!

That was great! Oh my goodness! The story from Dallas got picked up by a news station in San Diego. The news was really careful to kind of not say the phrase, and then the anchor afterwards summarised the story and said aloud, quote, I love the little girl saying, Order me a dollhouse. That's so funny!

Amazing! Most of the orders were stopped, but that news station got complaints later saying, a dollhouse has been ordered for me. Wow! That's so good. Because that means that it must have happened to enough people. Because I feel like a lot of people would be like, huh, that's really weird, I'll send that back.

It happened to enough people that people complained about it. That's insane. Oh, that's so good. Bumps that spike. about it. That's insane. Oh, that's so good. Bumps that spike. Great job. That's a real journey of a ride. Tom, over to you for the next question. Rock and roll. This question has been sent in by Owen R. Bit of a jump from the last one. In 217 BC, during the Second Punic War,

the army of Carthaginian general Hannibal was stuck in a valley with all exits blocked by the Romans. One night, how did he borrow some horns to escape without engaging the enemy? I'll say that again. In 217 BC, during the Second Punic War, the army of Carthaginian general Hannibal was stuck in a valley with all exits blocked by the Romans.

One night, how did he borrow some horns to escape without engaging the enemy? Well, obviously we're all thinking the same thing, which is disguise himself as a goat or a cow. Ah, don't mind me. Shoot, I talked, I talked, I keep talking. Don't mind me! Shoot, I talked, I talked, I keep talking! I'm just feeling like the word horns is not what I think is horns. Oh, that's a really good point. Just the entire brass section from a scar band, and it just completely disrupted. The oldest musical genre.

Who'd never ever heard of skanking before and just absolutely went for it. That was it, right, Tom? Yep. Yeah, yeah. Animal famous for revving up his army, being like, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up! When you say escape, was it just Hannibal that escaped or his entire army escaped? It was his entire, it was the majority of his army, yeah. How big was his army?

Do you know? It's in the order of thousands army. Yeah. How big was his army? Do you know? It's in the order of thousands from some brief research. Okay, cool. So it's not just like an army invitation marks. It's actually just like five people. Four people trust this guy. When I think of horn, I think of like, like one of those stereotypical, like bone horns that people blow into and it makes like a brr brr sound.

Did one person like sneak out and make that sound and then the whole Roman army was like we're being called back, let's go! And then they just like, it opened up the valley. They played a vuvuzela and they were like oh my god is the world cup on? I'll say no to that. It is... Faking a summons or something like that. You've got to... If all the exits are blocked, you either have to make a new exit or you have to unblock one of the exits and get the people out of the way.

And I feel like horns are not going to help you dig a tunnel under an alp. So you would have to unblock an exit somehow. You would have to move the people there out of the way. Yeah, I'll say both Tom and Caroline, you're on the right track. That is a sort of distraction. Did they cause a stampede? And people were like, oh, I don't want to be in the way of these stampeding cows coming towards me. Let's move out of the way.

And then they were like, let's go. You are so very close, Caroline, with that, actually, surprisingly. Did they make the Romans think that there was a stampede coming? Or did they cause a stampede? Like, if you just, if under cover of darkness you make a lot of noise and a lot of stampeding cow horn noises. Yeah, and like kick up some dust, hold some horns above your head so that it looks like it's not above your head. You know, some eight-foot tall cow coming towards you.

But you know, yeah, exactly what I was saying. Where would he borrow the horns from? Yeah. Oh wait, hold on, we're assuming that these are, like, horns you blow to make noise. They could literally just be the horns off a cow. I'm back to animal horns. I thought they were actual animal horns, hence the disguise yourself as a goat. I just got distracted by Scar.

Is borrow a really strong word? And actually, they were taking horns either from a living animal or even from like a dead skeleton that they had found lying about. So I'll say you guys are have a lot of the pieces here. I'll say yes, Caroline Borrow is is like a silly word. Tom, I'll say that you were right that there's something about the dead of night that is helpful for this. But I'll say for some of the things, you do have it backwards. So I will say you have a lot of the pieces.

And there's one thing you're missing here. They caused a stampede. Or they... Or there is some local cryptid around there. The wolf... the horned wolfman of the Tyrolean Alps. I don't remember exactly what you were saying, but they scared someone. They scared the Romans, they scared the cows. This is actually where the Jersey Devil comes from.

You would think it comes from Jersey, but it's not here. Wait, Hannibal had elephants. Oh, I don't believe it. It's not, it's not elephant related. And the interesting thing I believe for this is that, yeah, this, this sort of like was a thing that Hannibal put together with what was sort of at hand at the place he was occupying, I believe. Oh, interesting. I was sort of going along the lines of, you said that it was like the opposite was happening. I'm thinking like maybe the Roman army is starving and waiting for food to come along and therefore distracting them by saying, look, here's a cow that you could go and slaughter,

move out of the way, could then distract them in a different way, almost? So I'll say, yeah, Tom, you were on the money with it being a stampede they caused. And there's something in that, a trick that they played that works especially well at the dead of night. Fire? Setting things on fire? Explosions? Yeah, all the pieces with fire. You set the stampeding cattle on fire and send them into the ruins. A little safer than that.

