# Episode 033 - Elephants, Airlines & Royalty

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 26 Aug 2023, 37 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/75074761/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fexports%2Fd7afa960%2F75074761%2F60ebe7464832488dbf2c89e93768b569.m4a

Do you know which showman offered to demonstrate the safety of an iconic New York landmark? Do you know which is the third brightest object in our sky? Do you know what program did Japan Airlines launch recently to reduce the amount of luggage passengers carry? Tune in to find out! You can reach us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areyouquizzingme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/areyouquizzingme Email: areyouquizzingme@gmail.com

## Transcript

[0:01] Welcome to Are you Quizzing Me? I'm Maneet Nair with my cohost
[0:05] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing Trivia pod
[0:07] question. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:10] history, science, port, pop, gotcha, and so much more.
[0:13] Pet Skin Quizzing And we're back for episode #33 of Are You
[0:21] Quizzing Me? At the outset, let me first
[0:24] thank our guest quiz master of last week, the redoubtable Mr.
[0:28] HK, or have graciously filling in while I was away and he did a
[0:34] fantastic job, if I do say so myself.
[0:36] And now for today's episode, I am back with Aditya without
[0:41] regular programming, not regular format.
[0:44] So, as usual, let me start off with an audience question,
[0:47] something I'll ask right now, and the answer of which I will
[0:49] reveal at the end of the episode, right.
[0:52] Which will be followed by Aditya's usual, let's say
[0:57] question. The question.
[0:58] The audience question for today is as follows.
[1:01] Mark Twain wrote about X. It is older than history, older
[1:06] than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old
[1:10] as all of them put together, identify X.
[1:14] Let me repeat the question Mark Twain wrote about X.
[1:18] It is older than history, older than tradition, older even than
[1:23] legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.
[1:28] Identify X. That was the audience question
[1:31] for today, Aditya, please put us out of your arm misery.
[1:35] What was your question for last week and what is the quote UN
[1:38] quote answer to that? So the question that I asked
[1:42] last week was to do with the movie The Pursuit of Happiness
[1:47] and how in that movie happiness is misspelled intentionally.
[1:52] Because the makers had some rationale behind it.
[1:55] So I asked which Hindi movie has been misspelled or has a
[1:58] different spelling and what was the intention behind it, Which
[2:02] Bollywood film? And the answer was obviously
[2:06] right there. This is something we have
[2:07] actually done in the past. We have referred to this movie
[2:09] in the past. There was a question in many
[2:11] episodes ago about the movie Cars and how it is based off of
[2:16] the movie The reincarnation of Peter Proud.
[2:18] Did you know Cars also has a remake or?
[2:21] That is which has like 4 z's at the end of it and I believe that
[2:27] was a very intentional, a very self aware kind of misspelling
[2:31] because that movie was a snooze fest and that is why they put 4
[2:36] z's at the end of cars. I I salute the makers who are
[2:40] that self aware. I think that was an own goal
[2:45] rather rather than an intentional, something
[2:49] intentional on the part of the makers.
[2:51] So let's start off with the proceedings for today.
[2:53] I'll start off with a question. This is a fairly easy question,
[2:58] if you know what this is about. If not, it may surprise you,
[3:02] right? The Chicago Worlds Fair was an
[3:05] Expo that spanned from May 1933 to October 1934.
[3:10] It showcased a lot of things, a lot of new inventions and new
[3:13] things and a vision of the future from around the world.
[3:16] Among its offerings existed a very strange exhibition created
[3:21] and run by one doctor, Martin Cooney, because he wasn't
[3:26] allowed to run it in his workplace.
[3:28] The exhibition comprised of 58 specimens kept in glass
[3:34] enclosures and for which Cooney charged $0.25 for whoever to
[3:40] whoever, whoever wanted to view them.
[3:42] The exhibition left people in awe, and later most of such
[3:47] future specimens would be thankful to him on its success
[3:51] such enclosures that has, as he used later, received a warm
[3:55] welcome in his workplace and other places like it.
[3:58] Thereafter, it's a two-part question.
[4:00] Who or what were these specimens and what is Martin Cooney
[4:05] credited with introducing in his profession?
[4:08] Just to clarify, Martin Cooney's profession you did not mention
[4:11] right? So I mentioned that he is Doctor
[4:15] Martin Cooney, right? But I would say that with a
[4:18] grain of salt. Oh, interesting.
[4:20] OK, my instinct when as soon as you said doctor was for some
[4:25] reason, conjoined twins. Oh, you're very close.
[4:28] You're closer than you think, actually, with conjoined twins.
[4:31] Not exactly conjoined twins, but you are somewhere in the
[4:34] ballpark. Let's say, is it Sammy's twins?
