The Alaska Wildlife Alliance is asking for help in its crusade to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from legislation that would allow oil companies to drill there. According to the website the ANWR "represents the only portion (5%) of Alaska's north slope that is not currently open to drilling." That's a significant percentage of land, even though it may not seem like a lot. To be fair, oil companies DO try not to allow spills or leaks to happen. Public opinion is against them enough as it is, which costs them a lot. Not to mention it's in their best interests not to lose any of their product. But, regardless of those facts, accidents can and will happen, and those accidents endanger and destroy countless species as well as harm the environment as a whole. It's in our interest to keep this land set aside and away from human intervention, as it was originally intended.

According to this article at CNN, legislators in Maine are working to ban elephants from any circuses that visit the area. The concern is that these animals, frequently used as "beasts of burden" to erect and then tear down structures used in the circus are being mistreated. I don't mean to sound cynical, but the following quote from the article is taken from the brainchild of this legislation. It made me consider this as a well-intended but utterly misguided effort:

Announcing a new online comic strip -- The World of Vicki Fox -- by Laura Howell and Michael Russell. Published once a week on Sunday, it is a Sunday style strip featuring the adventures of Vicki Fox, her friends and family. Family friendly fun.

For those of you who just can't get enough of those oddly furry, constantly-battling little creatures known as Pokemon, it is time to rejoice. According to the Pokemon.com website they will be hitting the silver screen again as the third Pokemon movie is scheduled for release in the US on April 11th.

From over on the scifi.com news site, here's an online workshop for the writers among us...

Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo comic book fame was recently interviewed by Sequential Tart, a montly comics e-zine. Check out the interview here

How many furry artists can you identify? Win a sketchbook!

Contest ends March 28.

http://web.eyesurf.net/~tomt/contest.html

While it's nothing new to have a camera pointed at wildlife, this article from CNN details a slightly new take on things.

In a BBC news article last week, it was reported that elephant breeding rates are determined by their environment.

Conifur Northwest is pleased to announce the appointment of Matthew Romanek, aka Shandower, as the 2001 Conifur Northwest Art Show Director. Matt will be taking over the reins from Rich Chandler who did a fantastic job for the first three years of our convention before deciding to move in a different direction.

Shanda Fantasy Arts now has guidelines up for submitting art, stories and comics to four of their books. Mel. White's the accepting editor. SFA pays, so artists and writers, check it out!

Kay Shapero announced on alt.fan.furry that the name of the proposed moderated newsgroup will be rec.arts.anthropomorphic.

Voting on the name of the newsgroup closed March 6, with a total of 55 votes. The votes were distributed as follows:

If you want to see how much vulpes vulpes appreciated the UK government's vote for a ban on fox hunting with dogs (Or maybe it's just nature's sense of irony at work), visit the BBC News article about a fox that was found sleeping on top of a filing cabinet in the UK's House of Commons.

From Kurst on alt.fan.furry: "...FurEcard is a free web site that specializing in providing tools for
furry artists to build their own customizable free email card site! In
minutes an artist can have his or her own branded web site..." The site also incorporates a picture gallery site featuring "...html templates and a thumbnail engine..." Looks promising. Anyone put it to use?

Simba Wiltz has begun serializing his furry novel, Mainframe at this website. The last time I read a serialized work on the web was probably Regan Pylman's Tails of the City, which was actually quite good (Blue Horizon isn't really a serialized novel as much as it is a collection of related short stories). Has anyone had a chance to read the inital chapters of Mainframe?