Lateral with Tom Scott - 49: Completely inedible eggs

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Rowan Ellis, Katie Steckles and Bill Sunderland ('Escape This Podcast') face questions about martial arts mastery, boating back stories and motoring materials. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://www.lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. RECORDED AT: The Podcast Studios, Dublin. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Steve, Mike Salter, Landon Kryger, Patrick S. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a light aircraft suffered engine failure after takeoff, how were all six people rescued by deploying one parachute? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott and this is Lateral. Backwards is line opening the even that laterally so thinks which show thee to welcome. I really really don't like the scripts I get sent sometimes. First on the show, returning from one of our very first episodes we have from the Queer Movie Podcast and our own YouTube channel, Rowan Ellis. Hello! Very excited to be back.

Welcome back. How are you doing? Yeah, really good. I have not been practicing. I have not been preparing. So you're going to get the raw, unfiltered, terribly unilateral me that you got in the previous episode. And it worked so well. We'll have no complaints at all. Joining us for the first time, we have maths communicator, Katie Steckles. Hello. Katie, we go back a while on various projects and things. The thing I remember is you doing a version of NIM in real life and just taking on all comers and not technically stealing their money because that would have been illegal.

Yeah, I mean, so NIM is a kind of mathematical game that has a lot of logic to it. And it turns out if you know how it works, you can't lose. So it wasn't so much of a gamble but it's uh it's certainly a fun thing to get people to try well i'm hoping you can bring some logic and order to the chaos is going to be our guests this week because our third player is returning for honestly at this point i've lost count at this point i think i can also describe you as a fan favorite from Escape This Podcast, Bill Sunderland. I'm here. Welcome, newbies. I've been on Lateral.

I've been here on Lateral since before you were even born. Let me show you the ropes, kids. The man of a thousand voices. And all of those thousand voices are from the Bronx. I've been on every episode of Lateral, including the ones you can't even hear me on. It's me. I'm Bill. I'm back. I'm back on the show. And the character work has preceded you. How are you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It's late here. So if I don't get anything right, that's how you can blame it on the time of day. If it was four hours

earlier, oh, I'd be on it. I'd be getting them all. But I'm, you know, I'm sleepy. I'm tired. That's a fair excuse. I mean, so am I, but that's just a permanent state of affairs at the minute. This show is a bit like solving a Rubik's cube. There's 43 quintillion possible solutions, and absolutely none of them seem to be correct. We're going to start you off with this. A man is in a remote area of Canada. He chops down four tall wooden posts and then does nothing with them. Why? One more time.

A man is in a remote area of Canada. He chops down four tall wooden posts and then does nothing with them. Why? Everyone's got to have hobbies, Tom. This chop-shaming going on on this podcast. This is self-care. Sometimes you just have to take a breath, take a day to yourself and chop down four large wooden posts. I mean, initially, my thought is if it's Canada, then I don't know whether there are any Indigenous communities there that use like totem poles, like whether the posts were were totem poles potentially. So this guy's like a terrible person.

And he was just like, I hate these. Get out of here. Welcome to colonial Canadian history. You know, it's a possibility. We went first with the hobbies, then with the hate crimes. And I was going to say, I shouldn't laugh at that. have i have been to parts of canada with some really dark history in them we we should move on from this and i'll tell you definitively not totem poles i was i was going with like for a reason not just for hatred all right just just to be clear not totem poles i'll

just i'll just cut that one off at the past got it i think because like initially chopping a thing down makes you think of trees and that makes you think of harvesting wood in order to use the wood and the idea of not doing anything with it makes me think maybe it's some poles that were kind of in the way of something like a flight path or you know some wires that needed putting up or you know something well when you mention like canada and trees the image i get is, have you seen those, those, uh, all the images of the, of the border between, I think it's the border between America and Canada, which is like, it goes through long, long swathes of forest and they have to just go and, and they clear it for something like to make it, I don't know, clear who owns what tree, I guess. I'm not quite sure. I can't remember the

reason, but they just, they just chop down all the trees in this long, long line to be like, hey, when you pass this creepy gap in the forest, you've entered Canada. I think it's called the Slash. Let's see. That's even creepier. They just clear cut a huge wide sway of the forest to say, yeah, this is the border. You want to try and sneak in? You're going to have to cross this wide open area

that we've probably got cameras on. You have to cross the slash. That's exactly as creepy as I thought it was. Seems very un-stereotypically Canadian. Yeah, well, maybe Americans can. It's not Canada doing that. Oh, that makes sense. I'm just imagining who got the wood

and whether they distributed it based on which side the trees were on, but any trees that were on the border, you kind of cut it in half and you get half a long each. Actually, I wonder who does the cutting. Do they have to have a Canadian company cut the Canadian side

and an American company cut the American side because they can't cross? Oh, maybe. I don't know the answer to that. I'm just posing the question. And if there's a video from me coming out in a few months about that, this might be where I got the idea from. It's like when you see those bits of shared lawn

where one person just does their half of the lawn and so one's overgrown and the other's nice and well-kept. I did say posts, though. I didn't say trees. I did say posts i could i ask a question i don't know if you're allowed to answer this with the information that you have when you say didn't do anything with it does that also mean like didn't move it from where it fell or just didn't like process it into something i mean i would have been very surprised if he'd done anything other than just let them fall. Okay. So what's a good post to cut? Like, let's get some posts out there. Yeah, is it like some kind of infrastructure?

