Sky Sports get carried away an awful lot but last Saturday was understandable.

Professional rugby was brought in not long after Sky's launch and the pair have been tight for two decades now. One hype machine feeds into the next until we get to the stage where beating New Zealand brings men to within a step of immortality.

That's how it went down at The Cake Tin, in Wellington, as Sky Sports' Graeme Simmons caught up with Lions flanker Sean O'Brien. Looking ahead to the third and final Test, on July 8, Simmons proclaimed:

Simmons:"Immortality beckons. That's what it is. Immortality is beckoning.

O'Brien:"Sure that's what we're here for."

Carlow's finest handled the question well, refused to get carried away and focused on the task at hand. There was a quizzical look fired Simmons' way but O'Brien let the hype-man worry about the hype.

O'Brien ploughed off to join his victorious teammates and soak up the applause.

Ronan O'Gara feels 'The Tullow Tank' will be disappointed with letting that bombastic question slide quite so easily. The former Ireland and Lions outhalf toldThe Hard Yardsrugby podcast what O'Brien should have responded with. O'Gara commented:

"It was such a missed opportunity by Seanie. I'd say it was because he was so fatigued but normally he'd bury him!

"It was such a chance for him to go viral there. Seanie, he's an unbelievably good craic character. Very witty.

"It would ave been his style there to come up with an absolute cracker of a comment like,'I'm already a superstar in Carlow, I'm not too bothered anyway lads!'"

O'Gara added:

"That's Seanie though. He's an unbelievable character and that's why lads play for him.

"Je's got a thing about him now where you just need him in your team."

Immortality may be a tad over the top but imagine the comments if the Lions get the job done in Auckland. And imagine O'Brien's comments in return.

*Check out the full O'Gara chat on O'Brien from 36:00 below:

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Ronan O'Gara suggests how Sean O'Brien should have responded to immortality question - SportsJOE.ie

(CNN) "It's a real sharing experience, to be in the dark waiting for the light," says Clare Tuffy, manager of Br na Binne Visitor Centre in Ireland's Boyne Valley.

Last year, nearly 33,000 people applied by lottery for entry to the Newgrange passage tomb on the mornings surrounding the winter solstice.

Only 60 were chosen.

On the days between December 19 and 23, in a spectacular feat of Stone Age engineering, a dawn sunbeam strikes through the "roofbox" opening above the tomb's entrance, then creeps along the 19-meter passageway, to where a hushed group of visitors stand waiting in the blackness of the innermost chamber.

For around 17 minutes -- weather permitting -- the chamber is flooded with light.

"There are very few experiences you can share across five millennia, with your ancestors," Tuffy tells CNN Travel. "5,000 years ago, people were waiting in the exact same spot, for the same event."

Dubbed by UNESCO as "Europe's largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art," the World Heritage Site of Br na Binne lies less than an hour's drive north of Dublin, in the heart of what the country's tourism board has dubbed Ireland's Ancient East.

Here, three large burial mounds -- Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth -- and around 40 satellite passage graves lie in the rich, green hills of County Meath.

The valley is as fertile now as when the monuments were built using tools of stone, bone and wood by a farming community in 3,200 BCE, some 500 years before the great pyramids of Giza.

Newgrange is the most famous.

This grass-covered, quartz-ringed hump, some 86 meters across and 13.5 meters high, covers an acre of land. Its smooth exterior belies the mysterious hidden chambers; only a fraction are open to the public.

The solar aligned roofbox above the entrance is unique to Newgrange.

These communal passage tombs proliferated across western Europe in the Neolithic era, linking the ancient communities with immortality.

"Their own houses would be very simple, ephemeral things of wood and clay, so for the dead they built houses that would last forever," Tuffy says.

Examples today include Gavrinis in France, Maeshowe in Scotland and Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales.

"As they got more and more sophisticated, they included the solar alignments," says Tuffy. They grew in scope also -- in their day, they would most likely have been the largest monuments in the world. But there's a reason UNESCO says that the passage grave is "brought to its finest expression" in the Boyne Valley.

"About 12% of passage tombs have a significant solar alignment," explains Tuffy, "but Newgrange is unique in that it is the only one that has a special opening to allow the sun to enter."

"We think for the people who built it, it was far more than just a tomb," explains Tuffy. The monuments had social, economic, religious and funerary functions.

"It would have been a place where people gathered, it would have been a place where the ancestors were honored. It is a symbol of the people's wealth, and it is a place probably where they interceded between the living and the dead."

Many of the 97 boulders -- or "kerbstones" -- that ring Newgrange are decorated with obscure carvings of spirals, circles, zigzags and triangles, which may have astronomical as well as religious significance.

in his 2012 book, "Newgrange, Monument to Immortality," Irish journalist Anthony Murphy argues that the Newgrange and Knowth were enormous calendars used by the Neolithic farmers to measure years, leap years and more.

Newgrange is better known, but Knowth has more layers of history to explore.

"Eventually the building was such a drain on the resources of the community that they stopped building them," says Tuffy. "New ideas came to Ireland with bronze, We began to see shiny gold metal, and we all wanted to be buried in individual graves, and be buried with the good stuff. So the whole tradition changed. The monuments then were abandoned, but still honored."

Newgrange was sealed after its original use had come to an end.

It remained so until the passage and chamber were rediscovered in 1699 by one of William of Orange's men, nine years after the Dutch Protestant William of Orange's forces defeated those of King James II of England at the history-defining Battle of the Boyne.

While the Newgrange group is purely prehistoric, there are "far more layers of activity" at the Knowth group of 30 monuments, which has features dating from the Neolithic period to the Middle Ages.

The Hill of Tara archaeological complex, ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland and used from the Neolithic period to the 12th century, is a short distance away beside the River Boyne and can be combined with a day trip to Br na Binne.

"In the autumn and winter months, the monuments stand out far more in the landscape and they're far more imposing, because all the vegetation around them falls away."

Access to the moments is via guided tour only, and visitors are capped at 150,000 a year. Entrance fees range from 4 euros ($4.50) for entry to the visitor center to 13 euros ($14.70) for entry to the center and to Newgrange and Knowth.

Although only a lucky few get inside, crowds of several hundred gather outside the tomb on those special winter days.

"It's always wonderful to be at Newgrange whether you're inside in the chamber waiting for the sunbeam or whether you're on the outside," says Tuffy. "It makes you think about life and death and rebirth and about our place in the world and about continuity. It's certainly a better way to pass those days before Christmas than out shopping."

32 BEAUTIFUL REASONS TO VISIT IRELAND: Poulnaborne is a Neolithic portal tomb in the Burren region of Clare, dating back to as early as 4,200 BC. It attracts around 200,000 visitors each year.

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Newgrange: Ireland's amazing feat of Stone Age engineering - CNN International

We arent worthy of immortality. Indeed, weve already passed our sell by date. Photograph: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Last week, as the Senate was still trying to deny healthcare to 22 million fellow Americans, a friend asked me whether I would choose to live forever if I could. We were discussing Silicon Valley billionaires and their investments in new biotechnologies that they hope will enable them to do what no human has ever done: cheat death. The technology includes some dubious treatments, such as being pumped with the blood of much younger people.

Both of us agreed we do not wish for immortality, though we are both extremely happy with our lives and healthy. Wanting to live forever is fundamentally selfish. Its obvious why immortality appeals to billionaires such as Peter Thiel. It obviously wouldnt to the millions in the US who wont have health insurance if the Republicans pull out the vote on their bill.

Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder who is a friend of Trump, is one of the Immortalists. Lucky that he will never run out of money, especially since the Senates version of repeal-and-replace Obamacare is such a generous giveaway to the billionaire class.

The only reason its getting any Republican votes is that, as the New York Times reported a few days ago: The bills largest benefits go to the wealthiest Americans, who have the most comfortable health care arrangements, and its biggest losses fall to poorer Americans who rely on government support.

It should be called the John Galt Bill after the hero of Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged, the doorstopper of a novel that is akin to the Bible for certain conservative politicians, including House speaker Paul Ryan, who hands out copies of the book to newly elected Members (the House version of the healthcare bill is even more Galtian than the Senates). Its the only book Im aware of that Donald Trump claims to have read.

Keep in mind that at her funeral in New York in 1982, Ayn Rands body lay next to the symbol she had adopted as her own a six-foot dollar sign, according to Susan Chira who covered the service for the Times. A few years ago, The Atlas Society, which keeps the Rand flame alive, urged Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to unleash our inner John Galt. They must be celebrating because even they could not have come up with a more hard-hearted piece of legislation.

If the White House actually fights for the bill, it will be because it repeals the higher taxes on estates and the Medicare surcharge that helped fund Barack Obamas expansion of healthcare to cover the poor. Although he has said the House version of the bill is too mean, hes happy to see his billionaire friends evade the governments hand in their pockets. (Hey, wed certainly like to see your taxes so we can figure out how you would make out, Mr President.)

