"Mortality is an immutable fact of the human condition, but the desire to cheat death has endured for a very long time."

"According to legend and history, Gilgamesh, Chinese emperors and medieval alchemists all tried to attain immortality. The allure is no less profound today, but the modern potions are somewhat more sophisticated and inherently appealing to a wealthy, techno-centric class of people like [Bryan] Johnson. Mr. Johnson, who lives in Los Angeles, is perhaps the best known of a cadre of scientists and influencers known as 'longevity bros.' They obsessively document their attempts to live cleaner and longer, known cuttingly as 'longevity fixation syndrome.'..."

From "He Said He Was the World’s Healthiest Man. Then Came a Stunning Diagnosis. Bryan Johnson, the longevity guru, wants to live forever. But the big question is why" (NYT gift link).

You can read that essay, but I went on to look for more about that Chinese emperor. I found this: "Trying To Live Forever Killed The Creator Of China's 'Forever Army'/Even the Terracotta Army can’t save you from mercury poisoning" (IFL Science): 

The news from Sicily.

1. "American Hiker Dies After Lightning Strike on Mount Etna in Italy/Rescuers found a 29-year-old man in serious condition on the volcano’s eastern slope on Sunday. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Catania" (NYT gift link)("On Monday, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology reported that another volcanic vent had opened in the valley, with fresh lava flowing overnight.... During a volcanic eruption, tiny collisions among the rising particles of ash can create static electricity, which may in turn produce volcanic lightning").

2. "Thieves Steal 4 Renaissance Paintings From Italian Museum in Brazen Heist/The works, by Antonello da Messina, were taken as the Sicilian city of Messina held a religious celebration" (NYT gift link)("The celebration, the Procession of the Vara, is a religious ritual that takes places every Aug. 15. Some 100,000 people attended the celebration and the city’s law enforcement officials were focused on maintaining order there, city officials said....The theft is a blow to the city.... [F]or the past few years the city has focused on the 'Messina, City of Antonello' brand...).

3. The Procession of the Vara:

Can tourists run?

The scene on Mount Etna yesterday:

Tourists and guides run for their lives when Mount Etna suddenly erupts pic.twitter.com/HKhTiUCuUe

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 3, 2025

What am I looking at? Are these people running for their life? Are they running fast enough?

Here's "An Eruption at Mount Etna Sends Hikers Scrambling for Cover/Videos circulating on social media showed visitors rushing to descend the mountain as volcanic plumes rose overhead" (NYT).

In recent years, authorities have struggled to control imprudent visitors who failed to appreciate the risks of getting a close look at the island’s most prominent landmark. Mount Etna, a stratovolcano, or a conical volcano with relatively steep sides, shows almost continuous activity from its main craters and relatively frequent lava flows from craters and fissures along its sides..... Hannah and Charlie Camper, a couple from England, were... aware of previous eruptions but thought they would be “completely fine,” since “it’s active all the time”.... 

Apparently, all the tourists were completely fine yesterday. 

"The phrase cold lava is a translation of the term 'lahar' in Indonesian and Tagalog. Temperatures range between 0°C and 100°C..."

"... according to how they are formed, but are typically below 50°C [122°F], according to several academic reports on the phenomenon. A moving lahar resembles a 'roiling slurry of wet concrete' that can grow in volume as it incorporates other debris in its path, said the US Geological Survey."

From "'Cold lava' sweeps villages near volcano, killing 41" (BBC)("I heard the thunder and the sound similar to boiling water. It was the sound of big rocks falling from Mount Marapi").

"The mountain exploded. Wow, it was horrible. There were rains of rocks. Twice. The second one was really heavy, even the houses far away were also hit."

Said a 95-year-old woman in Tagulandang.

Quoted in "Indonesia volcano eruption spreads ash to Malaysia and shuts airports/"Ships evacuating 12,000 islanders over fears that side of Mount Ruang might slide into sea and cause tsunami" (The Guardian).

Here are 8 TikToks to delight or vex you. Let me know what you think.

 1. "Ever since I was told that corn was real, it tasted good."