[4:38] No, they're technically the same thing.
[4:40] Siamese twins are a derogatory way of saying conjoint.
[4:43] At least now it's derogatory. It was initially known as
[4:47] Siamese twins because of some famous conjoint twins from
[4:50] erstwhile Siam. But no.
[4:53] But you are close. You are close.
[4:55] OK, so it's not. That's why I asked.
[4:57] Sam is like it's not a matter of technicality.
[4:59] It is not conjoined, but it is something close.
[5:01] OK. Know you said mentioned that if
[5:05] you don't know this, it'll be interesting.
[5:06] Factoid. So right now I'm very much in
[5:08] the dark here. So yeah, give me a clue or
[5:11] something perhaps. OK, this is, I would say a
[5:16] common practice, almost a 100% common practice in all major,
[5:22] let's say hospitals around the world now.
[5:24] Sounds very much like sanitizing or disinfecting your hands, but
[5:28] I know that is not you're you're going a little cold.
[5:32] I would suggest you think back a little bit on what your initial
[5:35] thought was and move away from the, you know, extreme to
[5:39] something a little more common. So then I'm thinking twins or
[5:42] triplets or something like that. Yes, they would fall in this in
[5:46] many, many in many conditions. In many times most of the twins
[5:50] and triplets would fall under this condition.
[5:52] But let's say this. They need not be twins or
[5:55] triplets. Oh, OK.
[5:58] Is it premature babies? Yes.
[6:00] OK, so premature babies, That's the first part of the answer.
[6:03] Those were the specimens that, you know, people were viewing,
[6:07] right. So what was he introducing into
[6:10] his profession? Is it the NICU thing?
[6:12] Where I will give it to you it's it's the incubator.
[6:18] Incubator, right? Yeah, yeah.
[6:20] So the specimens, the 58 specimens he kept in his work
[6:24] exhibition were all babies, preterm babies.
[6:27] And this is the story of the origin of the incubator.
[6:30] So these premature babies lived in Cooney's incubators as
[6:33] exhibits and through this he demonstrated how incubators
[6:37] could be used to save lives. So the infants had been brought
[6:40] many weeks premature and well below a healthy birth weight.
[6:44] Which is why I said, you know that conjoined twins or twins
[6:47] and triplets. Because many times they are born
[6:50] slightly prematurely or don't have healthy birth weight
[6:54] stores, didn't make clothes small enough to fit their tiny
[6:57] skeletal frames, so the nurses dressed them up in dolls,
[7:00] clothes and knitted bonnets. A sign about the entrance Red
[7:04] living babies in incubators in letters so large they could be
[7:08] read from the other end of the Chicago World's Fairgrounds,
[7:12] which took place over 18 months in 1933 and 34.
[7:15] The Incubator infant Incubator exhibit was built at a cost of
[7:19] $75,000, worth $1.4 million today and was painted in a
[7:24] patriotic red, white and blue. Martin Cooney himself is a very
[7:28] interesting character. His story I think I can reserve
[7:32] for another episode another day because it's quite a long story.
[7:35] And I said, as I said, calling him Dr. Martin Cooney might be a
[7:40] bit of a stretch. Oh, OK.
[7:43] OK. That was a fantastic little
[7:44] piece of trivia. I loved it.
[7:46] It it leads me to an easy segue to my next question also.
[7:51] Which has to do with another famous American who loved to
[7:56] show and show off his talents. Okay and this is related to an
[8:03] opening of an iconic landmark in New York which happened in the
[8:07] May of 1983. In May of 1883, Okay so this
[8:12] landmark in New York was opened in May of 1883.
[8:15] It had been under construction for 13 years and it's unveiling
[8:18] was a highly anticipated event. Okay.
[8:22] The person in question X love PR opportunities and he wanted to
[8:28] offer a novel way to show the safety of this particular
[8:33] landmark. Initially it was rejected, his
[8:36] proposal was rejected. But eventually, when there were
[8:41] some concerns about the safety of this particular landmark, his
[8:44] proposal got the green light. So the question is, what
[8:48] landmark in New York? Who is this person X?
[8:51] And if you can guess what was it that he proposed to convey the
[8:56] safety of this landmark? OK, let me see if I can get the
[8:59] landmark first. You said it's 1883 in May.
[9:04] Right. Are we talking about the
[9:06] Brooklyn Bridge? No.
[9:07] Vineet, nothing slows you down, does it?
[9:10] At late hour of the night and sleeplessness and work
[9:16] exhaustion. Nothing, nothing slows you down.
[9:18] It is Brooklyn Bridge here, right?
