Lateral with Tom Scott - 72: Billy Joel's 'Kohuept'

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Sabrina Cruz, Melissa Fernandes and Taha Khan from 'Answer in Progress' face questions about bricked-up buildings, money misunderstandings and transmuted text. 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. RECORDED AT: The Podcast Studios, Dublin. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: RedCree, Josh, Petar Genov, Freddie Russell, Lorenz Ipsum, Matthew Meek, Allen, Xavier Gouchet. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Spring is a great time to start a new workout routine. With the weather warming up, it feels easier to get into the rhythm of things. Whether you have 20 minutes or an hour for a Pilates class or an outdoor guided walk, Peloton has everything you need to help you get going. Get a head start on summer with Peloton at onepeloton.ca. In the computer games industry, what is FIGS localisation? The answer to that at the end of the show.

My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to this special edition of Lateral, which features questions that were so hard that nobody got them right in playtesting. That's not true. I'm only joking, but I really enjoyed seeing the panic on our guest's eyes there for a moment. Please welcome... It was excitement. I couldn't wait to be the victor. Sabrina saw a challenge. Sabrina saw a challenge and just thought, I can take this. No worries.

As you can probably hear, we have back on the show the team from Answer In Progress. It's always a delight to have you. Thank you very much for being back on. Taha, do you want to start off? Like, explain who you are, what is Answer In Progress? Hello, I'm Taha. We ask questions and then figure out the solutions and document the journey along the way. I am Taha. I said that already. And also we have Melissa Fernandez. Hello, I'm Melissa. Taha, you said that very well. I have nothing to add. No notes. Thumbs up. And Sabrina Cruz, who sounds like she has some notes.

Exactly. And my notes are you did like she has some notes. Exactly. And my notes are you did a great job, buddy. Yay! This is remarkably wholesome. This is great. See if we can tear that apart with some questions. And certainly, I really was joking earlier. I can reassure you that we do not test these questions out on anyone.

It would probably break some law about animal testing somewhere. Let's get going with the first experiment. We start with a question from Freddie Russell. Why does London's Science Museum display a knitted sweater from 1998 that has one plus one equals two in the design? I'll say that again. Why does London's Science Museum display a knitted sweater from 1998 that has one plus 1 equals 2 in the design. Because that's when they solved it. That's when they wrote the proof. They figured out the axioms. I don't have enough mathematical knowledge to keep riffing on that.

I just know I did once see a proof of 1 plus 1 equals 2 that was like five pages long. It's always the simplest things that are the hardest to prove. That wasn't even a joke. That's just someone who's done a lot of research for a YouTube channel. Like, can you fact check this obscure fact from 1894? Absolutely, here it is. Can you prove the sky's blue?

Well. Okay, so it's a sweater from 1988. 1998. 1998. That's the year we were born. Except for Utah. Did we miss you by one? Yeah.

At some point when you're on the show, I always feel old. And this is that point. Let's try and keep it to just one this episode. Just one. Hmm. show i always feel old and this is that point let's try and keep it to just one this episode just just one um hmm is it something to do with y2k no but the date is important okay what happened in 1998 tom it was too easy um hmm so it's a science museum. When I think of a knitted sweater, I think of static electricity, but I gotta assume we figured that out a little bit earlier. Have you ever done static electricity in the dark?

You can see it. Yeah, it freaks me out. I also accidentally electrocuted myself recently. I was going to say, it sounds dangerous. That feels... Well, I was trying to remove a plug from a wall, but I didn't realize that my fingers were on both prongs somehow while I was trying to pull it out.

And I did feel it in the heart. North American plug designs are terrifying. Yep. So you were trying to remove a plug from the wall, and then you remembered, oh wait, I'm not in the UK. That's what happened. We do have, we sometimes have grounding pins.

Sometimes. Not this time. But static electricity in the dark, like take a sweater out of the dryer when it's really staticky and dry in the air, put it on in the dark. Yeah, you'll have sparks going off all around you. Nothing to do with the OnePlus One equals two sweater, unfortunately.

