Category Archives: Immortality

"I think it's reasonable to suppose that one could oscillate between being biologically 20 and biologically 25 indefinitely." -- Aubrey de Grey

Time may indeed be on your side. If you can just last another quarter century.

By then, people will start lives that could last 1,000 years or more. Our human genomes will be modified to include the genetic material of microorganisms that live in the soil, enabling us to break down the junk proteins that our cells amass over time and which they can't digest on their own. People will have the option of looking and feeling the way they did at 20 for the rest of their lives, or opt for an older look if they get bored. Of course, everyone will be required to go in for age rejuvenation therapy once every decade or so, but that will be a small price to pay for near-immortality.

This may sound like science fiction, but Aubrey de Grey thinks this could be our reality in as little as 25 years. Other scientists caution that it is far from clear whether and for how long science can stall the inevitable.

De Grey, a Cambridge University researcher, heads the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) project, in which he has defined seven causes of aging, all of which he thinks can be dealt with. (Senescence is scientific jargon for aging.)

De Grey also runs the Methuselah Mouse prize for breakthroughs in extended aging in mice. The purse of the M Prize, as it is called, recently grew beyond $1 million.

LiveScience recently spoke with de Gray about his idea of living longer, and perhaps forever.

LiveScience: What is your definition of aging?

Aubrey de Grey: The definition that I like is not very good if you want to cover all species, but it's pretty good if you want to do something about it. I define aging as the set of accumulated side effects from metabolism that eventually kills us.

Is your goal to just extend the human lifespan substantially or to enable us to live forever?

I don't see any inherent limit to how long it would be desirable to live. If life is fun at the moment, because one is healthy and youthful, both mentally and physically, then one is not likely to want to die in the next year or two. And if a year or two down the road, life is still fun because one is still youthful and so on, then the same will apply, and I can't see a time when that would cease to be true.

When did you first come up with idea for your SENS project?

Well, I've always considered aging to be undesirable, but I didn't begin to consider that I could make a contribution until about ten years ago. I suppose the major breakthrough was when I came up with the scheme that I now describe as SENS, and that happened about four years ago.

Nuclear Mutations/Epimutations These are changes to the DNA, the molecule that contains our genetic information, or to proteins which bind to the DNA. Certain mutations can lead to cancer.

Mitochondrial Mutations Mitochondria are components in our cells that are important for energy production. They contain their own genetic material, and mutations to their DNA can affect a cell's ability to function properly.

Intracellular Junk Our cells are constantly breaking down proteins that are no longer useful or which can be harmful. Those proteins which can't be digested simply accumulate as junk inside our cells.

Extracellular Junk Harmful junk protein can also accumulate outside of our cells. The amyloid plaque seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients is one example.

Cell Loss Some of the cells in our bodies cannot be replaced, or can only be replaced very slowly.

Cell Senescence This is a phenomenon where the cells are no longer able to divide. They may also do other things that they're not supposed to, like secreting proteins that could be harmful.

Extracellular Crosslinks: Cells are held together by special linking proteins. When too many cross-links form between cells in a tissue, the tissue can lose its elasticity and cause problems.

What happened was that I was gradually learning a lot of biology because my wife is a biologist. I was originally trained as a computer scientist, and I regarded aging as obviously undesirable but not my problem, that someone else would be working on it.

But the more biology I learned, the more I also learned about biologist and about the attitudes toward working on the biology of aging that biologists tended to have, and basically, I wasn't very impressed. I found that rather few biologists were interested in the problem at all, and I thought, "Well, that isn't very good,", so I thought I'd see what I could do.

Your background is in computer science. How does that qualify you to spearhead a project on aging?

My background is enormously beneficial. There are really very important differences between the type of creativity involved in being a basic scientist and being an engineer. It means that I'm able to think in very different ways and come up with approaches to things that are different from the way a basic scientist might think.

Could you give me an example of when your background has proven useful?

Well, I suppose that the whole SENS project is one big example. What I've done there is I've identified a set of things to fix, a set of aspects of aging that we have some respectable chance to repair, and I've realized that if we can do all of these things reasonably well, then we're done.

Basically, we'll have made the age related problems that we suffer from these days no longer an inevitable consequence of being alive. What I've done is basically factored out all the complicated details of how metabolism causes these things in the first place. It will be many decades before we understand the way cells and organs work well enough to be able to describe in detail the mechanism of how these problems actually occur.

But my way of thinking is that we don't need to know the details of how they happen. So long as we know what these things are that do happen, we can figure out ways to fix them. This is counter to the ways that scientists think, because scientists are interested in knowledge for its own sake, whereas I'm interested in knowledge as a means to an end.

Could you give me a timeline for how you envision your project succeeding?

The first part of the project is to get really impressive results in mice. The reason that's important is because mice are sufficiently furry and people can identify with them. If we get really impressive results in mice, then people will believe that it's possible to do it in humans, whereas if you double the lifespan of a fruit fly, people aren't going to be terribly interested.

Now, what I want to do in mice is not only develop interventions which extend their healthy lifespan by a substantial amount, but moreover, to do so when the mouse is already in middle age. This is very important, because if you do things to the mouse's genes before the mouse is even conceived, then people who are alive can't really identify with that.

I reckon it will be about 10 years before we can achieve the degree of life extension with late onset interventions that will be necessary to prove to society's satisfaction that this is feasible. It could be longer, but I think that so long as the funding is there, then it should be about 10 years.

Step two will involve translating that technology to humans. And because that's further in the future, it's much more speculative about how long that's going to take. But I think we have a fifty-fifty chance of doing it within about 15 years from the point where we get results with the mice. So 25 years from now.

What do you think about the idea that with so much life at stake, people would be less willing to take risks?

I used to be more pessimistic about this than I am now. Five or six years ago I wrote a book in which I predicted that driving would be outlawed because it would be too dangerous to other people, but now I think that what's actually going to happen is that we'll just throw money at the problem. Rather than simply avoiding activities that are risky, we'll make them less risky through technology. For example, it's perfectly possible already to build cars that are much safer than those which most people currently drive, and it's also possible to build cars that are safer for pedestrians--with auto sensors and auto braking to stop from hitting a kid running out in the road and things like that.

