107: The DVD of anger

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with a class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

Every street in Manchester has a church building in it.

Why is this not unusual?

The answer to that at the end of the show.

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

You know those quizzes where they ask you about the chemical symbol for oxygen or the year the light bulb was invented?

Well, on this show, we're more likely to ask you for the chemical symbol for a light bulb or when oxygen was invented.

Hoping to get their facts right today, first we have engineer and author, and perhaps most known to this particular audience as a judge on robot wars.

Please welcome Dr.

Lucy Rogers.

Thank you very much.

Welcome to the show.

This is your first time playing.

I had a look at your website to try and work out how to introduce you.

And there are so many things you're working on right now.

What's the big project at the minute?

Currently, I'm writing a book, a science book for adults, popular science, but I'm making it sort of a travel book and then just sliding the science in so that people who won't normally pick up a science book will hopefully read it as well.

This is your first time on the show and we've got two returning players.

Are you

how do you feel about the questions that are that are not as straightforward as usual?

Oh, definitely nervous.

Definitely.

We have two returning players joining you today.

First of all, from Science IRL, we have plant biologist and science communicator, Dr.

Molly Edwards.

Welcome.

Hi, Tom.

Great to be here.

How are you feeling about coming back to the show after after a little while away?

How was the last time?

I'm ready.

It's been almost a year, I think.

I'm ready.

I'm so excited.

What have you been working on in that year?

I've spent the year visiting really cool plant biology labs and making videos about all the cool plant science that's going on in the country.

So I'm excited to share that.

What kind of places have you been to?

Because obviously, I have not been doing as much travel over the last year as I used to.

Whereabouts have you seen?

Oh my gosh, I've been to Arizona, to upstate New York, visiting scientists who are engineering plants to be more resilient to climate change.

So like creating plants that can turn red when they're stressed and like give farmers a heads up that they need some help, that kind of thing.

Also returning to the show, our third player today from PBS Stargazers and from his own podcast, That's Absurd, Please Elaborate.

Trace Dominguez, welcome back to the show.

Hello, I'm very excited to be back.

Well, I had a lovely time on That's Absurd, Please Elaborate.

We talked for slightly too long, I think, about what would happen in the Mighty Ducks scene.

Yeah, yeah.

You very graciously answered a question about hockey, which my co-host plays hockey, so he was very excited about that, and decided that we should just talk about whether or not Goldberg, the goalie from the Mighty Ducks, would survive.

If hit by a hockey puck so fast that it blasted someone back into the net, what would actually happen?

Yeah.

I mean, I use the word splash damage a lot.

It felt like a good episode.

I don't know how it was from your side.

Oh, I think it went very well for everybody except this hypothetical goalie.

Well, good luck to you and all three of our players.

It's time to sharpen your pencils as well as your wits as we move on to question one.

How is soy sauce the opposite of tomato sauce?

I'll give you that again.

How is soy sauce the opposite of tomato sauce?

Botanically,

excellent start.

Love strong weed.

Botanically, soy sauce comes from a legume and tomato sauce comes from a solanaceous vegetable, but they're not like, I wouldn't call them opposites botanically.

You said solanaceous vegetable and not fruit there.

Oh, it is a fruit.

Well, yeah, the whole, okay, the whole, like,

it is a fruit.

Okay.

Yeah, but I don't know what solanaceous means.

That sounds like the name for deadly nightshade.

It is.

I think it's like salaceous, isn't it?

Yeah.

No, no, a salacious vegetable is something very different.

Not going to go there.

Not Not there?

Oh, okay.

No, I think the zucchini cucumber family.

It's one of those amusingly shaped carrots from newsreels 45 years.

Solanaceous is nightshade family?

Yeah, Solanaceus is nightshades.

But yeah, they're both flowering plants, so I wouldn't call them

opposites botanically.

From an engineering perspective,

soy seems to be very liquidy,

and tomato ketchup is more thick-otropic, so it's a sort of

doesn't dribble until it dribbles.

Yeah.

There's a force in it involved.

Yeah, it changes consistency based on, is it pressure or shear?

Yeah.

It's a non-Newtonian, right?

The ketchup is non-Newtonian.

Yeah.

Which is cool.

Someone's going to have to explain that and it shouldn't be me.

So non-Newtonian fluids are, the classic example is ooblek, right?

It's a mixture of cornstarch and water.

