Too much Furry fiction, written inside the fandom and in mainstream s-f, is based on the stereotype of anthropomorphized animals bred by humans to be a prejudiced-against, believed-inferior underclass; laborers, servants, sex objects, cannon-fodder soldiers – slaves – who revolt against their creators to win equality.

Geusz’s stories are more gentle, more imaginative, and more philosophical – and on an inner level, more emotive and dramatic. The Lapists are humans who believe that late 21st-century/early 22nd-century humanity has become lost in a callous, soul-deadening materialism, and who not only create a new thoughtful, more caring religious brotherhood, but transform themselves physically through futuristic biosurgery into rabbit-people as a sign of their faith.

What is it like to be an anthropomorphized rabbit-man in a world of humans in near-future America?

San Jose, CA, Anthro Press, June 2009, trade paperback $17.49 (299 pages), Kindle $8.99.

Chris Sturtivant, better known among furs as Findra, reportedly died this week at the age of 44. Close friends reported his passing as "sudden and unexpected".

Update (21 Oct): A gathering is to be held in Memorial Park (luge n1 w1) on SpinDizzy MUCK from 12-3PM PDT on Sunday 23 October. A memorial meeting will also take place on the afternoon of November 5, at Las Palmas Park.

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman presented "Stor Gul Kanin" as part of a festival of art in Örebro, Sweden. The gigantic, yellow bunny now dominates the open space adjacent to St. Nicolai's church. The Huffington Post has a slideshow of pictures and a brief article.

Seattle filmmaker Chris Diani is seeking funding for a project involving furries. His proposed film, Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits, is envisioned as "a throwback to the classic screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s".

In the film, a gay couple (both broke artists) break up and go looking for sugar daddies. One artist succeeds, but upon meeting his sugar daddy at a hotel, discovers that he is a furry, and the hotel is hosting a furry convention.

The first episode of anime series Cat Shit One is available for free this week. [tip: fritzfox]

Note: This animation includes scenes of graphic violence, as well as cute fluffy rabbits.

Developers of rabbit-based beat-em-up Lugaru HD are battling to get an unauthorized copy removed from the Apple App Store.

iCoder is offering the OS X game for just $1.99. The official verison sells for $9.99. [iDuck/Slashdot]

Gaming blog Kotaku reports that Apple are "looking into what happened", and also hosts a quote from iCoder saying that they "have every legal right to market and sell the software".

The game's code was released under the GPL last May while developers focussed on their new game, Overgrowth; however, for-profit distribution of the game's assets was not authorized. The legality of GPL-licensed code for such apps is also in doubt.

Update (12 Feb): Lugaru HD is now the only version available on the Apple App Store. Wolfire are giving out valid serials to all iCoder purchasers.

Jennifer Shiman, proprietor of Angry Alien Productions, has announced an indefinite hiatus on the production of new episodes of 30-Second Bunnies Theatre (Wikipedia link).

Over the last 6 years, Shiman and her team have produced 68 flash videos of classic and current films, re-enacted by bunnies in 30 seconds. Many of the videos were sponsored by the Starz! cable television network. Shiman thanks all of her loyal fans for their kind words over the years, and states that Angry Alien will continue to work on other projects. She leaves open the possibility that there may be more bunny shorts in the future.

A new furry art and story community has launched, offering artists a way to sell digital downloads and prints.

The site – Inkbunny – permits non-human artwork of all ratings; however, only adults 18 or over may join.

Site founder Starling outlined the sales philosophy:

At Inkbunny we believe two revolutionary things about selling art; that people want to buy your work even if they can get it for free, and that you should not worry too much about piracy of your work.

Development took over a year, with nearly 800 works uploaded in a four-month private beta.

You know those games where you wander through a landscape, killing all the enemies — the famous beat-them-up? Now imagine a game like that, but with rabbits. Well, add rabbit fighters and you have Overgrowth, the game that developers Wolfire Games have been working on for the last two years.

Translated from the original article by Giles F. Ahrun.

Apparently to hand out tickets.
Here’s a quick little story about resource mismanagement courtesy of Fox News. In sunny Glendale, California the police reportedly used a bunny costume to track down reckless drivers. They also report that a city counsel man was hopping mad.

Editor's note: A more extensive story with a photograph is at the Glendale News Press.

Many of us have pets to keep us company - but the cost may surprise you, especially if you own a cat or rabbit. Even birds can be pricey, thanks to their long lives. And don't forget the cost of your time taking care of it.

Even if your companion is lucky enough not to require significant veterinary care, just buying food and bedding can cost more than the purchase price, even in the first year. The key message? Budget for that budgie!

See also: Talking heads discuss the science of saving

Quentin 'Cubist ' Long here. Last week, I announced a special pre-order deal for THE FIRST BOOK OF LAPISM, by Phil Geusz... and I made a mistake. When I calculated the postage for this deal, I was counting the number of *pages* in the book... but what matters for postage is mass, and that means counting the number of *sheets of paper* in the book.
In other words, I overestimated how much it would cost to ship the thing to most places on the planet (US pre-orders will be shipped via Media Mail, hence aren't affected by my error).
Fortunately, this means I can cut the cost on FIRST BOOK OF LAPISM pre-orders... and that's what this here message is about!

Over the past few years, Phil Geusz has been writing tales of the Lapist religion -- a faith which encourages its adherents to adopt bioengineered anthro-rabbit bodies. Now, for the first time, ANTHRO Press is proud to announce THE FIRST BOOK OF LAPISM, a paperback collection of Geusz' Lapism stories!

Big Buck Bunny poster.

Big Buck Bunny, the end result of Blender "Project Peach", has been released for Internet download in May 30th^[1]. The 10-minute "Pixar-like" short animation film, featuring a big bunny and three rascally rodents, premiered on April 10th^[2].

The film is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. This release also includes all of the project files, which means that everyone can make new productions based on the original project files.

Turtle gets used to his costume

US premium television network HBO's original series Entourage addressed the topic of furry erotica this Sunday with an episode entitled The Day Fuckers.

One of three story threads involves lead characters Vincent "Vince" Chase (a movie star) and his brother Johnny "Drama" Chase make a $5,000 bet that leads to Vince's best friend and manager Eric competing with driver/gopher "Turtle" for sex.^[1]