Daily Archives: July 27, 2022

As a serious lover of coffee, and as a mortal, I read the headline with interest: People With Daily Intake Of 1.5 to 3.5 Cups Of Coffee Less Likely To Die.

I find this headline problematic on several levels. First, its lousy capitalization. No matter which style manual you use, this title has problems.

But you see the bigger problem, dont you? I suspect that your experience is the same as mine, and Im telling no secrets here. But, in my experience, though I find coffee beneficial on many levels, no matter how much of it anyone drinks, everyone dies100%.

I found the same headline showing up on other news outlets (sometimes with better capitalization), and they added two words, by 30%.

That confuses me even more. Does that mean only 30% of the people who are somewhat serious coffee drinkers might not die? Even the lower percentage would be impressive. Sort of like saying that Ive had three dogs, but only one of them could speak coherently. But, sadly, even the lower percentage, both of coffee drinkers and talking dogs, flies in the face of reality.

If you read further, youll discover that the study was done in China. The thugs in charge there lie as often as they tell the truth, but I figure this is accurate.

Chinese scientists monitored 171,000 people for seven years. At the beginning of the study, none of the participants had cancer or heart disease. According to Luke Andrews, the health reporter for DailyMail.com, the research team found those who regularly drank coffee were about a third less likely to die than those who did not.

Does that help explain? Not by much.

The article goes on to tell us that the researchers found that it didnt matter whether the coffee was plain or sweetened with sugar.

Well, at least theres that. But I still find the explanation lacking.

Reading on, I learn that during the seven-year study, the deaths that occurred numbered 3,177 (including 1,725 from cancer and 628 from heart disease).

It seems that simply drinking hot drinks lowered mortality somewhat, but the participants who reported at the start of the study that they drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee daily, well, they were 30% less likely to die during the seven years.

The researchers went on to mention (this is my paraphrase) that many health benefits have previously been reported in studies regarding coffee. (Ive been noting those for years.) But this study was not specifically designed to study coffee consumption. Their coffee discovery was just observational, a surprise, and they are drawing no major conclusions from it.

If youre interested, do a web search (plugging in something like 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee), and you can read a lot more.

For my part, Ill add this information regarding the benefits of coffee to my personal stash of such material. Ive felt better for a long time now knowing that my love for coffee has been good for me, not that Id have stopped drinking it if the evidence had pointed in the other direction.

Ever since health evidence mistakenly touted margarines benefits over butter and thus robbed me of years of buttery flavor my policy regarding most health news is watchful waiting. I can usually wait out the reports I dont like. Since they change more easily and quickly than Im willing to change my habits, this approach has worked well. Folks who worry too much about such are more likely to die early of stress than those of us who dont. Thats my own study.

With regard to coffee, which I hold in very high regard, I cant imagine how anyone wakes up, thinks, or writes without it.

But the truth is that my interest in this particular coffee article waned a good bit after I realized that the study isnotindicating any sort of immortality connected to coffee consumption.

Im OK with that. In this present world, enoughs enough. And I am completely convinced that the Author of life has the ultimate immortality thing well in hand.

Curtis Shelburne writes about faith for The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at:

[emailprotected]

See the original post:

Faith: God is the ultimate authority on immortality - easternnewmexiconews.com

Update: Netflix has confirmed to us on July 26th that Wild Things: Animal Adventures is launching in August in place of Twelve Minutes which has been delayed to a later date. Updated story below.

Netflix just revealed four games coming to the service next month. The Netflix Games August 2022 additions include the FMV game Immortality from Sam Barlow (Her Story, Telling Lies), the party charades game Heads Up!, Wild Things: Animal Adventures, and the 3D adventure game Rival Pirates. These will all be arriving soon. The interactive movie trilogy Immortality was originally due this month, but was delayed to next month. A definite date hasnt been announced for it yet. The Netflix version of Heads Up! will include decks based on Netflix titles. Watch the Immortality trailer below:

Following the announcement of the four games included, Netflix confirmed to us that Twelve Minutes will not be releasing on mobile next month through Netflix Games. Instead, Wild Things: Animal Adventures from Jam City, a match-3 puzzler, will be arriving on the service. All four of August 2022s additions to Netflix are coming soon, and they will be joining the recently released and amazing Poinpy and Into the Breach. Netflix is bringing the kind of games youd see from Apple Arcade if Apple hadnt switched over to more engagement-focused titles. So many great indie games have been announced already, with more to come this year. Ive already played some of them on console, but love checking out more high quality indies on mobile. What are you looking forward to on Netflix this year when it comes to new games?

