BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We're playing this week with Josh Gondelman, P.J. O'Rourke and Negin Farsad. And here, again, is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in Downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill takes his Corona with a rhyme in our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news - Negin, thanks to a major security flaw, this week, a Russian computer hacker took over the control of the global food supply for whom?
NEGIN FARSAD: Like, really hungry dudes (laughter)?
SAGAL: No. I'll give you a hint.
FARSAD: I don't understand.
SAGAL: I'll give you a hint.
FARSAD: What kind of group? What do you mean?
SAGAL: Release the kibbles and bits.
FARSAD: Oh, for dogs.
SAGAL: And cats, too.
FARSAD: Pets.
SAGAL: For pets.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Let me explain. The computer hack involved Furrytail brand smart feeders. Now, there are these Internet-connected pet feeders that allow you to feed your pets while you're out of town or if you want them to worship a foot-high, white cylinder as a god.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: But now a Russian computer security specialist said she exploited a flaw to get control over every one of the 10,000 Furrytail feeders across the world. This could mean, for example, the sudden release of all the food stored inside them.
JOSH GONDELMAN: This is, like, a very - a cute hacking.
SAGAL: Yes, it's very adorable.
GONDELMAN: Like, you couldn't - this isn't, like, Bond villain. Like, Mr. Bond, if you don't give up the codes...
PJ O'ROURKE: (Laughter) Your dog will get really fat.
(LAUGHTER)
FARSAD: What does the hacker get out of this?
SAGAL: Well, now, the reason we know about this is because this is a computer security specialist who - once she figured out how to do this, alerted the world. It's easy to imagine somebody using this, especially Russians, to a bad effect. For example, they may decide not to feed your cat unless it praises Vladimir Putin, which it would do anyway. It's a cat.
(LAUGHTER)
GONDELMAN: You know, who we really don't want this technology to get in the hands of...
SAGAL: Who?
GONDELMAN: ...Is the cats and the dogs.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That would be terrible.
O'ROURKE: I was going to say, suddenly, I understand what my Brittany spaniel was doing at my laptop.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Yeah. P.J., new medical research shows if you want to lower your chances of going bald, you should do what?
GONDELMAN: Yeah. Tell us.
(LAUGHTER)
O'ROURKE: What you want to do is be Irish.
(LAUGHTER)
O'ROURKE: We don't lose our hair. We lose our minds.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I'll give a hint - looks like I need to take another follicular health day off.
O'ROURKE: It's just vacation - vacate, take more leisure.
SAGAL: Well, basically, stop doing what so much?
O'ROURKE: Working.
SAGAL: Exactly right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A new study shows that men are twice as likely to go bald if they work 52 hours a week. This is strange because my own personal research says not having a real job also makes you go bald.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Apparently, there's a hormonal stress response to working overtime. And it can inhibit hair follicle growth.
O'ROURKE: As Reagan (ph) explained.
O'ROURKE: It is, yeah, exactly - no wonder he looks so great.
O'ROURKE: Yeah.
SAGAL: It's great news for people dating who now have a 1% chance of finding someone with a job who also has hair.
(LAUGHTER)
GONDELMAN: You'd think I'd be more successful by my hairline.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Let me ask you a question.
GONDELMAN: Yes.
SAGAL: It's one bald guy to another.
GONDELMAN: Please.
SAGAL: When did you first start to lose your hair?
GONDELMAN: Age 19.
SAGAL: Nineteen.
GONDELMAN: Yeah.
SAGAL: Yeah, me, too.
GONDELMAN: Which is - I like that. I like it early because then you know the man you're going to be.
(LAUGHTER)
GONDELMAN: Right? If you start - if you have a full head of hair into your 30s like a chump, you don't know when it's coming. You don't know if it's coming.
SAGAL: Yeah.
GONDELMAN: At 19, you're just like, well, brace for impact for the next 50-odd years.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Have you ever - and I have had this experience. Have you ever had, like, a guy losing his hair later on in life come to you and say, what do I do?
GONDELMAN: Yeah.
SAGAL: And what do you say?
GONDELMAN: I laugh, mostly.
(LAUGHTER)
FARSAD: I know. I'd be like, why are you asking me? I clearly have no idea.
(LAUGHTER)
GONDELMAN: You steer into the skid.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAVEMENT SONG, "CUT YOUR HAIR") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.