Many of my friends and acquaintances read SF, but there are a lot of sub-genres and I’ve noticed recently that many people either don’t know of “New Space Opera” or have just discovered it and want help finding more. Since I read as much of it as I can get my hands on, I figured [...]
A “New Space Opera” Reading List
posted by vanessa on October 11th, 2009 under Books
I used to think it was just me. That there was something wrong with me because I couldn’t get organized, couldn’t escape the constant feeling of being overwhelmed and, well, doomed by all the undone “stuff” lurking in the corners of my mind. It didn’t help that my mother was one of the most organized [...]
Jesus Never Killed Anyone
posted by vanessa on April 17th, 2006 under Books, Religious Right
As a practicing Catholic…I believe that Christ never was or claimed to be a Nietzchean ubermensch bent on faith-based genocide. Nor do I believe for a second that he’s going to rapture the Baptist-Evangelical-Pentecostals’ hate-mongering, willfully ignorant, terminally intolerant, gun-toting, gay-bashing, race-baiting, blame-the-poor-for-poverty, I’m-saved-and-you’re-not asses up to heaven. … Sure, we respect their right to [...]
Beautiful Minds, Strange Lives, and Large Hearts
posted by vanessa on July 13th, 2005 under Books, Mathematics
I’ve admired the mathematician Paul Erdös for a long time: for his legendary eccentricity, heroic output, and his groundbreaking work on random graphs. Yet I only recently got around to reading his biography, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers.The most astounding aspect of the story to me was not his odd genious and single-minded—almost manic—pursuit [...]
