NOTHING VENTURED

Nothing exists as a block
and cannot be parceled up.
So if nothing’s ventured
it’s not just talk;
it’s the big wager.
Don’t you wonder
how people think
the banks of space
and time don’t matter?
How they’ll drain
the big tanks down to
slime and salamanders
and want thanks?

  — Kay Ryan (b. 1945), American Poet Laureate

In yet another example that Sarah Palin is not the anti-earmark, anti-pork barrel spending reformist she claims to be, the Governor of Alaska allows a completely useless road to be built, just because the contract was already signed, an excuse that really doesn’t hold water. Contracts almost always have some sort of cancellation clause built in … sure, as governor, she may have had to pay the contractors to do nothing, but it wouldn’t have been the $26-million that the road cost. It would have saved the American taxpayers money to cancel the project.

The bridge failed, but the ‘Road to Nowhere’ was built - CNN.com

KETCHIKAN, Alaska (CNN) — The “Bridge to Nowhere” may have been shelved. But the “Road to Nowhere” is alive and well.

The proposed $400 million span that would have connected the coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on Gravina Island died after it became a symbol of congressional excess.

But the three-mile access road that was built on the island is ready for residents to take a drive to nowhere. It was paid for by some of the $223 million in federal funding that sparked ridicule among opponents of congressional “pork-barrel” spending.

In stump speeches, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has touted her eventual decision to abandon the Gravina Island bridge, which she initially supported. But Palin, now the Republican vice presidential candidate, let the access road go ahead because the contract to build it had been signed, a campaign aide said.

Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein calls the road, which was paid for by federal tax dollars, a waste of money that could have been used to fix his city’s roads and sidewalks.

“Gov. Palin could have stopped construction of this road,” said Weinstein, who wore his “Nowhere, Alaska” T-shirt to an interview with CNN.

VeloNews | Tech Report: The Campagnolo 11-speed Super Record group

In Feltre, Italy, this week, just 15km away from the memorial to Tullio Campagnolo at the summit of the Croce d’Aune pass, Campagnolo reintroduced its Super Record racing group.

Super Record was Campagnolo’s mystical racing group, but it has been decommissioned for more than 20 years. For 2009, it, along with new Record and Chorus groups, will help celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary. In addition to the groups, Campagnolo will offer new versions of its four top wheelsets: Hyperon Ultra Two, Bora Ultra Two, Shamal 2-Way Fit and Eurus 2-Way Fit.

The technologies and the range of products presented are nothing short of truly impressive. With SRAM’s Red, the new Shimano 7900 Dura-Ace group and now Campagnolo’s three new groups, 2009 will offer more choice and technology than ever before for those in the market for a new set of components.

But this is about Campagnolo. Its new products highlight the brand’s willingness to approach its competitors head on with its own innovation and new technology. On another hand, Campagnolo hasn’t lost its passion or respect for its own heritage; the new groups are as artful and stylish as any it has ever produced. And the new components are all still produced in Campagnolo’s factory in Vicenza, Italy. The three groups are based on and share technologies surrounding two key features: the third edition of Ergopower, which is called Ergopower Ultra-Shift, and an 11-speed cassette.

I know, I know … I should actually ride more before I start drooling over more bike parts; but you have to admit this group is absolutely gorgeous!!!

“Compassion has nothing to do with achievement at all. It is spacious and very generous. When a person develops real compassion, he or she is uncertain whether he is being generous to others or to himself, because compassion is environmental generosity, without direction, without ‘for me’ and without ‘for them.’ It is filled with joy, spontaneously existing joy, constant joy in the sense of trust, in the sense that joy contains tremendous wealth, richness.”

From “The Open Way,” in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, page 99.

  — Chögyam Trungpa (1939 - 1987), Tibetan Buddhist teacher.

MotionBased Digest

Planned to commute in by bike this morning, but was running late for riding … but early for driving. So, I drove part way, over to Revolution on 7th East, and rode the rest of the way. Went just enough out of my way to get in about 5.25 miles this morning, while the ride back this afternoon was a bit more direct at only 3.5 miles …

Slowly but surely … and while the 24 miles I’ve put in over the past two days is nothing to write home about, it’s also the first time in I can’t remember how long that I’ve ridden two days in a row.

“For it is not inertia alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope. But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively from his own existence.”

  — Rainier Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), German poet.

“I don’t think people are meant to be by themselves. That’s why if you find someone you actually care about, it’s important to let go of the little things. Even if you can’t let go all the way. Because nothing sucks more than being all alone. No matter how many people are around.”

  — John ‘J.D.’ Dorian (as played by Zach Braff), Scrubs (on CBS).