It's when the company OnePlus was founded. The mobile phone company? Absolutely. They were like, it's time to build a smartphone to disrupt the market. They were like, what market? It will arrive soon. So it's at a science museum. It's a sweater.

One plus one equals to 1998. Those are the pieces that were working. Yep. I don't know if this, this feels too late for this, but I know that knitting is a hard process to mechanize. Is it knitting or the other type of thing that you do with sticks? Crocheting. Crochet is really hard.

So maybe it was the first time they knitted a sweater. The correct words in that are first time. It is to celebrate the first time that something happened. It's the first time we learned that one plus one equals two well the use of one plus one equals two makes me think of like it has to be celebrating something that's deceptively simple or british of those two i'd go with british this was a british it's the first time british people learned how to do that i set that one up didn't i absolutely set that one up, didn't I? I absolutely set that one up. Okay, fine.

I'm ignoring Isaac Newton for now. Okay. I don't know anything about the monarchy's family, but was there like some kid in the monarchy who like wore the sweater or was born that year? In a science museum? Yeah. That's true.

Was the sweater itself relevant or famous, or is it more just like it was created in celebration of something that was relevant? It was created in celebration. That's absolutely right. The thing you've all kind of glossed over is it's important that this is a sweater. The first time the British felt warmth. The thing you've all kind of glossed over is it's important that this is a sweater.

The first time the British felt warmth. They've created fire. I'm just completely declaring war at this moment. That's fine. We beat you last time. Did we? I'm not even sure if we did did I was just putting a slam on Canada No, we kind of just backed out

to be honest, we just stuck around until we were like, can we leave? We'll keep you on the money Think more about why it's a sweater We've talked about some of the stuff here There might be Is the knitting part of it, or is it just a knitted sweater?

It's a knitted woolen sweater Oh dolly the sheep tell me more damn so it was the first time that they completed cloning and i guess if it's a wool sweater it's like a celebration of the sheep but like there was a sheep named dolly and then they hit ctrl c and they hit ctrl V and then there was another sheep. That's crazy. The one that they bred in an artificial No. Not an artificial womb. Something separate. I want a different

I genuinely wish that I could tell you more details about Dolly the sheep but I think Tom can. Yeah Dolly was the first cloned mammal, which was a British achievement, late 90s. There's one key

thing you're missing. Why is that sweater in the science museum? It's from the wool? It's from the wool. They killed dogs. No, that's not how sheep shearing works. They sheared them. That's not how sheep shearing works! They shear them! That's not how sheep shearing works, Sabrina.

It's fine. Mentally, I know this, but instinctively, it feels like the sheep needs to die before you can steal its clothes. Yeah, they took wool from the first cloned sheep, Dolly. There was a competition which a 13 year old kid won to make the sweater design and then they made an actual sweater from Dolly the sheep's actual

wool and that is what's on display in the Science Museum. I have a question. Is Dolly the sheep the clone or the original? The clone. Wait, who was the, what's the original sheep? Are they both Dolly? I'm told it was a clone of Finn the sheep, who was not famous because they were not a clone.

This is so upsetting. This is like when the damn Daniel guy got on Ellen, but then the guy who was recording it and did all the jokes didn't get on Ellen. That's what it feels like to me. Taha, we're going to go to you for the next question whenever you're ready This question was sent by Peter Jenoff

During the 1970s, a brutalist concrete trade union building was the first skyscraper constructed by Sofia in Bulgaria No, that's not right Constructed in Sofia Yeah

And let me tell you she's still angry about it to this day. During the 1970s, a brutalist concrete trade union building was the first skyscraper constructed in Sofia, Bulgaria. At one point, people could take a photo from the top nine floors. However, nobody could do so from the lower ten floors. Why? However, nobody could do so from the lower 10 floors. Why? During the 1970s, a brutalist concrete trade union building was the first skyscraper constructed in Sofia, Bulgaria.

