Category Archives: Immortality Medicine

In the summer of 2018, a baby albino chimpanzee was spotted in the Budongo Forest Reserve in Uganda, the first to be seen in the wild. With his white fur and pale skin, the chimpanzee provoked an immediate rousing in the rest of the group. Other chimps made alarm calls and waa barks, noises that usually signal an encounter with a potentially dangerous animal.

On July 19, adult chimpanzees killed the baby. It was a tragic incident, recalled Susana Mons, a philosopher at the Universidad Nacional de Educacin a Distancia in Madrid and the author of Schrdinger's Possum. But what she found most striking was how the chimps behaved after the baby had died.

Though the primates had exhibited fear calls when the albino was alive, once he died, they stopped. Then they readily approached him, inspected his fur and body, and groomed his back.

For Mons, who has been studying whether animals have a concept of death, this incident provides a clue that animals have some notion that death means, at the very least, he's not going to move anymore.

When they first saw the baby, they expected something scary to happen, she said. Then, at the moment it died, they weren't scared by it at all. This means their expectations have shifted.

We know that animals often behave in particular ways toward dead members of their own species. Ravens and crows gather and make loud calling noises. Chimpanzees in the Ta Forest in Africa have been seen covering dead bodies with leafy branches. In 2015, when a wild female chimpanzee died, the male she had been in a relationship with for three and a half years prevented young individuals from approaching her while he performed several close-contact and caretaking behaviors. Some primate mothers carry the body of their dead infant for days or weeks, or eat parts of the mummified corpse. Elephants have been seen gathering around, interacting with, or carrying the bodies of their babies. Dolphins sometimes keep dead bodies afloat, and in 2011 a beluga whale mother carried her dead calf for around a week.

A field called comparative thanatology documents these practices, and compares how different species interact with death and the dying. Hanging over this research are more philosophical questions: What do these behaviors really mean? Are animals acting in instinctive, hormonal, and unaware ways? Or, when they interact with their dead, do they have some level of understanding of the concept of death?

When interpreting animal behavior, there's always the risk of anthropomorphism, or projecting human-like emotions and thoughts onto nonhuman animals. But there could still be ways to probe whether animals have a concept of death with philosophy's help, by defining what a concept of death is at a bare minimum, and combining observations of animals in the wild with experiments in the lab.

Learning whether animals can grasp such concepts will help us to better understand their minds, and it could have important implications for the ways we treat them. But grappling with the concept of death is a trait long considered to belong to humans alone. Showing that animals can grasp it tooeven on a smaller scalewould mean were not alone in engaging with our mortality.

There is nothing more human than being anguished by deathor asking, as Leo Tolstoy did, Is there any meaning in my life that wouldnt be destroyed by the death that inevitably awaits me?

But from the ancient world to the Enlightenment and onward, philosophers and scientists have had mixed views on whether we share this trait with nonhuman animals, since having a concept of death is tied up with larger questions around animal consciousness.

Aristotle thought that humans were different from other animals because we have a rational soul, whereas animals had sensitive souls, which could respond to sensory impressions but not have the capacity for rational thought. Ren Descartes was less generous: He believed that animals were just mechanisms or automata, not much different than a complex cuckoo clock. There is none that leads weak minds further from the straight path of virtue than that of imagining that the souls of beasts are of the same nature as our own, he wrote.

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Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico wrote that a human custom that separates humans from animals is burial of the dead, Baron de Montesquieu wrote animals can suffer from death but dont know what it is, and Arthur Schopenhauer claimed animals live in the present and only "know" of death when it happens to them, while humans reminisce about the past and anticipate the future with the knowledge of their own mortality. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, An animal will never know what it is to die, and the knowledge of death and its terrors is one of the first acquisitions that man has made in moving away from the animal condition.

The list goes on into the 20th century with philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, anthropologists like Ernest Becker, or biologists like Theodosius Dobzhansky making similar claims, said Andr Gonalves, a researcher at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University in Inuyama, Japan. The history of how animals respond to death is a long one, albeit scattered and mostly confined to footnotes, from Aristotle to Darwin to the present.

This history likely influenced those who later observed animals responding to death. For most of the 20th century, behaviors like dead-infant carrying were viewed as animals not being able to tell the difference between the living and the dead, and not worth investigating. Monkeys and apes do not recognize death, for they react to their companions as if the latter were alive but passive, wrote the primatologist Solly Zuckerman in 1932.

Because of this view, there was little attention paid to what animals did with their dead until 2010, when a publication described the death of an elder female chimpanzee. Humans observed pre-death care of the chimpanzee, other chimps testing for signs of life at the moment of death, the female chimpanzees adult daughter staying by her all night, her corpse being cleaned, and, later, the place where she died being avoided.

Without death-related symbols or rituals, chimpanzees show several behaviors that recall human responses to the death of a close relative, wrote professor of psychology James Anderson and his colleagues at Kyoto University. Are humans uniquely aware of mortality? We propose that chimpanzees awareness of death has been underestimated.

For the past 15 years, the field of comparative thanatology has taken up this investigation in earnest. (In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death.) It has focused on cataloging exactly how animals respond to death, and comparing between species, and being open to the idea that these responses arent just automata.

A paper from 2019 described how humans removed a dead infant bonnet macaque from its mother, who then regularly visited its burial spot for at least two days. Chimpanzees have been observed in whats called stunned silence, when their usual calling noises stop after the death of a chimp.

After the death of the adult female chimp that Anderson observed, he wrote, The next day, the three surviving chimpanzees were profoundly subdued. From the day area they watched silently as two keepers lowered Pansy from the platform, carried her into the exit corridor, placed her in a body bag, and loaded her into a vehicle that was then driven away. They remained subdued the following day as the night area was cleaned.

Many agree that great apes and also monkeys show compassionate care for the dying, but whether they have an understanding of death is uncertain. Plenty of thanatologists have instead come to the opposite conclusion: that the animals they observe do not have a concept of death. As Charles Darwin wondered in The Descent of Man, Who can say what cows feel, when they surround and stare intently on a dying or dead companion?

I hold a semi-agnostic position in relation to other species having a concept of death, Gonalves said. Nonhuman social animals are not always wholly indifferent to death; they have reactions and perform all sorts of behaviors surrounding it, and I think these merits further investigation.

Understanding the concept of death is different from being able to classify or distinguish the dead from the living. Ants perform necrophoresis, which is when they remove dead ants from their nestsmeaning they can tell which ones are dead and which are alive. What the ants are detecting is not the concept of death but a chemical called oleic acid that dead ants produce. Its been shown that if you put oleic acid on any object in the nest, other ants will remove it.

Other animals have similar discrimination skills, which are not a conceptual understanding. This is where philosophy can provide guidance, according to Mons. To ask whether animals have a concept of death, it first requires defining what a minimal concept of death would beor what are the minimum requirements an animal would need to meet for us to conclude they know what it is.

Humans have a complex concept of death, weighed down by cultural baggage and myriad emotional responses. This is part of why many academics may not believe that animals can understand the concept of death, said Jennifer Vonk, a comparative psychologist at Oakland University. There hasnt been much evidence that nonhuman animals can represent abstract, unobservable constructs.

But just like when we try to assess whether animals possess some sort of language or communication skill, we dont start by asking whether they can write sonnets. We break language down into its fundamental parts and ask if animals have a cognitive grasp on those first.

Mons started with building blocks of death that come from developmental psychology studies where human children are interviewed about death. Those subcomponents of death are: non-functionality, irreversibility, universality, personal mortality, inevitability, causality, and unpredictability. Some elements, like inevitability and personal mortality, are certainly part of a humans concept of death, but Mons argued that the essence of a rudimentary concept of death doesnt need to include them. At its core, Mons proposed, just non-functionality and irreversibility are fundamental. This would mean that an animal understands that death makes an individual not functional, and that its non-functioning is permanent.

Proposing a definition for exactly what a minimal concept of death is from a philosophical perspective could help those who do comparative thanatology be specific about what theyre looking for, she said. Mons thinks its likely that this bare minimum could be achieved in many species. After all, death is common in nature, and there could be evolutionary advantages to understanding what it means to die, or to know another is dead.

But this is far from agreed upon. In a paper from last year on the behavior of animal mothers toward the body of their dead offspring, research scientist Arianna de Marco and her co-authors pushed back against the animals having a concept of death per se, instead suggesting that animals like great apes can understand something more vague: that something serious has happened.

They wrote that a great ape could understand that another animal has entered a state of dormancy, or is unlikely to regain wakefulness. Recognizing that another animal is dormant and wont wake up can still elicit a powerful emotional response or behavior.

However, there is no evidence that any nonhuman primates are aware of mortality, they wrote.

Gonalves and Vonk agreed that non-functionality and irreversibility are important components of the human concepts of death, and also that the concept of death is likely a continuum, with nonhuman animals finding themselves somewhere along it. But just because death is everywhere doesnt mean its necessarily an advantage for animals to recognize it. In fact, humans recognition of their own mortality has led to psychological coping strategies, called Terror Management Theory.

Nonhumans may recognize when an individual is no longer a functioning agent interacting with the world, but I would be surprised if they appreciated an end of consciousness or mental life in the same way that adult humans do, or if they recognize that all living beings die and that death is irreversible, Vonk said. That does not mean that they do not have a concept of death; it simply means that their concept of death may be more limited and less abstract than the human concept.

If a mother chimp finally leaves her babys body behind, does that mean she understands irreversibility? If a group of elephants leaves their dead behind, does it mean they understand that it is dead forever and wont be coming back? Or is it just that theyre frustrated and giving up?

Like chimpanzees, elephants will often return to the corpse; how do we interpret this? Gonalves said. Do they realize their group member is dead? Were they just passing by and happened on it by chance? Are they paying respects, not unlike humans do in funerals? Are they checking in to see if their group member recovered? While I'm more inclined to believe the last explanation, the truth is we can only guess what's going on in their minds.

Outside of guessing, there are ways to try to test for a minimal concept of death. One is by observational studies: watching what animals do in response to the dead and making interpretations. The other is in the lab: setting up experiments that test how they either respond to the dead, or looking for cognitive abilities that might imply that could understand the concept of deathlike the ability to recognize non-functionality and irreversibility.

Some studies like this have been done before. In 1973, an experiment showed mother squirrel monkeys with the dead bodies of their own and other infants. The mothers who had offspring that had died at an older age reacted more to the corpses. One study from 1964 tested the reaction of Rhesus monkeys to fear-provoking stimuli, including live snakes; an awake and alive monkey of their species; an anesthetized monkey; and a dead monkey that had been decapitated, holding its head in its hands. The results were unclear: The decapitated monkey did get more looks than the live one, but the overall looking time was higher for the live monkey. Since the study design didn't allow touching either the dead or alive monkey, its hard to make sense of it. There are obvious ethical dilemmas around such experiments, and Mons said she wouldn't encourage such studies being done today.

Instead, Mons proposed testing animals for being able to understand non-functionality and irreversibility through stand-ins like tools or machines that break irreversibility. One such study has just started using Goffins cockatoos at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, said Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist who heads the cockatoo lab.

They are highly intelligent and have strong social bonds between individuals that can last for multiple years or even decades, Auersperg said. Moreover, they are able to use several types of tools which are very rare in animals yet important for our test setups. In recent work, they showed that the cockatoos could use composite tools in an experimental setup inspired by the game of golf. The experiments wont test for the concept of death directly but rather for the cognitive capacities that Mons theorized are necessary to understand death.

Not everyone is convinced that this kind of study can tell us much about death. David Pea-Guzmn, a philosopher at San Francisco State University, agreed that non-invasive studies should be done, but he doesnt think that animals would respond to machine or tool stand-ins in the same way as other animals.

Animals dont develop emotional attachments to the machines they are exposed to in a laboratory; they dont incorporate them into their social dynamics or care economy; neither do they treat them as purposive social agents, he said. In short, animals are not confused about the difference between the [mechanical] and the living.

Mons agreed that something needs to be alive before you can conceive of it to be dead, so a tool doesnt fall into that category. But if combined with observational evidence of animals in the wild, it could make for a compelling case.

Even if we're not talking about living functions, we are still in the neighborhood of the cognition you would need for the concept of death, Mons said.

Mons believes that an outright assumption that animals cant have even a minimum concept of death at all is a byproduct of anthropocentrism, or the centering of human thoughts and feelings and experience. She thinks theres been too much of a focus on grief as a reaction to death, and that it clouds our interpretation of animals behavior.

When the research chimpanzee Washoes baby died, its body was removed. Washoe then signed to a researcher, Baby? The researcher signed back, Baby dead, baby gone, baby finished. According to the researcher, Washoe dropped her cradled arms to her lap. She moved over to a far corner and looked away, her eyes vacant.

Its hard not to project feelings onto a scene like this. For humans, death is often paired with grief, and grief is distracting. Additionally, a fear of death and dying has led humans to ruminate on complex metaphysical themes, said Pea-Guzmn, like the directionality of time, the immortality of the soul, and reincarnation.

Because of this, we tend to assume that only creatures who engage in such fancy philosophizing possess a death concept, Pea-Guzmn said. It is almost as if in thinking about death we automatically conjure up an image of a dejected human pondering the meaning of life, as in Vesaliuss sketch of a human skeleton gazing at a skull in De humani corporis fabrica.

Pea-Guzmn agreed that researchers should try to look for the core of the concept of death, since the concept as we know it could include components that make sense to us as humans but are not essential.

If we are interested in animals relationship to death as a topic on its own, and not only in relation to humans, we have to also look way beyond practices that we can identify with. One example is when pets feed on their owners after they die. This is an extremely common phenomenon, much more common than we want it to be, Mons said. Even with dogs, who have strong bonds with their owners, weve seen examples of dogs eating their owners 45 minutes after the owner died and with food in their bowl.

Mons said the pattern of eating is also different than when a dog would be scavenging; when dogs scavenge, they usually eat the abdomen area first, but in these cases dogs focus on the face. Its a very disturbing behavior, but I think it's a super interesting one, Mons said. But it's only discussed in forensic science papers. I think one of the reasons may be why it hasn't been deemed relevant until now has to do with the fact that it's not a behavior that we can really relate to.

Gonalves doesnt agree that comparative thanatologists are conflating grief with the concept of death. In 2013, Barbara King wrote in her book How Animals Grieve that grief does not presuppose a concept of death and has been reiterated many times since, Gonalves said. He said we shouldnt look away from interesting phenomena out of a fear for anthropomorphism either, just as we shouldnt ignore behaviors that dont look or feel like grief to us.

