Category Archives: Human Longevity

Peter Wohlleben manages a forest in the Eifel Mountains of Germany. Hes most familiar with the struggles and strategies of beeches and oaks. And from decades of observing, studying, living, breathing, and walking among the trees, he has come to discover a parallel world that is invisible to most of us.

Modern forestry is principally concerned with producing lumber. It was Wohllebens job to size up hundreds of trees a day with an eye toward the marketplace. It was only when, in the mid-90s, he began to organize survival training and log-cabin experiences for tourists that he began to wake up to the mystery, variety, complexity, and wonder of trees.

He wrote about that awakening in the 2015 bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World (Greystone Books, $17).

The Foreword by scientist, explorer, and conservationist Tim Flannery sets the tone:

One reason that many of us fail to understand trees is that they live on a different time scale than us. One of the oldest trees on Earth, [Old Tjikko], a spruce in Sweden, is more than 9,500 years old. Thats 115 times longer than the average human lifetime.

Trees, it turns out, are social. Theyre sophisticated communicators. They experience pain, have memories, and live with their children.

Trees can taste and smell. Certain trees release chemicals to alert their neighbors that a threat in the form, for example, of a leaf-eating giraffe is at hand. Others, when under attack by insects, send out chemical signals to attract predators that will eat the insects.

Trees exchange nutrients through their root systems, including with their competitors. The system is to everyones advantage, because a grouping of trees creates an ecosystem that, among other things, can regulate temperature, store water, and generate humidity.

Sick members of the community are nursed and nourished; its as if trees, too, exist as part of a Mystical Body. So strong is the instinct toward collective health that a kind of equalization principle is at work, whereby more robust trees work to strengthen the weak.

As with humans, trees that grow in isolation generally fail to thrive. And as in the human world, hierarchies exist certain trees are favored. A tree will voluntarily curtail the growth of branches that would otherwise impinge upon the light needed by a neighboring friend, but have no problem in crowding out a nonfriend. Roots of friends become intertwined to such an extent that they sometimes even die together.

Trees register pain by means of electrical signals at the site of the wound. Chemical signals are also transmitted through fungal networks that form around the root tips.

Trees know how to conserve energy: They can go through periods where they sleep, then, possibly after several years, wake. Mother trees purposely limit the amount of light available to their children, as slow growth makes for longevity.

Trees store water in order to survive hot summers and drought. Wohlleben considers the mystery of how that water makes its way from the trees roots all the way up to their leaves.

Insects, butterflies, bees, foraging animals, birds: all depend upon and, in a kind of complex, intricate dance, interact with the trees pollen, seeds, leaves, nuts, and flowers.

Old Tjikko is a tree in Fulufjll in Sweden which is claimed to be the oldest tree in the world, by age of its root system. (Wikimedia Commons)

Over time, Wohlleben developed a new way of managing forests that is both more productive and more profitable: more humane, you could say.

He goes so far as to speak of love among trees.

Some may object to such anthropomorphization but universally acclaimed childrens author Hans Christian Andersen took things a step further.

In fact, this is the perfect time of year to read, or re-read his short story The Fir Tree.

Andersens young tree lived in a beautiful forest. The sun shone, the soft air fluttered its leaves, and the little peasant children passed by, prattling merrily, but the fir tree heeded them not.

The tree was so restless, in fact, that it took no pleasure in the warm sunshine, the birds, or the rosy clouds that floated over it every morning and evening. Sound familiar?

In winter, when the snow glittered on the ground, the fir saw that other, bigger, trees were chosen to be cut down and carried away by laughing bands of revelers. Oh, if I could but keep on growing tall and old! the fir tree thought. There is nothing else worth caring for in the world!

After several years, the trees fondest wish is granted. On Christmas Eve, it finds itself in a lavish home, decorated with golden apples, figs, toys, and glowing candles. For one night, the children enjoy their orgy of food and gifts. The next day the tree is relegated to a dark corner of the attic, where it yellows, dries, and is at last hauled out, unceremoniously chopped into tiny pieces, and burned.

Moral: Lets enjoy that warm sunshine, those rosy clouds, and the friends and family with whom the good Lord has graced us now! Wishing one and all a blessed Christmas.

