Category Archives: Immortality

Passchendaele

Being near-immortal means living unconventional lives as these individuals move through the years witness to the best of worst of humankind as we rise and fall again and again Bendis and the team take a moment to examine the idea of these unconventional bonds formed as Andy finds herself in Cleveland in the 1970s after a mission, cleaning up in a restaurant bathroom and bumps into someone she never expected to seeher son. Not her biological son but an orphan of world war one who lost his parents in the small Belgium village of Passchendaele destroyed in the conflict between British and German soldiers. (An historically accurate reference if youre so inclined to look it up!)

Theres a wonderful balance of wistfulness and warmth to the story in the writing from Bendis brought to life by the art. On one hand, Zeus is thrilled to see the woman he calls mother and so is Andy to see him but Zeus is acutely aware that the meeting is happenstance, completely random and lacking no intent on Andys part yet despite that, despite that he has not seen her in decades, their bond remains and that speaks to the idea that she loved this person and raised him, an act of pure selflessness in the long life filled with violence and death. Again it speaks to the idea of how Andromach cannot see the good she and her ilk have brought into the world and the innumerable lives they have touched and made better as they have soldiered through time because they are wrapped up in the doing that they never fully see the good they have done.

I like that the lives that Andy has touched are her living memory even as her memory blurs from so much life lived. The idea that Zeus invented a dish specifically geared to the taste buds of an older than dirt immortal is a clever and original concept that makes you think about things you wouldnt think about like what would the palette of a person who is close to 7000 years old be like?

Artist Michael Oeming rejoins his POWERS collaborator Bendis for this story. At first, I wasnt sure about his style for the story Andy doesnt really look like Andy at first until I realized something I was looking for Andy as I imagined her with a certain look, specifically her black hair. Through the course of the story, we see Andy with no less than three different hairstyles and the longer I thought about it the more it makes sense, to hide her immortality a hair color change would certainly be warranted over the many years of her life. Oeming and Taki Soma work well together to create the feel of a Seventies eatery, and theres attention paid to the clothing of the time as well as the color schemes of the period especially those 70s color stripes. The choice of the sepia brown dominant color palette for the flashback war scenes is a clever touch adding a stronger impact when we see blood against the monochromatic background.

Lacus Solitudinis

Its the eve of the moon landing, in Eagan Minnesota Booker and Nicky confront a careless, homophobic cop whose actions meant a serial killer continued their murderous streak while in San Francisco Joe and Andy drink, discuss revenge, and the idea of the moon landing.

Point of view is a powerful thing and this vignette does point of view very well as it comments on the nature of human beings in all our shining glory and horrible apathetic ugliness. On one hand, Nicky wants to see justice meted out to the cop but his partner and love of his life Joe feels that taking revenge on the cop diminishes Nicky as a person. He refuses to participate and so they arent talking. Robert Mackenzie & Dave Walker juxtapose that opposing view with Joe and Andromachs opposing views of human achievement. Andromach is jaded and cynical of the landing on the Moon while Joe is excited for it. Its a clever way to examine the idea of human achievement and the consequences of it through an individual lens, Joe revels in the moment while Andromach reminds Joe that these glorious moments of human achievement more often than not lead to misery for other humans. Beautiful things dont always carry us to beautiful places, Andy says You dont know until you get there, right? Joe counters. There is a remarkable amount of depth to that small exchange.

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, the violence gets done and its interesting that Booker does the killing, NOT Nicky, right at the moment of the landing. Its Booker that reminds Nicky that Joes view of the magic of beautiful things is in having someone to share them with.

The art is solid from Justin Greenwood and colorist Daniela Miwa It feels like Greenwood is deliberately paying homage to Leandro Fernndez but in his own style while having Miwa color the story adds to that feeling. It feels deliberate and works very well to feel like you are in the world of the original comics.

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THE OLD GUARD: TALES THROUGH TIME #3: Unexpected Family and Moon Landings - Comic Watch

One of the oldest pieces of epic literature we have is known as the Epic of Gilgamesh. It's easy to get lost in all the ancient mythology talking animals and heroic battles but at its heart lies one of the most fundamental and universal quests of all time: the search for immortality. It's all about Gilgamesh wanting to live forever.