At one point, people could take a photo from the top 9 floors. However, nobody could do so from the lower 10 floors. Why? I was thinking no windows. It's just brutalist and just completely concrete. Concrete. That is a really good guess, but it isn't

the right answer. Could it be that there were buildings that were shorter all around it, kind of blocking the view out of any windows? You could still take a photo, though. Take a photo from the top nine floors. Is it because it was all concrete? It was blocking...

Sorry, I'm an idiot. You don't need a cell phone service to take a picture. In the 1970s. Yeah. If it's not posted to Instagram, did it even happen? Didn't even happen.

But there were windows on the lower floors. Yeah, I believe so. To clarify, that means taking photos from within the building, outside of the outside. Correct. Because even if there is another wall on the outside, you can still take a photo of that wall. Even if the view is not great, you can still do that.

In celebration of it being the first skyscraper, they had a wraparound sign at the base of the building saying, this is the first skyscraper. That's very wrong. So you couldn't take a photo from the lower 10 floors. Maybe you couldn't do anything from the lower 10 floors. Maybe they just didn't know how to properly build a skyscraper. So for safety, the lower 10 floors are just a single concrete block

with an elevator going up through the middle so you can reach the actual building so that is it is not the case but i will say that people couldn't even enter the lower floors was it like being used for something like a political thing no the building's use was irrelevant. That's actually one of the things that it says on my question. There just weren't floors on those lower floors. It's just a big empty void with some stairs in it. That's basically the same answer I just gave, and I think that's wrong as well. You are slightly closer by saying that they weren't even any floors they

forgot to put them was it just stairs was it just a whole bunch of stairs so this question describes a moment in the halfway point of the construction did they build the tower from the top down like they opened the top floors of the building first because they built the shell and then worked down from there for some reason? Yes. And it was even more remarkable because it was concrete. So it was a very heavy, brutalist construction. How on earth did that work? Did they eventually finish it later? Yes, I believe so. The building was a 19-storey headquarters of the independent trade unions of Bulgaria,

and it was built from the top down. The... I believe... This is not on my sheet, but I believe the Shard was also built similarly in London. So what, they put the central core up and build out from there?

It was built from the top down. The support columns in the middle were erected first, and then the different floors were built on the ground and then lifted into the air. So the top floors were made first, with the lower floors gradually added later. That's such a baller move for your first skyscraper. Right? The first

one and they choose to build it in the wonkiest way. That's so sick. They hadn't figured out how to make skyscrapers properly. I guess this is how they're made. I believe that the shard was made, they just made the top and then pushed it up somehow.

Oh, wow. This is unsighted. If someone can correct me, that's fine. The producer has just popped in and said, yes, you're right, the first 23 floors were built first. And then pushed up. There you go. Next one's from me.

It was sent in by three separate people. Thank you to Lauren Zipsum, Matthew Meek and Alan. Uplands Airport in Ottawa, Canada, was about to open its new light and airy terminal building in August 1969. However, after a rehearsal for the opening ceremony, it could no longer open until the following year. Why? I'll say that again.

Uplands Airport in Ottawa, Canada, was about to open its new light and airy terminal building in August 1969. However, after a rehearsal for the opening ceremony, it could no longer open until the following year. Why? Classic Ottawa transit. It's fine. They just wait till winter

and just skate down the river instead. So it's in August. Canal. It's a canal. I'll get angry emails from Ottowans because I said it was the river. I think it's because it's light and airy. So people couldn't get in. The weather's real bad in Ottawa. It's pretty far up north.

It could have just been, they've done it before. They didn't account for how cold it gets when they designed it, and then it stopped working. Could it be like their runway? It was just covered in ice so they couldn't land planes on it. Or the opening day rehearsal was so bad

that they needed a whole year to prepare for the actual opening ceremony. They crashed a plane on the opening day. Maybe it was used as a set of the moon landing. Yup, that's it. That's it. Was there something political happening where they just didn't want planes flying

or planes landing? Ooh, there might've been something political happening actually. I don't want to be testing. In 1969, there's a lot of political stuff happening. Like in Canada, specifically. Yeah. Was it anything political, Tom?

