In The History Of The Peloponnesian War, Greek historian Thucydides provides a contemporary account of the plague that struck Athens in 430BC.

The outbreak, which killed nearly a third of the population, stripped society down to biology. Belief in the gods evaporated, fear of the law vanished, and the desire for property became laughable.

It made little difference whether people prayed or not because both believers and disbelievers perished. Human laws became irrelevant because no one expected to live long enough to be brought to trial for crimes. People spent while they could as they saw the posthumous estates of the rich passing to those who had nothing.

By rejecting religion, law and property, Athenians broke irreverently with the expectation of continuity which orders society by extrapolating a felt past and a lived present into an expected future. From inheriting faith to observing laws to accumulating possessions, most Athenians had lived to leave something received, learnt or owned for their descendants.

That expectation disappeared with the plague. Witnessing the dying gasps of neighbours and strangers, Athenians sought to live before it was their turn to receive the death sentence passed on all. Reinventing existence as an accidentally provisional gift, they invoked a helplessly defiant sense of living and invited it to take their dying moments hostage.

Lucretius helped import the Greek memory of faithless time into the Roman world. On The Nature Of Things employs the Thucydidean depiction of the plague as empirical evidence for philosopher Epicurus' rejection of religion and belief in the gods. The Epicurean claim is that humans can be happy like the gods if they stop fearing death and the gods themselves.

Epicurus proclaims that the "most terrible evil, death, is nothing for us, since when we exist, death does not exist, and when death exists, we do not exist". His radical epistemology mocked efforts by vagabond time to domesticate fellow sojourning humans on the pastures of promised immortality.

The coronavirus pandemic has revived the insurgent spirit of those ages, if only up to a point.

Atheists and agnostics are rejoicing at how places of worship, citadels of eternal faith, are asking the devout to stay away, while hospitals, those secular sanctuaries of medicine, are inviting the diseased to come in.

Stoicism, too, is coming in - in the form of hospital staff who carry the sick into hospitals on stretchers that bear their passing weight. The Stoic reading of virtue, not as a means to pleasure but as an end embedded in the natural course of things whose final destination is unknown, complements the Epicurean discovery that death is nothing more than the fear of it. Hence, the cloying companionship of existence is preferable to the coy fidelity of immortality. Overworked doctors worldwide, trying to save patients, realise this bitter truth better than others do.

However, most mortals are clinging to faith more closely than ever. Religious gatherings of thousands in the midst of an infectious outbreak are astonishing. Other mortals are reverting to the gods of leisure and sports. Hedonists have thronged beaches and parks in defiance of social distancing advisories, although their delinquent abandon does not approximate to the abandonment of law in stricken Greece.

Then, again, markets, those ancestral preserves of private property, are crying like little children, beseeching governments to protect them. Private property stands revealed as little more than a personal claim on collective transience. Yet companies are intent still on buying other companies.

Evidently, unlike the victims of the Athenian plague, the inhabitants of the coronaviral world expect time to continue in familiar shape, form and norm.

This is so because the limits of pagan religiosity have been breached since that plague. The advent of revealed religion overran boundaries between the known meanings of life and death.

The notion of salvation gathered the wayward movements of the self - its birth, its growth and flowering, its insatiable desires and loss of direction, its redemptive capacity for self-recognition and suffering - into a singular promise of eternal life. But at the same time, the law came to be sanctioned not by the hereafter but by the present. Unlike the Athenian state, which lay at the mercy of querulous gods, today's state generally is secular.

Populist as well, it can deploy its democratic prowess to nationalise private property in an emergency. That way, the burden of economic existence is lifted from the lonely individual and placed on the gregarious shoulders of society.

The state has taken over the role played by chance in Thucydidean Greece. In that transfer lies the possibility of hope.

Fatalism is not impossible. Descent to barbarism would follow should the state abrogate its responsibilities. Civil society might step in, but it would not possess the financial, regulatory and punitive clout of the state. It is only massive and sustained state intervention in the economy that can rescue nations.

Looking down from his perch in the afterlife, Thucydides might draw a long breath and say to his companions that the world is a better place today than even his Athens was.

Two-thirds of Athens survived.

Asad Latif is a former Straits Times journalist.

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Keeping faith in the state, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

Spoilers abound.

The current age of television is marked by the outsized growth of Silicon Valley Noir a style of dark, foreboding looks at the ethically complex and morally questionable elements of advanced technology and how they alter the way we live and die. There are patterns and repeated story arcs in these creations, and in the context of the current pandemic, when so many of us are stuck in our homes streaming away, they offer us a glimpse of certain elements these stories might be leaving out of their narratives and the deeper questions they often choose to ignore entirely.

You can draw multiple common connections through Devs (FX/Hulu), Mr. Robot (USA), Homecoming (Amazon), most episodes of Black Mirror (Channel 4/Netflix), Maniac (Netflix), Electric Dreams (Amazon), and of course Westworld (HBO). Every major streaming entity has something in this space, and there are plenty of other examples.* These stories frequently pit dark, moody, hoodie-wearing misunderstood geniuses against the encroaching forces of government and corporate America, typically backwards old white men.

The most prominent creators operating in this space are Alex Garland, Sam Esmail, Charlie Brooker, Jonathan Nolan and spouse Lisa Joy, and Cary Joji Fukunaga all born in the 1970s, and half of them Englishmen. Production company Anonymous Content worked on most of the series listed above. The plotlines they favor regularly focus on those who seek to use technology to achieve a higher existence or a form of immortality. Narrators will be unreliable, timelines will overlap, and people will suddenly commit suicide or otherwise force their death in public spaces.

Bringing back family gets a hefty amount of attention. Nick Offermans Devs CEO has the same motivation as the Kingpin in 2018s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse an attempt to bring his family back to life after a tragic car crash (although the Kingpin has less moral compunction or is it dimensional preference? about stealing a wife and child from an alternate timeline). B.D. Wongs White Rose in Mr. Robot is similarly willing to do anything, including an attempt to rip apart the known universe, to restore a happy life with a lost loved one, while Emma Stone in Maniac would sacrifice her sanity to stay with her lost sister. The attempt to use hosts to achieve an uploaded form of immortality crops up often in Westworld and Black Mirror.

(Also, in multiple entries, emotionally or drug-addled characters take doomed leaps of faith to demonstrate their deep-down belief there are other worlds than these. Theres a TV Trope for that.)

Nearly all these series use social media as a reference point in the narrative, but there are significant differences in the way it is applied. In Mr. Robot, social media is often something the protagonists can use almost at will to get their message out, creating flashmobs and social movements as if the people were all clued in, and maneuvering around the presumptive corrupt media and the slowpokes in the corporate and governmental space. In Black Mirror, it is most often a tool for mob destruction series creator Brooker describes the phenomenon as we as an animal arent yet adept to use this incredible new power weve been given. Its like a new limb weve grown and were flailing around and knocking all the furniture over.

While each of these series is interesting for different reasons, one thing they have in common is an abiding sense of political and moral incoherence. The concept of godhood is merged into the code and the cloud. They are anti-corporate and anti-government, pro-technology and pro-science which often functions in ways indistinguishable from magic.

But the storytellers often cant decide whether these structures typically operate as genius-level omnipresent, omniscient entities with the power to see the future and eliminate anyone, anytime, anywhere or whether they are dull, monotonous, slow-witted Goliaths confounded and confronted by hacker-champion Davids.

In Mr. Robot, a repeated trope is multiple people delivering hard, dangerous, anti-establishment, chaos-inducing truths while wearing masks. Esmail, the creator of Mr. Robot, has been tweeting quite a lot of late, mocking the people protesting for reopening the economy, including sharing something the other day about the irony of people protesting that things must reopen while wearing masks. Of course, theres no conflict there. The real irony is that, for something as anti-capitalist as Mr. Robot to exist, a lot of capitalism (or magic) is required.

