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by state, restrictions apply, seaside for

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details. In

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1969, who asked the

0:32

US Postal Service to change the state

0:35

abbreviation for Nebraska from N-B to N-E?

0:37

The answer to that at the end

0:39

of the show. My name's Tom Scott,

0:41

and this is Lateral. Welcome

0:50

to this very special show, which has

0:52

been voted the funniest ever episode of

0:55

Lateral by the International Time Travellers Club.

0:57

So no pressure for our

0:59

guests today. We start with mathematician

1:01

and writer Hannah Fry. Welcome back to

1:03

the show. Hi! Thank you,

1:06

Pampy. That wasn't really... I'm

1:08

annoyed that you made up that joke and I

1:10

did it. That was great. I'll be honest, I

1:12

don't write most of these.

1:15

This is just a brilliant one that's coming from

1:17

the producer. Sometimes they try and have me talk

1:19

in a pirate accent. Sometimes they give you just

1:21

long strings of alliteration. This one. Be

1:24

proud of this one. Do I tell you? You

1:26

are their meat puppet, Tom. That's... Thanks.

1:29

Thanks for that. You're welcome. I was going

1:31

to ask how it was first time on

1:33

the show for you last time, but you

1:35

know what? I've just been called a meat

1:37

puppet. I might just move on. How was

1:39

your first appearance last time? It was good.

1:41

I think, you know, I think we worked

1:43

well as a team. I think that we got

1:46

some Lateral stuff out there. We basically

1:48

had fun, and that's what it's really about.

1:52

Also joining us, domino

1:54

artist, extraordinary professional domino artist. I

1:56

don't know what... How on earth

1:58

do you describe someone who puts... up Dominoes and knocks

2:00

him down for a living. I don't know,

2:03

but Lillie Havesh, welcome back to the show. Thank you

2:05

so much. Yeah, and you can

2:07

also just say Domino Builder or Domino

2:09

Setter Upper, sometimes people say that. What's

2:12

the biggest thing you've made with Dominoes? I

2:14

feel like that's the obvious question everyone has

2:16

to ask, but like, do you

2:19

have solo stuff? Do you have team efforts? How does it all work?

2:21

Yeah, actually, early this year, I was in

2:23

the Netherlands helping to set up 800,000 Dominoes.

2:25

And this took over 30

2:29

people in two weeks to set up. Wow,

2:32

how long does it take to knock down? I

2:36

think it was around 20 minutes. But

2:38

keep in mind, this is like

2:41

considered the largest community Domino build,

2:43

like unofficial kind of world record,

2:45

not, not Guinness, but like, you

2:47

know, the team of people who

2:49

just love Dominoes. Well, thank

2:51

you very much for returning. The third member of

2:53

our panel today, quietly

2:56

whispering, Oh my gosh, in the background,

2:59

Dominoes, writer, YouTuber,

3:01

Brian David Gilbert, welcome back to the show.

3:04

Hello, hello, happy to be back. Also happy

3:06

that I am not a Domino Setter Upper,

3:08

because I feel like that would be more

3:10

stressful than like doing surgery for me, my

3:12

hands would be shaking the entire time. So

3:15

yeah, I'm glad that that's not

3:17

my profession. I feel like

3:19

I'd want my surgeon to have steady hands, but you

3:21

would you would really be more nervous doing that than

3:24

something like surgery. 100%. Some

3:26

person who cares if I'm letting down

3:29

all of my friends who have been

3:31

setting up Dominoes for weeks, that's a

3:33

big deal. A person's like, who

3:35

cares, whatever, it's not a big deal.

3:37

But the Dominoes stressful. That's

3:40

so interesting. Because people always tell me like, Oh, Lily,

3:42

you should be a surgeon with your steady hands. And

3:44

I'm like, Oh, no,

3:46

definitely not. Head on over to

3:49

me. Somewhere there's a sitcom

3:51

double act here and I can't quite figure

3:53

out where it's at. Good

3:55

luck to all three of you. Our guests have

3:57

to use enough foresight on these questions so that

4:00

When they look back to where they've been, they walk into

4:02

the right answer before they've even seen it. No,

4:04

but, give it a kiss. Here comes question one.

4:20

I'll say that again. Tokyo Narita Airport

4:22

has several signs written in both Japanese

4:24

and English. One sign says

4:26

three words of English, but a different

4:29

message in Japanese. What are

4:31

the messages? Is it

4:33

something to do with the cultural

4:35

differences between people who might have

4:37

English as their first language and

4:40

people who might be native Japanese?

