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QI XL S23E02 - Wings and Wheels
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00:00.
00:30Let's meet my wing men and women the freewheeling Aisling B
00:45It's Desiree Birch
00:47Wheeling and Dealing, it's Hank Green
00:52And winging it as usual, it's Alan Davis
00:59The buzzers are all wheel-based, so let it spin, Aisling goes
01:11Desiree goes
01:16Spinning wheel, got to go round
01:19Oh, I'm off now
01:21Yeah, right
01:21Okay, you ready, Hank? Go
01:22Run deep, I'm a lamp, I'm a wag on the wheel
01:26And Alan goes
01:28Wheeling again
01:31Don't know when
01:34Don't know when
01:38Right, let's get things rolling
01:40What 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?
02:01No, it's...
02:02You heterosexuals, you're a mystery to me
02:05We are talking about warfare, we're going back to medieval China
02:11So they used to use them as makeshift barricades, you'd place an upside-down wheelbarrow, a whole lot of them in a tangled line to protect from the cavalry
02:18It's much faster than digging a trench
02:21You'd need that many wheelbarrows to dig a trench in the first place
02:24Well, there is that, yes
02:25The Chinese historians called them mobile forts
02:28And what is extraordinary, wheelbarrows did not appear in Europe until the 12th century
02:33Even though they had been used in China for at least a thousand years
02:37And the Europeans, they'd heard about Chinese wheelbarrows, but they had never seen one
02:41And that is why ours looks so different
02:43So this is a Chinese wheelbarrow
02:45And the thing about the Chinese wheelbarrow, we have a little model here
02:48Is that it has a single wheel right in the middle rather than the one that we have, which is at the front end
02:55What do you think in terms of which is better?
02:58I mean, whichever one I don't have to use to do gardening
03:01Once you've got the Chinese one up on its wheel
03:05Yep
03:06It's less weight for you to carry
03:08Yeah, 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 and the person who is doing it
03:24In terms of tipping things out, this one's going to be a little bit easier
03:28I'd love these, I've finally found one that's the right size for me to be in a wheelbarrow race
03:32That's exciting
03:34Wheelbarrow races, anybody ever had taken part?
03:36Oh, sure
03:36Yeah
03:37I think humans, can I, look at us?
03:41Like, look, if you saw, like, a couple of cats doing that, you'd be like, that's the best thing I've ever seen
03:47And you'd get the same crowd watching if it was cat
03:49Yeah
03:49I've always found them absolutely terrifying, these wheelbarrow races
03:54Because you're relying on the person in front of you not being enthusiastic about the end goal
03:58Yes
03:58I just had an image of you and I doing a wheelbarrow race
04:01I'm trying to look like a
04:01I'm trying to look like a
04:03Would you be holding or?
04:04Interesting now, Sandy
04:05And this does bring us back to slightly sexy territory, I suppose
04:08I think
04:10I think I'd be holding you
04:11I'm
04:12I'm just going to need a minute
04:14Okay
04:14They really indoctrinate you at school with wheelbarrow races, right?
04:21Well, these are the skills you're going to need for life
04:23So once a year
04:24The whole school is going to compete against each other
04:27Because this reflects what will happen as adults
04:29Yeah
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 of preparing for marriage, isn't it?
04:37Yes, you're always attached 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
04:51And I'm seeing this now
04:57And 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
05:06So my mother, who is a sports person, she's a retired jockey
05:12And so she would be naturally a bit competitive
05:13Who was a retired jockey?
05:15I'm somehow still taller than you
05:16Oh, she's going to kill me now
05:27Where is she?
05:29Oh, there she is
05:29Oh, there she is
05:30Yeah, we're too loud
05:32But you can tell from here she's tired
05:34You can see it from here
05:35I want to see
05:36I can't believe it
05:37I can't believe it's just right
05:37Sandy, I think this is a losing battle
05:39Do you think?
05:41I'm sorry, Mammy
05:42But we do have to measure you for science
05:44Yeah
05:44Oh, wow
05:45Yay
05:45That's a lot of hard
05:49That's a lot
05:50That's a lot
05:50That's a lot
05:54That's a lot
05:55You know what she said to me?
05:56What?
05:57I'll kill her
05:57I'll kill her
05:58So, Mammy, you might even kill me further
06:03Because I remember we had to pick the potatoes out for our egg and spoon race
06:06And Mammy was like, here, try this one, it's small
06:09And when you get the spoon, try and dig the spoon underneath
06:12Yeah
06:13And I was like, come on
06:15Yeah
06:15Come on
06:16And then we got into school
06:18And the nun said, to make it fair, everyone has to put their potatoes into a bag
06:23And shake them up
06:24And then we all have to be, and I got a massive
06:26Someone's massive spud
06:29And had to, like, and I was trying to dig the spoon in underneath
06:31To, like, win the race
06:32Those fucking egalitarian
06:33We were robbed, Tommy, we were robbed
06:37I think humans are adorable
06:38This is all I think
06:39I think we do this in preparation for aliens
06:42Like, if aliens come and they're like, you have to prove to yourself that we shouldn't destroy you
06:46They're like, see all these terrible things you did
06:47And we're like, but wait
06:48Egg and spoon
06:50Right till they see the sat race
06:53Sometimes in rodeos, they do wheelbarrow races
06:57Do they?
