Télécharger

Pratique du shadowing : Backyard Squirrel Maze 1.0 - Ninja Warrior Course

Écoute la phrase, puis dis-la à voix haute
Phrase 1

Transcription complète

  1. This is a bird feeder, and everything to my left is my attempt at making it squirrel proof.0:00
  2. If they want the bird seed, they will first need to pass through what is basically an eight -part Ninja Warrior obstacle course for squirrels.0:05
  3. This course is extremely challenging.0:11
  4. It is not for the timid of heart, but out of the gate, I will admit that in hindsight, that I completely underestimated my adversary.0:13
  5. Now, if you're wondering why I would go through all this trouble, we need to go back eight weeks ago when I found myself stuck at home and very bored.0:21
  6. So I installed a bird feeder and decided to become a bird watcher.0:28
  7. And it was just so lovely until they showed up.0:32
  8. Now luckily my bird feeder had a wire cage around it big enough for the birds to slip inside, but small enough to prevent the squirrels from getting the food.0:37
  9. And that worked really well until right here.0:45
  10. For me, this was like the moment in Jurassic Park when they realized the velociraptors can open door handles.0:48
  11. And once the door was open, it was clear this wasn't their first rodeo.0:53
  12. They basically cleared this whole tube of bird seed by the end of the day.0:57
Afficher les 275 phrases Afficher moins de phrases
  1. Mind you, this bird feeder was advertised as being squirrel proof.1:01
  2. So I bought another squirrel proof bird feeder to replace it.1:04
  3. It's got this outer cage suspended by some springs.1:07
  4. And so if a bird comes and lands here, it doesn't weigh that much and it has access to the seeds.1:10
  5. However, if a squirrel comes, they'll grab onto this cage, its weight will force the springs down, thereby preventing access to the seeds.1:15
  6. I have no idea how the squirrels could possibly outsmart this, but let's see.1:23
  7. And this one worked exactly as intended.1:28
  8. You can see the birds love it, but when the squirrel comes along, the cage shifts down and now all the seed ports are covered up.1:31
  9. Every time they tried, it was the same results.1:37
  10. However, the next morning, this guy manages to unclip the springs that hold the cage up, which means the cage stays in the lowered position where it blocks all the1:40
  11. seed openings.1:47
  12. Problem with that is now they can get to the lid, but this bird feeder lid doesn't hinge open to give direct access.1:48
  13. So he goes with a different tactic, where he now has access to all the bird seed he wants.1:55
  14. And so I decided I would try one more bird feeder design.2:03
  15. Okay, wow.2:06
  16. It almost feels intentional at this point.2:09
  17. This one's supposed to work well because it's got this baffle, which is supposed to keep the squirrels from just coming straight down and getting to the seeds.2:11
  18. And more importantly, there's no way for them to rip this off.2:17
  19. We'll see.2:21
  20. This one debuted to similar results.2:21
  21. As he hangs by a few toes, this is when I really started to gain an appreciation for what they were capable of.2:24
  22. It definitely seemed like this bird feeder was their favorite.2:30
  23. Okay.2:33
  24. Yeah, they're flexing on me for sure.2:34
  25. And at this point, a plan was forming in my head.2:36
  26. But just to be thorough, I moved the post away from the fence and I can't say I was surprised when they just climbed it.2:38
  27. Nor was I surprised to see they could shimmy up and down a small metal pole or even a large one for that matter.2:44
  28. And whether they could climb a certain pole material was a moot point anyways because of this.2:50
  29. Look at this.2:55
  30. These guys are basically freaking rodent -sized Simone Biles.2:56
  31. And on some level, this is what it felt like when someone stole a package from my porch that didn't belong to them.3:00
  32. And I harnessed that indignation, spending a year designing the glitter bomb bait package.3:04
  33. Hello.3:09
  34. Complete with special fragrances.3:11
  35. If I could design a package to deter thieves, could I design a bird feeder to deter squirrels?3:14
  36. And so after a couple weeks of brainstorming, designing and building with my buddy John, we put it all together in this 20 -second build montage.3:21
  37. Here are the basic elements.3:45
  38. For starters, here's where I've placed their favorite bird feeder at the end of the course and to sweeten the deal, right below that there's a trap door.3:47
  39. And if they step here, it releases a butt ton of walnuts and unfurls some celebratory banners.3:55
  40. Why walnuts?4:02
  41. I'm glad you asked.4:03
  42. I'm using walnuts because over the course of the week, I put out a buffet of seven different nuts and seeds.4:04