Yeah. Like a telegraph pole or... Telegraph pole. Good post. Very good post. Oh. Haven't you just done a thing with telegraph polls, Katie? It's this weekend. We're going to go and make a giant sundial out of a telegraph poll.

Basically, just measure where the sun moves and where it casts a shadow. And it turns out the maths is horrible. But we're just going to look at where the shadow is and knock it on the floor. The man in question hated sundials. He was like, we can't let anyone know the time. Cut them down. I worked recently with a long barrow, just a modern burial mound chamber that someone's built.

And it lines up with the summer solstice. And the guy who designed it is just like, yeah, you know, they think it takes lots of computing and tables. And actually we just got up on the solstice and put some sticks in the ground and drew some lines. It was just soar it was. You are right, Katie. It's power poles, not telegraph poles, but that's what we're looking at here.

Okay, so we're back to vindictive. Yeah, is he trying to cut off the power to something? Or if you cut the poles down, does the wire just not drop down and still be connected? It did cut the power. Okay does the wire just not drop down and still be connected? It did cut the power. Okay.

I feel like protest, crime, japes. Those are my three. And what about this question? I know you love protest, crime, and japes, but what about in the context of this question? I mean, it could be any of them, to be honest. Those are actually names for identical triplets in a Disney movie. Perfect. Oh, I wish.

I mean, so crime, obviously, if you're wanting to, you know, cut communications or power to someone. By definition, yeah. It's criminal damage or the Canadian equivalent. Yeah, that in itself is crime. But like in terms of why you might do it, if it was going to be, especially if I feel like with crime, you wouldn't be worried about cleaning up afterwards. You wouldn't be worried about like, I just cut the power to this person's house so i can like rob them or something i'm gonna just clear those out of the way it's not vengeance and

it's not japes and while cutting down was a crime that it wasn't in service of something more uh yeah so he wasn't like cutting the power to a little to a bank somewhere one thing that's occurred to me is if it's, I mean, I don't know if this is included in Vengeance, but if there's like just a really annoying light that's just been winding up and shining in his house and he wants it to go off. Oh, someone's, he's one of his neighbours has one of those extreme like Christmas decorated houses.

And he's like, absolutely not. We got to get rid of all of these. Way quicker to chop down these posts than it is to unscrew all these light bulbs. Remote area of Canada. No neighbours then. So you're in a remote area. Cast your minds to remote Canada.

Why do you not want power? I'm imagining it, but only from episodes of Jew South. Like I've not been there. So it's not vengeance. It's not japes it is desperation so there's something that's electrically powered that's doing something bad could it oh oh no maybe it's not what the power is doing but like is it is it like an sos is it like the canadian grid knows when the power is out? And if one gets knocked,

they're like, oh, well, one of them got knocked. If four of them get knocked out, they're like, what the heck's happening in rural Canada? And they drive up and they find the man. That's close enough. It wasn't quite that. It was cutting off power to an entire community down the line. So they had to send someone out by helicopter, spotted the lines were down, and spotted a guy going, yeah, it was me. Hello, help, please rescue me. Wow.

How did he end up in rural Canada, do we know? He kept cutting people's power and they exiled him. Bad weather in northern Saskatchewan, apparently. Wow. But this used to be a thing in Australia as well. They used to be the telegraph that went across the country. And if someone was lost in the outback,

they would find some telegraph poles, break the wire, and they knew at some point, some poor sod would have to trek out there, fix the wire and give them a lift back. I'm just sort of imagining someone who's lost enough that they can't get themselves home, but they do have a saw and can cut down a pole like that you know. So yes this was a man in northern Saskatchewan lost in bad weather who cut down power poles

so he could get rescued. Each of our guests has brought a question along. I don't know the question. I definitely don't know the answer and And we start today with Rowan. Hello. So this question has been sent by Steve. Soon after the nine story high BBC broadcasting house was built in London, a large loudspeaker was installed on its roof to solve a noise problem for the neighbours. What was it? Soon after the nine-storey high BBC Broadcasting House was built in London, a large loudspeaker was installed on its roof to solve a noise problem for the neighbours. What was it?

Not enough noise. Yeah, I was going to say, a speaker doesn't feel like it's going to solve a noise problem unless it's something like a load of birds that came and roosted on the roof and then they put some kind of bird-scaring speaker that stopped the birds from being there and squawking. Hey, get out of here, birds! birds that came and roosted on the roof and then they put some kind of bird scaring speaker that stopped the birds from being there and squawking. Hey! Get out of here, birds! Get out of here!

