- 5 weeks ago
QI XL S23E12 >>> https://dai.ly/x9y73d0
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00:00Music
00:04Music
00:08Music
00:12Music
00:20Music
00:24Music
00:26Music
00:34Good evening and welcome
00:36to QI where tonight we're wrapped up
00:38warm and wearing wellies for a
00:40wander round the weather. Let's meet
00:42our full-weather cast. A breath
00:44of fresh air, it's Chris McCausland.
00:46CHEERING
00:48Choosing the breeze,
00:50it's Ed Byrne.
00:52CHEERING
00:54Picking of a storm, it's Zoe Lyons.
00:59And our little ray of sunshine, it's Alan Davis.
01:07Now, listen to the rhythm of the falling rain. Zoe goes...
01:15Chris goes...
01:21Ed goes...
01:24Ed goes...
01:28Alan goes...
01:30It's raining men!
01:33Here I am!
01:36Oh, yeah!
01:39Nobody?
01:41Absolutely!
01:43It's raining men!
01:46It's raining men!
01:48Oh, fantastic!
01:50Is it going to go for that long every time?
01:55Well, can I just say, I love that, when I did Desert Island Discs, that was my top song, that was the one I most wanted, because I thought if I was on a desert island and the Royal Navy turned up, I'd be thrilled.
02:06Right, let's brave the elements, come on now, plunge right in with question one. Should weather forecasts be banned?
02:12Yeah.
02:13OK, so that's that answer.
02:16Why do you think they should be banned?
02:18Why do you think they should be banned?
02:20Because I think they've taken the spontaneity out of life. I think life would be more enjoyable and more adventurous if I just went sod it, I'm wearing a bikini, went outside and see what was happening.
02:28Yeah.
02:30That's what I'd do.
02:32Would it be possible, rather than banning them, maybe we could pass a law that people who work in the Met Office are forced to dress in accordance with the weather they've predicted for the next day.
02:44So, you know, if they say it's going to be hot and sunny, they've got to commit to shorts and a t-shirt for the rest of the day.
02:50I like that. And when they're in a downpour they go, oh, curse my faulty modelling.
02:55It was actually invented by one person, it was a naval officer called Robert Fitzroy.
03:00So, he lived in the 19th century, there's another marvellous 19th century picture of a man with an umbrella.
03:05And now a rabbit.
03:09He's got an upside down top hat, Chris, that's all it is.
03:13He invented what, the weather forecast?
03:15He invented the whole notion of weather forecasting, he was actually Darwin's captain on the Beagle.
03:19He rose to become a vice-admiral, but he's the person who founded the Met Office.
03:23So, one of his innovations was to install barometers at all ports all over the country.
03:29And these could predict storms and that meant that ships could stay safe, they would stay in port that evening.
03:34But there was a whole group of people, we never think about this, who made a living out of salvaging shipwrecks and they hated him.
03:41They didn't want the forecast and they lobbied against them.
03:44In fact, when he died in 1865, for a brief while the government suspended weather forecasts.
03:50Because it was bad for the salvage business.
03:52But also there were people who thought it was unscientific.
03:54The person we mentioned so often on QI is a Victorian polymath called Francis Coulton.
03:58He thought it was all quackery.
04:00In fact, originally weather forecasting was done by quacks.
04:02They were called weather prophecies, weather wizards, weather spies, weather mongers, weather makers.
04:08But a barometer, which we are showing here, is actually quite an accurate way of working out what the weather is going to be.
04:15Does anybody know why that might be?
04:18Is it accurate though?
04:19Because my mum used to have one in the hall and when you tapped it, the pointer just went...
04:24Right.
04:26Was it a barometer or was it...?
04:29It might have been roulette. Sorry.
04:31It wasn't a barometer. Or was it my dad?
04:34Yeah.
04:36I mean, the thing is, if it was properly functioning, it would tell you what the weather is.
04:39So the barometer was invented in the 17th century by an extraordinary man, Italian physicist and mathematician called Evangelista Torricelli.
04:48So he did a lot of work on atmospheric pressure, what he used to call the sea of air.
04:54And he realised that the earth has atmosphere which presses down at all times.
05:00And the weight changes depending on how hot and how moist it is outside.
05:05So what you do in its simplest form is you get a barometer which is filled with mercury and it moves up and down depending on the pressure.
05:14So when they talk about high pressure and low pressure, it really immediately should tell you what the weather is going to be.
05:22So, high pressure, what do we think? Good weather, bad weather?
05:25That's bad weather, isn't it?
05:26No, that's good weather.
05:28Well, high pressure in itself equals good weather because what it does is it causes air to sink and it compresses and it warms the air.
05:32It reduces humidity, you're going to get fewer clouds, OK?
05:36Low pressure is what causes storms.
05:39And he was the first person, Torricelli, to realise that this is how wind is caused.
05:44So what happens is the low pressure goes up and leaves a gap and the high pressure comes down and swoops in where that gap is and that is what causes wind.
