Category Archives: Immortality

Sci-fi aside, how long will I live?

Living to 100 will soon become a routine fact of (long) life. Life expectancies have been rising by up to three months a year since 1840 and although gains in the UK began to slow in 2011, it is still estimated that more than half the babies born in wealthier countries since 2000 may reach their 100th birthdays.

It is an impressive increase: in the early 1900s, the probability of a baby reaching 100 was 1%. A newborn in the UK today has a 50% chance of living to 105. There were 3,600 centenarians in 1986. Today there are some 15,000.

You do not have to be a newborn to benefit from this trend of increased longevity, though. A 60-year-old in the west today has an even chance of living to 90 and a 40-year-old can expect to live to 95.

But the longevity boost is not done yet: it is generally agreed that the natural ceiling to human life is somewhere around 115. Others say that even without cutting-edge AI or other technological wizardry, we could live far longer. Opinion broadly divides into three groups: the levellers who say we are at peak lifespan now. The extrapolators who argue that technology and education have made their biggest leaps but can squeak us up to a ceiling of 120 before levelling off for good. And the accelerators those determined to defeat ageing, who believe we are on the verge of major breakthroughs in scientific and technological research that will increase longevity, pushing us into the realms of immortality.

Life expectancy has been increasing since we cracked infant mortality in the 19th century. Economy, technology, healthcare and education have all combined with vaccines, safer childbirth and medical advances in the care of stroke and heart attack patients to keep the relentless pace of increasing longevity going strong.

But the growth in life expectancy began to slow in 2011 in the UK and people live longer in more than two dozen other countries.

There has not been a big medical or health gamechanger in the past couple of decades. While some argue that we should celebrate the longest lifespans that humans have ever attained, others warn that illness and infirmity risk turning long lives into slow, miserable declines.

In his essay on ageing, De Senectute, Cicero says there are four reasons why people write off old age: it stops you working, it makes your body weak, it denies you pleasure and every day is one step closer to death. Then he shows why each argument is wrong. The old retain their wits quite well, he notes, so long as they exercise them.

Dan Buettner coined the term blue zones for five regions he identified as having populations who live healthier and longer lives than others (they are Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, Loma Linda in California and Ikaria in Greece). The diets of those living in these regions, he discovered, consist almost entirely of minimally processed plant-based foods mostly wholegrains, greens, nuts, tubers and beans. Meat is eaten, on average, five times a month. They drink mostly water, herbal teas, coffee and some wine. They drink little or no cows milk.

Other scientists have added different ideas to the mix. Sufficient sleep and a sense of purpose are important but exercise is key at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity each week, plus twice-weekly muscle-strengthening sessions, to reap health and longevity benefits.

Having said that, short bouts of light physical activity, such as walking and cleaning, have been shown to increase the lifespans of older people. And a study published last January found that simply moving instead of sitting for 30 minutes each day could reduce the risk of early death by 17%. Some research suggests that club sports such as tennis and soccer are best for longevity because they also encourage social interaction, another vital ingredient to longevity.

At conferences on longevity, it is immediately obvious during the morning breaks that the buffets remain largely untouched and that everyone drinks their tea and coffee inky black, disdaining even a drop of milk. Most serious seekers of longevity also practice both calorific fasting and intermittent fasting.

In a nutshell, the approach is to eat 30% fewer calories and fast for 16 hours a day, though this may not be appropriate for certain vulnerable groups. In essence, it means skipping breakfast and not making up for the missed meal during the day.

No one knows quite why intermittent fasting works. The best guess is that it has something to do with metabolic switching and cellular stress resistance causing the body to increase production of antioxidants.

Repeated studies on mice going back a century seem to prove that it works on rodents, at least. Last December, the New England Journal of Medicine reviewed all the studies in this area and concluded that a combination of fasting and calorific reduction does slow ageing, extend lifespan and counteract age-related disorders, including cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes and neurological disorders such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons and stroke. Animal models show that intermittent fasting improves health throughout the lifespan, the paper concluded.

The problem with gauging its efficacy on humans is that, as the paper said: It remains to be determined whether people can maintain intermittent fasting for years and potentially accrue the benefits seen in animal models.

US scientists are raising funds to launch a five-year clinical trial of a product called metformin, commonly prescribed for pre-diabetics and diabetics. Longevity advocates believe it may have a side effect slowing the development of age-related diseases.

Im not telling everyone to go out and take it until our clinical trial proves it does what I believe it does, said Dr Nir Barzilai, the director of the Institute for Ageing at New Yorks Albert Einstein College of Medicine. But if our trials come back with the results I expect then, yes, I believe everyone should take this drug.

Even more niche are the the promises of Dr Aubrey de Gray, a gerontologist who founded the Sens (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Research Foundation with the goal of undoing ageing.

Sens is defined by a focus on repairing molecular and cellular damage rather than on merely slowing down its accumulation, he said. The logistics of indefinitely healthy ageing will, he believes, be simple and affordable: Mostly itll be injections once a decade.

The latest epigenetic clock, DNAm PhenoAge, will shortly hit the shelves. Epigenetic clocks a form of molecular augury were first developed in 2011 and claim to offer a glimpse into the future. By analysing the pattern of chemical chains that attach to the DNA in your cells, these clocks apparently reveal how swiftly you are ageing and perhaps even how much longer you will live.

The big sell with these tests is that while DNA is fixed at birth, our epigenetic patterns change according to our lifestyles. The promise of those who produce these clocks for commercial use is that they enable us to calibrate our ageing.

The tests havent been independently evaluated and do not need to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration but that has not stopped some life insurance companies using the tests to predict lifespans. Researchers have jumped on board, too, using the clocks to test anti-ageing drugs and to look for an anti-ageing diet.

Talk of immortality was outlaw science until a couple of decades ago but now it is attracting serious interest and big bucks: in 2013, Google invested $1.5bn (1.1bn) in an entire division, Calico, which is devoted to solving death. The PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has given millions of dollars to De Greys foundation.