[9:20] It is the Brooklyn Bridge. OK, so OK, fair.
[9:24] You know I have to give it to. The only reason I know this is
[9:27] because of a ROM com I watched a very long time ago.
[9:31] Wow. OK, which ROM com is this it?
[9:33] Start Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman, where Hugh Jackman's character,
[9:40] who travel time travels from 1883 in the past during the
[9:44] inauguration of the Brooklyn Bridge to, you know, the present
[9:48] day and he keeps using the term erection to mention the bridge.
[9:52] It's a magnificent erection. OK, I I see why that has stuck
[9:58] with you. That is something that would
[10:00] stick with you. Yeah.
[10:01] Yes. So.
[10:02] So that's the thing. I cannot think of who it would
[10:06] be. OK, so when you say he's a, it's
[10:08] a showman. You said like, he's like, is he
[10:10] like a showman? That that should lead you right
[10:13] to the answer. So we're talking about PT
[10:15] Barnum. Absolutely yes.
[10:17] X is PT Barnum. The person in question is PT
[10:20] Barnum, So if it's PT Barnum X, what did he do?
[10:24] He put elephants on the bridge or something to show that it's
[10:26] safe. And we have three on three right
[10:31] there without breaking a sweat. Yes, that that is absolutely
[10:36] correct. It was the Brooklyn Bridge which
[10:38] opened in May of 1883. It had been under construction
[10:42] for 13 years, was a very highly anticipated event.
[10:45] ET Barnum offered to show off the safety of the bridge by
[10:49] walking his troop of elephants across it.
[10:52] His proposal was rejected, but in 1884 there was an unfortunate
[10:56] incident where a woman fell and there was a Stampede. 12 people
[11:00] died and thus the general population was a bit concerned
[11:04] about a collapse happening. That's when Barnum's proposal
[11:08] was brought back to life. And.
[11:12] So the amazement of New Yorkers who happened to catch the site.
[11:15] There were 2111 elephants, 7 camels, and 10 dromedaries.
[11:20] This is basically furry camels trekking from the bottom of
[11:24] Cordran St. across the illuminated arches of the bridge
[11:29] with Barnum celebrated 7 ton African elephant jumbo bringing
[11:33] up the rear. And that was a spectacle to
[11:36] behold. It was also the subject of a
[11:39] June 2004 New Yorker cover. And that is where I encountered
[11:44] this first. So an interesting little piece
[11:47] of trivia with a person who has a lot of other trivia associated
[11:53] with him. So I will dedicate a mini
[11:55] episode to PT Barnum at some point.
[11:57] But yes so your description wanted.
[12:00] By hearing your description, I really wanted to ask you the
[12:03] question. Was there a song being sung in
[12:06] the background saying Prince Ali mighty, is he Ali?
[12:13] I I I wouldn't put it past Peter Barton to have a customized song
[12:18] for that occasional. So the man was quite the
[12:21] showman, yes? No.
[12:23] For a second I was thinking I my mind went to either PT Barnum or
[12:28] Edison. But then I was like, I'm not so
[12:29] sure Edison fit because there's interestingly a piece of trivia
[12:34] regard, you know, regarding Edison and an elephant.
[12:38] If I'm not mistaken, it's to do with the current wars between
[12:42] Edison and Tesla. So I believe he used A/C current
[12:46] to kill an elephant or something like that.
[12:47] I again this is just. I think.
[12:50] I think it was a smaller animal. I believe it was a rabbit or
[12:53] something like that, OK, And I'm not sure.
[12:56] We'll just have to, we'll have to crack check that.
[12:57] But it might just be that yeah, it drinks on me.
[13:01] OK, so I'm going to go in the opposite direction.
[13:05] I don't know why I said opposite direction.
[13:07] This is in no way, shape or form related to direction.
[13:09] OK, I'm just going to. I'm just going to give you a
[13:11] random list of things. These are non exhaustive.
[13:14] You just have to tell me where specifically would you find
[13:18] these? OK, OK, The recording of brain
[13:23] waves of 1 and Druyan. The image of a woman in a store.
[13:29] Spoken Greetings in 55 modern and ancient languages.
[13:33] A photo of Jupiter with its diameter indicated.
[13:36] Sounds of whales. Whale songs.
[13:39] Sound of a baby crying, Image of a group of children.
[13:44] As I said, this is not an exhaustive list.
[13:46] There are a total of 100 and 15120 different items.
[13:49] I've just read out a few. This is on Voyager One, right?
[13:53] Oh, nap cracker pop. That was fast, yes.
[13:58] The Voyager Golden Record. Both Voyager One and Voyager 2,
[14:01] these are the contents. These are a few of the contents
[14:04] of the Voyager Golden Record that was very fast.
