156: Newspaper espionage

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Why have several people added an extra verse to a 1959 song that was already difficult to perform?

The answer to that at the end of the show.

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

We are big fans of the legendary actor Brian Blessard here at Lateral.

So it was a joy to invite onto the show the hosts of the fan podcast, Good Job Brian.

Unfortunately, due to quite an understandable administrative error, that didn't quite happen.

So please welcome two of the hosts of the wonderful podcast, Good Job Brain.

We start.

Colin Felton, welcome back to the show.

Delighted to be back.

I made the cut.

Yes.

Well, it was your first time on the show last time you were here.

How are you feeling this second time through?

I've had a lot less caffeine this time.

So I'm going to keep the same energy, but keep the heart rate down.

That's my goal.

Well, that is very much appreciated.

Tell us about Good Job Brain.

Good Job Brain is a seasonally weekly podcast.

It's a little bit of pub quiz-style questioning, some trivia, some random stories, and we just try and keep each other entertained and informed.

And we are joined again by one of the each others from Good Job Brain.

Karen Chu.

Welcome back to the show.

Hello, I'm Karen.

Guess what?

We also own the domain, Good Job Brian.

We do.

Absolutely.

Because

this is a very common error.

People, people would listen to, you know, they would write in and be like, oh, my name is Brian.

I thought this was a podcast about Brian's.

And then you're like, turns out it was brain's and it's pretty good.

But yes, yes.

We also own loosemeats.com as well.

That only directs together.

Why?

Is that the sort of anecdote that can be told in about 15 seconds in a podcast introduction?

Or are people just going to go and have to listen to your show?

Oh, no,

I can freely share this.

There is a type of sandwich in regional America called loose meat, loose meat sandwich, which is literally just loose meat between.

Exactly what it sounds like.

Yep, that's what it is.

But yeah.

Happy to be here.

Well, thank you very much for returning to the show.

The third member of the panel is one of our regulars.

Welcome back to the show.

Puzzle writer, quiz editor, or possibly the other way around on those.

Dan Peake, welcome back.

Good day, sir.

Have I got questions for you?

I mean, that is literally your job right now, is question writing.

It is.

It is.

And at times, I've recently been helping filming with OnlyConnect.

I get to do scoring and things like that.

So

not only do I watch it be filmed, I get to...

Yes, I'll give them a point for that.

Okay, in the sense of points and not in the sense of orchestral productions.

You're not scoring the show.

Absolutely.

I am giving points.

And what do points mean?

A trophy, I think.

A trophy.

For those who don't know, OB Connect is an esoterically difficult question

quiz show where the winners get a trophy and that's it.

I really struggled not to immediately yell back prizes.

Like that is deep drain tape there.

You said what are points mean.

I just immediately went.

No,

it's not true.

My pedantry won out over my reflex game show call and response.

Yep.

Inside you are two P dance.

Well, to all three of you, it is nice to see you, to see you.

Reasonable.

That'll do.

Close enough, Dan.

Let us move on swiftly and climb the Everest of question one.

Thank you to Robert Matt for sending in this question.

Robert recently had a small cut near a fingernail that drew blood.

When he went to dress the wound, he realised that he could not do it in the best way possible.

Why?

I'll say that again.

Robert recently had a small cut near a fingernail that drew blood.

When he went to dress the wound, he realised that he could not do it in the best way possible.

Why?

I do hate it when, you know, you get the tiny little flap of skin on one of the sides of your nails and you decide, you know,

yeah, well, it's not the nail, is it that?

It's nail adjacent.

It's not the nail, it's the skin by the side.

And then you just go, oh, just quickly nip it off.

And it just keeps on going.

And then it's painful for two days afterwards.

I don't know if you can use any of that.

Enjoy.

I don't either, but it is unsurprisingly nothing to do with the details of hangnails.

Okay.

Okay.

I mean, my first thought is simply it's just a handedness, left-handed, right-handed.

You know, I mean, I've had, I am right-handed, I've had a cut on my right hand, and it's sometimes hard to dress using my left hand, but

it's simple.

It seems a bit simple, yeah.

Dress near the fingernail.

Near the fingernail.

Did he say fingernail?

Hang on.

He did.

He did.

Small cut near a fingernail.

Because if it was a small cut near and there, that could have just been any old, you know, tack that you were hammering in.

You know, you got your hand in the way.

That's suddenly.

Fingernail.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Or even a toenail, I could maybe elaborate.

Oh, yeah.

But fingernail.