From Mesopotamian poetry to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, from golden apples to the philosopher's stone, humans, everywhere, have wanted and sought after eternal life.

And yet, perhaps the secret to immortality is not as elusive as we might think. Rather than holy objects or science fiction, we need only look to the animal world to see how nature, that most magical of places, might be able to answer one of the oldest questions there is.

If you ever find yourself at Red Lobster or about to munch into a lobster roll, take a moment to consider that you might just be eating a clue to perpetual youth. To see why, we have to know a tiny bit about aging.

As you get older, it's impossible not to notice how everything creaks a little more, how easy jobs now require great effort, and how hangovers are no longer a laughing matter. Our bodies are designed to degrade and wear away. This deterioration, known as "senescence" in biology, occurs at the cellular level. It's when the cells in our body stop dividing, yet remain in our body, active and alive. We need our cells to divide so that we can grow and repair. For instance, when we cut ourselves or lift weights in the gym, it is cell division that replaces and rebuilds the damage done. But, over time, our cells just stop dividing. They stay around to do the best they can, but like the macroscopic humans they make up, cells get slower and more error-prone and so, we age.

The Fountain of Youth (1546)Credit: Lucas Cranach the Elder via Wikipedia / Public domain

But not lobsters. In normal cases of cell division, the shields at the end of our chromosomes called telomeres are remade a bit smaller, and so a bit less effective after each subsequent cell division at protecting our DNA. When this reaches a certain point, the cell enters senescence and will stop dividing. It won't self-destruct but will just carry on and wallow as it is. Lobsters, though, have a special enzyme (unsurprisingly, called telomerase) which makes sure that their cells' telomeres remain as long and brilliant as they've always been. Their cells will never enter senescence, and so a lobster just won't age.

However, what evolution giveth with one hand, it taketh with another. As crustaceans, their skeleton is on the outside, and having a constantly growing body means they are always outgrowing their exoskeletal homes. They need to abandon their old shells and regrow a new one all the time. This, of course, requires huge reserves of energy, and as the lobster reaches a certain size, it simply cannot consume enough calories to build the shell equivalent of a mansion. Lobsters do not die from old age but exhaustion (as well as disease and New England fisherman).

Although lobsters might not have perfected immortality, perhaps there's something to learn.

But there's another animal that does even better than the lobster, and it's the only creature recognized to be properly immortal. That's the jellyfish known as Turritopsis dohrnii. These jellyfish are tiny about the size of a fly at their biggest but they've mastered one ridiculous trick: they can reverse their life cycle.

An embryonic jellyfish starts as a fertilized egg before hooking onto some kind of surface to then grow up. In this stage, they will stretch out to look like any other jellyfish. Eventually, they will break away from this surface to become a mature, fully developed jellyfish, which is in turn ready to reproduce. So far, so normal.

Yet Turritopsis dohrnii does something remarkable. When things get tough like the environment becomes hostile or there's a conspicuous absence of food they can change back to one of the earlier stages in their lifecycle. It's like a frog becoming a tadpole or a fly becoming a maggot. It's the human equivalent of a mature adult saying, "Right, I've had enough of this job, that mortgage, this stress, and that anxiety, so I'm going to turn back into a toddler.". Or, it's like an old man deciding to become a fetus again, for one more round.

Obviously, a fingernail sized jellyfish is not immortal as we'd probably want the word to mean. They're as squishable and digestible as any animal. But, their ability to change back to earlier forms of life, ones which are better adapted to certain environments or where there are fewer food sources, means that they could, in theory, go on forever.

Although the quest for immortality is as old as humanity itself, it's surprisingly hard to find across the diverse natural world. Truth be told, evolution doesn't care about how long we live, so long as we live long enough to pass on our genes and to make sure our children are vaguely looked after. Anything more than that is redundant, and evolution doesn't have much time for needless longevity.

The more philosophical question, though, is why do we want to live forever? We're all prone to existential anguish, and we all, at least some of the time, fear death. We don't want to leave our loved ones behind, we want to finish our projects, and we much prefer the known life to an unknown afterlife. Yet, death serves a purpose. As the German philosopher Martin Heidegger argued, death is what gives meaning to life.