If you pour it out of a jar, it will pour, but if you slap it, it will become hard.

Don't ask me to explain why it does that because I don't have notes on it.

Don't sump corn, pepper, flour.

Yes, I once did the walking on custard demonstration for a corner.

I mean, it's not real custard, it's corn flour and water.

The trouble is, it was outdoors, and we had to do it several times over three and four days.

And by day two, it was not looking like custard, it just had stuff floating in it.

It was not pleasant.

So, culinarily, we've gone through like plants, we've gone through engineering.

Culinarily, soy is more in the salty kind of area.

And tomato can be any number of things.

Like a tomato sauce, you have to add sugar to it to cut the acidity.

It's more acidic, more acidic, but

I don't know.

Again, opposites.

I mean, if it were sweet and salty, you could argue they're opposites.

Is umami an acid?

Is that a taste sensation opposite?

I mean, it is one of the sensations, right?

So we've talked botanically.

uh we've talked i can't remember what what adjective did you use lucy oh engineeringly

i'm an author you know

and we've talked about culinary it is uh unfortunately none of those it is more of an etymological thing

oh soy comes from soya tomato comes from tomatoes

no that's all i've got

you're actually surprisingly close there, Lucy.

We are talking about where the words come from.

But what is soy named after?

Mr.

Soy!

The inventor of soy sauce, famously.

Perhaps the obvious question would be, what is tomato sauce named after?

This is a really simple merit.

Tomatoes.

Yeah, that's the easy part.

So

mashed up soy, soya beans, don't make soy sauce.

Is that what we're saying?

I don't know how to make soy sauce.

You ferment the soybeans, right?

Yeah.

Whereas tomatoes, or tomato ketchup, is smushed up tomatoes, vinegar, spices, sugar.

If tomato sauce is named after tomatoes,

what's the opposite of that?

When I'm talking about soy sauce?

Not being named after soy?

Keep things along those lines.

Not being named after beans, not being...

You're not...

Hmm.

So soy sauce is named after Mr.

Soy.

Oh, then not after the bean.

Tomato sauce is named after tomatoes.

Yeah.

Soybeans,

soy sauce is not

named after fermented.

Soy sauce is not named after soybeans.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

This is actually through English, through Dutch.

Have a think about what might have arrived in the West first.

Soy.

Soy is named after soy sauce.

Soy is named after soy sauce.

Lucy, you're absolutely right.

Right?

I had to double and triple check this when this came in.

What was it named before that?

So I have checked like the etymology here.

This is in dictionaries.

This is also from the Soy Info Center, which is apparently a reliable source for this.

No pun intended.

I genuinely didn't intend that.

The Chinese for soy sauce.

Now, my pronunciation guide here has a load of tone markers on it.

I'm going to get this wrong, but it's Zhang Yu or something like that.

That became soya or soya in Dutch.

That evolved into shoyu or just soy in Japanese.

So it's this complicated etymological thing where tomato sauce is obviously named after tomato.

The soybean, soy, is named after soy sauce because that's the way the etymology worked.

Cool.

Yep.

That's fun.

Now we're doing.

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

I don't know the question.

I definitely don't know the answer.

We will start today with Trace.

All right.

This question has been sent by Nate.

In 2014, vending machines bearing the slogan, Enhance Your Swim, were stationed at gyms and pools all over Auckland.

They sold transparent water bottles for $99.95 New Zealand dollars, about 60 US dollars.

And despite the price, they sold out very quickly.

Why would that be?

In 2014, vending machines bearing the slogan, Enhance Your Swim were stationed at gyms and pools all over Auckland.

They sold transparent water bottles for $99.95 New Zealand dollars, 60 US dollars.

Despite that price, they sold out quickly.

Why?

Was there something in the transparent bottles?

Hmm, there was something in the transparent bottles.

All right.

So what on earth would enhance your swim?

You said this was gyms and

yeah, at gyms and pools.

This isn't isn't something, because I remember filming way back in,

it's not Auckland, it was near Rotorua, and they have just outdoor thermal baths.

I was like, maybe it's something for that, but no, it's just, it's literally just swimming pools and gyms.

Yeah, swimming pools and gyms.

Is the year relevant?

Like, did something happen in 2014 where people would be more

eager to enhance their swim?