It wasn't political, no. Steering clear. I think cluing in on light and airy early on was definitely the right way to go. I'm starting to get in the head of the question writers. I'm like, light and airy is that throwaway thing that they put in there? The building fell over. After you've been on this show a few times, you start to metagame it. It's something I have to try and avoid.

Like, oh, did they write that specifically? Okay, so if something is light and airy, you need to have... Did it float away? The terminal? The whole terminal flew away. It was a big balloon. They got up housed. The aviation engineers were too good.

They built a building that could fly. I would say it's light and airy. And in August, there was no longer any light. So it was very unimpressive. And they were like, ah. You've been to Ottawa. It's not that far north. Was it too cold?

What was light and airy? Was the ambiance inside? The thing that it needed to wait for a whole other year. So it can't be a weather-based thing alone right because the weather would repeat you know i mean okay so if i'm doing an opening ceremony what do i need i need snacks i need press i need a ribbon i need some government person i like how snacks came first. That came first. That's important. So, okay, you need a government person.

No, but it's not political, though. Ribbons, that's fine. There was a... How could we possibly forget the great ribbon shortage of 1969? In your mind's eye, how would you describe a light and airy building? With lots of windows. Did the windows break? Was it like the Concorde went so fast that it smashed every single window?

Sabrina, you've just nailed it. No! It wasn't the Concorde. It was a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, which is one of the big, like, extremely fast jets. So talk me through the situation. What happened? This plane's like, I'm going to go so fast. I'm going to show everybody at this opening day

with all of their snacks that I can go so fast uh-oh turns out physics happens i went a little too fast and then the wind from my speed smashed every single window in this air this light and airy terminal or is it that it also broke the sound barrier it was a shock wave caused by a low level pass if you've seen that shot from the new Top Gun movie, where you've got the guy standing, watching the plane go over, and the roof comes off the building, that,

but for almost every piece of glass in the entire building, and some of the support beams. Oh my goodness. It added $300,000 to the construction cost in 1969, and they had to spend like six months just replacing the glass and patching up the damage caused by the plane.

This is so classic Ottawa. Yeah, everything I know about Ottawa infrastructure, like after the video we made, is like, yep, that checks out. But I don't see what the problem is. Like, it's just lighter and airier. Right. Melissa, the next question's yours. All right.

This question has been sent in by Josh from College Station. So, when Texas A&M University expanded its Kyle Field Stadium in the 1990s, why was a small electronic display installed outside the stadium in front of several plaques bearing the words Reveille? Reveille? When Texas A&M University expanded its Kyle Field Stadium in the 1990s, why was a small electronic display installed outside the stadium

in front of several plaques bearing the word Reveille, spelled R-E-V-E-I-L-L-E. Texas A&M is the university, I think, that's based in College Station. So I feel like this is a current student sending in their local knowledge. Reveille is like the name

of the wake-up bugle call for the American military. That sort of... That piece is called Reveille. Okay. I hope that's the reference. If that's not the reference, I don't know what else Reveille is, but that's why I know it is.

The thing that makes me confused is that it was an electronic thing. Why did they make it electronic? Because it would have to turn on and off? I would have assumed it's a counter that updates. How many times the song is played? So I assume Texas A&M has a big football culture. Of course they do. And just in the South, Southern university football culture does do something else.

They absolutely would just bugle call the entire university at like 6am on game days, just because that's a tradition. That's what we've always done. It's football. You can't mess with the football. So to be sure, like, is Kyle Field a football field? It must be, surely. It's crazy that guy's name is Kyle Field. They extended him.

