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No Such Thing As A Fish
No Such Thing As A Fish

Little Fish: A Biscuit, A Railway Station, And A Mutt

December 28, 2025 • 32m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

In this Little Fish bonus episode, the hosts dive into listener-submitted facts ranging from mathematical humor to bizarre world records. The conversation covers everything from cheeky mathematical terminology and peculiar scientific acronyms to historical mishaps involving Big Ben's clock face and diplomatic dessert disasters. The episode maintains the show's characteristic blend of educational content and playful banter while highlighting the best facts submitted by their audience.

Mathematical Terms with Raunchy Names

The hosts explore amusing mathematical terminology sent in by listeners, including the 'Wiener index' and 'girth' in graph theory, as well as whimsically named mathematical functions like the 'popcorn function' and 'stars over Babylon.' James shares his university memories of the Tits Group and Coxeter Complex, demonstrating how mathematicians throughout history have either accidentally or deliberately created memorable names for their work.

  • Mathematical graphs have properties called 'girth' and 'Wiener index'
  • The popcorn function has alternative names including raindrop function, countable cloud function, and stars over Babylon
  • The Tits Group was invented by French mathematician Jacques Tits
  • To work out the Tits Group, you must first find the Coxeter Complex
" His school days. I just think, good Lord. No wonder he became a mathematician. Why? Just you'd spend more time with your books wouldn't you? "

Scientific Acronyms and BDSM

A listener from an Australian radio astronomy observatory shares how scientists deliberately changed their telescope imaging program's name to avoid an awkward acronym. The Python-coded blob detector was originally going to be called PYBDSM, but they changed the final word from 'measurer' to 'finder' to make it PYBDSF instead, demonstrating scientists' awareness of how their terminology might be received publicly.

  • PYBDSF is a radio telescope imaging program that stands for Python-coded blob detector and source finder
  • The program actually measures sources, but scientists changed 'measurer' to 'finder' to avoid spelling BDSM
  • RAS syndrome stands for Redundant Acronym Syndrome Syndrome, describing phrases like 'PIN number' or 'ATM machine'
  • EGOT was created by actor Philip Michael Thomas who wore a golden medallion but was never nominated for any of the awards
" It was given away at the end, the punchline there, wasn't it? Because I had no idea where we were going with any of that. "

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