Hey! That's a much... If I could hear a pigeon cooing or a big voice be like, get out of here! I don't need birds over here! I'm going for the loudspeaker every time. That is the scientifically proven way to get rid of crows. They're smart birds. You just yell at them in an accent and they just don't like it. They'll understand. No, that's not the answer. Just in case you needed clarification.

I thought we had it. If you look at BBC News now, it's been expanded a lot over time. They've got a whole new glass structure next to it. But Broadcasting House is just a fairly bulky stone old building from get us say 1940s or 50s? I think it was originally radio? I might be out by a decade or two there,

but it was after they moved in from Alexandra Palace. So it's a big bulky stone building in the middle of London. Okay. Thank you. Because I've never seen it. So, big bulky building. big bulky building for the bbc big bulky building for the bbc broadcasting and they say and they think oh okay i'm i'm nearby i'm in london hello it's me i'm in london and i'm nearby and i have a problem with all the noise and they say fine

we'll put a loudspeaker on there this doesn't seem like it solves the problem i feel like if it's a like if there's a building where they're doing tv stuff or radio stuff it will there'll potentially be noise being created by the recordings but potentially not loud enough to wind up the neighbors i'm just wondering what could be loud enough that it would be annoying people nearby. The BBC radio theatre, everywhere they recorded shows was soundproofed. Yeah. Like very, very well soundproofed. Even back then, there used to be audience queuing outside down the street

to go and see and hear shows being recorded, I guess. But I don't know what more. Well, maybe it was the audience that was noisy. Maybe it was the queues down the street. Yeah. If you've got a queue down the street, that's not, maybe the loudspeaker's just like, hey, hey, shh. Hey, people are sleeping.

Hey, shh. It's okay. Shh, quiet. I think it might help you to know that it didn't cancel out any noise. Okay. Shh, quiet. I think it might help you to know that it didn't cancel out any noise. Okay. Yeah, you wouldn't have had the tech to do that. I don't think you've got the tech to do that now. It's not like you can put noise-cancelling headphones on a building.

Well, it wasn't. Not even just noise-cancelling, but it wasn't trying to cover up any noise. Okay. Okay. And besides, you're in central London, so it's going to be noisy. Yeah. Yeah. So is it somehow making the noise less annoying?

Or was it that the people nearby couldn't tune in? Okay, I seem to remember there's something about antennas where if you're too close to an antenna, you can't receive the signal because it's broadcasting outwards from there. Is that true? Or is that something I've just remembered from a completely lying science textbook when I was like six years old? No idea.

But if you're that close to the broadcast antenna, was it that they couldn't pick up the radio that close? So they literally just put a speaker on and broadcast the BBC. No, sadly not. Ah, that is a noise. Because, hey, we're playing lateral. So that's a nice, like, twist on a noise complaint. The complaint is not enough noise.

Well. Oh, is that the complaint? You kind of are there. So the speaker was creating a noise that the neighbours wanted to hear. But it wasn't just the broadcast. It was something else. But it wasn't the broadcast. So had they scared

off the birds that were meant to be there? I don't know why anyone would want to hear the pigeons like they're in Trafalgar Square. There used to be a noise there and they're replacing it with a taped track. No. I started off on that and I sort of lost

faith in my own argument halfway through. I mean, it's not... you're really circling around it. It's not birds. Is there something like the pips or like that they want like a thing on the, oh, because would they do something like not be able to hear Big Ben striking the hour because they didn't want it to interfere with the BBC broadcast. So they had to replace it with something that played Big Ben striking the hour. They had to replace it with a live feed from Big Ben.

Yes, you're exactly right. It was so that they could still hear the chimes from Big Ben. So essentially, when the building was constructed, it was so tall that neighbours were concerned that they'd no longer be able to hear the bongs which chime the time for Big Ben, which is, I love the fact that within the notes of this, it specifies that Big Ben is in fact the colloquial name for the clock on the Houses of Parliament, officially called the Elizabeth Tower since 2012. The pedants are going to come for the Elizabeth Tower versus Big Ben slander. We will get complaints, always. But yeah, so BBC Radio already broadcasts a live feed from Big Ben before its news programme.

So it was basically very easy and simple to put a loudspeaker on the roof and play the chimes at volume similar to the natural strength that the neighbours would have heard before the building was constructed. I remember there being a episode of Captain Scarlet, the kids action puppet series from the 60s, where the plot hinged on someone hearing Big Ben strike 13 times. And the shtick being that they were listening on the radio and they could hear Big Ben and they were, by coincidence, at the exact radius required for the bongs

to be delayed by one second by sound. But the light speed transmission of radio meant they heard... Anyway, point being, that doesn't work anymore because digital transmissions, but it doesn't work anymore because you can't hear Big Ben that far out.

