Lateral with Tom Scott - 117: Dull white powder

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Sophie Ward, Julian Huguet and Tina Huang face questions about peculiar pirouettes, popstar pages and passport problems. 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: Adam, Jane Doe, Nate, Oscar, Ghrian. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does Graham regularly go to Beyonce's Wikipedia page, even though he's not a fan of her music? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to our patisserie of puzzles, where our clever chefs have been baking up a fresh batch of brain teasers. Our questions are like croissants. Twisted, multi-layered, and sometimes pretty flaky. But the more puzzles you try, the more you'll get butter and butter. Here to brush away the crumbs, we start with...

Data Scientist talking about AI, tech, and self-learning on her own YouTube channel. Welcome back to the show, Tina Wong. Thank you so much for having me. Welcome back, this is your second appearance. How was the first one? The first one was in the beginning, I was like, what are these questions? No, I think I'm kind of getting the hang of it. Maybe. I don't want to say that now. I not know what's happening. I think last time we talked to Soph, who's also on this show, about setting expectations low and exceeding them.

Yes, yes, yes. I think what I've expected, unexpected. Always. What sort of stuff are you working on at the minute? What can people expect to see from you? I'm just continuing on talking about AI and tech stuff, basically how to self-learn using AI technologies and how to help people get careers that they love.

All on the YouTube channel. Very best of luck on the show today. Also joining us, we have Science Communicator from her own channel, Soph's Notes. And at this point, a veteran of this show, welcome back. Sophie Ward, how are you doing? I'm doing very well, Tom. I feel mixed emotions about being called a veteran. But I'll take it. Yeah. Yeah, actually it doesn't feel right to use the word that we use for, like,

people in combat to be on the show, but... I don't know. Yeah, pretty feisty in here. Yeah, pretty feisty. Last time you were on, we said that you were working mostly on stuff that does not appear on the internet. Is there anything that is heading internet-wards from you, or are you just like, I have my private life right now and I'm happy with that? I don't know, I think you'll keep...

If you want to know, you can look on my Instagram, my YouTube, and things might pop up there, but we'll see. Yeah, there's a couple things in the pipeline, but I think, yeah, just watch this space, I suppose. I like Tina's thing of helping people find jobs they like, though. Maybe I should do that. Well, the third member of our panel, I think, has a job that he likes. Julian Hugitt, Science Communicator, and from That's Absurd, Please Elaborate, welcome back to the show.

You sound like my family. I think Julian has a job. I'm not totally sure. I'm not going to assume. I don't know how he pays rent, but yeah, I do love science communicating and the podcast that's, Sir, Please Elaborate. I do that with Trace Dominguez and we goof around a lot too and try and answer the silliest questions that we can get from listeners. It's a good time. And thanks for having me back.

What questions have you been working on lately? We had one with you, Tom. The one I still think about was what if the moon was actually made of cheese? And we really got into like the origin of that saying and then what that would imply for like the moon. And it was quite fun. And listening it back, I was so blown away because you had like a couple jokes and references that were so quick that I missed them. Like when you called it a cheese thaw cycle as like a freeze thaw cycle pun. Oh, you know what? I wasn't gonna toot my own horn,

but I thought that was underappreciated in the moment, so thank you very much. That was! That was! Because I went back and listened to it later, and I was like, this man just came up with the best cheese science pun I have ever heard, and none of us acknowledged it, and I come here to humbly apologize for that. Un-relievable. Um, let's move on. Let's swiftly move on.

Oh, this is getting cheesy. Tom, as we've mentioned, by the way, is very hungry at this moment in time. And not only that, my script is about baking. Like we have the croissant pun, and I now have to do the second part of that. How could we forget about the baking puns? Our bakery is now open for business, and I've tried to make the first question fairly easy, so don't worry. Don't throw. uh, donut worry. Donut worry!

Bro. You said it like, croissant, you said it the American way, Tom? A croissant or whatever it was? Croissant, I... my dialect is always halfway over the Atlantic. You should talk like, yeah, like one of those transatlantic, kind of like 20s, like, our bakery is now, it's open for business and I gotta say, you gotta prove yourself. Big stuff. Only one of us in this call can do a transatlantic accent.

It is, unfortunately, from a 1920s femme fatale. No, 1920s was silent. Never mind, moving on, moving on. Question one, folks. Good luck. Tins of tiny dolomite, cotton, and cellulose particles can be purchased. The contents are spread out in a thin layer. This helps to determine what.

