Speaker 1: Guess what mango? All right? So I want to tell
Speaker 1: you about this game I've been reading about. It's a
Speaker 1: game called Bob. Have you ever heard of this? It's
Speaker 1: kind of a variation on rugby and it is pure chaos.
Speaker 1: You've got to look this up. So it's played in Kirkwall, Scotland,
Speaker 1: once on Christmas and once on New Year's and the
Speaker 1: fields it's basically like any street in this tiny island town.
Speaker 1: So how's that work? All right? So they take the
Speaker 1: town's three hundred men and they split those three men
Speaker 1: up into two teams. And it's done by heritage, so
Speaker 1: either you're an uppie or a duney, and all based
Speaker 1: on which clan you came from. I know you're following
Speaker 1: along with this really well. And it's based on whether
Speaker 1: your family came from up the road or down the
Speaker 1: road from the town's cathedral. And the entire goal of
Speaker 1: the game is for one team to bounce the ball
Speaker 1: off the corner of a house on one tip of
Speaker 1: the island, while the other team's goal is to throw
Speaker 1: the ball in the bay on the other side of
Speaker 1: the island, and whoever accomplishes their goal first wins. It's
Speaker 1: that simple, And so the game is played in alleys
Speaker 1: and streets and people get jammed up against buildings and walls,
Speaker 1: and of course there are a ton of injuries from this.
Speaker 1: So do they stop when someone gets hurt. No, no,
Speaker 1: So their medics roving the you know, just to treat
Speaker 1: the injuries if they see any, but you just keep playing.
Speaker 1: People will line up on the streets to watch. But
Speaker 1: basically there's just this giant scrum of three people and
Speaker 1: it won't move for like twenty minutes or something, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly the ball will slip out and then they'll
Speaker 1: be chaos and somebody will run for a bit and
Speaker 1: then another scrum and the game can take like half
Speaker 1: a day before a single team will score. That's insane.
Speaker 1: But basically there's a ton of pride on the line
Speaker 1: and the losers have to hear about it, you know,
Speaker 1: for the rest of the year if they lose, and
Speaker 1: especially if they lose both of the matches. But you know,
Speaker 1: on the plus side, I'm guessing there's a lot of
Speaker 1: drinking and celebrating after the fact. It is rugby after all, right, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, it is Scotland after all, And that's just
Speaker 1: the first of nine little known stories we've collected from
Speaker 1: remote islands. So let's dive in. Y Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: Welcome to part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend Manes Ticketer and
Speaker 1: sitting behind that soundproof glass showing off his Gilligan Island
Speaker 1: coloring book. Have you seen this thing, Mango? Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: The skipper always gives gill Against such a hard time,
Speaker 1: even in coloring book form. In the coloring books, it's
Speaker 1: pretty crazy. Well, anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So, Mango,
Speaker 1: I know today's theme is a little bit strange. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I was reading this interesting article in Wired this
Speaker 1: week about how Charles Darwin thought that there was something
Speaker 1: special about islands and how you know, because of their
Speaker 1: isolation and their unique conditions, that the bio diversity on
Speaker 1: islands is different from the mainland, right right, So you
Speaker 1: find speech these and variations on animals you might not
Speaker 1: find in other places, like the walking saucage insects we
Speaker 1: talked about on a previous episode if you remember that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, tree lobsters, yeah, got those. But as I
Speaker 1: was reading that article, I started wondering, like, are there
Speaker 1: some fun strange stories that are also unique to remote islands?
Speaker 1: And you know, things about being isolated that could lead
Speaker 1: to funny anecdotes we hadn't heard before. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of the angle on Today's nine Things, and I like that.
Speaker 1: So I decided to kick it off with the Game
Speaker 1: of Bob, which I think we can safely assume doesn't
Speaker 1: get played anywhere in the else But I'm curious, what
Speaker 1: do what do you have next? So? Have you ever
Speaker 1: heard of Harold Hackett from Prince Edward Island? I think
Speaker 1: you know the answer to that. I have not heard
Speaker 1: of Harold Hacket. You know what's funny though, is like,
Speaker 1: the only resident I can think of from Prince Edward Island.
Speaker 1: You know who I'm gonna say is Anna Green Game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well she's probably a little more famous than Harold, but
Speaker 1: it is close, I think. So harold story is great
Speaker 1: because he was fishing on a little boat off the
Speaker 1: island and he was bored. So he took this empty
Speaker 1: pepsi bottle and used some electrical tape and he put
Speaker 1: a message in that bottle, and the message was just
Speaker 1: his name and address. But then three months later, he
Speaker 1: got a note from a new pen pal and he
Speaker 1: got him totally excited. And since then he's put out
Speaker 1: over eight thousand messages and bottles and received over responses.