And I don't know why I even mentioned it, but never mind. Yeah, so it turns out that the neighbours had a lot of sway over the BBC and demanded to be able to hear those bongs. And so the BBC broadcast it specially for them to hear the bongs of Big Ben. Thank you to Patrick S for sending this listener question in.

On Wednesday, 6th of March 2019, a decree was enacted banning the residents of a small Bavarian town from shaving or having a haircut for one year. They'll have about nine years off before the same ban is enforced once again. Why? And one more time. On Wednesday, 6th March 2019, a decree was enacted banning the residents of a small Bavarian town from shaving or having a haircut for one year. They'll have about

nine years off before the same ban is enforced once again. Why? How long is the ban for? Like, is it a nine year ban or is it a ban for a small amount of time? It's a ban for one year. Okay. That's the weirdest response you could have given. That's so, it's like, either it should be like a real proper, you can never do this, or it's like, oh, it was just for the day because it's coronation day and nobody shaves on coronation day but a year is too long do you want my bavarian accent so i've had a sort of vague idea and i feel like that fits with it okay which

is that it's something to do with plumbing and that people like shaving and putting bits of hair in the sink was like clogging up the town's plumbing system because it was some kind of old historical plumbing system. And the engineers decided that like a year was enough for it to kind of flush out what was in there. And then it took a while for it to get blocked up again. We told everybody to stop shaving and Johan has ruined it for everyone. So nobody gets to shave. You're're all banned no shaving for a year i will tell you this is a decree and not a law is this by like royal decree is it do you know what i mean like is it one of those sort of religious decrees or royal decrees where it's

not you don't have to do it but it's sort of like if you're within this belief system or if you're going to be supporting this thing then do this yeah exactly it's something that pretty much everyone is going along with but it's not like someone's going to get thrown in jail if they decide to shave they're not going to kick your door down i think if you think about the effect of not shaving or cutting your hair for a year you're gonna have a lot of hair and potentially a beard was it like they wanted more people to have beards and have long hair or like maybe they're harvesting the hair for something oh it's a big hair harvest who needs hair in 2019 and will again in nine nine years afterwards the bavarian hair harvest bavarian there's a there Bavarian? Bavarian. There's a pun there somewhere and I can't quite work it out.

Stunning. They do want people to have long hair and beards, but it's not for harvesting. Does this specific town in Bavaria host the nine yearly annual hair plaiting competition. And they're like, we need models who have the hair and it will be too annoying to have to ship in these models with long hair. Oh, COVID. COVID's coming. They preempted and they really know, they understood that we're not going to be able

to get models in. We simply must plait your long hair hair residents of small town in bavaria it's every 10 years and they are hosting something it's not the hair platting contest but yeah you're actually starting to circle around the right answer here is it like they want because they want everyone to look like a particular person or thing like with long hair and if if they've got a beard then a long beard like oh there is actually there's a really fun fact um about i don't know if it's specific to bavaria it might just be kind of a lot of like that that area of europe uh they they really really love the adams family like they read they play the adams family movies every year at christmas

and but they only care about cousin it it's only the scenes with cousin it so i think maybe that could be they're all it's like a big cousin it cosplay competition so at the risk of getting in trouble for what i'm about to say it's not cousin it but it might be uh someone and some people known for having longer hair. Hippie vibes. The BGs. The BGs. Oh, it's the BGs.

Is it a historical thing? Like, I feel like long beards and long hair, especially on like all genders, feels quite historical. It feels quite ABBA. That's pretty historical. It's ABBA history. When you find out the answer to this and we go back and listen to these suggestions,

they are a lot funnier than you might think right now, given Bee Gees and ABBA. Is it Jesus? Yes, it's Jesus. Bee Gees, ABBA and Jesus. Okay, was it a church decree thing in that case? Like, it's got to be church because we're in Germany, right? Like, we've got no one else can make a decree.

We don't have a German king, do we? So why might it have been Wednesday, 6th of March, 2019? That's an early Easter. That's an Ash Wednesday. Is that the one right before Easter? That is an Ash Wednesday. Okay, we're getting closer. Ash Wednesday.

No haircutting for a year. It's the 10-year nativity. It's a grossly long Lent. It's a big Lent. You've pretty much got it. It's the 10-year passion play. They do a big passion play. Like everyone in the town is Jesus.

Yeah. No, but everyone in the town is a cast member. Pretty much the whole town comes out to be part of this passion play. And so, by decree, they do not cut their hair or shave for a year. With the exception of 80 roles as Roman soldiers. Which there is competition for because they do get to shave. And one little guy playing the baby Jesus. He can be as clean-shaven

as he wants. You know what the passion is, right? Oh, right. It's the passion. I've gone to nativity. That's at the very other end of Jesus's life. Hold on.