It's just a matter of priorities. When there isn't that many years of life to lose, the priority isn't there to spend the money. It's all a matter of weighing out the probabilities.

Once the technology is available, nearly everyone is going to want it. Of course, there's going to be a minority of people who think it's better to live more naturally in some way or other. We have parallels like that in society today, like the Amish for example.

Some would say that death is a part of life. What would be your response to those people?

Death will still be a part of life when we haven't got aging anymore. If you mean that some people would say that aging is a part of life--well, that's certainly true, but a couple hundred years ago tuberculosis was a part of life, and we didn't have much hesitation in making that no longer a part of life when we found out how.

What do you say to critics who think that this money could be better spent towards curing diseases like cancer?

This is a very important point. Because we're going be in a situation where we can extend lifespans indefinitely, this argument doesn't work. If it were a case of simply having a prospect of extending our healthy lives by 20 or 30 years, then one could legitimately argue that this would be money more ethically spent on extending the lifespan of people who have a below average lifespan. But when we're talking about extending lifespans indefinitely, I don't think that really works. The other thing to bear in mind, is that it's not an either or thing. The reasons why people in Africa for example, have a low life expectancy is not just because of medical care, but also because of political problems.

What kind of life will the immortal or nearly-immortal lead? Will they have to be on a special diet, or have constant organ transplants?

Like any technology, when it first starts off, it will be a bit shaky, a bit risky, it will be very laborious and expensive and so on, but there will be enormous market pressures that will result in progressive refinement and improvement to the technology so that it not only becomes more effective, it becomes more convenient and so on. This will be an example of that.

In a very general sort of sense, one could probably think in terms of having to go in for a refresh every 10 years or so. Exactly what would be involved in that will change over the years. It might start off as lets say a month in the hospital, and 10 years down the road, that will turn into a day in the hospital.

A good parallel is vaccines. For example, when we take a holiday in Africa or Southeast Asia or whatever, we get a shot to make sure that we don't get malaria. And that's all we have to do, and when we get there we can eat Mc Donald's as much as one likes.

So you think it'll one day be as easy as getting a vaccine?

Yes, that's right. A lot of these things, even in the early stages will amount to vaccines and drugs. Though of course, there will also be a lot of gene therapy and stem cell therapy and much more high tech stuff.

Why did you establish both an institute and a prize?

I think it's very important to have this two-prong approach. The idea here is that we don't really know what's going to work, but we have a fair idea of approaches that have a good probability of working.

If you look at past technological achievements, some of them succeeded by just throwing serious effort and serious resources at the problem, and people were pretty sure of what they had to do to make the thing work. The Manhattan Project is a fine example of that. Everyone basically knew how to build the atomic bomb, it was just a question of working out the kinks.

Then we've got things where there were loads of different possibilities about how the thing might be done, and it was important to motivate people and give incentives. For example, when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, that won a prize. And when someone invented a chronometer that worked properly at sea, that won a prize. Things like that. That was where you wanted to give incentives for people to follow their hunches, because it wasn't very clear which approach was going to work.

I think that when we're talking about life extension, we're sort of halfway between these two situations. We have a bunch of ideas which one can make a good case that it's going to work, but we also want to hedge our bets, and let people follow their hunches as well.

Of your seven SENS targets, which do you consider to be the most important?

It's not possible to say. I don't think we will be able to achieve more than a relatively modest amount of life extension, if any, until we can get at least five or so of these things working, and we might need to do all seven before we get more than a decade of life extension.

Why do you personally want to live forever?

It's not really a matter of living forever, it's just a matter of not wanting to die. One doesn't live forever all in one go, one lives forever one year at a time. It's just a case of "Well, life seems to be fun, and I don't see any prospect of it ceasing to be fun unless I get frail and miserable and start declining." So if I can avoid declining, I'll stay with it really.

What would you do if you could live substantially longer?

They say variety is the spice of life, so I don't think I would do the same things every day. I'd like to be able to spend more time reading, and listen to music, and all that sort of thing, things that I never get to do at all at the moment.

You think this project is going to succeed in your lifetime?

I think it's got a respectable chance. I'm definitely not relying on it. My main motivation comes from the thought of how many lives will be saved.

Your strategy would involve not only preventing aging, but reversing it as well. Does that mean people will get to choose what age they want to remain?

Absolutely. So the idea is that we wouldn't be eliminating aging from the body. It'll be a case of going in periodically and having the accumulated damage repaired. So exactly what biological age you actually have at any point is really just a question of how often you go in for rejuvenations and how thorough they are.

So the more treatments you undergo, the younger you can be?

That's right. I think it's reasonable to suppose that one could oscillate between being biologically 20 and biologically 25 indefinitely.

Related Stories

Those who have lived the longest in modern times, in years and days, according to estimates in some cases:

Name

Years

Days

Jeanne Calment

122

164

Shigechiyo Izumi

120

237

Sarah DeRemer (Clark) Knauss

119

97

Lucy (Terrell) Hannah

117

248

Marie Louse Febronie (Chasse) Meilleur

117

230

SOURCE: Louis Epstein, recordholders.org, based on Guinness Book of World Records and other sources

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Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality

Jun 20 ARTSY SMARTSY, FEATURE SIDEBAR, Film No Comments on FILMING IMMORTALITY: Independent filmmaker Tanya Fermin brings unreal life to Wilmingtons film industry

FERMIN ON THE JOB: Writer and director of HAON films newest series in Wilmington, NC. Courtesy photo

The shoot ends and its director, Tanya Fermin, addresses crewmembers who were trying to find her. Its like a maze in here, she sighs, as she makes her way to the exit. Her current TV series, HAON, is a supernatural drama she will pitch to Netflix. The story centers around a small girl who begins to exhibit strange abilities, and those who want to protect her from being exploited. Some characters have a range of special abilities, like telepathy and clairvoyance, while the haons display longevity that borders on immortality.

The main villain has been taking advantage of clairvoyants to attain wealth this entire time, Fermin explains, but now that he knows haons exist, he thinks they hold the key to eternal life.

This isnt Fermins first foray as a writer-director. Her short film, The Arrangements, made the rounds in 2016, and aired on over 90 stations across the United States. Its a true story, Fermin explains. It deals with the passing of a loved one seen through the eyes of the family. The film was written for her grandmother, Ophelia M. Pridgen, shortly after her passing. Shes my inspiration, Fermin declares with pride. Ive never had writers block after I wrote The Arrangements for her.

