166: A severed sleeve

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Speaker 3 On the 8th of May, 2025, which US fast food company wrote a post on X that contained just the company's name spelt out.

Speaker 3 The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral.

Speaker 4 Lateral is filmed before a live studio audience.

Speaker 3 Honey, have you seen where I put my left shoe?

Speaker 5 Isn't it right next to your right shoe?

Speaker 1 Oh yeah, there it is. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Did you remember to turn off the oven this time? I'm not cleaning up another marshmallow lasagna explosion.

Speaker 3 Oh, that was a right old pickle.

Speaker 6 Did somebody say pickles?

Speaker 5 You're not in bed yet.

Speaker 5 I'm heading out. Try not to miss me too much while I'm thriving.

Speaker 5 Well, you're not going out to dress like that, young lady. Your outfit isn't missing something, like fabric.

Speaker 6 What's that look?

Speaker 2 You look like you're about to headline a Duran Duran revival tour.

Speaker 6 It's called fashion.

Speaker 5 Not like you'd know.

Speaker 3 Hey, hey, come on, kids, don't be like that. Friday is family podcast night, just like the Founding Fathers intended.

Speaker 5 Honey, I'm not sure the Founding Fathers knew what a podcast was.

Speaker 6 They would have loved them!

Speaker 2 Franklin totally had Theo Vaughan energy.

Speaker 5 Kids, kids, let's all sit together in the podcast Nook.

Speaker 5 Because the family that podcasts together stays together.

Speaker 4 I love you, Mom.

Speaker 5 I love you too, I guess. Okay, look smart.
Your father's about to start the show.

Speaker 3 Joining me today are three people that have more bounce than a 1980s sitcom theme song.

Speaker 6 It's the gang for Let's Learn Everything.

Speaker 4 It's so nice to, and it brings a tear to my eye thinking about all the families, the nuclear families, sitting around listening to this podcast. That must have been so uncanny for them.

Speaker 5 White Picket Fence, Podcast Nook.

Speaker 3 I got that script through from Producer Dave. I was like, that's a lot to ask.
That's a lot

Speaker 3 of our returning guests there.

Speaker 6 And we have a lot to answer.

Speaker 3 I'm assuming that behind the scenes you all have character names and biographies and everything.

Speaker 5 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 Well, your actual names here are not the characters.

Speaker 6 Please welcome Caroline Roper. Welcome back to the show.
Thank you so much for having us.

Speaker 3 This is so exciting. Last time, we did all gang up on you in a somewhat sitcom-like fashion.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I have only just stopped crying about that.

Speaker 3 And I've only just stopped feeling guilty about it.

Speaker 6 So there's that.

Speaker 4 It was Caroline was the only one who didn't know the answer.

Speaker 2 And so we decided to try if just they answered 1v1.

Speaker 5 I've never been so stressed in my life.

Speaker 5 Oh my goodness. I used to have like stress dreams about being like in my GCSE exams again as an adult.
Now it's going to be this just actually does sound like a nightmare I would have.

Speaker 6 It's a lateral recording and I'm pushing on the answer.

Speaker 3 Well, hopefully this will be more like a dream today. Also joining us,

Speaker 3 I always wary saying like the second third of Let's Learn Everything. It implies a hierarchy.
But today, the second third of Let's Learn Everything, Ella Hubber.

Speaker 6 Hello.

Speaker 5 Ella would love that you ranked her higher than Tom.

Speaker 6 Higher than Tom, actually.

Speaker 5 Disappoint, I should be the first. I am the first third, but you don't know that.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 3 alphabetically, the second third of Let's Learn Everything.

Speaker 6 Alahuba. Fine.

Speaker 6 I'll allow it.

Speaker 3 You should plug the podcast for the folks who've tuned in for this is their first show and just got that fever dream nightmare of an introduction.

Speaker 5 Yeah, you're in for a wild ride if this is your first one. We are the co-host of Let's Learn Everything, the show where we learn anything and everything interesting.

Speaker 5 We cover a science topic and we cover a miscellaneous topic.

Speaker 3 And finally,

Speaker 3 this is why people say last last but not least, the last third of Bets Learn everything, Tom Lum.

Speaker 6 It's somebody saved pickles.

Speaker 3 What I love is the audience will have heard the cheering and the whooping and the applause sound effects.

Speaker 4 And now this version?

Speaker 3 We just had to sit for five seconds in silence there.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Used to it.

Speaker 3 What sort of stuff have you been learning lately, Tom?

Speaker 4 We have learned about such science topics like international space law,

Speaker 4 what's the most boring element, as well as miscellaneous topics like the nuances and the negatives of true crime, as well as things like trading card art.

Speaker 3 Well, very best of luck for all three of you. I don't think any of those subjects come up today.
But we do have a little longer than 22 minutes to resolve the storylines with a heartwarming moral.

Speaker 3 Just don't touch that dial as we move to question one. Thank you to Stein for this question.
In 2009, the European Union began to outlaw the sale of lights with a low energy efficiency rating.

Speaker 3 How did two German entrepreneurs manage to legally sell 4,000 bulbs that would normally violate this ban? I'll say that again.

Speaker 3 In 2009, the European Union began to outlaw the sale of lights with a low energy efficiency rating.

Speaker 3 How did two German entrepreneurs manage to legally sell 4,000 bulbs that would normally violate this ban?