Original post:
The hidden lives of trees - Angelus News

In a highly commendable move, the Rajapaksa brothers, who hold the reins of power in Sri Lanka, invited the UN Human Rights Council dealing with contemporary forms of slavery to visit Sri Lanka, study the living conditions of the most exploited sections of society like people working in garment firms in export promotion zones, tea plantation workers and migrants. Sri Lanka is the first country in South Asia to take this imaginative initiative. Will other countries in the region emulate the Sri Lankan example?Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur, visited Sri Lanka between November 26 and December 3 for an on-the-spot study of the problems and met a cross section of workers, government officials, trade union leaders and NGOs involved in the subject. The rapporteur presented the preliminary findings in a meeting held on November 26. The final report would be submitted to the UN in September 2022.The workers in the tea plantations are of Indian Tamil origin. Apply any yardstickper capita income, living conditions, longevity of life, educational attainments and status of womenthey are at the bottom of the ladder. The UN Special Rapporteur has highlighted: Contemporary forms of slavery have an ethnic dimension. In particular, Malaiyaha Tamilswho were brought from India to work in the plantation sector 200 years agocontinue to face multiple forms of discrimination based on their origin. In 2017, Sri Lanka celebrated the 150th anniversary of its tea industry. The government and the planters organised a number of seminars and conferences to highlight the role of the tea industry in the economy, how to increase production in the sector and how to modernise it. The Institute of Social Development in Kandy was the only organisation that convened a seminar on those who produce the Two leaves and a Bud (novel written by Dr Mulk Raj Anand) that brings cheer early in the morning to millions across the world.The contrasting lives of the planters and workers should be highlighted. Given below are two quotations that describe the contrast. The BBC, in 2005, telecast a documentary titled How the British Reinvented Slavery. The documentary portrays the lives of the planters as follows: You can sit in your veranda, and sip the lemonade and be fanned by a servant and have your toenails cut at the same time by some coolie, and you can watch your labourers working, you could sleep with any woman you wanted, more or less everything was done for you from the time you wake up and the time you went to bed. People looked after you, people obeyed you, people are afraid of you, your single word as a plantation owner could deny life.Vanachirahu, a young poet from Malaiyaham, gave expression to the innermost feelings of his people in times of communal troubles. In a poem titled Dawn, the poet writes: Our nights are uncertain, dear, let us look at each other, before we go to bed. This may be our last meaningful moment. Finally press your lips on the cheeks of our children. Then let us think about our relatives for a moment. Lastly let us wipe our own tears.The most important feature of the Malaiyaha Tamils is the sharp decline in their population. At the time of independence in 1948, they were more in number than Sri Lankan Tamils. Because of the two agreements signed in 1964 and 1974 between Colombo and New Delhi, and repatriation of a large number of people as Indian citizens, their number declined. Today, according to census statistics, they number only 5.5% of the population.For the first few decades after independence, the major problem confronting the Indian Tamil population was the issue of statelessness. With a judicious mix of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggles, the community, under the leadership of Savumiamoorthy Thondaman, was able to extract citizenship rights from a recalcitrant Sinhalese-dominated government. All those born in Sri Lanka after October 1964 were granted citizenship, which also included the residue of the Sirimavo-Shastri pact, yet to be repatriated to India. With the introduction of the proportional system of representation under the 1978 Republican Constitution, the community was able to send more representatives to Parliament.The community is now engaged in a struggle for equality and dignity. The living conditions are improving but much more remains to be done before they can enjoy the status of perfect equality. First and foremost, human rights violations continue to take place. Though the political parties representing the Malaiyaha Tamils never subscribed to the demand for a separate state, they were subjected to vicious and savage attacks by lumpen sections of Sinhalese in 1977, 1981 and 1983. I happened to be in Hatton after the Bindunewa massacre in 2006. Indira, a young lady, confided that she was scared to move around Hatton because of insecurity. She contrasted that to her life with her brother in Perambur, Chennai, where she could go without any fear for late-night film shows. Second, the tea workers daily wage is around 1,000 Sri Lankan rupees, which is not even sufficient to meet their daily needs. Many, therefore, absent themselves from the plantations and go to work in vegetable farms where they are able to get double the wages, in addition to breakfast and lunch. Finally, while every boy and girl goes to school, there are many dropouts. Very few enter the university level. I was associated with the University of Peradeniya as a SAARC Professor for International Relations in 2006. In the final-year BA class, in Tamil medium, there were 10 students, of whom eight were Muslim girls, a boy was from Batticaloa and a girl from the plantation area. In the same year, the number of teachers from the Indian Tamil community in the university was less than 10.In his plan of action for three years, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda has highlighted that there should be more educational exchanges between the two countries. For instance, the Chennai Centre for Global Studies is very keen to step into the scene and assist the Tamil children, especially from the hill country, to come to India for secondary and college education, and is prepared to meet all their expenditures and also offer them scholarships. The community can come up only if they have good value-based education. Tamil Nadu can play a benign role in this direction.The transformation from Thottakattan (barbarian from the plantations), a contemptuous term used by Jaffna Vellalars, to the noble appellation Malaiyaha Tamil is an illustration of the qualitative change that has taken place in the hill country. But much more remains to be done before they become equal citizens enjoying equality of opportunity. Let me conclude with a poem written by M A Nuhman whom I had the privilege to know at the University of Peradeniya: Where there is no equality, there is no peace, where there is no peace, there is no freedom, these are my last words, equality, peace and freedom.

