00:00
hi everyone before we start this week's
00:01
show we'd like to tell you that it's
00:04
almost christmas
00:05
yes it is and what better way to
00:07
celebrate than as the lord intended by
00:10
coming to see no such thing as a fish
00:12
live in concert yes there will be
00:14
virgins galore a few asses
00:19
couple of wise men yeah well a wise
00:21
woman i would say probably not so many
00:23
wise men but we'll be having a real ball
00:26
we're having our christmas show it will
00:27
be live in birmingham at the new
00:30
alexandra theatre on the 29th of
00:32
november it's going to be such a good
00:34
laugh we'll do the first half where we
00:35
find the nerdiest person in the whole of
00:37
birmingham and then in the second half
00:38
we'll be recording our christmas podcast
00:41
yes it's going to be super christmassy
00:43
and if you want to buy someone a
00:45
christmas present
00:47
we have got eight dates in the new year
00:49
we're playing four all around scotland
00:52
and then we're doing bath cardiff dublin
00:54
and belfast they're all in january these
00:56
dates it's going to be a wonderful show
00:57
every single time we're going to be
00:59
recording a live podcast in every single
01:00
one physical presence are so overrated
01:03
give someone the experience of their
01:06
life the experience of going to
01:08
inverness on the 13th of january and
01:11
having their soul warmed by a load of
01:13
facts that we say in front of an
01:15
audience exactly so do that do it now
01:18
all you have to do is go to no such
01:20
thing as a fish.com
01:21
live or possibly live it doesn't matter
01:24
the point is it's l-i-v-e go there okay
01:28
i'm with the podcast on with the show
01:31
[Music]
01:44
hello and welcome to another episode of
01:48
no such thing as a fish a weekly podcast
01:51
this week coming to you live from
01:53
ipswich
01:59
my name is dan schreiber i am sitting
02:01
here with anna tashinsky andrew hunter
02:04
murray and james harkin and once again
02:06
we have gathered around the microphones
02:07
with our four favorite facts from the
02:09
last seven days and in a particular
02:11
order here we go
02:14
starting with fact number one and that
02:16
is my fact my fact this week is that
02:18
there's a special piano that only benny
02:22
from abba can play
02:24
and he can only play it if he's six
02:27
miles away from it
02:30
this is such a cool thing there's an
02:32
abba museum in stockholm which is a
02:34
fascinating place and in it is a piano
02:37
that belongs to benny and what they've
02:39
done is they've synced up the piano with
02:42
benny's studio and so anytime benny's at
02:45
home and he plays on it the piano in the
02:48
museum just starts playing whatever it
02:51
is that he's playing as well so what if
02:53
i go to benny's house and i'm not very
02:55
good at playing the piano and i just
02:56
play chopsticks will that play on there
02:58
as well well i think it'll probably
02:59
summon an ambulance to benny's
03:04
i'm sending out an sos
03:05
[Laughter]
03:07
it's just it's worth saying it's um it's
03:09
hooked up to an ipad so it's not
03:11
everything that plays he has to decide
03:13
when he's allowing the museum okay okay
03:15
what he's covering yeah okay yeah um
03:17
they do they also they have a phone
03:19
where only four people have the number
03:21
of the phone
03:22
guess which one is it
03:25
no it's abba um and if if
03:27
if the phone rings in the museum then
03:30
you know that it's one of the four
03:32
members of abba phoning that phone and
03:34
they got the idea from yoko ono didn't
03:36
they did they yeah so yoko ono has got
03:38
quite a few of these what she calls
03:40
telephone pieces um that's been in
03:42
various different exhibitions around the
03:44
world over the last few years uh she did
03:46
one in argentina she did one in new york
03:48
uh and her idea is that she will ring it
03:51
from time to time and someone will
03:52
answer and when they answer they're
03:54
completing the piece the artwork if you
03:56
think about it that way yeah yeah um so
03:58
the first time someone did that they
03:59
were in a toronto exhibition in 2002 and
04:03
the phone rang and the guy said hello
04:07
and yo corona said are you in china
04:10
and he said no i'm in toronto canada
04:12
where the exhibition is and she said oh
04:14
i'm not in china either and she hung up
04:18
oh wow did he then get paid half the
04:20
money that she'd made from selling this
04:22
exhibition
04:23
that'd be amazing
04:25
wow
04:26
um abba oh yeah they're pretty
04:29
they were pretty unpopular no they
04:31
weren't they were very popular in sweden
04:34
right at the start of their careers they
04:35
were seen as being
04:37
i can't believe this is true but you
04:38
know they became really famous in what
04:40
was it 1974 the eurovision when they
04:42
sang waterloo yeah apparently when they
04:44
became really popular in the world
04:47
sweden was so snotty about them that
04:50
they cancelled the swedish top of the
04:51
pops and abolished the pop charts what
04:57
yeah that's what i read yeah why because
04:59
they thought that just they were
05:00
absolutely commercial they're commercial
05:02
they're a bit poppy they i mean they had
05:04
an incredible and different sound but
05:05
they were also very yeah commercial but
05:07
they weren't weirdly like a super group
05:09
because both benny and bjorn had very
05:12
big bands that they were in before abba
05:15
came along and then they got married to
05:17
agnetha and annie frid who both were big
05:19
singers and it didn't work and one
05:22
theory by one of the people who worked
05:23
with them is because they had a terrible
05:25
band name before they came up with abba
05:27
so their original band name was bjorn
05:29
and benny agnatha and annie frid that
05:31
was their name
05:33
and then they became abba because that
05:35
was the shorthand that was used for it
05:36
it was a newspaper competition that got
05:38
them what was it yeah
05:39
yeah they had because they'd had other
05:41
names which included alibaba and fab and
05:43
baba and then the
05:45
gothenburg newspaper held a competition
05:47
to say we've got to get this band a
05:48
better name because these all stink and
05:51
abba was the winning i read that they
05:52
borrowed the name from a fish company
05:54
and that was on the website of the fish
05:56
company
05:58
they said that we agreed to lend our
06:00
name to the pop group as though they're
06:02
going to give it back at some point it
06:04
does because it is a big fish company
06:06
and everyone knows have a fish company
06:08
and so i can see that it would have been
06:10
controversial
06:11
so they did have a weird time the two
06:14
couples that was made up of the two
06:15
married couples got divorced within
06:17
basically two years of each other
06:18
between 1980 and 1982 yeah while writing
06:21
their best songs so if you listen to the
06:23
winner takes it all that was written by
06:26
bjorn wasn't it and then he got agnetha
06:29
to sing it and they'd been married and
06:31
she says very interesting reading there
06:34
what they say about the divorce because
06:35
he says god it was the friendliest
06:37
divorce in the face of the earth no
06:39
marriage breakup could have been easier
06:41
best friends forever and then you read
06:43
her on a separate interview going
06:44
everyone thought it was a really easy
06:45
time but it was actually hell
06:47
and particularly being made to sing the
06:49
lyrics of this song which are things
06:50
like you know um talking about does she
06:53
kiss you like i used to kiss you and