Speaker 4 They're not used for

Speaker 6 lighting.

Speaker 4 Maybe they're in something else.

Speaker 4 That's fun. They're used as packing peanuts.

Speaker 5 I love to reach into my packages and get a handful of glass.

Speaker 5 My brain goes too.

Speaker 5 So in a lot of like lighting design, more efficient light bulbs actually produce more lighting, which can cause like light pollution and stuff like that.

Speaker 5 Whereas like older, inefficient lighting, often that's quite orangey, can sometimes be better for like light pollution and wildlife and stuff like that. So, is it?

Speaker 4 We did a topic on light pollution.

Speaker 5 It's also, sadly, so much of my job is talking about efficient lighting these days.

Speaker 6 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 4 Do we have any info on here? Any inside knowledge?

Speaker 6 I wish.

Speaker 3 I once spent a long time trying to get the right colour balance in my flat. I'd replaced the bulb with a new energy-efficient one.
And nope, so it's the wrong colour.

Speaker 3 I end up buying theatrical lighting gel and lining the lampshade with it. Just like I've got to get that right.

Speaker 5 If anyone was going to say, I spent a long time trying to get it.

Speaker 6 Getting the colour temperature right. Yes.
It's here.

Speaker 4 Not even on camera, just for your life.

Speaker 6 I guess that's important. I guess it's important for your life.
That's fair.

Speaker 5 Are low-efficiency bulbs that they get hotter quicker? So they sold them for heating lamps or something for reptiles.

Speaker 4 That was going to be my thought. I was just going to say, also, Tom, to be loved is to be known.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 6 More or less.

Speaker 3 Reptiles isn't the right thing, though.

Speaker 5 But the heating side is.

Speaker 6 I'm trying to think.

Speaker 4 Are these like, I was like, maybe like a tanning booth? Maybe these are like.

Speaker 5 Although that needs to be UV. I don't think that pieces

Speaker 5 is the thing that is important there. I don't think you want to be getting too hot in a tanning booth.

Speaker 6 Yeah, no, I don't think that's actually.

Speaker 6 Wait, what? Oh, no.

Speaker 3 It's much simpler than that. Like, you added a thing that didn't need to be there.

Speaker 5 They were just selling them as heating.

Speaker 3 They were just selling them as mini heaters, yes.

Speaker 6 Wow.

Speaker 6 That's, wow.

Speaker 5 Yep.

Speaker 5 And they called themselves entrepreneurs after that?

Speaker 3 Well, they sort of called themselves artists as well. It was sparking discussion about the ban, but

Speaker 3 they did still sell 4,000 bulbs as heaters to the folks who really did not want to switch to energy efficiency.

Speaker 4 It has like a pastiche on it, as like a joke to poke fun at like loopholes. I would get that.

Speaker 6 I do enjoy that.

Speaker 3 But you don't actually need to sell 4,750 watt light bulbs in order to do that.

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 3 You can still buy those as heaters. There are still like heat bulbs you can buy for bathrooms and things like that if you want to warm the place up.
But that is delicious.

Speaker 5 That seems massively inefficient to heat up anywhere.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 3 Yes, the EU banned the sale of bulbs over 60 watts. Siegfried Rothauser and his brother-in-law sold 75 and 100-watt incandescent bulbs as small heating elements under the brand name Heatball.

Speaker 3 They did say that a portion of the revenue went to a rainforest protection initiative.

Speaker 5 Oh, that just makes it all okay then.

Speaker 3 Caroline, we're going to go over to you for the next question, please.

Speaker 5 This question has been sent in by Simon. In 2007, a concerned mother bought 80,000 cans from Just for Kicks Inc.
and arranged to have them shipped to the Middle East. What was it for?

Speaker 6 One more time.

Speaker 5 In 2007, a concerned mother bought 80,000 cans from Just for Kicks Inc. and arranged for them to be shipped to the Middle East.
What was it for?

Speaker 5 I'm worried about giving my just off the top of my head answer because they've been in the last episode were so good.

Speaker 5 And we're not going to get invited back if I'm just, if I'm just consistently this good. So,

Speaker 5 and it's not, and it's not because I don't, and it's not because I don't have any ideas this time, right?

Speaker 3 I was going to say it's something that I've said to a few folks on here. If you do that, you are setting yourself up as the villain.

Speaker 5 I love being the villain, Tom.

Speaker 6 You know it.

Speaker 6 Natural wrestling heel.

Speaker 4 I actually have nothing. That's our secret.

Speaker 6 We're all the heel.

Speaker 4 So just for kicks, right? And you said cans. I did.
Am I wrong to think that these are like

Speaker 4 a snake in a can like prank toys?

Speaker 5 You know, not snake in a can, but you're along the right lines.

Speaker 3 I just got hooked on the phrase kick the can.

Speaker 3 Like kick the can down the road and got kicks and can confuse. I hadn't thought that kicks might be like a novelty gag thing, like

Speaker 3 a merchandise company. Yeah.

Speaker 4 How many again?

Speaker 5 80,000.

Speaker 4 Good lord.

Speaker 4 What is the.

Speaker 4 I'm trying to think if, if, is, is the region of the world just like relevant to like where this person was living, where they had family? Is there like a specific country or event or time of year?

Speaker 5 So

Speaker 5 this person.

Speaker 5 Great questions, Tom.

Speaker 4 Or does this actually have to do with any of the nuances of any geopolitical issues in that area?

