These days it's hard to avoid hearing of U.S. plans to invade Iraq, and those in favour of such action are looking to some strange places for support - including the recent release of The Two Towers. Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), is quite upset with the film being used for pro-war purposes, as he and fellow actor Elijah Wood (Frodo) voiced last month with interviewer Charlie Rose.

If you've been looking around and going "It's 2003 already, where's my moon colonies and Martian hotels?", you're not the only one. 2002 was a year of disapointments in the world of space development, with fewer lauches and job cuts all around the world.

The journal Nature published two studies today which show that rising temperatures are affecting all manner of plant and animal life. From egg-laying, to flower-blooming, to migration periods, these changes may signal bad news for many species. Many news agencies carry this story including The Chicago Tribune and The Edmonton Journal.

Mephit FurMeet 2003, also known as MFM7, will be held from August 29 to September 1, 2003, at the Holiday Inn Select Memphis Airport.

Monte, the mascot for the University of Montana, has been chosen as the nation's best mascot during the Capitol One Bowl.

Full Story Here

Remains of a beached whale found in Japan five months ago have only recently been confirmed as a Longman's Beaked whale, an extremely rare species of which no complete adult specimens have ever previously been recovered. No living Beaked Whales have ever been identified.

Have you heard the one about the cat that could open a large door at an aircraft plant? Or the dog that helped a rancher by sniffing out buried irrigation valves? Or the fox that resorted to trickery to escape pursuing hounds?

FC2003 Newsletter December 2002 Edition

Index
1. Hotel Reservation Cutoff Date Announcement and Fursuit Area Update
2. Pre-reg Cutoff Date Announcement
3. Panelist List Published to Website
4. Important Times
A. Dealers Room
B. Artshow Hours
C. Registration Hours
5. Rabbit Tracks Zero: call for announcements
6. The Headless Lounge Returns
7. Call for Gophers

The 2002 Anthropomorphic Recommended Reading/Viewing List was first posted on November 1st. This is the fourth and final update, adding the recommendations sent in during the last half of December. There were complaints that the 2001 Recommended List got confusing with too many separate updates, so this year all the additions are being added to the same List.

Ironically enough, the mistaken desire for 'environmentally friendly' replacements for cork, a crop that doesn't harm the tree and encouranges people to leave old growth forests be, is causing the extinction of the Iberian lynx. Though it's not the first feline extinction of the modern age, as the article mistakenly claims, it is still a catastrophic loss. The cork forests which were the home of this highly endangered cat are being cut down to plant crops as the livelyhood of the local farmers shifts from cork as synthetics reduce the market for the real thing.

Liopleurodon ferox is the largest reptile to have roamed the sea, ruling the waves 150 million years ago. A complete skeleton has just been unearthed in Mexico, a massive 65 foot long adult, making it the best and most complete specimen of the largest aquatic reptile in history. The Liopleurodon is a member of the plesiosaur family, and this new find will help improve our knowledge about the ancient oceans.

Many people are confused, thinking that the Recommended Reading List for Anthropomorphic Artwork and Literature is actually the Nominations for The Ursa Major Awards.

However, the Reading List is simply a compilation of works that *qualify* for the Ursa Major awards, not the nominations themselves.

There is still about a week to send in your nominations to the Ursa Major awards, so that we can create a ballot containing the top 5 nominees of each of the nine categories.

There's a fair bit of material including quicktimes, sound bites, an image gallery, a look at the actors behind the voices, episode guides and more at:

http://www.redwall.tv

It's not the official Redwall cartoon site (which would be http://www.redwalltv.com), but is a bit more extensive than theirs, and will hopefully be undergoing some updates fairly shortly as respects downloads of production art, Nelvana text docs, multimedia stuff - and a bit more material on the original series.

chance (the official site seems to be eternally stuck in 2001, and those responsible warn me not to expect much by way of updates. Ever.)

BERGENFIELD, New Jersey (AP) -- Two youngsters who wanted to sing along with Barney the Dinosaur opened a music book and discovered a photograph of a man and woman in a naked embrace.

The photo, which ran under the words "Wilder Sex," was in a "Sing-Along Songs Barney" book a couple bought for their 4- and 7-year-old children.

Rosemarie Arnold, an attorney for the unidentified family, said the photo came from a review of pornographic movies published in a German-language magazine.

See rest of article here.....

BEIJING (Reuters) - One hundred tigers and 2,000 alligators have been flown from Thailand to China to grace an animal park where visitors will be able to admire and eat some of the creatures displayed, a park official said Thursday.

Full story (abcnews)