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The eastern cougar has been extinct for more than 100 years, according to biologists, but this hasn't kept people living around Greenwich, Connecticut, from calling local conservation officers with reports of mountain lion sightings. For months, the Department of Environmental Protection fielded calls but paid little attention, stating that the likelihood an actual mountain lion was roaming the suburban area was slim.

Then, on June 11, they received a call they could not ignore: A motorist reported hitting a large cat that was now dead on the side of the road.

Note: As a Sonic fan I can attest to this. Besides the tragedies that are the Sonic Adventure series of additional characters, what about the Chaotix? How about Ray the Squirrel? What about all those animals Sonic rescues?

With Sonic Generations coming upon us in time for the holidays, as well as 2011 being Sonic’s 20th anniversary, it’s a great time to take a look back at the franchise’s extensive history. A lot has changed in Sonic’s 20 years of breaking speed limits and smashing Badniks. The changes have been so drastic, you could even say that Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic are a part of two separate worlds. There may be some truth to that. While Modern Sonic’s world really leaves no mystery behind it, Classic Sonic has a few more skeletons in his closet: missing levels, unreleased games, and, most notably, missing and never-before-seen characters.

The screenshots show AnthroCon as an example. I assume this app can be used for other conventions.

Beautiful World by Kristina Tracer is a near-future sci-fi erotic suspense novel.

Here, a company has created Irokai, a virtual-reality world that's a cross between the Matrix and Second Life. It's very reminiscent of Snow Crash's metaverse, except that Irokai is self-contained system; if you want to access it, you have to go to one of the company's buildings and hook up. While in the real world everyone is a human, for some reason in Irokai everyone is an anthropomorphic animal. Also inside Irokai, there are AI programs who self-develop - they aren't programmed so much as grown, so they operate on an independent level, unaware of their code.

The story follows Johnathan, an artist who is in love with one of the AI programs inside Irokai. He has gotten a job with the company to design a new area in-world. There is a process that allows Johnathan to actually be permanently uploaded into the Irokai database - his body dies but his personality, memories, etc are uploaded into Irokai, making him a permanent resident. This way John can live with his love.

Yet all is not well in the land of Irokai. Because this is a private company running the show, everything costs money. Want to teleport instead of walk? That's a charge. Want to design a mod for your avatar? That's a charge. Want to eat something? That's a charge. Included in the charges are things like the Residents of Irokai (those AI programs and the people who have uploaded themselves) have to pay rent in order to be kept online. If they don't, they are just backed up and turned off. This is causing some issues of civil rights, of being taxed to live, and there's a revolution afoot.

Once the big events get underway, the story takes off. When the other shoe drops, it's like a hole blown in an airplane, sucking you out under its power. I felt a real "Uh oh" when we see what's really going on, and the final stretch had a solid urgency that left me turning the pages as quickly as I could.

One thing about the novel is that like many other books in the Fandom (Out of Position, Shadow of the Father, Thousand Leaves), each chapter is from the perspective of one of our cast of characters. We see from the perspective of every relevant character to our plot.

As far as the writing is concerned, the author does a good job with her prose. I never had a problem, I saw no real errors, and everything that is described is evocative and visible without too much detail spent on it. The author's demonstration of the world is nice. It feels like another world, and there is continual consistency throughout. Furthermore, the manner that Irokai's parent company milks customers for every dime feels very realistic.

A pleasant surprise to me was that actual transsexual issues came up. This is one of the first novels that I've seen that even bothers to acknowledge TG, much less have a compelling character with those issues.

Initially I had thought that Beautiful World was a straight novel, but I was surprised when there was an M/M/F scene later in the book.