Instead of focusing on why, say, we get cancer or have a stroke and how to treat each distinct condition, this branch of medical research argues for all these conditions to be regarded as symptoms of one far larger and deadly disease: ageing itself. Instead of trying to treat all these different diseases that develop as people age, the argument goes, we should be trying to treat that one big disease. If we can do that, all the so-called age-related conditions that currently harm so many and cost so much will be by definition eradicated.

No one is saying it is going to be easy. This branch of research attempts to tackle ageing inside every cell of the body. In other words, change the whole genetic makeup of the human species. There are plenty of claims that we can already slow down the ageing of cells or senescence but the most radical adherents claim that the first person to live to 1,000 has already been born.

The Miracle of Fasting, Paul and Patricia Bragg

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease, Michael Grege

The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Whove Lived the Longest, Dan Buettner

Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Dont Have To, David Sinclair

The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer, Dr Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr Elissa Epel

100 Days to a Younger Brain, Dr Sabina Brennan

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The 100-year life: how to prolong a healthy mind - The Guardian

A million fragments scattered before him as he hit the big blue rock with his axe. The minuscule particles glowed so white and bright that Ehtemam had to drop the axe and cover his eyes.

Having left his home behind, Ehtemam had been travelling like a madman for the past six months. Sleep, love, luxury nothing meant to him anymore. And why would it?

He was on a journey seeking something worthier and more precious than anything else in the world: a life of eternity, immortality, and hence more power.

If he could defeat nature, who would defeat him? Having taken the road less travelled, he had stepped into the far-flung areas of the Arabian Desert for the famous golden potion. The golden potion was nothing new to the world of seekers or saints. Several men had lost their sanity in its quest, while a few were rumoured to have found it. Where had they gone, nobody could tell, but it was believed that they were living their lives happily ever after.

Ehtemam was sure he could be among the lucky ones too and had already succeeded in finding two of the three ingredients: the drying wings of a dead Phoenix and the big blue rocks sacred powder. It was only a matter of finding some crystal water from an unknown stream in the plains, and his life would change forever.

As the days passed, he ran from one mountain to another, digging holes in the barren ground, but failed to find any sign of it. His eyes hurt from lack of sleep and his limbs had almost given up. By the time he came across a small cave, he had lost all his energy to walk. Crawling, he reached inside and darkness filled his senses.

When Ehtemam opened his eyes, he found an old man standing next to him. He looked at him blankly, then stared at his surroundings.

Son, youre dying, the old man announced.

Unable to grasp the sudden revelation, Ehtemam said nothing.

You have exhausted your heart, my son. It wont work anymore for you. I am afraid you have only got a mere 24 hours ahead of you to live.

No, Ehtemam shook his head in disbelief and whispered, This cannot be true!

His weary hand flew to his hair and he began to tear at it frantically. Only a minute or two had passed when he screamed it had suddenly occurred to him that he was, in fact, only a blue rock powder away from immortality.

I need to go! I need to find the waterfall! he looked the old man in the eyes and declared with renewed hope.

The old man shook his head. You will have to leave this silly search of yours if you want to die happy. Men often forget to accept the power of the present moment and waste their lives searching for eternity, the old man added in a mysterious tone of wisdom: Indulge in your now, and you will find all the peace you have ever wanted.

Ehtemam stared at the old man. Was he the devil trying to lead him astray when he was only, in fact, a few moments away from finding immortality? So what if he had exhausted his heart, if he could only find a few drops of the magical water he would never need any kind of healing again. His world would be a paradise on earth and he would rule over it forever and ever. How could he surrender when he was so near to finding it? He quickly pushed himself above from the ground and taking small steps, made his way out of the cave and straight ahead.

Behind him, a thin stream of blue water softly gurgled inside the cave.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 22nd, 2020

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Story Time: The prophecy of eternity - DAWN.com

by Richard Gamble|February26,2020

Julia Ward Howes fame rests largely on The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Written at one of the Civil Wars darkest moments, the poem appeared on the front page of the February 1862 issue of the abolitionist Atlantic Monthly, and quickly became the best-known anthem of the Union cause. It appeared in newspapers across the North and West, while preachers incorporated it into their sermons. President Lincoln wept as he heard it sung in the Capitol in 1864.

Yet Howe hoped to be remembered for much more. By its very success, Battle Hymn simultaneously made and obscured her reputation. As she told one of her granddaughters late in life, pointing to the shelves of books that lined her large library, she wanted to be remembered for her mind, for a lifetime of study devoted to the world of ideas. Steeped in the writings of historians, novelists, and most of all the German philosopher Kant, Howe was an active participant in New England intellectual circles. Well known for her writings and public speeches which attracted flocks of fans from across the U.S., Howe viewed her erudition as a means of uplifting American lifeof delivering on the utopian, romantic moral ideals of equality and human brotherhood that Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau had promoted before the war.

Howe was born in 1819, in New York City. Her mother, Julia Cutler Ward, died when young Julia was only five, leaving a shattered husband to raise six surviving children. Samuel Ward was a wealthy banker, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. He was also an increasingly devout Episcopalian concerned about Julias soul and mind, as his poignant letters to her and about her reveal. Ward saw to it that Julia was baptized and confirmed in their parish church, though she would later renounce orthodox Christianity for liberal Unitarianism or free religion, as she called it.

Howe recalled her father as a narrow, suffocating Calvinist evangelical, but he took risks in how he educated his children. He surrounded his daughter with books, provided singing and piano lessons, and sent her to private academies in the city before hiring a German-trained bibliophile to teach her and her sisters while his sons were educated at the progressive Round Hill School in Massachusetts. Julias capacity for hard work and her considerable intellectual gifts were obvious. When only 17, she published an essay on the poet Alphonse de Lamartine with her own translations from the French. At the age of 20, she published a review of a new American edition of the works of Goethe and Schiller.