[14:09] Do you want to go ahead and tell people what?
[14:11] What is this? I believe Voyager One and
[14:14] Voyager 2 are the furthest human made objects from Earth at this
[14:18] point of time. The furthest sat?
[14:21] No, not a satellite. What the probes?
[14:24] The probe interstellar probe currently.
[14:27] Currently they're interstellar because they've crossed the
[14:29] solar system. So now they're currently
[14:30] interstellar probes. They have, they have.
[14:33] And yeah, it's something very exciting.
[14:35] I think every time I imagine I remember when Perseverance was
[14:39] landing on Mars or Chandrayaan landing on Moon recently, it's
[14:43] just to imagine the scale of things and somebody being able
[14:47] to land a probe or or a Rover at a specific point on a different
[14:52] planet. It's just insane.
[14:55] Just I I can't. I can't even wrap my head around
[14:57] how human beings have this level of ingenuity.
[15:00] But they do and it's amazing. And and when we say that, you
[15:05] know, you know Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and before the Pioneer
[15:09] 10, these are probes which are so far away from Earth, it's
[15:12] very difficult to get an idea of scale right.
[15:16] So I I remember seeing this video on YouTube of this guy who
[15:21] uses the graphics to, you know, enlighten us on these things.
[15:24] So one particular graphic that he showed really, really stuck
[15:29] with me. So the graphic is this just to
[15:32] understand the scale of our Galaxy and our solar system if
[15:35] the Milky Way Galaxy. If the Milky Way Galaxy were as
[15:39] wide as the continental United States, the entire solar system
[15:45] would fit into the ridges of a fingerprint of a man standing in
[15:51] that in the United States. Geez, I, you know, I, I.
[15:55] It's funny how, and if I'm assuming this is an accurate
[15:59] description because when you said that initially I was like,
[16:02] I think I've encountered this in my head.
[16:04] I was thinking, oh, you're going to say it is a block in New York
[16:07] or something. And then you said it is the
[16:09] Ridge of a fingerprint of a person standing in the
[16:12] continental United States. And sometimes you really don't
[16:15] realize the scale and magnitude of things.
[16:17] That is, yes. It's just it's it's very
[16:20] difficult. It's it's like that other
[16:22] description. People say like people have this
[16:25] idea about millionaires and billionaires, right?
[16:27] Right. Yeah.
[16:29] Yeah. So if I'm not mistaken, again,
[16:30] we'll have to just confirm this, but I'm fairly sure this is
[16:32] right. A 1,000,000 seconds, OK,
[16:36] 1,000,000 seconds, considering a dollar for each second.
[16:38] 1,000,000 seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.
[16:46] Yeah, I think that is 31 or 32 years.
[16:48] Yeah, that is just, it is ridiculous.
[16:51] And to compare a billionaire to a millionaire also seems funny
[16:55] after that. Because yeah, after that,
[16:56] exactly. The same ballpark, Yeah.
[16:59] Oh boy. I love that question.
[17:01] That is a very fun question. Yes, Voyager 1, Voyager 2.
[17:04] One of the iconic moments of humanity as a race.
[17:07] And that's also a great segue for me to my next question.
[17:12] So in the in the sky above us. Beneath the brightest object is
[17:18] the sun. The 2nd brightest object is the
[17:21] moon. What is the third brightest
[17:24] object? The International Space Station.
[17:27] I think tonight is going to be a quick breeze.
[17:32] Yes, it is the International Space Station, which is.
[17:35] I was very surprised to learn this fact.
[17:37] It is brighter than all of the other planets.
[17:40] It is brighter than the brightest of stars.
[17:42] It is the brightest object in our night sky.
[17:45] After the moon, obviously. And if you talk about the sky in
[17:48] general, then after the sun and the moon, I my, my reflex answer
[17:52] was going to be serious. But then I was like, no way he's
[17:54] gonna ask me about serious. It has to be something else.
[17:56] And I was like, ah, yes, I remember this video I saw about
[17:59] this guy tracking the International Space Station at
[18:01] night using a telescope. And it just looks like this, you
[18:04] know, bright dot in the sky that's passing by.
[18:08] It is. It is brilliant, and NASA has
[18:10] created actually a pretty user friendly service.
[18:13] It's called Spot the Station. And you can do just that.
[18:16] You can just spot the station with automated notifications for
[18:20] when it might be above you, and beginner astronomers use that
[18:24] very often to spot the ISS in the nice guy.
[18:29] Nice, nice, nice question. I'm going to go to something a
[18:31] little fun. This is just a piece of trivia.
[18:34] It's just a fun piece of trivia. Yeah, nothing too much to think.