06:55
he'd gone off with another girlfriend
06:56
weeks after they divorced um she's there
06:59
on stage singing it so yeah and then it
07:02
was 1981 when the final divorce went
07:05
through and so by 1982 they were all
07:07
single yeah and their first album of
07:10
1982 was called the singles yes
07:14
that's good all right that was so good
07:16
um do you know there are abbot just on
07:17
that note there are abba tribute acts
07:20
which include the bjorn identity
07:22
and the bjorn ultimatum but not the
07:25
beyond
07:29
funny that's so supremacy
07:30
um any fridge not swedish scandal really
07:34
norwegian [ __ ] scandal navier
07:38
dolnavia
07:39
absolutely
07:41
she's really interesting that her
07:42
background is so interesting she is
07:44
what's called a tisca barnes or a german
07:48
child and these were people in norway
07:50
who in during the war the 1930s and the
07:52
second world war the nazis had a policy
07:55
of interbreeding their men with
07:57
norwegian women to create perfect aryan
08:00
offspring who would then sort of be
08:02
given back to the ss and be you know a
08:04
brilliant aryan race for the nazis and
08:06
she was a child of that but she was born
08:09
in 1945 so her mother was norwegian her
08:12
father was a german soldier who was in
08:14
norway and then immediately they were
08:16
completely ostracized and had a hell of
08:19
a time and they couldn't get jobs and
08:21
like most of them like have really awful
08:24
lives as a result and i think they got
08:26
compensation from
08:27
europe a few
08:29
did they get it in the end i remember
08:31
i'm actually not sure i know they fought
08:32
for it yeah but still not [ __ ]
08:34
swedish
08:37
yes just on the sort of mania of when
08:39
they hit and became absolutely
08:41
stratospheric i didn't really appreciate
08:43
how huge they'd been so just for an
08:45
example they visited australia in the
08:47
mid 70s their tv special in 1976 got
08:51
more views than the moon landing
08:54
wow yeah they were they were so popular
08:57
that in the year 1976 oh in the 1970s
09:00
though in 1976 more tvs right sorry more
09:03
tvs i guess more tvs and they showed it
09:05
four times yes i mean there are factors
09:07
that mitigate but still
09:09
it was a big event what time of the
09:10
night was it moon landings in australia
09:13
oh i don't know look okay
09:16
they were so popular in 1976 they had
09:18
the number one spot for 39 weeks
09:21
and after 12 weeks of it their version
09:23
of top of the pops just stopped showing
09:25
the music video because like you've seen
09:26
it for 12 weeks guys and in australia
09:29
fans absolutely write it and that was on
09:31
the australian version of top of the
09:32
pops which was called countdown
09:34
yeah the australian version of the top
09:36
of the pops was called countdown why are
09:37
we not talking about this constantly oh
09:39
really
09:40
yeah you've just been hanging on to this
09:42
fact in your head for like eight years
09:44
yeah
09:45
well um when you say why are you moving
09:47
on from this top of the hops countdown
09:48
thing what absolutely like is there a
09:50
letters and numbers show called top of
09:51
the pops in australia
09:53
no i don't think so what do you call
09:55
countdown
09:56
i don't think we have countdown all
09:58
right they can't spell in australia
10:02
well um when you say fans rioted did i
10:05
say rioted yeah i meant were furious
10:10
one complaint was registered with the
10:13
abc
10:14
generally look when they toured one
10:15
mother ran and she put her baby down on
10:18
the road so that their tore caravan
10:20
would stop and she could get an
10:21
autograph
10:22
there was a hotel which cut up their bed
10:24
sheets after they'd left and they sold
10:26
it via newspaper yeah they do that all
10:27
the time yeah they did that with the
10:28
beetles as well and this thing i've got
10:30
the baby
10:31
i just wanted to know we will not
10:33
succumb to that kind of blackmail if
10:34
there's a baby in front of our tour bus
10:36
we're going straight over it
10:40
i think that's fish policy right
10:44
[Laughter]
10:46
yeah
10:48
it's really important to get that clear
10:50
from the outset that's good
10:52
oh my god
10:54
who do you think is the biggest band
10:56
ever from sweden according to the
10:58
billboard charts the biggest band ever
11:00
from sweden uh i'm going to put my foot
11:03
on the land mine and say abba it is not
11:05
abba it is rock set
11:08
isn't that interesting yeah rock set
11:10
i've had four number ones uh abrahav
11:12
only had one and the interesting thing
11:14
about that is they were a band in sweden
11:16
and there was a high school student who
11:18
was on exchange in sweden heard about
11:20
rock set went home brought a record home
11:23
with him and pestered the local radio
11:25
station in minneapolis every single day
11:27
saying play this play this play this
11:29
eventually they did play it and within
11:31
two months they had a record deal in the
11:32
us and the number one single wow oh my
11:35
god isn't that cool
11:36
but really mostly the best well we all
11:38
know what the best band from sweden
11:40
really is and that is rednecks the
11:42
singers of cotton eyed joe they're from
11:44
sweden
11:46
cotton eyed joe the song do you know
11:47
what that is
11:49
i've been there long to summit he's been
11:50
somewhere where did you come from where
11:51
did you go well
11:53
what's it about what's cotton eyed mean
11:56
he's a teddy he must be a teddy no he's
11:57
someone with syphilis
12:01
so we think possibly it's from the 1800s
12:04
it's an african-american folk song about
12:06
a man who has cotton eyes and that's
12:07
either from syphilis or from drinking
12:09
too much moonshine right what do you
12:11
mean syphilis turns your eyes to cotton
12:13
it kind of makes them go like milky
12:16
okay okay um so the other really
12:18
interesting thing about rednecks is when
12:20
napster came out and everyone started
12:22
sharing music the manager who owned all
12:25
of the rights called peter edinburgh he
12:26
decided there was no point selling
12:28
records anymore what we're going to be
12:30
is like a band who just goes around
12:32
performing and so he got rid of all the
12:34
original members and brought in 20 new
12:37
rednecks
12:38
and that means they can play five
12:40
different gigs on the same night
12:42
wow there's a rednecks in australia so
12:45
they can play in australian gigs when
12:47
are we going to do this this is amazing
12:49
there's an online shop where um if you
12:51
pay eleven thousand one hundred and
12:53
eleven euros you can get a private show
12:55
anywhere in the world from rednecks
12:57
right and if you pay two million euros
13:00
you get the entire band i was gonna say
13:02
can you mix and match can you like make
13:04
your fantasy rednecks team kind of thing
13:06
that'd be amazing wow wouldn't you take
13:09
larry over here he's got gonorrhea yeah
13:13
i have one tiny last thing before we
13:15
move on their eurovision just very
13:17
quickly back to that because that's the
13:18
thing that exploded them to the world
13:20
the uk
13:21
do you know what they gave them point
13:22
wise null points did we we're famously
13:25
good in eurovision at judging and
13:27
participating
13:28
and you know who the interval act was at
13:30
that year's eurovision no the wombles
13:39
[Laughter]
13:41
they would have won if they'd been
13:43
formally entered they would have won
13:45
they would have cleaned up
13:52
[Music]
13:53
stop the podcast stop the podcast hi
13:56
everybody just to let you know we're
13:58