Read the original here:

Netflix Games August 2022: Immortality, Wild Things: Animal Adventures, Rival Pirates, and Heads Up Announced (Update) TouchArcade - Touch Arcade

The Guinness World Records has a new record-breaking diamond ring, thanks to a Kerala-based jeweller. This mushroom-shaped diamond ring from Kerala has broken the record for the most diamonds set in one ring.

This was recorded in Karathode, Kerala, on May 5, 2022. According to Guinness World Records, this mushroom-shaped diamond ring is set with 24,679 natural diamonds. The ring is aptly titled Ami, which means immortality in Sanskrit. The ring is based on the shape of a pink oyster mushroom, as the mushroom represents immortality and longevity. The ring also entails a quote from SWA Diamonds Managing Director Abdul Gafur Anadiyan.

A lot of thought and hard work was put into the making of the ring. Not to forget, time too. It took the jeweller three months to make this ring. According to Guinness World Records, After 3D printing, liquid gold was then poured into the mould, cooled and filed into the overall shape of 41 unique mushroom petals. With the base complete, each diamond was then meticulously placed by hand on each side of the mushroom petals. Natural diamonds were used.

With a hefty price tag of $ 95,243 (approx. RM424,640), the ring weighs 340 grams, which is three-quarters of a pound. The Guinness record was awarded to the mushroom-shaped ring from Kerala after it was verified by a team of independent gemologists. After this, the number of diamonds was counted by Guinness officials using a microscope, who also evaluated and confirmed the clarity, carat, weight, cut type and the type of diamonds used.

This record was previously held by Meerut-based businessman Harshit Bansal, who had achieved the title in 2020 for his floral design bejewelled with 12,638 diamonds.

Hero Image: Courtesy SWA Diamonds, Featured Image: Courtesy SWA Diamonds

See more here:

Heres why this mushroom-shaped diamond ring from Kerala broke the world record - Lifestyle Asia Kuala Lumpur

Blackburn Roverswon the Premier League in 1995, pipping a dominant Manchester United side to the post but can you name the Rovers XI from the match that sealed the title on the final day?

Blackburn were on the cusp of greatness before the 1994-95 season; theyd finished second the year before and owner Jack Walker had invested heavily in both the playing staff and manager Kenny Dalglish.

And Blackburn set the pace for most of the season, playing some sublime football along the way and opening up an eight-point lead over United by the middle of April.

Defeats against Manchester City and West Ham allowed United to close the gap but Rovers entered the final day of the season knowing that victory at Liverpool would seal their first league title since 1914.

In the event, Blackburn lost 2-1 at Anfield with Jamie Redknapp scoring a last-minute winner. But United were held to a draw at West Ham, meaning Dalglishs side had won the league by a single point.

Rovers never came close to retaining their title and were relegated in 1999, adding to the sense of immortality about their achievement and were asking you to name the XI that clinched the title at Anfield in May 1995.

Its a line-up packed full of Premier League legends but there are some unfamiliar names sprinkled around too. The score to beat from the Planet Football office is 03:13.

And, if this gets you in the mood for another quiz, have a go atnaming every player to score 10 or more Premier League goals in 2008-09.

If youve not already, sign up for a Planet Sport account to access hints for those tricky answers, to reveal the ones youve missed, and to register your score on the leaderboard. Registering is free, fast, and gets you access to old articles as well as site personalisation and competitions.

Good luck, and dont forget to tweet us your scores@planetfutebol.

