Newsbytes archive for October–December 2012

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I sure have been using the words “technical difficulties” a lot recently, but here is another series of articles delayed due to technical difficulties.

Newsbytes are provided by individual contributors, and are lightly edited for style, punctuation, capitalization, spelling and if absolutely necessary, grammar. Contributor lists appear before each month’s Newsbytes. Happy new year!

October

Contributors include crossaffliction, Equivamp, Fred, GreenReaper, Higgs Raccoon, Kakurady, Patch Packrat, Rakuen Growlithe, raynevandunem, RingtailedFox and Sonious.

GreenReaper: Some bats fear the moon.

GreenReaper: In rural Oregon, pig eats you.

Fred: In Brooklyn, an alligator in the basement.

Fred: A binturong, a muntjac, a serow, and others. Four months of Indonesian rainforest wildlife camera-trapped in 8:44 minutes.

Fred: Survival of the nicest; good guys live longer.

crossaffliction: Holy @#$%, Ted’s hosting the @#$%ing Oscars!

crossaffliction: Rise of the Guardians hasn’t even had its premiere yet, and it won an award. From Vanity Fair, of all things. [Guy Lodge/In Contention]

GreenReaper: Disney plays with 3D-printed toys.

Higgs Raccoon: Coyotes never cheat on their mates.

Fred: Honeybees eat colored M&Ms; produce green and blue honey.

raynevandunem: Art archive SoFurry now allows users to add a new submission to existing or new folders from the new submission page before uploading.

GreenReaper: 'Meerkat academy' helps pups learn to eat the tastiest, deadliest catch.

GreenReaper: Inkbunny has various performance and BBCode updates as well. Meanwhile, FA is working on a new theme.

Fred: Are cats taking over Lima, Peru?

Rakuen Growlithe: Yahoo reveals six odd facts about Pokémon. They aren't that surprising but it's nice to remember the franchise.

GreenReaper: 'Panda poop' used to create tea. [Rapid T. Rabbit]

Fred: It's International Cephalopod Awareness Days!

RingtailedFox: Lioness adopts baby antelope in Ugandan wildlife park (Courtesy: ABC News and Yahoo! News)

Rakuen Growlithe: Two otters are selling paintings from their aquarium home.

crossaffliction: Wal-Mart, honey, no; or, the bronies finally have something to like ironically. [Sethisto/Equestria Daily]

GreenReaper: Oh hey, look who added comment fading/folding and ignoring.

crossaffliction: Equestria Daily has some possible season 3 stuff; by the way, since we all missed it, it’s coming in November.

crossaffliction: I don’t know how All New X-Men’s stupid concept can possibly beat the Uncanny X-Men reboot. Oh, and ponies. [Sethisto/Equestria Daily]

crossaffliction: Rise of the Guardians to play AFI Fest.

Higgs Raccoon: A Cat in Paris arrives on dvd.

Equivamp: Citizens for Animal Protection have the dogs dressing up this Halloween.

Fred: Are the MLP:FIM ponies from outer space?

Higgs Raccoon: An abandoned treatment of Jurassic Park 4 was to feature dinosaur/dog/human hybrids.

Fred: The furry future of data storage: gerbil-backed computers.

Fred: New species of spider discovered in Laos with LOOOONG legs.

GreenReaper: Tim Burton claims to have "never made a scary movie" while clutching model of freakish, stitched-together, reanimated dog.

GreenReaper: Fursuits “Gangnam Style”. [Ron]

Fred: Romney charges that protecting migratory birds is harming American industry.

GreenReaper: Stunning pictures from Wildife Photographer of the Year competition.

Kakurady: Teddy bears ride the new metro line (Chinese) in Chengdu, China, where a teddy museum is to be opened. [M.I.C / Kotaku]

GreenReaper: Images are working again on our Facebook page. Not yet a fan? Add us now, and share Flayrah with your friends!

RingtailedFox: Female otter pup rescued in Alaska.

GreenReaper: Lego furries? [tip: Deko Puma]

GreenReaper: The Kindle preview of Lightspeed: Year One contains the furry story "Cats in Victory" by David Barr Kirtley. Worth a read. [tip: ShroomPicker]

GreenReaper: Is Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! actually about rabbits? Perhaps not, but we'll see once it's published.

GreenReaper: Greg Howell's Usenet classic Light on Shattered Water has been republished with maps and a nice cover on Kindle.

dronon: A Totoro bed.

Higgs Raccoon: Drawing porn on Fur Affinity: "I was young and needed the money." (Not an actual quote.)

GreenReaper: Furry is South Dakota's Soldier of the Year.

Sonious: Anthropologist laments about the lexical evolution of the shorthand "anthros".

