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QI XL S23E02 Wings and Wheels

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Transcript
00:00Music
00:04Music
00:08Music
00:12Music
00:18Music
00:24Good evening and welcome to QI, where tonight we're whooshing and whizzing on wheels and wings.
00:37Let's meet my wingmen and women, the freewheeling Aisling B.
00:45Wheeling and turning, it's Desiree Burch.
00:50Wheeling and dealing, it's Hank Green.
00:54And, winging it as usual, it's Alan Davis.
01:07The buzzers are all wheel-based, so let it spin, Aisling goes...
01:11Like a wheel within a wheel.
01:13Ooh, very nice.
01:14Desiree goes...
01:16Spinning wheel, got to go round.
01:19Oh, I'm off. Yeah, right.
01:21OK, you ready? Hank, go.
01:22Run me, mama, like a wagon wheel.
01:26And Alan goes...
01:28Wheeling again.
01:32Don't know when.
01:35Don't know when.
01:38Right, let's get things rolling.
01:41What use is an upside down wheelbarrow?
01:43Is it a nice alternative to the missionary position?
01:47Especially in the dirt.
01:51You know how you've got a pen and paper, could you do a diagram of how...
01:57You could just show you, Sandy, to be honest.
01:59No, it's...
02:00You heterosexuals, you're a mystery to me.
02:03We are talking about warfare.
02:05We're going back to medieval China.
02:06So they used to use them as makeshift barricades.
02:08You'd place an upside down wheelbarrow, a whole lot of them in a tangled line to protect
02:12from the cavalry.
02:13It's much faster than digging a trench.
02:15You'd need that many wheelbarrows to dig a trench in the first place.
02:17Well, there is that, yes.
02:18The Chinese historians called them mobile forts.
02:20And what is extraordinary, wheelbarrows did not appear in Europe until the 12th century,
02:25even though they had been used in China for at least a thousand years.
02:29And the Europeans, they'd heard about Chinese wheelbarrows, but they had never seen one.
02:33And that is why ours looks so different.
02:36So this is a Chinese wheelbarrow.
02:37And the thing about the Chinese wheelbarrow, we have a little model here,
02:40is that it has a single wheel right in the middle, rather than the one that we have,
02:45which is at the front end.
02:46Uh-huh.
02:47What do you think in terms of which is better?
02:49I mean, whichever one I don't have to use to do gardening.
02:52Yeah.
02:53Yeah.
02:54That's the one that we have, which is at the front end.
02:56Uh-huh.
02:57What do you think in terms of which is better?
02:59I mean, whichever one I don't have to use to do gardening.
03:02Yeah.
03:03Once you've got the Chinese one up on its wheel.
03:05Yep.
03:06It's less weight for you to carry.
03:08Yeah.
03:09Yeah, the fulcrum is closer to you.
03:11I think our one is easier to get around.
03:13Well, it rather depends on what you're carrying.
03:15So this Chinese one is much better at carrying loads over a long distance
03:18because the wheel takes all of the weight.
03:20Whereas with this one, you split the weight between the wheelbarrow
03:23and the person who is doing it.
03:25In terms of tipping things out, this one's going to be a little bit easier.
03:28I'd love these.
03:29I've finally found one that's the right size for me to be in a wheelbarrow.
03:31Wheelbarrow race.
03:34Wheelbarrow races, anybody ever had taken part?
03:36Oh, sure.
03:37Yeah.
03:38I think humans...
03:39Can I look at us?
03:40Yeah, look.
03:42If you saw, like, a couple of cats doing that,
03:44you'd be like, that's the best thing I've ever seen.
03:47And you'd get the same crowd watching if it was kind of...
03:49Yeah.
03:50I've always found them absolutely terrifying, these wheelbarrow races,
03:53because you're relying on the person in front of you
03:55not being enthusiastic about the end goal.
03:57Yes.
03:58I just had an image of you and I doing a wheelbarrow race.
04:00I'm trying to look like a...
04:01I'm trying to look like a...
04:02Would you be holding or...?
04:03Interesting now, Sandy, and this does bring us back
04:05to slightly sexy territory, I suppose.
04:07I think...
04:09I think I'd be holding you.
04:11I'm...
04:12I'm just going to need a minute.
04:13OK.
04:18They really indoctrinate you at school with wheelbarrow races,
04:21and you're like, well, these are the skills you're going
04:22to need for life, so once a year the whole school is going
04:25to compete against each other, because this reflects
04:27what will happen as adults.
04:28Yeah.
04:29So, Saoirse, lift up your legs there now and run after it.
04:31You can see it, though, like, the three-legged race is kind
04:35of preparing for marriage, isn't it?