In an effort to reduce the meanness of the bill somewhat, McConnell is reported to be considering something wealthy Republicans hate, preserving the Obama laws 3.8% tax on investment income in order to provide more money for combatting opioid addiction and other services to the poor. Its unclear whether that would unlock enough votes to pass a bill.

The Presidents 71st birthday a few weeks ago made him one of the oldest surviving boomers, those of us born between 1946 and 1964 a generation that is notoriously selfish and also physically fit (though the presidents recent photos on the golf course raise questions about the latter). In the presidents case, the typical baby boom self-centeredness has blossomed into a raging form of megalomania.

In 2020, the president may be running for re-election and I will be one of the many boomers who have officially become senior citizens. More importantly, it will also be the year that the number of those over 65 will be larger than those under 5. Thats unhealthy for many reasons, not least of which is the pressure it will put on Medicare and Social Security.

The billionaire class does not need to worry, however, because their tax savings from the repeal of Obamacare, if it ever passes, will easily pay for a lifetime of concierge medicine (well, maybe not, if Thiels plan to live forever works out).

Since modern American politics is always a revenge cycle, one way to look at the Republican health repeal measures is as payback to Chief Justice John Roberts, who infuriated Republicans in 2012 when he sided with the supreme courts four liberals to uphold the Affordable Care Act. He finessed his decision by defining the individual mandate as a tax, citing congressional power to levy taxes. Now McConnell & Co are using that same power to repeal them and make the billionaires richer.

Healthcare is not the only area in which supreme selfishness guides the Trump administration. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius had a strong piece on Wednesday showing many examples of other countries adopting Trumps America First mantra and adapting it to themselves.

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates bully Qatar into bending to their will, as the Kurds forge on with their independence drive, both selfish moves that dont even consider how they may destabilize the rest of the region. Pulling out of multi-lateral treaties, like the Paris and Trans-Pacific accords, because Trump says they dont put US interests first is also supremely selfish, as Ignatius rightly points out.

Its no wonder theres something called Boomer Death Watch. We arent worthy of immortality. Indeed, weve already passed our sell-by date.

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Billionaires dream of immortality. The rest of us worry about healthcare - The Guardian

British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland has urged his side to seize immortality after naming an unchanged matchday squad for Saturdays decisive final Test against New Zealand in Auckland.

A first series win over the All Blacks since 1971 beckons after the Lions restored parity in the three-match showdown with a 24-21 victory over the world champions in Wellington on Saturday.

Gatland cited the need to hand the players who had dragged the Lions level the opportunity to administer the knockout blow at Eden Park, where New Zealand have not lost a Test match since 1994.

This is a huge chance for this group of players to show their abilities and reap the benefits of the work everyone has put in, said Gatland. It is their chance to make Lions history.

We are all aware of how big this game is and we are expecting a backlash from the All Blacks. But the pleasing thing about the second Test is just how strong we were in the last 10 or 15 minutes, in terms of energy and enthusiasm so we still feel there is another level in us.

Just as he did at the Westpac Stadium at the weekend, flanker Sam Warburton will lead the Lions, who have named an unchanged starting XV for consecutive Tests for the first time since 1993.

We felt we should reward the players for the result and the courage that they showed in coming from behind, from 18-9 down, digging themselves out of a hole and then finishing strongly in that last 10 to 15 minutes, added Gatland.

There are some players who are pretty disappointed not to be selected and I understand that. It is what you would expect from competitive top athletes, they back themselves.

New Zealand, meanwhile, have made three changes to their XV for the series clincher. Jordie Barrett and Ngani Laumape are set to make their first starts for the All Blacks at full-back and inside centre respectively, while Julian Savea returns on the left wing.

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British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland tells Lions to seize immortality after naming unchanged side for third ... - City A.M.

We hate to break it to you but it looks like all those superfood salads youve been putting yourself through have been a bit of a waste. Actually eating your fruits and vegetables? That is so 2016. The hottest new way to get your vitamins is via an Intravenous Vitamin Infusion.

Dont worry if you arent exactly sure what that involves yet as The Elixir Clinic, a leading clinic specialising in Intravenous Vitamin Infusions, has only just opened a Dubai branch in order to match its Harrods outlet. A space where clients can indulge in a range of aesthetic and holistic treatments, The Elixir Clinic is set to become the ultimate health and wellbeing destination for the same set of people youve seen shilling Bootea on Instagram.

Described as an effective, natural and safe way to sustain long-term wellbeing, the patented VitaDrip is perhaps the most unique treatment The Elixir Clinic has on offer. The range of VitaDrips available at the clinic include drips that specialise in: Adrenal Fatigue, Anti-ageing, Antioxidant, Diet and Detox, Fitness, Hairgrowth, Immunity, Jet Lag, and Mood support. If an IV drip that adjusts your mood still doesnt sound Orwellian enough then you can always try out the VIP Elixir. Exclusive to Harrods, this Harrods VIP Exclusive infusion features a custom blend of essential vitamins and minerals along with a combination of anti-ageing, anti-stress, antioxidant and beauty properties to help combat the very passing of time itself.

Other than intravenous vitamin infusions, The Elixir Clinic also offers clients the option to pamper themselves with Intra-Muscular Injections or an Oligoscan. Gathering accurate and precise information on aspects such as anti-oxidants, heavy metal accumulation and mineral deficiencies, the Oligoscan can probably pinpoint the exact number of minutes that last doughnut you ate took off your life-span.

If you do fancy having a go at living forever, the Elixir Clinic have a local branch on the 33rd floor of the Al Habtoor Business Towers. Theyre open 9:00AM to 7:00PM Saturday Thursday (not that time will exactly matter once you obtain immortality).

Read more here:

Fancy a vitamin infusion? - EsquireMe

TEHRAN -- Immortality by Mehdi Fard-Qaderi won the award for best feature movie at the 15th Ischia Film Festival on the Italian island on Saturday, the organizers announced.

The film was competing in the official section of the festival, which began on June 24.

A jury composed of Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi, Portuguese screenwriter Miguel Barros and German producer Dagmar Jacobsen picked Immortality for the courageous use of a single location in a single shot.

Beyond his mastery, we recognize that it is a well-written and recited movie whose purpose is to provide a unique fresco in modern Iran. What a success, the jury said in a statement.

Immortality, which is a one-shot feature film, tells the story of some strangers who have to spend a rainy night together on a train.

Photo: Director Mehdi Fard-Qaderi holds an award for his movie Immortality at the 15th Ischia Film Festival in Italy on July 1, 2017.

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Immortality crowned best at Italian film festival - Tehran Times - Tehran Times

Konkani writer Vincy Quadros, has won the Sahitya Akademis Bal Sahitya Puraskar for his book on Jaduche Petul. NT BUZZ speaks to the writer about his journey into the literary world

Janice Savina Rodrigues|NT BUZZ

Writers and artists are a breed of the human race that has the privilege of attaining a sense of immortality through their work. Aiming to achieve such an end is Vincy Quardos. A Konkani writer, Vincy has had a long affiliation with writing, spanning over decades. He began writing at an age when other children would rather have been frolicking around in playgrounds, even before he could enter his teens. I began my writing career at the age of 12, when I wrote a tiatr called Chintunk Naslem, says the proud winner of this years Sahitya Akademis Bal Sahitya Puraskar.

Having won the award for his childrens fantasy book Jaduche Petul, Vincys tryst with writing continued unabated through his teens. As a young teenager, I started writing for magazines, and All India Radios programme under Prasar Bharatis youth-centric radio station, Yuvavani. I wrote stories, essays, skits and poetry for the programmes. Additionally at that time Novem Goem was a weekly then came other Konkani magazines, now I write for Jivit, Gulab and Dor Mhoineachi Rotti, says Vincy.

Vincy is also occupied in his day job which he says he balances with his writing career while burning the midnight oil. I handle the accounts for the Pepsi plant in Goa, and to balance it out I write only post work hours sometimes going into the wee hours of the morning about one or two a.m., he adds.

The childrens fantasy book Jaduche Petul was initially released in 2011 and this has been the fourth year that the book was nominated to the final round of the awards. I am very excited and feel honoured to win the award, it was a very emotional moment when I got to know that I had won national recognition for my work, he says.

The book is a story about a boy who is very poor but has a twist of fate. His life is changed when while on his walks about town and the woods he finds a treasure box, which happens to have a fairy inside it. She grants him a wish and turns him into a king, thereafter he finds a kingdom where there was no heir to take over after the king had died. He rules that kingdom with high morals. Even though he is young he knows how to rule over his subjects, and how to maintain the relationships with the neighbouring kingdoms, what should be the extent of fighting and how to keep aside your selfishness and be cordial towards the other people. He is just a child and yet he displays the maturity of an adult and wise man. This boy comes across another person who turns out to be a writer who then puts all the thoughts and morals of the king into writing as a book and the name of that book is Jaduche Petul. The story is further supported by pictorial representations of each situation, Vincy says.

