Category Archives: Human Longevity

On Wednesday, President Biden announced the launch of a new initiative to boost vaccination rates across the country, with a notable emphasis on expanding outreach efforts at Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons.

This follows a national initiative to vaccinate 70 percent of U.S. adults by July 4, as Black Americans continue to be the demographic with the lowest vaccination rates, per data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The initiative, titled Shots at the Shop, will work with 1,000 Black-owned barbershops and salons across the country to support vaccination education and further community outreach. The tour will begin throughout June and display educational materials and host vaccinations on-site.

It is being sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Black Coalition Against COVID-19, the University of Maryland Center for Health Equity, and SheaMoisture hair products.

Participating shops will aim to support communities struggling in the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and that are experiencing lower vaccination rates.

The plan is part of a broader agenda, titled the National Month of Action.

National Month of Action will mobilize national organizations, local government leaders, community-based and faith-based partners, businesses, employers, social media influencers, celebrities, athletes, colleges, young people, and thousands of volunteers, the announcement read.

Just 18.9 percent of Black Americans are reported as fully vaccinated, as opposed to 28.3 percent of white Americans and 20.5 percent of Hispanic Americans.

As part of the national average,about 63 percent of all U.S. adults report having been vaccinated at least once.

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Biden to reach out to 1,000 Black-owned barbershops, salons to boost vaccinations | TheHill - The Hill

A new report sheds light on the human health outcomes related to climate change, focusing specifically on mortality data that coincides with rising temperatures across the globe.

Published Monday in the journal Nature, the study examines mortality data from 732 distinct locations across 43 countries searching for any relation between heat exposure and deaths.

The countries sampled were geographically diverse and included data from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Estonia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Portugal, South Korea, Iran and South Africa, among others.

Referencing total deaths between select years, ranging from as early as 1991 in some countries datasets to as recent as 2018, scientists cross-referenced heat death rates with levels of warming over time, measured in increases in degrees Celsius.

The results indicate that about 37 percent of heat-related deaths can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

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This amounts tomore than1 in 3 heart deaths.

Our findings support the urgent need for more ambitious mitigation and adaptation strategies to minimize the public health impacts of climate change, the authors wrote.

Risks to heat-related deaths varied widely based on geography. Some countries that were observed to carry a higher risk of mortality from heat exposure include central and western European countries, while smaller estimates of heat-related fatalities were recorded in the Americas and Asia.

Taken together, our findings demonstrate that a substantial proportion of total and heat-related deaths during our study period can be attributed to human-induced climate change, the report concludes. Our findings provide further evidence of the potential benefits of adopting strong mitigation policies to reduce future warming and of enacting adaptation interventions to protect populations from the adverse consequences of heat exposure.

This study adds to the literature linking increases in heat-related deaths to climate change. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyhas tracked heat-related fatalities annually with data going as far back as the late 70s.

While it is difficult to gauge solid increases in heat-related fatalities, heat waves and other hot temperatures usually result in spikes in mortality rates. These deaths tend to have other factors, such as heart attacks and strokes, making it difficult to dissect heat-related deaths from other causes.

Simultaneously, an earlier study conducted by the University College of London found that an estimated 54-percent increase in heat-related deaths among elderly individuals is linked to climate change.

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New study says climate change is responsible for 37 percent of deaths due to heat | TheHill - The Hill

On my second visit to The Great Beech, I went with Christina Moresi and Stephanie Robinson, environmental educators with the Wissahickon Environmental Center. Moresi, who has worked at the park for 15 years, shared Lubars belief that the trees lifespan was shortened by people interacting with it. She did not, however, share his outlook. Moresi explained that with stormwater rushing in from the parking lot and visitors disregarding park policies, there wasnt much that could be done to protect the tree. Fencing it off was never an option for her, she stressed.

Moresi wanted people to interact with the tree. She wanted children to hug it. It was a charitable perspective, given all she had seen. She told the story of once finding the proposal PROM? carved into one of the beechs branches. When I first saw that I was like I swear to god I hope she punched him, she said.

When I asked her why more interventions hadnt been put in place, she paused. It really is just a matter of letting nature take its course, she said.

It was May then, and only one of the trees branches held leaves. Moresi admitted that had been a disappointment. However, she was quick to point out that a dying tree, or even a dead one, breeds life.

A dead tree, called a snag, hosts bacteria, fungi, insects, and animals. Woodpeckers peck it, raccoons nest in it, and mushrooms grow up and down its branches. On the dead limbs of The Great Beech, an entire ecosystem is churning.

Nearby, another beech, named Baby Beech, grows.

Baby Beech sprouted up from The Great Beechs extensive roots, and has been called its successor. The little tree is growing taller in a thicket behind The Great Beech, nearly undetectable.

Like their predecessor, the beeches that have sprouted around The Great Beech are not fenced off. Sitting beside them, I watched the birds and insects whirl around the beechs limbs, dead and alive. The branches that once shaded the area have fallen, and plants of all kinds are growing in the new flood of sunlight. The trees decay is a generous one. The Great Beech may have been loved to death. But those who visit it, myself included, learn that we can love the natural world in death as well.

As I sat, hikers ambled by on the trail, all of them stopping for a moment to look. What kind of tree is that? one woman asked me. A European Beech, I said, a tinge of kvell in my voice. I watched as the group craned their necks up, up, up. As they walked away, I heard one say to the others: Wow.

