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From Animal Planet

Not out-of-space but spaced-out

For years people blamed the strange crop circles in cornfields found around the world on aliens visiting our planet. But what Australian officials now say causes the patterns found in Australia might be even more bizarre:wallabies high on opium.

An Australian government official told BBC that the marsupials are eating opium poppies and get “as high as a kite.” Presumably the drugs make them hop around in circles, creating the mysterious patterns found in farmland down under.

Australia produces 50% of the legally grown opium intended for medicine such as morphine. The problem, however, is that animals get into the fields and eat the poppies. Substance-abusing sheep have also been seen behaving unusually.

Are trippy Skippys really responsible for these intricate agricultural designs? Maybe. We will just wait for the videos!

Via BBC News Asia/Pacific Read More

Photo credit: Nancy Nehring/Getty Images

Author: FuzzWolf
In this episode we discuss The Rebel Flesh and read some listener mail.

We will be recording again soon and will have an update next episode regarding our long delay. Sorry about that!

Send feedback to us at E-Mail Hidden

http://WhoFurs.FurPlanet.com

Produced by FurPlanet.com

Find the full article here: FurPlanet Productions – WhoFurs

South Korean scientists have created a glow in the dark dog that apparently has an on and off switch. The genetically modified female beagle named Tegon, glows fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic.

Watch the video here: IBTimes | Published News

Author: E-Mail Hidden
This week on KnotCast, its our 150th episode! Who would have thought we’d have made it this far? We read a whole pile of email on what the fandom is, then give our own opinions for a while. Marvel as Shiva mangles words, Rekkie is silent for an entire episode, and Savrin tells the tale of why he left the Boy Scouts. Fuzz is here too, we guess.

This weeks song is
The Astronomical Astronomer’s Almanac to All Things Astronomy

Don’t forget our coupon code ‘knot’ at AdamEve.com for a great deal.

Episode 150 – OneFiveOH (AAC; 61.4 MB)
Episode 150 – OneFiveOH (MP3; 29.8 MB)

Find the full article here: KnotCast News

The contents of this Podcast may have adult language and adult themes. The content is not produced by Furry News Network, but is posted for your convenience.

Via Animal Planet

A Golden Retriever therapy dog named Rosie, who is trained to help people when they are under stress, has been credited with helping a 15-year-old rape victim manage the courage to testify during an emotionally difficult trial in a New York courtroom. However, the calming effect that Rosie had upon the girl has ignited some interesting controversy and defense attorneys are now arguing that Rosie could have unfairly swayed the jury with her undeniable cuteness. The question could influence whether such dogs-in-courtroom programs spread to other states.

Courtrooms are undoubtedly frightening and intimidating places, especially for victims of violent crime. After all, the victim is testifying about a traumatic experience in front of people who are actively trying to prove that he or she is not telling the truth. Under these circumstances, it’s hard to imagine what could help rape victims feel more comfortable in a courtroom.

That’s where Rosie, and other therapy dogs like her, come into the picture. As reported by theNew York Times, Rosie is the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, who sat in the witness box with a 15-year-old girl who had been raped and impregnated by her father.

Finish reading at Animal Planet

Via Animal Planet

A face only a mother could love.

Minnesotans are befuddled over an unidentified dead mammal that was spotted last week on a country road. The creepy-looking, all-white creature has five claws on its front paws, long toenails and odd dark tufts of hair on its back and has quickly prompted speculation that Minnesota is home to the legendary chupacabra, KSAX-TV reports.

Lacey Ilse was driving close to her near Alexandria, when she first saw the dead carcass.”We saw something in the middle of the road, and we knew it wasn’t a dog or a cat, because it didn’t have hair,” Ilse told KSAX-TV. “It had a clump of hair and all the rest was just white skin. Its ear was all mis-shaped. To me, it looked half-human,”

Chupacabras*, or “goat suckers,” are creatures said to live in Mexico, Puerto Rico and in different parts of the United States and are described as something between a dog and a wolf. Most wildlife experts believe the weird-looking animals are coyotes afflicted with mange, caused by an infection of tiny parasites that results in their hair falling out and leaving them with shriveled skin.

