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Everybody (well, everybody who reads sf/fantasy) has their favorite novels in each genre...which are usually a bunch of other people's favorite novels as well. This only makes sense, since cream rises to the top. But even so, there are plenty of obscure books that for whatever reason, never really caught on. They might well be great reads, but no one seems to have heard of them...so what's your favorite sf and fantasy novel that still lies in not-so-deserved obscurity? With any luck, we'll all discover a bunch of great books that we've never heard of before! I'll start off with...

Determining which restaurants in the nation offer the steepest prices is a tricky task. Most of the restaurants on this list serve the rarest, most premium, and freshest ingredients available, from kitchens run by chefs with expert levels of craftsmanship and artistry, in dining rooms with an exceptional quality of service provided by the front of house staff. But regardless of the justifications, the fact remains that the restaurants on this list are outrageously pricey. To arrive at the top 25 we compiled a list of restaurants commonly known for being outrageously expensive (such as Masa, which is known for...

Three members of a self-styled "Muslim Patrol" vigilante group have been jailed for harassing, intimidating and assaulting people on the streets of east London while claiming they were enforcing sharia law. A judge at the Old Bailey had heard that Jordan Horner, 19, Ricardo MacFarlane, 26, and a 23-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons, had terrorised a couple for walking through Bethnal Green holding hands, told a woman in Stepney that she would be punished in "hellfire" because of the way she was dressed, and attacked a group of men who were drinking in Shoreditch. Horner –...

A 51-year-old farmer in the U.K. has been jailed for 30 months after his wife notified police that he was in possession of two unlicensed guns following an argument between the couple. However, as reported by Mail Online, one of the farmer’s firearms was a bizarre homemade gun constructed from the barrel of an air rifle and bits of wood, belts and plastic tags. The gun, described as a Heath Robinson-like contraption, is capable of firing “mushrooming” .22-caliber ammunition. Paul Alton told authorities that the gun was given to him four or five years ago by his uncle who had...

One of the things that makes science fiction so popular is that it means many things to many people. Some people will insist that they are not even reading science fiction when they read a Star Wars novel or a novel dealing with alternate history. That is what makes Sci-Fi so wonderful! It’s easy to love and difficult to define. What other genre has so many sub-genres? You have hard Sci-fi, often times written by people who actually were scientists. There’s Cyber Punk, adventurous Space Opera, Military Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Steam Punk, and even Space Westerns. Something for almost everybody!...

“Nearly 1,000 people have been charged under the NY Safe Act in the eight months since the tougher gun control law was passed, according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services,” syracuse.com reports. “Nearly 90 percent were accused of a crime that pre-dates the new act – including having a sawed-off long gun or an unregistered pistol – but was elevated to a felony when the Safe Act went on the books Jan. 15. The arrests dealing with the more controversial portions of the Safe Act, including possession of a large capacity magazine or a newly defined ‘assault weapon,’...

Cher told her fans on Wednesday that she does not celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, she appears to deplore the American holiday, calling in the “beginning of a great crime.” Cher said that the American settlers were guilty of taking land from native Americans who had no concept of property ownership and also intentionally infected them with smallpox. “You don’t celebrate the holiday I thought?” a fan asked Cher. “I DON’T,” Cher replied emphatically. She said that, to her, Thanksgiving is a day to see family, eat food together and watch a movie. “Not 2 celebrate the beginning of a GREAT...

When a women goes swimming, as the word for sea is masculine, when "the water touches the woman's private parts, she becomes an 'adulteress' and should be punished." — Summary of Al Ahzar Fatwa Committee, reported in Al Masry Al Youm Meanwhile the Salafis -- who, in the light of the Bortherhood's ouster have become Islam's standard bearers there -- continue successfully to push for strict interpretations of Sharia law in Egypt's new constitution. As the full ramification of the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power continues to be exposed, a new study by Al Azhar's Fatwa Committee dedicated to exploring...

The writing was on the wall. As the deadline approached, there seemed little doubt that the latest recall effort would gather the needed signatures to qualify for a vote. That left Centennial State Dems with two options: 1) let the vote happen and risk a third defeat along with the loss of control of the state senate or, 2) kick the social media maven to the curb, allowing Governor Hickenlooper to appoint another Democrat to the seat. Now, according to denverpost.com, they’ve chosen door number two . . . “By resigning I am protecting these important new laws for the...

