117: Dull white powder

Why does Graham regularly go to Beyoncé's Wikipedia page, even though he's not a fan of her music?

The answer to that at the end of the show.

My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral.

Welcome to our partisserie of puzzles, where our clever chefs have been baking up a fresh batch of brain teasers.

Our questions are like croissants, twisted, multi-layered, and sometimes pretty flaky.

But the more puzzles you try, the more you'll get butter and butter.

Here to brush away the crumbs, we start with

data scientist talking about AI, tech, and self-learning on her own YouTube channel.

Welcome back to the show, Tina Wong.

Thank you so much for having me.

Welcome back.

This is your second appearance.

How was the first one?

The first one was in the beginning.

I was like, what are these questions?

No, I think I'm kind of getting the hang of it.

Maybe.

I don't want to say that now.

I not know what's happening.

I think think last time we talked to Soph, who's also on this show, about setting expectations low and exceeding.

Yes, yes, yes.

I think I've expected unexpected.

Always.

What sort of stuff are you working on at the minute?

What can people expect to see from you?

I'm just continuing on talking about AI and tech stuff, basically how to self-learn using AI technologies and how to help people get careers that they love.

All in the YouTube channel.

Very best of luck on the show today.

Also, joining us, we have Science Communicator from her own channel, Soph's Notes, and at this point, a veteran of this show.

Welcome back.

Sophie Ward, how are you doing?

I'm doing very well, Tom.

I feel mixed emotions about being called a veteran, but I'll take it.

Yeah, actually, it doesn't feel right to use the word that we use for like people in combat to be on the show.

I don't know.

Get pretty feisty in here.

Yeah, pretty feisty.

Last time you were on, we said that you were working mostly on stuff that does not appear on the internet.

Is there anything that is heading internet words from you or are you just like I have my private life right now and I'm happy with that?

I genuinely think you'll keep, if you want to know you can look on my Instagram YouTube and things might pop up there, but we'll see.

Yeah, there's a couple of things in the pipeline, but I think, yeah, just

watch this space, I suppose.

I like Tina's thing of helping people find jobs they like, though.

Maybe I should do that.

Well, the third member of our panel, I think, has a job that he likes, Julian Hugitt, science communicator.

And from That's Absurd, Please Elaborate, welcome back to the show.

You sound like my family.

I think Julian has a job.

I'm not totally sure.

Assume?

I don't know how he pays rent, but yeah,

I do love science communicating and the podcast, That's Absurd, Please Elaborate.

I do that with Trace Dominguez, and we goof around a lot too and try and answer the silliest questions that we can get from listeners.

It's a good time.

And thanks for having me back.

What questions have you been working on lately?

We had one, well, with you, Tom, the one I still think about was

what if the moon was actually made of cheese?

And we really got into like the origin of that saying and then what that would imply for like the moon.

And it was quite fun.

And listening it back, I was so blown away because you had like a couple jokes and references that were so quick that I missed them.

Like when you called it a cheese thaw cycle as like a freeze thaw cycle.

You know what?

I wasn't going to cheat my own horn, but I thought that was underappreciated in the moment.

So thank you for that.

That was.

That was.

Because I went back and listened to it later, and I was like, this man just came up with the best cheese science pun I have ever heard and none of us acknowledged it and I come here to humbly apologize for that.

Unbelievable.

Let's move on.

Let's swiftly move on.

Oh, this is getting cheesy.

Yeah.

Tom, as we've mentioned, by the way, is very hungry at this moment in time.

My script is about baking.

Like, we have the croissant fun, and I now have to do the second part of that.

Our bakery is now open for business, and I've tried to make the first question fairly easy, so

don't worry.

Don't worry.

Pro.

You said it like cross-you said it the American way, Tom?

A croissant or whatever it was.

Croissant.

My dialect is always halfway over the Atlantic.

You should talk like

one of those transatlantic kind of like 20s.

Like, our bakery is now open for business, and I gotta say,

you gotta prove yourself.

Big star.

Only one of us in this call call can do a transatlantic accent.

And it is unfortunately from a 1920s femme fatale.

No, 1920s was silent.

Never mind.

Moving on.

Moving on.

Question one, folks.

Good luck.

Tins of tiny dolomite, cotton, and cellulose particles can be purchased.

The contents are spread out in a thin layer.

This helps to determine what.

I'll say that again.

Tins of tiny dolomite, cotton, and cellulose particles can be purchased.

The contents are spread out in a thin layer.

This helps to determine what.

Dolomite, cotton, and cellulose.

So, cellulose being like the plant material, right?

Like the plant wall stuff.

The stuff that gives plants like their actual structure and

shape.

And dolomite cotton.

It's like dolomite is in from the dolomite.

Not the blacksploitation film from the 70s.

Pretty sure there was a movie called Dolomite.

is it rock is it dolomite rock because it isn't there an area called the dolomites or is it uh there is in this case it's it's the rock they they are not specific it's only dolomite if it comes from this region of italy otherwise it's just sparkling rock no

quartz yeah sparkling rock in this case uh i've just looked up it is an anhydrous carbonate material it is calcium magnesium carbonate uh anhydrous yeah no so there's no h2o in it it's a bit like marble is it as if it had anything to do with like the wind?

