Category Archives: Immortality

Its hard to be dominant in the NHL, but these teams were difficult to beat anytime they took the ice, and they all capped it off with a Stanley Cup championship.

Heres our ranking of the top teams in hockey history.

Led by center and captain Joe Sakic (118 points), the Colorado Avalanche were a force to be reckoned with at the turn of the century. Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay, and Chris Drury all had over 60 points with Colorado that season, and goalie Patrick Roy went 40-13-7 with a .913 save % and 2.22 GAA.

The Avalanche went 52-16-10-4 for 118 points, taking home the Presidents Trophy. They won the Stanley Cup over the New Jersey Devils in Game 7, which led to a memorable celebration in which Sakic handed the trophy immediately to Hall of Famer Ray Bourque, who had never won it all in 22 seasons.

One could make the case that the dynastic Canadiens of the 1970s could sweep the Top 5 greatest teams of all time, but well limit them to two placings.

The Montral squad that won the Stanley Cup in 1973 was exceptional, as they lost just 10 times in 78 games. The roster was a mlange of Canadien greats, led by 36-year-old captain Henri Richard. He had 43 points that year, while fellow greybeard Frank Mahovlich (35) had 93, second on the team to 27-year-old Jacques Lemaire. All three skaters are in the Hall of Fame, as are reliable veterans Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard, and Jacques Laperriere.

The '72-'73 Habs also boasted five budding Hall of Famers, namely Guy Lafleur, Guy Lapointe, Steve Shutt, Larry Robinson, and netminder Ken Dryden. With a roster this stacked, its no wonder the Canadiens secured their second of what would be six Stanley Cups in the decade.

The 1970-71 Boston Bruins team was one of the greatest squads to not win the Stanley Cup,but the redeem team that came the following year was not too shabby either.

Finishing with 119 points just two fewer than the year before the 71-72 Bruins amassed an eye-popping 5.12 goals per game, something only the Edmonton Oilers of the firewagon 1980s could dream about.

Not only did opponents have to worry about Hall of Fame center Phil Esposito who had 133 points that year but they also had to gameplan for dynamic defenseman Bobby Orr, who won his third straight Hart Trophy in 1972.

Boston dropped just three games in three postseason rounds en route to the title.

The Oilers dynasty of the 1980s was incredible, but the 1983-84 team took the cake.

Led by Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton produced an eye-popping 5.85 goals per game, leading to a 57-18-5 record. The Great One himself had an absurd 205 points in his fifth straight Hart Trophy-winning campaign (the streak would end at eight in 1988), with Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri and Mark Messier all Hall of Famers too reaching the century mark in points. Other Hall of Famers on the roster include Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe, and goalie Grant Fuhr.

The Oilers needed seven games to dispatch the Calgary Flames in the semifinals, but went 11-1 in all other playoff series to win their first of four Stanley Cups in a five-year period.

The 1976-77 Montral Canadiens are the measure by which all elite NHL teams are judged, so there could be no other club at No. 1.

This Habs team set the current record for points with 132, losing a mere eight of their 80 games that year (also an NHL record). Superstar winger Lafleur had an NHL-best 136 points, taking the Hart Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award. Shutt, Robinson, Lapointe, Lemaire, Cournoyer, Savard, and Dryden were the Hall of Fame holdovers from the 1973 champion club, and they were joined by eventual Hall of Famer and four-time Selke Trophy winner Bob Gainey.

Simply dominant on both ends of the ice, Montral cakewalked to the Stanley Cup and immortality in 1977.

Read the original:

The best teams in NHL history - BetAmerica Extra

Last season, Devin Booker carried almost all the offensive tools imaginable around on his work belt. With a slippery mid-range pull up that transcended modern analytics, strong dribble-drive moves, an underrated post-up game, as well as the athleticism and wit to create for himself and others, he badgered opposing defenses night after night for the Phoenix Suns.

But every now and then, more so on the rarest occasions, he came up short, needing to tighten one more bolt to secure a win, but missing the right wrench to do so.

Unfortunately, last years NBA Finals best exemplified this issue for Booker. Even though he put up fantastic numbers for the series, averaging 28.2 points, 4.0 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game, one glaring component within his game fell off during Phoenixs losses.

Booker missed that vacant tool, which of course, was an efficient 3-point shot.

During Phoenixs first two NBA Finals contests, which the Suns won, Booker shot a combined 42.0 percent from beyond the arc. His long range missile system, fully intact for the time being, destroyed the Milwaukee Bucks, dropping timely buckets while spacing the floor for his teammates.

But during the next four games, which the team lost, Booker shot an abysmal 13.6 percent from deep. The Suns fell behind asGiannis Antetokounmpo and company bullied Phoenix inside, frankly unable to keep up with all the easy points coming at the floors other end.

Even outside the postseason, the Suns put up an astute 21-7 record during games when Booker shot above 35.0 percent from range. But during games when he shot under 25.0 percent, the Suns went a less impressive 12-8.

With this alignment between Bookers 3-point shooting and Phoenixs success, he entered this past offseason with one clear goal: to fix his long range shotto go down to Home Depot and buy that last tool.

Thankfully, it appears that he did so.

This year, things look different for Booker. He finds himself shooting a career-high 42.0 percent from deep so far, even showing no signs of a drop off following his hamstring injury. That has translated into his teams success, with the Suns boasting a league-best 25-5 record.

But even beyond what the standings show you, Bookers more consistent 3-point shot has made a difference for nearly all his teammates out on the court.

Starting with fellow young gun Deandre Ayton, Bookers 3-point shooting gave way to arguably Aytons best game so far this season, occurring just two nights ago.

During Phoenixs rout of the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, Booker nailed six 3-pointers, going down as a season high for him. With Booker threatening from deep, he drew defenders away from the paint, resulting in a 19-point game for Ayton where he shot a season high 81.9 percent from the field.