Having the end makes the journey worthwhile. It's fair to say that playing a game is only fun because it doesn't go on forever, a play will always need its curtain call, and a word only makes sense at its last letter. As philosophy and religion has repeated throughout the ages: memento mori, or "remember you'll die."

Being mortal in this world makes life so much sweeter, which is surely why lobsters and tiny jellyfish have such ennui.

Related Articles Around the Web

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Lobsters, jellyfish, and the foolish quest for immortality - Big Think

Human Immortality Research Can We Achieve It?

Voice of Biotecnika Podcast

Jokingly I always say to my colleagues I am going to live till 2090 and that is when I believe Humanity would have achieved Immortality

Ha ha Everyone smiles but somewhere I know this is possible

Hello & Welcome to the Voice of BioTecNika, I am your host Urmimala, and today we examine this very fact Can Humanity achieve immortality

Ironically, this podcast is getting recorded in the mid of the 2nd wave of Coronavirus Pandemic and millions of people are dying, hence it may sound a little illogical, but so was flying a metallic cylinder in the Air nowadays we call it an Aeroplane. Isnt it

Coming to the point Can we really become immortals? And if yes then what are the research approaches we can adopt? Which Biotech companies are working to achieve this? How big is this Immortality market of the future?

The question is if we manage to UNLOCK THE SECRETS TO ETERNAL YOUTH, WHAT WOULD OUR WORLD LOOK LIKE? There may be chaos, the earth would be burdened, life would be totally different.

On the other hand, if we treat ageing, people can live into their 80s and 90s in a much more productive, healthy way.A lot of money would be saved, which could be put back into medical research, into education, into protecting the environment.

So what do you think? Should humans extend their life expectancy extensively? Will immortality be attainable?

This is a moral dilemma we all think of often, so lets dive in and see what progress the world has made towards Human Immortality Research and probably we can all find an answer to this question!

Tune In to the podcast now!

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Can We Really Become Immortals? Voice of Biotecnika - BioTecNika

Immortality and everlasting youth are the stuff of myths, according to new research which may finally end the eternal debate about whether we can live for ever.

Backed by governments, business, academics and investors in an industry worth $110bn (82.5bn) and estimated to be worth $610bn by 2025 scientists have spent decades attempting to harness the power of genomics and artificial intelligence to find a way to prevent or even reverse ageing.

But an unprecedented study has now confirmed that we probably cannot slow the rate at which we get older because of biological constraints.

The study, by an international collaboration of scientists from 14 countries and including experts from the University of Oxford, set out to test the invariant rate of ageing hypothesis, which says that a species has a relatively fixed rate of ageing from adulthood.

Our findings support the theory that, rather than slowing down death, more people are living much longer due to a reduction in mortality at younger ages, said Jos Manuel Aburto from Oxfords Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, who analysed age-specific birth and death data spanning centuries and continents.

We compared birth and death data from humans and non-human primates and found this general pattern of mortality was the same in all of them, said Aburto. This suggests that biological, rather than environmental factors, ultimately control longevity.

The statistics confirmed, individuals live longer as health and living conditions improve which leads to increasing longevity across an entire population. Nevertheless, a steep rise in death rates, as years advance into old age, is clear to see in all species.

The debate over how much longer we can live has divided the academic community for decades, with the search for extended life and health particularly active in the UK, where at least 260 companies, 250 investors, 10 non-profits, and 10 research labs are using the most advanced technologies.

The UK government has even prioritised the separate sectors of AI and longevity by including both of them in the four industrial strategy grand challenges, which aim to put Britain at the forefront of the industries of the future.

But what has been missing from the debate is research comparing lifespans of multiple animal populations with humans, to work out what is driving mortality.

This study plugs that gap, said Aburto. This extraordinarily diverse collection of data enabled us to compare mortality differences both within and between species.

David Gems, a professor of biogerontology at UCLs Institute of Healthy Ageing, said that the summary of the report suggested the research was a very high-powered study proving something contentious and surely right.

All the datasets examined by Aburtos teams revealed the same general pattern of mortality: a high risk of death in infancy which rapidly declines in the immature and teenage years, remains low until early adulthood, and then continually rises in advancing age.