I'll say that again. Tins of tiny dolomite, cotton, and cellulose particles can be purchased. The contents are spread out in a thin layer. This helps to determine what. Dolomite, cotton, and cellulose. So cellulose being like the plant material, right? Like the plant wall stuff. The stuff that gives plants like their actual structure and shape. And dolemite, cotton. It's like dolemite as in from the dolemite. Not the blaxploitation film from the 70s, the... pretty sure there was a movie called

Dolomite. Is it rock? Is it Dolomite rock? Because isn't there an area called the Dolomite? There is, in this case it's the rock. They are not specific. It's only Dolomite if it comes from this region of Italy, otherwise it's just sparkling rock. No, I'm... Quartz, yeah, sparkling rock. No, um... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Like which way the wind is blowing? I'm imagining like throwing these things into the air and It would tell you something about the strength of the wind and where that that's the first thing that comes to mind Yes, spread out in a thin layer and then if it blows Because it's giving it's like dusty vibes. So I feel like

Dusty vibes is a 1940s femme fatale from a movie Dusty vibes and I'm just 1940s femme fatale from a movie. Oh, it's me again. Dusty Vibes and I'm just putting my dolomite gun and cellulose on the ground. What's always going to happen? I knew she was trouble when she spread her dolomite out in my office. I don't just spread my dolomite for anybody. Unhidrous is getting me. Unhidrous, right? So without water, like the water's been... So then maybe

when if water touches it, something happens. If it gets, if it would soak up the water, I don't know. This is me trying to dig out my old chemistry knowledge. Is it, is it like a scientific application or like agriculture or military? Yeah, do we have to know scientific knowledge? Which we should do as a bunch of science communicators. No, absolutely not. Okay, great. Although what it's helpful to know is that those are all

fairly neutral, inactive ingredients. When you said dusty vibes, actually, yeah. Dusty vibes. Dusty vibes. Okay, so it's pretty nothing-y. So it's to work out... Do we mix them together? They arrive mixed. Oh, so they're together already and the ratio of it. Yeah. They would like cling to a thing or...

Yeah. Do we put them in water? Or is it in the air or just on the ground? It's in a thin layer. That was in the question. It's spread out in a thin layer. On what? Thin layer on what is the question? If I tell you about it, we'll kind of give it away. Okay, okay, but that's good.

That's good, though. That's good. So we care about where we're spreading it out. Okay. On a croissant. Does it cling to things? Because is it a flat surface, or is it kind of like a cling? Yeah, you just spread these out on a flat surface. Oh, is it?

No, but why would you do that? I was like... Just say it, say it. If you want to make sure something's really clean, maybe it's like you spread it out and something will cling to it, but that doesn't make any sense. This will find out if something is... or if it's really smooth.

To find out if something's really, really smooth, and then it'll just slide off. I don't know. When you say whether something is clean, actually that's much closer than you might think. For a guess you nearly didn't say, Soph, that's nearly there. Does it help determine some material contaminant? I'm thinking of like at an airport when you go through and they swab your hands with the cotton things. Is it looking for some sort of chemical?

No, it's just inert stuff. Inert stuff? You've hit quite a few things. I think you just haven't quite put them together. So let me sum up what you've got. It is dusty vibes, and it is used to determine and test something. Yeah, but that's part of the question, Tom. That's not that helpful. Yeah, I know. Well, you also said which way the wind is blowing, and that's not technically right,

but it's a lot closer than you think. Ooh, okay. Blowing is the wrong word in there, to be honest. Is it relative wind on, like, an airplane wing? What? Relative? You ever see wind tunnels where they tape a bunch of pieces of string to the wing? Depending on your perspective, the wind is absolutely blowing here.

Oh, no. But you would—you and I would not describe this as blowing. It sounds like something is moving through the air instead. There's a lot of air moving. There's definitely a lot of air moving. You're so cryptic! I'm being very cryptic because there's one key word that you've not quite got. We're not testing blowing here. Sucking.

Sucking! Dusty vibes, blowing, it tests vacuums. Yes, vibes blowing. It tests vacuums. Yes it does! You're determining if your vacuum works! Oh! Oh, that was painful. Oh my gosh, wow. When you said which way the wind is blowing, I'm like, that is technically right, but...

I'm going to be honest, Tom, that question sucks. Hey! Hey! Yes, dolomite, cotton and cellulose are the ingredients of DMT test dust type 8. And so it is a synthetic dust that you buy. So it's literally used as dusty-melt? Yeah! This is what I kept going on. You were basically there. It is synthetic dust used as a standard test for vacuum cleaners.

Hmm. Yeah, that does make sense, right? Like, the different densities and, like, air resistance to the material, so you can tell, like, oh, it's sucking up the cotton, but not the dolomite, like, it's not as powerful, and they're not affected, they're not, like, magnetic or anything, you don't worry about any other confounding things. That's, you know, I never thought of vacuum testing

being a necessity before, but it makes sense. I get it now. Each of our players has brought a question along with them. We are going to start today with Tina, whenever you're ready. All right. In recent months, David will pass something between his hands, sometimes more than once, when walking in the street.

He does a pirouette on the spot occasionally too. How has his life changed and what do these actions do? I'll say that again. In recent months, David will pass something between his hands, sometimes more than once, when walking in the street. He does a pirouette on the spot occasionally too. How has his life changed and what did these actions do? My first thought is that this is a question written

by David the producer. This is a little? And it's about something that he is doing. Or that it's the thing that he'd have to put a random name in and he was like, what's a name I know? David moved to a dangerous part of town and now he carries a club with him. And occasionally he just swings it around, does a pirouette. Spins around carelessly. People can come up behind you, Tom.