Wait. Wait. In Germany, Jesus was crucified as a baby. I feel like a whole town nativity play would be awesome. Just like, you know, hundreds of people with long hair and like a tea towel on their head being a baby. I feel like a whole town nativity play would be awesome. Just like, you know, hundreds of people with long hair and like

a tea towel on their head being a shepherd. And the 2,500 wise men. Yeah. This is... So much myrrh. God, I couldn't get enough of that myrrh. Yes, before we get any more complaints in, this is the Oberammergau Passion Play, a theatrical

production about the resurrection of Jesus performed every 10 years by the whole town bill we go to you for the next question whenever you're ready okay so this question was sent in by mike salter thank you mike the hamburg european open is an annual sports event. Its logo consists of the title in standard lettering overlaid with a single yellow line of several continuous curves. Why does this logo change every year? So one more time. The Hamburg European Open is an annual sports event. Its logo consists of the title in standard lettering overlaid with a single yellow line of several continuous curves. Why does this logo change every year?

Don't suppose you're going to tell us the sport, are you? No. Okay. Is the sport relevant or is it just you're just being like fun and cheeky and not telling us it's quite relevant i feel like we're assuming it's a sport but like you can have an open for like you know rubik's cubing or you know it could be it could be i mean obviously that is a sport but like anything like the traditional sports that we're thinking of well i'm gonna get complaints from

rubik's cubers it's gonna be christians and Rubik's Cubers who are complaining about this one. And the Christian Rubik's Cubers. It's because I feel like it could be, you know, like if it's golf or something, the lines could be like the shape of the course that you have to play. Although presumably that would stay the same if it happens in the same town where there's a golf course, unless they dig it up every year and rearrange all the holes but like something that that changes each year to represent how the competition is different but i don't know why it's yellow in my head it was either the so things that change every year the number of year that it is is one the thing like what katie just said of you know where is

this year or what's going on this year in particular or a throwback to what happened the previous year so like I don't know if it was like the arc of the ball for the winning thing do you know what I mean like that it's just a tradition where they're like okay this is something we reused from last year because they're different they're different every year I would love it if the answer to this is just it's the year written in lines and it's a different year every year. I will say of the things you've thrown out, don't go any further because at least one of the things you've said is very, very close. Okay, so it's got to be like the course that changes every year

or something like that. But when I heard continuous curves, I was thinking it's something on a water course or a river or something like that. But Hamburg does not have a river that... Or like a skiing thing? No, I don't think it's in Hamburg for skiing. Or like mountain biking or, you know, trials riding or something that you drive a route or... I'm trying to like picture it in my head. I'm like, what's a wiggly line? A a worm of course well they said it said curves right it doesn't have to be it could be like a curve could just be like one slightly

curved line well i will say it is not uh one long curved line it is one line made up of several curves so it sort of goes and then changes direction and curves off in a different way. Changes direction, curves again. Okay. There's a bit of a ziggy-zagginess to it, if you will. So what do I know about Hamburg? Hamburg has miniature Wunderland. It has the greatest miniature railway in the world. It has a big old tunnel under the river. I'm just trying to think of Hamburg facts at this point.

Yeah, just throw them out. I've not really got much. Yeah, it's a roller coaster course. It's a train track. It's a river. It's a snake. It's just naming curvy things. And a yellow line as well.

Yeah, yellow feels important. Is yellow important? I was going to say that it wasn't, my first impression, but no, it is. It is quite relevant. So relevant, in fact, that one of my clue ideas listed on this question is the colour of the line is relevant. So yes, it is relevant. Good. So what's something yellow, I suppose, is the follow-up question. The sand, the sun, the balls in some different sports, I guess.

I don't know enough about sports to say if that is accurate. Bananas are both yellow and curved. And curvy. Ooh, it's the national banana competition. Breaking open a new line of inquiry here, KD. It is a sport. It is a sport. Contain within the question.

It is an annual sports event. So 100% down on sport. And definitely some of those yellow, at least one of those yellow things you listed is the correct answer. It is the relevant. Why do I keep listing things? Why can't I just stick to one guess? I can't remember what yellow things you listed.

The sun, the sand, and then a sports ball, which feels the most likely for a sports event, to be fair. Like a tennis ball? Tennis balls are famously yellow. Is it something to do

with the... Because if you're talking about a zigzag, that feels like it's the bounce of a tennis ball or something? Like, is it something to do with the curve of like... Okay, it's the path of a ball

being thrown and bouncing off the ground. That kind of... It is explicitly the path of a ball, but why would that change every year? They just get some... The graphic designer just goes, Oi, intern, chuck a ball. And they're like, bing, bing, bing.

And they're like, that's it. That's the logo. You've got it. You've done it, kid. You're going to make it in this world of ball throwing advertising. It was sort of suggested like something from the previous year. Could it be like the winning shot from the previous year, the winning rally or something?

Yes, you've cracked it. You did kind of crack it. Rowan cracked it early on, but I let you all stew for a while until you knew that you found it. Rowan cracked it early on, but I let you all stew for a while until you knew that you found it. But yes. So it is the trajectory of the championship point from the previous year's tennis event. So the winning rally will be drawn out over the logo up and down curves,

back and forth. Presumably some years, it must just be a single line from an ace that won the competition. A little bit less exciting visually. One year someone wins because of a double fault. There's just a dot on the logo. Just nothing. Well, actually, Tom, that did happen in 2020.