Childrens literature is picking up across the globe, and Goa is not far behind. Ask Vincy how he perceives the scene for childrens writing, he replies very positively. In Goa, childrens writing is picking up now with the institutions like Konkani Bhasha Mandal and others doing very good work in the area. They have brought to the market a series of books, with coloured pictures and my intention is also to go along with their thinking and get children further interested in books, he says.

Vincy also stresses that just reading is not enough and that children should also learn what goes behind making of the books. When I was the vice president of the Goa Konkani Academi, I had started a Bal Sahitya Sammellan a conference for school children where they would be thought about books and their making. The conference was getting good response, but it was discontinued. Now with the help of like-minded institutions I want to revive it, he says.

About the keeping alive of the Konkani language, Vincy is of the opinion that the more people write, the better it is for the language. A person will die but his writing wont. Take the example of Shakespeare, he lived 500 years back but he continues to live through his poetry and plays. A language is kept alive by writing and a man is kept alive by his writing. Immortality through work is a writers forte, says Vincy.

Ask him how awards benefit a language, he responds: Simplicity is one of the qualities of being a human, the person who takes note and respects another persons efforts becomes a better human being. To have the knowledge of works in literature and to serve literature in all simplicity will be followed by awards and recognitions.

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Achieving immortality through literature - The Navhind Times

For the first time since 2009 the All Blacks lost a game on home soil as they fell to the Lions at a wet Wellington Westpac Stadium.

It was a thrilling, rollercoaster game, one which saw a first half red card for Sonny Bill Williams and the Lions come back from 18-9 down with just over 20 minutes to play.

The series coming down to a decider in Auckland was clearly too much for Sky Sports interviewer Graham Simmons.

As he spoke to the excellent Sean O'Brien after the game, Simmons wanted to know if the Carlow man fully understood the magnitude of next weekend's third Test.

Immortality beckons, you know that, don't you. Immortality is beckoning.

Immortality, Sean. Just think about what could be achieved on the farm as the Carlow Duncan MacLeod.

Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

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Graham Simmons Takes Lions Hype To Barely Palatable Level During Sean O'Brien Interview - Balls.ie

(CNN) -- Don't mess with our collective dreams of immortality. A flurry of new research vigorously opposes a study from last year that dared to suggest there might be a ceiling to the human lifespan.

In onenew paper, Dutch scientists predict that, by 2070, our lifespan may increase to 125 years while beyond that, the sky may be the limit. Their analysis was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The debate over hisoriginal paper, published last October in Nature andwidely reported by CNNand other media outlets, took Jan Vijg, senior author, by surprise.

For a biologist, a natural limit to the lifespan "makes a lot of sense, so that's why I never imagined the paper would stir up so much comment," said Vijg, a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

To prove a 125-year lifespan is possible, researchers from the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute team began their study by refuting the relationship between age and immortality posed byBenjamin Gompertz.

This 19th-century mathematician pored over mortality data and noticed that young people have a very low chance of dying. Yet, in middle age, the chance of dying increases and then rises again dramatically in old age.

This exponential increase in the rate of human mortality has long been accepted wisdom, yet the Dutch researchers decided to challenge it. Instead of basing their work on data derived from the general population, they used data from a group of people noted for their long lives -- Japanese women.

Using mathematical models, they claim mortality goes down in old age and projected an astounding new human lifespan -- 125 years -- will be achieved by 2070.

Along with this theory, an additional four separate papers poke holes in Vijg's work. ACanadian teamof scientists claims Vijg's original paper is based on statistically "noisy" (or meaningless) data. Meanwhile, a research team from theUniversity of Copenhagenargues that any inferences about lifespan potential are premature; a team from theMax Planck Instituteclaims there's simply no evidence of a "looming limit;" and a team from theUniversity of Groningenoffers four cohesive arguments contesting the conclusions drawn by Vijg's team.

What inspired this heated debate?

In their paper, Vijg and his graduate students, Xiao Dong and Brandon Milholland, analyzed aging trends in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

Vijg explained that their analysis was based not on some mathematical model that projected future data, but on "actual data" of real human lives. They examined not one but two different data sets, and what they observed was that, despite life expectancy being dramatically higher than it was 100 years ago, the probability of anyone living for more than 125 years was unlikely.

"Initially, you see this increase every year and you see this oldest record holder until the 1990s, and then it stops," said Vijg. "Think about it, how strange it is."

The number of healthy centenarians increased dramatically every year. That being the case, Vijg theorized "the supply is certainly there" to create more record-breakers, every year, yet there were none.

Vijg wondered, "How is that possible?" A decades-long plateau following years of new old-age records must mean humans have reached the lifespan limit, he and his colleagues concluded.

It is a rather logical conclusion for biologists, who have long seen that individual animal species each have a particular span of time in which they are born, develop into maturity, and then die, Vijg explained.

"WhenJeanne Calmentdied, I really thought that this was the beginning of something very dramatic," said Vijg. Jeanne Calment died in 1997 at age 122, which remains "the greatest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived," according toGuinness World Records.

Hearing about Calment's long life, Vijg rebelled against the accepted wisdom that lifespan "must be fixed, it must be like a ceiling."

Yet, testing the theory, Vijg and his co-authors found no fresh old-age record breakers. Sure, the Canadian scientists who created a mathematical model found random plateaus, some seven years long -- but still their research fails to explain a plateau of decades, said Vijg.

The Canadian scientists may believe their research disproves his, but instead, it "is a beautiful confirmation of what we found," he said.

"They want us to be wrong," said Vijg, who with his colleagues published arebuttalto all the criticism. "I can see that it's very depressing when you find out that we can never get older than 115 years on average."

Vijg, though, is not a depressed man.

He says he's seen the tremendous strides made in all scientific fields as well as technology and hopes that someday the aging process might be halted.

"We may be able to do that at some point, as I say, by the way, at the end of my paper," said Vijg. "But if we are not able to do that because aging turns out to be still very mysterious, or a process that we cannot really intervene with, then we are stuck with a real maximum lifespan that fluctuates around 115."

"Accept it," he says.

The-CNN-Wire & 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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Living to 125 and beyond: Scientists dispute there's a limit to - KMOV.com - KMOV.com

Lions reaction: Sean O'Brien wants 'immortality' as Ferris says momentum could prove key to beating All Blacks

BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Leinster's Sean O'Brien says the Lions are in New Zealand to gain immortality.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/rugby/lions/lions-reaction-sean-obrien-wants-immortality-as-ferris-says-momentum-could-prove-key-to-beating-all-blacks-35884246.html

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article35884245.ece/e4202/AUTOCROP/h342/805209812.jpg

Leinster's Sean O'Brien says the Lions are in New Zealand to gain immortality.

As he was reminded by his Sky Sports interviewer, that is what awaits Warren Gatland's men should they overcome the All Blacks again next Saturday in Auckland.

"Well that's what we're here for," said O'Brien, with a determined stare.

O'Brien was one of the key men for the Lions as they came back from nine points behind to snatch the closest of victories in Wellington.

"It feels very good right now," he said. "The crowd are unbelievable here. We made life very hard for ourselves but we worked incredibly hard and really fronted up. We had a cool head, we knew our plan, we knew what we had to do. That's the pleasing thing, we stuck to the plan bar the discipline and it worked for us."

An emotional former Lion Stephen Ferris, speaking from the Sky Sports studio, reckons the tourists will have one key advantage going into next weekend's decider.

"Momentum is huge," he said. "It's everything in sport. It doesn't matter if it's tennis, rugby, whatever. It's all about momentum. You could hear a pin drop in the All Blacks' changing room; the Lions boys will be walking around, probably having a beer, high-fiving each other, talking about the positives out of the game. It's a big week but momentum is crucial."

Belfast Telegraph Digital

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Lions reaction: Sean O'Brien wants 'immortality' as Ferris says momentum could prove key to beating All Blacks - Belfast Telegraph

Imagine a world in which youre 90 years old and nowhere near middle-aged. An app on your phone has hacked your DNA code, so you know exactly when to go to the doctor to receive gene therapy to prevent all the diseases you dont yet have. A microchip in your skin sends out a signal if youre at risk of developing a wrinkle so you step out of the sun and hotfoot it to your dermatologist. Every evening you sync your brain-mapping device with The Cloud, so even if you were caught up in a fatal accident youd still be able to cheat death every detail of your life would simply be downloaded to one of the perfect silicon versions youd had made of yourself, ensuring you last until at least your 1,000th birthday.

This may sound like science fiction but it could be your fate provided you can afford it. If current research develops into medicine, in the London of the future the super-rich wont simply be able to buy the best things in life, theyll be able to buy life itself by transforming themselves into a bio-engineered super-race, capable of living, if not forever, then for vastly longer than the current UK life expectancy of 81 years.