High scoring, matched with efficient numbers remains the name of the game for big men these days, and Booker helped Ayton deliver in that department. Especially with him doing it against the Lakers, the game felt like one from Phoenixs playoff run last year, where Ayton even put himself into Bill Russell territory from a statistical standpoint.

Moving onto Bookers backcourt partner, Chris Paul also finds himself benefitting as a facilitator from Bookers long range mastery.With Booker again drawing so much attention along the arc, he makes dropping dimes and protecting the rock that much easier for the Point God.

So far this year, Booker has included six games where he made at least four triples and shot at least 50.0 percent while doing so. Three of those games have also been top six assist to turnover ratio outings for Paul, illustrating another positive correlation between Books shooting and a teammates success.

With the Suns offense built around a pick-and-roll based offense, this phenomenon makes sense, as Bookers scoring outside the paint takes pressure off Paul being another ball handler and someone who stretches the opponents defense. Doing that opens up space for Booker and others to score off slick feeds from Paul, and less difficult for defenders to crowd Paul at the top of the key and force turnovers.

A solid 3-point shooting night for Booker typically bodes well for Jae Crowder at the same time. Being a long range specialist, Crowders percentages better tell his story each night rather than just makes, and when Booker starts knocking them down, Crowders efficiency rises.

When making perimeter defenders sweat, Booker just opens more doors for Crowder to shoot via his floor spacing. To illustrate this, once again look no further than the numbers. Crowders top two 3-point shooting percentage games this year are uncoincidentally both games in which Booker hit at least four shots from deep.

At the same time, whenever Booker fails to threaten from outside, things become difficult for Crowder. This year, Booker has only played five games where he attempted less than four triples, and two of them include games where Crowder missed all his 3-pointerssomething done by him only three times this whole year.

These two snipers clearly play off each other, and when Booker starts to make it rain, Crowder makes sure it stays pouring.

With so much stemming from Bookers new and improved deep shot, just keeping up the onslaught from range needs to remain his primary concern. If he does that though, he owns a solid chance to not only keep the Suns winning, but also begin adding to his legacy as an individual.

Comparing Booker to Kobe Bryant often feels forced at this point, and rightfully so. For all Bryant did, there will never be another like him. But when looking purely at his numbers and that of a few other legendary shooting guards, one cannot help but point out more similarities working in accordance with Bookers 3-point shot.

Between his sixth and seventh season, Bryant experienced a massive bump in his 3-point percentage, carving out at +13.3 percent difference. Future Hall of Fame two guard Vince Carter also experienced a sudden increase at +2.3 percent, as did Reggie Miller at +2.2 percent.

With this year being Bookers seventh, his 3-point shooting reflects a +8.0 percent increase from the year prior. Now, other intangibles certainly helped Bryant, Carter, and Miller increase their long range shooting during those seasons, but the timeliness of their upticks matching with Bookers cannot be completely ignored.

All those players went on to experience Hall of Fame careers, so with Booker more or less keeping stride with them, he finds himself on track to reach basketball immortality all the same, while again pushing his team to new heights this year.

Originally posted here:

How Devin Bookers 3-Point Shooting Growth Made the Suns Unbeatable - Valley of the Suns

Penn Parents Express Further Concerns Over Lia Thomas Competing On Womens Team

The controversy surrounding Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been brought to national attention during the past two weeks as the debate rages on about the playing field being level in womens swimming. Thomas, a transgender swimmer who has followed the rules set forth by the NCAA on this matter, has put together some of the top college times in the country two years after competing for the Penn mens swim team.

The major reaction to Thomas speed in the water has been focused on records being in jeopardy and the validity of any record she might break, and whether or not Thomas competing is fair to female swimmers who were born female. Thomas competing in womens races just a few years after transitioning has led to controversy, and there have been numerous opinions about whether she should be allowed in womens races. She has undergone required hormone therapy, but many believe that since she underwent male puberty, she has inherent advantages over her female competitors.

But there are plenty of other issues at stake that parents of Penn swimmers have discussed and written about. They, like many upset by the issue, are trying not to take their frustrations out on Thomas, but are taking their frustrations to the NCAA to change the rules after Thomas situation is revealing an uneven playing field in many peoples eyes.

One issue emphasized by the Penn parents is travel team participation. Thomas is one of 26 swimmers that can travel to NCAA away meets. Her participation means that one female-born swimmer will not get to travel and compete at each away meet.

Then there is the issue of relay participation. Thomas is the fastest swimmer on the team and would likely be chosen for most, if not all, of the Penn relays at the Ivy League Championships and any relay that qualifies for the NCAA Championships. That means other swimmers on her team wont swim at the NCAA Championships.

A Penn parent wishing to remain anonymous shared their thoughts on these matters:

The debate has been focused on Lias competitive advantage, as it relates to her being able to attain immortality status in the womens sports category; metrics like wins, records, and rankings. Fair competition is obviously a major concern. But what no one is talking about are some of the wider effects of Lias place on the womens team. University of Pennsylvanias womens team has 40 swimmers. Lia is taking one of the roster spots from a biological female. This year, a woman was left behind on the Zippy Invitational trip who otherwise wouldve been able to experience competing for her team. At that meet, Lia swam on five relays, taking a spot from a biological female on each. Lias performances arent just about her place in history, her participation means another woman does not get the opportunity; it is a zero-sum game.

In February, when the team will compete at Ivy League Championships, each school can send a maximum of 18 swimmers. A biological woman, who has been swimming competitively since a very young age, training hard, and dreaming that someday she might be able to represent a great D1 school at a conference championship, will miss out on that opportunity. Now that Lia is on the team, that girl who wouldve earned the 18th spot isnt 18th and she has to stay home.

These are just a few of the ways transgender women are taking the opportunities that were created for biological women.