V SuryanarayanSenior professor (retd), Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras(The author was the Founding Director of the Centre in the University of Madras)(suryageeth@gmail.com)

Link:
The plight of Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka - The New Indian Express

The best way to tackle the worsening climate crisis is to slash emissions of greenhouse gases, which are largely released by burning fossil fuels. At the same time, allowing the natural world to recover from spiralling levels of degradation caused by human activity will draw down and store carbon, while also boosting biodiversity, helping to protect the planet.

Getting on with this two-pronged approach ought to be our species number one priority. But while governments and businesses debate how they go about doing this, there have also been many useful developments in science, technology and in government policy that can support this process, or offer parallel assistance to protecting the environment.

With the impacts of the climate crisis looming large over 2021, The Independent takes a look back at some of the most significant climate developments from this year.

Click on the title of each one to read the full article.

The farming of insects for food has been billed as the next sustainable food revolution in western countries many times over in the past few years. One reason for this is, compared with traditional livestock such as beef and lamb, insects require far fewer resources and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Ideas for reflecting away more of the suns rays range from painting buildings bright white to sending giant mirrors into space. If they were ever deployed at scale, each of these proposed technologies would come with novel scientific, political and ethical challenges.

Beyond tree-planting, carbon capture technology has not arrived at scale yet, but enormous strides are rapidly being made in the field. It is now possible to put fossil fuels right back where they came from and were safely stored for millions of years, in the interior of the Earth, not flowing and floating around the exterior. In April, The Independents Andy Martin investigated the potential for carbon capture and storage technology to offer a real solution to the climate crisis.

An electric-powered flying taxi, which was demonstrated at a Paris air show earlier this year, will be ready for passengers by the 2024 Olympics in the French capital, its creators said at the time. The VoloCity air taxi looks like a tiny helicopter with two seats and is topped by 18 rotors fixed to a large circle.

The German start-up is working with the French Civil Aviation Authority to bring electric air taxis to the le-de-France region.

Tree planting could play a crucial role in helping European countries adapt to worsening droughts driven by the climate crisis, a study released over the summer found.

The new research suggested that as well as soaking up CO2, planting new forest across agricultural land in Europe would also boost local rainfall levels.

US company Pavement Technology from Cleevland, Ohio, has invented a titanium-based spray which they say acts as a "sunblock" for asphalt roads. The technology acts to scatter radiation from the sun, and also gives roads greater longevity, its creators said.

The UKs heavily degraded peatlands account for around 5 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions, but they should be an essential carbon store, not a source. Now, major efforts are underway to bring back this critical resource. A 327-hectare site in Yorkshire is at the forefront of the efforts to restore them to their former boggy glory.

This summer the UK government said it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel trucks by 2040 as part of plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

A ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 was announced in November 2020 under Boris Johnsons 10-point climate plan.

Free public transport and schemes to help people green their homes were among actions recommended by a major new report which asked citizens how the UK should get to grips with the climate crisis.