Pridgen inspired the main concept of HAON when she looked at Fermins adopted daughter and exclaimed, I think youve been here before. Upon hearing it, Fermin took the mysterious statement and ran with it.

You never know an adopted childs medical history, she notes. So youre warned about not knowing what kind of medical conditions could come up years later. But what if something comes up that isnt medical? What if its something you cant understand?

Fermin also was moved by her grandmothers clear recollection of Southern history throughout life. It was like having an historian right there with you, she recalls. She could tell you about things the history books never covered.

To keep these memories alive, Fermin places characters in HAON throughout different eras in time. We cannot accurately go further than the 1860s in the historical record, due to our heritage, Fermin explains, but thats not going to stop me from showing some things that history tried to hide.

The shows theme of paranormal longevity affords Fermin the ability to explore these concepts, adding substance to the series supernatural elements.

Local sites are chosen for their conceptual similarities to the script: plantations, replicas of Christopher Columbus ships, and in particular, the Octagon House in Swansboro. It became a perfect location for filming the pilot episode.

A drowning took place there, Fermin explains, and the first episode opens with a girl drowning. The girls name on the tombstone is the same as the character who drowned.

The scripts supernatural theme often requires Fermin to shoot in unpleasant locations, such as fetid swamps and abandoned graveyards, but she refuses to back down. Im not afraid, she exclaims. Ill pray the ghosts away. Ill pray the snakes away.

HOAN is far from a one-woman ordeal. The shows producer, Carol Stephans, has worked with Fermin for years. Shes always ready to go, according to Stephans. Fermin attributes successes of HAON and The Arrangements to Wilmingtons willingness to help independent filmmakers. It is what keeps bringing her back to the Cape Fear when other states offer better film incentives than NC.

A dire side effect of NCs nulled film tax credit program (axed by former-governor Pat McCrory in 2015), is the lack of jobs for all positions in film, like actors of all stripes in Wilmington. Its hard to find older actors because their roles are diminishing, Fermin tells. To help fill this void, she writes characters of all ages, genders, races, and sexualities. Once written, she casts them appropriately.

Its not stereotypical, and theyre not written to conform to stereotypes, Fermin tells. Theyre actual people who happen to be who they are. And I always have some tough, fierce women characters. Its just a part of life.

Pat Gallaher, who plays the main villain in HOAN, affirms Wilmingtons value for independent filmmakers. Gallaher met Fermin when they both played police officers in Sleepy Hollow and Two-Eleven, both of which were filmed in Wilmington. You dont have to train someone from scratch to get the job done here, he says. Gallaher doubles as HAONs assistant director when not on screen. We all switch roles, he says.

Plenty of students from Cape Fear Community College assist the crew, but the level of professionality displayed on set is equal among them. Professionals may run the cameras, while students assist them.

Fermin also called in a special favor from local cinematographer Joe Dunton, who has worked with cinematic luminaries like Stanley Kubrick. Dunton consulted with Fermin on her debut film and encouraged her to use certain angles to provoke emotion. I think thats one reason the film did so well, she explains. I called him for another favor [for HAON.] Pivotal scenes in HAON have been filmed at Duntons camera shop to honor him.

HAON is still in development, but you can follow its progress at http://www.facebook.com/findthehaon.

HAONThe Arrangements Two-ElevenArt in Bloom GalleryCape Fear Community CollegeCarol StephansChristopher Columbusencore magazineJames McCreaJoe DuntonNetflixOphelia M. PridgenPat GallaherPat McCrorysleepy hollowTanya FerminWilmington NC

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FILMING IMMORTALITY: Independent filmmaker Tanya Fermin brings unreal life to Wilmington's film industry - encore Online

Since the moment humans became aware of their existence, they have been haunted by the knowledge that it will inevitably come to an end and the hope to change this unfortunate fate.

This month, during Brain Bar Budapest Europes leading conference on the future Stephen Cave talked about the four immortality stories we tell ourselves and how they are changing in the context of new scientific discoveries and technological advancements. Stephen Cave spent a decadestudying and teaching philosophy, and was awarded his PhD in metaphysics from the University of Cambridge in 2001. He isExecutive Director of theLeverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligenceand Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge.

Stephen Cave / Credit: Speakerpedia

Thinking about our own mortality has significant effects on the mind. Studies show that when people are reminded that they are going to die, those who are religious become more religious, those who are patriotic, become more patriotic whatever makes up the core of their worldview, they defend it more aggressively. They are also more likely to believe any kind of story that tells them they may live forever.

We need to tell ourselves stories that deny the reality of death so that we can manage the paralyzing fear of death. In social psychology this is called terror management theory (TMT) where humans embrace stories, cultural values, and symbolic systems to alleviate the fear of death. Stephen Cave points out that civilization as a whole can be viewed as a collection of life-extension technologies, the motivation for its existence being again immortality.

In the age of unprecedented technological advancements, stories about how new scientific discoveries will extend our lives abound in our cultural narrative. As new as these may seem they are nothing but upgrades of four basic narratives weve been telling ourselves for.

Immortality Story I: The Elixir Story

Almost every culture has some version of the story of the elixir of life or the fountain of youth. It is the most basic form of immortality story - avoiding death physically by staying young and healthy day after day and somehow managing to keep it up forever. To some extent civilization has helped us do that - our ancestors had a life expectancy of 30-40 years, while ours has doubled. This longevity revolution is one of the most important ones in human history and thanks to science and technology perhaps we are on the verge of even another doubling of life expectancy.

To sober us, Cave reminds us that the ancient Egyptians believed exactly the same thing 4000 years ago, and the ancient Chinese believed it 2000 years ago seeing their civilizations as incredibly advanced and believing beating death must be just around the corner. Cave urges us to be skeptical about these stories. Perhaps in our lifetime we will live till 120 or even 150 an unprecedented technological marvel - but that is still far from eternity.