The science of turning back the clock has never been more advanced. In Boston, a drug capable of reversing half a lifetime of ageing in mice is about to be tested on humans in a medical trial monitored by Nasa. NMN is a compound found naturally in broccoli which boosts levels of NAD, a protein involved in energy production that depletes as we get older. Professor David Sinclair, who headed up the initial research at Australias University of New South Wales, doses himself with 500mg daily, and claims that he has already become more youthful. According to blood tests analysing the state of the 48-year-olds cells, prior to taking the pills Sinclair was in the same physical shape as a 57-year-old, but now hes 31.4.

Meanwhile, Hollywood stars looking for the elixir of youth might want to keep a close eye on developments at Newcastle University where last February Professor Mark Birch-Machin identified, for the first time, the mitochondrial complex which depletes over time, causing skin to age. Mitochondria are the battery packs that power our cells so if we want to slow down ageing we need to keep them topped up; doing so would be transformative for our appearance. In the future, Birch-Machin believes, well not only be taking pills and applying cosmetics, well have implants in our skin. Implants will tell us the state of it how well our batteries are doing, how many free radicals, and will inform us how we are doing with our lifestyle, he says. You can store it, log it, have that linked to your healthcare package.

Such medical discoveries are being translated into treatment at an unprecedented rate. The day after the results of Birch-Machins study were published in The New York Times, his department was contacted by nine companies hoping to turn his research into revolutionary pharmaceuticals. In 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn, a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, won a Nobel Prize for her work on telomeres, the protective tips on our chromosomes that break down as we get older, leaving us prone to age-related diseases. Blackburn discovered an enzyme called telomerase that can stop the shortening of telomeres by adding DNA like a plastic tip fixing the end of a fraying shoelace. Today, rich Californians now use telomeres therapy to prolong the life of their pets.

Last year, in Monterey, California, the start-up Ambrosia (founded by Dr Jesse Karmazin, a DC-based physician) began trialling the effect of blood transfusions, pumping blood from teenagers into older patients, following studies thatfound that blood plasma from young mice can rejuvenate old mice, improving their memory, cognition and physical activity.

Dr Richard Siow, who heads up the Age Research department at Kings College London, believes we may be soon reach a significant point in anti-ageing research because of the massive amounts of money allocated by governments and charities worldwide in the hope of making a breakthrough. Indeed, according to a survey by Transparency Market Research, by 2019 the anti-ageing market will be worth 151 billion worldwide. Life expectancy in many countries has already increased from 65-68 all the way through to 70, 80, 85 because people are now surviving heart disease, strokes and cancer, points out Siow, who has been studying anti-ageing compounds found in Indian spices and tea. We are now redefining what ageing means. How can we extend that period of health so were not a burden?

It is in Silicon Valley, however, that the really radical advances seem likely to be made. Freshly minted internet tycoons appear willing to pay any price to prolong their lives and a critical mass of geeks is working furiously towards understanding our biology at an unprecedented rate. Take Dmitry Itskov, the Russian billionaire founder of the life-extension non-profit 2045 Initiative, who is paying scientists to map the human brain so our minds can be decanted into a computer and either downloaded to a robot body or synced with a hologram. Or Joon Yun, a physician and hedge fund manager who insisted at an anti-ageing symposium of the California elite in March that ageing is simply a programming error encoded in our DNA. If something is encoded, you can crack the code, he told an audience which, according to The New Yorker, included multi-billionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Goldie Hawn. Thermodynamically, there should be no reason we cant defer entropy indefinitely. We can end ageing forever.

And then theres PayPal founder (and Donald Trump supporter) Peter Thiel, who has a net worth of 2.1 billion and has reportedly invested in start-up Unity Biotechnology which aims to develop drugs that make many debilitating consequences of ageing as uncommon as polio. Thiel has also offered funding to individual researchers, such as Aubrey de Grey, the Chelsea-born, Cambridge and California-based gerontologist who ploughed the 11 million he inherited from his artist mother, Cordelia, into founding the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence Research Foundation in Mountain View, which promotes the use of rejuvenation biotechnology in anti-ageing research.

Of course, the best known element of the immortality industry is cryogenic freezing. Despite its reputation as the last resort of wealthy cranks, it remains in business; at the Alcor cryonics facility in Arizona, 149 corpses have already been preserved in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of minus 196C since it was founded in 1972. Worldwide there are thousands of people signed up for cryogenics services, including Alcors 28 clients in the UK. The service doesnt come cheap (full-body freezing costs 165,000, while having your head cut off and frozen is around 60,000) but it has some impressive-sounding clients, including de Grey and Dr Anders Sandberg, research fellow at Oxford Universitys Future of Humanity Institute.

Its a gamble but its still much better than being dead, says Sandberg. He envisages a world in which the brain is paramount, so when his is revived it could be transformed into a sort of computer programme containing all of his memories of life on earth. If you actually exist as software you have a lot of options. I do enjoy having a physical body but why have just one when you could have lots of different ones?

Of course, if such experiments do come to fruition, they could have far reaching implications for our society. Already, a rapidly ageing population is placing enormous stress on healthcare and pension systems worldwide. De Grey sees the problem of over-population being cured by a dwindling birth-rate. Buthe says little about the impact this would have on the young.

Then theres the question of whether we will one day be living in a world defined by gaping differences in life expectancy where the haves live for 10 times longer than the have nots. Mortality has been the great equaliser from beggars to kings to emperors, says Dr Jack Kreindler, medical director at the Centre for Health & Human Performance in Harley Street. If people embark on really sophisticated, targeted therapies to repair damage to their cells... I think were definitely entering into them and us territory. As projected in Homo Deus, the best-selling book of Israeli academic Yuval Noah Harari, Kreindler adds, we could witness a schism in humanity where we have some people so bioengineered that only the very, very rich can sustain the amount of maintenance required to look after their enhancements, while others simply cant afford to do anything but be natural.

Nevertheless, the quest to overcome mortality continues apace. Last year, at a TEDx symposium Kreindler convened at the Science Museum, Daisy Robinton, a post-doctoral scientist at Harvard University, put forward the theory that ageing should be considered a disease in itself. She described the excitement in the medical community at the discovery of CRISPR/Cas9, a protein that seems to allow us to target and delete genetic mutations in our DNA. Gene editing provides an opportunity to not only cure genetic disease but also to prevent diseases from ever coming into being, Robinton claimed. To treat our susceptibilities before they ever transform into symptoms.

If this theory became fact, dying of old age might one day seem as outmoded as being felled by one of the mass killers of the past for which we get vaccinated. If gene editing on this scale is possible, Kreindler says we have to ask: Can your cells become immortal, can they live forever?

At the Centre for Health & Human Performance, treatments may still be firmly rooted in the 21st century, focused as they are on helping athletes optimise their fitness and celebritiessuch as David Walliams complete gruelling challenges for Sport Relief. But Kreindler is clearlyin awe of what the latestmedical advances might mean for the future of the human race.

I dont believe this should be only for the very rich, he says. If youre going to do things, dont just do it for the billionaires, do it for the billions.

Continued here:

Why the super-rich are ploughing billions into the booming 'immortality industry' - Evening Standard

I found the Harry Potter fandom in 2000. Giddy with the thrill of internet access at home, I googled my way from the official Warner Brothers website which was promoting the imminent first movie to the unofficial world of fan-made websites and Yahoo groups. Of course I joined HP4GU (Harry Potter for Grown-Ups), a busy hub of fan theories, but I also joined a Yahoo group dedicated only to the manners and motivations of Lucius Malfoy, because the fandom was already large enough to support niche interests. Nascent but already obsessive, the Harry Potter fandom was on the brink of an unprecedented revolution. It was about to move from mailing lists to LiveJournal and, from there, grow like one of Hagrids hatchlings into the beast we see today.

There are many reasons why the Harry Potter fandom became one of the most far-reaching and recognisable the world has ever seen: partly because of the immense international success of the books and films themselves, partly because of the way personal internet use grew as Harry did. But a great deal of it was because, at the turn of the millennium, every Harry Potter fan was about to wait three long years between the publication of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the fifth, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and a lot of fans filled that void with fan-made content. Goblet of Fire ends with a nail biting cliffhanger: Voldemort is back, Cedric is dead, Dumbledore has told the still-enigmatic Snape to go off and do something mysterious. With so many beloved characters in limbo, the Harry Potter fandom exploded, filling that void with fanfiction, fan art, and fan theories about what would happen next.

Millions of words of fanfiction were produced, shared on mailing lists, LiveJournal, and, later, dedicated archives like Fiction Alley, Sugar Quill, and the ubiquitous fanfiction.net. Often these fics were about relationships that didnt happen on the page. There are thousands of stories about Hermione and Dracos potential star-crossed romance, and even more about Sirius Black and Remus Lupins tragic puppy love. For Remus and Sirius, fandom did what it often does and stepped up to expand on the queer relationships that languished in subtext. For me, fandom became all-consuming. I wrote fic and essays. I was even part of huge online roleplaying communities, one set in the Hogwarts of the 1970s, one set in a future where Voldemort had won. By the time Order of the Phoenix finally arrived, the fandom had a momentum that wouldnt stop.