I think the year is relevant, but more to

more to center in on

what we're talking about specifically, not necessarily because something happened in that year,

but to give you a sense of, I don't know, I guess this is sort of a hint, to give you a sense of recency.

2014, it's not that long ago.

This isn't some weird herbal thing from the 1920s that promised to make you swim faster and better.

Yeah, it's not filled with laudanum.

Now, that would be a workout.

Also, what are you paying $100 for?

Yeah, yeah, $60 US dollars or about $100 New Zealand dollars.

I don't know if that's a lot in New Zealand, but it seems, you know, $60 in 2014, it's not nothing.

I remember when I was a teenager, there were bottles of perfume.

Not that I ever really wanted bottles of perfume.

And they were extortionately priced because they had bits of gold inside them.

Now, I'm not quite thinking how

having a bit of gold in a water bottle

might make it worth more, but

there's a few things like that.

There's a liqueur that has gold in it.

There's gold schlager and a couple of other things like that.

Absolutely useless.

It doesn't taste of anything.

It doesn't do anything to your body.

Does it pass right through?

Yeah.

Just pass right through.

Just passes right through.

If you ever want to do a little experiment with that, you can buy like sheets of ultra-thin gold leaf for like one or two dollars.

And And just if you, if you apply them to your tongue the right way, you get a gold-plated tongue until the next time you swallow.

And then, you know, a couple of days later, there might be a little bit of glitter left behind.

Yeah, you're really making very expensive

visits to the trip.

Sounds like you know a lot about this, Tom.

Honestly, like 2014, that was one of the first videos I did for my channel when I was just like doing 60, 90 seconds.

I'm going to gold plate my tongue.

I can't talk for now.

This doesn't really work.

I want to mention, you asked if there's something in the water bottle, and I said yes, just to remind you.

The people who were buying these thought that they were getting a good value for their money.

So not only was, so they were buying this that was not cheap, and they were like, worth it.

Worth it.

This is a stupid idea.

Was there a live fish in there or something like that?

It was like all those fairground things

that are now banned for good reason, where you just used to get a goldfish in a bag if you want to pry.

And like you're enhancing, you are releasing a goldfish into the swimming pool.

I said it was a stupid idea.

Well, again, there is something in it.

It's not a living thing, but there is something in there.

Is it something to be consumed or is it something, yeah, to like release into the environment?

Isn't something to be consumed per se, but it is something that once you open the bottle, you could use.

But no, it's it's not, you don't eat it or anything like that.

It's not alive.

It's very highly pressurized water.

And if you release it at exactly the right time, it will shoot you down the pool.

Like a fire extinguisher.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

See, I'm thinking because it's

Auckland.

Yeah.

The kind of location matters less.

It matters less.

I was thinking suntan cream, but you wouldn't really put that in a

drinking bottle.

That would be, you know, interesting.

Yeah, the location is, it doesn't matter quite as much.

This could have happened pretty much anywhere in

cultures that would value the thing inside the bottle.

Not every culture in the world would necessarily value that thing, especially since it was at a gym or a pool.

So try and keep in mind what might be in this bottle.

It's a secret formula.

It was part of an advertising stunt as well.

So the the company that it felt like an advertising stunt.

The company that put them there was like, oh, this is a great idea.

Oh, what if it's like swimwear?

What if it's like clothing or something like that?

Because it's going to get wet anyway.

So if you're going to put it inside a drinking...

Why would you put that inside a drinking glass instead of something?

It's nothing better than putting on a wet swimsuit.

And then drinking out of the thing it came in.

You know what those things are like, oh, I've got it, I've got it.

I've not got it, I've not.

You're actually on the right track, though.

It doesn't actually have to have water in.

It's a drinking bottle, but it hasn't got

it did have water in it.

But there's nothing special.

Like, it's not flavored.

Googles.

Again, very close.

There's nothing special about the water or the bottle.

And remember, the slogan was, enhance your swim.

So they're already going to be swimming.

This could be a way to make it's a jet propulsion pack.

Yeah.

Or no, it's a, it's, it's, it's, I got it, I got it.

It's an inflatable rubber duck that you can swim with as you're going down.

I mean, it would enhance my swim every day.

Yeah, it would, inflatable rubber duck.

Yep.

But you said if it's a hundred dollar rubber duck, though, that's got to be a good rubber duck.

I don't know.

Those floaty pool things they're selling now are like prices are going up, man.

They're expensive.