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 3 This is a concerned mother in 2007

Speaker 3 sending something to the Middle East. Like, Tom, you talked about nuances of the geopolitical situation.
Is she sending these

Speaker 3 to her

Speaker 3 kid who is a soldier in the Middle East? Like, they're sending stuff like U.S. Army.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah, you're spot on. This is a concerned mother sending something to her son that is a soldier in the Middle East.

Speaker 5 In Iraq or Afghanistan. Yeah, in Iraq.

Speaker 6 Iraq, okay.

Speaker 3 The U.S. military has enough money to buy a lot of stuff.
What does a concerned mother need to send 80,000 of them?

Speaker 5 80,000 novelty steaks to use as

Speaker 6 weapons, obviously.

Speaker 3 I know there is a big, like, U.S. forces post office thing.
And the thing that is stuck in my head was some deli in New York City.

Speaker 3 And the phrase that has apparently been stuck in my head since I saw it on a wall or a poster or something like that was, send a salami to your boy in the army.

Speaker 3 Like they had a system where folks could just pay to ship their product to, as like a morale booster, to your kids off in the army. Wow.
This is a thing that America does. Like America,

Speaker 3 America has a lot about the military that other countries perhaps do not.

Speaker 4 Caroline, is this like a

Speaker 4 is this like a light-hearted, goofy, silly thing that she was trying to do? Is this a very practical thing? Is this a.

Speaker 5 This is very practical,

Speaker 5 very useful.

Speaker 4 Were they like used to, and this is now going full bore into sort of uh uh what could possibly like is this were they like

Speaker 4 used

Speaker 4 to uh

Speaker 4 trigger uh IEDs or minds you like throw them onto somewhere and then it

Speaker 4 like, I don't know.

Speaker 5 It's not for triggering something like that, but you're kind of you're really along the right lines with that thought process.

Speaker 3 Did she also send 120,000 meters of string?

Speaker 6 Oh,

Speaker 6 can telephones.

Speaker 3 If that's right, I'm gonna walk off this podcast.

Speaker 5 Tell them it's right. No.

Speaker 3 Here's the thing. The minute those words came out my mind, I was like, I've just set myself up for a punchline there, haven't I?

Speaker 6 I'm just, we gotta

Speaker 6 take it.

Speaker 6 I'm actually,

Speaker 5 okay, not that then.

Speaker 5 Beans.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so the product I'm assuming isn't food, right?

Speaker 6 In the can?

Speaker 5 Tom, you you said like snake coming out of a can.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And that wasn't right, but like think about other products that a company like this might sell that comes in a can. A novelty canned product, peanuts.

Speaker 4 Novelty canned stuff,

Speaker 4 canned bread, canned.

Speaker 4 It's not food.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 5 It's not a food item, no.

Speaker 3 And what might they be running out of?

Speaker 3 Like what is the US military not able to supply enough of for soldiers? Or

Speaker 5 might not be allowed, or might not be able to supply for one reason or another. Think about it.
This is a novelty item, essentially.

Speaker 4 Whoopee cushions.

Speaker 6 A candy. Whoopie cushions.

Speaker 4 Sunglasses.

Speaker 6 Gosh.

Speaker 5 Fart smell. Oh, Ella, you're like getting

Speaker 5 so much closer.

Speaker 6 Candles? Candles?

Speaker 5 The difference between Ella's and and all the other ones was that the thing that Ella mentioned was sort of aerosol-based.

Speaker 4 Is it like joke air, like air in a can from like a region? That's like a thing you could do.

Speaker 5 It's so close. Oh, silly string.
Yes.

Speaker 3 Yes. Oh, my God.
I knew this.

Speaker 6 Oh, no. What?

Speaker 3 I've seen this story. It's to find tripwires.

Speaker 5 That's exactly what it is. Yes.

Speaker 6 Well done.

Speaker 3 As you're walking into somewhere, if there's a tripwire that'll set off an IED or something like that, you want to be able to discover it, but not set it off. And silly string is perfect for that.

Speaker 3 You shoot that out before you and it will land on the tripwire, but hopefully not set it off.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that's exactly it.

Speaker 5 So US soldiers essentially discovered this use for silly string, where, as Tom said, they would shoot it out of the can, and if it fell to the floor, there were no tripwires, it was fine.

Speaker 5 But if it sort of hovered in the air, that meant that it had caught on a tripwire and that a soldier shouldn't go that way.

Speaker 4 Wow, and it wouldn't wouldn't even trigger it.

Speaker 6 It would just sit on top. That's wild.

Speaker 5 Because this is a party gimmick item, essentially, when this was discovered, the U.S. Army couldn't supply it to soldiers.

Speaker 4 I can understand why they wouldn't.

Speaker 4 Right?

Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 It's not just that it's a party gimmick, it's that there's the whole US military complex of getting a supplier that can tick all the boxes and make sure.

Speaker 3 Yeah, they've got to fit 300 military regulations. No novelty company is going to do that.

Speaker 5 But a concerned mother absolutely would.

Speaker 4 Or

Speaker 4 the U.S. military secret clown force.

Speaker 6 That's the movie. Baby Clown Force.

Speaker 3 There's going to be some big US military industrial complex supplier that is now taking orders for $50 cans of tripwire detection

Speaker 3 coagulant or something.

Speaker 6 Yeah, yeah, Lockheed Martin skilly string. Yeah, right? That will enter it and it will fit every specification that they have required for it.