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A certified champion, Phillys Great Beech is dying, over 150 years after it was planted - WHYY

The Muteshekau Shipu (Magpie River) runs nearly 300 kilometres in Qubecs Cte-Nord region. The river is culturally significant for the Innu and it is popular with white water paddlers and rafters.

Despite efforts to protect the river, Muteshekau Shipu continues to be threatened by potential new hydroelectric dam development. But, in February, the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality declared the Muteshekau Shipu (Magpie River) a legal person, a move that may provide greater certainty for this majestic rivers future.

While a first in Canada, granting legal personhood to natural entities is part of a global movement to recognize the rights of nature in law. Indigenous communities around the world are leading the way in upholding the rights of sacred and ancestral rivers, forests and mountains. Recognizing the rights of nature is an opportunity to elevate the power of Indigenous Peoples laws and worldviews to benefit all peoples.

Extractive values the belief that natural entities are resources that can be used for human benefit with little regard for their well-being and longevity are deeply embedded in Canadas legal and economic systems.

These values influence the ideologies at the root of our biodiversity and climate crises. These ideologies justify the transformation of rivers, forests and the atmosphere into commodities and private property at our own peril. Recognizing natural entities as legal persons and enshrining their rights in law is a promising legal innovation.

On Feb. 23, the Alliance for the Protection of the Magpie River/Muteshekau Shipu recognized nine rights of the river. These include the rights to evolve naturally and be protected, to be free of pollution and to sue.

The members of the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, part of the alliance, will now be the rivers guardians. This means that those with long-standing relationships to Muteshekau Shipu will be formally entrusted with the rivers care for future generations.

Designating the river as a legal person was the clearest message we could send, Chief Jean-Charles Pitacho of the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit told us in an interview. There will never be dams in this river. The river protects herself, we protect the river, were all protected. I think the message is very clear.

Galvanized by widespread environmental degradation and rising Indigenous rights movements, Indigenous communities around the world are leading the way in upholding the rights of sacred and ancestral rivers. This includes Mori tribal relationships with the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand, the role of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in the Atrato River in Colombia, and the Yurok Tribal Councils granting legal rights of personhood to the Klamath River through an ordinance in the United States.

The idea that nature is a sentient being isnt new to Indigenous and other traditional peoples. The vision of the Innu is that Nature is living. Everything is alive, said Chief Pitacho.

Recognizing the rights of nature are modern expressions of long-practised Indigenous laws. Indigenous laws are as diverse as Indigenous cultures yet share an understanding that humans are an integral part of the natural world. These laws emphasize respect for all beings and responsibilities to care for lands and waters. Trees, mountains and plants are relatives, not commodities that can be privately owned and exploited.

The rights-of-nature movement may seem radical to some people. It challenges Eurocentric values such as human dominance over the natural world, which is considered largely inanimate. The conservation movement itself is founded on a worldview that sees wilderness as something separate to be protected from humans. The fortress conservation movement is ideologically non-commensurate with Indigenous ways of thinking about being a part of nature. This belief was used to justify the forced relocation of many Indigenous Peoples from their territories to establish parks and protected areas.

Rights understood through a western, liberal and individualistic lens overlook collective responsibilities to the natural world. I sincerely think Qubec and Canada missed their responsibility; they arent protecting the river from development, said Chief Pitacho.

Bridging western and Indigenous legal systems through a rights-of-nature approach is one tool for encouraging a kincentric view of the world, which sees humans as part of an extended ecological family that shares ancestry and origins.

Indigenous laws mirror and reinforce relational worldviews that view living entities as relatives, not resources. This in turn shapes social conduct that emphasizes respect and responsibility to the natural world. Innovative governance arrangements are one means through which distinct worldviews and associated laws can be woven together.

Rivers speak but since western laws and institutions are not designed to listen, people must act as intermediaries voicing perspectives on their behalf. Indigenous laws are well positioned to conceptualize the decision-making structures needed to breathe life into legal personhood.

In 2014, Thoe iwi (Mori) and the New Zealand government granted legal personhood to Te Urewera, an ancestral forest and former national park. They created a board responsible for making decisions in the best interests of Te Urewera. Thoe, as children of Tu Urewera, give expression to her through the board.

In Northern Canada, utsl K Dene First Nation established Thaidene Nn as an Indigenous Protected Area under Dene law. It is also protected as a park and conservation area under Canadian and territorial (Northwest Territories) legislation. The management board, Thaidene Nn Xa Da Yat, is composed of members of utsl K Dene First Nation, the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Once appointed, members no longer represent their organizations, they speak for Thaidene Nn.

Examples like Thaidene Nn are the exception and not the norm in Canada, although this may be changing. There is a national mandate to support Indigenous-led conservation initiatives and advance reconciliation. This support combined with Indigenous leadership and accompanying legal innovations present new opportunities for caring for the land and waters.

Many similar Indigenous-led initiatives are currently underway, supported by programs including the Bioneers Indigeneity Program, RIVER (Revitalizing Indigenous Values for Earths Regeneration), the Conservation through Reconciliation partnership, RELAW (Revitalizing Indigenous Law for Land, Air and Water) and the Global Network for the Rights of Nature.

The Muteshekau Shipu river declaration and the legal guardianship role for Innu is an example governments can learn from. If the government wants to effectively protect Nature, they should consider this option so protected areas would be protected along with our rights, said Chief Pitacho.