(Note: Mr. Robot ran on USA Network, which, like its parent company NBCUniversal, is owned by Comcast, which is significantly invested in China, where they built their largest Universal theme park. As their CEO said last September, to do business in China: You dont start talking about the leadership in China. You would be crazy to bring up Hong Kong, Taiwan You would never start talking that way. You just focus on what you are trying to do.)

These stories consistently assume these individualistic loner hooded weirdos are fundamentally right about the makeup of the universe and how it ought to be remade, or where the ethical limits of remaking it are drawn. Along the way, these disruptors of humanity with whatever moral motivation they have leave a trail of societal breakdown, and in some cases a tidal wave of institutional destruction, all toward a path they assure us will be better.

These stories consistently show us the hoodied heroes are right. They were human or fallible for a moment, they may lose the argument to the more socially well-adjusted or the less-intelligent authority figure, but after the people who talk instead of type move on, give the hero a laptop and he can prove his rightness, typing away his magic code in ancient incantation. If only it worked out that way for social media postings. If only it worked for Theranos.

The Silicon Valley noir genius hacker chaos bringer thinks he or she is the hero, and is provided multiple bad actions by others along the way to prove this heroism internally. But the abiding sense of loneliness and abandonment still doesnt send characters toward the institutions of community that free people to find their path to a life well-lived.

It brings to mind the plot twist in Braid, a video game where you think youre playing a noble-minded person seeking to save a princess from a castle only to discover that youre actually a troubled stalker shes been wanting to run away from all along. In seeking an alternative to things that were part of normal human experience for thousand of years, Silicon Valley built us new limbs we dont know how to use without damaging others or ourselves.

Theres a level of insight contained in the last sequence of 1975s Three Days of the Condor, ending with its infamous questioning of confidence in The New York Times as an institution, largely lacking from these series. The protagonists frequently presume they can break a story wide open and have some instantaneous societal changing effect.

Rarely do they pose the question: even if the deep dark truth you believe youve found is published, will the people care? Rarer still do they wrestle with the notion that perhaps people will care, but not the way they hope: that theyll turn on the creators of chaos, and seek to crush them for the good of the herd. Maybe they will hate you for it. Maybe they just want to be left alone. Or maybe a fork on a table is just a fork on a table.

The pandemic has thrown into question how much we depend on this entertainment as soma to keep us from asking deeper, harder questions about ourselves and how we live and die. For all the advancement of our age, an astounding amount of it has focused on entertaining ourselves and making for a more convenient and comfortable life.

Instead of devoting ourselves to questions of the soul, weve watched characters on the screen act out such endeavors. Weve been too busy bedding Taylor Swift every night inside the Oculus Rift or for the hoodie-wearing heroes, trying to make that Oculus work even better.

Alex Garland, the most interesting of the creators, wrote his debut novel at 25 about the promise and failure of an island utopia in The Beach. His science fiction has evolved over the years, including writing or adapting the films Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, Ex Machina, and Annihilation, but if his latest series is any indication, his perspective on the possibility of utopia seems to have shifted.

At the end of Devs, the protagonist, Lily, is told she should be happy, that she is in paradise a created, artificial utopia strung together out of lines of code. The new sprite version seems uncertain whether she ought to take this instruction at face value, and be happy in this newly created dimension spanning reality. It brings to mind that other, more famous line from Condor: You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?

While Devs doesnt provide an answer, Lily is right to be uneasy about the artificiality of this impending future, disconnected from everything thats truly human, where God is whatever we watch on the screen.

So should we.

* (This leaves aside the less noir and more hilarious/realistic entries like Silicon Valley, Halt and Catch Fire, and The IT Crowd, and the more traditional biotech suspense series like Orphan Black. Parts of Legion season 3 could be included, despite not being tech-focused, because the character of Switch is basically a time-hacker. The OA should not be included in this list because it is far too stupid.)

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Silicon Valley Noir And The Deeper Questions Of How We Live - The Federalist

DO NOT PICK your own mushrooms.

Not alone, anyway, and I bother to say this because you probably want to. Tromping through the fecund woods, you would see little trumpets and toadstools winking at you from under every dripping leaf and at the base of every moss-covered tree, and youd want to pick them and take them home because mushrooms are kind of a big deal right now.

But without the help of a knowledgeable member of, say, the Puget Sound Mycological Society, trying to harvest your own mushrooms is a dangerous activity as in, you could die. Still, thanks to the tireless efforts of people like mycologist/entrepreneurPaul Stamets, the world is awakening, wide-eyed, to the vast network of mycelium beneath our feet and all around us. And like all things sacred, this naturally makes modern humans want to turn it into something they can stick in a travel mug.

Luckily, this is an ideal way to consume fungi.

The most readily available medicinal mushroom tea is reishi tea, from the reishi mushroom, aka lingzhiin China, aka Ganoderma lucidum for academics. Reishi mushrooms are fanlike in shape and look like giant land clams growing on the sides of trees. Harvested practically since time immemorial in the mountains of northern China, reishi mushrooms have been graced with many flowery monikers, like the soul mushroom, the king of mushrooms, queen healer and the mushroom of immortality, among others.

Reishi mushrooms are revered in Chinese medicine as a veritable panacea, prescribed for everything from boosting the immune system to curing cancer and alleviating depression. There is not much hard evidence for any of those effects, but there are dribblings of research into using it as an antiviral and anti-inflammatory, and in support of fighting prostate cancer. Wild reishi is rare, as befits something with such a poetic reputation, but it can be grown commercially on wood chips and in sawdust, and because mushroom tea has achieved mainstream superfood status, these days you can buy it in a regular grocery store in tea bags.

Frequently found in teas are somewhat less-princessy mushrooms like chaga, which appears as a giant, warty, charred-looking lump on the side of a birch tree. If you cut into it, the flesh is spongy and orange, more like a horror-movie villain than something you want to harvest. Also frequently found in tea are cordyceps mushrooms, some of which parasitize the brains of insects, turning them into zombies. But they are said to revitalize human adrenal glands, among other benefits so, you know, more for us.

In its purest form, mushroom tea is easy to prepare: Just add the mushrooms to boiling water, strain and sip. Most mushrooms are rather bitter by themselves, so theyre often packaged with other ingredients, like the reishi tea/hot cocoa mixture by Republic of Tea. Finnish company Four Sigmatic makes a whole suite of powdered mushroom drinks mixed with coffee for the morning and cacao for the evening. MUDWTR bills its mixture as an invigorating alternative to morning joe, and Seattle-based Choice Organic Teas makes a series of mushroom blends now as well, including a reishi matcha blend that will wake you up as readily as any coffee.

While the quintessential Seattle drink is coffee, this is a seriously moist climate, and there is something very Pacific Northwest-y about sipping on a hot mug of brewed fungus.

Tantri Wija is a Seattle-based freelance writer. Reach her at the.twija@gmail.com.

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You can pick your flavor, and you can pick your tea but you should let an expert pick your mushrooms - Seattle Times

When I look at my photographs today, I feel like an archaeologist might feel when she or he has uncovered some carefully wrought object from the past that illuminates precious relics from the past that illuminates the history and mores and life and ethos of a long ago era. The photos feel to me like precious relics.

So wrote photographer Robert Mc Cabe in 2018 of his 1955 photographs of a long ago vanished way of life in Mykonos. Those photos, a masterpiece of chiaroscuro, record a frugal, self-reliant, impoverished but intensely dignified community of islanders going about their daily routine, fishing, shopping, conversing, worshipping and celebrating together. The austere nature of the landscape and the stark contrasts between light and dark give insight into a land and time of absolutes: life and death, sea and land, happiness and despair. The landscape emerges as a primordial and perennial backdrop, upon which people will seasonally appear and then disappear; the photographer reduces, through the crucible of his lens, all of the things that he sees, to their fundamental elements. Statuesque and reminiscent of classical reliefs in the way they pose and carry themselves, the Greeks in McCabes photographs form a mythological narrative all of their own and speak to us, even in their supposedly ephemeral nature, over half a century later, of immortality.