Physicist Geoffrey West explains why we don't live for more than 100 years:

Immortality Story II: The Resurrection Story

If we are not able to extend our lives indefinitely, there is the hope that even if we die, we could rise again and live again. We see a symbolic resurrection in nature every year with the changing of the seasons as well as a literal one in Christianity. But even if you dont believe that an omnipotent god could resurrect you, you can believe that omnipotent scientists and doctors could do the same in the future. As of May 2017, The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, for example, has 151 patients in cryopreservation whole bodies or brains preserved in liquid nitrogen, awaiting a moment in the future when they could be brought back to life.

Here, Cave reminds us of Mary Shellys Frankenstein the creature that rises from the dead but has no identity. The resurrection story has a deep philosophical flaw if a person seizes to exist and is rebuilt again, it is impossible to know if we are bringing the same person to life or we are creating a copy.

By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Google books) [Public domain] / Credit: Wikimedia Commons

To save us from this philosophical flaw comesthe story of the immaterial essence that lives on even after we die the soul.

Immortality Story III: The Story of the Soul

If we embrace the idea of the soul, we can give up on the body altogether because our true essence becomes not a physical organism but an immaterial thing. Many thinkers from Plato to the Hindus have argued that the body is an obstacle to immortality and the main goal in life is to become pure spirit.

This story too is being reinvented by our technological age with the idea of mind uploading and scientific fields like Whole brain emulation (WBE). Organizations like Carboncopieshope to create accurate computational models of neural tissue at the scale of complete brains, as well as develop neuromorphic hardware to run simulations of these models.

According to Cave, as science progresses the idea of a separate immaterial soul is becoming less and less plausible, as we learn that the real "you" is dependent on your particular brain. As bits of the brains are destroyed, bits of the personality are destroyed as well. And it is not just the brain itself that makes up who you are but also the millions of chemical reactions that happen in the body to produce sensations and emotions.

Unable to save the body or the soul, we are left with the last immortality story, which says that the real you is a bundle of things, and as you die the bundle scatters but its elements can live on.

Immortality Story IV: The Legacy Story

Here Cave reminds us of the story of Achilles who was given the choice to go home and live a long and happy life or stay in Troy, fight and die but be remembered forever asthe greatest hero of all times. Many people have been inspired by the pursuit of immortality through fame and cultural legacy. Nowadays, technology gives everyone the means to instant fame, enables us to build our own statues through tweets and instagrams, and allows us to capture and preserve every moment of our life.

But many consider this route to immortality far too indirect. Cave quotes Woody Allen who famously said:

I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen, I want to live on in my apartment.

==

Having run out of stories to keep us alive forever, in the end of his talk, Cave urges us to embrace a fifth narrative. He explains that the fear of death is based on a misconception, and while it is natural, it is not rational. He reminds us of the words of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein:

Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits.

The fifth narrative is to look at life as if it was a book. Just like a book is bounded by its covers, our life is bounded by birth and death. However, even though a book is limited by a beginning and end, the characters in it know no horizons.

You can only know what happens inside the covers these are the moments of your life. It makes no sense for you to fear what is outside of these covers before your birth or after your death. In fact, if you think how unlikely it is that the book of your life should have ever come to be written all of the coincidences from the beginning of life that brought you here - the proper attitude is not fear that it might come to an end but gratitude that it should have been written at all. So there is no room to complain how short life is - the only thing that matters is that you try to make it a good story.

Bill Nye's has similar thoughts on immortality:

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The Four Immortality Stories We Tell Ourselves - Big Think (blog)

Danuska Da Gama I NT BUZZ

Miransha Naik looks like a teenage boy studying in college, or perhaps the more clichd guy who is enjoying his life. Looks are deceptive, but, on a serious note he is thoroughly enjoying his life, doing what he is most passionate about: making films and is very successful at it.

Juze had its world premiere at the Hong Kong international film festival and will soon have the European premiere at Karlovy Vary Film Festival which will be held from June 30 to July 8, 2017 in Czech Republic. An India-France-Netherlands co-production, the film reveals harsh social undercurrents in Goa, set around exploited migrant workers and their abusive employer cum land lord.

For Miransha, it is teamwork which is paying off and much more, for it is a Konkani film thats getting worldwide exposure. It was in November 2015 that Miransha while talking to NT BUZZ had said: Oddly we are of the belief that the only way for Konkani cinema or projects like this to be financially and commercially viable is to have a strong international (universal) appeal. It is vital for films to do good business outside India so that we do not have to compromise on quality for the sake of money.

Excerpts from an interview

Q: Youve been globetrotting various international film festivals with your debut film Juze. From the time you conceptualised the film until now, can you describe the various feelings, exciting parts and milestones of this journey for us.

Though there are lots of different feelings and exciting parts right from writing, to shooting to finally seeing the film on the big screen, the one Id like to share is when we were sitting among the audience in Hong Kong and hearing them clap for you after watching the film. Most of the filmmakers achieve that but I bet to each and everyone it is the most memorable one as the Hong Kong Film Festival is considered to be among the top 10 globally.

Q: How important was it for you to make this film; more so because its an unconventional story that is so different from the Goa perceived?

When I decided to make the movie I wasnt really thinking of anything and thats the integrity of this film. I just wanted to tell a story which excited me and was very sure it would be interesting for others too.

Q: Im sure the glory surrounded with Juze wont fade off so soon. But for a filmmaker who has a benchmark set now, whats next?

I already have my next script ready, which was part of the Three Rivers script lab in Italy last year. Its about a forced marriage where the husband cant get over the fact that his wife is not a virgin. There are a few producers who are trying to push the project and if all goes according to the plan, we will start shooting early October.

Q: Youve been described by some of your actors, as a one of a kind of a film director, whose thought process and vision is exceptional. What is it like when youre on the set? What do you look for?

I have made two short films Ram and Shezari before the feature film Juze. After every shoot, when I sit back and think about the times I have spent on the set, most of the times I feel very proud but at the same time theres slight guilt too. Proud, because I end up delivering a decent product and guilt is because I become this very cruel, selfish and a very insensitive person to each and everything, except the film. But, Ive always been blessed with a great team, especially the actors, who worked long hours in difficult conditions, got physically hurt and still gave me the shots I wanted for the film.

Q: What is your philosophy in life that influences your work or is a reflection of what you deeply believe in? How do you try to subvert, rebel or deliberately showcase something?