Speaker 1: I mean, eight thousand is impressive, but actually that response
Speaker 1: rate is what's unbelievable. Yeah, it's but what's crazier is
Speaker 1: the depth of the friendships that's arisen from this. So,
Speaker 1: like he always writes people back, but he's actually been
Speaker 1: invited to travel around the world with some of these people,
Speaker 1: and he gets like hundreds of Christmas cards every year.
Speaker 1: They come from like South America and Africa. Couples have
Speaker 1: driven up in motor homes from like South Carolina to
Speaker 1: meet him. It's incredible. And he's just this like regular
Speaker 1: tatted up Canadian dude who likes to fish. I'm curious though, like,
Speaker 1: has he embraced this internet celebrity. No, he doesn't like
Speaker 1: to travel, and uh, the only thing he loves to
Speaker 1: do is like toss messages and bottles overboard and and
Speaker 1: he just likes the letter but exclusively in Cranberry juice
Speaker 1: bottles for someone like Yeah, so, so if you see
Speaker 1: a bottle coming your way, don't get it unless it's
Speaker 1: a cranberry juice bottle. But he's not on the net.
Speaker 1: Actually he refuses to get a computer. So all does
Speaker 1: he drink this cranberry juice? Do we know that or
Speaker 1: where this all comes from? That's amazing. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I've actually also got a fact related to Princess. I
Speaker 1: know you were talking about Prince Edward Island, but I'm
Speaker 1: talking about a different prince. So did you know there's
Speaker 1: a cargo cult on the island of Tanna and Vanawattu
Speaker 1: that worships Prince Philip, like Prince Charles's dad, Philip the
Speaker 1: One and Only. And it isn't that old of a
Speaker 1: religion either. This Prince Philip movement only started in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and it's based on this prophecy that the
Speaker 1: pale skin son of an ancient mountain god would travel
Speaker 1: the seas and marry a rich and powerful woman, and
Speaker 1: that he'd eventually returned to the mountain. And for some reason,
Speaker 1: when they saw Prince Philip's portrait, they just felt the power.
Speaker 1: He's just so powerful, you know, especially for someone with
Speaker 1: really very little power power. But when he visited vanawa
Speaker 1: To in nineteen seventy four, it only strengthened their faith.
Speaker 1: As one chief said at the time, when he saw
Speaker 1: Prince Philip approaching on a yacht, quote, I saw him
Speaker 1: on deck in his white uniform, and I knew then
Speaker 1: that he was the true Messiah. So does Philip even
Speaker 1: know about this cult? Oh, he definitely does. I mean
Speaker 1: they sent a nollnal to Buckingham Palace. That's an apparently
Speaker 1: it's a very traditional club that you'd use for pig hunting.
Speaker 1: You know, you should know this thing. And in return,
Speaker 1: he sent a picture of himself holding the gift, you know,
Speaker 1: the way through Messiah might hold his nonals. They actually
Speaker 1: credit him for helping a black man become president in
Speaker 1: the US. Basically, they think he's responsible for Obama. That's amazing. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I'd love to go to Vanuatu and see these
Speaker 1: altars to Prince Philip. But you know one place I
Speaker 1: would never travel to is Snake Island, right because it's
Speaker 1: called Snake Island. Yeah, and snakes are definitely not my thing.
Speaker 1: But it isn't just me who avoids going there. The
Speaker 1: Brazilian abe is actually placed a quarantine on the place
Speaker 1: and you can't go unless you get a special permit.
Speaker 1: And apparently there's some dispute about how snaky Snake Island
Speaker 1: is like. Some people claim there are three to five
Speaker 1: snakes every square meter. Some biologists actually think it's more
Speaker 1: like one snake per square meter. But regardless of that,
Speaker 1: what is definitely true is that the snakes there are
Speaker 1: incredibly dangerous. There are golden lance head pit vipers, which
Speaker 1: are actually responsible for more human deaths than any snake
Speaker 1: in North or South America. And as one biologist told Smithsonian,
Speaker 1: on the island, you're never more than three ft from death.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. So there are somewhere in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: of one to five snakes per square meter, and they're
Speaker 1: called golden lance head pit vipers. I don't know how,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of this place, but that is terrifying.
