Category Archives: Immortality

It cant vie with the glitz and glamour of neighbouring Dubai and Qatar, but the tiny island nation of Bahrain has a rich history, and in recent years a clutch of fine museums has sprung up to preserve its heritage.

Hidden away in pockets of traditional architecture amid the urban sprawl, they make for a rewarding few days exploration, says George Kipouros in Wanderlust and, for the curious, there are other more active ways to engage with local culture, from concerts of the local traditional music to lessons in pearl diving, once the islands main industry.

Bahrain means two seas in Arabic, perhaps a reference to the submarine freshwater springs where the worlds best oyster beds are found.

From the fourth to the first millennium BC, Bahrain lay at the heart of a civilisation that experts believe was Dilmun, the trading nation referred to in ancient Mesopotamian texts. Deep in the islands heart lies a huge desert field of burial mounds, which form the worlds largest ancient necropolis.

Many of the treasures found there are displayed in the new National and Qalaat al-Bahrain museums. These include finely carved soapstone seals, and also votive offerings of pearls, and dead snakes, suggesting a ritual that may have been linked to the myth of Gilgamesh, which was a model for the Biblical story of Eden.

In the myth, Dilmun is as a paradise where Gilgamesh finds the flower of immortality in a freshwater sea, only to have it stolen by a serpent. Experts suggest the flower was a pearl: Gilgamesh recovers it like a pearl diver, with stones tied to his feet.

In the old town of Muharraq, a trail called the Pearling Path connects a series of fine 19th-century buildings, including elaborate pearl merchants mansions. Among them are a dozen or so charming small museums, galleries and concert halls overseen by the Sheikh Ebrahim Centre for Culture, which celebrate the islands contemporary arts and traditional culture.

Seepearldiving.bhfor information on pearl-diving trips

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Exploring the ancient wonders of Bahrain - The Week UK

Lord, teach us to pray

This week the Gospel of Luke teaches us about prayer, echoing the Our Father as we learn it in Matthews Gospel. Here I offer a mediation on the third petition of Lukes prayer, Give us each day our daily bread, with help from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Catechism tells us that prayer is our relationship with God (No. 2558). Prayer is the recognition of Gods presence and our response, a living conversation that gives shape to our daily life. Thus, the Our Father is not meant simply for recitation, but for living. Our praying of the Our Father is not merely a matter of rote recitation, but to also bring it life to live it. How do we live the petition in which we seek our daily bread?

When meditating on this fourth petition of the Our Father, the Catechism begins with a broad understanding of our bread: The Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual (No. 2830). Here, our bread refers to all forms of sustenance necessary to a good and holy life a life lived in conversation with God.

But the Catechism then ends with a focused meditation on the Eucharistic Liturgy as our bread. In the Mass, we received Bread from the table of Gods word, both in Scripture and the Eucharist (cf. Dei Verbum, No. 21). Accordingly, the Catechism can tell us: This petition applies to another hunger from which [we] are perishing: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. There is a famine on earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist (No. 2835).

Thus, and even more particularly, the Catechism tells us that our bread refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the medicine of immortality, without which we have no life within us (No. 2837). Echoing St. Augustine, we hear the Church telling us: The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive (No. 2837).

Friends, notice two things: as our bread the Eucharist is a bond of union, and, as our bread the Eucharist helps us become what we receive. Wow! Does this not mean that if we are in union with the Father, with our Father this our meaning that we are his and he is ours (cf. No. 2829) that we can become what we receive? In other words, doesnt this mean that, when we become united to God in love through his sacrifice of love in the Eucharist, that we can become the bread of love for others?

And Christ himself gives us the example. The Catechism also describes the Our Father as the summary of the whole Gospel (No. 2761). Before becoming the bread of the written Word in Scripture, the Gospel was and is simply Christ himself, the revelation of Gods love lived out for us in a human life. Christ, thus, lived the Our Father, conversing with the Father and carrying his will of love out even unto death. Living the Our Father, Christ became our Eucharistic bread of love. Lets pray that we truly might become what we receive!

Catherine Cavadini, Ph.D., is the assistant chair of the Department of Theology and director of the M.A. in theology degree program at the University of Notre Dame.

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Opening the Word: Our daily bread - Our Sunday Visitor

Capital Pictures Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri, with (back, from left) , Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore and Steven Van Zandt, fellow Sopranos cast members - Capital Pictures

Tony Sirico, the actor, who has died aged 79, achieved screen immortality as Paulie Walnuts Gaultieri, veteran associate of the New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, in HBOs landmark television series The Sopranos (1999-2007).

