US researchers putting mice in stressful social situations they can't get out of are discovering that it leads them to develop a possibly deadly over-activity by the immune system. Mice exposed to two hours of another, more agressive mouse were twice as likely to die from exposure to a desease as mice that were going through severe hardship.

Though the research was on mice, the condition mimics the human problem of toxic shock.

Read the article here

Following a recent rereading of C. J. Cherryh's Chanur novels, I did a web search to see what kind of fan pages existed that covered her work. One of the hits was Cherryh's own website, but among the other sites, there was this one that was... ahem... different. Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

Came across this old review in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune of two science fiction books with moderately furry content. Click here for the full reviews, or Read More for the short version

I just wanted to give everyone the heads up on TALL TAILS being solicited in Diamond's Previews this month. The series will still appear in Furrlough until #109 but in November TALL TAILS #5 and the Collected TALL TAILS Vol. 1 (with #1 - 4) will be released from Dream Weaver Press.

TALL TAILS is a fantasy adventure comic in the spirit of Elfquest and Lord of the Rings featuring funny-animal characters instead of humans. Although it has seen a successful run in Furrlough, the story is just to big to appear in 4-8 page segments. TALL TAILS will return to its own full length comic starting in November and will follow a bi-monthly schedule.

For more information please visit DREAM WEAVER PRESS and start bothering your comic book shop to carry it! There is even a flyer on the website to print out to help spread the word. There's not enough of these types of comics to go around and we all need all the help we can get!

Most people think of ornithomimids as swift, ostritch like dinos that lived on plains and grasslands, like they were seen in Jurassic Park. But new fossils show that these dinosaurs had true duck bills, like a bird, and probably filtered their food out of water instead of hunting. The fact that their remains are generally found in wet, swampy locations helps confirm this new theory. If this theory is correct, these dinosaurs will be the largest known land animal to 'filter feed', as they may have topped 1000 pounds. Read the National Geographic article and see photos.

At its Stanford convention, the Mars Society resolved to commit its resources to initiate the Translife Mission as its first spaceflight mission project. The Translife mission will consist of a Mars-level (0.38 g)artificial gravity spacecraft carrying a crew of mice



"What do you want to do Tonight Brain?" "Same thing we do everynight Pinky, plan to take over Mars!"

I just think this is the coolest stuff. If I didn't already have a similar dragon made of clay and fur, I'd seriously consider buying one of Caligan's Creations. Totally bendable dragonets in satin and metallic cloths. You can commission one in your favorite colors or buy one that comes up for auction.

A yard long, barnacle-encrused lobster turned up in a shipment of live seafood to a London restaurant. William Copper, head chef at Kaspia, said "(The lobster) was too big and too beautiful to cook." This beautiful crustacean, named "Barney", is now at the London aquarium awaiting re-release into his home ocean off of Cornwall. Barney may be over 60 years old, and is merely 4 inches shy of the largest lobster ever caught. The BBC article (with photo) is
here.

Today's (Thursday, 30 August)

Good Morning Silicon Valley

has an interesting short article and collection of links about the pig-human hybrids of last year, the future of animal-human hybrids, and the responses of Jeremy Rifkin. See the article "Pig-human hybrids: the other, other white meat...".

Wired reports that a gruesome video on a website that shows a kitten being killed and prepared for a meal is causing outrage on the Internet. The StileProject could face prosecution under a law introduced in December 1999 by President Clinton that makes it a federal felony to possess "a depiction of animal cruelty" for commercial gain, Peter Wood (of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said.

Salon is running an excellent interview with Ray Bradbury today, author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and scores of other novels and short stories. The man is 81, recovering from a stroke, and still incredibly coherent. He reminds me of what I thought when I saw Frank Kelly Freas on a panel at last year's Worldcon: if you're in love with what you do, you stay present.

Sir Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who first coined the term "Big Bang", died at 86 this week. Despite popularizing the theory with a catchy name, he was a proponent of the Steady State theory. Besides this, he is best known for his development of the Panspermia Theory, a "life seeded by intergalatic dust or comets" idea.


Read the BBC Article.

An often-overlooked fanzine is Fang, Claw, and Steel: Modern Lycanthrope Review. It is described as"...a small press zine devoted to positive portrayals of werewolves and other werecreatures. [The 'zine] features articles, artwork, stories, and interviews about werewolves, werecougars, werefoxes, weregnus, werewasps, and werewithal. The lycanthropes appearing in these pages can be heroes, workers, diplomats, homemakers, or anything under the sun (or moon). But they are generally not Hollywood-esque monsters. That type of lycanthrope already gets too much exposure." The 'zine is put out by Terry Wessner, and he is always looking for submissions.

For those of you having problems with lost or forgotten passwords, email me with your Flayrah username. The password mailer is broken, so until I upgrade to new code (which may be a while, yet), I will have to reset passwords by hand.

ABC News has posted an AP article about an Iowa State University study which found catnip oil up to ten times more effective at repelling mosquitoes than the most common ingredient in repellent sprays. The story also briefly mentions and earlier study which showed catnip repelled cockroaches. Note from Gene: no wonder mosquitoes almost never bit me back when I lived in mosquito country.