Yeah, I assume his name is Kyle Field and then they made a stadium. It's the Kyle Field field. Because it would be weird to name it after Kyle and just use his first name. Well, it could be someone Kyle. Like, Kyle's a valid last name. To be clear then, so they extend the stadium, presumably. Yeah. And then is the display inside or outside of the stadium?

It's outside the stadium, in front of plaques. So is it like, it feels like they play it after a win, after something very specific happens. Okay, wait, let's. The focus of the question is why was the electronic display outside of the stadium? And like what could possibly be

on this display? The word. Oh, there could be more on there. Yeah, the plaques say Reveille and then there is... The plaque says the word Reveille. And then there's... Oh, I thought the display said the word Reveille. No, the thought the display said the word Reveille. No, the plaques say... Is it plaque or plaques?

Plaques. There's multiple plaques. Yeah, and then there's a display that says something. Or does something. Wait, so maybe it's literally just a screen to display the game? Or the score? Yes, the display was showing the score. I no longer know what the question is.

I think the question is, the question is what's going on here. After they expanded the stadium, they added a screen. Yes. With Reveille on plaques behind it. No, they added a screen. They added a display outside of the stadium

that was in front of plaques, of multiple plaques that have the word Reveille on it. Why was there a small screen outside of the field? That's what, like, why would they put a... So the military could keep track of the score on game day if they were running drills because they're true Texas patriots, but also love football. I think that's assumed with a true Texas Patriots, but also love football.

I think that's assumed that they're true Texas Patriots. Okay, the focus that we actually should turn our attention to are the plaques themselves. So the plaques that were, there was multiple plaques that the screen was facing.

Oh, okay, okay. So it's as if, it's probably a Hall of Fame situation where it's like, these are the greatest players who have ever played for the team and we want them to be watching the game so they get to see the score. It's like an art piece. Sabrina's getting

really warm. I am. I'm sweaty. Getting toasty. Uh-huh. I have gone through my entire life not knowing what a plaque is It's never ever Come up in a way that's relevant In my life

So I've just not really questioned it What is a plaque? It's like a really nice sign It's like a commemorative sign Yeah a commemorative sign that's like Maybe made of like a stone or something That's engraved with like Championship

2021 She's giving us the answer to take notes i think sabrina got it right it's a really fancy sign it's a really fancy sign but i think you might have nearly got it there because because it's texas a&m and the whole like patriot and military thing is is gonna be a big deal there. Is this like a memorial to military people from Texas A&M? And their names are on there. And so they expanded the stadium, which covered the view from the memorial of the game. the view from the memorial of the game so they set up

a repeater screen so the memorial would still see the game? Yes but not people that need to get a view of the game What? I've watched Gilmore Girls Yale has a dog whose nose they

rub. Is it famous pets? Something like that Louisiana State University has a dog whose nose they rub. Is it famous pets? Something like that. Louisiana State University has a mascot tiger. They literally just have a tiger in what used to be a small cage and is now quite a big habitat because, you know, time's moved on. But, like, yeah, they just have a tiger next to their football stadium, which is, like, bigger than most sports stadiums in the world. It's weird.

But, like, is there a mascot? Is Reveille the name of the mascot? Bingo! They have a mascot called Reveille and Reveille can't see the game anymore because they expanded the stadium, so they gave

Reveille a screen. Yeah. Reveille was into tennis this whole time anyway. What species is Reveille a screen. Yeah. Reveille was into tennis this whole time anyway. What species is Reveille? Reveille was a dog. It was their mascot. Their mascot was a dog. Is it just a statue of Reveille?