Speaker 5 So, yeah, this was Marcel Shriver or Marcel Shriver learned this information from her son. She then started this campaign to send these 80,000 cans

Speaker 6 over to Iraq.

Speaker 5 The shipment took months to organize because of all of the specialized commercial shipping that was required to get these cans over there.

Speaker 5 And especially like a shipping company that was permitted to carry aerosol products as well.

Speaker 6 So yeah.

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Speaker 3 Thank

Speaker 3 Emperor I of the Han Dynasty once woke up and cut off the sleeve of his own robe. Why?

Speaker 5 You know, sometimes you just get a question and it's like, wow, my brain's gone to so many places that I don't quite know where to start with this one.

Speaker 6 Huh.

Speaker 4 You never, it's like you wake up and you just like toss the sheets out because it's too hot. Um, similarly, my first thought is: like, is this something

Speaker 4 someone would do today? Or does it, is this something about the time period? Um,

Speaker 5 it was real itchy, and he was just like, nah, I can't do it anymore.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm like, clearly, it's, it's, it's, you know, a specific name mentioned, but I don't know if that's how, how relevant that is or if

Speaker 4 cutting off a sleeve. Is this anything like symbolic that we would have to know about?

Speaker 3 No, my first note here is you don't need any knowledge of Chinese history for this.

Speaker 6 Ah, okay.

Speaker 5 Okay, so why have it be Emperor I of the Han Dynasty then? If we don't need to know anything about Chinese, there has to be something in the names, then I would I have to assume.

Speaker 5 Was the sleeve valuable or made of valuable material or something like that?

Speaker 4 I believe this because if this is the Han dynasty, then it must have been when

Speaker 4 the army was retreating. And so as a result, he had to cut off his sleeves because his armies were in his sleeve.

Speaker 3 Oh!

Speaker 3 I didn't see the bit coming.

Speaker 6 I didn't see it.

Speaker 6 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 6 They're throwing flowers. They're throwing flowers.
I sold it imperfectly.

Speaker 5 I knew the bit was coming, but the dad joke really hit me.

Speaker 4 All right, this next question comes from.

Speaker 4 Yeah, so honestly, bugs was my first thought. Was that Caroline that mentioned that in terms of like, you know, you have bed bugs or something like that? You might want to do that.

Speaker 4 And then heat was my other thing, right? Like, if it's just too hot.

Speaker 5 Is the name important?

Speaker 6 Emperor.

Speaker 6 The name's not important.

Speaker 3 It's just that this has become something of a legend oh

Speaker 5 it's one of those stories that could be apocryphal but is is so well known that it's associated with him he woke up and cut off his sleeve i feel like i've heard this before he was like you know what would be great like a three-quarter length sleeve let's go and do that

Speaker 5 and that was and now tom lum is fashion is uh yeah demonstrating on beautifully for mobility is another thing

Speaker 4 um to show off your

Speaker 4 you've been working out is another reason. Is it both sleeves? Is it one sleeve?

Speaker 1 Is that relevant?

Speaker 3 The sleeve of his own robe. So one sleeve.

Speaker 4 I'm trying to think if this is

Speaker 4 to do with an emperor. Maybe there's something about like...

Speaker 4 My brain goes to like, I don't know, like an assassination attempt or a coup. Maybe he was doing it to prove something, right? It's like the same way you might like,

Speaker 4 I don't know, try to trick someone to be like, oh, actually, I only have one sleeve and that's how you know it's me or something like that.

Speaker 5 Is this like the origin story of where something came from? I think that's a good thing.

Speaker 4 Of tank tops.

Speaker 6 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 Is he like cutting off his sleeve to mark a retreat? And that's how we get like the white flag from or something like that.

Speaker 6 Oh,

Speaker 3 there is a phrase that comes from this, but it's not one that's well known outside of China.

Speaker 4 That's a great shout, Caroline, that it's like, it's not about the out, it's like the use of the portion that was cut off is that right the trick here Tom no

Speaker 3 it's it's not okay um if he'd have woken up later he might not have had to do this getting a suntan um because remember he once woke up and cut off the sleeve of his own robe so woke up like in the middle of the night presumably or earlier than than normal

Speaker 6 um

Speaker 5 if he had woken up later he wouldn't have to have done that he used it as a blindfold or something like no you know a sleep mask mask or something.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 That's good.

Speaker 5 On that vein, did he have to like ban it for light or something?

Speaker 4 Well, Tom said that the thing itself wasn't used, unfortunately.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 And earlier, Tom, you said it was something you could do today. You absolutely could, should you happen to sleep with a knife on your person.

Speaker 5 Okay, if you happen to sleep with a knife on your person, you should wake up and cut off your sleeves.

Speaker 5 Your sleeve, the sleeve, the sleeve.

Speaker 6 One of your sleeves.

Speaker 6 I'm assuming you've got one or two.

Speaker 4 Is this like a survival thing? Is this something like you're if you're camping, you might need to do this, or is this just a

Speaker 4 gosh, you're sleeping, you cut off one sleeve of the arm.

Speaker 5 You're sleeping.

Speaker 5 You wake up. Somebody's come to assassinate you.
You stab them. Oh no, I've got blood on my good sleeve.
You cut the sleeve off. Evidence is gone.
There you go. The answer.

Speaker 3 Not that, but you are technically closer.