Still, Gonalves has seen articles that describe animals as having mourning rituals and understanding death (and said the Wikipedia page on animal grief is absolutely dreadful), and he thinks there's reason to be careful.

There's no evidence currently that they do have anything that counts as a ritual, he said. If you ask any researcher dedicated towards the study of cultural aspects in nonhuman animals, I don't think you'll find any saying they do have so-called mourning rituals.

Gonalves advocated for field researchers using cameras to more objectively record entire interactions around death, and then making interpretations after the fact. Vonk and Georgia State University psychologist Sarah Brosnan, have proposed that a data repository be created where all responses to death could be recorded, and in 2020 anthropologist Alecia Carter created the ThanatoBase, where researchers can add their observations on primate death.

While Gonalves doesnt agree with many of Monss claims, he does think she explored more thoroughly the question of the concept of death in nonhuman animals than anyone that came before, and in doing so has perhaps uncovered a need for more careful delineations into what should count or not as good evidence for said concept.

What if animals do know what it means to die? Does it change the way we should treat them? It might shift some of our responsibilities with the animals under our care. For instance, we could ask what are the cases when we should allow them to learn about death, and when we should give them an opportunity to understand what happens when another animal has died.

Perhaps we have an ethical obligation to at least prevent animals in factory farms and laboratories from seeing or hearing other animals being killed, seeing dead bodies lying around, or experiencing markers of death, Pea-Guzmn said.

Mons also thinks we should allow animals their full reactions without interference. I think that monkey mothers who want to cling to their babies should be allowed to do so for as long as they need, she said. This might conflict with the interest of a zoo, for instance, because it might be disturbing for the visitors to see the mother holding onto a decomposing corpse. But I think that the interests of the monkey should be weighed here.

For the pets in our homes, it could mean we have a moral duty to show up for animals when they experience death, to help them mourn when they are bereaved and to be at their side to reassure them when their own time has come, Pea-Guzmn said.

Ben Bradley, a philosopher at Syracuse University, said there have been some philosophers who argue that the concept of death is necessary in order for death to be bad for you. As long as an animals life is painless, killing them is no harm since they dont know what death means.

If you cant conceptualize something, then you cant care about it, and so it cant be bad for you, he explained. If this is right, then if animals dont have a concept of death, their deaths arent bad for them. This would have important implications for how we treat animals, because it would imply that it is morally permissible to kill them for food, unless it were wrong for some reason other than being bad for the animals.

Bradley thinks we should reject the claim that nothing can be bad for you unless you care about it. He wrote a book chapter on this called Death Is Bad for a Cow, and also a song of the same name, with the lyrics:

Listen to me and I will tell you how

When you take that cow to the butcher's knife

You deprive the cow of the goods the goods of her future life

Don't need to have a sense of self over time

Or know what it means to reach the end of the line

Death is a serious harm

Even if, even if you live on a farm.

Gonalves said we shouldnt wait until the concept of death is proven to try to treat animals in ethical ways. We should prevent the infliction of unnecessary pain and suffering regardless of them having a concept of death or not, Gonalves said.

On a larger level, Mons sees this work, and question, as continuing to chip away at the idea of human cognitive superiority over animals in all domains. Whenever we can prove that there is continuity in a particular aspect of our mental lives in the mental lives of other animals, she said, it undermines any claims of human superiority that we use to justify our boundless exploitation of nature.

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Do Animals Understand What It Means to Die? - VICE

The search for immortality takes one step forward thanks to Jeff Bezos. The billionaire invested some of his wealth in an anti-aging startup group that recently assembled a team of top scientists from all over the world.

According to Financial Times, there is a lot of high expectations pinned to Altos Labs because it is envisioned to overcome death with its research in anti-aging technology. However, Altos Labs emphasized that their focus is to improve healthspan, and longevity would simply be "an accidental consequence."

Financial Times noted that Alto Labs aims to investigate how to rejuvenate cells under pressure from environmental stresses. Their research includes cells affected by genetic abnormalities, injuries, and aging. The team hypothesized that by "reprogramming cells," they could find the medicine that can cure all types of diseases.

The whole idea seems like an impossible mission straight out of a science fiction story. However, many notable figures are actually investing in this massive project.

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According to The Byte,Altos Lab formally launched on Wednesday. Jeff Bezos, the previous president and CEO of Amazon, is revealed as one of the top investors in the startup. The Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner, who is interested in anti-aging technologies, was also recorded as an investor. Overall, Altos Labs reportedly amassed more than $3 billion in funding at launch.

It is also worth noting that Altos Labs features a powerful team of scientists and researchers. Hal Barron, the former chief scientific officer in the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, is currently the Altos Labs' CEO.

Barron is joined by Jennifer Doudna, the co-winner of the 2020 Nobel prize in chemistry for her role in developing the gene-editing tool CRISPR, and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, the winner of the 2012 Nobel prize in medicine for his work in stem cell research.

There is undoubtedly a lot of potential in the growing Altos Labs, with its mission is already appealing to some of the top investors in the world. However, it is hard to determine whether the team could successfully execute their mission or not. More updates on the Altos Labs might be available later this year.

On a different topic, readers might also be interested in Neurotechnology. The company Neuralink was recently rumored to be progressing with its human trial and tests.

The rumor started because Neuralink opened a job posting for a clinical trial director. Its description said the director would interact with "trial participants" and work together with regulatory offices.

The lack of evidence makes it hard to determine whether Neuralink already had its "trial participant" ready or if they are still searching for volunteers. Regardless, their job posting indicates the company is moving in that direction. Full details for their human trials are available in this article. Related Article: NASA Hubble Image Shows Black Hole Giving Birth to Stars: How Did It Happen?

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Billionaire Jeff Bezos is Planning a Startup That Aims to Defeat Death, and It's Hiring! - iTech Post

Breeder is not for the faint of heart. The Danish film from director Jens Dahl and writerSissel Dalsgaard Thomsen follows the nefarious Dr. Ruben (Signe Egholm Olsen), a woman obsessed with reversing the aging process for her wealthy male clients. Her research involves kidnapping and impregnating women, then using the stem cells she harvests from the births. Though investor Thomas (Anders Heinrichsen) has misgivings about her methods, hes willing to look the other way until his wife Mia (Sara Hjort Ditlevsen) becomes one of the subjects. Finally deciding to act, he attempts to help his wife escape Dr. Rubens factory basement of horrors. But first, they must battle her psychopathic henchmen, the Pig (Jens Andersen) and the Dog (Morten Holst), along with the doctor herself who will stop at nothing to protect the promise of wealth, esteem, and immortality.

Devastating and cruel, Breeder is a rough watch and will likely be triggering for survivors of sexual assault, abortion, miscarriage, and the struggle to conceive. But through the atrocities Breeder depicts, Dahl makes a powerful statement about the importance of reproductive freedom and the lengths women must go for bodily autonomy.

Breeder is not subtle and Dahl does not pull any punches. The atrocities these women suffer are horrific. Brutal depictions of physical assault, bondage, torture, and rape are hard to stomach, as are images of crude birth and discarded bodies. But Dahl is honest in depicting the realities of birth and conception. He doesnt shy away from telling the truth even though it may be upsetting to watch. While carefully riding the line between portrayal and exploitation, Breeder is likely to be controversial and will definitely rub some viewers the wrong way. But one might argue that it is our patriarchal society actually exploiting women. Dahl is merely shining a bright light on a horrific reality and refusing to look away from the excruciating details.

However brutal his imagery, Dahl should also be praised for his unvarnished depiction of more healthy aspects of the female experience, namely breastfeeding and kink. Nursing is presented as a natural bodily function rather than an offensive act to be performed in secret shame. While many scenes revolve around the Dogs violent misogyny, Breeder also contains a scene of female masturbation and hints of consensual BDSM. Its a nuanced look at sex noting that its not the often taboo acts themselves that are the problem, but the intention behind them. There is a world of difference between consensual bondage designed for pleasure and restraint for the purpose of torture and control.

Breeders most obvious social commentary lies in its depiction of the physical and emotional harm caused by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. The women kept captive in Dr. Rubens basement are reduced to their wombs, literally referred to as ovaries that can be bought and sold. They wait in cages and watch their bellies grow larger, preparing for a birth that may end up costing them their lives. Though an imperfect metaphor, the torture these women endure as they prepare to give birth can be equated with the experience of watching your body change by carrying an unwanted pregnancy for 40 weeks. Helpless to stop the transformative process, the relentless clock ticks toward a birth that will plunge the mother into an unknown future.

In a more overt metaphor, Breeder reveals the hypocrisy in the so-called pro-life movement, arguing that it is merely pro-birth. Dr. Ruben cares not for the children she is creating. She rips them away from their mothers minutes after birth and casts them aside as soon as their cellular purpose has been fulfilled. She forces these births because they allow her to amass her own personal power and wealth. Here she is similar to politicians who pass laws stripping away bodily autonomy designed to limit womens options and keep them in positions of subservience. A prisoner to their wombs, women without access to reproductive care are denied accommodations that would empower them to live lives of their own choosing.

Though the Pig and the Dog represent misogynistic men more than willing to reap the benefits of an oppressive system, the films more insidious villain is Dr. Ruben. She has sold out her gender for the power that comes from upholding the dominance of men. She is creating drugs that reverse the aging process thus allowing these billionaires to hold onto the wealth and authority theyve amassed on the backs of others. They will reign in perpetuity, never cycling out of society through generational change. She is assisting them in maintaining their stranglehold on the rest of civilization by allowing them to subvert the only true societal equalizer: time.

Dr. Ruben is an extreme example of a particular type of woman found in every powerful aspect of society; a crucial cog in the wheel of gender-based oppression. Having internalized the belief that she will never be worthy of power equal to that of a man, she attempts to climb as high on the patriarchal ladder as possible by making herself valuable to men. Dr. Rubens research is also a mirror of western medicine, developed with a white cisgender male in mind and only occasionally interested in studying other types of bodies.

The only woman she seeks to help is herself, searching for a way to extend female life so that she, too, can benefit from her wonder drug. This insidious goal reveals her understanding of the oppressive hierarchy she feeds. Knowing that society values women based on their youth and vitality, she seeks to extend her window of usefulness and desirability for as long as possible.

And what of Thomas? While his intentions are arguably good, he supports a system he knows to be exploitative. Hes been looking the other way and failed to inquire about practices he feels uncomfortable with because they benefit him personally. He represents all the men who bemoan the loss of reproductive rights knowing their own bodies are safe. Only when Dr. Rubens experiments threaten someone he loves is Thomas motivated to act. Though Mia is a relatable protagonist, her rescue highlights an unfortunate truth.

So often oppressive systems are allowed to continue in the shadows. Theyre only exposed when a member of the wealthy or powerful class is affected. Conversely, Thomass turn could be used as an object lesson for the importance of powerful people using their privilege to protect those who do not have any. He is a controversial figure in the film, but one we see every day in reality.

Though Breeder reveals many devastating truths, its power lies in Dahs unflinching but compassionate depiction of the women at its core. Held in dehumanizing conditions, they suffer horrific torture. They are treated as mindless vessels to create children, an echo of recent statements made on the floor of the US Congress in another attempt to overturn Roe v Wade.

A blunt comparison at the beginning of the film shows a horse in a stall, kept in confinement and brought out to fulfill his masters intentions regardless of his own will. But another comparison could be made to the immigrants and refugees held in cages at the US border. Separated from their children, many women have been denied medical care including abortions that would force them to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Considered less than human because of where they were born, they are quickly discarded when their existence becomes inconvenient for the dominant culture.

Breeders conclusion is both brutal and cathartic, filled with affecting imagery and moving cinematic moments. But it is also representative of reality. We wont topple the patriarchy within our lifetimes and sometimes the victories only serve to reveal more pain. Breeders final act is simultaneously empowering and a cruel reminder that one villains defeat will not erase centuries of oppression. Its not enough to simply remove the oppressors from power; we must confront the system that allowed the oppression to continue unchallenged. Dahl also effectively shows the lingering trauma caused by prolonged abuse and sexual assault. Though the abuser may be gone, the pain remains. Its only in supporting each other that collective healing is possible. While Breeder is certain to be controversial, it is a heart-wrenching and terrifying film made all the more powerful because of its haunting plausibility and echoes of the society we currently live in.

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Disturbing Breeder Makes a Powerful Argument for Reproductive Rights [Review] - Dread Central

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must watch K Dramas

In love with most things Korean and cant get enough of K-dramas? As the world celebrates Korean New Year (Seollal) Day, settle in with a steaming hot bowl of Ramen (noodle soup) and banana milk, a warm, comfy blanket, and pick your favourites from this irresistible list of the best Korean dramas on Netflix. From swooning over Han So Hee in My Name to Hyun Bin in Crash Landing on You, these Korean series will keep you at the edge of your seat, melting your hearts and everything in between.

Take a paragliding trip right into North Korean territory with Yoon Se-Ri (Son Ye-Jin) as she gets swept up by a wind storm and crash lands right into the hands of a North Korean military officer, Ri Jeong-Hyeok (Hyun Bin), starting off an oddly-matched love story between the two. Watch them untangle their web of lies trying to get the beautiful heiress back to her rightful place.

After the untimely murder of her father, Jiwoo (Han So Hee) is clouded with a thirst for vengeance, putting all her faith and trust into a powerful crime bosss hand and entering the force under his direction. Hold on to your seat, as she joins a crime ring and becomes an undercover police officer to get to the truth behind her fathers death.

An unlikely romance between two people, Neverthless takes you through the lives of Park-Jae-Eon (Song Kang) and Yu-Na-Bis (Han So Hee) who are attracted to each other but sceptical about love, owing to past relationships. Stand back and enjoy as flirtatious Park-Jae-Eon serenades his way into a heartbroken Yu-Na-Bis heart, and wrestles between putting their differences apart or committing to a relationship.

Have you ever thought of the possibility of a parallel universe? Korean Emperor LeeGon(Lee Min-Ho) seeks to seal the gateway between dimensions, while JungTae-Eul(KimGo-Eun), a detective, races against time and parallel universes in hopes to protect the people and the one she loves.