Generating entirely renewable clean energy, from which water would be the only waste product, is feasible and scientists are homing in on the exact means of achieving it, according to research published in July.

A team from Trinity College Dublin is fine-tuning a means of using renewable electricity to split water molecules into their constituent atoms, to release energy-rich hydrogen, which they say could be stored and used in fuel cells.

The process is already possible, and can be done using wind or solar power to generate the electricity required to split the water molecules.

Humanity still has the ability to change course and avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis, scientists said after the UNs latest grim global climate assessment.

In this article The Independent looked at 14 ways individuals can take action.

Food production makes up a third of global greenhouse gas emissions with livestock for beef, lamb, pork and dairy accounting for 14.5 per cent of that. Transforming how we grow food, and what we eat, is a crucial pillar in tackling the climate crisis.

Solutions include: Vertical farms inside supermarkets, using derelict urban sites to grow food close to population centres, and using novel materials such as seaweed for packaging liquids.

The UK government is to spend just over 100m to kickstart a world-leading hydrogen economy, which it hopes will help the fuel become a major energy source and play a significant role in decarbonising heavy industry.

Hydrogen has long been tipped as a clean green fuel that might be used to replace fossil fuels in combustion-based sectors that are more difficult to electrify, such as aviation, shipping, steel and chemical production and other heavy industry.

The worlds first and largest factory to capture and convert carbon dioxide from the air into stone began operations in Iceland in September.

The Orca plant set up by Swiss startup Climeworks AG aims to reduce the effects of the greenhouse gas on the planet and its launch represented a milestone in the direct air capture industry.

Local authorities should not unnecessarily put street lights into rural areas where people could use torches, Lord Deben, the chairman of the Climate Change Committee, said in September.

Light pollution in rural areas has been named as a key reason for the sharp decline in insects across Europe in recent decades, with fears the insect apocalypse could result in a catastrophic collapse of ecosystems across the natural world.

British agriculture could receive a boost worth millions of pounds a year if thousands of honeybee hives were located in solar parks across the country, scientists said in October.

Rising demand for solar power as the UK targets growth in clean energy ahead of its legally-binding 2050 net zero plan, has seen the expansion of large grassy parks covered with solar panels, many of which are situated close to areas of intensive agriculture.

Honey bees living on solar farms could bring major benefits to farmers, researchers say

(Getty)

Speaking in October, the most senior scientific advisor to the UK government, Sir Patrick Vallance, said harnessing the benefits of the natural world is a critical part of hitting net zero by 2050, and must sit alongside innovation in science and technology to tackle the climate crisis.

Sir Patrick warned against relying on magic new technology to solve environmental problems.

This has to be viewed as an all-systems approach, he told The Independent on the role the natural world can play in tackling the climate crisis.

Government scientific advisers from all over the world united in October to call for people to change their personal behaviour in order to help tackle the climate crisis. There will be a move away from the extent of meat-eating weve seen in the past, and I think we all need to think about our flying habits, they said.

Iceland derived 65 per cent of its primary energy from geothermal sources in 2016. Around 85 per cent of all Icelandic homes are heated by geothermal energy. The countrys electricity comes almost exclusively from low-carbon hydropower and geothermal sources.

The UK is not actively volcanic and does not have geothermal reserves on the same scale as Iceland. But there are hotspots across the country with potential for developing geothermal energy. This includes Cornwall, where the countrys first geothermal power plant was commissioned earlier this year.

On the site of the Hellisheidi Power Station, the worlds third-largest geothermal plant located in southwestern Iceland, a world-first experiment has started capturing CO2 straight from air and turning it to stone.

It is a collaboration between Swiss start-up Climeworks, which has created technology to suck CO2 from the atmosphere, and Icelands Carbfix, a company that has developed a technique to turn CO2 to stone in less than two years.

A swathe of Englands biggest land owners and managers signed a joint pact in November, committing them to large-scale habitat restorations and a major tree-planting programme across a portfolio of 10.5 million acres, to help boost biodiversity and tackle the climate crisis.

The organisations, including the National Trust, RSPB and the Duchy of Cornwall have said they will work together to protect and regenerate environments such as peat bogs, woodland and rivers, to help draw down carbon and provide functioning ecosystems in order to help the UKs legally binding goal of reaching net zero by 2050.

