Lateral with Tom Scott - 55: Octopodes in trees

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

Rowan Ellis, Katie Steckles and Dani Siller ('Escape This Podcast') face questions about periodic poles, silly signs and iconic icons. 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: Jake Mellor, Christophe Latinne, James Hamilton, Patrick Lind, Dallas. 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

Where would you find symbols representing yes, no, point of view, and sheet of paper? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to the podcast that obeys Newton's third law, because for every question there is an equal and opposite solution! Sorry, I'm being told that needed more gravity. Here to show us our kinetic potential we have, I'm sorry, I don't write this. We start with, from Escape This Podcast, Dani Silla.

Yeah, hi, I'm out, I'm done. How are you doing, Dani? We saw you a few episodes ago. Yeah, I think I'm feeling on. I had a wonderful time last time, as always. And so there's a lot to live up to for all of our guests today. And so I hope you guys can do it. You are one of the old hands at the show now. That sounded much, much more harsh when I said it out loud.

It wasn't intended as anything other than a compliment. What advice would you give to the newer players? Exactly the same advice that we give to people on our show as well. The stupid solution

is probably the correct one. Also joining us back from the Queer Movie Podcast and from our own YouTube channel, Rowan Ellis. Hello. How are you doing? This is your

second time in a few episodes here. Are you getting back into the groove of the show? I'm getting back into the swing of it. I'm heavily relying on the comic relief factor that I can bring rather than necessarily the answers, but I trust in my fellow teammates today. Well, the last one of those fellow teammates is Katie Steckles, maths communicator. This is your second time on. How was it last time? OK, I think, yeah. It's sort of that thing where you think, oh, this can't possibly be right, and then you say it, and then it is. So fingers crossed for that again. Yeah. Well, good luck to you all. Our questions are more inelastic and rigid than the toughest physics exam. We don't give out points here, so I can guarantee you the final score

will be absolute zero. And I'll start you with this. A question sent in by both James Hamilton and Patrick Lind, thank you very much. In 2008, Mikael Reilly made a single basketball shot. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives were saved as a consequence. How? In 2008, Mikael Reilly made a single basketball shot. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives were saved as a consequence. How? In 2008, Mikhail Riley made a single basketball shot. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives were saved as a consequence. How? Was it like a charity event or something? Like a raising money thing or like a sponsored basket throw from like really far away, like some crazy shot out of a helicopter or something?

And then just having that sort of money could then have stuff done with it. It feels like a good first sort of thought area. It really does to the extent that I know we don't have QI collections on the show. The very first clarification note I have here, the very first clue is it wasn't anything to do with raising money for charity. I'm sorry, Rowan.

You know, I had to fill that role for us, the Alan role. It is, of course, a little bit more lateral than that. Was the basketball shot made by throwing a basketball into a basketball hoop? Oh, yes. You know what? I'll give you that. Normally, we don't go in for straight questions and answers, but you know what? I will narrow down the vast quantity of things that are not basketballs and not basketball hoops for you. Okay. So it's an actual basketball shot. That could have been a horrendous comedy disaster movie

where it was like, we need the best NBA player to get this basketball into the volcanoes. Like, let's go. Stop stop you saved so many lives extreme lord of the rings like throwing a rubber ball in like a stopper into something that was about to like spew acid out all over everyone or i don't know oh that's such a good movie though that's so good it's like space jam 2.0 i was about to say that's Space Jam 3, isn't it? That is the final shot. It just has to dunk into the volcano.

And you just reminded us that there has been a Space Jam 2. Yes, sorry about that. Okay, so not charity and definitely basketball. No, and I'm already lost. Outside of it was just such a good shot that thousands of people's morale was lifted that much i'm not sure where to go from here yeah because i guess there's a couple of routes with this one where it could be something very specific like charity and deliberate consequence or it could be

oh yeah the the fates happened to a line and months down the line this thing happened it is is this something like the the shot meant that the basketball game went into extra time? So a load of people didn't leave the stadium for like an extra half an hour earlier than they would have done. And there was something that they would have had some kind of disaster if everyone had left early. Occasionally, I just get to lean forward into the microphone and just go, yes, yes, absolutely right.

