Category Archives: Immortality

Feb. 18, 2017

By Leigh Torbin

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Notre Dame's Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Women's Basketball Coach Muffet McGraw has taken the penultimate step towards the sport's ultimate lifetime honor as she is included on the list of 14 finalists for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2017, announced on Saturday.

Also a finalist for enshrinement in 2016, McGraw will learn if is she is one of the latest enshrines on April 3 at the men's basketball Final Four in Glendale, Arizona. Joining McGraw as women's committee finalists are Rebecca Lobo, Kim Mulkey and the pioneering teams from Wayland Baptist University as a collective unit.

McGraw, who guided the Irish to the 2001 national championship and seven Final Four appearances, is the winningest single-sport coach in Irish lore with 756 wins. Over her 30-year coaching career, McGraw is 844-267 (.760), making her the sixth-winningest active coach nationally and the 10th-winningest all-time at the Division I level. She is the sixth-winningest female coach in women's basketball history and one of just four women to ever win 750 games at a single school.

She is the 2017 recipient of the Wooden Awards' Legends of Coaching Award, becoming just the third female to receive this honor, joining Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer. She is the fourth women's coach to be recognized with this honor, joining Summitt, VanDerveer and UConn's Geno Auriemma.

Among her countless other career highlights:

* She is one of five coaches (men's or women's) in Division I history with 800 wins, seven Final Fours and five NCAA title game appearances, joining the elite company of Summitt, Auriemma, Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski and the late North Carolina men's coach Dean Smith, all of whom are enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

* McGraw is the only coach to be named the consensus national coach of the year three times, sweeping the Associated Press, Women's Basketball Coaches Association, Naismith Award and United States Basketball Writers Association honors in 2001, 2013 and 2014.

* Only four coaches have ever competed in the national championship game five times and McGraw is joined in this lofty regard by Hall of Famers Summitt, Auriemma and Louisiana Tech's Leon Barmore. The Irish reached the sport's final game in 2001, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

* Her decades of consistent winning includes guiding the Irish to 14 Sweet 16 appearances in the past 20 years, making Notre Dame one of just five teams nationally to do so.

* McGraw's 29 20-win seasons ties Georgia's Andy Landers, for seventh in Division I history.

* Over the past six seasons, only UConn (209) has won more games than Notre Dame's even 200.

* Under McGraw, Notre Dame has made 23 NCAA Championship appearances, including a current string of 21 consecutive NCAA tournament berths, marking the fifth-longest active run of consecutive appearances and seventh-longest streak at any time in NCAA tournament history. During this current streak (1996-2016), Notre Dame has won at least one NCAA postseason game 19 times.

* Notre Dame's current stretch of 25 consecutive winning seasons, all under McGraw, is the ninth-longest in NCAA history.

* McGraw has led the Irish to eight regular season or tournament conference championships. Notre Dame is presently three-time defending champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

* Her lasting legacy of mentoring successful people along with merely successful players is reflected in having perfect NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) score in seven of the past nine years (2007-16). In that time, Notre Dame is one of four programs in the country to record a perfect GSR score and go on to play for the national title later that same season (something the Fighting Irish have now done four times, most recently in 2015).

McGraw's current Irish team is ranked No. 7 in the nation and stands at 24-3, marking the 11th year in a row and the 23rd time in the past 24 seasons that Notre Dame has won at least 20 games. Notre Dame leads the ACC with a 12-1 conference record as it aims for its fourth straight ACC regular season crown and sixth consecutive outright regular season conference title overall, including the final two years in the BIG EAST. The Irish return to the court at 5 p.m. on Sunday when they face No. 21 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome live on ESPN2.

-ND-

Leigh Torbin, athletics communications associate director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2013 and coordinates all media efforts for Notre Dame's women's basketball and men's golf teams. A native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Torbin graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in sports management. He has previously worked full-time on the athletic communications staffs at Vanderbilt, Florida, Connecticut and UCF.

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McGraw One Step From Hoop Immortality :: Notre Dame Women's ... - Notre Dame Official Athletic Site

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Sean "The Storm" Grant, 43, introduces himself as The Best Pinball Player of All Time Who's Never Owned a Machine in His Life.

"There are four truly great players in the world," Grant said. "Two of them are American, one of them is from Italy and one of them is from Sweden."

Grant hopes to count himself among those greats some day, perhaps as soon as next month when he represents New York in the National Pinball Championship in Dallas, Texas, after beating out the other 15 best players in this state over the weekend.

"Coming in first is a really big deal to me," Grant said.

Frederic Asher, 15, was the youngest player in Saturday's tournament.

"I have pretty good reflexes," he said.

Beth Centuria was the only woman.

