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Bishop on the Moon?


It might sound strange, but in addition to encompassing nine counties and hundreds of cities, the Diocese of Orlando, Florida also has jurisdiction over an otherworldly object: the Moon. Why might you ask? The answer involves an obscure rule from 1917 and the Apollo 11 space mission.

On June 18th, 1968 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Florida was established. It would encompass much of the greater central Florida area, along with Cape Canaveral (We’ll get back to that later). William Donald Borders was ordained the first Bishop of Orlando. One year later, Bishop Borders would also become the first Bishop of the Moon.

The Apollo 11 space mission began with the launch from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969. The mission fulfilled the national goal proposed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth, before this decade is out.” However, when Apollo 11 made its famous flight from Cape Canaveral to ultimately fulfill that goal, they inadvertently made Bishop Borders the first Bishop of the Moon thanks to an obscure rule from the 1917 Code of Canon Law in effect at the time.

Here’s who we think they might be:


NASA is about to name the first eight astronauts ever to fly Boeing and SpaceX’s brand-new spaceships.

The Commercial Crew Program, as it’s called, is a spaceflight competition that NASA started about two years before retiring its space shuttles in July 2011. The goal: ensure NASA astronauts can access the International Space Station and end US reliance on Russia’s increasingly expensive Soyuz spaceships to get there.

Boeing and SpaceX came out on top with their CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon space capsule designs, respectively. Together, the two companies earned about $8 billion in government contracts and awards. Their new ships could be test-launched (without any astronauts inside) by the end of the year.

The July 2018 Rejuvenation Roundup is out!


Another month, another series of great news items for healthy life extension enthusiasts! It’s hard to believe that July is already behind us and, with it, the first Lifespan.io conference in New York City; let’s take a look back and review the past month before diving into the next one.

The Rejuvenation Roundup podcast

Starting this month, the Rejuvenation Roundup is available as a podcast! For this great initiative, we owe our thanks to Ryan O’Shea, the man behind Future Grind—a podcast discussing all things future. Our Vice President Oliver Medvedik has already had the honor to be featured in a previous podcast about life extension, but all the topics that Ryan deals with are absolutely exciting, so we highly recommend checking out the other episodes as well!

If people cannot adapt to future climate temperatures, deaths caused by severe heatwaves will increase dramatically in tropical and subtropical regions, followed closely by Australia, Europe and the United States, a global new Monash-led study shows.

Published today in PLOS Medicine, it is the first global study to predict future heatwave-related deaths and aims to help decision makers in planning adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change.

Researchers developed a model to estimate the number of deaths related to heatwaves in 412 communities across 20 countries for the period of 2031 to 2080.

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Drinking water from wells in rural north central Pennsylvania had low levels of pharmaceuticals, according to a study led by Penn State researchers.

Partnering with volunteers in the University’s Pennsylvania Master Well Owner Network, researchers tested water samples from 26 households with private wells in nine counties in the basin of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. All samples were analyzed for seven over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceuticals: acetaminophen, ampicillin, caffeine, naproxen, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim.

At least one compound was detected at all sites. Ofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole—antibiotics prescribed for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections—were the most frequently detected compounds. Caffeine was detected in approximately half of the samples, while naproxen—an anti-inflammatory drug used for the management of pain, fever and inflammation—was not detected in any samples.

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LG will build its next artificial intelligence (AI) research lab in Toronto, it announced Wednesday.

The South Korean electronics company said the Canadian lab is an extension of its newly expanded Silicon Valley AI Lab in Santa Clara, California. It also has AI labs in South Korea, India and Russia.

“Early implementations of AI in connected devices today are setting the stage for tomorrow’s smart cities, smart homes, smart businesses and smart devices, all with capabilities that no one has even dreamed of yet.” said LG President and Chief Technology Officer Il-pyung Park.

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