06:58So they, a man, there's another man who is in a wheelbarrow
07:01Right
07:01Like this
07:02And then on the way back, they switch, but also they release a bull
07:05No
07:08Who's got the back legs of the bull?
07:10No, the bull's in a wheelbarrow
07:15Right, how do flying lemurs get around?
07:24So I've got a challenge here because I really want to make the klaxons go off
07:27Okay, go
07:28But I also know the right answer to this question, I think
07:30Which is British Airways
07:31Oh, really?
07:32Very
07:33Why did you say British Airways?
07:34I'm sorry, they are, they're probably more value flyers, so should I go with Ryanair?
07:48Oh
07:49Oh yeah
07:50Oh my god
07:51You're collecting them all
07:55I just want to be piled on top of biology
07:59First, well they're not lemurs
08:01Well
08:02Well
08:03Oh, well then, so flying lemurs are not lemurs and the second is they can't fly
08:06Oh, it's been an administrative error
08:09I believe it
08:10Yeah
08:11They're actually just a group of actors with coats on
08:14I mean, this is true of all of the flying things
08:17Like the flying fish, the flying squid, the flying snakes, the flying frogs
08:21None of them fly, they glide
08:22No, we get over excited 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 of course includes us, these are our close relatives
08:39They can't fly, but they can glide
08:41You're absolutely right
08:42I do have a cousin who looks a bit like that
08:43Yeah
08:44Is she just stapled to her duvet?
08:46Because that's what that is
08:48It's like one of the victims in Seven
08:52How did they kill him?
08:56Well, they stapled him to a duvet and dropped her off on high the morning
09:00He flew for 40 miles
09:02He was dead after 10
09:05So 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 on a Roman tunic
09:24I don't know
09:25Okay
09:26The guy who named them on drugs
09:28Yeah
09:29Yeah
09:30This feels like what Batman would actually look like
09:33Pretty much
09:34Yeah
09:35What's the only mammal that can actually fly?
09:37Bats
09:38Yes, bats is exactly right
09:39But unlike birds, their wings are powered by their back muscles rather than their breast muscles
09:44And also resentment from their parents being murdered
09:46Yes, exactly
09:47Yeah
09:48People in Gotham
09:49Yeah, but it's okay because they're really, really rich
09:51Yeah, exactly
09:52Oh God, will he ever get over it?
09:53No
09:54I'll only cover the top half of me
09:55No one will ever know it's me
09:56Peekaboo
09:57Me
09:58So when bats fly it takes so much energy that they also have a patageum
10:15Oh
10:16Oh, I love
10:17Can I say
10:18I love bats
10:19Is that the one who gave us all COVID?
10:20Yes
10:21He's smiling for the picture
10:23Look at him
10:24Yeah
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 spent 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
10:37Don't look at my feet
10:38Don't look at my feet
10:39So because it takes so much energy for them to fly
10:42They also have a patageum
10:43And look how thin it is
10:45It's so thin that oxygen can pass through it
10:47And they can actually use it to breathe
10:49I think it's amazing
10:50Honestly, Aisling, they're fantastic
10:51Bats give birth upside down
10:53And they catch the pups in their wings
10:55Not all of them
11:01Bother me
11:03Someone underneath going
11:05I've got air ready, go
11:08They usually give birth to a single pup
11:10Who immediately clings onto the mother's nearest nipple
11:13Oh
11:14Yeah, but they stay there
11:15With teeth like that
11:16Yeah
11:17They stay there while she's flying
11:18Oh yeah
11:19I know, for about six weeks
11:20And the whole time she's like
11:25That's why she's shrieking all the time
11:28I tried to drop you
11:30Let's have a look at a kaluga next to it
11:34Oh, they've got a baby
11:35Yeah, look at the baby
11:36Yeah, look at the baby
11:37So they use their patageum to carry their young
11:39But they have to unfurl it when they need to poo
11:41So I'd have to be careful not to stop the baby
11:43Oh
11:44Kaluga poo is so full of worms
11:46Ugh
11:47It walks across the forest
11:48Ugh
11:49Why haven't we seen the children's cartoon of that?
11:56We're just a kaluga poo
12:00I mean, come on
12:04Anybody know what bat wings is slang for?