The giant unicorns and stuff.

Pizzas.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How might one enhance their swim like you're swimming you're you're you're what what would make in say

the early

20 teens your swim somehow less boring is this an electronic thing

oh it is an electronic thing it was an advertising campaign do you want to know the company oh

Sony or something yeah waterproof headphones waterproof mp3 player something like that that's it it was a waterproof headphone

So to show off their waterproof rating, Sony put headphones and water bottles in vending machines so that you could see that they're already in the water

and it boosted sales by 380%.

Wow.

That's a lot.

That's a lot.

Well done.

Yeah.

Good job, Sony.

Yeah.

I hope that PR person got a raise.

Somewhere in a PR company, somewhere in Auckland, there's an intern who is really annoyed that that was their idea that got used.

Maybe they accidentally dropped their headphones in a glass and then they were like,

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Thank you to Michael for sending in this next question.

In 2007, Melchior sat down to enjoy a DVD of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Before the film began, he became furious.

What made him so angry and why was it so ironic?

I'll say that again.

In 2007, Melchior sat down to enjoy a DVD of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Before the film began, he became furious.

What made him so angry and why was it so ironic?

Who's Melchior?

That, if I told you, would give you the entire clue to this question.

Well, dang it.

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a tomato sauce problem.

Me and Molly would be like, are we supposed to know the letter?

You'll have to excuse me.

This is a Dutch name.

That's particularly relevant to the question, so I may be completely mangling that.

Sure.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Okay, but

the specific person

matters then.

This is a real person.

Okay.

Oh, it's a person.

I was going for the dog angle there.

No, it was a dog.

Really upset because there's the thunder at the beginning and the dog is angle.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a Cerberus or the three-headed dogs.

Oh, no.

Dog in my living room.

Let's see.

It's a Harry Potter DVD.

The Philosopher's Stone, as it's known in Britain, we call it the Sorcerer's Stone, but I assume in Dutch they would call it.

I honestly don't know which.

Yeah.

And it's,

he's mad and it's ironic.

Yes.

Interesting.

Well, what would show up when you put the DVD in?

You know, you put it in.

In the US, we get the FBI warning.

You do get the FBI warning, Trace.

Oh.

The kids are like, what's a DVD?

What are you putting in?

I don't get it.

This has been certified for use for age 12 and above or some such.

Yeah.

And do not pirate the copy.

Do not pirate the copy.

Yeah, you wouldn't steal a car.

Ah!

Trace.

Melchior's a pirate.

And he was mad because

he pirated it.

So it was ironic because he's a pirate.

Not quite, but you have actually identified not just what Melchior was looking at, but the specific public information film.

It is the you wouldn't steal a car film that Melchior was angry at.

Yes.

So you've got the first part of the question.

That's what made him so angry.

Why was it ironic that he was angry at that film?

Because he'd just stolen it out of a car.

He'd literally just stolen a car.

No, no, unfortunately not.

Did Melchior make that ad that they then stole from him and aired it anyway?

That's very close.

He didn't make the ad.

He made the car.

It was his car?

It was his car.

He looked at his driveway and it was gone.

You wouldn't steal a car, but we would look outside.

So Melchior the pirate is mad

that

Melchior the something.

He's not a pirate, and he didn't make the whole ad.

Hmm.

What sort of things go into that ad?

What can you remember about it?

I remember it goes.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

It goes, what?

It's wobbling.

It's wobbly around a lot.

You wouldn't steal a car.

Yep.

What else is going on?

You wouldn't steal.

Let's see.

What else wouldn't you steal?

I can't remember.

I just remember a car.

There's one other really important element that goes into making something like that.

I mean, somebody wrote the ad, somebody wrote that phrase.

Somebody,

obviously, if they directed it, they would have been involved.

Someone edited it.

Someone sound music.

Ooh.

Is Melchior the musician who made the song that it played?

Yes, and why is it ironic?

Because they stole it and didn't license it.

Oh, I'd be mad too.

I'd be so mad.

Yeah, Melchior.

I'm mad for him.

That explains why Melchior has like a old philosopher's name, but is a music.

That makes sense.

This is Melchior Rietvelt.

He's a Dutch musician.

He was asked to create a piece of music for a local film festival.

And then the next year, he puts in the DVD for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

And the anti-piracy ad has used his music without permission.

Wow.

I mean...

Wow.