Speaker 1: So do people ever go there? I mean they do
Speaker 1: go there that they're actually used to be people stationed
Speaker 1: there for a while. There used to be a lighthousekeeper there,
Speaker 1: but it was deemed too unsafe for him and his family,
Speaker 1: so and his family I have his family there. So
Speaker 1: so anyway, that whole lighthouse thing has been automated since
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. I believe, but there are scientists who
Speaker 1: go there, and you know, the lencet is actually thrived
Speaker 1: there because you know, there are no predators, at least
Speaker 1: no predators on the ground, but there also isn't much
Speaker 1: to eat, so the snake's got really good at climbing
Speaker 1: trees and also killing these migratory birds. Yeah, so like
Speaker 1: over the years, the venom just became stronger and stronger
Speaker 1: and stronger to kill the birds faster. But this actually
Speaker 1: ends up being useful for science. Apparently the venom has
Speaker 1: all these promising properties that could actually lead to anti
Speaker 1: cancer drugs. And actually all of this kind of reminds
Speaker 1: me of barbarian days. Have you read that book. It's
Speaker 1: like a surfing memoir, so it's really great, but but
Speaker 1: the guy in it is is just reckless, and he's
Speaker 1: reckless about chasing waves and surfing and going to like
Speaker 1: the most remote places. And there's the story where he's
Speaker 1: on this island I want to say it's in the
Speaker 1: Pacific somewhere where they're all these like really venomous sea snakes.
Speaker 1: They're like deadly poisonous, and he and his friend just
Speaker 1: keep surfing in this area like without any regard for it,
Speaker 1: and then on land the snake's actually come, but they're
Speaker 1: so slow and dumb and awkward that you could just
Speaker 1: pick them up and throw them back into the sea,
Speaker 1: which is just terrifying to me. It is totally terrifying.
Speaker 1: And now I can't wait. After we've tried to make
Speaker 1: up for saying bad things about cats and having to
Speaker 1: do a separate cat episode, now we're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: all the snake lovers. We're gonna have to do an
Speaker 1: episode about how much we love snakes. Anyway, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go in a very different direction from Snake Island. There
Speaker 1: was actually this pretty amazing discovery that took place recently
Speaker 1: on the Danger Islands, which are these islands that are
Speaker 1: located off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, and
Speaker 1: it's really hard to get to because of all the
Speaker 1: thick sea ice that's there. But recently scientists found this
Speaker 1: super colony of a daily penguins and and it's great
Speaker 1: because people were worried that these penguins were dying off,
Speaker 1: but it turns out that over seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand of these birds have just been quietly thriving. Man
Speaker 1: and that's amazing. I really like that and definitely like
Speaker 1: it better than any story about snakes. But so here's
Speaker 1: kind of a cute story I found. It's from um On, Shetland,
Speaker 1: which isn't super remote, but it is the northernmost inhabited
Speaker 1: place in the UK. Apparently it's two d twelve miles
Speaker 1: from the Scottish mainland. And perhaps my favorite thing there
Speaker 1: is this little bus stop called Bobby's Bus Shelter. So basically,
Speaker 1: years ago, this six year old named Bobby McAuley and
Speaker 1: two of his pals would catch the bus in this
Speaker 1: little rusting shelter. It was like covered, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was ramshackle, and between all the wind and heavy rain,
Speaker 1: it eventually had to get taken down. And so little
Speaker 1: Bobby decided to write to the local newspaper and asked
Speaker 1: the town for a new bus shelter, and the paper
Speaker 1: actually took up his cause like they've petitioned the city council,
Speaker 1: and eventually Bobby and his school friends got their shelter.
Speaker 1: But then it's almost like out of a fairy tale,
Speaker 1: because like these mysterious items started getting donated. First, some
Speaker 1: proper chairs and a sofa showed up, and then carpeting,
Speaker 1: and then a microwave and the telephone and curtains and
Speaker 1: and eventually everyone in the town gone back. And and
Speaker 1: there's actually a special team that maintains it now and
Speaker 1: it gets like these themed decorations every once in a while.
Speaker 1: So it's been turned into like this art exhibit or
Speaker 1: like a celebration of space travel and tall ships and
Speaker 1: underwater life. It was even done up hansibly for the
Speaker 1: Queen's Jubilee. I mean, it's amazing if you think about.
Speaker 1: It's all thanks to this little bobby. That's right, So
Speaker 1: what do you have next? All right, let me see
Speaker 1: what I want to talk about next. So this one's
Speaker 1: actually a little bit crazy. But had you heard about
Speaker 1: someone trying to cut the ear off of one of
Speaker 1: those Easter Island heads like they tried to ven go it.
Speaker 1: They totally tried to ven go And this was back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. There was a finished tourist
Speaker 1: there and he was found on a beach just trying
Speaker 1: to hack this ear off of one of the statues.
