The mention of an amputee flaunting a showy, bird-plumaged prosthetic arm should make the Furry connection clear, in this story about the work of the Alternative Limb Project (ALP) and it's director, Sophie de Oliveira Barata.

De Oliveira Barata is "challenging the belief that prosthetic limbs should aim to look as realistic as possible." Her career started in special effects for film and TV, before she moved to work with a realistic prosthetics company for eight years. In her opinion:

The dominant thinking is that a new limb should be as close a match to the previous limb as possible. But until technology gets to the point where you can have a realistic looking limb in movement and aesthetics, there will always be this uncanny middle ground. Having an alternative limb embraces difference and can help create a sense of ownership and empowerment.

The new option for limbs include crystal, stereo speakers, lighting, and simulated internal anatomy to tranform disability-concealers into creative, eye-catching fashion. What's next, hooves and paws?

Cartoon Brew has posted a sample of “Mike Carlo’s Cartoon Madness” to illustrate the Titmouse, Inc. animator’s personal short films. The 3’52” “Science Fare” was pitched to Nickelodeon a year ago. I guess that it did not sell.

The CB’s Jerry Beck says of Carlo's animation,

These are very polished, professional cartoons that look as good – and are just as funny – as anything on Adult Swim or Comedy Central. I predict he’ll be running his own show very soon.

I don’t care for the Adult Swim or Comedy Central style of animation, but “Science Fare” certainly is anthropomorphic.

The Unimaginable Road, a.k.a. Arraborough, Book One, begins when six wandering animals coincidentally meet in a Blackwood Forest clearing near a mysterious abandoned house, on a prairie far from the nearest town, about a mile from the cliffs over the Balaba Ocean. The animals – cousins Slick and Slither Snake, Inkwell Pig and Wild Boar (also cousins), Tust Turtle and Hillany Chicken – have all been drifting through one animal region and city after another – Ellineste, Loragin, Thilomina, Hoglarotha, Serpenton – looking for someplace where they can feel safe.

To fill the heavy silence [around the campfire], the snake with vertical green stripes and the perpetual scowl says, ‘I’m Slick. We’re cousins. We went through a pretty bad time in the spring, back in Anilton. Slither had the idea that there must be a better, safer place to live, so …’” (p. 6)

They compare depressing notes, and Slither proposes that they build their own commune, a sanctuary, right where they are.

Melange Books, June 2012, trade paperback $14.95 (188 pages), e-book $5.99.

In recent days, the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) has erected a two-meter (six foot) tall fence, stretching 9 kilometers (about 5.5 miles) along the threatened eastern fox snake's habitat in the city's west end.

The special fabric fence – which extends below ground level – was erected because the snake can climb and slither beneath regular fences. The MTO was concerned that snakes might wander into the construction zone, where they would be at risk.

The fence was built with assistance from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to keep the construction project in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, as work begins on extending Highway 401 west towards the proposed bridge to Detroit.

Two quick stories from the BBC: A fire has destroyed a collection of snakes, spiders and scorpions at the Instituto Butantan in the Brazilian city of São Paulo:

"The entire collection was lost, the biggest collection of snakes in the world," curator Francisco Franco said. "It's a loss to humanity."

Meanwhile, a $4 iPhone app called iGorilla is to be sold to support conservation work in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park.

Editor's note: The feature list looks suspiciously similar to the company's 99¢ iPuppet.

That's one heck of an anti theft device!
A thief in Sydney, Australia, stole a sack from a professional snake catcher's trunk when he was stopped in traffic, and ended up with a venomous red-bellied black snake.
Police are informing the public to be aware of the canvas bag, which might be anywhere, and the snake, which is "possibly quite cranky by now."

A rare two headed snake has been found by a Spanish University. The ladder snake has two independant heads which even fight over food. A few months old, it's surprising that the reptile has survived in the wild. It'll be going back with the scientists to live in captivity.

A high school teacher in Wichita, Kansas, had used rats before to demonstrate the eating habits of the classroom snakes, but a similar experement with puppies had to be halted because the pupils became very upset by the idea.
The puppies were destined to be put down by the local pound, but a member of the school board adopted them and gave them to the teacher, Matthew Patton, for snake food because he "hates to see any life wasted".
The school acknowledged that while most people don't mind seeing a rat go, "When you have soft, cuddly puppies there are people who get real concerned."

A Merced, CA man discovered his 200-pound Burmese python had escaped from its cage, and his pit bull puppy was missing. He soon found them both, in a matter of speaking.

See this story at Yahoo! for more info.

The Seattle P-I reports that an 8-year-old girl in Irwin, Pennsylvania, was critically injured yesterday by the family's 10-foot long Burmese python. The snake, one of five large constrictors the family owns, had gotten out of its pen. The girl's mother found her dauther unconscious with the snake wrapped around her neck. Paramedics reported no heart beat when they arrived. Breathing and heart beat were restored in the ambulance, but the child remains unconscious at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.