This month, the government announced the creation of a new concept aircraft which it says will run on liquid hydrogen and could one day fly to the other side of the world with zero carbon emissions and just one refuelling stop.

The 15m project has put forward a design for a mid-size passenger plane that will be able to accommodate 279 passengers and fly halfway around the globe without needing to refuel, or anywhere in the world with one refuelling stop, the government said.

Australia has been ranked one of the planets worst climate performers in multiple league tables, but now some old coal power stations may be converted to run on hydrogen.

The Liddell and Bayswater power stations in New South Wales Hunter Valley currently account for over 40 per cent of the states carbon dioxide emissions.

More here:
Flying cars and sunblock for roads: The best climate solutions of the year - The Independent

Here is what Mossad director David Barnea said: Iran will never have nuclear weapons not in the coming years, and not ever. This is my pledge; this is the Mossads pledge.

I couldnt believe my ears. I wanted to see it with my own eyes. A video of this official event shows the president lighting Hanukkah candles, the prime minister spouting historical nonsense and the Mossad director spouting clichs. But the sentence quoted above nothing. Its disappeared.

Presumably it was left on the cutting room floor in the hopes it would be forgotten. Nevertheless, theres no doubt the Mossad chief said what he did, and his comments deserve to be discussed.

First, the Mossad director needs to grasp a painful truth he doesnt decide anything. Not whether Iran will have nuclear weapons, and not whether Iran wont have nuclear weapons. Because what can you do, the Mossad director only belongs to the servant class, not the decision-making class. And like all service providers (including secret services), the Mossad director is authorized to do only what hes told to do.

Heres an incident from the past that proves the point. Some decades ago, the heads of the secret services were ordered to assist the (evil) secret services of Irans then-ruler by providing equipment and training. And of course, they obeyed.

And thats what will happen in the future as well. If any Mossad director, including the current one, is again asked to help an Iranian tyrant (perhaps because of his support for the settlements or something like that), he too will obey. After all, thats the essence of his job obedience. Perhaps not blind obedience, but definitely squinting obedience.

Moving on, the Mossad director also declared that his pledge was forever. Thats a bit presumptuous, isnt it? Especially coming from someone whose term will end in another five and a half years at most.

His lifespan to everyones great regret, of course also isnt eternal. In just another 55 years, hell turn 120. And that, as everyone knows, is the upper limit God set for human longevity, according to Jewish tradition.

But its still permissible to hope that the world will go on for a few years after that. Therefore, the Mossad directors personal pledge that Iran will never have a nuclear bomb is about as coherent and impressive as a personal pledge by his Iranian counterpart that Israel will never have a nuclear bomb.

Moreover, the Mossad is undoubtedly an efficient assassination enterprise, and assassinations are very good for the ego, morale and the enthusiastic media. But they dont produce any real benefits. The Mossad also has a successful dirty tricks department that knows how to plant viruses in electric razors, disrupt the timetables of cable cars and even cause centrifuges to spin out of control. This department, too, is good at tactical annoyances but fails to produce any strategic benefits.

By contrast, the Mossad and its ilk around the world have been consistent failures for many years at anything connected to actual intelligence and strategic analysis. As proof, consider the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Yom Kippur War, the first intifada, the Iraq war, the attack on the Twin Towers, the war in Afghanistan and more and more and more resounding, embarrassing strategic failures that have escaped my gaze. But the top-secret operations are all really terrific.

Therefore, the Mossad director should try to enhance the functioning of his modesty gland and practice lowering his nose in front of a mirror. That might help him later on.

In his defense, I will say one thing only. His remarks were so arrogant, conceited, aggressive and inflated that together they create a frighteningly accurate reflection of Israel in 2021 arrogant, conceited, aggressive and inflated. And for that, he has my thanks.

See the original post here:
What was the Mossad director thinking? - Haaretz

Japanese longevity

The feature about ikigai and Japanese longevity (in particular Okinawa, December 5) is most interesting and useful. Ikigai is essentially about maintaining a positive mental attitude, physical and mental activity and avoiding overeating.

