The Flyby #7
Climbing virtual mountains, Alexa's makeover, Valtteri Bottas the KOM
1. Money and Markets:
This week I found out NBA legend Scottie Pippen is into Bitcoin. Like big time.
So much so that he actually claims Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, has talked to him in his dreams and could have met him back in 1993 if he wanted to.
Pippen has also claimed he could have won plenty of championships without Jordan. So… yeah.
And I thought Dennis Rodman was the current record holder for Weirdest NBA Alumnus.
2. Strength and Stamina: Indoor cycling up Alpe du Zwift
Alpe du Zwift, a bike route in the virtual world of Zwift’s Watopia, is a 1,036 meter climb spread out over 21 hairpin turns modeled after the famous Alpe d’Huez.
This week I tried climbing it for the first time and, to no one’s surprise, did horribly. In just under 80 minutes I was able to make it to the summit.
For context, cyclists in top form aim to achieve it in under an hour. Jonas Vingegaard has done it in under 40 minutes.
So far my only ideas for improvement are: weight doping and being less slow.
3. Future and Tech: Amazon introduces Alexa+
No one’s to blame but myself for calling my Amazon Echo slurs that would have my ancestors rolling in their graves. But. If I ask it to play “Best of Paul Simon on Spotify” and it puts on the local Spanish FM radio station, I do feel a bit vindicated.
However, maybe I’ve been too hard on the voice assistant. After all, five years after Covid and Amazon’s workers still “work from home”?
Amazon did announce this week that Alexa would finally be getting an AI upgrade, so maybe its employees will be switching from mouse jugglers and pretending to do work at home to Alexa+ and pretending to do work at work.
4. Military and Aviation:
In the last month, Google searches for “is flying safe” have jumped, with two of the top five regions most interested being DC and Minnesota—understanable. My question is why the hell is Vermont at #1? What are you so worried about regarding plane safety, Vermont?
5. X-Factor: Valtteri Bottas, World Cycler
Valtteri Bottas, professional cyclist F1 reserve driver for Mercedes AMG, was in Bahrain for cycling preseason testing.
Okay, I think I beat that joke poor excuse for humor to death. But, the point remains. Valtteri Bottas clearly retired from motorsport not because he’s washed but because he’s addicted to cycling. He rides almost every single day and usually for at least an hour and a half.
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