It sent the game into overtime. The lives saved were the people at the game. Right. I mean, you've basically got it. Does anyone want to take a... All I'm missing is the actual thing that happened. What was the... Is the date significant? It's 2008. This was Mississippi State playing Alabama at a college basketball game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. OK, I mean, Atlanta, I feel like it's the States, so it could be any natural disaster, potentially, like a hurricane or a tornado or something blowing through.

Yeah, it's a tornado. Really? Simple as that. Congratulations between you all. Yeah, this was a tornado that passed within 200 yards of the dome. Ripped off some of the exterior panels. There is incredible footage of this as the commentators try and work out what's happening. But yeah, hundreds, possibly thousands of people would already have been outside when the tornado had hit, except that shot went in and the game went into overtime.

Oh, wow. That's a real sliding doors thing. If if you just think like if that had happened differently. Yeah. Alabama went on to lose the game. So there is that. We go straight on then to our guest questions. As ever, all of our guests have brought a question. I don't know the questions. I don't know the answers. We're going to start with Dani. All right. I think this one's a tricky one. Let's see what you think of it.

A Malaysian business has a gate containing six differently spaced poles by its entrance. The sign above it has five numbers ranging from 10 to 100. What is it for? All right. So one more time. What is it for? All right, so one more time. A Malaysian business has a gate containing six differently spaced poles by its entrance.

The sign above it has five numbers ranging from 10 to 100. What is it for? I think I might know this one. So I might have to step back. You step back. It's on me and Katie. Okay. I might jump back in if it becomes very obvious and I don't know it, but I think I know it.

But in the meantime, just be the comic relief and the one to push them in the right directions because it's tough, I think. So I'm imagining, like, if you've got six poles, there are obviously five gaps between them and if they're differently spaced, those gaps are different sizes. Maybe the five numbers at the top are somehow related and imagining if it's a gate it's like these are gaps that allow you to check whether something will fit through them but beyond

that i have absolutely no intuition for what that might be so if it's from 10 to 100 could this be like ages of people that seems seems like the kind of numbers you have between 10 and 100 is you have, like, I mean, yes, you can have people younger than 10, but they'd probably be with their parents. You can have people older than 100, but it seems like the kind of number where a designer would just kind of cut off and go, yeah, it's fine. It's above that. I'd sort of be more on board with that if people were vastly different sizes beyond, like you're a different size when you're a child. And then once you're an adult, you're just basically the same size forever, right? Depends how lucky you are.

Well, yeah. I mean, it's like, yeah, I don't know what I would be if it was ages. I don't know what it would be measuring. Like I'm imagining it's sort of a gate of, like, if you can fit through here, then you're allowed in, but I don't know. So maybe it's not, like, not people, but maybe objects of some kind or vehicles. Did you say they were vertical poles? I don't think I did, but they are. Okay. Because I was thinking it might be some kind of,

you must be this tall to ride this, or you must be this old. But again, like age doesn't map to height like that. Yeah. I mean, the numbers don't have to be ages, I guess. They could be percentages or different, you know, model numbers for products or no intuition whatsoever. Are you kidding? For what I thought was a challenging question,

this conversation could not be rolling in the right direction any more than it is. So Danny, if this is what I think it is, I will ask you, when you say it's a business, the type of business is significant, right? Absolutely. Then I definitely know what it is. Absolutely. Then I definitely know what it is. Ah, okay. Okay. So they are sorting people by age into five groups between 10 and 100. Oh, is it like a demographic thing, like to match the population? And while it's not specifically about age, there are some ways that age could factor into this, but it is not specifically separation by age.

Separation by two-digit number. What's your favourite two-digit number? And then you pick one. I'm very interested in what sort of business that's relevant for. Honestly, given Katie's mathematical experiments, there's got to be something there. Now I'm the one who's thinking about a future project. Is it definitely a gate for sorting people?