Amid an unmatched rogues gallery, this was a peach of a part, which Sirico filled to tetchy perfection. A preening peacock with a vicious wit combined with an endless supply of malapropisms, Paulie brushes up well enough to be companionable; but he is also superstitious, vain with his elaborately dyed hair and salon-buffed nails and thin-skinned. As the New Yorker critic Nancy Franklin observed, Paulies angry comic flair is only one notch on the dial away from his murderousness.

That sense of explosive threat was central to the episode Pine Barrens, widely regarded as one of finest hours in the history of television, in which Paulie and Tonys similarly irascible nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli) lose their way while trying to dispatch a Russian gangster in snowbound woodland. Peaking with a scene in which Paulie loses one of his slip-ons, it was the show in a nutshell: gripping, stressful and wildly, blackly funny.

The role of Paulie drew on Siricos own waywardness. He was arrested 28 times in his early life, the first time aged seven for swiping loose change from a newsstand. After military service, he left the mother of his two children for a new girlfriend and gave up a construction job to become a hired gun for the Colombo crime family: I was very unstable. I wasnt thinking right. So I hooked up with these guys and all of a sudden Im a stick-up artist. I stuck up every nightclub in New York.

He was convicted twice, once for weapons possession, the second time for extortion and coercion. A psychiatric report assessed Sirico as having a character disorder; the judge deemed him a danger to society. He was sentenced to four years in Sing Sing, eventually serving 20 months. It proved a pivotal experience.

After six months without his girlfriend visiting, Sirico realised his relationship was over. Despairing, he attended a performance by Theater of the Forgotten, a touring troupe comprised of ex-convicts. Coupled with his ability to win over fellow inmates (I used to stand up in front of cold-blooded murderers and make em laugh), it persuaded Sirico to consider a new, legitimate career path.

Upon release, he gained a mentor in the playwright-turned-actor Michael V Gazzo; during one early workshop, Gazzo advised his pistol-packing charge to leave the gun at home. Thus disarmed, Sirico landed extra work in two of Gazzos projects: the B-picture Crazy Joe (1974) and then, more propitiously, The Godfather Part II (1974), for which Gazzo would be Oscar-nominated.

Twenty-five years later, David Chase, a Godfather buff, approached Sirico to read for the part of Tonys Uncle Junior in his Sopranos pilot: An hour after I got home, I got a call from Chase. He said, You want the good news or the bad news? I said, Give me the bad news. He said, You didnt get Uncle Junior. But would you be willing to do a recurring role? I have a character called Paulie Walnuts. Sirico agreed on one condition: that Paulie would never be a rat.

Handed a single line in the pilot, he proceeded over six seasons to shape a character who was both representative of an entire criminal milieu and indelibly singular. When I look in the mirror in the morning, I dont know if Im looking at Tony or Paulie, Sirico reflected. We got cross-pollinated.

He was born Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr on July 29 1942, the third of three sons of Gennaro and Marie Sirico, Sicilian migrants who had settled in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of East Flatbush (his older brother is Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest who formed the libertarian Acton Institute).

Video: Sopranos star Tony Sirico dies (TODAY)

Sopranos star Tony Sirico dies

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The movies were an early influence: I learned how to walk and talk watching [James] Cagney. Its that, its the power, its the glamour. His own roles, inevitably, featured a high proportion of made men: his first onscreen credit came as the Al Capone associate Frankie Rio in Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell (1977).

He fell in with the writer-director James Toback, meeting a bloody end at Harvey Keitels hands in Fingers (1978), before featuring in Tobacks Love & Money (1981), Exposed (1983), The Pick-Up Artist (1987) and the documentary The Big Bang (1989), in which Sirico denied killing anybody during his criminal years.

He could, however, be witnessed pushing a postman into a pizza oven in Scorseses GoodFellas (1990), and he bulked out seven roles for Woody Allen, starting with Bullets Over Broadway (1994). He was a boxing trainer in Mighty Aphrodite (1995), an escaped convict in Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and later appeared in Deconstructing Harry (1997), Celebrity (1998), Caf Society (2015) and Wagon Wheel (2017).

The Sopranos gave him renewed clout, two Screen Actors Guild ensemble wins, and the opportunity to mock his screen persona. He played a mobster in A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008); reunited with his Sopranos co-star Steven Van Zandt for the Scandi comedy-drama Lilyhammer (2013-14); and voiced the Griffins new attack dog Vinny on Family Guy (2013-16).

Dementia slowed him, but his final credits, on two long-shelved projects, demonstrated his range: a hardnosed pawnbroker in Respect the Jux (2022) and a high-school coach alongside Christopher Lloyd in the comic fantasy Super Athlete (set for release this year).