GreenReaper: Humans 'have no monopoly' on morals.

Kakurady: Free Software Foundation demonstrator in gnu costume gives GNU/Linux CDs, at a Microsoft Windows 8 launch event.

GreenReaper: European fursuiters photographed in their homes. [baracudaboy/furrymedia]

GreenReaper: Sad mouse on SNL. [ianthegecko/furrymedia]

GreenReaper: A Kindle novel about rabbits. Is it any good? Who knows. Free to download Sunday only! [Amazon US - UK - tip: dronon]

Fred: Designing glass-walled skyscrapers that migrating birds won't crash into.

crossaffliction: Kristopher Tapley of In Contention has seen 17 of the 18 contenders for Best Animated Feature. He likes Brave.

Fred: This list of 18 contenders does not include Ted. The CGI teddy bear is inserted into the live-action movie so seamlessly that it is easy to forget that it is not completely a live-action movie. Ted is definitely an animated movie, and an excellent one even though I do not care for the macho stud plot.

GreenReaper: Can bees teach us how humans discern the components of art?

Patch Packrat: Furaffinity owner reports harassment by volunteer con security.

Rakuen Growlithe: Housepets is on-hold for at least a week while artist Rick Griffin is in hospital.

GreenReaper: FurFright petitioned to remove Dorsai as con security.

RingtailedFox: Bambi was seen swimming on a beach in front of the Four Seasons Hotel in Maui. (Courtesy: TMZ.com, alt. link at My Vidster)

GreenReaper: Mysterious man in horse mask runs shirtless through storm. [tip: Anthael Whiskers]

GreenReaper: Rome cat sanctuary faces eviction.

November

Contributors include bersl2, dronon, Equivamp, Fred, Green Reaper, Higgs Raccoon, mwalimu, Patch Packrat and Ringtailed Fox.

mwalimu: Several random furries from Fangcon wandered to the nearby GMX con and ended up appearing in a Professor Shyguy video.

RingtailedFox: Yahoo! Photo Gallery of pets rescued from Hurricane Sandy.

GreenReaper: ”Gangnam Style” robot wins dance contest.

Higgs Raccoon: Wilfred to return for season 3 in 2013.

GreenReaper: CNN calls furry 'lifestyle choice'.

GreenReaper: Attenborough's ark contains '10 weird and wonderful species'.

GreenReaper: Unconfirmed report: Stalking Cat is dead. [tip: Kat the Leopardess]

GreenReaper: MFF hotel limits parking to one per room.

Fred: Belo Horizonte's dog brothel.

Higgs Raccoon: The Funday PawPet Show will return in 2013 after raising $7161 in the annual telethon.

GreenReaper: What 15,000 redditors look like on the Flayrah/WikiFur server. (Varnish/APC FTW.)

Equivamp: Furries in high school are the biggest dorks.

Fred: Children in isolation at Seattle Children's Hospital get to play with kittens, puppies, bunnies, and goats via interactive webcams in Idaho and Texas.

Fred: Purina sponsors the Friskies, an award for the best LOLcat video of the year.

mwalimu: RainFurrest is now ahead of FurFright in the list of conventions by attendance, marking the first change in the top 5 since 2007.

dronon: The animal photography of Tim Flach.

Patch Packrat: Well known metal musician Devin Townsend's music video "lucky animals" uses fan sourced clips, includes several fursuiters.

dronon: A recent episode of Nature about different species becoming friends: ”Odd Animal Couples” (U.S. only).

RingtailedFox: Waterton Lakes National Park's "critter cam" captures skunk vs. cougar encounter.

GreenReaper: Emoki's Indiegogo project has reached twice its $3500 target, as has The Saga of Rex's Kickstarter project, which is on its third stretch goal. Both campaigns end next week.

RingtailedFox: Speaking of Kickstarter... Chris Tremblay is in the process of making a Kickstarter project to revive his old animated series, Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron! Swat Kats Revival and Swat Kats Revival Promotion (both on Facebook)!

Higgs Raccoon: Scottish man dresses as giraffe, does good deeds.

GreenReaper: . . . is at MFF, so will just note that Furcadia has a Kickstarter project as well (forum).

Patch Packrat: Are bronies changing the definition of masculinity?

Patch Packrat: io9: Why do geeks like kinky sex?

GreenReaper: Can 'ugly' animals be saved?

GreenReaper: Are fishermen attacking dolphins?

RingtailedFox: A man, a zebra, and a parrot walk into a bar... (Courtesy: ABC News and KCRG-TV)

GreenReaper: Furry LEGO in 2013. [BlindWolf8]

GreenReaper: Fox hunts without the foxes in SA.

