Cycotherapy News Roundup: Pelotons, whales, Norman Maclean and Third Eye Blind
Good day.
It’s finally Friday, and — around here — that means it’s time for the weekly news roundup. But it’s more than news. We like to keep things silly, contemporary and semi-useful here, and also a bit literary. So I hope you’re enjoying these. I am.
The hope is that you’re able to take all this stuff, or bits and pieces, with you on a ride with friends over the weekend. Or maybe it comes up in conversation over a meal shared with family and friends. Or maybe you read something here and share it with a buddy.
However you use this weekly newsletter, I hope it brings you a sliver of joy.
Happy riding, and reading, cycopaths.
headlines
Dog piling onto Peloton
The New York Post seems to relish in their dog piling of Peloton. I’m not really sure why. If you own a Peloton and regularly use it as a form of exercise, I can’t really justify jumping on the dog pile. Anyway, NYP recently published an article pointing at sales of treadmills compared to the fancy stationary bike. Spoiler alert: treadmills are rebounding as sales of Pelotons continue their plummet.
Speaking of Pelotons …
They’re on sale. You can save like $300 on them right now. I won’t be getting one, but don’t let me, or the New York Post’s coverage of the company, stop you. (I mostly won’t be getting one because I know people who have them who haven’t used them in a long while. [So if I ever change my mind, maybe I’ll offer to buy theirs to take it off their hands.])
No women’s peloton in MD
The Maryland Cycling Classic happened last weekend with studs like Neilson Powless, Matteo Jorgenson, Simon Yates and Mattias Skjelmose. It attracted 15 pro teams. And though organizers made several changes this year, one thing stood out to Taneika Duhaney for Bicycling Magazine: the lack of the female race category. Come on MCC … maybe in 2024?
A study on sharrows
A while back, Peter Flax wrote a piece on Medium opining that “sharrows are bullshit.” Well, now we have solid, peer-reviewed evidence that they are, in fact, a metaphorical pile of steaming poop from the bull. Or, at least, not helpful.
feature of the week
Can A.I. be used to talk to whales?
That question alone makes me want annihilate this fascinating read by Elizabeth Kolbert for The New Yorker.
ceti represents the most ambitious, the most technologically sophisticated, and the most well-funded effort ever made to communicate with another species.
“I think it’s something that people get really excited about: Can we go from science fiction to science?” Rus told me. “I mean, can we talk to whales?”
book excerpt of the week
Something within fishermen tries to make fishing into a world perfect and apart—I don’t know what it is or where, because sometimes it is in my arms and sometimes in my throat and sometimes nowhere in particular except somewhere deep. Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.
Norman Maclean — A River Runs Through It
quote of the week
I woke you up and I slit the throat of your confidence. —Stephan Jenkins in “Thanks A Lot,” the seventh track of Third Eye Blind’s debut album