Like which way the wind is blowing?

I'm imagining like throwing these things into the air and it would tell you something about the strength of the wind and where that's the first thing that comes to mind.

Yeah, spread out in a thin layer and then if it blows

because it's it's giving it's like dusty vibes.

So I feel like

dusty vibes is a 1940s femme fatale from a movie.

Oh, it's me again, dusty vibes.

And I'm just putting my garland icon and cellulos on the ground.

What's always going to happen?

I knew she was trouble when she spread her dolomite out in my office.

I don't just spread my dolomite for anybody.

I'm hydrous is getting me.

I'm hydrous, right?

So

without water, like the water's been...

So then maybe if water touches it, something happens.

If it would soak up the water.

I don't know.

This is me trying to dig out my old chemistry knowledge.

Is it like a scientific application or like agriculture or military?

Yeah, do we have to know scientific knowledge, which we should do as a bunch of science communicators?

No, absolutely not.

Okay, great.

Although, what it's helpful to know is that those are all fairly neutral, inactive ingredients.

When you said dusty vibes, actually, yeah.

Dusty vibes.

Dusty vibes.

Okay, so it's pretty nothingy.

So it's to work out.

Do we mix them together?

They arrive mixed.

Oh, they oh, so they're together already and the ratio of it.

Yeah.

They would like cling to a thing or yeah.

Yeah.

Do we put them in water or is it in the air or just on the ground?

It's in a thin layer.

That was in the question.

It's spread out in a thin layer.

On what?

Thin layer on what is the question.

If I tell you about it, it will kind of give you away.

It will get away.

Okay, but that's that's good.

That's good, though.

That's good.

So we care about where we're spreading it out.

Okay.

On a croissant.

Does it cling to things?

Because is it a flat surface?

Or is it kind of like a clean?

Yeah, you're just spreading things out on a flat surface.

Oh, is it?

No, but why would you do that?

I was like...

Just say it, say it.

If you want to make sure something's really clean, maybe it's like you spread it out and stuff will cling to it.

And I was like, that doesn't make any sense.

But it's to find out if something is...

Or if it's really smooth, to find out if to determine if something's really really smooth and then it'll just slide off i don't know when you say whether something is clean actually that's much closer than you might think for a guess you nearly didn't say so that's nearly there does it help determine some material contaminant

I'm thinking of like at an airport when you go through and they like swab your hands with like the cotton things.

Is it like looking for some sort of chemical?

No, it's just inert stuff.

Inert stuff.

You've hit quite a few things.

I think you just haven't quite put them together.

So let me sum up what you've got.

It is dusty vibes,

and it is used to determine and test something.

Yeah, but that's part of the question, Tom.

That's not that helpful.

Yeah, I know.

Well, you also said which way the wind is blowing, and that's

technically right, but it's a lot closer than you think.

Okay.

Blowing is the wrong word in there, to be honest.

Is it relative wind on like an airplane wing?

What?

Relative?

You ever see wind tunnels where they tape a bunch of pieces of string to the wing?

Depending on your perspective, the wind is absolutely blowing here.

Oh, no.

But you wouldn't.

You and I would not describe this as blowing.

It sounds like something is moving through the air instead.

There's a lot of air moving.

There's definitely a lot of air moving.

You're so cryptic.

I'm being very cryptic because there's one key word that you've not quite got.

We're not testing blowing here.

Sucking.

Sucking.

Dusty vibes blowing.

It tests vacuums.

Yes.

You're determining if you're

winding.

Oh, that was painful.

Oh, my gosh.

When you said which way the wind is blowing, I'm like, that's technically right.

But

I'm going to be honest, Tom, that question sucks.

Yes, dolomite, cotton, and cellulose are the ingredients of of DMT test dust type 8.

And so it is a synthetic dust that you buy.

So it's literally uses as dusty as dust.

Yeah, this is where I kept going.

Like you would, you would basically there.

It is synthetic dust used as a standard test for vacuum cleaners.

I get, yeah, that does make sense, right?

Like the different densities and like air resistance of the materials.

So you can tell, like, oh, if it's sucking up the cotton, but not the dolomite.

Like, it's not as powerful.

And they're not affected.

They're not like magnetic or anything.

You don't worry about any other confounding things.

That's...

You know, I never thought of vacuum testing being a necessity before, but it makes sense.

I get it now.

Each of our players has brought a question along with them.

We are going to start today with Tina.

Whenever you're ready.

All right.

In recent months, David will pass something between his hands, sometimes more than once, when walking in the street.

He does a pirouette on the spot occasionally too.

How has his life changed and what do these actions do?

I'll say that again.

In recent months, David will pass something between his hands, sometimes more than once, when walking in the street, he does a pirouette on the spot occasionally too.

How has his life changed and what do these actions do?

My first thought

is that this is a question written by David the producer.

