The Flag of Mars and Rods from God: Citation Needed 1x08

techdif.co.uk - This week, we get distracted by chocolate, disrespect a man who's been dead for nearly a century, and debate low-gravity football.

[@DeprecatedSC]

i really want someone to turn the entire segment about the chocolate wars into an animation

[@nataliemccarthy9140]

sonnie Celanna did you ever do this? I really want to see it

[@AgentTasmania]

A kitkatyusha somehwere

[@TheRealGirlWeeb]

Be the change you want to see sonnie

[@zinc_ave]

@Sonnie this honestly made me drop my mystery biscuits , thank you for this comment Sonnie.

[@robertadams5221]

If anyone out there has the talent to actually do this then I'm sure the people in this comment section would happily make some donations to fund it. I'll throw in $100 aud to get things started.

[@m3lod1an]

Third rewatch and I only just realized that in the whole low-gravity football discussion they've just invented Rocket League but with humans, which is something I can definitely get behind

[@winnipeginstinct]

and theres a chance this influenced it, because this came out about a year before rocket league

[@FixTheWi-Fi]

@@winnipeginstinct then again, Rocket League was itself a (heavily-improved) reworking of the idea Psyonix already made into Supersonic Acrobat Rocket-Powered Battle Cars in 2008. But I doubt the TechDiff crew had played that.

[@nathanielhill8156]

Yep, rocket league meets Orson Scott Card's Enders Game

[@Good9tTo9t]

@FixTheWi-Fi Then again they've played Mario Cart together. Can't be that unlikely.

[@GrumpyTy34er]

Lucio Ball from Overwatch but without the guns

[@ylette]

I only get about half of the jokes, but it's still entertaining as hell.

[@manfredpseudowengorz]

this series needs a solid reference list tho

[@GhoostedTMSHQ]

So citations are needed?

[@ridrexw8069]

*where as i had a commodore*

[@thelastcube.]

True

[@neeharika422]

@@GhoostedTMSHQ 😂

[@izzielosthermind]

The middle ground between Mars and Cadbury controlled by the Swiss: a demilitarized toblerone.

[@williamheayn3760]

would it be the demilitarized toblerzone?

[@danr7150]

Izzie Schiavone are you British

[@timothymclean]

Swiss, demilitarized? ...You've never been to Switzerland, have you?

[@lochlanhanham8308]

Don't forget-Whittikars would be working with the Cadbury as well.

[@AnimeSunglasses]

You DO realize that demilitarized zones are most commonly found directly between exceedingly militarized areas, don't you? North and South Korea, for example?

[@hakurou4620]

Isn't the entire idea of "send all the football players to mars" kind of exactly the same plan as you had with Australia back when?

[@frod0r]

Well I wouldn't suggest that _all_ football players are criminals thought

[@miracoulousme]

@@frod0r You got it wrong, not all Criminals are Football players

[@rewrose2838]

May I know what your profile pic is from?

[@craigstoner2632]

Thats offensive. Far far fewer voctorian era criminals were convicted rapists 🤣

[@rawchicken3463]

@@rewrose2838 mines from the game hollow knight

[@sictoabu9611]

"It may need to be rewritten entirely." Scots Wikipedia be like

[@violetsteele350]

It doesn't help that like a third or a half of Scots Wikipedia articles were translated by a teenager with a Scots dictionary who didn't speak a word of Scots and just directly translated each word separately

[@Jonago.]

'What if it's in a wrapper' 'What, like Eminem?' had me dying

[@nikopack7571]

that's a layered pun if i've ever heard one!

[@ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Guess which company makes M&Ms, the candy?

[@HonoraryAperture]

got DAMN it was good. i laughed initially because i thought it was a dumb joke, then i got it. hit twice.

[@ducomors]

for the non-british and correct me if i am wrong, hundreds and thousands are... sprinkles

[@lachlanbrowse6939]

Ducomors yup

[@annacatton5929]

TBH I didn't realize hundreds and thousands were only here in Britain... but yeah.