Ever wondered what it's like to be a part of the Mafia? Vincenzo Cassano (Song Joong - Ki), a Korean-Italian mafia lawyer and consigliere, takes you on a trip to his motherland to give a conglomerate a taste of its own medicine with a side of justice,

A road to emotional healing opens up for a children's book author, Ko Moon-Young (Seo Yea-Ji), rumoured to have an antisocial personality disorder, and a selfless employee in a psychiatric hospital, Gang-Tae (Kim Soo-Hyun). Watch as a romantic obsession for him forces her to follow him to Seongjin, where they slowly begin to heal each other's emotional wounds, unravel secrets, seek comfort from each other and move forward in their lives.

The life of a big city dentist Yoon HyeJin (Shin MinA) is intertwined with the polar opposite charming jack-of-all-trades, handyman Hong DuSik (Kim SeonHo) when she decides to move to a close-knit seaside village. Observe as their paths cross over several times and they develop a liking for each other, with Du-sik constantly playing the knight to put Hye-jin out of her misery.

This coming-of-age rom-com takes you on a round-trip of two former high school lovers, Choi Woong (Choi Woo-Shik) and Kook Yeon-Soo (Kim Da-Mi), who are forced to come together again when a documentary they shot ten years ago in high school goes viral. This pulls them right back in front of the camera and into each other's lives.

Dive into the world of start-up companies with bright and ambitious Seo Dal Mi (Bae Suzy) who dreams of becoming Korea's own Steve Jobs, and Nam Do-San (Nam Joo-Hyuk), a maths genius/genius savant. Get ready to have your heart melted as an unlikely love triangle unravels itself between a man who is secretly her first love and another man who is pretending to be her first love as they conquer the entrepreneurial world.

Have you been obsessed with zombie apocalypse films and series lately? After an unexpected family tragedy, high school student Cha Hyun-Soo(Song Kang) moves into a new apartment where he faces bizarre and shocking circumstances. As humans turn into savage monsters, one troubled teenager and his neighbours fight to survive and hold onto their humanity.

Why should we end our list at just ten shows? Here are two bonus recommendations of classics and masterpieces you just simply cannot miss:

One of the biggest Netflix shows of all time, Squid Game recently took over the entire world. A series revolving around a deadly game show, where each episode leaves you with a lump in your throat, and a stellar cast that gives you goosebumps. If you havent watched this show yet, you are definitely missing out on some brilliant Korean storytelling.

Kim Shin(Gong Yoo), an immortal guardian of souls and a decorated military general from the Goryeo Dynasty, is in search of a human bride to end his immortality and set him free from an invisible sword wedged in his chest, ending his life. One day, school student Ji Eun-Tak(Kim-Go-Eun) confesses to him that she is the chosen one. Let's take an age-old quest with him, a grim reaper and a sprightly student with a tragic past as they unveil a treasure trove of secrets along their path.

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Crash Landing on You to Nevertheless, must watch K-Dramas to enjoy this Korean New Year (Seollal) - India TV News

Recently, Elon Musk announced progress toward clinical trials of a brain implant which he believes will allow paralyzed people to control technology with their thoughts. For those who call themselves transhumanists, this potential breakthrough is more than a tool to help the disabled. For transhumanists, Musks technology offers hope that someday humanity will evolve beyond the limits of our frail bodies and become Human+. Two decades ago, Kevin Warwick expressed his dream of transcending humanity this way:

I WAS BORN human.

This was merely due to the hand of fate acting at a particular place and time. But while fate made me human, it also gave me the power to do something about it. The ability to change myself, to upgrade my human form, with the aid of technology. To become cyborgpart human, part machine. This is the extraordinary story of my adventure as the first human entering into a Cyber World; a world which will, most likely, become the next evolutionary step for humankind.

But will this dream of Human+ end in nightmare? If we accept neo-Darwinian biology as the unimpeachable starting point for defining human personhood, transhumanists like Warwick are committed to some form of the following argument:

Premise 1: Evolving biological systems are the natural explanation for human personhood

Premise 2: Evolving biological systems are indeterminate

Premise 3: All emergent properties (mind, consciousness, soul, etc.) are contingent on the evolving biological system

Premise 4: Any emergent property that is contingent on an indeterminate biological system is itself indeterminate

Premise 5: Human personhood is a contingent property of the human body

Conclusion: Therefore, human personhood is indeterminate

In premises 1 through 5, human personhood is taken as a contingent property tied to the process of evolution. If these premises are sound, then the definition of human person can freely evolve with each new phase in the transhumanist program of self-enhancement.

The moral implications are significant. Without a fixed and final definition of human personhood, there is no foundation for a fixed and final ethic of human rights. After all, writes Michael Tennison, arguments for the moral impermissibility of enhancement fail when morality itself is the capacity to be enhanced.1 Tennisons admission may be jarring, but transhumanists consider the evolution of morality as a strength not a limitation of their mission.

Given the transhumanist argument that morality is contingent on evolutionary progress, it is easy to see how the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors to do no harm becomes nothing more than a positive spin on death. Why should doctors try to save every human or limit experiments on people who will die anyway? If the greater good of immortality is the goal, then isnt it better if society takes advantage of the sick and disabled so that the rest of us can transcend the limits of our humanity?

Transhumanist advocate John Harris is aware of and unmoved by the potential for abuse. For Harris, society should not make a fetish of a particular evolutionary stage of human development.2 The anti-transhumanist ethic that limits experiments, argues Harris, is nothing more than a distraction from the higher moral obligation of society to rise above this current iteration of humanity. Therefore, the risk that a few people may be harmed, suffer, or die during human trials is outweighed by the transhumanist perception of a greater social good that advances the species.

The indeterminate nature of human personhood embraced by transhumanists underscores the need for a stable trans-cultural and trans-political ethic that protects the inalienable rights and sacred worth of the most vulnerable among us.

Consider this: What if humanness is not contingent on the natural process of evolution? What if premise 3 is wrong and humanness is contingent on the unchanging nature of the God who designed us? If human personhood itself transcends nature, then the foundation for protecting the rights endowed by our Creator remain outside societal standards and outside nature. No longer is Human+ the greater good; rather, the preservation of each human person becomes the highest immutable good. That said, the moral imperative to protect every life regardless of disability, genetic differences, or social distinctions such as race is not a barrier to exploring new biotechnologies that might help the disabled, But it does change our methods and our goal. If human personhood is contingent on God, then the pursuit of new technology is not for making us Human+, but to help us experience the fullness of the humanness that already exists within.

Notes

1 Michael N. Tennison, Moral Transhumanism: The Next Step, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, no. 4 (2012): 410.

2 John Harris, Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 16.

Bibliography

Harris, John. Enhancing Evolution : The Ethical Case for Making Better People. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Tennison, Michael N. Moral Transhumanism: The Next Step. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, no. 4 (2012): 405.

Warwick, Kevin. I, Cyborg 1st Illinois pbk. ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

You may also wish to read: Is transhumanism really a form of liberation? The central transhumanist doctrine is that the body can be dispensed with. What are the consequences? Post Millennial editor Libby Emmons asks, what horrors will we inflict on others if we have forgotten what it means to inflict pain and to suffer?

and

Eugenics, transhumanism, and artificial intelligence If we were to succeed at creating an ethical decision-making AI, whose ethics would it abide by? The utilitarian goal of a sustainable future must be guided by a higher ethic in order to avoid grave mistakes of the past. (J. R. Miller)

See the rest here:
The Deadly Dream of Human+ Look at the Price Tag - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Since its premiere on Crunchyroll, Tower Of God has been one of the most talked-about anime over the past few years. Focused on a boy named Twenty-Fifth Baam and his quest to find his friend Rachel, Tower of God revolves around a mysterious Tower that has been divided into many floors, each floor with its own civilization and independent kingdoms.

Every person in the anime has Shinsu, a substance with magic-like abilities, and uses it to fight gravity-defying battles required to ascend the levels of the tower. The strongest characters are classified according to their ability to control Shinsu, with the title of Ranker bestowed upon those who have reached the 134th floor of the Tower.

There are several divisions in the ranker system, with the top 10% known as Advanced Rankers and the top 1% as High Rankers. During the animes first season, fans were introduced to several strong Rankers, as well as many other strong characters that could also give a High Ranker a run for their money.Here are 10 of the strongest characters in Tower Of God so far.

Thanks to his possession of two thorns, Baam is known for his ability to quickly learn new techniques and attacks by simply seeing them once. Also, He is a skilled martial artist and a great Shinsu controller. His potential is untapped. 25th Baam Style Wave Explosion and Wide Range Shinsu Controller Rainfall are his most powerful moves.

Evankhell, also known as The Infernal Evankhell, is high-ranking and was once the ruler of the second level. She is very disciplined and strict. She is a great Shinsu controller, and her abilities are nearly comparable to those of the 10 Great Families. Fiery Elephant and Rare Inferno Orb are her most deadly moves.

As the Fourth Army Corp commander, Kallavan can surpass the 10 Great Families with his Essence of Bravery. He is a strong fighter who specializes in hand-to-hand combat.

Po Bidau Gustang is the chief of the Po Bidau family, which is part of 10 Great Families. Also, He is one of the towers most well-known Wave controllers and is highly feared. He is also an expert in science and medicine. Soul Extraction and Memory Manipulation are his signature moves.

Ha Yurin is the leader of the Ha family, which is part of the 10 Great Families. Hand-to-hand combat is her specialty, making her an excellent scout to conduct on-the-ground reconnaissance. Blessed with intelligence and a strong physique, she acted both as the Fisherman and Scout during battles

Khun Eudan is the chief of the Khun family, which is one of 10 Great Families. He is second only to Arie Hon in power among the heads of the 10 Great Families. He is a master at spear-bearing and is the God of Spears in Tower. His deadly attacks include Lightening Shinsu and Eudan Style Spear. Together with Zahard and other family heads, he climbed the tower to make a contract for immortality with the floor rulers.

Aries Hon is the chief of the Arie family, another part of the 10 Great Families, and the father to White.

As an expert swordsman, Arie wields the White Oar, the only S+ rank sword made by Macseth, which he uses with his high-density Shinsoo. Residing at the 100th floor of the tower, Arie usually issues a challenge for regulars to endure his attacks for 10 minutes. Only two people have completed the challenge thus far: Urek Mazino and his daughter, Arie Hagipherione Zahard.

His true powers are still unknown, so there is much mystery surrounding him. He is the most influential leader of the 10 Great Families.

Before Zahard arrived, Urek was the most powerful person in the tower. Climbing the tower in only 50 years, he is the fastest and the strongest in the history of Rankers. Ureks power can only be explained as that of a beast as he once evaded Slayer Karakas most powerful attack using only 1% of his power.

His extreme physical strength is enough to defeat any enemy with one punch. In addition, his agility gives him an extra edge as an expert in Shinsu and other martial arts. So far, Supreme Kings Scorching Fist Of Death is known to be his most deadly move.

He is the King and the most powerful and influential being in Tower of God. He is a keen Shinsu Controller who can see the future and control the fate of others. After climbing the floors of the tower, he decided to reign over the tower as a King and as a result, was the first one to make a contract with the guardian of the towers. He is a keen Shinsu controller, and has the ability to see the future and to control the fate of others.

He also has the Needle of War, a deadly weapon that Zahard uses only against those he recognizes as his opponent. The weapon is composed of three stages that change color depending on its strength. Currently, Zahard is the most intimidating force and is often feared by everyone.

Enryu is the only person to have killed an administrator of a level, which just so happened to be the Floor of Death administrator, an entity that many thought to be unkillable. Enryu has a level of Shinsu Control that is almost unmatched in the tower. His most dangerous move, Red Rain, is a series of thousands of spears falling from the sky, the same move he used to kill the Floor of Death administrator.

Read more:
Who Are the Strongest Characters in 'Tower of God'? - We Got This Covered

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Its a fact that many of us dont want to face: with every tick of the clock, every one of us is ageing. It feels scary. But it neednt.

Being human and living our lives is all about change, and thats what ageing is, its change over time, says Professor Julie Byles, a social gerontologist and researcher at Newcastle University.

Ageing is intrinsic to the living species on this planet but how we grow old, and the factors that influence the process, are complex and unpredictable.

Credit:Illustration: Dionne Gain

Ageing is universal but not uniform: its universal because it happens in all cells and all species, but its not uniform in that we dont all go through it in the same way, Professor Byles says.

Australia has one of the highest life expectancies, ranking ninth among OECD countries behind Switzerland, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Japan, Sweden, Israel and Spain.

An Australian born in 2019 can expect to live to about 83, some 34 years longer than people born in the 1880s (in Japan, the average age expectancy is just over 84). Today, about one in seven Australians are 65 or older. By 2057, itll be almost one in four.

As the World Health Organisation says, with good health a longer life brings opportunities: to pursue new activities, a long-neglected passion or even a fresh career.

We may feel more empowered to make those extra years as fulfilling and meaningful as possible if we understand how ageing happens that its a lifelong process, not just some switch that gets flicked in your 60s, says Peter Lange, a University of Melbourne clinical associate professor in geriatrics. There is a lot of nihilism about ageing and a lot of people think that disease is inevitable; that theyll go into a nursing home or develop dementia. Thats not true but, by believing its going to be the case, they end up failing to take action to prevent it, he says.

Can we slow ageing? How does it happen? And how can ageism be a form of self-sabotage?

While most people dont start feeling the effects until at least their 30s, the seeds of ageing start when we do.

Its happening all your life. It starts even before youre born, from the very first cell division, says Byles. Thats because ageing comes down to a gradual accumulation of problems, starting with tiny DNA transcription errors from the very beginning.

Our cognitive processes peak about the time were 20. In fact, most of our bodys systems are thought to peak when we are between 18 and 30, says Leon Flicker, a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Western Australia. That seems to be when the ageing process ... starts kicking in, and you have a progressive decline, Flicker says.

Ageing is not programmed, though. As we move through the world, we suffer little bits of damage it could be from sunlight, bacteria, a sprained ankle, a shonky DNA copy, bad food that the body then works to repair.

Its happening throughout every second of our existence, says Flicker.

But over time our physiological reserves drop, so were left accumulating damage that our body gradually cant keep up with fixing and this can manifest in all sorts of ways.

The thing about ageing is its affecting every system of the body and different parts get impacted differently. No two 80-year-olds will be the same.

The changes we experience as we age are neither linear nor consistent, and there is an extraordinary level of variability among older people.

The thing about ageing is its affecting every system of the body and different parts get impacted differently. No two 80-year-olds will be the same, says Dr Kate Gregorevic, Royal Melbourne Hospital geriatrician and author of Staying Alive: The Science of Living Healthier, Happier and Longer.