It grew colossal. It had eras. Harry Potter fandom at its height was so huge, so multi-faceted and balkanised that there were parts of it that had no idea what it happening in other parts. I was so busy in my part of the fandom, writing stories about Remus Lupin and Sirius Black and the other characters of the Marauders era, I was never aware of the massive ship wars being fought over whether Hermione ought to date Ron or Harry. I only discovered some of those factions when I went to one of the earliest Potter fan conventions, Phoenix Rising, in New Orleans in 2007, as part of a panel about fanfiction and conventional publishing with fandom academic Henry Jenkins.

As the rest of the Harry Potter series was published we, the thrilled fandom, never wanted our tale to end. In the Mirror of Erised all we would have seen was more and more Harry Potter books, endless stories. But an end came, as we knew it must. Harry Potter is a story about mortality, about the complexity of death. It teaches us that death is something we must learn to accept. No matter how hard.

And you know who didnt agree with that? Voldemort, thats who. And, like Voldemort, the Harry Potter series came back from the dead, faster than you could say, Hang on, what is Peter Pettigrew doing in the graveyard?

The final book might have been published, but that didnt mean the story was done. In interviews, J.K. Rowling began to reveal more about the world of Harry and his friends. She responded to critique of the lack of queer characters by saying Dumbledore was gay, which frustrated fans given that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin and the line where Remus "embraced Black like a brother" are, like, RIGHT. THERE. And one of the plots of book seven was Rita Skeeters scurrilous tell-all book about Dumbledore, which said nothing about Dumbledores romantic life. Did Skeeter really miss a scoop that big?

Then came the revelation that Ron and Hermione may not have been happy together after all, causing the reignition of one of the biggest Harry Potter shipping wars, long after that epilogue had closed the issue.

And then the Potter franchise revealed its first Horcrux Pottermore and it was clear that the Harry Potter story really was going to reach for immortality as if it had never read Deathly Hallows.

New Harry Potter canon became more expansive, causing more clashes with fandom. When Pottermore revealed details of the North American wizarding school Ilvermorny, not only were fans dismayed at the way the descriptions of the houses origins made disrespectful use of Native American myths, but American fans who had long considered themselves Slytherins, say, or Ravenclaws, didnt want to be sorted into a US house that didnt have the same resonance for them as one of the big four from the books, when part of the point of claiming yourself a member of a particular Hogwarts house was part of a richer imagining of yourself as part of the beloved story.

These revelations, now the books are done, seem like afterthoughts and small in scope compared to the theories that Harry Potter fans have already come up with. There are essays and videos postulating that that Snape is a vampire, that Draco is a werewolf, and that Voldemorts pet and soul-holder Nagini is the same snake that Harry frees from London Zoo in the first Harry Potter book. J.K. Rowling has claimed that none of these theories are true, but does that really matter? Now the books are done, Harry Potter belongs to the fans. And, look, there really is a lot of evidence that Draco got bitten by Fenrir Greyback.

What I am saying here is, do we really need Pottermore when fanfiction.net alone houses over 700,000 waxings on the past and future of every Harry Potter character imaginable? Can you really expect the reveal that Dumbledore is gay to have that much impact on a fandom that has already convincingly argued that Dumbledore is both a time-travelled Ron Weasley and death itself?

In 2015, when the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was announced with a plot shrouded in secrecy and a marketing campaign saying that this was the eighth part of the series, fans were initially excited by the idea of a substantial new slice of Harry Potter.

In the run-up to the first night, hopes were high, the secrets of the plot were well-kept, and the show was positively reviewed by theatre critics. Tumblr had already buzzed with approval at the news that a black actor, Noma Dumezweni, had been cast as Hermione. (Fan theories placing both Hermione and Harry as people of colour had long been popular in fandom, drawing on the books explicit plots about the Death Eaters' efforts to preserve wizarding racial purity.) But when the book of the script was released to great fanfare and huge sales, the Harry Potter fandom was almost universally scathing.

The plot of Cursed Child was described by the fandom as being like bad fanfiction, with many even comparing it to My Immortal notoriously the worst fanfiction story ever written (and a personal favourite of mine). Its not to hard to see why fans drew these conclusions: My Immortals plot also revolves around time-turners, young Voldemort, and a mysteriously beautiful girl. A ridiculous line from the show worthy of Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way herself Youre ruining Voldemort Day! became a running joke on Tumblr.

Cursed Child also leans hard on one of fandoms earliest obsessions, the fractious relationship between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, focusing on the intense friendship between Harrys son Albus and Dracos son Scorpius. Fans saw this relationship as toying with the way Harry and Draco were shipped back in the day, making it feel like queer-baiting.

The jumping-off point for Cursed Child is the death of Cedric Diggory, which happens at the end of Goblet of Fire. This is the very same point from which the fandom leapt when we were left on that cliff for a three-year hiatus, meaning a lot of the material in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child the Marauders Era, the grown-up golden trio is inevitably well-covered by the fandom. Its our territory. The Cursed Child plot about a world where Voldemort had won was something Id explored as part of that roleplaying group 15 years earlier.

Theres a quote that goes around on Tumblr that is often attributed to Henry Jenkins, who I sat with on that Phoenix Rising panel a decade ago, although there seems to be some confusion about whether he said it. Its almost as if the quote itself is a piece of Henry Jenkins fanfiction. It runs: Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of by the folk. The popularity of this idea on Tumblr suggests that fandom doesnt always see canon as a benevolent source of inspiration. Sometimes its something we need to rescue our characters from. More canon can just mean more stories we need to repair. Or, worse, canon returning to mess up the fixes weve made to a story we found lacking.

Fandom, though, is the last place anyone should feel that their ideas of how a story should be told arent welcome. When its the creator with all the extra weight that brings and when their ideas feel like a retread of things fans were doing decades ago, fan disappointment is inevitable. Especially when, by coming back from the dead, the Harry Potter canon is undermining the key message of the books about the acceptance of endings.

Perhaps the solution lies in what Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has chosen to do. There are fan concerns about the Fantastic Beasts movies around the casting of Johnny Depp and the first film's lack of characters of colour but these issues seem resolvable, unlike the horrorstruck reaction to Cursed Child. And by telling a story (the rise of Grindelwald) that was detailed far later in the book series, its found a place where there is much less fandom content to compete with. Back in 2000, we had barely even heard of Grindelwald.

Interestingly, Fantastic Beasts is already developing a fandom of its own, with fans spotting slash-y potential in the charged relationship between Colin Farrells Percival Graves and Ezra Millers tormented Credence Barebone. Tumblr has also noted that thanks to that comment by Rowling about Dumbledores sexuality, we should be seeing a young, hot, gay Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts movies. Given fandoms frequent preoccupation with male/male relationships, this seems like something that could generate a lot of excitement.

With fandom coming along to fill in the gaps left by Fantastic Beasts, the natural order is being restored. Fantastic Beasts feels like a new story, not a reanimated noseless monster. Once again, fans are playing with the creators toys, and not the other way around. Like Fawkes the Phoenix, the Harry Potter fandom rises again to spread its wings. So while we're waiting for the second movie can I interest you in a controversial fan theory that Fawkes is Dumbledores own Horcrux?

Excerpt from:

Can The Harry Potter Fandom Survive A New Canon? - BuzzFeed News

"The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever."

Herb Caen

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Sometimes the discovery becomes massive and everybody in the world finds out at once and I end up on a pedestal. Sometimes they make me their leader, sometimes they call me an abomination, sometimes I get arrested and studied, usually it's all of this at once. I've been everywhere. I've done everything, spoken every language, built a pyramid, survived re-entry. History goes in cycles. If you watch it for long enough you can see the tipping points coming and be there when they happen. I invented fire, the wheel, the electric motor, antibiotics, you name it, every era, every country. Fought in X number of wars. Once, I actually ruled the whole world.

I've walked on the Moon barefoot.

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Complete Immortality - TV Tropes

You may not have known this, or you may have suspected it, but Keanu Reeves is immortal.

At least, thats what the internet says, since multiple men have been found throughout history that bear a striking resemblance to the Matrix actor.

Jimmy Fallon addressed the rumors on The Tonight Show Friday, pulling up old portraits submitted to keanuisimmortal.comand asking Reeves if he saw a resemblance.

Also Read: 'John Wick: Chapter 2' Review: Keanu Reeves Kills Again in Action-Packed Sequel

The first figure Fallon brings out is the artistParmigianino, who painted theself-portraitin1504-1540.

YouTube

Reeves, at first, dodged whether he thought the portrait looked like him, instead focusing on what the subject was doing with his hands (his two middle fingers held together and separated from the outside ones). But Reeves shouldnt talk, since hes done that with his hands as well!