You can always use the other hand, right?

And that's, it's, it's, why would it be impossible?

It's like, I can see how it's impossible with one hand.

I'm just going to repeat the question here.

He could not do it in the best way possible.

And the best way possible.

It was not impossible to dress the wound, but he couldn't do it in the best way.

Okay.

So maybe talk through what the best way would be.

You've got a small cut near your finger now.

What are you going to do?

Yeah, what would we do?

If I had a little cut, I would wash it.

I would maybe disinfect it.

I would, you know, maybe depending on how maybe some news foreign or something.

And then I would put a...

It's such an American thing.

Oh,

no other country I know.

I mean, I'm sure it's somewhere in places with less medical regulation, but nowhere I've been offers antibiotics just over the counter to just spread literally on stuff.

We put it on toast.

It is like everywhere.

And it doesn't work very well.

Yeah, it's like Vaseline, essentially.

Yeah, it's an antibiotic.

It really shouldn't be.

Yeah.

And then I would top it with a, you know, a band-aid or a little bandage, right?

Yes, you would.

Peeling the band-aid.

You have to open the wrapper, then you have to get the

stickies out, and you're trying not to have the flaps stick to each other, which is really annoying.

Then you're like, I got to get a new band-aid.

Is it a matter of limited mobility?

Perhaps Robert's other hand cannot be used as well, or maybe is missing entirely?

You don't need to know anything about Robert specifically.

But the cut was on his dominant hand.

Sure.

So if you're going to do something with your off-dominant hand, it will always be trickier.

I'm looking at my own hand to see if there's anything about the hand itself.

Do you both think it's the hand or maybe the tools or the tools being brought to bear?

I think it's something to do with the plaster and I can't work out why.

I'm sorry, did you say plaster?

Yes, I did.

Sorry, it's what we call band-aid.

Oh, that's cool.

The plaster.

Yeah.

Yeah, maybe it's in a weird shape.

I've seen band-aids where

you have your normal kind of band-aid that's kind of oval-y, but then I've also seen star-shaped band-aid band-aid that's like designed for the top of your finger and it's like a star it's like a starfish oh that's cool if if he had one of those he wouldn't have had this problem

so is it like a wrapping problem like and we're not talking music here we're talking christmas presents that sort of thing

Perhaps the plaster or band-aid that he had is a giant one, six by eight inches or something like that.

It's not giant, but how would you normally wrap a small cotton in a finger?

Just around that.

Around it, but

it's in a place that is very difficult to wrap around like the fingertips or maybe somewhere that doesn't have that much surface for it to adhere to.

It wouldn't be difficult to do that, but it would affect a daily activity.

So

he needed to maintain access, perhaps, to the finger that prevented him from wrapping it in the way that you or I might if we had the same injury.

To use his phone?

Maybe he has to use his phone.

Oh no.

Or either that or maybe his finger is

a

password, you know, a biological phase.

That's it.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

He accidentally suffered a small cut on his index finger near the nail.

Normally, as he said, you put the band-aid, the plaster on, by wrapping it round your finger.

But that would have obstructed the one fingerprint he had registered on his phone.

No.

And so, therefore, he had to orient the bandage and cut it down and make sure he didn't cover his fingerprint.

Oh man, that's right.

Because even to add a new finger, you would need to validate with the existing

finger.

Right, you're right back where you started.

Oh, how frustrating.

Karen, over to you for your question, please.

This question has been sent in by Kell.

In a tournament Scrabble game, North American champion Matthew Tunnicliffe called over the referee.

He asked for the two-letter word L spelled EL to be checked and lost five points for the incorrect challenge.

Why did he do it?

And here's the question again.

In a tournament Scrabble game, North American champion Matthew Tunnicliffe called over the referee.

He asked for the two-letter word L spelled EL to be checked and lost five points for the incorrect challenge.

Why did he do it?

Okay, we should first of all explain for anyone who grew up with house rules of Scrabble that completely ignored the idea of challenging, which I think is a lot of people,

how that actually works.

If you see a word that you don't think is a word,

remember the three S's.

See it, say it.

Scrabble, yeah.

See it, say it, scrabble.

There we go.

Thank you.

Yeah, you can brand that.

Oh, that joke will land for a small fraction of the audience, so I'm glad it's glad it worked today.

And we love you all, our train friends.

If there's a word on the board that you think isn't a word, you challenge it.

And I don't know.

So if it's a successful challenge, that gets removed from the board, and there will be some form of penalty, which I think can vary from probably tournament to tournament.

