unkchunk

T'was a first for me. Beat up black hatchback (maybe a VW Rabbit) no hub caps and full of bored high school kids (it's spring break this week) toss something out the window as they pass me. A few seconds later I hear the popping of about a dozen fire crackers. What ever happened to standards? They weren't even close. In my day we would have put effort into estimating the fuse burn time to the speed of the target, determined the correct ratios and gotten within 10 yards of the target. What are they teaching in schools today anyway? They could never firgure out basic word problems like: how far down stream a swimmer would end up when swimming at a speed of 2 mph in a 3 mph current in a mile wide section of a river. It's just pathetic.

I mean it was pretty bad when they used to yell without enunciating clearly. I'd have to spend the rest of the ride trying to figure out exactly what they were trying to communicate. Now I have to witness their poor problem solving and accuracy skills. This younger generation disgusts me.

EnigManiac

Kids today....they just don't take the time or effort to commit random acts of foolishness and harassment properly. They probably have parents who pay attention to them and listen to them and respect their opinions and stuff. What kind of parenting is that? In my day, a parent knew better. A parent ignored their kids except to give them a beating for no reason and let television teach them everything they need to know. Nowadays, it's all gone to h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Kids just don't have pride in what they do anymore. Sigh.

golgotha

I'll bet if it were something more interactive like a Roman Candle or a Bottle Rocket, they would have hit the mark. Firecrackers are analog, and analog is passe. Still, I would have put it right under your foot.

Doggus

We had some rednecks toss some M80s underneath the undercarriage of our tandem once. Times like that I wouldn't mind sending rounds down range, and I was an expert marksmen in the Corp. Firing from the cockpit sounds like fun.

jyossarian

Too bad it's not legal anymore to smack strange kids when they act stupid. I threatened some kid once for threatening me and he said if I hit him, I'd be arrested. I told him I wouldn't be arrested cuz they'd never find his body.

EnigManiac

You should hear the comedy bit by Russel Peters where he relates how a classmate of his when he was a kid advised him to threaten his dad with calling the police the next time his old man was going to hit him. So, he did. And his dad says 'let me get you the phone, tough guy' wherein he replies 'but, you'll get in trouble.' His dad looks at him and says 'I might get in a little bit of trouble, but I know it'll take them 23 minutes to get here and in that time...someone's gonna get a hurt real bad.'

Not that I support physical abuse, but the routine was funny.

jyossarian

I don't support physical abuse either. Physical punishment in moderation on the other hand...

bike2math

I had some adults toss a bottle rocket my way. It hit the pavement and took off down the street. Not to scary, as a kid my friends and I would toss lit handfuls spinning into the air, so I had a pretty good idea of how harmless it was.

Not sure how I'd feel about any larger explosives though. it does beat having change or bottles winged at me.

ken cummings

In olden times we could buy "Picolo Petes" that were rigged to be wired into a cars ignition system. When those teenaged kids turned on their car it would sound like demons had possessed the engine.

Get the vehicle number the next time. If the police do not care check the school parking lots and let their principle/parole officer know.

gbcb

A few hallowe'ens ago a couple of punks made the mistake of throwing firecrackers at the front porch where my roommates and I were handing out candy. They completely misjudged even this large, stationary target, and it ended up fizzling in the front yard. That didn't stop one roommate, a competitive long-distance runner, from chasing them down the street while yelling like a madman and waving a hockey stick around his head. We didn't see them again -- judging from the speed they took off, they probably thought he had really lost it.

But on a bike -- where does this sort of thing happen? I don't know that I would have viewed it with the same analytical detachment as unkchunk. Who is usually to blame? Bored suburban kids? Bored rural kids? Bored urban kids?

oboeguy

Self-defense FTW.

GTcommuter

Off the top of my head...a^2 + b^2 = c^2

a= 1
b=x
c=1.5

1^2 + x^2 = 1.5^2 => x^2 = 2.25 - 1 => x = Sqrt(1.25)

So our simmer would end up about 1.118 miles downstream?

TexasGuy

Bwuahahhaha

Artkansas 

I don't blame them. You don't say which way the swimmer is swimming. That makes a lot of difference. ;o)

ItsJustMe

Overly complex. Assuming the swim speed is 100% in the direction from one bank to the other, it takes them 1m / 2 m/h = 1/2 hour to swim across. In that time, the current will carry them 3m/h * 1/2h = 1.5 miles downstream. They will reach the shore 1.5 miles downstream from a spot directly across from the spot they started in.

hubcap

Hold on one second there.

Just how many rivers are a mile wide?

rule

::: Remembers how we used to shoot bottle rockets from the stoker seat of a speeding tandem...and looks down at his shoes ::::

MyPC8MyBrain

Yeah, i agree 30 minutes to cross will carry him 1.5 miles downstream.

Now if you want to know the actual distance traveled, that is going to be 1.8 miles [the diagonal] 1squared + 1.5squared = Xsquared

Who cares about swimmers anyways.. this is the bike forum

genec

Unfortunately the spelling suffered in the final analysis... so -5.

GTcommuter

Dang, I never was very good at math. Or spelling.

I guess I should just stick to riding my bike.

jyossarian

Rivers flow faster in the middle than at their banks. Is the flow speed at the bank or in the middle? If it's at the banks, the river will flow faster down the middle and the swimmer will get carried further downstream while crossing the middle.

jur

I can't swim. I can only just ride a bike at 99mph. Does that count?

foehn

LOL!

This reminds me of the punk little girl that was harassing a friend and me at a pinball parlor (I know that dates me. . . ). She kept bugging us because we had been on a particular machine for quite a while and had more money lined up on top of it. We told her if she didn't leave us alone we'd toss her into the harbor. She snaps back that she'll have us arrested(we were both 18). So I sez, that's ok, we'll just get my little brother to do it, he's only 12. She gave up and left.

Little punk. No staying power.

rat_factory

HA! oh man...

unkchunk

If anyone wants to see a clip of the Russel Peters stand up segment, here is a link. I guess I should warn you that there are a couple of naughty words for those with work restrictions.

https://www.dumpalink.com/media/11336...ing_Your_Kids_

The event happened in the suburbs. Sorry about the swimming analogy thing. I figured that it was the classic example of a word problem. The other would be the longest board you could manuver in a hall way corner. Anyways, it's not a pin point surgical type deal. A dozen Black Cat fireworks on the string has an area coverage. Sure some my go in a lateral vector, but on the whole it covers about a 10 square yard area. Any competent teenager with some sort of standard of excellence would have got it close enough to at least give me a minor adrenaline rush.

I think my deteached view comes from a post from Slvoid a way back. I don't recall exactly what he said to a cager, but I remember it as instead of doing the "normal" reaction... to do the diametrically opposed thing. So instead of yelling at the car driver, you compliment them on how well they are overcoming the intensive difficulties and physical hardship of driving a car and how impressed with the progress they are making.