A macsot for the local football (rugby) team was elected mayor in the town of Hartelpool, UK. His pre-election platform was "free bananas for schoolchildren". The full story is here.

Score one for the fursuiters!

The groundbreaking 1987 TV series "Max Headroom" will be returning to television starting this week. TechTV will be broadcasting the 14 episodes of the show at 6 PM EDT on Fridays, with additional showtimes throughout the week. Check out TechTV's web page for more information and background on the series.

Baskin-Robbins is promoting the upcoming movie "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron" with, and I quote: 'Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron flavors' for May and June. No, they're not *really* horse-flavored....

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/treats/flavor_month.shtml

Also, don't miss free-scoop night on May 1st!

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/promo/index.shtml

A group calling itself the Fairy Troop has been supporting a strip club by dressing up as stuffed animals.

The Animal Defense Militia is an underground movement of covert operatives committed to preserving the autonomy and merriment of non-human vertebrates through any means necessary.

Okay, okay... it's really a very funny parody of PETA. Be sure to check the list of directors

You think wearing a costume is hot for a few hours at a convention? Try running a 140 mile long desert marathon in one. Since they went to all this trouble, please consider helping Save the Rhino.

The British Forestry Commision is worried that people look at a dark group of trees and think 'Blair Witch'. So they want to turn woods into idyllic, fairy tale like places.

No, not those sort of fairy tales. They want to clear out some of the trees to make artifical glades (filled with bluebells) and make nice, broad paths. They also want to encourage kids to play unsupervised in the woods. Are they sure it's not like a fairy tale?

LA police use non-uniformed officers in sting operations to catch speeding motorists... but decided do go one better than just not wearing their uniforms.

Read the story here.

Lets have more fursuited policing! :-)

CNN's Larry King Live is carrying a Ripley's Belive it or Not special, including Tigerman and a few other strange folks. Oh yeah, and Dean Cain ("Superman" TV show).

Just when you thought the creators of the Scooby-Doo movie couldn't sink any lower, word comes forth that a deleted scene involved Daphne and Velma sharing a passionate moment. Wacky comedy or scriptwriters living out their erotic fantasies?

http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Archive2002/020321.html?fdmainalt1

BBC's new series, Weird Nature has been three years in production, and in that time producer John Downer has seen some odd creatures. But he's convinced for all the hallucinogenic mushroom eating reindeer and slime covered hagfish he's seen, humans are still the strangest beasts on the planet.

At first, the town wasn't happy that Bredo Morstoel's grandson had preserved his body, which died in 1989, in a shed. But now they just can't help but celebrate with coffin races, a dance, a movie festival, and of course, shed tours. There's even a look alike contest, though it's up to the participants if they look like live Gramps or Dead, Frozen Gramps. It makes the average furry convention look downright normal.

The fine folks at MIT surgically merged an Ethernet switch and a teddy bear. The bear now has glowing power/uplink eyes, an ethernet jack in each paw, and a Matrix-style uplink in the back of its neck. It's neat }:>.

Main project page is here.
A cool close-up of the bear is here.

I've recently put photos and a theory discussion online for my digitigrade stilts project. In case any flayrah readers were curious about this kind of thing, I'm submitting it here.

URL: http://www.angelfire.com/d20/roll_d3_for_this

I'm sure others have done this too. But my design is still elegant };>.

Text from animationblast.com:

The 73- year-old mayor of Hurricane, West Virginia is a Mickey Mouse fan...make that a BIG MICKEY MOUSE FAN. For starters, he's got a Mickey lamp, stapler, clock and tissue box on his office desk and over a dozen Mickey watches. Read the CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL for all the mousy details.

http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2002021425/