Category Archives: Transhuman News

Reprinted from RealClearMarkets

The late J.R. Richard was a Major League Baseball phenomenon of the 1970s for the Houston Astros. If the radar guns were accurate, no ones fastball traveled faster than Richards.

Where it perhaps gets interesting is that no one since has thrown faster than Richard. While records are made to be broken, the speed of the fastball apparently isnt. The explanation that Ive always heard is that the human arm quite simply isnt designed, or hasnt evolved, to throw the ball faster. Which is apparently why Richard was and remains the fastball standard.

This came to mind while reading Peter Wards new book,The Price of Immortality: The Race To Live Forever. While Wards book proved a disappointment, his subject isnt. Though fastballs remain fast, but arent getting any faster, Ward writes with arguably not enough optimism that Medicine has extended average life expectancy significantly in the past century, and scientists now turn their expertise to more extreme measures to stop people from dying.

With life expectancy rising, the people Ward describes as immortalists are in search of ways to make life a forever concept. Wards book is about the most literal take on mortality: to live forever physically in the world as we know it. And to understand this literal approach to immortality better, Ward plunged into the world of immortalists, hoping to unravel what was real and what was false. Which, in a very real sense was the biggest problem withThe Price of Immortality.

What should have been a reporters account of the not unreasonable desire to improve health and subsequently extend life very quickly morphed into a stage for the author to take potshots at rich people, the U.S. health system, and seemingly capitalism in general. Billionaires in particular are criticized, which speaks loudly to how Wards politics blinded him to the source of rising life expectancy.

Seemingly lost on the author is that in the late 19th century Johns Hopkins, a billionaire-equivalent for his time, gave away $7 million of his Baltimore-Ohio Railroad fortune to what became Johns Hopkins University. It was the largest donation ever of its kind at the time, and the funds made it possible for a real medical school to be formed. Before then, U.S. medical schools were largely of the night variety, and research didnt define their missions. If you were sick, there were realistically no cures. As the late Dr. Lawrence D. Dorr (one of the worlds most prominent orthopedic surgeons) observed in his 2011 historical fiction book about medicine,Die Once Live Twice, when you were born in the 19th century you had as good of a chance of dying as you did living. A broken femur came with roughly 33% odds of dying, and if you lived your lone option was amputation at a time when painkillers were less than modern.A broken hip was a death sentence. Cancer? Forget about it. Except that as Dorr reminded readers, cancer was low on the list of killers simply because pneumonia, tuberculosis and other every day diseases put you in an early grave well before cancer did. Even by the early 20th century, Dorr reported that cancer was still a distant eighth among American killers. How things have changed.

Indeed, as Ward reports Americans have a one in six chance of dying from heart disease, one in seven chance of succumbing to cancer, and one in twenty-seven chance of chronic lower respiratory disease ushering in their downfall. About Wards stats, notice how he doesnt even mention pneumonia, tuberculosis, yellow and scarlet fever, etc. Which is the point. As Ward himself acknowledges, and as was previously quoted, Medicine has extended average life expectancy significantly in the past century. Cruel as cancer is, along with heart disease and diabetes, its paradoxically a sign of progress that per Ward, those are the maladies that get us thankfully later and later in life.

Okay, so why the remarkable progress? Previously mentioned was Johns Hopkins, at which point its essential to bring up John D. Rockefeller, by many miles the richest man of his time. As Ron Chernow reported in his biography of the great industrialist, Rockefeller gave away $530 million in his lifetime alone; $450 million of it to medical pursuits. Think how crucial this was. Rockefellers preternatural business skills that lit up formerly dark houses (kerosene) at night and powered an economy more and more reliant on fuel (refined oil) funded immense, life-extending leaps. Rather than taking care of the soon-to-be-dead, doctors and scientists would increasingly find cures for that which used to kill us with ease; thus explaining the title of Dorrs novel. People would live, and better yet, avoid death thanks to medical advances born of profits that were increasingly being matched with the creative in thought such that people were surviving formerly ruthless diseases that so cruelly stalked us not too long ago.

