Looks like Smokey Bear has some competition.

Oregon-based Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) has introduced its new mascot, Reddy Squirrel. The rake-toting red squirrel was FSEEE's response to the U.S. Forest Service and Ad Council's recently revamped Smokey Bear fire-prevention campaign. To reflect increased dangers faced by homeowners living near forests, Smokey Bear's 58-year old motto has been changed to "Only you can prevent wildfires."

FSEEE maintains that since forest fires are not preventable, the Forest Service should emphasize how to prepare for the inevitable wildfires. Reddy's motto is "No one can prevent forest fires. Be ready!"

Reddy Squirrel will make her debut September 1 in Forest Magazine. Andy Stahl, executive director of FSEEE, said the Reddy Squirrel campaign will target people who live in or near forests, and the insurance companies that underwrite their homes. Although the group has only spent $25 on the character, a Web-based cartoon, television and radio spots, and packets of information for homeowners are also planned.

Boston furry artist paf! (aka Chris Goodwin) is raising money for his run in the Monster Challenge: Tri Boston triathlon this coming Labor Day weekend. Anyone who makes a donation of $20 or more to help the AIDS Action Committee will receive a free limited edition 12 x 18 poster, signed, numbered, and with their name on it too.

Check out the poster, make a donation, and learn more about the run here.

Anticarrot writes on alt.fan.furry: "I've just started a yahoogroup call UK_FUR_CON, with the intention of discussing constructively the problems and pitfalls of organising furry conventions outside of America. Specifically it's set up to discuss the problems associsted with England, but many of the problems are the same the world over.

What I'm looking for is people who know what they're talking about, (SusanDeer, Uncle Kage, Cheetah etc) people who want to help, and anyone else in a similiar situation who's trying to kickstart a con from nothing.

And again, that's it. We've found a number of venues, but I gather that's only half the problem. And I'm hoping for some help with the other 50% so we don't have eto go groping around in the dark too much."

Flayrah is now happily running PostNuke .714. A few things were fixed, a few were broken, pretty much typical for alpha-level open source software. Click below to read more about the upgrade.

RetroCrush has rated their top 50 sexiest cartoon babes. Amongst the predictable winners such as Lara Croft and Wonder Woman are some more intriguing ones from the series that have anthros. For example, Bugs Bunny is number 24 (click the link for the explanation on that one) and slot thirteen is occupied by Cheetara of Thundercats fame. Other furries are in the ranks as well, but I won't spoil them here -- go check the list out for yourself.

Or pretty close to it. This article reveals plans for an Ice Age theme park in Siberia that will feature mammoths.

Hoping to mix mammoth and Indian elephant DNA, Japanese scientists are looking for a way to bring mammoths to the present.

This is late news, but I wanted to be sure our American Audience could actually buy the book in question before I wrote about it.

This years Carnegie Medal award went to Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. The chair of the panel praised it for refusing to make the tale 'cute', "This is an outstanding work of literary excellence - a brilliant twist on the tale of the Pied Piper that is funny and irreverent, but also dark and subversive".

Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg, proprietor of the popular comedy site The Brunching Shuttlecocks, has weighed in on the recent Dan Savage furry columns on his new website, The Slumbering Lungfish. Sjöberg has previously written about furries, and used them as the bottom rung of a geek hierarchy.

Bark Twice for Bear and Hunting Dogs are issued with mobile phones report that Benefon is selling a combination GPS and telephone for dogs. It's intended for hunting season, and it has its own set of web pages. (Warning: Most information there is in Finnish.)

Ran across this while I was suffering form a bit of head cold related insomnia. Turns out that lady lions like dark maned lions better than ginger or reddish manes. For more info follow the link to the article

Starting this Wednesday, Virtualhermit.net (me) will be streaming a Shoutcast stream of techno, trance and dance-type music. Maybe even a little comedy audio tossed in now and again.

The stream will start around 8pm Pacific, and end at around 12am Pacific. The stream web site will be at http://www.virtualhermit.net/taurnet_tunes/.

The prints and portfolios pages on Rabbit Valley's website will be going dark on August 31st, but they'll be back. More info below.

We have moved the online date to Thursday morning August 22. From the donations we received we have covered all the expenses in setup fees and stuff with the co-location provider.

With further donations we are hoping to cover a few months of hosting fees to give us the needed time to search for a better hosting service.

Please visit FurNation if you would like to contribute.

Complete AP Wire story available at ( http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/bear020820.html )

A Five-month-old girl resting in her carriage has died from her injuries, sustained from when a black bear came into the community and took her from her carriage and mauled her. The nearby mother tired to move her other two children to safety, but when she returned, both the girl and the bear were gone.

Dan Savage's controversial fetish-based column has been released this week, revealing his responses to furry comments to his previous article. The majority of respondents disagreed with his appraisal of the fandom as nothing but a fetish haven. Dan backs down on his blanket portrayal of furries, but insists that fetish is less bizarre than non-sexual anthropomorphics interests. Click here to read the article.