Can you name Blackburns XI that won the League Cup final in 2002?

Can you name every club to ever appear in the Premier League?

Continue reading here:

Can you name the Blackburn XI that clinched the Premier League title in 1995? - Planet Football

As we head towards completing 50 years of tiger conservation in India, Taj Safaris, India's first and only luxury wildlife circuit, celebrates International Tiger Day by providing viewers a peek into the wondrous realm of the animal kingdom. Indulge in engaging talks about wildlife through the four-part webinar series, Nature Talks with Taj Safaris hosted from July 29 to September 4 passionately narrated by expert naturalists sharing first-hand knowledge on subjects that seek to build awareness.

An Ode To 'Collarwali' by naturalist Kopal Thakur from Baghvan, A Taj Safari Pench National Park, will take you back in time where Collarwali, the iconic tigress attained immortality in the teak forests of Pench. Unravel the life of successful predators as the Whistling Hunters of Central India by naturalist Yajuvendra from Banjaar Tola, A Taj Safari - Kanha National Park brings alive the magic of the Indian jungles.

Get acquainted with the prowess of preservation, civilization's ethics of co-existence with nature and the commitment to reverse the looming decline of multiple species from our wild heritages with naturalist Ramesh from Mahua Kothi, A Taj Safari Bandhavgarh National Park on Conservation Success Stories of India. Lastly, The Flying Rulers by Naturalist Tarun from Pashan Garh, A Taj Safari - Panna National Park will take you soaring into the world of some of the most endangered birds on the planet.

Read more from the original source:

International Tiger Day: Take A Walk In The Wild With These Nature Talks - Outlook India

The sanctuary at Brauron, not far from Athens, was the site of an important cult to Artemis. There are impressive reconstructed remains of the temple to the goddess and the three-sided stoa, which would have served as the cafeteria area, as well as the sacred spring. Visitors can cross the only stone bridge that survives from ancient Greece, complete with grooves like trolley-tracks to ease the path of wheels, indicating the number of trips made by expensive vehicles, laden with food and clothing as well as worshippers. The Athenian elite brought their tween daughters from the temple of Artemis on the Acropolis to the temple at Brauron to take part in various rituals, including a large festival known as the Brauronia. It was held every four years and involved the ritual presentation of garments to the goddess, the grinding of grain and the dedication of toys and dolls, which the girls gave up to symbolise the end of childhood and the prospect of marriage.

The little museum at Brauron contains a rich collection of archaeological finds: jewellery, statues and reliefs representing the procession of worshippers laden with offerings. The most affecting exhibits are the toys discovered in the rich mud around the site: knuckle bones, little carts with wheels (even before cars, kids played with toy cars) and dolls with articulated limbs that look very like Yoga Barbie (these dolls, like their modern counterparts, would have come with stylish interchangeable outfits). The marshy soil of the spring, into which many small, precious offerings were thrown, enabled the preservation of an extraordinarily high number of wooden artefacts, including fragments of chests or boxes and a female statuette perhaps representing the statue of Artemis supposedly brought to Brauron by Iphigenia, to whom there was also a cult on this site.

According to myth, Artemis refused to grant the Greek forces a favourable wind to set sail for Troy because Agamemnon, the leader of the expedition, had killed her sacred deer. She required him to make a terrible sacrifice: he must kill his own daughter, Iphigenia, to pay for fair passage to Troy, or lose his chance to enrich and empower himself by a great military victory. The slaughter of Iphigenia foreshadows the massacre and enslavement of many more civilians during the Trojan War, and sets in motion Agamemnons own death at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra, in revenge for their daughter. The murder of daughter by father represents the tension within ancient Athenian society between loyalty to the household, including the women of the family, and loyalty to the public community, dominated by men. Aeschylus version of the myth, in the Agamemnon, presents the sacrifice of Iphigenia as the primary dilemma on which a new model of patriarchal democratic politics must eventually be founded. It is both a choice and no choice at all: the girl is bound and gagged before being killed, but her father, too, is bound by the yoke of necessity. Euripides later interpretation, Iphigenia at Aulis, composed towards the end of the Peloponnesian War (which Athens would lose), ascribes more agency and more self-delusion to the callous father and to his idealistic, self-sacrificing child, and finds in the myth a dark picture of selfish, over-privileged men who value their own interests and reputations over the lives of young people. But there was another version of the story. In it, Agamemnons attempt to kill his daughter did not result in her death, because the goddess, at the last moment, switched the girl for a deer, and transported Iphigenia to Tauris on the Black Sea, where she became a priestess, and from where she was eventually rescued by her long-lost brother, Orestes, who helped her escape to Brauron, bringing with her a sacred statue of Artemis.