Offscreen, he practiced karate and did charity work; he also launched his own Sopranos-inspired cologne, Paolo Per Uomo, in 2008. As he told one interviewer: Im proud of what I do. I remember when I got that first part [in Godfather II], and Coppola told me I was a real character, with a line of dialogue and everything. Oh, let me tell you, I was strutting. I was thinking, I got a name. I got a name!

He is survived by a daughter and a son.

Tony Sirico, born July 29 1942, died July 8 2022

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Tony Sirico, actor much-loved by audiences for playing Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos obituary - msnNOW

Call of the Night has officially made its anime adaptation debut as part of the Summer 2022 anime schedule, and one awesome cosplay has already brought fans' new favorite vampire, Nazuna Nanakusa, to life! The Summer 2022 anime schedule has been particularly stacked with a number of major returns from anime franchises fans have wanted to see new episodes from for quite a while, but there have been just as many new projects that have made their debut as well. One of the leading manga turned anime projects was Kotoyama's original manga series Call of the Night, and its first two episodes have really struck a chord with viewers.

The first couple of episodes for Call of the Night have now premiered, and with them introduced fans to the vampire at the center of the series, Nazuna. This vampire introduced herself to the main character, Ko Yamori, and instantly provided him with the idea of a much better and more interesting life being possible. Now wanting to become a vampire himself, Ko somehow needs to fall in love with this mysterious vampire in order to properly become one. We'll see whether or not this works out, but cosplay from artist @seracoss on Instagram has definitely gotten fans feeling the love with their take on Nazuna Nanakusa! Check it out below:

If you wanted to check outCall of the Nightas it airs new episodes for the Summer to see what all the fuss is about, you can now find it exclusively streaming with HIDIVE. They tease the series as such, "Wracked by insomnia and wanderlust, Ko Yamori is driven onto the moonlit streets every night in an aimless search for something he can't seem to name. His nightly ritual is marked by purposeless introspection until he meets Nazuna, who might just be a vampire! Ko's new companion could offer him dark gifts and a vampire's immortality.But there are conditions that must be met before Ko can sink his teeth into vampirism, and he'll have to discover just how far he's willing to go to satisfy his desires before he can heed theCall of the Night!"

How are you liking Call of the Night's anime debut so far? What has been your favorite anime of the Summer season a few weeks in? Let us know your thoughts all about it and everything anime in the comments!

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Call of the Night Cosplay Highlights New Summer Vampire Favorite - ComicBook.com

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Today ses the publiucation of AXE Eve Of Judgement #1, Hellfire Gala #1 and Immortal X-Men #4. They all lead into the Judgment Day crossover, with Avengers pitted against X-Men ans Eternals now that the secret of mutant resurrection is out. And everyone is salty about it. But there are plenty of questions being raised.

So while Druig looks to wipe out all of mutanity on Earth, due to their excess deviation, for being immortal like the Eternals

Moira Mactaggert si plotting with Orchis to destroy Krakoa themselves, and even coming up with a catchy name.

While Druig justifies his actions in wiping out the mutants of Krakoa with a big bomb

We have Dr Stasis of Orchis suggesting that the murder of mutants may no longer be a crime, as they can be resurrected.

While Druig also plans for the eventual fallout for his bomb.

While Orchis is setting up its own device.

So at the Hellfire Gala, Tony Stark is predicting that something like this is going to happen. Maybe he read the leaked copies from the weekend.

While the world has its own reaction to the appearance of immortality amongst the mutants courtesy of The Five

and it is precisely the most predictable one.

People want in one way or another.

With very nasty consequences.

So how will this lead into Judgment Day? Well some, like Mister Sinister, already know its coming through their Moira Mactaggert timeline resetting clones.

It's a future that Destiny has also seen coming, and so manipulated Sinister to keep this timeline going.

After all, in today's Marauders, we know what too much time changing can do to the soul.

Especially when written down in monologue.

Howver, bombs don't go off, not lietral ones. Moira Mactaggert plants one ion Proteus, her son's mind, before making her departure with Mary Jane Watson's body.

And on returning, seems to have made quite a mess in next month's Amazing Spider-Man #9.

And is ready to reach across the aisle and spill the beans to her new best friends including the Eternals crime lord Jack of Knives.

Jack Of Knives is a recent Eternal on the scene, created by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribi for Eternals #7, with the power of invisibility. Jack of Knives is one of the Tricks, the four Eternal crime lords, the only one we have seen yet. Could this be Ivani Goldentouch accompanying them? After some of the Eternals learned that their ressurective process was taking human lives, Jack of Knives warned Ikaris not to reveal that to humans, promising to kill any should Ikaris do so. Looks like the Eternals have their own resurrection truth to hide. Might the X-Men threaten them with that revelation as well?

