Certified Rat Tickling Science Courses

Amazing deals on package holidays. Pay now. I've got tickets to that sold-out show. Message now. Your subscription's been suspended. Update your payment details. Final warning. To receive your package, pay the fee immediately. Mum I've had an accident. Please send money. There's been suspicious activity on your bank account. And I need a few personal details. Fraud is getting more sophisticated. Always stop, think, and check . Stay ahead of scams at gov.uk slash stopthink fra ud. Hello, welcome to an episode of Little Fish. But before we go anywhere, Andy, there is something quite important that we have to say. Yes, we're gonna be doing a live show. We're going to be going to Sweden to the Lund Comedy Festival in August. Yes, the 29th of August at 7pm. Anna will be there too. I know. Exciting, eh? Oh my god. I'm even surprised she's still here. She's not been in touch with me for the last nine months. But uh if you would like to get involved in the pre-sale, that is for people who are members of Club Fish. So you So you need to go to Patreon.com slash clubfish and find out more about it there. That's right. General sale opens at the end of the week, but you can access the ticket pre-sale now, as James says, if you join Clubfish at patreon.com slash clubfish. Okay, on with the podcast. On with the sho w. Hello and welcome to another episode of Little Fish. My name is Andrew Hunter Murray and I'm here with Dan Schreiber and James Harkin and we are going to go through your facts from the last seven days. Your facts have been flooding into the fish inbox podcast at QI.com and now we're gonna tell you some of the best ones. Who's got a fact? Um okay I've got one. This is from Henry Bix. Henry says that in 2016 a Gothenburg man apologised for removing a giant snow penis by replacing it with a much larger snow penis, and this has led to a spin-off tradition and even a new political party. Oh okay. Some questions. So many questions. Is that a sincere apology replacing a penis with a much larger snow penis? Yeah because, he was apologizing for removing the original one. Right. Oh I see. Okay. Next question. Can I I I So please open it? Yes. Um sorry, the man in the beanie hat. Thank you. Um the penis. Um just a bit more on that please. Is it a vertical standing with two testes or what are we what are we talking? Okay, so the original was a flat drawing. It was done on a river in Gothenburg and the government couldn't remove it until the weather changed because the ice was too thin. And then a local company helped out by getting a giant brush that they used to clean windows on tall buildings and they've rushed it out. Now, people on the internet then got really, really mad because they thought the government had been spending taxpayers' dollars rubbing out this penis and they, you know, set up Facebook pages saying this is disgusting. And the man who did it, who wasn't from the government, he was just doing what he thought was a good deed. Um, then said, okay, fine. And he went into the north of the country, got a couple of massive snowblowers and then drew an enormous penis on the ground, uh which was 70 meters in length. Uh and the tradition, the new tradition, these are 3D penises which are on uh roundabout in a place uh called Burros. I think it's a good use of taxpayers' money to get rid of an enormous penis that someone's drawn on the ground. Do you call me captain government. But you know there isn't a there isn't a magical money tree, Andy. Who's not magical? It's like defence absolutely comes first. Second, remove snow penises. Third, ensure prosperity. Those are my two top priorities. And that's my political party. Yeah. Why is there a political party? The political party is the people who are started doing this uh tradition in the town of Burros. Uh and they the political thing, you know, they do put up these penises, but actually they're kind of an art collective and they started a political party to see how easy it would be to set up a political party. Oh, I see. So it's like an art thing. But then part of the art thing is also making these giant sculptures. Uh I should say that the information that I got all this additional stuff from is a YouTuber called Edlund Art who did an amazing video about it. Very cool. Very nice there's a drawing of a penis on the moon as well, which blow it up. Blow it up. I think it's big enough already, Andy. I don't think you need to blow it up. This was uh this was the Moon Museum, sure you guys have heard of it. So it was left up there by Apollo 12, and it was a group of artists. So there was uh David Novaros, John Chamberlain, but Andy Warhol was one of them. And it's this tiny little, it looks like almost like a chip that you would put into a camera. And it's got little bits of art on it. And Andy Warhol drew a penis. And I think at the time he justified saying that it was a W and an A. And if you're being very generous, it kind of does look like that, but really it's a it's a cock and balls drawing. Okay. Well that will be useful if the aliens come. They will know what to expect when they arrive in Sweden. Let's have another then. Okay, here's one from Magnus Silverwood. Magnus writes My fact is that Jupiter is not mostly composed of gas, but