Getty Images

In all seriousness, Reeves does acknowledge the physical resemblance between him and his historical doppelgangers.

Also Read: 5 Reasons 'John Wick: Chapter 2' Was a Rare Bigger Sequel at the Box Office

We have a likeness in the eyes, he says of the artist self-portrait. And the nose and the mustache and the beard and the cheekbones and the forehead.

Another subject Fallon proposes is the actor Paul Mounet.

Getty Images

I was thinking about it and I go, You do look exactly the same since I first met you and I met you years ago, Fallon explained, showing a photo of the two of them at the MTV Movie Awards in 2000.

As Fallon noted, Reeves looked exactly the same while Fallon doesnt.

Also Read: Classic '80s Keanu Reeves Photo Takes on a New Life (Photos)

So Reeves doesnt outright state whether or not he is an immortal vampire, but he did say he had heard of the rumor before and that he does see the resemblance. Good enough!

In the interview, Reeves also talked about coming to Hollywood for the first time, where his manager asked him to change his name. Reeves said he thought long and hard (near the ocean nonetheless) about it and came up with Chuck Spadina.

Another option? Templeton Page Taylor.

Watch the full clip above.

Reeves plays Constantines titular exorcist bent on saving Earth from hell -- even though his soul is already damned to be interred there -- in the 2005 comic book adaptation which also starred Shia LaBeouf as a sidekick cab driver.

A burned out football player becomes an FBI agent who learns how to surf so he can infiltrate a gang of bank robbers dressed like ex-Presidents and head up by Patrick Swayze. No, seriously, that's "Point Break" (1991).

Keanu stars with Sandra Bullock in "Speed," a movie that mostly takes place on a bus that will explode if it slows down below 55 mph. Bullock taking L.A. public transportation? Yeah, right. (1994)

Keanu and Sandra reunited for The Lake House, a film that saw the Speed co-stars falling in love through the mail and through time: Bullock writes to Reeves in 2006 while he is living in 2004. And they dont even use stamps.

A computer hacker discovers humanity is enslaved by a sentient program in The Matrix (1999). Reeves soon unplugs himself, masters kung fu and learns to fly.

Ted (Reeves) plays a failing high school student who gets sent a time traveling phone booth from the future so that he and his buddy Bill (Alex Winter) can kidnap famous historic persons for their final class project. Turns out hes destined to become the messiah in Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure (1989), too.

Johnny is a "mnemonic courier" from 2021 with a data storage device implanted in his brain, allowing him to discreetly carry information too sensitive to transfer across the Net, the virtual-reality equivalent of the Internet. Also, Ice Cube leads a rebellion that includes telekinetic dolphins (1995).

Reeves playing a top-notch trial attorney in 1997's "The Devil's Advocate." If that's not wacky enough on it's own, he's also the son of the Devil (Al Pacino).

After discovering a dead stripper in his motel room, played by Cameron Diaz, Keanu assumes hes the murderer in Feeling Minnesota" (1996). Dont worry, shes not dead and they live happily ever after in Vegas.

One of the most high-profile bombs in Hollywood history, "47 Ronin" saw Keanu playing Kai, a half-English, half-Japanese character created for the 2013 movie and not included in any previous 47 Ronin films.

Reeves plays a scientist trying to solve the energy crisis in "Chain Reaction" (1996) by splitting up the water molecule, or something. Soon hes neck-deep in a government conspiracy and being framed for murder and treason.

After gambling away six grand, Keanu repays his debts in Hardball by coaching an inner-city little league team for an outrageous sum of $500 a week. But the real payoff comes when he teaches the kids the importance of camaraderie, which leads to a successful season that no one saw possible (2001).

In John Wick (2014), Reeves latest offering, he plays a retired hitman who has no choice but to re-enter the seedy underworld after bad guys, wait for it murder his beloved puppy. Womp, womp.

The oft-jeered actor has appeared in several films with far-fetched plots, including John Wick which opens Oct. 24

Reeves plays Constantines titular exorcist bent on saving Earth from hell -- even though his soul is already damned to be interred there -- in the 2005 comic book adaptation which also starred Shia LaBeouf as a sidekick cab driver.

Follow this link:

Keanu Reeves Addresses Those Immortality Rumors (Video) - TheWrap

Lions v All Blacks: Furlong ready to take next step in bid for immortality

BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

The rise and rise of Tadhg Furlong continues. Campile, Co Wexford's first Lion may only be a full international less than two years, but of all of Ireland's contingent, he slept easiest this week. Perhaps only Conor Murray was more sure of his place.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/rugby/lions/lions-v-all-blacks-furlong-ready-to-take-next-step-in-bid-for-immortality-35856766.html

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The rise and rise of Tadhg Furlong continues. Campile, Co Wexford's first Lion may only be a full international less than two years, but of all of Ireland's contingent, he slept easiest this week. Perhaps only Conor Murray was more sure of his place.

Not that he'd admit it himself, but the form tighthead in world rugby over the course of the season has a chance for immortality tomorrow, at the age of just 24.

He's played the All Blacks twice now and shown no fear.

In Christchurch two weeks ago, he faced down four of tomorrow's starting tight five and more than held his own. It was tit for tat as you'd expect between two sets of world-class forwards, but Furlong respects players and has little time for reputation.

His rise was encapsulated when Wyatt Crockett, he of 59 All Black caps, collapsed the scrum.

The disdainful look on Furlong's face said it all as he waved a dismissive arm at the 34-year-old as he roared at the fallen Crusader. Battle lines drawn.

"The scrum is going to be tough," Warren Gatland said yesterday. "Four of that tight five did well against the Crusaders and we've got better and better.

"Tadhg is getting better. He's still pretty green but he's got something about him: he's explosive, he's quick for a big man, surprisingly quick.

"He's a good ball-carrier and he had a nice bit of inside play with Johnny (Sexton) and then an offload.

"That's what we're encouraging players to do and he's the modern prop, for me.

"You've got to have more than just set-piece, scrum and lineout.

"You've got to be able to get around the pitch and defend, so I think in the next few years he's definitely going to be one of the world's best in that position.

"I think he'll come away from this tour having established himself as being one of the top props in world rugby."

It's been a whirlwind journey for Furlong, who only made his first start for Ireland against South Africa last summer, but saw off Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira in a mark of what was to come.

Mike Ross was moved aside to make way for the Wexford native, who probably nailed his Lions spot with his performances against the All Blacks in November.

Amid the hubbub, the dream began to become a reality when he sat down with Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster.

"I came out of that South Africa tour with a lot of confidence," he said yesterday. "I thought I went reasonably well in my first Test start against a good scrum.

"In November, then, when you start to pile minutes on minutes, it gives you that bit of confidence that you can start pushing towards or aim for something.

"But I think the real moment of focus for me this year was when Stuart Lancaster came into Leinster. He backed me and I suppose gave me a focus and goal to drive towards."

After November, the All Blacks are fully aware of what Furlong is capable of. His rise continues.

Belfast Telegraph

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Lions v All Blacks: Furlong ready to take next step in bid for immortality - Belfast Telegraph

"I think it's reasonable to suppose that one could oscillate between being biologically 20 and biologically 25 indefinitely." -- Aubrey de Grey

Time may indeed be on your side. If you can just last another quarter century.

By then, people will start lives that could last 1,000 years or more. Our human genomes will be modified to include the genetic material of microorganisms that live in the soil, enabling us to break down the junk proteins that our cells amass over time and which they can't digest on their own. People will have the option of looking and feeling the way they did at 20 for the rest of their lives, or opt for an older look if they get bored. Of course, everyone will be required to go in for age rejuvenation therapy once every decade or so, but that will be a small price to pay for near-immortality.

This may sound like science fiction, but Aubrey de Grey thinks this could be our reality in as little as 25 years. Other scientists caution that it is far from clear whether and for how long science can stall the inevitable.

De Grey, a Cambridge University researcher, heads the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) project, in which he has defined seven causes of aging, all of which he thinks can be dealt with. (Senescence is scientific jargon for aging.)

De Grey also runs the Methuselah Mouse prize for breakthroughs in extended aging in mice. The purse of the M Prize, as it is called, recently grew beyond $1 million.

LiveScience recently spoke with de Gray about his idea of living longer, and perhaps forever.

LiveScience: What is your definition of aging?

Aubrey de Grey: The definition that I like is not very good if you want to cover all species, but it's pretty good if you want to do something about it. I define aging as the set of accumulated side effects from metabolism that eventually kills us.

Is your goal to just extend the human lifespan substantially or to enable us to live forever?

I don't see any inherent limit to how long it would be desirable to live. If life is fun at the moment, because one is healthy and youthful, both mentally and physically, then one is not likely to want to die in the next year or two. And if a year or two down the road, life is still fun because one is still youthful and so on, then the same will apply, and I can't see a time when that would cease to be true.