But that's the essence.

You can challenge a word.

But if, of course, if it's right,

then I thought you just lost a turn.

You also also lose points, apparently.

So in this specific tournament, the rules are

you can challenge a word and if you are incorrect and that word is valid, you do get points deducted, but it is still your turn.

So if it's an incorrect challenge and that is actually a word, it blows back on you.

Yeah.

Yes.

And that is a strategy.

Like there are people who will deliberately play words that they know are not in the dictionary because they look good enough and maybe maybe the opponent won't challenge it.

That is a yeah, that like I believe in casual play, that is what would be referred to as a dick move,

but in combat play that is a valid strategy.

So the question being why why did he do it, meaning why did he issue a challenge, I think could be taken two ways, meaning why did he think this word was incorrect or why did he knowingly issue a challenge on a word that he thought was correct?

EL is going to be quite a common two-letter scrabble word.

It's one, if you're a Scrabbler at a tournament, you will have memorised all of the two-letter words.

So they

know that's a word.

I have,

during lockdown, I spent quite a bit of time playing online Scrabble.

And

I realise how petty it is that I still remember this as just a great moment.

But I was losing very badly in a game.

But my opponent's clock was on like 20 seconds.

And all I had to do was skip enough times

and their timer ran out and that moment I don't know who they were I've never met but but if at some point during lockdown you were beaten by some jerk on who had a little British flag because you didn't check it out that might have been me and I I make no apologies

my point is that maybe there was like

if it's a tournament there is a rule that the whole game must be over in this amount of time and he's trying to force like a timeout and calling the marshal over counts against that time.

When would you play L?

Like what are the times that you would play a two-letter word?

Towards the end probably.

So you're probably only playing.

Or when you're trying to play a much larger word and that comes in as part of it.

Like you're laying down a word next to another.

So whilst they played a two-letter word,

I'm assuming it made other words as well as E-L.

Like in a corner, correct?

Okay, so is one of those other words a word that looked potentially like it wasn't a word?

That doesn't help me.

Why would you lose five points?

The only thing I could think of about losing points is what if you didn't want to win?

What if you wanted to lose and somehow you might get a better draw in the next round?

It's in a similar spirit, but not exactly that.

It's definitely a strategic move.

oh

if you don't know it's a word and you've got an s and you want to make a plural of it

but you weren't sure

is it just making a sure that this was a word i'm right i'm gonna pluralize that and put an s on the end so he the key phrase is he called over the referee oh okay tom this might be going back to you playing online.

You ran down someone's clock.

Is he trying to run down a clock?

So even though he loses points, if his opponent only has 30 seconds or so and he's called, it's their turn.

The clock stays on them.

Does the clock stop.

Is the opponent doing something else?

Is the opponent breaking some other rule?

And he wants to bring the referee's attention to that?

He's not doing anything malicious or

tricky.

It really is the timing of

timing of his realization is key, of his challenge realization.

Well, does he need more time to think about a word that he needs?

No, he did make a realization.

So let's look at the facts.

So

there's L, which is the word, and we've established that there's L and another word.

I really like that, Dan, that he stopped his own clock running down, but that feels like that's a bad sportsmanship feels like it's not the answer to this question.

What is the goal?

What is your ultimate feel-good goal in Scrabble?

What's your flex?

Lay down all your tiles.

Get all your tiles.

Which is called what?

A bingo.

The bingo.

I mean, if you really want to flex, you're doing that on two triple word scores.

But why would you need

the ref

to come over?

So, so again, Matthew, he lost the challenge, right?

He challenged on a valid word

and it was still his turn.

So he took the point loss, but in this tournament, it's still his turn.

Okay.

He knew the other word was invalid.

The other two-letter word formed in addition to E-L.

He knew that word was invalid, but he wanted to play off that word to make a valid turn.

But again, I'm struggling to say why he had to call the referee over to structure this.

Oh, so it's the mistaken challenge.

Like,

the realization he's had is he's got a bingo or something big that he can play off of this.

But he hadn't realized when he started the challenge.

He had a good word come into his head.

So even though there's an incorrect word on the board or something like that, he goes, oh, I just, I...

whilst there is an incorrect word, I'm going to challenge the valid word because I

want it to be my go.

He wanted it to stand.

Okay.

Oh,

I was sort of onto it, but I was like, why?

Yeah.

Oh,

that makes a lot of sense.

You play a really good word and that five-point hit.

Yeah, you just have to take it.