being sponsored this week by linkedin
14:00
talent solutions yes linkedin you all
14:02
know linkedin it's the place you go to
14:04
when you're hunting for jobs when you
14:05
want to see what else is going on out
14:07
there in the market and you just want to
14:08
be part of the big business buzz the big
14:11
business wow that's beautiful
14:12
alliteration there yes if you want to
14:15
get involved in that buzz then you can
14:17
go to linkedin and specifically if
14:19
you're looking to hire people if you're
14:21
a small business owner for instance
14:22
you're incredibly busy you're juggling
14:24
so many things do you have the time to
14:26
search the entire world for the one
14:29
right candidate for the role no you
14:31
don't get to linkedin jobs and they can
14:33
make finding the exact right person
14:35
incredibly easy and quick that's right
14:37
there are 30 million people to pick from
14:40
that's like bigger population size than
14:43
i don't know
14:45
um australia what's australia gold is
14:47
that 30 mil plus probably it's probably
14:49
less right australia less i think you
14:51
might have done it yeah so look at that
14:53
look at that you can find you've got
14:54
more options than the entirety of the
14:56
population of australia so all you need
14:58
to do if you want to find that one
15:00
candidate to get into your business and
15:02
make it buzz buzz buzz is go to
15:04
linkedin.comfish
15:06
and you can post a job for free
15:10
that is right that's absolutely free if
15:12
you go to linkedin.com
15:15
fish post your job now and find your
15:18
dream candidate we are also sponsored
15:21
this week by hellofresh yes that is
15:25
right once you've tired of a day getting
15:27
into the big business buzz you want to
15:29
cook a delicious meal but you haven't
15:31
had time to shop because of all the
15:33
business so hello fresh have delivered
15:35
to your door the box of fabulous
15:37
ingredients to make a wonderful meal
15:40
and it's so convenient it's so easy
15:42
there are dozens of delicious recipes to
15:43
choose from every single week yeah andy
15:45
i was talking the other day to our old
15:47
friend uh porky papadeli do you remember
15:49
him i love porky ah it's a trick because
15:53
porky papadely is one of the recipes you
15:55
can make through hello fresh and it
15:58
sounds like an old name of someone from
16:00
a pg woodhouse story i feel like such an
16:03
idiot i must go and consult with my
16:04
therapist pine nut crusted lamb steak
16:08
well if you feel like you need to
16:10
consult with a lamb steak yourself then
16:13
you can do by going to
16:16
hellofresh.com.uk and using the offer
16:19
code no such fish if you do that you'll
16:21
get 50 off your first box 35 of your
16:24
next three boxes for these delicious
16:26
amazing easy to cook healthy foods it's
16:30
so much fun to do we highly recommend it
16:32
just go to
16:35
dot hellofresh.com.uk
16:36
slap in the offer code no such fish and
16:38
you will get fifty percent off your
16:39
first box and thirty five percent of the
16:41
following three except no substitutes
16:43
hello fresh
16:45
okay i'm with the podcast on the show
16:53
well listen we need to move on to our
16:54
next fact it is time for fact number two
16:57
and that is james okay my fact this week
17:00
is that by changing the genome of a
17:02
daddy longlegs scientists have created a
17:05
daddy's short legs
17:07
[Laughter]
17:10
what did they do to the genie because it
17:11
sounds like if you want shorter legs
17:13
you're gonna make shorter jeans right
17:15
and you'll need shorter jeans once
17:16
you've got your legs yeah that was the
17:18
job yeah yeah that's the joke
17:21
thank you i'm just a height person for
17:22
everyone's jokes tonight i appreciate
17:24
that really do okay so just to confirm
17:27
what we're talking about here is
17:28
harvestmen spiders and that is what
17:31
americans call daddy long legs we would
17:33
sometimes call those daddy long legs but
17:35
more often we would say crane flies or
17:36
daddy long legs but anyway they're
17:38
actually not spiders or arachnids but
17:40
they have four pairs of legs they walk
17:41
around they have two pairs of leads that
17:43
feel stuff and their legs have got these
17:45
thing called tarsamirs and if you think
17:48
about your hand you've got these little
17:49
knuckle bits here you've got like two on
17:51
each finger that means you can grip
17:52
stuff they have got loads of these which
17:54
means they can really grip around stuff
17:57
and the scientists wanted to learn more
17:58
about them and so they did so by turning
18:01
off some genes and in this particular
18:03
case they turned off the gene that made
18:05
all these extra little nubby bits and
18:07
they ended up with really really short
18:08
leg spiders
18:10
why
18:11
it's science
18:12
just to see right because they're
18:14
confused by the harvestmen the daddy
18:16
long legs and they're just like why have
18:17
you got it's like having a hundred
18:18
knuckles on a finger exactly so imagine
18:20
anna that we work out which gene does
18:22
this in the harvestmen and we could
18:23
somehow get that gene salted in
18:25
ourselves we could have the bendiest
18:27
fingers like mr tickle here's the dream
18:30
it's a dream come true
18:33
they use them to mate with each other
18:34
don't they that seems to be the main
18:35
person i'm not saying we would do it
18:37
that way i mean
18:38
you must have a vested interest in this
18:40
somewhere
18:41
they seem to sort of mate by lassoing
18:43
their arms around each other so yeah
18:45
they can they'll extend their arms and
18:46
they'll wrap it around the feet the male
18:48
will wrap it around the females dozens
18:50
of times so it's really locked on and
18:53
then they make throat to throat james i
18:55
have a question were these daddy's short
18:56
legs bad at sex as a result were they i
19:00
didn't try
19:04
i imagine they would be um i can't tell
19:06
you for sure it wasn't in the paper
19:08
whether they were bad at sex um but you
19:09
would think so because the legs like
19:11
ella said they are quite important in
19:13
the sexual um thing with the harvestmen
19:15
spiders uh for instance the male will
19:17
often grab the female's leg and just
19:19
start nibbling on it because it's really
19:21
hairy so he's got a really hairy leg and
19:23
he'll just sort of nibble on the hairs
19:25
right it's not we don't really know why
19:26
they do that though right it's
19:28
scientists are like and they sort of
19:29
jiggle the leg around and stuff yeah
19:31
though
19:32
the article i read said presumably for
19:34
her pleasure but that's a big
19:36
presumption today because yeah
19:38
oh there is another thing about the
19:40
actually the they the oldest genitals
19:43
found in 2003 were
19:46
i don't know if it's been superseded by
19:47
some even older genitals but it was a
19:49
harvestman which was 400 million years
19:52
old which i find absolutely
19:54
mind-boggling there was another one
19:56
found a bit later in myanmar which was
19:58
again trapped in amber like in jurassic
20:00
park or whatever
20:01
which um was 100 million years old but
20:04
it was very exciting because it was
20:05
erect and the the story about it in live
20:08
science it started with the words if you
20:10
think an erection lasting more than four
20:11
hours is a problem try one lasting more
20:13
than 99 million years
20:16
but it's amazing that we found it
20:17
because it's very rare to see a
20:20
harvestman or daddy long legs with an
20:21
erect penis it's exactly it's a very
20:24
rare thing and it's even rarer to see it