There was a dog. They had a mascot of a dog. And they had multiple dogs. Over the years? They had multiple dogs because over the years they had multiple dogs over the years and the plaques were of the dogs that had passed their gravestones are like

memorial stones or something like that for the mascots that have passed oh this is the farm in the sky oh no the thing is, LSU, the one I was talking about with the tigers they have plaques This is the farm in the sky Oh no The thing is, LSU, the one I was talking about with the tigers They have plaques For the previous tigers

For some reason I think it's called Who keeps giving them tigers? I don't know, okay The previous tiger, it's a tiger family A dog is a much more reasonable mascot At least tell me That the living Reveille Gets to watch

the game in person. I hope so! Thank you to Xavier Gouchet for the next question. Yasmin calls a record store, asking, do you have the album from Billy Joel's 1987 world tour? It's got a red cover, and I think

it's called Kohuept. Why does the album have that title, even though it means nothing? I'll say that again. Yasmin calls a record store asking, do you have the album from Billy Joel's 1987 world tour? It's got a red cover, and I think it's called Kohuept. Why does the album have that title, even though it means nothing? Backwards. Let's it in reverse uh backwards it would be to pay or call oh that doesn't sound like anything no sorry sounds more like a word

though it was like to pay or not to pay hmm maybe she read maybe it was the first time that they had a a numbering system like a like a barcode and she just read the barcode instead of the title so this was actually the title of like the recording of the tour album yes it is a live recording billy joel seems whimsical does he it Is the piano there? Does it stand for anything? Is it like an acrostic? Feels like something that would happen like that.

Okay, so was it a vinyl record? I don't know, but it wouldn't matter. The cover would be the same no matter what format and size so the cover bold red cover yes what year was it 1987 i do wish that i could think of any oh well some tough things were happening to people in 1987 blood related red is that when taylor swift was born do you think

billy joel was commemorating unrelated but it was like yes the red album by taylor swift will come out soon i can't take the name red because that's taken by a future artist. I guess I'll just call it a keyboard smash. This is how we learn that Billy Joel is in fact the doctor, and he knew it. Also, Taylor Swift has a whole album called 1989, and I'm pretty sure that's the year she was born. Sorry, Swifties. Oh, I don't know if we can put this episode out.

We're going to get cancelled. Can't tell you, nothing to do with Taylor Swift. I feel like that one can just go out there. Tom Scott's strong Taylor Swift demographic will be upset. Doesn't have anything to do with like a health crisis. No, but the bold red cover does have a meaning. It's just not that particular one. When did Princess Diana go?

Much later than that. 95? I don't know anything about Billy Joel. Can you spell the album name again? Yes, I can. K-O-H-U-E-P-T. Oh, that is not how I thought it was going to be spelled. Wow.

Is it like you mix up the letters to make a new word? Yeah. Can we do like an anagrams? The coop. Pet. Hook. It's not an anagram.

I'm trying to anagram it now. I can tell you it's not an anagram, but I am now trying to find an anagram of copyright. And it was like, it's an album recording. It's a live recording of an album. It's a live recording of a show. Of a show. Okay.

Right. Is it like the name of where it was recorded? Like, is this a town name? No, but where it was recorded is relevant. Is it an acronym of every single town that it was recorded in? Because I know that when they record this, they don't just record the one. No, there's no real meaning

there. There's no meaning in Kohuept. Why would he say things that don't mean anything? The whole point of language is to communicate things. You've hit on quite a lot of things kind of accidentally here. 1987, bright red cover.

Live performance. It was the sound that the crowd was making. They kept... Just the cheering. He couldn't help it. This is when I wish that I knew anything prior to the year 2010 this is where we ask the gen z question i i remember you not getting a vietnam war one last time because it was it was just not um technicolor for the first time ruby red slippers that's more 1930s 1940s

damn it it's all the same to me. Are we not getting this because we are young? I feel like someone of my generation, particularly the generation before, would be much more likely to make a red association with the 1980s here. Communism. Communism.

Communism. And Kohuwept is a really bad spelling of communism You are now dancing around the right area No way Is it like Russian for communism or something? Oh, it's in Cyrillic It's in Cyrillic Keep talking, Sabrina

That's all I had, Tom What is Cyrillic? Is that the Russian script? Is that the characters? That's the characters that a lot of Eastern Europe and Russia use, yes. Okay, so it does mean something, just in a different language? Yes. Okay.