What did they borrow? Horns. Flaming horns. They set the horns on fire. Oh, and just sent them, oh, just sent them straight in. What's a safer way, slightly safer way than doing that is just tying a torch to the horns of these animals. Well, yeah. Oh, wow. I think I need some more elaboration. Yeah. So, well, what would that look like if you had a bunch of horns with torches aloft.

Oh, like an angry mob! Like a bigger army than they had. Oh my goodness! It's a torch-wielding mob that is actually just some cows you've taped some flaming torches to. Oh! Which would then distract the army, letting them escape from another way. Because it looks like they're all... Wow. Right! Yeah.

Because it looks like there's a load of people over there with torchlight making themselves really obvious. Yes. And it's actually just some cows. I don't know why I was going to go with taped. That's not how it worked. Tarking some duct tape. Some flaming torches too.

Duct tape it on, yeah. Yeah. with taped. That's not how it worked. Tarky did some flaming torches. Duck tape it on. Yeah. I would love a deeply historical reenactment of this. And the only thing they break is they use duct tape for some reason. Yeah. So the Battle of Ager Fulernus, I apologize if I butchered that, took place in September 217 BC. During the day, Hannibal's men tied wood and sticks to the horns of a large herd of oxen that they had captured. And at night, they lit the wood and maneuvered the terrified stampeding oxen up the hill towards the Romans. And in the dark, the Romans

believed that the flaming torches were being carried by Hannibal's men. Then the Carthaginians were able to make their escape through the mountain pass, and the Roman leader Fabius had his reputation badly dented by this episode, and actually lost his console ship a few months later. Thank you to Paul Thorpe for this next question. In 1957, the Martin Baker Company has built up a club of 6,000 people who have used its products. Nobody wants to join the club, but its members are very happy to be in it. What's the criteria for joining?

I'll give you that one more time. In 1957, the Martin Baker Company has built up a club of 6,000 people who have used its products. Nobody wants to join the club, but its members are very happy to be in it. What's the criteria for joining?" Having hemorrhoids. Well... Why?

I mean, nobody wants that for themselves, but you know, maybe this company sells a wonderful solution for curing your hemorrhoids, so everybody's like, you know what, I'm in a terrible situation right now, but I'm really happy to be part of this club to get rid of it. You reasoned through it, Caroline. There was a thought process here. Still the startlingness of that. Yeah, no, now you've said it, yeah, that's a solid bit of logic, that's a good answer. It's just, I think that's the first time we've ever had someone

just respond to a question with hemorrhoids. LAUGHTER Ah. The Martin Baker Company... ever had someone just respond to a question with hand-written words? The Martin Baker Company, and it's like 6,000. My guess was like, congratulations for being our top consumer of our cookies. Here's some more cookies. And it's like, oh, I feel kind of guilty for having that many cookies. But I also I'm glad that I get more. Nice. I liked where you were going with that, Caroline, this idea of like, it's something that helps you out of a situation that you don't want to be in, but you need the thing in that moment. So I would assume it would be like something like,

like a helmet, you know, like some, you know, safety equipment. Like you don't want to be in like the falling off your bike club. But when you're in it, you're glad you have the helmet to stop that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, hemorrhoids. Oh wait, did we say that already? Okay, sorry, that's usually my first guess. Fall off your bike. The falling off your bike club. There are quite a lot of people who've been in the fall off your bike club. The Martin Baker Club with 6,000 people is a bit more exclusive.

But are you saying it's like a safety thing, or like a protective thing? Absolutely. Yeah, you've nailed that. Okay. So I also realized that it's not— Baker's just a surname, I assume. It's not like an actual bakery, I realise now. That's fine. It's hyphenated. It's hyphenated.

You're not baking your Martins. Are they for like military equipment of some sort, or something along those lines? Mmm. Yes. Okay, if it's military— That's why it's so exclusive. Okay, so military equipment, so it's going to be like...

...hemorrhoids. Sorry. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm ruling this out. I'm not having hemorrhoids be the running joke of this question episode. We're not having it. Sorry, the seriousness. I just had to make sure all three of us got it in, okay? I'll stop now, we'll all stop.

Oh, rule of three is we got it, okay, we're done. Were you to suffer from those, it would make this experience marginally worse. Marginally, it's pretty bad anyway, but it would be marginally worse. Oh. My guess was like, is it like fall out of a fighter jet club rather than fall off the fight club?

