The 2011 Google Reading List
Since August of 2011, we’ve been running a special feature on Google+ called “What Are You Reading?” All sorts of people have left their responses, which I’ve taken and entered into a Google Form for everyone to see. Here are some of the relevant statistics: 292 entries since August, not including double entries for individuals who were still reading the same book for several weeks (including myself) George R. R. Martin was the most popular author with 7 entries overall; R. A. Salvatore was a close second with 6 Runner-ups were Anthony Brandt, Jim Butcher, C. J. Cherryh, Larry Correia, Thomas Friedman, Neil Gaiman, Laura Ann Gilman, Mira Grant, Anne McCaffrey, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, and Connie Willis, each of which had 3 entries each The most popular books were That Used to Be Us by Thomas Friedman and The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northeast Passage by Anthony Brandt with 3 entries each The most popular series was A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin 98 books written by women were mentioned; that’s 33.56% of the entries (to be honest, I expected a worse percentage than this) And there you have it. I was going to put up a gallery of the cover images, but that would take so damned long I’m not going to bother. If anyone else wants to take up that project, let me know. Thanks to everyone who told us what you were reading! Here’s to another year of the same thing! Now a question for everyone: How as 2011 as a reading year? Good? Bad? Why? Leave a comment!
Episode 80 — Torture Cinema Meets Rare Exports (Christmas Special)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow6.7–TortureCinemaMeetsRareExports/Sandf–Episode6.7–TortureCinemaMeetsRareExports.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSWe’re back with the last episode of the year. And it’s a special one: a Christmas Special involving a supposedly bad movie and alcohol. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 80 — Download (MP3) Intro and Torture Cinema Meets Rare Exports (0:00 – 36:43) Rare Exports (IMDB) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Guest Post: Getting Rid of the Evidence by Lincoln Crisler
Whether you’re a mercenary in a dystopian future, a hardcore serial killer or the reconnaissance unit of the King’s Army, bodies are a fact of existence. Corpses are a pain in the ass, though. You can’t just leave them lying around. They tend to attract attention. They stink. Worst of all, they may hold incriminating evidence, or prove to your enemies that you were somewhere you’d rather they didn’t know you were. And we can’t have that. So, without further ado, here are the three most unique methods of body disposal I can think of. * PIGS They can eat the whole body, including the bones. Brothers Robert and Donald Duvall beat two hunters to death and fed them to pigs, and the Swine Method kept them out of the slammer for damn near two decades. They were only prosecuted and sentenced after a witness came forward with information. Other such incidents include those involving a father of 50, a man disposed of so his friend could collect his pension and a farmer’s wife. BODY LIQUEFACTION An environmentally-friendly alternative to cremation, the process is described in a BBC article as “submerging the body in a solution of water and potassium hydroxide which is pressurised to 10 atmospheres and heated to 180C for between two-and-a-half and three hours,” after which the remaining bone is crushed in a cremulator, just like the bone fragments left behind by cremation. The liquid remains are to be flushed into the sewer system, which has, understandably, generated controversy for a number of reasons, to include respect for the dead and sanitary concerns. BLACK MARKET ORGAN DONATION It’s not perfect. You have to know how to properly extract the organs, you have to know how to preserve them, and you need access to a trustworthy person who has money and a network. Pulling it off, however, would yield a benefit most methods of corpse disposal do not: a cash payoff. In some countries, organ sale is legal and regulated. In others, there’s merely a healthy black market. The latter folks aren’t likely to ask many questions, since they’re already disposed to such measures as holding people at gunpoint and removing their kidneys after tricking them into thinking they’ve been hired for a construction job. If you have to get rid of a body anyhow, why not make four or five figures in the process? It would certainly leave a smaller mess to clean up through more traditional methods. —————————————————————- * Obviously, if these were completely foolproof, we wouldn’t know they’d been done, but don’t be a wiseass, huh? LINCOLN CRISLER is the author of two short story collections (Despairs & Delights, 2008 and Magick & Misery, 2009) and one novella (WILD, 2011) and the editor of Corrupts Absolutely?, Damnation Books’ forthcoming anthology of dark superhero fiction. His work has appeared in a variety of print and online publications, to include HUB Magazine, Shroud Publishing’s Abominations anthology and IDW‘s forthcoming Robots vs. Zombies anthology. A United States Army combat veteran and non-commissioned officer, Lincoln lives in Augusta, Georgia with his wife and two of his three children. You can contact him at lincoln@lincolncrisler.info.
Flick Bits: First Pics of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus!
Entertainment Weekly has a sneak peek into the much anticipated new Ridley Scott flick, Prometheus (thanks to Stephen Hunt for bringing these to my attention). Here you go: Scott’s film, set for release next June, is the latest addition to the Alien universe/series, which began with Alien in 1979 and continued under James Cameron with the 1986 film Aliens. Prometheus stars Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Idris Elba, Noomi Rapace, and Guy Pearce (among others). IMDB describes the film as follows:
Episode 72 — Torture Cinema Meets Jason X
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow5.9–TortureCinemaMeetsJasonX/Sandf–Episode5.9–TortureCinemaMeetsJasonX.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSYou voted for it, so we have to watch it. Today is our super special Halloween edition of Torture Cinema…and we’re watching Jason X, one of those awful science fiction horror flicks. Thanks, guys. We love you too. But to make things a little more interesting, we’ve decided to start including a little acting into this feature. Every Torture Cinema episode will feature a special one act play, in which we re-enact a scene from the movie in question. Granted, our acting is about as bad as the movies we have to watch, but at least we’re funny, right? We hope you enjoy it! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): (Note: the WordPress.com audio plugin isn’t working and I don’t have time to fix it. Clicking the link below should allow you to stream from the site, though. RSS subscribers will likely see the little audio thing.) Episode 72 — Download (MP3) Intro and Torture Cinema Meets Jason X (0:00 – 35:57) Jason X (IMDB) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Episode 71 — An Interview w/ Diana Rowland
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow5.8–AnInterviewWDianaRowland/Sandf–Episode5.8–InterviewWDianaRowland.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSDiana Rowland, author of My Life as a White Trash Zombie, joins us for a bizarre discussion about zombies, body parts, morgues and their smells, and substance abuse. All related to her fiction, of course. Let’s just say we had a bit of fun together and you all should join in! See the episode below. We hope you enjoy it! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): (Note: the WordPress.com audio plugin isn’t working and I don’t have time to fix it. Clicking the link below should allow you to stream from the site, though. RSS subscribers will likely see the little audio thing.) Episode 71 — Download (MP3) Intro and Interview w/ Diana Rowload (0:00 – 52:32) Diana Rowland’s website (check out her books!) Diana Rowland’s Twitter Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). We’re also currently running a plug for Adventures in Scifi Publishing. That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
