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January 2018

Newsbytes archive for December 2017

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Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, Acton, BlindWolf8, dronon, earthfurst, Equivamp, Fred, GreenReaper, mwalimu, Rakuen Growlithe, and Sonious.

Are furries trying to poison your kids with detergent pods?

Your rating: None Average: 3.2 (35 votes)

Update (12 Jan): YouTube removed the Tide Pod Pizza video. Here's a copy in China.

Well, if you're familiar with the concept of Betteridge's Law, then you should already know the answer to that question. Hint: it's no. However, it's certainly an odd question to even present without a reason. So why ask?

Pousta, a Spanish language news site that covers fashion, design, music, and trends, posted an article about an early “fashion” of 2018 (Spanish). It covers a recent Internet meme around the consumption of detergent pods, and particularly its growth because of a video. This video is one of a furry YouTuber named Majira Strawberry with fellow fursuiter Arrin. The video ends with Arrin cooking a cheese pizza decorated with detergent pods.

Opinion: The top ten movies of 2017

Your rating: None Average: 2.8 (36 votes)

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Surely, readers don't need the rules for a simple year end top ten list explained to them, but in case someone does, you can find them in one of the older lists.

2017 Ursa Major Awards nominations to open

Your rating: None Average: 3.4 (29 votes)

Nominations for the 2017 Ursa Major Awards will open on January 11, the first day of Further Confusion 2018. The awards celebrate the best anthropomorphic literature and art first published during the previous calendar year.

Find out more details at how to participate at our webpage: http://www.ursamajorawards.org/

The awards are selected through a two-stage process of nomination and voting. Members of the public send in up to five nominations in each of the twelve categories. The top nominations in each category are then presented for a public vote.

Pennsylvania fur LupineFox found not guilty of child rape

Your rating: None Average: 3.3 (27 votes)

Kenneth Fenske / LupineFox Kenneth C. Fenske, better known in furry circles as LupineFox, has been found not guilty by a jury in a Bucks County court of sexual abuse charges which were widely reported in local media, and linked to the arrest of seven other suspects during 2016 and 2017.

The four day trial concluded after two hours of jury deliberations. LupineFox proclaimed his innocence throughout; unlike David R. Parker (RebelWolf), who plead guilty last August to federal child sex trafficking of the boy concerned, and assisted the prosecution. The defence focused on undermining the 16-year-old boy's testimony, calling it "a train wreck" and claiming that the ultimate goal was a payout in civil court.

Highlighted was the boy's recollection of Fenske taking off a fox costume (with "full long sleeves and pants, a zipper in the back, paw gloves, and a fox head with pointy ears") before the alleged rape – said to have occurred when he was 8, while attending furmeets at Fenske's house dressed as "Tony the Tiger". The builder of LupineFox's fox fursuit Renoir said it was made in 2015.

Furry performers TiHusky and ShiaCabbit routed from home by devastating fire

Your rating: None Average: 3.2 (19 votes)

This Tuesday, ShiaCabbit, a member of the comedy skit group DifFURently that is known for performances on YouTube, tweeted that he had been aroused early in the morning by a fire that had consumed a neighboring complex. He took a recording of the inferno after having been evacuated from their own building.

Story of a romance between a woman and a fish scores 13 Oscar nominations

Your rating: None Average: 2.8 (23 votes)

The Shape of Water movie poster Though The Shape of Water is not traditionally furry (by either the "covered in fur" or the fandom definition), rarely does a movie about the romantic relationship between a human and a humanoid fish monster score 13 Oscar nominations. Writer and director Guillermo del Toro's science fiction fable, inspired by a famous scene in the classic Universal horror picture Creature from the Black Lagoon, is the odds-on favorite to win the Best Picture prize, which will make it the closest thing to a furry movie to claim that prize if it does.

In addition to its Best Picture nomination, it also gained nominations for del Toro in Best Directing and Best Writing (Original Screenplay) (along with screenwriting partner Vanessa Taylor). Del Toro had been previously nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category for Pan's Labyrinth (which was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, which is often credited as a second nomination for del Toro, though technically the nominee there was the country of Mexico due to the odd rules of the category). If del Toro wins for Directing, he will be third of a trio of Mexican directors nicknamed "The Three Amigos" to win the award this decade, after Alfonso Cuarón (winner for 2013 with Gravity) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (winner for 2014 for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and 2015 for The Revenant).

Update (Mar 4): The Shape of Water won Best Picture (Guillermo double-checked the envelope), making it the first science fiction movie to win the prize, with additional wins in the categories of Directing, Production Design and Original Score, giving it four total Oscars from its 13 nominations.