05:53This is a lot for the start of an episode.
05:54Don't you feel sorry for the weather forecast when the weather's so bad that they have to cover it in the news so by the time it gets to the weather they've already kind of done it?
06:05Yeah.
06:07For years we've had the news tells you what's happened and then the weather tells you what's going to happen.
06:11Maybe they should swap it and the weather should tell you what it's been like and then the news should just guess what's going to happen tomorrow.
06:15BBC presenter caught up in sex scandal.
06:20Yeah, that'll probably happen tomorrow.
06:22Well they often do that, don't they, with the weather forecast, is they'll start the weather forecast by telling you what the weather was like today.
06:28Yes.
06:29It's very much sort of previously on the weather.
06:32Who are these people that take pictures of the weather and then send it in?
06:36Oh, and send them in?
06:37Oh, I love those people.
06:38That's very strange.
06:40I can't wait to be that person.
06:42These are the people who've retired from texting in about the traffic reports to the radio.
06:48This one woman weather forecaster whose name I can't remember but I like her very much because she does balletic movements.
06:53She does hand, very good hand moves.
06:56All we talk about is what they're wearing.
06:58Oh, she's going on afterwards.
07:00Yeah.
07:04Dinner party later.
07:05There was a period of time, 1885 to 1938, when American weather forecasters were forbidden from using the word tornado.
07:15Why do you think that is?
07:17Why is it too scary to say there's a tornado?
07:19That's absolutely right, darling.
07:20They had to say severe local storm instead.
07:23Mrs Jones, is it severe up there?
07:27Quite severe, yes!
07:30Four cows up here!
07:32Have you seen the film Shark Severe Local Storm?
07:35LAUGHTER
07:37These days, of course, you can, I don't know if anybody's got one of these, you can buy an umbrella that might predict the weather.
07:42Did you know this? You can buy a smart umbrella and it flashes different colours depending on what the weather is likely to do.
07:49Rain lands on it, it changes colour?
07:53It communicates with your phone and it will flash.
07:56Oh. Yeah.
07:57My phone runs my bloody life.
07:59And your phone also has a weather app.
08:01Yes.
08:02I personally don't see the point of this, although it does have a tracker in case you lose your umbrella, then you can get it back.
08:10I don't get it. Like, it flashes blue if it's going to rain, but then what are you meant to do? Just put it up and wait?
08:16LAUGHTER
08:17Yeah, it's not a thrilling relationship. I think that's...
08:20LAUGHTER
08:21A German weather house is a model with two little figures of a man and a woman.
08:29And when one comes out, the other one goes in.
08:33So, when the Frau comes out, what's the hair doing inside?
08:37So, Chris, I'm going to give you, my darling, a small German weather house.
08:42Oh, OK.
08:43This one here is in front of it, and you can just...
08:45I think you can feel that the woman is on this side here.
08:47She's on this side, she comes out and he stays in.
08:49The man is on that side, yeah.
08:50And she comes out.
08:51So, what's happening?
08:52He's just doing jobs in the house, isn't he, probably.
08:54LAUGHTER
08:56He's finally putting them shells up.
08:57Yeah.
08:59Which one's good weather and which one's bad weather?
09:01Oh, I want you to work this out, darling.
09:02Oh, I don't know.
09:03There's a clue in the question, what's the hair doing inside?
09:05When you say hair...
09:07Yes.
09:08Yes.
09:09Is that German for something?
09:10Is it?
09:15Is it that it works using hair?
09:17It literally works using a hair.
09:20So, it is an early 18th century form of hydrometer.
09:24And it measures humidity.
09:25So, what happens to hair...
09:27Frizzes.
09:28Frizzes.
09:29Frizzes out of control.
09:30When it's wet and it gets longer.
09:32And what happens when it's sunny and dry?
09:34It shrinks again.
09:35It shrinks again.
09:36It's fabulous.
09:37When it's ready, the fellow comes out.
09:38And when it's dry, the woman comes out.
09:40I mean, it's really, really clever.
09:42You just...
09:43Has hair got a double meaning of you?
09:45Yes.
09:46So, he's the hair and then there is hair.
09:49And then...
09:50Exactly.
09:51Yes.
09:52Oh, yeah.
09:53Yes.
09:54That's exactly right, you get two points.
10:00I literally fell over them two points there and found them.
10:03LAUGHTER
10:04So, hair stretches when it absorbs moisture and that gets the boy to come out and basically,
10:09when it's...
10:10I shouldn't really say this.
10:11When it's tighter and drier, the woman comes...
10:13LAUGHTER
10:14Out she comes!
10:15Out she comes!
10:16Out she comes!
10:17Out she comes!
10:18Out she comes!
10:19Loose and wet!
10:20Loose and wet!
10:21There he is!
10:22Here he is!
10:23It's tighter and drier!
10:24It's tighter and drier!
10:25I knew I shouldn't have said it!