To create just and liveable futures for all our relatives (human and otherwise), Canadian laws and policies need further innovation. Vesting legal personhood in natural entities is a promising intervention when Indigenous Peoples represent these entities. It elevates the standing of nature for all peoples and respects the laws of Indigenous Peoples.

Georgia Lloyd-Smith, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, co-authored this article. The authors are grateful to Chief Jean-Charles Pitacho for the interview.

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Rights for nature: How granting a river 'personhood' could help protect it - The Conversation CA

Researchers are concerned that we dont yet know the full range of health effects of air pollution, especially traffic-related air pollution. Early studies drew links between higher concentrations of pollution to increased probability for premature births and low birth weights, but experts now are also studying how chronic exposure over time can affect aging and the brain.

To examine that potential link, researchers put mice near a traffic tunnel to mimic long-term exposure to air pollution from cars. The study published in Environmental Health Perspectives goes into detail on how the researchers set up the experiments. The team was specifically interested in how the traffic pollution would affect mice with a gene that predisposes them to Alzheimers disease. Mice with and without the gene were housed near a tunnel in Northern California for up to 14 months.

The researchers wanted to see what happened to these mice after living so close to the tunnel. This approach was a creative way to get at the question of what impacts air pollution has on the brain in the absence of confounding factors such as socioeconomic influences, diet, etc., toxicologist Pamela Lein at the University of California, Davis says in a press release. It's important to know if living close to these roadways poses a significant risk to the human brain as it ages.

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Lein and collaborators tested mice of different ages to see what the effects would be on various brain ages in the animals. They found that the exposure to pollution accelerated characteristics of Alzheimers in both groups of mice that had the related risk gene and the ones without.

The big, exciting discovery is that traffic-related air pollution is a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. We didn't anticipate that, says Lein. This is important because this pollution is everywhere and could explain the increased number of people impacted by Alzheimer's disease across the world.

The researchers are not yet sure why this might be happening. It may have to do with the types of gases in pollution, the particulate matter or other factors like dust, vibration and noise. The size of the particulate matter may also be important.

The next set of studies is to try and tease apart specific components of traffic-related air pollution that drive these Alzheimer's disease traits, says Lein in the press release. Or is it the collective mix that causes the damage?

These studies could have important implications for national policy that regulates air pollution. If we could make some progress in identifying which component in traffic-related air pollution is causing these effects, then scientists can approach legislators to develop scientifically based regulations, says Lein. Even if we can delay onset of Alzheimer's disease by five years, we could potentially save our health care system an enormous amount of money.

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Traffic-related pollution linked to Alzheimer's in mice: study | TheHill - The Hill

When Chvrches came off tour in spring 2019, singer Lauren Mayberry was in desperate need of a break not just from the road, but from every aspect of being in a band. I was just like, I need to take time off like, off off because its not bringing me joy to such an extreme degree, she says.

Mayberry is able to smile about it now but at the time she couldnt even face talking to her bandmates or their team, and imposed a Please dont contact me email ban: I think its important for the longevity of everything to know when to push the panic button and that was the first time Ive pushed the panic button on the band.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

Fear not, though, because the fact that the Glasgow-formed trio completed by producers and multi-instrumentalists Martin Doherty and Iain Cook are talking to NME today means the band made it through OK. Out of those struggles comes their fourth album Screen Violence, which will arrive on August 27. Its an invigorating, sparkling listen, marrying the shadowy echoes of 80s post-punk and goth-rock with electronic elements that make you want to head for your nearest soon-to-be-reopened dingy club.

The albums contents explore loneliness and isolation, fear and heartbreak, all loosely tied together by the idea of the savagery of our increasingly digital world. Through it all, though, runs a sense of perseverance. In Asking For A Friend, Mayberry sings of the art of getting by and how shes filled my bed with my regrets / But it hasnt killed me yet. Final Girl suggests, in its horror movie trope-referencing title, a battle to survive, to outlive the demons and monsters that surround us.

Chvcrches on the cover of NME

Now that you say it, it does make a lot of sense, Mayberry says. Our conversation is, fittingly, taking place through a screen, and from inside her Zoom square, we can see her doing a quick race through the record in her head. In a way, that album does feel like perseverance to a degree. Im not being dramatic and saying that I ever actually wanted to pack it in, but there was a lot of stuff on the last album.

There were a lot of ups and downs over the course of 2018s Love Is Dead, she says, not least the struggles of having to take on board the opinion of every single human being in the world via social media and then pretend it doesnt affect you in any way. The experience of having spent eight years with strangers on the internet either telling her how much they fucking hate you, or how much they fucking love you was taking its toll on her emotionally and mentally. Getting through it and writing Screen Violence felt like a form of survival, in a way, Mayberry says.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

When the singer first shut herself off from the world, no one could have predicted that the record would be made in a similarly closed-off manner. In early 2020, Cook flew over to LA, where Doherty and Mayberry both reside, to begin work together. Three weeks into their sessions, the pandemic hit everything turned to shite, as Mayberry puts it and a travel ban on UK visitors to the US meant the eldest Chvrch had to head home to Glasgow.

[Writing and recording remotely] is really different and it takes a lot of adjustment, Doherty explains, basking in the sun from a reclining chair in his back garden, one square below Mayberry. At least we had that initial spark. If wed had to make the whole thing in a vacuum or over the phone, so to speak, it wouldve been much more difficult. Its a process hes tried with other musicians, he says, with disappointing results.