2. Yes, there is a burger bra. The question is what to wear with it.

3. For the European person — the coolest places in America.

4. Mr. Jeff's Musical Gizmos is open. 

5. Do you know the song my recently departed mother loved?

6. Getting searched at the San Francisco airport. (This can't be real, can it?)

7. Approaching the volcano in Iceland.

8. Glen Campbell and Leon Russell play "Jambalaya."

"We know we can’t say, ‘Stay away.’ We are not locking the place."

Said Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, a spokeswoman for Iceland’s civil protection agency, quoted in "Three Tourists Are Injured Near Volcanic Eruption in Iceland/The injuries were not serious, but they underscored the risks facing tourists who hike to the Fagradalsfjall volcano in southwest Iceland, officials said" (NYT).

The eruption site “is a dangerous area and conditions can change quickly,” the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said in a statement on Thursday. It warned that toxic gas can accumulate when the wind decreases, that new lava fountains can open with little warning and that accumulating lava can flow quickly across the ground.

"The violent eruption of Tonga's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano injected an unprecedented amount of water directly into the stratosphere — and the vapor will stay there for years, likely affecting the Earth's climate patterns..."

"... NASA scientists say. The massive amount of water vapor is roughly 10% of the normal amount of vapor found in the stratosphere, equaling more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.... Earlier large volcanic eruptions have affected climate, but they usually cool temperatures, because they send light-scattering aerosols into the stratosphere. Those aerosols act as a sort of massive layer of sunscreen. But since water vapor traps heat, the Tongan eruption could temporarily raise temperatures a bit, the researchers said. It normally takes around 2-3 years for sulfate aerosols from volcanoes to fall out of the stratosphere. But the water from the Jan. 15 eruption could take 5-10 years to fully dissipate. Given that timeframe and the extraordinary amount of water involved, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai 'may be the first volcanic eruption observed to impact climate not through surface cooling caused by volcanic sulfate aerosols, but rather through surface warming,' the researchers said in their paper...."

NPR reports, in "Tonga's volcano sent tons of water into the stratosphere. That could warm the Earth."

"PICTURED: Horrific injuries of selfie-taking US tourist, 23, who toppled into Mount Vesuvius as he tried to retrieve his phone when it fell into the volcano."

 Headline at The Daily Mail.

Philip Carroll, 23, of Maryland was hiking with family members on a forbidden trail up the notorious Mount Vesuvius/At the 4,000-foot summit he stopped to take a selfie to memorialize his achievement/Carroll lost his grip on his cellphone and it landed a few meters inside the lip of the crater....

'He tried to recover it, but slipped and slid a few meters into the crater. He managed to stop his fall, but at that point he was stuck.... He was very lucky. If he kept going, he would have plunged 300 meters into the crater.'...

There's something very grand about Vesuvius, and he didn't die, so we hear about it. But how many people a year die from falling while trying to "memorialize the achievement" of climbing to some high position by taking a selfie?

I think the typical selfie death fall involves turning your back to the edge of a precipice and then taking a step backward or leaning or posing and losing balance. But this was a case of dropping the phone and grabbing at it. Mega-stupid. But he doesn't even get a Darwin Award!

Speaking of volcanoes....

 ... a new movie:

"Just hours after the Spanish island of La Palma rumbled and the volcano erupted, a theory about its wider repercussions began to gain strength, again."

"And despite the fact that the authorities, professionals, the Instituto Vulcanológico de Canarias and geologists from the National Geographical Institute deny it, the aftershocks of these claims continue to be felt.... According to the theory, if the island were to split in two, it would create a wall of water that would reach the coast of Portugal and southwestern Spain, which both lie to the north east. The waves could be up to 25 meters high, and would even cause damage to the south of England further north and then to the west they would reach the North American coast, as well as 'destroy the West African coast with waves of up to 100 meters,' according to the research."

AS reports.

"The much-feared volcano roared back into life on Saturday, spewing two rivers of lava over the next day that have claimed 32 lives and left around 20,000 homeless...."