10:26LAUGHTER
10:27Slack and dump!
10:29LAUGHTER
10:30Is that a great name for a double act?
10:32Tommy Slack and Bobby Damp?
10:33Yeah.
10:34LAUGHTER
10:35Tommy Slack!
10:36There was a Swiss physicist called Horace Bénédicte de Sausser.
10:38Yeah, whatever.
10:39There was a Swiss physicist called Horace Bénédicte de Sausser.
10:41Yeah, whatever.
10:42LAUGHTER
10:43There was a Swiss physicist called Horace Bénédicte de Sausser.
10:44Yeah, whatever.
10:45LAUGHTER
10:46LAUGHTER
10:47And Bobby Damp.
10:48There was a Swiss physicist called Horace Bénédicte de Sausser.
10:49Yeah, whatever.
10:50LAUGHTER
10:51Makes it all up!
10:52LAUGHTER
10:53It's the same picture every time!
10:54LAUGHTER
10:55He invented this system with the hair in 1783 and it was so successful that they were
11:12using this right up until the 1960s when they began to bring in the electric ones.
11:16I mean, it really is extraordinary.
11:17It's just...
11:18It could be a piece of cat gut, but it also can just be a piece of human hair.
11:21Now, what is another way that around the face we can tell what the weather is going to be?
11:27So, we've done hair, what else could we use?
11:29Nose.
11:30Yes.
11:31How might that work?
11:32Oh, I thought that was enough.
11:33LAUGHTER
11:34Can you smell weather?
11:36Yes, darling, you can.
11:37I thought we just had damp.
11:39LAUGHTER
11:40You can smell like when the rain's going to come sometimes.
11:43Yeah.
11:44Warm, muggy smell, can't you?
11:46Yes.
11:47So, that smell of rain on dry soil is called petrichor, OK?
11:50There is a chemical which is released by dead microbes and it's released into the air when
11:55raindrops fall and humans are amazing at detecting it.
11:59In fact, we are 200,000 times better at smelling rainstorms than sharks are at smelling blood.
12:06But why does your dog smell so bad when it's...
12:11LAUGHTER
12:12Your kids don't smell any worse when they're wet?
12:14No.
12:15LAUGHTER
12:16Because your dog does.
12:17Yeah, something has gone wrong.
12:19Duffel coats have that smell as well.
12:20A wet coat can smell, can't it?
12:22Yeah, a duffel coat.
12:23Is that still popular?
12:24I've got to know.
12:25A duffel coat?
12:26Well, middle-aged lesbian living in Brighton.
12:27I'd say so.
12:28LAUGHTER
12:29There was an American art collector, you may have heard her name, Peggy Guggenheim,
12:43and she had a unique forecasting ability.
12:46She had several rhinoplasties, so nose jobs.
12:49After she had the first one in the 1920s, her new nose shrank and swelled according to the weather.
12:55LAUGHTER
12:56Hopefully it was a lot.
12:58Yeah.
12:59Hello!
13:00LAUGHTER
13:01What if she lied about the weather?
13:04LAUGHTER
13:05Can I pull you back as well?
13:07Yes, ma'am.
13:08You said that we are 200,000 times better at smelling rainstorms than sharks are at smelling blood.
13:13Hmm.
13:14Like...
13:15What does that even mean?
13:16LAUGHTER
13:17Enjoy your workings!
13:19LAUGHTER
13:20Basically, we're talking about the concentration of the molecules either in a liquid or in the air,
13:26but we are really, really super good at it.
13:28It's why nobody's been attacked by a shark in a puddle.
13:31That's true.
13:32LAUGHTER
13:33LAUGHTER
13:34That is.
13:35That is.
13:36That is.
13:37Depending on your height, though, I regard puddles as dangerous.
13:40Yeah.
13:41Absolutely dangerous.
13:42Scars can sometimes be used to predict the weather.
13:46I was very ill when I was 21, and I have a scar which goes all the way across the bed,
13:50bisects me, and I can tell when there is a change in the atmosphere because I can feel it in the...
13:55Oh, you can if you've had a broken bone as well.
13:57Yeah.
13:58Tell me what you think about this.
13:59How do you think it would be amusing to have a zipper tattooed?
14:02LAUGHTER
14:03It's not tattooed in stall.
14:04Oh!
14:05LAUGHTER
14:06If you opened it up, would you get an even tiny little sandy inside?
14:10LAUGHTER
14:11Like a Russian doll?
14:12Oh, yeah.
14:13Do it.
14:14Do it.
14:15Hilarious.
14:16You're all going, you can smell rain more than sharks can smell blood!
14:29Right, you've heard of raining cats and dogs and raining men, but what if it's raining iguanas?
14:35Is it like a Mexican thing or something? Is that what they say instead of raining cats and dogs?
14:40No.
14:41I mean, they are native to Central and South America.
14:43Is it a freak weather event?
14:44No, we are talking about the green iguana.