Most of the faults with the novel are minor. We spend four chapters (out of a 200 book) dedicated to the subplot of John uploading himself into the world. That's a lot of book real estate for a subplot that doesn't feel that tense. The sex scenes are brief but unnecessary - the novel would have lost nothing had the author just chosen to fade to black instead. Certain scenes (the two between John and Adam) come off as... is there a literary version of "overacting"? They come off as chewing the scenery. But these are the only scenes that seem this way. Finally, the issue comes with the final scene of the novel, where we learn the Villain's true motivation for what occurs, and when we learn his motivation, reflecting back on his past actions seem to show a lack of consistency. Or rather a, "If that's what the villain wanted, then why did he do x in this scene, not Y?" Also the reaction to this revelation is somewhat out of left field - there were no warning signs for it.

The real disappointment of the novel is its brevity. I wanted to know more about the world. For instance, John uploads himself into Irokai, leaving his body behind. What happens to the body? What about John's parents - what do they think of this decision? Also in Irokai, even the programs/AI desire food and sleep. Why? A novel has much more space to explore the world of the story, a little more time to get into the lives of those involved, and I wish the author had taken advantage of that space.

The book's brevity also hampers its plot structure. The first half of the book is really devoted to introducing us to the characters, the world, as well as getting us familiar with the plot's underlying situation. Once all the pieces are out on the board, events get underway and then escalate a little too fast. Had there been more of a lead-up, with increased intensity, the big events and the crunch time of the novel would have had a bigger payoff.

Thus the book feels a tad underfed and bony.

The Kindle version is $5. It's well worth that price - I liked the book, it's a nice read and the flaws don't outweigh the overall positive weight.

Beautiful World by Kristina Tracer is a near-future sci-fi erotic suspense novel.

Here, a company has created Irokai, a virtual-reality world that's a cross between the Matrix and Second Life. It's very reminiscent of Snow Crash's metaverse, except that Irokai is self-contained system; if you want to access it, you have to go to one of the company's buildings and hook up. While in the real world everyone is a human, for some reason in Irokai everyone is an anthropomorphic animal. Also inside Irokai, there are AI programs who self-develop - they aren't programmed so much as grown, so they operate on an independent level, unaware of their code.

The story follows Johnathan, an artist who is in love with one of the AI programs inside Irokai. He has gotten a job with the company to design a new area in-world. There is a process that allows Johnathan to actually be permanently uploaded into the Irokai database - his body dies but his personality, memories, etc are uploaded into Irokai, making him a permanent resident. This way John can live with his love.

Yet all is not well in the land of Irokai. Because this is a private company running the show, everything costs money. Want to teleport instead of walk? That's a charge. Want to design a mod for your avatar? That's a charge. Want to eat something? That's a charge. Included in the charges are things like the Residents of Irokai (those AI programs and the people who have uploaded themselves) have to pay rent in order to be kept online. If they don't, they are just backed up and turned off. This is causing some issues of civil rights, of being taxed to live, and there's a revolution afoot.

Once the big events get underway, the story takes off. When the other shoe drops, it's like a hole blown in an airplane, sucking you out under its power. I felt a real "Uh oh" when we see what's really going on, and the final stretch had a solid urgency that left me turning the pages as quickly as I could.

One thing about the novel is that like many other books in the Fandom (Out of Position, Shadow of the Father, Thousand Leaves), each chapter is from the perspective of one of our cast of characters. We see from the perspective of every relevant character to our plot.

As far as the writing is concerned, the author does a good job with her prose. I never had a problem, I saw no real errors, and everything that is described is evocative and visible without too much detail spent on it. The author's demonstration of the world is nice. It feels like another world, and there is continual consistency throughout. Furthermore, the manner that Irokai's parent company milks customers for every dime feels very realistic.

A pleasant surprise to me was that actual transsexual issues came up. This is one of the first novels that I've seen that even bothers to acknowledge TG, much less have a compelling character with those issues.

Initially I had thought that Beautiful World was a straight novel, but I was surprised when there was an M/M/F scene later in the book.