is in fact largely liquid hydrogen covered by gas clouds. And what Magnus finds really interesting about this, which is unbelievably fascinating because of the coincidence, is how we found this out. 1995, the spacecraft Galileo entered the orbit of Jupiter for the first time just in time to witness what has been estimated as a one in six thousand year event, the collision of the comet Shoemaker Levy 9 as it crashed into the surface of Jupiter. So the collision threw up a lot of debris into the atmosphere, the composition of which was studied. And they also opened a small observation window beneath the clouds so that they could see what was going on down there as the smoke was coming up. Um yeah, and they found out that it's not the case. Oh god, they've got their own tiresome art collectors on Jupiter, have they? But as a result of that. That's incredible. That is incredible. Yeah. They got to see this extraordinary thing though. One in six thousand. And that's that's the story of how we how we discovered that. And Galileo, that that uh mission itself was a very interesting mission because they confirmed for the first time that there was life on Earth. And that was as Galileo was flying away from us, Carl Sagan, who was part of the project, asked for it to be turned around and have all the instruments face Earth and take a reading, and the reading it took showed signs of life on our planet. And that might sound silly, but it served a major scientific purpose. It showed us what you would be looking for if you were looking for life on a planet. It could measure oxygen and methane in Earth's atmosphere. It spotted a steep cliff in the infrared spectrum of sunlight reflecting off the planet, and it had this red edge to it, which indicated the presence of vegetation. Uh, it picked up radio transmissions that were coming from the surface to show that there must be an intelligent life that manuf we'actreuring artificial sounds and so on. So um what year was it? Nineteen ninety-five was the mission. Yeah. I was just thinking what radio they might. They they'd have got the archers. I guess. Yes. They would have got um Scatman John, maybe. Oh yeah. Yeah, if they were listening to the right music channel. Boom boom boom. Let me hear say whale. That would have been in the air. Not the best musical moment to be discovering Earth. Uh here's one. This came in from Karen Gupta. So thank you very much, Karen. It's that the Indian Republic Day Parade held in New Delhi features one thousand two hundred and seventy kilos of boneless chicken. Rear me this do well there's lots of people there and they need to eat. It's not for people. It's not for it's not these twelve hundred kilos of boneless chicken are not for people. Um did they leave it on did they did they put it on the side of the town so that all of the wild animals go out to eat the chicken and they don't get in the way of the parade. Very good. You've got it. Oh nice. You've got it. The chicken is spread out, says Karen, at specific locations to attract black kites and prevent bird strikes because there are a load of planes that do the parade. Oh. And there are also a load of black kites in Delhi. And they fly at roughly the height that they might go into one of the engines and um and ruin their day. Ruin everyone's day. Uh and ruin anedotherwise happy parade. And so they have been putting out lots and lots of meat. They used to do buffalo, uh, but they've recently changed the recipe uh to chicken. Can I ask, are these um kites really picky eaters that they don't like to eat chicken with bones in it? What a good point. I don't know. I think it I I did look it up a bit and it has to be in pieces of a specific size. It's interesting because I would have thought that they would just eat animals normally, right? They would eat like little voles or something. And they definitely have bones in them. Yeah, you're right. I think it' s I d I don't know what the reason is. I guess they can't just say we'll just throw up any old any old shite for them 'cause this is the you know, it's a big Republic Day Parade, it's gotta be every element of it has to be meticulous. And also like you need to put something really nice for the kites. You can't just put like some chicken thighs out there because they'll be like, oh yeah, we could get that anywhere. No no no. Oh, but look, it's the amazing boneless stuff we can get. Boneless now jerk rubbed out. Well I'm trying to I'm trying to come up with a chicken recipe, I don't eat much chicken. Um but I think it's quite meaningful that it's chickens because of course they can't fly. And yet they with their sacrifice are allowing the the aerial parade to happen. So in a sense they can I think chickens can fly a little bit, can't they? Not much. Not much, but they can like you know if you throw them in the air, they will flap as they fall. I believe that a ch if you have chickens and you have a building like a shed and it's like two meters tall, they can get onto it, I reckon. Really? I think so. Yeah, I think that's right. They can sort of flutter upwards. Yeah, they can they've they they're I mean not like not the ones that like Bernard Matthews has fed to within an inch of their life. Like those guys can't do much. No very interesting. Okay. What's the