  43. And all four times I repeated the experiment, walnuts were always the one they ate first.4:09
  44. What's great about placing this here is it levels the playing field as the birds can fly up and get as much food as they want any time they need4:13
  45. it.4:21
  46. The squirrels, however, will have to work for it because the only way to make it to this platform is if they work their way through my eight -part Ninja4:21
  47. Warrior obstacle course, which all starts right here.4:28
  48. This is the only platform on the course that has a pole that isn't covered in slippery stuff, which means this is where they have to climb up to enter4:31
  49. the course.4:38
  50. If they try and get up any other way, they can't keep a good grip and they just slide back down.4:39
  51. So the first challenge is the bridge of instability.4:43
  52. Now this may look easy, but the trick is it attaches at a single point on each end.4:46
  53. And from a physics standpoint, that makes it no different than trying to crawl across a tightrope.4:51
  54. It's the same deceptive principle with that one carnival game that's so impossible.4:55
  55. I broke it down into another video where I used physics to show which carnival games were basically scams and the science on how to beat them.4:59
  56. Next up, the maze of a thousand corridors.5:05
  57. This one's a bit more cerebral, but if they make it through that, it will bring them to the pitchfork tumblers, which are inspired by the show Wipeout.5:08
  58. But unlike Wipeout, I should point out that all these contraptions are squirrel friendly, and even with a little back force, they will break away and stop spinning.5:14
  59. Now if they can make it past the pitchfork tumblers of treachery, they come to one of my personal favorites, the home wrecker.5:23
  60. I put her into Tempt -A -Squirrel to lose focus on the real prize at the end of the course, because this pad has a pressure sensor underneath it, and5:35
  61. it connects to a microcontroller that has a relay that connects to a solenoid, that connects to a pneumatic piston, that connects back to this platform with the pressure sensor.5:42
  62. And so if they stand here for more than three seconds, they've got to start the course all over again.5:49
  63. Next up is the sneaky bridge of deception.5:56
  64. I've suspended a juicy walnut right in the middle, but there's no way this bridge will support their weight, so it'll be interesting to see how they approach it.5:58
  65. The sixth challenge is called the tourist trap.6:05
  66. It's actually a bit of a reward for making it this far.6:07
  67. If the squirrel sticks their head through this board my wife painted, it's just a photo op they can hang on the wall of their tiny squirrel nest.6:10
  68. I'll place a walnut here as an incentive for them not to miss this unique opportunity.6:15
  69. The penultimate challenge are the quad steps of great elevation.6:19
  70. This is taken straight from Ninja Warrior, and this is super tricky because these pads are all totally smooth and placed at a 45 degree incline.6:22
  71. And now for the last challenge.6:29
  72. At this point, they are a mere few feet away from their ultimate goal, but if they're not careful, they'll have to deal with the orbital assist platform, aka the6:30
  73. final countdown, aka it's not a catapult, it's a squirrelapult.6:39
  74. Which means they now have to go back and start all the way over from the beginning.6:46
  75. Now if they want to avoid that fate, they just need to stand on this pad for less than three seconds.6:50
  76. But once again, I've placed a diversion here.6:55
  77. This one projects an optical illusion of anything you place in the bottom of this dish.6:57
  78. It's actually super trippy and looks even more impressive in real life because the projected image is 3D.7:01
  79. They're like nine bucks on Amazon and I put a link that explains the juicy physics of how they work in the video description.7:06
  80. Now with regards to squirrel safety, I know I seem to have this reputation of...7:11
  81. improvised high -speed projectiles, and so this one might worry a few animal lovers out there, including my wife.7:22
  82. We have five pets and one child, and the child was the only one I had a say in.7:27
  83. So rest assured, I can adjust the pressure on the piston and we'll be staying way below any launch force that could hurt any of our adorable backyard contestants.7:31
  84. And so finally, after making it through all that, we're back here at the world's most satisfying bird feeder.7:40
  85. And as far as I'm concerned, if they make it here, they've earned the right to gorge next to the birds for as long as they want.7:45
  86. And so after nearly a month of prep work, the course was officially open for business.7:51