Finish reading at Animal Planet

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Author: Fred

The Saga of Rex, by Michel Gagné
Illustrated by the author
Berkeley, CA, Image Comics, Nov. 2010
Trade paperback $ 17.99 (200 pages)

Michel Gagné is probably better known in animation fandom than in furry fandom. His major credits include animation on the feature films An American Tail and All Dogs Go to Heaven for Don Bluth Studios in the 1980s; on Quest for Camelot, The Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones for Warner Bros. in the 1990s and early 2000s; and on The Incredibles and Ratatouille for Pixar in the 2000s.

Gagné has worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and other TV and video game animation projects. His personal animated short films such as the 1995 Prelude to Eden (video) have often been nominated for the animation industry’s Annie Awards.

In comic books, DC Comics has asked Gagné to write and draw a Batman serial. In 1997, he began self-publishing picture and comic books with his first Rex book, A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex. His books earned Ursa Major Award nominations in 2002, 2005, and 2006, for the colored edition of his firstRex book and for two issues of his comic, ZED.

In 2004 Gagné was invited to create a story for annual comic-book anthology Flight, edited by Kazu Kuibishi and (then) published by Image Comics. Gagné wrote and drew a second story with his fox cub Rex, The Saga of Rex, serialized in Flight #2–7. Now Image Comics has collected the story into a 200-page full-color trade paperback, printed on high-quality paper.

Michel Gagné’s lush and colorful illustrations, combined with cinematic storytelling, have earned The Saga of Rex a worldwide following. For the first time, the complete and unabridged tale originally serialized over a period of seven years in the award-winning anthology, Flight, is now available in all its glory in a single volume. (blurb)

The Saga of Rex is a surrealistic whimsical science fiction tale that is really just an excuse for Gagné’s incredible imaginative graphics. The plot, if you want to call it that, is that the Guardian-Shepherd of the planet Edernia (a godlike being) summons a fleet of Gathering Ships to fly throughout the galaxy and harvest (kidnap) “specimens” to transport into Dream Globes (alternate worlds) where they will serve as hero-champions for Edernia’s metamorphic sentient Blossoms. (Readers who want to find meaning in this are told, “Those secrets have been lost in the catacombs of time.”) Rex, “the adorable little fox” from Earth, becomes the specimen of Aven, a Blossom who comes to love Rex and transforms herself into a sometimes-winged blue foxlike mate for him. I think.

As I said, just forget about plot and lose yourself in Gagné’s scintillating artwork. Rex’s Dream Globe is a wondrous, mysterious world that encompasses whole galaxies. It is full of strange, flowing, usually amorphous life forms, both benign and hostile. Rex rescues and is rescued by alien beings; he passes through trials of water and fire; he dies and is transmogrified into a savior. Basically, The Saga of Rex is 200 pages of mind-blowingly gorgeous semi-abstract s-f artistry. It is not to be missed.

The Saga of Rex is available from Amazon.com, of course, but if you go to Gagné’s own website, Gagné International, you can get an 82-page preview of the 200-page book, plus information and ordering links for Gagné’s other books. (Ed: If you buy direct, you also get a signed copy)

It’s only borderline anthropomorphic, but Gagné’s first Rex book did get enough nominations from furry fans to make the final ballot for the Ursa Major Award (for Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work) in 2002, so many furry fans should enjoy the longer The Saga of Rex even more.

Author: Higgs Raccoon

Bryan Talbot, author of the Grandville steampunk/furry graphic novels, has released the cover and first page of the third volume in the series. [Bleeding Cool]

Featuring a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, Grandville has an allohistorical setting in which France won the Napoleonic Wars and invaded Britain.

Initially announced in November 2010, the third novel, Grandville: Bête Noire, will continue the exploits of badger Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard.

Read more: Reviews of prior works Grandville and Grandville: Mon Amour by dronon and The Chained Wolf

 

Author: Fred

The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, which administers the annual Ursa Major Awards, has updated the 2011 Anthropomorphic Reading List to include all of the titles recommended by furry fans through the beginning of August. This list is often used by fans to nominate in the next year’s Awards.