highest you've ever seen a chicken fly? Podcast at QI.com Why do I do it to myself? Okay, here is a fact from Jennifer Neal, and Jennifer writes about a species of fungi found in the fungarium at Kew Gardens that does not grow naturally anywhere else in the world. Cool. Riddle means I love our little mystical riddles. It doesn't grow, it shrinks. It's born at a at a full size and then shrinks over the course of its life. Like the there is a paradoxical Is it a paradoxical paradoxical frog? Frog, that's it, that's born bigger than it goes as an adult. It's like the the female gives birth to this enormous tadpole and then when it turns into a frog and gets smaller. But it's not going to be irritating for the mum. Um this is a clue. It is this fungus is called golfbolia ambusta. Ah. The reason that it doesn't grow anywhere is because it is an actual golf ball. It's a golf bowl that has been burnt and it was sent to Kew Gardens in 1952 from Lancashire as a joke. Uh I think actually, like to be honest, it's not certain whether the people who found it thought it was a joke or whether they thought it was an actual fungus. But definitely the guy who took it in was called RWG Dennis, who's the head of mycology at the Royal Botanic Gardens. And certainly he was in on a joke of giving it an official name. Uh and describing. Yeah, he just he's a fun guy. He described Oh my God. Oh my god. Sorry, I couldn't help that. I'm really sorry. I feel like I would have to hand back my comedy gun and badge if I didn't make that joke. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um but he uh described it in an official paper uh as small, hard but elastic spheres enjoyed by the Caledonians in certain tribal rites. And he was one making a joke, but two, kind of making a point that there was no definition of what a mushroom was at that time. And some mycologists, so people who've studied mushrooms, said that a fungus should be anything that's studied by mycologists. Uh as in if we study it, it's just automatically a fungus, because it was so hard to define. And he said, Well, you can't really do that because if you do that, then I'm gonna call this golf ball a fungus. So I'm really interested in is that it was sent from Lancashi re. And I have played most golf courses in Lancashire, I would say, but I can't for the life of me find out which golf course it's from, this ball. And I'm just really excited to find out. That's why I'm really interested in. Yeah. Feels like you missed the point of the whole story. Yeah. Um, I got another one here. This is from Brian Simpson, the band The Postal Service was sent a cease and desist letter from the United States Postal Service, but were then allowed to keep the name after agreeing to perform for the USPS. Um I actually used to listen to this band. They had one album. It was a sort of super group. Um, the lead singer was from the band Deathcab for Cutie. And the reason that they were called the Postal Service is because that's how the album was created. One of them would put a bed of music down, put it in the post. One of them would write a note. E sharp. Is there an E sharp? No, there's no bollocks. Of all the notes you could have gone for. God damn it. F sharp. He'd wait for a return of post. Is that how they did it? Yeah. That's exactly how they debut in reading the notes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, no, so they had they just had conflicting schedules, so they were sent it to each other through the post. Um it was slightly annoying uh when it was revealed that they didn't in fact use the US Postal Service as their method of posting, but used others like FedEx and the United Parcel Service. But yeah, so they got sent this cease and desist letter. They went and met up with them and they agreed that if they would play at their national executive conference in Washington, DC, then they would be allowed to use the name. The they struck up a good relationship then. The band CDs were then sold on the USPS official website. Wow. So they got a lot of uh publicity off the back of this moment. So yeah. The lead singer is married to Zooie Dechanel. There's a little bonus fact there. The reason his band's called Death Cat for Cutie is that was a song by the Bonzo Dog Doodah band and it was performed in magical mystery tour, the Beatles film. Always comes back to the Beatles. Yeah. Certainly does when you're talking, Doug. Stop the podcast. Stop the podcast. Hello, everybody. Just let you know, this episode of Fish is sponsored by TV licensing. Yes, your TV license covers you for over 400 TV channels and everything on BBC iPlayer on any device. So Andy, tell me, what have you been watching recently? I am glad you asked, James. I have been watching a new show called Small Profits. Uh I don't know if you've heard of this. It's on the beep and it's a common. Is it is it about investing in Bitcoin? It's no, you're thinking of massive losses. Completely different show. Um it's really nice. It's uh McKenzie Crook of uh of uh the office ages ago and uh detectorist and all sorts of other really, really nice shows. And it's him, it's Michael Palin. Well he's riding the wave of publicity he got from being on Fish, uh and he's turned that into an appearance on this sitcom. And it's so good. I've