Julia Wards marriage to physician and philanthropist Samuel Gridley Howe in 1843 brought her into the hub of Boston abolitionism, Transcendentalism, and Unitarianism. It was a time of turmoil. Calls for immediate emancipation of enslaved people threatened the survival of the Union. Liberal theology challenged the deity of Christ, the reality of miracles, and the historical veracity of the Bible that had been so central to the Calvinist orthodoxy of New Englands pulpits. Julias friends, mentors, and pastors led these reform campaigns, and she discovered a world attuned to her precocious intellect. The demands of a busy household and social life and the rearing of six children made moments of quiet study rare and precious, but Howe continued to read and write. In the 1850s, she helped edit an abolitionist newspaper with her husband, published two largely well-received volumes of poetry, and contributed poems, reviews, and travel essays to the Atlantic Monthly. Her public speaking career began in the 1860stentatively at first, but by the 1870s she was on her way to becoming one of Americas busiest professional lecturers, speaking from coast to coast on topics ranging from ethics to modern manners to favorite authorsalong with crowd-pleasing accounts of how she wrote her Battle Hymn. Howe frequently spent months at a time in Europe, soaking in the art and architecture of the continents great cities. She even hired a rabbi in Rome to teach her Hebrew.

Philosophy was never mere airy speculation forHowe. She wanted answers to the riddles of life. She was eager for guidance on the path to duty, the ethical life, and human progress.

Her great passion was German philosophy which, with its idealism and intuition, had supplanted the empiricism of John Locke among intellectuals of the time. A minister in Howes youth, likely her Episcopal pastor, frowned with great severity upon my early study of the German language, she later recalled; to him, German literature was undermining American Protestantism. Despite this warning, Howe became and remained proficient in the languageand throughout her life was quick to say that of all the influences on her thought, German philosophy did the most to form her ideas about God, man, and immortality, and the ethical life. Howe read Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, and Schelling. She became frustrated enough with Hegels seemingly willful obtuseness to abandon him in favor of Immanuel Kant, the Master; her journals indicate that by the 1860s she was studying Kant almost daily. Kant freed her, she testified, from dogmatism and religious enthusiasm on one side and skepticism on the other, taught her the limits of human knowledge, and gave her the confidence to build her own philosophy and ethical ideals from her consciousness. In 1866 Howe wrote a poem about her debt to him, On Leaving for a Time the Study of Kant: Dull seems the day that brings no hour with thee, / O Master! lapsed to eternity. Before Kants influence, she claimed, she had walked in rude chaotic ways until he re-formdst my days.

Philosophy was never mere airy speculation for Howe. She wanted answers to the riddles of life. She was eager for guidance on the path to duty, the ethical life, and human progress. She wanted a helpful philosophy, she said, and she wanted to share it with others. Her public career was driven by this sense of duty to the greater good of humanity. Her hearts desire, she wrote in 1895, was to assist the efforts of those who sought for this [helpful] philosophy of life.

Though she read widely in several languages, she chose carefully the books she read and urged others to do the same. Life is too short and too much crowded with great interests to allow us time for utterly profitless reading, she warned in 1890. A few, well-chosen books, the works of the truly great philosophers, poets, critics, and historians, would repay attentive effort. Books worth reading required an attentive mind, and the right intellectual and moral attitudereading was not to be self-indulgent or frivolous. New and controversial books should not be shunned; rather, they must be read against the background of what had come before. The modern skeptics Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Huxley must be read in light of Plato and Kant.

Howes image appears in the History of Woman Suffrage, published in 1887. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

But not all Howes reading was so heavy. She made room for leisure and even amusement, reading Thackeray, Dickens, Holmes, Longfellow, Macaulay, Howells, James, George Sand, Balzac, Dumas, Hugo, and many other American and European authors (while urging others to avoid scandalous books, such as Tolstoys Kreutzer Sonata). Even newspapers and journals were essential to practical philosophy. Through them, Howe argued, we know and understand the life of our own time. How else could one serve the needs of society? And to be sure, the press provided a regular outlet for her ideas, from childrens magazines to esoteric philosophical journals.

Howes erudition and dedication are obvious in her lectures and conversations at the Concord School of Philosophy and Literature, which met for a few weeks each summer from 1879 to 1888 on the grounds of Louisa May Alcotts Orchard House. The informal school fulfilled a longtime vision of Alcotts eccentric father, the Platonism and reformer Bronson Alcott. For her part, Louisa May Alcott professed to have no interest in speculative philosophy but put up with the hundreds of visitors who streamed to Orchard House because she loved her father and was delighted to see his dream fulfilled. If they were philanthropists, I should enjoy it, she told the president of Princeton, but speculation seems a waste of time when there is so much real work crying to be done. Why discuss the unknowable till our poor are fed and the wicked saved?

Many who shared Louisa May Alcotts impatience with the schoolwhich welcomed college students and professors, members of the general public with the leisure and stamina for study, skeptics, reporters, and the merely curiouscriticized it as an exercise in nostalgia. For a modest fee, seekers could bask in the mysticism of Bronson Alcott, hear some of the aging Ralph Waldo Emersons last lectures, discover an unexpected Henry David Thoreau in the unpublished journals read by his literary executor, and participate in long, free-flowing discussions of ancient Greek and modern philosophers, poets, and playwrights. There were walks in the woods and visits to the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The tone was serious, the setting bucolic, and the depth and breadth of thought dizzying to those uninitiated into the higher realms of Kantian and Hegelian speculation.

Aside from Emerson, Julia Ward Howe drew the largest crowds at Concord, lecturing on Aeschylus, Dante, Goethe, Emerson, and her beloved Kant. Howe paid tribute to Kant at the Concord School in 1880, during what was billed as the Kantian Centennial to mark the anniversary of The Critique of Pure Reason. The content of her lecture is not easy for the modern reader to penetrate, but her debt to the Enlightenment philosopher was obvious. Kants ethics provided the key to self-sacrifice for the greater good as she conceived it, to democracy, progress, and human freedom.

For the organizers and faculty at Concord, and certainly for Howe, there was no conflict between speculative philosophy and reformthe summer sessions sought to rejuvenate a nation threatened by the unlimited pursuit of wealth, scientific materialism, and agnosticism. Despite the Civil War and emancipation of slaves, America still needed redemption. In Kants writings I heard the eternal Thou shalt in its trumpet tone of victory, Howe told her Concord audience. The possibility of a rational solution of social and national difficulties, the superiority of reason over force, and the applicability of the first to what been always generally deemed the province of the latterare not these the results of applied philosophy?

