People should follow the Taiwan situation more closely. China is always threatening them and the United States is legally obligated to defend them at all costs. A chinese incursion into taiwan has a high probability of going nuclear.
Thanks for brightening my day
Compact geometry comes from Mountain bikes. On a mountain bike its generally a positive thing to have as much standover as possible. Since mountain bikes were very cool in the 90s some guy said, "Hey lets make road bikes look more like mountainbikes, if we do this we can use less metal, make less sizes, and have stiffer and lighter bikes."
I'm kinda TOed about it so I am buying up vintage Lugged steel frames on ebay and storing them in the desert, one day the world will bow at my feet and begg for a bike with a straight top tube.