All of this rates mention given Wards disdainful treatment of billionaires. His dislike is plain early on. Hes clear that the immortalist movement is particularly popular among billionaires presumably bored of ways to flaunt their wealth, and relentlessly pursuing the goal of everlasting life. Wait, what? Has he no understanding of how brutal and short life would be absent the superrich? Has he ever heard of the Silicon Valley-based corporation, Grail? Funded by billionaires with names like Gates and Bezos, it will enable early detection of cancer well before it begins to spread, thus potentially extending life for quite some time.

Assuming the billionaires of today even partially achieve their goal of everlasting life, history is clear that well all be beneficiaries of this progress; progress that Ward sneeringly shrinks to a way to flaunt wealth after having allegedly exhausted all other avenues. And of course the U.S. healthcare system naturally is swiped at too as one supposedly built for the profiting few. Oh please. As of the mid-20th century, the biggest line item on U.S. hospital budgets was linens. Nowadays these profit-focused hospitals are marvels of technological advance. The latter is obvious to anyone who visits them, but its also obvious from reading Ward himself. As he once again acknowledges in contradictory fashion, Medicine has extended average life expectancy significantly in the past century, and scientists now turn their expertise to more extreme measures to stop people from dying. All true. The problem for the authors book is that rather than draw the clear connection between profits, abundant fortunes and remarkable advances in life expectancy, Ward plays politics. Billionaires are bad, Americans with their focus on profits are bad. No, such a view isnt serious. Which means its difficult to take Wards book seriously.

Worse for readers legitimately interested in medical advances meant to extend life, Ward hasnt written a book for you. Instead, hes written one heavily focused on the wacko side of life extension. As opposed to a serious look at advancing medicines inevitably funded by the superrich, and that improve the length and quality of life for more and more of us, Ward spends many chapters and pages on thecryonicsmovement. For those who dont know, cryonics is the art of freezing the dead. Will it prove beneficial over time? Perhaps yes. Who knows? Its hard to get an answer from Ward in that his attention is directed more at the eccentrics in the movement, as opposed to the possibility that theres something valid about the art.

According to Ward, the movement was long defined by backstabbing, jealousy, and outright fraud. Groups formed in concert with the movements rise included the Life Extension Society, and a magazine meant to chronicle the doings of those in and around the Society, Freeze-Wait-Reanimate.

Ward tells readers about cryonics original Robert Ettinger, who wrote a sci-fi novelThe Penultimate Trump, which was inspired by the thinking of a French biologist Jean Rostand, who had explored the possibility of using low temperatures to affect the properties of living things in the 1940s. Yet even there, and arguably unsurprisingly, Ward used the novels title to remind readers of his politics. Ward writes that Ettingers novel thankfully was not a prophetic warning of what the world would endure decades later. Oh please. How very unoriginal, as is his oh-so-predictable assertion later in the book that the lies of Fox News helped put Trump in the White House. And if this critique of Wards politics has you the reviewer assuming its the stuff of a loud Trump partisan, just Google your reviewers name and Donald Trump. The titles of opinion pieces alone will quickly set you straight.

With Ettinger discredited (if thats how it can be put), Ward tacks to Mike Darwin who, among other things, wrote an open letter to the body of James Bedford The chapter about Darwin is titled The Curious Case of the Missing Frozen Head. Its just a reminder that as opposed to writing about serious attempts to improve life as we know it, Wards aim is to largely mock the very notion.

Darwin ultimately founded Alcor, which seemingly to this day is the biggest name in cryonics. By 1990, the organization had grown to three hundred members and was fast outgrowing its Riverside headquarters. Supposedly Californias vulnerability to earthquakes was the impetus for the company moving its headquarters to Scottsdale, AZ in 1993. About Alcor, if the name rings a bell, particularly to sports fans, theres a reason why. The offspring of baseball legend Ted Williams famously engaged in legal wrangling about Alcors freezing of Williamss body after his death in 2002. Yes, its that kind of book.

