Monday’s Links For Curious People – Auckland Edition

View at Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals

This week brings me to the land of the Long White Cloud: New Zealand! I was invited by Qantas Airlines to participate in The Great Crusade to support the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup. This weekend I attended the two semi-final games: Wales vs France and New Zealand vs Australia. This Friday we’ll be attending the Australia vs Wales bronze medal game and on Sunday is the big final between the All Blacks and France.

As an American, I am the odd person in our group. Other than me it is all Aussies and Kiwis who have been brought up on Rugby. I’ve seen a bit of rugby in my travels and have listened in to even more conversations about it. I caught a high school match when I was in Tonga and watch an inter village match when I was in Fiji. The matches this weekend were the first really serious rugby matches I’ve ever seen.

If you understand American Football you can easily understand what is going on in rugby (and vice versa). I really only needed help with some of the finer points of the game and that didn’t take too much effort.

This is up there with the biggest sporting events I’ve seen in person. I was at the final game of the 2000 World Series where the Yankees beat the Mets, and I was also in the stands for the final game of the 2002 NCAA Hockey Tournament where Minnesota beat Maine.

I’ll be here until Monday when I’ll be flying to Los Angeles for Blog World Expo. As always, if you are in Auckland or LA and would like to meet up, feel free to contact me.

Meet, Plan, Go

I want to tell everyone about Meet, Plan, Go which will be holding events this Tuesday all over North America. Meet, Plan, Go was created to help people who are looking to take an extended trip or travel around the world. Events will be held of October 18 in the following cities: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Portland
San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Washington DC.

Unfortunately, I’ll be in Auckland this Tuesday but there are a huge number of travel all-stars who’ll be speaking and presenting at all the events.

If taking a trip of a lifetime is something you are even considering doing, I HIGHLY recommend you attend one of the Meet, Plan Go events if they are in your town.

Links

• The Man Who Sailed His House: Japanese Tsunami Survival Story GQ
• Faster-than-Light Neutrino Puzzle Claimed Solved by Special Relativity Technology Review
• Anyone but Australia winning, say New Zealand fans London Telegraph
• ‘Excuse me, sir. Are you Martin Luther King?’ CNN
• What’s Wrong With the Nobel Prize in Literature NYT Book Review
• The Strange Power of Qatar NYT Book Review
• Bedbugs: How Contagious Are They? Slate
• Fountains of Life at the Bottom of the Dead Sea Scientific American