All fans are invited to recommend worthwhile anthropomorphic works in ten categories (motion pictures, dramatic short films or broadcasts, novels, short fiction, other literary works, graphic stories, comic strips, magazines, published illustrations, and games) first published during 2011, if they are not already on the list.

 

Author: Higgs Raccoon

How To Train Your Dragon">How To Train Your Dragon - the story of a young Viking who defies generations of tradition by befriending a dragon – was a hit for DreamWorks in 2010.

Loosely based on a children’s book series by Cressida Cowell, the movie grossed nearly $500 million worldwide, and won the 2010 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture.

Now the story is being adapted for the stage.

Between March 2–11, 2012, the Hisense Arena in Melbourne, Australia will host the premiere of How To Train Your Dragon: Arena Spectacular, a live-action show featuring over twenty dragons. Built by local animatronics workshop Global Creatures, the biggest will be fifteen metres long and operated by three people.

After its Melbourne premiere, the show will tour Sydney and Brisbane before going abroad to New Zealand and the United States.

Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

Author: GreenReaper

Homestuck">Do you enjoy Homestuck, but find one therianthropic feline troll and a fan of anthropomorphic fauna insufficient to sate your furry desires? Consider Prequel, an interactive comic using characters, species and settings from the Elder Scrolls video games Morrowind and Oblivion.

Although the popularity of the comic caused it to be moved to its own site after two threads, suggested actions and fan-art for the comic’s protagonist are still taken on the MSPA forums (which also feature a topic called ‘shit let’s be furries’, now on its second thread).

 

By Cory Lamz Fri., Aug. 12 2011

?When we called Sorin Katt for the interview, we asked to speak with Kevin, his legal first name. He told us we had the wrong number. When we asked to speak with Sorin, however, he responded immediately. Besides talking to us about how he got involved in the furry lifestyle (the “fandom”), Rocky Mountain Fur Con and the fur community at large, Sorin, who is 33, also told us about his dayjob — software development — and his partner of nine years, whose fursona is a fox. Although his developer co-workers know Sorin runs a convention, he doesn’t flaunt his furry lifestyle: “It’s not something I hide, but it’s not something I make a big deal of — just like a lot of things in people’s lives,” he explains.

Westword: What drew you to the Furry Lifestyle?

Sorin Katt: It was actually sort of accidental. I found it on the Internet and it just kind of clicked. I’d always been very into the anthropomorphic and animals, and it was just finding a community that was as into it as I was. First it was the Internet, then through conventions. I was just browsing the Internet and found stuff, artwork, that led me to the sites for some of the artists in the community at the time. It sort of went from there, looking around and gathering information. That was twelve years ago.

With twelve years of identifying with furrying, what have been some significant moments for you in the lifestyle?

Attending my first convention was pretty significant. Going to conventions plays a large role in our fandom because our population is so diverse and spread out throughout the country that it’s a good opportunity to come together with the artists and creators in the community to connect. There’s a lot of people that I’ll only see at conventions every year.
The big thing about conventions is meeting people that they’ll only see at these events. It’s really more the social aspect and getting together with people who have the same interests that you do.

From going to the different conventions and events, how many people do you personally know as furries?

In the hundreds, if not thousands of people. I know a lot of people. A lot of people know me.

How does the furry lifestyle work outside of conventions then?

A lot of my local friends are in the community. Much like Star Trek fans or science fiction fans, you kind of localize around people that are interested in the same things you are. That tends to occur a lot. A lot of my local friends are in the [furry] community. It tends to be a connecting draw for me.

Do you have a fursuit for your cat fursona?

I do not. I have a couple of friends who do a lot of costuming. I’m less involved in the costuming group; it’s kind of a sub-group within furry in the sense that Klingons are a sub-group in the Star Trek fandom. It’s really the same thing. They’re part of our community as whole, but it’s a small percentage of people in the fandom who are seriously costumers and have their own costumes.