You've got to spin around. Yeah, you got to be ready. Wow. To be fair, in San Francisco, like I've talked to people when they walk at night in order to prevent people from jumping them, they kind of act in interesting ways to prevent you. You gotta move unpredictably. It's like I've seen that thing where if you're on a bus or a train and you don't want someone

to sit next to you, but it's getting busy, everyone who walks past you should tap your seat and be like, sit here, sit next to me. And no one will sit next to me. Yeah. I've been to SF and if I saw a guy randomly pirouetting, I would avoid him. Very effective. Yeah. It would work. I would keep my distance, regardless of what was in his hands. Don't think on that track though. That is incorrect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for walking us down that path and then telling us it's a

dead end. I just have to tell you that anecdote. Okay Is David walking with anyone? Is he I mean you wouldn't say holding somebody's hand is like passing and like switching hands and with the hand holder is Like passing something between your hands and doing it I don't know my thought is as well like passing like bacteria across his hands. He's just putting his hands together and it just so happens that his bacteria is going from hand to hand. It's communicators.

Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah, we think too granularly. Pyrrhoea, classically a ballet word. It could be a ballet. He's just carrying his ballet diploma and then showing it off. I do this thing when I walk my dog where like when I come to another person with a dog on the leash or a lead as they would say in the UK I hate it because I always have to do like the dumb leash dance you

know what I'm talking about? Where like we all have to like zigzag and cross because my dog wants to like be as inconvenient as possible and like smell the other dog and then the legs and then come back and like... Do you know what I mean? Yeah, no. It's like Cat's Cradle but with leads. You got that. Yes! Wait, it's a dog? Wait...

I have this vague thing in my head that David the Producer has actually got a dog recently. Oh, so it is about David the Producer. So he passes the lead between his hands and then he has to do a dog recently. Oh, so it is about David the producer. So he passes the lead between his hands and then he has to do a pirouette. He has to do a pirouette because the dog will run around and tangle up the lead. Yeah, and it's just easier. Every time I do it, like crossing the street

in front of a card, I'm like, I look like such an idiot. Like, wee, my little dog's thin because my 10 pound chihuahua is running the show. I am so impressed. I mean, you know David really well, Tom. Right from the beginning, you were like, this is a real... I don't know. He wanted to put that name in the question otherwise, but I did not remember the dog

thing until Julian put that together. Yeah, there's the name David. And yeah, when dogs sniff each other upon meeting, they circ around each other, they all get tangly. And then you gotta like, sop her hand around, do a pirouette. I mean, that seems a little excessive. Do you really do that? Like you just. Well, when when the dog runs on the other side of you, yeah, it's easier,

especially if you're carrying something to just like spin yourself around to untangle the lead. Right. But then when it meets another dog, yeah, you have to do like the leash shuffle with the other person. And I hate it. Yeah. Proper pirouette where you spot and everything. You like a spot where you're spinning that. My head is locked in. I pick a spot on the horizon, bam, and then twist at the last second.

Nice. I do think that was an interesting choice of word, like pirouette. I feel like I still can't pronounce that correctly. Is that just a very British thing? Like you're like, let me just do a purette over there. Is that what you do? These things? Yeah, is that what they all say?

It sounds fancier than spin on the spot, you know? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, we also say, oh yeah, I just did a Rond de Jean the other day. Rond de Jean, or whatever it is. I absolutely know what that is. Absolutely, 100%. I dropped something on the ground and I assumed second position and did a plie to pick it up.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll see me waiting for you on the corner. I'm just in first position. We all describe how our feet are pointing. Thank you to Oscar for this next question. If a professional GeoGuessr player was standing still in a real-life location they'll find it easier than the game in several ways. In what major way is the opposite true that being there for real is harder than GeoGuessr? I'll say that again. If a professional GeoGuessr player was standing still in a real-life location they'll find it easier than the game in several ways. In what major way is the opposite true, that being there for real is harder than GeoGuessr?

Do any of you play GeoGuessr? What's GeoGuessr? Oh, what about you, Soph? I don't play it, but I know of it. Is it that one where you're dropped in a random location, then you have to work out exactly where you are? Yeah. You get, like, you know, you try and estimate

like how far you are from the actual location. It's just like based on Google Maps. Like it'll plop you down and you can move around a bit, but you have to guess like based on the original location that you were dropped, where are you? It's a Google Street View image. You're shown a 360 panorama of Google Street View and you have to pinpoint it on a map.

And sometimes you can wander around, sometimes it's locked in one place, but that's the basic game there. Some people are incredible too. They have like a World Championship series, and the best addict can guess locations within like 20 seconds. It's insane. And they pick up on all these little things, like I was watching an interview with a guy where he says like, okay, I see this telephone pole and it's got these three horizontal yellow bars on it, which 99% of the time means I'm in California, stuff like that. That's wild, yeah.