This is a question.

And it is about something that he is doing.

Or that it's the thing that he'd have to put a random name in, and he was like, what's a name I know?

David moved to a dangerous part of town and now he carries a club with him.

And occasionally, he just swings it round, does a pirouette, spins around

carelessly.

People can come up behind you, Tom.

You've got to spin around.

Yeah, you've got to be ready.

To be fair, in San Francisco, like I've talked to people when they walk at night, in order to prevent people from, you know, jumping them, they kind of act in interesting ways to prevent you from.

You gotta move unpredictably.

It's like I've seen that thing where if you're on a bus or a train and you don't want someone to sit next to you, but it's getting busy, everyone who walks past you should tap your seat and be like, sit here, sit next to me.

And then

no one will sit next to you.

I've been to SF, and if I saw a guy randomly pirouetting, I would avoid him.

Very effective.

Yeah, it would work.

I would keep my distance, regardless of what was in his hands.

Don't think through on that track, though.

That is incorrect.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for walking us down that path and then telling us it's a dead end.

I just have to tell you that anecdote.

Okay.

Is David walking with anyone?

Is he, I mean, you wouldn't say holding somebody's hand is like passing, then like switching hands with the hand holder is...

like passing something between your hands and doing a pick.

I don't know.

My thought was as well like passing like bacteria across his hands.

He's just putting his hands together and it just so happens that his bacteria is going from hard

communicators yeah well yeah yeah we think too granularly pirouette classically a ballet word it could be a ballet he's just is carrying his ballet diploma and then showing it off i do this thing when i walk my dog where like when i come to another person with a dog on the leash or a lead as they would say in the uk i

Hate it because I always have to do like the dumb leash dance.

You know what I'm talking about?

Where like we all have to like zigzag and cross because my dog wants to like be as inconvenient as possible and like smell the other dog and then the legs and then come back and like do you know what i mean yeah no it's like cat's cradle but with leads like you've got you got that yes wait it's a dog wait i have this vague thing in my head that David the producer has actually got a dog recently.

Oh, so it is about David the producer.

So he passes the lead between his hands and then he has to do a pirouette.

Isn't it easy to do?

He has to do a pirouette because the dog will run around and tangle tangle up the leaves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's just easier.

Every time I do it, like crossing the street in front of a cart, I'm like, I look like such an idiot.

Like, wee, my little dog spin because my 10-pound chihuahua is running the show.

Like,

I am so impressed.

I

mean, you know David really well, Tom, right from the beginning.

You were like, this is a real

in the question otherwise, but I did not remember the dog thing until Julian put that together.

Yep.

Yeah, there's the name David.

And it's, yeah, when dogs sniff each other upon meeting, they circle around each other.

They all get tangly.

And then you gotta, like, slop her hand around, do a pirouette.

I mean, that seems a little excessive.

Do you really do that?

Like, you just.

Well, when the dog runs on the other side of you, yeah, it's easier, especially if you're carrying something, to just like spin yourself around to untangle the lead, right?

But then when it meets another dog, yeah, you have to do like the leash shuffle with the other person.

And I hate it.

Yeah, a proper pirouette where you spot on everything.

You like a spot to spin and everything.

No, my head is locked in.

I pick a spot on the horizon, bam, and then twist at the last second.

Nice.

I did think that was an interesting choice of word, like pirouette.

I feel like I still can't pronounce that correctly.

Is that just a very British thing?

Like, you're like, let me just do a pirouette over there.

Is that what you do

these days?

Yeah, is that what they all say?

It sounds fancier than spin on the spot, you know?

Yeah.

Oh, okay, okay.

Yeah, we also say, oh, yeah, I just did a rendezvous the other day, rendezje or whatever it is.

I absolutely know what that is.

Absolutely.

100%.

I dropped something on the ground and I assumed second position and did a plie to pick it up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You'll see me waiting for you on the corner.

I'm just in first position.

We all describe how our feet are pointing.

Thank you to Oscar for this next question.

If a professional geo-guesser player was standing still in a real-life location, they'll find it easier than the game in several ways.

In what major way is the opposite true?

That being there for real is harder than GeoGuesser?

I'll say that again.

If a professional GeoGuesser player was standing still in a real-life location, they'll find it easier than the game in several ways.

In what major way is the opposite true?

That being there for real is harder than GeoGuesser?

Do any of you play GeoGuesser?

What's GeoGuessing?

Yeah.

What about yourself?

I don't play it, but I know of it.

Is it that the one where you're dropped in a random location?

Then you have to work out exactly where you are yeah you you get like you know you try and estimate uh like how far you are from the actual location it's just like based on google maps like it'll plop you down and you can move around a bit but you have to guess like based on the original location that you were dropped where are you it's it's a google street view image you're shown a 360 panorama of google street view and you have to pinpoint it on a map and sometimes you can wander around sometimes it's locked in one place but that is that's the basic game there some people are incredible too They have like a world championship series, and like the best at it can guess locations within like 20 seconds.

It's insane.

