File:Machiavelli.jpeg Immortality is a physical trait, typically magical in origin, which temporarily or permanently stops the natural ageing process. Though immortal beings are still vulnerable to disease, poison, or injury, their body will remain the same physical age as it was when it was made immortal for an indefinite period of time. Some creatures and races (such as Elders and Archons) are naturally immortal, but most races (such as Humani) can only become immortal through artificial or magical means. Immortality such as this can be bestowed by a handful of powerful beings, though it can be easily revoked, causing the body of the immortal to reach its true physical age in a matter of seconds, resulting in death. Some spells are capable of granting eternal life - a spell contained within the codex has kept Gilgamesh alive for well over 10,000. The Codex also contains a recipe for the Philosopher's Stone, which grants immortality for a single month before the recipe changes and a new brew must be procured.

Elders often grant immortality as a gift to humans who have helped them. Since this type of Immortality can be revoked with a mere touch, immortals often become servants to Elders. Dark Elders use this leverage to control agents such as Dr. John Dee and Niccolo Machiavelli.

Some powerful beings are capable of bestowing immortality onto humans. Some Elders, such as Aten, Tammuz, and Quetzalcoatl are capable of granting immortality. The Earthlords Isis and Osiris also wield this power, which they used to control Dr. John Dee for centuries.

Nicholas Flamel has been kept alive for centuries by the Philosopher's Stone.

The Comte de Saint-Germain claims to have discovered and perfected a recipe for immortality that did not need to be renewed every month. However, given Saint-Germain's dubious character, this may not be entirely true.

Some spells can grant immortality. Abraham made Gilgamesh immortal (albeit in a flawed way) using a spell contained within The Codex. It is likely that Abraham made Tsagaglalal immortal using a spell as well, however she retains the use of her aura and her memory, which would indicate that the spell was further perfected after Gilgamesh.

Some substances can grant immortality. Injecting vampire blood grants immortality (and does NOT turn the human into a vampire) - Joan of Arc gained immortality upon receiving a blood transfusion from Scathach which was meant to save her life after she was nearly burned at the stake.

Replacing the aura as a life-force can (depending on the replacement) grant temporary or permanent immortality. The Hook of Aether has sustained Marethyu's immortality for millions of years.

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Immortality | The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel ...

It may only be rock n roll, but it was enough to get legendary concert promoter Bill Graham top billing at a new exhibit in his old Upper West Side hood.

The late music impresario who had a hand in everything from the Fillmore East rock club in the East Village to major Rolling Stones tours and the Live Aid benefit is being celebrated with a groovy retrospective at the New-York Historical Society. Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution, running through Aug. 23, takes place just blocks away from 8 W. 86th St., where Graham once lived.

I have this image of him walking on Central Park West, looking at our building and saying, One day, my life story will be in here, says curator Cristian Petru Panaite. And now 29 years after his death, at age 60, in a helicopter crash Graham has finally arrived.

Although his musical reach extended all around the world, his New York roots give this exhibit a fitting home before it heads to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where Graham was a non-performer inductee in 1992. His early years as a child refugee from Nazi Germany, where he was born Wolfgang Grajonca, are covered in photos with the Bronx family who adopted him, along with his yearbook from DeWitt Clinton HS.

Its such a rich and touching story arriving here weighing 50 or 55 pounds, full of rickets, and then finding a family in New York, Panaite tells The Post. He saw the Statue of Liberty when he arrived on the Serpa Pinto in September of 1941.

But the exhibit really finds its rhythm as it moves into Grahams years as a young concert promoter in 1960s San Francisco, showcasing psychedelic posters from the Fillmore Auditorium and the Fillmore West many done by artist Wes Wilson that dip you right inside a lava lamp.

The original marquee letters from the Fillmore East, which opened in March 1968, hang above a display that also includes the wristwatch with two time zones that Graham wore as he traveled from coast to coast to his different venues. Also taking you inside the Fillmore East experience is a special installation on the Joshua Light Show, which served as a trippy backdrop for the likes of The Doors and The Who.

Bill pretty much gave New York the church of rock n roll in the Fillmore East, Panaite says of the club, which closed in 1971. The day before we opened, I got four phone calls from New Yorkers ... telling me that they were at the Fillmore East when they fell in love with their spouse.

Sections of the exhibit are devoted to some of the rock gods Graham helped launch into immortality, both as a promoter and a manager. Among the personal gems are Janis Joplins tambourine and microphone used at a Fillmore Auditorium performance and Jimi Hendrixs patchwork suede-and-snakeskin coat.

Adding to the cool factor of it all, you can immerse yourself in a four-hour playlist on headphones, of course, to keep the rocking out to yourself that is location-activated to sync up with the displays. That means when you get to the Live Aid portion, youll hear State of Shock by Tina Turner and Mick Jagger, Into the Groove by Madonna and Refugee by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Brian Zak/NY Post

Brian Zak/NY Post

Brian Zak/NY Post

Brian Zak/NY Post

The visitor is engulfed by music as they walk through the show, as they learn about the music [Graham] loved as well as the artists he championed, says Panaite.

Live Aid is just one of Grahams benefit concerts remembered here. His tours in support of Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope in 1986 and Human Rights Now! in 1988 are also represented, as is 1990s mammoth show For a Free South Africa, which welcomed Nelson Mandela to the Oakland Coliseum in California.

While those New Years Eve shows with the Grateful Dead were crazy fun, when all is said and sung, Grahams philanthropic work may be his greatest legacy. I think visitors will get a really good understanding of how giving he was, says Panaite. There really was social change that had a positive impact. He was a phone call away to help.

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Meet the concert promoter who fled Nazis and boosted careers of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix - New York Post

Kiev.

A trove of Kremlin documents proving Russian president Vladimir Putins immortality leaks. It brings a sigh of relief to the global movement fearing the Coronaviruss impact on Russias ability to disrupt Ukraines sovereignty for all eternity.

Russian Interior Ministry spokesman Vladimirovich Putinov led a rare public town hall gathering in the Donetsk Peoples Republic in eastern Ukraine this past Friday. His purpose was to assuage the concerns of locals that the current coronavirus restrictions would impact Putins ability to project volatility and uncertainty into the region until the very end of time.

These papers, while I can neither confirm nor deny their source, do serve as a potent reminder that Vladimir Putin cannot be stopped by a pandemic, or by the disinformation attacks suggesting that Mr. Putin is somehow beholden to the universal and human time-space continuum propagated by the western medias fake news.

This announcement comes on the heels of another release from the Kremlins press office. The Kremlins press office happily reassured the Russian people that the slowdowns caused by the pandemic are but a petty inconvenience to Putins mandate to govern the Motherland until the day of reckoning. This is fortunately demonstrated by Putins recent bid to modify the Russian Constitution and remain in power until (at least) 2075.

We assure the Russian people and our concerned friends around the world that Mr. Putins glorious infallibility guarantees him the ability to resist all attempts made by Western governments to impose temporal restrictions on his universal dominion over the passage of time. Such actions are intolerable and unbecoming of the civilized world order in which we find ourselves.

As the Coronavirus ravages nations from the east to the west, Russia watchers have expressed relief knowing that Russian president Vladimir Putin is here to stay thereby granting a measure of stability and predictability in a world that currently thirsts for it.

Thanks for listening.

Disclaimer: This was a satirical article.

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Leaked Kremlin papers reveal Vladimir Putin is incapable of death - SOFREP

Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns is responsible for such genre-defining and genre- defying documentary series as The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz, to name a few. As he and collaborator Lynn Novick prepare to debut their new 10-part documentary film series TheVietnam War on September 17 on PBS stations nationwide, we spoke with the tireless documentarian about leadership, productivity, managing gigantic projects and how to achieve immortality through storytelling.

Related:7 Telltale Signs That You Have aLeader'sMindset

So you just finished this incredible documentary about Vietnam. Are you already thinking of the next three documentaries down the road?

Sorry to say, in a kind of admission of foolishness, Im thinking usually about 13 or 14 films ahead. Im now working on six or seven at the same time, which is insane. A lot of that has to do with the economies of scale that these labor-intensive historical projects require.The Vietnam War was more than 10 years in the making.

How do you choose your subjects?

It is not based on any market research; its a gut feeling. Its the chemistry that happens between friends. Youve got a lot of ideas -- 60, 70 film ideas -- but then every once in a while, one drops from your head to your heart and you go, Gotta do that one. You sort of add that to the queue, and then it just becomes a matter of finding the bandwidth and figuring out who the collaborators are.

Your projects are massive undertakings. How do you keep your focus?

I feel comfortable. A lot of that has to do with [the patronage of] public television, and a lot has to do with my stubbornness. So many people ask me, Ten years? Dont you get bored? But for me, each day it gets better and better. Plus I dont live in Los Angeles or New York City. I live in a tiny village in New Hampshire, which permits us to do the deep dives, to do the necessary researchand keep the sanity in the course of a 10-plus-year project.

Can you give people a picture of the Ken Burns industrial complex? How do these films come together?

The film credits show several hundred people, whom were very grateful for. But every one of the films is really handmade. Even the big series you can reduce to about a dozen or so people. Thats why its hugely important to get your collaborators right, to get people you trust. To learn how to delegate, to trust them. Its great because most of my editors, for example, came as interns and worked their way to apprentices, then became assistantsand then after 10 or 15 years, full-fledged editors. A lot of it is good generalship. A lot of it is extraordinarily careful time management. But the biggest thing is choosing the right people.

Related:4 Ways to BuildTrustand Help Manage YourTeam

Can you talk about giving criticism -- especially when you have such a tightly knit team? Sometimes in a leadership position you have to, for lack of a better term, bust some balls.

Everybody screws up, including me. I have a certain confidence that even in the darkest days, I seem to know what to do next. And I do, and I say that. But thats not to say that the next day it isnt terrible. And Im the first person to admit that. If you create that environment, then theres not a question of needing to bust any balls. Its a question of process. Were all going to try something. We can have disagreements that can be passionate, but theyre not loud and vociferous; theyre not personal and angry. Theres a generous spirit of collaboration. Well finish an episode and turn to the interns and ask, What do you think? And then well ask the senior editors, What do you think? Then the co-producers, What do you think? And visitors, What do you think?" I know I have the right to make the final decision, and I will make that if were in doubt. But I would rather reach a consensus before we have to drop that shoe.

Image Credit Tim Llewellyn

Do you have any personal rules for separating your work from your personal life?