These ripple effects and the impact on any one biological woman wont be covered by Swimming World, but will have a big impact on these womens futures; impacts that are sure to increase as more transgender athletes are allowed to compete on teams with biological women without mitigating their male-puberty advantage, like athletic scholarships and being one-of-40 team members. Title IX was supposed to ensure women have the same opportunities as men; and without proper rules governing the womens category, perhaps we should have one swimming team, and see who makes it. In that scenario, my daughter wouldnt make it, and Im betting yours wouldnt either. The conclusion is undeniable; the inclusion of trans women with biological women leads to exclusion and loss of opportunities for biological women.

Penn parents have been active about this issue as a group. They wrote an open letter to the NCAA, the Ivy League and Penn officials, looking for answers.

Answers could include changing the rules to mandate more than one year of gender transitioning, or creating a third gender group for college swimming, and a number of other possibilities. Of course, the NCAA could also do nothing, citing Lia Thomas following of the rules.

At stake here is the integrity of womens sports, the letter said, according to DailyMail.com. The precedent being set one in which women do not have a protected and equitable space to compete is a direct threat to female athletes in every sport. What are the boundaries? How is this in line with the NCAAs commitment to providing a fair environment for student-athletes?It is the responsibility of the NCAA to address the matter with an official statement. As the governing body, it is unfair and irresponsible to leave the onus on Lia, Lias teammates, Lias coaches, UPenn athletics and the Ivy League.

The university sent a terse response to the parents, claiming the school is doing what it can to help the student-athletes navigate Thomas success, shared a link to mental health services.

Please know that we fully support all our swimming student-athletes and want to help our community navigate Lias success in the pool this winter, the university said in its reply, according to DailyMail.com. Penn Athletics is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive environment for all our student-athletes, coaches and staff and we hold true to that commitment today and in the future.

Related

Read more:

Penn Parents Express Further Concerns Over Lia Thomas Competing On Women's Team - Swimming World Magazine

The King's Daughter is a new film set for release early next year and stars James Bond legend Pierce Brosnan and Skins star Kaya Scodelario in the two leading roles, King Louis XIV and Marie-Josephe D'Alember.

The film is based on the 1997 novelThe Moon and the SunbyVonda N. McIntyre, with the screenplay written byShe's the One producer James Schamus.It's directed by Hoovey producer Sean McNamara.

In addition to this, Julie Andrews will narrate the film. Director Sean McNamara said: "Im so excited for the North American audience to seeThe Kings Daughterin theaters this January.

"There is only one Julie Andrews and she has blessed audiences around the globe with her lovely voice and amazing storytelling. Please join her as she narrates our story of the mythical mermaid who lives in the fountains of Versailles."

Here's everything you need to know about one of the big new movies in 2022...

The film will be available in US cinemas from January 21, 2022. It was actually filmed in 2014, but is finally getting a release next year!

The official plot is: "King Louis XIV's (Brosnan) quest for immortality leads him to capture a mermaid's (Fan) life force, but his immovable will is challenged when his long-hidden illegitimate daughter (Scodelario) forms a bond with the magical creature."

Here's who joins Pierce Brosnan and Kaya Scodelario in The King's Daughter cast...

Yes, a trailer for The King's Daughter is available now. In it, we see Marie-Josephe D'Alember leaving her home to meet her estranged father, King Louis XIV. While there, she navigates a life she's never really known and also befriends a mermaid, causing complications for the king!

Read more:

'The King's Daughter': release date, cast, plot, trailer and everything we know - What To Watch

Photo: Kevin Baker/Netflix

Spoilers follow for the second season of The Witcher.

Fantasy series are not exactly fountains of relatability. The whole point of the genre is to step outside oneself and to imagine a different reality one inspired by folklore and myth, populated by creatures and concepts that dont exist in our universe. Magic! Monsters! Matriarchal societies! (I kid, I kid except when I watch The Wheel of Time and think misandry doesnt seem so bad.) The second season of The Witcher hits an array of fantastical tropes that genre fans have come to expect, from Ciri going full Xena in her warrior training to totalitarianism and religious fanaticism on behalf of the Nilfgaardian Empire and the White Flame. The latest episodes also address a truism with which I can absolutely empathize: Elves really get screwed when it comes to real estate! And, like, everything else!

This positioning of elves in fantasy often serves as a contrast to the genres depiction of humanity. While humans have forgotten their responsibilities to the natural world and hesitate when it comes to altruism, the elves prioritize both often to their detriment. In the eight episodes that premiered on Netflix on December 17, The Witcher continues its theme of human selfishness and cruelty, especially in regard to the elves, the original inhabitants of the Continent. The elves have been oppressed and massacred for centuries, and they cannot catch a break when it comes to homeownership, birth rates, or, you know, anything. Their kingdoms and cities were stolen from them, every new home they attempt to establish is destroyed, and after the events of Voleth Meir, the first pure-born elf born in countless years is dead. The Witcher primarily aligns us with protagonists Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, but intermittently throughout its first season and consistently through its second, it makes a case for the elves refugees and survivors as worthy of our empathy, too, and perhaps even more deserving of our allegiance.

Like so many fantasy novels, TV shows, and films released after the somewhat forgotten 1924 novel The King of Elflands Daughter, by Lord Dunsany, and J. R. R. Tolkiens seminal works The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954 and 1955), and the posthumously published The Silmarillion (1977), The Witcher owes much of its conception of elves to those early visions, in particular Tolkiens elves. They are ancient; they set themselves apart from humankind; and they have lived through countless betrayals. Remember the memory Hugo Weavings Elrond shares with Ian McKellens Gandalf in Peter Jacksons The Fellowship of the Ring: Men are weak I was there 3,000 years ago, when Isildur took the Ring. I was there the day the strength of men failed There is no strength left in the world of men. Theyre scattered, divided, leaderless.