And they pick up on all these little things.

Like, I was watching an interview with the guy where he says, like, okay, I see this telephone pole, and it's got these three horizontal yellow bars on it, which 99% of the time means I'm in California.

Stuff like that.

They're really, really good at it.

Have you ever played it, Julian?

I have with some friends on like a game night.

I'm not particularly good at it because I'm not very worldly, worldly, but it's fun.

Yeah, you can move around though, is like, to me, that's a big advantage, right?

Like you can actually travel huge distances in not a lot of time and you can find like a sign that has the county school name on it or something and that'll help.

Can you look up if you're like up or down?

Yeah, it's you know full 360.

So you can't do that

if you're physically there, right?

Because you can you like fly it?

No, you can't fly.

You're on street level.

Oh, okay.

You're on street level.

It is just a picture of the world taken from a place.

If you're physically there, you would know what time it was.

Maybe it's something to do with time and like this where the sun is.

And I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

That makes sense.

Or like...

I've seen professional geo guessers like know the latitude they're at based on the height the sun is in the sky.

On geo guesser, can you can you zoom?

Zoom on things?

Like, is that like if a sign was far away, you can't do that.

I mean, there's a limit to the resolution, but okay, fair.

But you can move closer to it in GeoGuesser.

You can click on the road and keep moving.

I guess if you were there personally, you would know the travel time from whenever you started till you got there.

So if it's like 15 hours later, even if you were blindfolded, like I was definitely on an airplane.

But you'd be able to hear languages and all sorts of tricks.

There's so many ways that's easier, yeah.

We're looking for something that makes being there for real harder than GeoGasa.

People lying to you.

Like, where am I?

You're in Spain.

You are in Boston.

Percy can't have a job.

The fickle nature of trust in other people.

That would make it more difficult.

Yeah, that's class.

Make it harder being there in person.

Do you have to stay in that one spot?

Can you move about?

I mean, you can move quicker in Geogassa, probably.

You can really zoom around.

No, let's assume everyone's standing still here.

So game mode where you stand still, you've got to stay still.

Well, in Geogassa, if you got dropped in a road, you'd be fine.

But in real life, if you got dropped in a road, you'd get hit by a car.

Serious risk of vehicular injury.

But that's not the answer.

I do like where your head's at, though.

You said something earlier, Tina, about looking up and down.

Oh, oh, I think we might have been on it where

sun doesn't move in the Google Street View images because it was taken a specific time and always stays that way.

But

or like your shadow?

Like, the shadow is always constant in GeoGuesser, but it's not in real life.

No, I don't think that'd help.

You'd get sunburned in real life.

You wouldn't.

Sorry, I'm just thinking of different ways it's more precarious to exist.

Let me try looking up and see how I feel.

Real tiring, isn't it?

How are the Google Street View images taken?

What's the process there?

On a car with cameras all over it, right?

An immediate thing is you can see what side of the road the car is on.

The Google Street View car is on, but then that doesn't really wheel it down that much.

I think in person you'd figure it out pretty quickly.

And then in person, you'd figure that out pretty quickly.

Yeah, it wouldn't take too long.

Okay, the car, but does the car, you can't see the license plate of the car.

But it takes one simultaneous image in 360, right?

So everything's frozen in the exact same moment.

Whereas if you're looking around, things move about.

But how would that make it more difficult?

Perhaps phrase it the other way.

What might the Google Street View style of image and that car make easier?

What would the car...

So cars go on other sides of roads, but you can...

They have license plates.

You can't see the ground.

Don't know what the weather is like.

You can't see the ground.

What can you see instead?

The bottom of the car.

I mean, the license plate usually tells you the country or the state or the...

Yeah, but you could see that in real life as well so what about the Google car yeah as a car goes by well we're thinking yeah

if you see the car itself if it's like a SUV you know it's America and if it's like a little Citroen you know it's Europe or yeah basically that's it the car itself is the clue oh my god okay well Google uses different types of cars yes okay

so Google uses different cars for the Google Maps in different countries it's all subcontracted it is not the same car everywhere in the world.

So if you'd like to cheat a little bit at GeoGuesser, you can memorize which cars are used in which regions.

Oh, and that's why it's specifically the Google car that's useful rather than just you being there and seeing any random cars.

Right.

Yep.

Okay.

Okay.

Hot tip.

I got some for the next game night.

If you look down, you can only see the front tip of the car, might be Botswana.

If the car is red, it might be Ukraine or Belgium.

If there's a giant tent on the back, it's probably Mongolia.

Like, GeoS crows, and apparently, this is a thing, will just have this memorized list of oh no, it's that country because that

weird feature.

I wonder if in any countries it's just like a guy with a selfie stick running around, and you look at it.

Yes, it is.

Oh, there's Tara or whatever.

There are a few places that cars cannot go that it's a guy with a backpack or it's on a trike or something like that, and they will memorize all of this.

That's so cool.

That's a really cool job.

How do I get this job?

Julian, over to you for the next question.

Okay, so this question was sent in by Jane Doe, a surprisingly common name, and Nate.