Secrets and Lies, Secrets and Lies who else will be judged on Judgment Day?

AXE EVE OF JUDGMENT #1MARVEL COMICSAPR220733(W) Kieron Gillen (A) Pasqual Ferry (CA) Carlos PachecoFIRST SHOT FIRED JUDGMENT IS COMING!The Eternals know that the mutants have conquered death. But what are they going to do about it? The oldest immortals on Earth eye up the newest, and the doomsday clock starts to tick toward Judgment Day.RATED T+In Shops: Jul 13, 2022SRP: $3.99

X-MEN HELLFIRE GALA #1MARVEL COMICSAPR220769(W) Gerry Duggan (A) Matteo Lolli, C.F. Villa, Various (CA) Russell DautermanNEW TEAM REVEALED!At last year's gala, mutants changed the face of the solar system, terraforming Mars and claiming it for mutantkind. Do you think you can afford to miss this year's gala, all contained in this one over-sized issue!?RATED T+In Shops: Jul 13, 2022

IMMORTAL X-MEN #4MARVEL COMICSAPR220906(W) Kieron Gillen (A) Michele Bandini (CA) Mark BrooksA GALA PERFORMANCE!Emma Frost will do anything to protect the children, including the metaphorical child that is the Hellfire Gala. Last year's was a fantastic success. She would not like it if someone ruined the second. She would not like it at all. But don't worry, I'm sure it'll go fine.RATED T+In Shops: Jul 13, 2022SRP: $3.99

MARAUDERS #4MARVEL COMICSAPR220922(W) Steve Orlando (A) Eleonora Carlini (CA) Kael NguTHE FIRST GENERATION OF MUTANTKIND?The Marauders have gotten some jailbreak mixed into their heist! Pryde and her crew might've convinced Xandra to confront the Shi'ar's crimes against mutantkind together, but the fanatical Kin Crimson are ready to defend those secrets to the death. What hidden truths and horrors does the Shi'ar Chronicle hold? Deep in a pandimensional prison lies the answer but will it unite two societies in progress, or destroy them both?RATED T+In Shops: Jul 13, 2022SRP: $3.99

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Blowing Up Krakoa & Other Ways To Deal With Immortality (X-Spoilers) - Bleeding Cool News

Aiming to be the Nike of the gaming world!

A Sony executive has made it clear that, with the companys new InZone line of gaming gear for eSports players, it wants to be what Nike is to professional athletes. Nike is the gold standard for sports stars, so wanting to achieve that level in another industry is no easy feat, thats for sure.

Sony announced its new line of gaming gear last month, and the collection includes a variety of goodies such as several monitors and headsets that can be used for both consoles and PC. Sony has started to move fast as well, with the company already partnering with Riot Games to use InZone gear at the famed Valorant Champions Tour. Not only that but the Japanese industry giants gear will also be used at the Evo fighting game tournament too.

The Sony executive with the big aspirations is deputy President Kazuo Kii. Kii claims that Sonys background with televisions and a large range of gadgets will give them the advantage in the race to the immortal land. Kii explained:

There is no dominant leader yet among established producers. The situation is like a landscape of warring states. This presents an opportunity for Sony. Many existing producers trace their origins to PC manufacturing. Because monitors are designed to display data, there are problems to overcome with vibrancy and contrast.

Remember when we mentioned that the products will be compatible with consoles? Well, that might be true, but the fact is that InZone products are hoping to target hardcore PC gamers because thats where the higher activity is. Kii also added:

Were going to start at the top and learn what top eSports gamers want. The vision we have in mind is that of Mizuno and Nike providing shoes for athletes. You can win prize money in esports. If a monitors response time lags even slightly, you lose. Sony products arent going to let people engaged in these grueling battles down.

To become the gaming gears equivalent of Nike is one heck of an objective to try and reach, but you may as well aim high if you want to do something right, and anyway, if there is one company that can do it, its the Japanese giants.

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Sony Executive Sets Sights on Gaming Gear Immortality - Gameranx

Sunday at Croke Park, Declan Hannon has the chance to go where no team captain in hurling has gone before.

To break the mould in his code, like Stephen Cluxton in Gaelic football, and set a record in terms of being the one to lift the ultimate prize on the steps of the Hogan Stand.

Until Cluxton, only two players in the history of Gaelic football had captained a team to three All-Irelands: John Kennedy of Dublin club Young Irelands (1891, '92, '94), at a time when counties were represented by their county champions, and Wexford's Sen O'Kennedy (1915-17).