"I think [my reflexes] were kind of bred into me from years of playing with my father," she said.

All three of these pinheads met us at Modern Pinball on 3rd Avenue Thursday, and thanked their fathers for teaching them to play the silver ball, Grant's at a Dairy Queen 40 years ago.

"Sky Jump," Grant said, "it was an old electromechanical game

Every pinball machine is calibrated a little differently, and every game -- with its lights a-flashin' and varying buzzers and bells -- demands different skills and strategies, leaving players with games they like and games they don't.

"Right now I'm adoring Fun House," Senturia said.

"I'm terrible at that game," Asher said.

"Nobody wants to play me in the Twilight Zone," Grant said. "That's my game."

Every tournament works a little differently but generally players are seeded and play head-to-head matches to determine who advances. In New York's state championship, every pairing played a best-of-seven series with the loser of each game choosing the machine for the next one.

"At this point, the tournaments are competitive enough that people know which games I like and which ones I don't," Grant said.

Grant's competed at nationals once before, losing 4-2 in the round of 16 to the best player in the world. On March 16, he'll try for a different result, he hopes flipping his way through machines with soft bumpers and a bracket that allows him as many matches in The Twilight Zone as possible.

"It's all about patience," he said. "Once you get to a certain level it's an entirely mental thing."

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New Yorker seeks pinball immortality - Fox5NY

Reality Of Immortality

Its never fun to write about the struggles of a team, especially one who has dealt with the rollercoaster emotions of a season like Oregon State has, but when it comes down to it, the Beavers are nearing on the edge of history for all the wrong reasons. Its undeniable. With just five games left on their regular season slate, Oregon State has just five more chances to turn their season around and avoid being the worst team in the 116-year history of the schools basketball program. The question is...can they do it?

When Oregon State welcomes Colorado to town on Thursday night, their best chance at breaking their current thirteen game losing skid will be put before them, as the rest of the road ahead for the Beavers looks pretty daunting. Wayne Tinkle and company will need to put forth a monumental effort to finally have that breakthrough theyve been waiting for. The problem for the Beavers is that with their backs against the wall, time is quickly running out.

If the showdown with the Buffs doesn't go Oregon States way, another home game against Utah will at-least give the Beavers the Corvallis-advantage in a duel against an up-and-down Utes program. Utah claimed the first showdown of the season against the Beavers back on January 28th in Salt Lake City, where they knocked off Oregon State, 86-78, despite a career-high 30-point effort from Stephen Thompson Jr..

After those two games, Oregon State will have to try their luck away from home, where theyve been an absolutely abysmal road team with no evidence of that luck changing. Stanford, will be fresh off their rivalry match-up against California, which could allow a let-down scenario for a Cardinal group thats won just four times in conference play. However, California is arguably the Pac-12s best team not named Arizona, Oregon or UCLA. Trying to sneak a win out of Berkeley will be much more difficult than clipping Stanford in Palo Alto.

Finally, the Beavers regular season concludes back in Corvallis in what will be the 348th edition of the Civil War, as Oregon State hosts Oregon on March 4th. The Ducks lambasted the Beavers in their earlier meeting this season, handing them their worst defeat all-season long. If Oregon State hasnt still won by this point, its hard to imagine their arch enemy slipping up with potential NCAA Tournament seeding on the line for the Ducks.

Unfortunately, theres a strong chance that the Beavers could realistically lose five straight games to close out the regular season and head into the Pac-12 Tournament with a 4-27 record overall (0-17 in conference), which would comfortably put their win percentage as the worst in school history (.129%).

[*If OSU loses their next five games...their record would be 4-27 overall (.129)]

The Beavers will return to action on Thursday night, when they welcome a surging Colorado team to Corvallis for a re-match of the Buffs late-January victory. The game is slated for a 6:00 PM PT tip-off and will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.

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Reality Of Immortality: Oregon State Is Five Games Away From ... - Building the Dam

Study, along the lines which the theologies have mapped, will never lead us to discovery of the fundamental facts of our existence. That goal must be attained by means of exact science and can only be achieved by such means. The fact that man, for ages, has superstitiously believed in what he calls a God does not prove at all that his theory has been right. There have been many gods all makeshifts, born of inability to fathom the deep fundamental truth. There must be something at the bottom of existence, and man, in ignorance, being unable to discover what it is through reason, because his reason has been so imperfect, undeveloped, has used, instead, imagination, and created figments, of one kind or another, which, according to the country he was born in, the suggestions of his environment, satisfied him for the time being. Not one of all the gods of all the various theologies has ever really been proved. We accept no ordinary scientific fact without the final proof; why should we, then, be satisfied in this most mighty of all matters, with a mere theory?