The winning point was a double fault. They used the lines of the two serves and the opponent's attempted return of the serve. So at least it still looked visually interesting. So yes, the yellow line in question is the trajectory of the championship point from the previous year's tennis event. Thank you to Landon Crager for this question. In 1994, after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake disturbed the residents of Los Angeles, people rang 911 about a large, eerie cloud overhead. Why did operators tell callers there was nothing to worry about? And one more time.

They were covering up for the truth, Tom, which was that an alien invasion was happening. They were the cloud seeders. Right, it wasn't because there wasn't anything to worry about, it's because they didn't want the people to know. Yeah, you say earthquake like it wasn't the tremors of an alien spaceship crashing into California, Tom. The kaiju were rising, Tom. Way to be on the side of the government, Tom.

We're here for freedom! I'll update the question. What was the official explanation for why operators told callers that there was nothing to worry about? Because there wasn't. The end, it was fine. It was a cloud. It was just a normal cloud.

It was just a cloud. It was just a cloud, Tom! It was just a normal cloud. It was just a cloud. Just a cloud, Tom. It was slightly rainy. I know Californians don't know what the rain looks like, but they got too excited. I have three initial thoughts here. One is I have no idea what a 6.7 magnitude earthquake is like, whether that's a bad one or a really bad one.

Bad, but not devastating. Right. Okay. The two thoughts that occurred to me was number one it could be a perfectly innocuous cloud like you know a like a sugar factory that got shaken up so much that it released a big cloud of icing sugar into the sky and it was absolutely fine what a whimsical world i know i just just candy floss everywhere um and number two is that i don't know how this would happen but somehow the earthquake had caused the top bit of everyone's windows to be clouded

and that that was what they were seeing and they were all looking out the window and going, oh, there's a big cloud up there, and it wasn't. But those are obviously both wrong. Yeah, because you're right. The explanation for why they said there was nothing to worry about is pretty much just probably there was nothing to worry about. It was a cloud.

So maybe the question is why would you get a cloud after an earthquake? Why would you get a cloud after an earthquake? Yes. That's what you'd hone in on there. Sugar factory. It's the sugar factory. Is it? I mean, if it's... Could there have been, like, volcanic questions? I'm like, are those things connected? That's what they're called, yeah.

Do you know, like, you know, the cloud from a volcano that could have been, like, activated by the tectonic plates moving around? I did not even do GCSE geography. This might be not how nature works. They're definitely related.

Like, earthquakes and volcanoes are the same bit of science. But if there isn't already a volcano somewhere, can you just get one? Like I guess you could open a crack and... Only in a disaster movie

from the mid-2000s, I think. I don't think there's much chance of an actual volcano. Yeah, so entirely possible and very realistic. Yeah, entirely, yeah. Just like that documentary 2012. Yeah. Oh, do you remember when. Just like that documentary 2012. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, do you remember when it was like that in 2012? God, it was so weird. I know. Is it? So when we say a cloud that they were seeing, I'm also assuming that it wasn't like a naturally formed water vapour in the air, water cycle situation,

and it was some kind of... That is a fair assumption. They were seeing something that was not actually a cloud. And not powdered sugar. Definitely not powdered sugar, no. Not spontaneous window frosting. Not spontaneous window frosting. We were so close to that one.

Which is also what you get if there was too much icing sugar in the air. It's true. Yeah, the top of everyone's sunglasses was somehow damaged by the earthquake. And it is California. They're all wearing sunglasses. I mean, it also can't be something like some kind of horrendous gas leak, because then I feel like they'd be like, there actually is something to worry about.

There's a gas leak. So it's not something like that. I also have an image of like, you know when there are wildfires or bushfires, and they'll just like try and drop water from planes they'll fly them over and they'll just drop water and so you might get like so i wonder if is it is it could it also be the remnant of an emergency response someone is like don't worry the cloud's good we made the cloud it's a good cloud it's working for us leave the cloud alone there was even less to worry about than that the earthquake had caused something else to happen was it birds birds are a cloud

we just said take that one just out of context just park that over there everybody called 911 they said 911 i can't hear bird sounds anymore. I need you to come and install a new loudspeaker to play bird sounds into my ears. This is terrible. Now, it's not that, but this is Los Angeles. Right. So they're not used to having that many bird sounds around in Los Angeles. There's different noises, different things that you expect to see there.

Is it something to do with the Hollywood movie industry special effects stuff? All the actors got flung into the air and they formed a cloud of talent rising above Los Angeles. Underpaid talent, I think. The writers too. I did say disturbed in the question.

The earthquake disturbed the residents of los angeles which kind of implies something we haven't quite told you here with that i mean when you say disturbed you mean like quite deeply upset or just like oh that's a noise yeah that's bothering me disturbed by an earthquake other than just like being yeah like literally there's been an earthquake yeah Yeah, and things fall and you hurt yourself and a building collapses and everyone's really worried. I can't believe Tom's making light of this terrible situation.