In addition to reimagining the role of goalkeeper, the Parnells man went on to captain Dublin to seven All-Irelands.

Now Hannon is on the verge of going out on his own. Only three other players have captained their team to three All-Irelands: Mikey Maher of Tubberadora and Tipperary (1895, '96, '98), and Dick 'Drug' Walsh of Tullaroan and Kilkenny - again at a time when clubs were flying the flag for their county - plus Cork's legendary Christy Ring (1946, '53, '54).

A Limerick victory over Kilkenny on Sunday and Hannon becomes the first player in the history of hurling to captain his county to a three in a row and a fourth title in total.

And, like Cluxton, there is a sense of him reimagining the traditional role of a centre-back.

If Pep Guardiola helped popularise the concept of a false nine in soccer, Paul Kinnerk is another high-concept coach whose fingerprints are all over Limerick's tactical set-up.

Their system of play is built around Hannon's creation as a kind of hurling version of soccer's false nine - a false six who drops off and doesn't play to convention, but who can link the play and pull the strings to such effect. That he wears No 6 seems fitting; invert the 9 and you get the Limerick defensive version.

No more than in soccer, the role requires exceptional awareness and ability to scan the field and read the play.

Watch Hannon in motion and he's the perpetual heads-up hurler. Such a tricky role requires that ability to anticipate where the ball is going to be struck and be there to win it or hoover up the break. He is like a chess grandmaster thinking a couple of moves ahead.

With Limerick, there is a sense of protecting him, like the queen. Where other players are almost pawns in the construction of a winning game, Will O'Donoghue's capacity to sacrifice his ego for the team is a key element of the defensive shield, to cover the hard yards all around the middle third, but with one eye all the time on the central channel. Allowing Hannon to go do his thing.

The captain's ball-striking and stick-passing in particular - short or long - are so often the oil that keeps the Limerick engine humming. He is at the heart of those neat triangles the champions love to engineer in defence before finding that angled ball in to Aaron Gillane or Samus Flanagan.

Puck the ball down on top of him and he can do that all day, too. No more than Diarmaid Byrnes and Dan Morrissey, or

Kyle Hayes when he wears No 7 - their combined aerial ability is such that teams have basically stopped raffling the ball by pucking it down on top of them, particularly from restarts.

When Clare went long against them in their two-legged Munster battle, the ball went short first and then over the half-back line to the lighthouse figure of Peter Duggan.

If Limerick want to continually free up Hannon to glide around and play puppetmaster, then the opposition know it's vital to try and cut the strings. Teams have cottoned onto this, to Hannon's importance and found some joy in attacking Limerick at source.

It's so easy to get burned in that role. Look at Noel McGrath dropping off a more dedicated sweeper like Tadhg de Brca in the first half alone of Tipperary's first round Munster championship game against Waterford.

Players like that have an innate sense of where to find the pocket of space to do damage. Especially now that the modern scoring range for point-taking is anywhere inside 90 metres.

Jason Forde is arguably the one who did most damage in the first half of the 2021 Munster final when Tipperary stormed into a 10-point lead - named at 11 but dropping off and making hay in the spaces between there and midfield, he pilfered 10 points, the majority from play.

The second half, though, showcased Limerick's ability to reorganise and think on the hoof. To tighten things up defensively and blow Tipperary away in the most devastating half of hurling seen in John Kiely's six seasons as manager - outside of last year's All-Ireland final first half against Cork.

Hannon is not an explicit man-marker. You rarely see him shadowing a direct opponent to the wings or deep, comfortable in the knowledge that someone else can sit and play his role. Because nobody does.

But can Limerick afford to do the same against TJ Reid, one of the best in the modern game at not just winning primary possession but also drifting into pockets of space or reading the breaks to do major damage?

Cork's thinking in last year's final was to get at him, get him turned. Try and burn him with one of their Olympic-standard sprinters. But it didn't pan out that way at all. Hannon's capacity to produce big days, and big plays, when it mattered most, was at the heart of his All-Star selection. Same as it was in 2018.

He won plenty of plaudits for his speech from the steps of the Hogan Stand after the winter final of December 2020, name-checking the healthcare workers and frontline staff who bore the brunt during the pandemic.

A natural speaker and affable company, he has grown into that leadership role. He is comfortable enough in his own skin to be able to welcome RSVP magazine into his home. Along with partner and radio and TV presenter Louise Cantillon, they offered a glimpse behind the scenes last October into their O'Connell Avenue address in Limerick city.

Last week, he could be spotted happily hanging out with Tiger Woods at the JP McManus Pro-Am. But sure why wouldn't he, being in his native Adare, where he says he hopes to build a house?