Destruction of false theories will not decrease the sum of human happiness in future, any more than it has in the past... The days of miracles have passed. I do not believe, of course, that there was ever any day of actual miracles. I cannot understand that there were ever any miracles at all. My guide must be my reason, and at thought of miracles my reason is rebellious. Personally, I do not believe that Christ laid claim to doing miracles, or asserted that he had miraculous power...

Our intelligence is the aggregate intelligence of the cells which make us up. There is no soul, distinct from mind, and what we speak of as the mind is just the aggregate intelligence of cells. It is fallacious to declare that we have souls apart from animal intelligence, apart from brains. It is the brain that keeps us going. There is nothing beyond that.

Life goes on endlessly, but no more in human beings than in other animals, or, for that matter, than in vegetables. Life, collectively, must be immortal, human beings, individually, cannot be, as I see it, for they are not the individuals they are mere aggregates of cells.

There is no supernatural. We are continually learning new things. There are powers within us which have not yet been developed and they will develop. We shall learn things of ourselves, which will be full of wonders, but none of them will be beyond the natural.

[Columbian Magazine interview] Thomas A. Edison

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Quotes About Immortality (489 quotes)

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Almost everyone believes in some form of future life (or immortality) because of the extreme inequalities experienced in this life. People just naturally feel that something will be done, somewhere, somehow, to even things out. However, just what immortality means in the minds and hearts of men does vary widelyextremely sowith different groups of people around the world.

The word itself means "endless life." One who is "mortal" will eventually die; one who is "immortal" will never die. Even if his body dies and returns to dust, his "soul" or "spirit" (or what might be called the "soul/spirit complex") continues to exist apart from the body. Belief in immortality in this sense is almost intuitive. It seems so obvious to most people that the soul/spirit is quite distinct from the bodyso much so that, when it finally leaves the body, it just must continue on somewhere else.

All the great philosophers of antiquitySocrates, Aristotle, Plato, etc.thought so, although the precise details of their concepts of immortality were diverse and ambiguous. The same is true of later pseudo-Christian philosophers generallySpinoza, Kant, Hegel, etc. Some of these men tended to believe in the continued existence of individual personalities, others in the merging of individual souls into a kind of "all-soul."

One very widespread belief is that of transmigration and reincarnation (also called metempsychosis), commonly identified with Hinduism and Buddhism, but also found in one form or another in a great many other sects, ancient and modern. In such religions, the soul "migrates" from the dead body to the body of a newborn creature. The latter may be animal or human, depending on the merits of the recently deceased.

There are many others who believe that the personality of the deceased persists in disembodied form, perhaps as a ghost. Such a belief is found widely in animistic cultures, but also in China and many ancient nations. Witness the many tales of haunted houses and the like, even in "Christian" countries.

There are many "spiritualistic churches" professing a diluted form of Christianity and led by "mediums" who claim to have the ability to communicate with departed family members or others. In recent years, numerous "New Age" cults have also risen, many of which involve "channelers" who receive "revelations," either from dead ancestors or from other kinds of spirits. It is significant that all such concepts of immortality assume that only the soul/spirit survives at death; the body is dead and that's the end of it.

They usually assume that some form of evolution was the origin of the whole system. This is not atheistic evolutionism (the strict atheist does not believe in any kind of after-life at all, except the notion that immortality consists merely in one's ongoing influence or in the achievements of his descendants).

But there are many religions that believe in some form of pantheistic evolutionthat is, the concept that Mother Nature (or Gaia, or some such personification of the supposedly "conscious" Cosmos) has somehow generated life as well as individual spirits. The various forces of nature which have been involved in doing this are then likewise personified as various deities to be worshipped because of what they have accomplished (the god of thunder, the goddess of fertility, the god of grain, and so on ad infinitum). This whole system has been called polytheistic pantheism. There are even gods of war and gods of death and gods of various other evils. After all, these also have supposedly contributed to evolution.

It is not surprising that these various systems of pantheistic evolutionary origins have believed in immortality, but none believe in the immortality of the bodythat is, in bodily resurrection. After all, physical death is one of Nature's ways of maintaining a balance of life and even future evolution of new life (at least in their way of thinking). There can be no comfortable role for resurrection in any kind of evolutionary system.

And now there is even a new form of immortality which fits even the premise of atheism. The most influential atheistic periodical today is probably The Humanist, published by the American Humanist Association. A recent article in this journal by a humanist essayist named Brian Trent argues that science is so wonderful that it may soon conquor death altogether.

The scientific evidence offered for this incredible prediction is that a certain scientist at the University of California at Irvine has been able to breed a few fruit flies that are still alive and vigorous at 24 years of age (their usual life-span is only several weeks).

