1,000 pairs of underwear buried across 25+ countries

0:03 Hey there, I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories. A team of researchers buried a thousand pairs of underwear in more than 25 countries, and they won a science prize for it. I know that sentence sounds crazy. I just read it out loud. I'm like, wait, what happened? Well, you see, it was the annual Ig Nobel Awards in Zurich, organized by the Annals of Improbable Research. The ceremony celebrates real science. with some wonderfully unusual subjects. In this case, the buried underwear helped researchers study soil health. Yeah, don't overthink that one. Examining how organisms in the ground broke down the fabric. Oh, I see. Other honorees studied cockroach milk.

0:45 Some investigated the mechanics of blowing your nose. And others reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing. Hmm, I see what you guys did there. Each team received a trophy that looked like a mushroom crossed with a human foot. An audience helped open the ceremony by throwing paper airplanes towards the stage. That's per tradition. And they want you to know these are separate from the Nobel Prizes. These are the Ig Nobel Prizes. And congratulations to all the winners. In Florida, a deer let himself into somebody's house, checked out the bathroom, and then went in the pool. Deputies in St. Johns County arrived to find a large buck standing beside the toilets looking back at them. One deputy said, first time I've had a deer in a house in 23 years. So they moved some furniture to make a route for the deer to leave. They used a pool brush to guide the guest into the yard. That got the deer out of the house. The deer jumped into the swimming pool, climbed out, and then went back in for a second dip. Eventually, the deer found an opening in the fence and let himself out. The sheriff's office said the buck fled before deputies could issue a warning for trespassing. Now, solving a Rubik's Cube is impressive, but how about solving 211 Rubik's Cubes while bouncing on a pogo stick? Yeah, solve. is in the Guinness World Record book for whatever that record is. The previous record was 65 cubes, again, while bouncing on a pogo stick. He's very excited to be in the actual book. He said, I get a copy of my own and flip through it and see my name in it. I was honored that they chose me. My record is very unique and

2:17 quite the spectacle to see if I do a demonstration. Okay. Good news for some penguins in Chile. They are getting little red vests. Those outfits could help them recover from injuries. Researchers are testing fabric containing copper and zinc on Humboldt penguins. Similar garments have been used to help dogs and cats with skin wounds. Ignacio is the director of the local zoo and says for years, vests with microfibers containing elements like copper and zinc have been tested on pets and have greatly helped in the recovery of skin wounds. We began to wonder, why can't this be used on penguins? Good question. The zoo took penguin measurements for the first suits. Somewhere, somebody's workday involved making penguin vests. Now, the theory here is penguins reach around with their beaks and pick at wounds and even pull out the stitches with the vests that'll keep the wounds covered so the penguins don't, you know, pick at them. Makes sense to me. Ignacio says, we've seen that the penguins tolerate it quite well. We noticed that from one day to the next, the wounds were in better condition with the vest. And good news for Shelly.

3:18 Shelly got all her dogs back inside when a moose charged at them in the backyard. She told CNN, I was fearful for sure because, you know, the moose was so big. I've never had a big moose like that run after me. She was especially worried about Annie, who's 14 years old and a dog. Annie is deaf and losing her sight, and, you know, moose, you get it, yeah. There's footage of this. We see Shelly spraying the approaching moose. The moose stops and then fled away, and that gave Shelly a chance to get the dogs inside. None of the dogs were injured. The moose seems okay, and those... are your five good news stories for today. If you would like the program without commercial interruption, use the Apple Podcasts app. Short version, five bucks a month. Commercials go away. It's a great way to support the show. Appreciate you.

3:59 Have a great day.