Rather comically, Ward writes that a major problem for the industry is that cryonics is unregulated, and because it is, there is no way of going to a government agency and checking whether the company freezing your body has a history of malpractice. About stem-cell therapy, the good clinics are, according to Ward, impossible to distinguish from those which are fraudulent and dangerous due to a lack of regulation. Yes, thats it. Without regulation businesses would actively aim to gyp their customers because, you know, businesses apparently arent reliant on reputation to grow. After which, who in government would have the knowledge to call balls and strikes in a nascent industry that, assuming it proves worthy in time, will be defined by relentless failure on the way to worthiness? Investors trying to shape the future routinely hit and miss with capital commitments, yet were supposed to believe those in the governments employ can see what the worlds greatest venture capitalists routinely do not? Instead of making these kinds of points, Ward avoids seriousness, he mocks, he shoots fish in crowded barrels, plus he pretends that his reporting skills had rendered him fit to unravel what was read and what was false about the desire for immortality. See the commentary about venture capitalists once again to understand why Ward cant be what he aims to be. But that presumes the author wants to go deep into the question of life extension. Its hard to make that case after reading Wards book.

Instead of digging deep into serious attempts to extend life, he keeps tacking toward faith. His book is full of characters, as opposed to committed thinkers eager to bring a different, healthier world into the present. Readers are treated to Mormon immortalist Lincoln Cannons assertion that eventually humanity would overcome death, to Neal VanDeRees assertion to Ward that I know Im going to live for five hundred, one thousand, ten thousand years, to Alexei Turcon of the Longevity Party in Moscow, along with RAADfest, the immortalist version of Coachella. Eventually the author acknowledges that immortalists make a soft target for mockery, sneering, and condemnation, yet its Ward himself whos doing the mocking, sneering, and condemning. This critique isnt made as a defense of immortalists as much as its a yearning to know better if theres a serious side to what Ward portrays as nuts.

Of course, when he tacks toward serious, he so often does so in order to be political. Healthcare, in Wards eyes, is Americas most broken, and profitable, institution. Such an assertion contradicts. And having mocked Donald Trump, it will no doubt not surprise readers that Peter Thiel similarly wins the authors obloquy. Ward writes that if ever there was a powerful reason to abandon life extension research, it might be the thought of Peter Thiel living forever. Except that Thiels risk-taking has vastly improved the world as we know it, whereas his critic in Ward hasReturning to stem-cell therapy, Ward notes that the treatments can cost up to and beyond $1 million. One would think the previous truth would bring on introspection in the author about the superrich as venture buyers of sorts, whose risks taken on whats unproven provide crucial information? Naaah. Rich people are bad, dont you know? Theyre show-offs. But the challenge with being so political is that it causes Ward to be unwittingly contradictory of himself at seemingly all turns. And this includes his critiques of the rich. Alas, toward books end, Ward writes Perhaps, ultimately, the race to live forever is best run by the billionaires and corporations. You think?

Indeed, while the rich are known to invest in life extension concepts when not allegedly flaunting their wealth, Ward cites Silicon Valley gadfly and immortalist bigwig Aubrey De Grey as believing that the Valleys forgiving attitude toward failure is the secret to its success. Absolutely. At the same time, failure is expensive. Very expensive. Thank goodness for billionaires, right? Ward never quite makes the connection, if at all. Again, he goes back and forth, but usually backwards. At one point he laments the possibility of long life since it would supposedly cause the rich to hoard resources, and in doing so, they would reduce opportunities for younger generations. Thick books could be written about the previous point, which is beyond divorced from reality. With brevity in mind, assuming the billionaires of the world are hoarding when theyre not flaunting (Ward seemingly cant decide what he hates more), the simple, basic economic truth is that in hoarding the rich will by definition be creating major opportunity for future generations. Savings are what create corporations, theyre what enable remarkable technological leaps (including life extension style leaps), but as always Ward has his politics.