It was to keep his opponent's invalid word on the board.

And L was one of the byproduct words.

Yeah.

So Matthew's opponent had played the invalid word lavo, L-A-V-O,

on the board, thus creating also spelling L-E-L, the word, which is a valid word.

And so he's like, oh, Lavo's not a word.

He called over the ref to challenge the play so that it can be taken off the board.

However, as the referees look pace it over, he's like, oh, I can make a bingo

at a strategic place if this word stays.

That's right.

But uh-oh, I already challenged it.

So yes, to avoid the opponent's invalid word being removed from the board, he intentionally challenged a valid word.

That's right.

And so he took a five-point loss.

And yeah, in this tournament, the rules were you could continue your turn.

And so then he was able to play LeagueR-E-A-G-U-E-R for 65 points, including the 50-point bingo bonus.

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This question was sent in by Isaiah.

Around 1840, Alfred Vail walked into a newspaper office, looked around, took a few notes, and left.

His subsequent conversation with Samuel became very important.

How?

I'll give you that again.

Around 1840, Alfred Vail walked into a newspaper office, looked around, took a few notes, and left.

His subsequent conversation with Samuel became very important.

How?

Hmm.

Well, my brain goes to one place that I feel like Karen and I have the connection here.

Karen.

I mean, I feel like this might be a famous Samuel.

It might be.

That's my, that, that was my, my, uh, my, uh, my hackles here.

My, my hunch here is that maybe it's a famous Samuel.

Okay.

Um.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that was a really good start.

You are going to need to name some famous Samuels.

So we actually have to.

Okay.

Well.

I thought you just cracked it immediately there with the gas.

It's like, oh, it's some Samuel.

1840 around thereabouts.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm thinking, walk into a newspaper office.

Is Samuel Samuel Morse?

I mean, let's just get this out of the way.

Yeah, yeah, Samuel F.B.

Morse.

Yes.

Yeah.

Samuel Morse.

Okay, so Samuel Morse, famous for the code that bears his name, Morse code, a method of communicating over telegraph with dots and dashes.

Why does he have his compatriots surveying newspaper rooms in 1840?

Maybe trying to catch a headline, and maybe they're testing the code.

I mean,

the question did ask for a subsequent conversation, but that conversation doesn't necessarily have to be

oral.

They could be chatting using the Morse code and sending notes from the newspaper, headlines from the newspaper, or maybe an event happened, like

a large event, 1840.

I feel like we are going towards the first message by Morse.

That would make sense.

But I don't understand

anything to do with this newspaper business yet.

yes alfred vail walked into a newspaper office looked around took a few notes and left and then afterwards his conversation with samuel morse was very important yeah this i don't get any sense of urgency here so it doesn't feel like he's like you know relaying something very time dependent i don't know maybe i'm wrong but it's more sussing out how the information is transmitted perhaps or

maybe there was a problem maybe he noted that there was some sort of issue and then was workshopping with Morse afterwards.

He's like, hey, I went to, I spotted something and it's like, you know, maybe you're on to something with this Morse code that we could solve.

And maybe it's a problem that we could solve.

A piece of technology in the newspaper office that would have helped them out or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's fair.

I'm trying to remember what the first message sent by Morse was.

I think it was something like,

what hath God wrought?

Yes.

I'm not sure.

But I don't think it's anything to do with that in this newspaper context, which is a shame.

Yeah, the first the first official message there.

I'm sure there were some tests beforehand.

Yes, right.

They spelled boobs, yeah.

We all did it.

Okay, so

he's looking at maybe some technology that they're using in the newspaper.

I mean, in the newspaper, right?

I mean, they're in the business of timely information.

They're in the business of transferring information.

I doubt that he'd be interested in the printing side of things.

Or maybe timing how fast the messages could get to the newspaper headquarters.

Like, no, I don't, you know, they're kind of be like, ah, it's too slow.

Maybe they're doing a little bit of market research.

And I wouldn't be so quick to discount the printing technology.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

So.

It's 1840.

How are newspapers printed?

Is that still metal plates at that point in time?

Ooh, handset, hand-lettered, hands-et.

Yes.

Movable type would be the formal term for it.

Talk me through how that works.

Well, you've got essentially a giant rack on which you put the individual letters, and you know, if you're lucky, maybe some clip art or wing dings.

But in general, you're assembling the letters and the words and the headlines one letter at a time with movable pieces of type.

And then stamping that repeatedly onto paper for distribution.

Yes.

What does Morris have to do with this?

Oh,

letter frequency.