I dont see the blending. I have a lot of colleagues who work all the time, into the nightand on the weekends, but we dont do that. Were like: Come in, and if you can do your work and then go home and see your family, go and do that. Theres a real work ethic, but theres not set hours. We never end up firing anyone. People just say, This isnt right for me, and well just say under our breath, Yep, that wasnt the right fit. But it takes almost no time for people to realize that. Even among the interns who come from various colleges across the country, who work for minimum wage, it becomes clear whos going to make it and whos not going to make it. And thats OK. A lot of people are drawn to film for its apparent glamour and dont realize its really hard work.

What are some things you think are necessary to get you from initial idea to finished project?

You have to know who you are. Theres a kind of ultimate Socratic thing: Who am I? What am I interested in? Whats my strength? Is this what Im supposed to be doing? Do I have something to say? These are huge, existential questions, but they do have practical day-to-day manifestations. I feel very lucky that at age 12 I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, by 19 I knew I wanted to be a documentarianand by the time I graduated I knew it was history. And once you know what you want, getting it requires perseverance. Im sure there are a lot of more talented filmmakers than me, with really great ideas, who just havent followed through. All the choices we make, its got to be, as Emerson said in his essay on self-reliance, whatever inly rejoices. A lot of people think theyre supposed to be a doctor or a lawyer as their parents told them to be, and it doesnt work for them. But if you do what inly rejoices, its going to be OK.

Related:Tap Your HiddenStrengthsto Unleash Your Leadership Skills

As a historian, how have you seen the spirit of entrepreneurship evolve over the years?

I think entrepreneurship is at the heart of who we are in terms of the American promise and the American dream. You have to go back to the fundamentals -- for the first time in human history, we decided to trust the people to govern themselves. That releases all kinds of creative energies. I remember interviewing a writer and historian for my baseball series. He said that when Americans are studied 1,000 years from now, well be known for three things: the Constitution, baseballand jazz music. And what all three things have in common is that theyre improvisatory. The U.S. Constitution is the shortest constitution on Earth. Its four pieces of parchment thats able to provide us with this improvisatory space. And baseball has infinite, chess-like combinations. And of course, the heart of the music thats recognized as an art form is all about improvisation, not playing the notes on the page. And so entrepreneurship is a manifestation of that.

Last question: How do you start your day?

I have no problem starting my day. Coffee is not in my diet. Its the other way around. I have to figure out how to turn off the machine at the end of my day. Thats my biggest problem. There are lots of things to do and not enough time to do them. Theres an interesting truth to the human condition, that none of us are getting out of this alive. None of us. So you could reasonably assume that the human race would just curl up in the fetal position and suck our thumbs all day. But we dont. We create symphonies, we raise children, we build cathedrals, we develop apps, we do all sorts of things that belie that. The thing we do most of all is tell stories to each other. And in the telling of stories, in the making of things, we create a kind of immortality.

For an extended video of Burns' interview, visit entm.ag/kenburns

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Ken Burns Talks About Leadership, Productivity and Achieving ... - Entrepreneur

Metaphors that can teach us something about advancementPatrick Ullmer | Photo CourtesyHumans could learn a lesson or two from roosters.

There is an ancient legend of the Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh and his search for immortality. Gilgamesh was a man who feared dying and being forgotten. He then set out on a journey to find a magical flower that would grant him eternal youth.

After finding said flower, he set it upon the riverbank while he went to bathe in the river. While he was preoccupied, a snake slithered up and coiled around the flower making it vanish.

Gilgamesh emerged from the river to find that he had lost everything he had sought. He would eventually die and be forgotten having lost what would have made him eternal.

There are two morals to this story. The first is that it is better to have tried and failed than to not have tried at all. The second is a far more obvious lesson; if you have a magical flower that can make you immortaluse it first and then take a bath.

There are moments in our lives when we will have to stop and ask ourselves why we even continue on with our current schedules. I dont have your problems, and you dont have mine, but we will both face challenges. The best we can do is to face these challenges head-on, not only to triumph over these difficulties but also just to survive them.

We all fall and we all rise. College can be a tough time for many students. Every student encounters stress and burnout at least once, but this is countered by endless discovery both in the classroom and at home. For every negative, a positive crops up. Winter is coming to an end, and that at least is a plus-sized plus.

An example of this has to do with a rooster on my familys farm who faced the pain and struggles life threw at him with relative ease. He was a red rooster with a very large single comb. A cold winter storm came through the farm. Though we boxed up all of our chickens in the coop and kept them warm, the fleshy points of the roosters comb became frostbitten.

Every time I would head out to feed the chickens I would see the crowned points of his comb turn blue, then black, until they eventually fell off. It looked terribly painful, but it did not seem to both him.

Concerned for this beautiful bird (I have a soft spot for roosters, for your information), I asked a family member what would become of the bird, fearing he could die. I was told that the frostbitten part of the comb would just fall off and not bother the rooster beyond that.

Exactly as I was told, the roosters comb remained on his head, but without the crownlike points. His comb had transformed into a smooth and slick top, from a single comb to a rose comb. Even though he never regained his points, he seemed unphased.

The roosters prime concern was eating, drinking, sleeping and crowing. He was so busy living his own life he did not seem to care about what he lost along the way. A little frostbite wasnt going to stop him.

Like the rooster, dont let your challenges and failure bring you down. Dont be like Gilgamesh and let the loss of a simple flower become your legacy. Instead, use your experiences of failure to help you realize what to do better next time.

A timeless riddle states: The eight of us go forth not back to protect our king from a foes attack. This riddle refers to chess pawns. The pawn in the game of chess seems to be the smallest and most expendable pieces on the board. However, they are arguably the most important pieces due to their simplicity.

Only a pawn can sneak up on a king discretely due to its size, or resurrect a queen by sneaking to the other end of the board. It is their simple role in the game that allows them to be most likely to succeed. Like pawns, we must look at success in simple terms and go forward, not back. Go now and succeed.

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Forth, Not Back - NDSU The Spectrum

Ken Liu does a lot of things as a writer. He creates big, doorstopper novels of his own (the Dandelion Dynasty series), and translates works from some of the best Chinese genre writers working in that language (Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang, others). He writes books about Luke Skywalker and does travel pieces on Shanghai, wrote an essay that became a ballet, writes articles poetry. He is busy.

And when he's not doing any of that, Liu writes short stories. Lots of short stories. He has won just about every award there is to win for short speculative fiction, and the namesake story that beat as the heart of his 2016 collection, The Paper Menagerie, took home the sci-fi triple crown, winning the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award in 2012.

So yeah, I was excited when I got my hands on his second collection, The Hidden Girl, and cracked it open. I was expecting the same kind of deep, emotional connection. The same wild flights of imagination. The same spark of compressed magic that animates the best short fiction the ability to conceive a universe writ in miniature, to tease out only those moments of it that matter most fiercely.

But The Hidden Girl ... is not that. It isn't even really a book of discreet short stories so much as a series of tightly interlinked, self-referential chapters of a distributed novel, broken up by diversions, digressions, thought experiments and a couple pieces that read like intellectual exercises in imaginary brand PR.

There's a three-story arc about artificial intelligence and the singularity ("The Gods Will Not Be Chained," "The Gods Will Not Be Slain" and "The Gods Have Not Died In Vain") that starts as a simple exploration about a daughter mourning her father and ends with an AI war, a scorched earth and a meditation on digitally native intelligences that have never known what it is like to live in the flesh.

"Staying Behind" treads the same ground, only jumped forward in time to a point along the historical arc where a single company, Everlasting Inc., has developed the technology to upload human consciousness. It has the best opening line ("After the Singularity, most people chose to die."), the most rich and developed present, an argument/counterargument structure that Liu returns to again and again in this collection (with varying levels of success) but which, here, feels organic and rounded. The world it presents is slower, simpler, and largely de-populated of living humans, which provides an ideal setting for the friction that develops between parents and children who have radically different ideas of what of the old world is worth hanging on to and what "living" actually means when digital immortality becomes a viable option.

"Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer" goes even further, experimenting with clock cycles as time travel, the reality of forever contained within the promise of immortality, and the possibilities it presents when a mother one of the "Ancients" who actually lived for some years as a person before uploading chooses to send her consciousness into space to explore another planet, but only after spending a last 45-year-long "day" with her digitally-engineered daughter, trying to pass on to her what it felt like to once upon a time live in the real world and not a virtual one.

These linked stories are broken up by unattached tales that fall like partial non-sequiturs in Liu's larger conversation about family, memory and immortality. "Real Artists" is about algorithmic intelligence usurping the creative arts and, ironically, plays out in an incredibly predictable fashion, right down to the stinger at the end. "Byzantine Empathy" is a stilted, manipulative argument between two friends on the nature of charitable giving that reads like an extended infomercial for blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

There are beautiful moments in these stand-alone tales, to be sure. "Seven Birthdays" is like an exploded haiku, bookended by images of kites and flight, the reach of its vision and the broken hearts inside its messy utopian/dystopian future as full and real as its imagination is stunning. "Thoughts and Prayers" is an absolutely haunting vision of trolling and the gun control debate set 20 minutes in our broken future. And there is a way to read The Hidden Girl as a kind of academic exercise performed in public Liu working out his own partially-formed ideas about humanity's potential future on the page, mixing and re-mixing elements, bundling them up with his favorite emotional arcs (aliens and immigrants, family and memory and history), banging notions together just to see what sticks.

'The Hidden Girl' just doesn't hang together as a complete collection. It meanders and repeats itself. It can't commit to a single tone, but can't arrange disparate ones into a sensible flow.

In that way, the collection's titular story, "The Hidden Girl," reads almost like the first chapter of an abandoned novel about Chinese myth and multi-dimensional assassins (and one of the other pieces, "A Chase Beyond the Storms," actually is an orphan chapter of something longer a sneak preview of Liu's upcoming third Dandelion Dynasty novel). "Maxwell's Demon" becomes a (largely failed, clumsy, paradoxically cold) attempt at giving a narrative structure to mathematician James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment about violating the second law of thermodynamics, and "Memories of My Mother" just a (largely successful) experiment in formatting, structure and the laws of relativity.

But as fun as such dissembling can be for those more interested in the way a writer's brain works than settling down with a good yarn, The Hidden Girl just doesn't hang together as a complete collection. It meanders and repeats itself. It can't commit to a single tone, but can't arrange disparate ones into a sensible flow. There are too many places where process overshadows character, or where Liu presents an argument clothed in threadbare narrative rather than a story that proceeds along the natural path of an argument. Like the rogue intelligences that skulk in its pages, The Hidden Girl is smart, sure. How could it not be?