There were years of arguments and legal threats, and the Royalty Collection Agency ended up paying him a six-figure sum in back pain compensation.

Lucy, over to you for the next question, please.

This question has been sent in by Anonymous.

I know them.

They're really quite prolific, aren't they?

The question is, the Glasgow Subway is a simple underground railway in Scotland.

While it was being refurbished in the 1970s, what two digit numbers were used for the bus replacement service that ran around the city instead?

The Glasgow Subway is a simple underground railway in Scotland.

While it was being refurbished in the 1970s, what two two-digit numbers were used for the bus replacement service that ran round the city instead?

It's a 1970s British question, and I'm on this podcast with two folks from North America.

All right, here we go.

Faulty towers.

Are you being served?

How many other British shows could I name?

I watched them on Laserdisc.

The question is, what two-digit numbers were used for the bus replacement services?

Okay, things I know about the Glasgow subway, it's a simple circular line.

It just doesn't have any branch lines, doesn't have any complicators, it just goes clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Yep.

And it's also orange.

The branding has always been orange for it.

And I think it's nicknamed the clockwork orange.

It is

because it is a circle and it is orange.

Oh, so could the two digits be related to the clock?

The face of the clock?

Like a 12 and 21.

So if it's two digit numbers, I'm going to assume there's two of them.

I'm going to assume there's one for clockwise and one for anti-clockwise.

Exactly, Tom.

Yep.

Because that's how the subway runs.

Right.

So it could be easy to get to the point.

Which is...

Transit nerd coming in here.

Not a great way to run a subway because if one

breaks down the entire line clogs up behind it you want some branches on there but if you've just got one line, you need two numbers.

Yeah, two did you like zero, one and

ten and you know, like it could, it's got two distinct numbers.

It makes me think because we're asking as well that it's some kind of like

cutesy

back and forth, you know.

Like growing up, the highways in my hometown, which I don't think were cutesy, but was fun and confusing, were 96 and 69.

And that made for a very like you're driving around town and you're like, wow, I got to get off 96 and get on 69.

And I never, to this day, I have no idea which one is which and which aren't.

Okay, so we've got a grand total of like a hundred possibilities here.

If we go from 02 to 99, we could just sound them off, but that would be a very boring podcast.

I need your reasons.

Yeah.

Was there anything special going on in Glasgow in the 1970s?

I ask, other than the refurbishment.

Like, was there some number that we can tie between and clockwise and

you were, I think, maybe a little closer earlier, Trace.

Oh, okay.

So more cutie.

Cutie.

Kind of.

Cutie, demure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Are there any numbers that can get reflected horizontally?

So you have,

I mean, it can't be like 33 and EE or something like that,

but like you can tell which way the bus is going just from the numbers.

Are there numbers that sound like

clockwise and anti-clockwise?

Or are there numbers that sound like

round and this way and that way?

Or yeah.

You know, like,

is it about like how you write the number?

Because like the two is you start at the top and go around clockwise and a three you start at the top and go anticlockwise.

So you're you're heading along the right lines.

Two lines.

Nice.

So the what can be reflected?

Zero, one, one, and eight.

Okay, that's symmetrical.

Oh, six and nine if they're yes.

Okay.

Oh, wait.

Is it 96 and 69?

It's not, but you're not.

Like my hometown.

It's not.

66 and 99 then to do the same thing?

So you're just flipping them?

Yes, Tom.

Well done.

Yep.

Which one's which?

Oh, which is which?

Oh,

no, you're right.

Trace, when you were saying which way you write the numbers.

Yeah, yeah.

Nine goes, yeah, and six goes that way.

Oh, that's great.

Exactly.

Well done.

When you write a six, you move your pen anti-clockwise.

When you write a nine, you move your pen clockwise.

So you can literally look at it and know which way it's going.

I love it.

That's the kind of design that makes my little science-y heart go,

I think it's just the best.

So when the Glasgow subway was refurbished and they put a bus replacement service in instead.

They used the anti-clockwise service.

They called it the 66 because when you have a pen, you write it in the anti-clockwise way and the clockwise service was 99.

Next one's from me.

Here we go.

On planes and trains you can often see anti-makassas.

What are they and what was Makassa?

I'll say that again.

On planes and trains, you can often see anti-makassas.

What are they and what was was Makassa?

Anti-makassas.