So, in 1942, the management at BBC Radio decreed that Bing Crosby's jaunty recording of the song Deep in the Heart of Texas should not be played for the good of the nation.

Why?

In 1942, the management at BBC Radio decreed that Bing Crosby's jaunty recording of the song Deep in the Heart of Texas should not be played for the good of the nation.

Why?

Stepping out of this one, it is a legendary British broadcast story, and I am that sort of nerd.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry, we've lost one.

Gosh.

Okay, Tina.

It's in 1942, World War II.

Yeah, so

we're in World War II.

Good of the nation, I feel like, ties into that as well.

Like, oh, for the good of good of the people, jaunty is making me intrigued.

Like, what about his recording has made this jaunty and what, like, why would that make the nation not be good?

Jaunty mean, like, get someone to find

it's catchy, it's a bit like, ooh, it's a bit veggie, it's infectious, you know, like you, you can't help but, like, get into it.

It's jaunty.

So, you're like, too happy, can't be happy because it's war.

No, yeah, maybe it's more like, I think, like, like a hat.

You'd wear a hat normally when it's jaunty.

It's when you put it on an ankle.

It's like, ooh, a bit

jaunty.

Like it's a bit like, I don't know.

Maybe deep in the heart of Texas, he sings it a bit differently.

So it sounds a bit like he's saying something else.

I don't know.

Or, yeah.

Deep in the heart of Texas, do we need to know these lyrics in any fashion?

No.

Okay.

Not a waste of my knowledge of deep in the heart of the world.

The lyrics are not objectionable.

that's not uh why the bbc took issue with this song is it war related the reasoning is war related so how do you say deep into heart of texas in a jaunty fashion is it because of the pronunciation deep in the heart of texas

i don't know how big we'll have done it

yeah the tune that goes along with it is jaunty

there's you know like trumpets and oh is it because they think that it's time to go fight

You think that would rile them up?

But can you imagine a bunch of Brits like, for Texas?

This is for the lone star state.

Yeah.

Was there something in it that sounded like something else, that sounded like a siren or a like someone scared them?

Like, oh, you know, that bit that sounds like an air raid siren indeed.

Yeah, it's like that.

Like with some hip-hop songs that make me think the cops are behind me when they come on.

Yeah, exactly.

There is actually a little bit in that song, though.

There's a particular part of that song that

I would say has something like that.

Not sounding like something else, but there's a particular bit of it.

Is that relevant in this situation?

It's not going to make everybody turn their lights off during the Blitz or anything.

No.

Okay.

Right, okay, this is where I...

show my ignorance.

Because at what point were America really getting involved?

Is it related to...

December 7th, 1941.

Okay.

Is when we started, it was when we joined joined the war effort.

Good trivia knowledge.

Yeah.

So a date which will live in infamy.

It's Pearl Harbor.

Okay.

Good American, just general knowledge.

Okay, fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We kind of have to know that.

We've only got like 200 years of history as a country.

Like, we better know it.

It's not related to America's involvement.

It is not.

Okay.

Good of the nation.

The good of the nation.

What else has been banned for the good of the nation?

Like, what is considered not good for the nation

in England, in the UK?

What do you find not good?

You've got the actual fighting of World War II, right?

But what else is happening in England as part of the war effort?

Rationing.

The song doesn't just list a load of delicious meals and people

from the middle.

Like the top of the show.

The lyrics are just croissant, but

in the heart of Texas.

Loads and loads and loads of butter.

Yeah.

Evacuation,

women working.

So is it...

a lot of working, really?

A lot of manufacturing going on.

Is it encouraging people to be lazy?

Is the message behind it like deep in the heart of Texas?

Put your feet up, kind of thing.

Yeah, nobody does anything here.

We all relax and it's great.

We just need some barbecue.

Yeah.

Manufacturing is important to this, and the song is jaunty.

What is jaunty, like jaunty?

So you put your hat wrong and then you fall.

You've got a completely wrong picture of Jaunty.

Yeah, sorry, maybe I've missed jaunty.

Yes, sorry.

I just think of a jaunty hat.

Okay, so, well, what if people dance?

Would people dance to it and then they wouldn't be working because it was such a jaunty tune?

Oh, you're very close.

Ooh.

They just like move their limbs in a rhythm.

Oh, and then your hands get chopped off.

Like, your fingers get chopped off because you're just like, oh, whoops.

Honestly, like, Julie, I think it might be.

Do you want to give it to him?

Or do you know the song?

Or more accurately, if I was just kind of, I can't remember the tune, but you know, in certain parts of America, if I would just, you know, shout into a crowd, the stars at night are big and bright.

Oh, I see.

So there's a bit where it's encouraged that one would clap, and then that would stop people from getting their hands into their work.

You are correct, Soph.

The BBC banned it because wartime production was so essential.

They were worried if they played it on the radio, people would take those moments for the clap break break and it would in it would impact production for even just those few seconds it's just like a brief the stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas and that's repeated like six times in the song and that was deemed unacceptable by the BBC so they banned it wow oh my gosh what a great story yeah

it said you can still spot like a Texan anywhere by doing this

like Tom Tom did, which is funny.

