'Super Mario Kart' Wii U eShop Review: The Best Video Game Ever Made, Still, Forever

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Super Mario Kart (SNES) is out now for the Wii U Virtual Console for 5.49.

Reviews are not objective. So let's get this out of the way. This is a personal opinion, but I do not think 'Super Mario Kart' is one of the best video games ever made.

I think it is the best game ever made.

Now, there are lots of great video games and for lots of different reasons. Some games are classics because they contain a single genius idea which pops out of nowhere and hooks in your brain like a virus. (Tetris, for instance.) Other games achieve greatness through generating atmosphere (Doom) or emotional resonance (The Last Of Us), or by making you rethink how the world inside and outside your computer fits together (SimCity, or Minecraft).

Super Mario Kart doesn't rely on any of those. At its heart, it is a simplistic racing game, with cute characters, and weapons, and a relatively shallow difficulty curve which punishes mistakes with the cruelty of an irrational deity, and rarely rewards genuine skill except in multiplayer. That's it. On paper, it shouldn't have worked.

But it did. Because Super Mario Kart had a Red Shell of its own: tuning.

Super Mario Kart is tuned like a Stradivarius before opening night at the Albert Hall.

You can feel the nuance, and balance, and thought, in every nanosecond of gameplay. This video game was made by a genius.

It's in the way your acceleration builds, quickly at first, then slowly, slowly, all through the race, to a crescendo of momentum, and how each touch on the brakes feels like a failure. It is contained in how the powerslides provide just enough give to stay on course even on the harshest corners, and in the perfect balance of the weapon and items, the sudden shock of the speed arrows and the juddering thump of a mistimed slam into the walls. It's in the game's famed ability to keep you in the race even when you're in eight place on the final lap, and the almost coma-inducingly perfect way the camera spins around 180 degrees the instant you pass the finishing line.

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'Super Mario Kart' Wii U eShop Review: The Best Video Game Ever Made, Still, Forever

Woman to undergo stem cell procedure to treat multiple sclerosis

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LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -

A 26-year-old mother of two is about to embark on a medical journey that could stop her multiple sclerosis in its tracks. The disease, which attacks the central nervous system, affects more than 400,000 Americans.

There is no cure for multiple sclerosis, but Heather Nicole Burke believes the stem cell replacement procedure she is about to undergo could make a big difference.

Burke contacted FOX 35, because she wants others to know that the procedure. When Burke got news that her insurance would cover the still-experimental procedure, "I looked at my phone, and I was like, 'This is real! I'm going to get my life back! I'm going to be OK! I'm going to be able to take care of my children!'"

Burke will soon travel from Florida to Chicago for a multi-step stem cell therapy that could stop her disease from progressing.

Dr. Richard Burt, the chief or immunotherapy at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and his team will use Burke's stem cells to reset her immune system.

"It generates an immune system that ends up -- in the process of doing that -- developing a tolerance to self which puts the disease in remission," Burt explained.

Burt has been performing the experimental procedure on humans since 2008. He said he sees only seven percent of patients relapse. Burt said he often finds insurance companies are willing to pay for the therapy.

"The majority of the time insurance does pay many of the major carriers pay. Medicare pays. Medicaid in the state of Illinois pays. It's a rare carrier that doesn't pay," Burt said.

Burke said her insurance will cover all of the $150,000 procedure. He called that a bargain, considering she is on 19 medications, one of which costs her insurance company $200,000 each year.

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Woman to undergo stem cell procedure to treat multiple sclerosis

Greater Community Spirituality (Chapter Fourteen) What Must Be Avoided? Part Four – Video

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Greater Community Spirituality (Chapter Fourteen) What Must Be Avoided? Part Four
https://www.newmessage.org/nmfg/Greater_Community_Spirituality.html Greater Community Spirituality presents a prophetic new understanding of God and human sp...

By: Daniel Dunn

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Greater Community Spirituality (Chapter Fourteen) What Must Be Avoided? Part Four - Video

Greater Community Spirituality (Chapter Fourteen) Part Two What Must Be Avoided? – Video

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Greater Community Spirituality (Chapter Fourteen) Part Two What Must Be Avoided?
https://www.newmessage.org/nmfg/Greater_Community_Spirituality.html Greater Community Spirituality presents a prophetic new understanding of God and human sp...

By: TranscensionTV

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Greater Community Spirituality (Chapter Fourteen) Part Two What Must Be Avoided? - Video

Religion, spirituality influence health in different but complementary ways

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Religion and spirituality have distinct but complementary influences on health, new research from Oregon State University indicates.

"Religion helps regulate behavior and health habits, while spirituality regulates your emotions, how you feel," said Carolyn Aldwin, a gerontology professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU.

Aldwin and colleagues have been working to understand and distinguish the beneficial connections between health, religion and spirituality. The result is a new theoretical model that defines two distinct pathways.

Religiousness, including formal religious affiliation and service attendance, is associated with better health habits, such as lower smoking rates and reduced alcohol consumption. Spirituality, including meditation and private prayer, helps regulate emotions, which aids physiological effects such as blood pressure.

The findings were published recently in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Co-authors were Crystal L. Park of the University of Connecticut, and Yu-Jin Jeong and Ritwik Nath of OSU. The research was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

"No one has ever reviewed all of the different models of how religion affects health," said Aldwin, the Jo Anne Leonard endowed director of OSU's Center for Healthy Aging Research. "We're trying to impose a structure on a very messy field."

There can be some overlap of the influences of religion and spirituality on health, Aldwin said. More research is needed to test the theory and examine contrasts between the two pathways. The goal is to help researchers develop better measures for analyzing the connections between religion, spirituality and health and then explore possible clinical interventions, she said.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Oregon State University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Religion, spirituality influence health in different but complementary ways