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submitted by bearetic
[link] [5 comments]

Udderly creepy! Scientists in China have created a herd of 300 cows that produce human breast milk, according to Sky News, and the hu-moo juice should be available on Chinese supermarket shelves in three years.  Using transgenic and cloning technology similar to that which produced Dolly the sheep, cloned cow embryos were injected with human genes and then implanted into surrogate cows.

Workers at University of Beijing’s dairy farm say the result–identical to human breast milk with the same antibacterial and immune-boosting qualities:

is sweeter and stronger than the usual bovine variety

Genetically modified food is popular in China where GM papayas, tomatoes, potatoes, and cooking oil are already widely available for sale. The team at University of Beijing have already produced animals that are resistant to mad cow disease, as well as beef cattle that are genetically modified to produce more nutritious meat.  The Chinese government recently approved insect-resistant rice and corn modified to help pigs absorb more nutrients.

Catch a video on the Transgenic Cows at GizModo

submitted by critrockets
[link] [17 comments]

Author: actfuronair

Hey guys! and welcome aboard for Episode 5, SONI I mean,……. just ‘Rainbewm’!

Copyright infringements aside, w’ve got Blue Birds blazing a fashion trail, National Geek day, the return of Pooh! ((’Winnie’ that is)), and in-depth looks at COLOUR in it’s entirety and Ray gives us the scoop on SUPPPPPER Volcanoes!

All this and more in store for you this fortnight with a mammoth 2hr+ show, and the Mushi ‘Quik Draw’ competition continues into Round 2!
((Length entirely Carnivals fault. She is soooort of sorry, for the record~!))

Download Standard Podcasts

Find the full article here: ACTfur On Air

This podcast may contain coarse language and adult themes. It is being provided as a service and is not the property of Furry News Network

Author: toonces
Much appreciation to Jinxtigr for providing this week’s story!

By the time Daucery was done with Boodins, everybody in the Cathouse was up. She didn’t hurry him, which was surprising- but she explained that she liked to take time for herself, too. He counted as ‘me time’. Boodins found this gratifying, and by the time he had his pants on and was wandering back out into the common area, he was further gratified by a plethora of kitties.

Daucery was talking with the fat white fluffy Nerre in the black ribbon… Read more..

Find the full article here: The Bad Dog Book Club » Podcast

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.

submitted by HappyWulf
[link] [comment]

06/09/2011
By: CraftyAndy

Interview with artist and writer David Petersen, creator of the popular furry comic Mouse Guard. A medieval fantasy adventure that follows a group of Mice Guard who’s perilous task is to ensure the safety and be a guide to their fellow kin who reside in independent villages and towns hidden away from would be predators. It has two volumes, with a third in the works, a spin off series and possibilities of a film.
I find it a quite different take on the whole anthro tales that are similar to it. No prophecies (so far) it’s not some overdone “Mice are at war with rats because all rats are evil and mice are all perfect!.” No pothole creating magic either, just pure medieval lore in the setting of twelfth century Michigan. Honestly the sophistication of the world, and characters made me think this came from anywhere but america, let alone Michigan. Much to my pleasant surprise soon after.
I intend to delve into this a little more in my “not in theaters” show I have in mind.

To be continued next with Jeremy A. Bastian. Don’t worry next video to come out will be FCN related for those wondering.

Allow modifications, Attribution Non-Commercial

Man, there's hardly anything this month. I threw in the latest Girl
Genius collection; I'm not sure if there's anything furry in it beside
the robot dog, but it's the only thing in this month's post that I've
ordered.
PAGE 38
DARK HORSE COMICS ([link])
APR110020 Usagi Yojimbo #138 24pg, b&w $3.50

submitted by HappyWulf
[link] [12 comments]

Author: Lamar

The new big thing in Furry Fandom is contests! Yes, now you can enter into a contest to win a paid commission. All you have to do is submit a piece of art, of the finest quality you can make, to specification and for free to the person running the contest… see the flaw yet?

To those of you who’ve not worked it out: yes, this is what we call a “scam”.