Like, oh my goodness, is it parachuting or something like that? You don't fall out of a fighter jet. You get ejected. That's a good point. You get ejected. So what do the Martin Baker Company make? Fighter jet ejector seats.

Like... Fighter jet ejector seats. Martin Baker specifically make ejector seats. That's incredible! And so there really aren't many people in the world who would want to join that club. Yeah, of course. But if you have been saved by a Martin Baker Rejector seat, they will send you a certificate, membership card, tie, tie pin and so on patch.

Wow! That's great! You don't get that if you get hemorrhoids. You loving human acceleration would be one of the people who would want to join that club for the joy of it. One of the... No, no, I absolutely wouldn't. I've talked about this before.

I have once sat in an ejector seat. I got to take a trip in a fast jet once, and the briefing is terrifying. It includes phrases like, if you are still conscious after ejection, you end up shorter by a couple of centimetres, possibly for life. It is brutal because it is only used in extremes. Because it compresses your spine so much when it pushes you? Like that's... It's really a last resort.

Okay. There is a minimum weight for doing an ejection seat. They have to calibrate it to your weight. And below a certain weight, it will just snap your... It will just snap your... Oh my god. You are literally on the end of a set of rockets that fire like that. And it is brutal.

This is one of those classic... There should be an action movie that breaks all of the myths, where they knock someone out, quote unquote, and then they're like, oh no, oh gosh, and then someone takes an injector and says, oh I did not like that at all, oh gosh. I think you just invented Mythbusters. Caroline, over to you for the next question. Lovely stuff.

Why did scientists from Ghent University watch 200 hours of footage from 36 years of a prestigious Belgium cycle race? I'll say that again. Why did scientists from Ghent University watch 200 hours of footage from 36 years of a prestigious Belgian cycle race? Is Ghent University in Belgium? Yes, Ghent's in Belgium. Okay, so it's Belgian researchers watching Belgian video.

Is this like an ecology thing or like conservation thing where the researchers are like watching, looking at the background in the video to see how that's changed over 36 years? Is Ella spot on? Yeah. Wow! I did! What on earth? to see how that's changed over 36 years. Is Ella spot on? Yeah. Wow! What on earth? Alright, I'll throw in some dumb guesses then before we get cracking on that.

Thank you, yes! I was going to be like, are they studying relativity and the fact that if you go slightly faster on the bike or somehow... I was going to be like, oh, have people increased in speed in the cycle race over this many years, right? I was looking down at my notes trying to divide 200 by 36 and going, well, it's only about five and a bit hours per thing. That's just the cycle race. I genuinely haven't heard that before. I just assumed if you're watching something over

that, it seemed like something you would do a longitudinal study. It just felt- This is like an LLE, that's what everything- Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I was thrilled when I got this question, like, oh, I love this so much. Sorry, Caroline. I just yanked that right away.

No, that's amazing. You absolutely nailed it. Yeah. I'll give some background on this one because it is really, really interesting. So what happened here was they were looking at the Liège-Bastogne Liège cycle race, which always takes place on the same course. So ecological scientist Peter Duffren was a cycling fan, which I love that he was just like watching an old clip of this race. Basically. Um, and then, yeah. So what happened was he noticed that the trees, yeah, it's, it's for research.

Duh. Trees. Yeah. So he was looking at the trees in the background, just, you know, casually having a little look and he noticed that they were unusually bare for the time of year. Um, and that sparked this idea basically. So his colleague, Lisa Van Langenhove, examined the archive footage of the race

because it was available to them. And she picked out specific trees to look at in the background of this race footage. This rules! It's so good, right? And then they compared like different videos from different races, literally from 1981 right through to 2016. Just to be a scientist and to uncover a trove of well-documented routine footage of a thing is like, accidentally so smart, so cool.

I'm just so research-abraid that I was like, that's a good source. Yeah. Yes, right. Absolutely. And because the race takes place like the same time of year, every single year, and they could also look at things like the weather pattern to look at how lush the trees looked, all of this sort of stuff. And they were able to establish that trees were sprouting leaves

up to two weeks earlier at the end of this 36-year period than at the start. So in 2016, they were sprouting leaves two weeks earlier than they were in 1981. Well that very quick solve means we have unlocked the shiny bonus question. So a quick one for you all. The borders of all 50 US states have one of these, except for Hawaii. What is it? I'll say that again. The borders of all 50 US states have one of these, except for Hawaii.

What is it? A land border. Like with another state. Oh no, Alaska doesn't have a... I feel like more of them got it than that. How many was it? Fifteen, you said? Yeah. Or fifty. Alaska does not have a land border with another state. No, it does with Canada.

English as their, like, set language maybe? Oh, yeah, that could be it. That's about the states, not about the borders. Oh, right. Oh, yeah, that could be it. That's about the states, not about the borders. Oh, right. Oh, sorry, yeah, of course. A straight line? Yes. Oh!