But something about it feels not altogether human.

Jason Sheehan knows stuff about food, video games, books and Starblazers. He is currently the restaurant critic at Philadelphia magazine, but when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about giant robots and ray guns. Tales From the Radiation Age is his latest book.

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Review: 'The Hidden Girl And Other Stories,' By Ken Liu - NPR

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Millions of companies around the world will compete this year to win more than $49 trillion in consumer spending. Having products and services that consumers desire certainly helps. But increasingly, the winning companies will be those who can deliver a superior user experience, and that means big data.

The analyst group Forrester detected a shift in consumer sentiment back in 2011, when it declared we were entering the age of the consumer, which is marked by the desire of consumers to be given the VIP treatment. Technology has improved substantially since then, both in user experience (UX) and artificial intelligence (AI), and were now at the point where consumers have certain expectations in terms of how both of those are used.

According to Splunk CTO Tim Tully, 2020 will be the year of the indulgent user experience. Those organizations that dont abide by the shift, which is being driven in part by breakthroughs in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, will be left wanting.

AR glasses will emerge sometime this decade, Zuck predicts (Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock)

Even as enterprise and industrial applications evolve, theyre not yet consumer-friendly enough for daily users, Tully says. Enterprise software companies who are still producing dull user experiences will find it harder to keep their users loyal, and will be even more vulnerable to disruption. When it comes to enterprise UX, the companies that will succeed are the visionaries that design software to make peoples entire experience better.

Envisioning how customers will interact with data and applications in the future can give companies a jump on evolving consumer expectations. For Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, its clear that an computing platform for the next decade will be AR glasses.

The technology platform of the 2010s was the mobile phone, Zuckerberg writes. The platform of the 2000s before that was about the Web, and the 1990s was the desktop computer. Each computing platform becomes more ubiquitously accessible and natural for us to interact with. While I expect phones to still be our primary devices through most of this decade, at some point in the 2020s, we will get breakthrough augmented reality glasses that will redefine our relationship with technology.

Effective communication is key to happy customers (Black Salmon/Shutterstock)

One frequent big data application is the personalized recommendation. But in 2020, companies will see to create hyper-personalized customer experiences, such as through the use of smart voice assistants, says Alexey Aylarov, the CEO of Voximplant.

AI will play an integral role in a delivering superior customer experience in 2020, Aylarov says. In fact, 78% of brands say they have already implemented or are planning to implement AI and virtual reality by 2020 to better serve customers. AI and Automation (if done correctly) decreases the time customers spend trying to reach support or get answers to their questions. Businesses should understand that automation is not only about cost reduction; its also about being faster, smarter and offering a better customer experience.

Many companies are trying to harness AI technology. But according to Lenovo, those that figure out how to use AI to augment the customer experience will have a built-in advantage over their competitors.

AI can help deliver great customer experiences (13_Phunkod/Shutterstock)

In 2020, businesses will bring AI to life to truly transform the customer and employee experience, the computer maker says. With AI technologies only getting smarter, companies will start to use AI to augment human intelligence. When employees are able to shift focus from tasks that once were mundane (e.g., scanning through company data), it will open the workforce across industries up to new opportunities.

We all have unique interactions with companies, and realizing this is critical to understanding how technology can improve the customer experience. For TIBCO CTO Nelson Petracek, focusing on the customer journey will pay dividends.

The optimization of the customer journey will continue to be important for organizations, but we will see growth in emerging technology areas which may be used to support this capability, Petracek says. The notion of a digital twin for machines is not new, but applying this concept to people (customers, students, patients, etc.) will gain more traction. The ability to model a person (a virtual customer image, virtual student image, etc.) and influence this model via a variety of inputs (e.g. IoT), knowledge of current state/time, emotion analysis/identification, and defined goals/outcomes will allow organizations to produce an experience that is much more timely, contextual, and relevant.

Effective communication with customers is critical to business success. In the modern age, that means meeting customers on their preferred channels, typically Web and mobile, says James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications.

Digital immortality: The ultimate data-driven customer experience. (Quick Shot/Shutterstock)

Sixty-two percent of consumers will leave a company that isnt delivering on their communications expectations, Brown says. This statistic is both sobering and exciting. Sobering, because it highlights the power todays consumers have over the companies they do business with but exciting because it also demonstrates the tremendous opportunity enterprises have to significantly impact the overall customer experience via the communications they deliver and, even more importantly, the conversations they are having with their customers.

Technological advancement and fossil fuels have combined to increase the quality of life for billions of people around the world. Now technology is on the cusp of delivering the ultimate luxury UX: digital immortality, per Jans Aasman, CEO of Franz.

We will see digital immortality emerge in 2020 in the form of AI digital personas for public figures, Aasman says. The combination of AI and semantic knowledge graphs will be used to transform the works of scientists, technologists, politicians, and scholars into an interactive response system that uses the persons actual voice to answer questions. AI digital personas will dynamically link information from various sources such as books, research papers and media interviews and turn the disparate information into a knowledge system that people can interact with digitally. These AI digital personas could also be used while the person is still alive to broaden the accessibility of their expertise.

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2020: The Year of the AI-Powered User Experience - Datanami

Altered Carbon returns to Netflix for season 2 on Feb. 27, and fans are excited to see what Takeshi Kovacs has up his sleeve this time around. Stepping into the lead role is Anthony Mackie, known for his role as Sam Wilson / Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You might be used to seeing him play a superhero, but his role in Altered Carbon is unlike anything youve seen the actor do before.

Altered Carbon, which is based on author Richard K. Morgans 2002 novel of the same name, takes place in a futuristic world where human consciousness can be transferred to a new body or sleeve when an old body dies. This way, wealthy people who can afford the procedure get to live for hundreds of years, transferring their memories from one body to another, while keeping a system of social hierarchy in place.

To achieve this virtual immortality, consciousness is uploaded into a spinal disk called a stack. When a person dies, their stack can be stored for an indefinite amount of time and pulled up into a new sleeve or body if and when the need arises.

Anthony Mackie is taking on the role of Takeshi Kovacs for season 2 of Altered Carbon a role held by actor Joel Kinnaman last season. Unlike Falcon from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Takeshi Kovacs is a dark and brooding mercenary that rarely cracks a smile.

In this dystopian universe, Kovacs was once part of an elite group of soldiers called Envoys. He is a highly-skilled fighter who is trained to complete the most challenging missions, even when they require him to re-sleeve. But 250 years ago, most Envoys were destroyed, and now only a handful of them, including Kovacs, are left.

At the end of the first season, Kovacs saved his friends and left town to look for his lost love Quellcrest Falconer (Rene Elise Goldsberry). Season 2 picks up with the hero 30 years later. After spending decades looking for Quell, his search lands him in a new sleeve and back to his home planet, Harlans World.

Kovacs new sleeve is far more advanced than his last. As shown in the new trailer for Season 2, he is told (by someone whose face isnt shown, but is presumably the doctor re-sleeving him) that the new sleeve was created for military use only and has the capability of rapid healing, enhanced reaction time, among other bells and whistles.

If the trailer is any indication, Kovacs will face plenty of enemies this season. And with Anthony Mackie putting his Marvel smile aside to take on the role of this brooding hero, theres no doubt this season will be fun to watch.

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Anthony Mackie Is a New Kind of Hero in 'Altered Carbon' Season 2 - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

We talked earlier about the sword of justice and the scales. The demand that a penalty be paid for sin made the sacrifice of Christ necessary for God to forgive us and remain a just God. The reason the judgments of God are always true and righteous is that He has all the facts and He possesses unparalleled integrity. Lady Justice is depicted, not only with a sword and scales, but she is also wearing a blindfold, the symbol of impartiality.

Righteous judgment requires the careful consideration of relevant evidence and, frankly, there are factors that are totally irrelevant to the determination of truth. A persons guilt or innocence will be revealed by indicators like forensic evidence, surveillance video, eyewitness accounts and alibis, not the defendants race, nationality, gender or social status. The blindfold symbolizes blindness toward factors that dont matter.

The Scriptures clearly show the perfect impartiality of God. Not only do they indicate the things that are irrelevant to His willingness to fellowship a person, they emphasize the legitimate determining factors. Notice the definition of Gods impartiality.

God doesnt care about race or nationality. Explaining why he had gone to the home of a Gentile family to teach them the gospel, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality (Acts 10:34). Paul wrote that God promises glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God (Romans 2:10).

God doesnt care about social status. Slavery was a conspicuous component of the Roman economy in the first century, but God held both slave and master in equal esteem. After giving instructions to slaves about respecting their masters, Paul told masters, Do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him (Ephesians 6:9).

God doesnt care about your bank account. James devoted a considerable amount of time condemning favoritism toward the wealthy in James 2. Verse 5 says, Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

So what does God care about? Paul defined the God of righteous judgment who will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life (Romans 2:6-7).

There are two important lessons here: 1) God focuses on each persons character and we should too, and 2) God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6); if you are not diligently seeking God it is high time you started.

Editors Note: Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the editorial opinion of the Murray Ledger & Times.

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The blindfold of justice | Church Page - Murray Ledger and Times

Eyes For You and Peerless impressed when the horses were exercised here on Monday (Jan.6) morning.

Inner sand.

800m: Sultan Suleiman (David Egan) 51, 600/36. Responded well. Arabian Storm (Kaviraj) 54, 600/40. Moved freely. Market King (Nicky Mackay), Marrakesh (V.Jodha) 53.5, 600/40. They ended level. Mystic Bay (Kamble), Astounding Bay (Peter) 50, 600/37. Former finished a distance ahead. Dandi March (Nicky Mackay), Wind Whistler (V.Jodha) 51, 600/38. They moved level freely. Bodyline (Bhawani) 54, 600/40. Pressed.

1000m: Alpine Dancer (Merchant), Noble Pride (rb) 1-9, 800/54, 600/40. Former finished a distance ahead. Magistero (Rupesh) 1-9.5, 600/41. Urged. Intense Stylist (Nicky Mackay), Between The Waters (V.Jodha) 1-7.5, 800/52.5, 600/39. They moved level freely. Trouvaille (Nicky Mackay), Gold Medalist (V.Jodha) 1-6, 800/52, 600/39.5. Former moved well and they finished level. Nusrat (Merchant) 1-9, 600/40.5. Slightly urged. Grand Accord (Rupesh) 1-7, 800/52.5, 600/39.5. Moved freely.