4:42

So, for example, in

4:46

Japan, eating or

4:48

drinking in the street is

4:50

considered extremely rude. But,

4:55

or actually the shoe stuff as well. Taking

4:57

your shoes off. There's

4:59

a real cultural difference between Western and

5:02

Japanese sort of way of life. So

5:04

I wonder whether it's something about like

5:06

just saying to people in English, don't

5:10

be so rude. As

5:12

a tourist in Japan, it is

5:14

terrifying. I was

5:16

constantly worried that I was just going to commit some

5:18

sort of social faux pas just by absentmindedly

5:21

doing something that would be normal in

5:23

the UK. I did a filming ship

5:25

in Japan and we had a

5:28

guy who retired to come with us and I

5:30

was pretty sure by the end of it that

5:32

his only job was to tell us what

5:34

we were doing that was rude. Yeah,

5:38

I feel like it has to be something related

5:41

to that. Yeah, I was thinking along those

5:43

same lines or even just like a

5:45

translation difference. Like

5:48

maybe there isn't an exact translation,

5:50

so it has to be something else. You're

5:52

vaguely along the right lines. You're

5:55

right that this only works in a place like

5:57

Japan where you generally only expect the local to

5:59

come. to speak the local

6:01

language. Okay. But

6:04

it's not so much an instruction. It's not

6:06

a warning. There is a message here that

6:08

is aimed at everyone. It's

6:10

just different in the different languages. The

6:13

message is different. Yeah. One

6:15

sign says three words of English, but

6:17

a different message in Japanese. Mmm. Man,

6:20

I was just at that airport earlier this year. I

6:22

should have looked a little closer. And

6:25

it specifically is at the airport? Yes. And is

6:27

it to do with the airport? Yeah,

6:29

you wouldn't really put this anywhere else. Mmm. In

6:32

my head, I'm thinking, it's like, what if there's

6:34

a different style of

6:36

soap dispenser in the bathroom? And it's

6:38

just for the English speakers, it just

6:40

says, please don't worry. And it's like,

6:42

it's supposed to act this way. We

6:44

promise. Like, this is the thing that

6:46

it's supposed to do. And then

6:48

in Japanese, it explains exactly what you're supposed to do

6:51

with it. But in English, it's like,

6:53

nah, don't tell anyone. This is exactly how it's

6:55

supposed to be. Or the bum

6:57

washers that they have in the toilet. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

7:01

sure for technical purposes, though, and they're wonderful, and

7:03

I want one for my own home. But... The

7:06

phrase is, please don't worry. Yeah, please don't

7:08

worry. The mood of what you're

7:10

saying is correct. It is

7:12

definitely one targeted at Japanese

7:15

folks, one targeted at everybody

7:18

else. Maybe there's like a

7:20

certain lounge for Japanese

7:22

people. Like, they get the

7:25

local lounge. Or

7:27

if it's specifically in an airport, could it be

7:29

to do with passports or visas, I wonder, where

7:32

local people have a certain

7:34

way of

7:36

getting in and foreigners

7:38

have to go in a different queue?

7:41

I think you were closer when the mood was,

7:43

please don't worry. Oh. Okay.

7:46

Funny. Okay. Why

7:49

would people be worried? I'm not

7:51

saying that's right. It's not, please don't

7:53

worry. But the mood

7:56

is closer than an instruction or a

7:58

commandment or something like that. Okay. And

8:01

it only works because Japanese is basically

8:03

localised to the one country. This

8:05

definitely wouldn't work in the UK. It definitely wouldn't

8:07

work in the US. Well,

8:10

I think the message wouldn't work. Just

8:12

the concept of this pair of signs

8:15

would not work. Would it work in

8:17

Hungary? I

8:19

do not know enough about Hungary

8:22

to answer that question. It's

8:25

a language that doesn't have roots in

8:28

any of its surrounding countries'

8:32

languages. Is it like

8:34

a historical message, like something

8:36

from their culture that's very

8:39

old in my... It's really

8:41

simple. This kind of message

8:43

will be all over

8:45

the world in airports, in languages, everywhere.

8:49

Like safe travels. I have a good trip. That

8:51

sort of thing, yeah. Nice flight. There's

8:53

things with three-word phrases that would make them... Enjoy

8:56

your flight. Enjoy your flight,

8:58

yeah, that's good. You're

9:02

in the wrong bit of the airport. Oh,

9:04

early on. Okay, okay.

9:06

You're in departures there. Oh,

9:09

so we're looking for arrivals. Welcome to Japan. Welcome

9:12

to Japan is the English one.

9:15

What's the translation of the other one? Don't

9:18

worry about it, or whatever we said

9:20

before. Welcome

9:22

to Japan is the

9:24

English phrase. In English, you nailed it.

9:27

Word for word, big letters. Welcome home? Welcome

9:30

back. Welcome home is the Japanese

9:32

phrase. Oh, okay. I like that.

9:34

Okay. The translation

9:37

is literally welcome back, which I have

9:39

written here as okerenasai. Apologies

9:41

to Japan. So, yes, if you

9:43

can read Japanese, it tells you welcome back.

9:46

If you can read English, you're

9:49

probably not coming back. Welcome

9:51

to Japan still works if you're returning.

9:54

They have that in Ireland as well, you know. Really?

9:57

Yeah, but in Irish, which

9:59

of course... because even

10:01

people in Ireland don't... I

10:04

mean, we will get complaints if you

10:06

blanket statement that one. I think the

10:09

Venn diagram of people who don't live

10:11

in Ireland and people who speak Irish

10:13

is... I mean, they're not. That's

10:15

true. So,

10:17

yes, the sign in the arrivals says,

10:20

Welcome to Japan in English and welcome

10:22

back in Japanese. Ryan,

10:25

we will go to you for the next question. Whenever

10:27

you're ready. Absolutely. This question has

10:29

been sent in by Wes Potter. As

10:32

a last minute favour, Jenny held

10:34

a tall desk lamp for a

10:36

photographer colleague. How did this immortalise

10:38

her? It's a very quick question.

10:42

As a last minute favour, Jenny

10:44

held a tall desk lamp for

10:46

a photographer colleague. How did this

10:48

immortalise her? So is there a famous

10:50

photograph with somebody holding a desk lamp? The

10:53

only famous desk lamp I can think of is

10:55

the Pixar one. Yeah. Is

10:57

the one that bounces along and goes... But

11:01

there's also that... That actual... That sort of...

11:03

That shape of desk lamp is also very

11:05

famous. Angle poise. Yeah, angle

11:07

poise. There you go. That's like a

11:09

very, very famous design. Why am

11:12

I thinking like, you know in Harry Potter,

11:14

with the vassaless, and like, if you

11:16

look at it in the eye, then you like, you die.