When did you first come up with idea for your SENS project?

Well, I've always considered aging to be undesirable, but I didn't begin to consider that I could make a contribution until about ten years ago. I suppose the major breakthrough was when I came up with the scheme that I now describe as SENS, and that happened about four years ago.

Nuclear Mutations/Epimutations These are changes to the DNA, the molecule that contains our genetic information, or to proteins which bind to the DNA. Certain mutations can lead to cancer.

Mitochondrial Mutations Mitochondria are components in our cells that are important for energy production. They contain their own genetic material, and mutations to their DNA can affect a cell's ability to function properly.

Intracellular Junk Our cells are constantly breaking down proteins that are no longer useful or which can be harmful. Those proteins which can't be digested simply accumulate as junk inside our cells.

Extracellular Junk Harmful junk protein can also accumulate outside of our cells. The amyloid plaque seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients is one example.

Cell Loss Some of the cells in our bodies cannot be replaced, or can only be replaced very slowly.

Cell Senescence This is a phenomenon where the cells are no longer able to divide. They may also do other things that they're not supposed to, like secreting proteins that could be harmful.

Extracellular Crosslinks: Cells are held together by special linking proteins. When too many cross-links form between cells in a tissue, the tissue can lose its elasticity and cause problems.

What happened was that I was gradually learning a lot of biology because my wife is a biologist. I was originally trained as a computer scientist, and I regarded aging as obviously undesirable but not my problem, that someone else would be working on it.

But the more biology I learned, the more I also learned about biologist and about the attitudes toward working on the biology of aging that biologists tended to have, and basically, I wasn't very impressed. I found that rather few biologists were interested in the problem at all, and I thought, "Well, that isn't very good,", so I thought I'd see what I could do.

Your background is in computer science. How does that qualify you to spearhead a project on aging?

My background is enormously beneficial. There are really very important differences between the type of creativity involved in being a basic scientist and being an engineer. It means that I'm able to think in very different ways and come up with approaches to things that are different from the way a basic scientist might think.

Could you give me an example of when your background has proven useful?

Well, I suppose that the whole SENS project is one big example. What I've done there is I've identified a set of things to fix, a set of aspects of aging that we have some respectable chance to repair, and I've realized that if we can do all of these things reasonably well, then we're done.

Basically, we'll have made the age related problems that we suffer from these days no longer an inevitable consequence of being alive. What I've done is basically factored out all the complicated details of how metabolism causes these things in the first place. It will be many decades before we understand the way cells and organs work well enough to be able to describe in detail the mechanism of how these problems actually occur.

But my way of thinking is that we don't need to know the details of how they happen. So long as we know what these things are that do happen, we can figure out ways to fix them. This is counter to the ways that scientists think, because scientists are interested in knowledge for its own sake, whereas I'm interested in knowledge as a means to an end.

Could you give me a timeline for how you envision your project succeeding?

The first part of the project is to get really impressive results in mice. The reason that's important is because mice are sufficiently furry and people can identify with them. If we get really impressive results in mice, then people will believe that it's possible to do it in humans, whereas if you double the lifespan of a fruit fly, people aren't going to be terribly interested.

Now, what I want to do in mice is not only develop interventions which extend their healthy lifespan by a substantial amount, but moreover, to do so when the mouse is already in middle age. This is very important, because if you do things to the mouse's genes before the mouse is even conceived, then people who are alive can't really identify with that.

I reckon it will be about 10 years before we can achieve the degree of life extension with late onset interventions that will be necessary to prove to society's satisfaction that this is feasible. It could be longer, but I think that so long as the funding is there, then it should be about 10 years.

Step two will involve translating that technology to humans. And because that's further in the future, it's much more speculative about how long that's going to take. But I think we have a fifty-fifty chance of doing it within about 15 years from the point where we get results with the mice. So 25 years from now.

What do you think about the idea that with so much life at stake, people would be less willing to take risks?

I used to be more pessimistic about this than I am now. Five or six years ago I wrote a book in which I predicted that driving would be outlawed because it would be too dangerous to other people, but now I think that what's actually going to happen is that we'll just throw money at the problem. Rather than simply avoiding activities that are risky, we'll make them less risky through technology. For example, it's perfectly possible already to build cars that are much safer than those which most people currently drive, and it's also possible to build cars that are safer for pedestrians--with auto sensors and auto braking to stop from hitting a kid running out in the road and things like that.

It's just a matter of priorities. When there isn't that many years of life to lose, the priority isn't there to spend the money. It's all a matter of weighing out the probabilities.

Once the technology is available, nearly everyone is going to want it. Of course, there's going to be a minority of people who think it's better to live more naturally in some way or other. We have parallels like that in society today, like the Amish for example.

Some would say that death is a part of life. What would be your response to those people?

Death will still be a part of life when we haven't got aging anymore. If you mean that some people would say that aging is a part of life--well, that's certainly true, but a couple hundred years ago tuberculosis was a part of life, and we didn't have much hesitation in making that no longer a part of life when we found out how.

What do you say to critics who think that this money could be better spent towards curing diseases like cancer?

This is a very important point. Because we're going be in a situation where we can extend lifespans indefinitely, this argument doesn't work. If it were a case of simply having a prospect of extending our healthy lives by 20 or 30 years, then one could legitimately argue that this would be money more ethically spent on extending the lifespan of people who have a below average lifespan. But when we're talking about extending lifespans indefinitely, I don't think that really works. The other thing to bear in mind, is that it's not an either or thing. The reasons why people in Africa for example, have a low life expectancy is not just because of medical care, but also because of political problems.

What kind of life will the immortal or nearly-immortal lead? Will they have to be on a special diet, or have constant organ transplants?

Like any technology, when it first starts off, it will be a bit shaky, a bit risky, it will be very laborious and expensive and so on, but there will be enormous market pressures that will result in progressive refinement and improvement to the technology so that it not only becomes more effective, it becomes more convenient and so on. This will be an example of that.

In a very general sort of sense, one could probably think in terms of having to go in for a refresh every 10 years or so. Exactly what would be involved in that will change over the years. It might start off as lets say a month in the hospital, and 10 years down the road, that will turn into a day in the hospital.

A good parallel is vaccines. For example, when we take a holiday in Africa or Southeast Asia or whatever, we get a shot to make sure that we don't get malaria. And that's all we have to do, and when we get there we can eat Mc Donald's as much as one likes.

So you think it'll one day be as easy as getting a vaccine?

Yes, that's right. A lot of these things, even in the early stages will amount to vaccines and drugs. Though of course, there will also be a lot of gene therapy and stem cell therapy and much more high tech stuff.

Why did you establish both an institute and a prize?

I think it's very important to have this two-prong approach. The idea here is that we don't really know what's going to work, but we have a fair idea of approaches that have a good probability of working.

If you look at past technological achievements, some of them succeeded by just throwing serious effort and serious resources at the problem, and people were pretty sure of what they had to do to make the thing work. The Manhattan Project is a fine example of that. Everyone basically knew how to build the atomic bomb, it was just a question of working out the kinks.

Then we've got things where there were loads of different possibilities about how the thing might be done, and it was important to motivate people and give incentives. For example, when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, that won a prize. And when someone invented a chronometer that worked properly at sea, that won a prize. Things like that. That was where you wanted to give incentives for people to follow their hunches, because it wasn't very clear which approach was going to work.

I think that when we're talking about life extension, we're sort of halfway between these two situations. We have a bunch of ideas which one can make a good case that it's going to work, but we also want to hedge our bets, and let people follow their hunches as well.

Of your seven SENS targets, which do you consider to be the most important?

It's not possible to say. I don't think we will be able to achieve more than a relatively modest amount of life extension, if any, until we can get at least five or so of these things working, and we might need to do all seven before we get more than a decade of life extension.

Why do you personally want to live forever?

It's not really a matter of living forever, it's just a matter of not wanting to die. One doesn't live forever all in one go, one lives forever one year at a time. It's just a case of "Well, life seems to be fun, and I don't see any prospect of it ceasing to be fun unless I get frail and miserable and start declining." So if I can avoid declining, I'll stay with it really.

What would you do if you could live substantially longer?

They say variety is the spice of life, so I don't think I would do the same things every day. I'd like to be able to spend more time reading, and listen to music, and all that sort of thing, things that I never get to do at all at the moment.

You think this project is going to succeed in your lifetime?

I think it's got a respectable chance. I'm definitely not relying on it. My main motivation comes from the thought of how many lives will be saved.

Your strategy would involve not only preventing aging, but reversing it as well. Does that mean people will get to choose what age they want to remain?

Absolutely. So the idea is that we wouldn't be eliminating aging from the body. It'll be a case of going in periodically and having the accumulated damage repaired. So exactly what biological age you actually have at any point is really just a question of how often you go in for rejuvenations and how thorough they are.

So the more treatments you undergo, the younger you can be?