The existence of multiple Iphigenia myths speaks to one of the central anxieties for any parent of a daughter: will the transition to adulthood inevitably mean less freedom (the gag in her mouth and around her limbs) and more danger, both from men in positions of political power and from men in her own household? Can mothers save daughters from fathers and husbands? What will happen to our wild ones? Will they be tamed, and broken by the taming? The girls who went to ancient Brauron to undergo the symbolic loss of their girlhood would have known that for them, as for their mothers, marriage might well mean death. Many would already have lost their own mothers or aunts or cousins to childbirth: part of the festival involved offering up these womens garments to the goddess. Contemplating the rockfall beside the cave, I found it easy to imagine the worshippers and mourners crowded in that dark, narrow space, a memorial to the pain, constraint and danger that attend on those who bleed. Artemis, an immortal virgin, goddess of the menstrual moon, was also the Olympian most closely associated with childbirth and gynaecological ailments, and the worshippers at the temple would have included adult women who stood in need of her protection, and her power to punish men who overstepped the mark.

The version of the myth in which Iphigenia manages to get away from her father offers a glimpse of hope or a fantasy of escape from patriarchal danger, the prospect that girls or women might somehow activate a different kind of power. The ancient initiates at Brauron were called little bears or bear-cubs (arktoi), and they seem to have pretended to be bears, perhaps with the help of masks and costumes a reference to another myth about the killing of an animal sacred to Artemis, a bear, and also a hint at their ferocity and strength. Bears are rare in modern Greece, and we didnt see any when I visited last month. The sun was too high in the sky for most of the wild creatures favoured by Artemis, the lady of wild things, potnia theron; all the rabbits and mice were hiding in the undergrowth. I went to Brauron with the poet Alicia Stallings, who recently translated the Batrachomyomachia, or The Battle between the Frogs and the Mice, an ancient mock-epic that reduces the Iliads grand meditation on the relationship between rage, violence and grief to a miniature scale, and reimagines Iliadic warriors as tiny animals, fully anthropomorphised and equipped with feelings of sorrow, anger, curiosity and xenophobia (as well as ingeniously scaled-down Homeric weapons). Walking through the marshes, we searched for toads or frogs, hoping to catch a glimpse of the treacherous, amphibian villains of the Batrachomyomachia lurking in the creek, or to hear their croaky song (Brekekekex, koax, koax!). No frogs sang for us. But there were dragonflies, whirring like drones through the thick rushes, tiny lizards on the rocks, sparrows chattering amid the ruins, bright red, blue and yellow flowers growing in the stones around the shrine and at last, at the edge of the path, a large snake slithering into the long grass, perhaps on its way to shed its skin and become its new self.

Shades of the prison-house begin to close/Upon the growing boy, the speaker laments in Wordsworths Immortality Ode. In most societies, constrictions of much more obvious kinds close in around growing girls. Several Hellenistic epigrams from the Greek Anthology evoke the transition from girlhood to womanhood, and hint at the vulnerability and loss of freedom that this will entail. Here is one, dating to around 100 BCE, by Antipater of Sidon. The poem is in the voice of the young girls headband, now set aside so that the teenagers wild hair can be constrained by the headgear of an adult woman.

The girl with thick, abundant hair, named Pony,has tied it back, and washed her scented face,because her time of marriage has arrived.I am the headband that she used to wear,but I require the fun and games of girlhood.Artemis, grant the child of Lycomedesmarriage and offspring, in your kindness, please,now she has given up her knuckle bones.