Most of the faults with the novel are minor. We spend four chapters (out of a 200 book) dedicated to the subplot of John uploading himself into the world. That's a lot of book real estate for a subplot that doesn't feel that tense. The sex scenes are brief but unnecessary - the novel would have lost nothing had the author just chosen to fade to black instead. Certain scenes (the two between John and Adam) come off as... is there a literary version of "overacting"? They come off as chewing the scenery. But these are the only scenes that seem this way. Finally, the issue comes with the final scene of the novel, where we learn the Villain's true motivation for what occurs, and when we learn his motivation, reflecting back on his past actions seem to show a lack of consistency. Or rather a, "If that's what the villain wanted, then why did he do x in this scene, not Y?" Also the reaction to this revelation is somewhat out of left field - there were no warning signs for it.

The real disappointment of the novel is its brevity. I wanted to know more about the world. For instance, John uploads himself into Irokai, leaving his body behind. What happens to the body? What about John's parents - what do they think of this decision? Also in Irokai, even the programs/AI desire food and sleep. Why? A novel has much more space to explore the world of the story, a little more time to get into the lives of those involved, and I wish the author had taken advantage of that space.

The book's brevity also hampers its plot structure. The first half of the book is really devoted to introducing us to the characters, the world, as well as getting us familiar with the plot's underlying situation. Once all the pieces are out on the board, events get underway and then escalate a little too fast. Had there been more of a lead-up, with increased intensity, the big events and the crunch time of the novel would have had a bigger payoff.

Thus the book feels a tad underfed and bony.

The Kindle version is $5. It's well worth that price - I liked the book, it's a nice read and the flaws don't outweigh the overall positive weight.

Author: Istanbul

The podcast is really starting to pick up steam, now! This week we have a bevy of e-mails, including discussion of more Tennessee derp, a story about a co-worker on the wrong side of cah-razy, an update on a previous writer’s situation, and questions about streaming! As for the rest of it, well…nothing I can/should post here, you’ll have to listen to find out!

Don’t worry if you don’t see a podcast from us next week – as previously mentioned, Istanbul will be at Anthrocon, so we’re going to skip a week. Our next recording will be on June 30th, and our topic will be FOOD!

Foods you love, foods you hate!
Funny stories about things you ate!
Stuff that made your stomach hurty.
Write on in before 6/30!

Twitter: fuzzylogiccast
FA: fuzzylogicpodcast
E-mail: E-Mail Hidden

Episode 8 – Salt Mines

http://www.fuzzylogicpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Episode-8-Salt-Mines.mp3

Find the full article here: Fuzzy Logic Pod Cast

submitted by Tabziex
[link] [19 comments]

Another milestone made. Record breaking website hits. Record breaking concurrent live listeners, amazing discussions. Thanks to everyone who made this particular episode the success that it was. Can’t wait for AnthroCon 2011 after producing this!

Download MP3

News:

• GamingFurEver Launches
• Honeybees show emotions of pessimism, maybe happiness
• Rabbi sentences ‘reincarnated’ dog to death by stoning
• Japanese Whalers Find Radioactive Whales
• ‘Krypto1701′ arrested for animal cruelty
• Hacker group draws unwanted attention to Furries
• Diving Bell Spider Uses Bubble Like Gills
• Going to Anthrocon? There’s an App for that!

Emails:

• Joe the Coyote – “DISCUSSION TOPIC (not time sensitive but worthwhile)”
• Jay Kearnage – “Furry Vs. Anime”

Interviewee:

• Lupine Assassin

Topic of the Week:

• Banished Furs

FC-45 Black Wolf Red Bandana - Another milestone made. Record breaking website hits. Record breaking concurrent live listeners, amazing discussions. Thanks to everyone who made this particular episode the success that it was. Can't wait for AnthroCon 2011 after producing this!

Another milestone made. Record breaking website hits. Record breaking concurrent live listeners, amazing discussions. Thanks to everyone who made this particular episode the success that it was. Can’t wait for AnthroCon 2011 after producing this!

