Graveyard Greg explains in his Foreword how he came to write this novel. Firstly, there was the Second Life virtual-reality world, for which he created a jackal persona with a red Mohawk wearing black jeans and red sunglasses. Secondly, there was his brief job as a barista at a Starbucks. Thirdly, there was John “The Gneech” Robey’s series Fictionlets: The Extremely Brief Adventures of Bridgid and Greg, each of 400 words or less. Fourthly, there was his own imagination, which blended them together, named his jackal Venti and gave him a job as a part-time barista at a Starbucks clone, and he was off and running in a series of short-short-short chapters of one page or slightly over each. Voilà; Welcome to Cappuccinos! (exclamation point optional).

FurPlanet Productions, January 2012, trade paperback $19.95 (246 pages). Illustrated by Mitternacht.

The Lion Man of the Hohlenstein Stadel is a 32,000-year-old sculpture which depicts a humanoid figure with the head of a lion. Fragments of it were first discovered in 1939 by archaeologist Otto Völzing, in a cave named Stadel-Höhle im Hohlenstein (Stadel cave in Hohlenstein Mountain), in the Lonetal (Lone valley) in the Swabian Alps, Germany.

The figure, pieced together over many years as fragments were found, stands around 30cm tall, and was carved from mammoth ivory using a flint knife. It may represent a mythical creature, or possibly a shaman hiding under an animal hide.

Debate has raged over whether the figure is male or female, and the discovery of approximately 1,000 new fragments may help resolve the issue. The sculpture will be disassembled and rebuilt to include the new fragments.

I wasn’t as proactive as I thought I would be, and I’m pretty sure I missed a couple posted during the first of September, so apologies there. Otherwise, here was last month’s Newsbytes.

The past few days have been very active with animal-related stories from around the world:

• An animal rights activist from Ukraine is protesting poor living conditions for zoo animals, living in the lions' den for five weeks to raise money for them.
• A pair of cougars have been shot after they began attacking humans in Alberta.
• Ukraine's government has vowed to end a sickening local tradition of animal abuse.
• An Idaho man is in hot water after prancing around in a bunny suit.
• A truck carrying bees has flipped and closed a major highway near Edmonton, Alberta.

We've known for ages that animals are sentient beings, albeit on a lower level than humans. These stories provide insight into animals' thought processes and emotions, how they cope with sadness and disappointment, and how they can recover when conditions improve.

Our first story is about Gigi, a Doberman Pinscher, who became depressed after losing her litter of two puppies following birth complications.

The second is a modern take on The Lion King: Agence France-Presse and Brazilian media report that a pair of lion partners were reunited at a zoo in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, after the male became so depressed by their separation that he stopped eating.

Long story short – Animals United (trailer) is a crappily-written CGI movie. Avoid it.

BBC News reports that two liger cubs, the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, are being nursed by a dog at the Xixiakou Wildlife Zoo in China after the cubs' mother stopped feeding them. The ligers are very rare and are believed to only result from matings in captivity.

Twenty-five lions have been rescued from circuses in Bolivia by animal rights activist group Animal Defenders International. The thirteen males and twelve females were taken from what were called "deplorable conditions" after Bolivian lawmakers prohibited animals from being used in performances.

Television personality and former The Price is Right host Bob Barker helped finance a jetliner to fly the lions to Denver at a cost of US$200,000, in what was called "Operation Lion Ark". When rescued, most of the lions suffered from dehydration, as well as foot and eye infections.

As reported on the Journal Sentinel's blog, Milwaukee Bucks mascot Bongo successfully dunked a basketball while doing a backflip from a 16-foot ladder.

Perhaps more impressively, Chelsea F.C. mascot Stamford and Millwall's Zampa the Lion ran the London Marathon, each raising over £10,000 for charity. [freakylynx/furrymedia]

Father of the Pride comes to DVD this June 7th. This DVD will contain the complete season, three unaired episodes and the orignal never seen before pilot.


Complete details here

NBC officially gives the show the axe. The remaining six episodes will air after November sweeps.
More Info

Concerned over those damnable atheist kitties:

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A man leaped into a lion’s den at the Taipei Zoo on Wednesday to try to convert the king of beasts to Christianity, but was bitten in the leg for his efforts.

My buddy Puck notes that it wasn't even a Roman zoo. MSNBC has the full story, including photo.

The people who brought you "Shrek" and "SharkTail" are at it again. Watch the trailer for their next movie "Madagascar", which stars a lion, a giraffe, a zebra and a hippo who all live in the New York Central Park zoo.

See the trailer here.

Yikes, live action Kenya!

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/34/