Perhaps the headband has an ulterior motive for presenting the transition to a different form of headgear as one involving constraint and loss. But the poem also hints that there may be a difference between the perspective of the girl herself and that of her father, who wants her to produce offspring to continue his line.

Alicia and I both have tween daughters. They were not with us on the trip, but it was easy to imagine them scrambling over the ruins (which is of course forbidden) or going into bored adolescent sulks as the adults talked on. It was easy, too, to imagine their ancient counterparts, dressed in the yellow saffron dresses approved by the goddess, roaming over the marshes looking for frogs and snakes and tadpoles, climbing rocks and wading into the muddy water, competing in races, dressing up and doing one anothers hair, and forming intense and complex friendships. Alicias poem Verge, about an earlier trip to Brauron, asks the goddess to allow her daughter to keep her wildness: Leave in her something else, unnamed,/Untrammelled, liminal, untamed.

I remember being told, when I first got my period, You are now a woman, and then warned not to clog the toilet. The social pressure to inhabit this new identity, woman, seemed to be somehow intertwined with the pain and the mess. My primary source of comfort during the miserable period of early adolescence was my pet rabbit, an animal favoured by Artemis (my children have goddess-approved pet rats). Back home in West Philadelphia, I went with my two younger children (aged twelve and eleven) to a modern version of the Brauronia: a period party. Our ritual was organised by Tara Rubenstein, the leader of a youth group called Artemis Pack, intended for girls, non-binary and gender-queer kids aged between seven and fourteen. Not all the kids who participated in the ceremony were girls; one was a trans boy, several were gender-fluid or non-binary or demi-girl; non-menstruators were also welcome.

The period party began with the younger kids anointing the older ones with glitter and perfume before they gathered around the fire pit. Each in turn took a pinch of scented herbs and scattered them into the fire to say goodbye to childhood a ritual borrowed from the Brauronia. The kids seemed for the most part eager to embrace their maturity (and excited at the opportunity to play with fire). Each parent also took a pinch and gave it to the fire, to renounce (less happily) their childrens childhoods. Each not-quite-adult was given red ribbons to plait, reminding them that they can choose how to braid the strands of their own life and which traditions, values and relationships they want to carry forward. There was a ritual sip of red wine (a thrillingly taboo moment for 12-year-olds) and then the kids were wrapped together in a huge green blanket, before it was released to let them out into the world.

The last element of the ceremony is different every year, because it is a response to the social and political issues that might affect a person at the very beginning of adult life. Last year, they meditated on the California wildfires. This year, the topic was the abolition of the constitutional right to abortion in the US. The physical violation of forced pregnancy, and its numberless medical, financial, social and psychological consequences, will become inescapable for many. It is hard not to be enraged by the hypocrisy and callousness of the removal of the option of safe, legal abortion from those who need it. Will my beautiful, wild, quirky kids and their friends be able to find a way out of the gags and the nets cast around their bodies, and hold onto their magical strangeness, their autonomy, their freedom?

At the end of the ceremony, we ate vagina-shaped pasta stuffed with tomato sauce and a cake, constructed with great care by one of my children, that oozed sticky red jam. I imagined the embarrassment and mockery that would have greeted this in the Oxford of my childhood and hoped that the goddess might send us a sign of her favour. Just then, a groundhog ran through the weeds at the bottom of the garden. Even in Pennsylvania, Artemis is with us.

Excerpt from:

Emily Wilson Diary: Artemis is with us LRB 4 August 2022 - London Review of Books

When horses achieve greatness, or accomplish particularly memorable feats, it is customary for stakes races to be named in their honor. Across the country, there are races the bear the names of legends like Man o War, Secretariat, Kelso, and Cigar; even more recent greats like Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, and Wise Dan are remembered with stakes races.