They're really, really good at it. Have you ever played it, Julian? I have with some friends on like a game night. I'm not particularly good at it because I'm not very worldly, but it's fun. Yeah, you can move around though is like, to me, that's a big advantage, right? Like you can actually travel huge distances and not a lot of time and you can find like a sign that has the county school name on it or something and that'll help. Can you look up if you're like up or down? Yeah, it's you know full 360.

So you can't do that if you're physically there, right? Because can you like, fly? No, you can't fly. You're on street level. Oh, okay, you're on street level. It is just a picture of the world taken from a place. If you're physically there, you would know what time it was. Maybe it's something to do with time, and this where the sun is and I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That makes sense. Or like, thanks guys. I've seen professional geoguessers like know the latitude they're at based on the height the sun is in the sky. On geoguessers, can you zoom on things? Like is that like if a sign was far away, you can't do that. I mean, there's a limit to the resolution, but...

Okay, fair. But you can get... you can move closer to it in GeoGuess, or you can click on the road and keep moving. Okay. I guess if you were there personally, you would know the travel time from, like, whenever you started to get there. So if it's, like, 15 hours later, even if you were blindfolded, like, I was definitely on an airplane, like...

But you'd be able to hear languages and all sorts of things. There's so many ways that's easier, yeah. We're looking for something that makes being there for real harder than GeoGuessr. People lying to you. Like, where am I? You're in Spain. Hey, you are in Boston! Bugsica and Harvard, yeah! The fickle nature of trusting other people, that would make it more difficult. Bugs are gone, have a yard!

Pickle nature of trusting other people, that would make it more difficult, yeah. That's class. Make it harder being there in person. Do you have to stay in that one spot? Can you move about? I mean, you can move quicker in GeoGuessr, probably. You can really zoom around. Let's assume everyone's staying still here.

Right, so game mode where you're staying still, you've gotta stay still. Well, in GeoGuessr, if you got dropped in a road, you'd be fine, but in real life, if you got dropped in a road, you get hit by a car. Yeah, serious risk of vehicular injury. But that's not the answer. I do like where your head's at, though.

You said something earlier, Tina, about looking up and down. Oh, oh, I think we might have been on it where the sun doesn't move in the Google Streetview images because it was taken a specific time and always stays that way, but... or like your shadow? Like, the shadow's always constant in GeoGuessr, but it's not in real life? No, I don't think that'd help. You'd get sunburned in real life. You wouldn't.

I'm just sorry, I'm just thinking in different ways it's more precarious to exist. Let me try looking up and see how I feel. Real tiring, isn't it? How are the Google Street View images taken? What's the process there? On a car with cameras all over it, right? An immediate thing is you can see what side of the road the car is on, the Google Street View car is on, but then that doesn't really wheel it down that much. I think in person you'd figure it out pretty quickly.

Yeah, exactly, then in person you'd figure it out pretty quickly. Yeah, that wouldn't take too long. Okay, the cupboard is the car, you can't see the license plate of the car. But it takes one simultaneous image in 360, right? So everything's frozen in the exact same moment. Whereas if you're looking around, things move about. But how would that make it more difficult? Perhaps phrase it the other way.

What might the Google Street View style of image and that car make easier? What would the car? So cars go on other sides of roads, but you couldn't... they have license plates. You can't see the ground. Don't know what the weather's like. You can't see the ground. What can you see instead?

The bottom of the car. I mean, the license plate usually tells you the country or the state or the... Yeah, but you could see that in real life as well. So what about the Google car? Yeah, as a car goes by. Well, we're thinking, yeah. Can you see the car itself? If it's like a SUV, you know it's America, and if it's like a little Citroen, you know it's Europe or...

Yeah! Basically, that's it. The car itself is the clue. Oh my god, okay! Well, Google uses different types of cars. Yes! Okay. So Google uses different cars for the Google Maps in different countries. It's all subcontracted. It is not the same car everywhere in the world.

So if you'd like to cheat a little bit at GeoGuessr, you can memorize which cars are used in which regions. Oh, and that's why it's specifically the Google car that's used for, rather than just you being there and seeing any random car. Right. Okay. Okay. Hot tip.

I got some for the next game night. If you look down, you can only see the front tip of the car. Might be Botswana. If the car is red, might be Ukraine or Belgium. If there's a giant tent on the back, it's probably Mongolia. Like, GeoGuessr, Crows, and apparently this is a thing, will just have this memorized list of, oh no, it's that country, because that weird feature.