Speaker 3 It was not an assassination attempt.

Speaker 6 I'll steer you away from that.

Speaker 3 But you are closer and right to think of what else might be in the scene.

Speaker 5 I am so stumped.

Speaker 5 I've been absolutely

Speaker 6 stumped.

Speaker 3 Who else might be in the scene?

Speaker 5 A lover.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 4 You want to get closer to your partner and so...

Speaker 5 Get further away from them.

Speaker 3 Get further away from them. Absolutely.

Speaker 6 Huh? Oh,

Speaker 4 is the presumption like they're lying on your sleeve? Oh, babe, you keep scratching at my sleeve.

Speaker 5 No, they're lying on your arm or whatever. And so to get away, he cut off his sleeve so he could slip out.

Speaker 3 Oh, no. This is an act of extreme thoughtfulness.
This is not slipping away because you want to leave them behind. This is slipping away without waking them up.
You are absolutely right, Alan.

Speaker 4 Aww.

Speaker 5 Oh, that's very sweet. Our brains went to such different places.

Speaker 3 I was like, not an assassination attempt, but there is someone else in the room. You know, there's someone else there.

Speaker 3 Yes, the Chinese term translated I have here is the passion of the cut sleeve. It is someone who cared so much for their lover that rather than wake them up,

Speaker 3 cut off the sleeve and let them keep sleeping.

Speaker 4 Very cute. Of course we could never come up with something.

Speaker 6 Of course that stuff does.

Speaker 6 That was the one. First thought, assassination attempt.
Why is there someone in the bedroom with you? Assassination, absolutely.

Speaker 3 Tom, over to you for your question, please.

Speaker 6 Rock and roll.

Speaker 4 This question has been sent in by Amir Sarid. In the US, why does the number of vasectomies performed increase by up to 50% every March compared to a typical month? I'll say that again.

Speaker 4 In the US, why does the number of vasectomies performed increase by up to 50% every March compared to a typical month?

Speaker 3 I'm out for this one. It's over to Caroline and Ella.

Speaker 5 Okay, all the...

Speaker 5 September, October, November,

Speaker 5 December, January, February, March. So,

Speaker 5 sorry, I'm just looking for like a nine months from March, a baby being born situation, which would be July, I think, which doesn't spring to mind as like a particularly important day.

Speaker 5 If it was like nine months from Valentine's Day, then you could be, it could be like, oh, all the kids are being born, and the father's like, damn, I need to go and get a vasectomy right now.

Speaker 5 You know, Ella, I've not had a single thought since you started talking.

Speaker 5 I'm just watching you, like, where's this going? I think that made sense.

Speaker 6 Yeah, but not that. No.

Speaker 5 It's not a sudden burst of children.

Speaker 5 They get cheaper. There's always a discount.

Speaker 4 No, although maybe they should, but no.

Speaker 4 It's not something to do on the end of, it's not something to do with that.

Speaker 3 I only know this one because I know something about American culture.

Speaker 3 There is a specific reference here that I'm not sure the Brits will get, but I think you can still get close enough to it. I think you can still work this one out.

Speaker 5 It's in that song, We Didn't Light the Fire. It's like one of the lyrics is like the sector me and much,

Speaker 5 you know. What?

Speaker 5 We did start the fire.

Speaker 6 You get your research to me and much.

Speaker 6 You know, that's like, oh my goodness.

Speaker 5 Tom Mom looked so shocked for a second there.

Speaker 5 Is that right? Is that correct?

Speaker 3 I'm really annoyed. I've just looked up the lyrics to We Didn't Start the Fire.

Speaker 3 And it's in there. Well, no, I know most of them, but there isn't a single line that ends in E that I can rhyme there.
Like there's maybe you two, Sigmund Rhee, Paola, and Kennedy. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Chubby checker psycho.

Speaker 6 No.

Speaker 3 No, no, that doesn't work.

Speaker 4 It's in the Congo.

Speaker 3 Right. It's an A-B-B song a lot.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 3 There isn't a rhyme in there that I can swap out for Something March Vasectomy. It's not in there.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winter, Joe the McCarthy.

Speaker 3 And that's why we have to stop it because of copyright.

Speaker 4 Joe McCartney, Richard Nixon.

Speaker 6 Don't you know? Please don't. Please don't.
Stop.

Speaker 3 Because otherwise, we're going to have a we didn't start the fire off, and I think you're just going to win it.

Speaker 5 Okay, so so it's an american reference

Speaker 6 yeah for some

Speaker 5 oh oh is there like a rhyme like um

Speaker 3 something

Speaker 5 sorry

Speaker 6 wow as as hosting a question goes immediately bursting out laughing at someone's suggestion i just it's just i don't know where your friends go these places you've got people like rhyme oh it rhymes that's why they must do it just going around being like because you know like you have like wednesday's child is full of woe or whatever so you don't want a child on Wednesday maybe March you know

Speaker 5 March's child is full of

Speaker 4 I'll say this I think you're thinking you're thinking of a different aspect of the vasectomy process in terms of like not having kids um yes which which you know is part of it but the timing has less to do with that and more with the process if that makes sense oh do people like make it their new year's resolution to do it but there's like a three month waiting

Speaker 4 that's a good idea, but that's not it.

Speaker 4 It's a different, it's a different reason for that month.