11:18

Like something like that. But also like

11:20

in Greek, like ancient

11:23

mythical things, like if you look at

11:25

Medusa, it's like, you're not... You just

11:27

like become stone, something like that. It's

11:29

a cursed angle poise lamp that turns

11:31

whatever... Whatever is in its light to

11:33

stone. You know Bohemian Rhapsody,

11:36

where they've got the photographs and their faces like... So

11:40

I wonder whether the image that's really famous

11:42

is... You don't see a desk lamp in

11:44

it at all. You just see like... You

11:47

just see something that's lit from above. If

11:49

the photographer truly was like, oh, I didn't

11:52

set up any lights for Queen, the very

11:54

famous band. I feel like that's the photographer

11:56

who got fired pretty quickly. A

12:00

greater and weaknesses and think there's more impromptu but

12:03

is it is it is that we'll muddle

12:05

by line that I was like making like the

12:07

famous photo of someone with a desk lamp. Is

12:10

it is I'm indecisive. That's a I will

12:12

say of give you a hint of say

12:14

that the desk lamp was intended to resemble

12:16

something else or what weight as in so

12:18

in enjoy the a desk lamp. There was

12:20

a desk lamp they have that odds and

12:23

he held a desk lamp but it was

12:25

not intended to look like a desk lamp.

12:27

In the final vote own the photographs.

12:30

Of so then it must be some sort

12:32

of prof like. I don't know. Maybe

12:35

like. The Sun Or. Something.

12:38

Else I'm just thinking like. What?

12:40

Could it be it's it's just like a ball. The navy

12:42

like. Of a sealed around as.

12:45

Yeah. Own methods inside Something like

12:47

a know. Ah,

12:50

I'm. I'm not

12:52

around down with a. Magazine

12:55

from afar looks like and in him

12:57

as Led light shining our something stuck.

12:59

Okay so for example we know imperfect

13:01

since when they open their. And

13:03

they opened the the suitcase and and yet

13:06

and you've as the briefcase. And then and

13:08

the light shines out the I wonder whether

13:10

it's like inside something. Photographer.

13:13

From them I feel like this with

13:15

Gov is famous photograph that we're missing.

13:17

Here that is. Somehow

13:19

has a person holding a lump in

13:21

the doesn't look like a holding a

13:23

lump. And you are under

13:26

your on the right track. Their

13:28

Tom and terms of Jenny was

13:30

standing him specifically to be a

13:32

model for this situation. Rise and

13:34

you will definitely know what this

13:36

photograph as. I. Feel I feel

13:38

primal like a hundred percent certain that know

13:40

I review have seen this photograph at some

13:42

point in your life. Why? Do I

13:44

feel like this is an album

13:47

cover or movie know moment? Something

13:49

like it's getting warmer. Get seventy.

13:51

Something really iconic like everyone's

13:53

seen. A pop culture? It's gotta

13:55

be a big. Pop. Culture thing.

13:59

on just thinking about all the like

14:02

industrial like magic stuff where

14:04

they made everyday objects look

14:06

like ridiculous things like they've

14:08

got a starship that's actually

14:10

based out of some old

14:13

1950s construction set, Mikado Legos they

14:15

put together like is

14:17

there? I think you're going a bit

14:19

too far in terms of how this

14:21

photograph I would say was a I'll

14:24

say it's a reference but the final photograph

14:26

looks pretty dang similar to what was

14:29

going on with the original impromptu modeling.

14:32

Okay so this is some impromptu modeling just

14:34

being like hey I want to try this thing what about

14:36

this and then the

14:39

final photograph ends up

14:41

being much more famous. And

14:44

I'll say that I guess the the final

14:46

photograph I would say the thing

14:48

that you know is slightly more stylized

14:52

than a photograph I guess might be helpful

14:55

to say or maybe

14:57

I'm putting you in the complete wrong direction but

14:59

but it is still. So hold on when

15:02

you say that we know this that all of

15:04

us have seen it have we seen the impromptu

15:06

version or the final version? You've

15:09

seen you've definitely seen the final version I know that

15:11

I'm pretty sure that's the thing that you've seen and

15:14

again Tom you were getting in the right direction

15:16

when you were talking about movies. Oh

15:20

I'm gonna kick myself because it's gonna

15:22

be really obvious in hindsight what this is.

15:25

Is this like a Star Wars movie cover

15:27

or poster or? It's

15:29

not all the other hints I'll

15:32

give you is that it's not for a specific movie.

15:34

But for a franchise? Oh oh

15:37

hold on um if

15:41

it's not for a specific movie it's gonna be one

15:43

of the um the the

15:45

slates the identity that studios use

15:47

at the start. So

15:50

is it um what's the

15:53

studio that just has the woman holding a

15:55

torch in the air? I'm going to do

15:57

it universal not universal but.

16:00

Paramount in the fair amount it

16:02

the other one it's I

16:04

can see It's

16:06

20th century. Um, you know, it's Columbia Pictures.