I wonder if in any countries it's just like a guy with a selfie stick running around and you look down and go, oh, oh, there's Tom or whoever. There are a few places that cars cannot go that it's a guy with a backpack, or it's on a trike or something like that and they will memorize all of this. That's a really cool job. How do I get this job? Julian, over to you for the next question. Okay, so this question was sent in by Jane Doe, a surprisingly common name, and Nate. So in 1942, the management at BBC Radio decreed that Bing Crosby's jaunty recording of the

song Deep in the Heart of Texas should not be played for the good of the nation. Why? In 1942, the management at BBC Radio decreed that Bing Crosby's jaunty recording of the song Deep in the Heart of Texas should not be played for the good of the nation. Why? Stepping out of this one, it is a legendary British broadcast story and I am that sort of nerd.

Oh, sorry. Sorry, we've lost one. Gosh. Okay, Tina, it's you and I. Isn't 1942 World War II? Yeah, so we're in the midst, we're in World War II, good of the nation, I feel like,

ties into that as well, like, oh, for the good of the people. Jaunty is making me intrigued, like, what about his recording has made this jaunty and what, like, why would that make the nation not be good? Jaunty mean, like, can someone define that? It's catchy. It's a bit like, ooh, it's a bit veggie. It's infectious, you know? Like, you can't help but get into it. It's jaunty. So you're like, too happy. Can't be happy because it's war.

No. Yeah, maybe. It's more like, I think, like a hat. You'd wear a hat normally when it's jaunty. When you put it on an ankle, it's like, oh, I'm a bit jaunty. It's a bit like, I don't know, maybe Deep in the Heart of Texas, he sings it a bit differently. So it sounds a bit like he's saying something else. I don't know. Or yeah. Nicole Soule-Northam Deep in the Heart of Texas. Do we need to know these lyrics in any fashion? No. Okay. A little waste of my knowledge of Deep into Hard Texas.

The lyrics are not objectionable. That's not why the BBC took issue with this song. Is it war related? The reasoning is war related. So how do you say deep into hard Texas in a jaunty fashion? Is it because of the pronunciation? Deep in the heart of Texas. I don't know how people have done it. Yeah, the tune that goes along with it is jaunty. There's, you know, like trumpets and... Oh, is it because they think that it's time to go fight?

You think that would rile them up. But can you imagine a bunch of Brits like, For Texas! Yeah, for sure. This is for the Lone Star State. Yeah. Was there something in it that sounded like something else? That sounded like a siren or something that scared them? Like, oh, you know that bit that sounds like an air raid siren in Deep Nile? Like with some hip-hop songs that make me think the cops are behind me when they come on.

Yes, yeah. Exactly. There is actually a little bit in that song though. There's a particular part of that song that I would say has something like that. Not sounding like something else, but there's a particular bit of it. Is that relevant in this situation? Yeah. It's not gonna make everybody turn their lights off during the blitz or anything. No.

Okay. Right, okay, this is where I show my ignorance. Because at what point were America really getting involved? Is it related to... December 7th, 1941. Okay. Is when we started, it was when we joined the war effort. Good trivia knowledge. Yeah.

It's a date which will live in infamy. It's Pearl Harbor. Okay. Good American, just general knowledge. Okay, fine. Yeah, we kind of have to know that. We've only got like 200 years of history as a country. Like we better know it. It does not relate to American involvement. It is not. Okay. Good of the nation. The good of the nation. What else has been banned for the good of the nation? Like what is considered not good for the nation in England? Indeed, Kay. What do you find not good? You've got the actual fighting of World War II, right? But what else is happening in England

as part of the war effort? Rationing. The song doesn't just list a lot of delicious meals and people who are awful about it. Like the top of the show. The lyrics are just, Qua-sort, buttered up, deep in the heart of Texas. Loads and loads and loads of butter, yeah. Evacuation, women working. So is it... A lot of working, really. A lot of manufacturing going on. Is it encouraging people to be lazy?

Is the message behind it like, deep in the heart of Texas? Put your feet up kind of thing. Yeah. Nobody does anything here. We all relax and it's great. We just need some barbecue. Yeah. Manufacturing is important to this.

And the song is jaunty. What is jaunty? So you put your hat wrong and then you fall over. You've got a completely wrong picture of jaunty. What is jaunty? Jaunty, so you put your hat wrong and then you fall over. You've got a completely wrong picture of jaunty. Sorry, maybe I've missed so jaunty. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. I just think of a jaunty hat.

Okay, so if people danced to it and then they wouldn't be working because it was such a jaunty tune. Oh, you're very close. Ooh. They just like- They want to move their limbs in a rhythmic fashion. Oh, and then your hands get chopped off, like your fingers get chopped off, because you're just like, oh, whoops.

Honestly, like, Julian, I think it might... Do you want to give it to him? Well, do you know the song? I do. Or, more accurately, if I was just kind of... I can't remember the tune, but, you know, in certain parts of America, if I were just, you know, shouting to a crowd, the stars at night are big and bright. Oh, I see.