Think of how concerned Elrond is when his daughter Arwen (Liv Tyler, hot) falls in love with human Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen, hot) because he fears she will give up her immortality for that guy, part of a race that has turned its back so often on elves. And think too of Thranduil the Elvenking (Lee Pace, hot) in Jacksons The Hobbit trilogy, who hides the elves deep in the forest realm of Mirkwood in response to the dual threats of the dragon Smaug and the returned Sauron. Humans are many and elves are few, and whatever control the latter beings had over their world is slipping away. Who could blame them, after again helping to finally defeat Sauron in The Return of the King, for sailing to the Undying Lands during Middle-earths Fourth Age? Their cities will disintegrate into dust and all memory of them will be lost once they leave Middle-earth, but at least theyll be free of the annoying humans, with their laziness in lighting signal fires and their inability to sense their king is possessed and their masochistic desire to make hobbits sing. (Do I just low-key hate Gondor and Rohan? Probably.)

That overall elven blueprint is repeated in The Witcher. The Continents geography is difficult to grasp for viewers unfamiliar with Andrzej Sapkowskis source novels or the accompanying video games (show us an onscreen map, I beg!), but the series establishes early on that all the human kingdoms, from Cintra to Nilfgaard to Redania, were built on lands originally populated by the elves, and the humans locations of power, such as the magical Aretuza academy on Thanedd Island, were originally built by the elves. After the Conjunction of the Spheres merged previously divided dimensions together and brought humans and monsters to the Continent for the first time, its original elven inhabitants taught humans how to turn Chaos into magic to defend themselves. In return for the elves hospitality and acceptance, the humans swindled, ostracized, and slaughtered them, as in the Great Cleansing that killed Yennefers half-elf father.

In the first season of The Witcher, much of this is explained in chunks of exposition. In episode Four Marks, all three parallel story lines address how most humans think either the elves are evil (like the boy who shows off his necklace of elf ears to Ciri) or willingly left behind these lands for their golden palaces in the mountains (as Jaskier the Bard tells an eye-rolling Geralt). Most pervasively, humans are completely unaware of the elves long history of cultural and material contributions: Yennefer has to be taught about the elves by her lover, the sorcerer Istredd, and Ciri is informed of her grandmothers bloodthirst by elf boy Dara.

Photo: Jay Maidment/Netflix

The introduction in Four Marks of Tom Canton as Filavandrel, the king of the elves, sharply rejects these human misconceptions. Hes a monarch not by choice, but because the elves need a leader after being forced out of their home in the Dol Blathanna kingdom, starved, and hunted down. The Witcher, in its first season, was often subversively cynical, and Geralt and Jaskier respond to Filavandrels complaints on that wavelength. The former tells Filavandrel to go somewhere else, which is his recurring advice in the first season guidance that ignores how humans have taken practically everywhere. The latter, although at first shocked into silence by the kings tales of mass graves and murdered babies, eventually spins the story of the elves letting them go into a song about Geralt fighting them off.

Toss a Coin to Your Witcher, with its lyrics about how Geralt thrust every elf/Far back on the shelf/High up on the mountain/From whence it came and sung with energetic gusto, becomes the Bards signature jam. Jaskier does exactly what Istredd somberly tells Yennefer humans do (rewriting history with the stories we tell, the songs we sing about our own triumphs), and to emphasize that once more, Jenny Kleins screenplay has Jaskier say a version of the same line to Geralt: Respect doesnt make history.

In The Witchers second season, when the elves are reintroduced, theyve listened toadvice Filavandrels warrior companion Toruviel gave in Four Marks. Let us take back whats ours, starting now, she had implored the king, who instead chose to let Geralt and Jaskier go and then failed to defend the elves from Ciris grandmother, Queen Calanthe. In the time between when Geralt and Jaskier cross paths with Filavandrel in the pre-Ciri timeline in season one and the elf makes his season-two reappearance, the elves have deposed him and elevated his romantic partner, sorceress Francesca (Mecia Simson). Introduced in season-two episode Kaer Morhen, Francesca is slickly political (We mustnt lose faith in a bright elven future) and is convinced shes guided by visions of Ithlinne, an oracle offering a certain prophecy about who, or what, could save the elves. Her obsessive desire to provide a path forward for her people leads Francesca into alliances with Voleth Meir, the Deathless Mother demon who inspired the creation of the Witchers, and Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni), the sorceress who helped guide Nilfgaards attack of Cintra in the first season. Voleth Meir provides Francesca with a pure-born-elf pregnancy and Fringilla with power over Nilfgaard, and the two women team up to bond the elves and Nilfgaardians together.

At first, that partnership seems like a good idea. Cintras Queen Calanthe ordered the slaughter of many elves, and Francesca is working an understandable the enemy of my enemy is my friend angle in aligning herself with Fringilla and Nilfgaard. In the middle stretch of the second season, The Witcher expands Francescas decision, focusing on the refugee elves and the difficult choices they have to make as a race without a home. Some are settled in Cintra, which they refer to by its original elven name Xintrea, but they cant simply live: The Nilfgaardian Army makes them train and fight. In sixth episode Dear Friend , Nilfgaardian General Hake (Antony Byrne) sneers, Fucking pointies think they can join our ranks, as he watches the elves train in combat, while Nilfgaards Black Knight Cahir (Eamon Farren) mockingly calls the elves fairies. But Hakes and Cahirs hatred for the elves doesnt overpower their desire to use these individuals for Nilfgaards totalitarian plans. In penultimate episode Voleth Meir, Hake complains to Fringilla when the elves dont all report for instruction, while Cahir volunteers to deal with them if they refuse to serve. The elves cant just exist; they have to prove their worth to another group of humans that has no qualms about slaughtering them. And elves who havent made it to Cintra are still subject to prejudice and oppression in other kingdoms like Temerias Gors Velen, the port city where Yennefer and Cahir see elves being rounded up and massacred in fourth episode Redanian Intelligence. (And where Jaskier, perhaps feeling somewhat guilty about using the elves plight for his hit song, is smuggling them to Cintra under the assumed moniker the Sandpiper.)

