No, I'm not making it up. A computer game company has decided that pets are an undertargeted niche market and has written a game for housecats to play. I suppose I should buy stock in online catnip sales as the web will be next...

In union negotiations, Disney mascots are going to be allowed to, among other things, receive clean underwear to use with their costumes. Here are some details on the unglamorous side of being a fursuiter for pay.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the Sci Fi Channel is proceeding with the development of a four-hour miniseries based on The Left Hand of Darkness, a Hugo- and Nebula-award wining novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. This deal follows an earlier announcement to develop Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy into a six-hour miniseries for Sci Fi. (Scalie fans can look forward to cool dragons in Earthsea!)

Locus Online reported nominees have been announced for the Theordore Sturgeon Memorial Award. The same organization chooses inductees for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. This year's inductees are: Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Click "Read more..." for more details.

According to SF Wire, Douglas Adams's publisher is piecing together the remains of his last novel from his computer for publication. The novel, The Salmon of Doubt, will also include some extras like a screenplay and some email essays. Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about a publisher trying to patch up an unfinished manuscript by a dead author for publication posthumously. What do you guys think?

Taken from The Suburban Jungle's front page:

LIVE chat with Drezzer Wolf! 9 PM eastern time, this Friday (June 8th), our ever-lovin', blue-eyed wuff will be online to chat about the long, strange trip that has been his life, from UK to the runway. See the info below about chatting with Dover for the technical details ... the setup will be entirely the same except that this will be a moderated chat. (Apparently, Drezzer doesn't type as fast as Dover does.)


See you there!

Excepted from http://www.animationblast.com/news/



In the latest issue of CREATIVE SCREENWRITING, there is an interview with Tab Murphy, the sole credited screenwriter of Disney's upcoming ATLANTIS, and a writer on HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and TARZAN. (...) For those curious about Murphy's next animation project, he's developing an animated feature for DreamWorks called WOLVES.



I did my scan of mentions of animation films in development but didn't find this one anywhere so it must be EARLY in the cycle.

An impressive start to a new comic for the gay anthropomorphic fans. Being a writer, I'm probably a bit biased towards this comic but I have to say I am very impressed.

Its time once again for our KTEH volunteer bank. AAE and Further Confusion are once again sponsoring a group to help out the local PBS station. It was a lot of fun the last time and we need to get about 15-20 folks to go. We do need commitments so we can let the station know how many folks will be there by this Friday (June 1st) so please drop us a line back in reply if you can help us help KTEH. There's usually snacks and food at the studio and its for a worthy cause that gathers the fandom some great publicity.

• When: Saturday June 9 6 pm-11pm
• Where: KTEH 1585 Schallenberger Road, San Jose, CA
• What: KTEH Phone Bank Pledge Drive Support

-Further Confusion

info@furtherconfusion.org

Today is the deadline for early registrations - June 1, 2001. All registration forms should be postmarked no later than today and must be received by next week at the latest to be qualified for the early registration discount.

We are pleased to announce that the Mephit Fur Meet 2001 information is now available!
The website has basic information on it and online registration will be available soon. If you have any questions you can email any of the staff noted in the enclosed info.

From Samuel Conway on alt.fan.furry regarding Anthrocon's hotel: "Here I got us a humongous hotel that I thought would be more room than
we would ever need, and I was informed today that it's approximately
80% full for Friday and Saturday.



It kinda reminds me of when I bought that 400 MB hard drive.



Don't wait TOO long to make your reservations!"

Guardians of Order, a Canadian gaming company, recently released a supplement to their tongue-in-cheek anime RPG system Big Eyes, Small Mouth, named, appropriately enough, Big Ears, Small Mouse.



Based on the old toon conventions world of small, sentient mice, bugs and tiny critter toons fighting cats and other big baddies, this sounds like another fun gaming system for furries who like their games more toony, and sounds like a good variation from the current crop of more serious, fantasy based furry role play games offered.



I have yet to try it, but it sounds like a whole bunch of fun.

I heard a story about this on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" yesterday. Here's some information on the project.

These are working elephants, who had been used in Thailand's forestry and construction industry. The use of elephants in these activities has steadily declined over the years, putting both the animals and the people who made their living training and caring for them in jeopardy. Someone came up with an idea to see if elephants would paint. Apparently only about one in four elephants care to. Whether what they produce is really art or not is subject to much debate.

The website again is: http://www.biotrails.com/elephant/art.htm

From alt.fan.furry, Aaron Huntsman writes: "For the past year or so I have been working on and off on at creating a website that combines aspects of many past furry projects and serves the needs of both professional and aspiring artists and writers. After much hard work and careful planning, I am proud to announce that this project is a reality, if somewhat unpolished." The website is Emorphica, and while the premise sounds interesting enough, the website is pretty bare right now, other than some bizzare, unrelated-to-furry postings. Maybe it will improve once people start using it?

Here's one from left field. New Scientist just posted a news article about the occupational hazards of mascots in furry costume. Apparently some research was done by Johns Hopkins on the subject.