Category Archives: Immortality

rnst Jnger had most likely never heard of Mayo nor Gaelic football when, exactly 100 years ago, he drafted perhaps the most savage and lyrically striking account of war ever committed to print.

Yet the stark, three-word title of the German World War One veteran's visceral recollection of life in the trenches feels like a perfect fit when considering what James Horan's side will encounter when they gallop over Croke Park's brow and into the eye of Dublin's murderous efficiency.

Storm of Steel.

If Mayo are to locate unmatchable glory, if they are to make matchwood of so many dire predictions, if they are to finally touch fantasy, it will require the greatest act of defiance the GAA's old house of worship has ever known.

They are required to defy gravity and logic and the apparently immutable laws of nature.

Only the kind of wild and admirable contrariness that is their calling card will convince Mayo they can bend the rules of physics.

Their most potent asset is that they stride onto a rectangle of grass that Dublin pitiless, incomparable, insatiable, magnificent Dublin have transformed into a killing field, armed with the absolute conviction that they will win.

Aidan OShea and Cillian OConnor and Patrick Durcan will not doubt for even a nanosecond that they can take down Brian Fenton, Ciarn Kilkenny and Dean Rock.

It doesnt matter that such a mindset might seem illogical, the same kind of unhinged optimism that persuades a lion-tamer certain he will emerge unscathed from sticking his head between the jaws of a hungry jungle cat.

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Michael Fitzsimons of Dublin battles with Mayo talisman Cillian O'Connor

SPORTSFILE

The very fact they wear a cape of defiance rather than the cloak of inferiority that is the uniform of choice for so many of Dublins trembling opponents offers Mayo an initial shield against the storm of steel enjoyed by few of their peers.

Is it enough to counter the forest of statistics insisting those green and red ambitions are bound once more for the boneyard?

Almost certainly not.

Mayo have not beaten Dublin in 16 attempts spanning more than eight years.

The odds-makers think it is twice as likely that Dublin will win by more than 10 points than lose by one.

Meath, like Mayo, relegated from Division One in late autumn, were pulverised by Dessie Farrell's Sky Blue junkyard car crusher in the Leinster final. Long before the end of a 21-point slaughter, the more squeamish among the TV audience felt obliged to avert their eyes.

Horan understands that he faces an opponent propelled by the kind of ambition that knows no bounds, that it is Dublins way to keep throwing dizzying punches long after their concussed opponent has been counted out.

He knows too that Fenton, Kilkenny, Rock, Stephen Cluxton, James McCarthy and Con OCallaghan all long ago secured residency in footballs hall of fame.

Somehow, still, Horan will not permit himself to surrender to futility as he prepares for one of the great challenges in all of sport.

His county's back catalogue in this match-up is one vaccine against despair.

In 2016 and 2017, the teams contested three All-Ireland finals in 12 months. One of those convulsive contests finished in a draw, the other two were settled by a point. At the end of nearly four hours of superior, compelling football, the aggregate score was 4-41 (53) to 2-45 (51) in Dublins favour.

On one level, the strength of Mayos conviction, that unbreakable belief that can plant their standard on football's highest peak, can seem like a kind of madness.

It is, after all, 69 years since they were champions of Ireland. Some 13 counties among them Louth, Offaly and Derry have lifted Sam since 1951.

If national silverware was the only measure, then Mayo could be accused of marching with a strut that is wildly out of proportion to their achievements.

But then, there is more than a single yardstick to calculate greatness.

Competitive courage, a superhuman defiance, a Terminator-like capacity, even when ruinously disabled, to reform and re-gather and return the following year to battle againthese are the qualities that underpin Mayo.

And have earned them the affection of so many neutrals.

Even more than Kerry, though the latter bagged the only All-Ireland not won by Dublin since 2013, they have found a way to go toe-to-toe time and again with the greatest force the game has ever known.

Beyond that history of insolence, the bedrock on which to construct any kind of solid argument the underdogs can bark loudest on Saturday is non-existent.

Examine the relative strengths of both teams and this can be viewed as a contest between an electric chair and a doomed death row convict.

Dublin's third quarter eruption of brilliance in last year's semi-final, a detonation of shock and awe pyrotechnics that made a mushroom cloud of Mayo hopes, seemed to radically reset the parameters of their decade-long rivalry.

Any war-gaming of likely outcomes based on that game would have Mayo risking not only defeat but destruction.

Dublin, it is true, will not face Mayo's broken class of 2019.

Horan has re-seeded, adding youth, pace and forward potency. Eoghan McLaughlin, Oisin Mullin and Tommy Conroy offer a fresh line of resistance.