This remarkable research has been published in a recent book2 by that scientist. He calls these flies "Methuselah flies," so he is familiar with the Biblical record of great longevity in the world before the Flood, noting that Noah's grandfather Methuselah lived 969 years.

If these scientists are right, we might soon be able to produce our own immortalitymerely by never dying! Brian Trent seems confident that "the immortals are most likely coming. . . . There may be people alive right now who could live to see endless sunrises."3

To the Christian, however, this is not a happy prospect. To live a million years in a body easily brought "into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23) seems repugnant, at best. In fact, that may well be the ultimate future for those who participate in "the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29), "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48), and where "he which is filthy [will] be filthy still" (Revelation 22:11). But as far as this present life is concerned, neither is it a possible prospect. "It is appointed unto men once to die" (Hebrews 9:27). "Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). That's what God says about it!

God does offer the prospect of true sinless immortalitynot just of the soul, but of the whole individualbody, soul, and spirit! This true immortality can only come from the Creator Himself. He is the only one who intrinsically "hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen" (I Timothy 6:16).

The Greek word translated "immortality" in this passage is athanasia, meaning literally "no death." Only the Creator has intrinsic immortality, but He created the first man and woman "in His own image," with the purpose that they also would be immortal. When they rebelled against His Word, however, they marred that image, bringing in death and becoming mortal, subject to physical death. "Unto dust shalt thou return" was God's pronouncement to Adam (Genesis 3:19).

But the Creator cannot be defeated in His purpose for creation, so He has provided a wonderful redemption for His human creation (that is, for all who will accept it as God's gift). "For . . . this mortal must put on immortality. So when . . . this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (I Corinthians 15:53-54).

In the context of this wonderful passage, it is clear that this great event will take place when our great God and Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, descends from heaven to re-fashion our mortal, dying bodies, to "be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Philippians 3:21).

To transform mortal bodies into immortal bodies will require a miracle of creation, comparable only to the miracle of the primeval cosmic creation itself. Only the Creator can do this, on the basis of having satisfied the demands of divine judgment against human sin Himself, by dying in our place and then defeating death. And He will do it for this is His immutable promise!

Now for mortals to put on immortality, bodily resurrection will be required, not just spiritual regeneration, though that also is immensely important, and is a part of the whole redemptive work of our Creator. It must be emphasized again that creation and resurrection must go together. The varieties of so-called immortality that accompany the evolutionary religions can never produce resurrection. That can only be the work of the Creator/Redeemer.

We note also that there are two creationist religions in addition to Biblical Christianity (Orthodox Islam and Orthodox Judaism) and they also believe in physical resurrection. However, their respective concepts of creation and resurrection both refuse to acknowledge the Creator as their Redeemer, the One who died for their sins, then rose triumphantly from the dead. Sadly, both Muslims and Jews still refuse to believe that Christ rose again after His redeeming sacrificial death. So their concepts of immortality are as ineffective as those of any other religion, and also as this new but futile hope of naturalistic immortality promoted in The Humanist, as noted above.

True immortality can be realized only through the substitutionary death and victorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This has all been "made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (II Timothy 1:10).

Cite this article: Henry M. Morris, Ph.D. 2004. Immortality. Acts & Facts. 33 (8).

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Immortality | The Institute for Creation Research

To quote the classic film, The Wizard of Oz, There is no place like home.. For Ichabod Crane, that statement couldnt be more right. Our resident man out of time gets to go home in tonights Sleepy Hollow. There he will not only find the last piece to the Philosophers Stone but a shocking truth. A truth that will shine a light on his epic battle with the Horseman of Death.

When Malcolm told Ichabod that General Washington had used him as a sacrifice to the Stone back in Colonial Times, it shocked me. The man that was once Ichabods friend and mentor used him as a sacrificial lamb in the field of battle. I mean, I understand why the general did what he did, because it brought about the end of the war. That and Ichabod was able to awaken in the 21st century and carry on his role as Witness.

Speaking of the Philosophers Stone, how did Jobe find Ichabod in the chamber underneath the tunnels at the Archives? Did the demon have some sort of supernatural GPS that guides him to wherever or whoever he wants to find? Also, how did Ichabod solve Bannekers Sphinx cipher that fast? Yes, he is really good at solving riddles and figuring out ciphers, but wondering minds (namely mine) want to know how he did it! Im also trying to wrap my head around the fact that the jackal-headed archer is another version of the Sphinx. I guess the Egyptians couldnt think of what to call it so they went with the same one for the half-human, half-lion creature.