For the elves, thats all pretty crappy, especially the being indebted to someone as annoying as Jaskier part. The situation gets even crappier when Francesca and Filavandrels baby is killed in Voleth Meir, turning the elves who had recently decided to leave Nilfgaard to pursue regrowth, reneging on the partnership with Fringilla vengeful and bloodthirsty. In finale episode Family, Francesca goes all Ten Commandments in Redania, casting a spell that slaughters all the kingdoms babies. (Simsons face in that second of silence between the cacophony of wailing babies and the screams of their grieving mothers is chilling.) We learn later during a conversation between Cahir and Fringilla that the elves are fighting throughout the Northern kingdoms, attacking as many humans as they can. And we learn even later that Nilfgaards White Flame, Emhyr var Emreis, ordered the elven babys assassination because he thinks its the best path to finding his daughter Ciri. Once again, the elves are being maneuvered and manipulated, and an answer to the elves existential struggle about who they are without a home isnt exactly clear.

What is the best path forward for the elves? More pure-blood elves seems out of the question, and joining with another human kingdom, after Nilfgaard burned them, seems foolish. (One of Henry Cavills best line deliveries this season is his deadpan observation of Istredds alliance with Nilfgaard: You want to help the elves by joining a kingdom that regularly massacres whole villages? Quite a conflict there.) Ciri, now that she is revealed to be part-elf, the focus of Ithlinnes prophecy, and, as Istredd tells Francesca, Hen Ikeir, obviously has a part to play, but she seems pretty stretched thin at this point, between evading the Wild Hunt and that fire mage guy and especially her creepy dads potentially gross advances.

So, genuinely: Cant all the power players on the Continent, the Brotherhood and whomever else, just find a place that is absolutely empty and give the elves some damn real estate? Weve seen Geralt wander through so many uninhabited expanses, from mountains to deserts, and one of those has to be suitable! Offer down-payment assistance, tax credits, sacks of gold, whatever currency is used in the Continent! Make peace through compensation! Honestly, between all the widespread genocide, cutting off of ears, and defamation through song, havent the elves been through enough?

See the article here:

The Witchers Elves Just Cant Catch a Break - Vulture

Alchemical potion that grants immunity, eternal youth and immortality to its drinker

The elixir of life, also known as elixir of immortality and sometimes equated with the name philosopher's stone, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to cure all diseases. Alchemists in various ages and cultures sought the means of formulating the elixir. The modern concept probably originated in ancient India (in the region known as Pakistan since 1947) or China and, independently, in Mesopotamia and Japan the origination of the concept in Asia and the Near East preceding that in Europe by millennia.[citation needed]

The first known instance in literature is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh in which Gilgamesh comes to fear his own declining years following the death of his beloved companion Enkidu.[citation needed] He seeks out Utnapishtim, a Noah-like figure in Mesopotamian mythology in which he was a servant of the great Alchemist of the rain who later became immortal, to seek out the advice of the King of Herod of the Land of Fire. Gilgamesh is directed by him to find a plant at the bottom of the sea which he does but seeks first to test it on an old man before trying it himself. Unfortunately, it is eaten by a serpent before he can do so.

Many rulers of ancient China sought the fabled elixir to achieve eternal life. During the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang sent Taoist alchemist Xu Fu to the eastern seas with 500 young men and 500 young women to find the elixir in the legendary Penglai Mountain, but returned without finding it. He embarked on a second voyage with 3000 young girls and boys, but none of them ever returned (legend has it that he found Japan instead).[1]

The ancient Chinese believed that ingesting long-lasting precious substances such as jade, cinnabar or hematite would confer some of that longevity on the person who consumed them. Gold was considered particularly potent, as it was a non-tarnishing precious metal; the idea of potable or drinkable gold is found in China by the end of the third century BC. The most famous Chinese alchemical book, the Danjing yaojue (Essential Formulas of Alchemical Classics) attributed to Sun Simiao (c. 581 c. 682 CE),[2][3] a famous medical specialist respectfully called "King of Medicine" by later generations, discusses in detail the creation of elixirs for immortality (mercury, sulphur, and the salts of mercury and arsenic are prominent, and most are poisonous) as well as those for curing certain diseases and the fabrication of precious stones.

Many of these substances, far from contributing to longevity, were actively toxic and resulted in Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning. The Jiajing Emperor in the Ming Dynasty died from ingesting a lethal dosage of mercury in the supposed "Elixir of Life" conjured by alchemists.[citation needed]

Amrita, the elixir of life has been described in the Hindu scriptures (not to be confused with Amrit related to Sikh religion (see Amrit Sanskar)). Anybody who consumes even a tiniest portion of Amrita has been described to gain immortality. Legend has it that at early times when the inception of the world had just taken place, evil demons (Asura) had gained strength. This was seen as a threat to the gods (Devas) who feared them. So these gods (including Indra, the god of sky, Vayu, the god of wind, and Agni, the god of fire) went to seek advice and help from the three primary gods according to the Hindus: Vishnu (the preserver), Brahma (the creator), and Shiva (the destroyer). They suggested that Amrit could only be gained from the samudra manthan (or churning of the ocean) for the ocean in its depths hid mysterious and secret objects. Vishnu agreed to take the form of a turtle (Kurma) on whose shell a huge mountain was placed. This mountain was used as a churning pole.

With the help of a Vasuki (mighty and long serpent, king of Nagloka) the churning process began at the surface. From one side the gods pulled the serpent, which had coiled itself around the mountain, and the demons pulled it from the other side. As the churning process required immense strength, hence the demons were persuaded to do the jobthey agreed in return for a portion of Amrit. Finally with their combined efforts (of the gods and demons), Amrit emerged from the ocean depths. All the gods were offered the drink but the gods managed to trick the demons who did not get the holy drink.