[@Bellonging]

Joe Catton We use hundereds and thousands in australia as well if that helps. But I see sprinkles used often too.

[@robert.1674]

Ducomors bingo

[@themoviedealers]

If you're in New England they are also not sprinkles, they are jimmies.

[@TheLazurus]

“They would look at us as a race of semi-evolved dwarves” Congratulations, you’ve just described The Expanse

[@BigDavie2000]

They also, sort of, described the flag of the Martian Congressional Republic.

[@lillydoye7418]

I have done some working out with chocolate bar sizes and damage caused. In theory, a single Twix bar scaled up 9 times to approximately 1m long should be enough to smash a skull and kill someone if traveling at terminal velocity. This is excluding the additional chocolate needed to compensate for the mass lost during re-entry, which would drastically increase the size needed.

[@TheDutchMagicTeacher]

Samuel Doye wouldn't the layer of molten chocolate work as a bumper and decrease its effectiveness aswell?

[@lillydoye7418]

It could, but I think that at the speeds this bar is going to reach there is a good chance the surface will ablate. Most meteorites only melt on the outside because the rock doesn't conduct heat very well and the molten surface is vapourised before it can transfer the heat. I think the bar might do something similar and then re-freeze as it slows down before the collision. Does anyone have a wind tunnel, blowtorch and giant twix we can borrow?

[@profwaldone]

I know I'm 2 years late on this, but if the bar is moving at terminal velocity you wouldn't need to worry about heating, it's only when you go higher than that that significant heating happens. it would be more interesting if you shot a mars bar (regular size) at something like 20km/s. ill do the math real quick. 51g bar (0.5 newton) multiply that by 20km/s, 0.5*(20*3600)=36000 newtons. or about 8.604 kilos of TNT. that's actually quite dangerous, damn. and im not acounting for heating becouse it would only spend 5 seconds in the atmosphere, so if it was frozen solid before launch i think it be frozen solid still on impact.

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

Science thanks you all.

[@TonksMoriarty]

@@lillydoye7418 Fox the giant Twix, I think you need to talk to Barry Lewis!

[@U014B]

Mars Arctic Research Station. MARS. Benoit B. Mandelbrot would be proud.

[@Dragongaga]

Re*cur*sion, see also: Recursion

[@inf0phreak]

More like Hofstadter would be proud.

[@Shadow81989]

@@Dragongaga actually, when you google "recursion", it asks "did you mean: recursion" - someone at google has a nice sense of humor ;-)

[@thelastcube.]

that is awesome (the only other abbreviation like that I could think of is the X Box One X)

[@sohamkar876]

@@thelastcube. A few other cool ones are GNU - GNU's Not Unix, WINE - WINE Is Not an Emulator and PIP - PIP Installs Packages. They're called recursive acronyms.

[@NickiRusin]

This show is a source of pure Britain. As a Russian person, I'm really thankful for it.

[@caramelldansen2204]

As a Briton, I'm thankful of it too.

[@almosteducational3729]

Ah yes we have found a spy, were you John storehouses handler 😂

[@CrippledMerc]

I hope I’m not the only one who watches these, only gets about 70% of the British references, yet still laughs anyway. I can’t help it! Between the faces, the accents, the laughs, it all works to bring the laughter out of me whether I understand it or not.

[@Foxttellio]

Ikr

[@AdamFaulknerVideos]

I've watched some of these episodes so much that instead of laughing at the jokes I laugh just before them...

[@therese294776]

AdamIsTalking you and me both.

[@Loiner_Leftie]

Between Top Gear and Citation Needed - Rocket League was born.

[@MattMoney]

Wow true 👏👏👏👏

[@johnnyboy3949]

Oh my god! Rocket league is just what they described! Amazing

[@Hyphonetics]

I came to the comments looking for someone to mention Rocket League, glad to see someone thought of it as well

[@memesredacted]

I love how it immediately derails as soon as it starts

[@hotelmario510]

This is my favourite episode of Citation Needed precisely because it's the most unfocused and rambly episode. They barely actually discuss the episode topic and it's much stronger for it, I feel.