Some humorous moments in this episode were the scene where Agent Thomas called Ichabod Daniel Boone at the gas station convenience store. I had expected Ichabod to launch into a full on lecture about Boone and his elaborate history, but I digress. Another funny moment was when Ichabod drank a cold, Slurpee-esque drink and got himself brain-freeze. That made me chuckle to no end. I also enjoyed the part where Agent Thomas called the Archives Ichabods Man Cave. Its technically true given that Ichabods the only one using it and most if not all of the things within it are his. The man sure loves his books. Like me (insert wide grin here).

In the end, Jenny and the rest of Team Witness 2.0 were able to rescue Ichabod. The former used a blessed lantern to trap Jobe and the others blew up the tent that Malcolm was in after getting Ichabod to safety. I had a gut feeling that the latter would not meet a grisly end after seeing him drink the liquid from the Philosophers Stone. When Malcolm got up from the ruins of the tent unharmed, I knew that he had achieved immortality. Though I think that his so-called loophole wont last for very long because the Devil has ways of getting even.

It was a tender moment towards the end of the episode where Ichabod visits Abbies grave. He told her about everything that has happened (with the exception that Molly is the next Witness). He even told her about the new Hogwarts theme park that he plans on going to. I, for one, would love to see Ichabod Crane dressed in full Ravenclaw attire. Before leaving the cemetary, Ichabod gave Abbie a Headless Horseman bobblehead (where can I get my hands on one of those?), a deep bow (still awkward) and went to a local bar to celebrate with his new friends before heading back to Washington, D.C.

Photo via FOX

Summary

Ichabod Crane goes home and finds out a shocking truth about his past in this week's episode of Sleepy Hollow.

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Sleepy Hollow: Ichabod Comes Home and Malcolm Achieves Immortality - TVOvermind

'Faulkner: Life and Works' explores legacy of first writer-in-residence at U.Va. by Dan Goff | Feb 09 2017 | 4 hours ago

As Junot Daz finishes his time as the Universitys writer-in-residence, the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library winds back the clock 60 years to highlight the first writer-in-residence at the University the prolific and enigmatic William Faulkner. Faulkner: Life and Works is an immersive exhibition detailing the authors history both on- and off-Grounds. The exhibit opened Feb. 6 and will remain open to the public until July 7.

One of the most prominent components of the exhibition is a display containing copies of a number of Faulkner's more-famous novels. First editions of each work paired with brief summaries of the fiction and, in some special cases, handwritten manuscripts of the novels first drafts fill a large case in the center of the small room.

Even for those unfamiliar with Faulkners work, there is something thrilling about seeing the first efforts of one of Americas best known-authors, painstakingly written out in dark blue print. An added layer of interest is that some of these manuscripts were written while Faulkner was the writer-in-residence at the University from 1957 until his sudden death in 1962.

Surprisingly, the only lacking element of Faulkner: Life and Works is a more in-depth exploration of the authors time at the University most of the exhibition focuses on his life before his residency. Faulkner only visited the University in the twilight of his life when nearly all of his major works had already been published. As a result, the exhibition feels more like a celebration of Faulkner as an author rather than an examination of Faulkner within the context of the University.

It is tempting to claim Faulkner as one of the Universitys own, but the schools role in his life was tangential at best. Much the same is true of Edgar Allan Poe despite the mini-museum on the Range and the (now-extinct) Eddys Tavern, Poe spent less than a year at the University and spent a good chunk of that time accruing massive gambling debts. The University has a residential community named after Faulkner, but the degree to which the man and the school really influenced each other is a question not answered by the exhibition.

The exhibition succeeds in providing an exhaustive, engaging inspection of the most recurring and important themes in Faulkners work. Perhaps the most relevant of these both when he was alive and to this day is race. Accordingly, the exhibition has an entire case dedicated to explaining Faulkners conflicted ideas about the issues of slavery, Jim Crow laws and segregation.

Race was inextricably tied to Faulkner from birth named after his great-grandfather, a Confederate soldier, Faulkner was raised on stories of the Civil War. In his novels, he adopted what was seen as a middle-of-the-road approach to the issue of slavery that alienated his fellow Southerners but underwhelmed the more progressive North.

According to the exhibition, he described slavery as the Souths founding sin, but he also criticized the North for failing to consider the perspective of the financially ruined Southern states. These dichotomies slavery and freedom, wealth and ruin, morality and depravity occupy some of Faulkners most famous stories and haunt his most unforgettable characters.

Despite its minor shortcomings, the exhibition does a wonderful job of shining light on Faulkners deep and remarkable wisdom. The best encouragement to attend is to provide a taste of that wisdom, which the exhibit features in the shape of a quote from Faulkners 1950 Nobel Prize speech.

I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail, Faulkner said in the speech. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things.

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Immortality of written words - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily

Patriots fans cheered at City Hall Plaza.

With the Super Bowl glow as fresh as ever and the New England Patriots parade barreling toward Boston Common, John Adams lined up with his family along Tremont Street and declared with confidence that Sundays win was the best championship he has ever witnessed.