  87. They could smell the walnuts at the final station, and you could see the gears turning because right above that was their favorite bird feeder.7:57
  88. And so before long, we had our first contender.8:06
  89. That didn't exactly go as planned, so Rick decides to regroup.8:25
  90. Speaking of which, that's Rick.8:29
  91. There are a total of four competitors that will be attempting the course.8:32
  92. First up is Rick, and he weighs 500 grams.8:35
  93. I know this because he's actually standing on a custom -made scale.8:38
  94. Rick is very clever, as you'll see here in a minute, but he also gets spooked easily.8:41
  95. Next up is Marty.8:45
  96. He's basically indistinguishable from Rick.8:46
  97. Rick and Marty are inseparable and pretty much spend all time together as a pair.8:48
  98. Our third contender is Frank, also coming in around 500 grams.8:52
  99. He's very gutsy.8:56
  100. He's also kind of dumb.8:57
  101. Finally, we've got my personal favorite, Fat Gus.8:58
  102. He's just really charming and will strike a pose if he sees a camera.9:02
  103. He also really likes to eat.9:05
  104. And he tips the scales at an impressive 800 grams.9:07
  105. While most of the squirrels are kind of particular before making a selection and then gracefully leaping away, Fat Gus just goes for it.9:10
  106. Hands -free.9:17
  107. Just makes himself real comfortable.9:18
  108. Here he is laying out with a light snack from the bird feeder.9:20
  109. I mean, you can't fault the guy for just clearly appreciating a good meal.9:23
  110. So now that you know our four contenders, let's get back to Rick.9:27
  111. So he hops back on and he's actually doing better than his first attempt.9:30
  112. Just barely.9:34
  113. This is the best because he's like, okay, I got this.9:36
  114. Never mind.9:40
  115. Well, maybe I know.9:40
  116. I definitely don't.9:41
  117. And this was the exact moment I realized I just might be outmatched here.9:43
  118. Marty was watching Rick and after a quick dip of his toes in the water, adopts his strategy right out of the gate.9:53
  119. So close.9:58
  120. But an excellent recovery.10:00
  121. And Fat Gus, perhaps predictably, comes up a little short, which brings us to the maze of a thousand corridors, which to be honest, they mastered this one pretty quickly.10:02
  122. Here's a solid run from Fat Gus.10:11
  123. And now for the pitchfork tumblers of treachery.10:16
  124. Marty was like, yeah, that's a hard pass.10:19
  125. Fat Gus is just like, abort.10:22
  126. Frank is just like, nope.10:25
  127. Then he's like, wait a second.10:27
  128. Still nope.10:29
  129. Then Marty flies in real hot over the top.10:30
  130. He didn't make it through, but that's partial credit as far as I'm concerned.10:33
  131. And then here's Fat Gus with my favorite attempt by far.10:35
  132. And then Frank shows no fear, which helps him pull off this near flawless run.10:44
  133. And finally, smart Rick surgically weaves his way through, essentially untouched.10:48
  134. And I should mention, the squirrels were most active from six to 10 a .m.10:52
  135. So every morning, I've been getting up before the sunrise to start filming from in my house like one of those camouflage nature photographers, only like a suburbanized version.10:55
  136. I've also had a handful of streaming cameras rolling 24 seven, which has allowed me to make such discoveries as we have the world's worst guard dog.11:05
  137. Thanks for the help, pal.11:12
  138. Now back to the home wrecker.11:13
  139. You could see Rick is instinctively suspicious of this gold digger and only for a brief moment puts his full weight on the platform.11:15
  140. I told you he was smart.11:21
  141. His buddy Marty on the other hand.11:22
  142. She is a cruel mistress.11:31
  143. And because I know my wife is going to ask me no, this will not hurt the squirrel for two reasons.11:34
  144. Number one, they are amazing like cats and always land on their feet.11:39
  145. And two, they themselves were jumping from this height all the time.11:43
  146. And in some cases much higher.11:47
  147. In fact, squirrels are one of the few mammals that can survive a fall from any height because they make their terminal velocity so low.11:49
  148. You can see it right here.11:56
  149. They make their body as flat as possible, then put their tail back to increase drag.11:57
  150. They basically become their own parachute.12:01
  151. And then right before they land, they pull in and fully extend their arms and legs to act as shock absorbing landing gear.12:04
  152. This is so cool.12:09
  153. Now back to the course where even smart Rick eventually lets his guard down, which is exactly when she strikes.12:11
  154. But just like all the other obstacles so far after a day or two, they'd mastered it.12:20