12:06For people?
12:07Oh, and this old chestnut down here
12:10Yeah, 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
12:19Yeah, it means bye-bye meat
12:20Because when you wave
12:21Oh
12:22That's very good
12:25Right, 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?
12:36Whales are
12:40Whales 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
12:55So I'm just gonna warn you now
12:56I'm gonna show you some whale porn
12:58Yeah
12:59It's just a thing
13:00Mommy could you not be here for this bit?
13:02So some whales, grey whales, right whales, they're made in triads
13:07And basically they have a wingman that stops the couple's drifting apart
13:11Jesus
13:12So the threesome is just two animals and one being like
13:16No, no, no, no, don't back us
13:18Oh my, oh my, oh my
13:21Oh my
13:23She 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
13:30Back up
13:31Back up
13:32Back up
13:33Back up
13:34Back up
13:35Back up
13:36Mary don't check your phone
13:37Get back in
13:38Let's have a quick look at some whale porn
13:39Yeah, quick look
13:40An hour later
13:41Yeah
13:42Alright
13:44So there you can see there are three of them
13:46And the one on the right is going down below
13:48Uh-huh
13:49Yep
13:50Middle ones where they're gonna have sex
13:51And basically kind of pushing them together
13:53Which kinds of whales are these?
13:54Big ones
13:55Sex
13:56Big ones
13:57Yes, very big ones
13:58If 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
14:02Yeah
14:03Yeah
14:04I think
14:05Yeah
14:06Well when they're done the males sometimes switch places
14:12Oh
14:13I bet they do
14:14Yeah
14:15Are you done yet?
14:16No
14:17She can have sex with up to three males in an hour
14:20If she's not keen she just turns her back on them
14:22No, not having today
14:23But if you think about them
14:24They're about the same as the standard ten-pin bowling lane, right?
14:26Yeah
14:27This is how big they are
14:28I would imagine getting it just right and fitting properly
14:30There are some angles in which you might want some assistance
14:34You know what I mean?
14:35Yeah
14:36Like, look, my knees aren't what they used to be
14:39But you know you said about the dolphins
14:41Yeah
14:42They don't really have sex with the whales
14:43But bottlenose dolphins do gather near mating grey whales
14:46Now
14:47Perverts
14:49People say they don't know why
14:50They are pervs
14:51Okay, this is the thing
14:52I know, I'm showing you
14:53Wow
14:54It's quite a penis, isn't it?
14:55Oh my god
14:56Yeah
14:57Oh my god
14:58Oh my god
14:59Oh my god
15:00Oh my god
15:01Oh my god
15:02We've ever missed that entirely
15:04We're like, look at that little pervert
15:06Wah
15:07Yeah, yeah
15:08Let me
15:09My innocence
15:10Oh my god
15:11Nice
15:12If you look down to the left
15:13That's a dolphin just laughing
15:15Yeah
15:17Jesus Christ
15:18So we don't really know
15:19The oceanographer Christopher Fitzsimmons
15:20Thinks they might enjoy the social aspect
15:22Yeah
15:23They clearly don't mind
15:26I suppose they've no doors in the ocean
15:28So everyone lives in the ocean
15:29They're like, hey Steve, it's not cool
15:30We don't like it
15:31When you come around like this
15:32Like, can't stop me
15:37I just, it's the person who took the photograph
15:41Another dolphin
15:44Go right up to it
15:45Go right up to it
15:49Wood feeding cockroaches have a different kink
15:52If you like
15:53Oh
15:54Yeah
15:55Showing you a lot of porn today
15:56This is
15:57This is two wood feeding cockroaches at it
15:59And they practice sexual cannibalism
16:01Yum yum
16:02Well, most animals that would mean like a larger female
16:04Maybe a spider
16:05Eating the male after sex
16:06Yeah
16:07These are really unique
16:08When they've had sex
16:09They eat each other's wings
16:11Just to be like, you're mine now?
16:12Yeah
16:13No one can ever have you again
16:14You're mine
16:15Is the correct answer
16:16Oh
16:17Wow
16:18What?
16:19What?
16:20Oh my god
16:22I'm so glad that me being so sick in the head is finally paid off
16:27You've got the mind of a cockroach
16:29Yeah
16:30Yeah
16:31So this is one without its wings
16:32So basically they start out with little nibbles like sort of love kisses
16:35And 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
16:42And then weirdly mate for life because it can't go anywhere
16:45Yeah
16:46I feel like that's quite human
16:47Kind of like the bitterness is what keeps you together towards the end
16:49Yeah
16:50I used to have full wings before you
16:53The older I wanted and be my own woman
16:55You had to eat my wings, didn't you?
16:57Now, how would a spider spin itself to death?
17:03Is it one of your roundabouts?