Speaker 1: And so some islander saw him fleeing the scene with
Speaker 1: a piece of the ear with him. That's so stupid,
Speaker 1: like it does remind me though of something I've read about,
Speaker 1: like early Plymouth rock that they weren't very protective of
Speaker 1: the rocks, so people would actually chisel bits off of
Speaker 1: it to take it home. But well, what happened to
Speaker 1: this guy? I guess he was identified by a tattoos,
Speaker 1: I think. But the guy issued a public apology and
Speaker 1: he was fine seventeen thousand dollars, which really is pretty
Speaker 1: light considering this guy gone to prison for years. That's crazy. Also,
Speaker 1: I mean, he did give us a fun game to
Speaker 1: play the next time we're on Easter Island, like which
Speaker 1: one of these heads isn't like the others? You know,
Speaker 1: we've got two more island facts to cover before we
Speaker 1: pick a winner, so let's take a quick break. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Part time Genius. All right, Mango, what's your
Speaker 1: last island fact? So I had a really hard time
Speaker 1: picking this. I was thinking about like Rikers Island fact
Speaker 1: I read about like how Salvador Dolly did a painting
Speaker 1: for the prisoners there, or you know about those grandmothers
Speaker 1: in Korea who are total badasses, And yeah, I love
Speaker 1: that story about how like they said all their daughters
Speaker 1: and granddaughters to college it's an amazing me. But you know,
Speaker 1: the thing is, I always go back to animal facts.
Speaker 1: And did you know there's a Japanese island called Yakushima
Speaker 1: where the monkeys ride the deer around for transportation. This
Speaker 1: is also one of those animal facts that isn't true?
Speaker 1: Is this right? No? So I looked it up and
Speaker 1: I didn't believe it at first. I thought it was
Speaker 1: like maybe like a tourist that caught this one off
Speaker 1: photo and and that just stormed the internet. Remember, But um,
Speaker 1: but it's actually true. They're like scientists who study this,
Speaker 1: and it's not crazy distances that they're riding them around for.
Speaker 1: It's like they'll just hop on them to go like
Speaker 1: from a nearby place to another nearby place. But apparently
Speaker 1: it is a symbiotic relationship, like the deer eat the
Speaker 1: seeds and fruit that the monkeys will drop, and the
Speaker 1: monkeys pay for the rides by grooming the ticks and
Speaker 1: lights off the deer. It's it's kind of a win win.
Speaker 1: And you know, apparently this sort of monkey dear relation
Speaker 1: only happens on this one island. That's a pretty good fact, Mango,
Speaker 1: And actually a lot of days I would say it
Speaker 1: maybe the best fact, but actually I've got one that
Speaker 1: I've been saving. So in the Canary Islands, in this
Speaker 1: area called Lagomero, the people that have developed a language
Speaker 1: made entirely of whistling. It's called Silbo Gomero. So I'm
Speaker 1: a little skeptical of like a whistling language is just
Speaker 1: like signals to one another or um, you know about
Speaker 1: like warning and danger calls and stuff like that. Now
Speaker 1: this is actually a full fledged language. You should actually
Speaker 1: look this up because it's pretty fascinating. It's it's basically
Speaker 1: the Spanish language whistled, so the structure and the words
Speaker 1: they're all derived from Spanish. But linguists have actually identified
Speaker 1: the consonants and the vowel sounds with it, so you know,
Speaker 1: you can actually write it out as Spanish. That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: And and so do do kids on this island speaking?
Speaker 1: Or is it a dying language? Actually it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of both. You know. UNESCO has added it to
Speaker 1: its list of the Masterpieces of Humanity. And in the
Speaker 1: fifties people realized that silbo was dying out. But now
Speaker 1: it's actually being taught in schools. And oddly though, it
Speaker 1: isn't the only whistling language, their versions of Turkish and
Speaker 1: Greek and I think French that that are all Frans
Speaker 1: pose through this whistling as well. Well, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: And and between that and your rugby fact, I think
Speaker 1: you have to take home today's trophy, which is kind
Speaker 1: of a streak for you. Yeah, I think I've won
Speaker 1: a few in a row here, you know. It's also impressive.
Speaker 1: I think Tristan has finished most of the coloring book over.
Speaker 1: It's really uh well, thank you guys for listening today.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we forgot some great facts about islands. We'd
Speaker 1: love to hear those from you. Please email us at
Speaker 1: part Time Genius at how stuff works dot com or
Speaker 1: hit us up fact hot Line one eight four four
Speaker 1: pt Genius. You can always reach us on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with a full length episode tomorrow