Little Fish: A Biscuit, A Railway Station, And A Mutt

0:00Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Little Fish. We've been so happy to get messages from you guys to say that you've been enjoying this show and we certainly enjoy making it. It's a little bit more loose, a little bit more silly than the normal shows, but we really, really love getting your facts, so please do keep sending those in. The reason I have disturbed the start of your show today is because I want to tell you about a quiz that we're doing. It is for Patreon subscribers on the top tier and it will take place on the 23rd of January at 7pm UK time, So that'll be sometime in the afternoon if you're in North America.

0:36And it'll be very early in the morning if you're in Australia or New Zealand. But hopefully you will still be able to join us. It's going to be a whole load of fun. We've got loads of amazing stuff planned for you. And if you are not a member of Patreon right now, then you have to go to patreon.com slash no such thing as a fish and join our top tier. You could probably just do it for a month and then quit if you just want to do the quiz. but honestly there's so much good stuff on our patreon that i really think once you join you will be hooked because we have extra content we have merch we have video content there's all sorts of stuff on there we hope we've made it value for money because people going on there help to support the podcast so it is a real good mutual benefit thing anyway enough of that really hope you enjoyed this episode of a little fish

1:38Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Little Fish. This is our bonus Monday episode where we put down our facts and we go through the inbox and we find your best facts from the last seven days. And if you want to send in yours, by the way, and be part of this show, podcast at QI.com is the place to do it But we have had so many entries this week, so let's get straight to it Point of order Yeah At what stage does this stop being a bonus episode and just become part of our normal day-to-day quotidien mundane lives? How many weeks are we in now? Ten? This will be about our eighth or ninth or tenth, yep So when does a relationship stop being new, you know?

2:15Oh well with my relationship In case my wife's listening I wake up every morning And think how much I'm in love with her Still butterflies every day Same thing for me I wake up I think Polina I really Just would do anything To be with you I'm stuck in my situation I can't see an out yet Andy? Me three And you the listener Podcast at QI.com Write in a few love jokes as well Come on No no no I think this is our now we're settling into happy a very happy life as this being the other episode the other weekly episode we do yeah can we do it let's do it let's do it let's get into it who's got a fact who wants to open up well i've got one from peter drake who has sent us a raunchy math fact oh great yes and peter says properties of mathematical graphs include girth and wiener index the wiener index Weiner Index That's funny And separately, Jess Weyer has written to us And said, my fact this week is that there is a mathematical function Called the popcorn function Other names include the raindrop function The countable cloud function And the stars over Babylon So these are just some mathematicians Making fun names for things Did you have this when you, because you studied math, James Yeah, I was aware of Well, I know about the girth of Graph theory These are not graphs like you would see a graph on a news article or something.

3:44This is a mathematical graph where you get lots of points and you draw lines in between them and it's the connections between different things. Is it graphic if you're measuring your girth on the wiener? No, no, no. They're extremely boring. The girth is the shortest way you can go between two objects where only the first and the last ones are the same. Yeah, it does sound trick. It's quite boring. And these popcorn functions and the stars over Babylon So basically, it's like the kind of maths where it's like, if this, then that. You know, like how computers work. But it's basically you put in some number and it goes through this function and it comes out.

4:21It's either a zero or a one. And it kind of is like random if it's zero or one. So it pops around like popcorn. Oh, nice. But yeah, I do remember some fun names from when I did maths at university. The Tits group, invented by French mathematician Jacques Tits. Lovely. And if you want to work out the tits group, then you first have to find the Coxeter complex, named after Harold Coxeter. Wow. His school days. I just think, good Lord. No wonder he became a mathematician. Why? Just you'd spend more time with your books, wouldn't you, working? Would you? Yeah, for vengeance. All those guys outside in the playground.

5:06Well, unfortunately. I would. I mean, just randomly. random you know his maths is so oblique that it could never be used in real life it's not like he worked out the trajectory of a missile that he could fire at his enemies this is like some extremely random bit of group theory that's brilliant he's fled he's fled his own name into the realms of pure mathematics yeah nice love it love it any more facts yeah well do you know what i have something in a similar vein so why don't we jump to the one that i got sent in by David Reed. So David Reed, he's a observatory coordination support officer at CISIRO, C-I-S-I-R-O, Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory.