And it just is Billy Joel in Cyrillic. Yeah? Or like whatever the... Maybe it means red in Cyrillic. It's a lot more... It's not quite that metaphorical. Have a look. If you've written it down,

have a look at that. Try and figure out what word that might be because it's actually very close. Piano man! I really thought you had it. Just by the way you were about to announce that. I'm writing it down. K-O-H-U-E-P-T.

It looks like the word concept, but that's... No. Or concert. Concert. Between you, you put it together. Look at that! So it is called Concert, which is more or less the same sounding word in Russian and in English.

It is a concert from 1979 that he did in Russia, having been invited across the Iron Curtain to perform in what was a closed-off space for most Westerners. So he released it with Concert in Cyrillic as the title. So why is Cohoept how it's been referred to? Because we don't, we're not capable of pronouncing, people don't know how to pronounce Cyrillic letters, but they do look an awful lot like English letters sometimes.

Spot on. Latin? Roman alphabet, but yes. Yeah. So when it was being put into computer systems in the Western world, this was way before

we could cover any other languages and people just typed in the letters it looked like. So in the Western world, every database just calls it

Cohoept. This is the most boring name for an album. Right? If you're Russian, you're like, I'd like Billy Joel's Concerts, please.

And they're like, hmm, okay. You just want a concert? That's interesting. Sabrina, over to you. All right. Sam has invited junior stock traders to his New York headquarters. He shows his portfolio on the screen. All 10 companies are displaying green numbers, meaning he's making money. However, one trader looks concerned, even though she doesn't trade in those companies. Why? I'll ask it again. Sam has invited junior stock traders to his New

York HQ. He shows his portfolio on a screen. All 10 companies are displaying green numbers, meaning he's making money. However, one trader looks concerned, even though she doesn't trade in those companies. Why? Because the Sam in question is the world famous crypto scammer. For legal reasons, we have to bleep just a little bit of what Taha said, because right now, as we record this, he's not... Allegedly. because right now, as we record this, he's not... Allegedly. There are certain words that, for legal reasons, have just been bleeped.

Do enjoy that. Very nice man. Is ****** going to sue a small podcast from the UK from prison? Almost certainly not. But you know what? I don't want to take that risk. What's that last sentence? Read it one more time.

Yeah, so one trader looks concerned, even though she doesn't trade in those companies. Why? Okay. What year was this? I'm pretty sure it's irrelevant. This is more a hypothetical than an actual thing that happened. Okay. What year was this? I'm pretty sure it's irrelevant. This is more a hypothetical than an actual thing that happened. Okay.

Do any of us know anything about the stock market? I know a fair bit. Oh, okay. I mean, as in I just, I studied it for a year. All right. That is a year more than I have. This is not financial advice. Yeah.

Buy stocks, all of them. It will only ever go up. Don't do that. Sorry. Taj is getting bleeped this entire time. That's fine. We can leave that in. That's what you're responsible for, Taj.

Oh, no. Someone was concerned because all the numbers were green. I feel like if this was the answer, the question would have said him, but I'm going to go for it. That trader is colorblind and cannot see red and green. It is not about colorblindness.

It's actually a little bit more of a cultural thing. Okay. So I noticed that you said that the person who was concerned was a woman. Was I wrong? Yes. Is that relevant? No.

Okay. So there wasn't like a tech bro bias going on. No. We're really just focusing on these stocks. They all seem like they're green. It's going up. Number go up to the moon? But why concerned?

We don't have the context of the year. We don't have the context of the year, what the stocks are. We don't have the context of anything. Yeah, so in that way, you could just focus in on, like, what few elements do you have? Things go up. That's bad. Thought things go up.