[@qwaabza]

The opposite of the Julie d'Aubigny episode. I enjoy both in their own right.

[@themoviedealers]

"What, like Eminem?" I can't believe that riff by Matt got ignored utterly, since that was both a rapper AND a chocolate reference. (Unless he did that without realizing it, because I know in the UK you have Smarties, not M&Ms.)

[@patrickbeart7091]

Smarties and m&ms are different and we mostly have both

[@swirlingfudge]

We have M&Ms.

[@almosteducational3729]

We have both

[@deloptin545]

smarties are the chocolate ones, m&ms are the ones with nuts in usually. m&ms also are just chocolate, but are larger than smarties

[@krakenpots5693]

@@deloptin545 aren't smarties fruit flavored sweeties?

[@tsgillespiejr]

I now feel like I moved to England a year ago *just* to be able to understand this episode today.

[@tsgillespiejr]

SirMaxwellOf Day Ta very much.

[@juliankloss7961]

standingunder same here.

[@FluffyFluffles]

I've been here about 2 years and I still don't get all the references in this.

[@rattrap1009]

Points: Chris: 4, 1 MB Gary: 1, 1 MB Matt: 0 Winner: Chris (but Tom gives it to Gary for his hundreds and thousands joke.) • Totals: Chris: 22 points 2 Mystery Biscuits 3 Wins Gary: 20 points 4 Mystery Biscuits 2 wins Matt: 22 points 3 Mystery Biscuits 4 Wins Band names / albums so far: Furious Strumpets, SimpleHuman.

[@custodeon]

Actually, the definition of "weapon of mass destruction," as stated by the Outer Space Treaty, does not include Kinetic Bombardment. Only nuclear, chemical, radiological, and biological weapons are banned from space and the Moon. The US started research on Kinetic Bombardment called Project Thor specifically to circumvent these restrictions.

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

"Don't do violence in space." "But what about-" "No, not even you, USA." "But what about THIS kind of violence? Huh? Didn't think of this, didya??" "...This is why we don't invite you to parties."

[@chrisoddy8744]

Do lasers and other sci-fi energy weapons count under "radiological"?

[@AalbertTorsius]

Chris says "delicious goo" quite more often in these series than you'd expect.

[@Quillaninc]

This is my third time through, and I've only just caught Matt's rapper pun slipped into the convo from 16:53. Possibly the best two way pun in the history of this show! Well played, sir. Well played!

[@losthor1zon]

Do they have m&m's in Britain?

[@themoviedealers]

No. Which is why everyone let it slide by and why Matt is a joke savant.

[@kitdaniel9186]

we do have m&m's in britain...

[@Draftmission]

Damn. I'm disappointed at how far I had to scroll down to find this comment. 'twas bloody brilliant

[@theboxygenie]

Twas a double entendre.

[@RayDrouillard]

re: titanium rod Titanium would be a lousy kinetic weapon because it is so light. Tungsten was the metal proposed for such a weapon.

[@tsgillespiejr]

A quick Google search told me that Osmium is the densest metal. Would fashioning a rod of that be feasible?

[@RayDrouillard]

standingunder Osmium and Iridium kinda battle it out for the title as most dense. Both are expensive. Tungsten is considerably cheaper. So is depleted uranium, since it's a by-product of the enrichment process.

[@nateable1]

standingunder Fashioning a dense metal rod isn't really the most difficult part of this project. The difficult part is getting this thing in orbit, with enough fuel to stop this thing over the target.

[@nateable1]

Nillie I think the best way to do it would be to send the rod into a higher orbit. Then at the highest point slow it down a little so that it will fall over the target vs just hitting the brakes and letting it fall, because there would be less energy spent overall, and a higher speed in the rod as a result. I think you need to spend more energy to get the thing up there than it will have on impact, because you lose some energy to gravity, and you have to slow down at some point, to go back down to Earth.