5:45That's in Western Australia. So this comes from international land. And he says, I know you have covered the occasional clever acronym created by scientists that clunkily describe their experiments. But did you know a radio telescope imaging program called P-Y-B-D-S-F, pronounced PyBDSF, was the Python-coded blob detector and source finder. But that's not what it does. It's actually a blob detector and source measurer, but they didn't want to call it PyBDSM. I see, I see where we're going. It was given away at the end, the punchline there, wasn't it? Because I had no idea where we were going with any of that.

6:23As often the punchline does. I know you'll stand up, Dan. Sometimes you'll stick it at the front, won't you? Keep it fresh. Keep it fresh. Keep them guessing. So they decided they didn't want it to be called BDSM, so they changed the final word. Exactly. Yeah, to make it something that is slightly a redundant acronym. I saw someone's personalized number plate the other day, which was, I won't say exactly what it was, because you don't want to say people's number plates, but it was something like P-I-I-I-H-L-P. So it was like, when you looked at it and glanced at it, it was obviously Philip. But when you actually spent any time looking at it It was like You do wonder sometimes The things that people will pay lots for Unless that's Peel's name Which it might be I think it's fine to read out people's number plates Do you think?

7:14I think it's absolutely fine As long as you're not saying Well I did Kia's car Podcast.qid.com So I found a few other acronym things That I thought were quite fun Have you heard of RAS syndrome? R-A-S syndrome? Nope. No. RAS syndrome is Redundant Acronym Syndrome Syndrome. Very nice. And this is to describe any time that people say PIN number or ATM machine. Because the N in PIN is number. Yeah. So that's one. I really like EGOT. So we all know EGOT, right? Which is Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. The idea is you become the ultimate actor if you win an EGOT. And that was created by an actor called Philip Michael Thomas.

7:53He used to walk around with a golden medallion around his chest saying EGOT massively. What could he go on? No, it was his plan. He was like, I want to win all of these things. Oh. Yeah. Anyway, he's now retired and he was never even nominated for a single one of these things. But he was a good actor. He did a lot of stuff. So he had a great career. I always thought it was the Kegot because you had all those that you said and also the Chortle Award. Is the real one that everyone goes for. Like obviously we've got one fifth of a key got And let's not say which fifth Alright Andy what have you got Oh I've got some really fun ones Do you remember we had a bit of Correspondence on Droppers Align Which is our audience feedback show from the House of Lords I do remember that yeah Well I just thought I'd say Lord Borwick Also sent in a fact as well as A bit of bonus info So same Lord We haven't yet cracked more than one member of the House Your Highness thank you for writing in Your grace Your excellence Right, here's a quiz question How many times does the letter X appear on the face of Big Ben?

9:01And for the purposes of this, Big Ben is the clock I can't get into St. Stephen's Tower, the Elizabeth Tower, blah blah blah Okay, 10, 11, 12, 3 Oh, but there are four faces 12 Very nice, okay so you're saying 12, Dan? I think an aerial view of the Big Ben itself will have an X right on top. It's how you signal the X-Files. When I was a kid, I put an X on my window in my bedroom to signal that I was... To lure Gillian Anderson.

9:35It was worth a try. Anderson spotted in Bolton once again. All I got was David B. Coffey every day. Are you sure you're still not interested? I'm like, no, I'm holding out for Anderson. Oh you did the X That's so cool What was that? Is that what people do on the show? I don't know I think it was in the show that you put an X there And it showed that you knew the truth was out there That's cool I can't remember the exact meaning of it But that was a thing that you would do Aliens would know not to touch you I've never seen an episode of it Andy Honestly I would go to the start and watch them all Really?

10:10Yeah you'll love them I mean they're brilliant I assume that they haven't aged badly No they're great I watched them all Not all But I watched series one Quite recently Did you? Yeah In between viewings of Now you see me Now you see me Great Brilliant Okay so what's the Did we get the question? We did Did we get the answer? You haven't submitted your guess yet Well I did James is 12 plus So 13 You're saying 13? Yeah It's zero What? Because The designer Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin Yeah yeah He designed all of The parliament building Didn't he Pugin? A lot of it, yeah. Crazy name, crazy guy.