Yay!

Letter frequency.

All three of you clearly got that.

There was like a two-second pause, and then everyone got that at the same moment.

How do you know which letters need to be shorter?

Shorter, because they're more common.

Because you want to be efficient.

So you need to do a frequency analysis of something.

And so you just take the nearest source that you can.

Yes, Alfred Vale was a working partner with Samuel Morse.

Despite the fact that Morse's name is on the patents and Morse's name is on the code, Morse's system was actually kind of inefficient.

So, when trying to devise an efficient communication system, Vail went to the Morse Town newspaper office and counted the amount of each letter in their movable type press.

I love that.

And they then allocated the shorter patterns to the letters that were used more frequently.

Vale provided the efficiencies, Morse got his name on it.

Dan, it is over to you for the next question.

This question has been sent in by Ian B.

How is the fish eigenmania viruscens

similar to a Wi-Fi access point?

How is the fish eigenmania virusens similar to a Wi-Fi access point?

This feels like a Lewis Carol.

Yeah, a raven writing desk.

Totally.

How is a raven like a writing desk?

Right.

Okay.

So

it transmits information somehow to the other fish in its species about, I don't know, danger or mating or whatever the fish care about.

I feel like fish are not smart enough to have a communications network.

Surely.

Like octopuses, I believe that.

But fish.

It's why they go to school.

Hey!

No, no current.

No.

I've learned them very differently with everyone in the school.

You call them dad jokes in the UK as well, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

English is my second language and it never ceases to crack me up.

Puns are great.

Well, okay, so

you know what I'm doing when I see that there's Wi-Fi, I need to know the password to get on it.

Maybe this fish has some sort of like password mechanic, or maybe it's like a key or something to like.

A cod to log in.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

All right.

So what are the features of a Wi-Fi access point?

I mean, it has a name.

It has that publicly broadcast.

It has a password.

Karen, as you noted.

There are different channels it can broadcast on.

And maybe this fish is in river channels.

Or streaming.

Streams.

Oh, no.

No.

They live in the stream.

Live stream.

A lot of pure pun-based answers for sure.

I like, though, Tom, you mentioned, like, maybe it, maybe it can, like, click or something at two different frequencies.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like, on whatever rudimentary communication it does have.

Oh, like a 5G and a 2G.

Yeah, something maybe approximating that.

Or it can broadcast.

It can maybe be like, you know, a modem.

Picking up some signal and repeating it.

And then amplifying it.

Yeah.

Okay.

You are very close.

Something you've said has been very close.

If we knew the common name of this fish, not the Latin name, would this be blindingly obvious, Jeff?

I don't think so.

Okay.

The Wi-Fi fish.

It looks like the little Wi-Fi signal has three little lines coming off its forehead.

Like, maybe, we don't know what this fish looks like, so maybe it's one of the fish with like an interesting feature that like maybe amplifies waves or something, frequency, but it has like a physical feature that helps facilitate that.

The fish has a special ability, yes.

That makes it sound like a Pokemon

in its second form.

Is it repeating somehow, you know, almost like...

Repeating, though.

That's where you've gone off the channel sliding.

Okay.

But you've been very close with something you've said.

So it needs an input.

It's like an input and some sort of output is what I'm feeling.

Other fish can connect to it wirelessly.

It is a form.

It is a problem when there are other fish around, yes.

Oh.

Oh, it dampens.

It maybe...

Fudges with the signal.

Overloaded on a channel or something, right?

Analogous.

Keep going.

Okay, it gets overloaded and it has to switch voices or switch frequencies or switch to be heard, to stand out, to disambiguate itself.

That is exactly what it does.

It is a fish that changes frequencies to avoid signal interference.

This is a species of fish that generates a weak electric field to sense things around it.

If you're in a busy urban area, what can sometimes happen when you're trying to connect to a mobile network?

Yeah, you have two or three people with the same Wi-Fi access points on the same frequency.

They have to negotiate with each other and pick frequencies.

And the word you were so close with, Tom, was channels.

Channel hopping.

Then you went streaming.

And that was a bit more fun.

Because I found the joke.

Yeah.

If two such fish meet, their electrical signals can interfere like that with one another if they generate the same frequency, so they can't navigate.

So to get around this, one fish can shift its frequency upward while the other shifts it downwards.

And this behaviour is known as jamming avoidance response.

And it was discovered in 1963.

Oh my God.

Okay, look, this is the pun question, okay?

This is the pun question.