So there's a bit where it's encouraged that one would clap and then that would stop people from getting their hands into their work. You are correct, Soph. The BBC banned it because wartime production was so essential. They were worried if they played it on the radio, people would take those moments for the clap break and it would impact production for even just those few seconds. It's just like a brief, the stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas. And that's repeated like six times in the song

and that was deemed unacceptable by the BBC. So they banned it. Wow. Oh my gosh, what a great story. Yeah. It's said you can still spot like a Texan anywhere by doing this, just like Tom did, which is funny. I've heard stories of like wartime spies being caught

cause they're American. Cause when they like cut their food They didn't they would switch hands because that's a very American thing to do So it's it's like that but for Texans. Were they banned tea? Did they ban tea during that time? Never. No. In England?

Why would they even fight if they had banned tea? You know like what's left for them at that point? Tea was rationed in the UK, but there was like a particular part of the wartime government dedicated to keeping tea supplies going because it really was seen as that important for morale. And isn't that just the most British thing

you've ever, never even bloody heard. This question was sent in by Grian. Thank you very much. Max Mustermann hails from Quackenbrook in Germany. Often he has a lot of explaining to do when phoning for a doctor's appointment or flying out to a different country, for example. Why? I'll say that again. Max Mustermann hails from Quackenbrook in Germany.

Often he has a lot of explaining to do when phoning for a doctor's appointment or flying out to a different country, for example. Why? So it's like something to do with his name and his documents, right? It must be. Yes. So Mr. Mustermann in German would be her, right? Her Mustermann. Maybe it's something to do with what?

But then he's going in, the doctor's is in Germany, right? So it's not going to be anything Yeah, like it must be a few documents thing max muster Quackenbrook Yeah, is that is his is the city of where he's from important the city isn't important I think the question might just like the name quack and broke. It's yeah it's a red herring. I do like the name Quackenbrook. So Max potentially short for Maximilian? Or Max... maybe there's a little... Maximilian musterman. It's so long. Yeah. Or Max... I don't know, Maxwell or Max...

What was the exact phrasing he has to do explaining when he goes to the doctor or it makes it awkward? What was it? Yeah, both of those things, really. It's just, his life is more difficult. Does it mean something in German then, must mean? Right. Maximizing something, like max, like a maximum of something. Yeah. Maximum cholesterol.

Yeah, yeah, like something like that, yeah. I feel like it would be hard when ordering like a schnitzel and they'd be like, oh, you want Max Mustard on it? And he'd be like, no, I... But at the doctor's, they don't have schnitzel at the doctor in Germany, right? I don't know how healthcare works in other places. No idea. Not to our knowledge.

You were talking about documents, and I'd hone in on that. It's awkward situations where he has to show documents. Is it because the name is transposed on documents, and I'd hone in on that. It's awkward situations where he has to show documents. Is it because the name is transposed, like, on documents? Or it's like, Mustermann, Max? He is often slowed down at airports, but not outside Germany. Oh, not outside Germany.

No. Is he just famous? Is the name of a supervillain that's on the loose in Germany. And he's his arch nemesis. His min masterman. Yeah. Min, yeah, Min Minimus. Min Minimus.

Yeah, Min Min Minimum, yeah. Next musterman in Germany. Nobody here speaks German, huh? No, no, my partner does, but obviously that's not allowed. Yeah, what are the odds? I mean, if your partner has spent long enough in Germany to have some cultural knowledge there, it's going to be easy. Any Germans listening to this will have got it immediately.

Yeah, but I'm not my partner, I'm afraid, Tom. No, no. She's half German, so I really could use that right now. But it's not about language, it's about that name. Yeah, so that name is like, is it a cartoon character? Is it the name of a cartoon character or the name of a criminal? Is the name of someone? Yeah, like it looks like a joke when he presents documents and they're like, come on.

So they think it's a fake documents because Max Mustermann is the name. That was the name Bing Crosby performed under in Germany. Is it the President? Except Twisty is the President. Deep is the heart of Dusseldorf! So you've got every aspect of this apart from that key bit at the end. What might it be about the name? What is he being accused of or accused of doing unfairly?

Because people like... Forging documents. Oh. Yeah, sometimes. Is it like the German version of Jane Doe where it's just like the stand-in name? Julian, on the previous question when you said this was sent in of Jane Doe, where it's just like the stand-in name? Julian, on the previous question when you said this was sent in by Jane Doe, I had this moment of going, oh no. Oh, that's going to be a giveaway.

I think David's doing this intentionally. He set all these things up brilliantly. There's a meta to the show flow here. You are absolutely right. Max Mustermann and Erika Mustermann, for women, is the German equivalent of John Doe or Jane Doe. Unfortunately, there really is someone called Max Mustermann, and he really does have trouble in Germany because he will call up and do the German equivalent of asking for an appointment for John Doe.

Right, and they're like, yeah, sure thing, 14-year-old who got a hold of a cell phone. Yep. Aww. Hilarious. Poor Max Mustermann. Yeah, sure thing, 14-year-old who got a hold of a cell phone. Yep. Aww. Hilarious. Oh, that's mustermoon. And unfortunate. And those parents, they saw an opportunity and they took it, and I respect that.