And were they not the ultimate goal of the American experiment? They were certainly the goals of Howes conception of the national mission. Howe lived and worked among New England Idealists confident that the Absolute permeated nature, society, and the individual, summoning humanity to the duties of the ethical life, and leading on to freedom, unity, and immortality. If every country were governed upon principles of true philosophy, the Battle-Hymn poet asked, where would be war and crime, the scourges of the human race?

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The Philosophy of Julia Ward Howe - zocalopublicsquare.org

Every generation has its heroes. Who the heroes are is determined by the world that the generation grows up in and that is why for this generation, our definitive hero is none other than Takeshi Kovacs.

As a show, 'Altered Carbon' is a revelation. Sure, the original novels may have been written in the early 2000s but the core concept, a world where immortality is no longer just a fantasy, is one that's still pretty unique in the realm of science fiction.

The way the show bends our preconceived notions of mind, body and society as a whole is truly mindboggling but the point of it all is something far deeper. The show projects a world drastically different from our own and then uses this alien landscape to showcase the most human of foibles.

In 'Altered Carbon', most of the things that divide humanity today, like race or gender, are outdated concepts. But despite the fact that humanity has a chance to become something so much better, 'Altered Carbon' is still a dystopian show. The one divider that never goes away economic status still manages to find a way to twist the gift of immortality and turn it into something horrendous.

For a generation that's growing up in a world under constant threat of collapse due to unchecked economic expansion, the world of 'Altered Carbon' is not alien at all. But political angles aside, it's the hero himself who concerns us and he's a real piece of work.

Whether played by Joel Kinnaman or Anthony Mackie or whoever steps into the role next, Takeshi Kovacs is a broken man who surrounds himself with other broken people. He's not perfect in any sense of the word but it is his imperfection that makes him so very human and relatable.

Much like the people who watch him on screen, Tak finds himself in a world that's dark, strange and hostile. But he still finds a way to try and help people, to do the right thing.

We don't know yet if Netflix plans on continuing 'Altered Carbon' after Season 2 though we really hope they do. This show, much like 'Doctor Who', has the potential to go on for decades thanks to the lead role not requiring a particular actor. But whatever future might await him, we're sure Takeshi Kovacs will find a way to impress us over and over again.

After all, he is an Envoy and he takes what's offered.

'Altered Carbon' Season 2 will be releasing on Netflix on February 27.

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'Altered Carbon': Takeshi Kovacs is the definitive and imperfect sci-fi hero of this generation - MEAWW

BOSTON, MA - FEBRUARY 13: Kevin Garnett #5 of the Boston Celtics reacts following a foul against the Chicago Bulls during the game on February 13, 2013 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com

The Boston Celtics will raise another number to the TD Garden rafters, as the team announced that Kevin Garnett's No. 5 will be retired by the team during the 2020-21 season.

Energy and intensity unmatched. #KG5 https://t.co/jg8knc3HGq

The next logical choice to look down on the Garden parquet following Paul Pierce's number retirement back in Feb. 2018, the decision to take Garnett's number out of circulation next season will actually fill up the Celtics' third banner of retired numbers and names, and left them with 23 numbers retired, and 24 people in total honored on their three banners.

And there's no denying Garnett's worthiness for banner immortality when it comes to his Boston run.

Acquired by the Celtics in 2007, Garnett emerged as that rare but true franchise-changing addition for the C's.

Completing Danny Ainge's (initial) quest for a new Big Three in Boston, Garnett instantly became the fiery co-leader of a squad already featuring Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and led the 2007-08 Celtics to a league-best 66-16 record.Garnett was straight-up dominant that season, too, as the towering big with unmatched intensity averaged his lowest point-per-game totals in a decade, but shot a career-best 53.9 percent and also nabbed NBA Defensive Player of the Year honors.

That thunderous introduction to Boston also culminated with a six-game NBA Finals win over the Los Angeles Lakers, of course, and with an emotional Garnett etching his name into the sports quote lore with his "anything is possible" scream.

It was just the start of a six-season run in Celtic Green that came with three All-NBA Defensive First Team honors (2008, 2009, and 2011), an All-NBA Defensive Second Team honor in 2012, five All-Star appearances, and a second trip to the NBA Finals in 2010. Had Garnett been healthy in 2009, you're likely talking about the C's going to three straight Finals.

Garnett will head to the rafters with the seventh-most defensive rebounds (2,786), eighth-most blocks (394), ninth-best field goal percentage (52.0 percent), and fifth-best player efficiency rating (21.1) in franchise history.

If you're looking for bonus value here when it comes to Garnett's impact on the Celtics, too, don't forget that Garnett was a key part of the trade package sent to Brooklyn in exchange for three unprotected first-round picks, which backfired on the Nets in the craziest of ways and allowed the Celtics to draft Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum (via pick trading).

And in what feels like a relatively surprising note, this decision to retire Garnett's number next season actually sees the C's beat the Minnesota Timberwolves -- the team Garnett put on the map with a 14-year run on two different tenures in his storied NBA career -- to the punch when it comes to immortalizing Garnett with a number retirement ceremony.

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Celtics will retire Kevin Garnett's No. 5 next season - 98.5 The Sports Hub

On Wednesday night, Daniel and Henrik Sedin were officially enshrined in Vancouver Canucks immortality, as they watched No. 22 and No. 33 get raised to the rafters of Rogers Arena.

When the twins retired two years ago, there was no doubt that the franchise would eventually retire their numbers. They are by far the two greatest players in Canucks history, and well never see a dynamic duo like this ever again.

The question now is if Daniel and Henrik will receive the even greater honour of getting inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Theyll be eligible in 2021, and the debate has already begun.

When it comes to voting players in, there are plenty of factors that must be taken into account. Did a player win enough individual hardware? Were they among the top three or five at their position in any point of their careers? Were they dominant enough for a long period of time?