17:06Like the one you have
17:08Like the roundabouts
17:09Well, there's the one in Swindon that everyone complains about
17:12Maybe it's that one specifically
17:13Best thing is not to go to Swindon
17:14Yeah
17:15We're talking about golden wheel spiders which live in the Namib desert
17:21Okay, so they escape predatory wasps by curling into a ball and rolling downhill
17:27Have a look at this
17:28BING
17:30I know
17:32So they use gravity to gain momentum
17:34And the steeper the slope the faster they
17:36Do you think it's going whoa
17:37Yeah
17:38Yeah
17:40So they're only 20 millimetres wide but they can travel up to a metre and a half a second
17:44They spin 44 times a second
17:46I think they're extraordinary
17:48I used to like rolling downhill as a child
17:50Your career is doing that for you now, look
17:52There's a creature called a cartwheeling spider and you find it in the Sahara, have a look at this
18:04And what it does
18:06It just does this
18:08So it spins with the limbs extended rather than in a ball
18:11It can tumble on flat ground
18:13It can even go backwards uphill
18:14I mean they are
18:15If 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
18:24They're known as flick-flack spiders
18:26Their correct name is
18:28Sobrenus Reckenbergi
18:30They're named after a guy called Dr. Ingo Reichenberg
18:32And he was studying animal biomechanics
18:34And he was inspired to create the cartwheeling bionic wheel bot
18:39I feel like we should probably ban this before it gets too bad
18:42Yes
18:43Well, the only thing about it is it could possibly be used to explore Mars
18:46He doesn't look like he's made those to explore Mars
18:49No
18:50There's also something called the dwarf reed snake
18:52Which cartwheels with no limbs at all
18:55Wait, snakes can cartwheel now?
18:58What it does is it coils itself into an S
19:00And then it launches itself with its tail
19:02This would freak you by that
19:03It can jump a metre and a half
19:05So six times its body length
19:06So this is it doing its thing
19:08It does it several times in a row just to get away from a predator or something
19:12Or if the sand's really hot at the beach
19:14Yeah
19:15Yeah, that's
19:16Yeah
19:17In America actually there are tiger beetle larvae that travel by wind-powered wheel locomotion
19:22That's what they look like
19:23They leap into the air, they curl into a ball and they are swept away by the wind
19:26The fastest caterpillar in the world wheels around too
19:29It's a mother-of-pearl moth larvae, only 20mm long
19:32They can roll at 38cm per second
19:34So that's like me doing roly-polies at 65 miles an hour
19:37Oh, please
19:38I would like to see you and Alan race down a hill
19:41Yeah
19:42Back to wings now
19:44And specifically the west wings
19:46Good one for our American friends
19:47Here's a plan of the ground floor of the White House
19:49Can you name any of the rooms?
19:51I feel like the oval one is the oval office
19:52Yeah
19:53Yeah
19:54Okay
19:55You think, right?
19:56That's the billiard room
19:57Yeah
19:58Yeah
19:59Exactly
20:00Ballroom, conservatory secret passage
20:01Do you think you're right?
20:02So the one at the front, the oval one is called the blue room
20:03That's why you made it right?
20:04Oh, I know
20:051837 President Martin Van Buren had it decorated with blue carpet and curtains and nobody ever got over it
20:09It's also known as the large oval room or the elliptic salon
20:11It has never ever been used as an office
20:13It's a sort of formal reception room
20:14Apparently inside the White House is actually quite run down and generally
20:18It was really old
20:19I've been in the basement
20:20Who was in the basement?
20:21Is that in the basement?
20:22Oh
20:23No
20:25No
20:26No
20:27No
20:28No
20:29No
20:30No
20:31No
20:32No
20:33No
20:34No
20:35No
20:36No
20:37No
20:38No
20:39No
20:40No
20:41It seemed like, you know, maybe not as shiny as you'd expect, but it was a nice house. What were you fixing?
20:55There 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
21:04So if you're ever in the White House in the basement
21:07Open up some books. What kind of things did you put to the notes and it was a while ago now?
21:12No, because I love this I often if there's a book in a pub or something and I'll take it down
21:16I always put with love from the author. I do it with Bibles in hotels
21:25There's more White House floor above, okay, so what is this room called? I suppose it would be the Oval Office
21:37No, it's that's called the Yellow Oval Room. We're really trying to help you about that
21:41I like the Queen's bedroom
21:43Have we had to change the name of that one which one the Queen's bedroom or is it forever the Queen?