Soph, the last big question of the show is on you, whenever you're ready. Oh, big. Okay, here we go. Thanks, Tom. This question has been sent in by Adam. In 1999 BBC News reported that drivers of red and black cars in Cornwall and Devon were much more likely to be stopped for speeding than average. Conversely they claimed that white cars were more likely to be treated leniently. Why? In 1999 BBC News reported that drivers of red and black

cars in Cornwall and Devon were more likely to be stopped for speeding than average. Conversely, they claimed that white cars were more likely to be treated leniently. Why? Take it away, cutie pies. Oh shucks. Alright, and did you say Cornwall and Devon? In Cornwall and Devon, yeah, it's another BBC-based question. Yeah, I have no idea what these towns look like, but are they typical English hamlets? Those are counties.

Hamlets! No idea. Yeah, you're right, sorry, I went on to correcting them, we didn't correctly just drill on hamlets there, so... Is that what we call things? I don't know. I don't know about you, I grew up in a classic British hamlet. That's a type of small town, isn't it? That's a word. No, it's a nice word. Yeah, Cornwall and Devon are counties.

They're big, big areas of the country. Yeah, those are regions. Reg're big, big areas. Okay. Yeah, those are regions. Regions that contain various cities and towns. And they're off in the southwest, kind of out on a peninsula on their own on the southwest. I don't think it counts a peninsula when it's that big, but it's a sticky out bit. I'm just trying to imagine, like, the buildings. Are they white? Are they red and black? Is there... The buildings?

Yeah, like the towns. Like, what do they look like? I mean, I've got to describe Cornwall and Devon here, haven't I? Um... The towns look like average British towns. Typical Hamlets, that's what I said! But there's a lot of little coastal... Like, they're really coastal counties. There's a lot of little fishing villages and things like that out on the outskirts.

But if you're speeding, you're going to be going down the big roads, presumably. Okay. It's in 1999, you said, right? 1999, correct, Julian. Is this around the time when speed cameras started getting installed around the area? Like radar-activated speed traps and that sort of thing? speed cameras started getting installed around the area? You know, like radar activated speed traps, that sort of thing? Like instead of a constable enforcing this law, is it some technology? Is it related to that?

It is not related to technology, no. What colour are the flags? We're football or whatever it is that people like, dare. Yeah, yeah. Cornwall has a black and white flag, and a small independence movement that will spray-paint that flag over the English rows on tourism signs. I see. Hmm. But the cars were red and black if they were more likely to be caught, and white if they weren't.

So I can't see that flag. I don't know the flag of Devon, but I doubt it's Doubt it's to do with that. Your doubt is to be followed, Tom. This is not to do with that. But Julian, maybe think more about what you were saying. If it's not cameras, Who is in charge of this? It's human beings.

Yeah. So that that implies some bias For some reason. Good. Is it, you know, like a white car is easy to spot compared to a black car. Does a white car just look like it's traveling slower? Is that cliche of motors like, oh, this car looks fast when it's standing still for like a red car. I wonder. I feel like it's cultural. It feels like it would be some sort of like cultural thing that happened and they're like, I hate these colors. White's all right, but black or red, you're dead.

Bad. There is, you're along the right lines there, Tina red, you're dead. Bad. Yeah. There is, you're along the right lines there, Tina, with kind of targeting colours. Go on. Maybe they hate themselves. Sorry. Is it that they're using, like, radar guns for this? So they are pointing, they're standing at the side of the road, they're pointing and reading the speed like that, and they're just more likely to hit black and red cars? Like, they're more likely to point at them because they think they're going faster? That's still a bit too much about technology, though.

It's not about the tech at all. It's about their choice. Yeah, some human bias is at play. Yeah. What happened in 1999, like, in those regions? Why not even be due to the regions? It might just be that's the force they picked, I don't know. Okay, so maybe, it seems like from this that being a police officer at the time in that area was a bit boring.

Maybe they were trying to make it a bit more fun. Their jobs. Oh, jobs, oh The cops would buy white cars and they would like race them And so when they got caught by other cops or like the other cops knew the person of the white car was a cop And they were like, oh, that's just you know, Billy. Let him go everybody else You're nicked sunshine. Is that it? Yeah, we've just blown up the undercover, like, pops taking cars. No, I'm afraid that's not Julian, but I like that.

Devon and Cornwall share a police force. It's not two regions. It's not specifically these regions, it's just that's the force. This is tied to one police force doing a thing. And did they, like, make a game out of it? Did you get more points for pulling over a car based on, like, the colour or something like that? Mmm, yeah, I know. Keep going in that direction.

Think about the colours again. Red, black, white. Oh, the Americans aren't going to get this, are they? I don't think so. The Americans aren't going to get this. I don't think this... Well, I don going to get this. I don't think this. Well, I don't know if it's a thing in America. It is, and this is such a quiz question.