20:25
in fossils
20:27
in amber we've only ever found up until
20:29
the point of this article you're talking
20:31
about 38 fossils of harvestmen in
20:34
history and one of those
20:36
has a penis coming out of it and they
20:38
didn't expect it and it's and they could
20:40
tell that it was a different species to
20:41
other ones now alive because of its
20:43
penis it has a sort of heart-shaped top
20:45
oh
20:47
really sweet yeah and when you look at
20:49
it it's genuinely it's like oh it's like
20:51
a little emoji like it's very cute um
20:54
but that that penis that erection we
20:56
think it may have been mating but we
20:57
think it may not have been mating as
20:58
well we so it might have been watching
21:01
dinosaur porn or something whatever it
21:02
was back then
21:04
we think either it was mating and it got
21:05
stuck in the amber and then somehow the
21:07
the female got away for example or
21:09
the amber started to roll over it and
21:12
its blood pressure just went boom it
21:14
went right up and the penis was
21:15
literally just pushed out of it in a
21:17
kind of big death erection and then it
21:19
died
21:20
i'll be honest when i did this fact i
21:22
thought we would be talking about
21:24
spiders and daddy long legs and genomes
21:27
and stuff and we seem to have gotten on
21:28
to the sorry
21:31
we were going to get onto the penis
21:32
because they are the only arachnids with
21:34
a penis and so i imagine that they would
21:36
want us to be mentioning that if they
21:38
knew that we were talking about wow the
21:40
spiders spiners just have um like teddy
21:42
pelts that they put their sperm onto and
21:43
then you know spiderman yes yes i think
21:46
he has the pedipalps
21:47
[Laughter]
21:50
um there are so many species there are
21:52
6500 species of harvestmen and then
21:55
that's not even including crane flies
21:57
obviously and they they let off a
21:59
disgusting smell when they're under
22:01
threat which apparently you can smell so
22:02
if you see one under threat which it
22:04
probably will be if you're approaching
22:06
it then try and touch it and it smells
22:08
like petrol apparently um yeah and
22:10
sometimes you get massive clumps of them
22:12
don't you there was one in southwestern
22:14
china that had 300 000 individuals in a
22:18
clump
22:19
and it just looks like this hairy blob
22:21
that's kind of going around oh wow what
22:24
do you mean they kind of roll like a
22:25
ball together kind of thing they don't
22:27
roll so much as kind of walk yeah
22:30
and there are some on top as well so
22:32
they're a little bit kind of on top of
22:33
each other it can be hundreds of
22:35
thousands of them and they think that
22:36
possibly again we're not sure why they
22:38
do this but one reason could be that if
22:40
they're all giving off this farty smell
22:42
then it might make it even more potent
22:46
you can't be you can't be blamed if
22:47
there are three hundred thousand of you
22:48
at the same time yeah
22:52
and they can lose legs but they can't
22:54
grow them back
22:55
so in the same way that we can lose legs
22:57
they can lose legs but they do it more
23:00
often so
23:01
they they'll lose a leg defensively
23:03
sometimes if they're being predated on
23:06
then they'll kind of rip off one of
23:07
their legs and leave it behind and they
23:08
can be fine they can be basically fine
23:10
with two legs lost but their gait
23:12
changes a little bit so it seems like
23:14
they start to use their body as a
23:16
replacement leg so they do what's called
23:18
starting if they're down to seven legs
23:20
which seems to be they brush their
23:22
bellies against the ground with every
23:24
stride and then if they lose two legs
23:26
they turn to bobbing which is where they
23:29
really bounce like a bouncy ball along
23:31
the ground up and down and sometimes
23:33
they just bob up and down on the spot
23:34
really really fast we don't really know
23:35
why maybe to like evade birds wow
23:38
it's weird how so like a picture of
23:41
daddy long legs in my head but the body
23:43
is not quite in my head so just as a
23:45
sort of an equivalent if humans had the
23:47
length of leg that a daddy longlegs had
23:50
it would be as if we had 80 foot long
23:53
limbs wow 80 foot 80 foot yeah compared
23:57
to body size the torso bit that is and
23:59
that is mr tickle isn't it just to go
24:01
back to it it is that's what he's got
24:03
basically that's true
24:05
and the daddy longlegs harvestmen and
24:07
crane fly and they've only been known
24:09
that since 1820. uh before that they
24:12
were known as farther long legs no yeah
24:15
in the 1740s
24:17
and even 100 years before that crane
24:19
flies were known as harry long legs
24:23
i've read the in ireland they're called
24:25
skinny phillip
24:27
i don't know why
24:29
that's a that's a cartoon i would watch
24:33
skinny filler oh man the crate so yeah
24:35
the crane flies which i think maybe we
24:36
know a bit better in the uk just there
24:37
are so many more of them especially in
24:39
autumn they live underground for 10
24:41
months and then they come out for a few
24:43
days they mate and then they die what
24:44
we're seeing is it's almost none of the
24:47
story of the devil but the rest of the
24:49
story is quite dull
24:52
it's like following sleeping beauty
24:53
story while she's asleep
24:55
they're mostly they're well alive under
24:57
the earth
24:58
yeah of course they are they're laughing
24:59
no i know they're alive but like what
25:01
are they doing they're awake well
25:02
they're they're moving around they have
25:03
expandable asses when they're lobbying
25:06
you want me
25:07
i think we all do
25:10
um no they have like inflatable asses
25:12
that they fill up with like hemolytic
25:14
like kind of like fluid and that's how
25:16
they move through the soil so it'll like
25:18
push them forward as they inflate their
25:20
bottoms and they're fat worms they're
25:22
much fatter than a long legs body when
25:24
they're worms and then it lodges them in
25:27
the earth so if they need to eat a bunch
25:28
of leaf matter then it roots them in
25:30
because their bum just you know clogs up
25:32
the soil around them it's a very clever
25:34
move that's awesome yeah yeah yeah yeah
25:36
watch that show i take i take it there
25:38
you go it's the best time of their lives
25:39
and we never get to see it yeah
25:41
and we're gonna have to move on in a
25:42
second guys to our next fact in 2016
25:45
there was an entomologist called liz
25:46
fowler and she went to the island of
25:48
saint helena to look for something
25:50
called the basilevski's crane fly and
25:53
people have thought it been extinct for
25:54
about 40 or 50 years no one has seen one
25:57
for 45 years while she was driving along
25:59
one of them flew into her car and landed
26:01
in her hand
26:02
oh
26:03
wow
26:05
did you know that was it she didn't sort
26:06
of crush it toss it out
26:12
well listen we need to move on to our
26:13
next fact um okay it is time for fact
26:16
number three and that is andy my fact is
26:20
that kew gardens has managed to keep the
26:22
same pot plant alive for 246 years
26:27
yeah it's beaten my record by 246 years
26:31
pretty much
26:33
yeah it's an incredible plant but it's
26:36
also an incredible effort it's really
26:37
amazing so it's a it's a plant called
26:39
encephalatos altensteini
26:41
and it's in the palm house at kew
26:43
gardens which is one of the really
26:44
really warm greenhouses it weighs a ton
26:47
literally it weighs one ton
26:49
and it's four meters high and it was
26:51
collected in 1774.