Yes. Okay. I just can't get over the idea of height separation at theme parks or something like that. It feels like it should be an entertainment business of some kind if you're sorting people like that. I don't know why that just feels like the sort of thing that people would put up with that for. If it's a supermarket, there's no reason to sort people. Is it like a sporting ability thing? Is it like what's your personal best for something and you go with the appropriate,

like your ability level at some activity so that you're then placed against people who are similar category to you? It is not. After having gone through this this gate everyone is going to the same place and doing the same thing after right are they like charging a different amount for each gate ah that is extremely relevant to what is going on here uh your income percentile you pay more if you go through the big gate. Because of all of the fancy fur coats that you're wearing. They just know.

Hold on. Hold on. That could be weight in kilograms. 10 to 100 is roughly. So human weight distribution. Or you could put like sub 10 or plus 100 on there. Like that's the points where you would end a distribution curve and just say everyone under or over there counts as child

or just 100 and over in terms of kilos. And you said Malaysia, right? That's metric. Is there an airline that charges based on weight? That feels like something that Ryanair would do. That's definitely a thing in some places, but that is not what this business is. And you mentioned the idea of having like plus or minuses next to the bigger or smaller ones. There is a symbol next to these numbers, and maybe that will help specify it. It's not weight though. Okay. It's not it's not no these numbers are not weight

however dot dot dot i mean is it a percentage sign like it is like katie thought yes it is you were so right so quickly on that okay so you go up to the thing and you're like okay what percent am i yes and then you go through the appropriate, you know, what proportion of me is. I know this isn't right, but the only time I've encountered anything like that recently was at a bubble tea place that allowed you to pick your percentage sweetness, like how much sugar they were going to tip into the drink.

Like you could pick anywhere from zero to 100% of sugar dosage in there. Okay. If you just 100% sugar, did they just give you a bag of sugar toage in there. Okay. If you're just 100% sugar, did they just give you a bag of sugar to just drink? I mean, it's bubble tea, so basically, yes.

Okay, yeah. Now, I feel like you are honing in on it so well right now that I feel pretty comfortable with saying, hey, Rowan, what sort of business are we talking about here?

Is it a restaurant? Yes. That hasn't helped us at all, has it? Why are the posts unevenly spaced? What possible... And this is a property of the people. Is it probably the people or what they're ordering? This is about the people themselves.

They are walking through this thing, then they're going to sit down to eat. Is it how spicy you want your food? No, it's not so much a preference thing. That would be amazing. It's a property of the people and it's not age or weight. Well, I said that the numbers weren't weight, but it's not irrelevant to what's going on here.

It can't be body fat percentage all the way up to 100. That would be very difficult for someone to know offhand, wouldn't it? Yeah. And also quite unlikely. Is it like how much you're likely to eat? It's also that might be a little bit relevant. I would say the one last bit of information that can be good to like completely solidify this is that the polls, the space that was the biggest gap between polls, that's where the smallest number was. That's where the 10 percent was.

And then as the gaps got smaller, the percents got bigger. But everyone goes through and then once they're through, they all just go to the same place. Yep. So it's the fact that you've gone through a particular one. It's like, it's the fact that they've gone through a particular gap recorded anyhow. They must be charged a different

amount. Yes. Okay, yeah. Yeah. There's a different ticket for each one. So the biggest gap that's got the smallest number on it, are they charged the most money or the least money? They are charged the most money. Okay. Tom, wait a minute.

You mentioned the idea of height restrictions at a theme park. What other similar things could potentially be going on here? Inside leg measurement, shoulder breadth, weight, hip size. All, all, yes. All of these things. Just like body size. Yes. That's exactly what it was.

Is this a buffet that charges people by how big they are? Pretty much. They are percentage discounts. And if you can fit through a smaller gap in these polls you get a bigger discount oh my god that is super grim it's so grim and you two were swirling around the grimness you were so close yeah i just didn't want to admit that there's no way anyone would do that because it's awful but apparently not it seems like like post-covid trying to entice people to come back a whole bunch of places introduced some interesting

novelty deals that were going on and this was indeed one of them there's a there's a place called the heart attack grill in las vegas which is as they are as inappropriate as you could get with everything like this. But I think if you're over something like 300 pounds, you eat for free. And there's a big scale and a big number. And it feels a little bit like that. Oh, fabulous. It also included, look, slightly more reasonable facts. Like the vast majority of people could fit in the 10% gap.