It wasnt just the thrilling comeback, the Boston resident said, but it was the back story, the Deflategate, and the now-indisputable conclusion that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have safely achieved immortality.

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This is legendary status, Adams said. This is completely different than anything New England has ever seen.

At the Super Bowl victory procession Tuesday, sports fans were taking stock of their incredible run of good fortune since the Patriots broke through with their first championship in 2002.

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The first ones always the best, said Karen Erickson, 50, of Webster, who along with her husband, Steven Erickson, 47, stood inside a sandwich shop on Boylston Street waiting for the parade to begin.

The Red Sox followed with three crowns, and the Celtics and Bruins have added one apiece.

Many of those still intoxicated by the Patriots comeback win and some by other means said they could never imagine being happier fans than in 2004, when the Red Sox overcame the Yankees and trounced the Cardinals to clinch their first World Series in 86 years.

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Ill say that this Super Bowl will be number two, said Josh Duhamel, of Clinton, who wore a Celtics championship jacket for good measure. This is by far the favorite, outside of the 2004 Red Sox.

Steve Nawoichik, of Burlington, said nothing can change the importance of that 2004 Red Sox win, which to him represented a new epoch for a team that had suffered for generations.

This Patriots win was more about cementing a legacy than turning a page, he said: Theres nothing anyone can do to take away from it.

But this year was different, because his two children were experiencing such a celebration for the first time.

He and his wife, Meghan, brought 3-year-old Stephen and 1-year-old Charlotte to the parade, blowing right through nap time as the 11 a.m. parade took its sweet time making it to their viewing spot near the Park Street MBTA station.

You dont know how many of these you get to go to, Nawoichik said to his son. Hopefully, theres a couple more.

Lisa Callery, of Nashua, remembered how her family followed the 2013 Red Sox World Series run while mourning her husband, Michael, who died that year. She believes he was looking down, enjoying the games, and doing the same on Sunday. You throw a lot into these, she said.

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The best evah? Not everybody at parade rated this year's comeback number one - The Boston Globe

Knowing a thing means you dont need to believe in it. Whatever can be known, or proven by logic or evidence, doesnt need to be taken on faith. Certain details of nutrition and the physiology of eating are known and knowable: the fact that humans require certain nutrients; the fact that our bodies convert food into energy and then into new flesh (and back to energy again when needed). But there are bigger questions that dont have definitive answers, like what is the best diet for all people? For me?

Nutrition is a young science that lies at the intersection of several complex disciplineschemistry, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, psychologyand though we are far from having figured it all out, we still have to eat to survive. When there are no guarantees or easy answers, every act of eating is something like a leap of faith.

Eating is the first magic ritual, an act that transmits life energy from one object to another, according to cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker in his posthumously published book Escape from Evil. All animals must feed on other life to sustain themselves, whether in the form of breastmilk, plants, or the corpses of other animals. The act of incorporation, of taking a once-living thing into your own body, is necessary for all animals existence. It is also disturbing and unsavory to think about, since it draws a direct connection between eating and death.

Human self-awareness means that, from a relatively early age, we are also aware of death. In his Pulitzer prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, Becker hypothesized that the fear of deathand the need to suppress that fearis what drives much of human behavior. This idea went on, in social psychology, to the form the basis of Terror Management Theory.

Ancient humans must have decided, once their bellies were full, that there was more to life than mere survival and staring mortality in the face. They went on to build things in which they could find distraction, comfort, recreation, and meaning. They built cultures in which death became another rite of passage, not the end of everything. They made structures to live in, wrote songs to sing to each other, and added spices to their food, which they cooked in different styles. Humans are supported by a self-created system of meanings, symbols, rituals, and etiquette. Food and eating are part of this.

The act of ingestion is embroidered with so much cultural meaning that, for most people, its roots in spare, brutal survival are entirely hidden. Even for people in extreme poverty, for whom survival is a more immediate concern, the cultural meanings of food remain critical. Wealthy or poor, we eat to celebrate, we eat to mourn, we eat because its mealtime, we eat as a way to bond with others, we eat for entertainment and pleasure. It is not a coincidence that the survival function of food is buried beneath all of thiswho wants to think about staving off death each time they tuck into a bowl of cereal? Forgetting about death is the entire point of food culture.

When it comes to food, Becker said that humans quickly saw beyond mere physical nourishment, and that the desire for more lifenot just delaying death today, but clearing the bar of mortality entirelygrew into an obsession with transforming the self into a perfected object that might achieve a sort of immorality. Diet culture and its variations, such as clean eating, are cultural structures we have built to attempt to transcend our animality.