Even still, the sense is that Mayo are no longer the force of old certainly not defensively.

Tipperary, a Division Three team, created near double-figure goal chances in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Every time they ran at Mayo, the green and red gates seemed to slide invitingly open.

Offer Dublin a similar scent of blood and their carnivore instincts will take over, inflicting instant annihilation.

The kind visited on even those warriors of rare conviction, who go eyeball-to-eyeball with something as ferocious and unceasing as Dublin's storm of steel.

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Originally posted here:
Roy Curtis: 'If Mayo are to achieve immortality, it will require the greatest act of defiance Croke Park has ever known' - Sunday World

We all celebrate the holidays in a different way. Each family has its own traditions and warm memories from years gone by. Some of us celebrate Christmas, some Hanukkah, some Kwanzaa. Many of our traditional Christmas customs originate from Winter Solstice celebrations. The plants associated with each are an important part of tradition and symbolism.

Winter solstice is Dec. 21. Solstice literally means Sun Stands Still and for a few days around this time of year the sun appears to stand still in the sky. Nearly all cultures and faiths have some sort of winter solstice celebration. They have been with us for thousands of years starting at the beginning of agriculture among people who depended on the return of the sun. We have incorporated many of the plants from traditional winter solstice celebrations into our ownholly, ivy, evergreens, rosemary and mistletoe. How did this come about?

Holly remains green throughout the year when deciduous trees like the oak shed their leaves. Decorating with it throughout the home has long been believed to bring protection and good luck. Placing a ring of holly on doors originated in Ireland since holly was one of the main plants that was green and beautiful with its red berries at this time of year. Norseman and Celts planted a holly tree near their homes to ward off lightning strikes. The crooked lines of holly leaves gave rise to its association with lightning and in fact holly does conduct lighting into the ground better than most trees.

Like other evergreens, ivy symbolizes immortality and eternal life. In England it is traditionally used in kissing balls with holly and mistletoe. It has also stood for fidelity, healing and marriage. Ancient Romans thought it brought good luck and joy. It was worn as a crown or fashioned into a wreath or garland.

Evergreen trees play a role in solstice celebrations. Early Romans and Christians considered the evergreen a symbol of the continuity of life. Fir, cedar, pine boughs and wreaths were used to decorate homes. Small gifts were hung from the branches. This may have been where the Christian tradition of decorating an evergreen tree or Yule tree in December originated. Other sacred trees of the solstice are yew, birch, arborvitae and ash.

We often see rosemary plants trained into a Christmas tree shape. Rosemary is evergreen in the winter and blooms at the same time making it the perfect plant for the holidays. Traditionally rosemary was spread on floors at Christmas as people walked over the herb releasing the fragrant scent and filling the home with blessings and protection.

How did our fascination with mistletoe get started? From earliest times it has been one of the most magical, mysterious and sacred plants of Greeks, Celts, Scandinavia, England and European folklore in general.The Druids believed the mistletoes magical powers extended beyond fertility. It was believed to cure almost any disease and was known as the all healer. Sprigs fixed above doorways of homes were said to keep away lightning and other types of evil. Because the plant is parasitic and has no roots it was believed that it grew from heaven.

Kissing under the mistletoe probably came from the Greek/Roman belief that it bestowed fertility and had life-giving power. In Scandinavia it was considered a plant of peace under which enemies could declare a truce or fighting spouses could kiss and make up. However this tradition originated, its a good one.

The Yule log dates back to the Saxons and Celts. Oak trees represented strength, endurance, protection and good luck. It was the most sacred tree of Europe. On the eve of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, people would keep a huge oak log burning for 12 hours. They would toss oak twigs and acorns into the fire, shout out their hopes and resolutions for the coming New Year and sing Yuletide carols. A piece of the Yule log was saved to start the fire the following year.

Its traditional for us to have some poinsettias in the house for the holidays but they dont have a very long history of European tradition like other plants because poinsettia is a native of Mexico. In the 1820s President Andrew Jackson appointed Joel Roberts Poinsett as the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. In 1828 he found a beautiful shrub with large red flowers growing next to a road. He took cuttings and brought them back to his greenhouse in South Carolina. Because the leaves or bracts turn bright red around Christmas time they have been used as decorations for the holidays ever since.

Traditional plants symbolic of Hanukkah are the citron, myrtle twigs, willow twigs and palm fronds. The Four Species are waved together along with special blessings as part of the synagogue service or at home.