26:55
so that's what king louis xvi in france
26:57
pre-french revolution i heard someone
27:00
say that it's older than the founding of
27:02
the united states of america just just
27:04
about just snuck in there just snuck in
27:06
there yeah exactly my god maybe that was
27:08
what made them strike for independence
27:10
yeah
27:12
but when it's off talk us through that
27:14
yeah when the british took it
27:16
it's hard to see the chain of causation
27:18
but it could be yeah that's a song
27:20
missing from the hamilton musical that
27:22
lynn was desperate to get in i met it
27:24
recently i met the pop plant oh yeah
27:27
yeah we did a gig on this tour in
27:28
richmond and before we went there i went
27:30
with my family to go see it and we were
27:32
in this beautiful um this greenhouse
27:35
that you go in and it's so hot in there
27:36
it's very sweaty and you're cutting
27:38
around the corner and then there's this
27:39
little post that says oldest pot plant
27:42
in the world question mark i did a
27:44
really weird thing which was i i hand
27:46
shook its leaf because
27:48
i read that
27:49
you're such a star [ __ ] it's
27:51
unbelievable
27:52
anything for a photo with some celebrity
27:54
i didn't get a photo i respected its
27:56
privacy but i
27:58
because i'd read somewhere i think we
28:00
did on the podcast that prince charles
28:01
whenever he plants a new tree before he
28:03
goes he shakes its its branch and says
28:05
uh have a good life and so i
28:08
what yeah just because he talks the
28:10
trees right so i know he talks of trees
28:11
but i didn't think he sort of formally
28:13
spoke to yeah no he shakes their branch
28:15
and he says good luck hope it goes well
28:16
and i so i did the same thing i sort of
28:18
gave it a little shake
28:20
it feels like the ship sailed if you're
28:21
wishing good luck to the already you
28:23
know 246 year olds well no because he's
28:25
at the other end of the journey or she
28:27
is at the other end of the journey now i
28:29
think i think it's a he although it was
28:30
quite hard to work out the sex because
28:32
they are one of the few plants that have
28:35
distinct sexes so they need a member of
28:38
the opposite sex in order to be able to
28:40
germinate and create offspring which is
28:41
why they all hang out together they're
28:42
very sociable so we might be doing quite
28:44
a cruel thing by keeping this poor chap
28:46
on its own oh yeah
28:48
they did a study there's lots of
28:50
mysteries about cycads given that you
28:52
know people are fascinated by them
28:54
there's a lot we still don't know like
28:55
how exactly they're pollinated we
28:57
thought it was pollinated by the wind
28:59
but found out recently that actually
29:01
they heat themselves up like a radiator
29:03
and that vaporizes all these compounds
29:05
and then that attracts insects wow and
29:08
their seeds are too big for most things
29:10
to eat so we didn't know how they were
29:12
dispersing their seeds and so they did
29:13
this study to look at how their seeds
29:15
get dispersed and how they spread and it
29:17
was so cool how they did it the
29:18
scientists who did it they basically
29:20
turned up in queensland in australia and
29:22
they super glued a bunch of metal bolts
29:25
to the exposed bits of seed
29:27
when they were on the original cycad and
29:29
then they returned a few months later
29:30
with a metal detector and then just went
29:32
around the ground seeing where the seeds
29:34
had gone and they'd gone underground had
29:36
they uh they'd grow on the ground no
29:37
seed had traveled more than five meters
29:39
away from the plants they're very lazy
29:41
yeah when you um when you shook hands
29:44
with the plant done they asked did you
29:45
wash your hands afterwards
29:50
he's never washed that hand again
29:53
because they're incredibly poisonous
29:55
like really really really really
29:57
poisonous yeah super poisonous
29:59
and they were used to execute criminals
30:01
in honduras what
30:03
cycads this gen more generally cycads
30:05
yeah um there was a guy called villam
30:08
davanley uh he was on rocknest island
30:11
which is near uh perth and he and his um
30:14
soldiers at some of these plants and
30:16
they said that it violently affected
30:18
them both upwards and downwards
30:21
wow that could have been an awkward
30:23
moment in kew gardens
30:25
god i'm lucky i didn't do that because i
30:27
genuinely used to i was like
30:30
this is really embarrassing but it was
30:32
when i was a kid if i met a celebrity
30:34
because it was so rare i had this weird
30:35
reaction where i'd lick my hand
30:39
so after i met julian lennon i licked my
30:42
hand
30:43
did you think that some of his dna was
30:45
going to get into your mouth awesomeness
30:47
would come into me from the son of john
30:50
lennon have you given up that habit
30:51
after the over the last 18 months or
30:53
have you have you kept yeah
30:55
very good again the last thing i did
30:56
that with with the traveling piece of
30:58
stone from tutankhalon's um burial
31:00
chamber god it's gone downhill since the
31:02
days of julian lennon
31:04
you're very lucky to be alive because
31:05
julian lennon of course is extremely
31:07
poisonous
31:09
it wasn't he used to
31:11
execute criminals yes he was yeah i
31:12
think
31:14
this this thing it's one of many amazing
31:16
plants in queue so there was a collector
31:18
called francis mason who was
31:20
unbelievable i think he's the plant
31:22
hunter who collected this he was the one
31:24
he was the one who collected it yeah so
31:25
he had this incredible life going around
31:27
collecting plants he he introduced a
31:29
thousand different species of plant to
31:31
britain and um he had a bad time as in
31:34
he got caught in a battle on one
31:36
occasion just absent-minded he was in a
31:38
hurricane which destroyed all of his
31:40
specimens another time he was taken
31:42
prisoner by the french attacked by
31:44
french privateers at different time
31:46
basically he was a plant hunter at a
31:47
time when the world was at war over it
31:50
over its seas and so this created a big
31:51
problem and the french just didn't like
31:53
plant hunters they did not well they
31:55
didn't he managed to talk his way out of
31:56
it most times um so there was a time
31:58
when he was in south africa and he was
32:00
so interested in the plants he was
32:02
hunting that he lost all sense of time
32:04
and space and completely stopped
32:06
focusing on the world around him and he
32:08
forgot the main thing he'd been warned
32:10
before his day's work started because
32:13
you'd be more there's a party of escaped
32:14
convicts on the loose
32:17
look after yourself and keep alert
32:19
and he then heard these clanking chains
32:21
coming near him
32:23
and he had to just run away as soon as
32:25
he realized that
32:26
was he there he was there watching them
32:28
thinking i know this ring's about i'm
32:30
supposed to do something now is it
32:32
approach them shake their hands and lick
32:34
it
32:35
it was um this it was in south africa
32:37
that he found this plant right um the
32:39
one that's in kew gardens and he was
32:41
around there with two other people one
32:43
called thundberg and another one called
32:45
lady anne monson
32:46
and lady anne munson is really
32:48
interesting she was the great
32:49
granddaughter of charles ii
32:51
she was described as a very superior
32:53
wisp player and a remarkable lady
32:55
botanist there's a flower now called
32:58