And also not giving us any clues. People were saying it was a large glowing cloud overhead. They thought it was a nuclear attack. They saw a big cloud and the ground shook and they were like, oh no!

We're being attacked! A glow stick factory. A glow stick factory. Just going to continue listing types of factory. Yeah. Because everyone knows after an earthquake, whatever has been disturbed floats into the air and forms a cloud. Flies into the air. Exactly.

This is basic physics. Have a think about Los Angeles and the weather there and everything. Why would you look up in the sky and think something might be glowing? West coast. Sun sets over the ocean. Makes stuff glow.

Is it just like sunlight coming through like some regular clouds? Dust? Just debris and dust? Oh, we've been a real jerk about this question. You're not assuming that the sun was out. It was night time? It was night time.

That's why the residents were disturbed. And that's why they thought the cloud was glowing. If you're in the middle of the day and you look up and you don't describe anything as glowing, you just see it. It's like the angle, it's high enough that the sun has set below the horizon, but not for the cloud. And it comes up at an angle and lights up the cloud. And they go, whoa, look at that. It's glowing.

I feel like the earthquake has become less relevant now. Who needs an earthquake? It's all about the sun. So, yeah, after an earthquake disturbed the sleep of the residents of Los Angeles, why did they call 911 and report an eerie glowing cloud overhead? So they're not normally awake at that time of night. Is this some kind of like Hollywood studio,

like big lamp thing that like, you know, like they have the bat signal or whatever. I don't know how America works. It was Batman. Katie, and I mean this as a clue, you could not be further from the truth. Was there just a blackout and they were like, stars?

The Milky Way. Look at that Milky Way for the first time in their lives. Exactly right. It was the Milky Way because the earthquake had knocked out the power. All the lights were off and the residents were like, there is an eerie glowing cloud in the sky. That's why it was Los Angeles.

That's what that guy from Canada was doing. I know, right? I just wanted to see the stars. Yeah. That is wild. That's beautiful. So yes, in 1994, after an earthquake at night, 911 operators in Los Angeles had to reassure residents that it's OK.

That's just the Milky Way. Katie, last big question of the show is yours. Take it away. OK. From 1988, why did the German company Kinder have to supply a handful of plastic, why did the German company Kinder have to supply a handful of plastic inedible egg men characters wearing a red hat and large white shoes to every supermarket? I'll say that again. From 1988, why did the German company Kinder have to supply a handful of plastic inedible egg men characters wearing a red hat and large white shoes to every supermarket.

Okay, my first instinct is that this was when Kinder Eggs were created and children are stupid and they were like, let's eat this plastic. And they were like, ho ho, we're the Eggmen saying, don't eat us, you silly kids.

We're inedible. I was thinking it was more when Kinder Eggs were first banned in the US and they were like sending over tiny toys to go next to the eggs so they could package them up. But that doesn't work for every supermarket. It doesn't work for the Egg Men. My first thought was, and I have to say this because I cannot think if I don't say this out loud and clear the image out of my brain.

But my first thought is that they'd send like three of these egg men and like a big, fat kind of aquatic mammal with tusks. So the first one would be like, I'm the egg man. They are the egg man. Oh, and I am the walrus. And then the walrus, I'm the walrus. And now that I've said that and it's purged from my brain, I can finally think. What are we talking about, Kinder, 1988?

All right, let's go. Well, so, I mean, it is related to Kinder Egg, because Eggman and Kinder kind of gives you that away. The Kinder Egg was invented in 1974. So it wasn't just when the Kinder Egg launched. We had 14 years of eggs. Everyone's happy. Suddenly, things have changed, and they when the Kinder Egg launched. We've had 14 years of eggs. Everyone's happy. Suddenly, things have changed, and they roll out the Eggmen.

The Eggmen have arrived. The Eggmen are here. What changed in 1988? I mean, this is Cold War era, I guess. They're preparing for the reunification of Germany and they need Eggman. Berlin Wall hasn't come down yet, I don't think. I think we're a year off, right? Or maybe more for the wall coming down.

Something happened in 89 and something happened in 91, I think. I don't remember anything. Eggman. 1989, Taylor Swift was born and also the Eggman arrived. And they knew that she was going to proceed. They sent three wise Eggmen to Taylor Swift's manger bearing Kinder Eggs, Kinder Eggs, and myrrh. Oh, we're going to get so many complaints.

Who's going to complain? And it's incredible how all of the lateral puzzles from today have been linked in such an incredible way. It's all a puzzle. It's really masterfully constructed. You've put it all together so well. So when you said that they were the Eggmen, you specifically described them as having a hat and boots on?

Red hat, big white boots. Yeah. Is that an emergency service thing in Germany? Like, was that a uniform for someone or like a specific outfit? Or was it just like a fun character? I don't think so. Like, it looks like the logo of Kinder Eggs.