04:37Yes, of course.
04:38Attached to somebody, but a bit hobbled by it.
04:40Did you know?
04:42In our school, we would have the egg and spoon race,
04:45but it was always called the egg and spoon race,
04:49but we did it with potatoes.
04:51I'm seeing this now, and I...
04:57So, this is the first time in all of my history on television
05:00that my mother is actually in the audience,
05:02so she can heckle.
05:03But we used to be able to bring in our own potatoes for it.
05:06LAUGHTER
05:08So, my mother, who is a sports person,
05:11she's a retired jockey, and so she would be
05:13naturally a bit competitive.
05:14Who else is a retired jockey?
05:15I'm somehow still taller than you.
05:17LAUGHTER
05:19APPLAUSE
05:23Why did she do love each other?
05:25LAUGHTER
05:26Oh, she's going to kill me now.
05:27Where is she?
05:29Oh, there she is.
05:30Oh, there she is.
05:31OK, but you can talk about it, she's tired.
05:33You can do it from here.
05:35I'm going to see.
05:36I can't believe it.
05:37Sandy, I think this is a losing battle.
05:39Do you think?
05:40LAUGHTER
05:41Oh, my poor little.
05:42I'm sorry, Mammy, but we do have to measure you for science.
05:44Yeah.
05:45CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
05:47APPLAUSE
05:49I'll kill her.
05:50I'll kill her.
05:51APPLAUSE
05:53That's...
05:55Do you know what she said to me?
05:56What?
05:57I'll kill her.
05:58I'll kill her.
05:59LAUGHTER
06:00So, Mammy, you might even kill me further,
06:03cos I remember we had to pick the potatoes out
06:05for our egg and spoon race,
06:06and Mammy was like,
06:07here, try this one.
06:08It's small.
06:09And when you get the spoon,
06:10try and dig the spoon under your eyes.
06:12LAUGHTER
06:14And I was like, come on.
06:15Yep.
06:16And then we got into school,
06:18and the nun said, to make it fair,
06:20everyone has to put their potatoes into a bag
06:22and shake them up.
06:23Oh, wake them up.
06:24And then we all have to be...
06:25And I got a massive...
06:26Oh.
06:27Someone's massive spud
06:28and had to, like...
06:29And I was trying to dig the spoon in underneath
06:30to, like, win the race.
06:31Those fucking egalitarian nuns.
06:33LAUGHTER
06:35We were robbed, Mammy.
06:36We were robbed.
06:37I think humans are adorable.
06:38This is awesome.
06:39LAUGHTER
06:40I think we do this in preparation for aliens.
06:42Like, if aliens come and they're like,
06:43you have to prove to yourself that we shouldn't destroy you,
06:45they're like, see all these terrible things you did
06:47and we're like, but wait, egg and a spoon.
06:50LAUGHTER
06:51Wait till they see the sat race.
06:53LAUGHTER
06:55Sometimes in rodeos they do wheelbarrow races.
06:57Do they?
06:58So they...
06:59A man pushes another man who is in a wheelbarrow.
07:01Right. Not like this.
07:02And then on the way back they switch,
07:04but also they release a bull.
07:05LAUGHTER
07:07No!
07:08Who's got the back legs of the bull?
07:10LAUGHTER
07:12No!
07:13The bull's in a wheelbarrow!
07:15APPLAUSE
07:16Right.
07:17How do flying lemurs get around?
07:23So I've got a challenge here,
07:25because I really want to make the klaxons go off.
07:27OK, go.
07:28But I also know the right answer to this question, I think,
07:30which is British airwaves.
07:31Oh, whee!
07:32Very...
07:33LAUGHTER
07:34Well done.
07:35Why did you say British airwaves?
07:36I'm sorry.
07:37They are...
07:38They're probably more value flyers.
07:39Oh.
07:40Should I go with Ryanair?
07:41Oh, yeah.
07:42LAUGHTER
07:43LAUGHTER
07:44You're collecting them all.
07:45I just want to be piled on top of biology.
07:46LAUGHTER
07:47First, well, they're not lemurs.
07:48Well...
07:49Oh, well then.
07:50So flying lemurs are not lemurs, and the second is they can't fly.
07:52LAUGHTER
07:53Oh, it's been an administrative area.
07:54I believe it.
07:55Yeah.
07:56They're actually just a group of actors with coats on.
07:57LAUGHTER
07:58Well, I mean, this is true of all of the flying things,
08:00like the flying fish, the flying squid, the flying snakes,
08:02the flying frogs, the flying snakes, the flying frogs,
08:04none of them fly, they glide.
08:05No, we get...
08:06We get overexcited about it.
