Further Reading is a monthly tangent of definitely-not-bike-related reads that have nothing to do with riding but are just too good not to share. While there aren’t any ‘hard-hitting’ stem reviews below, you will find long-form reads, thought-provoking stories, interesting videos, and other non-bike content that we’ve been following from across our network and beyond. Brian even said I’m allowed to include one piece of UFO content in each of these, which is one more than I expected.
Found something interesting that’s worth sharing and has nothing to do with bikes? Post it in the comments below.
“In this interview, he makes some fascinating new suggestions around the nature of these entities; we also discuss a real, secret project behind Project Bluebook, his model of reality and time, and the commercial group that holds the secrets to the American UFO story.“
One of the most respected UFO researchers, Jacque Vallee has written countless books examining events and exploring his own theories, including that of inter-dimensional entities. Have you ever heard of the Bureau of Simulation? Me neither but he explains that, the future human idea, and the likely nuclear connection. His latest book, Trinity, covers the latter and is an incredibly interesting read.
“We delve into the data and dissect the onboard video of Sergio Perez’s Monaco Grand Prix crash to reveal the facts of what happened.“
Philpot looks into the data behind the Red Bull driver’s dubious Monaco qualifying crash. The Mexican hitting the barriers kept his teammate, Max Verstappen, from beating his time and starting ahead of him on a track where passing is nearly as unlikely as a Haas starting in pole position. Max reportedly saw the data and Perez went on to win the race after Ferrari imploded, likely angering the Dutchman even more. Unfortunately for Perez, the evidence looks pretty damning and this should be a big deal. The last time an F1 driver was shown to have crashed on purpose, which is essentially race-fixing, was at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and it resulted in the entire team being disqualified and multi-year bans for high-ranking members. Why isn’t anyone upset with Perez?
“Richard Carr was halfway across the Pacific, alone on a 36-foot yacht, when he began sending frantic alerts that he was being kidnapped by pirates.“
Carr, a retired psychologist, was in the early stages of a sailing trip around the world when he began sending e-mails about being kidnapped by pirates to his family back home. The e-mails kept coming, and they started to look irrational and made less and less sense. The search lasted weeks and included everything from private boats to a C-130 Hercules, but no trace of Carr was ever found. His daughter, Alicia Carr-Troxell, tells the mysterious story of her dad’s final voyage in the podcast linked above, or you can read her words here.
“National security concerns over the Chinese-owned viral video app remain unresolved. Lawmakers and regulators are increasingly pushing for action.“
Concerns over ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, having access to so many people’s phones have been largely ignored for years in favor of you being able to show the rest of the world your stupid dance. According to the NY Times, TikTok has more than one billion users, or roughly one in every eight people worldwide, and 67-percent of 13 to 17 year-old-kids have it on their phone, says the Pew Research Center. But hey, it’s all just good fun… right?
“Last winter a ski-patrollers union in Park City, Utah, made headlines for its standoff against Vail Resorts over wages. The dust has since settled on negotiations, but the conversations they sparked about what ski-industry workers deserve may just be getting started.“
Living and working at a ski resort can seem like the dream job, and it certainly is for many people, but Gloria Liu looks at the challenges and changes affecting ski patrollers in an evolving industry.
“For nearly half a century, legends of a giant cave in the Andes—holding artifacts that could rewrite human history—have beckoned adventurers and tantalized fans of the occult. Now the daughter of a legendary explorer is on a new kind of quest: to tell the truth about the cave in order to save it.“
You’ve probably heard of that Neil Armstrong guy who did something or other in space, but did you know he also explored a remote South American cave in search of a “metal library” of tablets written in an unknown language? The first man on the moon traveled to Cueva de los Tayos – Cave of the Oilbirds – in the Amazon Basin in 1976 to explore the deep cave protected by the Shuar, an ancient local tribe that watches over the entrance. David Kushner tells the story of Armstrong’s journey into the jungle.
“In August 2020, Gary Robbins set out to complete a mountain route in his backyard of Chilliwack, BC, covering 109 miles / 176 km of mountain terrain with over 33,000 ft / 10,000 meters of climbing and descent.“
An ultra-distance trail runner probably best known as the subject of the Barkley Marathon documentary ‘Where Dreams Go To Die,’ Robbins linked up a 109 mile / 176 km run across the gorgeous mountain peaks just outside of Chilliwack, BC, back in August of 2020. The town with a funny name is also where I grew up, so it’s extra interesting to see filmmaker Jeff Pelletier’s incredible shots of the North Cascade mountains of the Chilliwack River Valley. I can’t run more than 50-feet to save my life, but this video makes me want to lace up the kicks for an adventure of my own.