Stuart Newman and Jeremy Rifkin have submitted a patent to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the technique to produce a "humouse" - a human-mouse hybrid. The technique would involve injecting the embryo of one species with the cells from an embryo of the other species, resulting in a critter with cells from both species spread throughout, working cooperatively.

Don't get too excited, furries - their purpose is not to actually create a humouse, but to force limits on the patenting of human life. I honestly can't say whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing for us - on one hand, if furries are to be created, I wouldn't want them to be created as products or slaves, but without the ability to profit, companies are likely to not expend the resources to create them at all!

I'm pleased to announce a furry emailing list for the Las Vegas region has curently been setup and is gaining members. If anyone that sees this is curious or interested (or knows someone who might be), the following link serves as our subscription/info page:

http://fullmoon.madcoyote.com/mailman/listinfo/vfv

This list isn't exclusive to the Las Vegas region furs, it simply has been setup for the locals of the area to communicate, gather, and discuss. All are welcome to join. :)

LV Furs/Bounder J. Fox

The new trailer for the sequel "Stuart Little 2" is now online at www.apple.com/trailers/columbia/stuart_little_2, viewable with Quicktime 5.

Stuart Little 2, opening July 19, will again be directed by Lion King's Director, Rob Minkoff (who for the 3rd year in a row was sorry for not being able to attend ConFurence, this time because of his current work on Stuart Little 2) and will be starring the voices of Michael J. Fox and Nathan Lane in their recurring roles as Stuart and Snowbell.

Richard Bach, author of the 1970 best-selling inspirational fantasy Jonathan Livingston Seagull, has just launched a new series, "The Ferret Chronicles". The first two, Rescue Ferrets at Sea and Air Ferrets Aloft, will be published in June by Simon & Schuster/Scribner; $15.00 and 176 pages each (which implies that they are being written to a formula). Amazon.com has posted them with pictures of their cover art for pre-publication order sales; presumably plot synopses will be added soon. According to a press release, books 3, 4, and 5 are to be published before the end of 2002.

4Kids Entertainment and Mirage are planning to reintroduce today's generation of kids to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles again, with 26 episodes of a new cartoon series.

http://www.c21media.net/news/news_dtl.asp?id=3234&categ=3

This Saturday (5/11), catch a special sneak preview of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron at your local theatres. The showings are at 3pm, but check your local listings to confirm. This sneak preview comes 2 weeks before the official release.

http://www.fandango.com/movie_page.asp?mv=46369

For some reason, Hollywood still thinks that monkeys are funny. Thus, Dreamworks has picked up the project 'Space Monkeys' for animation, about a group of NASA test monkeys in the 1950's. Yay.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/film/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1483038

From Samual Conway (chairman of Anthrocon) on alt.fan.furry: ""Magic Tom" Hughsted, convention services manager at the Adams Mark, has informed me that we are approaching NINETY PERCENT FULL.

Make your hotel reservations *NOW NOW NOW*!

DO NOT WAIT!"

The LA Times has a very in-depth article detailing the background of Scooby-Doo and the upcoming movie, including some lesser-known facts about those meddling kids.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-050502mallory.story

Club Stripes, a new site with a suite of services for furries, is announcing its new network model. The page may be a bit messy yet, but you can get a sneak peek at what will be offered.

A macsot for the local football (rugby) team was elected mayor in the town of Hartelpool, UK. His pre-election platform was "free bananas for schoolchildren". The full story is here.

Score one for the fursuiters!

Progress reports for CACE (The Canadian Anthro & Cartooning Expo) are now on line.

By checking our announcements page you'll be able to see all of the latest news about programming, events, art show deadlines,
and other important information.

The main page for the convention is located at http://www.c-ace.org, where you can find out about an early bird draw for those who register by May 10.

CACE takes place from August 16 to 18 in Ottawa, Canada, and focuses on the art and writing aspect of anthro/furry fandom, as well as on cartoon art in general. Thanks for your interest!

A great way to avoid doing any useful work is the Animal AI site at Irresponsible Cybernetics. Simply fill in a descriptive sentance about your animal (such as "Large spotted cat from South America" or "Long and slinky pet weasel") and tell it if it's guessed correctly or not. It's great fun, and the more people use it the smarter it will get.
If you'd rather teach it to recognise that you don't need naked celebs or debt sollutions, there's Am I Spam or Not? from the same site.

You may have already seen this mentioned on /. but currently there is an article on CNN's Science and Technology page. The article is about the recent results of a team of scientists who have recently developed what could be coined as "remote-control rats". Details are in the article, but here we are seeing the first significant melding of technology into behavioral conditioning (something humans have been doing with animals for eons). Rather than using rewards (food, praise, etc) to encourage specific behaviors in animals, scientists have wired electrodes directly into the brains of their test subjects to stimulate the pleasure center. Additional electrodes into other areas of the brain provide cues to the animal, replacing traditional cues (verbal commands, for example).

Cartoon Network will be featuring over 160 Bugs Bunny episodes in alphabetical order for their annual June Bugs marathon on June 1st and 2nd, lasting 38 hours.

This year, Daffy Duck will receive equal bill-ing (ha ha, I kill me...) on Boomerang, Cartoon Network's twin, with a 48-hr marathon of 76 Daffy Duck cartoons, beginning June 1st as well.

Last year, June Bugs was the most-watched event ever to air on Cartoon Network.

http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31633