There are certain hallmarks of ageing on a molecular and cellular level. For example, Gregorevic says, we collect damage in our DNA. One way is that each time our cells divide, the little protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes, called telomeres which are often likened to the plastic tips on shoelaces gradually shorten, which affects our ability to copy DNA properly.

When DNA is damaged, over time more cells can die or become cancerous. More cells also become whats called senescent they stop dividing. On the one hand, this defends against cancer but these senescent cells also take up space without contributing, causing inflammation and overstimulating the immune system, which cant keep up with removing them.

Then there are the changes we often notice from our 40s, says Lange: skin loses elasticity; hair turns grey as pigment cells in our follicles slowly die; we become long-sighted as the lenses of our eyes stiffen; in some people, hearing dulls.

Muscle loss, or sarcopenia, is another typical part of ageing. One study observed that muscle mass decreased between about 3 and 8 per cent each decade after age 30 and the rate of decline was higher after 60. We know that with age we can lose muscle strength, Gregorevic says, particularly, we lose fast-twitch muscle fibres theyre the ones you use when sprinting or when you catch your foot on the pavement and need to steady yourself fast.

At the same time, bone density drops while ligaments and joints stiffen, becoming more at risk of injury, and taking longer to heal. Also common are weakening lungs. Our cardiovascular system is impacted, and there are certain hormonal changes, with people exposed to a higher level of cortisol (the stress hormone) as they age.

The pile-up of all these changes gradually increases our vulnerability to disease or insults such as a seemingly minor fall leading to bone fracture and eventually leads to frailty, which is a loss of physical reserve that affects almost everybody by their 90s.

If youre frail, says Gregorevic, your body is already working so hard at the best of times just to get through daily life. So, when you get a cold it takes all your energy.

But its not all bad news.

Credit:Illustration: Dionne Gain

Theres a lot of confusion between the implicit processes of ageing and diseases associated with getting old, says Lange. A good example is our minds. As brain tissue gradually decreases with age, its normal for our memory to shift, to become slower and less efficient.But forgetting entirely and suffering from significant impairment is not universal, its a symptom of dementia (which is itself an umbrella term for many diseases).

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In 201415, almost three-quarters of Australians aged 65 and over reported they had good or very good health, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. But disease is more common in older people: in 2015, cancer and cardiovascular disease were the most prevalent followed by dementia, type 2 diabetes, chronic lung disease and osteoarthritis. Many of these illnesses are also the biggest killers.

Flicker says cancer is more common as people age partly because the bodys surveillance system becomes less likely to spot and destroy bad cells. We are more at risk of diabetes, in part because our body becomes less efficient at converting glucose to energy and requires more insulin.

Still, while everyones reserves decrease with age, we arent all similarly susceptible to disease. Some of us, Lange says, have higher baseline defences. So, even though someone may have pathologies such as hypertension and mini-strokes, both of which are linked to dementia, they wont necessarily develop a form of the disease.

Theres a cheeky saying in gerontology, says Byles: If you want to age well, pick your parents.

Being born with as few DNA errors as possible gives you a good headstart in life; aspects such as a good education, financial security and access to nutritious food in childhood add to your stocks.

You can be already on an un-level playing field, depending on what your early life is like, Byles says. If you get to older age and youre big and strong, with a healthy brain, good education, a strong immune system, they all go into your reserve ... you can maybe cope with having not as strong muscles or a decline in condition because you have all these other things that support you.

A quarter of how we age is determined by genetics, according to the World Health Organisation, and the rest comes down to lifestyle and socioeconomic factors.

More than a third (38 per cent) of the burden of disease in older Australians was preventable in 2015, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Smoking, poor diet, being overweight or obese and high blood pressure were key contributors.

COVID-19 lockdowns, which limited exercise and socialising, have underlined just how important lifestyle is in ageing. Lange says the months in lockdown in Victoria had devastating impacts on physical and cognitive function for older people.

There are other factors outside our control.

Being brought up in poor housing, abject poverty, poor nutrition, a whole range of other things; all of that has contributed to our elders having chronic health conditions today.

Aunty Geraldine Atkinson at the launch of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission in 2021.Credit:Simon Schluter

Social disadvantage is a big one. A 2020 study of 5000 Britons found that lower socioeconomic status led to an accelerated decline in ageing. The researchers pointed out that the rich tended to have, for example, better access to parks and fitness centres as well as mentally stimulating activities (social clubs, the arts), which all helped bolster physical and mental function. Meanwhile, those living in poverty usually experienced more life stresses, which affected health, and they could also be exposed to more environmental pollution.

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This disparity in ageing is reflected in Australian government policy. Subsidies for aged care services usually kick in at 65, but Indigenous Australians, Torres Strait Islanders and the homeless are at higher risk of health issues and financial inequality so are eligible at 50 (or 45 if they are both Indigenous and homeless).

The life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is about eight years less than for non-Indigenous Australians.

Aunty Geraldine Atkinson, a Bangerang woman and co-chair of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, says more must be done to support healthy ageing in Aboriginal communities.

Being brought up in poor housing, abject poverty, poor nutrition, a whole range of other things; all of that has contributed to our elders having chronic health conditions today, she says.

Credit:Illustration: Dionne Gain

Much research is being done to find a magic anti-ageing pill, but there is no strong evidence at the moment that supplements or medications work. Scientists are trying to find treatments that could lengthen telomeres, for example, or remove senescent cells via drugs or gene editing in the hope these could slow ageing.

The medical community is keeping a close eye on clinical trials underway to determine the effects of the drug Metformin, which is normally prescribed to manage blood-sugar in diabetics, but has shown broader age-targeting potential. Research previously suggested diabetic people who took the drug outlived non-diabetics who didnt, and it has been found to delay ageing in mice, although in high quantities it was toxic. The American Federation for Aging Research is examining whether it can also prevent heart disease, cancer and dementia.

Still, any geriatrician will tell you a balanced diet and regular exercise are key to supporting healthy ageing and, in turn, a longer life. Stimulating your mind also helps minimise disease risk, Gregorevic says.

Just like our muscles, use it or lose it our brains are like that as well, she says. One of the best things you can do for healthy ageing is just to keep having a go at things not brain training but staying engaged in life, socialising, learning new skills, learning a language.

Its never too early or too late to start. Byles encourages people to start planning for old age when young. If youre not doing it by your 50s, she says, thats when you must ask yourself, Where do I go from here, what do I want to protect in terms of bodily, social and mental functions?. Make changes that will maintain your wellbeing and keep you pushing your capacity to do things you enjoy.

The aptly named Professor Norman Lazarus laid out why he considered exercise, eating well and mental health a trinity in his book from 2020, The Lazarus Strategy: How to Age Well and Wisely. The Kings College London physician and researcher overhauled his lifestyle in his 50s to become a champion cyclist at 66, an age he said he expected to start having difficulty getting out of a chair or opening jars. At 86, he still cycles, trains at the gym, walks with his wife, watches his diet and works at the university.

At every age, I change my behaviour so that I can do the best I can with the physiological systems I have. And I dont look for immortality.

Norman Lazarus, 86, kickstarted his healthy lifestyle when he was 50.Credit:Liz Seabrook

Lazarus encourages people to first accept they are going to get old, and then change their lifestyle to truly enjoy the journey of ageing and retain their independence.

At every age, I change my behaviour so that I can do the best I can with the physiological systems I have. And I dont look for immortality, he says.

The trick is to prioritise things you love, so you stick to them, he says. While he and his wife now walk on flatter, gentler trails instead of on multi-day hikes, for example, they still relish the time together. He even uses the term exercise deficiency diseases to emphasise how key physical activity is.

A comprehensive study in 2015 found 26 common illnesses could be positively affected by exercise, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, dementia, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and some cancers.

The most effective anti-ageing option we have is exercise, Lange says. It produces beneficial effects for pretty much everything weve ever looked at.

Exercise improves muscle strength, balance, bone density, and the immune, cardiovascular and respiratory systems. It boosts mood and supports brain and spinal health, too. Getting out and being active with people is important for cognitive stimulation; and, by stressing the body, youre also getting it used to dealing with small perturbations.

Lange says just a small amount of activity can make a meaningful difference, and resistance training is particularly important he has seen this transform once-bedbound patients in their 80s and 90s. He encourages people to introduce incidental movement into their day: carry your shopping bags instead of wheeling a trolley, walk instead of drive or tend to your garden.

Even if you have the healthiest exercise, diet and social regimen in the world, though, you could still suffer from disease when older (or younger, for that matter). The harsh reality is that no matter what you do, youre going to die. And you can live the perfect lifestyle and still get cancer. Nothing is certain, Gregorevic says.

Its why we must be careful not to judge people for the condition theyre in when theyre older. Byles points out that people with certain illnesses, such as diabetes or lung disease, often get blamed. Some of it is preventable but not all of it. Some of it is by virtue of the fact youve been around a long time and have had a lot of chances to accumulate a problem, she says.

Part of the reason people dont notice their own ageing is because the changes are far too subtle, Flicker says. And people dont actually think theyre changing with age their vision of self is deeply ingrained.

Byles adds: I have a theory that everyone thinks theyre 30. You have a concept of yourself, so we always think were younger, which is great. But then we can get a shock.

She believes part of this is our own ageism, where we value our youth as more relevant. Indeed, we live in a culture that glorifies youth.

The acceptance of poorer service provision in aged care reflects an undervaluing of the worth of older people.

In Australias 2021 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, commissioner Lynelle Briggs found that ageism was systemic in Australia. The acceptance of poorer service provision in aged care reflects an undervaluing of the worth of older people, assumptions and stereotypes about older people and their capabilities, and ageism towards them. This must change, she wrote.

And a World Health Organisation global survey of more than 83,000 people found that one in two had ageist attitudes.

One of the great tragedies of ageism is that people internalise it and develop a negative bias against their older selves, Gregorevic says.

One common example of self-sabotage is that while young exercisers crave feeling out of breath, many older people, doubting their capabilities, take it to mean they should avoid being active, Lange says. [But] thats exercise, and its getting you used to those challenging activities, and the next time you get sick and need some extra heart and lung function, itll be there.

Its really important not to categorise everybody older than 65 as old ... Theres nothing magical about this age. It doesnt mean people are all of a sudden decrepit.

The idea that older people are incapable of using technology is another misconception. And Professor Linda Rosenman, board member of the Australian Association of Gerontology, says debates about retirement age generate another myth. I think its really important not to categorise everybody older than 65 as old, Rosenman says. This is just the age that people become eligible for government pensions. Theres nothing magical about this age. It doesnt mean people are all of a sudden decrepit.

Not all Australian communities suffer from ageism.

It seems not right, foreign, kind of, says Aunty Geraldine, explaining that Indigenous communities focus not on whats lost with age but instead on the wisdom thats gained. Its an approach she thinks the rest of the country could learn from.

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In Aboriginal culture, an elder is someone recognised for their knowledge and ongoing contribution to their community, and they are not neglected. They are traditionally referred to as Aunty or Uncle.

We always respect and value our elders, respect their cultural authority, respect the stories they told us ... and that gets passed down, Aunty Geraldine says. You become an Aunty not just to your bloodline, but to other younger people as well.

Its different in other countries, too.

When youre in Beijing and you go for a walk to parks, theyre full of older people doing tai chi, dancing. Theres no sense that, Im too old to do that, Byles says.

Byles, who helped create the anti-ageism Every Age Counts campaign, says people could be enjoying life more as they age.

Ageing is a great individual and societal success. We should be embracing it, she says.

Credit:Illustration: Dionne Gain

The fact is we do typically become happier as we age, with research showing older people tend to have brighter moods and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety than younger counterparts.

Byles says its possible this is because older people largely do things that bring them satisfaction.You cant do all the things you used to do ... so you are actually focusing on things that are more important to you, she says.

You use your brain to solve problems throughout your life ... [and] each time you learn a new strategy you can apply it to other problems, and thats wisdom.

Plus, she says, we often care less about what other people think, which can be really liberating. And there is a sense of contentedness that comes from understanding, with time, where you and the puzzle pieces of your life fit.

People keep improving their vocabulary well into their 60s and 70s. And while brain speed and working memory peak in early life, this doesnt make 20-year-olds equipped mentally to run the country.

Older people have whats termed crystalline intelligence, Flicker says. You use your brain to solve problems throughout your life ... [and] each time you learn a new strategy you can apply it to other problems, and thats wisdom.

Reflecting on her own life, Rosenman considers herself to have become more patient and tolerant, and she enjoys having more time.

Youre not trying to climb the greasy pole yourself any more, and youre much more ready to mentor and help other people, she says. In many ways, life is a lot more enjoyable than when you were racing off to work and herding the kids ... [and] grandchildren are a big bonus.

Ageing is a great individual and societal success. We should be embracing it.

Professor Julie Byles says we should start planning for getting old at least by our 50s.Credit:Peter Stoop

There is, of course, an existential aspect to ageing. That can be quite difficult, Lange says. Ive met patients who have lived too long, and have outlived their partners and friends and even sometimes their own children, and they have increasing physical disability and sensory limitations.

But, Lange says, most people reach a point where they no longer fear dying.

People usually accept it will come ... which is quite freeing.

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Ageing: What is the process? And can we reverse it? - Sydney Morning Herald

Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, whom Ive interviewed twice previously, was among the first U.S. physicians to develop an early treatment program for the novel SARS-CoV-2 infection. He popularized the use of hydroxychloroquine and zinc, and when hydroxychloroquine became increasingly difficult to obtain, he was also among the first to identify quercetin as a viable alternative.

When the pandemic started, Zelenko was practicing in New York. He has since moved to Florida, where hes been giving interviews for several hours a day, trying to spread the word about early treatment and prevention. As noted by Zelenko:

Its a very treatable infection or should I say bioweapon? if done within the first few days, because COVID is two diseases. Its the infectious stage of the virus, and then a week later, you have the pathogenic inflammatory reaction that does all the damage to the lungs and causes blood clots.

So, its all about timing. And the data is very clear. There are dozens of peer-reviewed studies that prove if you treat COVID within the first few days, you have an 85% reduction in hospitalization and death. Its a no-brainer. You could have saved 700,000 people from going to the hospital out of 800,000.