Which is too bad. Again, I chose to read and review this book based on a very real desire to understand better the possibilities of longer life. Also, there was a desire just to learn in general, and to be fair to Ward, occasionally he delivers. He writes of a French woman named Jeanne Calment who lived until she was 122, or did she? It turns out theres some speculation that the Calment who died at 122 was in fact her daughter; her daughter maintaining the fiction in order to escape estate taxes. He tells us aboutturritopsis dohrnii, a small sea creature that apparently is immortal. It turns out Sponges live for thousands of years. Who knew? I was and am interested. I was a supporter or Right to Try a few years ago, and Ward points out that the FDA rarely blocks requests to try as is. Interesting. Though people should still be free to try whatever they want, and very crucially without seeking permission from the FDA, Ward forced me to see the other side. Good. The problem was that Ward again seemed consumed by the wacko side of the immortalist movement, and then as always politics come into play.

Eager to let his readers know how very seriously he took the rapidly spreading coronavirus in 2020, and how much he still takes it seriously, Ward makes sure to let readers know early on that he started researching and writing the book just months before the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world as we knew it. According to Ward, the latter forced the rest of us to confront death in a way each generation believes it never will. Readers no doubt know where this is going. Having established himself as allegedly serious about the virus, Ward heaps scorn on virus statistics [that] came with the caveat that a significant percentage of deaths were made up of either the elderly or people with pre-existing conditions. According to Ward, the previous qualification reassured the lockdown skeptics that death was something that happened to other people. The analysis is utter nonsense.

The statistics were valuable as a way of understanding who was at risk. You see, every action in life is a tradeoff. While Ward self-righteously tells the reader about the thankfully very few who died with the virus, others less emotive in thought recognized that it would be tragic to put so much of the worlds population out of work and in desperate poverty in response to a virus that by Wards own admission was largely lethal to a very small percentage of the elderly population. While Wards wraps himself in deep concern for the very old, others like your reviewer pointed out that as the developed world took a break from reality, the U.N.s World Food Program reported that 135 million around the world were rushing toward starvation as a consequence of the lockdowns that halted so much economic activity that so much of the world is reliant on in order to live. Notable about the previous number is that theNew York Times(surely no friend of the lockdown skeptics) upped the number facing starvation to 285 million. Yet Ward is the saint? Is he serious?

Back to the contradictory nature of his questionable analysis, we can return to the immortalists on whom Ward heaps such ridicule. Without defending some of their fringe members for even a second, Ward notes that Many of them went underground in response to the spreading virus, which was a necessary measure to increase their chances of living forever. Ward adds that Meetups [of immortalists] were canceled, in-person conferences moved online, which was and is the point. Its the one lockdown skeptics have made from day one: People do not need to be forced to avoid sickness or death. Theyre wired to strive mightily to avoid what might hurt them. In Wards words, survival is one of humanitys strongest instincts.Precisely. Force from the political class was superfluous.

All of which speaks to just how much the always political Ward wrote a book that has sadly not enough to do with its title. Readers expecting actual reporting on real attempts to improve medicine should look elsewhere. Though the title of Wards book gives the impression of major efforts to achieve impressive medical leaps, politics always gets in the way. Ward has views about the coronavirus, about billionaires, about wealth in general, and about the kind of people on the fringe of the immortalist movement. Thats what his book is largely about.

Which meansThe Price of Immortalityis in so many ways a deceptive title. Peter Wards readers deserve better, his subject deservesmuchbetter, plus the publisher should respect his readers more.

John Tamny, research fellow of AIER, is editor of RealClearMarkets.

His book on current ideological trends is: They Are Both Wrong (AIER, 2019)

Read the original post:
Book Review: Peter Wards The Price of Immortality | AIER

Dear Editor

While the revival of interest in Ivan Illichs work is welcome, there is a danger that only the parts endorsed by the medical world get incorporated into the discussion. As David Horrobin (1) pointed out at the time, Illichs critique of medical practice depended heavily on material produced by the profession itself about unnecessary surgery, inappropriate prescription and treatments that lacked a real evidence base.

