The gift of wire

Lateral with Tom Scott

In this episode of Lateral, host Tom Scott and guests Lizzie Skrzypiec, Mark Cooper-Jones, and Jay Foreman tackle a series of bizarre trivia

Key takeaways

• Dog agility handlers at Crufts walk courses without dogs to mark paths for later use.
• PETA's 'Running of the Balls' in Spain uses a 250kg polystyrene sphere as a humane alternative to bull running.

Main topics

• Dog agility at Crufts
• PETA's Running of the Balls

Notable quotes

The speed of light is one foot, more or less, per nanosecond.

Conclusion

A highly educational yet comedic exploration of how specific scientifi

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) How might the band's Alkaline Trio and Good Charlotte help you with a science exam? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Speaker 2 (0:16) Welcome to Lateral. It's a very simple quiz. Our three contestants will receive a question. They may answer that question immediately or pass it to another contestant, who may either answer, challenge, defer, bank, rotate, or exchange it for a secondary question of equal complexity. A correct answer scores one point. If they're wrong, we enter the reconsideration phase! during which the other contestants may attempt a speculative override. At the end of each round, contestants can use the strategic reflection window to nominate another contestant to face the clarification challenge unless that contestant has already used their optional guest token, which of course changes everything. All of this culminates in the final round, known simply as ANSWER THE RUDDY QUESTION. And if that's confusing, don't worry. We have a quiz expert in the room in the form of TV producer and improviser, Lizzie Skipiek. Welcome back to Lateral. Speaker 1 (1:03) Thanks for having me. Thanks for letting me back in the Lateral fun. I promise to follow some of the rules. Speaker 2 (1:10) Thank you for the enthusiasm as I whore that there were a lot of long words in that intro that, I'll be honest, I hadn't really rehearsed. Speaker 1 (1:18) I liked the one that went speculative override. And I'm going to say that at various points today. Speaker 2 (1:24) As we record this, Murder, She Didn't Write is just back from being on tour? Speaker 1 (1:30) Yes, we've just toured. Well, we've just been to the Adelaide Fringe and we're back. And now we're on tour in the UK. So come and see a Murder, She Didn't Write show sometime. Come and solve a crime with us. Speaker 2 (1:44) Well, good luck on the show today. You are joined by two other returning players who are quite familiar to both each other and the world, I think. Please welcome the Map Men. We will start with Mark Cooper-Jones. Welcome back to Lateral. Speaker 3 (1:57) Oh, thank you very much. Yes. Was that a subtle dig at the fact that I just had to go to reunion because I lost a geography game against J? Spoilers! And that's how I've become familiar with... Speaker 2 (2:07) It was not that at all. Although we're recording this well in advance, so you may already have lost the third game of GeoGuessr against J by now. Speaker 3 (2:16) Oh, come on. No chance. I mean, statistically, he surely Speaker 2 (2:20) has. Is there a rivalry being set up between the two of you here, Mark? Like, how much plot is being generated by an... audience who would like to see revenge. Speaker 3 (2:29) The thing is, I don't think Jay feels like, I don't think he gets het up about it at all. So I think the rivalry is purely one way and I keep losing, which is even more galling. Just, Speaker 4 (2:40) I don't think you sort of feel pride in the same way. It's a one way rivalry, like the one between Lancashire and Yorkshire. One feels it very strongly, the other one doesn't know. And England and Germany in the football, apparently. Speaker 2 (2:50) Exactly. Speaker 3 (2:51) And even now, I feel like I've got the one measly map behind me. I mean, it's framed. And then Jay has just absolutely pasted the wall with maps just to be the bigger map man. Speaker 2 (3:02) Which means I should introduce the other map man, Jay Foreman. Welcome back to Lateral. Hello there. Thank you Speaker 4 (3:07) very much for having me. And by the way, I love the sound of that game show. I get the feeling that you actually have pitched that before. Speaker 2 (3:13) You should explain, I mean, not just Map Men, but also explain why we were just talking about going to Reunion there. So Speaker 4 (3:19) Mark and I, in the last video we did on our series Map Men, had a GeoGuessr challenge where the loser of GeoGuessr had to travel in real life to the place that they guessed the furthest from because