Darting dogs

[wheelswings]

Here’s a question for you dog authorities out there (RCannon?). What is the appropriate response when an unleashed dog races into the street, ignores the commands of its owners, and chases after me on my bike? It happened again today, as it has several times over the years. I know almost nothing about dogs, so normally I just pedal super-fast and hope the dog will get tired before the next big intersection.

Is there a preferable way to react? Go fast? Stop? Give the dog a command of some sort? I don’t know if a dog would listen to a command from someone who’s not its caretaker.

I grew up with guinea pigs, a rescued rabbit, two Madagascar hissing roaches (a gift from a science teacher), chickens in the attic, an abandoned turtle, and a rescued skunk, among others. But I’m afraid dogs are beyond my expertise…

Topic

[PotomacCyclist]

I also think of the issues with alphabets and written language. American/English and other widely spoken languages are not always consistent about how sounds are written. One sound can be written in multiple ways, which is not efficient, especially when learning that written language. A famous example is the made-up “word” ‘ghoti’ or ‘fish’. The ‘gh’ is pronounced as in ‘tough’, the ‘o’ is pronounced as in ‘women’ and the ‘ti’ is pronounced as in ‘construction’. ‘Ghoti’ doesn’t follow standard English rules, but it does show how poorly the written language can match up with the spoken language.

English isn’t the only language that does this. There are many ways to spell the ‘o’ sound in French, for example: au, aux, ot, o, os, eau, eaux, aut, and probably others.

One language that is more logical is the Korean language. Unlike Chinese, it uses a small alphabet of 24 characters, and all of the sounds for a syllable are grouped into a single block. The characters were designed to mimic the shape of the mouth or tongue when speaking that particular sound. Each of the characters is relatively simple, just a couple lines or a circle. It doesn’t take that long to learn (unlike other East Asian languages). It’s an artificial alphabet, in that it was created by a group of scholars centuries ago. It didn’t develop organically the way that most alphabets and writing systems did. But that alphabet wasn’t officially used for centuries until it was revived in the late 19th century. Even then, they still combined the simple alphabet with the very complex Chinese characters in everyday use. (Apparently North Korea does not do this. It’s easier to standardize formats and languages in a totalitarian society. Not saying this is good, because obviously totalitarian societies are not good. I’m just pointing out that standards are easier to implement when one guy can tell everyone to do it or they lose their heads.) The French do have their official language arbiters, but they haven’t focused on efficiency or clarity in the alphabet because they deem organic history and tradition more important.

After getting far off the original topic of the thread, I think I’ll try to pull it back into the bike realm, somehow. There are also standardization issues in the world of cycling, from bike sizing to wheel sizes. One company could decide to set a standard, but other companies don’t have to listen to them. Even a group could set a standard, but companies in other countries could ignore those standards. My general point is that standards are tough to implement in all these types of situations, and the lack of conformity makes it difficult to say any particular format is the clearest.

[PotomacCyclist]

@mstone 103918 wrote:

Um, it isn’t new. It was introduced in 1988, superseding ISO 2014 which was adopted in 1976 (and recommended in 1971). It just takes a very long time for sensible things to become common. Progress is happening, and internet dates now use a compatible subset of ISO 8601. (RFC 3339)

That’s why you go with the unambiguous international standard instead of the historical local format.

Unfortunately, it’s not up to any individuals. Even if it is, most people aren’t going to be fiddling with the time/date settings on their email programs or webmail. You just open up the email, type and hit Enter. Then it falls into the hands of the servers and the mischievous IT guys. (Or the NSA, Anonymous or the North Koreans.)

[PotomacCyclist]

@mstone 103918 wrote:

Um, it isn’t new. It was introduced in 1988, superseding ISO 2014 which was adopted in 1976 (and recommended in 1971). It just takes a very long time for sensible things to become common. Progress is happening, and internet dates now use a compatible subset of ISO 8601. (RFC 3339)

That’s why you go with the unambiguous international standard instead of the historical local format.

I meant having a new system where everyone actually follows a single format.

[UnknownCyclist]

Boooooooring. Can we please get back to discussions of how to raise dogs and kids?:rolleyes:

[baiskeli]

@rcannon100 103732 wrote:

My dog bit me after I did this to her.

[IMG]http://bikearlingtonforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7339&stc=1[/IMG]

Her explanation was that “Dogs are not humans and had no interest in pursuing any wheel conveyances.” My kid then accused me of being a bad parent.

Now I want to bite you.

[baiskeli]

@UnknownCyclist 103922 wrote:

Boooooooring. Can we please get back to discussions of how to raise dogs and kids?:rolleyes:

Yeah, talk about a nerd-fest.

Almost as bad as a bunch of cyclists yammering about bikes.

[PotomacCyclist]

Maybe we should set up a battle cage and have robots on bicycles, incumbents, unicycles, Segways, rollerblades, electric cars and running shoes crashing into each other and fighting to the death.

[PotomacCyclist]

[PotomacCyclist]

[PotomacCyclist]

[baiskeli]

@PotomacCyclist 103933 wrote:

Maybe we should set up a battle cage and have robots on bicycles, incumbents, unicycles, Segways, rollerblades, electric cars and running shoes crashing into each other and fighting to the death.

No challengers?

[PotomacCyclist]

Two-wheeled challenger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT3vfSQePcs

http://www.military.com/video/off-duty/odd/amazing-bi-ped-robot-rides-a-bike/1256853353001/

[Author]

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