From the latest "Computer Gaming World":


"We didn't want humans dressed up in animal suits", Quicksilver's Bill Fisher says, explaining the "no furries" decision that led to cutting the Bulrathi bears and Mrrshan cats.


There's a scan of the article available in this link at Pressed Fur. (Sorry for the indirect link, but the site doesn't seem to like direct links to images.)

My new website is finally up at its new home of Cottontail Studios located on CatBox.com. Please check it out :)

Further Confusion will be holding its annual charity auction. We're proud of our two charities, Tiger Touch and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. All proceeds from the auction will be split evenly between the two charities.

Attention all fursuiters! Do you have a new costume that you're dying to show off to the world? Are you planning on attending Further Confusion this January? Then we've got just the place for you to do it.

On Saturday, November 3rd, Conifur Northwest presented a check for $1550 to the
Washington State Ferret Rescue and Shelter. $1374 of that was raised at the
Conifur Northwest 2001 Charity Auction, and the remainder came from direct donations from members and the convention.
Thanks to everyone who donated via the Charity Auction, directly, or the donation jar on the WSFRS's table (which is in addition to the $1550), a number of ferrets will be living longer, happier, healthier lives after undergoing much-needed but expensive veterinary procedures.

The WSFRS will be returning for Conifur Northwest 2002, and we hope to be able to support them even more next year!

The web site of artist James Donaldson, Angry Raccoon Studios, has been rebuilt and is now up once again for browsing after a short hiatus. Visit at...

http://www.catbox.com/donaldson

In other news, IT has been unveiled. The item said to be "more important than the internet" is indeed a motorized scooter. Traveling up to 12 mph, it's supposed to be the wave of the future, but is really just the newest of a series of 'minimotor' personal transportation devices that have been proposed in the last few decades, such as one person electric microcars and three wheeled sit in scooters.

The new gecko is just 16 millimeters in adult length (That's about 3/4th of a inch). Found in the Dominican Republic, the Jaragua Sphaero, Sphaerodactylus ariasae or dwarf gecko, is already considered endangered, and shows the importance of research into new species all over the earth.

This article on Slashdot reports that Japan will be allowing human-nonhuman mixed cloning. The English language version of the original story is available. Some links from the story include:

• Ananova
• PBS Frontline report on Xenotransplantation

It's getting close to the deadline for submitting artwork and stories
for FC2002's program book! If you want something to appear in the book, now
is the time to send it in! We will be accepting submissions up until
December 15th. This year's theme is FCU (Further Confusion University) and
artwork and stories with a collegiate theme are encouraged, but not
necessarily required. To get the full details of con-book submissions, check
out the following web page:

http://www.furtherconfusion.org/policies/prog_book.html

Thank you for your participation in the upcoming Further Confusion!

-Allen Petlock

FCU Prof. of Publishing


http://www.furtherconfusion.org/

An anonymous reader has requested a review of The Others: How Animals Made Us Human by Paul Shepard. The requestor writes, "Shepard's thesis has to do with the role of animals in the human cognitive economy and (as a secondary point) how the replacement of a dependence on an understanding of nature with a dependence on an understanding of man-made structures has crippled certain important sorts of thinking by impoverishing the source material from which they might be building analogies. He brings in a lot of examples from cultural anthropology to illustrate the principles he describes."

If anyone would like to write and submit a review of this book (or any other book, fiction or non-fiction, that is reasonably related to furrydom or sci-fi/fantasy) we would be happy to consider it for posting. [Note to Aureth: Any comment on how we should handle "review requests" in the future?]

The therianthropes among us are in good company: Stone Age man's terrors still stalk modern nightmares from the Guardian Unlimited Observer reports "animal-human hybrids" in human art go back ten thousand years. Link via Plastic.

'We looked at art that goes back to the dawn of humanity and found it had one common feature: animal-human hybrids,' said Dr Christopher Chippindale, of Cambridge University's museum of archaeology and anthropology. 'Werewolves and vampires are as old as art, in other words. These composite beings, from a world between humans and animals, are a common theme from the beginning of painting.'

The Smithsonian's National Zoological Park announces the birth of a 325-pound male Asian elephant, born Nov. 25, at 2:35 p.m. The calf, which took his first steps just minutes after birth, is being watched carefully by zookeepers and veterinarians who were on hand for the birth. In addition, Dr. Dennis Schmitt, a specialist in elephant reproduction from the Southwestern Missouri State University, joined the National Zoo team for the birth.



For more information and photos, see the Smithsonian Institution National Zoo website.

This recently updated site concerns the life and times of the Chicken of Wrath... Fission Chicken. Originally appearing in Fantagraphics Critters series (and then is own title), he has a new book due out soon from Shanda Fantasy Arts. FC info, art gallery, links, etc. are available here

Noted science Fiction Author, Harlan Ellison, is spearheading an uphill battle against people illegally posting protected works online. Although he got into the fight to protect his own literary works, this has escalated into an all-out battle for creator's rights everywhere.

Visit harlanellison.com/kick for more information on how you can help fight the good fight.