they obviously need to educate themselves about that part of the world. And Mark, for, ooh, let's see, a third consecutive time, lost a game and had to go all the way to the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. and I lost my game and had to go all the way to Manchester. Some people think that what I did was cheating. I say I didn't. So you'd have Speaker 3 (3:49) to watch the video to understand really any of that. Really any of that. Speaker 2 (3:52) And I'd recommend you do that after finishing this episode of Lateral. Let's begin the same way that all quiz shows do, with question one. Thank you to Michael Jansen for this question. About 20 different people wearing the same coloured shirt... walk over a green carpet for 10 minutes while gesturing and pointing at things. Why? And one more time. About 20 different people wearing the same coloured shirt walk over a green carpet for 10 minutes while gesturing and pointing at things. Why? Speaker 4 (4:22) So my first thought was that this was one of those things like the big art attack where you look at it from above and all the people are moving in sync and it makes a photo. But then... When you said about 20 people, that would be a very, very low resolution photo. So it can't be that. Is there a camera on Speaker 3 (4:37) them might be a fair question then. Speaker 4 (4:39) Well, I mean, anything these days, if it happens and there's no camera on it, did it happen at all? And was it worth happening? Because my first thought was the green, was Speaker 3 (4:47) the greenness of the carpet potentially being relevant and that being the colour that you key out and something that you and I have been doing all day, Jay. Speaker 4 (4:55) I think the fact that you and I have both spent. most of this morning working on our latest video. We're just thinking in terms of just After Effects. If it's green, it must be Speaker 3 (5:05) being cut out. Speaker 4 (5:08) I think my Speaker 3 (5:09) thoughts Speaker 1 (5:10) was, A, is grass a carpet? Is it bulls? B, is it competitive estate agents? Those are my two trains of thoughts. The bulls thing is great, Speaker 3 (5:24) though. That's a great thought, because they wear the same shirt and they're often just pointing at the balls, aren't they? And grass Speaker 1 (5:30) is a carpet for the outside. Speaker 2 (5:32) I am going to ask a little bit more about competitive estate agents. Oh, so it may well be to do with competitive estate agents. Oh, Speaker 1 (5:39) good luck. Speaker 2 (5:40) Oh no, Lizzie's an improviser. I just want to keep going on competitive estate agents here. So I Speaker 1 (5:45) assumed it was... They had like a grotesque house. They had like horrible green carpet. One of those, is it a lime bathrooms and stuff? And they've just got to go around and be like, but it's coming back into fashion now. And they have to persuade people to buy a horrible house. Speaker 3 (6:05) So these are estate agents. There's an estate agency where they all have to wear the same coloured shirt. And it's like Butlins or something. Butlins estate agency where they have an estate agent uniform. Speaker 4 (6:18) Actually, I have a question about that. When you said they're all wearing the same coloured shirt, is there one very, very large tent-sized shirt that they're all wearing? Or do you mean Speaker 2 (6:27) they've got one each? They all have one each. And Lizzie, yes, competitive estate agency is a bit ridiculous, but competition is right. And while it's not grass, it certainly resembles grass. Speaker 4 (6:40) So I have a thought is, could it be that these 20 people are all competing with each other and one will emerge victorious? Or are they a team of 20 against other similar teams? Or is it two teams of 10? Is that what you were saying? Or three teams of three and a half each. Speaker 3 (6:55) Why would you Speaker 1 (6:56) point at a carpet? Speaker 3 (6:58) Did they do anything other than walk over a green carpet and gesture and point at things? I mean, is there a part that's being missed out? They will do. They will do. Okay. But the first act is we are going to gesture and point at things. So that means probably not a game with balls. I don't know. I Speaker 4 (7:15) think if I was a big cheese in charge of a modelling agency and I wanted a photo of a model pointing to something, I'd want to make sure I found exactly the right person to do it and I'd want to see how they point. So I'd audition 20 people. I'd make sure that all 20 of them were wearing the same T-shirt so that I know how it looks in the final version. And they all point. And then I pick my favourite by pointing