The 100% gap, there was a 100% gap to go through. That was extremely narrow. That was probably so you could put a baby through it. It makes sense that your baby's eating free at least. So yeah, well done. The reason that this restaurant had these unevenly spaced poles by the entrance was to offer different discounts to its customers. Thank you to Dallas for this next question. The Pacific Northwest tree octopus has been described as an endangered species of octopus that spends much of its time in Washington State forests. Since 1998, why have many K-12 school children been told to do a project about it?

1998, why have many K-12 school children been told to do a project about it? And one more time, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus has been described as an endangered species of octopus that spends much of its time in Washington state forests. Since 1998, why have many K-12 school children been told to do a project about it? I'm getting American drop bear vibes here. In what way? In that, that sounds ridiculous. What? I mean, yeah, tree octopus, right?

We're talking about an octopus that lives in the sea in a tree. Like, is it not a real octopus? Yeah, like, is it a project that's not actually about science? It's about, like, redoing your own research or, like, trying to teach children something that isn't

actually true. Is the tree octopus a carrier bag? And they're trying to teach the kids about littering and they're like, oh, it's a rare species of octopus. Rowan, you're spot on. I'm just going to give you that one straight away. I thought this one might go quickly.

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is entirely fictional and kids are set the assignment in order to be taught. Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet. I love that. That's so cute. Unfortunately, what happens if you now Google Pacific Northwest tree octopus? I'm assuming it's a lot of people trying to trick these children into thinking that it is real. And so they've made like a Wikipedia page that people keep taking down and putting back up again and things like that i was gonna say do you find this podcast no you find a very helpful google result that says it's a hoax designed to teach children not to read everything on the internet and take

it at face value oh i like that that feels that feels less vindictive than my option. Yeah, it was set up in 1998 for that and survived a while before Wikipedia got to it and then Google Answers got to it. And now the minute kids are assigned this, the first thing they do is ask the internet about it and the internet tells them it's not real. We will rattle straight on to the next guest question then. Rowan, over to you. So this question has been sent in by Christophe Latine. Chris was going on holiday to Italy. After taking his seat on the plane, an unfamiliar man sat down next to Chris. Before takeoff, the stranger's phone rang.

He answered the call, listened for 20 seconds, and turned to Chris saying, it's for you. Can you explain? I'll read it again chris was going on a holiday to italy after taking his seat on the plane an unfamiliar man sat down next to him before takeoff the stranger's phone rang he answered the call listened for 20 seconds and turned to chris saying it's for you can you explain please tell me that this actually happened to the Chris that sent the question in. It did. Oh, wow.

That's a fun one. Thank you very much, Chris. That's a good one. Yeah, that's creepy. I mean, my first question is, was the phone that was then handed to Chris actually Chris's phone? I was thinking that. Like, did he drop it somewhere and someone rang it and this other guy answered it and they were like, oh, you know, it'd be hilarious.

Oh, you're in seat D7. Well. I kind of did something similar to that once. I was in a pub and I heard my friend, who I didn't think was there. It wasn't my friend. It was a almost perfect voice double for my friend. It was like voice twins. It was perfect.

Like accent, intonation, everything. And my friend did, this was way back, he did university radio, so he knew what his voice sounded like. So I did the only thing you could possibly do in that situation, which is walk over to that guy

and ask him to call my friend and say, hey, this is you from the future. Whatever you do, don't, and then hang up. Amazing. Like, how many times do you get an opportunity to pull that off? It was wonderful. Stunning.

I was going to tell him immediately, but then he posted a load of things on social media. He was like, I don't know what's just happened. If this is someone pranking me, please don't tell me. I live in hope that at some point, I'll be able to make a call to my future self. Like, well, I have to set that up now. Well, it's not.