Our findings confirm that, in historical populations, life expectancy was low because many people died young, said Aburto. But as medical, social, and environmental improvements continued, life expectancy increased.

More and more people get to live much longer now. However, the trajectory towards death in old age has not changed, he added. This study suggests evolutionary biology trumps everything and, so far, medical advances have been unable to beat these biological constraints.

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Ageing process is unstoppable, finds unprecedented study - The Guardian

The Herald

MAYBE, this was the unique sound produced by emotions, when they are being ruthlessly battered, by the sheer power of the forces of brutality.

When a people have to deal with the emotional torture, which comes with being hammered by a combination of the agents of adversity, and the merchants of calamity.

Thousands of beating hearts, inside the old stadium, enduring a tough examination from hell, concerned by the state of their heroes vulnerability.

And, their teams insecurity.

For the majority of those, crammed inside the place they call their fortress, this was the sum of all their fears, a people buckling under the weight of the possibility of failure.

For 88 minutes, their souls had been tortured by the sheer intensity of this blood-and-thunder showdown, where the two sides had fought a ferocious fight, for every inch, of this hallowed turf.

But, now and again, their spirits had also been cheered by the amazing quality of the fight, which their men had put into this fiery battle, undaunted by its ferocity, each of them a model of reliability.

Every man, in their blue-and-white identity on that field, had fought long and hard, the forwards stretching the opponents with their relentless mobility, the defence repelling the danger, with stubborn rigidity.

There had been no room for stupidity, no desperation for popularity, no individual quest for celebrity status, just collective efficiency, from each of them, in pursuit for the immortality, which would come with success.

With a sense of responsibility, for club and country, they had fought with both maturity and dignity.

For the sake of their nationality, a country desperate for the good old days, and wild nights, exactly 10 years earlier, when it was taken on a merry ride, which reached the gate of paradise.

And, for the sake of the majority, sitting in the stands, united by their cause and demanding the result, which would guarantee a return, to the exclusive group of the elite clubs of the game, on the continent.

Now, only two minutes of regulation time were left, to define everything.

An adventure, which had taken them to Mbabane, Maputo, Paris, Sousse, Cairo and Abidjan, in a marathon campaign covering over 91 000 km, on their travels, rested on these final two minutes.

They had fought battles in Mozambique, Eswatini, Algeria, Egypt and Cote dIvoire, for this cause and, now, all their dreams rested on these final two minutes, in this place, which they called home.

In this poor neighbourhood where they were created, exactly 45 years earlier, before transforming themselves into a giant of an institution, which made a mockery of their humble origins, giving their community something to brag about.

In this Sunshine City, their home, their castle, the heart of the domestic kingdom which they have been ruling since they won their first league title, in the year of their establishment, in 1963.

So, this wasnt the time for faith to disappear, for doubt to creep in, for failure to become acceptable, as an end product to the collective suffering, which they were all enduring, in those final moments of this contest.

The opponents couldnt have come with a bigger profile, five-time champions of African football, and the stakes couldnt have been higher, in this winner-take-all showdown, for a place in the semi-finals of the 2008 CAF Champions League.

Zamalek, also known as the White Knights, were in town.

And, for 88 minutes, they had also fought for their badge, which has five stars, as if to remind everyone, of the number of times they have been crowned champions of Africa.

The crowd knew the stakes, if the Egyptians who brought with them Ghanaian international forward Junior Agogo scored, it was over for their team.

The Challenge, For These Glamour Boys, Was As Simple As It Was Complex

Somehow, even though Dynamos, Zamalek and ASEC Mimosas, had all gone into the final group matches, with a chance to qualify for the semi-finals, the Ivoirians game was pushed back, to start seven hours, after the match in Harare.

A draw, which appeared to be the likely result, with two minutes left, would have meant ASEC would qualify, should they beat Al Ahly, in their final group match.

So, the challenge for the Glamour Boys was simple, try and win the game, and they would be off to the semi-finals, at the expense of Zamalek, at the expense of ASEC and, of course, at the expense of the biased, and pathetic, CAF leadership.

But, time was not on DeMbares side, with only two minutes left.

Then, the Glamour Boys were awarded a free-kick, just outside the Zamalek penalty area.