I've heard stories of like wartime spies being caught because they're American, because when they cut their food,

they would switch hands because that's a very American thing to do.

So it's like that, but for Texans.

Would they ban tea?

Did they ban tea during the day?

Never, no.

In England?

Why would they even fight if they had banned tea?

What's left for them at that point?

Tea was rationed in the UK, but there was like a particular part of the wartime government dedicated to keeping tea supplies going because it really was seen as that important for morale.

And isn't that just the most British thing you've ever

done?

This question was sent in by Grian.

Thank you very much.

Max Musterman hails from Quackenbruck in Germany.

Often he has a lot of explaining to do when phoning for a doctor's appointment or flying out to a different country, for example.

Why?

I'll say that again.

Max Musterman hails from Quackenbruck in Germany.

Often he has a lot of explaining to do when phoning for a doctor's appointment or flying out to a different country, for example.

Why?

So it's like something to do with his name and his documents, right?

It must be.

Yes.

So Mr.

Musterman in German would be her, right?

Her Musterman.

Maybe it's something to do with what that.

But then it's, but then he's going in.

The doctors is in Germany, right?

So it's not going to be anything.

Yeah, like it must be a future documents thing.

Max Musterman.

Musterman.

Quackenbrook.

Quackenbrook.

Yeah,

is the city of where he's from important?

The city isn't important.

I think the question might just like the name Quackenbrook.

Yeah, it's a red hair.

I do like the name Quackenbrook.

So Max potentially short for Maximilian or Max.

Maybe that's his.

Maximilian Musterman.

It's so long.

Yeah.

Or Max.

I don't know, Maxwell, or Max.

What was the exact phrasing?

He has to do explaining when he goes to the doctor, or it makes it awkward.

What was it?

Yeah, both of those things, really.

It's just, it's just, his life is more difficult.

Does it mean something in German then?

Mustermann?

Right.

Maximizing something.

He's like max, like a maximum of something.

Yeah.

Maximum cholesterol.

Yeah, yeah, like something like that.

Yeah.

I feel like it would be hard when ordering like a schnitzel and they'd be like, oh, you want max mustard on it?

And he'd be like, no, I.

that's but at the doctor's dip they don't have schnitzel at the doctor in germany right i don't know how healthcare works in other places no idea not to my knowledge um

you were talking about documents and i'd hone in on that it's awkward situations where he has to show documents is it because the name is transposed like on documents where it's like musterman comma max he is often slowed down at airports but not outside germany oh not outside germany no is he fa is he just famous

Is the name of a super villain that's on the loose in Germany.

And he's his arch nemesis.

Is Min Masterman.

Yeah.

Min,

Min, Mineman.

Min.

Yeah.

Min, Min, Minen Woman, yeah.

Max Musterman in Germany.

Nobody here speaks German, huh?

No,

no, my partner does, but I wonder if that's not loud.

What are the odds?

I mean, if your partner has spent long enough in Germany to have some cultural knowledge there, it's going to be easy.

Any Germans listening to this will have got it immediately.

Yeah, but I'm not my partner, I'm afraid, Tom.

No, no.

She's half German, so I really could use that right now.

But it's not about language, it's about that name.

Yeah, so that name is like, is it a cartoon character is it the name of a cartoon character or the name of a criminal?

Is the name of someone?

Yeah, like it looks like a joke when he presents documents and they're like, come come on.

Yeah, so they think it's a fake document because Max Musterman is the name.

That was the name Bing Crosby performed under in Germany.

Is it the president?

No, I'm kidding.

Except Twist is the president.

Deep into the heart of Dusodorf.

So you've got every aspect of this apart from that key bit at the end.

What might it be about the name?

What is he being accused of or accused of doing unfairly?

Because people are like forging documents.

Yeah, sometimes.

Is it like the German version of Jane Doe where it's just like the stand-in name?

Julian, on the previous question where you said this was sent in by Jane Doe, I had this moment of going, oh no, oh, that's gonna be a giveaway.

I think David's doing this intentionally.

He said all these things up brilliantly.

There's a meta to the show flow here.

You are absolutely right.

Max Musterman and Erika Musterman for women is the German equivalent of John Doe or Jane Doe.

Unfortunately, there really is someone called Max Musterman, and he really does have trouble in Germany because he will call up and do the German equivalent of asking for an appointment for John Doe.

Right.

And they're like, yeah, sure thing, 14-year-old who got a hold of the cell phone.

Like,

hilarious.

And unfortunate.

And those parents, they saw an opportunity and they took it, and I respect that.

Soph, the last big question of the show is on you.

Whenever you're ready.

Oh, big.

Okay, here we go.

Thanks, Tom.

This question has been sent in by Adam.

In 1999, BBC News reported that drivers of red and black cars in Cornwall and Devon were much more likely to be stopped for speeding than average.

Conversely, they claimed that white cars were more likely to be treated leniently.