While licensed to practice medicine in Florida, Zelenko now spends most of his time educating the public and other doctors. Hes also available via telemedicine, but his passion has become researching and developing simple, natural approaches to complex health problems including his own.

Zelenko has a rare type of cancer called pulmonary artery sarcoma, which is typically fatal. Hes also undergone two open-heart surgeries and three years of chemo and radiation, none of which has resolved his problems.

Almost four years ago, I was diagnosed with pulmonary artery sarcoma. There are only 10 cases on average per year, and theyre all found at autopsy. In my case, they thought it was a blood clot that didnt respond to blood-thinning medication.

So, the decision was made to do an embolectomy, open my chest, go into the pulmonary artery and take out the blood clot. But when they did that, they saw it was a tumor, and it had completely destroyed my right lung. So, I lost my right lung. And they resected a large part of the pulmonary artery and had to reconstruct it because you need that artery to live.

Then I was in chemo I was pretty good for two years, and then it came back and had spread to my hip as well. And so, I had another open-heart surgery. They had to replace one of my heart valves, pulmonic valve. Then I went for radiation to my hip [followed by] really heavy chemo.

After two months on that, I went into congestive heart failure and developed cardiomyopathy I recovered from that, and was put on heart failure medication A month after that I developed COVID pneumonia I was pretty sure I was going to leave in a box, yet I recovered.

A few months later, I went for another CT scan, and they found, again, the tumor was back in the pulmonary artery, but this time, no doctor wanted to operate on me. A third open-heart procedure is very dangerous. They estimated more than 50% likelihood I would die on the table, which I didnt like. So, I ended up having pretty intense radiation to my mediastinum, where the tumor was.

Thats when you came into the picture, in terms of advising me about treatment. I ended up having immunotherapy in Europe for two months with checkpoint inhibitors, but also hyperthermia and mistletoe injections, and alpha lipoic acid, high-dose vitamin C [infusions] and different other modalities. And I feel better than ever.

I had a CT scan last week, and it showed the tumor shrank by one-third. I spoke to the radiation oncologist who told me that a good result wouldve been the same size or smaller. It takes years to resolve. So, time will tell, but its easier for me to walk, and hemodynamically Im more stable, and I feel good. Amen.

Overall, the COVID story has completely changed the way I look at life, Zelenko says. When he saw how natural, effective, over-the-counter solutions for COVID were suppressed, while experimental gene transfer shots were pushed, he realized other treatments might also be suppressed, such as cancer treatments.

Probably, effective approaches were marginalized in lieu of the more expensive pharmaceutical approaches, he says. Ill give you one example. Dr. [William] Coley was an oncological surgeon who lived around 100 years ago, maybe 120 years ago. He noticed that he would operate on his patients, and the tumor would come back and they would die. And then he observed something very interesting.

He had a patient with pancreatic cancer, Stage 4, inoperable. That patient got very sick with an infection and became septic. He almost died, but he recovered and his tumor went away. He noticed that type of phenomenon a few more times, and realized that there must be some immune reaction, immune response to the infection that wakes up the immune system to also attack the tumor.

So basically, in my opinion, that was the birth of immunotherapy. Fever seems to play a role. It seems to have antitumor properties, as well as activating certain parts of your immune system. So, its fascinating. And that information was buried for a good long time 50, 60 years until some doctors rediscovered it and started doing research. And I benefited from that in Europe.

Weve come a long way since the days of Coley, who used toxins to trigger infection and fever. Today, hyperthermic treatment is used instead. Basically, its all about raising your body temperature to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit for four to six hours. Zelenko describes the treatment he underwent:

It was quite an experience, having a temperature around 40 Celsius, lets say 104 degrees Fahrenheit, for five hours. You become a little loopy and a little anxious, but I drank a lot of fluids and had a nurse with me all the time. It was a pretty interesting experience.

There were whole-body hyperthermia machines and localized hyperthermia. Both are basically a fancy sauna. It was like a spa actually. I did enjoy the treatment in most cases.

As an aside, I sincerely believe sauna bathing is one of the most powerful biohacks available. I do it four times a week. I get my temperature up to about 102 degrees F. or so, for 20 minutes. Ive found it to be a profoundly effective health habit to nip infections in the bud, and may also help put the brakes on any potential malignancies. I am currently using a prototype full-spectrum SaunaSpace sauna that is EMF-free, has eight 250 watt bulbs and will likely be available later this year.

Getting back to the issue of COVID, over the past two years, the SARS-CoV-2 infection has gone through a number of changes. Omicron, for example, is far more contagious, but has far less severe symptoms. As noted by Zelenko:

Omicron is unstoppable. Its more infectious than measles. Everyones going to get it. Sorry, but thats the case. However, it seems to attack only the upper airway in most cases, and there are very few deaths. Its very responsive to treatment as well, so theres no reason to be afraid of it.

In fact, we appear to have been gifted a best-case scenario, in which a highly contagious virus will rip through the population, causing only mild cold symptoms, thus producing herd immunity without the risk of mass casualties. When two-thirds of the population gets through it, it essentially shuts down the pandemic, Zelenko says.

In the interview, Zelenko explains how the many variants weve seen have probably been a result of the mass vaccination campaign.

Three respected immunologists, Dr. Luc Montagnier (who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his discovery of the HIV virus), Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, the most published immunologist in history, and Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, a top immunologist in The Netherlands, have all warned that when you mass vaccinate in the middle of an active outbreak, you cause variants to emerge.

You exert evolutionary pressure and breed more varying viruses, Zelenko says. Now, there are two or three possibilities. One could be that it was unintentional. Good, well-meaning people developed what they thought would help a vaccine. However, giving it to people during a pandemic has been an absolute failure. Oops, were sorry. Thats one possibility.

The other possibility is that whoever has orchestrated this knows exactly what theyre doing, and they are doing it on purpose to maintain the new variants and the consequences of that, which is essentially a psyop [to cause] a global psychosis due to fear, lockdowns and wearing a face diaper.

Theres one more possibility. Theres no dispute; everyone who knows the facts and has studied the issue knows that COVID-19 is a weapon made in a laboratory. Gain-of-function research is nothing more than making a weapon of mass destruction and genocide, and theres a patent trail 20 years long that documents the different stages of development of this weapon.

And heres my supposition. I have no evidence of this, but I could say the following: If I could make the original virus, I could make variants. Its very easy. You just change a few sequences of the code that goes with the spike protein. You change its three-dimensional shape, and if you do it enough, eliminate existing antibodies.

So again, I dont have evidence for that, but I do have evidence that [SARS-CoV-2] is an artificially-made bioweapon. So why wouldnt it be possible to make variants the same way? I think its kind of a combination, multifactorial cause of variants the natural God factor, the evolutionary pressure exerted by vaccinating people during an active pandemic, and then just outright making them.

Zelenko goes on to recount a relatively recent realization. Back in March 2020, he saw a MedCram video, episode 34,1 in which Dr. Roger Seheult explained some of the principles that he then ended up building his COVID protocol on. Seheult specifically quoted a paper that explained the functioning of zinc ionophores.

That mechanism is what Zelenko relied upon when developing his own protocol. However, he didnt realize until December 2021 that the author of that central paper was Dr. Ralph Baric. Why does that matter? Zelenko explains:

In 1999, Ralph Baric, funded by the U.S. government, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, figured out how to take an animal virus and have it be able to infect other species, different animals, in other words, cross-species infection.

In 2015, the same Dr. Ralph Baric, and Dr. Zhengli [at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China], funded by the National Institutes of Health, figured out how to make a corona bat virus infect human beings, and augmented its lethality to human lives. That was in 2015. But in 2010, Baric published that paper that Im referring to.

So, the development of the weapon happened in stages, but before it was unleashed onto the human population, or the development of it being able to infect human beings, an antidote was made. Research paid for by the government was published.

The same people that made the bomb, lets say, also created the antidote to diffuse the bomb. And then, when the pandemic arrived, doctors like myself, out of necessity, came up with creative solutions, based in my case, unknowingly on this work. And immediately, that information was marginalized and suppressed, and doctors were deplatformed for advocating for it.

So, the government who made the bomb also knew about the solution. And the reason why is they didnt want to die. The stakeholders here dont want their families to die. But for you and for me, they have a different agenda. So, they had that information.

I have knowledge that the Google executives are all taking hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for prophylaxis, as is half of Congress. And so, the people that have orchestrated this knew the answer, and use it for themselves. Even doctors know the answer for themselves.

They prescribe [these drugs] for themselves, or they call me. But when patients come, they say theres no treatment, go home, take Tylenol. So, this is mass murder.

In addition to killing untold numbers of people by denying and suppressing early treatment options, governments around the world are also killing people with the COVID jabs. A year into the aggressive campaign to inject as many people as possible, its likely the shots have killed more people than have died from the infection. Its very difficult to tell, unfortunately, because the data are so seriously manipulated.

In 2015, Bill Gates said that the world population needs to be reduced by 15% through the use of vaccines because of global warming. The same Bill Gates in 2020 said 7 billion people must be vaccinated. Why would I take a vaccine for my health from someone whos advocating the use of vaccines to reduce the world population? ~ Dr. Vladimir Zelenko

Zelenko estimates somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million Americans have been killed by the shots to date. Disturbingly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was aware that the shots could have serious consequences, yet they pushed them anyway. Whats more, they refuse to address the mindboggling number of adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). The safety signal couldnt possibly be clearer.

In October, 2020, two months before the vaccine rollout, there was an internal presentation in the FDA to its scientists, and on slide 16 of that presentation, there was a list of side effects: death, heart attack, stroke, blood clots, horrific neurological diseases, myocarditis and many, many more, Zelenko says.

Now keep in mind, this is two months prior to the rollout. After the vaccines were rolled out, and a few months into it, when the VAERS database started showing the side effects that people were experiencing, theres a 100% correlation with what that slide said would happen, and what actually happened to human beings.

That is premeditated mass murder. FDA knew exactly what it was doing. They knew exactly the side effects, and they released it anyway

Why would the FDA behave this way? Why arent they safeguarding public health from a clearly lethal treatment? And on the other hand, why arent they allowing doctors to help people with early treatment? Zelenko explains:

In the mid-90s, it became obvious that the American economy was doomed. The Medicare and Social Security systems would become insolvent, and that would cause a tsunami-like effect nationally and internationally. And it was unstoppable. It was [mathematically inevitable].

Medicare, according to Congressional Budget Office, in 2027 will begin the process towards bankruptcy. So, security as of today [will last until] 2034. Now, the major stakeholders in the world economies saw an existential threat. They understood that their power and wealth was in real jeopardy.

And so a plan was developed, which was beyond the technology at that time, but the technology was being developed. So, for example, the Human Genome Project was mapped and completed.

Then CRISPR technology was developed, which is gene editing or gene splicing in very precise ways. That was sold as a way to cure genetic diseases. Theres a defective gene. You can just cut it out and splice in, cut and paste, basically, a healthy gene.

Thats the upside. The downside is that it creates possibilities to do gene editing for nefarious reasons. In 2015, Bill Gates said that the world population needs to be reduced by 15% through the use of vaccines because of global warming.

The same Bill Gates in 2020 said 7 billion people must be vaccinated. So, the obvious rhetorical question is, Why would I take a vaccine for my health from someone whos advocating the use of vaccines to reduce the world population?

In 2016, Klaus Schwab, in an interview said something very strange. He said that within 10 years, by 2026, every single human being will be tagged with a digital identifier. What does that mean, and why?

Lets go through the sequence of events. A bioweapon is made with an antidote, which is being suppressed and hidden. [The bioweapon] is released. Its extremely easy to treat. However, that information is being suppressed, and access to those medications is being suppressed, and doctors who are advocating for it are being persecuted.

Anything that seems to give people hope, lessen anxiety, encourage reintegration with your loved ones seems to be immediately vilified, even early intervention. If you look at the NIH, they recommend, as of today, not to treat COVID unless theyre in the hospital with lung damage. Dont do that.

And so, I was wondering, what is really going on? And why this incessant push to vaccinate everyone? Why jail doctors for using meds at work? Because it encourages the vaccine hesitancy.

Then I realized something. There were two patents that I became aware of. Theyre separated by a year, but theyre linked in the puzzle, in the concept. One was August 31, 2021, that describes nanotechnology engineering.2 It basically describes the following:

That there is the capability, the technology, already existing, in these vaccines that allows for the measurement of biometric data, meaning your heart rate, your respiratory rate, temperature, and then the transmission of that data with your location to a third party.

That didnt even make sense to me. Like what? But then I realized theres another patent owned by Microsoft. This one I remember by heart. Its an international patent, WO202060606. You cant make this stuff up. That patent describes linkage of biometric data transmission to cryptocurrency.

Then I got it. And by the way, 2026, when everyones supposed to be tagged with a digital ID, lets call it an internal Auschwitz tattoo, is a year before the beginning of the insolvency of Medicare and the beginning of economic collapse. And so, the real agenda has become obvious to me.

Its never been about health. COVID-19 is easy to treat. It was always about using fear and mass psychosis to get 7 billion people to willfully get injected with the technology that would permit them to participate in the new cryptocurrency-based system, the system that the world will use for finance.

Fiat currency and all the traditional ways of transactions will be gone. The only way that you actually will be able to participate in transactions, of buying bread, lets say, is having a transmitting sensor of information with your location. Its the mark of the beast, if you really want to know. With that, you can then buy bread for your family

Gates and Schwab [are] both talking talk about how these vaccines change who you are. What does that mean? They explain it. [With] the gene editing technology, they are making the human better. Thats transhumanism. I call it Human 2.0. Human 1.0 is the version made by God. We are is imprinted [with God] in our genetic code. Were made in the image of God because we have his code in us.

Now, would you give Bill Gates or Klaus Schwab the password to your home security system? Why would we give him access to our genetic code? Human 2.0, in the demented, depraved, deranged minds of these people is the next step up in the evolution of human beings. And Im saying that if you allow that to happen to yourself, youre no longer made in the image of God. Youre made in the image of Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab.

So, in summary, Zelenko believes that everything weve experienced so far the aggressive marketing of the shots, the coercion and threats made to get as many injected as possible has all been a ploy to tag as many people as possible in preparation for the New World Orders cryptocurrency system, which will be managed by a small select group, and used to enslave all of humanity.

As noted by Zelenko, the World Economic Forum has publicly announced that by 2030, the U.S. will no longer be a superpower, and a few countries will be in charge of global governance. Now, how do you destabilize an economic engine like the U.S.?

