The Last Answer | Thrivenotes The Last Answer by Isaac Asimov — © 1980 Murray Templeton was forty-five years old, in the prime of life, and with all parts of his body in perfect working order except for certain key portions of his coronary arteries, but that was enough. The pain had come suddenly, had mounted to an unbearable peak, and had then ebbed steadily. He could feel his breath slowing and a kind of gathering peace washing over him. There is no pleasure like the absence of pain – immediately after pain. Murray felt an almost giddy lightness as though he were lifting in the air and hovering. He opened his eyes and noted with distant amusement that the others in the room were still agitated. Now, with the pain gone, the others were still hovering, still anxious, still gathered about his fallen body –– Which, he suddenly realised, he was looking down on. He was down there, sprawled, face contorted. He thought: Miracle of miracles! He thought: There should be some angel – or something – coming for me. “Not at all.
Imagine there is a bank… 8:04am | Aug 30th, 2011 “Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. stumble Tumblr The Top 10 Best Science Fiction Books Before the comments fill up with “Why didn’t you include this” and various slights against our personal and professional integrity, this is just a list of ten great science fiction novels, not in order, and by no means the top ten ever produced. ‘Ten of the best’, not ‘the ten best’. That being said, please post up your own favourites, as we’re always looking for new things to read. 10. Heinlein’s elegantly constructed novel evokes some of the finest traditions in science fiction, with a near-future setting on the mongrel colony of Luna, which is preparing its revolution against the tyrannical rule of Earth. 9. | Kindle Edition Card’s seminal novel has been in and out of the news since its release, whether it’s for the long-mooted (and finally killed) idea of a film adaptation, through to the graphic novel version, through to it being a set text at US military academies. 8. 7. | Kindle Edition 6. | Kindle Edition 5. | Kindle Edition 4. | Kindle Edition 3. | Kindle Edition 2. 1. More Top 10s:
Lovesick and Tired: Unnecessary Romance in YA There's nothing wrong with Young Adult romances. After all, first loves and hormones are all part of the teenage experience. However, looking at the last couple of years of YA novels, it seems that romance has shifted from being a genre trend to a genre requirement -- and the genre has suffered for it. I've since come to treat the YA romantic subplot as the pit in the center of the narrative peach -- an awkwardly placed and inevitable annoyance to be endured and avoided while enjoying the otherwise interesting plot. For every one YA novel with a well-integrated and beautiful romantic element, there seem to be three where a romance or, worse, a love triangle is gracelessly shoehorned into a story that neither requires nor develops it. These tropes are particularly noticeable in the subgenres of science fiction, fantasy, and dystopian YA novels, where there's already a "serious plot" that requires the lion's share of the narrative -- leaving little enough room for a romance.
The Happy Couple Cheat Sheet: 15 Steps to a Balanced and Happy Marriage... Posted in Balanced Lifestyle, Balanced Relationships | October 27, 2009 | 27 Comments This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced! The other day my husband and I were talking about our marriage and how happy we are together. It’s not a secret that rates of divorces are rising like crazy all over the world now (in the United States 50% of all marriages end in divorce and in Ukraine the rates are just a little bit lower). Be honest with each other. Here are 5 more rules that do not need any explanation in my opinion. Love each otherRespect each otherSupport each otherUnderstand each otherGive to each other A balanced and happy marriage is not a dream, it is a reality for me. Keep it balanced!
I Like Your Flaws I like how you mispronounce words sometimes, how you fumble and stammer and stutter looking for the right ones to say and the right ways to say them. I appreciate that you find language challenging, because it is, because everything manmade is challenging. Including man, including you. When you sleep on your side, I like to map the constellations between your beauty marks freckles pimples, the minuscule mountains that sprinkle your back. I like the tufts of hair you forgot to shave and the way you smell when you haven’t showered in a while; I like the sleep left in your eyes. I like the way your skin dies in the middle of the night, how you die from embarrassment the next morning; how you writhe in the snake casing you’ve left behind. I enjoy seeing you insecure, vulnerable. The burns, the scars, the black and blues on your face body heart, I want to know their stories. Your flaws single you out, set you apart, make you different from the rest, and thank god.
The Trouble With Atheism | Documentary Heaven | Watch Free Documentaries Online The Trouble with Atheism is an hour-long documentary on atheism, presented by Rod Liddle. It aired on Channel 4 in December 2006. The documentary focuses on criticizing atheism, as well as science, for its perceived similarities to religion, as well as arrogance and intolerance. The programme includes interviews with a number of prominent scientists, including atheists Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne. Liddle begins the documentary by surveying common criticisms of religion, and particularly antireligious arguments based on the prevalence of religious violence. In order to support his thesis, Liddle presents numerous examples of actions and words by atheists which he argues are direct parallels of religious attitudes. He describes Fermilab, a U.S.
The Egg The Egg By: Andy Weir You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. And that’s when you met me. “What… what happened?” “You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. “There was a… a truck and it was skidding…” “Yup,” I said. “I… I died?” “Yup. You looked around. “More or less,” I said. “Are you god?” “Yup,” I replied. “My kids… my wife,” you said. “What about them?” “Will they be all right?” “That’s what I like to see,” I said. You looked at me with fascination. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Oh,” you said. “Neither,” I said. “Ah,” you said. “All religions are right in their own way,” I said. You followed along as we strode through the void. “Nowhere in particular,” I said. “So what’s the point, then?” “Not so!” I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. “Oh lots.
Jonathan Dudley: Christian Faith Requires Accepting Evolution In the evangelical community, the year 2011 has brought a resurgence of debate over evolution. The current issue of Christianity Today asks if genetic discoveries preclude an historical Adam. While BioLogos, the brainchild of NIH director Francis Collins, is seeking to promote theistic evolution among evangelicals, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary recently argued that true Christians should believe the Earth is only a few thousand years old. As someone raised evangelical, I realize anti-evolutionists believe they are defending the Christian tradition. But as a seminary graduate now training to be a medical scientist, I can say that, in reality, they've abandoned it. In theory, if not always in practice, past Christian theologians valued science out of the belief that God created the world scientists study. These beliefs encouraged past Christians to accept the best science of their day, and these beliefs persisted even into the evangelical tradition.
One Hundred Million Seeds of Porcelain Contemplation by Trent Gilliss, senior editor Ai Weiwei holds porcelain seeds from his Unilever installation titled “Sunflower Seeds.” (photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s latest installation at the Tate Modern is an incredible feat: one hundred million hand-painted pieces of porcelain that resemble the shells of sunflower seeds. A close-up view of some of the porcelain husks used in “Sunflower Seeds.” Nothing appears to be what it seems. A girl and her mother sit and toss some of the 100 million porcelain seeds in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London. Where Anton Gormley’s massive humanoid sculptures somehow aid your eye on focusing on the environment in which they’re set, nature strangely becomes the focus.