The sole purpose of filmmaking for me is to tell an engaging story. I never ever deliberately incorporate anything even in a single scene at the cost of flow of the film. If the philosophy I believe in belongs in the screenplay, the plot or the characters will make its own way for it.

Q: How have your roots influenced your art?

They say most of the good stories come from your personal experience and observations. All the stories Ive written have come from my surroundings. Even the happiest of the places would have darkest dramas hidden. I like to capture the entertainment, which are not always laughs and happy endings.

Q: While majority of an audience goes to watch a film for entertainment, there are also those who prefer serious, parallel cinema. As a film director what kind of films do you wish to make and how would you like to engage the audience differently?

As I said before entertainment for me is not only comedy or thriller or a beautiful love story. As far as you have the audience hooked to the story and the characters long after theyve left the cinema halls, the filmmaker has achieved immortality. Thats the kind of cinema I like and would prefer to make.

As a film director, if given a choice what would you prefer freedom or respect?

Freedom!

Q: And why?

The one who doesnt have freedom wont have respect and artists have to have respect.

Q: What makes a great film for you? Any particular qualities that make a film better for you?

The one loved by the audience. Not every film is made for the masses. Even if you have a niche market, the audiences still have to like your film. A good story acted well makes it better, while the rest is a bonus.

Q: Also, what is it that you like and dislike most about Indian cinema and the same about world cinema?

Though I prefer serious kind of cinema, I also enjoy Bollywood very much. Every now and then there are good commercial films made in Bollywood, which I dont miss out watching. As for parallel cinema, India is doing really well especially in last few years. Unfortunately for me thats not the case with America. They used to make movies, now they make McDonalds. Very rarely you get to see a good movie coming out from Hollywood studios but when it comes to a technically rich film, I dont think theres any match to them.

One nation, which has been consistently making good films, is Iran, and Im a big fan of Iranian cinema. On the other hand Europe is home for art house cinema.

Q: Lets go back to the choice of you becoming a film maker how easy or difficult was it when you decided on the choice of career?

My love for watching movies and the urge to tell stories got me into filmmaking. Its a constant struggle but when I see a millionaire, businessman, or any professional head I never envy them.

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Achieving immortality through good cinema - The Navhind Times

This is one in a series of stories; visit The Daily Meal Special Report: The Quest for Longevity (and What Food Has to Do With It) for more.

Although mankinds quest for longevity has been successful to a point (life expectancy worldwide has doubled over the past century), we have not yet been able to sidestep deaths clutches in the end. This is not for lack of trying. Throughout history, from the legendary ambrosia of the gods of Ancient Greece to the sought-after Philosophers Stone among European alchemists in the Middle Ages to the modern-day believers in such mythical substances, the idea of an elixir of life has been a constant illustration of our human desire to defeat mortality.

Elixirs of life have assumed many forms throughout history, but in most legends they take the form of food or drink that grants the consumer immortal life. Some of the most popular ingredients used in ancient recipes include mercury, sulphur, iron, copper, and honey. Of course, in modern times weve discovered rather ironically that many of the chemicals used by alchemists (particularly mercury) are actually highly poisonous. A 2014 unearthing of a buried nineteenth-century elixir of life on New Yorks Lower East Side found that it contained primarily aloe, gentian (a root that aids digestion and a common ingredient in bitters and some liqueurs), and a mixture of alcohols. Such concoctions were frequently hawked by Victorian-era quacks, of course, but you can still find pseudo-scientists today who promote one magical cure for death or another.

Why do people believe in things they can't prove or that seem illogical? We may never know, Dr. Dagmar Wujastyk, a professor at the University of Vienna and expert in the history of classical medicines said. He adds, stating the obvious, that Claims of immortality have never been proven to be true.

Ancient Greece

Among the many mythologies of the ancient Greeks, perhaps one of the most famous is that around ambrosia, the so-called ectar of the gods. The ancient Greeks believed that what the gods ate and drank gave them immortality. The ambrosia came from the horns of Amalthea, the goat (or goatherd) foster mother of Zeus. It was believed that ambrosia could heal scars, cure diseases, raise people from the dead, and banish death completely. Historians believe that the ancient idea of ambrosia would have been based on honey, although the Ancient Greek poet Ibycus called it nine times sweeter than honey.

Ancient China

The earliest known attempts to create an elixir of life rather than just refer to it in mythology took place in ancient China during the Qin dynasty (during the first and second centuries BCE), according to Dagmar Wujastyk. In ancient China, Taoists believed that certain chemicals and minerals like mercury and cinnabar (an ore of mercury, bright red in color) had miraculous qualities. Ancient Chinese chemists believed that the demonstrated instability of mercury indicated spiritual significance.

Although historical accounts referring to rivers of mercury flowing through the tomb of the first Qin emperor may have been exaggerated, archaeological surveys have confirmed the presence of elevated levels of mercury in the soil around the tomb site, said Wujastyk.

Chinese mythology is also rife with images of Ling Zhi, a species of mushroom found throughout much of Asia. It is still referred to as the mushroom of immortality and has been used in Chinese medicinal practices as a potent hot water extract for nearly 2,000 years.

Ancient India

Early cultures in India, starting around 400 BCE and continuing on to 800 AD, practiced ayurvedic rasayana, an early version of alchemy. The phrase loosely translates to mean the science of mercury, according to Wujastyk. Mercury was not the only substance used to promote longevity of life; amla (a fruit similar to a gooseberry) was also a common ingredient. Other tales from ancient Indian folklore speak of soma, a fermented drink that was said to grant the drinker immortality. The recipe has been lost to time, but historians believe it may have been made with the fermented milky sap of Asclepias acida, a kind of milkweed.

Ancient Indian alchemy may have sought a more spiritual goal than our modern ideas of immortality. Indian traditions at least did not necessarily mean keeping one's body alive forever, professor Wujastyk said. Rather, it was about attaining a state of spiritual liberation or enlightenment (moksha) without having to die. But the body would have been transformed, the outer layers of gross matter having been shed.

The rest is here:

Elixirs of Life: A History - The Daily Meal

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Speaking at the Meltdown Festival in London, the controversial computer programmer said that sources at Silicon Valley which is regarded as the tech capital of the world say they are close to creating an ultra-powerful AI.

He adds people will shortly begin uploading their brains to machines, essentially giving them immortality.

