Snapshot · Fin vs History
Victorian women used belladonna (nightshade) eye drops to create a dreamy, dilated look, with side effects including extreme dryness, blurred vision, constipation, high body temperature, confusion, and hallucinations.
Where this was said
At 37:12 · chapter starts 34:36
This is the episode's centrepiece. Fin walks through Galton's 1850s tour of Southern Africa: stunned by the proportions of indigenous Namibian women, unable to speak the local language, Galton hid at a distance and used a naval sextant to measure their buttocks. He then walked to the spot and used geographic distance instruments to calculate the exact proportions — the hosts marvel that pornography has robbed us of this level of dedicated ingenuity. Back in Britain, Galton invented an early pin-clicker to rate women on the streets of various cities as 'attractive', 'neutral', or 'repellent'. He never published the full map, but his diaries note London topped the rankings and Aberdeen was the most repellent. Inspired, the hosts break out calipers for the episode's first phrenology segment. Paddy Young's skull is measured: small forehead relative to his overall head size, meaning animalistic drive without great intellectual capacity. The diagnosis is delivered with solemnity: Paddy is a himbo — enthusiastic, puppyish, energetic, but not a scholar.
Victorian women swallowed tapeworm eggs in pill form to stay thin. They also used belladonna eye drops for a dreamy, dilated look — with side effects including hallucinations, diarrhoea, dementia, and potentially death. Heroin chic had nothing on this era.
In the 1850s, Francis Galton travelled to what is now Namibia and was stunned by the indigenous women's proportions. Unable to speak the language, he hid at a distance and used a naval sextant to measure their buttocks, then walked to the spot to calculate exact dimensions. He then came home and built an attractiveness map of Britain.
Francis Galton covertly used a naval sextant to measure the buttocks of indigenous Namibian women from a distance in the 1850s, then walked to the spot to calculate exact proportions using geographical instruments.
Francis Galton walked the streets of British cities with an early clicker device, rating women as 'attractive', 'neutral', or 'repellent'. He concluded London was most attractive and Aberdeen most repellent, though he never published the full map.
Galton invented an early clicker device to covertly rate women on the streets of British cities as 'attractive', 'neutral', or 'repellent'. He never published the full map, but noted London topped the rankings and Aberdeen was the most repellent city in Britain.
In the spirit of their idol Francis Galton, the hosts produce calipers and measure Paddy Young's skull live. The verdict: small forehead, large overall head — meaning Paddy has an animalistic, puppyish drive but limited scholarly intellect. A himbo, in clinical terms.
By his own account, Giacomo Casanova slept with over 120 women and contracted venereal disease 11 times — a life of extreme aesthetic indulgence that ended in total isolation.
Joel de la Garza noted that the CISO role is a relatively recent invention, with Steve Katz widely credited as the first-ever CISO.
Superficial adoption of electricity gave factories only 6% efficiency gains; fully redesigning factories around it delivered a 3x productivity improvement that powered 20th-century US growth.
Harold Ramis recounted that during Caddyshack filming, storms kept the cast cooped up in a Florida hotel for days, during which they partied and did drugs all day and night.
In the 1820s, China accounted for 25% of global economic output, making it the world's largest economic machine — a historical precedent for its current AI superpower ambitions.
66 Americans held hostage at the US Embassy in Iran were released after 444 days, within hours of Reagan's inauguration.
In the first round of the secret arms deal, 508 TOW missiles were transferred from Israel to Iran in exchange for hostage releases.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran across 8 separate shipments over just over a year.
Despite all the missile sales, only 3 of the 7 American hostages held by Lebanese terrorists were ultimately released.
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