From the Associated Press:
HELENA, Mont., Oct. 13 — A black bear cub that firefighters plucked from a charred tree last year was given a 50-50 chance of survival when his burned paws healed and he was released into the wild in February.




On Friday, officials of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks confirmed that a hunter had legally killed the bear.

As is our custom, Further Confusion's chairman will be stepping down after Further Confusion 2002. This custom keeps fresh ideas and fresh approaches coming into Further Confusion, gives more folks the opportunity to give their input and dedication toward its improvement, and lets people grow into more demanding roles.


That means we will need a new chairman. Toward that end, we are posting our annual invitation for bids to be submitted to AAE if you want to chair FC2003.

Thanks to the unscrupulous people at the Education Center, Inc. of Greensboro, NC, Mailbox Books is forced to change their name to "Rabbit Valley Books". According to Sean Rabbitt, although MB could win the case against them, it would be far too expensive a battle to fight.

Sean goes into full detail here.

At some point last night, we were hacked. The hackers appear to have done little other than deface the index file. We're up and running again. Sorry for the downtime.

This isn't to say there will be no more movies, HOWEVER, I have 3 different friends in the feature animation department who have all confirmed that after the two features currently in production are finished, there will be no more classic hand drawn animation. It will instead all be computer generated stuff like BUGS LIFE or TOY STORY.

Personally, I think this is because some "suit" saw the commerical success of SHREK and decided that it succeeded because it was computer animated and not because it was actually GOOD.

The last two conventionally animated movies sound dull as well - so if you were looking for Disney to ever do another 'Lion King" - it ain't gonna happen.

I'll try ad get more details this weekend - but I consider this information to be fairly reliable.

Yahoo News has published an Associated Press report that Bjossa, a 25-year-old female orca, died Monday at San Deigo SeaWorld. Bjossa had formerly lived at the Vancouver Aquarium, and was transported to SeaWorld in April. A spokesman for the aquarium said that Bjossa had suffered from a lung infection for at least a year before she arrived at SeaWorld.

BBC Online has three stories related to endangered species:

The Javan rhinoceros, one of the world's most endangered species, is showing signs of recovery.

Loggerhead turtles can detect variations in the earth's magnetic field and navigate thereby.

Researchers use underwater acoustical equipment to track and count whales and dolphins.

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.

According to this story at wired, a prototype robot capable of hunting down over 100 slugs an hour and using their rotting bodies to generate electricity is being developed by engineers at the University of West England's Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory.

This thing is a lot like the Klingon Engineered Tribble predator in he old Star Trek animated series. Soon to come a competeing French design "Escargot Bot!" ;)

Conifur's Artshow may be sold out, but there's still a way to get panels!

Several artist- and editor-types have confided to me that they may not be able to fill the panels that they have reserved in the show this year. That means more panels for eveybody else!

The waiting list works on a first-come first-serve basis, and as soon as an artist is done hanging, any unused panels will be immediately available! I am currently estimating between five to ten panels will open up this way, and I'd hate to have blank panels, you know!

Even mail-in artists can get onto the list! Just email me at artshow@conifur.org for information!

BBC Online reports police in Burundi, Africa, "arrested" a stork on suspicion of spying. The South African stork was fitted with a satellite tracking device and was part of a study of the migratory patterns of the bird. There's a picture of the stork and the device in the story.

According to NewScientist:
"Fires in eastern Russia are threatening the last stronghold of the Siberian tiger, according to WWF."

Apparently, Six hundred square kilometers are ablaze near an area densely populated by this endangered species. The WWF have six fire brigades attempting to control the fires.

For more information, check out NewScientist's article

From yahoo.com

New Line Cinema has picked up the comedy spec "The Centaur" from writing pair Jack Angelo and Sam Brown for management-production outfit Benderspink to produce.

The script is described as a romantic fable about a woman who falls in love with a seemingly perfect man, only to discover that he is a centaur (half-man/half-horse) brought to mortal life through the aid of magical potion.

'The Centaur' was one of those rare screenplays where you find yourself literally laughing out loud," New Line president of production Toby Emmerich said. "Few writers can weave adult humor with romantic innocence and make it work. Jack and Sam creatively manage this difficult task in a way that is endearing and fun."
Benderspink's J.C. Spink and Chris Bender, who have a first-look deal at the studio, will produce the project. New Line production executives Michele Weiss and Cale Boyter are overseeing.

Angelo and Brown previously teamed on the short film "Chutzpah," which can be seen on IFILM.com

BBC News Online also reports that new accelerator mass spectrometry tests on the carbon atoms from the ancient charcoal drawings of horses on the wall of a cave near Chauvet, France, date the pictures at 30,000 years old. The spectacular pictures have been described as intricate and sophisticated, indicating that early humans began developing art techniques far earlier than previously thought. The article includes a photograph of a portion of the cave drawings.

BBC News online reports the existence of a six-month-old lamb cloned from a dead member of an endangered species of wild sheep. The mouflon sheep is native to Sadinia, Corsica and Cyprus. The surrogate mother was a domesticated ewe of a related species. Click on the link to read the full story. There's a picture of the cute little lamb there, too.