The 45-year old told festival goers via a video link from the Ecuadorian embassy: I know from our sources deep inside the Silicon Valley institution[s] that they genuinely believe that they are going to produce AI that's so powerful, relatively soon, that people will have their brains digitised, uploaded to these AIs and live forever in simulation, therefore have eternal life.

GETTY

Mr Assange added the development could lead to a lack of productivity, as there would no urgency as people will literally have forever.

He added: It's like a religion for atheists.

GETTY

And given youre in a simulation, why not program the simulation to have endless drug and sex orgy parties around you.

He continued by saying that this ridiculous quasi-religious model that's it all going to lead to nirvana.

Mr Assange is not the first to make these claims.

Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov has said he will make it possible for humans to live forever in the next 30 years by uploading their brains onto a computer.

The 35-year-old Russian is the founder of the 2045 Initiative, which is an organisation working on making immortality a reality by scientists creating a feasible program which maps the brain.

Asus

1 of 9

Asus Zenbo: This adorable little bot can move around and assist you at home, express emotions, and learn and adapt to your preferences with proactive artificial intelligence.

It then transfers the mind onto a computer, which is put on a robot body or as a hologram.

Mr Itskov said in a BBC documentary titled The Immortalist: "Within the next 30 years, I am going to make sure that we can all live forever.

I'm 100 per cent confident it will happen. Otherwise I wouldn't have started it.

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LIVE FOREVER? Julian Assange claims immortality is near by 'DIGITISING BRAINS' - Express.co.uk

NASHVILLE The first 100 years of the NHL have been filled with iconic images, from Bobby Orrs leap to Gretzkys tears.

Submitted for your approval, as an additionto that pantheon: Evgeni Malkin on the left, Sidney Crosby on the right, and the Stanley Cup being smooched in between them as they hold it together.

For there isnt a more appropriate way to convey how these three championships theyve won for the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2009 are born of two fathers: The hulking 30-year-old Russian who skates like a freight train on one side, and the 29-year-old from Cole Harbour who skates like nothing can stop him from achieving glory on the other. In some ways, total opposites. Yet, together, they carry the championship with the help of the other.

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They are Gretzky and Messier. They are Mario and Jagr. They are the foundation for everything the Pittsburgh Penguins build towards a championship team, for they are the reason the Pittsburgh Penguins know that no matter what adversity visits them, they can be a championship team.

Theyre generational players. Theyre different players, but theyre both elite in their own way, said coach Mike Sullivan. I dont know that you could find two better people to build a team around than these two guys.

GM Jim Rutherford took over the Penguins in 2014 knowing that with Malkin and Crosby there, he could win another Stanley Cup. And now hes won two with them, and couldnt stop singing their praises on Sunday night after their Game 6 win over the Nashville Predators.

In Sids case, I think now we can talk about him being in those top two, three, four guys of all-time. Hes a special player. Hes a special person. Hes won three Cups now. Two Conn Smythe trophies back to back. Hes in that group for me, he said of Crosby, who was recently named as one of the Top 100 NHL players of all-time.

Malkin, infamously, wasnt.

Youd think that Geno could get into the top 100, wouldnt ya? Maybe we can vote again and get him in the top 101 this year. I mean wow, said Rutherford. Ill just leave that alone for now. That was so disappointing for me, but thats a whole nother story.

But thats Crosby and Malkin for you: In many ways equals, in other ways its like theyre in different area codes.

***

There have been times in their careers when Malkin and Crosby were used as linemates, but in the last few seasons its been the Crosby Line and the Malkin Line.

The former has Sid playing with a rotating cast of young player, dispelling the notion that he cant play with everyone by meshing with the likes of Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary and Jake Guentzel during these Cup wins.

The latter has Geno playing with Phil Kessel and a few other wingers, providing near-constant offense and at times dominating play.

Occasionally, hockey fans and punditry will get all Lennon vs. McCartney with these guys, especially the Malkin fans who grumble about him constantly being in the shadow of Crosby. Like, for example, when Malkin ended up leading the NHL playoffs in points (28) this postseason but Crosby won the Conn Smythe with one fewer point his second playoff MVP award in two seasons when falling short of the team lead in points. (Malkin won the Conn Smythe after the Penguins first Cup.)

But if Crosby had a Conn Smythe ballot, who would he vote for?

I think Geno comes to mind right away, he said.

The thing that the Team Geno and Team Sid folks always miss is that one is essential to the others success.

Sid doesnt accomplish what he has in the NHL without Malkin, and vice versa. To have an opponent worrying about a second greatest of all-time player in the lineup changes life for both Malkin and Crosby. Its a luxury no other star has in the modern NHL on the level that Malkin and Crosby have it with due respect for Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

The other aspect of their coexistence is that they push each other more than any player in the League could push them. This is something Sullivans witnessed in overseeing their consecutive championships.

I really believe in just my time here with both guys, theyve grown to be appreciative for one another and how they help each other have success and this team. And so when there are nights when maybe Sid might not have his A game, that Geno steps up and helps this team win and vice versa. There are other nights where Geno might not have his A game and Sid steps up and makes a big play to help this team win, he said.

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Theyre two players of a very select few in the league that single-handedly have an ability to change the outcomes of games. Thats how good they are. But I do believe that just in my time in Pittsburgh with them, I think theyre appreciative of one another. I would have to think they are.

***

If there is a line to be drawn between Malkin and Crosby, its in leadership.

This isnt to say that Malkin isnt one, because hes gotten more emphatic and vocal behind the scenes as hes grown older. Its just to say that Crosby will go down as one of the greatest players to ever wear the C, because he embodies everything youd ever want in a captain.

I think hes now one of the best to ever play the game. To win three Stanley Cups, and two Conn Smythes in a row is pretty good, said Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, who knows a thing or two about excelling as a Pittsburgh captain.

Hes one of the best leaders to ever play the game.

Lemieux pointed to Crosbys Game 5 performance in the Stanley Cup Final, in which his undeniable drive to win three assists, a critical penalty call earned and just overall dominance propelled the Penguins to an essential victory.

He made a statement in that game. He could feel like we were getting close to the Stanley Cup. He played like it, said Lemieux.

The debate over Crosbys status as the best hockey player in the world has been long-settled.