[18:37] It's a silly answer, but it's regarding my one of my favorite
[18:40] topics. History, of course.
[18:42] The Dutch Royal family went into exile when the Netherlands were
[18:46] occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940 and they went to live in Canada
[18:51] during this period. Princess Marguerite Francisca of
[18:55] the Netherlands, born 19th January 1943, was born in the
[19:00] Ottawa Civic Hospital, Ottawa. I hope I'm pronouncing Ottawa
[19:04] right. To ensure the child would be
[19:07] eligible to succeed to the throne of the Netherlands, they
[19:11] had to ensure she would not be a Canadian citizen.
[19:15] How did they manage that? Very interesting.
[19:19] I have absolutely no clue. So I'm just going to whatever
[19:23] guesses I make are going to be complete.
[19:24] No, seriously. I mean like your wildest guesses
[19:26] might be true with this answer with this question.
[19:28] Really cool. If Canada succeeded that one
[19:31] maternity room for a day to Netherlands?
[19:35] Not exactly. But you're close.
[19:37] You're very close. They brought in some Dutch soil
[19:41] and they placed it under the bed.
[19:43] No, no, technically that doesn't work either.
[19:45] It's very simple. It's very simple.
[19:47] You're you're almost 9990% at the answer.
[19:50] So it's just that. It's just that, this tiny
[19:53] technicality I'm just holding you to.
[19:56] I would imagine that it could also do something with the the
[19:59] embassy being involved, but then you said it was at the hospital.
[20:02] It was at the IT was at the Civic Hospital, yes.
[20:05] Right. Yeah.
[20:06] No, I I can't think of anything crazier than that.
[20:09] Okay. I mean like you you are you
[20:10] actually have got the answer quite You're just a little tiny
[20:14] bit away. So let me just give you a small
[20:18] crash course on the rules of citizenship.
[20:21] Right. So a British citizen subject is
[20:25] under the rule of just solely okay.
[20:28] So just solely means if you're born there, you become a
[20:30] citizen. So if she was born in Canada,
[20:33] she would have become a British subject.
[20:35] Okay. But the according to the rules
[20:38] of the Dutch for Princess Marguerite to be able to Dutch
[20:43] inherit Dutch citizenship it has to be under the principle of
[20:46] just sanguineous blood, which is by blood, which is by blood.
[20:50] So she has to inherit it from her mother.
[20:52] Now the problem is because Canada is a country which
[20:54] follows just sorry, by the very definition of being born there,
[20:58] she would automatically become a British subject.
[21:01] So, or to ensure that she would have a claim to the throne after
[21:05] the war is over, the maternity ward of the hospital was
[21:09] temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian
[21:14] government. This ensured that the newborn
[21:16] would not be born in Canada and not be a British subject under
[21:19] the rule of just solely. Instead, the Dutch child would
[21:22] only inherited Dutch citizenship from her mother under the
[21:25] principle of just sanguines, which is followed in Dutch
[21:27] nationality law. Brilliant.
[21:29] I love that. When was this?
[21:31] By the way, which year was this? This is 1943.
[21:34] OK. What was the status of Canada at
[21:37] that point? Canada.
[21:39] No, Canada was a British. What do you call it?
[21:41] I think it's called a dominion. It is a Dominion now, So was it,
[21:44] even then, a dominion? I think so, yeah.
[21:47] OK. Canada, Australia, they were,
[21:49] because we were also looking, if I'm not mistaken, there was a
[21:52] lot of discussion going on at the time, whether India wanted
[21:55] to be a completely free nation or whether we wanted to continue
[21:58] as a dominion or not continue as a dominant, whether we wanted to
[22:03] become a dominant where we would rule ourselves.
[22:05] But still, you know. Be part of the Crown.
[22:08] Yeah, part of the Crown, right. And very interesting.
[22:12] Very just declare it. Part of not being part of
[22:16] Canada. For a brief I love that.
[22:19] I I love the fact that there would have been like at least
[22:21] ten other babies being born at the time who are suddenly
[22:24] refugees now. Or or they're like, for what are
[22:26] we supposed to be now? Just for this little Dutch
[22:33] royalty, we lose our love that okay, great question.
[22:39] So we were in Canada and lets fly across the ocean to Japan
[22:45] and Japan recently. Japan Airlines recently launched
[22:49] a program where it gave overseas travelers an option which would
[22:55] reduce the amount of luggage that they would have to bring on
[23:00] OK. Can you tell me what this
[23:02] program is that is going on right now and it's supposed to
[23:05] end at the end of this month, at the end of August?