Did they get one point for a red and seven points for a black? Why would that be, Tom? And no points for a white because those are the values of the colours in snooker? Correct. It's a snooker-based question. This is style! style, man! I had no shot. Do you, Dean and Julian, do you have any,

oh, good pun, Julian, I like it. I have seen snooker a few times, like on just clips of it, and I'm like, I have no idea what on earth is going on here. It is incomprehensible to me. Yeah, I feel that way about baseball. If it helps, I knew very little about snooker as well. So when I got presented with this, I did a bit of reading around it. Tina, are you familiar with snooker at all? I have no idea. I feel like I'm such at a disadvantage because I have no knowledge of

American history and I have no knowledge of British history. Don't worry, Tina. Next episode is going to be all about your expertise. Yeah, where's the AI questions, guys? Come on. Yeah. Okay. So yes, police were allegedly playing motorway snooker. It was claimed that Devin and his Cornwall police force were playing this game and allegedly they were trying to kind of get maximum points right, similar to how you would do that in snooker, right? It was called a maximum break, I looked it up. So yeah, if you got red and

black, then 15 times and that would mean you get like loads of points, red then black, then red then black. And then you'd go through the order of the other colors, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black. So basically, their focus is on the red and black cars more than the other colors. But then obviously at some point you want to get the other colors. There was one example where this guy, John Emsley, was stopped on the M5. And this is when people start getting suspicious. The M5 is a road, by the way, guys. And when, as it's okay, I can speak American. I appreciate it. I need it.

When this guy was asked why he was pulled over, rather than another car that had been driving at the exact same speed, he was told it was because his Alfa Romeo was yellow. So literally these people have kind of taken the bait here. But at that point they've only got like five or six cars to go to get the set. Yeah, so they're feeling really tense about it. And of course a white car is equivalent to potting the white, so that would incur a penalty. So one driver in the area said that he'd driven his white car for seven years without being stopped amazing it's just like yeah he's like driving straight over the

hump of the roundabout like he's like I'm untouchable yeah so maybe the police did buy the white cars because they knew they would then be untouchable. Yeah! That's what I would do. So well done on making your way to the answer, guys, considering two of you, three of us, if you include me, know nothing about Snooker. We really needed Tom for that one. He was the lynchpin. Oh yeah, and I think that would have been impossible without you, Tom. The very last order of business then. At the top of the show I asked why does Graham regularly go to Beyonce's Wikipedia page,

even though he's not a fan of her music. Before I let the audience in on that, anyone want to take a quick shot at it? Is he in charge of, like, a Wikipedia editor who's in charge of Beyonce's page? Who has to make sure that everything for her is up to date. I feel like people must change a lot on her page, right? Add like queen and stuff. Yeah, and he's dedicated job is going in at me, like, no, she's not the queen of Biaistan or whatever.

Like. No, there's other pages he could have used, but Beyonce is kind of one of the more popular ones. This is the one that came to mind. Well, he's not updating when people die on Wikipedia, right? And I'm sure they have a mathematical formula that calculates age. Like, he doesn't just have to go every time and be like, now she's 57!

Like... Crowdsourced. It's one guy just going through all the birthdays and making sure that nobody's had a birthday since then. I mean, Wikipedia does seem like it needs funding. It keeps telling you that it needs to. It's to pay all the birthday trackers like Graham. He only stayed on the page for a few seconds.

So it's a mistake of some fashion. It's Beyonce. Make sure the page is still up. Yeah, still there. Like the links aren't broken. Is his name Beyonce? His name is Graham Coleman, and this is based off just one thing that he tweeted in

2019. Goes to Beyonce's page regularly. He finds it simpler than trying to remember, hold down alt and press 0233. Oh, there's the accent mark in Beyonce's name. He goes and copies it and pastes it when he's typing. Of course. Yes. Wow. Okay. But then it would be slightly different for... Oh, it's typing. Oh, of course. Yes. Wow. Okay.

But then it would be slightly different for... Oh, it's just stressful. No, I control-shift-V, paste without formatting. Oh, of course, of course. Clearly. Quote, I have a PhD in computing, says Graham. I am a senior accessibility consultant, but when I want to type eacute on a Windows laptop, I go to Beyonce's Wikipedia page and copy paste.

Amazing. Ah, that's great. You're killing your grain. Amazing. Thank you very much to all our players. Let's find out what's going on in your lives. Where can people find you? We will start with Soph.

Yes, thanks so much for having me, Tom. If you want to find out what I'm up to, you can find me as SophsNotes, basically anywhere. Tina. Thank you so much for having me. If you want to find out about what I'm up to, just type in Tina Huang on YouTube and I talk about my life there.

And Julian. It was a delight, Tom. You can find me also on other podcasting places on the podcast That's Absurd. Please elaborate with my cohost, Trace Dominguez. 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 ideas for questions.

We are at Lateral Cast basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast. With that, thank you very much to Julian Hugitt. Thank you very much, Tom. Tina Wong. Thank you very much. And Dusty Vibes. Thank you so very much, Tom, for having me.

That is Sophie Ward. Thank you very much to all three of you. I've been Tom Scott and that's been Lateral.