08:07First of all, lemurs live in Madagascar, right?
08:08The actual lemurs.
08:09So-called flying lemurs live in South East Asia.
08:10They are more properly called kalugos,
08:11and along with the tree shrew, these are the closest lemurs
08:12they can't fly.
08:13They can't fly.
08:14Oh, it's been an administrative area.
08:15I believe it.
08:16Yeah.
08:17They're actually just a group of actors with coats on.
08:18Well, I mean, this is true of all of the flying things,
08:20like the flying fish, the flying squid, the flying snakes,
08:22the flying frogs, none of them fly, they glide.
08:23No, we get overexcited about it.
08:24First of all, lemurs live in Madagascar, right?
08:26The actual lemurs.
08:27So-called flying lemurs live in South East Asia.
08:29They are more properly called kalugos,
08:31and along with the tree shrew,
08:34these are the closest living relatives of primates,
08:36which is, of course, includes us.
08:38These are our close relatives.
08:39They can't fly, but they can glide.
08:40You're absolutely right.
08:41I do have a cousin who looks a bit like that.
08:42Yeah.
08:43Is she just stapled to her duvet?
08:46Because that's...
08:50It's like one of the victims in Seven.
08:55How did they kill him?
08:56Oh!
08:57They stapled him to a duvet and dropped her off a high building.
08:59He flew out.
09:00He flew for 40 miles.
09:03He was dead after 10.
09:06So, kalugos can glide incredible distances through the rainforest,
09:09up to 80 metres, which is over 260 feet, without losing altitude.
09:13So, they're helped by their huge webbed feet,
09:15but also, they have these massive flaps of skin called patageum.
09:19So, weirdly, called that because of the gold-embroidered edge
09:23on a Roman tunic.
09:24I don't know.
09:25Okay.
09:26The guy who named them on drugs.
09:27Yeah.
09:29Yeah.
09:30This feels like what Batman would actually look like.
09:32Pretty much.
09:33Yeah.
09:34What's the only mammal that can actually fly?
09:36Bats.
09:37Yes, bats is exactly right.
09:39But unlike birds, their wings are powered by their back muscles
09:42rather than their breast muscles.
09:43And also, resentment from their parents being murdered.
09:46Yes, exactly.
09:47Yeah.
09:48People in Gotham.
09:49Yeah.
09:50But it's okay, because they're really, really rich.
09:51Yeah, exactly.
09:52Oh, God.
09:53Will he ever get over it?
09:54No.
09:55No one will ever know it's me.
09:56Peek-a-boo.
09:57Me.
09:58I'll only cover the top half of me.
09:59I'll only cover the top half of me.
10:00No one will ever know it's me.
10:01Peek-a-boo.
10:02Me.
10:03No one will ever know it's me.
10:04Peek-a-boo.
10:05Me.
10:06No one will ever know it's me.
10:07Peek-a-boo.
10:08Me.
10:11So, when bats fly, it takes so much energy that they also have a pathogen.
10:15Oh.
10:16Oh, I love, can I say, I love bats.
10:18Is that the one who gave us all Covid?
10:20Yes, sir.
10:21He's smiling for the picture.
10:24Look at him.
10:25It's not his fault that he's weird.
10:26I just bat from Turkey.
10:27I just bat from Turkey.
10:28Yeah.
10:29How do you like him?
10:30I spin a fortune.
10:31What do you think?
10:32What do you think?
10:33What do you think?
10:34What do you think?
10:35Don't look at my feet.
10:36Don't look at my feet.
10:37So, because it takes so much energy for them to fly, they also have a pathogen.
10:43And look how thin it is.
10:44It's so thin that oxygen can pass through it and they can actually use it to breathe.
10:48I think it's amazing.
10:49Wow.
10:50Honestly, Aisling, they're fantastic.
10:51Bats give birth upside down and they catch the pups in their wings.
10:55Not all of them.
10:56Bother me.
10:57Someone underneath goes, I've got air ready!
10:58Go!
10:59They usually give birth to a single pup who immediately clings onto the mother's nearest
11:12nipple.
11:13Oh.
11:14With teeth like that.
11:15Yeah.
11:16They stay there while she's flying.
11:18Oh yeah.
11:19I know.
11:20For about six weeks.
11:21The whole time she's like...
11:26That's why she's shrieking all the time.
11:29I tried to drop you!
11:32Let's have a look at a Kaluga next to it.
11:34Oh, they've got a baby!
11:35Yeah, look at the baby!
11:37So, they use their pathogen to carry their young, but they have to unfurl it when they
11:41need to poo.
11:42So, I'd have to be careful not to stop the baby.
11:44The Kaluga poo is so full of worms, it walks across the forest.
