Lateral with Tom Scott

155: The missing whiskey

15 snips
Sep 26, 2025
Join Tom Lum, Ella Hubber, and Caroline Roper from the Let's Learn Everything podcast as they tackle fascinating questions. They dive into a bizarre case where locals were rewarded for breaking fossilized skulls, and the mystery behind why 70,000 whiskey bottles went missing due to evaporation. Ella shares the wild story of a spinning birthing table inspired by an elephant, while Tom Lum reveals the clever strategic names used in rock-paper-scissors. Expect laughter and curiosity as they unravel these quirky topics!
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
INSIGHT

Digital Copies Can Violate Physical Patents

  • Microsoft Office added movable colored note boxes in 1997 that mimicked Post-it notes on screen.
  • 3M sued Microsoft for creating digital representations of their yellow repositionable notes, reportedly settling out of court.
ANECDOTE

Fossil-Breaking Bribe Backfired

  • Ralph von Konigswald paid locals for skull fragments while searching Java in 1937.
  • Locals began breaking larger fossils into smaller fragments to collect more payments, forcing him to stop rewards.
INSIGHT

Reissuing Notes Deflated Stolen Cash

  • After a 2004 £26.5m Northern Bank robbery, the bank withdrew and reissued its own banknotes.
  • Reprinting notes made the stolen cash suspicious or unusable and forced launderers to surface to exchange them.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app