Thirty years old this November coming, he has already surpassed the feat of another icon in his county's own Mick Mackey, who captained Limerick twice to All-Ireland success all the way back in 1936 and 1940.

The stage is set on Sunday for another tilt at history for Hannon and a type of number six who is very much in keeping with the evolution of the modern game.

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Limerick's Declan Hannon has reinvented No 6 and is on brink of immortality - Extra.ie

Bryan Deck stared down the lane at the 10 pins in front of him, unable and unwilling to see anything else. His peripheral vision was black, as if the lights were out at the Rose City Bowl in New Castle with a spotlight illuminating only what mattered.

He couldnt hear anything either. Not his teammates playful heckling to try to keep him loose. Not the buzz of the growing crowd behind him, a group that had the chance to see something remarkable on an otherwise mundane summer weeknight at an amateur adult league.

Deck did feel, though. He felt his heart pounding inside his body. He felt his body shake as he reclaimed his ball from the return. He felt as if he was going to faint. Or have a heart attack. Or both.

In a standard league, each player rolls three games, and Deck was a strike away from perfection in all three: 36 straight strikes for a total score of 900. The United States Bowling Congress has recorded only 39 other instances of a perfect evening. But Decks shot at bowling immortality was the culmination of far more than a single immaculate night.

He wiped off his ball with a yellow cloth, same as he always does, and moved quickly into position, afraid hed collapse if he took more time. He took a breath, four short, quick steps forward and sent his dark blue ball spinning toward the pins for the final strike.

Hours earlier, Deck sat in front of a sturdy black tombstone, reading the words carved into granite that memorialized his father.

J.C. Bud Deck

June 2, 1948

Feb. 9, 2006

Deck, 44, often comes to the cemetery when hes feeling down. On this particular day, June 20, it was his health that brought him out after work at TS Tech, where he manufactures seats for Hondas. In September, he had a half knee replacement. More recently, his left side has been bothering him badly enough that hes been in and out of the hospital over the past few months. Doctors havent been able to nail down exactly what the problem is, and Deck left an appointment that afternoon frustrated and unsure of what to do.

Bud introduced Bryan and his brothers, Brad and Scott, to bowling. When they were kids in New Castle he brought them to the now-defunct New Castle Lanes to watch him in his league. The boys started playing when they got old enough and eventually the four formed their own team as adults. Buds sons, particularly Bryan and Brad, eventually passed him in terms of skill, but Bud always seemed to have a knack for picking up a strike or spare in crucial moments.

The elder statesman of the Deck family enjoyed being at the alley and especially loved the connection it gave him with his kids, but the games themselves were a time for competition.

There wasnt no smiling, Scott said. It was serious. And then when we won he was all ear-to-ear smiles. Thats the good memories I miss, Dad just laughing that we smoked them.

When it wasnt his turn, Bud maintained a constant chatter of encouragement for whoever was up. When it was his turn, he bowled the same way every time: hard and straight. He didnt put any spin on the ball, never tried finesse: just frozen ropes with the intention of turning the head pin into a pile of dust.

His competitiveness made its way to the next generation. Sometimes during league games the brothers would make bets with each other if the game itself wasnt enough, each putting down five dollars against each other.

They stopped bowling when their dad died. Brad and Bryan quit for two to three years, Scott for closer to five. It didnt feel right without Bud.

That was more than a decade ago, but Bryan didnt want to bowl as he sat by the grave marker that day. He was tiredphysically and mentally. His work day starts at 4:30 a.m. His health situation was growing more complicated. Maybe he should just take a night to relax.

If he was going to play, he needed to be at the Rose Bowl by 6:15. The late afternoon gave way to evening, and about 6 p.m. Deck heard his fathers voice in his head.

Son, just go bowl. Just go do your thing. Just go bowl.

Bryan walked back to his truck and drove toward the Rose Bowl. He arrived and rolled a perfect game, which he had done before. Then he rolled another.

People think Im crazy, he said. Im not a big Im just gonna be honest with you. I know if you say your dads always with you or somebody passed away, I get it, and I do believe in it, but Im telling everybody that was the craziest thing Ive ever felt in my life.

Scotts phone buzzed sporadically with texts from his younger brother as he sat on his porch. First it was a picture of the scoreboard showing 300 in the first game. Then an update that Bryan had rolled nine more strikes. When he got another message that Brian had picked up four more, that was enough. Scott had to be there.

He drove to the Rose City Bowl and entered as discreetly as possible during the sixth frame, worried his presence would cause Bryan to overthink. Bryan noticed his brother, but it didnt matter. He was too locked in.