10:48He did actually die of insanity. Anyway, might have been mercury poisoning, might have been syphilis. Anyway, he decided he didn't want an X, he wanted an F. No. So it's F, it's so weird. If you look at it, it goes one F for nine. I've got nine. Yes. Then F, then F1, and then F1II for 12. Why did he do that? I don't know. Is it because of the mercury poisoning maybe? It's possible It's very possible He was a really interesting guy Also had a link to Ramsgate Which we discussed on an episode that we have recorded But has not yet been broadcast So this is a call forward to a really fun episode coming up And what is it?

11:32What's the link? He lived there Fantastic He lived there but he dressed as a sailor And he would frequently take his boat out to rescue sailors in difficulties Wow I mean a really peculiar guy Imagine how excited the audience is now for the Ramsgate episode Oh my gosh For facts like that Shut up And we didn't even put that in the show Can I tell you one more fact I found about the Big Ben thing as a result of this It's last year A company won a special prize in Elevator World's Project of the Year Awards For the lifts in the Big Ben Tower, okay? Can you guess which company it was? Schindler Schindler It wasn't Schindler They do do lifts Otis No What's another They're the only two I know I mean in fairness I think we did quite well To think of two names Of lift manufacturers Is it going to be Something like Churchill Like something that's Very relevant Wellington What's a lift No it's not that It's a lift company But it's not a traditional Lift company What's another kind of lift It doesn't go up and down straight It goes up the side A funicular It's not a funicular It's on your If I say this You'll get it It's on your stairs Stanner Did they?

12:44Stanner did the lifts in the Big Bend Tower And they won a special prize from Elevator World For it House business, up and down There we go That's a great fact Thank you Look forward to that Ramsgate episode in about a month's time This one has been sent Into us by Peter Munro Says a new species of pterosaur Has been discovered in a pile Of fossilised vomit Oh. Yeah. It was pretty amazing. This is over 100 million years ago. You're saying someone threw up a whole dinosaur? Yeah, I think they were. Someone, I mean a big dinosaur. The suggestion is that it might have been a Spinosaurus, they don't know for sure, but you have to, I guess, scale up for size.

13:27Scale? Very good. They vomited. Yeah. And when they vomited, they vomited up two pterosaurs and somehow that vomit fossilized and these geologists were looking through the fossil. when they suddenly spotted the bones, and it's a new species altogether of a pterosaur. So that's pretty exciting stuff. This is called, by the way, when you go through vomit, it's called a regurgitolite. Oh, like a coprolite? A coprolite, but it's a regurgitolite. That's good. You guys had quite a heavy QI Christmas party this week. How do you know? Well, I wasn't there. I was invited, but couldn't make it. We left some fossils around.

14:11fossils to be. Here's hoping. Did you know a new type of canapé was discovered?

14:26I've got a fact. Oh yeah? From Marcus Dalian, or Dalian, hope I'm saying that right, Marcus. The modern Celsius scale of temperature is based on the melting and freezing point of water. That's not the fact. That's not the fact. That's not even good enough to get into our Rumsgate episode

14:44But previous proposals Included some of the following as fixed points The melting point of butter Oh Like that's boiling or whatever Water hottest to be endured by a Hand held still Like just what's the hottest water you can take in your hand And then the temperature At the centre of the Great Pyramid of Giza What? And basically the guy who proposed this Great Pyramid of Giza thing Was this insane astronomer royal for Scotland Called Charles Piazzi Smythe He was obsessed with the Great Pyramid Basically and obsessed with the Pyramid And thought these have to be what we measure everything based off So he suggested The Pyramid Inch, Pyramid Pint Pyramid Gallon He said all of these come from the Sacred Pyramid And they were all basically Let's say a Pyramid Inch could be One one thousandth of the length of a pyramid Basically yeah He claimed they were all core metrological qualities I don't mind that though I think like as long as you choose something and stick with it And was the heat measured by Because it was deep in the centre By the Atlantean crystals That's right That had been left there Yeah yeah Interesting I'm preaching to the choir here Yeah yeah yeah Okay because actually that's good to know I didn't know how hard those were It's an ancient computer system that they left buried there for us Yeah great Absolutely yeah yeah I genuinely gave a speech about that at school When I was about 16 years old Did you really?