Elr! Oh! Elr! Two for two! Go on, why? What's going on there? I assume that the border of Hawaii is around the shape of the island, whereas other borders have been drawn by man in between.

Nice. Yes. Simple as that. Every US state has a straight line somewhere in its border. Even when it's meant to be following rivers for some of it, like somewhere, there will be a... In the legal definition, there will be some straight line somewhere, whereas Hawaii is just the coastline. You can just say it's... the line is the land, and so that can be more... Yeah. I am slightly wary that someone is going to come along and go,

well, actually there's a seawall on part of Hawaii, and that counts as a straight line. But you know what? We're going to let that question go. Okay. That's so off. Hawaii's also the state with the fourth longest coastline? I guess California. California? Alaska.

Alaska? Florida? Florida, you've named all three of them. You're just blasting through the additional notes I've got here as well. Alaska's like the great state of New Jersey rep, whoo! Yes, and there is also Colorado, which looks like a rectangle, and is in fact a polygon with 697 sides. Nice.

Which is just surveying errors and curvature of the Earth, and it's the closest they can get. They should name that polygon the Colorado. Yeah. I mean, that was just incredible solving speed there by the whole team. Congratulations to you. Speedrun! We have reached the final question, the one that I asked right at the start. And honestly, I think you're going to hate me for this one.

Oh boy. But nevertheless, how is Fro... You believe me that you're going to hate me or you believe in me, because those are very different sentiments there. Both, Tom. How is Frozen the opposite of gravity? Is it the songs, Frozen and— Yeah. Oh, I was thinking Frozen and Defying Gravity, but maybe that's too—

Yeah, there's like, their key is opposite or something. The movie Frozen and the movie Gravity. The movie Frozen and the movie Gravity. The movie Frozen and the movie Gravity, yes. Uh, wait, I don't know the movie Gravity. What's the movie Gravity? Oh, it's with Sandra Bullock, uh, and... Oh, and George Clooney. ...she's in space, and she's an astronaut, yeah.

And then she's just sort of like trying to get back to Earth, but it's a lot of like long shots of her like flailing through space and stuff like that. Is it something to do with like the colour gradient of the films or something or the length is like a palindrome? Does like one have like human voices on CG and one is like computer voices on the real? I don't know. Santa Fe and George Clooney are not in that movie. Their voices are not real. I mean, in a lot of that film, the characters aren't real, or it's just a face scan. Oh, yeah, right.

I like that. A lot of the shots and gravity, the entire environment, all the spacesuits, everything a full CG. That makes sense. Do we have to know much about the movie or know much about puns to help answer this? Yeah. Ooh! the movie or know much about puns to help answer this? Yeah. Oh! Um, honestly, either one of those would solve it for you.

Is it like, Frozen is the film with the most, like, sound, like music? Like, or like it has a certain amount and then gravity's like the opposite amount of quiet? Is it because in one she's supposed to let it go and in the other one she's supposed It has a certain amount and then gravity's like the opposite amount of quiet. Is it because in one she's supposed to let it go and in the other one she's supposed to hold on to the space station? No. No. You know what? That's close enough. No.

That's close enough. What is the famous song from Frozen? Let it go. Let it go is said repeatedly and then hold on. They say hold on. What is the tagline from Gravity? The thing that was on the posters. Don't Let Go.

Don't Let Go is exactly right, yes. It is Let It Go is the tagline and the song from Frozen. Don't Let Go. Oh my god, and Caroline both had it in her hands, fully. I'm annoyed. I said you were going to hate that one. Because I put my lateral brain into it. I'm thinking about times, I'm thinking about palindromes.

Yeah. I've been snapping away this episode and then that's just, I'm so upset. Thank you very much to all three of you. I'm hoping we don't end on a sour note there, but you know what? Apparently sometimes we do. No, that was great. No, that's great. Thank you to all the crew from Let's Learn Everything. Ella, tell us about the show.

We are Let's Learn Everything. We talk about anything and everything interesting. Science and miscellaneous, it's wonderful, it's chaotic. There are so many topics which I'm sure someone else could tell you about. Like Tom. We have topics like the ecology that happens around whale falls, constructed languages, jury duty. And if you're new to the show, we will have a best of episode that will be out. We have one for this year and for last year if you just want like a little sampler to see. And Caroline, where can people find you?

You can find us, our socials, our Discord server, all of that good jazz at Let'sLearnEverything.com. And you can listen to the show anywhere you get podcasts. And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at LateralCast.com, where you can also send in your own idea for a question. We are at LateralCast basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at YouTube.com slash LateralCast. Thank you very much to Caroline Roper, Ella Hubber. Best wishes, Tom Scott. Thank you. And to Caroline Roper, Ella Hubber.

Best wishes, Tom Scott. Thank you. And top one! I've been Tom Scott and that's been Lateral.