Okay, I was worried because I got this question through, and I learned this in university because one nerd told me about it.

Because it's in my head, I was like, they're all going to know this.

No, no one.

Okay, great.

No, well, my grandparents had it, so had them.

Oh, so you know this one, Lucy?

I know this one.

All right, then, Molly and Demetrius.

All right.

This one's over to you.

Yeah, geez.

So, the first thing I think of is like,

in the US, you see a lot of semi-trucks, 18-wheelers, you know, lorries, I think in the U.K.

And it's got a bar at the back that

drops below the trailer to car level height.

It's called a Mansfield bar because someone crashed into the back of the semi-truck.

and her name was Mansfield and she did not survive.

And so they put the Mansfield bar.

That's my first thought as to something like this, where it's like a safety issue.

They put this in so that something happened.

So what would happen in both planes and trains?

Hijacks?

Was it like something to prevent hijacks?

Wow.

Was there someone who

named

a famous hijacker named Marcassik?

It is specifically to stop that one guy.

So I actually do have a fairly big hint to give at the start, but I think Lucy's...

little note at the start there that actually her family had them as well

is actually a surprisingly big hint.

They would have been in your folks' house, I'm guessing.

Yep, my grandparents had them in their house.

Yeah, so the first hint here would have been very similar to what Lucy said.

Yep, they also would have been in Lucy's grandparents' house, and I think my folks's as well.

Is it an air quality thing?

It's a quality of life thing, let's put it that way.

Molly, I like air filter or, you know, something

like that.

Obviously, quality of life means, you know,

food, air, water.

Oh, just comfort.

Just comfort.

Comfort.

Temperature.

It might be helpful to think about: like, what sort of things do you find both in planes and trains and in a family home?

There aren't many things that cross over there.

Bathrooms, chairs.

Chairs.

Chairs.

You don't have seat belts at home unless you got a wild home.

You don't have to.

What are you playing about my grandparents' chairs?

You don't have seat belts, but you're right that this is something that gets attached to the seats.

They're still in planes and trains in some places.

Is it the little foot bar that goes down that lets you prop your feet up?

It's not,

but again, you're in the same kind of area.

It's something that is added.

Like a food tray.

It's really that it's called Aunt Anti, right?

Ant anti-yes.

Yeah, it is trying to stop something.

We're trying to stop something.

Oh, is it...

Hmm.

People don't like it when people recline their seats maybe it's a way to stop that

oh someone did sell those it's a little 3d printed thing you can jam into an airplane seat and it breaks the recline of the person in front yeah big there was a big debate about that for for a while but no this is this is something that dates back honestly about a century yeah

i think it's notable that uh lucy said that it was in her grandparents house probably not probably not in current ones like a coat hanger or like a

hat hanger hanger.

Things you don't wear anymore.

Not a hat, but this is about fashion, men's fashion specifically.

Like some place to put your cane or, you know.

A pipe?

Oh.

Ashtrays.

Honestly, that's a better answer to the clue I was giving.

It is unfortunately not the right one.

Yeah.

Because they don't have those.

I mean, there are still some men that use this, but

not many.

I just think of a monocle.

Yeah.

We need the menswear guy from twitter here you would know what that is like right away yeah yeah

i'm wearing a flamingo shirt we know that i'm not gonna be the one

think uh think more about the top of the chair you're actually pretty close with hat like a like a headrest or like uh

is it to like prevent the brim of your fancy hat from bending?

You'd have taken the hat off by now, but it's to prevent something.

To mess up your hair and your collar and your...

It is to do with hair.

Like pomade or something?

Like there is a...

Oh, is it to protect the back of the chair from all of the gunk on your head?

Oh,

that totally makes sense.

And I've seen those on planes.

Like the plastic.

Oh, my gosh.

Plastic, yeah.

Yes.

You see them on trains, the little paper hands.

Yes, the anti-mikasa is the protective cloth at the top of a seat.

Wow.

Let your soul glow, you know?

Just let your soul glow.

Yeah, so like these days, it is, oh, this is fresh and clean for the passenger.

No one's been here.

Originally, it was to protect the seat from getting dirty from the passenger.

So, what was Makassa?

Was it a hair gel or a hair product?

Yeah, it was hair oil.

It was a hair oil that was popular with European men during the 19th and early 20th century, and it came from Makassa.

It's now called Ujang Pandang, but Makassa, as was in Indonesia, and the name came from there.