Bryan had seen that nights success as something of an oddity up to that point, being more surprised and almost bewildered by his double-digit consecutive strikes than anything. But his heart began to quicken as a perfect 900 came into focus. He tried to drink water between frames but could barely hold the cup because of how much his hand was shaking.

As he approached the lane entering the final frames, he began speaking under his breath.

Come on, Dad. Pull me through here.

"I was just the dummy, and he just took over, Bryan said.

His first strike in the tenth frame broke his personal three-game record of 813. The next vaulted him to 870, the Rose City Bowl Record. Then he had one ball left. Scott looked on from the back, so did Brad, joining via FaceTime, as Bryan stepped up to the foul line one last time.

Come on, Dad. One more ball. Please, one more ball.

Bryan flicked his wrist counter-clockwise as he released the ball the way he spins the ball is one of the few bowling traits he didnt inherit from Bud and it twirled from right to left across the lane, striking the right side of the front pin and exploding through the other nine. He had done it.

I dont even remember me throwing that ball. It was a blur, Bryan said. I dont even remember walking off down the lane. I dont remember nothing until I got back up on the carpet where everybody was attacking me.

He drifted toward the spectators in the behind the lanes, walking slowly with his head back and eyes pointed up. He gave Scott a hug, then acknowledged Brad on the phone. That night he sat in his house and re-watched the video of his last three rolls, basking in the aftermath of the bowling highlight of his life and reflecting on the day.

Bryan had joked to Scott that hed retire if he ever posted a 900. He has not done that in the ensuing weeks, but he hasnt used the ball since that night. Its on a shelf now, preserved in a case.

Its a reminder of a perfect evening that arose from imperfect conditions, of a night he never thought would happen. Its a reminder of an accomplishment made possible by his father.

I just wish he was here to actually see it in person, Bryan said. Id rather he be here with me. Everybody said he was with me, which he was. Apparently he was because I felt it, and theres days Ive bowled that I need him and I leave a pin, but something about that day, I will never feel the same. It was unbelievable.

Read more here:

Bryan Deck is 40th person to bowl three perfect games - IndyStar

We are entering a future where we can eradicate disease. Its time to embrace it.

The most exciting thing about the future of humanity is our path to immortality as we will begin to eradicate deadly illnesses through the advancements of gene editing.

When liberals like myself, and other left-of-center ideologues hear the words gene editing, we tend to dismiss the idea as eugenics.

This should not be the case because if society can ensure that all humans have access to gene-editing technologies, we will be able to improve the lives of billions.

In the 1980s, scientists were shocked when they discovered that some bacteria, such as E.Coli, were resistant to viruses.

This is because these bacteria would incorporate some of the virus, splicing its genetic sequence and adding the viruss DNA into their own. Thus, when a bacterium would re-encounter a virus, the virus would not be able to infect it.

This type of sequencing became known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), which is carried out by cas enzymes. In 2012, it was determined that at least theoretically, when CRISPR is paired with cas enzyme 9 (cas9), scientists can use it to change and edit the human genome.

The theory was seemingly confirmed to the widespread public in 2019 when a Chinese doctor, using CRISPR, edited the genome of a human embryo to make it HIV resistant. It is important to note that the experiment has been incredibly controversial and the technology is still rudimentary.

Despite this, it is becoming incredibly clear that in the near future, humans could have the ability to genetically modify themselves to become resilient against diseases such as AIDS, COVID-19, and Alzheimers.

This is where the supposed ethical dilemmas of gene editing come in. Many disability rights advocates claim that using CRISPR to eradicate ailments such as cystic fibrosis or multiple sclerosis is a position that advocates for eugenics.

I find that when one makes an objection like this, they are both advocating for making the world a worse place.

First, to address the spectacularly cretinous comparison of CRISPR to eugenics, one has to understand why eugenics is a horrid crime in the first place.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of eugenics as state policy. Many individuals with disabilities were marginalized, brutalized, and sterilized by the state. No matter how severe ones disability, those individuals had a sense of self or personal identity.

To borrow the view of Scottish philosopher, David Hume, one gains a sense of personal identity when they are able to experience and feel the perceptions of the world around them. These perceptions go on to shape the values, beliefs, and emotions we conjure up in our minds.

People with disabilities clearly are able to obtain this sense of self, thus implementing policies to harm them are clearly eugenicist. A human embryo, on the other hand, is not a person because it is not able to experience the world in which people occupy. Thus, if we were to edit the genome of an embryo, we would not be operating on a person.