[23:08] What is this program that Japan Airlines recently launched that
[23:13] would reduce the amount of luggage being carried?
[23:17] OK, I have, OK, Nothing's coming off the top of my head knowing
[23:21] the Japanese. This is nothing to do with the
[23:24] Marie condo or something, right? Nothing to do with organization
[23:27] or something like that. No, no, nothing like that.
[23:30] The program to reduce luggage and it's only for a restricted
[23:33] amount of time. It is a pilot program.
[23:36] They were testing it out and it's going to end at the end of
[23:38] this month, at the end of August.
[23:40] OK, nothing's clicking. I'll need a clue.
[23:43] I'll give you the name anywhere. Anywhere.
[23:47] OK? It's something to do with
[23:48] clothes that they provide clothes.
[23:50] Wait, the the the app. The airline provides you clothes
[23:53] to wear in Japan. Love this.
[23:55] I love it is so random. It is so I can only think of
[23:59] Japan Airlines coming up with this for some reason.
[24:01] So anywhere spelled WEAR where comma Anywhere is the name of
[24:07] the program. It is a clothing rental service
[24:10] for travelers who travel to Japan with Japan Airlines.
[24:13] It is meant to eliminate the need to pack drag or laundry and
[24:17] reduce carbon footprint. And the idea is that they can
[24:21] make a reservation one month prior to the rental date.
[24:24] You can rent a bunch of clothes that you will wear in Japan when
[24:26] you travel there, so you don't have to carry your own clothes.
[24:29] And it is just it. It does not feel like something
[24:33] that would happen in the real world.
[24:34] It feels like something somebody would come up with in a
[24:38] surrealist sort of fiction. But yeah, there's something
[24:42] Japan Airlines recently implemented and tried out is
[24:46] till August 31st. That this service is being run.
[24:50] Wow, nice. Yeah, it doesn't seem weird when
[24:54] you say it's Japan like any other country.
[24:55] I would have been like, yeah, this is weird, but no, not
[24:58] Japan. Not Japan, somehow.
[24:59] Not Japan. Yeah, that gives me a segue into
[25:03] my question. The world's longest domestic
[25:06] flight ever traversed a distance of 15,715 kilometers and took 15
[25:13] hours and 45 minutes to complete.
[25:15] Can you give me the Funda to put it in Indian quizzing terms?
[25:19] The longest domestic flight travels to distance of 15,715
[25:24] kilometers and took 15 hours and 45 minutes to complete.
[25:28] And can you give me the funda? Firstly, I love the word funda
[25:33] here because it is such a classic Indian cuisine thing.
[25:36] Give funda. I love it.
[25:38] Yeah. That I'm innocent of quizzing
[25:42] days, OK? 15 hours seems just shy of doing
[25:49] a whole trip around the Earth. Just as a clue.
[25:53] I'm gonna ask, did it fly over the poles by any chance?
[25:57] No. Did it do a whole?
[26:00] Not a whole? Almost.
[26:02] Maybe like 3/4 of the way. Sounds like an almost 2/3, not 3
[26:06] fourths 2/3 of the way. I'll just give you a clue this
[26:09] this happened in March of 2020. March of 2020 is something to do
[26:14] with COVID. Russia comes to mind.
[26:17] OK, I'll give you the destination, not the origin.
[26:20] I'll give you the destination. That should give you a clue.
[26:23] Paris. Paris.
[26:25] So then, is it one of the French overseas colonies that they flew
[26:29] from? Yes.
[26:32] Which one would it be then? But as I said, this this did.
[26:35] This never happened before March 2020.
[26:38] Yeah, that that is also curious, why would it have been the first
[26:40] time that happened only? So maybe there was no reason
[26:43] because there was not enough of a traffic, so they would always
[26:46] do a layover. But because it was COVID, they
[26:48] wanted to ensure that they didn't land at any other.
[26:51] But you've you've got the major points, you've got the major
[26:53] points, you've got French overseas.
[26:55] Can you specifically mention which one, I mean they can just
[26:59] which one of the French overseas colonies we would be talking
[27:02] about? Can you guess?
[27:05] I'll still give it to you, but I just want to see if you can get
[27:07] it. Is it French Guyana by any
[27:09] chance? Too close?
[27:11] Not enough for 15,000? Not enough.
[27:13] Not enough for 15,000? The one in Indian Ocean.
[27:16] Ohh. What is the name you know you're
[27:19] thinking about Reunion Island? Union Island?
[27:22] No, that's also too close. Ohh, that's also too close.
[27:25] Think nuclear testing. Nuclear testing.
[27:29] At least if I memory serves me right, this was in the 90s, but
[27:31] yeah. Nuclear testing, boy?