Hair oil became known as Makassa.

And to this day, the little things that sit on the top of seats that are still in trains and planes and may still be in some grandparents' houses, those are called anti-makasas.

I'm a Dapper Dan man myself.

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Molly, over to you for the last big question of the show.

Ooh, all right.

This question has been sent in by Nate.

On his day off, Detective Minjun paid 40,000 won to Si Woo.

By chance, they exchanged a friendly wave across the street the following day.

Soon after, Si Woo was arrested and fined.

Why?

On his day off, Detective Minjun paid 40,000 won to Si-Woo.

By chance, they exchanged a friendly wave across the street the following day.

Soon after, Si-Woo was arrested and fined.

Why?

Wow.

I have a pretty good idea of what's going on.

I'm going to wait and see a couple of hints if it's in the right direction.

Alright.

Was he being set up?

No, actually.

This was all part of their normal

stuff.

Because I was assuming it was some criminal activity of some sort

and that

the detective was paying off someone.

No, the detective

was not paying someone off.

He was just enjoying his day off.

What would waving at someone give away?

And do you say the detective was arrested or Si-Woo was arrested?

Oh, no, Si-Woo was arrested.

The detective

had paid Si-Woo for a service.

And the next day they waived, and then Si-Woo was arrested after that.

Was it a legal service?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

That rules out several of my guesses.

Yeah,

that rules out what I.

I had thought maybe you had to pay to go see Siwoo in prison.

And then you waved at him on the street.

He wasn't in prison.

Wait Wait a minute.

This is 40,000 won, so this is Korea,

I think.

And that's about, I want to say about $100, I think, US, roughly.

It's not a huge, huge amount of money.

$40,000 sounds like a huge amount, but I think there's a lot of Korean won to the dollar and pound.

And the wave was a normal wave, not a...

Not a giant wall of water sent towards.

You didn't wave with a weapon or anything.

No,

it was just a wave.

A friendly lightsaber wave.

Yeah.

Oh, thank you, Producer David.

About $30 is what was paid here.

So it's not much.

Okay, hold on.

Seewoo must not have been meant to know who the detective was.

The fact that Siwu waved and like recognized the person who paid them must have been a clue that something illegal was going on.

Or something wrong was going on.

It was meant to be anonymous.

Like the detective was undercover?

But what you're saying just before that was more on track.

Okay, Siwoo wasn't meant to know what the detective looked like.

And the fact that the detective was recognized was a clue that something was wrong.

Yeah, I think.

So

the wave

is what revealed

that CW should be arrested.

So yeah, Tom, what you were saying was very much on the right track.

There was something up with

Si-Woo recognizing the detective.

Yeah, the service was legal, but perhaps Si-Woo wasn't allowed to sell said service.

Or maybe Si-Woo is the like X-Factor there.

And then waving revealed a tattoo or something that said, oh, that's Si-Woo who did the service.

It wasn't.

Trace, you're on the right track with Si-Woo not.

supposed to be providing this service.

So was there a clue in the hand?

Maybe, maybe the detective had only seen the hands of Siru, and that, like, oh, that's the person who shouldn't.

No, no, you're getting colder.

I think, Tom, before when you said, oh, the one that means it's Korea, it being in Korea is also relevant.

Oh, okay.

Interesting.

So, what kind of stuff would one be arrested for in Korea?

Just in general.

Let me get out my book of Korean laws.

No waving in public.

Oh, that's it.

Yeah, so, okay, so this is only going to happen in Korea, this situation.

And

Siwu

regretted waving.

He like realized in that moment he had given himself away.

Okay, what services might someone visit someone for?

Okay, so what legal services might someone

for about $30, so it's not like this is someone visiting an accountant or something like that.

No, and it was his day off.

It was the detective's day off.

Is it a family-friendly service?

Yeah.

Good.

No painting.

Hip-hop.

Massage.

Massage?

Hang on, hang on.

Did.

Did.

Okay, this.

I need to phrase this in a way that doesn't sound really dodgy.

Yeah.

Did detective think he was getting a massage from a woman and Siwu is a male name?

No, okay.

No.

Yeah.

No.

So everything seemed fine during the massage.

It was the wave the next day that tipped off the detective that Siwu needed to be arrested.

Did Siwu have like an injury or an illness or something wrong with their hand?

Okay.