As I look back on this body of workI am struck by something I hadnt fully appreciated during the years I was capturing these images. Photography, like the other arts, teaches us to see, not just to look. The faces I have captured here are of steely resilience, of a people who have tightened their belts, who are sticking together and who are toughing it out.

Photographer Krasnosteins album of photographs A Resilient Spirit: Greek Life During the Lost Decade recently published by the Hellenic Museum, purports to capture life in the decade in which Greece endured the Financial Crisis. Yet if it were not for title, looking at the photographs, one would struggle to see much in the way of difference, between McCabes 1955 portrayals, and those of Krasnostein, half a century later.

Like McCabe, Krasnostein chooses to publish in black and white, the gradations of light and shade giving a gritty edge to his work. Yet while in McCabes time colour photography was not widespread, in Krasnosteins twenty first century, the era of the digital camera, the digital phone and the pixel triumphant, what possible reason could there be in producing photographs that to all intents and purposes look as if they were taken generations ago? Is the artist being anachronistic? Is he enmeshed in his own stylistic stereotype? Or is it the case that Krasnostein instead, is displaying mastery of the genre, in understanding that in the simplicity of a monochromatic image, structure and spatial relationships take precedence, engaging the eyes and drawing the view within?

READ MORE:Greek resilience captured through the lens of David Krasnostein

Similarly, if one compares the themes of Krasnosteins work to those of McCabe, remarkable parallels emerge. Like McCabe, Krasnosteins tableaux are organised around social events, working life, sea, sun, the old, the young and worship. Again, is Krasnostein merely arranging his compositions according to some predetermined prevailing thematic clichs pertaining to Greece and its heritage that verge on the orientalistic? Are we compelled to decode the same bas relief of western imposed classical mythology again and again and again? How is it possible that decades later, in different places and time, the same sort of images recur?

In his introduction to Krasnosteins album, writer Aronld Zable remarks: The Greece we both know has risen to the challenge over and again. When we take the longer view, we see that the country has backbone. Its people know how to ride out the crises, and survive with their souls intact. This observation is key in understanding both Krasnosteins stylistic and thematic approach to his compositions.

In 1955, when McCabe took his photographs, Mykonos was still recovering from the catastrophic economic and social effects of the Second World War. Yet what emerges from his monochrome images is not a gratuitous chronicle of suffering, but rather, a narrative of stoicism and survival. Krasnostein shares McCabes artistic vocabulary. The timeless, romantic, nostalgic look of his black-and-white portraits is anything but a clich. In hearkening back to an early time, Krasnostein is expertly but unobtrusively, asserting a remarkable narrative of continuity. He comments: I have taken thousands of photos of Greece and they are all in colour, which is how I see and feel Greece. There is no blue like the Greek blue! But the images for my book just demanded to be in black and white. We may be in the twenty first century but the tools that have seen the Greeks weather the recent financial crisis not only exist in the past, and it is here that the almost indistinguishable scenes of worship on Mykonos in 1955 (McCabe) and in modern day Lefkada, another island (Krasnostein) but, rather, run through the entire Greek discourse through its inception.

What happened to the caiques, those magnificent wooden boats that flourished in Mykonos and whose roots went back millennia? You will see them in these photographs but you will not se them on the island anymore. McCabe laments. Yet one will see vessels of similar description populating Krasnosteins album, denoting the continued relevance not only of the craft, but also of its vital element, the sea. The faces of the elderly women McCabe immortalizes are not the same faces as those captured by Krasnostein. Though separated by half a century, their frowns and furrows form a common alphabet of confined pain and contained hope, forming a perpetual prescription for perseverance. In inadvertent dialogue with Mc Cabe, (for as the artist admits: I was not aware of McCabes work but looking at his photos, he and I, I think shared an interest in the same things,) Krasnosteins austere but sensitive images achieve the almost impossible: a foray into the four dimensions, incorporating depth and time, as a means of contextualizing the modern Greek experience so that it can be seen within the corpus of its own tradition. Far from being stereotypical or culturally appropriating, his is a revolutionary and highly accurate depiction of the many layers of history and social memory encoded within each evocative image.

READ MORE:1950s Mykonos through Robert McCabes lens

Despite the similarities between the two artists works, on page 87 of Krasnosteins album there exists an arresting and powerful image. In McCabes work, people are generally depicted in action. Even when they are stationary, they are invariably engrossed in some task. The background may be stark and bleak, but a sense of movement and progress prevails and much of Krasnosteins work echoes this. When we get to his photograph of a bearded man standing alone in Syntagma, however, we would do well to pause. On the opposite page, another solitary figure stands, the expressionless guard of Syntagma, a symbol of endurance and strength given that the soldier remains there motionless, in perpetual vigil, not even relaxing the expression on his face. On the wall behind him are inscribed the names of places where Greeks have fought heroic battles to ensure their own survival. A sleeping dog lies at the steps some distance away.

He is secure in the knowledge of his continued existence. Juxtaposed against the evzones light foustanella, the black-clad mans gaze is anything but reassuring. He has come, quite literally to the end of the road, the bright tessellated pavement butting up distinctly against the dark river of asphalt. Everything has stopped. The man looks up at the sky and there is a look of complete confusion and ambivalence in his face. Where to from here? No other image in the album conveys such a feeling of insecurity. And yet, in his subtle way, in the predictable pattern of the pavement tiles, in the steely, unwavering gaze of the evzone and the writing on the wall, in the blind faith of the quadruped at his feet, the answer is everywhere. Just turn your head, connect and engage.

Krasnosteins paean to the enduring relevance and dignity of the Greek people, A Resilient Spirit, was to be launched at the Hellenic Museum in April. It is possibly fitting that the intervention of the coronavirus pandemic has postponed the launch, for Greece and indeed all of humanity, is now embarked on another major quest for survival, one which will inevitably cause us to question the dross with which we surround ourselves as a comfortable bourgeois society and confront those elements that are inimical to our vitality. Now, we are placed in a unique position to critique the folly of a consumerist society that values the novel without drawing lessons from and discarding the experience of the old. More than ever, the fundamentals encapsulated by Krasnosteins images provide us with much needed inspiration to endure our trials, taking as our example, the constant, unwavering hardiness and strength of the Greek people. And we take comfort and courage in the message that Krasnostein conveys: We will get through this, all of us. As Arnold Zable writes of Krasnosteins Greece: It is a country where people understand that at the heart of life there must be humanity. Conversation. A longing for communion.

The Greeks, through Krasnostein, have shown us the way.

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A resilient spirit: David Krasnostein and the art of the perennial - Neos Kosmos

When we think of what it means to become a better person, we generally frame the process as a sort of moral awakening. According to a popular sentiment, all becoming a better person supposedly requires is seeing the sin in your current ways and making a decision to embrace what is right. Only then will a change in your actions follow. Its a wholesome story: clean, easy and imbued with karma. But, as Ive learned the hard way in my attempts to grow out of being that immature high school kid the one who sometimes still stares back from the bathroom mirror its also quite wrong. I think thats what has drawn me to the classic film Groundhog Day so much as Ive gotten older. At its core, the film is a morally opaque depiction of personal growth.

When I was younger, I adored it for the obvious reason: Few films are so thoroughly entertaining. Directed by the great Harold Ramis, the films gluttonous and consequence-free immortality is unparalleled escapism. And thats why, even on my 50th rewatch while sheltering in place, a movie about repetition has never once felt repetitive. Bill Murrays character Phil Connors is sleazy charisma personified, as the jaded weatherman trapped in a time loop on Groundhog Day. Set to cover the groundhogs emergence live in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Connors jerkish and megalomaniacal behavior finally catches up to him as he finds himself mysteriously doomed to repeat Groundhog Day for eternity. Rather than remaining monotonous, however, each day follows different scenarios and bounces the towns colorful characters off each other to hilarious and heartbreaking effect. Ned Ryersons shameless insurance pitch, for instance, has never failed to put me on the floor in tears.