[@CD3MC]

Nillie They're more than extremely rare. you only have zero energy loss in theoretical physics.

[@necrewhocares2604]

its been 8 years and about 20 rewatches, and this still cracks me up every time

[@alansmithee419]

Last words of lieutenant colonel bit, rib of the freddo battalion: "They'd never hit a cinnamon roll at this dis-"

[@woodrobin]

The thing about the Henlein Mars flag is that there was a meeting of various world leaders trying to decide on the sovereignty of Mars, the property rights of Valentine Michael Smith (the titular Stranger in a Strange Land, who was born to two crew members on a mission to Mars and included in all the crews' wills as an heir) and other issues. They were trying to decide how to seat Smith and his party, and Jubal Harshaw, Smith's advisor, insisted on diplomatic honors (being seated under his nation's flag, having an entourage, etc. equal with other nations) because allowing anything else would essentially cede the point before the whole negotiations started. Harshaw explicitly states that he, as a human, is merely approximating the flag, as the Martians (an extraordinarily ancient and nightmarishly psychically powerful species) had no need for such trappings in their system of governance. He grabs a tablecloth and draws the Mars symbol on it, and instructs that it be put up behind the seating for Smith's group at the table. So Heinlein's Flag of Mars wasn't really the Flag of Mars in the universe of the book, more of a bluff to keep from getting "handled" or fobbed-off by diplomats. I imagine he could've just drawn a red circle on a white background . . . except that's the Japanese flag.

[@ericalarsen3542]

matt's m&m / eminem joke did NOT get enough attention. i will die on this hill

[@Tone720]

Brilliant episode, this is the one that I will think of as 'Bar Wars'.

[@Spitefire6]

Bloody hell, did they really film this 5 year's ago... wow, time flies

[@killhour]

I'm going to be "that guy" and comment, over a year later, that it's tungsten rods, not titanium rods. Tungsten is quite a bit denser, so it has more kinetic energy.

[@karstais]

it's called wolfram

[@jamesmccann5644]

@@karstais wolfram and tungsten are the same element...

[@karstais]

@@jamesmccann5644 tungsten is the weird, american name for it

[@SwEmagnusSwE]

@@karstais well it's the original name. It's literally Swedish for heavy stone

[@qwertyTRiG]

@@jamesmccann5644 Is that why it's a W? Cool. I learned something.

[@Dafmeister1978]

When they were discussing the battle I suddenly had an image of a Terry's Chocolate Orange fired from a cannon, breaking into segments that scythe through the enemy lines, leaving a trail of decapitates Freddos and Jelly Babies in their wake...

[@chrisoddy8744]

If the Malteser is a standard cannon shot, a chocolate orange has to be one of those oversized mortar shells that they had in Napoleonic siege mortars.

[@DanielsPolitics1]

It’s a flechette round

[@Echin0idea]

Never watch this while drinking tea - I just had to pause it in order to save my keyboard

[@tsgillespiejr]

And my screen... and my wallpaper... and my children...

[@frod0r]

As if the episode wasn't British enough yet :D

[@frozenlightthequietviking489]

Did they literally describe the Rocket League pitch?

[@dmdizzy]

I find these really intriguing (not to mention hilarious) because Tom's vibes come across as a totally different 'genre' of person to his pals, and it's a little funny seeing them juxtaposed.

[@TheArmouredGamer]

The final joke was bloody glorious.

[@AlfaEcho]

TagMyBat 76 i didn't get it?

[@HanabiraKage]

Jay Wing It's explained in some of the other comments. Hundreds-and-Thousands are the colourful sprinkles you can find on donuts and the like.

[@ElectricPandemic]

Between this and the Bossche Bol episode, you've really got confectionery warfare down to a fine art! Delicious and deadly! Fantastic as always, guys. :3

[@wiler5002]

They predicted Rocket League

[@thelastcube.]

"What a save!"