[27:33] No. I have no idea.
[27:34] No. So I I'll give it to you.
[27:35] It is the French Polynesia. Let's gonna say French
[27:38] Polynesia. OK, OK.
[27:39] Cool, cool, cool. Yeah.
[27:40] But they, they have a nuclear testing history.
[27:42] I didn't know that. Yeah.
[27:44] So the French did underwater nuclear tests in somewhere in
[27:47] the Pacific. I think it's in French
[27:49] Polynesia. They did do underwater nuclear
[27:52] testing in the 1990s. I remember seeing it in on BBC
[27:56] when I was a kid. But yeah, so this particular
[27:59] flight was from Tahiti, which is in French Polynesia, French
[28:04] Overseas country. And normally this flight would
[28:06] have had a stopover at Los Angeles International Airport.
[28:11] So that would make it an international flight, right,
[28:13] Because it goes from a French overseas territory to Los
[28:16] Angeles and from Los Angeles to Paris.
[28:18] However, because of the restrictions imposed by the
[28:20] United States on international flights due to COVID-19, they
[28:25] decided to operate the flight nonstop, flying a plane load of
[28:29] passengers direct to Paris. Technically, it's a domestic
[28:33] flight. I love that Okay.
[28:37] That's a great question. Though you said that this was
[28:41] because the US had imposed restrictions, not because France
[28:46] had imposed any restrictions. No, no. the US imposed
[28:48] restrictions, so they couldn't land in the Los Angeles without
[28:52] going through a big rigmarole. So they had to.
[28:55] So instead of hopping from Tahiti to LA to Paris, they had
[28:59] to go straight from Tahiti to Paris.
[29:01] Right, right, right. If you're in first class, I
[29:03] think that would be a great flight.
[29:04] But if not, whoa, just imagine 15 hours in the economy.
[29:09] Go away. Yeah.
[29:11] And I recently went to the Paris airport.
[29:14] It is not exactly the best in the world.
[29:19] It is functional, but it is something something about
[29:22] European airports that you go there and you don't expect it to
[29:26] be just functional. That's that's the why I got
[29:29] nothing bad about it. It is working, it's fine.
[29:32] But somewhere just functional and after having been to grand
[29:35] airports, it's like a huh? OK, this is slightly
[29:38] underwhelming. Like I didn't expect to land in
[29:40] Paris and just be in an industrial looking sort of
[29:43] building. There is this thing called Paris
[29:46] Syndrome. Ah, the Japanese.
[29:48] Yeah, experienced by mostly Japanese people who have this
[29:52] romanticized and fantastical view of Paris.
[29:54] And they're so disappointed by Paris itself that they go into
[29:58] depression. The Japanese Embassy has a
[30:00] hotline for these tourists. Apparently so.
[30:04] I wonder what is it about Japan that makes them, you know, so
[30:08] susceptible to something like this in Paris?
[30:12] True, if anything, Japan is the kind of place where you go.
[30:16] But to be fair, Japan lives up to the hype.
[30:18] I've been there. Once you go there and you're
[30:21] built it up in your head as like, oh, this this exotic
[30:23] place. And it truly is this amazing,
[30:26] amazing culture that you just cannot describe and you have to
[30:30] experience. So I I get that.
[30:32] Yeah. OK.
[30:34] So I think it's your turn to deliver the last question of
[30:37] this episode. Yeah, last question.
[30:39] So I'm gonna had option between two questions.
[30:41] I'm gonna save the other one for next episode.
[30:43] I'm choosing this one just because it is such a fun
[30:45] question. OK, so there is a Twitter
[30:48] account which follows only 11 people, follows only eleven
[30:53] other accounts. Rather, do you know immediately
[30:56] which Twitter account I'm talking about?
[30:58] Because you do have, I do. I do.
[31:01] I think it follows 11 people called herb all.
[31:05] Right. OK.
[31:06] Let me just then complete this because you already know the
[31:08] answer. There are 11 accounts being
[31:11] followed, five of these. Are the former former members of
[31:17] the group called Spice Girls. And there are six, six men named
[31:22] Herb and these 11 accounts, as I think Vineet already knows.
[31:29] I'll let you do the honors. Vineet your tell us which
[31:31] Twitter account this is. This would be the official
[31:34] Twitter account for the KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken.
[31:39] Exactly. KFC, the Twitter account follows
[31:42] X account, I guess now follows only eleven other accounts and
[31:47] those are the 11 herbs and spices, the five Spice Girls and
[31:50] six guys named Herb. And this was for some reason
[31:55] somebody randomly realized this in 2017 and that person was
[32:00] rewarded by KFC that they they rewarded by KFC.