Speaker 5 Is it something to do with like people do it on a certain date, but they have got to have like a they've got to come back like for two sessions to make sure that they definitely want to do it, and therefore it just happens to be March that this actually gets to take place?

Speaker 4 Almost, Caroline. And it is, it's, it's again, because it's a medical procedure.

Speaker 6 So, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 My brain's gone now. I was on the baby train.

Speaker 4 If it's a help, if it helps, this is a stereotype of men

Speaker 4 is the reason why this happens in March.

Speaker 5 I mean, you know, men are assholes all year round.

Speaker 6 I don't know if you're

Speaker 6 to do with anything.

Speaker 5 Is it something to do with American insurance?

Speaker 6 And like,

Speaker 5 I was thinking, like, oh, does your thing, your insurance renew? And then if you're going to like cash it in before. Does the tax year start in April? Something to do with getting your money.

Speaker 3 But I would drill down on what Tom said about other parts of the process.

Speaker 5 The consent form

Speaker 5 or the.

Speaker 5 There is no part of this that is enjoyable. Is this were we supposed to find some part of it that's enjoyable?

Speaker 3 No, no, not at all.

Speaker 4 Yeah, this is a thing that happens in the, is

Speaker 4 an American pastime of sorts.

Speaker 6 I'm so... What?

Speaker 5 Do they do it around like a sporting event so that they can be off work during that time? Is it like around the Super Bowl or something?

Speaker 1 Yeah, you know what?

Speaker 4 I'm going to give it to you, Caroline.

Speaker 3 Yeah, because neither of the Brits are going to get the reference to March Madness.

Speaker 6 Oh, no, okay.

Speaker 5 So, my thinking is when you get a vasectomy, it's not, it's not the vasectomy itself, it's the like the rest period that your doctor forces you to have afterwards.

Speaker 5 Why not take advantage of that being around the sporting event that you really want to watch?

Speaker 6 In this case, March Madness, apparently.

Speaker 5 That is a real man stereotype.

Speaker 6 Spot on, Caroline. Spot on.

Speaker 4 No, but yeah, you nailed it. Urologists report that the two most popular times to get a vasectomy are March and the festive period.

Speaker 4 March is popular due to March Madness, a month when non-stop NCAA

Speaker 4 college basketball games every weekend. And so men schedule their vasectomy so they can enjoy a few days to watch the games while they recuperate.

Speaker 4 Reportedly, this effect has been known as

Speaker 4 this is a stretch, vast madness.

Speaker 5 Wow, that's tough.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 Is it the vast deference?

Speaker 1 Is that the thing that is being cut?

Speaker 3 Is that the. Oh, no, there's just a vast difference between the monthly figures.

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 6 Wow. We'll move on.

Speaker 6 And we will, eventually.

Speaker 3 And now, a question that I apologize for. No.
James was given a pencil with the number 357686312646216567629137 stamped on it. Why was that number chosen?

Speaker 3 James was given a pencil with the number 357686312646216567629137 stamped on it. Why was that number chosen?

Speaker 5 Hi.

Speaker 5 Said it too fast for me to be able to write it down so that I can look at it for like 10 minutes and just just like be sad.

Speaker 3 Oh, it's 357686-312646-216567629137.

Speaker 5 That was really helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 5 I've got 357.

Speaker 5 137.

Speaker 6 I'm nailed it. Here's the thing.

Speaker 3 That's probably all you need.

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 3 I would not have read that number so fast if you needed to memorize all of it.

Speaker 5 But you need some of it.

Speaker 4 Is it a very large prime?

Speaker 3 It is Tom Log.

Speaker 6 It is. It's the largest prime.

Speaker 1 Let's go. Speedrun, baby.

Speaker 3 How did you know that? What were you, what were you thinking there?

Speaker 4 I was just going through the list of primes and I hit that number.

Speaker 4 Well, so I know it didn't end on an even number, was my first thing.

Speaker 4 I was just thinking of like, what's a notable large number. At first, I was like, maybe this is like, I was gonna be like, it's the millionth pen pencil made, but it was that.

Speaker 4 Nerds use pencils.

Speaker 3 Nerds do use pencils, Tom. And that's relevant here as well.

Speaker 4 Was it the person who discovered this prime?

Speaker 4 Or were they using it to cheat on a test?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I'm like, why did they choose this? Is this a celebration or is this someone being cheeky writing this somewhere?

Speaker 5 Sometimes prime numbers are used in like... password protection and stuff like that.
Could it have been a hacking thing?

Speaker 4 Oh, is it being used for something?

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 4 That's a good shout.

Speaker 5 Is it the circumference of the pencil,

Speaker 5 you know, in

Speaker 5 millimeters? I don't know.

Speaker 3 Prime is definitely the fact to clue in on here.

Speaker 6 Prime.

Speaker 5 Yeah. It's not the largest prime.

Speaker 4 My assumption was that this was either found or like used in some formula or discovery. And so this is sort of like a celebration pencil.

Speaker 4 Like everyone who worked on the paper got this pencil as a gift.

Speaker 4 But is this not, is this for celebration or is this like Caroline is saying, like being used in a silly way, like to cheat on a test or something?

Speaker 3 It's not the largest prime, but

Speaker 3 you're starting to think in the right area there.

Speaker 4 Is it a special prime? Is this for

Speaker 4 oh, like is it maybe like for

Speaker 4 I don't know, like Matt Parker might get this if it's like, oh, it's your 10th year anniversary, so this is the 10th biggest prime or something like that.