[@vinsanity_52]

Calculated

[@MrxstGrssmnstMttckstPhlNelThot]

Damn it, Tom! I'm up at 3:45 in the AM, wanting to go to sleep, but I can't stop watching these in reverse order! Bloody Hell, Tom!

[@MrxstGrssmnstMttckstPhlNelThot]

Fookin' pissing in the wind! I give in. I'm not sleeping tonight.

[@nabox465]

Same here.

[@BrowncoatInABox]

me too

[@greenmario3011]

Same exact time here

[@LivingLatexKali]

...me too

[@yannickgobel2431]

In case anyone still cares , the chocolate museum is in cologne

[@meltedplasticarmyguy]

As an American, I can say that yes, our chocolate quality is definitely lacking. However, you cannot deny the massive industrial confectionary complex. What we lack in quality, we more than make up for it with sheer production volume. We are willing to lend/lease any sweet to our allies in the great candy war. We also have a large savory snack department that constantly research and develop snacks that can make the whole world obese, snacks of massive mass.

[@eddotron1224]

Accidentally clicked unsubscribe while watching this. I've never clicked cancel so fast in all my life

[@DudokX]

You can't drop rod just like that! It would need rocket engine to slow it down, because orbit is defined by velocity. I know this from playing KSP .

[@hikari_no_yume]

Oh, right! If you simply let go of it, it would be orbiting exactly the same way the satellite is!

[@Thomcat]

If you threw the rod towards the earth it'd come down eventually :3

[@HisCarlnessI]

***** Not necessarily.

[@VTOLAircraftMad]

***** nope, It would slowly drift away, then start moving towards you again and collide with you half an orbit later, at the same speed you threw it at.

[@Scigatt]

threadnaught *full orbit. On the half orbit it will be too far ahead to hit you because it's in a lower orbit for that half.

[@cybergeek11235]

fuck's sake, gents - "I lost my leg in *nom*". Sitting right there it was, and you all sailed RIGHT past it!

[@lillydoye7418]

Damn it, people are trying to sleep. Why must you make this so funny, I am sure I must be keeping people awake with my laughter.

[@ecarr100]

Even after all this time and all these episodes, this one is my favorite Citation Needed. All of them are great, but this is my favorite. Shine on you hilarious diamonds.

[@notleo4481]

I love how they accidentally nearly invented rocket league with the curved walls and the wall running and what not

[@firebird9594]

Not titanium, tungsten and perhaps a depleted uranium core. (titanium loses strength after 400°F and reentry would be way hotter plus tungsten has the highest melting point and one of the highest densities of all metals, depleted uranium is super dense)

[@firebird9594]

also it wouldn't level a city, most energy would go into the ground, so it was designed as a bunker buster.

[@joshuahadams]

+redstone cat surely the bow shock would blow things away? What would happen if you dropped one on a tectonic fault?

[@JonesNate]

"Is the Flashline Arctic Research Center in the Arctic? No! It's in Venezuela! 🤣🤣🤣

[@bakke601]

fun fact: you can put military equipment into orbit, as long as you keep it, legally, "not in space". basically, it is completely possible to put stuff into orbit at lower altitudes than what is generally agreed upon as "The altitude where space, and by extension, space law, start". not saying you would'nt get some government officials knocking on ya door....

[@benbot1680]

Military equipment is fine, as long as there are no WMDs.

[@entropyzero5588]

But then you'd have to abide by fly-over laws.

[@alwinpriven2400]

I searched wikipedia, and "hundreds and thousands" is sprinkles.

[@natcarrollpotato44]

Im not sure if it is just here in Australia or elsewhere too, but hundreds and thousands are spherical where as sprinkles tend to be rod shaped

[@alwinpriven2400]

well I only live in a former British colony and we don't even speak English, but we don't have hundreds and thousands in any type of translation and both types of sprinkles (spherical and rod shaped) are just sprinkles.

[@beaniepollard8290]

I would call both sprinkles, but the dot ones are hundreds and thousands because you get more of them.