Mercury, which was so vital to alchemy everywhere, is first mentioned in the 4th to 3rd century BC Arthashastra, about the same time it is encountered in China and in the West. Evidence of the idea of transmuting base metals to gold appears in 2nd to 5th century AD Buddhist texts, about the same time as in the West.

It is also possible that the alchemy of medicine and immortality came to China from India, or vice versa; in any case, for both cultures, gold-making appears to have been a minor concern, and medicine the major concern. But the elixir of immortality was of little importance in India (which had other avenues to immortality). The Indian elixirs were mineral remedies for specific diseases or, at the most, to promote long life.

In European alchemical tradition, the Elixir of Life is closely related to the creation of the philosopher's stone. According to legend, certain alchemists have gained a reputation as creators of the elixir. These include Nicolas Flamel and St. Germain.

In the 8th century CE Man'ysh, 'waters of rejuvenation' (, ochimizu) are said to be in the possession of the moon god Tsukuyomi. Similarities have been noted with a folktale from the Ryukyu Islands, in which the moon god decides to give man the water of life (Miyako: slimiz), and serpents the water of death (snimiz). However, the person entrusted with carrying the pails down to Earth gets tired and takes a break, and a serpent bathes in the water of life, rendering it unusable. This is said to be why serpents can rejuvenate themselves each year by shedding their skin while men are doomed to die.[4][5]

The Elixir has had hundreds of names (one scholar of Chinese history reportedly found over 1,000 names for it), among them Amrit Ras or Amrita, Aab-i-Hayat, Maha Ras, Aab-Haiwan, Dancing Water, Chasma-i-Kausar, Mansarover or the Pool of Nectar, Philosopher's stone, and Soma Ras. The word elixir was not used until the 7th century A.D. and derives from the Arabic name for miracle substances, "al iksir". Some view it as a metaphor for the spirit of God (e.g., Jesus's reference to "the Water of Life" or "the Fountain of Life"). "But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14) The Scots and the Irish adopted the name for their "liquid gold": the Gaelic name for whiskey is uisce beatha, or water of life.

Aab-i-Hayat is Persian and means "water of life".[6] "Chashma-i-Kausar" (not "hasma") is the "Fountain of Bounty", which Muslims believe to be located in Paradise. As for the Indian names, "Amrit Ras" means "immortality juice", "Maha Ras" means "great juice", and "Soma Ras" means "juice of Soma". Later, Soma came to mean the Moon. "Ras" later came to mean "sacred mood experienced listening to poetry or music"; there are altogether nine of them. Mansarovar, the "mind lake" is the holy lake at the foot of Mount Kailash in Tibet, close to the source of the Ganges.

The elixir of life has been an inspiration, plot feature, or subject of artistic works including animation, comics, films, musical compositions, novels, and video games. Examples include L. Frank Baum's fantasy novel John Dough and the Cherub, the science fiction series Doctor Who, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, House of Anubis, the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the light novel Baccano!, the movie Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva of the Professor Layton franchise and the horror film As Above, So Below.

See the article here:

Elixir of life - Wikipedia

The topic of "life after death" raises disreputable connotations of past-life regression and haunted houses, but there are a large number of people in the world who believe in some form of persistence of the individual soul after life ends. Clearly this is an important question, one of the most important ones we can possibly think of in terms of relevance to human life. If science has something to say about, we should all be interested in hearing.

Adam Frank thinks that science has nothing to say about it. He advocates being "firmly agnostic" on the question. (His coblogger Alva No resolutely disagrees.) I have an enormous respect for Adam; he's a smart guy and a careful thinker. When we disagree it's with the kind of respectful dialogue that should be a model for disagreeing with non-crazy people. But here he couldn't be more wrong.

Adam claims that there "simply is no controlled, experimental[ly] verifiable information" regarding life after death. By these standards, there is no controlled, experimentally verifiable information regarding whether the Moon is made of green cheese. Sure, we can take spectra of light reflecting from the Moon, and even send astronauts up there and bring samples back for analysis. But that's only scratching the surface, as it were. What if the Moon is almost all green cheese, but is covered with a layer of dust a few meters thick? Can you really say that you know this isn't true? Until you have actually examined every single cubic centimeter of the Moon's interior, you don't really have experimentally verifiable information, do you? So maybe agnosticism on the green-cheese issue is warranted. (Come up with all the information we actually do have about the Moon; I promise you I can fit it into the green-cheese hypothesis.)

Obviously this is completely crazy. Our conviction that green cheese makes up a negligible fraction of the Moon's interior comes not from direct observation, but from the gross incompatibility of that idea with other things we think we know. Given what we do understand about rocks and planets and dairy products and the Solar System, it's absurd to imagine that the Moon is made of green cheese. We know better.

We also know better for life after death, although people are much more reluctant to admit it. Admittedly, "direct" evidence one way or the other is hard to come by -- all we have are a few legends and sketchy claims from unreliable witnesses with near-death experiences, plus a bucketload of wishful thinking. But surely it's okay to take account of indirect evidence -- namely, compatibility of the idea that some form of our individual soul survives death with other things we know about how the world works.

Claims that some form of consciousness persists after our bodies die and decay into their constituent atoms face one huge, insuperable obstacle: the laws of physics underlying everyday life are completely understood, and there's no way within those laws to allow for the information stored in our brains to persist after we die. If you claim that some form of soul persists beyond death, what particles is that soul made of? What forces are holding it together? How does it interact with ordinary matter?

Everything we know about quantum field theory (QFT) says that there aren't any sensible answers to these questions. Of course, everything we know about quantum field theory could be wrong. Also, the Moon could be made of green cheese.