The effect was discovered in 1963 when researchers found that eigenmannia fish could shift their frequencies by more than six hertz if needed and the genus honours the ichthyologist fish studier Carl Eigenmann.

Wow.

And I will say this.

I like some food fish.

I like Japanese poems.

This is a hake coup.

Thank you to Yulia for sending in this question.

There is a three-metre concrete sphere weighing over seven tons on a beach on the Icelandic island of Grimsay.

Why is it there and why is it moved once a year?

I'll say that again.

There is a three-metre concrete sphere weighing over seven tons on a beach on the Icelandic island of Grimsey.

Why is it there and why is it moved once a year?

Big balls.

There's one on the other side of the island.

Okay, so...

Is it a giant map pin?

It is the top of a giant map pin that is stuck in once a year.

Painted bright red so you can see all the space.

I was going to say paper weight or like an island weight.

The fact that it's moved once a year, I mean, you know, my brain was originally thinking fell off a, I don't know, a shipping vessel or somehow managed to wash out a concrete, you know, famous for floating, of course.

But

the fact that it's moved once a year means it seems quite intentional.

There are two reasons why you move something.

One, to put it somewhere new each time.

Or two, to put it back somewhere where it should have been, because it has moved and should go back.

and for some reason I feel like it's that second one

is it being put back somewhere like the tides are moving in yeah like lunar

Iceland is a very volcanic place has it been has it

somewhere plugging a plugging a hole

stopping a volcano from erupting

well there's a lot of geothermal activity right so

you are getting close with a few of these answers so I'm gonna let you let you think about it for a while But I would focus on map pin, not in the literal sense, but I think that was pretty close.

And also,

it's not moved, but something else has.

Is it moved by

glacier action periodically?

And the goal is to see how far it's moved each year or something like that.

Or perhaps volcanic, I suppose.

The other thing that Iceland does is Iceland is splitting itself in two.

It's got the two continental plates, the Eurasian plate and the North American plate.

So is it something to do with that splitting apart?

And it's like a measurement of, oh,

this is how far America and Europe have drifted apart.

Like a country marker or a border marker.

You use your really big telescope from the shore of New York and from Pentham Island to look at it.

Right.

Let's just state the obvious here.

It's very large and very heavy for a reason.

They could get a tiny piece of GPS equipment if they just needed to measure precise location, right?

There's some physicality to this thing.

Where Iceland?

What would you do with the giant spherical concrete ball?

Karen, why did you just say that?

Why Iceland?

Why Iceland?

Why Iceland?

Well, where are you?

I mean, you could be your...

Like Daniel said, there's like the North America and the Europe thing.

There's also like...

Yeah, there's only a few countries where you could do this.

Oh, interesting.

Arctic?

Like, maybe it's an Arctic.

Is it the location of

true north

versus the magnetic north, rather?

Is it like the poles related to the magnetic?

That would be a bit too far north.

What do you say, Carol?

Arctic.

Arctic.

The Arctic Circle.

Arctic line.

That's the key words we're looking for.

So what could that be for?

Why would you move it?

Yeah, or is it being moved?

You put it there to mark.

Is it for

shipping?

It is art.

I will tell you this.

You've got the first part of the question.

Okay, so it is for art to mark the location of the Arctic Circle.

Ah, wow.

Because

having many years ago filmed something to do with this,

there is only a tiny bit of Iceland that is actually above the Arctic Circle.

It's a very small area.

It is one bit of one island and some rocks that are still poking above the water but won't a few years.

That's that's it.

Is the sphere rolling along the Arctic Circle

like

with time?

As the as the Earth,

the

pole of the earth doesn't quite stay still it has a bit of a wobble yes it does because the internal bit of the earth it moves about a bit the the the axis about which the earth rotates moves very slightly and so does that change where the arctic circle is yes it does by roughly 14 or 15 meters per year

wow wow not insignificant not insignificant that's a big wobble it is a big enough wobble that by 2047, the Arctic Circle will have left Iceland entirely.

Oh, it's moving away from Iceland.

It's moving away.

So every year,

once a year, they roll the boulder or move the boulder to the new position.

And by about 2047, it will just be sat on the shoreline waiting for the Arctic Circle to return.

I'm going to cry.

This is an A24 movie.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my goodness.

It is an artwork called Orbis et Globus.

And they never have to clean any moss off of that rolling stone, do they?

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Colin, whenever you're ready, gives you a question.

Here we go.

This question has been sent in by David Sansom.

For his partner's safety and his own comfort, David puts on a pair of glasses.