[@astradeia]

sprinkles, generally, can be sprinkled. spherical or rod shaped, they're both sprinkleable!

[@homelab-student]

Sprinkleable: Word of the day!

[@TheWoollyHippo]

Surely at least one of the Martian football teams would be called Mars Rovers!

[@bowtieproductions6708]

Gonna need a citation on that Mr. Lindt bit. I've tried multiple times and never found anything that says that.

[@bowtieproductions6708]

@@ragnkja the plot thickens! (Just like the chocolate)

[@icedragonair]

At this point ive seen at least 3 episodes of technical difficulties that have devolved into an indepth and lengthy discussion of how candy warfare/transportation would look like.

[@michaelcallander7085]

I'd like to thank Chris for accidentally derailing this entire episode from the start.

[@elgoog-the-third]

Lindt is Swiss though. Also, fun fact, the Swiss military has a device called "Toblerone"!

[@adammullarkey4996]

10:30 I thought the Rods from God were tungsten?

[@mitigatekeeps1371]

They are.

[@JasperJanssen]

Or depleted uranium, or titanium, or whatever - the point is that it doesn't *really* matter very much.

[@jamjal4185]

The matter doesn't matter?

[@samuelyoung1]

originally it was titanium, but then tungsten.

[@leogougeon8984]

But wouldn't titanium burn up on its way through the atmosphere, cause if i recall correctly you can actually melt titanium with a bunsen burner so, it would most definitely burn on its way and thus tungsten would make more sense, right?

[@felixcroc]

given their recent performance, shipping the English squad off to Mars isn't that bad of an idea.

[@muhammadzidnii2577]

Still not wrong. Losing to hungary at home is a disgrace

[@brandonmartin-moore5302]

If it had happened in later episodes, the chocolate diversion would be bonus material.

[@unixgrief7852]

This is a comment implying that I liked the video.

[@ericpopcorn6607]

This is a replay that implies that I agree with the comment that this is replaying too.

[@korvandenzel]

17:07 And this is where Tom got the idea to send garlic bread to space...

[@JudithOpdebeeck]

Tom in the past (or it might’ve been the future, im not sure): “yes, but I’m not giving you a point for that cause that’s bloody obvious!” Tom now: “point!”

[@lividsoda]

ROCKET LEAGUE. THEY CALLED IT.

[@megabo3ed]

And galactic football years before!

[@123legosandletsplays]

This has some of the most northern things in it.

[@KillerTruffle]

Making the ball 3 times heavier = more mass = greater inertia = lots of broken shins when combined with the bone weakening effects of lower gravity. And we thought players were taking dives too often here on earth!

[@VDhorses1]

That poor plant in front of the window... Is it still alive now? Almost exactly 3 years later? Also, I have seen this too much. I know almost everything by heart....

[@Vinemaple]

I thought I was doing well to learn the names of all the completely different candy products sold in Canada... then these British folks come along with their "Bar Wars," and I realize it's different all over again.

[@LachiBoii]

'I'll be black' - Matt Gray, 2014

[@ReallyWemja]

Sadly a titanium rod would not work, what he is thinking about is a wolfram rod. Titanium is lighter then iron and has a melting point that is way too low so it can not be used as a kinetic weapon. Wolfram has the highest melting point of all elements and the highest density. This makes it the preferred metal to drop.

[@grahamrich9956]

Do you know if it is conductive?

[@ReallyWemja]

Graham Rich Do you mean titanium or wolfram? Do you mean thermal or electric conductivity?

[@grahamrich9956]

Wemja I meant wolfram, and I meant electrically, sorry for the confusion.

[@ReallyWemja]

Well it is conductive but there are better metals. It has a specific electrical resistance of 5.60×10^−8 Ω⋅cm at 20°C That's is about half the resistance of iron and about 4 times the resistance of silver/copper. Its the metal they use to make the filament in light bulbs. The density is comparable to depleted uranium.

[@grahamrich9956]

Wemja Alright, thanks!