14:47So, in Florida, this is an invasive species.
14:51It's a pest.
14:52Have you seen them in Florida?
14:53Yes, I've just come back from Florida and I've seen them.
14:55And they're big.
14:56And they have lots of them.
14:57This is an absolute pest.
14:58It was brought in for the exotic pet market and they got out.
15:01And they're terrible because they get quite large.
15:03They eat local creatures.
15:04When they get cold, they go into people's homes.
15:06And once they are, they are incredibly difficult to extract.
15:09In 2021, there was a Florida man called Kurt Hilberth.
15:12He spent three days trying to get an iguana out of his toilet.
15:17I've been to an iguana.
15:19I have no idea.
15:20You've hugged me many times, darling.
15:22I am about the maximum height for an iguana.
15:25Height or, like, length?
15:26The length, yes.
15:27So, no, they don't stand on their hind legs.
15:28So...
15:29Yeah, but if you were to lie down...
15:30If I were to lie down, I could do that on the desk in front of you if that was helpful.
15:33LAUGHTER
15:34Let's do that.
15:35Let's do that.
15:36APPLAUSE
15:37Right, now, you've got to imagine one of them in your toilet.
15:56Yeah.
15:57LAUGHTER
15:58Am I going to get in trouble for stroking Sandy's arse?
16:02LAUGHTER
16:03Not with me, you know.
16:04Now...
16:05LAUGHTER
16:06One in the toilet was about the size of the toilet bowl, and the guy tried to dab it...
16:09You'd shoot it in Florida, wouldn't you?
16:11Bang, bang, move on.
16:12No, you'd get a hole in your toilet bowl, right?
16:14Oh, fuck the toilet bowl, you killed an iguana.
16:17You're too busy nailing the iguana to the wall as your next kill.
16:20LAUGHTER
16:21He grabbed it and the tail came off.
16:23Oh!
16:24Oh, it's a defence mechanism.
16:25That would have happened to me if you'd kept trying.
16:27LAUGHTER
16:30And as he said, something big down there, something with teeth.
16:33You don't want that.
16:34He did, after three days, get it up.
16:35You're a long way from it raining iguanas, though.
16:38I'm going to get there.
16:39LAUGHTER
16:40In Florida, even though we think of it as warm, temperatures can plummet to minus four degrees.
16:45And when that happens...
16:46Ah, do they pass out?
16:47So, iguanas, well, they live mostly up in the rainforest canopy or up in the trees.
16:51They go into a state of shock and they fall out of the trees.
16:57LAUGHTER
16:58And in 2022, the US National Weather Service had to warn people in Miami
17:02to watch out for falling, frozen lizards.
17:06LAUGHTER
17:08They lose all muscle control, they lose their grip on the branches,
17:12their skin changes from a bright green to a sort of grey.
17:15They do keep breathing and their internal organs still function.
17:17It's like me on a night out, that sounds like.
17:19LAUGHTER
17:20Well, the thing is, you want to be careful, right?
17:22A bit like you on a night out, because they do eventually warm up.
17:25Oh.
17:26So...
17:27By that time, you've driven them over the county line.
17:29LAUGHTER
17:30That is the very point of this story.
17:32Do they not eat them, no?
17:33Because you can eat them.
17:34So, 2018, the communications director of Zoo Miami told a story of an unnamed man.
17:40So this man was originally from Central America, where iguanas are eaten,
17:45and he came across dozens of lizards on the ground, all frozen.
17:49And he thought, well, this is marvellous, I'm going to have them for dinner.
17:51And so he put them all in the car.
17:53And off...
17:55LAUGHTER
17:57Off he drove.
17:59And they all warmed up.
18:01LAUGHTER
18:02This feels like a contender for the Darwin.
18:04I know.
18:05And they all started running all around the car, and unfortunately, he crashed the car.
18:10Oh, dear.
18:11I had a similar experience.
18:12Not with iguanas, but...
18:14LAUGHTER
18:15I put a load of firewood in the boot of my car.
18:18Right.
18:19Because we were renting a cottage in Wales, and they were charging a fiver for a bag of wood.
18:22And I'm, well, I'm not having that, I'll bring me own.
18:24Yes.
18:25But wasps hibernate in wood.
18:27Oh!
18:28I had to pull over three times on the way to let wasps out of my car.
18:32I just woke up in the boot and started flying around.
18:35Yeah.
18:36What is wrong with you, darling?
18:37It's only £5.
18:38It's £5.
18:39LAUGHTER
18:40That was £5 for one bag of wood, though.
18:42I had a boot full.
18:43LAUGHTER
18:44Who had that fire roaring?
18:46LAUGHTER
18:47And buzzing.
18:48LAUGHTER
18:50And the irony is, he didn't want to get stung for the bag of a...
18:53LAUGHTER
18:55APPLAUSE
18:57They are not the only animal that can freeze in the winter without ill effects.