I can confirm that it isn't Chris from the future future um well that's just disappointing now i know and it's not a prank or someone setting him up for this no do we think that it's someone like particularly external or do we think it's something like specifically about the flight that makes it important i don't know was pilot calling? That's not a thing that happens. Was it like the assigned seat that Chris was sitting in? Yeah, yeah. Something like that. Because, I mean, what would he have heard on the phone that would make him turn around to literally just the guy next to him and hand him the phone? Did they say,

can you put me on to Chris, please? Or did they say, can you put me on to the guy in the seat next to you, please? I feel like I'm trying to work out a magic trick and the one thing I know from that is that magic trick explanations are always really really dull and prosaic

like you don't want to know the secret it's something really really obvious so if I were trying to do this as a magic trick the way I would do it

is I would have a couple of stooges and the person would be unknown to Chris but there would be unknown to Chris, but there would be someone else on the plane who would set all this up. And that's still a prank.

You said it wasn't a prank. That doesn't... It's not a prank, but there are some interesting elements that you've just brought up about who knows who in this scenario. Intriguing. I mean, what I want to know is

how are you answering your phone if it's in airplane mode? Because you're on a plane. But that's just me and my, you know, extreme... They hadn't taken off though, right? He'd just sat down. This must be still boarding. Yeah, they've just sat down.

They're on the ground. Okay. There must have been someone who knew both of them. Like, the explanation I've got, like, the really dull, prosaic explanation for this is that a friend of both of them has seen them both board the plane and sit down together

and wants to make contact with Chris for some reason. But that doesn't make sense because the sightlines don't work. You'd have to know where someone was sitting down. What if Chris is a secret twin, but that doesn't make sense because the sight lines don't work. You'd have to know where someone was sitting down. What if Chris is a secret twin? So the unfamiliar person who sat down recognized them without knowing them. So I can tell you that the person who was on the phone who called up the stranger, Chris doesn't know them. I don't even remember how much it specified.

Were these normal passengers? This isn't secretly, aha, Chris is the pilot. No, these are normal passengers. Oh, boy. That would have been fun. Is the fact that the plane's going to Italy relevant? No. That was a hesitant no.

Yes. I would say for the purposes of you answering the question, it isn't relevant. But when I get to the solution, we might have some commentary. Hold on, hold on. The guy in the next seat didn't say it's for you, Chris. He just said it's for you. Did it, was whoever was on the other end of that trying to talk to Chris or were they just trying to talk to whoever's next to that person in the seat? So the person on the phone is trying to talk to Chris.

Ah, I keep having these moments of insight that are completely wrong. I was going to say, it'd be really cool if it was someone who rang them and was just like, my friend is really a nervous flyer. Can you please look after him on this flight? Yeah, absolutely. Something lovely like that. Like my friend has trouble flying and trouble reaching out to new people. And I've just got this nice arrangement

that when they sit down, the phone rings, they go, it's for you. And that diffuses all the... No, it's not that. Okay, fine. So I will say this person doesn't say, it's for you, Chris. But specifically, Chris is a person i want to talk to and the fact

that chris is sitting next to this stranger is relevant chris is listening to this and laughing like thank you chris but this is um i think it's also worth noting that the conversation that the stranger has on the phone before turning to chris it's not just someone saying hey can you just pass me to the person beside you it's a 20 20 second long explanation. So there is something to explain about what's going on here. Is it, did the person on the phone give a description of Chris? And then the person who was sat next to him looked around the plane and was like, oh, it's literally just this guy here and then handed it to Chris for that reason. No, the fact that Chris is sitting there, the person on the phone knows that Chris is sitting next to this stranger. And this isn't a prank. It isn't a reality television stunt. It

isn't, it's not like the jokes on Chris here. No. And in fact, the end result of this conversation he's about to have will end with Chris's flight being much better than he probably thought it was going to be when he sat down. This is a wild guess out of nowhere, but I remember a story from years back that someone had left a large sum of money in their will to whoever happened to be the last person in the queue at a particular post office at a date and time to be left as a mystery. So they just spent so long in their lifetime queuing at this post office that they just created this weird lottery that at some point, at some unknown date and time, someone would walk into this post office and hand an envelope to the last person in the queue with a

lot of money in it. And I feel like this is the last will and testament of a frequent flyer who knew that seat and sent someone there to go, whoever's there in that seat next to them, they're going to get some money in the will. I wish that was the answer, Tom. It's absolutely not. I think this isn't a clue that's technically written down for this, but I think it's interesting to note

the person who's calling is also calling from the plane. What? I wondered that. I wondered if when you said it was going to make Chris's flight better, is it, oh, does he know someone in first class who's going to pull him up? But you said that they don't know each other.