monsonia which is named after her and it
33:00
was named by linnaeus who didn't really
33:03
know her but used to write to her
33:05
but he really really really liked her
33:07
and he wrote to her saying this is not
33:09
the first time that i have been fired
33:11
with love for one of the first sex and
33:13
your husband may well forgive me so long
33:15
as i do no injury to his honor who can
33:18
look at so fair a flower without falling
33:20
in love with it through all innocence
33:22
should i be so happy as to find my love
33:24
for you reciprocated and i ask for one
33:26
flavor as for one favor of you
33:28
strawberry
33:29
always strawberry i answer one favor of
33:32
you that i might be permitted to join
33:34
with you in the procreation of just one
33:36
little daughter to bear witness to our
33:38
love a little monsonia flower
33:41
oh he really kept that till the end like
33:44
she must have mentioned it
33:49
so francis mason he basically he brought
33:52
it back from south africa to london and
33:54
they brought it on a boat they strapped
33:56
it to the deck of the boat because they
33:58
wanted to make sure it got water and
33:59
sunlight so it didn't die in the process
34:01
and then it was taken on a barge down
34:03
the thames i mean it's like an explorer
34:05
in its own right this plant before it
34:06
lands you know so it's meant to produce
34:09
cones
34:10
this this plant and in the whole 240
34:13
plus years that it's been in queue it's
34:15
only ever produced one cone a single
34:18
cone and it was witnessed by joseph
34:21
banks who was the great explorer
34:23
botanist as well like he that's when he
34:25
was i believe a director unofficially of
34:27
kew gardens so it's
34:29
like just before banks died the year
34:31
before he died it says that in the
34:32
articles of the year before his death as
34:34
if it was like the next time a cone
34:36
comes maybe he licked it
34:38
yeah that's true but
34:40
my favorite thing about this uh tree
34:42
which i didn't notice at the time this
34:44
pot plant is that it's so old now that
34:48
like if you were old and you're getting
34:49
tired it can't really stand too well and
34:51
so it's leaning on a lot of props just
34:53
looking like it's still doing okay
34:56
just knackered just going [ __ ] out
34:59
so yeah it's helping being helped out
35:01
its name means bread in the head which
35:04
is a cool name
35:05
encephalatos encephalitis alton steiner
35:08
is this specific one isn't it um and
35:10
enter velardos means bread in the head
35:11
and that's because you can make bread
35:13
from it so you've got to be careful
35:15
obviously in case you do the whole bit
35:17
accidentally executing yourself thing
35:18
but apparently like a stem is full of
35:21
starch like a really good quality starch
35:23
so you take the pith out of the stem
35:25
if you bury it for two months
35:27
it gets rid of the poisonous toxins i
35:30
actually haven't seen any evidence that
35:32
this genuinely works and i'm not sure
35:34
you'd actually die they didn't bury it
35:35
for two months it's in them it's in
35:37
jamie oliver's 15-minute meals
35:41
yeah there's a few different ways they
35:42
do it the kakai people they tie up in
35:45
animal skins and bury it don't they and
35:47
in australia there's quite a few tribes
35:49
who will put it under running water like
35:51
in a river and they'll leave it there
35:52
for three months and then that
35:53
supposedly makes it better right a long
35:56
time to wait for breakfast isn't it yeah
35:58
um we need to move on soon guys to our
36:00
next fact can i can i quickly mention um
36:02
i was reading just a few things about
36:04
kew gardens generally and it's it's a
36:06
pretty amazing place outside of the
36:08
plants that they have there so one thing
36:09
to look out for next time you go they've
36:11
got bits of so in the 19th century
36:13
london bridge was sold to america right
36:15
all of it was shipped over except for
36:17
quite a few chunky granite blocks which
36:19
were part of the bridge and that's in
36:21
kew gardens now and there's a bit where
36:24
it's got park benches on top so a lot of
36:26
people are sitting on london bridge and
36:28
they have no idea that they're sitting
36:30
on so cool did you see anyone while you
36:32
were there sitting on the benches
36:34
looking at their watch going they said
36:36
they'd meet me at london bridge i don't
36:38
i don't understand
36:41
i want there to be one person they have
36:43
their own police force in kew gardens
36:45
cube gardens has its own constabulary
36:47
which uh they have the power to arrest
36:49
you
36:49
so then you got very lucky actually with
36:51
your you know can you be arrested for
36:53
licking your hand after you've touched a
36:55
plant i didn't i don't think it should
36:57
be an arrestable offense i think that's
36:59
the old me all i did was shake its hand
37:01
and say good on you i think it's a bit
37:03
it's a bit tree too
37:07
hey you're doing it
37:10
look we won't accept sarcastic rounds of
37:12
applause all right it's not on
37:14
come on beggars can't
37:20
beat stop the podcast stop the progress
37:24
hi everybody just wanted to let you know
37:26
we are sponsored this week by beer 52.
37:28
that is right and what beer 52 want to
37:31
do for you is give you some free beers
37:34
and to be precise give you 10 free beers
37:38
10 free beers i used to be a regular at
37:40
a comedy show which will give you one
37:42
free beer if you bought a ticket i would
37:43
have had to go 10 times to get this kind
37:45
of offer from that show that's just
37:46
maths it does and it's good maths no
37:49
less and you don't even have to go to a
37:51
comedy show to claim these ones all you
37:53
have to do is go to beer 52 and they
37:56
have beers from all around the world
37:57
they come from more than 40 countries
37:59
across five continents and it's a lovely
38:02
surprise every time you get a delivery
38:03
and you can get 10 for free if you order
38:05
before the 17th of december and it also
38:08
comes with a magazine ferment magazine
38:10
you get two delicious snacks to wash
38:13
down with your beer or for your beer to
38:15
wash down with something's being washed
38:17
down basically do it now go to beer 52
38:21
that's beer five to the numbers dot com
38:24
slash fish and all you have to do is
38:26
cover 5.95 for postage to claim your
38:28
free case that is absolutely right and
38:30
once you've signed up you will be in the
38:32
monthly beer club which will send you
38:34
delicious selections of beers for just
38:36
24 pounds a month there's no minimum
38:38
commitment you can pause or cancel any
38:39
time so to get started all you have to
38:41
do is go to beer52.com that's
38:45
dot beerthen52.com slash fish cover 5.95
38:48
for the postage and those free beers
38:50
will be winging their way to you okay on
38:52
with the show on with the podcast
38:59
okay we need to move on to our final
39:01
fact of the show and that is anna my
39:05
fact this week is that red pandas like
39:07
artificial sweetener
39:10
they're very weight conscious turns out
39:13
um yeah this was this is like if we were
39:16
in a room full of red panda biologists
39:19
there would have been such a gasp at
39:21
that because that is astonishing
39:24
information guys we did not think
39:26
mammals could taste artificial sweetener
39:28
it doesn't make sense primates are
39:30
supposed to be the only things that can
39:31
taste artificial sweetener all other
39:33
mammals can taste normal sugars or some
39:36