I spent a lot of time trying so hard to be one of the boys because its just easier Lauren Mayberry

As life we once knew it all but disappeared from view, the band found having something to throw themselves into stabilising not a word they would have previously associated with the life of a musician. Making this record was really good for finding something to centre you when it felt like the whole world was on fire, Doherty reasons.

Like all of us, Chvrches have seen their relationship with screens take on a whole new life over the last 15 months. Mayberry and Doherty have been able to hang out and work together in LA lately, but theyve still been separated from Cook, who is 5,000 miles away. Screen Violence was largely made through video calls and audio-sharing software, giving new power to their devices as they simultaneously became their only portals to see friends and family around the world. Even the photoshoot for this feature was done remotely the first time NME has ever shot a cover in that way.

For Mayberry, that positive connotation felt like a big shift. My association with screens had become very negative, she says, referring to the sheer amount of abuse and death threats shes faced online throughout her career. It was horrible to have to only see people on screens Ive not seen my mum in 3D since Christmas 2019. But I think, if anything, it made me more grateful because if this didnt exist I couldnt talk to you; we couldnt have made this record and we couldnt have spoken to any of our friends and family. It makes you think are the machines evil, or are we?

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

Some of Mayberrys online interactions can be felt in certain songs on the record. Over the years, shes had multiple perceptions placed on her by people that have never and likely will never meet her in the flesh.

Shes been criticised for wearing clothes on stage that are too revealing, but also had complaints coming her way when she retreated to baggier clothes a reversal of the arc of criticism Billie Eilish recently experienced when she ditched the oversized outfits for her British Vogue cover. She has been labelled an angry feminist, bitch and slut for speaking out about things she believes are right or wrong has, and chastised for mixing politics and music. If she had stayed silent, you imagine she would have been scolded for not using her platform to talk about important issues too.

Although Mayberry may face more extreme reactions and from a lot more people its far from a unique experience. Women have to deal with these impossible and often contradictory standards in everyday life, and in trying to adhere to the patriarchys rules you can incur psychological whiplash.

You could have offered me a collaboration with anyone and I would still choose Robert Smith Martin Doherty

Its a feeling that takes centre stage on Screen Violences gigantic first single He Said She Said. Get drunk, dont be a mess, Mayberry sings at one point, later following it up with more inconsistent commandments: He said you need to be fed, but keep an eye on your waistline / Look good, but dont be obsessed. No wonder the chorus is her voice engaged in a disorienting call-and-response with a digitised echo of herself crying: I feel like Im losing my mind.

Ive always been, for the most part, the only girl in a band, or the only girl on a lineup, or the only girl working in a venue, she says. I spent a lot of time trying so hard to be one of the boys because its just easier. When I was younger, it was like, OK, well you need to be better, faster, smarter, tougher, quicker to make the dirty joke, because then that makes you less of an outlier.

When Chvrches first began to develop a following via SoundCloud in 2012, Mayberry was very conscious that she didnt want to be seen as just the person standing at the front selling [the music], who doesnt do anything while the more instrument-focused Cook and Doherty did the work. But she found that that misconception crept in anyway and reasoned that her attention-grabbing make-up and feminine outfits might be partially behind it. As the band promoted their 2013 debut album The Bones Of What You Believe, her make-up grew less eye-catching, her clothes looser: I was like, If I make myself small enough, then Ill be OK Ill be allowed; that will be satisfactory.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

On the groups second album Every Open Eye, released in 2015, Mayberry began to readjust her way of thinking: I was like, OK, you making yourself disappear isnt fixing the problem. On Screen Violences Good Girls, she reinforces the idea that she wont try and fit into societys moulds for women anymore. Good girls dont cry / Good girls dont lie / Good girls justify / But I dont, she sings defiantly.

So, in the last few years, she has re-embraced her love of expressing her creativity in her aesthetic, as evidenced in the swathes of glitter that appeared on her face and the range of fun outfits she wore during the bands last tour. We all love the 80s, Cyndi Lauper and even artists like PJ Harvey use aesthetics as part of their creativity surely that makes you more of an artist? she ponders. Why is it incredible when David Bowie does it but when a female frontperson does it, its because theyre trying to sell records?

Being alongside Mayberry as shes been subject to judgement and abuse has been eye-opening for her bandmates. Doherty says any vitriol directed to himself and Cook is not even one per cent of what Mayberry receives, but they had an illuminating window into her world in 2019 when the band issued a statement about former collaborator Marshmello working with Chris Brown. In the note, the trio said they were really upset, confused and disappointed the producer had chosen to work with predators and abusers, saying such moves enables, excuses and ultimately tacitly endorses that behaviour. Brown later dubbed the band a bunch of losers and the type of people I wish walked in front of a speeding bus. His fans were equally charming in their responses to Chvrches.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

That was my first ever taste of what Lauren experiences, Doherty says, recalling his initial readiness to wind up the trolls. But when I took a step back, I was like, No, if this is reality for women and what they actually have to experience online whether theyre in the public eye or not fucking hell. It gave me a whole new respect for what Lauren goes through in this band. I think people need to fucking look at themselves in a lot of ways if youre shouting at a woman on the internet because your life sucks, fuck you.