If you’re not costuming, how else do you identify with furry? How do you live that?

I really enjoy the artwork. I’m also a writer. I write a lot of fiction specific to the fandom — that’s one way I connect to it. It’s a lot of slice-of-life fiction and science fiction. The biggest, defining factor is that the characters are anthropomorphic, and they’re set in fictional worlds where the characters are animal people essentially. You see it in mainstream science fiction, but it’s a lot more prevalent in the furry fandom.

Do you have a particular protagonist that you write about a lot?

I’m mostly writing short stories right now, so I switch genres and topics and characters pretty regularly. I like to explore the slice-of-life stories and stories focusing on interpersonal relationships and social mores and that kind of stuff — people’s interactions within society. I’ve been an off-and-on writer for the last ten years, but I’ve been more seriously [writing] for the last couple of years.

What led you to writing?

I’d always had an interest in it. I’ve always been a creative writer and it kind of seemed like the right time. I mostly write for fun. A couple of my pieces have been published in fandom-specific publications. There’s a charity publication that’s coming out at a convention in Seattle that I have a story in. I have a couple of other publications that my stories have been published in.

How did you get involved in the Rocky Mountain Fur Con?

That was kind of accidental, too. There were some people that were trying to organize a convention with a meeting, and I ended up going. It started with a group of five people talking about putting together a convention in Colorado, and I started out as just staff on the organizational committee. Over the years, I’ve worked my way to running the event.

What’s been the most exciting part about your work with the Fur Con then?

Seeing the convention grow and seeing how excited people are for the event. It’s a pretty thankless job, volunteering all the hours, but it’s definitely all worth it when you see how happy and excited people are during the convention when people are there enjoying themselves.

Reprinted with permission from Westword’s Show and Tell Blog – published Friday, August 12, 2011

submitted by Vulpine
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Leafie, A Hen into the Wild is a new 2D animated film from Korea. It’s based on a very popular series of illustrated children’s books by Hwang Sun-mi. It was directed by Oh Seong-yoon, and co-produced by Myung Film and Odoltogi Studio. Released in Korea last month, the story of a young hen who leaves her chicken farm with a dream of raising her own egg has made more at the Korean box office than any home-grown animated film has in decades. Now there’s plans to release the film widely in mainland China. Unfortunately, no one (that we know of) is talking about distributing the film to North America. Looks like our loss. You can see a trailer for the film on YouTube though.

image c. 2011 Myung Film

Sweet... I wonder if this show will make it to the States? Sounds like something fun for the family.

For the dog that wants to join you in your nutty cosplay activities.

Well, at least they didn't set the dog on fire.

YES! The #1 super guy is getting a movie! Not sure how well Eddie Murphy can voice the roll, but damn, this is one of those cartoons I had fun watching when I was a kid.

We’ve got three e-mails for your listening enjoyment this time around, and boy, are they emphatic! We have one that ends up with a somewhat clown-flavored adult text, we’ve got one that goes into full-blown rantypants mode, and we’ve got one dealing with producing content for FurAffinity! As usual, there are myriad other discussions, and the cast goes into their own personal pet peeves as well as we let it all hang out!

Our next episode is all about change. Recent changes in your life, changes you’re trying to make but need help with, change that you’re resisting, anything of that nature. Always remember, we’re also always taking e-mails that aren’t on the topic of the week; after all, we’re here to help you, the listener! Don’t forget to get the word out about us, too. If you’ve got a friend who’s having a rough go of it, tell them to e-mail us and we’ll do our very best to help out!

Twitter: fuzzylogiccast
FA: fuzzylogicpodcast
E-mail: fuzzy.logic.podcast@gmail.com

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Episode 15 – Vuvuzela Crazy Frog
File modified August 13, 2011 – 57 MB – downloaded 331 times so far

Episode 15 – Vuvuzela Crazy Frog - We’ve got three e-mails for your listening enjoyment this time around, and boy, are they emphatic! We have one that ends up with a somewhat clown-flavored adult text, we’ve got one that goes into full-blown rantyp[...]