A few years ago, my colleague Adam Roy titled “Why Chihuahuas Are the Best Trail Dogs.” The piece was one-half unintuitive hot take and one-half heartfelt love letter to聽Hobbes, his 13-year-old pet chihuahua.

Many of us on the 国产吃瓜黑料 staff shared a chuckle at the thought of a toy dog following our coworker along a tree-lined mountain trail. But Adam did make a few compelling arguments.

Chihuahuas are tiny: Hobbes weighs just five pounds, so carrying one on an adventure would be easy.

Attentiveness: Walking alongside a diminutive dog reminds a hiker to be mindful on the trail. One errant step could smash a paw or destroy the flora.

Avoids risks: Adam made one final compelling argument about Hobbes: his timid nature forced Adam to avoid potential pitfalls, like sketchy trails or too-deep streams.

“I鈥檝e got a partner who always keeps an eye on me, who understands, like the best partners do,” Adam wrote. “Sometimes the best things in the woods are the friends you brought with you.”

Turns out, Adam was right. This past week, a search and confirmed the chihuahua’s rightful place atop the ranking of trail dogs by adding another quality to the breed:

尝辞测补濒迟测:听A chihuahua will not abandon you, even if you are hopelessly stuck at the bottom of a crevasse.

Hero Chihuahua Saves Owner Stuck in Crevasse

An unidentified man was hiking the Fee Glacier on Friday, June 11, with his pet chihuahua, when the ice gave way beneath his feat. from the Air Zermatt flight school, which performs search and rescue missions, the man plunged 26 feet down into a crevasse, and was stuck there.

Back on the surface, the man’s long-haired chihuahua stayed on the ice next to the spot where its owner had vanished.

The dog’s loyalty likely saved the man’s life. The man used a walkie-talkie to call for a rescue, but when officials arrived on the scene, they had trouble locating the small entrance to the crevasse. That is until they saw the man’s four-legged friend running around the hole in the ice.

The rescue report reads:

Then a decisive moment: one of the rescue specialists spotted a small movement on a rock: the Chihuahua! Right next to it was the collapse hole through which the man had fallen into the crevasse. Thanks to the dog’s behavior, the crew was able to locate the exact site of the accident. The rescuers abseiled down to the casualty and were able to save him. Patient and dog were flown to hospital in Visp.

The little dog did not move during the entire operation and closely followed every movement of the rescue specialists. It is fair to say that his behavior contributed significantly to the successful rescue. The dog is a four-legged hero who may have saved his master’s life in a life-threatening situation.聽

Of the many dogs I have owned, few would show this level of loyalty if placed in the same position鈥攎e, at the bottom of a crevasse, screaming for help. My current pet, a nine-pound Schnauzer/Yorkie mix named Beau, is more likely to chase the rescuers off than lead them to my unfortunate position.

Full disclosure: I’m not sure I’ll be purchasing a backcountry chihuahua anytime soon. But Adam’s compelling take, when combined with this rescue story, and, one important additional characteristic of the breed鈥�teeny tiny poopies鈥攃ould make the chihuahua the trail dog of your dreams.

The post It Turns Out Chihuahuas Are the Best Trail Dogs appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Not a day goes by that we don鈥檛 hear about an aspect of human ability made redundant by the powers of artificial intelligence. Let鈥檚 face it: AI is on the march. And when it comes to action sports, . Earlier this year, an artificially intelligent robot鈥攏icknamed 鈥淭he Owl鈥濃�攋udged practice events at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. Its analysis of the men鈥檚 superpipe competitors correctly predicted who would stand atop the podium. It was deployed again last month for the Summer X Games. Now, Jeremy Bloom, who became CEO of the X Games late last year, has with the goal of improving judging in all refereed sports like gymnastics and figure skating.

Perhaps this news makes you queasy. But human error鈥攅ven when obviously unintentional鈥攈as long been a problem in professional sports. The human eye is fallible. Ask any serious baseball fan how they feel about umpires judging balls and strikes, or any tennis fan whether or not they long for the days before the system. Question a soccer fan on whether or not new technology has made more accurate. In short, there have been improvements made in the sports we love, and technology is a big part of the equation.

Action sports, of course, are different balls of wax. The complexity of tricks, the motion of the body, the intricacies of each spin鈥攖hese elements are hard to score as black and white objective measurements. Judging, even at its best, is somewhat subjective. Does this leave room for robot intervention?

Bloom and his cofounders said told the聽Colorado Sun that聽the goal of Owl AI is not to replace human judges, but rather to complement their work. If that鈥檚 true, I鈥檒l watch with guarded optimism to see how this unfolds. There are aspects of competition鈥攁 certain flare and style from an athlete鈥攖hat a human judge might be better equipped to evaluate. But if AI can more consistently score some complicated elements of action sports, it might improve the experience for the athletes, the fans, and maybe even human judges themselves. Maybe.

The post AI Robots Can Judge Action Sports. Maybe That’s a Good Thing. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.