Two interesting Rugby World Cup games

The Rugby World Cup group stage is nearing the end and the top two teams from the four groups who will qualify to become the eight quarterfinalists are almost determined. There were two games where the highlights are worth watching for a few things that distinguish rugby from American football.

One is the game between Japan and Samoa, which was not close (Japan won 38-19) but has certain features of interest. The game was a little ugly with many penalties but you get to see some excellent goal kicks where the skill of the kickers in drilling the ball between the uprights from acute angles is displayed at the 3:00, 3.25, 6:45, 9:06, 11:15, and 13:25 marks.
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Rugby World Cup: New Zealand vs South Africa

These two nations are two of the best rugby teams in the world, sharing the past three World Cups between them, New Zealand winning in 2015 and 2011 and South Africa in 2007. They were in the same group this year and played each other early on in the group-qualifying matches. The game highlights below are worth watching for three reasons:

  1. The high quality of play.
  2. The haka by the New Zealand team at the beginning of every game.

    The haka is a type of ancient Māori war dance traditionally used on the battlefield, as well as when groups came together in peace. Haka are a fierce display of a tribe’s pride, strength and unity. Actions include violent foot-stamping, tongue protrusions and rhythmic body slapping to accompany a loud chant.

    As you can see, it is a highly aggressive performance, designed to intimidate the opponents and gain a psychological advantage even before the game begins.
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Two major upsets at Rugby World Cup

The 2019 Rugby World Cup is being hosted by Japan right now. There are 20 nations playing and there have already been two major upsets. I thought that American readers of this blog might enjoy seeing highlights of the two games below. There has been little coverage of this tournament in the major US media, which is a bit surprising given that the US is fielding a team and is currently ranked #13 in the world, which is not too shabby. They have played just one game so far, losing badly to England 45-7.

The biggest upset was by the host nation ranked #9 that beat #2 ranked Ireland, a perennial rugby powerhouse, 19-12.


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Where does the word ‘teetotaler’ come from?

I almost never drink alcohol and used to consider myself a teetotaler, though I never actually used the term because it seemed somewhat Victorian. But I had never thought about how the word originated and this article clued me in.

It dates back to the 1820s and 1830s when alcohol consumption in the United States dramatically increased. Back then, drinking was an all-or-nothing habit, explains Jon Grinspan, curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. The “tee” in “teetotaler” likely refers to temperance activists who were totally opposed to alcohol with “a capital T” (or “tee”). Similar to the way people used the label of capital-R Republicans or W-Whigs, being a T-Totaler was a distinct identity. It was only after Prohibition ended that drinking in moderation became more popular and the label fell out of fashion.

Since I am not totally opposed to alcohol and have on occasion consumed small amounts of wine and beer, it looks like technically I am not a teetotaler.

On social occasions when I ask for a non-alcoholic drink, my hosts often think I must have religious objections to alcohol, which I find amusing. My lack of interest in alcohol is mainly because I do not like the taste. Also, Sri Lanka used to have a lot of heavy drinkers and growing up I have seen too many people drink too much at parties and then say and do things they later regretted, or at least should have regretted. I vowed never to let that happen to me so have never drunk more than a token amount since. On the one occasion in my twenties where I drank a little more than usual at a party, I did not enjoy the sensation that I was slowly losing control of my words and actions and so stopped at once. Fortunately, my group of friends were also not heavy drinkers, so I did not face much peer pressure to do so.

Ohio State University loses trademark claim for the word ‘The’

Remember that strange claim by Ohio State University, excuse me, The Ohio State University, to trademark the word ‘The’ that I posted about a month ago?

Well, word is out today that their claim was denied.

Ohio State University has lost its fight to trademark the word “The.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office turned down the university’s request to trademark “The” when used as part of the school’s name on university merchandise.

OSU submitted the trademark application last month.

The patent office cited the trademark appears to be used for “merely decorative manner” and as an “ornamental feature” that doesn’t appear to function as a trademark that would differentiate the items from others.

Phew! That was a close shave for all lovers of the word ‘the’ who were worried that they might have to pay OSU royalties for using it.

Getting bears out of dumpsters

Via Carla Sinclair, I came across this video of police using a ladder to get out a bear cub that had fallen into a dumpster. But I was impressed at the earlier efforts of two other bears to try and rescue the cub themselves, even though they failed.

But this idea of using ladders to rescue cubs is not original. Back in 2012, I linked to a video of a New Mexico couple who used the same ladder idea to get three bear cubs out of a dumpster.

How to win with grace

Defending US Open champion Naomi Osaka defeated 15-year old Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-0 in the third round of this year’s US Open. But what people are talking about is what happened after the match ended.

After a warm handshake and a hug, the 21 year-old walked over to the 15 year-old and asked if they could do the on-court interview together. Gauff initially refused as tears welled in her eyes, but Osaka insisted and her beaten opponent agreed. After trading forehands and fist-pumps across the net all evening, they walked over to the same side of the court together.

“I saw that she was kind of tearing up a little,” said Osaka. “Then it reminded me how young she was. I was just thinking, like, it would be nice for her to address the people that came and watched her play. They were cheering for her. Yeah, I mean, for me, it was just something that was, I don’t know, instinctive I guess.”
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For Gauff, the match was a learning experience, but the moment the world number one took her under her wing was one to cherish.

“I think she really showed sportsmanship tonight,” said Gauff. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting it. I’m glad that I was able to experience that moment. I’m glad the crowd was kind of helping me and her. She was crying, she won. I was crying. Everybody was crying.”

You can watch the post game interview with both players.

A little computer knowledge is a dangerous thing

A California tried to use his vanity license plate to get out of paying for parking tickets. He chose the license plate NULL in the belief that when his ticket was entered into the database, it would end up in some computer dustbin and he would not get the bill. It did not quite work out that way.

It’s the story of a security researcher known as Droogie, who presented his experience at the recent DEF CON conference in Las Vegas. Droogie decided his new vanity plate should read “NULL.”
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Droogie’s hope was that the new plate would exploit California’s DMV ticketing system in a similar manner to the classic xkcd “Bobby Tables” cartoon. With any luck, the DMV’s ticket database would see “NULL” and consign any of his tickets to the void. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened.

First, Droogie got a parking ticket, incurred for an actual parking infraction—so much for being invisible. Then, once a particular database of outstanding tickets had associated the license plate NULL with his address, it sent him every other ticket that lacked a real plate. The total came to $12,049 worth of tickets.
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Although the initial $12,000-worth of fines were removed, the private company that administers the database didn’t fix the issue and new NULL tickets are still showing up.

Lesson: Don’t try to outsmart the DMV.