However, these glasses completely block his view ahead.

How do they help?

Again.

For his partner's safety and his own comfort, David puts on a pair of glasses.

However, these glasses completely block his view ahead.

How do they help?

Cyclops.

Cyclops.

I will tell you outright, it is not Cyclops.

Cyclops or Cyclops related.

No, no.

His safety.

No, his partner's safety and his comfort.

That's right.

That's right.

Doing both, I would say, in that order.

Lasers.

Lasers.

Yes.

Cyclops.

If you're working with high-powered lasers, there is a standard joke warning symbol, which is do not look into laser with remaining eye.

Like for both safety and comfort,

I mean, you would use particular goggles at a particular frequency, but...

But it was, was, hang on, it was the partner's...

Was it the partner's safety?

Yes.

Personal comfort.

You could certainly work with lasers, solo.

This task is very much about the relationship between the glasses wearer and the partner.

This task, you could still accomplish it without these

glasses.

However, it would not be as comfortable.

Would it be less impressive?

Welcome to a question where Tom just throws out a series of things where someone needs to be blindfolded.

Knife-throwing acts.

Ooh, ooh, ooh.

I don't think it's that type of assist, right?

They are certainly special.

You know, they're not like the glasses I'm wearing right now.

I don't know that it's more impressive, less impressive.

It's more just more comfortable if you are in the person

in David's position.

The partner comfort not affected.

Wow, but safety.

It's like, why would I, okay, why would I, so Colin, why would I protect you?

Like, like, why would I protect you by wearing something on my face?

Like, what is the situation to protect you that I put something on my face?

I think you've got two good questions there, Karen.

And focus on the first is, what are some scenarios where you have a partner and you are in whole or part responsible for their safety?

I'm not sure that the partner is human.

I'm getting horsey by.

Oh,

we've had this before.

This group has had this before where we've forgotten to check that everyone in the question is human.

Is it like

a horse or an animal?

They are both humans.

Let's get it out of the way.

I'm just sorry.

I'm just

dissuading to disappoint.

They are both humans

in this type of scenario.

Would one person be like a child?

Or are they saying partner as in, you know,

spouse spouse partner relationship?

Interesting.

That's a good question.

I would say this would apply equally to adult, child, partner, romantic, not life partner.

Yep.

Yep.

Two humans.

I'm sure.

And

you'd still have the same requirement for partner safety as stated in the question.

And this tool,

you know, as I say, you don't need it.

Certainly, this activity was done before the invention of these glasses.

um

oh could they be playing could they be playing a game or an activity that requires glasses like a laser tag or a paintball situation

it is very low technology

say yeah it does not involve it does not involve batteries or powered source it is is low technology interesting um although david

although his view ahead is blocked as the question noted david can still see

okay so either either peripheral or they're sort of reverse goggles and you can see behind you it is orpheus in the underworld and he's not allowed to look back but if he just uses some mirrors i'd know

what do you mean

he should have done that

he should karen giving giving notes here on mythology you know what he should have David and his partner are gradually getting further apart.

Is one of them on the North Atlantic plate, one of them on the Eurasian plate?

Slowly drifting apart from tectonic motion.

What requires you to only have peripheral vision for checking on safety?

Peripheral is certainly one direction, if you can't see ahead.

You've got some sort of mirror reflection thing?

Hmm.

You're sniffing on it here, maybe a little bit.

Low-tech.

Low-tech.

What are some low-tech ways of affecting your vision?

Perhaps it's...

Oh, fisheye, wide lens, mirrors.

Okay, okay.

Glasses.

If his partner makes a mistake, David needs to be ready.

David needs to be ready to jump into action here.

Infrared, night vision?

This is quite high-tech.

Oh, very high-tech.

No power source.

Yep, yep.

I'm feeling like it's

sport or a circus skill or something like that.

Like the partner is in danger.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like you said for their safety, but

it's not because David is throwing something or causing the danger.

David is the spotter.

Yeah.

David is their...

A human cannonball?

You wouldn't be able to see ahead with your human cannonball, really, would you?

This can be done outside circus environs, but you are right on.

You are spot on.

Pun intended, Tom, that they are the spotter.

They are keeping visual eye on their partner, who, as noted, is getting further away.

They are connected somehow, David and his partner.

So going up?

Okay.

Skydiving.

If you're getting further away from your tandem person, something's going wrong.

I'm carrying a lot less weight than I was 30 seconds ago.

What sport, what sport can people engage in where you are moving up away from your partner?