By creating and following diets, humans not only eat to stay alive, but they fit themselves into a cultural edifice that is larger, and more permanent, than their bodies. It is a sort of immortality ritual, and rituals must be performed socially. Clean eating rarely, if ever, occurs in secret. If you havent evangelized about it, joined a movement around it, or been praised publicly for it, have you truly cleansed?

As humans, we are possibly the most promiscuous omnivores ever to wander the earth. We dine on animals, insects, plants, marine life, and occasionally non-food: dirt, clay, chalk, even once, famously, bicycles and airplanes

We are not pandas, chastely satisfied with munching through a square mile of bamboo. We seek variety and novelty, and at the same time, we carry an innate fear of food. This is described by the famous omnivores paradox, which (Michael Pollan notwithstanding) is not mere confusion about choosing what to eat in a cluttered food marketplace. The omnivores paradox was originally defined by psychological researcher Paul Rozin as the anxiety that arises from our desire to try new foods (neophilia) paired with our inherited fear of unknown foods (neophobia) that could turn out to be toxic. All omnivores feel these twin pressures, but none more acutely than humans. If it werent for the small chance of death lurking behind every food choice and every dietary ideology, choosing what to eat from a crowded marketplace wouldnt be considered a dilemma. Instead, we would call it the omnivores fun time at the supermarket, and people wouldnt repost so many Facebook memes about the necessity of drinking a gallon of water daily, or the magical properties of apple cider vinegar and coconut oil. Everyone would be just a little bit calmer about food.

Humans do not have a single, definitive rulebook to direct our eating, despite the many attempts nutrition scientists, dietitians, chefs, and celebrities have made to write one. Each of us has to negotiate the desire for food and fear of the unknown when we are still too young to read, calculate calories, or understand abstract ideas about nutrition. Almost all children go through a phase of pickiness with eating. It seems to be an evolved survival mechanism that prevents usonce we are mobile enough to put things in our mouths, but not experienced enough to know the difference between safe and dangerous foodsfrom eating something toxic. We have all been children trying to shove the world in our mouths, even while we spit out our strained peas.

Our omnivorousness gives us an exhilarating and terrifying amount of freedom. As social creatures, we seek safety from that freedom in our culture, and in a certain amount of conformity. We prefer to follow leaders weve invested with authority to blaze a path to safety.

The heroes of contemporary diet culture are wellness gurus who claim to have cured themselves of fatness, disease, and meaninglessness through the unimpeachable purity of cold-pressed vegetable juice. Many traditional heroes earn their status by confronting and defeating death, like Hercules, who was granted immortality after a lifetime of capturing or killing a menagerie of dangerous beasts, including the three-headed dog of Hades himself. Wellness gurus are the glamorously clean eaters whose triumph over sad, dirty animality is evidenced by fresh, thoughtfully-lit photographs of green smoothies in wholesome Mason jars, and by their own bodies, beautifully rendered.

There are no such heroes to be found in a peer-reviewed paper with a large, anonymous sample, and small effect sizes, written in impenetrable statistician-ese, and hedged with disclosures about limitations. But the image of a person you can relate to on a human level, smiling out at you from the screen, standing in a before-and-after, shoulder-to-shoulder with their former, lesser, processed-food-eating self, is something else altogether. Their creation myth and redemptionhow they were lost but now are foundis undeniably compelling.

There are twin motives underlying human behavior, according to Beckerthe urge for heroism and the desire for atonement. At a fundamental level, people may feel a twinge of guilty for having a body, taking up space, and having appetites that devour the living things around us. They may crave expiation of this guilt, and culture provides not only the means to achieve plentiful material comfort, but also ways to sacrifice part of that comfort to achieve redemption. It is not enough for wellness gurus to simply amass the riches of health, beauty, and statusthey must also deny themselves sugar, grains, and flesh. They must pay.

Only those with status and resources to spare can afford the most impressive gestures of renunciation. Look at all they have! The steel-and-granite kitchen! The Le Creuset collection! The Vitamix! The otherworldly glow! They could afford to eat cake, should the bread run out, but they quit sugar. Theyre only eating twigs and moss now. What more glamorous way to triumph over dirt and animality and death? And you can, too. That is, if you have the time and money to spend juicing all that moss and boiling the twigs until theyre soft enough to eat.

This is how the omnivores paradox breeds diet culture: Overwhelmed by choice, by the dim threat of mortality that lurks beneath any wrong choice, people crave rules from outside themselves, and successful heroes to guide them to safety. People willingly, happily, hand over their freedom in exchange for the bondage of a diet that forbids their most cherished foods, that forces them to rely on the unfamiliar, unpalatable, or inaccessible, all for the promise of relief from choice and the attendant responsibility. If you are free to choose, you can be blamed for anything that happens to you: weight gain, illness, agingin short, your share in the human condition, including the random whims of luck and your own inescapable mortality.