21:48So it's for all the many Queens
21:50Any Queen
21:51Not all royals
21:53Like RuPaul
21:54I was gonna say Ru stays whenever he goes
21:56Yeah, if you look at the front of the White House sort of the shot that we are quite used to seeing
22:00I always thought that was the Oval Office right there, but it isn't to the left is the White House's West Wing
22:06And that is where the Oval Office is and in fact what happened when Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1933
22:12He moved his main workspace 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 is the old laundry room because it got more sunlight
22:23What I like is that every president has made some sort of small changes to the room and several have installed secret buzzers
22:30So JFK get a secret buzzer in an ashtray
22:33For actresses to come in
22:35Promise president I got your buzzer
22:39I'm here to do some tie pan
22:41And Johnson probably had a whole separate room for his schlong apparently
22:45Because he's like famously like well endowed and let everybody know that he just had a giant dog
22:51It is exactly the reason he had a buzzer
23:04JFK in the middle there he had one in the ashtray so he could buzz his secretary secretly and she could come in and say the meeting was over
23:10Lyndon Johnson was caught cheating in the office by his wife
23:13And so the press the wrong buzzer like not the wife buzzer
23:18The buzzer was the other way it was to warn him that she was on the way
23:22So he could roll it back up
23:30Quick 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 his secret
23:47There wasn't a lot going on during his administration
23:51The team thought that I should have a buzzer of my own
23:55What noise does it make?
23:56Well, let's just have a look and see what noise it makes
23:59Do you know what that is?
24:01It's the danish national anthem
24:02They bring me thank you jack they respect our pastries they're so tasty
24:17This is genuine danish licorice it's called spunk
24:20Oh really good I don't I don't want it but I will have it
24:27I'll have yeah I'll have some spunk yeah I'll have some spunk Sandy I know that's going to become a meme or something
24:34Thank you very much oh yeah I'm not even going to tell you what this tastes like because you know it's written on the tin
24:39It's really bad yeah it's truly bad it tastes so salty it's even worse than black licorice you're talking about my national candy
24:50We have like a spittoon or something yeah
24:53What I've always wanted is to have an audience of people watch as I
24:59Ashley yeah a tiny bit of spunk just
25:09Thank you
25:17Mr. President please
25:22Anyway um while we're talking about american wings what's the name of the tallest bird in the united states
25:33I'm assuming it's an ostrich it's not an ostrich no no but there's always some american with like a
25:38Weird pet they keep in their bathtub yeah
25:41There's no ostriches in america imported bird i'm talking about an american bird okay it is the whooping crane
25:48Which stands at just over five foot tall which is taller than me wow it has a wingspan of seven foot seven inches wow so
25:55The same as a golden eagle and they whoop so by coincidence I am the same height and I I wonder if you'd like to see an impression
26:02Oh
26:04I got more than anything no I'm gonna this would fool even another whooping crane
26:12I'll be honest you have to be so careful putting on a big white hood over your head
26:19Oh
26:21Do we get some breadcrumbs or yeah is this to like catfish them into like mating and getting all
26:27So 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 beautiful creatures in the wild
26:41Today there are over 800 it's a really successful program and they're very sweet they have childhood sweethearts
26:46So the couples befriend each other for a year before they made they go to make for life like cockroaches
26:55But so when they're trying to raise the chicks they wanted to make sure they stayed wild so the researchers only
27:00Interacted with them while they were dressed as grains and they wore this head puppet oh you'd never know
27:06On one hand they had a wingtip puppet on the other hand and they used this thing to teach the chicks how to feed
27:13Just like you see in nature some huge alien with your face
27:17On its hand being like this is normal
27:20That was actually daniel day lewis
27:23I am a crane for a year
27:26They had a mp3 player in their pocket but making the calls of adult cranes and then when the chicks were old enough to fly
27:33Pilots dressed in the same outfits okay led them through the air in a micro light and they were taught safe migration routes from wisconsin to flora
27:42I think it's lovely that's a long way
27:43It's a very long way and then this is this is proper commitment engineers in new mexico tech
27:49They wanted to study the birds in flight they made flapping wing drones okay, so these are made of real stuffed birds taxidermy
27:57They shoved a drone up a dead bird is what you're saying yes they did that's dark and unlike normal
28:07Does it really fly yeah, they're gonna do that to us one day you realize this guy
28:12But unlike just a normal drone the birds weren't afraid of these taxidermied birds
28:16They seem to think it was absolutely fine and they're beginning to think these are a good idea for spy drones that you would have it
28:21Actually, just look like a bird. I know this is why they have that whole birds aren't real conspiracy
28:28Is that a conspiracy a bit?
28:31It's all just government spying and that's why they're always on the power lines is because they're just looking
28:36I mean
28:46And why are they pooing that's the information packet
28:51Anyway, I love the commitment to bringing these yeah birds back from extinction
28:55I would just like to thank the international crane foundation for lending us the puppet which I think is
29:00Yeah
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
29:14To whom does it belong?