1200m: Glacier Express (David Egan), Romanesque (Hamir) 1-23, 1000/1-8, 800/54, 600/40. Former strode out well and finished well clear.

Race track.

600m: Arazan/Equine Love (Kadam), Speaking Of Which/Highraz (rb) 37. Both moved freely. Flaming Lamborghini (Nathan Evans), Melania (David Egan) 34. Former was five lengths superior. Spring Grove (rb), Tambourine Man (D.A.Naik) 38.5. They finished level freely. Circle Of Life (Nathan Evans), Miss Muffer (Zervan) 34. Both moved neck and neck freely. Solar System (David Egan) 35. Good. Justified (David Egan) 34. Moved well.

1000m: Tacksta (Late Track Star) (A.Gaikwad) 1-3, 600/35. Moved well. Master Of Studies (Rathod) 1-3, 600/38. Slightly urged. Irish Eyes (Nazil), Wizard Of Stocks (Mansoor) 1-4, 800/49, 600/35. Former finished four lengths ahead. Conscience (Kamble), Kunwari (Peter) 49, 600/35. Pair urged and ended level. About The Cloud (Malam), Smoky Haze (Daman) and Gracida (Baria) 1-4, 800/49, 600/35. First named was the pick. Van Dyke (Kadam) 1-2, 800/47.5, 600/34. Moved impressively. Treason (Akshay) 1-5.5, 800/51, 600/36.5. Moved freely.

1200m: Eyes For You (Kadam) 1-13.5, 1000/1-1, 800/49, 600/35. Moved attractively. Peerless (Pranil) 1-15, 1000/1-1, 800/48, 600/34. Pleased. Texas Gold (Nazil) 1-17, 1000/1-3, 800/50, 600/36. Moved freely. Immortality (Zervan), Egalite (rb) and Maxine (Parmar) 1-17, 1000/1-3, 800/49, 600/35. Immortality was the pick.

Gate practice noted on the inner sand.

1000m: Touch Of Faith (Nicky Mackay), Tomorrows Dreams (V.Jodha) 1-7, 800/53, 600/40. They jumped out well and finished level freely. Noble King (Peter), Explorer (Kamble) 1-8.5, 600/41.5. Pair moved level freely. Powerful Lady (Kuldeep), Opening Verse (Aniket) 1-12, 800/56, 600/42. Pair level.

Mock race noted on January 5.

Race track.

1200m: Auburn (Zervan), Flameoftheforest (Yash), Gods Plan (Akshay), Super Girl (Parmar), Giant Star (Kamble) and Daggers Strike (Ayyar) 1-12, 600/35. Won by: Sh, 4, 1/2. Flameoftheforest who led the field throughout the race tried hard to win, but was beaten by Auburn on the post.

Second mock race.

1200m: Medici (C.S.Jodha), Her Eminence (Bhawani) and Minstrel Heights (A.Prakash) 1-11, 600/35. Won by: Dist, 6. Medici won well.

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Eyes For You and Peerless impress - The Hindu

One of the most iconic villains introduced in Dragon Ball Z is the evil Frieza, a cruel interstellar despot responsible for destroying the Saiyan homeworld before setting his sights on acquiring the Dragon Balls to gain immortality. After being defeated by Goku and Trunks in the original manga/anime series, Frieza would periodically resurface in non-canonical animated films and video games before his full return in the continuation anime series Dragon Ball Super which saw him surprisingly help Goku and the Z Fighters save their universe.

However, despite Frieza ultimately playing a key role during the Tournament of Power to save the universe, the resurrected villain is still far from a genuine redemption, with his new lease on life confirming Frieza's expected commitment to evil. Now, here's why Frieza won't be following the same heroic path as Piccolo or Vegeta any time soon.

RELATED: Dragon Ball Super Makes a Huge Change to Vegeta

In the original Dragon Ball Z, Frieza was revealed to be the employer of Dragon Ball Z's original antagonists, Vegeta and Nappa, and one of the merciless conquerors behind the Frieza Force. After learning of the Dragon Balls and their magical potential, Frieza invades the planet Namek to acquire the Dragon Balls for himself and gain immortality, having his forces wipe out the planet's population. This culminates in Vegeta turning against Frieza and joining the Z Fighters, leading to an intense battle between Goku and Frieza, with Goku transforming into a Super Saiyan for the first time after witnessing Frieza murder his best friend Krillin and gravelywound Piccolo.

After suffering a humiliating defeat against Goku, Frieza was recovered by his father and outfitted with cybernetic implants due to the grievous wounds he endured. Arriving on Earth for revenge, Frieza was intercepted by Trunks, Vegeta and Bulma's Super Saiyan son from an alternate future, who literally cut the tyrant to pieces and incinerated his remains. Since then, Frieza was periodically seen in the anime series languishing in Hell for his sins.

Frieza's followers resurrected him with the Dragon Balls, leading the restored despot to begin training extensively for an inevitable rematch against Goku. This led to Frieza unlocking a new golden transformationthat gave him a significant power boost in combat strength. Frieza would lead his army in a renewed attack on Earth, only to be repelled by Goku and Vegeta, who had each achieved the new transformation to Super Saiyan Blue, with Goku killing Frieza once more with a God Kamehameha Wave.

RELATED:Dragon Ball: How Many People Has Goku Killed?

With the ten best fighters from each world in the Dragon Ball Multiverse assembling for the Tournament of Power, a desperate Goku decides to recruit Frieza to complete Universe 7's team. With the losing teams having their entire realities erased by Grand Zeno, Frieza accepts Goku's offer on the condition that he is restored to life. While his loyalty is constantly in doubt across the martial arts competition, Frieza plays a vital role in securing Universe 7's victory, ultimately sacrificing himself alongside Goku to eliminate the tournament's most powerful warrior Jiren. For this, Frieza is resurrected and sets out to rebuild his empire while Goku swears to put him down again should he cause trouble.

Empires are built on the graves of the conquered and this becomes apparent pretty quickly after Frieza's resurrection at the end of Dragon Ball Super. True to his word, Frieza is last seen in the anime series leading his massive army once again, ominously hinting that his temporary alliance with Goku and the Z Fighters did little good to adjusting his own moral compass in the same way that Piccolo and Vegeta had discovered their own heroic redemptions after years of villainy.

This is confirmed in the recent anime film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which takes place sometime after the events of the anime series. Frieza is seen violently subjugating worlds on the other side of the cosmos, laying entire cities to waste and likely killing millions as part of his expansive plan to conquer the universe. By manipulating Broly to battle against Goku and Vegeta by murdering Broly's father Paragus, Frieza is just as much as a villain as he's always been, with his participation in the Tournament of Power always ever just a means to bring him back to life rather than bring him to the side of angels.

NEXT: Dragon Ball Z: A History of (Mostly Bad) Video Games

My Hero Academia: [SPOILER] Unlocks 100% of Deku's Power (and Breaks Time)

Tags:dragon ball z,Dragon Ball Super,feature

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Dragon Ball Super: Why Frieza Still Isnt a Good Guy After Saving the Universe - CBR - Comic Book Resources

COVENTRY, ENGLANDBBC News reports that artifacts and graves dating to the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods were unearthed ahead of a construction project in Englands West Midlands. In the cremation burial of a young Roman girl, a team of archaeologists led by Nigel Page of Warwickshire County Council found four brooches placed in a small pile covered with a polished mirror. A ring bearing an image of a cicada, an insect associated with immortality, and a hair pin had also been placed in the jewelry pile. A vessel crafted in what is now northern France or Belgium was recovered from one of a dozen Anglo-Saxon graves at the site. A shield, fragments of a knife blade in a leather sheath, and a crushed hanging bowl made of copper alloy were also uncovered from an Anglo-Saxon grave thought to hold the remains of a high-ranking officer. The settlement at Baginton continued to flourish after the Romans left in the early fifth century, Page explained. To read about Roman and Anglo-Saxon remains discovered during the A14 highway project in Cambridgeshire, go to "Letter from England: Building a Road Through History."

Link:
Roman and Anglo-Saxon Graves Uncovered in England - Archaeology

The anniversary of various films and television shows with links to Yorkshire are coming up in 2020.

Some of these seem to have come around quickly, so from one-off feature films to television finales and TV dramas, here is our run down of those reaching a decade this year.

Four Lions

Chris Morris's satire followed a a group of hapless, accident-prone would-be Jihadists as their plans to launch a devastating terrorist attack become ever more farcical.

Scenes were shot in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, including The Wicker, as well as what was called Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster.

The Andalucia region of Spain also doubled for Pakistan in some scenes.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Malham Cove was used to film part of the seventh film installment (part one of the Deathly Hallows duo). In the scene, Harry and Hermione camp n the Limestone Pavement at the top of the cove, searching for the horcruxes - an object in which a Dark wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality.

There are several scenes across Malhamdale including the view to Cawden and down to the village of Malham and Kirkby Malham, Skipton.

Heartbeat

Though it began in 1992, the final episode of this 1960s police drama aired in September 2010.

Eighteen series were made in Goathland, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

It followed the lives of local police constables, medics and locals of Ashfordly and Aidensfield. Cast included Nick Berry, Jason Durr, William Simons, Derek Fowlds, Mark Jordan, Bill Maynard and Tricia Penrose.

-> Heartbeats of the Heartbeat line honoured by North Yorkshire Moors Railway for 50 years golden service The Yorkshire Post says

Last of the Summer Wine

After 31 series starting in 1973, this much-loved Yorkshire classic ended nearly a decade ago (August 2010) with final episode How Not to Cry at Weddings.

The longest-running comedy programme was filmed in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, and followed the misadventures of three old friends.

It starred Peter Sallis, Bill Owen, Brian Wilde and Kathy Staff as Nora Batty.

The last series, however, was the first in 19 years to be only six episodes long.

To mark the show's final appearance, the BBC broadcast Songs of Praise from the Kirklees town, and a special of Countryfile about Holmfirth and the surrounding area was aired.

A Passionate Woman

Originally a play that was performed at what is now Leeds Playhouse, Kay Mellor's drama aired as a two-part show on the BBC starring Billie Piper, Sue Johnston and Theo James.

The 1950s period drama was based on the true story of a housewife and mother whose life was put into upheaval by a handsome Polish man at her local dance hall.