Second, most ethical theories strive to better the quality of life for all persons, so long as we do not harm others. Empirical data shows that those with disabilities tend to lead to lower qualities of life compared to able-bodied individuals. CRISPR would instantly better the lives of people with disabilities by editing out the disability and making it so that they are able to live a longer, healthier life.

The technology to make gene editing possible is rapidly approaching and could instantly improve the quality of life for billions of future humans. It is for that reason that humanity should embrace the possible CRISPR revolution.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.

Continued here:

Opinion | CRISPR and gene editing is the future - UI The Daily Iowan

"I will paddle the rivers of Turtle Island, be born into a rich family, die at 19 a pharaoh in Egypt. I will be beheaded. I will be a girl. I will be shamed. I will live through a pandemic. Or die in one."

"Immortal" was directed by Scouts Honour's Mark Zibert. The script was written by Denise Rossetto and Carlos Moreno, Broken Heart's co-founders and chief creative officers. The whole ad takes place in the womb of Earth, and is told from the perspective of an unborn child who contains the story of everyone who ever lived. Zibert and his team used lens, lighting and atmospheric effects to lend the impression that the piece was shot entirely underwater.

So many moments this meditation pricked our eyes. The juxtapositions of time and position are not only narrative; they appear, visceral and slow-moving, in water. A modern protestor leaps over a Roman soldier, both too preoccupied by the dance of their own timeline to see one another. The Berlin Wall resurrects to be crushed again, moments before a Black ballerina appears, staring out at nothing in particular. Great triumphs sit aside great follies: Write the Song of Solomon, then be the one who burns it.

"We always knew we wanted people not just to see objects," says Rossetto. "If you've been to the ROM, you've seen objects. We needed people to see that these aren't objects, they are portals to humanity."

The goal of "Immortal" is to cultivate that perspective of objects. "Every object in ROM is a portal to stories with the relevance that can speak to something we are facing today; igniting important cultural conversations. 'Immortal,' as a platform, speaks to the legacy of these objects and the immortality of these stories," says Lori Davison, the museum's chief marketing and communications officer.

The work concludes, "I will give birth and I will die. But I will live on in what I leave behind."

"I put on my late father's watch the day of the shoot," Rosetto says. "And I thought, 'He's living on with me today in the watch he left behind.' I felt this emotional feeling that I'm wearing what my dad left behind for me. I kind of like looking at objects everywhere as the people behind them and the love they put into these things."

The campaign will run through the summer in cinemas, outdoors and on digital. The Royal Ontario Museum will keep the full version on its YouTube.

Client: ROMChief Marketing Officer: Lori DavisonVP, Brand and Marketing: Kathryn BrownlieVP, Communications: Sally Tindal

Agency: Broken Heart Love AffairChief Creative Officers: Denise Rossetto, Carlos Moreno, Todd MackieStrategy: Jay ChaneyAgency Team: Bev Hammond, Joline Matika, Carlos Game-Garcia, Olivia CousineauAgency Producer: Erica Metcalfe

Culture Consultant: Shaunoh Wilson

Media Agency: OMDChief Talent and Enablement Officer: Christine Wilson

Production Company: Scouts HonourExecutive Producers: Simon Dragland, Rita PopielakDirector: Mark ZibertDirectors Of Photography: Mark Zibert, Eric KaskensProducers: Simon Dragland, Rita PopielakCreative Research: Tricia ZarembaProduction Service Company: Moonlighting FilmsExecutive Producer: Shayne BrooksteinLine Producer: Suzanne CurrieProduction Designer: Naobie NoisetteCostume Designer: Ruy Filipe

Prosthetics: CosmesisLead Artist: Clinton Aiden Smith

Casting: Kamikaze CastingCasting Director: Lea-Anne HendrickseIndigenous Casting: Shasta Lutz

Editorial: Nimiopere EditorialExecutive Producer: Julie AxellEditor: Graham ChisholmAssistant Editor: Griffin Stobbs

CG & VFX: Motif StudiosVFX Artist: Craig ParkerExecutive Producer: Jacques Bock

Colour: Alter EgoColourist & VFX: Wade OdlumExecutive Producer: Hilda PereiraSenior Producer: Genna Mcauliffe

Additional VFX: Tantrum StudioVFX Artist: Dominik Bochenski

Audio House: Rajakovic ElectricMusic Composer / Audio Director: Mark RajakovicExecutive Producer: Nicole RajakovicMix & Sound Design: Aaron MccourtVoice Over: Alana Bridgewater

Graphic Design: Leo Burnett DesignChief Creative Officer: Lisa GreenbergHead Of Design: Man Wai WongAccount Lead: Kim Le

Read more:

Royal Ontario Museum Captures the Human Story in a Gripping 6 Minutes - Muse by Clio