16:08

It's Columbia Pictures It's the woman holding the

16:10

torch at the top of the Columbia Pictures

16:13

thing. That's correct It she

16:15

is the torch lady from the

16:17

Columbia Pictures logo And

16:19

I love how all of you knew exactly

16:21

what it was and then said every other

16:24

studio name in existence before Running

16:26

that brilliant branding by Columbia. Yeah,

16:29

I can literally see it in my mind. What

16:31

is it called? Yeah It was I

16:33

think it really interesting about this from the notice

16:35

that it was a Pulitzer

16:38

prize-winning photographer Kathy Anderson who just

16:40

Was tasked with taking the reference photograph

16:43

for the Columbia Pictures logo and then

16:45

a model couldn't be found in time

16:47

So Anderson used Jenny Joseph

16:49

who was working at the same

16:51

newspaper office just again a random

16:53

newspaper employee and Put

16:55

her in a sheet and then held a desk lamp

16:57

up and now she will be in the final logo

17:00

forever That's so funny So

17:06

the final photograph it's

17:08

drawn over to make the Final

17:11

image right? It's a reference photo that they then

17:13

painted over to make the statue of Liberty holding

17:15

a torch up Was it just a woman holding

17:18

a torch up? I think it's just a woman

17:20

holding a torch a woman holding a torch up

17:22

Yeah in a sort of toga ish

17:24

thing again. That just was a bad sheet I

17:26

guess Time

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link is also in the show

18:35

notes. And with that, back to

18:37

our regular questions. This

18:40

next question was sent in by

18:43

Mitchell Van Ham, Andy Johnson, Nathan

18:45

H and Bruno V. So

18:47

I'm slightly worried that someone might know

18:49

this, but good luck. In

18:52

1994, TSR released an advanced

18:55

Dungeons and Dragons book called

18:57

Encyclopedia Magica Volume 1. Why

19:00

were readers confused by the frequent use

19:02

of the words, I wizard

19:04

and the wizard? I'll say

19:06

that again. In 1994, TSR released

19:09

an advanced Dungeons and Dragons book

19:11

called Encyclopedia Magica Volume 1. Why

19:14

were readers confused by the frequent use

19:16

of the words, I wizard and the

19:18

wizard? What was the second

19:20

one? Dao wizard? Dao wizard. D-A. D-A.

19:24

Hannah is writing these down. I am. Brian just

19:26

looks quite confused, but I think of

19:29

the people here, I feel like... Why do I

19:31

feel like Brian has the most D&D experience? Am

19:33

I extrapolating from dropout here or am I just

19:35

stereotyping you? I mean, you're doing both, but it

19:37

is true. I think I probably

19:40

do know the most. But that being said, this

19:42

came out the year I was born. So I

19:44

am still struggling a

19:46

little bit. Sorry about that. That

19:50

thing there, when you're saying I wizard,

19:53

like the physical eye, like you have,

19:56

or is it the like, as if Steve

19:58

Jobs invented this? It's

20:00

Steve Jobs invented. Okay. All right. Gotcha.

20:03

I was which also is probably a good

20:05

riff in itself Yeah Okay.

20:08

Well then I was thinking the same thing.

20:10

I was like that's like an Apple product Yeah

20:14

Here's the thing about I would say most

20:16

like fantasy weird things in that era is

20:18

that they were trying if they made like

20:21

the wizard because they thought like I don't

20:23

know it Sounded like an MC name from

20:25

early hip-hop I wouldn't put it past them

20:27

for them to try to make that like

20:30

cool hip reference, but I feel like that's

20:32

not right It's not but I

20:34

love the idea that at some point there was a Dungeons

20:36

and Dragons Sourcebook that was inspired

20:38

by early hip-hop. I just feel like that's

20:40

that's also feel like the kind of thing

20:42

you'd ask chat GPT for these days Why

20:45

were people confused? What's

20:48

there like similar language in the game

20:50

that sounded like I was sure How

20:55

Much Dungeons and Dragons knowledge do you need to have to

20:57

be able to answer this question Tom? Absolutely

20:59

not. Okay. Well, maybe a tiny amount

21:01

you you would need to know what

21:04

Dungeons and Dragons is and talks about

21:06

Okay, so there's dice in

21:09

Dungeons and Dragons Yeah,

21:11

so we've reached a little bit of my night It

21:16

takes a long time to play yeah

21:18

Mm-hmm and even longer to

21:20

try to organize groups. Yeah Yeah,

21:23

but I hear the people who are into the indie

21:25

are like they're like that's just saying it's

21:27

like kind of like Yeah,

21:30

it's like it's like a fan of them most Definitely,

21:33

which makes me think that like again first

21:35

off Dungeons and Dragons Enjoyers

21:40

tend to be very Very

21:42

intense about their rules and so I

21:45

can't imagine it being a rules issue

21:47

that's confusing them I can't imagine it's

21:49

that that's the the the breaking point

21:52

but maybe Okay, is

21:54

it it does the does I

21:56

and does stand for something? Is it like

21:59

I? is an introverted wizard

22:01

and duh is the district attorney wizard

22:03

or something like that and they have

22:05

to figure out how those

22:07

could be combined. Like I, maybe

22:10

there's something there? They're

22:12

just single words lowercase. Okay.

22:15

I wizard and the wizard. Tell us tell

22:18

us the bit about Dungeons and Dragons that

22:20

we need to know in order

22:22

to be able to do that. Honestly,

22:25

I can't give much more without without giving

22:27

it away. I would think more about the,

22:30

I feel this is sort of thing where writing the words

22:32

down might help. It has nothing to

22:34

do with the way that you type it. Yes.

22:37

So there was this quite sweet thing about typos

22:41

like so Google Trends of different typos

22:43

and there was one that was really

22:45

strange and it was and people thought

22:47

that it was everywhere

22:51

in the world had one word that was

22:53

that was the same typo, the Google Trends

22:55

for it, but France was different and then

22:58

people realised it's because the E and the

23:00

W and the French people or E and

23:02

Z just swapped over or something. Yeah,

23:04

they have a zerty keyboard. Yeah. So

23:07

I wonder whether, DA, I

23:11

wonder whether it's a typo but maybe typed in

23:13

a different language. It's

23:16

not a typo. It's not a slip of

23:18

the things like these words were all the

23:20

way through the book. Deliberate.

23:23

No, not really. Brian, I think you

23:25

may be able to help here with some words that

23:27

might come up when you're talking about D&D. Oh,

23:30

gosh. Oh,

23:33

they I mean, no, I was

23:37

originally going to be like sometimes depending

23:39

on like dice tracks are called DCs

23:41

and stuff like that. Like if there's

23:43

another related word in dungeon, but I

23:45

feel like that's too much institutional

23:48

knowledge of dungeons and dragons

23:51

to be. Yeah, you don't need you don't need

23:53

that much. OK. But you think

23:55

it is to do with the keyboard? Not

23:57

the keyboard, but word processing. an

24:00

error that came in during production. Oh,

24:03

is it related to like people trying to look

24:06

up wizard and then having to go to a

24:08

different part of the book

24:10

to like, no. Not quite.