11:48Ugh!
11:49Why haven't we seen the children's cartoon of that?
11:53We're just a Kaluga poo!
11:58Kaluga poo!
11:59I mean, come on.
12:01Anybody know what bat wings is slang for?
12:05For people?
12:06Oh!
12:07This old chestnut down here!
12:09Yeah, some of us really know.
12:11Yeah.
12:12Also known as bingo wings.
12:13Uh-huh.
12:14Yeah.
12:15In Cantonese, they're called bye-bye yuck.
12:19It means bye-bye meat.
12:20Because when you wave...
12:21Oh!
12:22That's very good.
12:24Right, let's fly on to our next question.
12:27Why would you want a whale as your wingman?
12:31Could they make lots of relaxing noises to put you in a chilled out state when you're flirting?
12:37Whales are...
12:41They...
12:42They...
12:43They get around.
12:44Yeah.
12:45Like, they do a lot of doing it.
12:46And they even do it with, like, dolphins sometimes.
12:48Whoa.
12:49Okay, I don't know about them doing it with dolphins because...
12:51Just size-wise...
12:53So, okay, I'm just going to warn you now.
12:56I'm going to show you some whale porn.
12:58Yeah.
12:59It's just a thing.
13:00Mummy, could you not be here for this whale?
13:03So, some whales, grey whales, bright whales, they're made in triads.
13:07And basically, they have a wingman that stops the couples drifting apart.
13:11Jesus.
13:12So, the threesome is just two animals and one being like, no, no, no, no, don't back us.
13:18Oh, do I, oh, do I, oh, do I.
13:21I've got...
13:22She was a legend.
13:23Come on, come on.
13:24You just said she was close.
13:25You're there now.
13:26You're there now.
13:27To the end now.
13:28To the end.
13:29Stop swimming, you in the brown.
13:30Back up, back up.
13:31Back up.
13:32Mary, don't check your phone.
13:34Get back in there.
13:35Come on, go on.
13:36We're doing it now.
13:37Let's have a quick look at some whale porn.
13:38Yeah, a quick look.
13:39Oh, good again.
13:40An hour later.
13:41Yeah.
13:42All right.
13:44So, there you can see there are three of them and the one on the right is going down below.
13:48Uh-huh.
13:49Correct.
13:50have sex and basically kind of pushing them together which kinds of whales are these big ones
13:57yes very big ones if you have a look the two top ones are having sex
14:00i'm just thinking that this is the one they should have called the humpback
14:10but when they're done the males sometimes switch places oh i bet they do yeah
14:14yeah are you done yeah she can have sex with up to three males in an hour if she's not keen she
14:21just turns her back on them no not having today but if you think about them they're about the same
14:25as the standard 10-pin bowling lane right this is yeah they are i would imagine getting it just
14:29right and fitting properly there are some angles in which you might want some assistance that's
14:34you know what i mean like look my knees aren't what they used to be but you know you said about the
14:40dolphins yeah they don't really have sex with the whales but bottlenose dolphins do gather near
14:45mating gray whales now people say they don't know why they are pervs okay this is the thing i know
14:52i'm showing you it's quite a penis isn't it oh my god yeah
15:02we haven't missed that entirely we're like look at that little pervert
15:06wow yeah yeah let me show my innocence if you look down to the left that's a dolphin just laughing
15:18so we don't really know the oceanographer christopher fitz simmons thinks they might
15:21enjoy the social aspect yeah they clearly don't mind i suppose they've no doors in the ocean so
15:28everyone lives in they're like hey steve it's not cool we don't like it when you come around like this
15:32like can't stop me
15:37i just it's the person who took the photograph
15:40yeah another dolphin yeah
15:44go right up to it all right
15:49wood feeding cockroaches have a different kink if you like oh yeah so this is we're showing you a lot
15:55of porn today this is yeah this is two wood feeding cockroaches at it and they practice sexual
16:01cannibalism well most animals that would mean like a larger female maybe a spider eating the
16:06male after sex yeah these are really unique when they've had sex they eat each other's wings
16:11just to be like you're mine now no one can ever have you again you're mine is the correct answer
16:16oh wow oh my god i'm so so glad that me being so sick in the head is finally paid off you've got the
16:28mind of a cockroach yeah pretty yeah this is one without its wings so basically they start out with
16:34little nibbles like sort of love kisses and then by the end the wings are completely reduced to stumps
16:38what happens is the parents can't fly away after mating and we think that's probably why they do it
16:43and then weirdly mate for life because can't go anywhere yeah i feel like that's quite human
16:47kind of like the bitterness is what keeps you together towards the end i used to have full wings
16:52before you all that i wanted and be my own woman you had to eat my wings didn't you
17:00now how would a spider spin itself to death is it one of your roundabouts
17:06like the one you have like the roundabouts well there's the one in swindon that everyone
17:12complains but maybe it's that one specifically best thing is not to go to swindon yeah
17:18we're talking about golden wheel spiders which live in the namib desert okay so they escape predatory
17:24wasps by curling into a ball and rolling downhill have a look at this
17:28so they use gravity to gain momentum and the steeper the slope the faster they do he's going whoa