Japan remains at the top of human longevity league while Sardinia is said to be home to the highest percentage of European centenarians. A recent British study of this Sardinian phenomenon claims these long-lived individuals live in hilltop villages, are active most of the day, do not make much use of cars, their diet is mainly vegetables and goat cheese based, and are free from chronic disputes and anger.

Japanese longevity is not just related to ikigai but also to their traditional diet of fish, vegetables, green tea and no animal meats and dairy produce. Several decades ago, US medical statistics identified that, whereas Japanese living in Japan had low rates of heart disease, breast and prostate cancer, compared to the US, Japanese residents in America acquired similar disease patterns to other Americans within two generations. This suggested the diet in Japan was an important factor in Japan residents longevity.

Two important dietary factors contributing to Japanese longevity are thought to be fish and a fermented soya product. Fish, particularly from cold waters, is rich in omega-3 fat, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-coagulant properties besides lowering blood triglycerides levels (the worst factor in cholesterol tests). Fermented soya, which the Japanese call natto, has blood clot loosening properties.

The dietary combination of fish and natto would, therefore, be expected to be just as an effective (if not superior and safer) alternative to aspirin and cholesterol-lowering pharmaceuticals (statins). In the West, if one is not eating fish on a daily basis, one can replicate this Japanese dietary pattern with pure fish oil (marine omega-3) and nattokinase capsules.

Nattokinase is natto in capsule form and, if not available locally, can be purchased online from European suppliers.

In the 1970s and 1980s, US laboratory animal studies and a combined US and Chinese university field study in China produced evidence incriminating excessive animal-derived foods as the main promoter of cancer.

The traditional Japanese diet, containing little or no animal-derived food, probably also contributes to their longevity by lowering cancer risk. Furthermore, soya beans (and all beans and lentils) contain substances which lower breast and prostate cancer risk.

ALBERT CILIA-VINCENTI former European Medicines Agency scientific delegate, Attard

In the run-up to the Christmas season, or holiday festivities, if you will, a shadow has been cast that temporarily diminished the sparkle of led lights and Christmas cheer. The European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli sought to issue some sugar-coated equality guidelines which were, fortunately, withdrawn following scathing criticism from various quarters within the European Union.

This move coming from Dalli takes me to revisit one of my favourite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas. In Tim Burtons stop-motion animated masterpiece, the grotesque but charismatic character Jack Skellington naively tries to fuse Halloween with Christmas, going so far as to send his minions to capture Father Christmas and replacing presents with Halloween versions, which shock and terrify children and parents.

After realising his folly, Jack the Pumpkin King sets things right by reversing his actions and restores Christmas to its normal state.

Dalli has, likewise, attempted to distort the meaning of Christmas and its symbolism to suit her vision of equality but retracted her steps because of the negative backlash. However, while Skellingtons motivations may have been comical and well-intentioned, those of the commissioner could be different.

I distinctly recall, a few years back, the first draft of the Equality Bill, issued when Dalli was a minister for equality in Malta, which included a rather sinister definition of pregnancy: the state of a person who has within the ovary or womb an implanted embryo, which gradually becomes developed in the latter receptacle.

After the social partners protested against this mad scientist definition of pregnancy, which, underhandedly, attempted to separate the mother from the child, the definition was later changed to a more humane woman with child. Yet, the attempt to strip the concept of a pregnancy of any human element was evident, understood and exposed.

More recently, Dalli bragged about how she deceived the electorate by disguising the true intentions of the Labour Party electoral manifesto through the use of obscure terminology. It seems to me that Dalli harbours opinions to which she is perfectly entitled but would go to any lengths to see these ideas imposed on the rest of society, even by stealth and Macchiavellian tactics.

The proposed guidelines by the European Commission also tried to dissuade the use of names like Mary because of their Christian connotations, under the guise of promoting multiculturalism. Why my mothers name, which Leonard Bernstein in the classic West Side Story describes as all the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word, should have the effect of brandishing a crucifix to a vampire on some people eludes me.

Multiculturalism should be all-embracing. If Frank Zappa chose to name his daughter Moon Unit, I love his music no less, though I still prefer the name Mary to Moon Unit.

The EU has to grapple with striking a balance between its historical and cultural roots and a rapidly changing sociocultural environment. Yet, there is no need to resort to a sledgehammer approach to accept the new by obscuring the history and traditions that unite the countries within the Union.