Every summer, Saratoga Race Coursein New York hosts the Jim Dandy Stakes, a major prep for the prestigious Travers Stakes later in the Saratoga meet. It is only fitting that the Jim Dandy Stakes is a prep for the Travers, since it was in the 1930 Travers that an unassuming 3-year-old chestnut colt pulled off one of the most astonishing upsets in the history of horse racing to ensure that his name would never be forgotten.

His name, naturally, was Jim Dandy. His sire father) was Jim Gaffney, winner of the 1907 Hopeful Stakes and a successful stallion that had already sired the 1923 Preakness Stakes winner Vigil. Jim Dandys dam (mother) was Thunderbird, a daughter of the very successful sire Star Shoot, and further back in Jim Dandys pedigree were the names of many other famous horses, including Epsom Derby winner Bend Or, English Triple Crown winner Isinglass, and the remarkable U.S. sire Lexington.

This was a remarkable contrast to 1930s leading 3-year-old Gallant Fox, a seemingly unbeatable colt that had won the Wood Memorial in his seasonal debut before adding the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes to sweep the Triple Crown. Showing no signs of slowing down, Gallant Fox won the Dwyer Stakes by 1 lengths so easily that his Daily Racing Form past performances include the notation loafed, and two weeks later, he won the rich Arlington Classic then worth more than any of the Triple Crown races by a neck after a long stretch battle.

Much like 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, Gallant Fox was a rising star making history with every startas he headed to Saratoga for the prestigious Travers Stakes on Aug. 16, and there were few people that believed Gallant Fox could be beaten. He had it all excellent early speed, a powerful finishing kick, and proven ability on both fast and wet tracks. He would be facing only three rivals in the Travers, and only one Whichone, the leading 2-year-old of 1929 and a winner of three straight races at Saratoga was expected to have a chance of pulling off an upset.

The odds reflected this confidence. Gallant Fox was made the heavy favorite at 1-2 while Whichone was sent off at 8-5 and third choice Sun Falcon was 30-1. Jim Dandy? No one thought he had a chance, and his odds were a staggering 100-1.

But then two factors combined to dramatically change the complexion of the race. First, rain reduced the track to a muddy, wet mess officially labeled heavy, a condition deeper and wetter than Gallant Fox was used to encountering.

Secondly, when the horses were sent on their way at the start of the race, Whichone showed more early speed than in the past and engaged Gallant Fox in a tremendous battle for the lead.

All of thesudden, a speed duel was underway.

Sonny Workman, the jockey of Whichone, believed that the outside part of the track might be faster than the rail, and allowed Whichone to run many paths off the rail throughout the race. Gallant Fox, drawn outside of Whichone, had no choice but to go even wider, and both colts lost a tremendous amount of ground while setting fast fractions of :25 flat, :49 2/5, and 1:13 3/5. In the meantime, several lengths behind them, Jim Dandy hugged the rail in third place, splashing happily through the muddy conditions that he loved.

As the race went on and Gallant Fox and Whichone continued their intense battle for the lead, there was a sudden flash of movement along the rail. As the leaders began to tire from their exhausting efforts, a longshot was rallying fast on the inside. Turning for home, with Gallant Fox and Whichone on the far outside, the improbable ...the impossible ...the unthinkable suddenly unfolded before the eyes of the 30,000 fans in attendance.

Gallant Fox, the Triple Crown winner and seemingly unbeatable champion, had lost the lead. And the new leader was a chestnut blur named Jim Dandy.

For Gallant Fox, the Travers would mark his only loss of the season; after his shocking defeat, he rebounded to win the Saratoga Cup, Lawrence Realization, and Jockey Club Gold Cup to retire with record earnings of $328,165. In contrast, Jim Dandy would never win another stakes race, and he eventually retired at the age of 12 with a record of just seven wins from 141 starts. In his last four seasons of racing, he never even finished in the trifecta.

Yes, for the majority of their careers, there was no comparing Gallant Fox and Jim Dandy. But on one summer day at Saratoga, it was Jim Dandy who reached the winners circle and achieved immortality in his own way.

See more here:

The Legend of Unthinkable 1930 Travers Winner Jim Dandy - America's Best Racing