It appeared everyone knew this was it, the final chance, the one between greatness, and emptiness, between hell and paradise, success and failure and ecstasy and agony.

If ever there was an occasion, David Mandigora would have wanted to smoke a cigarette, to try and reduce the tension, which was exploding inside his body, and the tsunami which was destroying the emotions of those packed inside the stadium, then this was it.

Everything he had worked for that year, in this campaign, now rested on this moment, a swing of the leg by one of his players, hope that the ball beats the wall and, even if it did, hope that it also beat the keeper.

It appeared to be too much of a gamble, especially considering it was against such an organised wall of Zamalek defenders, full of Egyptian internationals, who knew the values of defence.

In the preceding 178 minutes of action, against these Glamour Boys, in Cairo and Harare, this group of defenders had found a way not to concede a goal, including keeping a clean sheet, in the Egyptian capital.

The odds were firmly against the hosts, even with this dead ball opportunity and, as Rufaro held its collective breath, amid a wave of silent prayers, one man appeared to be standing on a secluded island, where everything was fine.

It was Yogi!

Maybe, he knew that, if he showed any signs of panic, it was going to filter on his players, including the man, who would take this dead ball.

During the game, he had made a change, a significant one, to try and give his team an extra dimension, in their attack, by encouraging his namesake, David Shoko, to spend more time, in the attacking phases, of the team.

He had trusted him to add punch to their attacks, and that confidence, from his coach, appeared to filter into Shokos game, and his impact, in those closing stages, became quite pronounced.

But, would David the coach let David the player take this free-kick?

In this team, packed with senior players, at this stage of this contest, when all their dreams could be shattered, by someone, whose ability to deal with the weight of such pressure, had never been tested?

Yogi called one of his players to the touchline, amid the bedlam of the mini conferences, which were going on all over the field, and sent a message to his troops.

Whatever he said, we might never know, given he is a man who was never comfortable with taking any credit, someone who liked to stay in the background, doing his work quietly.

That Free Kick, The David

Connection, The Immortality

So, the Egyptians lined up their wall, Rufaro held its breath and ASEC Mimosas, in their hotel rooms, were probably praying that this opportunity should be missed.

Some, inside the stadium, could barely watch as David, the player started his run, swung his left foot, the connection with the ball appeared perfect, delivering the energy, which powered it, from its base on the surface.

Anyone who claims he, or she saw the balls movement, from the time of its contact, with Davids boot to its destination, somewhere into the top corner of the Zamalek net, is a blatant liar.

Even the television cameras missed its flight.

The Egyptian wall never moved and neither did their goalkeeper.

Then, everyone saw the ball, it had nestled into the back of the Zamalek goal and, the explosion which erupted at Rufaro, must have shaken the Richter scale, used to measure the intensity of earthquakes.

There are moments in football, just like in life, which define heroes.

When time appears to stand still, frozen by the significance of the occasion, when nothing else appears to matter.

And, in the 88th minute, of the eighth month of the eighth year, of the new millennium, for David Yogi Mandigora, and his fearless band of the Glamour Boys Class of 2008, it all came to pass.

In their eighth game, since they first met, and eliminated the holders Etoile du Sahel, they reached out for the stars, and kissed the edges of immortality.

No one, who had the privilege of watching that game, especially what happened, in the 88th minute of that encounter, will ever forget what they saw.

In that moment, Yogis legacy, as a legendary player, and iconic coach, was sealed.

A golden moment frozen in time, preserved for reference to genius, to remind future generations there was a time when good men, capable of superman acts, roamed our football fields.

Maybe, its something that runs, the proud identity of the one who slayed the giant Goliath, in that powerful biblical tale.

Seven years earlier, on October 6, 2001, their namesake, David Beckham, had found himself with similar responsibility, needing to convert a free-kick, in time added on, against Greece at Old Trafford, to take England to the 2002 World Cup finals.

He duly delivered, with that execution completing his transformation, from a man blamed for his countrys World Cup elimination, in 1998, to a national hero.

You can always tell when a genuinely momentous footballing event has taken place, Joe Bernstein wrote in the Daily Mail.

The stadium rocks, literally, with all the noise and sudden movement from fans, and the television cameras consequently shake as they record history.

