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" UPDATE: Oracle Team USA won!  Another day, another 60,000 people angry at Larry Ellison. The billionaire tech mogul made a choice: ditch a huge Oracle conference in order to watch The America&amp;#039;s Cup. Why did he do that? Because he knows something that we didn&amp;#039;t until today: the America&amp;#039;s Cup is freaking awesome. Well, that and he has over half a billion dollars worth of skin in the game.  Say what you will about sailing being a rich man&amp;#039;s sport, and put aside those visions of Buffy and Lance sipping martinis whilst peacocking in whale-and-lobster embroidered Vineyard Vines gear, because when you get right down to brass tacks, we&amp;#039;re talking about a sport in which amazing machines guided by amazing humans harness the winds. Real, true man-against-nature-against-man stuff. Reaching potential top speeds of over 50 miles per hour, which may not sound all that fast until you&amp;#039;re in the open ocean with little to no cover, salt spray stinging your face and your whole boat -- weighing in excess of 13,000 pounds -- lifted out of the water on a skinny hydrofoil, the whole thing balanced between victory and utter destruction by hundreds of hairs-breadth calculations and adjustments that must be made literally on the fly, it&amp;#039;s as riveting to watch as any Tour de France or Daytona 500.  In it&amp;#039;s 162 year history, the America&amp;#039;s Cup has seen it all. Amazing finishes, ship&amp;#039;s masts literally exploding, and entire fortunes being made and lost, and still this year&amp;#039;s rendition is something for the record books. Ellison&amp;#039;s boat started off by losing eight of nine races, and sat just one away from complete defeat. But with an indomitable spirit they mounted a comeback that in any sport would have been utterly remarkable, and is already drawing comparison to the Red Sox in 2004, winning the next seven races in a row, including two in one day yesterday, to tie with the New Zealand team. Which leaves us down to the wire, today, when they square off in 15 to 25 knot winds for only the third-ever America&amp;#039;s Cup winner-take-all race. While it is true that, from a competitors standpoint, the America&amp;#039;s Cup is a billionaire&amp;#039;s battle, with boats and development costing in the hundreds of millions of dollars, how does that differ from a widely revered event like Nascar, where corporations cover the estimated $400,000 weekly cost of a team, or even basketball, where hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on players and endorsement deals? Part of the thrill of the Cup is to learn about the personalities, and by proxy egos, involved, watching as they spare no dime and give no quarter in their quest for victory. And then there&amp;#039;s the technology. The AC72 yacht that Oracle is racing this year is nothing short of a marvel, resembling as much a spaceship as it does a sailing vessel. With a 131 foot rigid sail, called a wing, it generates seven tons of force, enough to lift the entire carbon fiber catamaran out of the water and leave it flying along balanced delicately on a thin hydrofoil known as a daggerboard. So competitive is the design side that the boats have gone from an average speed of 11 mph in 2007 to 34 mph this year. While this isn&amp;#039;t without its detractors - sailing purists decry the focus on tech over tradition and want things to return to a single hull instead of the double, or catamaran, design - it makes for a spectacle that is more Formula One than Pinewood Derby. It&amp;#039;s also not without it&amp;#039;s inherent dangers. This past spring one of the boats, the same AC72 model used by Oracle, capsized during a trial run in San Francisco Bay and essentially shattered, killing one of the crew when he became trapped beneath. Let&amp;#039;s not forget that as far as our heritage goes, sailing is in our blood. It&amp;#039;s what got us here in the first place, and whose imagination hasn&amp;#039;t been captured by romantic notions of taking to the sea? The professional sailors in races such as the America&amp;#039;s Cup, or the even more extreme Vendee Globe - a solo, non-stop, &amp;#039;round the world race - capture and personify an age-old thirst for adventure, living a life outside the bounds of cubicles and social media. Look around any office, or simply look in the mirror, and check out how many people are bedecked head to toe in North Face or Patagonia gear, and you&amp;#039;re seeing those who aspire to have, and if not, project to have, at least a domesticated level of adventurous spirit. How do we not respect and support those who&amp;#039;ve dedicated their lives to it? Today at 4 PM EST, take a few moments from your day, grab a sailorly beverage and tune in to NBC for what is sure to be an absolutely gripping moment in sports. If nothing else do it to cheer for the USA, much like you would when watching some random Olympic event that happens to come on between basketball or hockey bouts. These are some of the world&amp;#039;s best, doing what they do best, and they deserve our support at least for that. UPDATE: Oracle Team USA won! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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