[32:05] When they discovered this, they were given. 50 two $5 gift
[32:10] cards, which is around, whatever, 260 dollars.
[32:17] Yeah, good. Interestingly, somebody else
[32:20] also had the opinion that they gave 52 gift cards because the
[32:23] franchises started in 1952. So that could be a reason why
[32:27] they gave 52 gift cards. Though to be though it was only
[32:31] $5.00. So that's not a big amount, but
[32:34] still there's free money. Yeah.
[32:37] And that is my last question. That was a great question.
[32:41] And before Aditya comes to us with his quote UN quote question
[32:46] for this week, let me bring out the audience question that I had
[32:50] asked at the beginning of the episode.
[32:51] The question was Mark Twain wrote about X.
[32:55] It is older than history, older than tradition, older even than
[32:58] legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.
[33:02] Identify X. Do you have any answers?
[33:06] Any ideas? Any guesses?
[33:09] No, this sounds very interesting and I have absolutely no clue.
[33:12] Never even heard of anything which would fit the description.
[33:16] Mark Twain came up with X. Is that how you described it?
[33:19] No. He wrote about he's describing
[33:21] X. Oh, he wrote about X.
[33:24] So is it a real world object phenomenon?
[33:27] It's a real world. Let's just put to put it this
[33:29] way, it's a real world place. It's a real place.
[33:32] He's talking about a place and describing it as being older
[33:35] than history, older than tradition, older even than
[33:38] legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.
[33:42] I'm gonna just randomly take a guess.
[33:44] This is the Himalayas. Ohh, you're very close.
[33:47] I would say, you know, give it another guess.
[33:50] OK. Is it a specific mountain or not
[33:54] a mountain? I would say it's a city.
[33:57] Ah, city bananas. Yes, it is about Banaras, also
[34:02] known as Varanasi in India, one of the oldest inhabited cities
[34:05] in the world. And Mark Twain wrote about it as
[34:09] being older than history, older than tradition, older even than
[34:12] legend, and looking twice as old as all of them put together.
[34:15] Map description if there ever was one.
[34:18] So Aditya your question for this week.
[34:22] Of course, the much weighted question of the week.
[34:25] Would be. You mentioned the lovely records
[34:28] on Voyager One and Voyager 2, which someday might be
[34:30] discovered by another intelligent species out there in
[34:35] the cold, dark universe. And I feel there was one thing
[34:38] that we missed out on that we should have put on it that would
[34:43] have been truly a representation of who we are as a species.
[34:49] And what is that one thing that we missed out on putting on
[34:52] Voyager One and Voyager 2 represent us?
[34:55] That is something I'll answer next week that you heard that
[34:58] here first. That's all for this episode.
[35:00] Thank you all for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
[35:03] learned something new. If you liked what you heard,
[35:05] please consider subscribing to our podcast, leaving us a review
[35:08] on your favorite podcast platform.
[35:10] It helps us reach a wider audience and allows more people
[35:12] to discover and enjoy the show. We'd also love to hear from you.
[35:15] Feedback, suggestions, trivia. You can reach us on Instagram at
[35:18] Are you quizzing me? If you're listening to us on
[35:21] Spotify, there's a question underneath which says What do
[35:24] you think about this episode? Be brutally frank, it'll just
[35:27] help us improve. We appreciate your support and
[35:30] look forward to sharing more episodes with you in the future.
[35:33] Aditya will be back after the musical sting with our Fact
[35:36] Check. Thanks again for tuning in and
[35:39] have a great day for me. See you guys next week.
[35:57] And here's the Fact Check for the episode.
[36:00] Kate and Leopold is the 2001 film starring Meg Ryan and Hugh
[36:04] Jackman, and it features time travel and the Brooklyn Bridge.
[36:09] Topsy the Elephant was electrocuted publicly after
[36:12] becoming aggressive due to her maltreatment.
[36:15] However, there is no conclusive proof that Edison did this as
[36:19] part of the War of the Currents. Which had been settled in favor
[36:23] of alternating current many years prior.
[36:26] But during the war, Edison had tried to discredit A/C to his
[36:31] preferred mode of direct current DC by publicly electrocuting
[36:35] stray dogs and cats. 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days.
[36:41] A billion seconds is 31 years. Eight months.
[36:45] The term. Dominion has not been used in
[36:47] Canada to refer to the country since the 1950s.
[36:51] It is now considered a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
[36:57] The BBC. Reported in 2006 that the
[37:00] Japanese Embassy has a 24 hour hotline for Japanese tourists
[37:03] affected by the Paris Syndrome. However, the embassy has stated
[37:07] that no such hotline exists, and that's all for the Fact Check.

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