So, it was when David Beckhams 93rd-minute free-kick at Old Trafford took England to the World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea.

The video footage is extraordinary, you will rarely hear noise, or see a spontaneous outpouring of joy like it.

It elevated Beckham to Goldenballs status and saw him follow Diana, Princess of Wales, as an English icon, who became a global figure.

Until that iconic moment at Rufaro, no one had questioned Yogis legacy, as one of the finest players to emerge in this country, his starring role for Dynamos, had been scripted, a long time ago.

At the age of just 23, he had won the Soccer Star of the Year, back in an age when this award really represented greatness, when winning it was an endorsement of immortality.

Fate had somehow ensured his crowning moment, as a player, would come in 1980, which means no one would forget it because it will forever be associated with the countrys Independence.

But, there were questions about his true credentials, as a coach, and it didnt help that he lived in the shadow of the greatest of them all, when it comes to local coaches, Sunday Chidzambwa.

And, when he was appointed the Dynamos coach, amid the chaos which followed the clubs fight against relegation, in 2005, which culminated in the last-day survival act at Mucheke, this was seen as just another example of the madness, which was prevailing at the club.

With virtually the entire DeMbare team, which had represented the club in 2005, leaving to join newboys, Shooting Stars, at the start of 2006, this looked like Mission Impossible, for Yogi.

Somehow, he rebuilt his team and, by 2007, they won their first championship in 10 years and, the following year, he took his Glamour Boys into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

It couldnt have been done by a more humble servant of the game and, more importantly, by a better man.

Yogi might be dead now but domestic football will never forget its ultimate gentleman.

Its impossible to forget what happened in the 88th minute of that showdown against Zamalek in 2008.

To God Be The Glory!

Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys in the struggle.

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Khamaldinhoooooooooooooooooo!

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SHARUKO ON SATURDAY : In that moment, Yogis legacy, was sealed - The Herald

Following Her Story and Telling Lies ($6.99), Sam Barlow is back with IMMORTALITY. IMMORTALITY is a new FMV game published by Half Mermaid and it is all about Marissa Marcel, a film star who made three movies. None of the movies were released and she has disappeared. IMMORTALITY features the three lost movies and it looks like another interesting experience from Sam Barlow. Watch the IMMORTALITY teaser trailer below:

As of now, IMMORTALITY is confirmed to release in 2022 on Steam and more. Beyond Steam, the launch platforms are yet to be announced. Hopefully mobile is among the launch platforms or soon after considering both Her Story and Telling Lies released on mobile. As with Sams other games, Im definitely going to check this out whenever it does release next year. If youre interesting in IMMORTALITY (I know right), you can wishlist it on Steam here. Have you played Her Story and Telling Lies yet and which is your favourite FMV game on mobile?

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'IMMORTALITY' from Sam Barlow (Her Story, Telling Lies) Is an FMV Adventure Set to Release in 2022 on PC and More - Touch Arcade

Sam Barlow, the creator of non-linear FMV mystery games Her Story and Telling Lies, revealing his new project earlier this week called Immortality. Platforms besides PC have not been announced for this game yet, but as with the last two titles its possible it may come to iOS at some point.

Immortality had been previously teased by Barlow under the working title Project A?????? but now we have a full glimpse at what could be in the store for this game. It allows you to explore a recently discovered cache of film reels from the lost movies of actress Marissa Marcel, who vanished under mysterious circumstances.

You can check out the announcement trailer for Immortality below, which doesnt reveal a whole lot but shows three posters for Marcels lost movies: Ambrosio, Minsky and Two of Everything.

The trailer also reveals the project includes notable screenwriters Allan Scott (Dont Look Now, The Queens Gambit), Amelia Gray (Mr. Robot, Telling Lies) and Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart, Lost Highway.)

Due to the nature of Barlows games, its possible Immortality will make use of live-action segments in the form of Marcels lost movie reels.

I have always been fascinated by moviemaking, said Sam Barlow, the creator of Immortality. Delving into the history of cinema and sharing Marissa Marcels work with players is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. We hope to use this footage as a lens to explore the medium and peek inside the second half of films first century. Perhaps it can bring closure to the questions around Marissas disappearance also.