Among advocates for life after death, nobody even tries to sit down and do the hard work of explaining how the basic physics of atoms and electrons would have to be altered in order for this to be true. If we tried, the fundamental absurdity of the task would quickly become evident.

Even if you don't believe that human beings are "simply" collections of atoms evolving and interacting according to rules laid down in the Standard Model of particle physics, most people would grudgingly admit that atoms are part of who we are. If it's really nothing but atoms and the known forces, there is clearly no way for the soul to survive death. Believing in life after death, to put it mildly, requires physics beyond the Standard Model. Most importantly, we need some way for that "new physics" to interact with the atoms that we do have.

Very roughly speaking, when most people think about an immaterial soul that persists after death, they have in mind some sort of blob of spirit energy that takes up residence near our brain, and drives around our body like a soccer mom driving an SUV. The questions are these: what form does that spirit energy take, and how does it interact with our ordinary atoms? Not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. Within QFT, there can't be a new collection of "spirit particles" and "spirit forces" that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments. Ockham's razor is not on your side here, since you have to posit a completely new realm of reality obeying very different rules than the ones we know.

But let's say you do that. How is the spirit energy supposed to interact with us? Here is the equation that tells us how electrons behave in the everyday world:

Don't worry about the details; it's the fact that the equation exists that matters, not its particular form. It's the Dirac equation -- the two terms on the left are roughly the velocity of the electron and its inertia -- coupled to electromagnetism and gravity, the two terms on the right.

As far as every experiment ever done is concerned, this equation is the correct description of how electrons behave at everyday energies. It's not a complete description; we haven't included the weak nuclear force, or couplings to hypothetical particles like the Higgs boson. But that's okay, since those are only important at high energies and/or short distances, very far from the regime of relevance to the human brain.

If you believe in an immaterial soul that interacts with our bodies, you need to believe that this equation is not right, even at everyday energies. There needs to be a new term (at minimum) on the right, representing how the soul interacts with electrons. (If that term doesn't exist, electrons will just go on their way as if there weren't any soul at all, and then what's the point?) So any respectable scientist who took this idea seriously would be asking -- what form does that interaction take? Is it local in spacetime? Does the soul respect gauge invariance and Lorentz invariance? Does the soul have a Hamiltonian? Do the interactions preserve unitarity and conservation of information?

Nobody ever asks these questions out loud, possibly because of how silly they sound. Once you start asking them, the choice you are faced with becomes clear: either overthrow everything we think we have learned about modern physics, or distrust the stew of religious accounts/unreliable testimony/wishful thinking that makes people believe in the possibility of life after death. It's not a difficult decision, as scientific theory-choice goes.

We don't choose theories in a vacuum. We are allowed -- indeed, required -- to ask how claims about how the world works fit in with other things we know about how the world works. I've been talking here like a particle physicist, but there's an analogous line of reasoning that would come from evolutionary biology. Presumably amino acids and proteins don't have souls that persist after death. What about viruses or bacteria? Where upon the chain of evolution from our monocellular ancestors to today did organisms stop being described purely as atoms interacting through gravity and electromagnetism, and develop an immaterial immortal soul?

There's no reason to be agnostic about ideas that are dramatically incompatible with everything we know about modern science. Once we get over any reluctance to face reality on this issue, we can get down to the much more interesting questions of how human beings and consciousness really work.

Sean Carroll is a physicist and author. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1993, and is now on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology, where his research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology. Carroll is the author of From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, and Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity. He has written for Discover, Scientific American, New Scientist, and other publications. His blog Cosmic Variance is hosted by Discover magazine, and he has been featured on television shows such as The Colbert Report, National Geographic's Known Universe, and Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. His Twitter handle is @seanmcarroll

Cross-posted on Cosmic Variance.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

See original here:

Physics and the Immortality of the Soul - Scientific ...

Immortality is impossible unless youre living in a vampire movie or happen to be a Lord of the Rings elf, right? It is, at least for humans.

Hydras manage to escape the biological inevitability of death. These creatures are like tiny versions of the mythological Hydra that had multiple heads, and for every one that was sliced off by the sword of a trembling hero, two would regenerate. They actually beat out the beast that even Hercules had trouble with because they can keep renewing their cells indefinitely. Meaning, it isnt just a hydras head that will reappear if an encounter with a predator goes wrong. These things can grow everything back.

How do they do it? The secret to this eternal life was what a team of researchers from UC Irvine were dying to know. Hydras, which are cnidarians related to jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones, can even spawn an entirely new animal from a severed body part. Unlike the Hydra of ancient lore, they only have one head though it is surrounded by writhing tentacles. What genetic analysis has never before revealed until now is that they express different genes during regeneration than they do when they grow their first tentacled head.

Hydra displays complex gene regulatory structures of developmentally dynamic enhancers, which suggests that the evolution of complex developmental enhancers predates the split of cnidarians and bilaterians, the researchers said in a study recently published in Genome Biology and Evolution.

The exact mechanism behind head regeneration remains a mystery, but WNT is one pathway of head organizer genes involved. These lurk near the mouth and are also expressed there. If a hydra is decapitated, these genes zap signals to the head stump for certain tissues to form, so a new head can appear to come out of nowhere (at least in 48 hours). Head regeneration is not the result of magic, but of 27,000 genetic factors that showed 298 differences in how genes were expressed. Some have on and off switches that activate when a replacement head is needed.

As if creating maps of these genes and figuring out which subgroups they belonged to wasnt enough, the research team realized that new heads form faster than the initial one. Hydras undergo budding to reproduce asexually. The difference between 72 hours for a first head to bud and only 48 to replace one made them suspect that something about the way the replacements were formed was different. They also found that there is an additional WNT gene involved when a hydra gets its first head. Hydra heads can be made three different ways.