[@fictionmyth]

I am now writing a screen play in my head about a soccer team that has to play the world cup on Mars in order to uphold a title as "current greatest" team. The coach is giving them some rousing pep talk about how the physics will differ and that it isn't the game they're used to. The alpha player is grieving the 40 year flight that will take him away from his family as he lies in cryostasis. P.S. Sorry I called Football, Soccer. It feels disingenuous to call it football as an American. Like I'm being intentionally coy or something.

[@tsgillespiejr]

Coming this Summer: Best team on Earth? That's nothing! Best team in the Solar System is the goal. The Solar Cup instead of the World Cup. Specially designed stadia on every planet. Winner takes all. Starring Tom Cruise. Rated R.

[@fictionmyth]

standingunder You shut up and take my money!

[@tsgillespiejr]

Corey Carnes LOL! Now let's petition the Honest Trailers guy to do that trailer and we're halfway there.

[@fictionmyth]

standingunder Count me in! I can hear it now! "In a world...that's out of this world! Comes the tale of the little team that could...but what were they willing to give up? From the director of 'Citizen Kane' and the producers behind 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'The Spongebob Squarepants Movie' comes a story the whole family can enjoy! "The Winning *Goal*" (Goal as in objective BUT ALSO AS IN GOOOOOOAAAAALLLL! The marketing guys will have a field day, we're gonna be RICH!)

[@tsgillespiejr]

Corey Carnes Okay, now you shut up and take your money back! And mine!

[@shogun2215]

I've now got an image of Rod Stewart being fired at a city from space, and all you hear is "BAAAABY JANE" before an almighty explosion wipes out said city.

[@andrewhazlewood4569]

That Eminem / m and m joke was brilliant but no-one noticed it. 16:53

[@rollingtroll]

A Mars Bar in a wrapper in order for it to re-enter an atmosphere. "What, like Eminem?" How did you guys not laugh about that one?

[@andrewhazlewood4569]

I think it was accidental but it was brilliant. Do they have m and m chocolate in England?

[@gimpymcgimperton1853]

The original concept for the god rod was actually a tungsten rod

[@lizzyb.8009]

"see? we could move it." "it's also immobile."

[@Senny_V]

I googled several times already when this episode came up, and i found nothing to confirm the Lindt story, i wonder if there's anything out there

[@waveuponwave3672]

They mixed it up a bit, the guy who died was Heinrich Stollwerck, of German chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck

[@Senny_V]

@@waveuponwave3672 Ohhhhh Thank you!

[@DataCab1e]

I think I need an encyclopedia of British confections to get half the jokes in this one. But on the subject of low-G Football, keep in mind that with reduced gravity comes reduced weight and therefore traction, but mass and therefore inertia remains the same. This makes starting, stopping and changing direction more difficult.

[@joshuahadams]

Two words: Velcro pitch. You'll stop better, turn better, but also trip/carpet burn easier.

[@TrondBørgeKrokli]

This episode is magnificent. It still manages to make me tear up laughing, much more than some of the last runs with an audience present. I am quite happy that this still exists online. I hope it will stay available for years to come. Thank you again for producing so much fun. Cheers! 😁

[@derkateramabend]

Tom Scott's Anti-Gravity Shitting!

[@hotscottrulz]

Tom Scott - Pissing in the Wind

[@medleyshift1325]

Dang it Tom, they're TUNGSTEN! Tungsten rods form the gods!

[@MercenaryPen]

should be Tungsten rods, not Titanium due to the massively higher melting point of Tungsten.

[@LexieAssassin]

Rods from the Gods? I sense something something Scott Manley. >_> _>

[@naffal1538]

is a yorkie made in the american colonies a new yorkie

[@thecassman]

BOOM! - That's my next 20 minutes sorted! :) View #8 too!

[@adammullarkey4996]

I wonder how many people actually got the hundreds and thousands joke!