Filming locations included King's Hall and St Luke's Hospital in Bradford and Roundhay Park in Leeds.

A Touch of Frost

Another long-running series which finished in 2010, A Touch of Frost, this detective drama was mainly filmed in Wakefield and the neighbouring towns of Pontefract and Castleford in West Yorkshire.

There was 15 series following DI Jack Frost, starring David Jason, Bruce Alexander and John Lyons.

It was produced by Yorkshire Television (later ITV Studios).

The Arbor

The Arbor - a mix of documentary and fiction - recounts the story of Bradfordian playwright Andrea Dunbar, who wrote Rita, Sue and Bob Too but died tragically in 1990 at the age of 29, and her daughter Lorraine.

Revisiting the Buttershaw estate where Dunbar grew up, director Clio Barnard recorded interviews with members of the Dunbar family and residents of estate over two years for the film.

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These Yorkshire films and TV shows will already be a decade old in 2020 - Yorkshire Post

Immortality, one cannot die by any means necessary. There are different types of immortality as someone would not die of natural causes or the person would not die of any attacks or any means necessary. In todays list, we are listing 11 immortal anime characters, and from this list, some characters have absolute immortality, they cannot be killed by anyone or anything. Let us take a look at the list.

Hidan worships JASHIN, a certain god, extensive experimenting with the Jashin religion gave him the inability to die from virtually all causes, except malnutrition. His immortality allows him to survive numerous fatal injuries and almost any form of dismemberment; he even retained his ability to speak after having his head cut off.

Drinking a specific liquid gave him healing abilities and immortality. He also can survive without eating, drinking, or breathing. He can also absorb other immortals individual with his right hand, a power that devour not only the individual but also theirintelligence and wisdom which he acquires, plus he is an incredibly strong fighter and skilled in handling knife/sword, such an ability and immortality at the same time is inconceivable.

He is an immortal being that wont die easily. He is related to shapeshifting type ability, and he hasan extraordinary regenerative ability, which renders him virtually immortal; no matter what part of his body is blown off into pieces, he will regenerate them back.

A no. of times he is seen being cutinto half or pieces or stabbed multiples times, he will simply revert to the way he was before, in other words, his healing factor is rather instantaneous. He also possesses the physical abilities of others, thus weakening them while gaining more strength and speed.

Naraku gained unbelievable immortality that he created his new body and detached his heart, which came out as the Infant, Naraku was able to regenerate no matter how much damage his body had taken since his life force wasnt in his body. His new form of regeneration made him almost impossible to be killed except only one possible way.

We dont have much info about him, but his immortality is monstrous. Nothing can affect his body, falling from 10,000 meters with intense forces that he made a hole deep into the concrete ground that takes the shape of his body and only came out to say Im still alive casually as if he didnt feel anything is something beyond unthinkable. There is a fact he was executed several times with a blade and strangled with iron chains, but what it only did was shatter the blade and broke the chains.

Approximately 400 years ago, he was cursed by the God of life and death, which lead him to immortality. In other words, he cant age, and he is unapproachable due to the cursed power that takes the individual life and any living nature away.

He is one hell of an antagonist. This guy is immortal because of his interaction with Hogyoku, Which was made by Urahara Kisuke. I dont think there is any need to explain anything about this guy.

Alucard seems to be immortal with a million of souls or the blood as his energy source to keep him sustainable to any fatality and destruction. However his immortality also comes from his ultimate regeneration, no matter how many times he been shots, sliced, or incapacitated in many ways, he just like a shadow of an entity that reform back to his original state at an incredible rate, he simply cant be killed as he is persistent and ruthless. He has all sort of super-human speed, strength, reflexes, agility and immense accuracy with his gun that makes him unstoppable

According to the source of Code Geass, C.C. is an immortal witch, neither suffering from illness, age, nor capable of being killed by any means. She possesses absolute immortality. Any injuries she suffers immediately heal, she will still return to life. Immune to all harm, nor can she die of any natural causes. She simply cant be killed by anything as she has true immortality on every inch of her body and mind.

Zamasu was formerly a North Kai of Universe 10, and a Supreme Kai apprentice serving the Supreme Kai of Universe 10, Gowasu. Not all the Gods in DBS are immortals as they could die. But we saw Zamasu saying he was immortal. For, e.g., the Rose Kamehameha caused a lot of damage to trunks and Goku, but Zamasu was unharmed. We havent seen much extent of his immortality power, but he deserved a place here.

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11 Immortal Characters From The Anime World - Otakukart News

The Scottish artist was in her 20s in 1989 when she left her art studies at Wimbledon Art College in London to join her now-husband, historian William Dalrymple, in Delhi.

WE MEET artist Olivia Fraser a couple of days after she has returned from a sojourn to the hills, where she had travelled to escape Delhis pollution. All my artistic life has been about India, I dont know where one escapes to, she says. She compares the situation in Delhi to the Great Smog in London in 1952, and almost immediately turns her attention to the cosmos painted in her works on display at Nature Morte gallery, as if to find an answer to our predicament.

The intricate and layered paintings that comprise the exhibition titled Amrit borrow from traditional iconographies and bring together Indian philosophies and Western ideas of minimalism and abstraction. These are visual road maps for meditation, she says, describing the 18 works. Here Amrit is a word for immortality, just as the 1,000-petaled lotus probably denotes infinity. Yoga also has the same goal. It is about connecting the mind, body and soul, adds Fraser, as she goes on to quote from the 18th-century Sanskrit yogic manual called Gheranda Samhita that she extensively studied during the making of this exhibition. Her studio in Mira Singh Farm in Delhi is filled with books on ancient Sanskrit texts that have acted as reference in her works for more than a decade now.

The Scottish artist was in her 20s in 1989 when she left her art studies at Wimbledon Art College in London to join her now-husband, historian William Dalrymple, in Delhi. The flu she caught immediately on landing and the delayed arrival of her luggage might not have been a pleasant start, but awaiting her in the country were experiences and encounters that were to change her perceptions. Till then, I had thought that good art was to do with the latest trends and the isms but in India I began to look at the numerous traditions, she says. The introduction to the country came through trips to its narrow alleys with Dalrymple who was then researching for his book City of Djinns. Working in thick oils in the UK, the translucent watercolours, she felt, were more appropriate for the Indian climate and light.

Now, says Fraser, its as if she is following in the footsteps of her kinsman, James Fraser, a 19th landscape artist who painted the Himalayas and Calcutta, and with his brother William commissioned Indian artists for portraitures and to depict the life of ordinary folk, producing one of the most acclaimed collections of Company School paintings, known as the Fraser Album. Referencing Archer Mildred and Toby Falks The Passionate Quest The Fraser Brothers in India, Olivia too began to paint the streets, scenes and people of India. She also drew illustrations for City of Djinns.

Simultaneously introducing herself to Indias present and past, she began to draw from her surrounding in her art the watercolours reflected the rigour and tranquility of yoga and the Bharatanatyam lessons that she learnt. An abiding influence were the miniature paintings she first saw at the National Museum in Delhi. In 2005, she apprenticed with miniaturist Ajay Sharma, where she picked up the finer nuances of the tradition, from wielding the fine squirrel-hair brush on handmade wasli paper, to grinding pigments from natural materials such as malachite and lapis lazuli, and using gum arabic and water to reach the desired consistency. The painting process is so precision-driven, every stroke is deliberate.

Its a systematic approach with many layers and regulations For instance, I discovered there was only one way to draw a banana leaf, so there was no need to even look at the real thing anymore, says Fraser, who also now co-teaches at a week-long miniature painting workshop in Jaipur once a year. Over the years, she has developed a language that is a rather unique to her, one that introduces the viewers at once to her affinity to the spirituality of tantric and yogic forms and her admiration for the Nathdwara pichwai paintings and artists such as Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse and Gustav Klimt.

If the Darshan series in the current exhibition focuses on light entering through the pupil of the eye, the delicate lotus has become her recurring leitmotif. In works such as I Am the Moon (2015) she portrays the cosmic bodies of the moon as multiplying 1,000-petalled lotuses to reflect a sensation of the pulse, rhythm and movement associated with yogic meditation and the work Red Himalaya (2015) has a floating lotus in a mountainous field. In the ongoing exhibition, she unites the lotus with the bee to bring together the active and the passive. I am creating a union of opposites the bee in search of the nectar within the lotus, or the red and white, considered opposite in tantric art, with red representing the female, and white the male; questioning if in a way are they all the same, says Olivia, adding, I wanted to explore the Indian artistic concept of rasa, emotion, flavour and essence I want to explore the connections in the natural world.

The exhibition is at Nature Morte, A-1, Neeti Bagh, till November 30.

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Forever Frames - The Indian Express

Andy Murray says he still hopes to get back to winning the biggest competitions, but his injury ordeal has helped him put tennis into perspective.

Murray was world number one when he was struck down by a hip injury that cost his two years of his career and appeared certain to end it.

However, after major surgery that involved adding metal components into his hip the true extent of which is shown in dramatic clarity in the new documentary Andy Murray: Resurfacing he is once again back on a tennis court and, most importantly, pain-free.

It remains to be seen whether Murray will be able to reach his former heights with a metal hip, but he says he can deal with it if he cant.

Obviously youd want to do well in all the big competitions, Murray told the BBC.

But I think thats one of the things that I took out of these last few years: that ultimately you realise what actually are the most important things.

Tennis is very important to me but its not ahead of my health, its not ahead of my family.

Tennis is great and winning matches is fantastic, but you realise when youve gone through a tough period and you get through it what the really important things are.

RELATED:Sporting immortality does not come easy Andy Murray: Resurfacing provides a unique portrait of an icon

Since returning this summer, the signs for Murray have certainly bee encouraging.

He won the doubles title at Queens alongside Feliciano Lopez, played both mens and mixed doubles at Wimbledon, played a full Asian swing of the ATP singles Tour, and won his final tournament of the year in Antwerp.

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'I want to do well in the big competitions' - Andy Murray not ready to take back seat - Tennis365

The New England Patriots came for perfection once, and came up 2 minutes, 42 seconds short of immortality.

Theyre coming for it again. And they might just get it this time.

With their 33-0 victory over the Jets on Monday night, the Patriots moved to 7-0 for the third time in franchise history. The Patriots got to 10-0 in 2015, but finished 12-4 thanks to a rash of injuries. The Patriots finished 2007 with a 16-0 record, but fell in Super Bowl XLII to the Giants, 17-14. New England led 14-10 late, but then yielded a 12-play, 83-yard scoring drive.