24:14

Brian, talk me through some, uh,

24:16

some D&D combat here. Let's, let's

24:18

just say I'm rolling against something.

24:20

Uh, talk me through a battle. Uh, oh

24:23

God, I mean now, now I'm going to have

24:25

my D&D cred really questions here. Um,

24:28

so you're going to be basically when you're first,

24:30

uh, fighting someone, you have to check, you, you roll

24:33

dice to see if it hits. Um,

24:35

and then you roll dice for the

24:37

damage related to it. Uh,

24:40

but I'm trying to be damage

24:42

wizard. Yeah. Mm.

24:45

Now you're very close, very quickly.

24:48

Oh, damage wizard is almost the clue

24:50

you need to unlock it. Damn,

24:53

wizard. Yeah. Damage

24:56

wizard. It was meant to be damage.

25:00

What they got was the wizard. Oh,

25:02

also correct. Nearly

25:04

like, uh, find and replace. Find

25:07

and replace. Oh, changed. How did

25:09

they end up with the wizard and

25:11

I wizard? Oh, my gosh. M a.

25:15

Oh, mage, mage wizard, magic

25:17

wizard. It's image wizard and

25:19

damage wizard. And those are

25:21

okay. It was

25:23

originally image and damage

25:26

and someone did a find and

25:28

replace to change mage to

25:31

wizard. Oh, gosh. And then they

25:33

just did not proofread it any further. And

25:35

now is there a mage? It does make me

25:37

something in Dungeons and Dragons. Well,

25:40

I think that the, that's, that might be the

25:42

issue is that somebody wrote it as mage for

25:44

the entire time. But in like, if you're talking

25:46

about classes, I think they only had wizard class

25:48

at that point. I don't believe mage was a

25:51

class at that point. So I don't think it's

25:53

still a mage is it mages, the Dungeons and

25:55

Dragons word. Mage is another

25:57

word for wizard. Oh, it's just, it's just a

26:00

synonym for wizard. Oh, I did not know

26:02

that. I did not know that either.

26:04

Oh, that's okay. That's why you had some

26:06

problems with that. Okay, sorry. I had

26:08

no excuse. Mage is a synonym for wizard.

26:11

Okay, mage is a synonym

26:13

for wizard. So the writer simply described

26:15

mage all the way through, presumably because

26:18

it sounded more magical or fantastical than

26:20

wizard. And someone went, oh,

26:22

just, we'll just finally replace that back.

26:24

And so throughout the book, they

26:27

were talking about, not images,

26:30

but wizards, and

26:32

not points of damage, but points of the wizard.

26:34

I just think it's amazing that in my head,

26:36

I'm like, oh, yeah, everyone knows mages. And then

26:39

I'm like, oh, no, I guess I am more

26:41

nerdy than I think everyone must know what I

26:43

mean. Yeah, sorry. That one's on me as

26:46

well. Oh, no, no,

26:48

no, no, Brian, I, you caught

26:50

me open and I bleed. No,

26:52

it's just a different, different cast

26:54

of nerds. Okay. Hannah,

26:58

the next question is yours. Over to you. Okay,

27:01

this question was sent in by Taren. The

27:03

cruise ship Oasis of the Seas

27:06

is 72 meters tall

27:08

above water. Denmark's

27:10

store belt bridge has a clearance

27:12

of only 65 meters. Watch

27:15

two solutions, one technological, one scientific.

27:17

Is it used to pass under

27:19

this bridge safely? Let

27:22

me give you a video or two again. The cruise ship

27:24

Oasis of the Seas is 72 meters tall above water.

27:28

Denmark's store belt bridge has a clearance

27:30

of only 65 meters. Watch

27:32

two solutions, one technological, and one

27:35

scientific. Is it used to pass

27:37

under this bridge safely? I

27:40

would quibble the word safely, Frank. Okay. Well,

27:42

I'm glad that you mentioned that because I

27:45

immediately in my head, I thought, okay, what they

27:47

had to do is get everyone on the cruise

27:49

ship to jump at the same time. So it

27:52

pushed it down and then they drove through really

27:54

fast. And that was the way that they got

27:56

real. For real. You've basically got one already. Oh,

28:00

Wait, what? Okay. It's not, it's

28:02

not jumping up and down, but it is a way

28:04

to get it to sink lower in the water. But

28:07

like, load it with as much stuff as possible.

28:09

Like make it heavy, make it sink lower? Nope.

28:12

You did actually say it, Brian. You did

28:14

actually say the exact correct thing, but it's

28:16

not about weight. Yeah. Oh,

28:18

so it's like a buoyancy, like just...

28:21

Um... Is there something about like,

28:23

ships going fast, pulling more draft? I remember reading

28:26

something about that in like a navigation

28:28

guide to mariners, that like when your ship

28:30

is going at speed, the

28:33

pressure, like the ground effect or whatever the equivalent of

28:35

it is, sucks it down to the ground a little

28:37

bit more. Because you have to be worried about that

28:39

if you're in shallow water. But

28:41

if you are actually trying to get

28:43

under a bridge, what you

28:45

would do is put the hammer down, get

28:48

the propeller going as fast as you can,

28:50

and fast and furious it as much as

28:52

you can the cruise ship underneath this bridge.

28:54

That is exactly right. Do you want... I

28:57

mean, that's the scientific solution. Yeah. There's

28:59

the technical one. Yeah, absolutely right. That's one half

29:01

of it. It's the hard one, I'll be honest.

