WEBVTT - 🏆 2024 PART-TIME GENIUS AWARDS! 🏆 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.280 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:12.840 Guess what, Mango? 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:13.640 What's that? 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.120 Will? I know you're curious, but I want to see 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:17.760 if you can guess. Do you know why I'm wearing 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.919 a tux today? Is it because it's Monday night in Alabama? 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.599 That is right? You know I love doing that. But 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.280 actually there's an extra special reason, and that's because it's 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:39.879 the forty third annual Part Time Genius Awards. Mango, that 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:40.720 is right? 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.040 How could I forget? But remind the listeners? What are 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.400 the Part Time Genius Awards again? 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.519 Well, seeing as this is the forty third time that 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.640 we're doing this, I'm surprised anyone is asking at this point. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.640 But the Part Time Genius Awards are our look back 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.840 at some of the greatest things to happen last year 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.120 and honoring them with our very prestigious prize, starting with 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:05.600 the twoenty twenty four Old Factory Award aka the Golden 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:06.760 Nose Award. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.000 Mag I am on the edge of my seat here, 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.320 So who is getting the Golden Nose this year? 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.920 Well, this year, the twenty twenty four Golden Nose goes 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:20.640 to drum Roll please Professor wyn Who at the University 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.800 of New South Wales and Sydney for developing a smartphone 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.480 sensor called Vibe Milk. Now, Vibe Milk uses your phone 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.120 to send vibrations against the milk bottle or carton, and 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.280 then it reads and analyzes the freshness. That way, I 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.520 can tell you if your milk has gone bad. And 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:38.920 so instead of having to smell your milk or make 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:40.840 everyone in the room smell the milk to see if 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.479 it's spoiled, you can just use your phone and save 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.840 everyone the trouble. How revolutionary is this manga? 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.920 I already love this because my wife Lizzie does this 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.280 all the time. She like she smells something awful. She's like, no, 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:54.480 you have to smell this, yeh. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:54.800 You smell. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.880 I hate that you just smelling yourself. 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.960 Yeah. I'm playing the role of in my family. I 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:05.040 make everyone smell and I'm relentless. I won't stop until 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.880 they do smell it. But Vibe milk actually works. So, 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.720 as Professor Who put it, quote, you can smell or 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.720 taste of milk is off, but that requires opening the 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.000 package and doing so exposes it to bacteria and that 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.760 accelerates spoilage. So Vibe Milk is non invasive, which means 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.440 you can test the freshness of the milk without breaking 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.600 the seal. That is really cool, and the ideas that 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:28.440 you can use it at home or even at the 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.120 grocery store before you buy the product now. Currently, Vibe 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.480 Milk is a ninety eight point four percent accuracy rate 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.640 for detecting spoiled milk, and the high tech methods should 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.400 help us reduce dairy waste in a pretty big way. Actually, 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.280 But that's just the first of a whole bunch of 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.560 very important awords we're giving out today, So let's dive in. 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.079 Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.400 always I'm here with my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.840 and sitting behind that glass holding a conductor's baton and 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.680 queuing up a whole bunch of orchestra music to play 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.560 us out if we start taking too long, that's our 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.720 good Palin producer Dylan Fagan, So mego. I'm glad we're 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.120 finally doing this award show. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.760 I know I always get jealous of other places that 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.480 give out awards around this top of the year. 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.280 Like who are you? Who you think about the Nobels, 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:38.560 the MacArthur Foundation, who else. 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.280 Yeah, I mean them too. But I also love the 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:46.120 weirder awards, like the Ignobles, the Bulward Lytton Award, which 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.720 gives out an award for the worst first sentence in 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.960 a novel. But my absolute favorite is the Bookseller Prize 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.440 for Oddest Title of the Year. And every year, honestly, 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.600 every year I went to see which title wins. Actually, 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.160 I'm just gonna pull up the Wikipedia page and read 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.160 out a few of my favorites. And these are all 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:08.280 real books, by the way. So in twenty ten, managing 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:13.840 a dental practice the Genghis Khanway. One. In twenty twelve 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.040 it was a goblin proofing one's chicken coop, which is 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:21.039 a chestnut obviously. Some other winners include how to Avoid 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.400 Huge Ships, bomb Proof your Horse, and one of my 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.559 personal favorites, the dirt Hole and its variations. They are 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:31.240 all that great. 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:32.359 That sounds gross. 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.520 Yeah, anyway, I am really hoping that we can slip 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.480 in some of that, like energy and joy and silliness 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.560 into some of these really great innovations we're honoring for 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:42.680 this year's awards. 