Some of you might remember a post I found off New Scientist a while back about rescuers attempting to free a male right whale, one of the few left in the wild. Unfortunately, their attempts didn't work and now they're hoping the whale will be able to free himself. This has to be one of the more frustrating times to be a scientist... being unable to save a creature so rare there are only 300 left, and giving it up to fate. You can read more about it at Salon. On a more upbeat note, cows also enjoy music, though they prefer ballads to hardcore rock and roll.

The NY Times reports an entrepreneur in upstate New York wants to engineer a cat without the protein that causes allergic reactions in 60 to 90 percent of sensitive people. He plans to sell sterilized animals for up to $1000. (Free registration required to access that site.)

In order to provide for a more stable system, FurBid will be moved to a new server tonight, starting at 11pm. As such, FurBid will be down from 11pm to 5am Pacific time, on 6/27/2001. All auctions that are scheduled to close during that time will be extended.


If you haven't been to FurBid, I invite you to check it out at http://furrybid.transform.to



Any questions, please send them to aatheus@transfur.com


Aatheus

FurBid Administaur

Do you like mammoths, sloths and sabre-tooth tigers? 20th Century Fox is betting there's a lot of folks who will with the computer animated film "Ice Age," being produced now at Blue Sky in New York. This is the same group that produced the Oscar-winning short "Bunny." The teaser trailer is now running with selected movies, but you can see it now by going to http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/ice_age/.

For the women in our audience (and fans of women), a link to Broad Universe seems in order, an organization devoted to the promotion of science fiction and fantasy written by women. Men are also encouraged to join if they support the cause. The website has a regular newsletter with industry and writing tips, a book list and some other info, as well as some cool things coming down the pike (like a PR database). The newsgroup is active and turns up some interesting posts on a regular basis. The Broad Universe launch was noted by Locus Magazine and the website got a review on the latest issue of SF Weekly.

What would you call a real shetland pony/zebra mix created by nature? A Shetland Zebra? Reports from Associated Press and Reuters with video from Brittan via Yahoo! News.

I wanted to share with you my views of Steven Spielberg's A.I.

Succinctly, the movie is long, grim, more Kubrik than Spielberg and will utterly fail in the box office.

I've seen mentions of this in a few places, today. Nature's Guard looks to be a new furry animated cartoon. No information on when it will be out, or what station(s) will be carrying it.

From Mprints Publishing: "Currently we are planning the production of our Ernor:
Destiny of Rai title to be released this fall. It will be a
standard 56+ page comic sized one-shot book with an all new
30+ page story, art gallry, and special preview of our Ernor
d20 project." Read on for more.

I thought this was a rumor, but now I've seen it twice... there's a possibility for a Teenage Mutant Turtles movie using CGI. Coming Attractions has some information on their new site for the movie and SF Wire also has the story.

July 1 is the deadline to get a ConiFur NW 2001 membership at the low price of just $25.

Click "Read more..." to read the most recent announcement from the ConiFur Chair, James "Tibo" Birdsall.

Some random animal news now: NOAA embarks on a mission to rescue an injured right whale despite the weather and difficulties involved; and two lynx kittens found in a clear cut forest in Maine. The latter article is especially interesting in its mention of how humans can plan how they're going to use the resources of nature in such a way that it can actually provide more opportunities for wildlife than would have occurred naturally. This is similar to the premise of a book I finished reading by a naturalist, Eco-Geography (link to Amazon). Worth the read for those of you interested in sustainable living in a way that neither insists that all human life is inimical to the pristine and perfect natural world nor assumes that we're hell-bent on destroying everything in our selfish quest for material wealth.

The Cyantian Chronicles is proud to present their first gathered and printed archives, containing:

• The first series of Satin & Silk, with the first six strips redrawn and the rest rescanned and edited for print
  
• The Satin & Silk Prequel
  
• A two page followup comic to the prequel
  
• A summary to the start of the first series of Satin & Silk
  
• A short Satin & Silk story *With an illustration*
  
• Stripes by Spotweld *With a special illustration*
  
• Satin & Silk's profiles
  
• Back cover by Spike
  

For more information, visit Cyantia Zine or the main site at: Cyantian.net.

From the Yerf News page, posted June 15th:

I'd like to ask for some feedback, please. I want to know what everybody expects, wants to see, wants me to do, etc..


To tell you the truth, I get very little to no feedback as it is!



So, if you like Yerf but would like to see some things change, email me.

If you like Yerf and don't want to see anything change, email me.

If you hate Yerf and want to see some things change, email me.

If you just want to say Yerf sucks and not care if anything changes, email me!



I'd seriously like some feedback so I can improve this place. That's what I've been wanting to do all along.
I'll post some of the feedback I get here at the end of the week (without names, of course). -Dingo

The ConiFur NorthWest Art Show participant packets are ready to be mailed out next week. If you plan to have items for sale or show, drop a line (with your address) to the artshow director at artshow@conifur.org.


There is also an announcement-only email list for updated news and information about this year's artshow. Contact me at the same address to subscribe.