29:04

But you're exactly right. It's the

29:06

only equation that anyone knows about aerodynamics is

29:08

Benui, which is that speed and

29:10

pressure are related. And if you increase speed,

29:13

you know, you change the pressure and that's exactly the

29:15

effect that's going on, as you described. So

29:18

just smash it. Because

29:20

ships ground, look at that. Ships

29:24

are like, yeah, we absolutely have clearance to

29:26

get through this. We've got two metre clearance,

29:28

it's fine. And then they go a bit

29:30

faster and get sucked down and ground on

29:32

the rocks. That's fine. Okay,

29:34

that's half of it. That's half of it.

29:37

The hard half. The hard half. That was

29:39

a great... Yeah, that's also the scary half

29:41

of it, right? Like that's terrifying. Yeah, right?

29:43

To be like, okay, we have to go

29:45

really, really quickly. Trust me, it's

29:47

going to go below the bridge. I've

29:50

seen footage and this is not what this cruise

29:52

ship did, but I've seen footage of somewhere in

29:54

the, I think it's Florida. It

29:56

feels like it should be Florida. It's somewhere on

29:58

the Grand Tour around the... American waterways that

30:00

boats do where there is one low

30:02

bridge that sailing ships can't get under

30:04

unless they weigh down one

30:07

side of their boat, tilt

30:09

the whole thing over about 20 degrees

30:11

so they've got a little bit

30:13

more room and the mast can just sneak under

30:15

the bridge because it's a good reason angle. This

30:17

is not what the cruise ship is doing. I'm

30:19

just saying after you finish listening to this, go

30:22

and watch some videos of them doing the

30:25

tilty under the bridge thing. The tilty under

30:27

the bridge thing. The thing is that you

30:29

are on the right track in the

30:31

sense that actually with the tilty under the

30:33

bridge thing, it is about

30:36

one key point that needs to get under the bridge. Is

30:41

it just the mast? Yeah, that's

30:43

the tallest point of it. So

30:45

does the mast go in like it

30:47

shrinks down? You absolutely nailed

30:49

it. I mean you guys, you got that so

30:51

quickly. I was like this is really hard.

30:53

How am I going to get it? But no, but

30:56

no, I didn't, you know, this is the

30:58

type of people, the kind of people that

31:00

we're talking about. Okay, so yeah,

31:03

essentially it's the first time a cruise ship has

31:05

ever had it. It's got a telescopic smokestack that

31:07

can be written down. And also

31:09

because there is 20 meters of water between the keel

31:11

and the bed of the

31:14

strait, what they do is they

31:16

just exactly as you say Tom, just like smash

31:18

it through. And if they do those

31:20

together, then they

31:23

can manage to clear the bridge by 60

31:26

centimeters. This is what I mean about it. That is

31:28

not enough. I entirely agree.

31:31

So this thing is seven

31:33

meters too tall. And it

31:35

makes, you know, almost

31:37

eight meters by doing these two

31:39

things together. Unbelievable.

31:42

That is also like, I assume that they have

31:44

to make sure everyone is under the decks, right?

31:46

Like no, they that being said, I know that

31:48

there's somebody who's out there like trying to smack

31:50

the bridge as they go past. Everybody

31:54

down. Yeah, no, absolutely not. So

31:57

this this this this ship is built into

32:00

Finland, but if

32:02

it was ever to get to the USA,

32:04

it needed to clear this bridge. I mean,

32:06

you would think maybe a bit more forward

32:08

planning would have been useful, but it doesn't.

32:10

They built a telescope in a telescope, and

32:12

that's forward planning, that is. A

32:14

bit more than 60 cents, which is like a bit.

32:17

But yeah, they use the same technique

32:19

when they're docking in New York City to go under,

32:21

there's a bridge in New York City that they need

32:23

to get under. Oh,

32:25

wow. Do they tell their passengers that? Like,

32:27

oh, yeah, surprise. We just got a little,

32:30

like, a bridge. They're going to be

32:32

out on deck celebrating it. You know they are. It's

32:34

just a true shit version of limbo, isn't it?

32:37

Yep. Thank

32:39

you to Michael Teasdale for this next question, and it's a

32:41

sports one. Good luck. Near the

32:44

end of the final game of the Atlanta

32:46

Falcons' 1972 season, the clock was stopped so

32:48

that running back Dave Hampton could be presented

32:50

with a game ball by his team. When

32:53

the game ended, this ceremony had

32:55

become ironically painful. Why? I'll

32:58

say that again. Near the end of the final game

33:00

of the Atlanta Falcons' 1972 season, the

33:03

clock was stopped so that running back Dave

33:05

Hampton could be presented with a game ball

33:07

by his team. When the game ended, this

33:09

ceremony had become ironically painful. Why?

33:12

Do they accidentally give him the ball that was being

33:14

used in the game, rather than a special game ball? No,

33:18

the ceremony went off exactly as planned.

33:22

Right, what's for a sis? It's

33:24

American football. I'm guessing the ball

33:27

was used in the game, and I'm guessing

33:29

that this guy was retiring or something? Like

33:31

it must have been his last game, and

33:33

they were like, here, have the game ball

33:35

for whatever. And then, yeah, I feel

33:39

like that it has to be that kind of

33:41

ceremonial thing or else no one would be cool

33:43

with them stopping gameplay for the middle of it.

33:46

It wasn't a retirement ceremony. It was more of

33:48

a celebration, but yes, this was prearranged that, yeah,

33:50

we're going to stop the clock for a little

33:53

while and let this celebration happen. You

33:55

have done a thing. Here is the ball

33:57

you did the thing with. Okay. of

34:00

thing. Was someone getting married?

34:03

Like, did somebody propose in the middle

34:05

of the game, it stopped the clock?