You create a pandemic, Zelenko says. You lock down middle class businesses, small businesses But you leave Walmart and Home Depot open Its a wealth transfer from the middle class to the people in power. Its a robbery, basically.

This is one big attempt at enslaving humanity. Its a brilliant plan, by the way. Its evil, but its brilliant because slavery has always been the most lucrative industry and asset throughout human history. Now is no different. And so, you have a few sociopaths who believe in their immortality and think that theyll transfer their consciousness to some cyborg, enjoying the whole world as their playground.

Zelenko goes on to discuss the statements inscribed on the Georgia Guidestones, a huge granite monument erected anonymously in a small town in Georgia, which lays out 10 commandments. The first one is that the world population should be reduced to and maintained at 500 million. If the COVID shots continue, its not inconceivable that the human population might be reduced to that size.

A few months ago, Elon Musk debuted his humanoid robots, saying that since these robots will eliminate 90% of the workforce, we therefore need universal basic income. This too is part of The Great Reset plan, which embraces both technocracy and transhumanism.

Keep in mind that in the minds of these people, were not made in the divine [image]. Were cockroaches. And theyre not going to throw endless universal income resources at cockroaches for too long. Theyll do it initially to identify the useless eaters, and then they will be liquidated. This has happened before.

Just 80 years ago you had the Nazi ideology based on eugenics, which created three classes of people. You have the ubermensch, what Nietzsche would call Superman. Then the mensch, which is the human, and then the untermensch, which is the subhuman. In the [Nazi] model, the [Nazis were] Supermen, descendants of Aryan gods. That gave them the power to enslave others.

So, for example, the Anglo-Saxons, basically Europeans, were meant to be slaves to the Aryans. And the subhumans, which I belong to Jews, gypsies, Slavs, handicapped, political prisoners we were meant to be vaporized, become dust.

That ideology did not go away. It resurfaced with the nuance that is not antisemitic right now. In a kind of an abstract way, were all Jews this time, because the hierarchy here is not based on religion or identity, but rather on the deranged belief that theyve evolved, the Superman of this generation, into a higher level of consciousness.

Theyre woke and they understand and are enlightened about the nature of the human condition. Theyre custodians of the planet, and therefore its their responsibility to make sure the planet has solvency, that it continues to exist. And therefore, we have to reduce the world population.

While humanity is in a most precarious situation, Zelenko is optimistic about the future.

Ill tell you what I really think is going on, he says. Theres what we see, and then theres the, lets call it spiritual physics, at play. Karl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst, wrote, The moral degradation of society begins with the degradation of the individual. From that, we can actually learn that moral improvement of society begins with improvement of the individual.

We, as a society, over the last 50, 60 years, have made some very bad choices. For example, weve desanctified or defiled gender roles Marriage has lost its sanctity. The unborn are being massacred. In the Bible, there are two cities that were destroyed, Sodom and Gomorrah, and theres an analysis why that happened. It wasnt because of the immorality, because the whole world was immoral.

It was because they codified immorality into the law of the land. Thats exactly what has happened in [the U.S.] Weve devolved We worship the God of science, the god of technology, the god of money, god of power. Anything but [the true] God. And we are clearly practicing child sacrifice.

Dr. Michael Yeadon, former VP of Pfizer, told me personally, and then he actually publicized it, that for every one child that dies of COVID, 100 die from the vaccine. The [COVID shot] is 100 times more lethal to children than COVID. What do you call that? Thats child sacrifice.

So, I feel that, by way of analogy, were in the generation of flood. The house is going to get cleaned, and each individual is given a choice to get on the ark or not.

Or, to make it simpler, who do you bow down to? Do you bow down to your creator, who makes you in every instant of time? Do you ask [God] for fortitude, endurance, strength, resolve, the ability to deal with the unknown and fear? Or are you going to give in to the fear and bow down to corrupt sociopaths, oligarchs, corrupt governments, and the false promise of the golden calf of these vaccines?

Because at this point, in this country at least, no ones holding you down and putting a needle into your arm. The majority of people, they want to travel by plane. They dont want to lose their job. They want to go to school. Its all these kinds of quality of life decisions. In other words, in a normal society, the parents sacrifice for the well-being of the children. In pagan societies, we sacrifice the children for the purpose of the adults.

So, whats the answer? Can we stop this transhumanist trajectory that threatens the very core of what makes us human? Can we prevent this plan for our enslavement from coming to fruition? Zelenko believes there is a way, as do I.

The answer is we need organized civil disobedience. Do not comply. They cant imprison everyone. They cant fire everyone. They cant expel everyone. They cant lock down everyone. Theres many more of us than them. And actually, let me speak to the military leaders, to the police, to people that are charged to protect society.

You also have children. You also have parents. And we are relying on you to do whats best for the citizens of this country, to protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. All we need to do is to coalesce with like-minded people. Take your kids out of school. Homeschool them. You can teach them morality.

The World Health Organization came out with an edict that if your kids go to school, thats implied consent for the vaccine because you could have not sent them. And since you sent them to school, thats implying that youre consenting for them to be vaccinated, even without your knowledge.

Basically, we have to make small pockets, like cities of refuge, in a sense, of like-minded people; create an alternate society; do commerce with ourselves. I know there are forces really working hard to create an alternate cryptocurrency or blockchain system that is decentralized and would allow for people who dont want to be tagged with a digital identifier to transact with each other.

As noted by Zelenko, its becoming more and more obvious that the pandemic measures were never about protecting us from COVID. It was always about creating a new world order. It was about setting the stage for a Great Reset to Build Back Better.

But better for whom? The Build Back Better plan is about building a society run by a few sociopaths and the rest of us enslaved, Zelenko says. The good news is that more and more people are now starting to see this plan, and once that realization reaches a certain threshold of people, countries are going to change and fall like dominoes, he says.

As for when we might get our freedom back, that depends on us. As noted by Zelenko, freedom isnt free. We were free (at least up until 2020) because our forefathers had the courage to confront tyranny. If we want our children to be free, we now have to display that same courage.

Whether or not our children will be free depends on whether or not we are ready to sacrifice, Zelenko says. Are we ready, in this generation, to pay the price to ensure that our children thrive in freedom and have the ability to maintain God consciousness?

Its going to happen. The unknown variable is to body count. I would hope that this interview reaches the consciousness of every single human being. People must choose to say no from this point on.

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The Plan to Tag Us for the New World Order Slave System - newsconcerns

Dave Grohl just cant sit still. Its a bad habit that Grohl admits in his memoir The Storyteller that likely carries over from being a hyperactive child. For most, its a trait that needs to be tapered down once youre an adult, but luckily Grohl found a job where it actually helps to be a little frenzied.

Over the course of his now-four decade career, Grohl has played on hundreds of songs. Hes also worked with some of the greatest figures in music: David Bowie, John Paul Jones, Stevie Nicks, and Paul McCartney, just to name a few. He had the opportunity to join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers after Nirvanas dissolution but opted to strike out on his own with the Foo Fighters instead.

Oh yeah, he was also in a small band called Nirvana. And Scream. And Queens of the Stone Age. Grohl helped bring to life songs by a wide variety of artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Tenacious D, Killing Joke, and Halsey. Hes the man that everyone wants to jam with, and more importantly, hes the man that everyone just wants to hang out with. Grohls reputation has exceeded his monster musical abilities by virtue of just seeming like a really cool guy.

That would all be fine if he was simply a wandering soul picking up session gigs in between cashing checks from Nevermind. Instead, Grohl decided that he had something to say and formed Foo Fighters in 1994. Originally a true-blue solo project, the band grew into rocks preeminent stadium act, releasing multi-platinum albums and touring around the world at a level few could match. Grohl might seem relatively easygoing, but make no mistake, Foo Fighters is still a benevolent dictatorship, with Grohl at the helm.

Thats probably for the best, as Grohl has cranked out some of the most memorable tracks of the past 30 years. Evolving from the quasi-improvisational style of writing occasionally used by Kurt Cobain, Grohl has come into his own as a songwriter, establishing a signature style and a noted depth in lyrical subject matter. When hes not plumbing the depths of his emotions, hes spitting venom on some of the heaviest tracks this side of punk rock. Here, were looking across his long and storied career to collect Grohls 50 greatest songs.

Some basic measures had to be put in place just to keep the ranking from getting too unwieldy. Extra emphasis is placed on the songs that Grohl has a songwriting credit on, and it takes an all-time performance to boost something that Grohl didnt write himself. Covers have been completely excised, so apologies to Mollys Lips, a good chunk of MTV Unplugged in New York, and The Dee Gees Hail Satin.

But more importantly, Grohl had to make a significant impact on the final product. There are loads of great Nirvana songs that, frankly, Grohl didnt have much of a say in. Whether its the bombshell boom of his drumwork, harried screams of his vocals, or light touch of his lyric writing, emphasis was placed on Grohls unique contributions rather than simply the best songs to feature Grohl somewhere on them.

Here are the 50 greatest songs by Dave Grohl.

The Foo Fighters are in a comfortable place now. Theyre unmatched as the worlds biggest rock band, and they have so much solid material in their back catalogue that they dont really need any more great songs. They can play for four hours of all hits every night, so why keep trying to add to the list?

It all goes back to that restless spirit within Grohl: the best Foo Fighters song may very well not have been written yet. Its also fascinating to hear Grohl when he goes softer, like on Medicine at Midnights standout track Chasing Birds. The Foos actually have quite a bit of acoustic material in their repertoire now, but Chasing Birds is a fantastically mellow addition to their varied setlists.

Never underestimate Grohls ability to go for the laugh. Through various cameos, guest appearances, and now even his own horror-comedy film, Grohl has an untapped career path as a professional jokester. So its only natural that he found a fit with Jack Black and Kyle Gass in their mock-rock outfit Tenacious D.

Grohl has been providing drums for the bands albums since the beginning, but its his appearance as Lucifer himself at the end of The Pick of Destiny that represents one of the heights of his comedic career. Getting in some solid riffs and high octane drum fills, Grohl fights for the right to make Gass his personal sex slave in the bonkers finale to Tenacious Ds quest for immortality (and weed).

Grohl has showed off quite a diverse set of skills within his music. Theres more conventional pop, like on his collaboration with Halsey. Theres electronic industrial rock, like with NIN (more on that in a second). Theres even the lighter acoustic side that the Foos have dipped into. But lets be real: Grohl is at his best when hes screaming his face off.

Who knows where Grohl still finds that volcanic rage, but hes still able to breathe fire with a surprising amount of potency. Just listen to 42-year-old Grohl go ballistic on Wasting Lights White Limo. Its a callback to earlier tracks like Wattershed, where nothing was better than Grohl leaning back and screaming himself raw for a few minutes.

The Nirvana representation on this list was one of the toughest aspects to work through. That is especially true for a song like Rape Me. On one hand, its one of Nirvanas greatest and most important songs. On the other, Grohl doesnt actually get to do all that much, with his contributions limited to drums and, when played live, backing vocals.

But his drum part is one of the most ferocious that he ever played with the band, and it doesnt seem complete to have a list like this without it. Ultimately, Rape Me would be a completely different song without Grohl behind the skins, and his powerful drive is what makes Nirvanas signature quiet-loud dynamic so impactful.

Grohl isnt the most technically gifted guitar player in the world. He cant read music, doesnt really know much about theory, and could probably give a damn whether a progression is going I-iv-V-IV or A-B-C-D. But every once in a while, Grohl stumbles onto something truly unique that most writers beholden to traditional ways of thinking about music would never do.

Skin and Bones is a chromatic song with plenty of odd chord choices and strange progressions. Even still, it has Grohls unmatched ear for melody, just in a more moody setting. As someone who values simplicity over technical proficiency, Grohl can break all the wrong rules in all the right ways.

The Foo Fighters have released upwards of 50 singles throughout their 30 years as a band, so it only stands to reason that some of those tracks tend to get lost to history. If it wasnt for its goofy music video (a Foo Fighters staple), Long Road to Ruin would be in danger of getting lost in the mix.

Thats unfortunate, seeing as how its one of the bands best songs from what is now ostensibly their middle period. Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace is a hit-or-miss kind of record, but Long Road to Ruin proves that Grohls ability to find big rock hooks never wavers.

If ever there was a superhero for Dave Grohl to base himself off of, it was Lemmy Kilmister. The hard rocking, hard partying, surly son of a bitch was actually quite a mellow and friendly character when he wasnt belting sonic holes in the ozone with Motrhead. If you liked a drink, or a smoke, or a good joke, you had a friend in Lemmy, and Grohl was able to forge a close bond with the legendary bass player that lasted years.

In terms of actual collaboration, Grohl and Lemmy only ever recorded two songs together: a cover of Chuck Berrys Run Rudolph Run with Billy Gibbons on guitar, and Shake Your Blood from Grohls heavy metal side project Probot. Even though its a one off, Shake Your Blood makes for one hell of a tribute to two legends, one living and one now sadly passed on.

We all tend to mellow with age. The fire burns out, the thrill goes, and its increasingly difficult to find the energy and strength to really rally against something once you transition into a quieter stage of life. Dave Grohl, somehow, is immune to this natural occurrence.

Even though the Foos are a lot more experimental and low-key these days than they were on their first two albums, Grohl can still fire it up when he needs to, like on the back and forth headbanging riff thats central to Run. In his third decade of rock and roll, Grohl is just as ready to shake the walls as he was as a teenage dirtbag playing punk rock. Lucky for him, hes got a band behind him who are just as eager to match his fury.

Ah, the dreaded greatest hits compilation. I dont know if its still the case in the streaming age, but a greatest hits album was the most surefire way for a band to sell a billion copies of an album without ever having to do much work back when people still regularly bought physical albums. Just to show that they werent completely phoning it in, artists would often include a new song or two that completely went against the concept of a greatest hits compilation. It was strange, but damn near everyone did it.

The Foos were one of the rare bands who actually put a great new song on their greatest hits album. Wheels isnt anything complicated: just a few chords, some solid guitar rock power, and an easy melody. But it remains one of the Foo Fighters greatest uncut gems, hidden in plain sight where it truly belongs: on a collection of the bands best songs.

Its a somewhat unlikely meeting of the 90s best musical minds. In one corner, theres the rock-focused Dave Grohl, who turns his nose up at keyboards and machinery in favour of loud guitars and acoustic drums. In the other, theres industrial god Trent Reznor, who will manipulate any sound or signal to make his warped worldview come to life.