The fun of the movie is why I too often choose to watch Groundhog Day at 2:00 p.m. on a Monday instead of tuning in to lecture. But its the resonance behind Phils odyssey that separates it as my single favorite movie. Eternity is emotionally profound enough on its own, yet using it as a laboratory for human development rather than just as a cheap gag allows the film to grapple with what it means to be a good person in a profoundly complex way.

The catalyst for Phils change is Rita (Andie MacDowell), an uncommonly kind woman who looks down in disappointment on Phils narcissistic contempt. No matter how hard he tries, Phil is unable to win her over. Thus, however funny it is to see Phil fruitlessly Control-Z his dates with Rita in the hopes of earning her affection, his initial motivation for change is grossly selfish. While this lust doesnt totally define his behavior by the end, Phil does break the cycle at the end of the film with Rita in bed beside him, suggesting his love for her remained a crucial motivation.

But theres a morally lighter side to Phils progression as well. Weve all probably met that one person (or maybe more than one) who was so clearly a better human than us. Theyre kind, theyre likeable and theyre genuinely empathetic. In the years he spends around Rita, Phil feels this as well. Whether shes as perfect as Phil believes she is is an interesting question her stubborn refusal to toast anything but world peace had eaten at me for years but in his mind, shes no less angelic than the ice sculptures he creates of her. Phil may not see the world like her, but once faced with the vapidity of his endless rebirths, he finds that he wants to.

Phils feelings toward Rita are an incentive for him to become a better person, not an instinctive moral awakening. There is nothing organic or instantaneous about the changes Phil makes. Yet that incentive pushes Phil to act better to fake it until he makes it. Of course, theres nothing easy about this. Phils journey is a grueling climb filled with the torture of endless repetiton and a hopeless depression that rears its head in the form of an extended suicide montage. Its bleak for a film billed as a fantastical rom-com. But for an honest tale of redemption, it packs a punch.

And in the end, Phil succeeds. The townspeople find a benevolent savior and Rita and Phil find love. The nature of the medium naturally prevents us from knowing Phils thinking by the end, but through sheer work and despite gray motivations, Phil is able to act like a good person. And, by the films logic, thats enough to make him a good person. Its a strikingly off-kilter message for a Hollywood film, but it provides genuine inspiration for me as I try to become the person I want to be. We dont have to be saints we just need to strive to act like them.

Contact David Newman at [emailprotected].

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The road to salvation in 'Groundhog Day' - Daily Californian

Spoilers for 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Season 5 Episode 10 'The Great British Fake-Off'.

The latest episode of 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Season 5 dropped some major revelations and teased a lot more to come. One of the biggest things the episode teased was the return of Vandal Savage (Casper Crump), with his soul coin seen to be in the possession of Astra Logue (Olivia Swann).

Now that Astra seems to be working with the Legends, she hopefully won't unleash Vandal Savage back on the world. However, if things do go south as they usually do with the team and Savage returns as an Encore, that does raise some interesting questions.

The last time we saw Savage, he had become a much kinder person thanks to his time in Hell but there's no telling whether he would be the same if returned to life. After all, the Encores are tasked with bringing evil to the world of the living so perhaps he might be the nicest villain ever but still a villain nonetheless.

Then there's the problem of Savage's powers. Before his eventual death, Savage was functionally immortal and if he is returned as an Encore, there's no telling whether he would retain that immortality or not. While his long life was dependent on him killing the reincarnations of Chay-Ara /Hawkgirl (Ciara Rene) and Khufu / Hawkman (Falk Hentschel), being killed and resurrected may change the rules in ways we can't predict.

Right now, the Legends have an arsenal of soul-destroying weapons that can take out a normal Encore but whether they would work on an immortal like Savage is a different question altogether. In fact, if he does return as an immortal villain again, chances are he'll end up sticking around long after the Encore problem and the Loom of Fate storyline are resolved.

Perhaps Savage may become the villain for the next season of the show. Perhaps he might end up becoming an important ally. Only time will tell which of these possibilities become a reality for our time-hopping superheroes.

'DC's Legends of Tomorrow' Season 5 airs new episodes every Tuesday at 9 pm ET, exclusively on The CW.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 5: If Vandal Savage gets his Encore, would he still be an immortal villain? - MEAWW

With "The Last Dance" -- ESPN's 10-part documentary on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls -- taking a look back at the team's six championships, it's time to review the 12 championships Chicago professional sports teams have won since 1985.

Here's a look back at the rings issued to the coaches, players and owners of these teams.

Twenty-three years have passed since the 1963 Bears won Chicago's last title in a major professional sport. At last, the Second City can chant "We're No. 1" without fear of flying too high.

-- Phil Hersh, Chicago Tribune

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on Jan. 27, 1986:

It is a good thing Chicago is the city of the big shoulders. How else could it Bear up to the task of carrying an entire football team in a victory parade from here to eternity?

Sporting immortality is where the Chicago Bears are headed. They proved you can get there from New Orleans in a day trip.

With a 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in Sunday's Super Bowl XX at the Louisiana Superdome, the Bears also took the entire city on a long- awaited joyride. Read the full story.

Logo in 14-karat gold and blue enamel with one half-carat and 40 smaller diamonds.

Left side: Bears helmet, season record (18-1), GSH (initials for Bears founder/owner George S. Halas) and "Attitude."

Right side: Bears 46, Patriots 10, Super Bowl XX, Vince Lombardi trophy and the NFC Championship trophy.

"(The championship) means so much. Not just for me but for this team and this city. It was a seven-year struggle. It's the most proud day I've ever had."

-- Michael Jordan, in tears after the game talking to a national television audience

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 13, 1991:

Yes, the Bulls have taken the gold in their silver anniversary season, a tempest of effort finally sending the proud Lakers sinking into the Pacific Wednesday night in a hard-fought 108-101 game and letting loose a tidal wave of exhilaration and emotion.

The Bulls are champions!

Roll it around in your mouth and savor the sweet taste of victory. Close your eyes and see them raising the banners in honor of the Bulls, in honor of all Bulls teams and, really, in honor of all Chicagoans. Get ready for Friday's noon rally at the Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park.

Because the Bulls have been Chicago's team, winning with a bit of Gold Coast glamor and a lot of stockyards effort.

This not only has been an inexorable march to glory, it has been a 100-yard dash to success. The Bulls sped through the playoffs with a 15-2 record, equaling the best since the NBA went to the current postseason format and posting the second-best all-time playoff winning percentage. Read the full story.

Small diamonds surround black onyx crest with 14-karat gold logo.

Left side: Larry O'Brien trophy.

Right side: "World Champions 1991," NBA logo and the team's playoff record (15-2).

By winning twice in a row, even if it hasn't been the artistic and overwhelming triumph of their maiden voyage a year ago, the Bulls have combined talent, genius and hard work into a special treat for their followers. They have entered the cathedral of greatness because they were the architects of their own success.

-- Sam Smith, Chicago Tribune

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 15, 1992:

There can be no doubt now about what the Bulls accomplished during the last few weeks in winning their second straight NBA title.

They have made greatness and history their principal opponents. They have taken their place beside the Celtics and the Lakers in NBA folklore and excellence. They have taken over a decade.

They did it Sunday night at the Stadium, overcoming a 17-point deficit and defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 97-93 to win the NBA Finals four games to two.

With Michael Jordan on the bench, an unlikely combination of Bulls reserves helped cut the margin to three in the fourth quarter. Stacey King scored five fourth-quarter points and Bobby Hansen-the only Bull without a 1991 championship ring-contributed a key three-point shot plus a steal. Jordan returned to score 12 of his 33 points in the game's final six minutes, and Scottie Pippen also hit some key shots down the stretch. Read the full story.

Name in 33 baguette and tapered baguette diamonds and 14-karat gold.

Left side: Season record (67-15).

Right side: "World Champions," the NBA logo and "Back to Back."

(Michael) Jordan is the great star in a twinkling universe of bright lights, and winning a third straight title with this Bulls team has been his destiny, too. For when it has all been written, the Bulls will be among the elite sports teams of all time.

-- Sam Smith, Chicago Tribune

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 21, 1993:

The Bulls this time came stalking history, which is a most elusive goal. For history makes one both a target and an enduring memory.