Oh, there's too many strangers. No, it's that. The person calling is the partner or friend of the person who received the phone call, they're up in first class and want to trade seats. You, okay, so it's not entirely correct, but you essentially get it. It was the stranger's wife asking if he wanted to swap seats. But what's really cute is, it's cute because this is, this clue, the idea of like Chris's flight was made much better

like much more pleasant by this situation it's very cute because obviously chris has sent this in because what actually happened was that the person on the phone was this stranger's wife but she was sitting next to chris's wife in another row somewhere else on the plane they'd gotten talking to each other and realized that their partners were both sitting next to each other. And so she rang to be like, hey, we can just swap seats and we'll actually get to sit with each other for the whole flight.

So the fact it was going to Italy is really only relevant because it's like, potentially if this is like from an American, for example, that was a long flight to just be doing with a stranger. So they had now got to spend eight hours

with their spouse, which made the flight much more pleasant. That's remarkable. I mean, it's no million dollar will being left to whoever sat in that seat, but it's pretty great. Chris is now like, God, the flight could have been so much more pleasant with these alternate answers. Good luck with this one, folks. A large electronic message sign displays, who hates blank blank? Raise your right foot. What phrase goes in the blanks? And one more time, a large electronic message sign displays, who hates blank blank? Raise your right foot. What phrase goes in the blanks? Hands.

Who hates hands? Raise your right foot. I think it was a Jerry Seinfeld bit, you know, 30 years ago or whatever, where he said that when you're mad at someone, giving them the finger is too easy. If you really want to show that you're mad at them, give them the foot. Yeah, but how interesting to get your middle toe to do that. I don't think my toes bend that way. Who hates conventional survey methods? I don't think I told Ben that way. Who hates conventional survey methods?

Okay, so I guess like clues wise, electronic sign, that could be on a billboard. That could be like an instruction sign, something. Maybe an advert for like a movie or a product or something that, you know, it's a fun joke about whatever it is. Just so you're clear, it's two words we're looking for. There's two blanks. I'm wondering, because I agree with you, that sounds outdoorsy. And that would be the sort of thing that cars would go past.

It seems like a terrible idea to try to control whether people are lifting their feet for non-driving safety related reasons but is it something about certain people who drive a certain way perhaps people who put their right foot down too much there we go that's car words i saw that i saw the light go on just there. I drive a lot. Wait, does anyone apart from me in this call have a driving license? Oh, yeah, I do. I just don't enjoy it that much. Okay, okay.

And, you know, I know all the big driving words. I'm pretty sure I explained to you when we last saw each other and were jousting, I am gay and therefore don't drive. So I was very much, Danny, you really were doing the Lord's work here, bringing the knowledge to this call. I'll tell you what, I got a few comments on that video,

partly from people who didn't get the joke and partly from Subaru lesbians. I know, I'm so sorry to them. I really, they do not get enough representation. So, okay, the right foot, is that the brake one or the go one? That's the go one. That's goey button yeah so if you're taking so if you're taking your foot off then you're slowing down you're you're not so i feel like it's like a i mean car crash might be a little

bit extreme for a phrase i'm trying to think what two words it could be like road deaths or you know, wasting fuel because it's more fuel efficient if you drive slightly slower under certain circumstances. Or just who hates speedy boys? Again, I know all the right words for this. I mean, you've nearly got it. It is more lighthearted than road deaths.