29:15Oh, it is
29:16Yes, darling. Oh, okay. So it's a feather sacred to the Maori people. Oh, okay
29:21It's from the huia. 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 pounds
29:33They're wonderful birds from what we know the various drawings and what's extraordinary is that the male and the female had very different
29:39Bill 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 and one
29:45Why do you think they might have such different bill sizes?
29:48That looks like the kind of thing where you're like I've got to feed my man, you know if you want to keep them
29:52It looks like it's going inside of stuff to pick food out and he's just like
29:58So they're actually working together. So he is stabbing holes in rotting wood and she can reach in and get the insects out
30:04Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah
30:06Teamwork, okay. Operative, yeah. All right. Sometimes it pays to split the bill. Hoo-ya
30:15Now for something completely different, what would you do with one of these?
30:19Oh
30:21How many friends
30:25That's a part of my past I don't talk about
30:28What is a wine press I can tell you it is officially called a more and swing
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
30:46Yes
30:48You didn't put like a cat or a whale for a scale
30:53Sorry, 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 countryside
31:00When beijing fell to the ching invaders and she became an expert in the martial arts
31:05And she saw a snake fighting a crane and she was inspired by how the crane stuck its beak out
31:11Whilst blocking with its wing and she already knew kung fu and so she adapted it to a style that relied on speed and dexterity rather than
31:18On strength anyway, that's the story. I don't know if it's true or not
31:22The crane might have been a man with
31:26It 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 existed
31:35It didn't it didn't really happen by luck. Yeah, exactly
31:40History will remember me as that qi contestant puddy o mahoney
31:46Great guy talked about nothing but potatoes
31:49Anyway, we have a wing chung dummy in the studio and here is instructor tony pivorski to tell us all about it
32:04So i mean to the outsider it looks like you're going to attack a telegraph pole danny
32:08So tell me how it works basically what you do the bachelor crap out of it
32:11Okay
32:13And this is something you would train on your own to do yeah, it's it's it's a wooden man basically and what you do is
32:19You use this to improve your techniques. Okay. Can you show me? Okay. Yeah
32:37I mean, yes
32:41You're doing that you have to go fire fire fire fire fire let me see your wrists right no watch
32:56Yeah, okay, good. I was like is it gonna tell me I have small wrists
33:01What you want to do is this okay? Yeah, go on this
33:06Okay, I didn't see any
33:12Are you a sort of fighting sort of person? Oh all the time
33:16Okay, so we want to do is first first form just give that oh and then yeah
33:23Mm-hmm. That's not happening even that much
33:27Where I come this and I was that's it. Yeah. Oh, that felt good. Yeah
33:30Yeah, I'll do that man
33:32Yeah
33:34Well, we could go there behind I'll just grab it
33:37Yeah
33:43Tony thank you very much
33:48So, Wing Chun, he became famous in the 1950s when a grandmaster called Ip Man started training Bruce Lee.
33:57I didn't think it was suddenly going to spin round and do something back.
34:02Because you hit it and it goes, whoop!
34:04That's an unforgiving enemy, isn't it?
34:07Yeah. Not really, because if you just go behind its back, you could push it over.
34:10Dalek.
34:12Yeah, it's like, why don't they ever go behind the Daleks and lift them up?
34:16Right. It's time to spin the Wheel of Fortune and the Sudden Death.
34:20It is general ignorance. Speakers on buzzers, please.
34:23It's the Renaissance. We are in Venice.
34:25What's unusual about the way the ruling classes travelled around,
34:28unlike any other city in Italy.
34:31Waggonwheels.
34:33Ryanair.
34:34LAUGHTER
34:37Please.
34:38APPLAUSE
34:41I'm going to give you a point for getting away with it.
34:44That's very good. What do we reckon?
34:46Horses.
34:48No.
34:49E-scooters.
34:50LAUGHTER
34:51Wheelbarrow, wheelbarrow racers.
34:53Yes.
34:54LAUGHTER
34:55CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
34:58I don't want to say gondolas or boats or any of the things you've got lined up on the thing.
35:03So you would think it's something to do with the water, right?
35:05Yeah.
35:06They walked.
35:08Oh. Oh, well, that's...
35:09Absolutely.
35:11In the 16th century, the patricians in other cities would use horses, for sure.
35:15Oh.
35:16But animal transport almost nonexistent in Venice.
35:18I mean, it's very narrow and there's all those bridges,
35:20about 400 bridges in total,
35:22and only the very rich could afford a gondola.
35:24Which, in any case, you could only take part of the way to your destination,
35:27but, on the whole, if you are in Venice, it is quicker, probably, to walk.
35:30And travelling by boat became associated with either decadence or ill health.
35:35So you were either very rich or dying.
35:38And best if you're both, baby!
35:40LAUGHTER
35:41And basically, it was just better and quicker for everybody to walk.