Hes the best player in the world, theres just no question about it. The way that he rises up to the challenge when the stakes are the highest, its just fun to see. He just drives our engine here, said center Matt Cullen.

Rutherford prefers to see him as an engineer.

You gotta get on the train with him, or youre going to get run over, said the Pittsburgh GM. When you come to the rink you better be ready to go to work. And hes the guy who leads it.

***

Malkin is a goofball. A delightful, wonderful goofball.

For all we know about Sidney Crosby after the Stanley Cup parade, hell be placed back inside his cabinet to recharge his batteries until its time to power up again for the 2017-18 season.

Malkin? Hes going to bring the Cup somewhere in Russia to take silly photos with it. And then hes going to go on a boat, catch an absurdly large fish and Instagram it. Because thats what he does.

Again, its Lennon vs. McCartney. Sid is the next-level musical genius, heightening hockey is something near spiritual; Geno is his equal in many ways, but regarded as the fun one to Crosbys etherial leader.

Crosby drinks from the Cup.

Malkin has a champagne fight with Phil Kessel.

You get the idea.

Its amazing team. We have great chance to win every year, said Malkin, after skating the Cup for the third time.

Malkin is signed through 2022. Crosby is signed through 2025. Their legacy as one of the best duos in the history of hockey is cemented with a third Stanley Cup together. And yet the reason they thrive, the reason they succeed, the reason they get to place their lips on the Holy Grail after two months of battle is because its never going to be enough for either of them.

We just still young, we still hungry. And of course, we want more, said Malkin.

You cant match this. This is what its all about, said Crosby. You have a small window to play and to have a career, and I feel fortunate, but I also understand how difficult it is, so you just want to try to make the best of it.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have made the best of it, and in the process, made the Pittsburgh Penguins the best in hockey for the third time. The championship poise this team exhibited in winning four tough rounds is born from them.The confidence that allowed this team to win two Game 7s and close out the Nashville Predators for the Cup begins with them. The notion that someone will make a play when necessary to win a key game comes from the fact that Malkin and Crosby are two players who usually make those plays.

We had a group of guys who knew how to win, said Rutherford.

Including these two:

Sometimes, the pictures just tell the story.

Especially among the immortals.

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Stanley Cup immortality - Yahoo Sports

By Nick TavaresPresent Tense

Short of the World Series and pennant races, sometimes the best baseball has to offer is in the weird happenings that occur during the course of 162 games.

Its a schedule designed for the weird to float up, and this week we got just that. On Tuesday, Reds second baseman Scooter Gennet went 5-for-5 with four home runs in one game.

Scooter Gennett! How about that.

On the decent chance you didnt know who he was beyond, maybe, fantasy baseball rankings, Gennett is a 27-year-old second baseman with the Reds. Its his fifth season in the majors and first with Cincinnati, who picked him up off the Milwaukee Brewers. He can move pretty well around the diamond, and hes now in an exclusive club for the rest of his life.

There are only 17 players who have hit four home runs in a game since 1894. My second thought went to Shawn Green, who went 6-for-6 with four home runs for the Dodgers in 2002. But I had already forgotten about Carlos Delgado busting out four home runs the next year for the Blue Jays, and completely blanked on Josh Hamilton doing the same for the Rangers in 2012.

As hard and fluky a feat as it is, Hamilton, Delgado and Green at least fit the mold of players who could have pulled it off. Gennett only had three home runs in 2017 coming into his game and, while no slouch, isnt thought of as a power threat.

Gennetts grabbed his weird little piece of baseball history, and hes going to forever join the collective memories of fans who remember those guys. He might even become their go-to four homers in one game guy.

And heres where my first thought went. My go-to was and forever will be Mark Whiten, who, on the second half of a Sept. 7 double header in 1993, went 4-for-5 with four home runs and 12 RBI. And from that moment on, Whiten was a baseball god.

Its so dumb and it so explicitly dates me, but my primary memory of Whitens monster game was courtesy of Mel Allens This Week In Baseball. On the Saturday following his Tuesday night performance, Whiten took up the majority of the shows half hour that morning. It left an impact.

The idea of four home runs in a game seemed absolutely impossible. I was four when Bob Horner hit four home runs for the Braves against the Expos in 1986 and wasnt alive when Mike Schmidt did it against the Cubs. Whiten was a good player hes actually praised briefly in a newspaper clipping during the movie Bull Durham and he had a solid career. He hit 25 home runs in 1993 and 105 in his career. He finished in the top 10 in Rookie of the Year voting in 1991 split between Toronto and Cleveland, and he had a rocket of an arm in right field.

But certainly, he was not the superstar hed been elevated to in my mind. Baseball-Reference.com lists his most comparable player as Mike Davis, a 1980s outfielder who hit 91 home runs in a 10-year-career and has his own bit of lore he was standing on second base when Kurt Gibson hit his home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers.

Whitens reputation was in total because hed had a good year when I was 11 and, again, did something in a game I hadnt even realized could be done. I was visibliy excited when he was sent to Boston for Scott Cooper before the 1995 season, thinking that with him, Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco, the Red Sox would have a monster of a lineup.

That didnt happen. The Red Sox would win the division, but Canseco had one home run heading into June and Whiten was gone before the July 31st trade deadline, sent to Philadelphia for Dave Hollins, who played all of five games in Boston. They both spent their short stints wearing Carlton Fisks no. 27, weirdly enough.

Its all a jumble of factoids and stolen moments. In between the All-Stars and the also-rans live a collection of guys who were able to do something that etched their names in the baseball conversation for years after their time on the diamond had ended.

Whatever happens to Gennett now until the end of his career, hes grabbed onto his little piece of baseball immortality. There are more than a few players who can only wish theyd accomplished that much.

Nick Tavares' column appears Sundays in The Standard-Times and at SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached at nick@nicktavares.com

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Nick Tavares: Reds' Scooter Gennett the latest to achieve baseball immortality - SouthCoastToday.com

Get out the broomson Fridaynight, for the Golden State Warriors are poised to capture their second NBA titlein three years, and a spot as the greatest team in NBA history. The Warriors scored the final 11 points in the closing minutes of sensational game three of the NBA finals, 118-113, at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland to take a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Warriors continue their unstoppable winning streak. DUB Nation is an astonishing 15-0 this postseason, a mere win from an historic 16-0 NBA record. They have the opportunity to cap off a flawless playoffs.