16:04the child is father to the man yeah yeah amazing and i got good marks it was a star in school oh yeah um okay james you got another this one is from robbie uh no surname here but robbie writes about german chocolate cake and regular listeners to little fish will know that i mentioned this on a previous episode but robbie sent this email before he'd heard that yeah or she actually Robbie could be a girl. It's got to be Robbie Williams. Sorry. It's not spelt. Robbie Williams is IE, isn't it? Robbie is IE. Is this Robbie with a Y? Oh, he's trying to mask it. Yeah, it's Robbie Williams. Okay. Well, I must say I didn't really care much for your performance at the World Cup draw, but I do like your fact.

16:54And it is as well as German chocolate cake, not being German, being named after someone called German, it's made out of baker's chocolate and Baker's Chocolate was named after the company founder, Dr. James Baker, who was a physician. Brilliant. Isn't that amazing? How far did this go? That's so good. And yeah, I decided to look into this a little bit more. So German chocolate cake, it was quite early that this mistake was made that they thought it was German. So it was invented in 1957. and in 1963 Lyndon B. Johnson served it to the German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard thinking that it was a German dessert even though it was named after an American called German That's really good So yeah Imagine that That's really good Well can I jump on this Ben Wright has written in So this is another correspondent of ours with a great fact So Ben has said This is rather thin stuff, but it's so nice when someone acknowledges.

18:05He knows our standards. He knows. Made it to the show, Ben. But Italian nationalist Garibaldi of biscuit fame was born in Nice, which is Nice biscuits as well, or nice biscuits. Nice in France. Nice in France, so of biscuit fame. Interesting. him and he defeated the bourbons of biscuit fame of biscuit fame as well that's very good i thought he was italian garibaldi and nieces in france but i guess the borders were a little bit different in those he's italian he's the hero of italian unification for sure but he was born in france that's weird no that is weird that is weird that feels like it needs a google i think niece biscuits are named after niece the town some royal had been there or something yeah maybe queen victoria or something had been there and um it was very fashionable it became very fashionable so they named the biscuits after them because everyone thinks they're nice biscuits well they are nice biscuits do you think so i think they're quite boring well i mean speaking of biscuits boring people i was given an amusingly shaped biscuit today were you yeah oh my god what was it no no no guys like there's some bits of going behind the curtain of fish that people are really gonna like I'm going to find really interesting but this unbelievably tedious conversation that you two had before the mics came on I think should stay there Okay, let's preserve the magic the mystique of this show All we can say is it revolves around a biscuit, a railway station and a mutt Yeah I actually decided I would see if I could build on this great discovery by Ben about Garibaldi to see if there were any other biscuit connections to Garibaldi.

19:51So, he was known for leading military campaigns. What did he bring with them? Wagons. How did they roll? Wagon wheels. Wagon wheels. Really good. Surrounded by wagon wheels. Would you use a wagon in 1850s Europe? Maybe. It's more of a car. The tank hadn't been invented yet. Tank? No, that's true. All right. I googled it. Brilliant. I double checked. He definitely had some wagons. Okay. He died in 1882. Oh, yeah. Guys, 1882. What's that? That was the year that AF Brockhofen Co. Biscuits were established in Australia. Oh, sorry, God. 1882. 18... Oh, sorry. Oh, my God. Brockhofen, yeah. It is confusing.

20:30Yeah. This is a... Brockhofen, just for the international listener, who's not from Australia. Well, they don't really exist anymore, I don't think. But they did merge with Arnott's Biscuits down the line, which is Australia's digestives. You know, it's a massive biscuit over there. So any Aussie listening will know Arnott's. So that's the last. Oh, and then one more. Which is that? No, the first two were so strong. Can you really cap those? No, this is the headliner, I think. Sorry, yeah. Well, I discovered that he was a redhead. He would have been running around with a pair of ginger nuts. Oh, my gosh.