34:07

It's the thing that they

34:09

did relevant. Yes. Okay,

34:12

I've done a thing. And here's the ball you

34:14

did the thing with. So I'm

34:16

not obviously that well versed

34:18

in American football, but I know enough about how the

34:20

game is played to make me think that it was,

34:23

if he's a running back, it makes

34:25

me think that like, he did

34:27

an incredibly long run in order

34:29

to get a touchdown. So

34:31

he went like, you know, 60 yards

34:34

or whatever to get that and they

34:36

gave him the game ball for doing

34:38

it. And which makes me think that

34:40

right after that happens, somebody ran 70

34:42

yards or something like that. You

34:44

are along the right lines.

34:47

And you've given our other two players

34:49

all the key information they need to

34:51

know on what running backs do. Okay.

34:53

But this was a pre-planned celebration. They

34:56

knew it was probably going to happen

34:58

during this game. Okay. Oh,

35:00

did he get a certain number

35:02

of touchdowns or a certain number

35:05

of sports? Brian's filling the

35:07

right for that sentence. He

35:09

must have like broken a

35:11

record for touchdowns or like

35:13

receptions, right? Like he caught

35:15

the ball more than anyone

35:17

else. Really, I would say that

35:19

I have a very cursory knowledge and the way

35:21

that I'm speaking about this is really making that

35:23

clear. I think to everyone, you

35:26

actually said the words earlier, was

35:28

it receptions or yards run or

35:30

yards run yards run. Did he

35:32

run a certain number of

35:35

yards? 1000 over the season. That's not

35:37

that many yards is it? American football

35:40

season. That's a lot. They see that

35:42

in like 45 minutes in a football

35:44

game. Come on guys. So was that

35:46

like a new

35:50

record and then got like the

35:53

game ball for that? It was an

35:55

achievement. They knew this guy's going to hit 1000 yards

35:57

in the season, probably in this game. other

36:00

team, are you okay with us doing the ceremonial thing

36:02

and like here's the ball you did this with? So

36:05

yeah, like you've worked out the ceremony, I

36:07

don't feel too bad about like just giving

36:09

you that one. Yeah. Like that's that's what

36:11

happened. So then I like Brian's idea of

36:13

somebody else beating him in the

36:15

same game. Yeah. It's

36:17

either somebody beat him in the same game or

36:20

like the more morbid answer is that he like

36:22

broke his leg immediately afterwards. Like that's the other

36:24

thought I can have for that being ironic. I

36:27

mean, the pain here is emotional, I

36:29

think rather than physical. Okay, I'll tell you it's

36:31

the last game of the season. Did

36:34

they lose the big cup? Oh,

36:37

was he was he like retiring or something?

36:39

Maybe that was his actual last game. So

36:41

it was emotional because he couldn't play anymore

36:44

after. Possibly, but that wouldn't

36:46

be ironically painful. So

36:49

ironically painful? Yeah

36:51

implies that

36:53

he can't run anymore. It's

36:55

not that ironic. There's

36:58

something else that can happen to a

37:00

running back. Right. They can get

37:04

Oh, did he like fumble

37:06

or something or got an interception

37:09

based on him where you supposed to catch it

37:11

and then somebody else got it. Oh,

37:14

that wouldn't be ironic for the running. I think maybe

37:16

he got tackled and he

37:20

wasn't pretty. Okay,

37:22

here is where maybe my knowledge

37:25

of football

37:27

might be helpful. But what happened is

37:30

that he was he made the 1000

37:32

yards. Okay, he

37:34

made the full 1000 yards. And they did

37:36

it exactly when he hit 1000 yards. The

37:38

next session, somebody tackled him and pushed him

37:40

back two yards, which took him back to

37:43

998 or something like that.

37:45

It was a six yard loss. He ended the game

37:47

and the season on 995 yards despite the ceremony.

37:52

Wow, incredible. His

37:55

quote, his quote was right now it's the

37:57

most disappointing thing that has ever happened. The

38:00

following season? 997 yards.

38:08

Brutal. It

38:10

was the one after that when he got

38:13

1000 and he retired at the

38:15

end of that year. You would, wouldn't you?

38:17

You would. You're a white whale, for sure.

38:21

Hey Ian, Tom, I'm loving these questions on Dungeons

38:23

and Dragons and American Football, but next time I

38:25

come on, can we do one on differential calculus?

38:28

Alright, well let's see if there are any questions. Thank you.

38:31

In the show, Lily, over to you. So

38:34

this one was sent in by Hans Barthel.

38:37

In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt decided

38:39

to rerun for president. Three million

38:41

panoplets were printed, featuring his photo

38:44

and a speech. However, his team

38:46

leader noticed the photo had a

38:48

copyright note. How did they turn

38:50

the situation around? I'll read that

38:52

one more time. In

38:54

1912 Theodore Roosevelt decided to rerun

38:56

for president. Three million panoplets

38:58

were printed, featuring his photo and a

39:00

speech. However, his team later

39:03

noticed that the photo had a copyright

39:05

note. How did they turn the situation around?

39:08

So it was printed on the photograph,

39:10

a little thing saying copyright. Is

39:13

that, what am I imagining the right thing? Yeah,

39:15

the photo did have a copyright note on

39:17

it. And there were thousands

39:19

of panoplets, you can't just cross them out. No,

39:22

you cannot. Did he

39:24

go and get a running mate called copyright?

39:30

No. Is the

39:32

problem that the photo has a watermark

39:34

on it, or is the problem is that the photo

39:36

is copyrighted and they just can't use it? They printed

39:38

three million of these, and actually turns out they don't

39:41

have permission to use the photo. Yeah, so

39:43

basically on the back of the photo

39:45

someone noticed that there's a copyright notice,

39:47

but they didn't see that on the front of it. So

39:50

they've got three million panoplets

39:52

that if they distribute, they're violating copyright and

39:54

someone's going to sue them. Yes,

39:57

yeah. Okay, but... This

40:00

was Teddy Roosevelt rerunning,

40:03

right, for office? This was his second- Yes,

40:05

so he's already president. So did he

40:07

just change copyright laws? Did

40:10

he just change copyright laws? Actually, no,

40:12

we've decided that this is cool. Was

40:14

that how it worked? I

40:16

don't care. As long as we win, I will

40:19

pardon everyone involved for copyright different. No.