19:02The Alaskan wood frog, it can stop breathing, its hearts can stop,
19:06they freeze solid and they survive because they flood their blood with glucose,
19:11which acts like a kind of antifreeze, and it stops fatal ice crystals forming
19:15and it prevents them getting frostbite.
19:16But if you find one of these wood frogs in Alaska, apparently you can drop it on the ice
19:22and it goes like that.
19:24I mean, it's not nice, but it doesn't know.
19:27LAUGHTER
19:28It knows.
19:30LAUGHTER
19:31But frogs have also fallen during rainstorms.
19:36There have been showers of frogs, probably picked up by a tornado
19:41or a severe local storm and deposited several miles away
19:46or perhaps there was a flood and they were moved during the flood
19:49and then the flood receded and the frogs were there.
19:51But there are enough reports of frogs raining down from the sky
19:55for people to take it seriously.
19:57I just wonder what colour your smart umbrella goes when it's raining.
20:00LAUGHTER
20:02APPLAUSE
20:08What's so stupid now?
20:10Do they go up as tadpoles and come down as frogs?
20:13I'd like that.
20:14You wouldn't want tadpoles to rain down.
20:16That's just like, I don't know, like a sperm shower.
20:18LAUGHTER
20:20It's raining men again.
20:21LAUGHTER
20:22APPLAUSE
20:23Now, what's the weather like on the moon?
20:32There's no wind.
20:33OK.
20:34Because there's no atmosphere.
20:35Yes, nice place, no atmosphere.
20:37You're absolutely right.
20:38No wind.
20:39I'm going to go for it and say there is no weather, Sandy.
20:42You get another two points.
20:43LAUGHTER
20:44APPLAUSE
20:49Well, what there is is astonishing ranges of temperature.
20:52So it can drop from, say, 121 degrees centigrade
20:56to minus 98 degrees centigrade as they move from day to night.
21:00It's a phenomenal amount.
21:01I have to say the weather on other planets is much more interesting, darling.
21:05Winter on Uranus lasts for 21 years.
21:08Now...
21:09Not on my own, does it?
21:10LAUGHTER
21:11I thought you were deliberately pronounced it Uranus.
21:13I know.
21:14Stop your pants.
21:15Yes, he persisted.
21:16I know.
21:17We've got a picture up of all of the planets.
21:20Does anybody know...
21:21Does anybody...
21:23LAUGHTER
21:24Does anybody know a mnemonic to remind themselves of the order of the planets?
21:29Oh...
21:30Chris, do you have one to remind us of?
21:32My...
21:33My...
21:34My...
21:35My vulva...
21:38..eats...
21:39..mice.
21:42What's next?
21:43LAUGHTER
21:44OK, Jay.
21:45Jellies, surprising!
21:46Yes.
21:48My vulva eats my jolly surprising.
21:53Unfortunately, not...
21:54..penises.
21:55LAUGHTER
22:01I mean, if you counted Pluto as the last one...
22:04Oh, just for the gag.
22:05Just for the gag.
22:06Let's not let science ruin comedy.
22:08No.
22:10Pluto, even though we now accept that he's not a planet...
22:12Not a planet.
22:13It's not a planet has got dunes made of windswept grains of frozen methane. Wow. Yeah, you wouldn't want to have them in the back of your car
22:24Thick cloud and has winds that can reach speeds of well over a thousand miles an hour at the equator and has storms that can last a year
22:31So through a standard telescope, there's a giant storm on another planet
22:35You can see it looks like a spot which is the great dark spot on Neptune
22:39It's a storm the size of the earth and it's got winds of over one and a half thousand miles per hour
22:46The fastest ever recorded and there's another one. There's one on Jupiter. Is that the red spot? The great red spot of Jupiter. Yeah, very good arrow work
22:54Alan, can you point out the red spot on the on Jupiter? I'll do that now for you, Sandy
22:58Do it like a weather forecaster
23:00Just could you just talk about what I'm wearing always going on afterwards
23:04Yeah, that's it. Yes. Where are you going on to afterwards your lumberjack club?
23:15I know he always looks more lesbian than me
23:22Very upsetting. Why did you have me do that? Oh because I wanted to show everybody where it was and instead we just looked at you
23:27I mean, it's a long time makes a wet weekend in Scarborough seem almost bearable doesn't yeah
23:42Now, why wouldn't you go skiing on Mars?
23:49Is it if you're not very good and imagine it's mainly red runs
23:53Is the cost prohibitive? I think it's very expensive
24:05Have you ever read the Martian? No darling. Oh, it's such a good book. Is it they go to Mars?
24:11Like an expedition and one of them gets left behind by mistake in the film. I think it's Matt Damon
24:17So is it like a coach trip where you get left in Blackpool? Yeah, you get left in Blackpool and then you have to grow potatoes using your own shit as fertilizer
24:25In the atmosphere where you can't breathe
24:28And the guy who wrote it he's got all the science
24:31There it's more interesting if you view it as another sequel to home alone
24:36It's a sci-fi home alone
24:39He actually wrote that as a blog it was a serialized blog the Martian
24:43And it was so successful that it became he obviously made the film and it became one of the biggest selling books
24:49But that's got to be like one of the most profitable blogs that's ever existed. Yeah, it's a great read
24:54How many were there that you could leave one behind like you couldn't do a head count getting back on the space?
