The self-moving traffic cones

Hank Green & Ceri Riley from @SciShowTangents and Daniel Peake face a question about obstinate obstacles.

GUESTS:

HOST: Tom Scott.
QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe.

EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin.
GRAPHICS: Chris Hanel at Support Class. Assistant: Dillon Pentz.
FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott.

[verdatum]

"I was interested in a girl...That's a big reason why I learn stuff." I felt that one HARD.

[musicevangelist]

As a New Zealander I knew this straight away. They are not the messiah, they are very naughty birds.

[Dusty_Ham]

"You can feed a Kea from a Kia while going to IKEA" Unfortunately not, we don't have an IKEA... yet...

[MegaLokopo]

So now you put up a sign that says "ignore traffic cones blocking tunnel" and then if you need to stop traffic cover the sign, then the birds will learn to cover the sign before moving the cones over.

[chippercorgi]

Just FYI: don't drive over traffic cones. a friend did this and the cone went under the bumper, popped back up and tore off the bottom of the radiator, all the coolant poured out, the engine overheated... and that was the end of that car. I'm sure the odds of that happening are very low but... why risk it?

[erictaylor]

I once saw a crow dropping a walnut so I picked up the walnut and opened it. After that the crow would drop a nut whenever it saw me.
At one point I started using a nut cracker. After the crow saw me use the nut cracker a few times I wanted to see what the crow would do with it, so I left it by the nut.
The nut cracked was imposable for the bird to use, but it was clear it wanted to It tried a long time to work out how he could use it.
Crows are scary smart..

[kmodo]

As someone who regularly has to use cones at their job (and a high vis vest) I regret to inform everyone that a depressingly high amount of people do not infact follow the rules about cones.

[Waniou]

Had a hunch this would be kea related, entirely because they're crafty little jerks which is why we love them, but didn't realise they were capable of moving road cones.

Also found it slightly amusing that I think Ceri heard the word "island" and assumed the South Island is a small wee island and not 3/4 the size of Great Britain and New Zealand's largest land mass lol

[michaelwoodhams]

I wouldn't rule out "Kea just like messing with humans" as a motivation.

[aidanclark]

I appreciate that Hank's subtitles are in fact Green

[nunyabiznis]

1:57 can confirm. In fact we are having weather as I comment this.

[RossParker]

That's me awake for another 9 minutes then 😂

[michaelsommers]

Those crows are even smarter than suggested. They first learned to drop nuts on the road so that cars would crush them, but they then had a hard time collecting their loot because of the traffic. They then learned to drop the nuts near intersections, and then wait for the light to change before getting the goodies.

[xxkimbatron]

As a New Zealander, as soon as I heard the story I knew kea were involved. Loved Tom’s story too!

[aloysiuskurnia]

You know a joke is so utterly terrible when it's simultaneously being the most on the nose AND having someone said "I feel like there's a joke in there" at the same time 😭

[Slikx]

Soon the Kia will be charging motorists to use the tunnel.
5 peanuts for a bike.
10 peanuts for a car.
20 peanuts for a lorry.

[koshermal]

I had a hunch it would be kea, but I half expected them to be hunting and harvesting windshield wiper blades.

[R-Tex.]

Tom's new drip is pretty neat. It symbolises the end of the red T-shirt/grey hoodie Tom Scott era.

[losthorzon]

"All the Rush songs I know... are thanks to Heather."
Props to Heather!

[mabogibo]

...not Youtube opening this on 0:20 so I got blasted with Hank Green saying COOMS out of nowhere 😭😭