Your partner is somehow connected to you.

Climbing.

Okay, yes.

Sports.

Well, but rock climbing.

Uh-huh.

Yep.

So you would be belaying your partner.

Exactly.

So is your view obscured because you've got the rock in front of you, you just can't see?

Is that what is going on?

As the belayer, your primary job is to look up at the climber and

watch their motion, make sure they're making safe motions, and importantly, be ready to act if they fall or if you stop them.

Yeah.

So, how can I do this while remaining comfortable?

Maybe you're up on the rock for a long time.

What comfort issue might I face?

You're going to be craning your neck upwards for a long time.

Is it like a.

So, it must be a pair of goggles where you're looking ahead, your neck, you're just standing like a normal person, but they're 90 degrees.

It looks up like half a periscope.

It says, like a periscope.

You have got it.

Right on.

These are incredible glasses.

I've never seen anything like this before.

Amazing.

So David is rock climbing.

As noted, with a partner on it, Belay, as you said, Dan.

So the partner is up on the rock.

David has to keep an eye on them.

Now, normally in the old days, I know you have to look up, but, you know, as Tom noted, your neck's going to creak.

These are special glasses with prisms.

So David is looking straight ahead, neck level, head level, but the view he is seeing is straight up the rock wall at his partner up in the air.

So yeah, you don't have to suffer from, you know,

Belayer's neck, I guess, you know, if we're going to name the condition.

I love the low-tech solution.

Like, it's just, it's so simple.

You're like, oh, yeah.

Oh, Oh, beautiful.

It's so obvious in hindsight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or should that be sideways sight these days with the mirrors?

Which just leaves us with the question sent in at the start by James Tween.

Why have several people added an extra verse to a 1959 song that was already difficult to perform?

Any guesses from the panel?

I have a guess.

Not a clue.

Not a clue.

I thought at first it was happy birthday, but yeah.

Colin has a guess.

All right, well, here we go.

I'll air it all out.

So I have a daughter.

She is seven.

Not too long ago, she was learning the alphabet song.

And I learned that many people have added like a little bit extra to the alphabet song to make it easier to sing for children in particular around the L-M-N-O sequence.

But I don't know if that counts as an extra verse.

It's my only hesitation.

It's not the alphabet, but oh, you're close, Colin.

You're very very close.

I mean, it could be in the similar vein where you're listing a bunch of things, right?

You're listing a list of a list of a list of songs.

It is a list song and the pattern song.

It's like a state or a country, and they had to like change up or update.

Yep.

Oh, a new country, a new.

It is humorous and educational.

And the new version has 16 more things since 1959.

Is it the

Animaniacs

Wacko's World country song.

That one has been updated by several people.

That's not this one.

Again, 1959.

1959, 1959.

Nothing happened in 1959.

Except this one important thing.

See, space, planets.

Definitely science.

The elements.

Elements.

Elements.

Elements.

Yes.

Tom Lehrer's song Elements, which lists all the chemicals in the periodic table to the tune of the major general's song.

It was written in 1959.

The existence of more elements has been confirmed.

Various songwriters, including Helen Arnie, have added additional lines to keep the song current.

And the 16 added elements are Laurentium, Mitnarium, Darmstadium, Cyborgium, Runginium, Dubnium, Florovium, and Borium, Capernicium, Livermorium, Hassium, Rothofordium, Augenessen, Tennessee, Muscovium, and Nihonium.

That was absolutely take one.

You're in your element, Tom.

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

It is the element song.

Thank you to all of our players.

Where can people find you?

What's going on in your lives?

We will start today with Karen.

Hello, you can find us on goodjobbrain.com, home of the trivia, pup trivia podcast, and also on available on other major podcast apps.

Colin, what kind of things you've been talking about there lately?

We just had a great segment from our co-host, not here, Chris, about the number one through number 10 kitchen-related injuries, which was fun and enlightening and gruesome.

I mean, you know, you got your burns and you got your cuts, but you can injure yourself in some surprisingly novel ways in the average household kitchen.

And Dan Peake, what's going on with you?

I stream on Twitch a couple of evenings a week various games and puzzles.

Search for Quizzy Dan on Twitch and I'm on YouTube there as well.

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com.

There are episodes in full video every week on Spotify and you can find us on YouTube, TikTok, and basically everywhere at lateralcast.

Thank you very much to Dan Peake.

G'day.

Colin Felton.

Cheers, everybody.

Karen Chu.

All right, all right, all right.

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