17:40um so they're only 20 millimeters wide but they can travel up to a meter and a half a second
17:44they spin 44 times a second i think they're extraordinary i still like rolling downhill as a
17:49child your career is doing that for you now
17:59there's a creature called a cartwheeling spider and you find it in the sahara have a look at this
18:04and what it does
18:08so it spins with the limbs extended rather than in a ball it can tumble on flat ground it can even go
18:13backwards uphill i mean they are if i did that in our house my wife would actually die
18:21well sometimes they work at it so hard they can't wheel themselves to death they're known as
18:25flick-flack spiders their correct name is sabrenus reckenbergi they're named after a guy called dr ingo
18:32reichenberg and he was studying animal biomechanics and he was inspired to create the cartwheeling bionic
18:39wheel bot i feel like we should probably ban this before it gets too bad yes well the only thing about
18:43it is it could possibly be used to explore mars he doesn't look like he's made those to explore mars no
18:49there's also something called the dwarf reed snake which cartwheels with no limbs at all wait snakes
18:56can cartwheel now what it does is it coils itself into an s and then it launches itself with its tail
19:02this would freak you by that it can jump a meter and a half so six times its body length so this is
19:07it doing its thing does it several times in a row just to get away from a predator or something or if
19:12the sand's really hot at the beach yeah yeah yeah that's yeah in america actually there are tiger
19:19beetle larvae that travel by wind-powered wheel locomotion that's what they look like they leap into
19:23the air they curl into a ball and they are swept away by the wind the fastest caterpillar in the world
19:28wheels around too it's a mother-of-pearl moth larvae only 20 millimeters long they can roll at 38
19:33centimeters per second so that's like me doing roly-polys at 65 miles an hour oh please
19:39i would like to see you and alan race down a hill yeah back to wings now and specifically the west
19:46wings good one for our american friends here's a plan of the ground floor of the white house
19:51can you name any of the rooms i feel like the oval one is the oval office okay
19:58you think right that's the billiard room yeah exactly ballroom conservatory secret passage
20:13so the one at the front the oval one is called the blue room that's why you made it oh i know 1837
20:17president martin van buren had it decorated with blue carpet and curtains and nobody ever got over it
20:22it's also known as the large oval room or the elliptic salon it has never ever been used as an office
20:28it's a sort of formal reception room apparently inside the white house is actually quite run
20:33down and and generally it was a really old i've been in the basement
20:41it seemed like you know maybe not as shiny as you did but it was a nice house what were you fixing
20:48uh i was there i was waiting and while i was there i just how many years
21:00in all of the books i was in because i thought maybe somebody else would open the book someday
21:05so if you're ever in the white house in the basement open up some books what kind of things
21:10did you put in the notes it was a while ago now no because i love this i often if there's a book in a pub
21:15or something and i'll take it down i always put with love from the author um i do it with bibles in
21:20hotels yes there's more white house well let's look at the floor above okay so what is this room
21:30called i suppose it would be the oval office no it's that's called the yellow oval room we're really
21:39trying to help you okay i might quite like there's the queen's bedroom have we had to change the name
21:45of that one which one the queen's bedroom or is it forever the queen so it's for all many queens
21:52not all royals like rupaul i was gonna say ru stays whenever he goes yeah if you look at the front of the
21:58white house this is sort of the shot that we are quite used to seeing i always thought that was the
22:02oval office right there but it isn't to the left is the white house's west wing and that is where the oval
22:08offices and in fact what happened when franklin roosevelt was elected in 1933 he moved his main
22:13workspace into what is now known as the oval office and it was actually the west wing's laundry room
22:18so where all of the decisions take place uh is the old laundry room because it got more sunlight
22:24what i like is that every president has made some small changes to the room and several have
22:29installed secret buzzers so jfk get a secret buzzer in an ashtray for actresses to come in
22:34oh yeah well promise president i got your buzzer i heard do some tie pan and johnson probably had a
22:43whole separate room for his schlong apparently because he's like famously like well endowed and
22:48let everybody know that he just had a giant dog it is exactly the reason he had a buzzer wait what
22:56what jfk in the middle there he had one in the ashtrays so he could buzz his secretary secretly and
23:08she could come in and say the meeting was over linda johnson was caught cheating in the office by his
23:13wife and so the press the wrong buzzer like not the wife buzzer yeah the buzzer was the other way it was
23:19to warn him that she was on the way so he could roll it back up quick mr present