35:45And even today, if you go to Italy, one of the things I love,
35:48as you become an older person and you sit down somewhere nice
35:51with a glass of something or other, you can watch...
35:53Your medicine.
35:53Yeah, your medicine.
35:55La passaggiata, which is walking for pleasure,
35:58strolling in the company of friends for no purpose whatsoever.
36:01Renaissance Venetians didn't like getting a boat by getting a boat.
36:06What kind of birds are African, Chinese and Italian owls?
36:10Owls, yeah.
36:11They look like a menu at an airport.
36:19With, like, degrees of spiciness.
36:21Yeah.
36:23There are all types of fancy pigeon.
36:25Fancy pigeons, which people collected, you're a pigeon fancier,
36:29they came in all sorts of fabulous, weird shapes and colours,
36:32and they're named after their main characteristics.
36:35If we show you a few fancy ones, aren't these fabulous?
36:38Ooh!
36:39Yeah, this is a pigeon gone crazy.
36:40This is a pigeon by Victoria Beckham.
36:42This is your idea.
36:43I always like the one on the left.
36:45Yeah, I do.
36:46Yeah, do you?
36:47That's called the Jacobin.
36:48It's named after the large hood that was worn by medieval Jacobin monks.
36:52The one in the middle, very popular in East Anglia, the holocropper,
36:55probably first bred in the Netherlands.
36:58And the one on the right is the frill back with her little box perm.
37:02What the hell?
37:04Charles Darwin loved them, kept them for selective breeding.
37:07I saw one of his dead pigeons at the Natural History Museum just the other day.
37:11Don't say we don't have things to show people.
37:13LAUGHTER
37:15Welcome to London.
37:17Have you seen a dead pigeon in a box?
37:19LAUGHTER
37:20Right this way, sir.
37:22£59 and £75 for the family.
37:26It was in, like, the Hall of Treasures.
37:29I know.
37:30We also have people made of wax who slightly look like the people are based on.
37:34LAUGHTER
37:36If you go to Ireland, you can see a potato in a spoon.
37:38LAUGHTER
37:40There you go.
37:41APPLAUSE
37:44But don't be fooled, because the potato's actually stuck to the spoon.
37:48Yeah.
37:49What was the full title of Charles Darwin's most popular book?
37:54Uh, Birds Aren't Real.
37:55LAUGHTER
37:58Anybody want to fall into this trap?
38:00Fifty Shades...
38:02LAUGHTER
38:04What is it about the theory of evolution?
38:06So, the one that we all talk about is The Origin of the Species.
38:09The Species. Yes, On the Origin of Species and...
38:11And a couple of tales about my crazy life in show business.
38:14LAUGHTER
38:17That sold 4,250 copies.
38:18The big one was, what's in my beard?
38:21LAUGHTER
38:23It was a picture book, and you lifted his beard up,
38:25and there's always something different.
38:27LAUGHTER
38:28I sold 2,000,000 copies one Christmas.
38:30LAUGHTER
38:31What's in my beard?
38:33LAUGHTER
38:34This man has good ideas.
38:36Weirdly, I think it would do well.
38:37It would do well.
38:38He sold 6,000 copies of the formation of vegetable mould
38:42through the action of worms with observations on their habits.
38:45Oh!
38:46But I think in the long run,
38:47On the Origin of Species might have done better.
38:49Yeah, probably, but we're talking about initial sales here.
38:52OK.
38:53Actually, he was obsessed with the whole worm thing.
38:54You know, he performed some of the earliest excavations at Stonehenge.
38:58But he was digging for worms.
38:58He was there as a naturalist, not as an archaeologist.
39:01As he kept digging away, these stones were appearing.
39:04Yeah.
39:05Snow it! Snow it!
39:07I think there's one here.
39:09Imagine if he's just...
39:10If he's looking for worms and he's like,
39:11Oh, God, these stones, I'm just going to put them up here.
39:13Yeah, over there.
39:15LAUGHTER
39:16APPLAUSE
39:17That one on top!
39:18APPLAUSE
39:19Where are the worms, Mr Darwin?
39:21And where do you think?
39:22LAUGHTER
39:24They're in that poop that's crawling away in my forehead.
39:27Yes, yes, yes.
39:28He thought that worms were deaf because they didn't react
39:31when his son loudly played the bassoon.
39:34LAUGHTER
39:36That's science.
39:37And then he put them on the piano
39:38and he realised they could hear through vibrations.
39:41So that's the scientific way to see if a worm can hear.
39:44So, while we're on the subject of bestselling books,
39:47I will give 100 points.
39:49Oh, 100 points.
39:50To anyone who can name these authors' most successful works
39:53in their lifetime.
39:54Oh, come on.
39:55So, the first one is Mark Twain.