Like, if you've ever seen the... There's a version of the picture of a Kinder Egg that's got a hat on and it's got hands and it's got shoes. Okay. He says as if that's a normal thing yeah no yeah i get it yeah you know just like a normal egg with feet yeah yeah yeah i've seen an egg man yeah um so like the the implication of this question is the reason isn't just

hey it's good marketing egg men their brand it's a brand like there's had to be a reason they were like we need the egg men we have a problem and the only solution is more egg men so yeah why do i need an egg man so the i guess the question is what changed in 1988 in supermarkets oh um barcodes. Wait, what was happening before 1988? remember oh i have no idea why this is stuck in my head just this big like hoarding on the outside of the supermarket explaining that this is now an automated checkout you would get a receipt pointing out what everything meant on this weird like printer till roll receipt versus just getting you know a bit of paper with some numbers on it and i think barcodes were already established to some extent by then, but like these, these new automated checkouts might be not automated like we have them now, but like just like scanning a barcode to yeah. Is that anywhere relevant?

It is relevant. How can that be relevant? What is, oh, now there's barcodes. Get the Eggman. Oh, you can't... You can't scan a barcode on a curved surface. These days you can. The technology's better. But they've wrapped... The foil as well. That's all never properly a flat barcode

or it always gets like wrinkled over. So you give them a flat feet, right? Eggs can't join the army, but they can be scanned. So you give them a flat feet, right? Eggs can't join the army, but they can be scanned. So... Where did that come from? They got flat feet! They got flat feet, Tom! Okay, no, sorry, you had to explain

that joke to me. Sorry, that one's on me. That's my bad. These eggs have flat feet and bone spurs. So, um... Wow. Like, eight years too late for that joke. But, like, thank you. It's coming back round.

He's coming back. So there's flat feet, and that gives you, like, a scanning thing. So you put a Kinder egg in a... You give it little things? No, you put one by each checkout. So when the... I really hope this is right.

If it's not right, we've gone a tangent for far too long for this. But the checkout staff, if they see a Kinder Egg, which cannot be scanned because the technology is not good enough, it can't scan a barcode on a curved surface, they have the Eggman and instead they scan its feet. Please tell me that's right. That's got to be right. That is literally exactly right.

So you said all the things that we needed here so it was yeah so um kinder eggs existed before this but when they started using barcode scanners widespreadly in supermarkets widespreadly is definitely a word um they couldn't scan a barcode and as as you've correctly pointed out barcode scanners in the early days were not nearly as good and they couldn't scan anything on a curved surface so the the eggman which has got i'm gonna have to say it flat feet um it's kind of got a flat surface underneath that's like where the feet are touching the table um and they would put one by every checkout and they were literally chained uh to the wall so that they wouldn't get stolen because everyone thought they're really cool somehow um and you could pick it up and scan

the little barcode underneath and uh the Eggmen are not needed anymore, but they are now a collector's item. I contest them not being needed though, because as someone who used to work in a checkout who had to scan so many cream eggs at Easter, foil wrapping where they put barcodes on the foil will always be a nightmare. And I believe that they should have little cute little Eggmen

for every kind of foil wrapped egg on the market. That's my, that's the hill I've decided to die on today. I just found an egg man on eBay for $160. They are collector's items. Dang. One last order of business then. At the top of the show, I asked, when a light aircraft suffered engine failure after takeoff, how were all six people rescued by deploying one parachute? Anyone want to take a quick shot at that? Was the parachute attached to the plane? Yeah, it's a very light aircraft.

Yes, it was. It was a very light aircraft. Yeah, this is the Cirrus SR22. It has the Cirrus airframe parachute system. And certain small planes now just have a big old, I don't know if it's a button or a lever you can pull, but it deploys a chute for the whole aircraft. Amazing. Amazing. Love that. With that then, let's catch up with the guests.

What's going on? Where can people find you? What are you doing at the moment? We'll start with Katie. I'm on the internet. I have a channel on YouTube and my name is Katie Stuckels and if you search for that you'll find all of my things. I'm just doing all of my usual stuff where I talk about maths in lots of different places. And Rowan. Yeah if you search Rowan Ellis you can find me all over the internet. I mainly

do stuff on YouTube, long form video essays around queer topics and history, and also the Queer Movie Podcast, where we talk about, surprisingly enough, queer movies. And Bill? Yeah, look, hey, if you like lateral puzzles and you want to hear more fun puzzles, we make escape rooms. We have guests come and play them on our podcast, Escape This Podcast. Google it, you'll find it. And that is our show for today. Thank you very much, everyone.

If you want to know more about this show, or if you want to send in your own listener questions, you can do that at lateralcast.com. You can find us at Lateral Cast pretty much everywhere. And there are video highlights every week at youtube.com slash lateralcast. Thank you very much to Bill Sunderland. Thank you for having me. Rowan Ellis. Thank you very much.

And Katie Steggles. Thank you. I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.