The Sedins check all of those boxes.

Henrik won the Art Ross Trophy after scoring 112 points in 2009-10, and he became the first and only Canuck to date to win the Hart Trophy. One year later, Daniel won the scoring title with 104 points, but Corey Perry beat him out for the Hart.

Daniel, however, won the 2010-11 Lester B. Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay Award), whichis given to themost outstanding player in the NHL as voted by fellow members of the National Hockey League Players Association.

Henrik won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy during the 2015-16 season for his work and contributions on and off the ice. The twins captured the award together in 2017-18, their swan song season.

And yes, both were top three or five at their respective positions (Henrik a center, Daniel a winger) at some point specifically from 2008-09 to 2012-13. Daniel had four seasons of 80-plus points, and seven of 70-plus points. Henrik hit 90-plus points twice, 80-plus points five times and 70-plus points eight times.

Consistency should get you to the Hall, and consistent they were.

The Sedin twins guided Vancouver to consecutive Presidents Trophy-winning seasons in 2010-11 and 2011-12. They were, of course, just one game short of capturing the Stanley Cup in 2011. If Vancouver had defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 7, this wouldnt be a debate right now.

Henrik is the franchise leader in games played (1,330), assists (830) and points (1,070). Daniel (1,041 career points) is the all-time Canucks leader in goals (393), power play goals (138) and game-winning goals (86). Being part of the 1,000-point club truly goes a long way in strengthening your Hall of Fame case, too.

Really, there shouldnt be much of a debate. Daniel and Henrik Sedin belong in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Their decade-long dominance, consistency, accolades and places in the franchise record books make it an easy decision.

They may not receive the call in 2021, and maybe not even in 2022 or 2023. Other greats and former superstars like Daniel Alfredsson, Theoren Fleury and Alexander Mogilny are still waiting, but they should get in eventually.

But when all is said and done, Daniel and Henrik Sedin did more than enough to receive calls into the Hall of Fame. If you ask me, its a matter of when the two Vancouver legends get in, not if.

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Canucks: Yes, the Sedin twins belong in the Hall of Fame - The Canuck Way

With all the focus on Liverpool wrapping up a first league title since 1990, there is the tendency to forget of the opportunities that come with the Reds unprecedented top-flight dominance.

Jurgen Klopps team are just six league wins away from PL immortality and we are still only in February. This presents a rare possibility of being able to integrate some of the clubs youngsters in vital matches of the season to showcase the clubs unwavering faith in its academy system.

With Liverpools previous fixture being the inspiring Shrewsbury Town victory where the kids took centre stage to ensure Klopps progression into the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time since the Germans appointment in 2015 could the boss be tempted to reward some of the clubs brightest upcoming stars?

There is a strong case that Curtis Jones has done enough to warrant some Premier League experience when the European champions travel to Carrow Road to face Norwich City on Saturday.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND FEBRUARY 04: Liverpool players Ki-Jana Hoever, Sepp van den Berg, Curtis Jones and Pedro Chirivella celebrate after the final whistle of the FA Cup Fourth Round Replay match between Liverpool and Shrewsbury Town at Anfield on February 4, 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Visionhaus)

Whilst its important that the senior players have had a couple of weeks off, Klopp could be forgiven if he were prioritising Liverpools Champions League clash away to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, just three days after the Reds trip to the Canaries.

With that in mind, could Klopp hand Jones his first PL start with such a gargantuan European fixture so close to beckoning?

Fabinho has only started one league match since November and may not want to be risked at the weekend. Meanwhile, Henderson has flourished in the holding role which could tempt the Reds manager to keep the skipper as the pinpoint come Saturday.

Also, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was utilised on the wing in the 4-0 victory against Southampton meaning a simple like-for-like alteration could see Jones move into the front-three and Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled back into the midfield trident.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND FEBRUARY 04: Curtis Jones of Liverpool reacts after missing a chance on goal during the FA Cup Fourth Round Replay match between Liverpool and Shrewsbury at Anfield on February 4, 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Matthew Ashton AMA/Getty Images)

Liverpool were handed a major boost when Sadio Mane recently returned to training following a hamstring injury sustained during the 2-1 victory at Molineux last month. The Senegalese ace is unlikely to start against Norwich with Liverpool having to balance three competitions in the next month and Mane so raw from injury.

Following an inspired performance against the Shrews where Jones became Liverpools youngest ever club-captain in a competitive game, the 19-year-old has the advantage of being fresher from match action than any of his teammates.

Klopp has to meticulously manage his options in the defining period of the season meaning young players like Jones, Harvey Elliott and Neco Williams must be ready to be called upon.

Having recently signed a contract extension until 2024, Klopp was installed to oversee not just the remaining years of his current world-conquering squad but also to begin incorporating the next generation of Liverpool stars who will have similar aspirations of winning league titles.

With the games coming thick and fast, dont be surprised if Klopp begins to entrust more responsibility on some of the clubs fringe players.

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Last month, I wrote about the first leg of Lost Odyssey and how much I was enjoying it. The second disc and first half of the third have been even better. The worldbuilding is mysterious and intriguing, with each new section making me want to know more about the immortals Im playing as. The narrative gets richer with each new set piece, the bond the characters have growing as they face off against enemies that come in a variety of forms.

Lost Odysseys storytelling acts almost like a counter argument against magic and immortality. About halfway into the game, your party enters the great city of Gohtza. Its a technological marvel, revolutionised by magic industry. But when you talk to the citizens, they reveal that many people have lost their jobs due to magic automating their positions. Although the new industries have great benefits, theyve also resulted in a stratified society where those who arent part of the elite are suffering. The contrast between the wealthy aristocrats and the people in Low Town is stark.

Adjacent to Gohtza is the city of Kent. Their people have been decimated by the magical meteor which struck them at the battle in the opening of the game. They are full of hatred at the immortal they blame for their loss (good thing they dont recognise said immortal is the protagonist, Kaim!).