been eating it up with a spoon. It's been brilliant. Highly recommended. Amazing. I'm definitely going to check that out because I have a TV license. Ah. So I am covered. And if you would like to know more about television licensing? Then get more information by visiting TVL.co.uk forward slash pod. That's right. A TV license covers you to watch over four hundred TV channels and everything or BBC iPlayer. To find out more, as James says, go to TVL.co.uk slash pod. Okay, on with the podcast. On with the show. Amazing deals on package holidays. Pay now. I've got tickets to that sold-out show. Message now. Your subscription's been suspended. Update your payment details. Final warning. To receive your package, pay the fee immediately. Mum have had an accident. Please send money. There's been suspicious activity on your bank account, and I need a few personal details. Fraud is getting more sophisticated. Always stop, think and check. Stay ahead of scams at gov.uk slash stopthinkfra ud um I got one yeah this is from Nick Saiz I thought you might find it interesting he writes that the French learned how to make the nuclear bomb by playing twenty questions with American scientists. No. Way. So basically, America's got the nuclear bomb. France doesn't. American law forbids America from sharing nuclear secrets. But they're both allies. I think this is after NATO is set up. So that America wants France to have the bomb, but legally they can't say this is how you make a nuclear bomb. So instead they used this system called negative guidance, where the French would say, here's what we're doing. And the Americans would say, hotter, colder, oh don't do that. And basically they just sort of re reverse guided them to having a nuclear bomb. Isn't that crazy? And you can and you can do that in 20 questions? Doesn't seem likely. Exactly. No more than 20, yeah. Because like you use the first one up with like animal, vegetable or mineral, right? So like that's old in 19 after that. Yeah, but you know the mineral which is uranium. So you're laughing. It feels like they probably had the plans, but they had to go through the diplomatic process of asking twenty questions. Don't d don't get hung up on the twenty thing. I think they were probably allowed a few extensions to the twenty. I th Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Like twenty thousand. France got to the end of the twenty questions and the Americans were like, oh well, that's a shame.. Sorry The West's nuclear umbrella will just have to have a little panel missing, won't it? Oh well . Okay, here is one last one from me. This is from Matt Sousa and Matt Sousa writes that my significant other, this is Matt's significant other, is a veterinary veterinary technician who just informed me of a fact you all might enjoy. There exist online courses to become a certified rat tickler. And this is amazing. There's um basically tickling rats is a very important thing in science because the pathways in rats' brains are very similar to the pathways in humans' brains, especially when you're being tickled. And so whenever they want to do any tickle science, then they do it on rats first. And rats absolutely love it. And they're you know, if you're a rat tickler, you only need to walk into a room and all the rats are going to jump around going, Oh my god, the rat tickler's here. We can't wait to be tickled. James, are you about to tell us that you have completed this course and become a certified rather. Because I'll be so happy if you have. I only wish that I thought of it. Um no, I think it probably takes a bit longer than we had in the day and a half since you said these fight so far. I feel like how hard can it be to tickle a rat? Sounds like they're up for a tickle. Yeah. We all all of us should have, you know how um people who chase meteorites they get a report that one's landed and they just have to go immediately to go and find it. They all have a bag ready at the door for these moments. I think we need the equivalent where it's like rat tickling course available. We're recording tomorrow. See ya, honey. Out the door. Sorry, Polina. The um harkin signal is in the sky. The ran ticklers need me. Right, that is enough of your facts. Let's have some facts being dished out to you. Because if you join uh Clubfish, which is our members' club on Patreon, at the highest tier, uh, which is friend of the podcast, then you will get a shout-out on the show and we will allocate you a fact and send you a certificate confirming that you are forever the custodian of this fact. So we're going to do a bunch of those now. Uh if you want to check it out, go to patreon. com slash clubfish. You can join at any of the tiers and there's great stuff on all of them, frankly. But let's have some custodians. Who wants to go first? Uh I will. Okay. This one is now under the custodianship of Melinda Frederickson, Melinda, your fact is that in Kentucky in March 1876, it rained mutton tasting meat. Lovely. I think what happened was um it was fed to a load of black kites and they were there like what's this disgusting stuff and just spat it out over this time. No, I don't remember I think um basically what happened was this um so called mutton tasting meat fell down to earth and we still don't know what it was. And