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.320 You know mego, you did forget one, and this was 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.040 back in our mental floss days. And I'm not sure 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.200 if they were just scared of us being, you know, 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.880 litigious or something, which is funny to me thinking about 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.080 anybody being scared of us. But I don't know if 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.400 you remember that book. It was called Dental Floss for 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.560 the Mind. It was like talking all the way around 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.200 the idea of the pun mental floss. But you remember 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.520 this book, of course I did. I thought it was 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.880 hilarious that we had a couple friends send it to us, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.200 just because I still have it on my bookshelf here. 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.520 But anyway, I am all into the silliness and all 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.599 the great innovations and everything that we're talking about today. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:20.839 So where do you want to start? 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.200 How about we start with this year's Aerodynamics Prize, which 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.360 we are also dubbing the When Hippopotamus's Fly Award, and 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.880 this goes out to John Hutchinson from the UK's Royal 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:36.640 Veterinary College. And this year Hutchinson realized that when a 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.120 hippo is running at full tilt, the hippo is actually 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:45.960 airborne for fifteen percent of that time. Oh wow, Now 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.120 this is important research because hippos are apparently very hard 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.080 creatures to study because one, they are mostly lulling about 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.800 in the water during the day most days. But also 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.279 you do not want to run into a hippo at 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.320 night when they tend to go on land, and that's 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:03.320 because they are incredibly skittish creatures. A full grown male 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.640 can weigh up to nearly ten thousand pounds and they 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.279 will run you over. Also, they have terrifying teeth. 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:13.440 They do have terrifying teeth, which everyone in our generation 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.520 would know from playing Hungry Hungry Hippos, which also happens 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.560 to be the game that probably made my heart race 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.760 more than any game out there. But anyway, it's funny 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.440 because the animals are so goofy looking that I just 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.560 assumed they were kind of gentle and sweet. You know, 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:28.760 you'd look at them and you'd think so. 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.080 Yeah. I actually thought hippos were sweet too, mostly because 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.120 I have this old story in my head from Victorian 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.920 times about Obayes the hippo. I'm sure we've mentioned this 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.120 on the show before, but back in the eighteen hundreds, 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.760 they brought this hippo from Africa to London and it 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.560 was like the first time a hippo had been in 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.800 Europe since ancient Rome and actually the first time one 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.560 had been in England since prehistoric times, and it was 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.400 like an immediate sensation, so people cued up for hours 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:58.200 at the London Zoo just to get a glimpse of 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.680 the creature. It actually made about twenty eight million pounds 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.400 in today's currency because like people were just waiting to 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.440 see it, and there was like a real hippo mania. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.200 Now Obsha been trained to do some basic dance moves 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.920 like a promenade and a pivot and some other things, 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.960 and there was a poka composed for him. The hippo 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.160 was so famous that Charles Dickens was jealous of it. 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.120 Like anywayzing all. 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.200 Of that made me think hippos were sweet, but in 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.320 fact hippos actually killed over five hundred people a year, 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:32.480 which makes them the deadliest land mammal, more dangerous than 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.520 grizzly bears or big cats. Isn't that insane? 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.400 Yeah, that's pra It sort of reminds me of the 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.360 Eddie Izzard bit where he's like, you kill enough people 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.920 and it almost starts to be impressives. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.960 But back to hippos taking flight, because hippo behavior makes 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.760 it hard to monitor them. Hippos haven't been studied that much, 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.320 but Hutchinson and his team realized that they could actually 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.440 visit the animals and watch their movements at a local 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.320 resort in North Yorkshire. It's called Flamingo Land, and then 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.560 his team did all this painstaking frame by frame analysis 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.840 of watching hippos run, and as Hutchinson told The Guardian quote, 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:10.560 it is mind numbing. It's one of the things in 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:14.120 my work that I hate the most. It is really boring, agonizing. 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:15.960 Wow. 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:19.640 But what he learned is that while hippo's only trot, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.840 which means like their diagonal pairs of legs are moving 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:24.400 and touching the ground at the same time. 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.320 That kind of feels like, what is this like the 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.480 sport race walking like they've always got a foot on 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:30.400 the ground or something. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.560 Yeah, that's what everyone thought, except they would be disqualified 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.800 because when they're moving at top speeds, the trot turns 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.600 into flight as the hippos go airborne for zero point 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.400 three second bursts. And that said, from what I can tell, 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.560 the hippos are only like a few inches off the ground, 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:47.720 so it's not like you're going to see an air 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.480 bud style movie about hippos anytime soon, but it was 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:51.520 still pretty wonderful. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.760 Yeah, well that is fantastic art. 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:54.959 Well. 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.679 For our third award, we are diving into the category 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.280 of medicine. Now, there were a ton of exciting and 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.080 important discoveries in medicine this year, including there's just a 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.960 few that we took note of, the first pig kidney transplant, 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.120 where a genetically modified pig kidney was put into a 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.600 living human. You had a new tiny catheter that removes 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.040 blood clots from the brain, which is incredible for stroke patients. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.760 And of course there's a new category of weight loss 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.760 drugs that will help things like prevent diabetes and heart 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.160 attacks along with just helping people get slim. So lots 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.840 of things to choose from. But for this year's first 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.240 ever twenty twenty four Medicine Award aka the No Pain, 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.920 No Gain Award, we're giving it to Live in a Shank, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.800 Tom and Fedai and Christian Bush. So I'm probably getting 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.520 those names wrong, but the spirit is there for their 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.440 advances in placebos science. Now we aren't the only ones 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.400 to recognize the trio. They also won the Ignoble Prize 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.000 earlier this year, which you mentioned, but placebos are a 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.760 fascinating thing. So the fact that you can give someone 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.720 pills or saline injections and somehow trick their brain and 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.280 body into acting like they've receive real medicine has always 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.040 been fascinating to me. And I didn't realize this, but 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.760 the American Medical Association actually considers it ethical to use 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.120 placebos to enhance healing. Huh. And that's partially because placebos 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.040 have been shown to be effective in pain management and 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.800 signaling to the body that medicine is on the way. 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.439 But the reason we're giving this trio of Swiss, German 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.920 and Belgian scientists the award this year is because they 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.680 showed that they can actually make placebos more effective by 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.280 having the placebo cause side effects. 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.360 That is so weird. So how did they figure this out? 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.480 Well, this reporting comes from New Scientists, the magazine to 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.760 Know You and I are both fans of. But in 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.840 the study, the trio got seventy seven volunteers to test 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.640 a nasal spray that they claimed contain the painkiller fentanyl. Now, 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.520 first they had people use the nasal spray. Then they 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.360 applied a hot object to this subject's skin and ask 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.080 them to raise the pain but there was actually no 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.880 fentanyl in the study. The scientists used two different placebos 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.960 for the nasal spray. One had capsation in it, the 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.200 spicy compound found in chili peppers, and one didn't. So 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.640 the capsation spray triggered a little burning sensation when people 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.920 sniffed it, which made them think that it was the 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.439 side effect of fentanyl. Anyway, people who took the capsation 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.920 placebo felt less pain in the trials, hence the conclusion 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.400 that placebos are more effective when they cause side effects. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.080 But what's funny is that this new knowledge might actually 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.160 be used on real drugs, because if you had a 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.080 very slight side effect to establish drugs, you can actually 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.840 increase the treatment expectations in people's minds and up the effectiveness. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.319 I just thought this was so interesting. That is wild. 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.400 That's really crazy that you'd add a side effect to 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:54.760 a real drug. Yeah, yeah, wow, that's amazing. So we're 0:11:54.800 --> 0:12:03.560 on to Award number four, which is twenty twenty four's 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:08.920 Best Villain aka the Mister Clean Award. Now, to be clear, 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.240 we are not in the habit on the show rewarding 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:16.240 criminal behavior, but thirty six year old Damon Voinilovich made 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.200 a name for himself this year when he broke into 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.080 a house in Wales. He broke in, he did a 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.800 bunch of laundry, cleaning and chores, and then drank some 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:27.480 wine and left. And according to a BBC article, Voilovitch 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.040 actually tigied and swept the place. Did the laundry and 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.679 hung it out to dry, mopped the floors, placed groceries 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:36.240 in the fridge, refilled the bird feeders, emptied the recycling bin, 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.319 put gardening tools away in the shed, whatter the plants, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.480 put new toothbrush heads on the toothbrushes, and cooked a 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.280 meal for the homeowner, which he set out next to 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.480 a bottle of wine, a glass and a bottle opener 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.160 with a note for them to enjoy it. During this 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.760 breaking and entering, he also helped himself to some wine 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.560 and food, which I guess feels fair now. Apparently, two 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.360 weeks later he was caught in someone's hot tub after 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.240 he showered in their outdoor shower and washed up, and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.400 he was about to head inside. After all this, jacuzziing 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.160 to start his tidying process. Unfortunately, part of the reason 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.240 he's been doing this is because he was unhoused and 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.079 out of work. But of course that's not a reason 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.200 to break into a stranger's house and start cleaning it 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:19.800 for them. So the people who saw him call the cops, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.760 and he's actually currently serving twenty two months in jail. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.000 But we are hoping that once he's out, all the 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.480 good press and maybe even this very important award will 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.120 help him find some quick work. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:32.800 Yeah. I bet he's feeling a whole lot better after 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.040 winning this award. But I would happily give someone a 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.120 good bottle of wine if they did all my laundry 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.040 and came and then mopped our floors for us. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.800 Oh my god, I'd give them two bottles of wine. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.120 But that's my limit. So what award should we give 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:47.560 out next? 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.880 All right, well, I feel like it's time to go 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.160 to the financial side of things, So how about we 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.240 give out the twenty twenty four Economics Award aka for 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.160 the Birds Award, And this goes to the owner of 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.960 Cheesy Toast Shack in Saint Andrew's, Scotland, where they've come 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:08.520 up with a novel financial product called Seagull Insurance. Basically, 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.840 the Cheesy Toast Shack is swarming with goals and they're 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.680 very aggressive and very good at swooping down and nabbing food. 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.520 So I was actually at the beach last summer in 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.560 Maine and I was walking out with a bunch of 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.040 food from the stall for my family, like you know, 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.280 carrying burgers and fries and whatever, and this seagull swooped 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.200 down and just sold some fries for me, and I 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.320 was both horrified and also so impressed, Like it moves 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.720 quickly and it snatched it so precisely. I was almost like, 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:40.720 well done. You know, it's really amazing. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.400 Yeah, it really is. And you're right, I agree, terrifying 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.840 when that happens, but you obviously know what it's like 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.760 to lose food to a seagull. But apparently whenever it 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.720 happened at the cheesy toast shack, the mom and pop 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.640 business felt bad for the victims, so they'd give them 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.360 free replacement food. And it starts to add up. You 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.720 can imagine if it's happening all the time. So they 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:02.920 tried a bunch of things to keep the goals away. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.720 They played the bird calls of predator birds like hawks, 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.000 and they did this over like the loud speaker there, 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.160 and they tried flying kite shaped like the predator birds 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.200 to scare the seagulls away. None of it worked, and 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.480 so finally they came up with this novel solution of 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.360 offering seagull insurance for an extra pound on top of 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.400 the six seventy five for a cheese toast meal or 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:26.680 is boring one put it peace of mind for a 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:27.600 piece of sandwich. 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.320 I like the well, congratulations to the cheesytoast shack. It 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.960 is well deserved. Okay, So next up we have the 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:38.040 twenty twenty four Pieace Prize aka the Tough as Snails Award, 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.960 which goes to entomologist doctor Valerie Corone from France for 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:46.320 her efforts to improve human snail relations. Now I actually 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.680 had no idea about this, but in Australia, invasive species 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.680 of Mediterranean snails are a really destructive force that should 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.520 cost the grain and cereal industries about one hundred and 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.960 seventy million dollars in damages per year. 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.400 Oh a lot of money. So what are the snails 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:02.040 actually doing? 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.880 Well? They definitely eat the crops, but they also leave 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.840 mucus on plants, which contaminates them and deters other animals 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.920 from eating them, which actually throws off the ecosystem. But 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.080 the biggest problem comes to the fact that the snails 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.960 climb up these tall crops right about the same time 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.440 they're supposed to be harvested, and then the snails go 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.520 into a hibernation. So all of these snail shells end 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.640 up getting into the harvesting machinery, which gems up the 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.960 machinery and it just throws everything off. 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.600 The only thing I'm confused about here is remind me, 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:32.440 why are we giving out a peace prize here? 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.840 Yeah. So, doctor Coron, along with the help of a 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.520 few other labs, figured out how to deter the snails. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.360 And the first thing is that everyone thought snails were 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.440 color blind, and they are, but it turns out that 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.760 they're actually really attracted to the color red for some reason, 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.040 which means that farmers can put red steaks or fake 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.840 red stalks into the ground and lure the snails away 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.640 from their prize crops and then collect all these pests. Also, 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.280 Coron and the team discovered that snails are held by garlic. 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.240 Maybe because it feels like foreshadowing to end up, Cooke 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:08.040 does es cargo, But between some garlic seasoning and painting 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.520 the farm red, the two discoveries actually should help farmers 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.360 out and make for better snail human relations. 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.240 Okay, you brought it around. I like that snail human 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:20.639 relations the Peace Prize, all right, Well, the next award 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.639 also involves food, but in a very different way. And 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:25.600 I know we really don't like to get political on 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.200 this show, but this next award is for international law. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:34.000 Now it goes to Superior Judge Craig Bobet of Allen County, Indiana. 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.879 But I've got to say this is probably the most 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.480 controversial judgment to come out of Indiana since eighteen ninety seven, 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.480 when the so called Indiana Pie Bill proposed to change 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.400 the value of pie in the state from three point 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.800 one four five, nine, two six to a simpler three point. 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:53.520 Two, which obviously doesn't work for math, or engineering or 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.720 anything else. So what is this new controversial judgment from Indiana? 0:17:58.320 --> 0:17:59.960 All right, now, I hope you're sitting down for that. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:08.360 But it's that tacos and burritos should be considered sandwiches. Sandwiches, man. 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.080 No. I mean, I know that there's so much controversy 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.679 over whether a hot dog is a sandwich, but I 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:19.480 have never heard anyone debate whether a taco is a sandwich. No, first, well, 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.600 do you think it's a sandwich? I'm not sure where 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:22.240 I stand on this. 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.560 No, I mean my feelings are that that that tacos 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:28.359 are just kind of their own thing. We have a 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.760 hard time just acknowledging that sometimes things are their own thing. 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.159 You know, that's my philosophy and life. I'm gonna get 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.240 a t shirt. Sometimes things are their own thing. I 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.200 like the tacos are not. They're just not a sandwich. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:42.000 And I don't even have a great defense for it 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:43.600 other than just saying that they're tacos. 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:47.440 How about you, Yeah, they seem like tacos to me too. Yeah, 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:53.480 they're tacos. Are tacos, So tacos lad tacos. That's always 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.199 what I say. And and honestly, you know, I get it. 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.000 I'm not the judge here, and that's the very brave 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.880 man and legal scholar, the honorable Craig Bobay. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.320 Now you might be wondering why it is that Judge 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.240 Bobe had to rule on this important issue, and this 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.120 story goes back to a Fort Wayne strip mall where 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:14.120 a local joint called the Famous Taco opened up there. Now, 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.520 the Famous Taco had the blessings of the developer, but 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.880 apparently there was an agreement with the local condo association 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.760 that only made to order sandwich restaurants could open in 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.280 the Strip Mall, so you could put a subway there, 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:30.080 but fast food places like McDonald's, RB's, and Wendy's weren't 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:32.840 allowed to set up shop. So for Famous Taco to 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.639 continue serving food there, the Planning Commission insisted that there 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.639 would need to be an amendment to the Strip Mall's 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.520 prior agreement with the condo association. But Judge Bobe stepped 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:45.640 up and he declared the taco and the burrito are 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.320 Mexican style sandwiches, paiding the way forward for other sandwich 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:54.679 esque food shops to open up, including places that serve euros, 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.879 bond me or even Kati role. So actually, I kind 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:00.159 of get it, and I got to give it to 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:01.439 them for the creativity on this. 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:04.480 I love that in Indiana now you can legally say 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:06.560 I want a sandwich for lunch and someone will respond 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.439 what kind of sandwich? And you be perfectly within your 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:10.800 ris to say a taco sandwich. 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.480 Talk it is. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.800 good point, all right. So what's the next award I'm 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:19.679 hoping it's not quite as controversial as that. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.960 I think it's time to do the twenty twenty four 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:25.719 Botany Award. But before we get to that, let's take 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.960 a quick break. 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.320 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're giving out 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.480 the forty third annual Part Time Genius Awards. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.399 Yeah, forty third. It's amazing that we've been doing this 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:53.520 for this long, but it's historic, very important, and I 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.639 was about to announce the twenty twenty four Botany Award. 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.600 I cannot wait for this one, Mango. So so who's 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:00.120 it going to. 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.040 Well, this year's Bondani Award aka the You Light Up 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.240 My Life Award goes to Keith Wood, Karen Sarkisian and 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.800