As it turns out, though, these two forces can actually work in harmony, as they do on Nine Inch Nails Every Day Is The Exact Same. Grohl is unmistakable on the drums, pounding away like a mob enforcer collecting debts. But over the top is Reznors electronic buzz, fleshing out the landscape with a modern sheen. It shouldnt be good, at least not on paper. But Every Day Is The Exact Same is a track that fires on all cylinders, bringing out the best in its two collaborators.

Lets all be honest with ourselves for a second: Dave Grohls need to continuously find new angles with which to churn out Foo Fighters albums is admirable, if not always successful. While the bands more recent LPs can have a smattering of good-to-great songs bumping up against forgotten filler tracks, for my money the last great Foos album was probably 2011s Wasting Light.

Sonic Highways is basically a homework assignment stretched out to full album length, and its especially apparent in the clunky shoehorned lyrics made up of references his interview subjects make But when it works, its surprisingly potent. Outside, with its spacious solo from Joe Walsh, is easily one of the albums high points, letting the band hang loose and rock out away from the forced material that is captured on the rest of the album.

Once again pairing it back to the wouldnt it be great if we just screamed our faces off for a little bit style, Sean is the goofiest, loosest, most nonsensically awesome song that the Foos have put out in the last ten-plus years.

Collecting the stories that follow one of the bands guitar techs, Sean is an unstoppable gallop of a track that doesnt let you stop to breathe for a single second. That and it also has some of the raddest cowbell that Taylor Hawkins ever laid down with the band. Cowbells, statistically and objectively, make everything better. Thats just math.

Lets step into Dave Grohls shoes for a second, circa summer 1995. Nirvana has been over for a year, and there are rumblings that youre going to put out new music where you sing and play guitar. The rest of the world is slightly suspicious, and certainly not expecting much. Theres probably a reason why you didnt have a ton of songwriting credits before, right? What are you gonna do, pull a Phil Collins and sing some ballads?

Well, in order to silence all the sceptics, what do you pick as your debut single and first track for your first album? How about an uptempo rock song that gives a high energy wave to all the people who had brought you to the place you are today. This Is a Call is remarkable in that, more than 25 years since that theoretical scenario, the song still sounds just as fresh as it did when it announced a new Dave Grohl to the world.

Nirvana were in danger of getting a little too arena rock-adjacent on Nevermind. The solution? Play as fast and loud as humanly possible. Make the icing on top of the cake an out-of-tune reading of the chorus to The Youngbloods Get Together to make a track straight out of snot-rock heaven.

So thats exactly what they did. Territorial Pissings is pure machine gun fire from Grohl on the drums, giving direction to the mess of distortion and riffage that Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic get themselves entangled in. When it comes to pure shits-and-giggles ferociousness in the Nirvana canon, youd be hard pressed to find a song more fun or frantic than Territorial Pissings.

Nirvana was dead, and it was going to take an unholy resurrection to get them to record together again. Who could possibly step into the massive shoes left behind by Kurt Cobain? Only a truly titanic figure, one who was as important to Cobains musical development as any punk rocker. That figure turned out to be none other than Paul McCartney.

Although its a fairly generic rocker, the sheer weight behind Cut Me Some Slack makes it one of the rarest and most enjoyable tracks that Grohl has ever made. Its Nirvana, fronted by a Beatle. Music doesnt get any more mythical than that. With any luck, had he known about who was taking his place, Cobain would hopefully have let out a little smile and mentioned how he preferred John Lennon.

Think youve heard it all from Foo Fighters? How about a vocal choir intro complete with guitars that dont even pretend to rock in the songs first 30 seconds? Its always a delicate balance for Grohl when it comes to established formula and new horizons to explore with his band, but fascinating decisions still get stumbled upon from time to time.

The Sky is a Neighborhood is sparse in its verse, angular with its riffs, and far more progressive than the Foos had ever allowed themselves to be in the past. It would be nothing without a giant hook at its centre, which is something that Grohl can always be counted on to provide. If nothing else, The Sky is a Neighborhood proved that Grohl was still full of surprises.

The only song to be played by both of Grohls biggest bands actually had its roots in a different project. Grohl wanted to record some of his own songs but was too reticent to introduce them to Nirvana. Instead, he put them on a tape entitled Pocketwatch, produced it under the pseudonym Late!, and sent it off into the ether without any indication that Grohl was the man behind the music.

One of the tracks on that tape was Color Pictures of a Marigold, which Grohl re-recorded with Novoselic during the In Utero sessions. Marigold wound up as one of the B-sides to Heart-Shaped Box, with fans at early Foo Fighters gigs shouting out the song as a request, seeing as it was the only Dave Grohl lead vocal they had ever heard. Eventually, the Foos revived the song for their Skin and Bones acoustic live album, bringing Marigold full circle and landing it a rare place in music history.

Grohl was in a strange place in his life after the release of the first Foo Fighters album. The acceptance of the band as more than just a vanity project was growing, but Grohls personal life was falling apart at the same time. His divorce from his first wife Jennifer Youngblood inspired the material on the bands follow up, The Colour and the Shape, but Grohls need for stability and control also pushed out drummer William Goldsmith when Grohl decided to re-record most of the albums drum part himself.

One of Grohls first forays into more gentle and melodic material, February Stars represented a massive leap forward for Grohl in his songwriting ability. Now unafraid of slowing down and letting his emotions imbue his songs with regret and personal truth, Grohl evolved into a true artist. Even though it sounds different from the rest of their material, February Stars is a crucial building block in the signature sound of the Foo Fighters.

You make me dizzy, running circles in my head / One of these days Ill chase your motherfucking ass down. Thats how Grohl kicks off the Foo Fighters performance of Breakout during their legendary stand at Wembley Stadium. Lets dispense with the pretentiousness for a second: people like the Foo Fighters because theyre a big, loud, awesome rock and roll band.

Breakout, by the transitive property, is one of the best Foo Fighters songs because its one of the bands biggest, loudest, most awesome rock and roll songs. Im no math guy, but that seems like sound mathematics to me. If you dont love Breakout, you dont love the Foo Fighters, and if you love the Foo Fighters, you love Breakout. Its as simple as that.

All Apologies isnt Grohls biggest or baddest drum performance with Nirvana. In fact, barring the possible exceptions of Polly and Something in the Way, it might very well be his most restrained. But thats important too: Grohl made his name as a loud basher, rarely bringing things down below a forte dynamic.

All Apologies proved that Grohl had plenty of light touch and good taste in his drumming. Hes got a simple task: dont get in the way. He gets time to bash away, but never at the insane levels that hes used to. Theres a very delicate melody at the centre of the song, and Grohl does everything he can to help it along without trampling all over it. Its a critically important lesson he learned sometimes softer really is better.

Evidently, my opinion that I Am A River is a graceful and wonderfully stirring finale to Sonic Highways is not an opinion shared by all. I will admit that, if youre not bought into the grandeur of the song or the central metaphor, then the last five minutes of the song can be a bit of an overlong slog. But if youre on board, its as symphonic and cinematic as the Foos ever got.

Thats thanks to Tony Viscontis monster score, the pairing of eerie guitars lines and power chords, and of course Grohls signature scream. Some will say its too long, or that it doesnt make sense, or that its just not very good. I say its borderline profound, and the most successful experiment on Sonic Highways. I Am A River is a song that could be eye-rolling in the wrong state of mind, but completely earth-shattering when youre locked in with it.

Grunges Stairway to Heaven. No, thats not a joke or an exaggeration. What Aneurysm does is solidify Nirvana as a band with ambitions beyond two-chord punk, beyond catchy pop, and beyond their Seattle peers. Its progressive, its aggressive, and its uncompromising. When it comes to pure variety and musicianship, it just might be the finest song Nirvana ever wrote.

More importantly, it was the first song that Grohl had a hand in writing, mainly helping to guide the song through its two distinct sections. The speed demon drum fills are one thing, but the ability to turn tempos on a dime is another. Aneurism solidified Grohls place in Nirvana, not just as a drummer but as an equal contributor to their sound.

Grohls time in Scream is often seen as being akin to a great baseball players time in the minor leagues: pay your dues, get your legs under you, and eventually, youll be promoted. That wasnt true, as Grohl was completely committed to the D.C. hardcore band that he idolised as a young teenager. When Scream suddenly broke up in 1990, Grohl was completely at a loss, believing that his dreams of being a professional musician were over.

Grohls powerful thump is easily heard on the tracks that he contributed to the band, but it was on Gods Look Down that Grohl took his first steps towards his future. Grohl sang lead on the track, and although his voice is noticeably emo-adjacent and slightly off-key, the seeds of his signature shout are still there. It would have been fascinating to hear what Scream would have evolved into had they kept going, and whether Grohl would have gotten additional opportunities to step up to the mic.

Something remarkable about Grohls songwriting is that hes able to take on weighty themes without ever seeming pretentious or overwrought. When it comes to growing up, the Foos did it in style on Wasting Light. Pairing their signature punch with meditations on fatherhood, regret, and death, the band were able to tap into feelings that aged and evolved along with their audience. Sure, theyre dad rock, but there are a lot of dads with a lot of emotions out there.

When faced with the great divide, theres only one way that Grohl is going to go out: screaming. Lines like, One of these days the clocks will stop / And time wont mean a thing show that Grohl can be downright poetic when he wants to be, and These Days is one of a fair number of songs that force you to take Grohl seriously as one of the most talented songwriters of his generation, even on par with one of his former bandmates.

How do I successfully undercut everything serious and thoughtful that I just said? By placing what is undoubtably the Foo Fighters most frivolous and ridiculous song right below a really important Foo Fighters song. But thats the beauty of the band: when things get a little too heavy, its time to stop making sense and just rock out with your sock out.

Named after a fast food restaurant native to Grohls home state of Virginia, Weenie Beenie is the first and best of the Foo Fighters shut up and scream songs. Theres a lineage here White Limo, Sean and Wattershed all are indebted to this slice of punk-metal. Sludgy, ferocious, and completely incomprehensible, Weenie Beenie is the loudest, heaviest, and most inane Foo Fighters song ever written. And its fucking awesome.

Dave Grohl can do it all. In fact, he did do it all on the Foo Fighters first album. Hes stepped in to re-record any and all parts that dont live up to his lofty standards, and no one is exempt from his heavy hand. But in the past decade or so, the Foo Fighters have solidified into a great band of heavy hitters that bring Grohls loud and fast rock music to life.

Bridge Burning is a song that doesnt exist if Grohl had always kept the band to a solo project. Taylor Hawkins massive drums and killer backing harmonies, the dual descending guitar lines between Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, the rumbling bass line provided by Nate Mendel and the spacey keyboards from Rami Jaffe are all essential to the songs mighty thump. Grohl is at the centre of it all, but songs like Bridge Burning prove just how much of a band Foo Fighters really are.

The loveliest and most Beatles-esque song that Kurt Cobain ever wrote, Dumb is easy proof as to why a band as heavy and punk-focused as Nirvana was actually perfect for the MTV Unplugged sessions. Faced with his biggest challenge yet, Grohl couldnt pound away or blast anything in his signature Animal-from-The Muppets style.

So he gets creative. Knocking on the rims of his drums while leaning hard into the ride cymbal, Grohl conjures up one of his most idiosyncratic drum patterns for one of Nirvanas most idiosyncratic songs. Despite wanting to get more abrasive on In Utero, it was clear that Grohl, Cobain, and Novoselic were actually just as ready to get into a lighter state of mind.

Theres a story that follows Alone + Easy Target: Grohl records a demo of the song with future Foo Fighters producer Barrett Jones and plays it for Cobain while hes sitting in a bathtub. Cobain proceeds to kiss Grohl and express relief that he no longer has to be the sole songwriter in Nirvana.

The irony to the story is that Alone + Easy Target is actually about Cobains criticisms of Grohl and Grohls lack of ability to stand up for himself or contribute to the band beyond simply keeping time: Metronome / I want out. A lack of input and royalty disputes actually sowed quite a bit of discord between Grohl and Cobain during the final two years of the band, but it only ever reached the extent of inspiring one of Grohls best songs from the Foo Fighters debut.

There was no need for Them Crooked Vultures to be anything but a loose and fun supergroup for Dave Grohl and Queens of the Stone Ages Josh Homme to geek out over the fact that they got to be in a group with John Paul Jones. But then the thunderous opening drums to New Fang kick in and it suddenly becomes clear that this isnt just some mindless rock and roll fantasy camp. This is going to be heavy.

Seeing as how Grohl is the modern day John Bonham, it should be no surprise that he and Jones lock in like theyve been playing in the same band for 40 years. Homme throws in one of his most memorable melodies just to keep up, and the trio play with time signatures in a way that is easy to miss, but remain captivating when caught. Hard rock heavyweights dont show off any better than Them Crooked Vultures do on New Fang.

Dave Grohl is human after all. In the wonderful documentary Sound City, which was directed by Grohl himself, Nevermind producer Butch Vig shares a story about Nirvana coming in to the eponymous California studio intent on recording Lithium, but failing to properly get a hold of the track. The process was so frustrating that Cobain launched into Endless, Nameless at the end of a particularly bad take and wound up breaking the studios only left handed guitar, putting a pause on that days recording.

In order to make the song work, Vig convinced Grohl to do something he had never done before: play to a click track. I felt like someone had stabbed me in the fuckin brain. As a drummer, you dont want anyone to ask you to play to a click track. But Grohl relented, and the result is one of the greatest mixes of heavy rock and pop melodies that Nirvana ever produced.

Who is the unconfirmed early villain of the Foo Fighters story? The shadow of Kurt Cobain? The creeping onset of grunge imitators like Creed? Grohl himself, whose control saw everyone from the original incarnation quit at least once? All solid possibilities, but the juiciest and most gossipy options is undoubtably Cobains widow, Hole lead singer Courtney Love.

Of all the (alleged) songs written about Love, Stacked Actors has to be the most vicious. Calling an unnamed blonde an ageing drag queen is about as straight up mean as Grohl has ever been, and even though he denies that Love served as the inspiration, the association has easily made it one of the Foos most fascinating tracks. Come for the drama, stay for the major riffage.

There were certain security blankets that the Foo Fighters liked to hold tight: distortion, screaming, giant drums. These were comfy and familiar, and the band did them well. But gentle singing? Arpeggiated jangly guitars? Soft dynamics? Hows are they going to pull that off? This is the same band who named their heaviest song after a fast food stop. Surely they cant be gentle and genuine at the same time.