24:59Bear in mind this didn't happen
25:02Your own question was why shouldn't you go skiing on Mars? So why why skiing?
25:06Okay, so there is snow on Mars made of frozen carbon dioxide. So it's basically what we would call dry ice
25:13Cool. Yeah, the whole place looks like a video from the 1980s
25:18It's in a ultra box covered out of it
25:20Exactly that
25:22Tonight Matthew
25:28But here's the way skis work it is because of the friction of the ski
25:32On the snow that causes it to melt and you get a small layer of water co2 doesn't melt it sublimes
25:39It goes straight from solid to gas and so you'd I mean you just lose control is the reason
25:44You look great whizzing down the hill with all the plumes behind you the pretenders emerging the Chrissie hind
25:52I saw the pretenders into a concert in 1981 and there was so much dry ass she lost it
25:57You could say she was furious it started coming up like this and eventually was up around her eyes
26:03She's trying to sing a song she's like for the fuck's sake
26:07Imagine the guy at the cybers just having a spliff of pouring more and more of it
26:13This all falls over the stage and then suddenly we're all in it as well
26:17It's brilliant
26:21What was that word that you both said at the same time sublime
26:23I can't believe you both said that exactly the same moment and neither are you jinxed the other
26:29I thought about it but I just thought it might have ruined the flow of the show
26:33If the host suddenly wasn't allowed to speak
26:38Mars should be good for skiing it's got the tallest mountain in the solar system
26:41It's got a volcano called olympus mons
26:44Which is two and a half times higher than mount everest and it's roughly the size of france
26:48I mean, it's incredible. I heard a good fact about that mountain. It's so big
26:52That the top of it is over the horizon from the basement. Yeah, but the average slope would be about five degrees
27:00So even if you could ski it would be
27:02Really slow
27:05Moving on what's the windiest city on earth?
27:10It's not chicago is it because that's the nickname so i'm not going to say that okay, it's not chicago. What is it?
27:16Yes, ed
27:17Windya city i've ever been to is wellington is absolutely correct
27:22Oh
27:28Wellington new zealand has average wind speed of over 16 miles per hour
27:33It lies on the cook strait which is between the north and south island
27:37There's a thing down there called the winds of the roaring 40s and it blows
27:42Uninterrupted from south america thousands of miles westward and it's funneled through this little
27:4614 mile gap and it causes an absolute river of wind
27:49And before the city's buildings were designed some of them were designed as wind breaks
27:54It was so gusty on the streets that they stationed people at problematic intersections to help pedestrians across the road
28:01i've been in wellington but doing the comedy festival over there and
28:04I saw a pizza delivery guy get out of a van and he had a quite a massive pizza delivery box
28:10immediately went
28:13Took him like a sail down the road
28:15If it's that windy why did they build the place i mean sure that they just should have gone bloody hell should we do this somewhere else
28:23It's so initially when they were building it they had no plans to put it there
28:26The lead surveyor was a man called william mine smith and he placed it at the nearby mouth of the river hut
28:32Which was much more sheltered from wind and saranis but this area was prone to flooding
28:37So they did eventually move down to the natural harbour which is where wellington is
28:41I think wellington airport as well has got a weird little sort of icon it's like one of those
28:47Inflatable things you get outside of a secondhand car sales room like their logo is like wellington airport
28:55Anyway the picture that we are looking at is a picture of the harbour with wellington in the background and i quite like this statue
29:00It's called solace in the wind he's all his clothes have blown off oh winky in the
29:06Where's his winky around the other side
29:11It was very cold when they were posing it's an easterly wind
29:21Lie down and use it as a sundial what do you want
29:24I'll tell you what your question before when you said what part of the body can help you tell the weather
29:28Yeah yeah the penis is definitely one of them
29:30A sundial windcock
29:33Highest ever surface wind recorded on earth what do you reckon
29:37200 miles an hour pretty much 253 miles per hour it was during a severe tropical cyclone on barrow island in australia 1996
29:45So if you were foolish enough to stand outside the wind would have felt equivalent to standing on the fastest train in the world
29:53Which is the shanghai magluf it's their heathrow express basically except ours is like a coach and theirs can do 30 kilometers in eight and a half
30:01Did you say it goes from shanghai to magaluf?
30:03Oh
30:13And it goes from the city center to the airport now then why oh why
30:18Won't children put on their winter coats don't feel the cold they don't feel the cold is exactly right
30:24Why do you my daughter used to have a dress which is about three which had poppers down the front and she would just pull it open
30:33Discard it run through the park in the winter
30:36Cold but why do you think she didn't do they have higher metabolisms or something like that?
