Category Archives: Immortality

To some fans, Altered Carbon's plotline revolving around violence against women may seem gratuitous or unneeded, but in reality, the show's portrayal of this is a huge part of Altered Carbon's feminist perspective. Past, present, or future, sexual violence has sadly always been a central part of society. For Kalogridis and Altered Carbon's cast, this was an important subject to explore, as long as it was done with women at the helm and great care.

In a 2018 interview with Indiewire, James Purefoy, who plays Laurens Bancroft, explained that in Altered Carbon's universe, "violence against women has not ceased just because 350 years have passed." The series is unafraid to show the horrors of the future, both in the twisted uses of technology, and how issues like sexism have changed within the new environment. For Bancroft,a major perpetrator of this, the only line he can't cross is murder, but that doesn't mean he won't hurt women for his own pleasure. He can always buy them a newer and better body, so he sees nothing wrong with it.

But along with showing the worsts of this world, especially through the storyline of Lizzie Elliot (Hayley Law), driven crazy from her experience at the hands of Bancroft and his wife (Kristin Lehman), Kalogridis crafted a story that presents women adapting and overcoming these horrific situations, like with Lizzie's brutal yet cathartic rampage for revenge. Turns out stack technology has a few benefits.

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The dark part about Altered Carbon everyone ignores - Looper

Rev. Milad Selim| Telegram & Gazette

The incarnation of God has dazzled the minds of the most wise for over 2,000 years. The Unknowable becomes known. The Uncontainable is contained in a womb. The Omnipotent is now meek. How, or better put, why would God, the Creator of all things, take on flesh, be born of a virgin mother, voluntarily give Himself over to death for me and you?

The Triune God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed in full unity before all times. Since creation, Gods only desire was to call His people to repentance and everlasting joy. Prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs and confessors were all sent by God throughout all generations to reveal His will and salvific plan. Similar to the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, one by one they were rejected, persecuted or killed for the sake of the Gospel. When all else failed, God the Father willed that His only begotten son take on flesh, be crucified and rise again on the third day to save His people from the captivity of the devil once and for all. It is important to remember that His incarnation and crucifixion are related and must always be viewed in light of His resurrection. Read this hymn from our Eastern Orthodox Church:

Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One. We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection; for Thou are our God, and we know no other than Thee; we call on Thy name. Come all ye faithful, let us venerate Christs holy Resurrection, for behold, through the Cross joy has come into all the world. Let us, ever blessing the Lord, praise His Resurrection, for by enduring the Cross for us, He has destroyed death by death.

Therefore, we can comfortably say that if we only had the birth of a child, Jesus would have been a mere Prophet or a miracle worker. If we only had the Cross, then a fallen world would remain irredeemable and death would continue to have dominion over us. But when His incarnation, crucifixion, death and resurrection are viewed as being part of Gods redeeming plan, we begin to comprehend His essence and why He did what He did.

So who was Jesus? This is a fair question as I often hear people completely mischaracterize Him, even to the point of uttering heresies. I attribute this to their lack of theological knowledge rather than deliberate denial. In short, the answer is He is God! He is not just a man, but God incarnate who took on flesh for our salvation. His humanity is beyond our worldly understanding of true humanity. The humanity we know is fallen, the humanity he came to reveal to us is free of all sins, untarnished and unpolluted, one that is created in Gods image and according to His likeness. Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, was the perfect human and because of Him, we now can become human through the process of deification, also known as theosis - brought about by the effects of catharsis (purification of mind and body) and kenosis (self-emptying).

With all that said, His incarnation did not jeopardize or diminish His divinity. At no point in time during His earthly ministry did He separate His dual natures divine and human. These two natures were united hypostatically. St. Athanasius the Great, a 4th century father of the Church, defended this Christian dogma against heretics by saying, For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.

People who focus on Jesus the man and ignore the fact that He was also fully God diminish His divinity. Jesus was fully human and fully divine, never divided or disunited (For further reading on this, look up the Fourth Ecumenical Council that took place in Chalcedon in the year 451 AD). Jesus came to show us the way towardholiness. We often fall into the temptation of minimizing His divinity to somehow make Him more relatable to our fallen humanity or perhaps to justify our actions, but remember, God is outside of our worldly desires of the flesh. He came into this world to call us out of our fallen humanity. We read in 2 Timothy 1:9-10, [Jesus] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And again in Galatians 5:24, Those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

This is the Savior whom we now celebrate. The redeeming God who became a new-born child for me and you. The Lord of hosts, the Author of creation and the King of peace. Let us embrace Him with hymns of joy. Let us open our hearts and allow Him to enter. He is our hope in times of despair. He is our joy in times of sadness. He is our rock during a storm. While we may not be able to fully comprehend His essence, we know that He took on flesh in order to save me and you. Do not lose hope. Do not put your faith or trust in anything or anyone else.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

The Rev. Milad Selim is pastor of St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Worcester

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Opinion/Keep the Faith: Who is this child? - Worcester Telegram

December 18, 2020, 4 days ago

news heavy metal cryptosis

Dutch futuristic multi-metal eruption, Cryptosis, present the video for Prospect Of Immortality. Watch below.