Trailing by seven points late in the fourth quarter, the Warriors mounted a furious rally in The Land and stole one as Kevin Durant hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 45 seconds in the exhilarating game every NBA fan has been eagerly waiting for. The shot symbolically represents the changing of the guard in the NBA; the moment KD surpassed King James as the games best player. Its the defining moment in Durants career.

The main storyline of the 2017 NBA finals has been the battle for league supremacy. LeBron James helped foster Durants departure from the Oklahoma City Thunder to head to the Bay Area in the first place.

Durant is following the template LeBron set up in 2010, when James joined the Miami Heat, a so-called Superteam. As Durant casually dribbled the ball past the half-court line, no one imagined he dared attempt a three-pointer. However, he realized James heels were behind the line, so he let it fly. You could hear a pin drop when it swished through the net.

Game three was a devastating loss for the Cavaliers. Everything went right, and still those final minutes will haunt them. They went ice-cold at the worst possible time, going 0 for 8 down the stretch.Trailing by three, 116-113 with 12 seconds remaining, the Cavaliers had a ripe chance to send this thriller into overtime with a three. On an errant inbound pass, Andre Iguodala blanketed James, deflecting the ball off LeBrons arms, and the fate was sealed.

Kyrie Irving had his breakout performance, shaking and baking for 39 points, while LeBron James added 38 points. The duos 77 combined points was outstanding in defeat.

Unfortunately for the city of Cleveland, LeBron and the Cavaliers choked and gave this one away. Should James fall short once again, his NBA finals record will be 3-5. That means his pursuit of catching Michael Jordan to become the G.O.A.T. is officially over. Jordan not only was a flawless 6-0 in the finals, his Chicago Bulls never needed seven games to win the title.

Redemption shall be attained in the form of the glistening Larry OBrien trophy if the Warriors sweep their archrivalsthe Cavs bycelebrating on the floor of the franchise that ripped their heart out last year. In the aftermath of an historic comeback, the Warriors avenged consecutive game three finals losses.

The Cavaliers have dug themselves an even greater hole than last year, when all looked hopeless facing a 3-1 series deficit. This year, the Cavaliers will have to one-up their recent comeback history. Game four will air Friday, June 9, on ABC. Tipoff is scheduled for9 p.m. EST.

Christopher Floch has covered two Super Bowls, UCLA and USC football, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and three Rose Bowls. In his spare time, he loves to spend time with his nephew, Liam.

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Golden State Is One NBA Finals Victory From Immortality - The Federalist

Short of the World Series and pennant races, sometimes the best baseball has to offer is in the weird happenings that occur during the course of 162 games.

Its a schedule designed for the weird to float up, and this week we got just that. On Tuesday, Reds second baseman Scooter Gennet went 5-for-5 with four home runs in one game.

Scooter Gennet! How about that.

On the decent chance you didnt know who he was beyond, maybe, fantasy baseball rankings, Gennett is a 27-year-old second baseman with the Reds. Its his fifth season in the majors and first with Cincinnati, who picked him up off the Milwaukee Brewers. He can move pretty well around the diamond, and hes now in an exclusive club for the rest of his life.

There are only 17 players who have hit four home runs in a game since 1894. My second thought went to Shawn Green, who went 6-for-6 with four home runs for the Dodgers in 2002. But I had already forgotten about Carlos Delgado busting out four home runs the next year for the Blue Jays, and completely blanked on Josh Hamilton doing the same for the Rangers in 2012.

As hard and fluky a feat as it is, Hamilton, Delgado and Green at least fit the mold of players who could have pulled it off. Gennett only had three home runs in 2017 coming into his game and, while no slouch, isnt thought of as a power threat.

Gennetts grabbed his weird little piece of baseball history, and hes going to forever join the collective memories of fans who remember those guys. He might even become their go-to four homers in one game guy.

And heres where my first thought went. My go-to was and forever will be Mark Whiten, who, on the second half of a Sept. 7 double header in 1993, went 4-for-5 with four home runs and 12 RBI. And from that moment on, Whiten was a baseball god.

Its so dumb and it so explicitly dates me, but my primary memory of Whitens monster game was courtesy of Mel Allens This Week In Baseball. On the Saturday following his Tuesday night performance, Whiten took up the majority of the shows half hour that morning. It left an impact.

The idea of four home runs in a game seemed absolutely impossible. I was four when Bob Horner hit four home runs for the Braves against the Expos in 1986 and wasnt alive when Mike Schmidt did it against the Cubs. Whiten was a good player hes actually praised briefly in a newspaper clipping during the movie Bull Durham and he had a solid career. He hit 25 home runs in 1993 and 105 in his career. He finished in the top 10 in Rookie of the Year voting in 1991 split between Toronto and Cleveland, and he had a rocket of an arm in right field.

But certainly, he was not the superstar hed been elevated to in my mind. Baseball-Reference.com lists his most comparable player as Mike Davis, a 1980s outfielder who hit 91 home runs in a 10-year-career and has his own bit of lore he was standing on second base when Kurt Gibson hit his home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers.

Whitens reputation was in total because hed had a good year when I was 11 and, again, did something in a game I hadnt even realized could be done. I was visibliy excited when he was sent to Boston for Scott Cooper before the 1995 season, thinking that with him, Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco, the Red Sox would have a monster of a lineup.

That didnt happen. The Red Sox would win the division, but Canseco had one home run heading into June and Whiten was gone before the July 31st trade deadline, sent to Philadelphia for Dave Hollins, who played all of five games in Boston. They both spent their short stints wearing Carlton Fisks no. 27, weirdly enough.

Its all a jumble of factoids and stolen moments. In between the All-Stars and the also-rans live a collection of guys who were able to do something that etched their names in the baseball conversation for years after their time on the diamond had ended.

Whatever happens to Gennett now until the end of his career, hes grabbed onto his little piece of baseball immortality. There are more than a few players who can only wish theyd accomplished that much.

Nick Tavares' column appears Sundays in The Standard-Times and at SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached at nick@nicktavares.com

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Nick Tavares: Reds' Scooter Gennet the latest to achieve baseball immortality - SouthCoastToday.com