Download MP3

News:

• GamingFurEver Launches
• Honeybees show emotions of pessimism, maybe happiness
• Rabbi sentences ‘reincarnated’ dog to death by stoning
• Japanese Whalers Find Radioactive Whales
• ‘Krypto1701′ arrested for animal cruelty
• Hacker group draws unwanted attention to Furries
• Diving Bell Spider Uses Bubble Like Gills
• Going to Anthrocon? There’s an App for that!

Emails:

• Joe the Coyote – “DISCUSSION TOPIC (not time sensitive but worthwhile)”
• Jay Kearnage – “Furry Vs. Anime”

Interviewee:

• Lupine Assassin

Topic of the Week:

• Banished Furs

FC-45 Black Wolf Red Bandana - Another milestone made. Record breaking website hits. Record breaking concurrent live listeners, amazing discussions. Thanks to everyone who made this particular episode the success that it was. Can't wait for AnthroCon 2011 after producing this!

Another milestone made. Record breaking website hits. Record breaking concurrent live listeners, amazing discussions. Thanks to everyone who made this particular episode the success that it was. Can’t wait for AnthroCon 2011 after producing this!

.postlink:link { color: #ff9900; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; } .postlink:visited { color: #BB5500; } .postlink:hover { color: #ffBB00; } .postlink:active { color: #ffffff; }

Download MP3 (Right-click, Save)

News:

• GamingFurEver Launches

• Honeybees show emotions of pessimism, maybe happiness

• Rabbi sentences ‘reincarnated’ dog to death by stoning

• Japanese Whalers Find Radioactive Whales

• ‘Krypto1701′ arrested for animal cruelty

• Hacker group draws unwanted attention to Furries

• Diving Bell Spider Uses Bubble Like Gills

• Going to Anthrocon? There’s an App for that!

 

Emails:

• Joe the Coyote – “DISCUSSION TOPIC (not time sensitive but worthwhile)”
• Jay Kearnage – “Furry Vs. Anime”

 

Interviewee:

• Lupine Assassin

 

Topic of the Week:

• Banished Furs

FC-45 Black Wolf Red Bandana - Another milestone made. Record breaking website hits. Record breaking concurrent live listeners, amazing discussions. Thanks to everyone who made this particular episode the success that it was. Can't wait for AnthroCon 2011 after producing this!

Author: E-Mail Hidden
This week on KnotCast, we did our penance for not doing a show last week… by reading every email we got in the interim. Two and a half hours of emails, conversations, and Savrin infrequently using a soundboard. He was terribly naughty this week. But yes, we read the emails, even the ones plugging stuff.

Know that if you sent in an email in the last couple weeks, it got read. :3

We had plugs this week!

At Anthrocon: If any listeners out there are interested in hearing Look Left Live, they’ll be playing in the Performance hall which is room 319 in the Convention Center. The show is Sunday the 26th at 12 Noon.

Gaming Furever – http://www.gamingfurever.com/ – Furry gaming social networking. Check em out if you’re so inclined.

New podcast on the horizon- called The Den, hosted by Flaw, Kade, and Aria. Mite b cool. Always good to see more furs taking a shot at podcasting notoriety. :3

This weeks song is “This Suit” by Look Left

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/peppercoyote

And as always, use our coupon code ‘knot’ at AdamEve.com for a great deal. :3

Episode 144 – The Penance (AAC; 40.3 MB)
Episode 144 – The Penance (MP3; 98.2 MB)

Find the full article here: KnotCast News

The contents of this Podcast may have adult language and adult themes. The content is not produced by Furry News Network, but is posted for your convenience.

Gaming Furever is the SOURCE for all you need to know about video games featuring anthropomorphic animal characters in any shape, form, or fashion. It also serves as a community for gamers who are interested in these types of games, and/or who consider themselves "furries."

The site sell baseball caps with fox, raccoon, or bear themes including a tail on the back of the hat.