Says the band: "'Prospect Of Immortality' is a song in which we used an experimental approach of songwriting. In contrast to other material, this song is a lot more atmospheric and doesnt make use of a clear verse/chorus structure. The lyrics are written as a suicide note by a person who can no longer cope with the 24/7 surveillance and human experiments that she is being subjected too. The experiments and lost sense of reality has caused her to believe suicide is the only way out. Trapped inside a continuous cycle of endeavours, she is unable to succeed. The song consists of 5 chapters, each representing a different part of her reality."

Check out the previously released video for Decypher:

Cryptosis are:

Laurens Houvast (vocals/guitar)Frank te Riet (bass/mellotron/backing vocals)Marco Prij (drums)

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CRYPTOSIS Release "Prospect Of Immortality" Single And Music Video - bravewords.com

Bloomsbury, 20

Review by Neil Mackay

FOR a book about how humanity now stands on the cusp of beating the scourge of ageing, I felt pretty damn old by the time Id finished this work by Andrew Steele. There are popular science books and then there are science textbooks, and Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old falls down on the textbook side of the divide.

I dont consider myself a scientific dunce but for someone without a fair bit of scientific learning under their belt, Ageless can be daunting. This randomly selected passage gives a flavour: Another place where clonal expansions are common is among the HSCs the stem cells responsible for making blood cells. The most common driver mutation in HSCs is a gene called DNMT3A.

The book begins well, telling us how the giant tortoises which Darwin studied on the Galapagos Islands gave the first hint that negligible senescence effectively the act of ageing without showing signs of age and biological immortality were possible. If only we could understand the processes which allow these great creatures to live so long, we could mimic them ourselves, extending our lifespans greatly. Harriet, one Galapagos tortoise collected by Darwin in 1835, finally died in 2006.

Steele uncovers just how close we really are to cracking the curse of old age. Were within a few generations of being able to slow and arrest the ageing process, prolong lifespans and eradicate a host of biological evils which have haunted humankind throughout our existence. For that alone, Steele deserves plaudits.

There are some incredible revelations in this book. The science is fascinating despite the dry delivery. Laboratory breakthroughs are now being made in genetics and medicine that will presently herald a new biological era. Humanity could soon see average lifespans expand astonishingly 120-plus might shortly be a not uncommon age to live to, with all your physical and mental faculties crucially intact.

Ageing, we learn, is merely Mother Natures sleight of hand. In terms of our lifespans, it doesnt matter how many years pass, what matters is the degradation of the body caused simply by being alive. Cells wear out, DNA gets ragged, microscopic gunk builds up in the body causing everything from heart attack to Alzheimers. If we can work out how to stop this biological collapse, we can delay, even suspend, ageing. The human body really is a machine and were currently working out how to repair it indefinitely.

This is the realm of biogerontology the study of human ageing. Whats astonishing is that scientists have known for decades that life can be prolonged but with illnesses like polio and smallpox dominating medicine until recently, science has had little time or money to invest in what was seen as the esoteric study of ageless ageing. Now though, as medicine progresses to the point where we can control if not cure monstrous diseases like cancer, scientists have the time and funds to explore the last great frontier: taming ageing itself.

Were looking at the kind of technological breakthroughs that will inevitably inspire a new wave of science fiction. I suspect well see reprised versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray or She both stories about the gift and curse of immortality as these discoveries seep into the public imagination.

What Steele says is both revolutionary and important life-changing in the true sense of the word. His thinking is bold, visionary, utopian: Every day we bring forward a cure for ageing, we save 100,000 lives. We know its scientifically possible. Its now up to all of us to meet the defining humanitarian challenge of our time.

Some ageing experiments have been macabre, like splicing two living rats together one young, one old, to discover if youthful tissue can delay the ageing process in older animals. In short, the answer is: it can giving rise to a whole new concept when it comes to vampirism.

I wanted more of this. I wanted to know the lives of the crazy geniuses who are about to change human existence their motives, their inspirations, their challenges and struggles. I also wanted to know more about the social impact of these new scientific breakthroughs that are coming our way. Steele poses some questions early on about what super-extended life spans would mean when it comes to population, employment, pay, pensions and climate change but quickly leaves that behind as we enter textbook territory.