21:06Jesus, Dan. Wow. Ben, Ben Wright. Thank you for that email, which sparked this. Ben is now wishing he hadn't even turned on his laptop that day. really good well listen those are your facts everyone um but now it's time for us to do something very exciting which we love to do at the end of each little fish episode which is to allocate some custodians to one of the facts one of the headlines from our 600 plus episodes that we have done that will belong to you forever and you get this by being part of our friend of the podcast here on clubfish which is you'll find on patreon if you want to check it out uh so let's dish out a batch of new headlines so james yep this fact is now under the custodianship of spoonie i don't know if that's spoonie the radio one dj from the early 2000s or a different spoonie but spoonie you now own this fact it is that the aztecs wore necklaces made of popcorn worn as an offering to the gods lovely now i hope you two were listening before because my question to you is how would you describe the mathematical popcorn function um it's literally just 10 minutes ago just going up and down up and down in a um and andy you do that in the next bit so we random whether it's a zero or a one so it goes to goes all over the place the results are a bit haywire okay disappointingly you both more or less nailed that so well done you two do you remember anything about the aztecs um great girth

22:40another mathematical no no i'm just asking about the time that we mentioned them in episode 15 of the podcast remember that the aztecs were more recent than we think they were oxford university overlaps with the aztecs do you know what i mean well yeah the aztecs were there when um columbus went over in 1492 so yeah they were around in the 15th century okay for sure probably his 16th as well. That's all I remember. Yeah, I can't. Have you got a good Aztec fact outside of this brilliant headline? Sweet or salty popcorn? I know that Montezuma supposedly drank 50 cups of hot chocolate at a single meal.

23:16Wow, nice. But that account was written by a noted conquistador liar called Diaz. And when you look at everything else he wrote, it's like, yeah, this probably didn't happen. So was that trying to slag off Montezuma? no it wasn't really because i think the spanish were quite impressed by him but okay it was basically had so many lovers that he needed the hot chocolate to to keep him going but i think usually a hot chocolate goes before bedtime not sexy times but sleepy times and that would be a hell of a regurgita light waiting to happen isn't it there's probably fossilized hot chocolate Let's do some more facts Yeah, here's one This goes out to Lizzie Utting Congratulations to you This is the fact that in 2011 China tried to pass off a scene from Top Gun As footage of its own air force Right I think there was some national security display And they were saying, look at our amazing jets And they cut to Tom Cruise Was it the scene of Top Gun Where they're all in a bar singing Take my breath away It was some hot, hot, hot beach volleyball Look at our super stud airmen Yeah, yeah So that's what they did I doubt they would need to do that these days I think that's a function of 2011 versus 2025 Oh yeah, probably the US Air Force is using footage from Nejjar too Yeah, I love that fact That's very cool That's an Anna Tashinsky that you've got there Lizzie, so well done to that Okay, let's do another one.

24:51This is going out to Steph. Steph, this is the fact that in 2003, someone lost the keys to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the replacement locks cost over one million pounds. Oh, an awful moment. I don't remember that one, I have to say. Imagine saying, I'll buy the new keys. It's fine. I'll get the new lock. How much? The guy who made those keys would not have to make another pair of shoe soles. or trophy ever again yeah it's a million for the keys uh and it's 50p for the key ring um that was my fact by the way lovely so congrats to steph okay so the next fact comes from us but it now is under the custodianship of helen and helen your fact is probably the most feminist fact to date and it was from andy in episode 15 and it was that ken is officially an accessory to barbie right on sister there you go we've all felt like that barbie has given us so much over the years hasn't it when you think about how many times it has come up she has the the brand the brand the brand okay well we feminize brands in this podcast like ships and countries But it has, hasn't it?

26:15Absolutely. In fact, it was mentioned just recently on A Little Fish or A Jewel? No, it was in the episode It Doesn't Go Out Until the Middle of January with Tom Allen. So let's hold it in. The timelines have gone bananas on this. Yeah. Yeah, really good. All right, let's do another fact now. This is from episode 16. This is a James Harkin fact. This is a classic fact and it's going to Oliver Castles, which is the world record for most kicks to one's own head is 127 in a minute. That was, we mentioned, I believe it was on the last episode that we did our first ever photo shoot where we each put a fact down on a placard and we held it for the camera and that was yours in that one.

