The new Spirit trailer is at Dreamwork's Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron site.
Much more horsie action this time around, plus a better idea of the plot. Enjoy.

This article on cartoonresearch.com includes a link to the new traveling live show, an Entertainment News Daily link trying to explain Scooby-Doo's popularity, along with a few other Scooby-Doo related informational links.

Artists and writers, Anthrocon needs YOU!

Why? For our con book, of course! Every year Anthrocon showcases some of the finest talent from among our membership in its convention book. Both artwork and short stories dealing with our theme for 2002 of "INVENTION" are needed.

Bored? Got an internet connection? Play this game!

Googlewhacking, so named for the popular search engine it utilizes, is a game where the goal is to put two strange and or different enough words together, and have the search bring back only one page. One. It is very difficult, and very addicting.

Even if you don't get that elusive 'one' hit, you can find some very interesting things on the net that you never knew existed.

We've had a couple of news items before about things like a company producing an allergen-free cat, and more recently about the first kitten to be produced by cloning. But if you're interested in more on the subject, US News & World Report made it the cover story of their current issue.

Circus Polar Bears "feature" for 130 year old subtropical carnival. For once I agree with PETA.

What con would be complete without the memorable T-shirt it provides each year? And where do we get our designs for those T-shirts? From YOU, of course! All of you fabulous artists out there, start wracking your brains for a design for the Anthrocon 2002 T-shirt. This year's theme is INVENTION. We will select the best design from among all the entries, and will place that design on our T-shirt. As in years past, the creator of the design we select will be awarded a FREE SUPERSPONSORSHIP to this year's convention!

The Library of Congress Professional Association's What IF... Discussion Forum for Science Fiction and Fantasy present

Speculative Fiction: Writing, Selling, and Marketing Long and Short Fiction

A presentation by Mindy Klasky, author of Season of Sacrifice

Monday, Mar. 11th, 2002 12:10pm
West Dining Room (6th floor)
Library of Congress, Madison Building

Warner Bros. new DUCK DODGERS cartoon series! Starting production in spring, it should be on TV by 2003.

At first, the town wasn't happy that Bredo Morstoel's grandson had preserved his body, which died in 1989, in a shed. But now they just can't help but celebrate with coffin races, a dance, a movie festival, and of course, shed tours. There's even a look alike contest, though it's up to the participants if they look like live Gramps or Dead, Frozen Gramps. It makes the average furry convention look downright normal.

So, you find a man selling an ocelot in the capital of Bolivia. You confiscate what turns out to be a highly abused animal, alert the Forestry Police, only to find he was let off with no charges because they can't be bothered going through the long and expensive process of bringing him to court.
That's the story, and officals are just throwing up their hands and saying 'we can't be bothered' when it comes to preventing people from removing animals from the wild to keep or sell.
Theoretically Bolivia has been signed on with CITES since the 70's, and outlawed trade in wild animals internally since the 90's, but in practice, there is little indication of these laws. It's usual for people in the country to have pet parrots or monkeys, or to hunt local wildlife, so most people don't see the problem with selling or hunting these endangered animals.

The population of wolves in Kyrgyzstan has grown dramatically in the last decade. Three times as many wolves roam the country as did merely ten years ago. But the State Forestry Service says that's just too many.
The population in Soviet times was a mere 2000, kept down officially and by shepards.
Now the population is much larger and officials says wolves have been moving near humans areas and attacking people and livestock, as well as putting pressure on endangered wildlife.
Restrictions on firearms after violence in the early 1990's means most farmers don't have a gun, but there's a new fund to pay bounty for any hunter who kills one.

A high school teacher in Wichita, Kansas, had used rats before to demonstrate the eating habits of the classroom snakes, but a similar experement with puppies had to be halted because the pupils became very upset by the idea.
The puppies were destined to be put down by the local pound, but a member of the school board adopted them and gave them to the teacher, Matthew Patton, for snake food because he "hates to see any life wasted".
The school acknowledged that while most people don't mind seeing a rat go, "When you have soft, cuddly puppies there are people who get real concerned."

Sci Fi Wire reports that 5 episodes of Wolf Lake will run on UPN starting April 3 (9 p.m. ET/PT.) They will show the pilot and four never before seen episodes.

Sci Fi Wire story here.

To follow up on an earlier article on Flayrah, the San Francisco Chronicle has an interview with Dennis Hwang, the creator of the cute Google doodles:

During the Olympics, when a speed-skating fox, a bear pushing a curling stone and other cutesy images adorned the "Google" logo on the popular Internet search engine, hundreds of users wrote in to compliment the art department.

That provoked a lot of laughs at Google headquarters, because the "art department" actually is just one guy: Dennis Hwang, a 23-year-old Web programmer who whips up the doodles in his spare time, usually for holidays.