Speaker 3 I will let you know that James in the question is James Grime, who you might recognize from Numberfile, and who I was.

Speaker 6 All right.

Speaker 3 I actually know from uni from way back.

Speaker 3 Like, yeah, this is James is James Grime. He's done a video about this on Numberfile.

Speaker 5 It's the most boring Prime number.

Speaker 3 Oh, absolutely not.

Speaker 6 Absolutely not.

Speaker 5 The most interesting Prime number.

Speaker 3 There's a part of this question you haven't even talked about yet.

Speaker 5 There's more to the question. I got so lost on the number that I don't know if I heard anything else.

Speaker 3 James was given a pencil with the number

Speaker 3 357686312646216567629137 stamped on it. Why was this number chosen?

Speaker 5 Because you can't use a pen in space. You can use a pencil.
Oh,

Speaker 3 this wouldn't work if it was a pen.

Speaker 5 This wouldn't work if it was a pen.

Speaker 6 Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Speaker 4 As you sharpen a pencil,

Speaker 4 does it stay a prime number?

Speaker 6 Yes, it does, Tum Lum.

Speaker 3 And Ella, when you said the largest prime, it is the largest prime that has that property.

Speaker 2 You cannot add another number

Speaker 1 on the left of it.

Speaker 6 Wait, that's amazing.

Speaker 6 That's so cool.

Speaker 3 When you said you only need the start and the end, you actually only need the end. You only need the 137.

Speaker 3 So as you sharpen, the left numbers keep getting removed, keep getting removed, and you end up with 9137, which is prime, 137, 37, and 7.

Speaker 6 Wow. That's

Speaker 6 so actually freaking. Oh no, we're nerds!

Speaker 5 That's a very Letzel and everything coded fact.

Speaker 6 That was

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Speaker 3 Ala, your question.

Speaker 5 Thank you to Aaron Webber for this question.

Speaker 5 Vlad and Barry agree to meet up somewhere iconic on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, that you can't miss. However, one goes to a sports museum while the other waits at a novelty store.

Speaker 5 What did they say that caused the confusion?

Speaker 5 I say that again. Vlad and Barry agree to meet up somewhere iconic on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, that you cannot miss.

Speaker 5 However, one goes to a sports museum while the other waits at a novelty store. What did they say that caused the confusion?

Speaker 4 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 Is that in Louisville, Kentucky?

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 5 What's making you think that, Tom?

Speaker 4 Am I rolling that Kentucky's sort of a music hub? I'm thinking maybe more of Tennessee, but I know there's some, you know, that that's sort of what I would think around there.

Speaker 4 But then I was like, rocks. I was like, oh, it's, you say a thing that has two meanings.

Speaker 4 And if it was novelty, I'd be like, I would name a, uh, uh,

Speaker 4 I would name a competing store, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's just a bunch of really round rocks that you roll around.

Speaker 6 Wow. I'm thinking, is it like

Speaker 5 the logo of the museum and the shop are similar enough that it could be like, oh, we're both going to,

Speaker 5 I'm trying to think of an example now.

Speaker 5 We're going to the canned and it's like the can shop or... the canned museum and it's got like a logo on it or something like that.
I've explained this really badly, but there we go.

Speaker 4 No, I get you.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Thank you.

Speaker 3 Vlad and Barry are making me suspicious. Because my brain has gone

Speaker 3 Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama.

Speaker 3 That's the sort of thing that a question writer would put in. Vlad and Barry are in fact Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama.

Speaker 6 Come on.

Speaker 5 Have you considered that you've been doing this show for too long?

Speaker 6 Here's the thing.

Speaker 3 Whether that's right or wrong, I've still been doing this show too long.

Speaker 5 I'll say Vladimir Barry is, it's not Vladimir Putin and Brackenhamer, but it is a cheeky reference, but probably don't focus on it too hard.

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 4 I was going to say, does it have, is it like

Speaker 4 to do with like, if you say something with an accent, it might sound like something else?

Speaker 5 No.

Speaker 4 No, okay.

Speaker 5 The confusion.

Speaker 5 Yeah. idea you were both getting at in your own way was you know it is kind of you're getting there is there like a statue outside of both?

Speaker 5 And you could end up getting the statue confused, and you've gone, like, oh, head to the big elephant statue. And there's one outside of both.
You are on the

Speaker 5 along the right lines.

Speaker 5 It is, you know, it's something you can't miss.

Speaker 3 This is something iconic in Louisville, Kentucky.

Speaker 3 That can be resolved to both a sports museum and a novelty store. And the only novelty store I can think of is like Spirit Halloween.
But there's...

Speaker 5 No, you're. Yep.

Speaker 6 Really? Oh.

Speaker 5 I mean, I don't know if it's not a Spirit Halloween, but

Speaker 5 Halloween is.

Speaker 4 Wait, really?

Speaker 6 Yeah, important.

Speaker 6 Oh.

Speaker 5 It's not like a big skeleton. Oh, wait, you specifically said it was a sports museum.

Speaker 5 One's a sports museum, one's a novelty store.

Speaker 3 Oh, my brain's firing all sorts of connections here. Louisville.

Speaker 3 Louisville Slugger is a baseball bat. We're talking about a sports museum.
Is there like the

Speaker 3 baseball bat?

Speaker 4 The giant bat.

Speaker 3 The giant bat. The big bat.