Why?

In 1999, BBC News reported that drivers of red and black cars in Cornwall and Devon were more likely to be stopped for speeding than average.

Conversely, they claimed that white cars were more likely to be treated leniently.

Why?

Take it away, cute guys.

Oh, shucks.

Alright.

In did you say Cornwall and Devon?

In Cornwall and Devon, yeah, it's another BBC-based question.

Yeah, I have no idea what these towns look like, but are they typical English hamlets?

Those are counties.

Hamlets.

No idea.

Yeah, you're right.

Sorry, I went on to correct him then.

We didn't correctly just drill on hamlets there, is a word.

Is that what we call things?

I don't know.

I don't know about you.

I grew up in a classic British hamlet.

That's a type of small town, isn't it?

That's a word.

No, it's a

nice nice word.

Yeah, Cornwall and Devon are counties.

They're big, big areas.

Okay.

Those are regions.

Regions that contain various cities and towns.

And they're off in the southwest,

kind of out on a peninsula on their own on the southwest.

I don't think it counts a peninsula when it's that big, but it's a sticky out bit.

I'm just trying to imagine the buildings.

Are they white?

Are they red and black?

Is there...

The buildings.

Yeah, like the towns.

Like, what do they look like?

I mean, I've got to describe Cornwall and Devon here, haven't I?

The towns look like average British towns.

Typical hamlets, that's what I said.

But there's a lot of little coastal, like they're really coastal counties.

There's a lot of little fishing villages and things like that out on the outskirts.

But if you're speeding, you're going to be going down the, like, the big roads, presumably.

Okay.

It's in 1999, you said, right?

1999, correct, Julian.

Is this around the time when like speed speed cameras started getting installed around the area?

You know, like radar-activated speed traps and that sort of thing?

Like, instead of a constable enforcing this law, is it some technology?

Is it related to that?

It is not related to technology, no.

Okay.

What colour are the flags where football or whatever it is that people like there?

Yeah,

Cornwall has a black and white flag and a small independence movement that will spray paint that flag over the English rose on tourism signs.

I see.

But the cars were red and black if they were more likely to be caught and white if they weren't.

So I can't see that flag target.

I don't know the flag of Devon, but I doubt it's doubt it's to do with that.

Your doubt is to be followed, Tom.

It is not to do with that.

But Julian, maybe think more about what you were saying.

If it's not cameras,

who is in charge of this?

It's human beings.

beings yeah so that that implies some bias uh for some reason good

is it

i you know like a white car is easy to spot compared to a black car um

does a white car just look like it's traveling slower is that cliché of motors like oh this car looks fast when it's standing still for like a red car i wonder i feel like it's cultural

is

It feels like

it would be some sort of like cultural thing that happened.

And they're like, I hate these colours.

Like, it's a little stuck.

Well, it's all right.

But black or red, you're dead.

Bad.

Yeah.

There is.

You're along the right lines there, Tina, with kind of with targeting colours.

Go on.

Maybe they hate themselves.

Sorry.

Is it that they're using like radar guns for this?

So they are pointing, they're standing at the side of the road, they're pointing and reading the speed like that.

And they're just more likely to hit black and red cars.

Like they're more likely to point at them because they think they're going faster.

That's still a bit too much about technology, though.

It's not about the tech at all.

It's about

their choice.

It's a choice.

Yeah, some human bias is at play.

Yeah.

What happened in 1999?

Like, in those regions?

I don't know if it's going to be due to the regions.

It It might just be that's the force they picked.

I don't know.

Okay, so maybe

it seems like from this that being a police officer at the time in that area was a bit boring.

So maybe they were trying to make it a bit more fun.

Their jobs.

Oh, oh, oh.

The cops would buy white cars and they would like race them.

And so when they got caught by other cops, or like the other cops knew the person in the white car was a cop, and they were like, oh, that's just, you know, Billy.

Let him go.

But everybody else, they're like, you're Nick, Sunshine.

Is that it?

Yeah, we've just blown up the undercover like cops taking cars.

No, I'm afraid that's not a Julian, but I like that.

Devon and Cornwall share a police force.

It's not two regions.

It's not specifically these regions.

It's just that's the force.

This is tied to one police force doing a thing.

And did they like make a game out of it?

Did you get more points for pulling over a car based on like the colour or something like that?

Yeah, I know.

Keep going in that direction.

Think about the colours again.

Red and black and black would get ticketed more.

Oh, the Americans aren't going to get this, are they?

I don't think so.

The Americans aren't going to get this.

I don't think this.

Well, I don't know if it's a thing in America.

It is, and this is such a quiz question.

Like, this is.

Did they get one point for a red and seven points for a black?

Why would that be?

And no points for a white?

Because those are the values of the colours in snooker.

Correct.

It's a snooker-based question.

This is style.

Oh, man.

I had no shot.

Tina and Julian, do you have any...

Oh, good point, Julian.

I have seen snooker a few times, like on just clips of it, and I'm like, I have no idea what on earth is going on here.