30:40No, so one of the ways in which we keep warm is fat, right? It's an insulator brown fat cells
30:46Yes, what can you tell me about brown fat cells? I don't know where that came from sandy
30:54It's useless knowledge is gathers around the back of my head like dust and coins in a sofa
31:04Well ironically brown fat cells adults don't have very many of them, but we keep them around the back of the head
31:09Do we?
31:13They're on the neck and shoulders so we've got two kinds of fat but there's three really there's white fat in which I mean
31:19It's good because it stores energy. It's not so good because it makes us overweight and brown fat takes up much less room than white fat
31:25It burns energy to keep the body warm and it generates
31:29300 times more heat than any other type of tissue. Do you know brown fat cells are actually 300 times better at generating the heat than sharks or it's
31:36What do you mean by that?
31:49Newborn babies have 50 times as much brown fat as adults
31:54It can make up as much as five percent of a baby's body weight and then when they're sort of 12 or 13 it drops away
31:59Babies need it because they haven't got enough muscles to shiver properly
32:02Which is another way in which we keep warm and then adults tend not to have very much except they have it
32:07Just at the back of the neck there. We do have beige fat
32:10It does a sort of similar job to brown fat. It's hidden amongst the white fat cells, but it's just not as good
32:16So when your daughter ran through the park genuinely was not cold
32:20So we do make the fat to keep us warm a bit as adults if we're exposed to cold
32:25So for example, they did a study in finland in the 1980s
32:28Lumberjacks have more beige fat because they have created an office workers specimen a
32:36Not looking dissimilar to alan
32:40A bit more butch than me. Do you think darling i'm
32:45He's covered in tats and he's got a big beard and he's got a lot of logs and not worried if there's any wasps in there
32:51No worries at all so people from chili
32:55Climes people from so scandinavia for example deal with the cold better because they have developed beige fat
33:01And it's also why the low temperature feels worse in the autumn because we haven't built up any kind of tolerance
33:06But there are some people who think that bad weather makes children naughtier. Do you think that's true?
33:11Is it just that we're grumpier and so it feels like they're being naughtier?
33:14Well, we don't really know but when air pressure i love it when you ask a question and then say we don't really know
33:20They did a study in schools and british head teachers about three-quarters of them think that children behave worse when it's bad weather outside
33:26When air pressure falls before a storm our blood pressure rises so a bit like a barometer and that does make us irritable
33:34And certainly gray skies make us hungrier because low light decreases the serotonin levels and low serotonin makes us irritable and anxious
33:43When i was six i led my very first protest i was at a school in copenhagen
33:48Run by nuns and it was raining out and all the boys went out to play and i was
33:53Furious furious so i got paper and pen was supposed to be doing coloring the girls and i made a big thing
33:59My protest my first feminist protest saying it was an outrage and that we should be allowed to go out into the rain and
34:05Eventually they did let us go out into the rain and all of the girls were furious
34:13It was a lesson in feminism
34:16But now it's time to weather the howling storm that is general ignorance mittens on buzzers please
34:22What kind of weather do you mainly get in a monsoon?
34:25I'm going to go for wind you are absolutely right
34:35Come on
34:41It's taken me six years sandy but i've got the anger this game
34:44So a monsoon refers to a shift in wind direction it comes from an arabic word
34:49meaning season it can bring rain but it can also bring dry weather
34:53So you're absolutely right it's a change in wind direction
34:55I did not know that
34:56No neither did i to be honest
34:58There you go
34:59LAUGHTER
35:01Literally
35:02Pulled that one up my arse
35:05So if you remember we talked about how the weather works in the summer the hot air rises from the land
35:09It sucks in cold from the sea that kick starts the rainy season and then in the autumn it goes around the other way and it can kick start the dry season
35:15I would fail a test on this
35:19Probably the rainiest place in the world is a town in northeastern india 12 meters of rain per year
35:25In musinram it's one of the wettest places on earth the uk it's just under a meter per year
35:31That's enough and that's plenty
35:33Frankly this is i really love this is a beautiful thing in the indian state of assam they struggle with drought
35:39And so they sometimes perform traditional frog marriages the croaking of the frog is associated with rain
35:45And so they have a symbolic marriage where they bring two frogs together but in 2019 there was so much rain they had a frog divorce
35:56Tell you what's awkward is when they kiss and only one of them turns into a prince
36:01Can they not also then just put both frogs in the freezer
36:06How long do you think the longest rain for 60 days
36:09234 million years ago it rained for two million years there it's called the carnian pluvial episode i mean how do they know
36:15They don't even know what it's going to be like tomorrow
36:21Rained for two million years two million years you could just say anything couldn't you
36:24Do you know like 65 million years ago it was really snowy for four years
36:30There is such a thing as too much weather talk isn't there
36:35In which country is the snowiest city in the world