27:00Andy's was its sausage to me. That's right. That's right. Yeah, and if you are so inclined, go onto the internet and search for Kicking Own Head World Record. And it is remarkable. Is it both feet? Yep. I guess it's even more impressive either way. It's like doing the can-can, but you go too far. Bloody hell. Is he sitting down? Or she? It's a he, and I think he is sitting down. Because you'd have to get your head right near your feet. I couldn't do it once. I'm not flexible enough. No. And this is 11 years ago. Has no one beat the record? They have, but they've forgotten. Well, you have to do it an even number of times.

27:40Fancy putting me on the spot like that, Dan. As if I know every world record and when it gets changed. Okay, well done, Oliver. That is now your fact. Let's get another one, Andy. Yes, here's a little one. Quick brackets. We had an email from Arj Gies. Oh, yeah. Just saying that last time, Arj was absolutely blown away to get a fact, which was one of Dr. Carl's facts on the show. Oh, yes. Slight correction, says Arj. Dan mispronounced my name You've read it as a series of letters A-R-J-G And it's actually Arjgees Just wanted to correct that But by the way If in future Dan mispronounces your name Do write him But we may not be able to fit in All of Dan's mispronunciations It's just that's a hard That's a high bar to clear Just hold it as a badge of respect Absolutely Yeah Exactly I mean to be fair The G was connected to the ARJ In our document Therefore I thought it was a I know It's not your fault Internet nickname Dan it's not your fault We've all got cool names online Like your cool guy 123 Don't give away my secret super cool Online identity James So here's a fact going out to Torrey And this is T-O-R-E-Y Torrey and the fact is There's a bear in the Pyrenees called Piros Who is facing castration because he's Fathered almost all other bears Yes So basically this is an anti-incest bear castration Move Because Piros was clearly getting too frisky with you know with his own children bears it's not a nice fact Tory I'm going to level with you it's a market but look this is what you have to do it's nature this by the way is an Ann Miller fact Ann's been on the show recently if you're a listener of the main show I assume you are you haven't just come for the bonus Ann has been with us for many many years one of the QILs been on the show probably as much as as any other person, guest we've ever had.

29:32This is her debut onto the show. That's a cool fact to have. It was written up at the time with one headline saying, Bear might have necessities removed. It's a very good headline. Very strong. That's nice. James, let's go to you. Okay. This is another one from that same episode, and it's from Dan Schreiber. And actually, you don't need me to tell you that because it will become very obvious when I read it. Poland's only official ghost hunter thinks ghosts have given up haunting humans because we're too skeptical. And now, Finley Tyson Carter, that is your fact. Yes. And I use the word fact very loosely.

30:11Now, you know who told me this fact? James Harkin. Did I? You did, yeah. In that case, it's a great fact. I begged you to let me do it. And I got in contact with the Polish ghost hunter. We had a few emails together. Oh, yeah? Yeah. And as the emails went on, he kept changing my name to something just more familiar. It was like Daniel first, and then he was like, hi, Danny. And then I was like, hey, Dee Dee.

30:37Okay. Have we got time for one more? Yeah, go on. So this is going out to Beverly Hart. Fallout from the Cold War has been used to solve murders. Ooh. Interesting. And we don't, any of us, remember how. Yeah, I wonder how It was because there was nuclear testing in the Cold War And that caused a big spike in Carbon-14 So I think everyone Had it in them, and then eventually they banned Weapons testing, and then it declined again To the amount of Carbon-14 around the place So it's basically carbon dating Right, okay It's basically to tell when this murder happened There we go Alright, well there we go Hope you are happy with your facts once again.

31:21Spoonie, Lizzie, Steph, Helen, Oliver, Tori, Finley, Beverly. You are now the new custodians of eight of our early show facts, episodes 15 and 16. Thank you for being a friend of the podcast. And if anyone else wants to become a custodian, you can be one too, simply by going to Clubfish, joining the friend of the podcast, and we will assign one to you, and we're going to be reading these out at the end of Every Little Fish, so it might take a while before you hear it, but you will get one. And you can become part of clubfish by going to patreon.com slash no such thing as a fish check it out there's so many goodies as part of the club and again if you want to join the first half of this show which is us reading out your correspondence podcast at qi.com andy reads all of the facts so do send them in we love getting them and we will be back again next week with another little fish so we will see you all then and then we'll see you on friday from the main episode until then goodbye

32:20Thank you.