It is incomprehensible to me.

Yeah.

I feel that way about baseball.

If it helps, I

knew very little about snooker as well, so when I got presented with this, I did a bit of reading around it.

Tina, are you familiar with snooker at all?

I have no idea.

I feel like I'm such at a disadvantage because I have no knowledge of American history and I have no knowledge of British history.

Don't worry, Tina, next episode is going to be all about your expertise.

Yeah, where's the AI questions, guys?

Come on.

Yeah.

Okay, so.

Yes, police were allegedly playing motorway snooker.

It was claimed that Devon and Cornwall Police Force were playing this game, and allegedly they were trying to kind of get maximum points, right?

Similar to how you would do that in snooker, right?

It was called a maximum break.

I looked it up.

So yeah, if you got red and black, then 15 times and that would mean you get like loads of points where you get red, then black, then red, then black.

And then you'd go through the order of the other colours, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black.

So basically, their focus is on the red and black.

cars more than the other colours.

But then, obviously, at some point you want to get the other colours.

There was one example example where this guy, John Emsley, was stopped on the M5, and this is when people started getting suspicious.

The M5 is a road, by the way, guys.

And when, as it's,

I can speak American, and

when this guy was asked why he was pulled over rather than another car that had been driving at the exact same speed, he was told it was because his Alfa Romeo was yellow.

So literally,

these are these people who are taking the money.

At that point, they've only got like five or six cars to go to get the second car.

Yeah, so they're feeling really tense about it.

And of course, a white car is equivalent to potting the white so that would incur a penalty so one driver in the area said that he'd driven his white car for seven years without being stopped amazing so well done he's just like

yeah he got

driving straight over the hump of the roundabout like yeah

carelessly yeah exactly he's like i'm i'm untouchable

yeah so maybe the police did buy the white cars because they knew they would then be untouchable that's what i would do um so well done on making your way to the answer, guys, considering two of you, three of us, if you include me, know nothing about Snooper.

We really needed Tom for that one.

He was the linchpin.

Oh, yeah, and I think that would have been impossible without you, Tom.

The very last order of business then.

At the top of the show, I asked, why does Graham regularly go to Beyoncé's Wikipedia page, even though he's not a fan of her music?

Before I let the audience in on that, anyone want to take a quick shot at it?

Is he in charge of like up like a Wikipedia editor who's in charge of Beyoncé's page, who has to make sure that everything for her is up to date?

I feel like people must change a lot on her page, right?

Add like queen and stuff.

Yeah, and he's his dedicated job is going in at me like, no, she's not the queen of Beastan or whatever.

No, there's other pages he could have used, but Beyonce is kind of one of the more popular ones.

This is the one that came to mind.

Well, he's not updating when people die on

Wikipedia, right?

And I'm sure they have a mathematical formula that calculates age.

Like, he doesn't just have to go every time and be like, now she's 57.

Like

it's one guy just going through all the birthdays and making sure that nobody's had a birthday since then.

I mean, Wikipedia does seem like he needs funding.

It keeps telling you that he needs to

be.

It's to pay all the birthday trackers, like Graham.

No, he only stayed on the page for a few seconds.

So it's a mistake of some fashion.

This Beyoncé.

Make sure the page is still up.

Yeah, it's still there.

Like the links aren't broken.

Is his name Beyoncé?

Graham Beyonce.

His name is Graham Coleman, and this is based off just one thing that he tweeted in 2019.

Goes to Beyonce's page regularly.

He finds it simpler than trying to remember hold down alt and press 0233.

Oh, there's the accent mark in Beyonce's name.

He goes and copies it and pastes it when he's typing.

Of course.

Yes.

Wow, okay.

But then it would be slightly different.

Oh, it's just stressful.

No, control-shift-v, paste without formatting.

Of course, of course.

Clearly.

Quote: I have a PhD in computing, says Graham.

I am a senior accessibility consultant.

But when I want to type E acute on a Windows laptop, I go to Beyoncé's Wikipedia page and copy-paste.

Amazing.

Ah, that's great.

Amazing.

Thank you very much to all our players.

Let's find out what's going on in your lives.

Where can people find you?

We will start with Soph.

Yes, thanks so much for having me, Tom.

If you want to find out what I'm up to, you can find me as Soph's notes, basically anywhere.

Tina!

Thank you so much for having me.

If you want to find out about what I'm up to, just type in Tina Huang on YouTube and I talk about my life there.

And Julian.

It was a delight, Tom.

You can find me also on other podcasting places on the podcast That's Absurd.

Please elaborate with my co-host Trace Dominguez.

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com, where you can also send in your own ideas for questions.

We are at lateralcast basically everywhere, and there are regular video highlights at youtube.com/slash lateralcast.

With that, thank you very much to Julian Hugitt.

Thank you very much, Tom.

Tina Wong.

Thank you very much.

And Dusty Vibes.

Thank you so very much, Tom, for having me.

That is Sophie Ward.

Thank you very much to all three of you.

I've been Tom Scott, and that's been lateral.