Immortality is set for release sometime next year. The only platform currently confirmed for it is PC, but further platforms are expected to be announced at a later date.

Continued here:

Her Story and Telling Lies creator reveals new game Immortality - Pocket Gamer

Euro 2020 is surely the last opportunity for Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, Eden Hazard and the rest to achieve immortality with Belgium.

Tottenham supporters hijacked the moment somewhat with their misty-eyed and wistful reminiscence, but it did nothing to undermine the individual and collective achievement. As Toby Alderweireld put it, 350 games together and counting alongside Jan Vertonghen is a truly remarkable testament to their longevity and quality. And on to more they go.

Their latest appearance together came as Belgium beat Croatia 1-0 to complete their preparations for Euro 2020. Alderweireld and Vertonghen both started against the World Cup runners-up, marking their 90th shared game at international level. The most-capped players in the Hungary, Scotland, England, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Turkey squads have not featured as often for their countries as Alderweireld and Vertonghen have together for Belgium.

For over a decade they have formed the base of a spine that soon developed from promising to phenomenal although it was not without its complications. Alderweireld and Vertonghen first partnered each other at international level in October 2009: a chastening 2-0 loss to Estonia that put the 2010 World Cup further out of reach.

Belgium did not feature at a major tournament from their last-16 exit to winners Brazil in 2002 until their quarter-final defeat to eventual runners-up Argentina 12 years later.They have now lost two of their last 48 competition qualifiers dating back to October 2010 and scored the most goals while conceding the fewest in reaching this summers finals.

But this might be the current generations final hurrah. There is a World Cup creeping over the horizon in 18 months yet the circumstances that pushed this tournament back a year means these fine Belgian chocolates are approaching expiration, or at the very least their best before date as a unit.

Ten members of Roberto Martinezs squad are in their 30s, with the reigning PFA Player of the Yearreaching that landmark on the eve of the last-16 ties to make that a full starting XI. A great one, too: Mignolet; Alderweireld, Boyata, Vertonghen, Vermaelen; Hazard, Witsel, De Bruyne, Chadli; Mertens, Benteke.

Jeremy Doku is not only the solitary teenager, but the one player under the age of 24. The 26-man squad contains 11 that were at the 2014 World Cup, 15 from Euro 2016 and 18 that reached the World Cup semi-finals three years ago. The five that have dropped out since then include a third-choice keeper (Koen Casteels), a retiree (Vincent Kompany), two that have long since headed to the Chinese Super League (Marouane Fellaini and Mousa Dembele) and one Adnan Januzaj.

It is a quite stunning lack of churn from a side that has at least 283 more combined caps than any other country at the tournament, and 111 more than second-favourites England and fourth-favourites Italy put together.

They will favour experience and established synergy when many other contenders have opted for something fresh and different. The postponement of Euro 2020 opened national team doors across the continent for potential starters Jack Grealish, Jamal Musiala, Jude Bellingham, Ryan Gravenberch, Reece James, Pedri, Florian Wirtz and Phil Foden; Belgium have kept their pathways even to the bench mostly blocked.

Time dictates that the firstProject 2000talent pool will have to be watered down soon but they have one last opportunity to be co-signatories of history. Beyond the Alderweireld and Vertonghen partnership, Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard have played 251 games together for club and country, Axel Witsel and Dries Mertens have featured alongside one another at international level 70 times and Kevin de Bruyneand Romelu Lukaku have 60 communal caps.

This group has reached two quarter-finals and a semi-final together and are good enough to advance that far again, although a possible meeting with France in the last four provides yet another obstacle if their two-decade journey is to end in immortality. It would certainly be a far cry from getting turned over by Estonia as unused substitute Hazard watches Emile Mpenza and Roland Lamah toil up front.

Euro 2020 is finally here and what better way to celebrate than with a preview show to mark the launch of our new multi-sport website Planet Sport?

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Hazard, Vertonghen and a stunning Belgium generation running out of time - Football365

Webster was much possessed by death

And saw the skull beneath the skin;

And breastless creatures under ground

Leaned backward with a lipless grin.

Daffodil bulbs instead of balls

Stared from the sockets of the eyes!