It will be hard to forget this third consecutive NBA title, which the Bulls won by outlasting Phoenix in Game 6 Sunday 99-98 on a three-point shot by guard John Paxson with 3.9 seconds remaining. Horace Grant sealed the historic night by blocking the Suns' Kevin Johnson last-second shot attempt.

The night will forever be engraved in the conscience of sport. For few have gone this way, and only the aristocracy of sport reside here, names offered in solemn reverence, like Boston Celtics, Montreal Canadiens, New York Yankees, Notre Dame football, UCLA basketball.

And Chicago Bulls. Read the full story.

Logo made of garnet and 14-karat gold.

Left side: Playoff record (15-4) and NBA trophy.

Right side: "World Champions 1993," NBA logo and "3-Peat."

Winning -- it's true -- doesn't get old.

-- Charles M. Madigan, Chicago Tribune

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 17, 1996:

It is undeniably true that for any Chicago sports team, nagged by a second city complex as big as the place itself, victory is always sweet. Now the Chicago Bulls can add another line to their history: Victory is always sweet, but not necessarily easy.

The Bulls, finally, captured their fourth championship trophy Sunday night at the United Center, triumphing over a Seattle SuperSonics team that simply would not give up. This series felt a lot like warfare, like crawling up the beach under heavy enemy fire.

The final game was not a blowout. Seattle was not embarrassed. The Bulls did not stomp on them and then march away like triumphant Roman legionnaires into the arms of a loving hometown.

They just won, and that was enough.

The score was 87-75. Read the full story.

Crest of black onyx set with four diamonds and gold nets representing four trophies in a 14-karat gold setting with 72 smaller diamonds.

Left side: Bulls logo in color.

Right side: "World Champions," Chicago skyline, 72 wins, NBA logo and "Greatest Team Ever."

"That's all it was was -- a big challenge. Every night we had to find a new way of getting ourselves motivated. That was the difficult part."

-- Dennis Rodman, Bulls forward

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 14, 1997:

The long journey ended late Friday night, much the way it played out over the previous seven months.

From November to June, there were ups-and-downs. Quite a few hairy moments. Big plays that kept the Bulls in games. Big shots delivering victories. Particularly the hard victories.

So when Steve Kerr hit the shot, the 17-foot jumper that will be remembered every time people recall the Bulls' latest championship, it was appropriate. The basket came at the end of an uphill battle, almost magnifying how tough this journey truly was.

Bulls coach Phil Jackson didn't need a do-or-die shot to remind him.

"I didn't enjoy this journey," he said with a smile big enough for all the United Center to see. "This was filled with injuries and suspensions. But we had a great run, didn't we? It was wonderful."

And it's over. The season came to a close with a thrilling 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the NBA Finals before 24,544 screaming fans at the United Center. The Bulls successfully defended their title, claiming the franchise's fifth championship in seven years by taking the best-of-seven series 4-2.

Kerr hit the shot, a wide-open jumper that hit the bottom of the net with just five seconds left, putting the Bulls up 88-86. Then, after a Jazz timeout, Toni Kukoc deflected Bryon Russell's inbounds pass intended for Shandon Anderson in the direction of Scottie Pippen. Pippen stretched, got his hands on the ball and found a sprinting Kukoc for a wide-open slam.

Within the celebration of the moment -- Michael Jordan danced on the scorers' table -- was an enormous sense of relief. The Bulls finally were done with what they believed was their toughest Finals test ever. Read the full story.

Logo set in diamonds, platinum and a 14-karat gold setting.

Left side: Five basketball and net trophies.

Right side: "World Champions," "Team of the Decade," stadium image and NBA logo.

"I think it was bittersweet in the sense that it was the toughest route, toughest challenge in the six championships that we've won. I was more competitive than I ever was, because I wanted to win more than I ever did."

-- Michael Jordan

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 15, 1998:

If the final chapter of Michael Jordan's career was completed on Sunday night, his role in the final gripping moments of a sixth championship for the Chicago Bulls would forever mark the perfect ending.

With the capacity crowd at the Delta Center roaring in anticipation of a Utah victory that would have forced a seventh game of the NBA Finals, Jordan's steal and two scores in the last 37.1 seconds secured Chicago's shocking 87-86 triumph over the Jazz. And it was the fans in Chicago who got to celebrate victory, although in some areas it was marred by gunfire and several shootings.

The statistics will claim that Jordan's performance was less than artistic. Jordan's 45 points, his high for the playoffs this year, came on 15-of-35 shooting.

But with Scottie Pippen limited by a back injury, Ron Harper ill and Dennis Rodman ineffective, with Toni Kukoc's 15 points representing the team's only other double-figure scorer, the Bulls became most dependent on Jordan at the most important point of their season. Read the full story.

Round diamonds for six championships with alternating rows of round and baguette diamonds.

Left side: "World Champions 1998," NBA logo, "Repeat 3-Peat."

Right side: Bulls logo.

"We never had any egos on this team. I think that was what was really special about this club."

-- Jermaine Dye, White Sox right fielder

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on Oct. 26, 2005:

The White Sox completed their incredible conquest Wednesday night, eliminating the final demons that haunted the franchise since their last World Series title in 1917.

They completed their stunning run in a manner that mirrored their amazingly successful season, riding the pitching of Freddy Garcia and the bullpen to a 1-0 victory over Houston and completing a four-game sweep of the 2005 World Series.

"In sports, I haven't had a greater feeling," said general manager Ken Williams, whose transformation of a franchise to an emphasis on pitching and defense was rewarded greatly in the final game.

The players celebrated on the field and in the clubhouse, where Williams was doused with champagne after hoisting the World Series trophy.

"Enjoy it and be safe," slugger Paul Konerko advised several thousand fans who gathered behind the dugout to celebrate.

The Sox snapped the second-longest World Series drought in history. The longest dry spell, 97 years, belongs to the Cubs, followed by Cleveland at 57. Read the full story.

Ninety nine diamonds -- one for each win -- set in black onyx and 14-karat gold.

Left side: MLB logo.

Right side: "World Champions," 2005 and playoff record (11-1).

"It was crazy. At the moment it's just like, 'We won the Stanley Cup' and that's all you're thinking about. To play this game, this is the only thing I want to do in the world and be a part of moments like this."

-- Patrick Kane, Blackhawks right wing

This story originally ran in the Chicago Tribune on June 10, 2010:

After nearly half a century, the Stanley Cup again belongs to Chicago.

The Blackhawks brought it home for themselves and their fans -- both long-suffering and those who jumped on board during a remarkable resurgence that began just three seasons ago -- when they defeated the Flyers 4-3 in overtime Wednesday night at a raucous Wachovia Center.

The NHL championship is the Hawks' first since 1961, snapping 49 years without the coveted Cup in their grasp and is their fourth in a team history that began in 1926 as members of the Original Six franchises.

Jonathan Toews, the youngest captain in the league at 22 years old, hoisted the Cup as the Hawks celebrated on the ice in front of a stunned Philadelphia crowd that saw the Flyers' miraculous postseason run come to a crashing halt.

Patrick Kane scored the game-winner 4 minutes, 6 seconds into overtime and Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd also had goals. Goaltender Antti Niemi claimed his team-record 16th victory in a postseason.

The win capped a dramatic turnaround for the organization that began with the drafting of Kane with the top overall selection in 2007, continued with the ascension of Rocky Wirtz to team chairman following the death of his father, William, and the hiring of John McDonough as team president. Read the full story.

Diamond inlay in 14-karat white gold. Blackhawks logo over the Stanley Cup is set with round brilliant and marquis cut diamonds for feathers.

Left side: Tomahawk logo made of rubies, emeralds and yellow diamonds on the left side.