More lighthearted than speedy boys. A little more accurate for speedy boys. it's something that a lot of people hate tailgating oh like traffic jams that's two words in my capacity as a mathematician i can confirm like if you're going slower you're less likely to i mean have an accident right fender benders i'd love to put safety first so i always just think about preventing car accidents so now i'm like oh also i guess there are other things to be careful about in cars no i mean that's basically all i can think about i like the idea of like the sort of smaller ones i like the idea of tailgaters and that sort of thing. Oh, you've got something. Is it a speed camera thing?

Yeah, I'll give you that. Speeding tickets. Yep. Okay. Who hates speeding tickets? Raise your right foot is a joke that's appeared on quite a few American big variable message signs, the big LED letter displays over roads. That is one of the jokes that keeps showing up around the US on some of those signs. Last guest question then. Katie, over to you. Okay. A father with large ears and furry eyebrows. A jet with two little clouds. I'll read that again. It's incredible. You're definitely going to need to read that one again. A father with large ears and furry eyebrows, a jet with two little clouds, a large building with four windows,

a club's handle, shaft and face. Why did a US Navy manual contain these illustrations? I just tried to doodle those and they look nothing like the things you described at all. But, okay. US Navy. A father, a house or a building with four windows a jet with some clouds two clouds and uh what was the last one a club's handle shaft and face most of the club that sounds like

is that a golf club that feels like a golf i can confirm that is a golf club. As opposed to a nightclub. Very different. Yeah. My father with the big ears and fuzzy eyebrows looks a lot like a cross between former Australian Prime Minister John Howard mixed with a panda. So that went interestingly. I don't. I mean, the only thing I can think of with military stuff and the word golf is like the alphabet. the word golf is like the alphabet like are they symbols trying to teach people something to do with the like the cool signs or codes or like things they'd have to remember something like that okay i know the phonetic alphabet g is golf we've got hotel bravo hotel yep alpha bravo charlie i'm jumping all over the place echo fo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel.

Welcome to Tom recites the phonetic alphabet. This is deeply enjoyable. Julia, Kilo, Lima, Mike. Could be a dad. Mike. Mike's a dad's name. November, Oscar. Papa, it's Papa.

Papa. Oh, Papa. Interesting. Papa, Hotel, Golf, and what's the jet with the clouds? Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Unifor, Is that a Delta if it's American? Oh, yeah, the Delta Airline. Please tell us we're

right with the phonetic alphabet. I can confirm that this is to do with the phonetic alphabet, and you have correctly paired up the items with the letters of the phonetic alphabet and you have correctly paired up the items with the letters of the phonetic alphabet. What did you just say, Dani? I said the Delta Airlines could have been the plane. Is that right?

That is right, yeah. Okay. But why? Is this like the equivalent of those posters they put up in kindergarten classrooms with the letters and the shapes and what they look like. Like it's just got A, apple, B, bear or something. And this is to help people memorise it? It's kind of that, but it's not specifically about memorising which

letters go with which words in the phonetic alphabet. Oh, that's interesting. Because you don't need to do that because the words all begin with the letter because i was about to say is it if there's like any illiteracy situations but actually yeah that you do have to know the letters for that to work so that to make any sense is it is it just an aid memoir uh it it does serve as a thing to help people learn and memorize but what papa delta hotel golf pdhg oh yeah i suppose that's the next thing that we have to wonder about were these the only illustrations that are bringing forth this message or is this something like all of the letters have a picture and this would be true for all of them and these were just the coolest examples yeah these are four examples of the pictures that went with those four letters.

I thought you were absolutely there when you had the idea of the letters or the words or something hidden inside the pictures, which reminded me of learning Japanese. That's how you learn hiragana as well. Is it relevant that it was the Navy? Like, would this have worked if it was the Army or the Air Force? I think so, yes.

Okay, so it's not like boats, boat related. Yeah, because why do you need the pictures? You can just put the words up. Like, you don't need... Yeah, I feel like I've heard this before. It took me a while to twig that you could just put a list of words up. You don't need yeah i feel like i've heard this before oh it took me a while to twig that you could just put a list of words up you don't need it yeah like unless you're trying to teach people through like that weird memory trick where you you know create cool visual stuff in your head and that

helps you remember but why do you need the pictures so i i feel like if you've got if you've done doodles of all the pictures or if you can picture these things in your mind, that might help. Because they're pictures, but they're not just like any picture. It's a specifically drawn picture of each of these things. Oh, wait. This is like trying to learn Hiragana. It's like you said. He's got, do you say, big ears and fuzzy eyebrows?