23:34calvin coolidge just my favorite he he used to press the buzzer and then hide from the secret surface
23:41he's literally playing ding dong ditch with the secret there wasn't a lot going on during his
23:49administration the team thought that i should have a buzzer of my own what noise does it make well
23:56let's just have a look and see what noise it makes do you know what that is it's it's the danish
24:02national anthem so i appreciate that so because it's the danish national anthem we bring me thank
24:10you jack please respect our pastries they're so tasty
24:17this is genuine danish licorice it's called spunk oh
24:23really good i don't like some of my i don't want it but i will
24:25i'll have yeah i'll have some spunk yeah i'll have some spunk sandy i know it's gonna become a meme
24:32or something oh thank you very much oh yeah i'm not even going to tell you what this tastes like
24:37because you know it's written on the tin it's really bad yeah it's truly bad it tastes so salty
24:45it's even worse than black licorice you're talking about my national candy
24:48okay we have like a spittoon or something yeah what i've always wanted is to have an audience
24:55of people watch as i yeah ashley yeah a tiny bit of spunk just
25:09you know what i'm talking about mr president please
25:22anyway um while we're talking about american wings what's the name of the tallest bird
25:28in the united states
25:33i'm assuming it's an ostrich it's not an ostrich no no but there's always some american
25:38with like a weird pet they keep in their bathtub yeah there's no ostriches in america imported bird
25:44i'm talking about an american bird okay it is the whooping crane which stands at just over five
25:50foot tall which is taller than me wow it has a wingspan of seven foot seven inches whoa so the same as a
25:56golden eagle and they whoop so by coincidence i am the same height and i i i wonder if you would like
26:01to see an impression oh of a loop i got more than anything no i'm gonna this would fool even another
26:09whooping crane um i'll be honest you have to be so careful putting on a big white hood over your head
26:16yeah
26:19oh don't should do we get some bread crumbs or yeah is this to like catfish them into like mating and getting
26:27all hot so it's about teaching them so they were nearly extinct until 1966 and the wisconsin patuxent
26:35wildlife research center they started a breeding program and at the time there were only 42 of these
26:39beautiful creatures in the wild uh today there are over 800 this is a really successful program
26:44and they're very sweet they have childhood sweethearts so the couples befriend each other for a year
26:49before they made they go to bed for life like cockroaches
26:53but so when they're trying to raise the chicks they wanted to make sure they stayed wild so the
26:59researchers only interacted with them while they were dressed as grains and they wore this head puppet
27:04oh you'd never know on one hand they had a wingtip puppet on the other hand and they used this
27:10thing to teach the chicks how to feed just like you see in nature some huge alien with your face
27:17on the hand being like this is normal that's actually daniel day lewis
27:23i am a crane for a year they had a mp3 player in their pocket but making the calls of adult cranes
27:30and then when the chicks were old enough to fly pilots dressed in the same outfits okay led them
27:37through the air in a micro light and they were taught safe migration routes from wisconsin to florida i think
27:42it's lovely that's a long way it's just a very long way and then um this is this is proper commitment
27:47engineers in new mexico tech they wanted to study the birds in flight they made flapping wing drones
27:53okay so these are made of real stuffed birds taxidermy they shoved a drone up a dead bird is what you're
28:01saying yes they did that's dark and unlike normal oh it does it really fine yeah they're gonna do
28:09that to us one day you realize this guy but unlike just a normal drone the birds weren't afraid of
28:15these taxidermy birds they seem to think it was absolutely fine and they're beginning to think these
28:19are a good idea for spy drones that you would have it actually just look like a bird i know this is why
28:25they have that whole birds aren't real conspiracy is that a conspiracy a bit yeah apparently that it's
28:31like it's all just government spying and that's why they're always on the power lines is because
28:35they're recharging yeah just looking
28:46and why are they pooing that's the information packet
28:50anyway i love the commitment to bringing these birds back from extinction i would just like to
28:56thank the international crane foundation that's lending us the puppet which i think is just
29:05while we are on feathers what can you tell me about the most expensive feather in the world
29:11it's that one there yes to whom does it belong oh it is it is yes darling oh okay so it's a feather
29:18sacred to the maori people oh okay it's from the huya it's a new zealand bird which died out in 1907
29:26and in 2024 one of its tail feathers sold for 46 and a half thousand new zealand dollars about 22 000
29:32pounds they're wonderful birds from what we know the various drawings and what's extraordinary is that
29:37the male and the female had very different bill sizes if you have a look we've got a drawing of one
29:41so the female has got the curved one and the male is the one with the stubby one why do you think they