Originally posted here:
Chicago sports teams have won 12 championships since 1985 with the Bulls winning 6. Here's a look at all their rings. - Chicago Tribune

Signs supporting the National Health Service (NHS) during the coronavirus outbreak are displayed together on railings in east London on Monday. Associated Press

That is partly because different countries are at different stages of the epidemic, and partly because data is recorded and then reported in different ways, often to score a political point about our own or other governments. Large parts of the world are still going largely unreported. What happened after those pictures a few weeks ago of a chaotic lockdown in India? After the hunger riots in Nairobi slums? When the dead bodies piled up on the streets of an Ecuadorian city? And what is the progress of the epidemic that was running out of control, causing mass casualties, in Iran?

We are not being told what is going on in the mega cities of Lagos, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Mumbai. Most of Planet Earth seems to have disappeared. And that matters not just for humanitarian reasons, but because we still have are so many gaps in the knowledge of how this virus operates and what is required to defeat it.

An example of how the international data can be misleadingly oversimplified came in a report last week of how Britain was now in the top five nations for recorded deaths from COVID-19. I have no particular brief for this government, and suspect that they have made some bad, avoidable, mistakes. But such accusations are meaningless in the absence of information on deaths per head of the population; deaths in relation to infection rates; the age profile and therefore years of life lost; and deaths in excess of the underlying trend. (Much comment still seems to assume immortality, forgetting that 1,600 people die in the UK every day from heart failure, cancer, car accidents, other illnesses and, of course, simple old age.)

What is potentially more informative than morbidity league tables which make sense only when scientifically interpreted are insights from the different strategies and tactics employed in around the world. The differences reflect the fact that different scientists have different views, and that different politicians are making different judgements about how to act on the evidence.

The big strategic argument is between those favouring suppression of the virus by cutting the rate of infection well below one using lockdowns and the closing off of large sections of the economy and those arguing for a weaker, mitigation approach to minimise disruption. After a damaging couple of weeks of prevaricating, when herd immunity was entertained, Britain is firmly in suppression mode. But total suppression is impractical except in remote, low density communities such as New Zealand, which is now down to two cases, both isolated.

The subsidiary issue for those choosing suppression is whether to rely on the crude, sledgehammer approach of lockdown, causing immense economic harm, or the more surgical approach of testing and tracing, as in Korea and Taiwan, or some combination of the two, as in Germany. But that kind of surgical approach requires a degree of foresight, planning and organisation which Britain lacked (and still lacks).

Then, within the lockdown approach, there are varying degrees of draconian. In Paris and Milan, permits are required to leave your house; walking and cycling are not indulged as they are in the UK. In that light, I am rather grateful that we have an instinctively libertarian prime minister. My nearest brush with authority has been the sighting of a drone checking that, miles from anywhere and everyone, my wife and I were not indulging in proscribed activities such as sitting down or sunbathing. Had Theresa May still been around, I suspect Britain would have had issued curfews and internal passports by now

There is an even more liberal approach, however, which is to accommodate rather than suppress the virus. At one extreme there are the virus deniers in the nastier and weirder parts of the former Soviet Union, such as Belarus and Turkmenistan; the nastier and weirder parts of the US, as in the Republican Deep South; and, of course, in Bolsonaros Brazil. This is almost certainly where Donald Trump would like to be, had he not channelled his anti-scientific, populist instincts into promoting alternative vaccines like the injection of disinfectants.

There are sensible governments which are not in denial but believe they can avoid the extreme economic pain of lockdown. One is Japan, where life and business continues much as normal, save for in a few regions where mounting infections are forcing the governments hand. The Japanese do not challenge the epidemiological orthodoxy but they seem to have developed a variant of the Taiwan/Korea model, for the most part successfully clamping down on localised clusters.

A case nearer home is Sweden, which has not followed the other Nordics in a lockdown model. Shops, cafes, workplaces and schools for those under 16 are open, and people still mingle in Stockholm.

I listened in to a Zoom seminar this week organised by the Institute of Global affairs at LSE in which Scandinavian experts were trying to understand how this social democratic country (every right-wingers nightmare of a nanny state) should have ended up taking the most extreme libertarian position in Europe. The response from critics was that they were muddled. The more generous answer is that they really believe in suppression but are relying on self-discipline, solidarity and common sense, rather than coercion and legal sanctions. So far, the profile of the disease and deaths appears not dissimilar from the UK in per capita terms.

Where international experience and devolved government (as in Scotland) is so useful is in testing out the various routes out of lockdown over the next few months. These routes tell us a lot about national tastes as well as the applicability of social distancing. The civilised Italians started with bookshops and childrens clothes stores. The Trump-loving state of Georgia is apparently giving priority to massage and tattoo parlours. Perhaps Britain will start with garden centres?

These are details best settled on the basis of comparative experience and technical advice. The public will expect a common sense approach to gradual relaxation where social distancing can be maintained: outdoors, on beaches and mountains, for example; or where unnecessary travel doesnt actually involve meeting anyone.

To get there, the first requirement is for the government to be transparent about the trade offs between some weakening of the suppression strategy necessitating a degree of risk and the fearsome, collateral damage to our economy and society which would result from maintaining the status quo.

View original post here:
Is UK actually in the top five for COVID-19 deaths? - Gulf Today

The legend of Karua Jheel and Baba DhansarAs the story goes, an atrocious demon unleashed havoc in Karua village. When the villagers sought refuge at the feet of a saint, Baba Dhansar, for salvation from the wicked demon, the holy man prayed to Lord Shiva for help. And help did come very soon, when Shiva himself came down on earth to kill the demon.Later, a temple of Baba Dhansar was erected near Karau Jheel. There is also a cave where Lord Shiva is worshipped. Karua Jheel itself is believed to be a highly sacred and wish-fulfilling place. However, no one is permitted to take a dip in this lake to maintain its sanctity and cleanliness. Devotees are, however, allowed to bath in the lake downstream. A mela is held every Mahashivratri and in the month of Shravana at Karua Jheel site (which is actually a waterfall).

Other interesting legends narrate the story of Lord Shiva and his spouse Parvati Devi, when they went to Amarnath Cave in Kashmir. Lord Shiva wanted to unveil the secret of his immortality to his divine spouse. Therefore, to keep this a secret, one by one, he removed all his paraphernalia and queer ornaments outside the cave. He also left behind his serpent, which took the form of a man called Vasudev. Soon after, Vasudev became the father of several sons, one of whom was a saintly soul named Dhansar.

Visiting Baba Dhansar

Read more from the original source:
Mystic Karua village near Vaishno Devi in Jammu that tells profound ancient stories - Happytrips

Greenwade was the primary scout on Jackie Robinson; he eagle-eyed the Kansas City Monarchs when Rickey sought to break baseballs color line. And Greenwade was the scout who in May 1949 signed Mantle out of Commerce High School in northeastern Oklahoma.

According to Jim Kreuz of the Society of American Baseball Research, Greenwade wrote The Sporting News in 1954 that he was the only scout who in 1948 and 1949 watched Mantle play for Baxter Spring, Kansas, in the Ban Johnson league, a summer amateur organization. Two days after Mantles high school graduation in May 1949, Greenwade signed Mantle to the Yankees for $1,500 and a salary of $140 a month.

Two years later, Mantle was in the Yankee outfield and headed for baseball immortality.

The same script could have happened, only with the Dodgers.

Greenwade was born in Willard, Missouri, near Springfield, and lived there most of his life. He played minor-league baseball all over, including Muskogee and Tulsa.

Greenwade went into minor-league managing, then in 1940 was hired to scout for the Dodgers. He scoured Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas for ballplayers, and Rickey made him the color-barrier secret agent who checked out Robinson and Cuban Silvio Garcia.

But in December 1945, after the Dodgers signed Robinson to a contract with the Montreal Royals of the International League, the Yankees offered Greenwade $11,000 a year, counting bonuses, a huge jump from his $3,600 Dodger salary. Rickey let him go.

With the Yankees, Greenwade did not move. He did not change regions. He did not change much of anything, except for which New York team he recruited. And recruiting is what it was, in those pre-draft days.