The Patriots wont come out and say it, but theres a sense of unfinished business for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady when it comes to matching the 1972 Dolphins perfect season. And this could be their last chance at it.

Brady, 42, is selling his house in the Boston area and designed his latest contract so that it will void after this season. At that point, he could retire, sign with another team as a free agent, or re-sign with the Patriots.

Brady has gone in recent years from sounding determined to playing until hes 45 to admitting hes not sure what the future holds.

That is the great part for me, I dont know, Brady said during his weekly appearance on WEEIs Greg Hill Show. I think that has been a unique situation that I have been in because I think when you commit to a team for a certain amount of years, you kind feel the responsibility to always fulfill the contract.

For me, its been good because I am just taking it day-by-day and I am enjoying what I have. I dont know what the future holds and the great part is for me, football at this point is all borrowed time.

With Brady possibly moving on after this season, this could be Belichicks last chance as well. Hes 67, but those around him dont see any signs of him slowing down. A win against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday will be the 300th of his career (268 in the regular season, 31 in the playoffs). Belichick would break Don Shulas NFL-record 347 total wins in the 2023 season. Theres little love lost between Belichick and Shula, who has been critical of Belichick in the past.

Some of the roster decisions Belichick has made this season have seemed out of character. Instead of releasing some veteran defenders in favor of younger and cheaper talent, Belichick kept all the veterans and the result has been a deep and talented group. He didnt adjust the contracts of aging players, when that has been routine in the past.

The Patriots have also pushed more and more cap money into the future to benefit the present club something they never did in the past. And the quick marriage with receiver Antonio Brown seemed to be the type of risky move designed to make a team as formidable as possible. That move didnt work out, as Brown had to be released for his off-field issues. But the team added another weapon this week in former Falcons receiver Mohamed Sanu.

The results couldnt be more impressive. The 2007 Patriots were the last team to run roughshod through the league, as they compiled a plus-159 point differential in the first seven games. These Patriots have bettered that, outscoring opponents by 175 points this season.

New England, which has allowed just 48 points so for this season, is on pace to yield 110 in 16 games. The 2000 Baltimore Ravens, which have the record with 165 points allowed for a 16-game season, allowed 75 points through seven games.

But the Patriots have faced the leagues easiest schedule to this point, according to FootballOutsiders.com. It gets a bit tougher from this point, as their strength of schedule ranks 23rd.

After facing the 2-4 Browns, the Patriots face a five-game run that will be their most difficult of the season: at Baltimore (5-2), at Philadelphia (3-4), Dallas (4-3), at Houston (4-3) and Kansas City (5-2) in a rematch of the thrilling AFC Championship game.

The toughest challenge may be the Ravens in the Sunday night game Nov. 4. The Ravens are on a bye this week, so theyll be rested and well-prepared. New offensive coordinator Greg Roman has a good track record against the Patriots hes beaten them twice in five outings, once each in the same role with the 49ers and Bills, and two of his three losses were by one score.

If anyone can design a plan to navigate New Englands suffocating defense, its Roman with quarterback Lamar Jackson at his disposal with an extra week to prepare. Baltimore coach John Harbaugh is also no stranger to knocking off New England, having beaten the Patriots three times, including two playoff victories.

If the Patriots survive that game and another meeting with Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid on Dec. 8, they could very well be playing in another Super Bowl with an unblemished mark in the home of the Dolphins, where Shula once coached.

The Patriots let immortality slip through their fingers once. Youd be a fool to bet against them if they get another, final chance at it.

Greg A. Bedard covers the NFL for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at gbedard@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GregABedard on Twitter.

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Is there unfinished business for Brady and Belichick? - Las Vegas Review-Journal

Our life is eternal, and this knowledge helps us make correct choices and comforts us in times of mourning.

George Albert Smith was blessed with a firm understanding of the purpose of life, and this enabled him to encourage others as they faced adversity. He frequently reminded the Saints that we are living eternal livesthat eternity doesnt begin after this life but that mortality is a crucial part of eternity. I sometimes have said to my friends when they seemed to be at the crossroads, uncertain as to which way they wanted to go, Today is the beginning of eternal happiness or eternal disappointment for you.1

President Smith testified of these truths at the funeral services of HyrumG. Smith, Patriarch to the Church, who had passed away at a relatively young age, leaving behind his wife and eight children:

I have felt, since I was asked to speak at this funeral, that perhaps I would not be able to do so. My emotions have been stirred, and I have found myself incapable of controlling them, but since I came into this building a beautiful, sweet influence of peace has come into my soul.

Instead of mourning I feel to thank our Father in heaven for the Gospel of His Beloved Son that has been revealed anew in our day. To know that life is eternal is a wonderful blessing,to know that throughout eternity the blessings that this good man has lived for will be his. His mortal life has been terminated but this is only part of eternal life. He has laid the foundation deep and secure upon which he has built and will continue to build throughout eternity. The joy that he has experienced here upon earth will be added upon.

As I think of the experiences of people in the world, on occasions of this kind, I marvel how we have been blessed. I have no more doubt about eternal life and the immortality of the soul than I have that the sun shines at midday. It is a sad thing to part with our dear ones, even temporarily. We send them upon missions, or they go to other parts of the world to live and we miss them. When an occasion like this occurs it seems that they are more distant, but as a matter of fact they are not, if we but understood. Instead of extending the condolence that sometimes might go to those who are bereaved, I feel more like rejoicing this day that I know that this is not the end.

So today, as I stand in your presence, when perhaps tears should be flowing, my soul is filled with comfort and satisfaction. I pray that that comfort may be in the lives of each of those who are bereaved.2 [See suggestion 1 on page 77.]

Our comprehension of this life is that it is eternal lifethat we are living in eternity today as much as we ever will live in eternity. Our belief is that we lived before we came here; that which is intelligence, that which is spirit, did not have its beginning in this life. We believe that we received a spiritual tabernacle before we came into this world. That spiritual body was sent to this world, and here it received a physical tabernacle, the body which we see. The physical portion that we see is of earth, earthy [see 1Corinthians 15:47], but that portion which leaves the body when our lives go out is that which is spiritual, and it never dies. The physical tabernacle lies in the tombit is a portion of the earth and goes back to mother earthbut the intelligence that God has placed within it, that which has power to reason and to think, that which has power to sing and to speak, knows no death; it simply passes from this sphere of eternal life, and awaits there the purification of the physical tabernacle, until the time it will be reunited with this tabernacle, which will be glorified, even as the body of our risen Lord was glorified, if we have lived to be worthy of it.3

In the language of the poet, Life is real, Life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal. [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life.] The spirit that inhabits the tabernacle is immortal. It lives beyond the grave. The body decays and returns to earth but the spirit lives on.4

I am thankful that there has been revealed to us and made plain in this latter-day that this life is not the end, that this is but a part of eternity, and that if we take advantage of our privileges here, that this is but the stepping stone to greater and more desirable conditions.5 [See suggestion 2 on page 78.]

Some believe that when we pass from this sphere of existence, that is the end. It seems incredible to me, when we look into the works of nature, when we investigate the organism of man, the perfection of his body, the pulsation of his heart, the building and strengthening from childhood to manhood, then the gradual decline until this life is endedthat it is possible any of our Fathers children can believe that human beings have been born into the world only to live to manhood and womanhood, pass to old age, and die, without some purpose in their having lived here.6

This life is not given to us as a pastime. There was a solemn purpose in our creation, in the life that God has given to us. Let us study what that purpose is, that we may progress and obtain eternal life.7

There is no doubt in the mind of a Latter-day Saint as to the purpose of our earth life. We are here to prepare ourselves and develop ourselves and qualify ourselves to be worthy to dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father.8

We believe that we are here because we kept our first estate and earned the privilege of coming to this earth. We believe that our very existence is a reward for our faithfulness before we came here, and that we are enjoying on earth the fruits of our efforts in the spirit world. We also believe that we are sowing the seed today of a harvest that we will reap when we go from here. Eternal life is to us the sum of pre-existence, present existence, and the continuation of life in immortality, holding out to us the power of endless progression and increase. With that feeling and that assurance, we believe that As man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become. [See Lorenzo Snow, The Grand Destiny of Man, Deseret Evening News, July 20, 1901, 22.] Being created in the image of God, we believe that it is not improper, that it is not unrighteous, for us to hope that we may be permitted to partake of the attributes of deity and, if we are faithful, to become like unto God; for as we receive of and obey the natural laws of our Father that govern this life, we become more like Him; and as we take advantage of the opportunities placed within our reach, we prepare to receive greater opportunities in this life and in the life that is to come.

What a happy people we should be with the knowledge we have that this probation is not to prepare us to die, but to live; that the Fathers desire for us is that we may avoid every error and receive every truth, and by applying truth in our lives become more like Him, and become worthy to dwell with Him.9

Brethren and sisters, this is a serious matter. We should think of it seriously. We should look into our own lives and discover if we are prepared for that great future life, if we were called hence tomorrow whether we would be prepared to give an account for our earthly deeds; whether we can feel that we would receive from our Heavenly Father the welcome plaudit of Well done, good and faithful servant.10 [See suggestion 3 on page 78.]

We may have given to us, in this life, a few things that will give us satisfaction, temporally; but the things that are eternal, the things that are worth while, are those eternal things that we reach out for, and prepare ourselves to receive, and lay hold of by the effort that we individually make.11

Isnt it a singular thing that what the world has struggled for from the beginning, wealth, power, all those things that make men comfortable, are to be had in abundance todaybetter and more clothing than ever before, more food than can be consumed, more wealth of all kinds than the world has ever had before. Our homes are more comfortable. The conveniences of life have been multiplied marvelously since the Gospel came upon the earth, and today everything that we have struggled for we have. Education has arrived at its highest point. More knowledge of the things of this earth is possessed by men than ever before. Everything mankind has struggled for from the beginning of time that is considered most desirable is upon the earth today; and notwithstanding that, there is doubt and dread of what the future has in store.