Humans are the only animals aware of our mortality, and we all want to be the person whose death comes as a surprise rather than a pathetic inevitability. We want to be the one of whom people say, But she did everything right. If we cannot escape death, maybe we can find a way to be declared innocent and undeserving of it.

But diet culture is constantly shifting. Todays token foods of health may seem tainted or pass tomorrow, and within diet culture, there are contradictory ideologies: what is safe and clean to one is filth and decadence to another. Legumes and grains are wholesome, life-giving staples to many vegan eaters, while they represent the corrupting influences of agriculture on the state of nature to those who prefer a meat-heavy, grain-free Paleo diet.

Nutrition science itself is a self-correcting series of refutations. There is no certain path to purity and blamelessness through food. The only common thread between competing dietary ideologies is the belief that by adhering to them, one can escape the human condition, and become a purer, less animal, kind of being.

This is why arguments about diet get so vicious, so quickly. You are not merely disputing facts, you are pitting your wild gamble to avoid death against someone elses. You are poking at their life raft. But if their diet proves to be the One True Diet, yours must not be. If they are right, you are wrong. This is why diet culture seems so religious. People adhere to a dietary faith in the hopes they will be saved. That if theyre good enough, pure enough in their eating, they can keep illness and mortality at bay. And the pursuit of life everlasting always requires a leap of faith.

To eat without restriction, on the other hand, is to risk being unclean, and to beat your own uncertain path. It is admitting your mortality, your limitations and messiness as a biological creature, while accepting the freedoms and pleasures of eating, and taking responsibility for choosing them.

Unclean, agnostic eating means taking your best stab in the dark, accepting that there is much we dont know. But we do know that there is no One True Diet. There may be as many right ways to eat as there are peoplenone of whom can live forever, all of whom must make of eating and their lives some personal, temporary meaning.

Originally posted here:

Eating Toward Immortality - The Atlantic

A team never knows ifthey are giving up on a player too soon. Whether because of injury, logjam at the position or just not enough performance, teams walk away from players without knowing what more they are capable of. For the Cowboys, three such players have survived and thrived without them, poised to try and win a Super Bowl on Sunday in Houston.

In 2008, Dallas continued itstradition of drafting complements to future Hall of Famer Jason Witten at the tight end position. This time it was Texas A&Ms Martellus Bennett. Bennett was an athletic marvel but never gave full effort into development. He would later admit a great deal of frustration with his role and figuring out he would never get the chance to be the lead dog with Witten in Dallas. He played out his rookie deal, went to New York and then Chicago and proved he was an upper tier talent at the position.

Talent was never his problem, and at each of the last two stops he proved to those teams his attitude rendered his talent notworth the trouble. Of course, at Reclamation University, Bill Belichick had a perfect plan for him. Bennett was brought in as Rob Gronkowskis complement to replace Aaron Hernandez, but in an offense that knows how to feature two tight ends. When Gronkowski was lost for the year, Bennett slid right into the No. 1 role seamlessly. Hes no Gronk, but he should be featured Sunday evening.

That same year Bennett was drafted, the Cowboyssigned a diminutive and shifty wideout from Texas Tech by the name of Danny Amendola.

That year, the Cowboys were featured on Hard Knocks and the football viewing public fell in love with the 5-foot-8, 183 pound receiver with just 4.68 speed. Amendola made it to final cuts but was released.

He signed with the Cowboys practice squad but took an opportunity to go to camp with the Philadelphia Eagles the next season. Amendola was placed on their practice squad originally as well.

St. Louisneeded wideout help midseason and Amendola got his chance. He played 14 games and caught 43 passes. A few years later, New England was scooping him up as a understudy to Wes Welker. Amendola has become a major contributor for the Patriots, sliding in and out of the starting lineup but always making his presence known with Tom Brady.

Atlanta isnt without former Cowboys as well. Last year, the Dallas secondary was inept at best. They didnt record an interception on the season until late in the season. A practice squad call up by the name of Deji Olatoye did the honors. Still, it wasnt enough to keep him in Dallas, and he spent most of 2016 on the Falcons practice squad.

Hes not a key part of their defense, but he played in five games down the stretch and has gotten action in each of their playoff games.

It happens to every team in the NFL. They think someone can no longer help their team and once in a different role for a different coach, the player finds a niche. Its not a sign of a bad front office, stuff like that just happens. Still, it means plenty of current Cowboys players are going to be sitting at home watching former teammates get their opportunity at immortality.

See more here:

3 former Cowboys ready to fight for immortality in Super Bowl LI - Cowboys Wire