Yes. Is that going to look like a P? And the hotel with four windows is going to look like an H somehow? No. Yes. Is that going to look like a P? And the hotel with four windows is going to look like an H somehow? No. Okay, so I feel like if a clue would help, I feel like given that we have an escape room designer, this is something that feels quite escape roomy.

Oh no! I wish my pictures were better! Yeah, slightly weird illustrations is definitely an escape room thing, but this is something you may have come across before i've definitely done drawings of buildings before with their different windows and lights being on and off that ended up looking like they spelled stuff i've done that before but that's oddly specific is it like i don don't know, a map, a key, some code?

Like, I don't know, what else goes into escape rooms and also training manuals? Yeah, what else? What is important besides just the fact that it is, you know, Hotel H? What else is there? Is it like their order in the alphabet, something like that? I think code is probably the right direction out of the things that you just said. Morse. It's Morse code. What?

Surely. Okay. I can't remember my Morse code. I know that E is a... Are the eyebrows a dash? The eyebrows are dashes. The clouds... Isn't H four dots? That is what H is. Oh, wow. So they're pictures that simultaneously represent the letter,

the description of that thing in the phonetic alphabet, and its Morse code sign. You've got a papa that's two eyebrows and two big ears that's dot, dash, dash, dot. You've got a delta jet, which is a long dash with two little dots behind it like a plane with clouds you've got four dots for your windows on the hotel and then your golf club is two dashes and a dot oh is that why it was so important that it was a very big building so the

windows were very small and far away i guess but also hotel you know rather than a house yeah of course ah that's really annoyingly clever. Yeah. So this is like a manual that they use to train and learn these things. And I mean, I can see pictures of the illustrations. They're adorably bad. But I'm hoping you're also imagining them. Yeah.

The last question then is the one that I asked the audience right at the start. Thank you to Jake Mellor for sending this in. Where would you find symbols representing yes, no, point of view, and sheet of paper? Anyone want to take a quick guess before I give the answer for that? Oh, I'm one of those people who's never learned how to use a scanner correctly. So if those would be instructions on the next scanner I use, I would love that. It is technology. The symbol for no is kind of what you'd expect, but the yes symbol is not a tick. Is it a picture of a rock band?

What makes you think that? Because yes is a band. Okay. No. There are other symbols for yes that are used elsewhere. An arrow, a smiley face. What else? Thumbs up. Oh, yes, that's good.

Does anyone know what the Japanese symbol for yes is? You have a cross for no. Does anyone know what the one for yes is? No. Okay, if I tell you that's a circle, does that help? Is that, is this, that's the controllers on a, it's like a piece of paper, it's like a square. Yeah.

And then the circle, the cross, and then the triangle for a point of view. Yes, that is the four symbols on a PlayStation controller. Circle for yes, cross for no, triangle for point of view, square for sheet of paper. Thank you very much to all our players. Let's find out what you're up to where can people find you we will start today with rowan uh yeah if you search

rowan ellis on the internet i will come up i mainly do stuff on youtube long form video essays around queer history and issues and also the queer movie podcast uh where we talk about queer movies danny you can find all our escape rooms murder mysteries all that fun stuff me playing Pokemon blindfolded at consumethismedia.com and Katie I'm continuing

to talk about maths all over the internet so if you search my name you'll find me on various different things and yeah I'm just yeah

nothing in particular to mention at the moment but just you know enjoy maths it's a great subject 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. You can find us at Lateral Cast pretty much everywhere, and we are at youtube.com slash lateralcast for video highlights every week. Thank you very much to Danny Silla. Thank you so much. Rowan Ellis. Thank you for having me.

And Katie Steckles. Thank you very much. That's been our show I've been Tom Scott and that was Lateral