of them can't even taste that like cats
39:37
have lost their ability to taste sugar
39:39
but then there was this study in 2009 at
39:42
a swiss zoo where a bunch of mammals in
39:44
the zoo were given a choice between
39:46
plain water and sugar water or plain
39:49
water and water with sweetener in and
39:52
all the other animals didn't care
39:53
between the plain water and the
39:54
sweetener the mongoose the
39:56
meerkats the lions the ferrets but the
39:58
red pandas way preferred sweetener and
40:01
in fact their favorite was uh aspartame
40:04
which is the canderel one do we know why
40:07
they in particular seem to like
40:09
sweeteners no i think we can speculate
40:11
that maybe it attracts them to bits of
40:13
their diet which is all bamboo so i
40:15
don't know why it would
40:17
interesting so there is a thing about
40:18
some animals like if you eat a lot of
40:21
plants then you taste more bitter things
40:23
as opposed to like cats that eat meat
40:25
can't really taste bits of things very
40:27
well and that's because a lot of plants
40:28
have toxins in them which are bitter and
40:31
possibly some of the taste receptors
40:33
that let you taste bitter things are
40:35
also the ones that like you taste
40:37
sweet things so it might be that kind of
40:39
thing but yeah you're right we don't
40:40
though basically yeah just random but
40:43
they can have a canderell in their tea
40:45
and be satisfied
40:47
we should say what a red pounder is yeah
40:49
oh yes i did not know before so pandas
40:52
are black and white pandas are black and
40:54
white and these are red they are both
40:55
non-pandas and they are the original
40:57
pandas okay so they were they're these
40:59
little mammals they look a bit like
41:01
raccoons they were thought to be
41:02
raccoons they're not raccoons either
41:03
what the hell are they um they were put
41:07
they were put in the bear family they're
41:09
not bears either
41:10
what the hell are red powders yeah yeah
41:13
this sounds like a kid's book i reckon
41:15
what the hell is yeah yeah that is a
41:17
really good idea for a children's book
41:18
actually because they're very sweet as
41:19
well and it's very satisfying when you
41:21
see one yeah they are in the iluridae
41:24
family and
41:26
that they are i think the only animals
41:28
in the family the only ones left
41:29
certainly
41:30
they've got no relations so but they are
41:33
a panda then like they were called panda
41:36
before pandas were called pandas if
41:38
anything has the right to be called the
41:39
panda yeah
41:40
and pandas am i right in saying aren't
41:43
pandas because they're bare effects well
41:45
there's no such thing as a panda
41:52
they're both pandas because it's in
41:53
their name but yeah panda bears are
41:55
bears although there's been this
41:56
constant debate about whether either of
41:57
them are bad it's really bad i think we
41:59
discovered panda bears in the 80s we
42:01
always thought they weren't and they
42:03
used to be called giant pandas and then
42:05
in the 80s someone went oh actually it
42:06
turns out it's just a bear that's black
42:08
and white we can call it a panda and the
42:10
weird thing is before they were called
42:11
panda bears they were called
42:12
party-colored bears yeah cool that's a
42:15
great name isn't it it's so good it's
42:17
like disco pants cisco yeah yeah yeah
42:19
if you're trying to picture right now in
42:21
your head what a red panda looks like
42:23
you all know kung fu panda yeah kung fu
42:26
panda isn't that that's a real giant
42:29
panda it's well but is it a panda
42:30
because pandas aren't panda bears so
42:33
it's it's a bit weird right but the the
42:35
kung fu master
42:37
in it is a red panda
42:39
oh is he yeah so it's he's the real kung
42:42
fu panda of the movie yes
42:45
okay there's another thing which is
42:46
really annoying about red pandas and
42:48
pandas
42:49
so pandas giant pandas have a pseudo
42:52
thumb right they have this weird spur on
42:55
the side of their hand which helps them
42:57
i don't know so like it's where a thumb
42:59
should be but it's not an actual thumb
43:00
exactly yeah because they don't have
43:02
thumbs because they're
43:03
they're not
43:04
primates whatever so giant pandas have
43:06
that but red pandas also have that and
43:09
both of them have evolved it separately
43:11
for different reasons
43:12
but they've both got it okay that's
43:14
weird
43:15
the giant panda got it to eat bamboo and
43:17
we think the red panda got it to climb
43:18
trees
43:20
the red panda uses it to eat bamboo it's
43:23
so
43:24
annoying
43:25
and that's why people thought the giant
43:27
panda was the same family as the red
43:29
panda because they both had this weird
43:31
thumb thing but it turns out they're not
43:32
related at all wow but at least there's
43:35
definitely only one species of red panda
43:37
and we know exactly what that is right
43:39
wrong there are two species of red panda
43:42
which no one knew about until about five
43:44
years ago or whatever when someone did
43:45
some dna analysis and found out there
43:47
are two separate populations one is
43:49
chinese and one is himalayan they're
43:51
separate species of red panda they are
43:53
and we've been accidentally mating them
43:54
for years haven't we and then it turns
43:56
out so bizarre have they been having
43:58
babies yeah so they come so i think
44:00
they're they're just about different
44:01
species you know the definition of a
44:03
species it gets kind of gray when you
44:04
look too closely at it but it seems like
44:06
the ones on one side of the river are
44:08
adapted slightly differently to the ones
44:09
on the other side of the river so we
44:11
might be mating out those adaptations by
44:13
accidentally making it imagine being one
44:15
of those red pandas though and it's
44:16
because it's like being abducted by
44:18
aliens and then just being put in a room
44:19
with a bear and the aliens you're
44:21
looking at you're like go on yeah
44:24
but they're compatible that's that's
44:26
what's weird though
44:27
okay like could it could a red panda
44:29
mate with a panda bear and have a baby i
44:31
don't think so have we tried
44:36
the first red panda that we know about
44:39
in history as in like i'm talking about
44:41
in the old and old and olden days a
44:43
fossil it was twice as big as the modern
44:45
red panda it was found in felix though
44:50
that's down the road from here in terms
44:53
like of quite close geography to the
44:54
rest of the world listening to this
44:55
podcast it's compared to the rest of the
44:58
world it's close yeah this is the this
45:01
is the closest date on the tour to felix
45:02
though and that's because this area of
45:04
um suffolk used to be where giant red
45:07
pandas lived and pumas lived and
45:10
mastodons live wow you know bison's
45:13
living everything used to live around
45:14
here is like a jungle place and then
45:17
obviously they all died but yeah really
45:19
good fossils around here and also really
45:21
good coprolites right and that's why
45:23
when you guys were doing the sound check
45:24
earlier i went down to coprolite street
45:26
which is just down the road yeah
45:28
coprolite street this is we james and i
45:30
spoke about this ages ago there's as far
45:33
as i can tell i don't know if you've
45:34
looked into it more james there is only
45:35
one street in the whole world called
45:37
coprolite and that's here in ipswich
45:40
it's amazing they haven't named any
45:41
other streets after fossilized poop