The argument for immortality doesnt fare much better. The burden of long life takes a terrible emotional toll on those who carry it. You learn at the end of Disc 1 that Kaims wife, Sarah, is still alive. During their search for Sarah, the party hears rumours about an Old Sorceress who is very dangerous. You have to confront her since she has sealed off a cave your party needs to cross.

That ends up taking your party to Kaims old house. Within its walls, your party uses a series of magic mirrors to travel from the decrepit state the mansion has become to the past where everything is spick and span.

The dissolution and messy remains are metaphorical for the Old Sorceresss state of mind. She is surrounded by four Bodies of Thought, each utilising one of the elements. They take turns attacking her from all angles, but never turn their attack against the party. The partys goal is to save her from killing herself. Since each of the Bodies is comprised of a different element, you have to be careful how you fight.

During the battle, the Old Sorceress will unleash a desperate scream. This changes up all the elements so that an approach that worked previously wont be effective anymore and might actually hurt her. Its only after you defeat all the Bodies of Thought that you realise Sarah is underneath the veil of the Old Sorceress. Driven to depression by the realisation that her daughter was dead, she had been torturing herself for decades.

Even after destroying the Bodies of Thought, Sarahs depression nearly overwhelms her again. Its only thanks to her grandchildren, Cooke and Mack, singing an old lullaby, that Sarah finds some semblance of serenity. As Sarah realises Kaim is back, they slowly make their way through the world together, supporting each other through their grief. Kaim is driven by his desire to avenge his daughter, while Sarah finds motivation in the love of her grandchildren.

Having a kid of our own gave this situation much more gravity. More than any of the Dream flashbacks or cutscenes, this battle revealed so much about the plight of immortality. What would seeing the deaths of those dear to them, and the number of them accumulating with the passing centuries, do to their minds? What seems like a boon for Sarah and Kaim is actually a curse. Their desolation increases with every passing year. Theres an understandable reason why Kaim doesnt seem all that eager to retrieve his memories.

Their amnesia takes on an entirely new wrinkle when they confront the man who caused their memory loss, Gongora. Gongora is a fellow immortal and a powerful magician who wants to build a magic engine called the Grand Staff. In your first battle against him in the Experimental Staff, he annihilates your party. Im so grateful for this gameplay/narrative choice. Multiple RPGs come to mind where you confront an ultimate villain for the first time and proceed to give them a spanking. The villain laughs it off and says something along the lines of, Ill be back for you later. But because youve already defeated them, they dont seem as deadly anymore (one of the examples that immediately comes to mind is Seymour from FFX).

In Lost Odyssey, theres no doubt who has the upper hand. But its not just Gongoras physical and magical abilities that make him so powerful. Having retained all his memories, he accuses Kaim and his fellow immortal of being traitors to a noble cause. Their memory loss was a punishment for their misdeeds. This accusation makes them question if their odyssey is even a righteous one. But Gongora seems to be struggling against demons of his own as hes in a mentally fraught state in the Experimental Staff. Its not clear yet whos on the right. It would make for a surprising twist if it turned out that Gongora is actually fighting for a good cause, while Kaim and company, having lost their memories, are actually the villains. As Kaim states, If the record of a thousand years shows that I am really a traitor, then Ill have to accept that, and pay the price.

Magic has obvious positive effects, like being able to heal the people around them. But in the merchant town of Saman, its had a strange influence. The villagers walk around in a zombified state, shrouded in a purple aura, giving free rein to their egos. One of the wealthy merchants in the city openly brags about the wealth hes accumulated through corrupt methods. A man in the Erlio Family House spends all his time talking to a doll. Cant you see Im quite occupied right now? Stop bothering me, he snaps at you. Then to the doll, Darling, I love you so much. You are the one that I love the most in this world. A car called Zak laughs at you and calls you pathetic. Another car called Jack complains, Ugh, every day I go around dealing with rude people and carrying their heavy bags. Then they kick me when Im not running well. If youve ever wondered what your car thinks of you, magic can tell you the truth.

Its these weird encounters in each of the towns that reminds me so much of what I love and have missed about JRPGs. Every city feels like a brand new experience full of quirky denizens. Its been a long time since Ive been this excited about seeing whats next in the journey.

Theres a lot of variety in the gameplay and boss battles. In the Experimental Staff, some of the areas are giant puzzles where youre shifting machines and opening up new pathways. Wind caves, slippery slopes, and thieving enemies, make the ice canyon a gruelling trial. The battle preceding the Experimental Staff, which is against a Mantala, can be extremely difficult if you dont plan each step. Thats because every time you attack the Mantala, it hides in the ocean and summons smaller Mantas in its place. You have to time your attacks, defensive manoeuvres, and spells to perfectly align the strongest blows on the Mantala. Otherwise, the battle can go forever.

Fortunately, theres not that much grinding to do when it comes to experience points. Any time you enter a new area, your characters will level up quickly to where they should be. The reason you still need to engage in fights is to increase skill link levels from the mortals and get SP from bands to learn new abilities. I did find a way to grind my characters beyond their normal levels at the Numara Atolls. Silver Kelolons dot the beach side (theyre akin to the metal slimes of Dragon Quest in giving you a heck of a lot of EXP). If your party has gained the Gamble spell, which is done by praying at all the Kelolon statues in Tosca Village, it makes beating the Silver Kelelons feasible on a predictable basis. I overpowered my characters within a few battles.

Each of the characters gets their chance to shine in battles and more importantly, the story. In an optional cutscene with Ming when you escape Numara, she sees a monument off the shore and recalls a past battle. She saved the city by turning a huge Arthrosaurus into stone, which was how the monument came to be. But the flashback causes her pain and its not clear why, making me wonder about her past. Cooke and Mack are always getting into trouble, including one scene where they hijack a magical train in the hopes of communicating with their mother again. Their hopefulness through some of the darker moments in the game help the characters cope with their circumstances. Jansen, the comic relief, turns against his benefactor, Gongora, in favour of the immortals. He lifts up the bag of gold Gongora had bribed him with and says hed throw it back out of a sense of outrage, but then decides to keep it since he figures thered be no point in giving up the money. Jansen always remains in character, even in his outrage.