[@p00ky76]

I just looked up Rods of God & wiki furnished me with "Kinetic bombardment", it says "Although the SALT II (1979) prohibited the deployment of orbital weapons of mass destruction, it did not prohibit the deployment of conventional weapons. The system is prohibited by neither the Outer Space Treaty nor the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.". So you could if you wanted too. :)

[@Brannersatlarge]

[@p00ky76]

Gary Brannan :D

[@deadnoobie2859]

While late, the treaty does prohibit weapons of mass destruction, which doesn't actually have an official definition and has evolved over time. The scope of the damage potential could, in theory, be classified under that moniker should one ever actually be built, and therefore end up being prohibited.

[@p00ky76]

Interesting, still sounds like a bit of a grey area to me. And you know, politicians love a little bit of grey when it comes to ethics.

[@deadnoobie2859]

p00ky76 Oh, that is exactly what it is. And likely it will stay that way until one is ever built. Once one is though, whoever actually made it will try and say its legal while those who are worried it might be used against them by said country will likely lobby to have it classified a WMD. Cause politics. You don't ban something that you might want to use until someone else tries to use it first. That's why most WMDs had to be used before they got banned (nuclear weapons, anthrax, mustard gas, etc).

[@MollyBlueDawn]

Jim Bexley Speed has a great career ahead of him on Mars!

[@themoviedealers]

Shut up Lister!

[@hamishcarroll7403]

a computer game has been made that is similar to the game they are theorising at @9:00 its called rocket league instead of people tho its cars but same principle.

[@gunnerb4428]

a bit late but the whole futbol segment is literally just rocket league

[@MatthiasYReich]

Umm, Lindth&Sprüngli, the company producing Linth chocolate, is Swiss, not German... They just have factories all over the world

[@DarrenRainey]

12:00 and tom has basically described the plot of call of duty ghosts

[@eratonysiad2582]

The factory of Linds (or however it is spelled) is in Köln. I've been to the museum thing. It's got some satisfying stuff going on.

[@adammullarkey4996]

Lindt.

[@caramelldansen2204]

we spell it Llint in Wales (this is a joke)

[@Chris-Longhair]

Riding on a coach heading north we drove through Sheffield. It had been a long day and I was barely awake. Opened my eyes and right in front of them was this darn thing s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/55/95/3559514_222d1c88.jpg we were driving past Forgemasters and it scared the hell out of me.

[@silverhawke]

17:01 i'm disappointed Matt's wrapper/rapper - M&M/Eminem pun was not acknowledged!! :P

[@_fedmar_]

I am Saddam Hussein... and **this** is my weapon.

[@Draugo]

Watching this again in 2018 I wanted to check when is the 100 year anniversary of Mr Lindt's death but sadly couldn't find any sources for that story :(

[@ellenripley4640]

According to Wikipedia Rudolphe Lindt died in 1909 and was Swiss. This story is either made up or there is some kind of mixup

[@waveuponwave3672]

Mixup, the death by chocolate is real, but it was Heinrich Stollwerck, from Stollwerck chocolate, not Lindt

[@oscaryucra2999]

@@waveuponwave3672 holy damn been searching for this for 2 hours thank you so much

[@davimurph]

Is the Swiss chocolate sitting in middle with all the gold bars? The irony of the chocolate wars riff is that a lot of British confectioners (the Cadburys, the Frys, the Rowntrees and many others) were quakers and, therefore, pacifists.

[@RWTWM]

The best show so far by a huge margin, and that's not to say the others were in any way unenjoyable.

[@ThAlEdison]

So I just found out that sprinkles/jimmies are called "hundres&thousands" in the UK and Australia 🤯 (I mean, probably only parts, because there's tons of regional variations). 18:30

[@88porpoise]

1:32 It is not fair to say Hershey's chocolate is terrible. The correct statement is that the Hershey's confectionery that vaguely resembles chocolate is terrible.

[@avakining]

+

[@vaishaksreekumar3801]

Everyone in the comments talking about rocket league but nobody mentioned the Phineas and ferb ep where they did the exact football stadium thing to play against the visiting brits