New York’s SAFE Act is a bad, bad thing. It requires people to register, sell or transfer (out of state) “assault rifles” and “high capacity” magazines. Many Empire State gun and standard capacity ammunition magazine owners have complied. Many have not. So, at some point, the State’s gonna go get ‘em. People on both sides of the law enforcement divide will die and the s will hit the fan. Meanwhile, there it is: the reason why expanded background checks, indeed all background checks and any type of registration, set the stage for confiscation. And tyranny.

<p>A statuette of a bird featured in the classic 1941 detective thriller "The Maltese Falcon" sold for more than $4 million at auction Monday.</p> <p>The final price on the 45-pound, 12-inch-tall prop was $4,085,000, according to Bonhams auction house. That includes Bonham's premium.</p>

New Jersey Measure Would Require That Pistols Be Operable Only by Specific Users A law that injects technology into the gun debate has lain dormant for more than 10 years. Now it may be about to wake up. In 2002, New Jersey passed a law saying that once technology is available to prevent a gun from being used by an unauthorized person, only that type of handgun may be sold in the state. Now, a German company, Armatix GmbH, is close to putting the first such "personalized" handgun on U.S. shelves. The model, called the iP1 Pistol, can be set...

Religion is one of the most divisive forces in the world's history. Maps of War is a website that creates fascinating visuals of the world to show how movements spread, wars begin and civilizations fall. They have turned their expertise to religion, focusing on five major faiths to see how they have spread and how wars have determined the influence and stronghold of various religions in a 90-second video. Beginning with the birth of Krishna, the time-lapse video covers 5,000 years of religion. The map slows down for the births of key religious figures and major wars, showing the decline...

When I first saw this, I thought it was a troll — someone who knew enough about gun owners to get their blood boiling and have a good laugh. But the more I read, the more I’m not sure. I mean, it might still be someone trolling the gun owners, but this reads like a wish list of proposals that we’ve already heard from organizations like the Brady Campaign and Moms Demand Action, and fits in nicely with their agendas. And the guy that wrote it did an AMA on Reddit not too long ago and appeared to genuinely want...

Angry Twitter users are firing back at Melissa Bachman after a photo of the huntress posing with a recently killed lion went viral. Bachman, who stars in the hunting show “Deadly Passion” on the specialty network Pursuit Channel, found herself the target of vicious death wishes and obscenity-laced insults on Monday as critics on Twitter, YouTube and other social networks blasted the Minnesotan for her boastful hunting escapades. The photo in question, posted to her Facebook page on Nov. 1, shows a smiling Bachman posing with a rifle as a lion carcass lies in the dirt beneath her. “An...

A lot of people around the world have ideas of what America is like, possibly thanks to Hollywood, or their local news channels, and maybe from what they’ve heard from families and friends. But then, they came here, to the grand old United States and their minds exploded.

This photo is one of many in the World Press Photo Contest of 2012. Straight out of Orwell's "1984". It shows a picture of North Korea's founder, Kim Il-sung, decorating a building in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

It would appear that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) website - required when purchasing a gun or explosive - is capable of handling large volumes of users...

A student from a Christian university in Oregon ditched the privacy of the confessional and went public about his faith, writing in the school newspaper: "I am an atheist. Yes, you read that correctly, I am an atheist." Eric Fromm, 21, a senior at Northwest Christian University in Eugene published his thoughts about not believing in God in the Beacon Bolt, the student-run online newspaper -- despite the fact that his university is a Christian school. Although Fromm didn't share the religious beliefs as the school, he said in his post he decided to enroll because Northwest Christian had a...

In Massachusetts, things aren’t looking very rosy for civil liberties. Already suffering under a “high capacity” magazine ban and other draconian firearms restrictions, some lawmakers don’t feel they haven’t gone far enough toward preventing another Newtown. While there’s already a “safe storage” law on the books, Swampscott Selectman Barry Greenfield believes police should go door-to-door to inspect the gun collections of his town’s residents—to see if they’re in compliance with the law. Apparently Barry isn’t familiar with the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Or maybe he feels like when it comes to guns, the word “unreasonable” has...