See the rest here:
What if Mickey Mantle signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers instead of New York Yankees? It's not far-fetched. - Oklahoman.com

The hortus conclusus can also inspire some reflection on the current historical moment. What lies beyond walls of our homes is a suffering and frail world where nature has been caged, exploited and bent to fulfill our profit-driven desires for too many years. How could we think to stay healthy in a world that was sick? asked Pope Francis during the Urbi et Orbi blessing on March 27. To protect ourselves and others from a recently discovered disease, we were asked to find refuge in our homes, to live secluded, shielded by walls. This isolation will be economically and socially hard for many, but it can make us realize that our approach to nature must change.

We are not 'keepers' or 'onlookers' of nature but we, too, ARE part of the natural whole and cannot seek to dominate (because ultimately we can't), stresses Herbert McAvoy. Our homes might not be as peaceful and blossoming as the Medieval hortus conclusus, yet this artistic expression can still teach us something beyond the religious angle. Things that have been traditionally female coded (birth, care, nurture, communication, language, empathy etc.) are not things to be locked up, subordinate and appropriated by men when needed, explains Herbert McAvoy, but the very foundations (gardens) upon which our cultures still depend. We must make these things more visible, more openly influential by unlocking the gate to the gardens in which they are contained.

Read more from the original source:
Seclusion, Sin, and Sanctity: The Virgin Mary's Enclosed Gardens - Art & Object

Thank you for returning to Western Illinois quest for college basketball immortality in College Hoops 2K8. We introduced this series a few weeks back and laid the foundation for the program with our first full recruiting class in Year 1. We finally made the NCAA tournament in Year 3, winning a thriller in the Summit League title game. Year 5 saw our program win its first NCAA tournament game.

Well have an announcement about the future of the series at the end of this story. But first, heres a recap of what happened in the last post:

Heres a picture of the roster heading into Year 6:

Ballinger has B potential, the highest Ive ever had at Western Illinois. Willis my first top-100 recruit also looks solid at 75 overall with C+ potential. Id love to redshirt Willis, but I would only have eight scholarship players on the roster in that case, so I decide to make him my ninth man and let him backup both forward spots. Ill likely redshirt him a year from now.

Heres a look at the rotation:

It feels like were not quite as talented as last year, and we certainly wont have the same team unity one of the factors teams are evaluated by based on their playing experience together. I still like what we have, though.

You already know Tracy Hehn and Wilbur Messy, a pair of four-year starters who should both be sick scorers on the wing as seniors. Im super excited about Hendriks my first five-star recruit as a JUCO player and the start of his three-year stint as starting point guard. My front court is a little green, with Byfield starting in his first season eligible and Van manning the five as a redshirt sophomore. Ward, a gigantic senior center at 71, 260 pounds will come off the bench. My eight-man rotation is still pretty damn good.

My team is an 89 overall, clearly the best in the Summit League again. No other team is better than 73 Oral Roberts and Southern Utah.

We need everything, and we absolutely cannot blow it in recruiting like we did last year when we went 2-for-5 on available scholarships. Following our recruiting struggles last season, reader James sent an email proposing I overhaul my recruiting philosophy to purposefully limit myself to 2-3 open scholarships per year. Here are his words:

As an invested fan, I wanted to volunteer one thing, considering the limited number of recruiting points at your disposal. The approach that you took in recruiting the class which included Damon Hendriks and Dawud Byfield seems like an approach you could take every year: focusing on two or three more talented guys, and utilizing the redshirt religiously. Treating recruiting and roster management this way seems like it should do two big things for WIU:

1. That you never need to land more than three guys in a given year, and can devote more attention/points to fewer and more talented guys in each recruiting class.

2. It gives you a shortcut to developing regular upper-class depth and roster balance seven or eight rotation-worthy true upperclassmen every season AND two or three redshirt freshmen to draw from.

He then included a scholarship chart:

Its an intriguing offer and possibly the greatest email Ive ever received but I decide to recruit for all six of our open scholarships instead.

I start off targeting four-star shooting guard Lubos Hatten (No. 66 overall, No. 16 SG) and three-star power forward Denver Lane (No. 158 overall, No. 30 PF). Lane is 610, 242 pounds and a 45 percent three-point shooter, so Im thinking he could potentially play three positions for me if I get him.

Heres my full slate of offers:

Im scheduling these nerds every year until I beat them. As a reminder, they whooped my ass last year. Can I get revenge this season?

The Illini are ranked No. 13 in the preseason polls and are a 95 overall. Looks like video game Bruce Weber was able to parlay that 2006 championship game run better than real life Bruce Weber.

Oh my. Blown out, 99-57. Ugly start for my post-Bud Richards era.

Next game: UW-Milwaukee. We win, 76-56. Nelke and Messy each score 15. We have local rival Illinois State after that, and get a 95-69 win. Hendriks balls out with 18 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three his first signature performance in what were expecting to be a long line of them. Ward also chips in 13 off the bench against the Redbirds.

We face Texas A&M next. AGGIES GOING DOWN.

Look at my boy Nelke with a team-high 17 points off the bench. Dude is going to be a stud. Unfortunately, the feel-good vibes from that win are short-lived: Southern Utah beats us by three the following week.

Back on the recruiting front, were sitting pretty with Hatten but dont land him at the end of the early recruiting period even though hes at 98 percent interest. Now Im going to have to waste points calling him the rest of the year, which could have went to other players. Denver Lane ends up getting an offer from Central Michigan, so I drop him. The tough week for recruiting continues when Tyler gets a UConn offer and Fulllove gets a Penn offer. I need to find three new recruits.

Big game against Michigan this week. We take a 77-74 loss. Tough. That drops us to 4-3 on the year. Heres the remainder of the non-conference schedule:

Back to recruiting, Ive maxed out interest in both Hatten and Bowens. Im praying Bowens doesnt get a North Florida offer because hes a Jacksonville kid and his No. 3 priority is being close to home. As long as they dont get a surprise offer late in the process, I should have two really promising recruits locked up as soon as the spring signing period begins.

The rest of my class currently looks less convinced. Im still working on Amous, a solid but unspectacular point guard I offered on the first week, and Ive identified three-star shooting guard Ljubisa Copeland as a potential backup plan if I miss on any of my other guards.

Mcgee gets an offer the next week, so I drop him and set out to find a center. I settle on Jordi Geli Holden, who is ranked only No. 24 at the position but has the right mix of size and AAU production. Full blown conference play is about to start.

I win my next seven games in conference, highlighted by Messy dropping 28 points on Fort Wayne and Byfield scoring 21 on South Dakota State. We hang 101 points on hated enemy Oral Roberts the next game, with Hehn going off for 26 points and Van scoring 22 in the win. The Leathernecks are starting to find their stride at 13-5 overall. Next game is at North Dakota State, and we blow them out, behind 29 points from senior star Tracy Hehn.

We win out the rest of the year and finish the regular season on a 16-game winning streak. Were 22-5 overall and the No. 1 seed in the Summit League entering the conference tournament.

Heres what my roster looks like entering the conference tournament some solid internal improvement from the guys this season. Hehn leads the team in scoring at 15.4 points per game.

We have South Dakota State in the opening around and beat them, 78-57, behind 20 points from Hehn. Next up: Southern Utah. Why am I so nervous for this?

We get a huge win, 103-53. Six Leatherneck players in double-figures, led by Van with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Now I have Oakland in the title game.

We beat Oakland, 78-66. Were going dancing for the second straight year at 25-5 overall.

Were an 11-seed against No. 6 Washington in the first round.

Wow, Washington is a 99 overall. How are they only a No. 6 seed? Classic Lorenzo Romar ball, to be honest. Were a 92 entering the tournament, with seven players rated in the 80s. My team has come along really well, but I still feel like Im a huge underdog. Going to need the seniors Hehn and Messy to play the games of their lives.

I settle down to watch this game (reminder: Im not playing any of the games during this dynasty, just watching the computer sim). That was a big mistake, because Im never getting that hour of my life back.

Blown. The. Hell. Out. Season over. Memphis wins the title. I dont even get any new coaching points.

Hehn and Messy both graduate. Love those dudes.