it could be that some frogs were sort of sucked up in a water spout and then flown over sort of Wizard of Oz style and then landed in this place in Kentucky and then people ate the frog and thought, Oh, this tastes a bit like mutton. Mm. Or it could have been something else. We don't really know what it was. No, you're right. We'll never know. But I do love it. I love the fact. Yeah. Um I'll I'll do a another fact now. This goes out now to Grapefruit Street. Congratulations, Grapefruit Street. This is your fact. It is that Victorian inventor Peter Halkett invented a coat which doubled up a as boat. Yes. Love this. And it could take a coat. And it could take eight people. He could he could fit eight people in his boat coat. It's amazing. It's like the modern day Noah, you know. Yes. And if it's eight people, I think you can fit Mrs. Noah and Ham Shem and Japheth. Right. Someone dropped out before the third Noah child, James. Yeah. Where were you in Sunday school? Um and three of their friends. So they can all bring their their girlfriends or their wives if they like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shame about the animals, but I'm sure some of them can swim. And see you see you later, everybody. It was a boat all the time, not just a coat. Eat it. Oh. Happy days. Um here's another one. This one goes out to Hayden Freeman. Congratulations, Hayden. Your fact forever is now that in 18th century France, tooth pullers were entertainers. One fired a gun while pulling teeth with his head in a bag. Fact about ancient dentistry. Amazing. Great. Yes, I remember that I remember this fact. And um that was Was it because we didn't have any of the anesthetic? So it was a sort of distraction? I don't think it was for the patient's benefit, I'll say that much. Um I think it I think it was to draw crowds. They went from town to town, didn't they? And they would sort of turn up and say, I'm here, uh, who needs their tooth polied out? And they'd also sell their kind of their balms and and quack medicines and stuff. Yeah. Um so they're just trying to get people in, really. And also like you've got someone screaming 'cause you haven't given them any anaesthetic. You've got to distract the crowd somehow from that. And you can do that by shoot shooting a stranger on the other side of the crowd. See, this guy isn't hurt as much as that guy. Yeah. You could be worse off. Look at him. Um, okay, here is another fact. This one is now under the custodianship of Adam Webb. And the fact is that in the First World War the Romanian army issued an order saying that only officers above the rank of major have the right to wear eyeshadow in battle. Very strict. I think we kind of looked at the use of uh makeup in history uh in the army and and for the fact that men used to wear makeup a lot more than women and and all sorts of stuff like that. Yeah. Actors used to wear green makeup in films. Am I making that up? Do you remember early days of Hollywood? Makeup. Yeah, black and white films. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's great. And that's why the Romanians who fought on side. Um I think they fought on our because Hungary were not on our side, were they? So I assume that the Romanians who border Hungary probably were. Andy, you can Google it. Romania joined the Allied powers. Yeah. They were on our side. Yeah. Very nice. I've always liked always like those Romanians. Here's another one. This one goes out to Molinol. Molinol, your fact is, Daisy Meadows, the most borrowed children's author from British libraries, doesn't exist. Ah yeah. What I myself had never actually heard of Day Daisy Meadows and still have not heard really of Daisy Meadows. Um if I think of all the books in my house or the books I see in bookshops, I I don't spot Daisy Meadows, but she is a a brand, basically. It's a group of authors that write underneath the name Daisy Meadows, much in the same way that Tom Clancy novels are now ghost-written under that name or Virginia Andrews of Flowers in the Attic. It's that thing you can't let go once a once an author is nailed a genre, you just start writing using their name. Yeah. Michael Crichton is another example of that. So yeah, um pretty amazing for someone who's the most borrowed yet least heard of of all the big children's authors. Very cool fact. Uh here's another one. This goes out to Luke. Congratulations, Luke. It's the fact that it would cost eight hundred and fifty quadrillion dollars to build a Death Star. And that was built by your father, Luke. Interestingly. Really nice. Really nice. Spoiler alert. Yeah. Um yeah, this is just a fact about um budgets, I suppose. And uh project overreach. Project overreach. You know, on time and under budget. Dream on. Well, there's a thing where you can if you get a petition up on the White House website and enough people sign it, there has to be an official response. And this was one of those petitions that reached the required number to get the response, which was can you build a death star? It would only cost eight hundred and fifty quadrillion and someone had done the math. That's really good because um it's good that it happened under a previous administration. Because I think if someone if someone pitched it now, might might well might well go through