For anyone who hasnt heard all of There Is Nothing Left to Lose, the Foo Fighters pull a genius magic trick by front loading the album with heavy rock tracks and ending with some of the most heartfelt and optimistic songs that Grohl ever put to tape. The peak is Aint It the Life, a song completely unlike any other in the Foos catalogue. Grohl hits his marks on lyrics, vocal melodies, and even soft guitars without ever coming off as saccharine or mushy. The real surprise about the Foo Fighters was how multi-dimensional they could be.

Grohl only ever wrote one guitar riff for Nirvana. When youve Kurt Cobain in your band, why bother? But as the band transitioned to a heavier sound with In Utero, Grohls jackhammer riff suddenly fit with what the band were going for, and Cobain eventually came around to the song enough to pen some lyrics.

Scentless Apprentice actually shows what Grohls life could have been post-Nirvana had he not started the Foo Fighters a drummer for hire, contributing elements to other peoples songs. Thankfully he decided to try to be a frontman himself, but Scentless Apprentice very well may be Grohls most significant contribution to Nirvana in terms of composition and arrangement.

Hey, Courtney Love, werent we just talking about you? If Stacked Actors is a thinly veiled reference to the Hole singer, Ill Stick Around constitutes a full-on direct attack. How am I the only one who sees / Your rehearsed insanity is the most commonly cited line, but Ive always been a fan of: Ive been around all the pawns youve gagged and bound / Theyll come back and knock you down and Ill be free in terms of pure impact.

Once again Grohls secret weapon is his love of melody and catchy hooks, which the shouted outro most certainly is. Wrapped in some of the most potent energy that ever came out of Grohl, Ill Stick Around doubles nicely as a kickback at anyone who might have been discounting Grohl simply because of his association with Nirvana. Whether its to Love or the fans who resented him because of his continuation, Grohls message is clear: I dont owe you anything.

Grohl needed a break. After Foo Fighters rose to the top of the post-grunge landscape, internal fractures meant that original drummer William Goldsmith and guitarist Pat Smear left the band during the promotional cycle for The Colour and the Shape. Attempts to gel with Grohls former Scream bandmate Franz Stahl proved fruitless, and Grohl grew tired of the relentless heaviness of Los Angeles.

So for the bands third album, he absconded to his home state of Virginia, bringing a far more relaxed atmosphere to the recordings. The return to his roots led Grohl to think about the places of his past, and a familiar Seattle street, Aurora Avenue, popped into his head. The lyrics that followed were some of Grohls most grand, reflecting on lost time and a past that cant be returned to. Grohl tends to shy away from getting too profound, but Aurora makes the best case for Dave Grohl: The Poet.

2001: all is not well in the world of the Foo Fighters. Attempts to record a follow up to There Is Nothing Left to Lose are hitting difficulties, and a rift is starting to form between Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. Rather than power through and make up, Grohl decides to put Foo Fighters on hold while he joins another band, Queens of the Stone Age. Its as close as the Foos ever came to truly breaking up.

Grohl seems to channel all his pent up rage into his drum performances on Songs for the Deaf, most prominently on the earth-shaking fills of No One Knows. Dave Grohls best drum performance on record is a contentious title, but undoubtably his best appearance outside his two most notable bands comes on his amazing performance from No One Knows.

As much as we loved noise and crazy-ass punk rock shit, we wanted to be a good band. We loved The Beatles. Thats how Grohl described Nirvana while making Nevermind, and when it came to his own material, Grohl wasnt afraid to key into pop sensibilities either. Most of Foo Fighters debut LP is crazy-ass punk rock shit, to use his words, but Big Me is pure Beatles-inspired pop.

For someone so willing to obscure his songs behind nonsense words, vocal effects, and walls of distortion, Grohl is remarkably comfortable with sunny melodies and catchy hooks on Big Me, the best song from Foo Fighters. Theres always plenty of time for big rock and roll music, but Grohl proved that he could excel at earworms at the same time.

The contrast between beauty and ugliness on In Utero is what makes it so fascinating nearly 30 years after its release. Harried vocals and a noticeable lack of studio polish might have made the bands handlers panic, but the melodic foundations of songs like Heart-Shaped Box proved that Cobain wasnt being willfully obscure. Instead, he was angling the band towards a future that balanced the pop with the punk.

Heart-Shaped Box is simply the prettiest, most poetic, and most successful song from In Utero. Thats down to its ability to serve both masters without sacrificing either: gentle heartfelt emotions and aggressive, combative noise. As for Grohl, he brings yet another deceptively simple but powerful drum performance to the track, making even the heaviest beats sound effortless.

As far as high energy, high velocity, ultra-powerful drum tracks go, nothing in the Nirvana canon could compare to the three minute onslaught that Grohl unleashes on Breed. Armed with the heft of someone twice his size, the wiry Grohl is on the constant verge of completely demolishing his drum kit from the second that his walloping snare fills kicks off the performance.

What Breed does better than any other Nirvana song is lead credence to the notion that the band was incomplete without Grohl. Who else could possibly pound out a drum pattern that memorable and that unrelenting? Nuance be damned: this is full-throttle from the first whack. Breed is primal fury directed onto a single poor, unsuspecting drum kit.

Ive never seen a bad Foo Fighters show. I think my current number hovers somewhere around four or five, and each time Ive seen the band live, they always bring the goods. But according to the band, theres a quick antidote if they feel like theyre having an off day: play All My Life.

With its ferocious power chords, focus on pure energy, and scream-along chorus, its no surprise that All My Life is the instant tide-turner to a potentially bad Foo Fighters show. The song especially comes to life in the live setting, when Grohl sacrifices his throat in order to scream the final chorus like hes exorcising evil spirits within him. Even when youre a couple hundred feet away, you can still feel the velocity of Grohls vocals hit you right in the chest.

Theres nothing complicated about the Foo Fighters. Even if you want to dissect the chromatic guitar lines, offbeat lyrics, or time signature changes that the band occasionally throw into their songs, the truth is that immediate impact was always the name of the game. Trim the fat, get to the point, and connect with the audience. If were talking crowd-pleasers, few songs can match the uplifting joy of Learn to Fly.

Grohl is a naturally amicable and goofy guy, which is something that you could easily pick up on if youve seen the bands videos or ever heard the man speak a single sentence. Theres a radiant optimism about him, even when hes at his angriest. He doesnt always lean into it, but when he does, Grohl can be downright inspirational in his assessment that everything is going to be alright.

Real question: should Sesame Street have been given songwriting credits on The Pretender? Just how close is the chorus melody to One of These Things Is Not Like the Other? Grohl had a one year old daughter at the time of the songs recording, so it seems logical that some of that kiddie fare found its way onto the song. The main point here is that no rock star is cool enough to steal from Sesame Street and get away with it. No one except Grohl.

The Pretender is wonderfully dramatic and symphonic for a Foo Fighters track, and Grohl is equally game to deconstruct the unrelenting power of the band in order to sequence the song in a way that primes it for maximum impact. Catchy hooks and huge screams? Sign me up for that episode of Sesame Street.

How does everyone at a Foo Fighters concert know how to play Monkey Wrench? Its a tradition now for Grohl to pull someone out of the front row to sit in on the guitar during the song, but that belies just how difficult the song is. How do they keep finding literal children and guys in Kiss makeup to hit all those notes perfectly?

If I had to chalk it up to something, its probably that when you learn how to play drop D guitar, there are two songs you have to learn first: Everlong and Monkey Wrench. The latter is a relentless rocker that completely obliterates everything in its path and forces you to drop what your doing and just listen to it. Once Grohl goes into the climactic scream, its enough to give you goosebumps every time.

One conundrum about Nevermind is that most of the songs were written prior to Dave Grohls arrival in Nirvana. On demos made with Bleach drummer Chad Channing, the drum parts that would later be credited to Grohl are more or less already in place. The legendary hits on In Bloom were thought up by Channing, and Grohl simply recreated them.

But theres something unique that Grohl brings to the parts. Whether its power or accuracy or attitude, Grohl takes a good drum part and just elevates it to another level. This is also Grohls first appearance as a backing vocalist, meaning that this is one of the earliest appearances we get of Grohl proving he has what it takes to make it on his own.

The most chilling moment Ive ever experienced listening to a Foo Fighters song came when I was watching the bands Wembley Stadium performance in 2008. The rain is absolutely torrential, and the band are at the end of their setlist, completely drained of energy. But Grohl gives every last bit of himself over to the song and the crowd, almost completely losing his voice as the thousands of fans pick him up and sing along. By the end, hes in tears at the sheer magnitude of the reception.

Best of You just has that effect on people. All you could ever want from a Foo Fighters song is to shout along to Grohl when it comes to those massive vocal parts. Best of You is also technically the Foos biggest song commercially, landing them their highest chart position in America. But I dont care about that: I always go back to the Wembley performance. Its absolute magic, and its one of the few live performances that I would do anything to travel back in time to experience.

There was an elephant in the room that faced the Foo Fighters during their first tour. The bands debut wasnt even supposed to be a debut: it was just a way for Grohl to occupy himself while considering options for his future. When Foo Fighters became a full-fledged band, no one was sure whether Grohl could keep cranking out tunes, or whether the band would even survive the dingy clubs that were holding them.

My Hero represents the point of no return: Dave Grohl would keep writing great songs, the band would be able to survive, and there was a future. Even better, small clubs couldnt contain their music anymore. My Hero is made for a stadium sing along, and thats what it swiftly became once the Foos ascended to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world. With a song as anthemic as My Hero, it was impossible to look back.

The rest is here:
Dave Grohl's 50 greatest songs of all time - Far Out Magazine

Image Source : FREEPIK

Zodiac signs and what gemstones would be good for them in 2022

Gemstones come in every color of the rainbowand are gathered from all corners of the world. Each gemstone is unique and hasspecial powers, birthplace and story. Gemstones are attractive pieces of stone that are prized for their beauty. Apart from their aesthetic value, gemstones have natural energetic properties that can be used in many different ways Gems carry mysterious powers, which can affect your physical health, wealth and emotional well beings. The effect of Gemstones depends on their Aura and their particular planetary rays based on their color, carat, clarity, cutting and the qualities.

Various people born in different zodiac sign are controlled by a particular planet which is guiding them. In Puranas, the uses of the 9 primary Gems have been mentioned. In Vedic astrology different gems are recommended for different zodiac signs as per the planets which rules them. Let's have a look at which gemstone will be best for each zodiac sign in the year 2022.

People born in Aries are ruled by Mars, so they must wear red coral they can also wear its alternative Carnelian Red Coral is a gemstone that has a meaning and properties of vitalizing life energy It is a symbol of modesty, wisdom, happiness and immortality. It is commonly known to remedy spasms of intestines, sleeplessness, and bladder stones.

People born in Taurus are ruled by Venus, so they must wear diamondcheaper alternatives of diamond include white sapphire, danburite, pheenakite, white topaz and white stones wearing a diamond is said to give happiness in the married life as well as magnetism and attractiveness to the wearer.

People born in Gemini are ruled by Mercury, so they must wear Emeraldthey can also wear its alternative Green tourmaline and peridot

Emerald increases intelligence, sharpness and makes the wearer quick witted. Mercury is a patron of Wit, art, creativity and knowledge and Emerald benefits people who want to receive all these qualities.

People born in Cancer are ruled by Moon, so they must wear pearl they can also wear its alternative moonstone. Pearl/Moti helps to attain peace, mental balance and reduces anger. It encourages love and compassion in ones life. It helps to bring harmony and peaceful atmosphere at home.

People born in Leo are ruled by Sun, so they must wear rubythey can also wear its alternative Red spinel , garnet , red tourmaline The Ruby gemstone imbibes most of these qualities from the Sun, making it strong and much-revered gemstone by all. An epitome of undying love, the naturally deep red Ruby stone inculcates the feelings of love, warmth, and compassion in the heart of its wearer.

People born in Virgo are ruled by Mercury, so they must wear Emeraldthey can also wear its alternative Green tourmaline and peridot Emerald is the astrological gemstone of Mercury, which corresponds to intellect, speech, memory, short travel, wisdom, and intuitive power.

People born in Libra are ruled by Venus, so they must wear diamond Cheaper alternatives of diamond include white sapphire, danburite, pheenakite, white topaz and white stones.A diamond is a symbol of enduring love because of their durability and longevity Diamond brings success and love in married life. By wearing diamond, you will find more cooperation from your spouse.

People born in Scorpio are ruled by Mars, so they must wear red coral they can also wear its alternative Carnelian. As per Indian Astrology, Coral also known Moonga is the Gemstone of Mars/ Mangal Mars is the planet of energy, vitality, blood circulation and ambition and the Red Coral is worn to boost the energy of Mars in the horoscope.

People born in Sagittarius are ruled by Jupiter, so they must wear Yellow sapphire.Cheaper alternatives of Yellow sapphire include Yellow topaz, beryl and citrine Yellow sapphirebrings wealth,status respect and prosperity to its wearer it also improves the functioning of mind, person becomes a better thinker and decision maker. It improves the mental power and is a good medicine for loss of Appetite, Indigestion, Leprosy and Piles.

People born in Capricorn are ruled by Saturn, so they must wear blue sapphireCheaper alternatives of Blue sapphireare Tanzanite and amethystBlue Sapphire or Neelam, bestows a strange pull to the wears. One who wears it gains control and influence over the people and gets status and wealth. This Gem gives RajyaSamman and Janta Prem. It is the gem which gives fame, honor, exceptional wealth and all round happiness. Some of the most successful and famous people are seen wearing this gem.

People born in Aquarius are ruled by Saturn, so they must wear blue sapphire Cheaper alternatives of Bluesapphire are Tanzanite and amethyst Blue Sapphire gives its wearer mental clarity and clears confusion and doubts. It also helps in improving focus and concentration.Blue sapphire blesses the wearer with name, fame, fortune, and money.

People born in Pisces are ruled by Jupiter, so they must wear yellow sapphire. Cheaper alternatives of Yellow sapphire include Yellow topaz, beryl and citrine Yellow Sapphire helps to achieve ambition in life in spite of different problems related to life.It gives successful marriages and happiness from marriage. It raises self-esteem and allows the wearer to move forward optimistically.

-With inputs fromMr. Pankaj Khanna, Chairman, Khanna Gems

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Zodiac signs and what gemstones would be good for them in 2022 - India TV News