The dreams in the first disc focused on Kaims memories. In the second, there are several dreams that your pirate immortal, Seth, regains, and theyre heartbreaking. That is, if you take the time to read them. As I mentioned in the first part of my Lost Odyssey retrospective, I really wish there could have been a way for these sequences to have been more seamlessly integrated. The way it currently stands, the two things that take me out of the immersion of the gameplay are the long load screens (I know Im playing off disc, but some of these load screens are really distracting) and the dreams. I want to read them as theyre very good, but every time I do, it feels like Im being sucked away from the world. At the same time, I realise theyre an additional layer, meant to add texture to the narrative, and entirely optional. Just their existence is something Im grateful for. Who knew reading the story about a shoemaker could be so emotional?

I know some people, including myself, have described Lost Odyssey as a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy. While theres some truth to that, especially due to the developers being who they are, theres also a lot the game does to weave together its own distinctive identity. This middle act is where the game went from being a lost odyssey to an epic one. I cant wait to see how it all ends.

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Lost Odyssey Brilliantly Explores The Tragedy Of Being Immortal - Kotaku Australia

Ageing is optional if certain lifestyle factors can be controlled, and there is an emerging economy for people living longer, the Milken Institutes Middle East and Africa summit in Abu Dhabi heard on Tuesday.

We say we are increasing the healthspan not just the lifespan. So people have more years in life but those years are healthier and more productive and fulfilling, Nora Super, director of the Centre for the Future of Ageing at the Milken Institute, told The National.

By 2030, more people worldwide will be over the age of 60 than under 10, according to Milken, a US think tank.

Meanwhile, experiments over the last few years to test the bodys epigenetic clock, which tracks a persons biological age, have been shown to slow down or reverse when given certain medications and hormones, or when the test subjects were able to reduce stress through meditation.

The combination of shifting demographics and recent breakthroughs in our understanding of ageing and longevity represent both a massive challenge and opportunity in the 21st century.

Dr Deepak Chopra, founder of the Chopra Centre and a wellness expert, said that over the past two decades, scientists had begun to more widely accept that ageing was more like a disease that can be cured rather than an inevitability.

No gene has evolved to cause ageing. No one dies of old age, he said at the conference.

Dr Chopra said the idea of well-being and longevity could be achieved by following seven pillars: sound sleep, meditation, physical activity, emotion moderation, plant-based nutrition, time outdoors and self-awareness.

Through the Chopra Centre, he said he was working to identify biomarkers to measure the effects these practices had on a persons ageing process.

Dr Chopra is 73 years old but he claims his epigenetic clock is nearly half that after following 30 years of daily meditation and walking at least 10,000 steps.

As we move into the future, we should be able to create these new algorithms that correlate biometrics to well-being, he said.

In addition to working on measuring the effect of anti-ageing practices on the body, Dr Chopra is working on a project called Digital Deepak, an artificial intelligence based on his writings and teachings.

The AI is still a baby under development, he said, but would be rolled out later this year.

If we dont adapt to technology, we become irrelevant, he told The National.

Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, who wrote a book on longevity, said mankind's "current best" was 120 years old - a number he said he hoped to beat.

Mr Asprey, a former technology company executive, said he believed if I can hack the internet, I can hack this [ageing issue] and admitted to investing at least $1 million in his efforts.

By prolonging life and increasing well-being, he said, there was a return on investment measured by time.

When we imagine ageing, we imagine being old and thats not a pretty sight: wheelchairs, you cant remember your own name, incontinence, he said. "But these are solvable, hackable problems."

Updated: February 11, 2020 09:29 PM

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Ageing is 'optional' amid emerging economy for immortality - The National

This is a Liverpool squad that has become immortalised in its own time. A town that has been painted red.

The current champions of Europe remain firmly on course to end a three-decade wait for an English league title, with a 22-point advantage at the summit leaving them just a half-dozen victories away from a sizeable slice of modern history.

Jurgen Klopp and his teak-tough band of brothers are the talk of the town, with the eternal chatter from the Red half of the city largely surrounding this current crop's place in the pantheon of all-time Liverpool greats.

Where they sit among the sides sculptured and shaped by Bob Paisley, Bill Shankly et al, will one day make for one of the healthiest of Merseyside football debates.

In the here and now, though, there are medals to be won and trophies to be lifted.

Liverpool have veered only slightly so far throughout what has been remarkable campaign; just two Premier League points dropped with the Reds still in the hunt for both the Champions League and the FA Cup.

Their impact and influence, however, stretches beyond the regular confines of football fandom. To many, Klopp and the players at his disposal have already become icons, whatever happens between now, May - and the rest of the decade.

As world and European champions, this current squad have sent the levels of pride among the fanbase soaring to levels rarely seen across the club's 128-year history.

As such, Liverpool's players and their charismatic coach remain omnipresent throughout a city that boasts just as much civic pride as it does in its sporting accomplishments.

Take a stroll through the burgeoning Baltic Triangle area of the city centre and you will be confronted by a giant mural in homage to Klopp. It has become the coolest tourist attraction around - even for locals - since its inception in December 2018.

The likability factor of the affable Klopp, coupled with his sometimes underrated acumen as one of the sharpest tactical minds in football, has helped Liverpool to the brink of domestic glory once more.

No other manager has come as close as Klopp as to ending a wait for league title No.19 and after guiding the club to a sixth European Cup last year, his place as an Anfield great is already safe and secure. The German even has a sports bar named in his honour in the city centre.

French graffiti artist Akse has painted some of the most recognisable faces on the planet onto various walls across the world. From Bob Marley and David Bowie through to Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali, the breathtaking artist's work always catches the eye.

The same applies to the likeness of Liverpool's manager, which can be found on Jamaica Street.

Commissioned by the club itself, Klopp's image was the first time Akse had painted a manager of the game, despite his ample experience of football-themed street art that include Wayne Rooney, Harry Maguire and Juan Mata.

"You really can feel the love from the fans [for Klopp]," he tells the ECHO. "Each time I go back to the wall, there are always fans from all around the world taking pictures with the mural.