The guy running the contest gets a whole load of “to specification” artwork, and only has to pay for one, but keeps all of them. The clever ones even put in the small print that all rights to submissions are transferred to them. The really abusive ones never pay out at all, with their winner being a friend or a sock-puppet. Sometimes they’re run by people who just don’t get that it’s not okay to trick people into giving you stuff for free.

This is nothing new, and has been going on in other fandoms for as long as people thought they could take advantage of others, or felt they deserved things for free. Other variants include “Your submission could be included in a High Quality Full Colour Art-Book, retailing for $18.99.” where every submission wins, and the books are then sold to the “Lucky” winners.

Some people do try to defend these contests, with the following arguments…

“These contests provide exposure for the people who enter.”

They’re probably the least effective way to gain exposure. What exposure is gained will be that from people who look at the other entries – which may not be possible in closed submissions – and from whatever use the winning entry sees, which may be very limited indeed.

“People should be allowed to give their work away for free if they want.”

Sure, I’m not going to make the Pixel-Stained Technopeasant argument. If you want to willingly give away your work, that’s fine. But that’s different to using the promise of a “win” to get people to do work for free, particularly if you give exact specifications for what you want. People have the right to distribute their work how they want, but taking advantage by subtly coercing them into handing over stuff for free is unethical.

“No one gets hurt, it’s just for fun.”

People can spend hours, even days of hard work on their submission – and can then be crushed when they realise they’ve been taken for a sucker. That sounds like harm to me.

Sadly, it’s hard to prevent these abusive “contests”. But it is possible to get the message out to creators to beware of being scammed into providing their work for free.

 

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

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

Steve Carell attends Gaylaxicon 2000, a nurturing environment for gay geeks to come out of the science fiction closet. Featuring Assinio and his description of "anthropomorphic erotica."

Further Confusion 2012 – to be held at the SJCC – now has a theme (The Infurmary), first guest of honor (E. E. Knight) and featured musician (Travis Ratledge/Colson Grainger).

Pre-registration is open; the dealer room has sold out already. Accepted dealers must send in signature forms and make payment by June 15 or forfeit their place. Furry Market Place spaces will be available from August 1 for $75, including membership.

Hotel rooms are available at the San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose. Each reservation will attract an immediate non-refundable deposit of one night plus tax.

Staff – new or otherwise – are encouraged to check their information on the private site. The next staff meeting is June 11; access to a conference call can be arranged.

1.  New Venue, New theme

The theme for Further Confusion 2012 is “The Infurmary (For a limited time
every surgery comes with a free prize inside!)”. It will be held at the
San Jose Convention Center, from January 12th through the 16th 2012, with
the San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose as our main hotels and the
St. Claire as our preferred overflow.

2.  Announcing our first Guest of Honor – E. E. Knight

Further Confusion is pleased to announce that E. E. Knight will be one
of our Guests of Honor. Mr. Knight is known for his “Age of Fire” series
of books starting with Dragon Champion, which chronicle the adventures of
a race of talking dragons. It is unique in it’s story as the books are
told from the dragon’s point of view. Mr.  Knight has also written a
series called Vampire Earth.

3.  Launch of the FC2012 Themed Website

This coming Saturday (June 11th) at noon Pacific Time, we will be
launching our themed website for this year. Many thanks go out to Narumi
and Krahnos for working on bringing our theme to the website!

4.  New Reservation policy and a message from our chair

This year we are moving to what may be our final home at the San Jose
Convention Center just one block from last year’s location at the
Fairmont.  We have secured the site for the next 3 years on the Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.  This new location holds promise with
more programming space, indoor parking, and two wonderful hotels attached
to the property.  The San Jose Marriott and the Hilton San Jose will be
our main hotels continuing with the St. Claire as our preferred overflow.
All in all, an outstanding move.

So that we can continue to offer the best attendee experience the
convention, hotels, and venue can provide, we must make a difficult but
necessary change to our hotel room registration process and policy.

We are now currently accepting hotel reservations for Further Confusion
2012.