29:46might have such different bill sizes that looks like the kind of thing where you're like i've got
29:50to feed my man you know if you want to keep them it looks like it's going inside of stuff to pick food
29:55out and he's just like so they're actually working together so he is stabbing holes in rotting wood
30:02and she can reach in and get the insects okay yeah it's a sort of co-operative teamwork okay operative
30:07yeah all right sometimes it pays to split the bill hoo-yah
30:15now for something completely different what would you do with one of these
30:20oh oh how many friends
30:22that's a part of my past i don't talk about
30:28what do you think a wine press i can tell you it is officially called a muhren shuang
30:37it's for punching it is a training dummy used in the chinese martial art
30:44obviously now i know it's not a wine press yes
30:46yes you didn't put like a cat or a whale for a scale sorry i should have helped you out there
30:55now the legend of this is that there was a daughter of a ming general and he sent her away to the
30:59countryside when beijing fell to the ching invaders and she became an expert in the martial arts and she
31:05saw a snake fighting a crane and she was inspired by how the crane stuck its beak out whilst blocking with
31:12its wing and she already knew kung fu and so she adapted it to a style that relied on speed and
31:16dexterity rather than on strength anyway that's the story i don't know if it's true or not the crane
31:22might have been a man with it probably developed organically from other south china martial arts
31:30although i have to say there's a tendency in history to remove women from history and say yes she never
31:34existed it didn't it didn't really happen by luck yeah exactly history will remember me as that qi
31:42contestant puddy oh mahoney talked about nothing but potatoes uh anyway we have a wing chung dummy in
31:54the studio and here is instructor tony pivorski to tell us all about it so i mean to the outside it looks
32:06like you're going to attack a telegraph pole danny so tell me how it works thanks to what you do the
32:10bash the crap out of it okay and this is something you would train on your own yeah it's it's it's a
32:17wooden man basically and what you do is you use this to improve your techniques okay can you show me
32:23okay
32:37i mean yes
32:38you're a woman and you're doing that you have to go fire fire fire fire fire let me see your wrists
32:54right no watch yeah okay good i was like is he gonna tell me i have small wrists
32:59fists what you want to do is this okay yeah go on then oh okay i didn't see any of that
33:12are you a sort of fighting sort of person oh all the time all the time yeah okay so what you want to do
33:18is first first form just give that oh down there yeah yeah that's not happening even that much
33:26where i come this and i was yeah that's it yeah oh that felt good yeah
33:30i'll do that man how do we go there behind i'll just grab it yep
33:43tani thank you very much
33:50so wing john it became famous in the 1950s when a grand master called ip man started training bruce lee
33:57that's not me i didn't think it was suddenly going to spin around and do something back because
34:02you hit it and it goes yeah that's an unforgiving enemy isn't it yeah not really because if you just
34:08go behind its back you could push it over yeah why don't they ever go behind the darlings lift them up
34:18right it's time to spin the wheel of fortune and the sudden death at his general ignorance speakers on
34:22buzzers please it's the renaissance we are in venice what's unusual about the way the ruling classes
34:27traveled around unlike any other city in italy ryanair
34:40i'm going to give you a point for getting away with it that's very good what do you reckon
34:45horses no e-scooters wheelbarrow wheelbarrow races
34:58i know i don't want to say gondolas or boats or any of the things you've got lined up so you would
35:04think it's something to do with the water right yeah they walked oh oh well that's so
35:10i don't know why in the 16th century the patricians in other cities would use horses for sure
35:15but animal transport almost non-existent in venice i mean it's very narrow and there's all those bridges
35:20about 400 bridges in total and only the very rich could afford a gondola which any case you could
35:25only take part of the way to your destination and on the whole if you are in venice it is quicker
35:29probably to walk and so traveling by boat became associated with either decadence or ill health
35:35so you were either very rich or dying and best if you're both baby and basically it was just better
35:43and quicker for everybody to walk and even today if you go to italy one of the things i love as you
35:48become an older person and you sit down somewhere nice with a glass of something or other you can
35:53your medicine yeah your medicine which is walking for pleasure strolling in the company of friends
36:00for no purpose whatsoever renaissance venetians didn't like getting about by getting a boat
36:06what kind of birds are african chinese and italian owls owls yeah yeah
36:16they look like a menu at an airport with like degrees of spiciness yeah they're all types of fancy pigeon
36:24fancy pigeons which people collected you were a pigeon fancier they came in all sorts of fabulous
36:30weird shapes and colors and they're named after their main characteristics if we show you a few fancy ones