What is our trouble? It is that we have sought the creature comforts, we have sought the honors of men, we have sought those things that selfishness puts into our souls. We have sought to set ourselves up and have preferred ourselves to our Fathers other children.12

Let us not be lulled to sleep, let us not be deceived by the abundance of good things of this world; for what doth it profit a man though he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? [See Mark 8:36.] Let not the object of our creation be overlooked; but let us labor for the salvation of our souls.13

One of the sorrowful things in life is to see a man or a woman laid away in Mother earth with a realization of the fact that they have refused the greater blessings that our Father offered to them, and have continued grasping at the bubble that has itself disappeared. When I think of the millions of Gods children in the world, and realize how little they are striving for the things that are really worth while, I feel sad.14

Remember that it is the intelligence that you acquire that is eternal, the truth which you learn here and apply in your lives, the knowledge and experience you gain and profit bythese you will take with you when you go home.15

The treasures that we will find when we go to the other side will be those that we have laid up there by ministering to our Fathers other sons and daughters with whom we have associated here. He has made this possible for all of us, and during our stay here we will be happier serving our fellows than we could possibly be in any other way.16

It is not so important how many valuables you may have, how much property you may possess, and how many of the honors of men you may acquire, and all those things that are so desirable in the world. The thing that God has given to you that is worth more than all the rest is the opportunity to obtain eternal life in the celestial kingdom and have as your companions, throughout the ages of eternity, sons and daughters, husbands and wives with whom you have associated here on earth.17 [See suggestion 4 on page 78.]

The Saviours righteous life is a perfect example to all, and His resurrection was the first assurance to humanity that we, too, shall come forth from the tomb.18

When Jesus was raised from the dead He became the first fruits of the resurrection. The spirit begotten of the Father (the intelligent part of His soul) reinhabited His earthly tabernacle which had been purified, and He became a glorified celestial being, and took His place, on the right hand of the Father, as one of the Godhead. He had power to overcome death because He had complied with all the laws of His Father governing it; and having subdued death he turned the key whereby all mankind may be resurrected, and all may be glorified also by obeying His teachings, which are so simple that all may comply if they will.19

Jesus Christ was a man without sin. By reason of His purity, His uprightness and His virtue, He was able to unlock the doors of the prison, to overcome death and the grave, and pioneer the way unto that heaven where we expect to go.20

We may turn to section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants and see what the Lord has said about our resurrection, not only the resurrection of the Savior, but he tells us what may happen to us. We are informed in this section that our bodies are to be raised from the tomb, not some other bodies, and that the spirits that possess these tabernacles now will inhabit the same tabernacles after they have been cleansed and purified and immortalized. [See D&C 88:1417, 2833.]21

Now a good many people in the world do not know what the resurrection is. Do you teach your children and your associates what it means? [The Saviors] resurrection is plain to the Latter-day Saints who understand the gospel, but there are so many who do not understand what it means. The purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to prepare every man, woman and child for the time when all those who have died will be brought forth from their graves, and when our Heavenly Father will establish his kingdom upon this earth and the righteous will dwell there and Jesus Christ will be our King and our Law-giver.22 [See suggestion 5 on page 78.]

We read in Job, But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. [Job 32:8.] Those who have not received that inspiration will not comprehend the meaning of the resurrection from the dead, and without that understanding it seems to me there would be little happiness for those who are living in mature years, waiting for the time when the spirit leaves the body to go they know not where.23

Oh, how sad we would be if we thought that death terminated our career. If, when our lifes labor on earth was finished, we had no opportunity to go on developing, there would be little to inspire us to live as we should here. The knowledge that all the good we accomplish here, and all the development we make, will enhance our happiness eternally, encourages us to do our best.24

We are all of us passing rapidly to that time when we will be called hence. If we did not understand that there is a future life, if we did not realize that there is something more than the influence that we have received thus far, if there was not anything but the vanity and vexation of life for us to live for, there are many, it seems to me, who would grow weary in the struggle that is to be made for existence here. But in the mercy of our Heavenly Father he has bestowed upon us the most wonderful gifts that come to human kind.25

The Lord has blessed us with a knowledge that he lives, and has a body, and that we are created in his image. We do not believe that he is some kind of essence or that he is incomprehensible. If you have received the witness that has come to me and know as I know that our Heavenly Father has revealed himself to the children of men, that he is a personal God, that we are created in his image, that our spirits were begotten by him, that he has given us an opportunity to dwell upon the earth to receive a physical tabernacle, in order that we may be prepared to return into his presence and live eternally with him, I say, if you have received that assurance, then you have a foundation upon which you may build your faith. Take that from you, the knowledge that God really lives, the assurance that Jesus Christ was the manifestation of God in the flesh, take from you the assurance that there will be a literal resurrection from the dead, and you will find yourselves in the condition that our Fathers children are in throughout the world, and I ask you, what comfort remains to you then? These are the truths that are fundamental.26

More of my dear ones are on the other side than are here, and it will not be long in the natural course of events before I, too, will receive my summons to pass on. I am not looking forward to that time with anxiety and distress, but with hope and with the assurance that the change, when it occurs, will be for increasing happiness and advantages that we cannot know in mortality.27

When we realize that death is only one of the steps that the children of God shall take throughout eternity, and that it is according to his plan, it robs death of its sting and brings us face to face with the reality of eternal life. Many families have been called upon to say good-bye temporarily to those they love. When such passings occur, they disturb us, if we will let them, and thus bring great sorrow into our lives. But if our spiritual eyes could be opened and we could see, we would be comforted, I am sure, with what our vision would behold. The Lord has not left us without hope. On the contrary he has given us every assurance of eternal happiness, if we will accept his advice and counsel while here in mortality.

This is not an idle dream. These are facts. To you who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, this story is a simple one, but it is true. There are sacred volumes of scripture that our Heavenly Father has placed within our reach, teaching us that we live eternally. The Lord has given us this information in great plainness, and from the depths of my heart I thank him for the knowledge that he has given us, that those who mourn may be comforted and that we ourselves may understand our purpose in being here. If those who have passed on could speak to us, they would say, Press on, press on, for the goal that will bring us eternal happiness together. Do the things the Lord would have you do, and you will not miss anything that is worth while; but on the contrary you will be continually laying up treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt or thieves break through and steal. [See Matthew 6:1920.]

I leave my testimony with you that I know that we are living eternal life, and that the temporary separation of death is but one of the steps along the pathway of eternal progress and will result eventually in happiness if we are faithful.28 [See suggestion 6 on page 78.]

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Chapter 7: The Immortality of the Soul

Christ brings immortality and eternal life through the gospelBe strong in the faith.

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the of life which is in Christ Jesus,

2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure , that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;

5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother ; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou the of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my .

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of ; but of , and of , and of a sound mind.

8 Be not thou therefore of the of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy , not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and , which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

10 But is now made by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished , and hath brought and to light through the gospel:

11 Whereunto I am a preacher, and an , and a teacher of the Gentiles.

12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not : for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

13 Hold fast the of words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

14 That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which in us.

15 This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft me, and was not ashamed of my chain:

17 But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.

18 The Lord grant unto him that he may find of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

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2 Timothy 1

HeLa (also Hela or hela) is an immortal cell line used in scientific research. It is the oldest and most commonly used human cell line.[1] The line was derived from cervical cancer cells taken on February 8, 1951[2] from Henrietta Lacks, a patient who died of cancer on October 4, 1951. The cell line was found to be remarkably durable and prolific which warrants its extensive use in scientific research.[3][4]

The cells from Lacks's cancerous cervical tumor were taken without her knowledge or consent.[5] Cell biologist George Otto Gey found that they could be kept alive,[6] and isolated one specific cell, multiplied it, and developed a cell line. (Before this, cells cultured from other human cells would only survive for a few days; scientists spent more time trying to keep the cells alive than performing actual research on them. Cells from Lacks's tumor behaved differently.) As was custom for Gey's lab assistant, she labeled the culture 'HeLa', the first two letters of the patient's first and last name; this became the name of the cell line.

These were the first human cells grown in a lab that were naturally "immortal", meaning that they do not die after a set number of cell divisions (i.e. cellular senescence).[7] These cells could be used for conducting a multitude of medical experiments if the cells died, they could simply be discarded and the experiment attempted again on fresh cells from the culture. This represented an enormous boon to medical and biological research, as previously stocks of living cells were limited and took significant effort to culture.[4]

The stable growth of HeLa enabled a researcher at the University of Minnesota hospital to successfully grow polio virus, enabling the development of a vaccine,[8] and by 1952, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio using these cells.[4][9] To test Salk's new vaccine, the cells were put into mass production in the first-ever cell production factory.[10]

In 1953, HeLa cells were the first human cells successfully cloned[11] and demand for the HeLa cells quickly grew in the nascent biomedical industry. Since the cells' first mass replications, they have been used by scientists in various types of investigations including disease research, gene mapping, effects of toxic substances on organisms, and radiation on humans.[9] Additionally, HeLa cells have been used to test human sensitivity to tape, glue, cosmetics, and many other products.[4]

Scientists have grown an estimated 50tons of HeLa cells,[4][12] and there are almost 11,000patents involving these cells.[4]

The HeLa cell lines are also notorious for invading other cell cultures in laboratory settings.[13] Some have estimated that HeLa cells have contaminated 10-20% of all cell lines currently in use.[14]

The cells were propagated by George Otto Gey shortly before Lacks died of her cancer in 1951. This was the first human cell line to prove successful in vitro, which was a scientific achievement with profound future benefit to medical research. Gey freely donated these cells along with the tools and processes that his lab developed to any scientist requesting them simply for the benefit of science. Neither Lacks nor her family gave permission to harvest the cells but, at that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought.[15] The cells were later commercialized, although never patented in their original form. There was no requirement at that time (or at present) to inform patients or their relatives about such matters because discarded material or material obtained during surgery, diagnosis, or therapy was the property of the physician or the medical institution. This issue and Lacks' situation were brought up in the Supreme Court of California case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California. The court ruled that a person's discarded tissue and cells are not his or her property and can be commercialized.[16]

At first, the HeLa cell line was said to be named after a "Helen Lane" or "Helen Larson".[4][17] Starting in the 1970s the Lacks family was contacted by researchers trying to find out why the HeLa cells had contaminated other cell lines in laboratories.[18] These cells are treated as cancer cells, as they are descended from a biopsy taken from a visible lesion on the cervix as part of Lacks' diagnosis of cancer.[19]

HeLa cells, like other cell lines, are termed "immortal" in that they can divide an unlimited number of times in a laboratory cell culture plate as long as fundamental cell survival conditions are met (i.e., being maintained and sustained in a suitable environment). There are many strains of HeLa cells as they continue to mutate in cell cultures, but all HeLa cells are descended from the same tumor cells removed from Lacks. The total number of HeLa cells that have been propagated in cell culture far exceeds the total number of cells that were in Henrietta Lacks' body.[20]