The genuine radicalism of Illichs work lay in the wider questions he raised about the social and cultural damage that was resulting from what others were already calling medical imperialism. The management of the Covid pandemic in many countries should have reminded us of these concerns. Illich was critical of the way in which biomedicine had promoted the idea that a good society was defined purely by the health of its people in terms defined largely by the medical profession. The result was a culture that was losing its capacity to deal with the inevitability of pain, suffering and death. There is abundant evidence of both phenomena in the ways in which the collateral societal harms of pandemic management have been dismissed as unworthy of consideration and the cult of zero-infection has skewed debates over NPIs and childhood vaccination.

As Rene Dubos (2), for example, saw, health and illness are moments in evolutionary time, where the continual adjustments between humans and other species reach a particular balance. Sometimes we can dampen the fluctuating fortunes of humans and their commensals but often we cannot. If we forget this, then, as Illich saw, the result is an unbalanced society, where medical authority displaces other desirable features, like the rule of law, and citizens suffer from biomedicines implied promise of immortality.

Illich did not have the last word on many of these issues and his approach reflects his Jesuit past in ways that others would, and did, contest. Nevertheless, the questions that he asked have taken on a new relevance as we reflect on what went right and wrong with pandemic management. This should be the real reason to revive interest in his work.

Robert Dingwall

1.Horrobin DF. Medical hubris: a reply to Ivan Illich. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1978.2.Dubos R. Mirage of Health: Utopias, Progress and Biological Change. New York: Harper & Row; 1959.

Continued here:
More to Illich than Overtreatment - The BMJ

Polosko Monastery of St George Communion of the Apostles - Wikimedia image

Sunday 18 June 2022

The 'culture wars' as they are often called in American Catholicism at the moment, often centre around sharp, hard positions on issues like abortion, but also the reception and other practices surrounding the Holy Eucharist. This has included the formal banning from communion of Catholic politicians whom the bishops suggest are not upholding Church teaching! It matters not, it seems, that the Pope urges us all to get away from 'narrow' legalism and look at a far more pastoral and generous approach to things in general! Yes, by all means we must uphold good, strong, enriching and life-giving teaching, but never in a way that makes of us judges (something the Lord tells us to avoid). Therefore this great feast of the Holy Body and Holy Blood might be a very opportune moment to both examine our consciences and dive deeper into a living theology, spirituality and experience, contained in the wiser and wider purview of the whole meaning of the feast.

My first stop on this small journey is to pick up two phrases from Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, part of which forms our second reading: we start with this: 'For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you'(I Cor 11: 23) This is a small phrase that needs exploration, because here in an almost give away sentence, is the rich theology of what we call the 'tradition' of the Church, the constant handing on of the living theology and presence of Christ found in the gifts first offered by Christ to us. In another latin phrase we can call it an part of the 'Lex Orandi', that living vibrant ( never static) dynamic of our faith found in the actual celebration of sacrament, liturgy and prayer, of which the Holy Eucharist is the primary liturgical celebration!

It is also a reminder that the feast is about our celebration of the Eucharist and of its meaning for us in every nuance, not simply a focus on the 'reserved sacrament', which is after all a derivative of our activity as celebrants together. Ask yourself this; "by receiving communion in this Eucharistic Liturgy what am I doing?' When I receive the Holy Body and Blood, and the words 'the Body of Christ' and 'the Blood of Christ' are said as these gifts are offered what do I actually mean by responding 'Amen'?

The key is all in that word communion and is never a simple, individual alliance with the Lord Jesus, it is dynamic, and open to all, for you and me are part of that living Body of Christ where we strengthen our relationship with Him and the living icons of His presence, by reception of that gift which draws us both inwards and pushes us outwards, to serve for Him in the world NOW! It's worth a real long reflection.

The second passage gives us three thoughts, about behaviour, reception and also outreach.

'For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup'. (I Cor 11:26-28)

Take it like this; firstly, implicit in every celebration of the Eucharist is the fact the we, the Body of Christ, are not only proclaiming the memory and entering into the 'kairos' of his sacrifice and risen life, but through the gift of the Spirit are also accepting by taking and eating, drinking, the offer of loving forgiveness and reconciliation found in these simple gifts. So why then use communion as a weapon? It is a medicine and food of immortality, we have no right to judge a neighbours heart, leave that to Christ.