Author: Rakuen Growlithe

While most would ignore a stray dog or call an animal control unit, Jewish rabbis in Jerusalem sentenced a wandering dog to be stoned to death. The crime? The dog was suspected to be the reincarnated spirit of a secular lawyer who had insulted the court 20 years ago.

The lawyer in question had been cursed by the judges of the Monetary Affairs Court so his spirit would be reincarnated in a dog, an unclean animal. (Dogs are also unclean in Islam, forcing at least one blind Muslim to get a guide horse instead of a guide dog.)

The judge allegedly called on neighbourhood children to carry out the sentence. This was later denied by court leader Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, but confirmed by a court manager, who said that:

They didn’t think of it as cruelty to animals, but as an appropriate way to ‘get back at’ the spirit which entered the poor dog.

The dog – who previously refused to leave – managed to escape. A complaint has been filed against Rabbi Levin by the Let Animals Live organisation.

 

Find the full article here: flayrah – furry food for thought

Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

submitted by scottbob3
[link] [8 comments]

This week on KnotCast, we did our penance for not doing a show last week... by reading every email we got in the interim. Two and a half hours of emails, conversations, and Savrin infrequently using a soundboard. He was terribly naughty this week. But yes, we read the emails, even the ones plugging stuff. :o Know that if you sent in an email in the last couple weeks, it got read. :3 We had plugs this week! At Anthrocon: If any listeners out there are interested in hearing Look Left Live, they'll be playing in the Performance hall which is room 319 in the Convention Center. The show is Sunday the 26th at 12 Noon. Gaming Furever - http://www.gamingfurever.com/ - Furry gaming social networking. Check em out if you're so inclined. New podcast on the horizon- called The Den, hosted by Flaw, Kade, and Aria. Mite b cool. Always good to see more furs taking a shot at podcasting notoriety. :3 This weeks song is "This Suit" by Look Left http://www.furaffinity.net/user/peppercoyote And as always, use our coupon code 'knot' at AdamEve.com for a great deal. :3 Episode 144 - The Penance

Peter Bower, known in the furry fandom as Krypto1701, has been charged with animal cruelty after he allegedly had sex with a dog he adopted last month.

submitted by cabletvkiller
[link] [23 comments]

Now here’s something different: A werewolf comic book with decidedly political overtones, taking on the current hot-button topic of illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States in a very unusual manner. Here’s Fangoria.com’s description of the first Feeding Ground hardcover graphic novel: “Pretending to be asleep, Flaca Busqueda watches her father leave just before going back to work. Dad, tired and poor, promises her that this will be his ‘one last cross’. Flaca sneakily gets up from her bed and spontaneously decides to follow him. She never expects to be cruelly kidnapped at the Mexican/American border, known to locals as ‘The Devil’s Highway’. In a race against time, Flaca’s parents, her brother and uncle are on a desperate search to find their missing girl before anything horrible happens to her. When the family finally locates their lost daughter, Flaca has become different and strangely odd. They find her scarred with bloody scratches and claw marks on her back, as if she were attacked by a wolf. Flaca’s body is changing at such a tender adolescent age. Her coming-of-age tale represents the werewolf’s ever-present transformation. In the backdrop of this horror story, there are political and social commentaries about the timely issue of illegal immigration. Creators Swifty Lang, Michael Lapinski, and Chris Mangun provide different perspectives on the subject, but never actually give a definite opinion on the topic, as if they are giving the readers a chance to discuss and choose for themselves. ” Feeding Ground is coming our way in full color, this August from Archaia Entertainment. Fittingly, it’s available in English and Spanish.

- http://www.sibfox.com/ -

submitted by wonderfuldog
[link] [6 comments]

Author: Fred

Wired.com reports researchers at Newcastle University are studying honeybees to determine whether they exhibit human-like emotions. They are known to act pessimistic in some situations (as do rats, dogs and starlings). Next the researchers will test for the emotion of happiness.

 

Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.