39:58The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
40:00Yeah.
40:01Huckleberry, Huckleberry Finn.
40:06Huckleberry Finn.
40:07LAUGHTER
40:09What's in my beard?
40:10What's in my must-have?
40:11LAUGHTER
40:14No, his was The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.
40:18Oh.
40:19Let's try HG Wells.
40:21Time Machine.
40:23LAUGHTER
40:25The Outline of History was his most successful book.
40:28Oh, jeez.
40:29Edgar Allan Poe.
40:31What's in my must-have?
40:33Yes.
40:34My much smaller must-have.
40:36What's in my coma book?
40:37The Telltale Heart, he did.
40:38The Conchologist's first book.
40:41What? Oh.
40:42Yeah, most successful book in his life.
40:43Wow.
40:44Sandy, can I have one of your little cards?
40:46What do you want to do with it?
40:47Give it a friend.
40:49Do you just want to have it?
40:50Yeah.
40:51Can I have, like...
40:52This is what he did in the basement of the White House.
40:54LAUGHTER
40:56Can I just take one of these declarations?
40:57You won't miss it.
40:59You won't miss it.
41:00You can have all these done.
41:01Do you want some spunk as well?
41:02Yeah.
41:03LAUGHTER
41:05In the story Aladdin, what does Aladdin rub to release a genie?
41:09Oh, no.
41:10It's cock.
41:11LAUGHTER
41:28I mean, that would be some interesting spunk.
41:30LAUGHTER
41:32You know when your kid behaves badly at school but you're sort of proud?
41:35Yeah.
41:36LAUGHTER
41:38So, in the earliest recorded version, it's a ring.
41:41Oh.
41:42Oh.
41:43LAUGHTER
41:44Was it his ring?
41:47Yeah.
41:48LAUGHTER
41:49Or someone else's ring?
41:50Hang on a minute, I'll rub that and I'll get a genie out of it.
41:52LAUGHTER
41:54You'll never get a genie out of it, I'm telling you that!
41:56LAUGHTER
41:57Are you surprised what I can do?
41:59LAUGHTER
42:01His mother does rub a lamp and produces a second genie.
42:04Oh, I bet she does.
42:05LAUGHTER
42:06How many wishes did they get?
42:08Three wishes?
42:09No.
42:10Oh, no.
42:11Many, many more.
42:12A thousand wishes.
42:13Lots and lots of wishes.
42:14Well, then I...
42:15You don't even have to wish for more wishes.
42:17Yeah, no, there's no need to wish for more wishes.
42:19You just keep rubbing.
42:20But...
42:22The word to the wise, just keep rubbing.
42:24Yeah.
42:25Eventually, oh, you'll know.
42:26You'll know.
42:27What did that mean?
42:28As the dolphin said to the whale.
42:30LAUGHTER
42:32Yes.
42:33The story first appeared in a French edition of 1001 Nights,
42:36or Arabian Nights, published in 1710.
42:39And there's flying carpets?
42:40Yeah.
42:41No.
42:42No, it's from another French edition, the flying carpets.
42:44It's people adding their own bits and pieces to the story.
42:47The first Aladdin didn't have a flying carpet,
42:49but he did have a rubber ring.
42:50Oh, boy.
42:51Now, let's see who's winged their way to the top
42:54and who's under the wheels of the bus.
42:57Oh, I think I was.
42:58In last place, tonight,
42:59because the wheels totally came off,
43:00with minus 58, it's Alan.
43:02Oh!
43:03LAUGHTER
43:04APPLAUSE
43:05In third place, having spent a lot of time winging it,
43:08with minus 34, it's Hank.
43:10CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
43:13In second place, definitely earned their wings,
43:15with minus nine, it's Ashley.
43:17CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
43:20And our winner,
43:22Wheelie Wheelie Good.
43:24Oh.
43:25With six whole points, Desiree!
43:27CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
43:36Thank you to Hank, Desiree, Aisling and Alan,
43:38and I leave you with this little wing thing.
43:40The late Willie Rushton once opened a science wing
43:43at his old school.
43:44His entire speech was as follows.
43:47The buggers open.
43:48LAUGHTER
43:50Good night.
43:51APPLAUSE
43:53APPLAUSE
43:54APPLAUSE
43:55MUSIC
44:20Bye.
44:21Get in with...
44:22I like to have a bit of blood.
44:23Bye.
44:24Goodbye.
44:26Bye.
44:27Bye.
44:28Bye.
44:29Bye.
44:30Bye, bye.
44:32Bye.
44:33Bye.
44:34Bye.
44:37Bye.
44:39Bye.
44:40Bye.
44:41Bye.
44:42Bye.
44:43Bye.
44:44Bye.
44:45Bye.
44:46Bye.
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