The trio try to find the silver lining, however difficult that might seem, in the torrent of shit that has been hurled Mayberrys way. Would I prefer that our singer was nae getting death threats? Absolutely, Doherty says. But the sacrifices that shes made have created so much positivity for us all. So you need to be thankful for that; you need to stand next to her and just do what you can to help.

Mayberry, on the other hand, has a new approach to dealing with it. I try to remember [that those comments] arent coming from a place of any happiness or peace, Mayberry says calmly. If someones like, Go die, cunt, Im like, Thats not coming from a place of joy. Block, then be understanding.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

At one point, the sound of someone chopping down a tree outside Mayberrys house interrupts our conversation. It sounds like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, quips Cook, an apt observation given that Screen Violence is filled with horror imagery and references, from Final Girl to the nightmarish lyrics of the breakbeat-driven Violent Delights, which depicts ideas of death, drowning and paralysis.

Horror don David Cronenbergs 1983 sci-fi body horror Videodrome was a big influence on not just this album, but the bands career as a whole, says Cook. Weve always been really influenced by the idea of the ghost in the machine, the evil behind the screen and the way it saturates our minds, he explains.

Mayberry describes herself as morbidly fascinated with horror movies, despite clearly not being able to handle them. What keeps her tuning in then if she cant deal with the frights? I wonder if its therapeutic in a way, she replies. As a woman, the sensation of being watched and hunted and controlled is quite profound a lot of the time. But then the final girl when [Halloween protagonist] Laurie Strode survives? Theres hope in that.

Weve always been [interested in] the evil behind the screen and the way it saturates our minds Iain Cook

Last Halloween, Doherty and Mayberry met up for movie night. After getting wine-drunk and watching the 1992 adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula, they noticed an email in their inboxes that they had lost hope of ever arriving. In the attachments was an mp3 file of The Cures Robert Smith singing his parts for their new single How Not To Drown.

Months before that mp3 arrived, Chvrches manager had reached out to someone he thought was The Cures manager in an attempt to have the group considered for a support slot in the future. One day, he received a response from Smith himself asking, Alright, what do you want? They quickly sent him over some of the music theyd been working on and the idea of collaborating on How Not To Drown blossomed.

Fast-forward to their heros reappearance on Halloween, which Mayberry describes as the most Cure-lore thing to ever happen. You could have offered me a collaboration with anyone living or dead fucking Prince, fucking Beethoven I would still choose Robert Smith, Doherty says, deadly serious while his bandmates burst out laughing.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

The song is an instant highlight of Screen Violence, not just because it features Smith, but because of how well the two acts merge together, as if they were made for each other. It possesses a blustery gloom similar to that of The Cures inimitable sound, while the frontman brings majestic solemnity to lines such as: Im writing the book on how to stay conscious when you drown.

It must make you take stock and realise how far youve come as a band when you can mark your 10th anniversary with a track featuring an icon who means so much to you. Its mental! Mayberry exclaims. When I have to fill in my job on a form, I think about this. I never thought I would get to do this.

Although Doherty isnt fond of looking back, he does acknowledge that there are occasional moments, like the Robert thing, or playing before New Order at Glastonbury in 2016, that [make you] go, Fucking hell! In 2012, I was so broke, I was ready to give up on being a professional musician.

When I fill in my job on a form, I think: I never thought I would get to do this Lauren Mayberry

Chvrches might be a bona fide success now, but getting the opportunity to become one wasnt handed to the band. I come from a fucking council estate in Glasgow, Doherty explains. My prospects to get into the arts were basically zero Its no ones right to make music, but thats what I was trying to do. I was signing on the dole and they made me go to a class for CV writing, like I was illiterate and thats why I didnt have a job. If theres any wonder why the arts are struggling in our country and Scotland will always be my country, whether I live there or not is because theres no fucking support for people. Its so wrong.

UK arts funding has been cut during the pandemic and Brexit threatens a bands ability to grow as artists by touring Europe, but Doherty does still have some hope for British musics future. The best art comes from these times and, when times are the most difficult, the most special people find a way, he says. For their part, the band have backed the #WeMakeEvents campaign and helped share petitions calling for visa-free touring in the EU.

Credit: Jennifer McCord for NME

As for Chvrches future: their hopes have become a lot more humble due to the global situation. The idea that people will listen to this record and hopefully love it, and then well play shows for those people, is enough for me, Mayberry says.

A band of their stature must surely be thinking about stepping up to headline major festivals such as Glatonsbury and Reading & Leeds now, though? What will be will be, but Im not gonna say fucking no! the singer grins. But we can never pick those things. The sound of the tree-felling outside her window intensifies once more. Now if I get murdered by chainsaws, you have to play with me as a hologram one last time, she instructs her bandmates.

Life after death tour! Cook jokes. It would certainly give the band that longevity Mayberry was concerned about in 2019 but, after so long living in digital limbo, were counting down the days until the singer and Chvrches as a whole can return to us in the flesh and leave the screens behind.

Chvrches Screen Violence is out August 27

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Chvrches: Are the machines evil, or are we? - NME.com

World Bicycle Day is observed on June 3 every year to highlight the importance of cycling tradition and its significant role in keeping our health and planet fit. Cycling is a multidimensional exercise done by all age groups, has numerous health benefits, prevents diseases and fosters sustainable development.