Speaker 3 It's a Halloween and there are two big bats.

Speaker 5 That's it.

Speaker 6 Oh, my God.

Speaker 5 So what did they say that caused the confusion? Here would be. Meet me at the giant bat.
Let's meet at the world's largest bat.

Speaker 3 World's largest bat.

Speaker 6 Wow.

Speaker 3 And Vlad is a reference to vampires and Barry is a reference to Barry Bonds the baseball.

Speaker 6 Yes, exactly. Wow.
Okay, exactly. Wow.

Speaker 5 At the bonus point there. So if they agree to meet at the world's largest bat on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, there will be two locations that fit this description.

Speaker 5 The world's largest baseball bat, a carbon still replica of a bat used by Babe Ruth in the 1920s,

Speaker 5 which is about 120 feet high.

Speaker 5 And then and then also two blocks away, the world's largest vampire bat can be found on the site of Caulfield's novelty store.

Speaker 6 Oh, it's actually the world's largest.

Speaker 5 Well, that's what they say. I mean, I have to assume.
How many are there?

Speaker 3 They must have set that up as a parody.

Speaker 6 That's a deliberate choice, that is.

Speaker 6 What if it was the other way? What if

Speaker 6 they're the world's largest vampire bat?

Speaker 1 And then they're like, wait a second, hold on.

Speaker 5 And this vampire bat is 24 feet tall and 18 feet wide. And then you've got the name Vlad as in Vlad the Impaler, the Inspiration Medracula, and Barry, as in Barry Bonds.

Speaker 6 Tiny little hints there.

Speaker 4 Wow.

Speaker 3 Which means we just have the question from the start of the show. Thank you to Alex Zurich for sending this one in.

Speaker 3 On the 8th of May, 2025, which US fast food company wrote a post on X that contains just the company's name spelt out?

Speaker 3 Anyone want to take a punt at that?

Speaker 4 I feel like so many surreal

Speaker 4 corporate accounts are doing stuff like this.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah. Some social media manager was extremely proud of themselves.

Speaker 4 Was it timely? Was there like a clever reason where it's like possible

Speaker 4 because

Speaker 4 someone named Wendy is in the news, we just say Wendy's.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you're pretty close.

Speaker 4 Is it Wendy's specifically?

Speaker 3 It's not Wendy's, but you are

Speaker 3 absolutely along the right lines.

Speaker 4 I'm like, Burger King, someone was...

Speaker 6 Is someone famous die or not that day.

Speaker 3 But if they hadn't, this wouldn't be happening.

Speaker 3 oh oh hey who did died on the 8th of may this or earlier than that this year oh no no much earlier or no they're alive no no no they someone else died oh my god is this about the like the queen and then like burger king no

Speaker 6 no

Speaker 6 there's a new burger king

Speaker 3 oh you you well you're kind of close oh was it his coronation was it um oh it was king charles' coronation or something or his birthday no slightly too late for that uh but but you're along the right line.

Speaker 3 So, dynasties are long, long chains of people who've been doing the same thing.

Speaker 5 It's not Burger King, it's not.

Speaker 3 No, the letters were in the right order, the formatting was slightly different.

Speaker 4 McDonald's, um,

Speaker 4 five guys.

Speaker 4 Um,

Speaker 6 just look

Speaker 6 at all of them.

Speaker 3 We're not talking kings, but we are talking leaders here.

Speaker 5 Uh, something to do with Pew Putin Pew Putin.

Speaker 6 Um,

Speaker 3 This was a major world event. Like it was in one country, but everyone around the world was paying attention to this.

Speaker 4 The Pope?

Speaker 6 Oh!

Speaker 5 Oh, Popeyes?

Speaker 3 Yes, it was. So what did they send out?

Speaker 5 Pope, yes.

Speaker 6 Pope, yes.

Speaker 4 Oh my God.

Speaker 3 This was the American fast food chicken chain, Popeyes. They shared a post that simply said, Pope, yes, because Pope Leo XIV had been elected that day.

Speaker 3 Thank you very much to our players for running the gauntlet one more time. Where can people find you? What's going on with this show? We will start with Tom Lum.

Speaker 4 We are Let's Learn Everything,

Speaker 4 the Science and Comedy podcast, where we learn about science and a little bit of everything else.

Speaker 3 Caroline Roper, what sort of things?

Speaker 5 Oh my goodness. We have talked about everything from black holes to tattoos, all in one episode.

Speaker 5 We've also also talked about autumn leaves and swearing, where we are in the universe and carrot propaganda. It literally can be anything and everything.

Speaker 3 And where can people find you, Ella Hubba?

Speaker 5 Let'slearnEverything.com, baby.

Speaker 3 And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com, baby. Woo! Not happy with that? Regret everything about it.

Speaker 3 Well, you can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at Lateralcast basically everywhere and there are regular weekly video episodes in full on Spotify.
Thank you very much to Ella Hubber,

Speaker 3 Caroline Roper,

Speaker 3 Tom Lum.

Speaker 3 Woohoo! I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.

Speaker 6 and a horra.

Speaker 6 Oof, nava comodarte un gustaso por tam poco. Los extra value meals están de regreso.

Speaker 10 Gana por la mañana con el extra-value meal, sausage, mc, muffin with egg, hash browns, and a cafe.

Speaker 10 Poros 6 dollars. Bara, ba-ba-ba.
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