SPIEGEL Surfs the Web A Pilgrimage Around the Catholic World
Following the Pope around the World
On Wednesday, millions of people from all over Europe and the world are streaming towards Rome to attend the Friday funeral of Pope John Paul II. In Poland, special non-stop pilgrimage trains have even been organized and will set off Wednesday evening from Warsaw. Even before the Pope's death Guardian reporter Stephen Moss undertook a pilgrimage of his own. He traveled around the world looking into the state of the Catholic Church at the end of John Paul II's controversial papacy and filed dispatches from four continents. And why was this a controversial papacy? An interesting debate on his legacy can be found here . Meanwhile, the Vatican itself is doing its best to keep the faithful up to date on exactly what is going on behind the scenes. The Pope Blog , once filled with blurbs written by the pope himself, is now posting all sorts of news items and articles concerning the current mourning period, the upcoming funeral and the selection of a new pope.
Who Needs a Horse When You've Got a Segway?
Bizarre sports watch: In California's Silicon Valley, enthusiasts of Segway, a motorized people mover, have invented a new sport: Segway Polo . On the pitch, the scooters replace horses as the mode of transportation and 6-inch Nerf balls replace the projectiles traditionally slammed by the Hermes-borne athletes. And whereas people like Prince Charles are associated with traditional polo, Segway polo is drawing a decidedly different crowd -- including Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computer. As the Web site itself claims: It's "A lot like horse polo but nothing to shovel."
Trading in the Bong for the Bayonet
So how does one actually end up as a soldier in Iraq? It's not, apparently, all that difficult. A story in the March Esquire, written by well-known Iraq War blogger Colby Buzzell, describes the author's transformation from a dope-smoking skater to a front-line soldier. While Buzzell does seem awfully excited about his marijuana and beer consumption, his fast-paced and chatty piece -- written in a style not all that different from his blog -- offers a fascinating insight into a military that is often willing to set aside its own rules in order to bolster its numbers. His personal view of the frontlines is set to come out in book form in the autumn of 2005.