  155. In this case, even disregarding her offering of a fresh walnut.12:25
  156. Now on to the slinky bridge of deception.12:30
  157. And this was the sleeper obstacle in my book.12:32
  158. That is not a large gap, which they can easily jump.12:34
  159. But having the slinky there just threw them off somehow.12:37
  160. You can see how much Frank is struggling here.12:40
  161. And he's the brave one.12:42
  162. And Rick only jumps when Marty shows up for emotional support.12:45
  163. But like all the obstacles so far after a day or two, they'd mastered it.12:50
  164. Now on to our third to last obstacle, the tourist trap.12:54
  165. And this one was just a freaking delight.12:57
  166. A little peanut butter really did the trick here.12:59
  167. Now here comes fat Gus.13:13
  168. And I mean, how fat Gus is this?13:14
  169. He sees the camera and he's like, paits me like one of your French squirrels.13:17
  170. Yeah?13:20
  171. No?13:21
  172. No takers?13:22
  173. All right.13:23
  174. Here's another classic Gus where he looks at the camera.13:24
  175. Wait a second.13:27
  176. Play that back.13:28
  177. And freeze.13:30
  178. Zoom, enhance.13:31
  179. Well, turns out fat Gus is not a dude.13:42
  180. And he's pregnant, which meant I was suddenly feeling real uncomfortable about all those weight comments.13:45
  181. So after a bit of a pivot to smooth things over, we soldiered on to the quad steps of great elevation.13:51
  182. Frank comes in rather confident almost to his demise.13:57
  183. But he pulls off the smooth recovery.14:01
  184. So after not much time at all, they were looking pretty good here.14:08
  185. In fact, one morning I noticed Marty totally skipped the last step altogether, which I took as a challenge.14:10
  186. And so I removed the middle step to see what they would do.14:16
  187. And who else but fantastic Gus?14:18
  188. Let's slow that down a bit.14:21
  189. There's such amazing jumpers.14:24
  190. So I suppose the quick master here wasn't a surprise.14:26
  191. I mean, this right here is probably a 10 foot jump.14:29
  192. And here's some classic brave but dumb Frank.14:31
  193. He'd already entered the course normally and made it to the home record at least a dozen times by this point.14:34
  194. And yet for some reason he decides his 12 foot jump is his best course of action.14:39
  195. Smart Rick was the first one to enter the course.14:43
  196. So in the end, after about a week of effort, it was fitting he was the one to make it to the jackpot first.14:45
  197. And he's so stoked he apparently wants to run the whole course in reverse.14:50
  198. In hindsight, we probably should have made the jackpot a little quieter.14:54
  199. Here's Marty, as always, not far behind.14:57
  200. He's also a bit flighty, as you know, which worked against him here because down below Fantastic Us, ever the opportunist, comes through with the real stroke of brilliance.15:05
  201. But pretty soon Marty comes back like, um, I'm the one who kind of earned that.15:14
  202. And then Fantastic Us is like, you snoozy loose sucker.15:19
  203. And might I just say Fantastic Us, when you sit like that, you don't look an ounce over 700 grams.15:22
  204. Eventually they learned that sound was a good thing and they'd quickly return for their reward before Fantastic Us got any ideas.15:27
  205. So here's a single camera shot of a full run and by the end all of them could do the full course in less than 40 seconds.15:33
  206. And while we're watching, you might be wondering what happened to the squirrel a put.15:39
  207. Unfortunately, they didn't really fall for my illusion much, but I'm about to show you the two times they did.15:43
  208. And as a promise to my wife, I turned the pressure to only 40 % full power.15:48
  209. So the acceleration the squirrel would feel is about half a G, which is 10 times less than the typical roller coaster.15:52
  210. Additionally, I never turned on either the home record trap door or the launch platform when I wasn't actively watching from inside my house where I had a manual override15:57
  211. button because the same as it was something about launching Fantastic Us just didn't feel right.16:05
  212. Now what you're about to see is going to look pretty chaotic, but when we check the slow mo, amazingly, I'll show you how the squirrel is totally in control16:10
  213. pretty much the whole time.16:17
  214. All right, now here's a second angle.16:20
  215. Also, even if you don't trust my calculations, I can assure you that the squirrels did not care.16:25
  216. In both launch cases, they were back up on the course in like five minutes.16:31
  217. Here's the slow mo and see if you can spot the two critical things he does to make sure he lands feet down.16:35
  218. Did you catch it?16:41