He knew that thought clings round dead limbs

Tightening its lusts and luxuries.

Donne, I suppose, was such another

Who found no substitute for sense,

To seize and clutch and penetrate;

Expert beyond experience,

He knew the anguish of the marrow

The ague of the skeleton;

No contact possible to flesh

Allayed the fever of the bone.

. . . . .

Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye

Is underlined for emphasis;

Uncorseted, her friendly bust

Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.

The couched Brazilian jaguar

Compels the scampering marmoset

With subtle effluence of cat;

Grishkin has a maisonnette;

The sleek Brazilian jaguar

Does not in its arboreal gloom

Distil so rank a feline smell

As Grishkin in a drawing-room.

And even the Abstract Entities

Circumambulate her charm;

But our lot crawls between dry ribs

To keep our metaphysics warm.

1918, 1919

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Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot | Poetry Foundation

Summary

In the first stanza, the speaker says wistfully that therewas a time when all of nature seemed dreamlike to him, apparelledin celestial light, and that that time is past; the things I haveseen I can see no more. In the second stanza, he says that he stillsees the rainbow, and that the rose is still lovely; the moon looksaround the sky with delight, and starlight and sunshine are eachbeautiful. Nonetheless the speaker feels that a glory has passedaway from the earth.

In the third stanza, the speaker says that, while listeningto the birds sing in springtime and watching the young lambs leapand play, he was stricken with a thought of grief; but the soundof nearby waterfalls, the echoes of the mountains, and the gustingof the winds restored him to strength. He declares that his griefwill no longer wrong the joy of the season, and that all the earthis happy. He exhorts a shepherd boy to shout and play around him.In the fourth stanza, he addresses natures creatures, and saysthat his heart participates in their joyful festival. He says thatit would be wrong to feel sad on such a beautiful May morning, whilechildren play and laugh among the flowers. Nevertheless, a treeand a field that he looks upon make him think of something thatis gone, and a pansy at his feet does the same. He asks what hashappened to the visionary gleam: Where is it now, the glory andthe dream?

In the fifth stanza, he proclaims that human life is merelya sleep and a forgettingthat human beings dwell in a purer, moreglorious realm before they enter the earth. Heaven, he says, liesabout us in our infancy! As children, we still retain some memoryof that place, which causes our experience of the earth to be suffusedwith its magicbut as the baby passes through boyhood and youngadulthood and into manhood, he sees that magic die. In the sixthstanza, the speaker says that the pleasures unique to earth conspireto help the man forget the glories whence he came.

In the seventh stanza, the speaker beholds a six-year-oldboy and imagines his life, and the love his mother and father feelfor him. He sees the boy playing with some imitated fragment ofadult life, some little plan or chart, imitating a wedding ora festival or a mourning or a funeral. The speaker imagines thatall human life is a similar imitation. In the eighth stanza, thespeaker addresses the child as though he were a mighty prophet ofa lost truth, and rhetorically asks him why, when he has accessto the glories of his origins, and to the pure experience of nature,he still hurries toward an adult life of custom and earthly freight.

In the ninth stanza, the speaker experiences a surge ofjoy at the thought that his memories of childhood will always granthim a kind of access to that lost world of instinct, innocence ,and exploration. In the tenth stanza, bolstered by this joy, heurges the birds to sing, and urges all creatures to participatein the gladness of the May. He says that though he has lost somepart of the glory of nature and of experience, he will take solacein primal sympathy, in memory, and in the fact that the yearsbring a mature consciousnessa philosophic mind. In the finalstanza, the speaker says that this mindwhich stems from a consciousnessof mortality, as opposed to the childs feeling of immortalityenableshim to love nature and natural beauty all the more, for each ofnatures objects can stir him to thought, and even the simplestflower blowing in the wind can raise in him thoughts that do oftenlie too deep for tears.

Wordsworths Immortality Ode, as it is often called, iswritten in eleven variable ode stanzas with variable rhyme schemes,in iambic lines with anything from two to five stressed syllables.The rhymes occasionally alternate lines, occasionally fall in couplets,and occasionally occur within a single line (as in But yet I know, whereerI go in the second stanza).

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Wordsworths Poetry: Ode: Intimations of Immortality ...