This article at CNN is a neat read. Evidentally, last Thursday, May 3rd, the National Zoo welcomed the one millionth visitor to their new giant panda exhibit. Some intriguing facts are peppered throughout the article, including just how we convinced China to loan us the pandas. I, for one, didn't even know it was a loan...

If you're an artist who follows alt.fan.furry or yerf.yap semi-regularly, you've probably already seen this. However, if you haven't, you might want to take a peek at the Artists' Rant Board forum which was opened by Rebecca Gallant, an artist who works in the fantasy (including Furry) and wildlife genres of art. The forum has some tools which appear to be quite interesting, even to the non-artistic. There are areas for peer critiquing, tips and techniques, commission discussion and much more. While not exclusively "furry" this forum does support the fantasy genre as a whole, and the artist who opened the forum definately has done a number of "furry" works.

Here we go again. Yahoo News has an article titled 'Group Celebrates 'Furry' Lifestyle'. I didn't find it very informative -- it was short and felt stilted. I guess, reading the context around it, that this article is actually an excerpt from a local Ohio TV station (Channel 5) report on fursuiters.

Comic-Con International, the non-profit organization which sponsors San Diego Comic Con, the Alternate Press Expo, Pro-Con, and the Comic Book Expo, has entered into an agreement to acquire the comic convention WonderCon.

For those wondering about Furnetwork being down, it's back up, but partially. The front page is being hosted by YourHost.com, and all the user accounts are safe, if unaccessible. There's further news on the front page(www.furnetwork.net). Full service is expected to be restored before the end of the month.

Super-Con-Duck-Tivity, the organization which sponsors DuckCon, has announced the nominees for the Golden Duck Awards. Each year, the Golden Duck Awards are given to the top three children's books in the category of science fiction.

Comic-Con International has announced the
nominees for the 13th Annual Eisner Comics Industry awards. Nominees are selected by a panel of judges. Final awards are decided by a vote among comics professionals. Ballots will be going out in early May to over 5,000 comics publishers, creators, and retailers. The results will be announced in an awards ceremony at Comic-Con: International: San Diego on the night of Friday, July 20 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark revealed an an E! Online interview that her upcoming film, Elvira's Haunted Hills will be her final film outing.

If you love animals, you should spend some time considering how they're slaughtered. Not pretty, but if you eat them, you should know exactly what's going on behind the scenes.

If you haven't seen this in your local Blockbuster or Video Update you should be seeing it now. That's right, The Emperor's New Groove is out on VHS and DVD (There is even a collector's edition on DVD) for your viewing pleasure. If you haven't seen this movie, now is the time to go rent it (or, if you've got kids, buy it). I haven't laughed at a movie so hard in a very long time, and it's geared for audiences both young and old, so you won't get tired of it when your children decide to watch it every time the TV is on.

This little tidbit was posted on alt.fan.furry by Joe Strike, and I thought it a little too surreal to be true. Christopher Walken is going to be in a movie with anthro or intelligent bears, produced by Disney? This is the same guy who was playing the vindictive, homicidal angel Gabriel in 'The Prophecy' and its sequel. It just doesn't mesh with reality, you know?

This is Joe's post to alt.fan.furry:

While browsing Mailbox Books today I stumbled across an interesting link on the front page. RABCO Publishing (who now runs MB), in conjuction with Shanda Fantasy Arts and "other comic professionals" have posted a notice calling for a boycott of the new "Josie and the Pussycats" movie currently in theaters. Reasons cited are primarily related to alleged abuse by Archive Comics and Universal Studios of the comic's creator in regards to fair compensation and credit for his 50 years of work.

Fans of JD Calderon and Daphne Lage's Tall Tails comic, serialized monthly in Furrlough, can now congregate and share their thoughts at http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/clubtalltails.

Sanctioned by the comic's creators, the fan club is a new home for fans of Tall Tails to congregate, share their thoughts, get news, post fan art, and otherwise participate in the comic we enjoy.

From Email on TAFF list:

Pass this info on to the newsgroups.

Furnation will be getting a new SDSL connection in approximately 3-4
weeks and will come back on line as soon as possible thereafter. Nexxus
moved to a new part of town and it's taken a while for the DSL people to
get up to speed in the area, but he's on their list to get a hookup by
the end of May. Once the first line is in and clear, he will decide if
he can afford a second or third one again

Sci Fi Wire is reporting that the Cordwainer Smith Foundation has announced "...the establishment of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, an annual literary award for forgotten SF classics, named after the SF writer. The award will honor a science fiction or fantasy writer whose work deserves renewed attention or rediscovery and whose work displays unusual originality and embodies the spirit of Cordwainer Smith's fiction..."