Kwanzaa is a Swahili word that means first and signifies the first fruits of the harvest. With ears of corn, fruit and nuts it is observed for seven days during the last week of December and celebrates the fruit or accomplishments coming out of the year of labor. Each family celebrates Kwanzaa in its own way, but celebrations often include songs and dances, African drums, storytelling, poetry reading and a large traditional meal. Observed by people of all faiths it is a celebration of African roots.

Around the world, holiday celebrations have their own special meaning. So whether you Zoom with friends and distant family or celebrate with your Pod, embrace your own traditions and have a wondrous holiday.

Jan Nelson, a landscape designer and California certified nursery professional, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Email her at [emailprotected], or visit jannelsonlandscapedesign.com.

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The meaning of our holiday traditions - San Lorenzo Valley Press-Banner

The other night I had a dream about my mother, who died over 30 years ago. She looked the same as she had done then, and my dream filled me with happiness, not the sorrow of loss.

Like most people I often dream of the dead. But on this particular occasion I had a moment of half-wakefulness that limbo between sleep and consciousness when the mind is strangely lucid in which a thought came to me: Such dreams are reminders that our dead live on within us.

The next morning, fully awake, I remembered that thought, and tried to figure out what it meant, if anything at all.

Freud interpreted dreams as a psychic mechanism by which the subconscious processes unresolved impulses and issues and brings them to the light of day for resolution.

So, what meaning would I give, in a non-Freudian sense, as to the way my personal dead, those I have known, live again in my dream state, in my subconscious? Could this be a metaphor for a different take of the doctrine of reincarnation, central to much of what is called Hinduism, and in Buddhist philosophy?

Ive always been a bit chary of the belief that the cosmic wheel of karmic consequence causes us to be reborn, over and over, until we finally attain moksha, or nirvana.

To me the idea of reincarnation has always smacked of a sort of spiritual charity shop where a succession of physical forms, like discarded clothes, are passed on from person to person until they become totally outworn and are no longer needed.

But there could be another, simpler view of reincarnation: that we are reborn not in individual physical terms, not as ourselves in the cast-off clothing of different mortal flesh, but in the thoughts and deeds of those we have encountered and who have influenced us, for good or ill, during our lives.

Schopenhauer in his The World as Will and Idea reinterprets reincarnation as a continuum of consciousnesses, each assimilating and subsuming others, like a baton passed on from runner to runner in a relay race.

In Boris Pasternaks novel, the eponymous Dr Zhivago expounds his take on spiritual immortality by suggesting that all of us live on, are reborn, in the ways in which we continue to mould, consciously or otherwise, the lives of others who come after us, not just as our genetic descendants but those who are the offspring of our memes, our mental genes, which we leave behind like footprints on the shifting sands of time for others to follow.

Spiritual masters like Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanak, Mahavira and others, have left behind a memetic legacy as a foundation on which their followers have built faith systems. Mohandas Gandhis active philosophy of ahimsa and satyagraha was derived from Tolstoy and Thoreau, and in turn passed on to Martin Luther King Jr, and others.

Our parents, teachers, friends, even strangers we come into tangential contact with, live on in us by being the wellspring of what we think and do, often without our being aware of our source of motivation.

When we dream of those who are no more, they are not spectres of the past, but are an indispensable part of our own living selves, as we ourselves will be to others, in the flowing river of life called reincarnation.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Many rebirths continue to live within us - The Times of India Blog

Thanks to the likes of Mo Dao Zu Shi and Heaven Official's Blessing, Chinese animation is breaking through in a big way -- particularly BL series.

Donghua, Chinese animation, has rocketed in popularity in part thanks to the BL series Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation in English). Another series based on novels by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Heaven Official's Blessing, is also gaining popularity, being the donghua streamed by Funimation. These popular series have opened the world to danmei (Chinese BL) and have become phenomenons on Tumblr and Twitter. Their global popularity seems to have put danmei on the radar -- giving Chinese comics and animation a wider platform, similar to the popularity Korean comics (manhwa) have received over the years as well.

Danmei, similar to Japan's yaoi genre, is somewhat controversial. Male characters are often put in heteronormative "masculine" and "feminine" roles, perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Danmei is usually made by heterosexual women for the straight female gaze, rather than by LGBTQ creators. However, the genre is also considered a positive step in representation as it pushes LGBTQ romance into the Chinese mainstream.

RELATED: Heaven Official's Blessing Sheds More Light on Xie Lian's Underdog Status

Though homosexuality is legal in China, media with LGBTQ elements tends to be censored because of the conservative government. Danmei series, which contain subtle elements of boys' love, are small but significant breakthroughs -- especially as the live-action danmei The Untamed became one of China's biggest dramas. As danmei becomes increasingly popular, to the point of a global sensation, it may both increase LGBTQ acceptance and lessen China's censorship laws.