That's right. I think it's reasonable to suppose that one could oscillate between being biologically 20 and biologically 25 indefinitely.

Related Stories

Those who have lived the longest in modern times, in years and days, according to estimates in some cases:

Name

Years

Days

Jeanne Calment

122

164

Shigechiyo Izumi

120

237

Sarah DeRemer (Clark) Knauss

119

97

Lucy (Terrell) Hannah

117

248

Marie Louse Febronie (Chasse) Meilleur

117

230

SOURCE: Louis Epstein, recordholders.org, based on Guinness Book of World Records and other sources

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Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality

Old Age.Vinoth Chandar/Flickr

For centuries, humanity has been searching for ways to live longer, resist diseases, and generally have a happier life. Throughout the centuries, people thought that the biggest challenge to discovering the secret to immortality is knowledge. According to one scientist specializing in this field, however, its the lack of funding thats to blame for why humans are still dying of old age.

The scientist in question is Aubrey de Grey, who is arguably one of the most enthusiastic minds tackling the matter of aging in the world, Futurism reports. What de Grey wants to achieve, above all else, is to give humans eternal life. To this end, he co-founded SENS Research Foundation and became editor in chief of the publication, Rejuvenation Research.

Researchers belonging to the Foundation are conducting studies at the Mountain View, Californias SRF Research Center (SRF-RC). There, the scientists try to cure the body of aging at the molecular level as well as develop advanced rejuvenation technology. Although much of their work is still proof of concept, their projects do hold promise.

Unfortunately, there are still many obstacles that the researchers need to overcome, the biggest of which is the lack of funding. As de Grey said, there are always money shortages that slow the rate of progress.

The most difficult aspect [of fighting age-related diseases] is raising the money to actually fund the research, de Grey told Futurism.

Its the age-old quandary that has plagued the scientific community since the dawn of time. No money equals no advancements. Thats why the most successful societies in history are those with a thriving scientific and technological industries.

With regards to the fight against aging, the problem is particularly acute. The best example of how skewed research funding distribution is, a recent report by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicates that $5.5 billion went to cancer research compared to the $52 million allocated for researching amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

This kind of discrepancy is exactly what prevents scientists like de Grey from solving the ultimate illness of humans. Its why immortality is still so far out of reach.

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Scientist Say Lack Of Funding Is Biggest Obstacle To Immortality - EconoTimes

Jun 20 ARTSY SMARTSY, FEATURE SIDEBAR, Film No Comments on FILMING IMMORTALITY: Independent filmmaker Tanya Fermin brings unreal life to Wilmingtons film industry

FERMIN ON THE JOB: Writer and director of HAON films newest series in Wilmington, NC. Courtesy photo

The shoot ends and its director, Tanya Fermin, addresses crewmembers who were trying to find her. Its like a maze in here, she sighs, as she makes her way to the exit. Her current TV series, HAON, is a supernatural drama she will pitch to Netflix. The story centers around a small girl who begins to exhibit strange abilities, and those who want to protect her from being exploited. Some characters have a range of special abilities, like telepathy and clairvoyance, while the haons display longevity that borders on immortality.

The main villain has been taking advantage of clairvoyants to attain wealth this entire time, Fermin explains, but now that he knows haons exist, he thinks they hold the key to eternal life.

This isnt Fermins first foray as a writer-director. Her short film, The Arrangements, made the rounds in 2016, and aired on over 90 stations across the United States. Its a true story, Fermin explains. It deals with the passing of a loved one seen through the eyes of the family. The film was written for her grandmother, Ophelia M. Pridgen, shortly after her passing. Shes my inspiration, Fermin declares with pride. Ive never had writers block after I wrote The Arrangements for her.

Pridgen inspired the main concept of HAON when she looked at Fermins adopted daughter and exclaimed, I think youve been here before. Upon hearing it, Fermin took the mysterious statement and ran with it.

You never know an adopted childs medical history, she notes. So youre warned about not knowing what kind of medical conditions could come up years later. But what if something comes up that isnt medical? What if its something you cant understand?

Fermin also was moved by her grandmothers clear recollection of Southern history throughout life. It was like having an historian right there with you, she recalls. She could tell you about things the history books never covered.

To keep these memories alive, Fermin places characters in HAON throughout different eras in time. We cannot accurately go further than the 1860s in the historical record, due to our heritage, Fermin explains, but thats not going to stop me from showing some things that history tried to hide.

The shows theme of paranormal longevity affords Fermin the ability to explore these concepts, adding substance to the series supernatural elements.

Local sites are chosen for their conceptual similarities to the script: plantations, replicas of Christopher Columbus ships, and in particular, the Octagon House in Swansboro. It became a perfect location for filming the pilot episode.

A drowning took place there, Fermin explains, and the first episode opens with a girl drowning. The girls name on the tombstone is the same as the character who drowned.

The scripts supernatural theme often requires Fermin to shoot in unpleasant locations, such as fetid swamps and abandoned graveyards, but she refuses to back down. Im not afraid, she exclaims. Ill pray the ghosts away. Ill pray the snakes away.

HOAN is far from a one-woman ordeal. The shows producer, Carol Stephans, has worked with Fermin for years. Shes always ready to go, according to Stephans. Fermin attributes successes of HAON and The Arrangements to Wilmingtons willingness to help independent filmmakers. It is what keeps bringing her back to the Cape Fear when other states offer better film incentives than NC.

A dire side effect of NCs nulled film tax credit program (axed by former-governor Pat McCrory in 2015), is the lack of jobs for all positions in film, like actors of all stripes in Wilmington. Its hard to find older actors because their roles are diminishing, Fermin tells. To help fill this void, she writes characters of all ages, genders, races, and sexualities. Once written, she casts them appropriately.

Its not stereotypical, and theyre not written to conform to stereotypes, Fermin tells. Theyre actual people who happen to be who they are. And I always have some tough, fierce women characters. Its just a part of life.

Pat Gallaher, who plays the main villain in HOAN, affirms Wilmingtons value for independent filmmakers. Gallaher met Fermin when they both played police officers in Sleepy Hollow and Two-Eleven, both of which were filmed in Wilmington. You dont have to train someone from scratch to get the job done here, he says. Gallaher doubles as HAONs assistant director when not on screen. We all switch roles, he says.

Plenty of students from Cape Fear Community College assist the crew, but the level of professionality displayed on set is equal among them. Professionals may run the cameras, while students assist them.

Fermin also called in a special favor from local cinematographer Joe Dunton, who has worked with cinematic luminaries like Stanley Kubrick. Dunton consulted with Fermin on her debut film and encouraged her to use certain angles to provoke emotion. I think thats one reason the film did so well, she explains. I called him for another favor [for HAON.] Pivotal scenes in HAON have been filmed at Duntons camera shop to honor him.

HAON is still in development, but you can follow its progress at http://www.facebook.com/findthehaon.

HAONThe Arrangements Two-ElevenArt in Bloom GalleryCape Fear Community CollegeCarol StephansChristopher Columbusencore magazineJames McCreaJoe DuntonNetflixOphelia M. PridgenPat GallaherPat McCrorysleepy hollowTanya FerminWilmington NC

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FILMING IMMORTALITY: Independent filmmaker Tanya Fermin brings unreal life to Wilmington's film industry - encore Online

A so called "immortality mushroom" was discovered by chance in the Kaz Mountains of western Turkey's anakkale province.

The "Reishi mushroom," also known as the immortality mushroom, is one of the 32 local species that grows in abundance in the Kaz Mountains. The inedible mushroom, which is used by the pharmaceutical industry, could be a new source of income for villagers in the region. Mehmet zen, a retired forest worker who lives in the rplar Village on the northern slopes of the Kaz Mountains, entered the forest looking for edible mushrooms when he encountered a species under some tree trunks that he had never seen before.

zen began to research his discovery, eventually determining that he had found the rare Reishi mushroom, nicknamed the immortality mushroom for its uses in curing diseases. "After learning that these mushrooms could be sold for 1,000 Turkish liras ($285) per kilogram, I thought that it could be a new income source for the villagers. However, because many of them do not know the value of the Reishi mushroom, villagers do not pick it," zen explained.

Reishi mushrooms, belonging to the Polyporaceae family of fungi, can be processed and sold as tea, capsules or liquids, thus having a significant economic value.

Reishi mushrooms have been used medicinally for 4000 years, especially in traditional China medicine. Though not edible in its full form, Reishi mushrooms have a bitter taste and are most commonly ground into a fine powder and dissolved in water.

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'Immortality mushroom' discovered in mountains of western Turkey's anakkale - Daily Sabah

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immortality at a price TheRecord.com Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin in the 1960s TV series Batman. - Allstar/Cinetext. Katy Perry: once your moment in the spotlight passes, there's not much you can do to get it back. - Victor R. Caivano,The Associated Press. 1 / 2. As someone ... and more »

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immortality at a price - TheRecord.com