Secondly Paul is beating a drum about destiny, Eucharist, Communion, all we do is not an end in itself, we are also 'waiting for the Lord until he comes' and that means a real Christian view on the nature of this earth, its concern and care for all on it and our communion in Christ made flesh with this little home. To receive the Eucharist in the communion of bread and cup (yes the fullness of the offer to us is the invitation to accept BOTH bread and cup) is also to accept that all nature is blessed and sacred and we are in communion with it.

Thirdly there is a judgement we must make on ourselves, NOT on one another. In all the years of my ministry as a priest in both the Latin and Byzantine Catholic tradition I have never ever turned away a person from the reception of communion, and I never will, for I have no knowledge of what happened or happens between them, their conscience, and God in those moments of prayer, acclamation and procession to receive the gifts! I may create a greater and more pernicious scandal by my open aggression and refusal to allow someone to approach the Christ. Paul reminds us it is 'I' who need to examine myself, not point a finger at another, so as you celebrate Mass as a community and process to recieve communion, look at yourself, not at any other!

So for all who celebrate the 'Fete Dieu ' as they call it in France, enjoy the richness, the depth and the joy of this festival, and embrace the gift of the Spirit in this wonderful and enriching theology of our relationship with the `Lord `Jesus in the simplicity of human life and the matter understood in this heavenly food so earthly bound!

Lectio

Preparing for Communion

Saint John ChrysotomI am not sufficient, O Master and Lord, that Thou shouldest enter under the roof of my soul; but as Thou dost will as the Lover of mankind to dwell in me, I dare to approach Thee. Thou commandest: I shall open the doors which Thou alone didst create, that Thou mayest enter with Thy love for mankind, as is Thy nature, that Thou mayest enter and enlighten my darkened thought. I believe that Thou wilt do this, for Thou didst not drive away the sinful woman when she came unto Thee with tears, neither didst Thou reject the publican who repented, nor didst Thou spurn the thief who acknowledged Thy kingdom, nor didst Thou leave the repentant persecutor to himself; but all of them that came unto Thee in repentance Thou didst number among Thy friends, O Thou Who alone art blessed, always, now and unto endless ages. Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom "How to work out in ourselves such a purity that will make us capable of receiving Communion, and through that Communion to unite with God? I think the question has to be turned around. Only our ties with God can create such a purity. We cannot, in our corruption, cleanse ourselves and then, being a clean vessel, receive God. The Apostle Paul says that we carry holiness in earthen vessels. The vessel is not fit for what is in it. And we cannot first prepare a worthy vessel and then receive in it the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But we can come to God and openly say to Him: 'Lord, come! Lord, flow into me! Unite me with Thyself! I know that I am not worthy, but be Thou like fire which burns away the thorns [of sin and imperfection], not as fire that will burn me away completely in the horror of hell.' And this is something that happens gradually.

If you waited to unite with the Holy Gifts till you became worthy, no one would be able to do it. For a start, one would have to say to the person who says 'Today I shall go to Communion because I am worthy', - 'Oh, no! Not today, because you are puffed with pride or else have lost your senses! More likely than not, lost your senses.' What else could one say? If a person comes forward and says 'I am totally unworthy, but Thou became Man in order to save me' - that is possible."

-Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh, taken from his book Coming Closer to Christ: Confession and Forgiveness

Pope Francis

Angelus

Corpus Christi 2021

"In the Eucharist fragility is strength: the strength of the love that becomes small so as to be welcomed and not feared; the strength of the love that is broken and shared so as to nourish and give life; the strength of the love that is split apart so as to join us in unity,"

See the rest here:
Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ | ICN - Independent Catholic News

ATHENS, Ga. The name, Kelee Ringo, is on the website. The image, Ringo poised to make the play that would seal his name forever in Georgia football history, is on the right side of the shirt, which you can buy for $24.99. That wouldnt have been possible a year ago, before college football players were allowed to join the capitalist market.