The branding of the Union its flag is also an affirmation of predominantly Christian culture and values, even if the Union and member states are secular. The blue background and yellow stars are a direct reference to the biblical Mary, not Moon Unit.

In time, this may be challenged by the likes of Commissioner Dalli. Who knows, in future, we may remove the 12 yellow stars that can represent the apostles, the zodiac or the 12 labours of Hercules and replace them with a deconstructed foetus as a symbol of equality!

JOSEPH FARRUGIA Attard

Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@timesofmalta.com. Please include your full name, address and ID card number. The editor may disclose personal information to any person or entity seeking legal action on the basis of a published letter.

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Letters to the editor - December 12, 2021 - Times of Malta

BY TUCKER REILLY, MANAGING EDITOR

Last week, the FX sitcom Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiered its 15th season, officially marking it as the longest running live-action sitcom in US history. The secret to the series longevity lies in its strong cast of characters, clever dialogue and constant boundary-pushing humor, which has allowed Sunny to garner an ever-increasing cult audience over nearly two decades. Additionally, the show has continued to produce quality content throughout its entire run, not suffering from the late season fatigue of many other sitcoms. With its unique comedic genius and historical precedent, Its Always Sunny should be considered the greatest American sitcom of all time.

Like many sitcoms, Sunny is based on a simple premise: five friends run a bar in Philadelphia, concocting schemes and settling scores with the local population. Unlike its thematic predecessor Cheers however, Sunny endeavors from the start to prove that its core cast are the absolute worst people imaginable. In the second season alone, our core five make a fake terrorist threat video, get addicted to crack cocaine, solicit bribes from local politicians and start a deadly Vietnamese gambling ring in the basement, among other crimes. The genius of Sunny lies in this darkness, in showing the viewer each characters rock bottom, then revealing that rock bottom is actually a cliff. Often the world around them acts as a universal straight man to the gangs antics, although Sunny does occasionally relish in finding someone even crazier than its own characters.

One of the defining features of Sunnys longevity is the shows acceptance of change, in contrast to the sitcom norm of status quo. When Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) get addicted to crack cocaine or suffer heart attacks (on separate occasions), they remain encumbered with these problems, although the culmination of their sins make each but a single aspect of chaos within the overall storm. Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) enters the series as a disciplined, business-savvy father figure to the group, who gradually devolves into a near-animalistic train wreck of a human being over time. Characters have children, gain and lose dramatic amounts of weight, suffer permanent afflictions and occasionally die. Sunny understands that its characters are not a mere collection of gimmicks, however, and molds its comedy around the irreplaceable actors themselves.

Its Always Sunny is an inherently character-driven comedy that mercilessly lambasts and pities its characters in equal measure. Many episodes of the show function like car wrecks, locking viewers into the sordid spectacle, while acknowledging the human flaws at each characters center. And more often than not, there is something profound there: we are not these people, yet we understand where their fears, desires and insecurities come from before they are turned up to 11. We want to see them win or better themselves but crave the inevitable implosion of their despicable actions. The snowball rolls on, keeping us firmly stuck within an ever-expanding web of degeneracy.

It is also important to emphasize the exceptional talent brought to Its Always Sunny by the cast and writing staff, who happen to be one in the same. The series core group of Rob McElhenney (the shows creator), Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton and Danny DeVito have built larger-than-life characters around their own strengths and eccentricities, sharply refined over time. The casts familiarity, mixed with Sunnys trademark rapid-fire dialogue, have allowed them to make nearly every scenario comedically valuable, while pushing the boundaries of the show to new heights. A key factor in this development has been creative freedom: due to the shows relatively low profile on FX, McElhenney and co. have been allowed to stretch the series into strange new directions largely without restriction. While some creative decisions such as the shows ironic use of blackface have been poorly received, Sunny has never lacked nuance in its satire. Its Always Sunny is a unique and terrible creation developed by a singular set of people, consistently sustaining itself for over 15 years (even though we all know seasons five through nine are the best, of course). It deserves, without a doubt, a seat at the table as the greatest American sitcom of all time.

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Why 'Sunny' is the greatest sitcom of all time - The Bona Venture