36:39The coldest permanently inhabited places in russia it's a town called oymekon because i've been there
36:55And the cows wear bras
36:57It's that cold that the udders will freeze they have to put like a lagging jacket on the cows
37:06Although the technical term is lagging jack
37:08Well i said
37:09When you see it you see bras
37:12Difficult enough getting a bra to fit when you've only got the two
37:15Poobies
37:15That's udders you'd be like oh god you've been sweaty betties for hours
37:19I'm going to go out of the limb and say china
37:26Any more for any more
37:28Infrapenny
37:30Oh canada
37:33No
37:35I'll put you out of your misery it's japan
37:37Aomoi city in japan gets 26 feet of snow per year but what is extraordinary
37:45Is they make these wonderful corridors of snow and it's a sort of tourist attraction
37:51Oh wow
37:51So these are incredible chris so we've got pictures of cars but it's going many many feet above the car
37:57They've made a corridor of snow here and some of the public pavements have underfloor heating in order to keep them clear
38:04So this i love they have an international airport
38:08They have about 70 members of a team on standby at all times and they time it perfectly timed so that no snow can settle
38:14In 50 years not a single flight has been delayed or cancelled
38:19Whereas i sat on the tarmac for four hours at aberdeen airport over in uni
38:23There you go there you go
38:24Wait with me to de-ice a plane
38:25There you go in moscow in 2018 the only way they could get the council to clear snow drifts from the city center
38:32Was to write the name of the opposition leader alexii nalvelny in the snow and then the council would come and clear it
38:40Another thing you get in pressure is you get things called piscicles
38:43Oh right
38:44Which is where the snow is at the side of the road and when you wee into the snow
38:49And then the wee goes into the snow and freezes and then when the snow melts
38:53Get these stalagmites of frozen piss yeah that are just standing there they call them piscicles
39:01Right in which city would you find the dutch windmill museum
39:05Yes jacarta
39:11I like that thinking
39:15It won't be in the netherlands they got everywhere the dutch
39:18Yes well including jacarta
39:20Is in netherland is it oh in netherland
39:25Which is in it's in texas netherland texas i love this it's shaped like a dutch windmill
39:33I mean obviously it can't pump or grind or power anything at all because it's completely got fixed blades
39:38It's about 12 meters high it was built in 1969 by descendants of dutch immigrants
39:43So my next question is
39:46Where is the world's first and i think only cornish pasty museum
39:52I think i know this is it in mexico it is in mexico
39:55Yeah
40:05So why do you think mexico what do you think happened
40:08Someone from cornwall went there yeah so a whole group of pasties yeah a whole group of english investors
40:13They went there to buy silver mines in 1824 and they shipped in loads of cornish miners and engineers
40:19And they brought their pasties and their pasty recipes with them and so on and they're now called pastays
40:24In mexico they have a complete resume and they have an annual international pasty festival i'd go that's a nice day out
40:32They have upped the recipe there's a bit of chili in them now spiced it up a bit yeah just spice it up refried beans
40:41What's the most common allergy in the world
40:49Is it pollen
40:54No it's it's a lot i mean 49 of all british people have an allergy to pollen
40:59Yes
41:00Chris i was gonna say what he said i'll admit that but i'm gonna go for like dust
41:05Because we sneeze at dusty things or pepper maybe pepper
41:12So let's just be clear about an allergy this is not something that just causes you to sneeze right
41:16So allergy is your body misidentifying a typically harmless substance and freaking out okay
41:23Allergic to oxygen breathing no
41:27It's something you wouldn't even think of it's called urushio how would how would we gonna get that
41:33You would get it in that you think of things that actually not everybody's allergic to but a lot of people are allergic to
41:37Which is poison ivy poison oak poison sumac and about 85 percent of all humans are allergic to it
41:45It's in the same family as the cashew as in the same family as mango so people can be extremely allergic
41:51I'm talking about things that we're just brushing against a plant would cause your skin to blister right
41:56So there are some people honestly if their dog ran through poison ivy and you then touch the dog
42:00It would be sufficient to set you off it's your own immune system attacking your skin is basically what's happening when you have an allergy
42:07I'm allergic to horses i think or something like that
42:12It's a zebras maybe
42:16I mean start by taking horse out of your diet yeah
42:20Dad took my daughter to the circus years ago and then horses came out and so it was either horses or something they put on horses
42:27Jockeys
42:30Poison ivy isn't poisonous and it's not an ivy now. Let me tap my barometer and see how the pressure's gone down
42:37Say it's a real scorcher right in last place. Oh, this is bad seriously under the weather with minus 23. It's ed
42:45In third place chasing rainbows with minus seven it's oi
42:52In second place feeling right as rain with one whole point alan
42:59In first place stealing everyone's thunder by just saying the obvious with eight points
43:07It's chris
43:17My thanks to chris ed zoe and of course alan and i leave you with this from breezy bill bryson
43:23To an outsider the most striking thing about the english weather is that there's not very much of it
43:29good night
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