45:44
but you can figure somewhere else and it
45:46
was um there was a guy it was there was
45:47
a factory which was on copperlight
45:49
street which is established by a guy
45:50
called edward packard aka the
45:52
copper-like king
45:54
or the golden muckman of ipswich
45:57
why you're making it up no that's that's
46:00
what he was called incredible
46:02
are there signs on coprolite street
46:04
saying please do not pick up after your
46:05
dog
46:06
[Laughter]
46:07
we're in this for the long haul
46:15
um red panda's not very good at pooing
46:17
incidentally on their own baby ones
46:21
and this is a problem for or a privilege
46:24
for zookeepers who have to look after
46:25
them because
46:27
sometimes their mothers don't seem to be
46:28
very good at maternal care they sort of
46:30
abandon them and so zookeepers have to
46:33
raise the offspring themselves and the
46:35
mothers what they do to stimulate the
46:37
offspring to poo and wee is lick their
46:39
abdomen and their anuses and so as a
46:41
zookeeper i'm afraid that you've got to
46:44
go up there you've got to lick the anus
46:46
of the you i think you do the old dan
46:48
schreiber and you lick your hands
47:02
[Laughter]
47:07
i mean that's that is a thing that you
47:09
do with your own kids not their licking
47:11
the anus bit but
47:13
dad you cannot make us call the social
47:15
in the middle of a show well you
47:17
certainly don't do it twice you learn
47:18
your lesson after the first guy but no
47:20
but that like if my my youngest ted at
47:22
the moment if he's not had a poo and you
47:24
need him to have a poo you do things
47:26
like rub his tummy or bicycle his legs
47:28
or sit there going
47:30
and then and then he goes
47:32
and then he'll crap himself because his
47:34
um has force behind it
47:36
and yeah sometimes you let a little
47:38
thing out but that doesn't matter
47:40
but that i mean we do we do that with
47:42
our kids yeah because
47:44
yeah different tactics with the same end
47:46
um results yeah yeah yeah
47:49
and gosh the world's
47:53
i feel like we all need a breather you
47:54
know
47:56
the world's oldest living red panda yeah
47:59
died
48:01
sorry
48:03
okay
48:05
last year
48:06
not the oldest one ever not the uh jean
48:08
calmo of red pandas that one lived to 24
48:11
but this this guy uh lived to 21 years
48:13
old before dying last year and that's
48:15
amazing because they normally lived
48:16
about 12. so getting to 21 big
48:18
achievement and he dyslexic got it the
48:20
wrong way around sorry
48:23
um easy mistake to make
48:25
it's so sweet he spent his time with
48:26
another panda who was called zoe right
48:28
and he he lost his eyesight due to his
48:30
extreme old age and she would help him
48:33
navigate around his enclosure every
48:35
morning oh isn't that sweet that's nice
48:37
also the other account is that he would
48:39
wrestle other red pandas every morning
48:41
at 9 15 am on the dot
48:44
come on i think you're hard enough
48:47
was he really angry i think it was just
48:50
a species thing
48:52
at 9 15. did he have a digital watch i
48:54
don't know what happened about 15 yeah
48:57
wow
48:58
in the early 2000s a red panda won
49:00
brummie of the year
49:02
big award it was there was there was a
49:04
big big story about it there was a red
49:07
panda called babu who escaped from the
49:09
birmingham nature center in 2005 babu
49:12
escaped and found four days later but in
49:15
the interim it was a big story of like
49:17
where has he gone and like they called
49:19
him like the houdini of of red pandas um
49:22
i'm sure there wasn't much competition
49:24
really um no they're wrong
49:27
literally look up a red panda in a zoo
49:28
and you will be looking up a story about
49:30
them escaping i don't know why we keep
49:31
putting them in zoos because they're
49:32
desperate to get out there was one in
49:34
scotland that survived for two months it
49:36
was just found up a tree by a farmer
49:40
[ __ ] bizarre hovering above your cows
49:43
we're gonna have to wrap up in a sec
49:44
guys
49:45
uh some stuff on sweetness maybe yeah
49:47
yeah i'm sure like um so
49:49
saccharin um which was the first
49:51
artificial sweetener 300 times sweeter
49:53
than table sugar
49:55
but there's one now that's called
49:56
neotame which is 10 000 times sweeter
49:59
than sugar and what's interesting about
50:01
that is because it's so sweet you only
50:04
have to put a tiny bit in anything which
50:05
means it's so small you don't have to
50:07
put it in the ingredients so you can
50:09
just add this sweetener because it's
50:11
below a certain number of grams you
50:12
don't have to add something to the
50:14
ingredients incredible it's not amazing
50:15
that's really incredible do you know
50:17
what people keep discovering artificial
50:18
sweeteners by mistake did you guys come
50:20
across this no no
50:22
licking plants isn't it you've got to do
50:24
the downtrodden all right
50:28
anna it is people doing the dancing oh
50:29
wow it's okay it's the first one was
50:31
discovered by this girl we just
50:32
established which thing is the dancing
50:36
it's accidentally licking bits of
50:38
yourself all right if you like that
50:40
okay it's okay
50:41
this russian scientist called uh
50:43
constantine falberg he sat down to
50:45
dinner in 1878 and he'd been at the lab
50:47
all day and he hadn't washed his hands
50:49
and his bread roll was unbelievably
50:51
sweet and then
50:52
his drink was really sweet and then he
50:54
found even his napkin was really sweet
50:56
and it turns out he had been he'd
50:58
invented an artificial sweet i don't
50:59
know why he started eating his napkin
51:01
but he realized
51:03
he realized and he went back and he just
51:05
started tasting things on his work table
51:07
and he had created this unbelievably
51:10
powerful the first ever artificial
51:11
sweetener but that is not the only time
51:14
it's happened it happened again
51:16
cyclamate is the next one a guy a
51:18
scientist called michael svader
51:20
accidentally tasted something sweet
51:21
aspartame something sweet a chemist
51:24
called james schlatter he was working on
51:26
another he was working on an ulcer drug
51:27
and he just tasted something incredibly
51:29
sweet um and sucralose is the last one
51:32
researchers misheard their instructions
51:34
apparently and accidentally
51:36
tasted the compound instead of testing
51:38
the compound
51:43
that's fantastic look guys i hate to cut
51:45
this off but we need to wrap up
51:47
okay that is it that is all of our facts
51:49
thank you so much for listening if you
51:51
would like to get in contact with any of
51:53
us about the things that we've said over
51:55
the course of this podcast we can be
51:56
found on our twitter accounts i'm on at
51:58
schreiberland andy at andrew hunter m
52:01
james james harkin and anna you can
52:04
email podcast.qi.com
52:06
yeah and uh you can go to our group
52:08
account at no such thing and you can go
52:10
to our website no such thing as a
52:12
fish.com we have all of our previous
52:14
episodes up there you can uh check out
52:16
all of the upcoming tour dates as well
52:19
uh we're going to be doing more on this
52:20
nerd immunity tour all the way into
52:22
january so do come along um but that's
52:24
it for now thank you so much ipswich
52:26
that was so much fun we love being here
52:28
we will be back again and everyone else
52:30
will be back again next week with
52:31
another episode we'll see you then
52:33
goodbye
52:34
[Applause]
52:52
you