Mo Dao Zu Shi and Heaven Official's Blessing are also both part of the Xianxia genre, a genre influenced by traditional Chinese mythology. The protagonists are often "cultivators," people trained in martial and mystical arts, that seek immortality (the closest translation for the concept of "Xian") and supernatural powers. Mo Dao Zu Shi's protagonist, Wei Wuxian, attains Xian only to be killed -- but is then summoned into the world once again, taking over host Mo Xuanyu's body and eventually being involved in a complex conspiracy. Meanwhile, in Heaven Official's Blessing, the character Xie Lian is shunned by the Heavens twice and attempts to ascend a third time.

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Chinese TV Animation Is Starting to Corner the Global Boys Love Market - CBR - Comic Book Resources

A brand new patch was released for the Overwatch retail servers on Thursday, which included a small nerf for Baptiste and a moderate buff to both D.Va and Reinhardt. All of the new changes were tested on the most recent experimental card over the past week before being finalized and released for all modes.

D.Va received a buff in Thursdays patch which changed her health pool from 200 armor with 400 health to 300 armor with 300 health. Armor blocks five damage from any attack that deals more than ten damage, and it halves the damage of any attack that deals less than ten damage. This means that armor is an effective tool for countering shotgun pellets, damage-over-time beams, and weapons that rely on hitting a lot of shots quickly, because armor has a more significant effect on lower damage pellets than high damage hits. By increasing her armor, this change should make D.Va a more durable hero, which is good since she has been feeling pretty squishy for a tank in recent months.

The developers gave Reinhardt a similar buff, increasing his armor from 200 to 250. Post change, Reinhardt has a total health pool of 550 health, 250 of which is armor and 300 of which is health. They also increased the damage of his Rocket Hammer from 75 to 85 damage per hit. The buff to his damage means he can kill a 250 health enemy in three hits instead of four. When combined, these two buffs should make a significant improvement on Reinhardts frontline abilities, since he will be able to deal more damage and take more damage.

Finally, the developers nerfed Baptiste in this Overwatch patch by lowering the health on his Immortality Field from 200 to 150 and increasing the cost of his ultimate, Amplification Matrix, by 15%. He recently received a buff to his Biotic Launcher and Amplification Matrix in the last patch on November 18th. Those adjustments made Baptiste much more effective than the developers had originally intended, so they decided to nerf him by making his Immortality Field slightly worse and making it harder to earn his ultimate.

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Latest Overwatch Patch Features D.Va and Reinhardt Buffs - Hotspawn

Marvel fans around the world recently celebrated the announcement of several new projects and additions to the MCU.

However, the best revelation till now has been about the villain of Thor: Love and Thunder, Gorr the God Butcher, who will be portrayed by Christian Bale.

As the name suggests, Gorr kills Gods.

Read ahead to know why and how he does it.

A young Gorr grew up on an unnamed planet with a crippled leg.

Although he knew that he must pay homage to Gods to keep his family safe, he questioned his faith when both of his parents die.

Years later, when his partner Arra and their kids also perish, Gorr loses all faith in the Gods, which results in his tribe disowning him.

After being shunned by his tribe, Gorr wanders around the deserts where he witnesses two Gods on the ground.

When the surviving God asks Gorr for help, he asks, "Where were you when my children were starving? Where were you when we needed our Gods?!"

Then suddenly, the dead God's weapon binds itself to Gorr that enables him to stab the injured God.

The weapon that binds itself to Gorr as a symbiote is the All-Black the Necrosword. In fact, all symbiotes of Marvel Comics (like Venom) descend from this weapon.

Necrosword allows for immortality, flight, regeneration, conjuring weapons, and other superhuman abilities.

Gorr uses his new-found abilities to create versions of his dead wife and son, along with his own guards called the Black Berserkers.

After his first kill, Gorr decides to become the God Butcher, and eventually faces the Asgardian God of Thunder, Thor.

On the first encounter, he almost kills young Thor. During the second time, Thor teams with two other versions of himself from different eras to defuse his Godbomb and kill him.

On their final encounter, Thor defeats a resurrected Gorr.

In comics, Gorr is a mortal without his memories after the destruction of the All-Black symbiote.

He is living his life in peace with the Sky Lords of Indigarr.

Gorr has proved to be a mighty adversary for Thor and has had a huge impact on his life.

It would be interesting to see how Bale brings this character to life on-screen.

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#ComicBytes: Who is Gorr the God Butcher? | NewsBytes - NewsBytes