The United Nations (UN) declared June 3 as World Bicycle Day, citing its uniqueness, versatility, affordability, reliability and eco-friendliness. The Global Cycle Day is celebrated to recognise the significance of cycling as a mode of transportation for over two centuries, its longevity and usefulness.

On the occasion of World Cycle Day, the UN appeals to its shareholders and members to understand and generate awareness on the advantages of cycling.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bicycle Day won't be celebrated with pomp and show and people and various organisations committed to promoting cycling will be organising different online events.

People in these virtual events will discuss cycling related events like cycle races, slow cycling competitions and other programmes.

READ ALSO| World Environment Day 2021: History, theme, significance and quotes

Bicycle as a means of transport is cheap and affordable by both rich and the poor. The blue and white logo of World Bicycle Day, which depicts cyclists around the world with the hashtag #June3WorldBicycleDay was designed by Isaac Feld. Professor John E Swanson made the accompanying animation.

-Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.-HG Wells

-My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything.-Peter Golkin

-Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of a bike ride.- John F Kennedy

-Cyclists see considerably more of this beautiful world than any other class of citizens. A good bicycle, well applied, will cure most ills this flesh is heir to. Dr K.K. Doty

-A bicycle ride around the world begins with a single pedal stroke. Scott Stoll

- Learn to ride a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live. Mark Twain

-Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring. Desmond Tutu

-Cycling isnt a game, its a sport. Tough, hard and unpitying, and it requires great sacrifices. One plays football, or tennis, or hockey. One doesnt play at cycling. Jean de Gribaldy

- Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. Albert Einstein

-Im lazy. But its the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didnt like walking or carrying things. -Lech Walesa

-You dont have to worry about going to the gym if you are going to cycle every day.

-Save the Planet. Ride a bike.

-Like dogs, bicycles are social catalysts that attract a superior category of people.

-A bad day on a mountain bike always beats a good day in the office.

-I dont ride a bike to add days to my life. I ride a bike to add life to my days.

-Bicycle is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation. On this World Bicycle Day, let's try to make bicycles a part of our lifestyle.

-The bicycle is an affordable transport and does not threaten the environment either and thus gives a win-win situation to society. Happy World Bicycle Day 2021!

-This June let us cycle our woes away! Happy World Bicycle Day!

-The cycle reminds us of our childhood days and we are very happy that the United Nations has dedicated a day to the humble bicycle. Happy World Bicycle Day to everybody!

-Cycling is a favorite sport across the globe and we are happy to promote our favorite sport. Happy World Bicycle Day to all!

-If people would consider a bicycle a means of commutation, it would ease the traffic and cut down pollution by a great extent. Happy World Bicycle Day 2021!

- Imagine your crush riding a bicycle back home from work next to you on a lonely lane. Yes, bicycle rides can be romantic too! Happy World Bicycle Day!

- Adopting the bicycle as a means of daily commutation will help in the improvement of the mental and physical health of the people. Happy World Bicycle Day!

- The humble bicycle has the potential to save the planet. Cheers to the bicycle and wish everyone a Happy World Bicycle Day 2021!

-The joy of riding a bicycle is getting lost because of the growing addiction to gadgets and busy life schedules of people. Wishing everyone a very Happy World Bicycle Day!

-A bicycle can be looked at as a way of bridging the differences between sections of society. Heres to promoting equality and good health. Happy World Bicycle Day 2021!

Keep cycling and stay fit!

READ ALSO| World Bicycle Day 2021: Date, importance and how we can celebrate the day

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World Bicycle Day 2021: Here are some quotes, messages, images and wishes that you can share with your loved ones - India Today

The sheer magnitude of that loss was a global tragedy, but it was made even more tragic because a relatively simple treatment for severe dehydration existed, one that could be performed by nonmedical professionals outside the context of a hospital. Now known as oral rehydration therapy, or O.R.T., the treatment is almost maddeningly simple: give people lots of boiled water to drink, supplemented with sugar and salts. (Americans basically are employing O.R.T. when they consume Pedialyte to combat a stomach bug.) A few doctors in India, Iraq and the Philippines argued for the treatment in the 1950s and 1960s, but in part because it didnt seem like advanced medicine, it remained a fringe idea for a frustratingly long time.

That finally changed in 1971, after Bangladeshs fight for independence from Pakistan sent a flood of refugees across the border into India. Before long, a vicious outbreak of cholera had arisen in the crowded refugee camps outside Bangaon. A Johns Hopkins-educated physician and researcher named Dilip Mahalanabis suspended his research program in a Kolkata hospital lab and immediately went to the front lines of the outbreak. He found the victims there pressed against one another on crowded hospital floors coated in layers of watery feces and vomit.

Mahalanabis quickly realized that the existing IV protocols were not going to work. Only two members of his team were even trained to deliver IV fluids. In order to treat these people with IV saline, he later explained, you literally had to kneel down in their feces and their vomit.

And so Mahalanabis decided to embrace the low-tech approach. Going against standard practice, he and his team turned to an improvised version of oral rehydration therapy. He delivered it directly to the patients he had contact with, like those sprawled bodies on the floor of the Bangaon hospital. Under Mahalanabiss supervision, more than 3,000 patients in the refugee camps received O.R.T. therapy. The strategy proved to be an astonishing success: Mortality rates dropped by an order of magnitude, to 3 percent from 30 percent, all by using a vastly simpler method of treatment.