That's good. But, like, he's a stock trader. He's going to know about this stuff. Sam is presumably looking at this and going, yeah, everything looks good. Yes, but remember, Sam has invited junior stock traders who might not be as experienced, and he's invited them specifically to the New York HQ,

so they might be coming from not New York. Right. All these stocks accidentally spell out something. All the stock names by complete coincidence just spell out, this is a scam. Spell out the words, you will die. It's just like a final

destination situation. Oh man, that is a good premonition thing to have. All the numbers and gaps just line up for a moment just to show a picture of a skull. I'm thinking if they're here from other places, then if this is pre-superfast communication, then maybe they're concerned because they've been selling things at the wrong stock price the junior traders because they have delayed information

in like remote areas of the world or something i think that's a fair guess but i wouldn't say that's relevant to this situation yeah or like maybe some of the stocks are like inversely correlated to the other ones i feel like i'm too in the weeds of stocks here um i think that we can take a step back from like imagining the complexities of stocks right that it's not a future straight there's no options she's just seeing the fact that like while everybody else is looking at this at these uh green numbers and they're happy with it for whatever reason she isn't wait they're happy with it. For whatever reason, she isn't. Wait, they're green numbers, but that doesn't mean that they're in the positive. Maybe they're green numbers, but there's a negative sign. Is there a different culture that sees green as being a bad colour?

Is there a different part of the world where green numbers mean that things are going down. I don't know what that could be, but there's got to be somewhere where green is bad luck. I'm just going to give it to you, but you almost have it inverted. Maybe you're colorblind. Here's the thing. So this trader is actually from China where red is seen as a lucky color. So when stocks are performing well, the number is presented in red.

And actually, green indicates a fallen price. So she was just a little bit concerned, rightfully so. Isn't that the reason why... I seem to remember something about emoji on this. Like, I'm literally, I'm going to pick up my phone and check. There is a stock price emoji or something like that. Oh, the red graph. It is a red line that goes up. Yeah, red line goes up, blue line goes down.

I know that's Japan, not China. But yeah, different colours, different regions. Which means there is one last thing to do. At the start of the show, I asked the audience what in the video game industry is figs localisation. Does anyone want to take a guess? Figs is short for figures, and they are localised. So your NPC vanishes as you leave them behind.

So nothing to do with fruit? Nothing to do with the fruit. No. Got it. I don't even know. I like barely know what you would localize figs to. So I... Because I'm thinking localize like regional...

Oh, localizes and like you want your NPC to look appropriate for the region. Oh, maybe. That the game is played in. To speak appropriately. I think Taha, you're right. It's about translation, about moving things between languages. It's when wasps. Fine, sorry.

Oh yeah, that's someone else who learned the life cycle of figs at some point. Yeah. Figs localisation. I'm thinking like menus. Like, I don't know why. Let's come up with an acronym for figs as a group. Shall we? Let's do exactly that.

French. Keep going. French? Italian, German. And? Spanish. Correct. It is the localization of translating things into the main European languages for selling the game.

French, Italian, German, Spanish. Did you just pick the word French out of thin air? We were talking about translations. That was a decent guess. Nice. I was trying decent guess. Nice. I was trying to take the piss. I'm not going to lie. Congratulations to all of

our three players. Well done on a great show. At this point, who do I throw to? Who do I say hello to? Sabrina, start us off. Hi. Welcome to the end of this podcast. If you

are interested in hearing more If you are interested in hearing more from the three of us, you can go to youtube.com forward slash answer in progress. Melissa, what will they find there? You will find fun videos of us answering questions like... Taha, like what questions hello and welcome

to the second half of the end of this podcast and you will find you'll find questions like why do they have fake buildings in your city and why does japanese internet look so weird and if you want to know more about this show you can do that at lateralcast.com we can also send in your own ideas for a question you can find us at lateralcast.com. We can also send in your own ideas for a question. You can find us at Lateralcast pretty much everywhere on social networks and you can catch video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast. All the team from Answering Progress,

it is, as ever, a pleasure to have you. Thank you very much to Taha Khan. Melissa Fernandez. Hello. Bye. And Sabrina Cruz. I. Bye. Not hello. And Sabrina Cruz. I'm sorry.

I've been Tom Scott. That's been Lateral.