"The evacuation order comes on the heels of a warning by the Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG), which monitors the pulse of Nyiragongo and the Nyamuragira volcano, 13 kilometres (nine miles) away.... In the first two scenarios, Nyiragongo would erupt again, sending renewed lava flows southwards towards Goma and Gisenyi, destroying buildings in their path before reaching Lake Kivu.... But in the worst-case scenario, lava flows from Nyiragongo would combine with volcanic activity under the floor of the lake... In this scenario, 'a limnic eruption would take place and dissolved gas in the lake's deep water would rise to the surface, especially CO2, asphyxiating all living beings around Lake Kivu on the Congolese and Rwandan side.'"

From "'Limnic eruption': DR Congo's volcano nightmare" (France 24).

"Hello coneheads🌋!"

Just one comment at the live feed "Volcanic eruption in Iceland!" 

Icelandicness.

The most Icelandic video you will see today 🇮🇸pic.twitter.com/YBAaDoJ3il

— Scott Duncan (@ScottDuncanWX) March 28, 2021

What's up with Marco Rubio?

6 minutes ago:

A voice proclaims:In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up,every mountain and hill made low;The rugged land shall be a plain,the rough country, a broad valley.

Isaiah 40: 3-4

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 10, 2019

Is this about that volcano in New Zealand? The impeachment? Something I haven't noticed yet? Some bad dreams? Tell me, Marco!

ADDED: Is he just getting ready for Christmas?

OR: Is this about the Senate prepping for the impeachment trial? Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God... their god being Trump, the wasteland being Congress, and the highway being an appropriate set of procedures for conducting the trial?

"Krakatoa volcano erupts in Indonesia before 'causing tsunami'. Scientists believe the full moon strengthened the rush of water sent crashing into land after the eruption."

Caption to one of the many photographs at "More than 220 dead as tsunami strikes Indonesia: Giant wave wipes out pop concert killing two band members as hundreds are injured and villages destroyed after Krakatoa volcano erupts" (Daily Mail).

Lava.

"It sounded like there were rocks in a dryer that were being tumbled around. You could hear the power it of it pushing out of the ground."

From "Hawaii’s Kilauea erupts. Evacuations underway as lava threatens communities" (WaPo).

"Indonesia closed the airport on the tourist island of Bali on Monday and ordered 100,000 residents living near a rumbling volcano spewing columns of ash to evacuate immediately..."

"... warning that the first major eruption in 54 years could be 'imminent.' The airport was closed for 24 hours from Monday morning, disrupting 445 flights and some 59,000 passengers, after Mount Agung, which killed hundreds of people in 1963, sent volcanic ash high into the sky, and officials said cancellations could be extended."

Reports Al Jazeera (which I chose from among several options for this story because it had the best photographs).

The news from Yellowstone.

1. Mapping what's underground: "This is really kind of a last frontier if you will, in Yellowstone, of being able to look at a large part that’s underground that people have not looked at.... There’s just a lot we don’t know, and this survey is really exciting because it’s going to be the first view of a large portion of the groundwater system, of the water underground that feeds all of these thermal features."

2. Getting closer to taking grizzly bears of the Endangered Species List: "At that time, there were approximately 136 bears in Yellowstone. Today, officials estimate that there are more than 700 bears.... [Yellowstone superintendent Dan] Wenk says, if the grizzly populations shrink, it could threaten Yellowstone tourism. While hunters cannot pursue grizzlies on national park land, hunting could be allowed just outside of the parks, and therefore impact the grizzlies that live in or near Yellowstone and other national parks such as the Grand Teton National Park."

3. A 23-year-old man who fell into a hot spring not only died — his body dissolved overnight: "An Oregon man who died after falling into a scalding Yellowstone National Park hot spring in June was looking for a place to 'hot pot,' the forbidden practice of soaking in one of the park's thermal features, officials said. Sable Scott told investigators that she and her 23-year-old brother, Colin, left a boardwalk near Pork Chop Geyser.... As Sable Scott took video of her brother with her cellphone on June 7, he reached down to check the water temperature and slipped and fell into a thermal pool about 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 10 feet deep.... Search and rescue rangers spotted Colin Scott's body floating in the pool the day of the accident, but a lightning storm prevented recovery, the report said. The next day, workers could not find any remains in the boiling, acidic water. 'In very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving,' said [Deputy Chief Ranger Lorant Veress]."