Inspired by the success, Mahalanabis and his colleagues started a widespread educational campaign, with fieldworkers demonstrating how easy it was for nonspecialists to administer the therapy themselves. We prepared pamphlets describing how to mix salt and glucose and distributed them along the border, Mahalanabis later recalled. The information was also broadcast on a clandestine Bangladeshi radio station. Boil water, add these ingredients and force your child or your cousin or your neighbor to drink it. Those were the only skills required. Why not let amateurs into the act?

In 1980, almost a decade after Bangladeshi independence, a local nonprofit known as BRAC devised an ingenious plan to evangelize the O.R.T. technique among small villages throughout the young nation. Teams of 14 women, each accompanied by a cook and a male supervisor, traveled to villages, demonstrating how to administer oral saline using only water, sugar and salt. The pilot program generated encouraging results, and so the Bangladeshi government began distributing oral hydration solutions in hundreds of health centers, employing thousands of workers.

The Bangladeshi triumph was replicated around the world. O.R.T. is now a key element of UNICEFs program to ensure childhood survival in the Global South, and it is included on the World Health Organizations Model List of Essential Medicines. The Lancet called it potentially the most important medical advance of the 20th century. As many as 50 million people are said to have died of cholera in the 19th century. In the first decades of the 21st century, fewer than 66,000 people were reported to have succumbed to the disease, on a planet with eight times the population.

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How the Human Life Span Doubled in 100 Years - The New York Times

Given these statistics, you might expect that the record for longest life span would be increasing, too. Yet nearly a quarter-century after Calments death, no one is known to have matched, let alone surpassed, her 122 years. The closest was an American named Sarah Knauss, who died at age 119, two years after Calment. The oldest living person is Kane Tanaka, 118, who resides in Fukuoka, Japan. Very few people make it past 115. (A few researchers have even questioned whether Calment really lived as long as she claimed, though most accept her record as legitimate based on the weight of biographical evidence.)

As the global population approaches eight billion, and science discovers increasingly promising ways to slow or reverse aging in the lab, the question of human longevitys potential limits is more urgent than ever. When their work is examined closely, its clear that longevity scientists hold a wide range of nuanced perspectives on the future of humanity. Historically, however and somewhat flippantly, according to many researchers their outlooks have been divided into two broad camps, which some journalists and researchers call the pessimists and the optimists. Those in the first group view life span as a candle wick that can burn for only so long. They generally think that we are rapidly approaching, or have already reached, a ceiling on life span, and that we will not witness anyone older than Calment anytime soon.

In contrast, the optimists see life span as a supremely, maybe even infinitely elastic band. They anticipate considerable gains in life expectancy around the world, increasing numbers of extraordinarily long-lived people and eventually, supercentenarians who outlive Calment, pushing the record to 125, 150, 200 and beyond. Though unresolved, the long-running debate has already inspired a much deeper understanding of what defines and constrains life span and of the interventions that may one day significantly extend it.

The theoretical limits on the length of a human life have vexed scientists and philosophers for thousands of years, but for most of history their discussions were largely based on musings and personal observations. In 1825, however, the British actuary Benjamin Gompertz published a new mathematical model of mortality, which demonstrated that the risk of death increased exponentially with age. Were that risk to continue accelerating throughout life, people would eventually reach a point at which they had essentially no chance of surviving to the next year. In other words, they would hit an effective limit on life span.

Instead, Gompertz observed that as people entered old age, the risk of death plateaued. The limit to the possible duration of life is a subject not likely ever to be determined, he wrote, even should it exist. Since then, using new data and more sophisticated mathematics, other scientists around the world have uncovered further evidence of accelerating death rates followed by mortality plateaus not only in humans but also in numerous other species, including rats, mice, shrimp, nematodes, fruit flies and beetles.

In 2016, an especially provocative study in the prestigious research journal Nature strongly implied that the authors had found the limit to the human life span. Jan Vijg, a geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and two colleagues analyzed decades worth of mortality data from several countries and concluded that although the highest reported age at death in these countries increased rapidly between the 1970s and 1990s, it had failed to rise since then, stagnating at an average of 114.9 years. Human life span, it seemed, had arrived at its limit. Although some individuals, like Jeanne Calment, might reach staggering ages, they were outliers, not indicators of a continual lengthening of life.

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How Long Can We Live? - The New York Times

Possible in 0-5 years

A compound known as alpha-ketoglutarate extends life span in female mice and health span in mice of both sexes. A trial is testing its effects on markers of aging in humans.

Obesity can take more than 10 years off life expectancy, and semaglutide, a drug that could soon be approved for weight loss, is about twice as effective as current medications.

Elamipretide, a drug that helps restore function to flagging mitochondria, the cells power plants, is awaiting F.D.A. approval as a treatment for a rare mitochondrial disease.

Maintaining widespread mask-wearing practices could result in a long-lasting drop in influenza deaths, which numbered 12,000 to 61,000 annually in the United States in the decade before the pandemic.

Further decoding and analyzing the genomes of those who live to be 110 or older could provide useful insights into what accounts for their longevity.

A bill in Congress targets, in part, a disparity in which Black women in the United States are about three times as likely as white women to die during the period including pregnancy, childbirth and the first year postpartum.

A compound similar to MOTS-c a micropeptide that boosts physical fitness, prevents obesity and increases healthy life span in mice is in human trials and could be approved within four years.