Like they shouldn't have been performing massage because they were infectious.

Yeah, you're on the right track with

Siwu

having something about him that made it that he shouldn't be practicing massage.

Did Siwu work with something that made them like unqualified to give massage?

Like they were.

He is unqualified to give a massage.

Yeah, a massage, for sure.

Oh, okay.

Yes.

Because he's working with

something.

What disqualifies you from massage as a as a skill like in Korea specifically that washing a hand can't

is there something about working with animals

Si-woo is a horse

who knew how to wave

We never thought to ask if Si-Wu was human

that horse just waved at me

arrested arrested horse

huh yes yeah because we've been focusing on

what impairment does Siwu have that prevents him from massaging, but it's actually what he can he do

that

prevents him from massaging, and what might a wave mean that you can do that would get you caught?

Was he selling himself as a blind masseuse?

Oh,

well done.

Wow,

nailed it.

Nailed it.

Got it.

That's fantastic.

So Si Woo is a blind masseuse and waved his finger.

Well, yeah.

And unfortunately, in Korea specifically, the

art of massage, only visually impaired people are allowed to practice massage legally because it's sort of keeping that space open for people who are visually impaired to have.

I've read that somewhere, and it annoys me that I did not connect Korea and massage until you said that.

It's okay, Tom.

It's okay.

It's cool.

My brain is meant to be full of stuff like this, and it clearly is, but the filing system is not quite there.

Yeah.

They need a better search.

Ban the librarian.

So, yeah, so in South Korea, only visually impaired people are allowed to practice massages.

And that law dates all the way back to 1913 when it was introduced as a way to give the visually impaired better job prospects.

And there's a risk of 30 million one, which is $25,000 fines or three years of imprisonment.

It's thought that tens of thousands of illegal masseurs flout that law.

And it's been upheld on multiple occasions in court, most recently in 2021.

Wild.

Oh, wow.

Neat.

Yes.

So Siwu was practicing massage illegally because he was not visually impaired.

And in Korea, only visually impaired people are allowed to practice massage.

And the wave gave it away.

Which brings us to the question that I asked right at the start of the show.

Thank you to Peter Skandret for sending this one in.

Every street in Manchester has a church building on it.

Why is that not unusual?

Before I give the answer to the audience, anyone want to take a shot at that?

I was going to guess that church building meant that it isn't necessarily a...

It's just something the church built.

So either a plinth,

you know, like something that isn't an entire building necessarily.

A brick, you know.

That would still be unusual.

It would be, but less so than a whole building.

Did the church just own everything?

That's kind of what I thought too.

They had a lot of real estate.

Again, that would be unusual.

Yeah, true.

And we are cheating a little because this would be very easy if you saw it written down.

Yeah.

Repeat the question, Tom.

Every street in Manchester has a church building on it.

Why is this not unusual?

Oh, because

it's on the street signs.

The church building, like a picture of the church is on the street sign.

No, but have a think about the street sign.

Is the city logo?

Does it have a cathedral in it or something?

Nope.

Nope.

Oh, Tom.

Every street.

I know just from the tone of that that

every street.

Yeah.

That's.

Hey.

Hey.

I'm just going to just repeat, thank you to Peter Skandrick for sending that question in.

Yes, there is an every street in Manchester, a street called Every Street, and it has a church building on it, which in itself is not particularly unusual.

Thank you very much to all our players.

Let's find out where can people find you, what's going on in your world.

We will start with Molly.

Thanks so much for having me.

This is so fun.

Yeah, I'm ScienceIRL on all the places where there are videos, and I make lots of plant stories and science stories in general.

Trace.

I am Trace Dominguez, everywhere that you can find social media, and you look for my podcast, That's Absurd.

Please elaborate.

We answer silly questions with science communication.

It'd be fun to have you.

And Lucy?

I'm Dr.

Lucy Rogers on most social medias.

And in 2026, my book's going to come out.

Hey,

look out for it then.

And that is our show for today.

If you want to know more about what we do, or you want to send in your own questions, you can do that at lateralcast.com.

You can find us at lateralcast basically everywhere.

And there are video highlights regularly at youtube.com/slash lateralcast.

Thank you very much to Dr.

Lucy Rogers.

Thank you very much for having me.

Trace Domingoes.

Thank you.

This was fun.

And Dr.

Molly Edwards.

Thanks, Adam Blast.

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