GreenReaper: Japanese fursuiter looking for work? Get training at the mascot school.

GreenReaper: Final figures for the Saga of Rex Kickstarter - $57,875 from 880 backers.

GreenReaper: Diatryma: Big-beaked predator or gentle giant?

GreenReaper: "Good Giraffe" helps out in Dundee. [tip: Anthael Whiskers]

RingtailedFox: Canadian Man behind Whistler, BC sled-dog killings won't face jail time, animal rights activists are enraged.

GreenReaper: Potoroo launches Fuzzy Notes, a podcast featuring music by furries. [Roogoyle]

Patch Packrat: Hoof Beat 2, an illustrated "adult pony fanbook" sold at MFF 2012, beats $400 in auctions. (Furbuy has several copies priced at hundreds at time of posting.)

GreenReaper: Sometimes red is better . . .

dronon: Shapeshifting from lizard to human form is great for controlling Earth so you can mine gold to save your dying homeworld, but it's not so great for your skin.

GreenReaper: Humans are not best suited to eating live cockroaches.

bersl2: Send the furry snuff fetishist in your life an early gift for the holidays: Via Boing Boing, "medieval manuscript marginalia show rabbits executing a hound".

RingtailedFox: Christian Tremblay answers Swat Kats fans' questions!

dronon: To see more animal drawings from the same manuscript (ca 1400), see the British Library page.

Higgs Raccoon: (c/o Cartoon Brew) Quit Smoking PSAs (with traditionally-animated monkeys on the smokers' backs).

GreenReaper: China's People's Daily Online falls for Onion coverage, reports naming of Kim Jong-un as "Sexiest Man Alive". (In fairness, he's on a cute horse.)

GreenReaper: The monkeys are cute, but it's no PSA - QuitSmoking.com is a thinly-veiled store for smoking cessation products. Try SmokeFree.gov.

Fred: If you want cute horses, the Turkmenistan government held its second annual horse beauty contest for "the most beautiful horse of the year" in April in Ashgabat, the capital, during the Day of Turkmen Race Horse national holiday. The president of Turkmenistan personally awarded the prize to the horse and rode him around the racetrack.

Fred: I don't see the Quit Smoking monkeys. Do you mean this article on the Cartoon Brew?

GreenReaper: Yes, Higgs linked it above.

Higgs Raccoon: Furry claims to have changed name to "Wolf Morningstar" via deed poll.

GreenReaper: Germany considers outlawing amateur attempts at human-animal hybridization. (Depictions are already illegal.)

Higgs Raccoon: The Onion also has a raccoon on their writing staff. :P

Equivamp: The curious case of Benjamin Jellyfish.

Equivamp: PETA is protesting The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on grounds of animal cruelty.

RingtailedFox: A cute fox attempts to sing!

Fred: Mumbai needs more vultures to eat human corpses.

Equivamp: A man and woman in Texas indicted over videos of animal torture. (Does not link to video.)

December

Contributors include crossaffliction, dronon, Equivamp, Fred, GreenReaper, Higgs Raccoon, mwalimu, Patch Packrat, raynevandunem and RingtailedFox.

GreenReaper: Irish puppy farms: they sound cute, but they're wrong.

GreenReaper: Next great idea: fursuit trophies.

GreenReaper: Russian tiger kits adopted by dog.

RingtailedFox: BC man charged in death of Captain, the german shepherd dog.

RingtailedFox:The quick brown fox sends quirky iPhone text message!

GreenReaper: Kotaku exhibits MLP cosplay.

GreenReaper: From ears to tail: necomimi prototyper launches 'Taily' kickstarter. [dreamendDischarger]

Equivamp: Logo is producing a documentary on otherkin. (Although they seem to be confusing the terms "otherkin" and "therian".)

RingtailedFox: From seeing-eye dogs, to chauffeurs? NZSPCA teaches dogs to drive!

GreenReaper: Flayrah now has a valid HTTPS cert (if you care about such things).

mwalimu: A recent YouTube video entitled "Girlfriends in the Wild" includes a random appearance of a Michele Light T-shirt.

GreenReaper: She's also wearing a cat-ear hat, there's an orangutan painting at 2:44, and another girlfriend really likes her china cat.

Fred: To comment on the NZSPCA teaching dogs to drive post, there used to be a Drive-Rite Driving School in or around Los Angeles whose advertising logo was "We taught a horse to drive" with a cartoon of a horse driving a speeding car. There was a rumor that it got a legal threat for false advertising, which it defended against by claiming that the advertisement was an obvious humorous exaggeration that nobody would take seriously. It is gone today.