But in the case of Ringo, it goes a bit deeper than that. The real meaning can be divined by scrolling further down the page, to the option to buy a different T-shirt: Pink, with his name on it, and the pink ribbon signifying breast cancer awareness.

Ringos mother, Tralee Hale, has had a very public battle with breast cancer. When her son sealed Georgias national championship win with a pick-six they did what most anyone in their position would do, but could not until the past year: They capitalized on the moment, literally and figuratively, and used proceeds towards not only Hales medical care, but breast cancer awareness in general.

Yes, sir. We actually fundraised off battling breast cancer, Ringo said. It was a huge thing that we were able to help Bulldogs battling breast cancer, especially folks going through the same thing my mother did.

Ringo signed autographs at a collection show in March. And there were also the T-shirts, which include one that says Team Tralee over an outline of the state of Georgia, with pink and black lines through it. Hale and Ringo posed with a check for $165,000 that was donated by Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer to the foundation at St. Marys Hospital in Athens, where Hale had her latest round of surgeries in March.

A good amount, Ringo said when asked how much they had raised since the national championship and off his pick-six. I feel like that specific play definitely brought a lot of attention to us. But just being able to be humble about the situation, and taking things in, definitely helped us in the long run.

Ringos play became many things. A personal story about helping his mother and her cause. A national story about what NIL rights were supposed to be about. And the moment has become, and probably will stay, one of the top moments in Georgia football history.

Whatever Kelee Ringo does the rest of his football career, or really in his life, he now has something that will be forever remembered. Only a few people know what thats like. Lindsay Scott is one.

Run, Lindsay, Run. It became the most indelible moment from the previous Georgia national championship season. A book (by Robbie Burns in 2010) called it the greatest moment in Georgia football history: Georgia trailed 21-20 in the waning moments against Florida, and was at its own 7-yard line, when quarterback Buck Belue scrambled and found Scott at the 20, and then he outran the Florida defense as Larry Munson simultaneously described it and cheered:

Run Lindsay! 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, Lindsay Scott, Lindsay Scott, Lindsay Scott!

Less than a minute later, Munson proclaimed: Man, there is going to be some property destroyed tonight, which Kirby Smart harkened back to after this past seasons national championship: Theres going to be some property destroyed tonight in Indianapolis!

Munsons call became so indelible that it overshadowed whatever was said by the ABC play-by-play announcer. That man, Al Michaels, would have to settle for a memorable call in a certain hockey game earlier that year.

Scott went on to be a first-round pick, going 13th overall to the New Orleans Saints in the 1982 NFL Draft. He played four seasons, catching 69 passes and one touchdown. He has since spoken publicly about off-field problems, but positively about the impact that play has had on his life.

Look, Ive had some ups and downs in my life. But that game and that moment and winning a national championship with that group of guys is a ray of light for me, Scott told the SEC Networks Tony Barnhart in 2019. That fact that 40 years have passed and we still enjoy thinking about it is something really special. I will never get tired of it.

Belue, now an Atlanta radio host, was Scotts roommate on the road and remembered talking to him the night before about how frustrated Scott was about his lack of production. He didnt have a touchdown to date that season. That changed the next afternoon.

At the time you dont realize the impact, Belue said this month. We didnt realize until we got back early in the week, when we started hearing the Munson replay on Monday or Tuesday, it sort of sinks in then that Hey, youre part of Georgia history now. I think its a great example of how quickly things can change.

The parallels between Scott and Ringos touchdown arent perfect: The latter was in the actual national championship game, the former wasnt. But without Scotts touchdown Georgia almost certainly doesnt win that game, and thus almost certainly doesnt win the national title. Ringos pick-six, as electric a play as it was, only clinched the game and the national championship; Georgia was still sitting on an eight-point lead with more than a minute left before Alabama quarterback Bryce Youngs errant pass floated into Ringos hands.

There were other huge, game-turning moments in that game, all arguably more important: Stetson Bennetts 40-yard touchdown pass to AD Mitchell, which put Georgia ahead 19-18. Bennetts 15-yard touchdown pass to Brock Bowers on the subsequent drive, which came on third-and-1, so it was arguably the difference between a four-point and eight-point lead. And a number of other defensive plays down the stretch, such as William Pooles pass breakup on third down, forcing Alabama to punt down 19-18.