40:22

Oh, it's a civil court. It wouldn't be able to do that,

40:24

nevermind. If only he had the jurisdiction to

40:27

do that. Okay, so

40:29

somebody would have owned that copyright. So

40:33

somebody would be

40:36

the person who they would be worried

40:38

about suing them. Did

40:40

he- They just killed him. Yeah, I'm kidding.

40:44

Also, the answer is you licensed the photo from it.

40:46

Like, you just pay the guy some money, but- You're

40:49

on the right line. With the killing? Tom,

40:51

what you just said is sort of on

40:53

the right line. With the killing or the money

40:55

thing? The money thing?

40:58

It's going to be a really boring question if the answer

41:00

is they licensed the photograph. You're

41:02

on the right line, Tom. Basically,

41:04

the licensing cost for the photo

41:06

was estimated at $1 per copy.

41:10

But the campaign team found that the

41:12

studio that took the photo,

41:15

they were not very notable. Like nobody had

41:17

really heard of them before. So then, if

41:19

they didn't know, could

41:22

they like turn it, just do a collab? Nice

41:27

little influencer. A lovely guy. Yeah.

41:31

This will bring a lot of eyes

41:33

to your whole deal. Guys, it's a bunch

41:35

of exposure for you. You're going to love

41:37

it. Hold on. There's

41:40

that line in Inception where

41:43

the rich guy goes, I bought the

41:45

airline, it seemed neater. And I

41:47

feel like if you, rather than pay

41:49

like $3 million to license this photo,

41:51

you just buy the little studio that

41:53

owns the copyright and you just take

41:55

over the entire company and you let

41:57

them forgive them. So one of

41:59

two... things that you just said is correct?

42:02

Which one? Which one do you think it is?

42:04

It's either buying the company or being an

42:06

influencer. All right, well, I said buying the

42:09

company. I'm going to stick with it. Buying

42:11

the company. Yeah, I switch. I'm flaky as

42:13

anything. I stick with influencer, but I think

42:15

it's just somebody married someone in the company

42:17

and then became the proprietor.

42:20

I think it was a marriage situation. That

42:22

kind of collab. Yeah. So basically,

42:25

because the studio is so, you know,

42:27

not popular, they basically turned to

42:29

them and said, Oh, this would

42:31

be great exposure for you. So

42:33

they asked the photographer to pay

42:35

for the publicity. Amazing. Oh,

42:38

my God. I

42:40

feel like these tricks are carrying on right

42:42

now. That's not even we'll

42:44

pay you. We'll pay you an exposure. You

42:47

will pay us for the exposure. That's

42:49

incredible. That is the goal. Yeah. The fact

42:51

that they said yes to that. I'm

42:53

like, what? They said yes. Wow.

42:56

Yes. Amazing. Amazing.

42:58

It was $250, in fact. For

43:02

a reverse license. That's amazing. Yeah. And then

43:05

at the end of it, he didn't even

43:07

win the election. Terrible.

43:13

Very last thing then. Thank you, Jason Roberts, for sending

43:15

this question in. In 1969, who

43:18

asked the US Postal Service to

43:20

change the state abbreviation for Nebraska

43:22

from N.B. to N.E.? Is

43:24

it someone who's initials are N.B.? It

43:27

very much is someone who's initials, well,

43:29

somewhere whose initials are N.B. Would

43:31

we know this person? You would

43:34

know the place. Oh, a place that's got

43:36

the initials N.B. You'd probably know the place.

43:38

New Brunswick. New Brunswick in

43:40

Canada is very close to Nebraska.

43:43

And the post was going the

43:45

wrong way because everyone just wrote

43:47

N.B. The postal administration of Canada

43:50

asked the US Postal Service, can you make

43:52

it any instead? That

43:54

makes sense. With that, thank you very

43:57

much to our players. Congratulations on running

43:59

the gauntlet. find out where can

44:01

people find you and in

44:03

the months between this recording and the episode

44:06

going out what have you been up to

44:08

we will start with Brian yeah

44:10

you could find me on YouTube if you just

44:13

search up Brian David Gilbert I've also been doing

44:15

a lot more stuff with dropout recently and

44:18

yeah you can just find me

44:20

around there hire me to write your TV shows

44:22

all those things you know if

44:25

there are any TV commissioners listening talk to

44:27

Brian he's good yeah reach out Hannah what's

44:29

up with you I'm actually Prime Minister now

44:34

it's been a it's been a

44:37

extremely busy few months and yeah

44:39

I'm on track for my plans

44:41

of world domination so yeah where

44:44

can people find you other than send down them through you

44:48

know just search me I'm on

44:51

I'm Friar Squared on social media but I

44:53

have shows on Bleedburg and BBC and podcasts

44:55

and blah blah blah blah and

44:57

Lily you can find me on mostly

44:59

YouTube just search Hevish5 or you

45:01

could just search Dominoes you'll probably find

45:03

me but I'm working on you know

45:06

making new Dominoes we just came out

45:08

with a new Disney set so very

45:10

excited to get that out and you

45:12

know just get more people into building

45:15

and if you want to know more

45:17

about this show you can do that

45:19

at lateralcast.com where you can send in

45:21

your own ideas for questions we are

45:23

at lateralcast pretty much everywhere and there

45:25

are weekly video highlights at youtube.com/lateralcast with

45:27

that thank you very much to Lily

45:29

Hevish thank you so much Hannah Frye

45:31

yeah thank you and Brian

45:34

David Gilbert been a pleasure I've been

45:36

Tom Scott and that's been lateral