New ways to mobilize the immune system against cancer and fresh combinations of existing treatments will bring the immunotherapy revolution to a wider variety of hard-to-treat cancers.

Devices that stimulate the brain using specific frequencies of light and sound might help treat Alzheimers disease and other causes of cognitive decline.

Vaccines that exploit mRNA technology, which found proof of concept with Covid-19, are in the pipeline for melanomas, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and more.

Respiratory infections kill some 750,000 children under age 5 each year. The W.H.O. and UNICEF hope to reach their target of fewer than three deaths per 1,000 births through vaccination, breastfeeding, access to quality health care and reduced pollution.

Possible in 5-10 years

A bill in Congress that would put drunken-driver-detection technology, sometimes known as ignition interlocks, in all new cars sold in the United States could prevent some 10,000 deaths annually.

A third of the world is not yet protected by the kinds of tobacco-control measures that avert millions of deaths every year and the U.N. wants to change that by 2030.

Clinical trials are currently using the gene-editing tool to treat blood disorders, cancer and an inherited form of blindness; a heart-disease intervention is being researched.

Deep-brain stimulation to reduce the urge to eat and to boost metabolism could be approved to treat a subset of obese people who dont respond to other interventions.

Drugs that mimic some benefits of exercise are in development for conditions like acute kidney injury and Duchenne muscular dystrophy; someday they might help delay the effects of aging.

Based on studies in mice, treatments that mimic the chemistry of young blood by diluting plasma or regulating other factors could extend healthy life, maybe by decades.

Metformin already helps millions manage their Type 2 diabetes and alleviate risk from cancer, heart disease and even Covid-19. A clinical trial is testing whether it could lower mortality for all.

Hitting U.N. targets for the use of the therapy could help prevent diarrhea deaths in children under 5 which currently number around 500,000 annually by 2030.

A functional cure for H.I.V., suppressing the virus without the need for continuing treatment, could be F.D.A.-approved within 10 years.

Higher levels of education correlate with longer life spans. By 2030, the U.N. aims to ensure that all children worldwide complete primary and secondary school.

Personalized medications and diets could optimize the populations of microbes in our gut, which change as we age and are linked with nearly every system in the body.

The C.D.C. is helping efforts to boost to 80 percent the proportion of eligible Americans who are screened for colorectal cancer through at-home stool tests and other tools by 2030.

The U.N.s goal to end childhood malnutrition by 2030 could save the lives of more than two million children younger than 5 per year.

Possible in 10-20 years

Gene therapies may allow us to tweak genes or regulate their expression to prevent or treat common types of cancer, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and neurological conditions.

A study in The Lancet Global Health found that substantially broadening the services midwives can provide in developing countries could avert 41 percent of maternal deaths, 39 percent of neonatal deaths and 26 percent of stillbirths.

Tuberculosis killed about 1.4 million people in 2019. By 2035, the W.H.O. aims to reduce TB deaths by 95 percent.

Researchers are exploring multiple approaches to a drug that could prevent or sharply slow the progression of Alzheimers, which killed more than 120,000 Americans in 2019.

Drug cocktails in development could slow or reverse epigenetic clocks, which are molecular changes to DNA that influence what genes become expressed as you age.

The only malaria vaccine available today requires four shots to achieve at best 40 percent protection; new jabs in clinical trials, and mRNA vaccines further down the road, could do much better.

Bladders cultivated in labs already reside in humans. Once researchers figure out how to recreate the complex system of blood vessels in other organs like kidneys, livers and hearts many more could follow.

A new class of drugs might be able to kill or neutralize senescent cells, which emit molecules that hasten inflammation and other hallmarks of cellular decline.

Rapamycin, an antifungal first approved to prevent organ rejection, has stretched the lives of mice by more than a third. A trial is testing its effects in 350 dogs; human trials are being scheduled.

African-Americans are historically underrepresented in clinical trials. Fixing that disparity, alongside other health initiatives, could help narrow the life-expectancy gap between white and Black Americans (78 years vs. 72 years).

Possible in 20-50 years

Worldwide implementation of self-driving cars could reduce deaths from car accidents by an estimated 585,000 lives over a 10-year period.

Widespread transition to electric vehicles in the United States could improve air quality enough to save 6,300 lives annually by 2050.

Researchers estimate that addressing air pollution by eliminating fossil-fuel emissions and instead relying on wind, solar, nuclear and other low-emission energy sources, could raise life expectancy by 1.1 years.

Better ways to kill mosquitoes and mosquito larvae, more access to rapid tests and new artemisinin treatment therapies could end malaria and the 400,000 deaths it causes each year within decades.

Even if the U.N.s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 is increasingly unlikely, ongoing economic growth combined with stronger global tax laws would help to extend life spans.

Possible in 50-100 years

Advanced robotic surgeons could suture wounds, remove tumors and repair tissue with unparalleled precision, reducing fatalities from medical errors.

One day, nano-scale robots inside our bodies could construct sensors and other devices that would help dissolve blood clots, fight cancer and deliver precisely targeted drugs.

Triggering a handful of genes can make cells young again and rejuvenate organs. With a carefully timed injection, researchers recently restored sight to mice with damaged optic nerves.

Advanced robotics and A.I. enable the ultimate personalized medical station: After morning saliva and urine checks, a home medical appliance designs and prints medicine to optimize your metabolism and microbiome for that day.

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Can We Live to 200? Here's a Roadmap - The New York Times