HeLa cells were used by Jonas Salk to test the first polio vaccine in the 1950s. They were observed to be easily infected by poliomyelitis, causing infected cells to die.[21] This made HeLa cells highly desirable for polio vaccine testing since results could be easily obtained. A large volume of HeLa cells were needed for the testing of Salk's polio vaccine, prompting the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) to find a facility capable of mass-producing HeLa cells.[22] In the spring of 1953, a cell culture factory was established at Tuskegee University to supply Salk and other labs with HeLa cells.[23] Less than a year later, Salk's vaccine was ready for human trials.[24]

HeLa cells were also the first human cells to be successfully cloned in 1953 by Theodore Puck and Philip I Marcus at the University of Colorado, Denver.[11] Since that time, HeLa cells have "continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits."[9] According to author Rebecca Skloot, by 2009, "more than 60,000scientific articles had been published about research done on HeLa, and that number was increasing steadily at a rate of more than 300papers each month."[16]

HeLa cells have been used in testing how parvo virus infects cells of humans, HeLa, dogs, and cats.[25] These cells have also been used to study viruses such as the oropouche virus (OROV). OROV causes the disruption of cells in culture, where cells begin to degenerate shortly after they are infected, causing viral induction of apoptosis.[26] HeLa cells have been used to study the expression of the papillomavirus E2 and apoptosis.[27] HeLa cells have also been used to study canine distemper virus' ability to induce apoptosis in cancer cell lines,[28] which could play an important role in developing treatments for tumor cells resistant to radiation and chemotherapy.[28] HeLa cells have also been used in a number of cancer studies, including those involving sex steroid hormones such as estradiol, estrogen, and estrogen receptors, along with estrogen-like compounds such as quercetin and its cancer reducing properties.[29] There have also been studies on HeLa cells, the effects of flavonoids and antioxidants with estradiol on cancer cell proliferation.

HeLa cells were used to investigate the phytochemical compounds and the fundamental mechanism of the anticancer activity of the ethanolic extract of mango peel (EEMP). EEMP was found to contain various phenolic compounds and to activate death of human cervical malignant HeLa cells through apoptosis, which suggests that EEMP may help to prevent cervical cancer as well as other types of cancers.[30]

In 2011, HeLa cells were used in tests of novel heptamethine dyes IR-808 and other analogs which are currently being explored for their unique uses in medical diagnostics, the development of theranostics, the individualized treatment of cancer patients with the aid of PDT, co-administration with other drugs, and irradiation.[31][32] HeLa cells have been used in research involving fullerenes to induce apoptosis as a part of photodynamic therapy, as well as in in vitro cancer research using cell lines.[33] Further HeLa cells have also been used to define cancer markers in RNA, and have been used to establish an RNAi Based Identification System and Interference of Specific Cancer Cells.[34]

HeLa was shown in 2014 to be viable cell line for tumor xenografts in C57BL/6 nude mice[35], and was subsequently used to examine the in vivo effects of Fluoxetine and cisplatin on cervical cancer.

The HeLa cell line was derived for use in cancer research. These cells proliferate abnormally rapidly, even compared to other cancer cells. Like many other cancer cells,[36] HeLa cells have an active version of telomerase during cell division,[37] which prevents the incremental shortening of telomeres that is implicated in aging and eventual cell death. In this way, the cells circumvent the Hayflick limit, which is the limited number of cell divisions that most normal cells can undergo before becoming senescent.

Horizontal gene transfer from human papillomavirus18 (HPV18) to human cervical cells created the HeLa genome, which is different from Henrietta Lacks' genome in various ways, including its number of chromosomes. HeLa cells are rapidly dividing cancer cells, and the number of chromosomes varied during cancer formation and cell culture. The current estimate (excluding very tiny fragments) is a "hypertriploid chromosome number (3n+)" which means 76 to 80total chromosomes (rather than the normal diploid number of 46) with 2225 clonally abnormal chromosomes, known as HeLa signature chromosomes."[38][39][40][41] The signature chromosomes can be derived from multiple original chromosomes, making challenging summary counts based on original numbering. Researchers have also noted how stable these aberrant karyotypes can be:[38]

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are frequently integrated into the cellular DNA in cervical cancers. We mapped by FISH five HPV18 integration sites: three on normal chromosomes 8 at 8q24 and two on derivative chromosomes, der(5)t(5;22;8)(q11;q11q13;q24) and der(22)t(8;22)(q24;q13), which have chromosome 8q24 material. An 8q24 copy number increase was detected by CGH. Dual-color FISH with a c-MYC probe mapping to 8q24 revealed colocalization with HPV18 at all integration sites, indicating that dispersion and amplification of the c-MYC gene sequences occurred after and was most likely triggered by the viral insertion at a single integration site. Numerical and structural chromosomal aberrations identified by SKY, genomic imbalances detected by CGH, as well as FISH localization of HPV18 integration at the c-MYC locus in HeLa cells are common and representative for advanced stage cervical cell carcinomas. The HeLa genome has been remarkably stable after years of continuous cultivation; therefore, the genetic alterations detected may have been present in the primary tumor and reflect events that are relevant to the development of cervical cancer.[38]

The complete genome of the HeLa cells was sequenced and published on 11 March 2013[39][42] without the Lacks family's knowledge.[43] Concerns were raised by the family, so the authors voluntarily withheld access to the sequence data.[43] Jay Shendure led a HeLa sequencing project at the University of Washington which produced a paper that had been accepted for publication in March2013 but that was also put on hold while the Lacks family's privacy concerns were being addressed.[44] On August 7, 2013, NIH director Francis Collins announced a policy of controlled access to the cell line genome based on an agreement reached after three meetings with the Lacks family.[45] A data-access committee will review requests from researchers for access to the genome sequence under the criteria that the study is for medical research and the users will abide by terms in the HeLa Genome Data Use Agreement, which includes that all NIH-funded researchers will deposit the data into a single database for future sharing. The committee consists of sixmembers including representatives from the medical, scientific, and bioethics fields, as well as twomembers of the Lacks family.[45] In an interview, Collins praised the Lacks family's willingness to participate in this situation that was thrust upon them. He described the whole experience with them as "powerful", saying that it brought together "science, scientific history and ethical concerns" in a unique way.[46]

HeLa cells are sometimes difficult to control because of their adaptation to growth in tissue culture plates. Through improper maintenance, they have been known to contaminate other cell cultures in the same laboratory, interfering with biological research and forcing researchers to declare many results invalid. The degree of HeLa cell contamination among other cell types is unknown because few researchers test the identity or purity of already established cell lines. It has been demonstrated that a substantial fraction of in vitro cell lines are contaminated with HeLa cells; estimates range from 10% to 20%. Stanley Gartler (1967) and Walter Nelson-Rees (1975) were the first to publish on the contamination of various cell lines by HeLa.[22]

Science writer Michael Gold wrote about the HeLa cell contamination problem in his book A Conspiracy of Cells. He describes Nelson-Rees's identification of this pervasive worldwide problem affecting even the laboratories of the best physicians, scientists, and researchers, including Jonas Salk and many possibly career-ending efforts to address it. According to Gold, the HeLa contamination problem almost led to a Cold War incident. The USSR and the USA had begun to cooperate in the war on cancer launched by President Richard Nixon, only to find that the exchanged cells were contaminated by HeLa. Gold contends that the HeLa problem was amplified by emotions, egos, and a reluctance to admit mistakes. Nelson-Rees explains:

It's all human an unwillingness to throw away hours and hours of what was thought to be good research ... worries about jeopardizing another grant that's being applied for, the hurrying to come out with a paper first. And it isn't limited to biology and cancer research. Scientists in many endeavors all make mistakes, and they all have the same problems.[47]

Rather than focus on how to resolve the problem of HeLa cell contamination, many scientists and science writers continue to document this problem as simply a contamination issue caused not by human error or shortcomings but by the hardiness, proliferating, or overpowering nature of HeLa.[48] Recent data suggest that cross-contaminations are still a major ongoing problem with modern cell cultures.[3][49] Taken directly from the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) webpage:

Regrettably, cross-contamination and misidentification are still common within the research community. Many cell lines were cross-contaminated during establishment; this means that all work using those cell lines has incorrectly used the contaminant which may come from a different species or a different tissue. ... A cell line is considered to be misidentified if it no longer corresponds to the individual from whom it was first established. Many cases of misidentification are caused by cross-contamination, where another, faster growing, cell line is introduced into that culture.[50]

HeLa was described by Leigh Van Valen as an example of the contemporary creation of a new species, dubbed Helacyton gartleri, due to their ability to replicate indefinitely, and their non-human number of chromosomes. The species was named after Stanley M. Gartler, whom vanValen credits with discovering "the remarkable success of this species."[51] His argument for speciation depends on these points:

VanValen proposed the new family Helacytidae and the genus Helacyton, as well as proposing a new species for HeLa cells in the same paper.[53]

However, this proposal has not been taken seriously by other prominent evolutionary biologists, nor by scientists in other disciplines. Van Valen's argument of HeLa being a new species does not fulfill the criteria for an independent unicellular asexually reproducing species because of the notorious instability of HeLa's karyotype and their lack of a strict ancestral-descendant lineage.[54]

Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells stained with the actin binding toxin phalloidin (red), microtubules (cyan) and cell nuclei (blue). Nikon RTS2000MP custom laser scanning microscope.

Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells with cytoskeletal microtubules (magenta) and DNA (cyan). Nikon RTS2000MP custom laser scanning microscope.

Scanning electron micrograph of just-divided HeLa cells. Zeiss Merlin HR-SEM.

HeLa cells grown in culture and stained with antibody to tubulin (green), antibody to Ki-67 (red) and the blue DNA binding dye DAPI. The tubulin antibody shows the distribution of microtubules and the Ki-67 antibody is expressed in cells about to divide. Preparation, antibodies and image courtesy of EnCor Biotechnology.

HeLa was the subject of a book by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, investigating the historical context of the cell line and how the Lacks family was involved its use.[55]

The 1997 documentary The Way of All Flesh by Adam Curtis explains the history of HeLa and its implications in medicine and society.[56]

The 2017 HBO film "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" starring Oprah Winfrey, Sylvia Grace Crim, Rocky Carroll & Renee Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta Lacks. The movie is based on the book, of the same name, written by Rebecca Skloot.[57]

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HeLa - Wikipedia