For such a small organism, regeneration requires a monstrous amount of chromatin, or the material that makes up chromosomes, to be remade. Gene expression in head generation and regeneration was first compared to how genes were expressed in other parts of its body. The researchers then had to separate which genes were involved in initial head formation, which were only brought in for regeneration, and which had a function in both. The expression of some WNT genes was found to get a boost when the head of a hydra was regenerating.

Demystifying hydra genes could eventually mean breakthroughs for humans that may not mean immortality (yet) but at least regeneration of lost tissues or entire body parts. Previous studies of regenerative genes and methods have involved animals as diverse as starfish, sea urchins, lungfish, salamanders, and lizards. Just imagine a world in which procedures such as skin grafts or organ transplants are obsolete, all because some genetic mechanism in a human can be engineered to regrow what was lost. There could be a way to regenerate entire limbs someday.

Creatures like the hydra could revolutionize the future of medicine, and that is no myth.

Read the original:

Hydras are the micro-monsters that wont die because they regrow their heads - SYFY WIRE

Cheryl Colleen McMurphy Joseph

Richford - October 1, 1950 November 16, 2021

Cheryl passed away in Carmel, California where she lived and taught. However, she had an enduring connection to the mountains, lakes, rivers, autumn beauty, winter snow, and spring maple syrup of Vermont. Growing up in Richford, with deep-rooted values imbued by loving parents, had a strong impact on the way she lived her life. Her greatest ambition in life, as she expressed in her high school yearbook, was doing what others said couldn't be done. This she did. Her goal was to be an English teacher. This she accomplished while teaching in Vermont and California in middle and high schools. Upon receiving an award from the California Association of Teachers of English she explained why she taught:

"I teach because I have an innate need to teach; I can't do normal work as other people do; I love being in a room all day teaching; I can partake of real life only by changing it; I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink; I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. It is a habit, a passion. I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and I hope, as Borges did, that heaven is a kind of library. I teach to be happy."

Cheryl was also happiest in Nature where she thrived, most especially under a sunset and full moonrise by the ocean. The natural world brought out her sense of wonder and inner beauty. Her light shone at the ocean, on a mountaintop, and in every forest where she set foot. Her motto, which she learned in the 1970s at the National Outdoor Leadership School, was to "leave no trace"; however, she left a brushstroke of light, a pathway leading to a good life for all of us to follow.

Not only in nature, but in life, Cheryl's humility, grace, quiet strength and determination guided her in leading those who knew and loved her on how to live well. Whether or not you were a student of Cheryl's, you learned from her because that is who she was, and with her love we learned we were far more capable than we ever knew. She offered us - her students, friends, and family - the tools, impetus, confidence and belief needed for a fulfilling life.

The bell has rung now; class is over. The best classes are the hardest to leave, and hers was the best, most wonderful class. The world is a better place because she lived and taught in it.

Cheryl's first priority and love was for her family. She is survived by her husband Buzz, her daughter Heather Kramer, her son Zachary Joseph (Ayala), her beloved grandchildren Zaia Kramer, Sami and Nora Joseph, her brothers Michael (Maureen) and Barry (Christy) McMurphy, her sister Kerri Plante, her loving nieces and nephews, as well as her extended family, and a legion of wonderful friends who will hold her closely in their hearts.

If you wish to give a donation you might think about making one to an organization that is consistent with Cheryl's legacy.

Posted online on December 16, 2021

Published in Burlington Free Press

Read this article:

Cheryl Colleen McMurphy Joseph Obituary - The Burlington Free Press - BurlingtonFreePress.com

Gentlemenstart your engines. Is that the phrase Thoroughbred trainer Doug O'Neill has beckoned to the last couple of years? Perhaps not, but he is tuning up a Hot Rod for what he hopes will be another big season of running.

Hot Rod Charlie has been a real bright spot in the talented trainers barn the past two years. The win total has not been exactly eye-popping, but the courage and determination have been off the charts. Three wins, two second place finishes, and three thirds in twelve lifetime starts speaks to his consistent will to win. His $2.4 million in earnings tells us the top company he runs in.

This year was the real unveiling of the Hot Rod and his horsepower. Five of his seven starts as a three-year-old came in grade 1 races. After an impressive gate-to-wire win in the Louisiana Derby this son of Oxbow finished just a little over a length away from Kentucky Derby immortality. One of the most courageous runs ever in the Belmont Stakes saw him run out of gas in deep stretch and finish a game second. The grade 1 Haskell saw him cross the finish line first but was disqualified for drifting out in the stretch. The grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby was all Charlie as he assumed command early in the race and never look back as he cruised to victory. The Breeders Cup Classic was another determined effort but he just couldnt hang with the talented and older Knicks Go in the stretch and faded to fourth.

In a game where the breeding shed can offer huge money, these talented runners can often times have shorter careers. Right now, the Hot Rod Charlie ownership group has plans to race through 2022. That campaign is set to begin on opening day at Santa Anita. The mile and a sixteenth San Antonio Stakes on December 26 will serve as the springboard to his four-year-old roll.

Hes a horse that just amazes us on a daily basis, says O'Neill, who has won two Kentucky Derbies (2012,2016). The physical maturity has really been present lately and he is a bigger, better version of a super talented colt.

Likely to face some of the veteran older West Coast runners, Charlie will be challenged in this one for sure. Recent works have indicated this Hot Rod may have even more horsepower. Having leading rider Flavien Prat behind the steering wheel is also a positive.

He had a really nice 7-furlong breeze last week, says the conditioner who has registered over 2,000 wins. His energy level has been extremely good and he looks ready for another challenge. Of course, having Flavien Prat aboard is always another major plus.

The San Antonio is the starting line for what the Hot Rod team hopes will be a worldly campaign. The Dubai World Cup in March is the short-term goal with a likely prep race in Dubai before.

We are super excited and ready to rock and roll, says O'Neill. We truly are living a dream with this horse.

Read more:

Hot Rod Charlie ready for another run - Wgnsradio