"As an artist you get very attached to the pieces you paint on a personal level. Each piece has its own story: from the choice of the subject, the selection of the reference image, the preparation of the mural and the painting process."

The Klopp piece took two days to complete and was not without its weather-related technical issues, but for Akse - the artist who also produced the Trent Alexander-Arnold piece last year - his hard labour merely shines further light on the positive role models who are his subject matter.

He adds: "These murals pay tribute to the outstanding achievements of the subjects and the fans recognise that. After painting the Jurgen Klopp and Trent murals, I received a lot of requests from LFC fans to paint other players so its really a testament to how much they mean to them.

"[The Alexander-Arnold] mural is also dedicated to Fans Supporting Foodbanks so it brings fans together to fight food poverty in Liverpool. This is why I love doing street art, it can have such a positive impact in the community on so many levels."

Discreetly tucked away down a city-centre backstreet is an 'Ode to Mo' - a celebration of Liverpool's Egyptian King himself, Mohamed Salah.

As the poster-boy for football in his homeland, Salah carries the weight of expectation of his 90million compatriots and his rise at Anfield has catapulted him into the realms of global superstardom.

Magazine covers and lucrative endorsements have followed for a player who has become something of a pop culture phenomenon during his two-and-a-half years as a Liverpool employee.

Guy McKinley was the artist who sketched Salah's face on a wall midway down Basnett Street, creating a six-metre-by-three painting paying tribute to the Liverpool hero, bringing an otherwise nondescript collection of brickwork to life in the process.

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Created just before the 2018 Champions League final, thanks to the work from local company RRUNews, Guy's art was accompanied by the words of poet Musa Okwonga, hailing the "golden smile of the nile."

"Mo is more than just a good footballer, he is a role model to lots of people from varying backgrounds," Guy told the ECHO. "He brings divergent people together which is always good.

"This was important to the piece as a whole, putting the image alongside Musas words and then interacting with the locals for the accompanying film, all helped highlight how well he is received by the local community too.

"That was the concept rather than just a mural of Mo Salah, it was a chance to open debate too. I dont think he is just a hero in Egypt now, he seems huge everywhere by what I have seen.

"From the outside looking at him, he seems to be a very positive person and is such a benefit to the team and city.

"I had kids come over to me while I was painted telling me how important it was that he is seen as this positive influence and thanking me for painting it, which was very touching.

"Appealing to people in a number of ways certainly helps cement his status among the whole family of Liverpool FC fans from all over the world."

This is about more than just a good football team; the current Liverpool squad have allowed even the most gnarled supporter a chance to remind themselves why they fell in love with the sport.

Beyond their accomplishments on the pitch, their willingness to embrace the supporters who lionise them is a constant theme throughout the squad.

Perhaps few embody that more than Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose rise from Academy hopeful to Ballon d'Or nominee has been sharp. In under four years, the West Derby-born, lifelong Liverpool supporter has become one of the world's most valuable defenders.

Cherished by locals, the 21-year-old's appearance was painted, three-storeys high, on to a home at the corner of Sybil Street and Anfield Road - just an Alexander-Arnold cross from where the Reds star has stamped his mark on the game he loves since his debut in October 2016.

The mural was arranged by the Anfield Wrap, a popular fan podcast with subscribers in over 80 countries, as a way to commemorate an incredible season that ended with Alexander-Arnold lifting the Champions League trophy.

Alexander-Arnold, though, represents more than just a great player being adored by a club's fans. He is a Steven Gerrard for the Millennium, a homegrown hero living the idyllic dream of thousands of other Liverpool-born football followers.

"I was trying to think of something we could do to celebrate the players' achievements," says Craig Hannan of the Anfield Wrap. "And it was the BT Sport clip after the game of Alexander-Arnold saying: 'I'm just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dreams have just come true'.

"He is a footballer who has lived all our dreams, coming through the youth system, lifting the European Cup - everything made sense for him. That is where the idea came about. He is not just his achievements on the pitch, it is what he has done off it too.

"He is a local lad and done loads of work for foodbanks and An Hour For Others, so it all just made sense. This is a local lad who has won the Champions League but also a grounded 21-year-old who gives back and hasn't forgotten where he has come from.

Paul Gorst is the ECHO's new full-time LFC correspondent covering the Reds both home and away.

He'll be across all the biggest stories both on and off the pitch and is a must follow for fans worldwide.

Paul can be found on Twitter @ptgorst, Facebook @ptgorst and Instagram @PaulGorst.

You can email Paul at paul.gorst@reachplc.com.

"We chose him for the wall, but in actual fact, when you look through the whole team, we wanted to celebrate the fact that these are footballers that stand for a lot and believe in a lot. You can see the continuous work they do in the city for charity. For Trent, we all see a bit ourselves in him.

"In a city like Liverpool, it is great that we can feel that connection with the players. There hasn't always been an obvious relationship with the players and the fans over the years, but with the likes of Andy Robertson and Trent and the rest, their values seem to be in line with us as fans.

"It is not just about them playing 90 minutes and then we don't see them, it is about them helping out in the local community. Even the kind of content the club put out, we get a great understanding of what they are like as people."

The Alexander-Arnold mural was unveiled days before the current Premier League season kicked off in August to help raise awareness for Fans Supporting Foodbanks - a cause the Anfield Wrap have championed for some time.

Craig adds: "They are giving us the best experiences of our lives right now and are also doing their bit off the pitch too.

"We are really proud of what we have been able to do [with the mural]. It was great that Trent came down to see it but the biggest thing is it is helping a cause we want to give as much coverage as possible to. But to see him on the wall and people flocking to see it is the biggest thing for us.

"For example, if one person a game sees it and looks into Fans Supporting Foodbanks more to donate then it has done its job. Also, we can celebrate a young lad like Trent who is someone who is inspiring kids every day.

"We're really proud of it and we love that Trent loves it and it has become a landmark to inspire kids in the area to show them what can be achieved. That is a brilliant thing."

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Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool close to immortality - but their lasting legacy is already painted across Merseyside - Liverpool Echo