Fred: South Louisiana rice farmers switch to farming for the crayfish in their watery paddies. Is anyone anthropomorphising crayfish?

Patch Packrat: "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." - Oscar Wilde, secretly a Victorian era fursuiter

Patch Packrat: McSweeney's: Your spirit animal is a tech guy named Paul.

Equivamp: Cavepeople are better at accurately portraying animals than modern-day artists.

Higgs Raccoon: Flying Dragon debuts at Walt Disney World for New Fantasyland grand opening.

GreenReaper: Bronies decry expense of 'last pony' in MLP app.

GreenReaper: "They clipped my wings, and all I got was this lousy cart."

Fred: Flooding in England forces wild otters into the open.

Fred: 'Famous' wolf shot & killed outside Yellowstone.

Equivamp: Therianthropy portraits (possibly NSFW).

Higgs Raccoon: "Have you seen this head?" - fursuit maker Fenrirs Child reports a fursuit head stolen from her workshop.

GreenReaper: Several Sofawolf titles previously reviewed here are on sale for the holidays.

GreenReaper: Our Tumblr feed is back up, albeit sans tags; @FlayrahNews is getting summaries.

Equivamp: I'm sure everyone is aware of the New York Post's shocking subway photo, and while not furry-related, it's still important to know tips for your own survival should you ever find yourself on the tracks.

Equivamp: Animal rights group in Canada demands grocery chains force their pork suppliers to end cruelty against the pigs.

GreenReaper: Porcupine barbs aid penetration.

Fred: Eight years of birds-of-paradise courtship ritual videos.

Equivamp: People only seem to care about rat poison when it hurts cute animals like foxes.

Patch Packrat: 43 people you won't believe actually exist - of course there's a furry (and a guy in a cow suit.) Imagine a party with them all.

GreenReaper: How was the Gruffalo drawn?

dronon: Captain Carrot returning?

GreenReaper: Slow loris is cute, not tasty.

GreenReaper: Now with full HTTPS support: Flayrah, the Yerf Archive and the English and Russian WikiFur.

GreenReaper: Modified fish embryos 'grow hands', die.

Fred: Spider builds larger spider decoys to fool predators.

Equivamp: Kansas University fraternity suspended after abusing a live turkey.

GreenReaper: One-piece garments lauded, critiqued as their gifting popularity spreads.

GreenReaper: Red Dog star Koko died on the 18th. [tip: FT Dellway]

Fred: Vietnam bear rescue centre faces eviction - for a commercial venture?

RingtailedFox: Bear Force: The ORIGINAL Bear Cavalry?

GreenReaper: Kenneth C Eng's The 0th Dimension is out in paperback and Kindle - he's looking for reviewers.

Fred: Ha! Ha! Ha! When Eng's The 0th Dimension was published by FurPlanet in January 2007, I got a whole three pages into it before giving up in disgust and confusion. Maybe he has rewritten and improved it? I don't think that I want to ask for a new copy to find out. P.S.: I liked the 2007 cover better.

dronon: This ad for the French pay-tv channel Canal+ is one of the winners of the 2012 Cannes Lions.

Fred: RSPCA closes overloaded animal shelters at Christmastime as too many people abandon gifts of "cute" pets.

Fred: Ernest Hemingway museum's six-toed cats draw legal battle.

dronon: Are you afflicted with crocodile?

Patch Packrat: Christmas movie furry cameo: In Scrooged (1988), Bill Murray plays the TV fursuit mascot "Frisbee the Dog" as his younger self revealed by the Ghost of Christmas Past (played by David Johansen, no stranger to costumes as cross-dressing member of The New York Dolls, AKA Buster Poindexter).

Fred: Breeding of endangered Bewick's swans is up.

dronon: It's that time of year for Plonq's Plonqmas tail! (And here's last year's.)

Fred: Would they release Rise of the Guardians in Uzbekistan? Presumably not.

Fred: To protect elephants, will Los Angeles become elephant-intolerant?

Fred: "At least 100 million flame shells" discovered living in Scottish coastal waters.

Fred: A British breed of cattle "rarer than the Siberian tiger".

raynevandunem: Since it hasn't been mentioned here yet, here's a two-month-old animated video from 2012 Web phenom Gotye.

Fred: No, it was posted here on October 17.

GreenReaper: Well, here's something that hasn't been posted: the Kickstarter for Off the Leash. [tip: HappyWulf]

GreenReaper: Are wolf children or guns the solution to Japan's growing deer infestation?

GreenReaper: FA goes responsive [design]?

dronon: Charlie the Unicorn, episode 4.

crossaffliction: Cracked.com presents 34 famous movies that would be better with animal actors, as Photoshopped by its readers. I like 31 and 7 myself.