36:36aren't these fabulous oh no yeah this is a pigeon gone crazy this is a pigeon by victoria beckham this is
36:43i always like the one on the left yeah yeah do you that's called the jacobin it's named after the
36:49large hood that was worn by medieval jacobin monks the one in the middle very popular in east
36:54anglia the holocropper probably first bred in the netherlands and the one on the right is the
37:00frill back with a little box perm charles darwin loved them kept them for selective breeding i saw one
37:08of his dead pigeons at the natural history museum just the other day don't say we don't have things to
37:13show people welcome to landon francie seen a dead pigeon in a box
37:21right this way sir 59 pounds and 75 pounds for the family it wasn't like the hall of treasures
37:30we also have people made of wax who slightly look like the people are based on
37:34if you go to ireland you can see a potato in a spoon
37:40there you go
37:44but don't be fooled because the potatoes actually stuck to the spoon
37:50what was the full title of charles darwin's most popular book uh birds aren't real
37:55do you want to fall into this trap 50 shades
38:04what is it about the theory of evolution yeah so the one that we all talk about is the origin of the
38:09species yes on the origin of species and and a couple of tales about my crazy life and show business
38:14that sold 4 250 copies the big one was what's in my beard
38:23it was a picture book and you lifted his beard up and there's always something different
38:28so two million copies one christmas what's in my beard
38:34this man has good ideas weirdly i think it would do well
38:38he sold 6 000 copies of the formation of vegetable mold through the action of worms with observations on
38:44their habits oh but i think in the long run on the origin of species might have done better yeah
38:50probably uh but we're talking about initial sales here okay actually he was obsessed with the whole
38:54worm thing you know he performed some of the earliest excavations at stonehenge but he was
38:58thinking for worms he was there as a naturalist not as an archaeologist as he kept digging away and these
39:03stones were appearing yeah it's snowing it's snowing i think there's one here imagine if he's just if
39:10he's looking for worms and he's like oh god these stones i'm just going to put them up yeah over there
39:19where are the worms mr darwin where do you think
39:24they're in that that poop that's crawling away
39:28he thought that worms were deaf because they didn't react when his son loudly played the bassoon
39:34that's science and then he put them on the piano and he realized they could hear through vibrations so
39:41that that's the scientific way to see if a worm can hear so while we're on the subject of best-selling
39:47books i will give a hundred points to anyone who can name these authors most successful works
39:53in their lifetime oh come on oh no so the first one is mark twain the adventures of tom sawyer yeah
40:04huckleberry huckleberry finn
40:09what's in my beard what's in my mustache
40:11my much smaller mustache what's in my coma the telltale heart he did the conchologist's first book
40:41what yeah most successful book in his life wow sandy can i have a one of your little cards
40:46what do you want to do with it give it a friend you just want to have it yeah can i this is what
40:51he did in the basement of the white house can i just take one of these declarations you all miss it
41:00you can have all these done do you want some spunk as well
41:02yeah
41:05in the story aladdin what does aladdin rub to release a genie oh no it's okay
41:19i mean that would be some interesting spot you know you know when your kid behaves badly at
41:33school but you're sort of proud so in the earliest recorded version it's a ring oh
41:46was it his ring yeah it's someone else's ring hang on a minute i'll rub that and i'll get a genie out
41:54you'll never get a genie out there telling you that
41:58be surprised what i can do
41:59his mother does rub a lamp and produces a second genie how many wishes did they get three wishes
42:09no no no many many more many many thousand yeah lots and lots and lots of wishes well then i
42:15you don't even have to wish for more wishes yeah yeah no there's no need to wish for more wishes
42:19you just keep rubbing but the word to the wise just keep rubbing yeah eventually oh you'll know you'll
42:27know what did that mean as the dolphin said to the whale
42:32yes uh the story first appeared in a french edition of 1001 nights or arabian nights published in 1710
42:39and there's flying carpet yeah no no it's from another french edition the flying carpets it's people
42:44adding their own bits and pieces to the story the first aladdin didn't have a flying carpet but he
42:50did have a rubber ring now let's see who's winged their way to the top and who's under the wheels
42:56of the bus in last place tonight because the wheels totally came off with minus 58 it's alan
43:06in third place having spent a lot of time winging it with minus 34 it's hank
43:10in second place definitely earned their wings with minus nine it's ashley
43:21and our winner wheelie wheelie good with six whole points
43:26desiree
43:35uh thank you to hank desiree ashling and alan and i leave you with this little wing thing
43:41the late willie rushton once opened a science wing at his old school
43:45his entire speech was as follows the buggers open thank you
43:58uh
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