What struck me most about this book, though, was the sense of personal disquiet it gave me. Middle-aged folk like me, and our children, might be the last two generations to really live with the fear of the grotesqueries of growing old. If Steele is right, and we really will soon be able to keep the human body in a state of almost constant good maintenance, both mentally and physically, then my grandchildren may well inherit a world without cancer, stroke, heart attack and dementia; where diabetes and Parkinsons are beaten; where the simple wear and tear on the human body and brain can be repaired with stem cells, gene therapy and medicines being invented in the lab right now.

These breakthroughs will force humanity to ask huge metaphysical questions about itself, and about the nature and meaning of life. Thats what I wanted from this book.

Great popular science books should work like all the best non-fiction: you follow the writer on a journey into an unknown world populated by fascinating characters. Great non-fiction is full of colour and reportage, sugaring the pill of material that might otherwise seem intimidating. Its the old Reithian trick of entertaining while educating.

I wanted Ageless to take me into a world I knew nothing about and show me the men and women working in the lab wholl change the shape of tomorrow and I wanted Steele to lead me through the moral maze this Brave New World will confront us with as a species. Instead, I felt like I was back at school swotting for my Biology A Level.

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Books: Forever young? How the battle against old age could soon be won - HeraldScotland

Hold my beer.

On Sunday, Celtic achieved Scottish footballing immortality. A nerve-shredding shootout victory over Hearts in the Scottish Cup final lifted Neil Lennons side to the quadruple-treble.

A perfect dozen. 12 competitions, 12 wins. An unprecedented feat or so Celtic thought.

After seeing off Hearts in the Hampden Park decider, the Hoops tweeted: A world first. The #QuadrupleTreble winners, Celtic Football Club.

However, Gibraltar side Lincoln Red Imps took exception to the second and third word of that tweet.

Responding to Celtics tweet, the minnows said: Hold my beer. The #QuintupleTreble 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.

Lincoln won the Gibraltar Football League, the Rock Cup and the Gibraltar League Senior Cup every year between 2004 and 2008.

However, prior to 2014, Gibraltar was not recognised as an official Uefa nation.

Of course, this is not the first time the Red Imps have been a thorn in Celtics side. In 2016, they produced one of the greatest shocks in recent history by beating the Scottish Premiership champions in their Champions League qualifier.

The result marked a humiliating start to Brendan Rodgers reign as Celtic boss. The Glasgow giants did bounce back, however, running out 3-0 winners in the return leg at home to progress to the next qualifying round.

Speaking after Celtics win over Hearts, Martin ONeill who managed Lennon at Celtic said he was delighted for his former player.

Im delighted for him, ONeill told BBC Scotland.

Hes taken a lot of stick in recent months, I think its really uncalled for as well because we are witnessing the 12th successive domestic trophy which hes been a large part of in many aspects.

I really cant believe it. It saddens me to think of him under that kind of pressure. Its not respite for him anymore; its a great evening for them.

Read More About: Celtic, Neil Lennon

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Lincoln Red Imps respond to Celtics world first tweet after quadruple-treble triumph - Pundit Arena

Everton are facing a crucial period between now and the end of the year.

Manchester United travel to Goodison Park on Wednesday, with a spot in the EFL Cup semi-finals on the line.

Then a frantic spell of Premier League action lies in wait, with Everton now up to fourth after three big wins in a week.

We spoke exclusively to former Toffees goalkeeper Nigel Martyn about the forthcoming run, and whether players will be rested in midweek to prepare for the hectic league schedule.

With the quarter-final and so many games coming up, there will be opportunities for fringe players, I think, said Martyn. Maybe not defensively, theres arent many fit.

But there might be a change up front. Both teams will look to rest players, they have to. Theres so many games. You want to try and give players a rest.

Thats Carlos job, where is his priority? Getting back to fourth in the league and theres a chance of Champions League, does that become your priority?

If it does, you then rest players (in midweek) ahead of Sheffield United and Man City.

You rest your players for that, definitely. On the flip side of that, there hasnt been silverware at Everton for a long time and if youre the manager who delivers that, thats your immortality, he continued.

It will be a strong team. The one I dont know is I dont know if hell start with Calvert-Lewin. Youve almost got to rest him and hope that Cenk Tosun or whoever plays does it for him.

Thats the one area. Your stronger squad players, there will probably be three or four of those.

Defensively itll be a strong team. It is an important game, but he has to make one or two changes because of the amount of games. A game of that importance has come at the wrong time of year, really.

As Martyn eludes to, the timing of such a big knockout game isnt ideal, so close to the busy Christmas period.

But it remains a huge game and if United make changes, there could be a major opportunity for Everton to progress into the last four.

Its a big call for Ancelotti and resting Calvert-Lewin would be as well so it will be interesting to see what he decides to do.

READ ALSO: Nigel Martyn claims Everton have two choices to replace Digne

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Exclusive: Nigel Martyn on whether Ancelotti will prioritise EFL Cup or Premier League this week - HITC - Football, Gaming, Movies, TV, Music