Now its time to restock my roster for the future with these six open scholarships.

We open spring recruiting by landing two studs: No. 66 overall shooting guard Lubos Hatten and No. 106 overall power forward Joseph Bowens. Hatten immediately becomes the top recruit in program history, replacing Ira Willis, who was once ranked No. 82 overall. Bowens looks fantastic, too. Look at that three-point shooting!

A week later, I win a long recruiting battle for 511 point guard Armein Amous, who is ranked No. 155 overall. Three-star shooting guard Ljubisa Copeland (No. 140 overall) is another guy Ive been recruiting since the fall, and I sign him as well. Jordi Geli Holden, the No. 24 center and No. 259 overall player, also signs on as my fifth recruit in the class.

I decide to take a big swing with my one open scholarship: 69 small forward Phil Powell, ranked No. 103 overall and the No. 15 player at his position. For whatever reason, this guy has very little interest from other programs, which is just what Ricky Charisma wanted to see.

To be fair, this guys offensive stats were terrible in AAU 7.4 points per game on 25.6 percent shooting from the field and 19.2 percent shooting from three. He has great size though and has to be rated this highly for a reason, right?

I land Powell on the last week of recruiting. Super excited to see what hes rated and where his potential is at. And with that, I have filled all six of my scholarships.

Thats a six-man class with three players ranked in the top 110 and five players ranked in the top 155. Centers are always lower in the recruiting rankings for some reason, but I landed a top-25 guy at that position, too. Huge class!

Now I have to set the schedule for next year. I decide to play every team in Illinois, because why not? The Leathernecks want to own this state. This non-conference schedule is beautiful:

Ahead to my seventh season.

Heres a first look at the roster.

Nelke is actually an 86 at shooting guard, but we have to move him to small forward because I dont have anyone else at that position and hes big enough to do it at 66, 217 pounds. Also, my five best players are my five starters, which hasnt been the case previously in this dynasty.

Waller is my best player despite the fact that he hasnt been a starter before his redshirt senior year because Ive had so much depth in front of him. He goes up a couple points when I move him to shooting guard. Were going to have three natural point guards in the starting lineup this year, which sounds extremely up my alley. Waller, Nelke, and Hendriks are all rated 88 or better as three-point shooters, too. Give me all of the high-IQ ball handlers who can shoot with range. I also decide to abandon my plan to redshirt Willis because I need him as sixth man this year who could play either forward position.

Heres a look at how the freshmen are rated:

I decide to redshirt Holden, Powell, Bowens, and Copeland. Hatten is going to the first guard off the bench and the last player in eight-man rotation. The plan is to redshirt Hatten next year when I have more depth. Im also keeping Amous active this year as my ninth man, even though he isnt in the rotation, just for games when guys get into foul trouble.

Heres a look at the rotation:

Western Illinois enters the season at a 90 overall. With four redshirt juniors in the starting lineup, we should be even better next year.

I only have one scholarship to work with. Since Im not totally sure Amous will be good enough to eventually lead a powerhouse team even as fifth-year senior, I decide to put a bunch of point guards on my target list. Eventually, I offer five-star JUCO Darrel Ogunride, a 63 lead guard from Chicago.

An opening night tradition of getting my brains beat in unlike any other. The Illini are already 2-0 and ranked No. 18 in the country when I face them. One time, Leathernecks?

OH, HELL YEAH! 69-63! Holy shit!

Look at those three point guards do work. Im counting this as a program-defining win. Could I have a chance to crack the top 25 this year?

We beat UIC by 20 (Nelke: 17 points, Van: 15 points, 10 rebounds) then beat Loyola, 62-51, (Van: 19 points) to end the next week. As the early signing period begins, we get revenge on Northern Illinois with a 30-point win (Byfield: 26 points, four blocks) and then beat Bradley, 82-56 (Van: 16 points). Were 5-0 to start the year.

Our first loss comes during one of these weird early conference games, where I somehow lose to South Dakota State, 65-62. We scored 16 points in the second half. Was there a killer party in Macomb last night that no one told Coach Rick about?

As early recruiting ends, I have a lead for Ogunride but Illinois is now hot on his trail, too:

Two local heavyweights on the schedule this week: Northwestern and DePaul. First up is the Wildcats.

It didnt go so well:

DePaul also beats me, 68-66. I really thought we could go undefeated two weeks ago.

I got Southern Illinois next, and win, 83-62. Unfortunately, that didnt impress the point guard Im recruiting: we go from first to third for Ogunride in the course of one week. Bummer, because he seems super good. I drop him and extend an offer to my backup plan, Nikola Stockman, a 6-foot point guard from local Peoria ranked No. 104 overall

I beat Illinois State and Eastern Illinois by 21 points each. Waller pops off for 19-5-5 against EIU. Im 11-3 as I get into the thick of conference play. Can I run the table?

We start out 5-0 with my closest win being 19 points. I end up winning out. A lot of red dubs on the schedule this year:

We enter the conference tournament at 25-3 overall. Van somewhat surprisingly leads the team in scoring (15.2 points per game) and rebounding (6.4 per game). Waller (13.1) and Nelke (12.0), and Byfield (11.7) are my other double-figure scorers. Hendriks averages 9.9 points per game.

We have Southern Utah in the first round of the Summit League tournament. And we win, 64-59. Uh, that was kind of tight?

I play Fort Wayne next in the conference semifinals. Another win, 65-53. The only team standing between Western Illinois and another NCAA tournament berth is my old nemesis, Oral Roberts. Im a 92 overall and theyre a 70 overall, so I probably shouldnt be as nervous for this game as I am.

We win, 82-61. WERE DANCING AGAIN.

This is our third straight NCAA tournament appearance. The team is 28-3 on the year. Could I finally get a seed that isnt in the double-digits?

To find out, I actually watch the Selection Sunday show, hosted by virtual Greg Gumble. Remember when I said this game is, like, insanely deep in terms of features in Legacy mode? This is one of them. Even after I eventually start skipping ahead, the show still runs for over nine minutes.

Please, enjoy this ridiculous video game TV show with me:

We get a No. 10 seed our best ever and draw a first-round matchup with No. 7 seed NC State. Winner is likely getting second-seeded Georgetown in the Round of 32.

Before I do this, I check out my roster again. Waller is now a 90, making him the first player in program history to hit that mark. I have seven guys rated at least in the 80s.

My team is pretty nasty: lots of shooting and ball handling in my three-point guard lineup on the perimeter, my lowest-rated starter is an 84 overall, and I have two guys in the 80s coming off the bench.

I think I have enough to make a tournament run this year, but NC State looks tough.

Of course Im watching this one. Music is again provided by my bud Patrick Cosmos from his album Tonal Rotors.

Lets do this.

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I think Im going to throw up.

I asked my forever colleague Mike Prada to GIF my fucking heart breaking.

Manning absolutely killed me all night (37 points on 15-of-24 shooting), and he ends up hitting a 35-foot dagger at the buzzer to win it. Unreal. We end the year 28-4 overall. Im going to need a couple days to get over this.

Maryland wins the title. Van wins Summit League Player of the Year as a junior. Heres a look at Coach Ricks resume after seven seasons:

I get offered the Wichita State job and turn it down. I only have one available scholarship and that gets wrapped up in the first week when Stockman accepts my offer.

Time to set my schedule for next year. I figure Im going to have a loaded team with four redshirt senior starters, so give us a real test before conference play? Im going at UCONN, at Michigan State, at Arizona, at North Carolina, at Notre Dame, and at Wisconsin.

This is going to be a special season. Heres a first look at the roster.

This is unfortunately the last post on Western Illinois chase for a championship at SB Nation. Im going to continue writing the series entirely for free over here. Please sign up to follow along.

If you signed up for email updates here, you should be transferred over. Year 8 is going to run Saturday or Sunday at the new site. I cant wait to see what next years roster can do. I hope you continue following along. Thanks for reading and engaging.

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We got the greatest simulated video game ending ever with our upstart college basketball team - SB Nation