After almost 3 weeks Furnation is almost back online. Files cannot be accessed, yet, but you can connect to it.

What an Austrian conservation group spent 3 years trying to get permission for, unsucessfully, a beaver created overnight.
The group was trying to get a dam to help divert water into a dried out tributary vital of the local river ecology, and the baver built his dam in just the right spot for that to happen. The human dam builders think the beaver did a spot on job, and hope his good work will land the little fellow a mate come spring.

A Japanese group has genertically altered pigs to include spinach genes. Akira Iritani, spokesman for the scientits, said their meat would be "more healthy'' than normal pork, although it was too early to say if it was as healthy as spinach. It is considered an academic victory, and I'm sure people everywhere will agree that one more reason to eat bacon instead of spinach is good.

Another furry comic hits the web. Sully & Minkle, by Scotty Arsenault, features roommates Sully, a red fox, and Minkle, a blue jay, who live somewhere in New England (disclaimer: not sure about the species). The strip appears three times weekly and has been running for a little over a month. Check it out.

We've added one more new category for articles submitted to Flayrah. 'Entertainment Media' is the category for news of interest to furs relating to television and movies, though the category could also be used for articles about theatre, music, or other media. I looked at the articles on Flayrah back to Jan. 1, 2002 and switched those for which this was the more appropriate category.

Researchers discovered a tomb in Nara Prefecture in Japan. They used a remote controlled camera to explore the tomb. Among their findings; A tiger headed human figure, animal guardian deities and paintings of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Further Confusion is now only 48 hours away! Here are some last minute
updates and reminders:

The Further Confusion staff has been working all year to keep with and
surpass our tradition of bringing live animals to our convention. To this
end, we have been contacting many organizations throughout the year. In
fact, negotiations between the hotel, some of the groups and us have
continued up to last weekend.

Alfie may be handsome, but his pale coat of off-white quills was causing him to slowly freeze to death. A rare genetic varient on the normal brown hedgehog, the blonde hedgehog is vulnerable to attacks from predators due to their conspicuous colour. Alfie had beat those odds only to find that his light coat couldn't keep in the heat he needed to hibernate. The hedgehog is doing well after being found by a 12 year old girl, and will most likely retire to an animal sanctuary where he'll have a long, and warm, life.

A recent meeting of Indian Wildlife Board, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, set out a new comprehensive 14 year wildlife conservation plan. The new plan follows up on government admission of laxness in conservation in recent years.

Critics have pointed out that poaching is still rampant, even in national parks, and that people living in neighbouring areas to protected land still frequently use animals and trees from the parks.

The new Action Plan calls for law enforcement agencies to help prevent poaching, increased communication between Dehli and the states around India, an increase in education for locals living near parks, and plans for promoting ecotourism, among other things.

Tens of thousands of species call India their home, including tigers, snow leopards and elephants.

The Anthropomorphic Literature & Arts of the Year (Ursa Major) Awards

Final Ballot

This ballot will be given or mailed to all preregistering members of ConFurence 2002 between now and March 10, 2002 (the end of the PawPet MegaPlex con). While nominations were accepted from all fans, only this year's ConFurence members may vote on this final ballot. All ballots must be received by March 18, 2002, so that they may be tallied and the winners' names engraved on the trophies in time for presentation at ConFurence 2002, April 26 - 28, 2002.

For memberships in ConFurence 2002, see http://www.confurence.com/, or write to: ConFurence Group, P. O. Box 84721, San Diego, California 92138-4721.

Many readers of AFF will have read the strange case of lizards feeding themselves after their owner suddenly died, where typically large and carnivorous reptiles helped themselves to the dead owner after not being fed for a few days, but also this week was the case of a normally vegetarian iguana accidentally biting off the finger tip of it's 14 year old owner. Unlike the seven scavanging monitors, the 5 foot iguana was shot by the police.

From cartoonresearch.com/Hollywood Reporter:
Move over Scooby-Doo! Zorianna Kit reports in Hollywood Reporter (Jan. 17): "America's favorite rotund cat Garfield, his dull-witted canine cohort Odie and their perpetually single owner Jon Arbuckle are making their way to the big screen as a live-action/CGI feature. 20th Century Fox has optioned feature rights to "Garfield," the long-running comic strip that John Davis will produce through his Davis Entertainment.
"Toy Story" scribes Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow will write the script, which will focus on the sibling rivalry between Garfield and Odie. The feature will be live action, with a computer-generated Garfield. "Garfield," created by Jim Davis (no relation to John Davis), was first published in 1978. Over the years, the 27-pound orange- and black-striped cat became known for his laziness, wry remarks and love of lasagna."
No word yet on who will replace the distinctive voice of Lorenzo Music.

Furry fan Ch'marr has provided scans of an article in the London Financial times that features fursuiter Rapid T. Rabbit. Reviews of the article would be welcome, as I haven't read it.

The robotic pet has finally gotten... fuzzy. Necoro is the first robotic pet (a cat) with fur. Designed to resemble a real cat, it has moving ears, tail, eyes, mouth and limbs. It makes cat sounds. It has a cat like look. Essentially, it looks like someone brought a taxidermied cat to life. Oh well. Maybe model 2 will be an improvement in the realism department.