I dont think that play won the game, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. I know people would beg to differ, but I would argue the offensive drive prior to that did a lot to help that. I would argue that a lot of the plays made in the red area did that. I never look at games and say one play did it because its not that way. There were so many plays made in that game that you could point that to.

But the Ringo pick-six is the play that Georgia fans have latched onto, the play that spawned countless reaction videos. Belue was at an autograph show this summer and saw paintings and photographs of Ringos play.

It opens your eyes to how big that play was, or how large it will be remembered as one of the great plays in Georgia history, Belue said. I think it parallels sort of the same thing that Lindsay did.

There is another eerie, overlooked similarity between the two plays: Ringo caught the ball at the Georgia 21-yard line. Scott caught the ball at the Georgia 21. (Ringo was a bit closer to the 22, Scott was a bit closer to the 20.)

The goal now for Ringo is not to be forever known only for that play. Alabama receiver DeVonta Smith was a freshman when he caught the pass on second-and-26, and thats almost a footnote to what became a Heisman career. (The sad downside to that play was that ended up being the final one for Georgia safety Dominick Sanders, who otherwise had a great and record-breaking college career.) Ringo, meanwhile, has the tools to keep producing at a very high level. A former five-star prospect, hes already being mentioned as a possible high first-round pick whenever he enters the NFL Draft. Which is why Smart has perhaps downplayed The Play, and pushed Ringo to keep working, including on his tackling ability.

He can let that play live in infamy, or he can decide to make a lot of those plays, go be a great player and go make money to play in the NFL and develop, Smart said. I think thats the route he is taking.

Thats what Ringo said hes aiming to do: Yes, that was a big play in a big situation, but I feel like, Man, whats next? Its also not mutually exclusive with remembering the play enough in order to capitalize on it. For years college athletes were not legally (at least under NCAA rules) able to do that. The bylaws changed just in time for Ringo, his mother, St. Marys Hospital and everywhere else they choose to focus their energy.

Belue, who has spent some time with both Ringo and his mother, marveled at the mother-son duo.

Shes such a light, he said. Theyre out to do good. We need more of this, these days.

(Top photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

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Georgia CB Kelee Ringo, immortality and an example of why NIL was implemented - The Athletic

Where does he get all those wonderful toys? No we're not talking about Batman, but rather Muse frontman Matt Bellamy who captured the imagination of concertgoers by using a robotic glove to provide musical backing on the band's song "Uprising" at the Isle of Wight Festival on Sunday (June 19).

Muse have continually raised the bar over the years when it comes to their live show, and their often futuristic vibe was only further enhanced when Bellamy emerged from the smoke rising below the stage to show off the glove he was wearing that allowed him to essentially play keyboard notes like typing keys on his glove.

After an intro aptly titled "Behold the Glove" that allowed him to demonstrate and experiment a bit on his new gadget, the band segued into The Resistance-era favorite with Bellamy tapping away on the glove to deliver the Close Encounters-esque opening notes.

Muse have been making the festival rounds over the last month, all in the lead up to the release of their forthcoming Will of the People album. While the glove may have turned a few heads, Muse also served up a number of heavier musical queues throughout the night, owing a nod to the heavier sound their forthcoming album seems to have.

"Hysteria" featured riff nods to AC/DC's "Back in Black" and Rage Against the Machine's "Know Your Enemy." The already heavy "Won't Stand Down" added a bit of Slipknot's "Duality" into the mix. Meanwhile, "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Plug In Baby" featured Jimi Hendrix "Foxey Lady" and Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" riff outros.

Muse's Will of the People arrives Aug. 26 and pre-orders are available here. The band's touring continues this week with festival appearances in Hungary, Denmark and Spain. See all their scheduled tour dates and get ticketing info here.

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Muse's Matt Bellamy Plays a Robot Glove at 2022 Isle of Wight Show - Loudwire