  219. The first critical moment is right here.16:44
  220. He's already done the predictive math and he's locked his head on the spot where he plans to land.16:46
  221. And now his head will not lose that lock the whole way down.16:51
  222. What's crazy is the time it takes him to do all the predictive math to know exactly where he will land and to lock his head is 300 milliseconds.16:55
  223. That's exactly this long, literally less than the blink of an eye.17:02
  224. That blows my mind, but if you think about it, it makes sense these reactions would have evolved to be razor sharp if you live your life in the trees17:05
  225. constantly making split second decisions.17:12
  226. Now besides picking the landing spot with his head, the second trick is with his arms.17:14
  227. When he wants to keep his upper body from rotating, he has his arms out, but the moment he wants to rotate his upper body quickly, he tucks them in.17:18
  228. And then when he wants to stop rotating, he extends them out again.17:25
  229. This is straight up conservation of angular momentum.17:28
  230. It's the same trick ice skaters use.17:31
  231. Basically bring your limbs in if you want to rotate fast, extend them out if you want to slow the rotation.17:33
  232. My buddy Destin from Smarter Every Day also made a video analyzing how cats always land on their feet and they do the exact same two tricks.17:38
  233. They had target lock and bringing limbs in to rotate and out to stop rotation.17:45
  234. Here's the second launch.17:49
  235. So this may look like pure luck in real time, but the slow -mo tells a different story.17:52
  236. In that amount of time, he's already made a slight lateral push in that direction and locked his landing target with his head.17:56
  237. We know from the previous clip he can rotate his body to any orientation, but he doesn't in this case because he sees his small push has already aligned him18:02
  238. for the perfect landing.18:09
  239. That's just so cool.18:11
  240. And so after those two physics demonstrations, I disabled both the launcher and the home record trap door and just let them enjoy the course in peace.18:12
  241. As far as I was concerned, they had earned it.18:19
  242. Plus after spending a month together, we were sort of bros by this point.18:21
  243. If they saw me coming out to work, they would certainly jump away, but then they just quickly be right back.18:24
  244. And sadly, all good things must come to an end and because I didn't want them to develop an unhealthy dependence on my handouts, after about a week of free18:28
  245. reign, I took down the course, but in its place, I put up a specialized squirrel -sized picnic table.18:35
  246. Every morning, this door opens to release just a few walnuts as a little treat to remind them of our good times together.18:40
  247. Although I had to laugh that after all this, somehow I didn't anticipate on day one, Frank would immediately try and figure out and partially succeed in finding a way18:46
  248. to beat the system.18:54
  249. Like everything else though, they quickly caught on and now on some mornings, I'll catch them just waiting for the daily ration, chilling patiently on the bench seat.18:55
  250. That is everyone but fantastic Gus.19:02
  251. Don't ever change, buddy.19:06
  252. When I started this two -month -long adventure trying to birdwatch, I had no idea I would enjoy squirrel watching so much more.19:07
  253. It's also made me realize that even amongst the structures and pavement and power lines, how interesting nature can be in a single suburban backyard if you just really stop19:14
  254. to look.19:23
  255. Even the plants are amazing.19:24
  256. I had no idea that as vines grow, they spin around looking for something to grab onto.19:25
  257. I didn't anticipate the wide variety of animals that use fences as inner yard highways to get around as a substitute for all the trees that existed before we got19:30
  258. here.19:39
  259. Even little interactions like this spider extending his life with this very timely leap into the unknown were just so delightful to see.19:39
  260. But of all the animals, I can definitively say now that squirrels are my absolute favorite, and they're certainly a more formidable adversary than torch pirates.19:47
  261. They're kind of adorable, incredibly crafty, curious by nature, athletic, and persistent.19:55
  262. Turns out squirrels can live to be 20 years old, and so I like to think that someday, fantastic Gus will bring his grand squirrels to the fence and regale20:01
  263. them with tales of cowboys and courage and legendary walnut piles.20:09

Mesuré dans ce clip

Débit
231 mots par minute — plus rapide que 86% du catalogue
Niveau CECRL
B1
Mots à connaître
adopts, contraptions, fragrances, predictive, tumblers, disregarding
Télécharger dans l’App Store