at them. Is that anything to do with this question? Speaker 2 (7:40) Here's the thing. I'm trying to find any sort of connection between that and the actual answer. Unfortunately, not in the spirit of improv, I have to say no. But... No and? Audition is not right. but it is a thing that happens before the main event. Oh, so they auditioned for this? Auditioned is the wrong word. Are these 20 people pointing Speaker 4 (8:05) at an object? Is this the performance? And do people get to watch these 20 people? Are they on a stage, I wonder? Speaker 1 (8:12) No, they're on carpet. Speaker 4 (8:14) You can have a carpet on a stage. There will be an audience for this, but I wouldn't call it like a theatrical Speaker 2 (8:19) production. Is the audience watching at home or on a stream? Both. Both? Both at home and live. In the arena might be too strong a term, but... Is it Speaker 3 (8:33) an indoor thing? Yes. I'm assuming Speaker 4 (8:35) it's a carpet. It will be indoors. Yes, it is. I assume that it takes place in somebody's house because it's definitely not an arena. Much Speaker 2 (8:42) bigger than that. And you will have heard of this event. I don't... Folks outside the UK will have heard of events like it, certainly. Are there things other than people there? Definitely. There are definitely things other than people there now, and there will be more shortly. I was going down a Crufts route. You were going down the Crufts route. Keep talking, Mark. Speaker 3 (9:04) Okay, so we've got a large indoor arena, and you've got various obstacles, and the people are pointing them out to their dogs, going, this is what you need to go through. This is what you need to go. over. So it's like a little simulation run? Speaker 2 (9:20) It is, and it's a simulation run without the dogs who are not allowed to practice. Ah. That is spot on. Okay, great. Speaker 4 (9:30) I mean, that's going to be very disappointing to watch because I don't think it's a controversial thing to say that the dogs are the best bit of crufts. Speaker 2 (9:37) Yes. Yeah, that's fair. They don't really Speaker 1 (9:40) give out awards to the trainers all that much. I like the round in Crufts where the dogs have to sell terrible houses to different customers by advertising their lime green bathrooms. Speaker 2 (9:51) That's The Apprentice. Very different show. Oh, yes. So these are dog agility competitions, and this is one part of Crufts the Dog Show. They require handlers to guide their dogs through a sequence of obstacles such as jumps, tunnels and seesaws. The handlers are allowed a short course walk without their dogs, and they will jog or walk through the course while pointing and gesturing to mark where they will give commands or change direction. So if you are not familiar with dog agility and you look in, you will just see dozens of people moving around an empty course, pointing at very little. Speaker 2 (10:28) As ever, each of our guests has brought a question with them. We will start with Mark. This question has been sent in by Jan Speaker 3 (10:35) F. In Mata El Pino, Spain, a three metre wide polystyrene sphere weighing 250 kilos is seen in public each year. Which famous charity approved of this event? And what clever title is it often given in English? And while you're thinking, I will say it again. In Mata Alpino, Spain, a three-metre-wide polystyrene sphere weighing 250 kilos is seen in public each year. Which famous charity approved of this event and what clever title is it often given in English? Speaker 4 (11:12) So, great big sphere made of polystyrene. My first thought is it looks like a great big snowball, but then my second thought is Spain. So that's not it. Speaker 2 (11:22) Also, that seems surprisingly heavy for polystyrene. I was thinking that, but volume calculations have a cubed symbol in there. That gets big very quickly. Have you ever seen the footage of the ball stunt at the Indiana Jones stunt show going wrong? Speaker 1 (11:37) Yes. Speaker 2 (11:38) The Speaker 1 (11:39) Disney Speaker 2 (11:40) Indiana Jones stunt show has a sequence where Indiana Jones runs down a ramp with the ball following him. Yeah, Speaker 3 (11:45) I saw this. Speaker 2 (11:45) Yep. And the ball unfortunately broke free of the ramp and is bouncing across the stage towards the audience. And to be fair, this man is a hero. One of the staff goes to stop the ball. However, that ball is significantly heavier than he is and does not look it. And I'm told he was fine, but he does get absolutely flattened by the thing. Even polystyrene, even something that's meant to be lightweight at three metres wide, is going to be heavy. Speaker 3