At the time of registration each person will be immediately billed their
first night’s room and tax for each room reserved.  This will be
considered a non-refundable deposit and will not be returned in the event
of cancellation.

This tough decision is necessary to help mitigate room holds that are
released shortly before the convention start date and after the room block
has closed.  Conventions such as ours are granted concessions and program
space based on how many rooms are filled over the course of the
convention.  Once the room block is closed if someone releases interest in
a room it counts against our room block.  If enough rooms are released,
which has happened, the convention is liable for those rooms and must pay
for them.  The costs can be very high which can diminish the ability of
Further Confusion to offer world class amenities to our deserving
attendees.

Further Confusion is asking that attendees reserving rooms within our
block carefully consider their reservation before making it. If you are
making a reservation with a debit card for example, your bank account will
be deducted the first room night and tax immediately and no refunds will
be offered.  In the event of a cancellation no further charges will be
made beyond the first night and tax.

Please consider your choices carefully as you reserve!

Contact hotel@furtherconfusion.org with any questions about this policy.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

5.  FC2012 Pre-Registration is Open!  Now Fully Online!

You can pre-register for Further Confusion next year with our spiffy new
online registration system!  Just follow the directions to the online
registration system at the top of the Registration page our web site and
then enter your information.

Pre-registration is $45 for regular attendees (through August 31st, then
the price will rise to $50), but you can also pre-register at the sponsor
($100) or patron ($200) levels.

Since this is a new system, it’s going to look a little different to what
you might have used in the past (but may be familar to some).  The big
benefit is that you’ll be able to work out whether you’ve pre-registered
or not at any time of the day, just by logging on!  No more worried emails
at the last moment wondering if you remembered to pre-register or not -
the answer will be just a few clicks of the mouse away!

First, create an account with your real first and last name, and then you
will be asked to set up a security question that no-one else can answer.
The first time through, you’ll also be asked to give your contact
information, but when you’ve done that once it’ll be there from year to
year.  Then pick the membership type that you want, and how you want to
pay.  Currently, you can choose to either mail in a check or money order
with a form that you print, or you can pay instantly online through PayPal
(which also works for credit cards).  Coming soon, we’ll also have a
separate credit card option for those people who don’t have a PayPal
account.  Watch this space!

It’s not all automated, of course!  If you have any questions, you can
still talk to a real person by emailing registration@furtherconfusion.org.

6.  Further Confusion 2012 Dealer Room SOLD OUT

Yes, once again we sold out after less than one month from when we opened
the application process. All spaces are currently taken and we have a
considerable waiting list.

All NEW applications made for a Dealer Table through the on-line process
will be put on the waiting list and will NOT be guaranteed to get a table.

If you applied for a dealer table BEFORE May 19th and have not gotten an
email from us (especially the email that confirmed that we received your
application), then it is possible that the email from us has been
considered SPAM by your ISP or Email provider. PLEASE check your spam
folders for email from jethric [at] comcast [dot] net. We have also been
sending them from my alternate email of jethricvadel [at] gmail [dot] com.
Only the very first email is sent from a furtherconfusion.org email
address. So make sure your spam filter has furtherconfusion.org, and my two
email addresses whitelisted or you are never going to see any email from
me. And that could cost you your table.

We have 17 dealers that have NOT sent in their mail-in signature form that
is REQUIRED for them to get their table.

Their table is still being held for them, but if they do not get that form
in by June 15th, 2011 (this is extended from the original June 1st, 2011
date), their table will go to the waiting list! At the time of this writing
(May 26th, 2011), we last picked up our mail on May 25th, 2011. We pick up
the mail every Wednesday and Saturday.

There are also 8 dealers that HAVE sent in their signature forms, and
indicated they wanted to pay by PayPal or credit card but have NOT done so.
They are under the same deadline as those that have not sent in their form.
If they do NOT arrange payment by June 15th, 2011, their currently held
table will be forfeit and will be released to the waiting list.

We are aware of some MIME issues with the email sent out automatically by
our on-line system. However, I have also sent out email manually to the
above persons. But I have NOT heard back from them. (Those have heard back
from are not included in these numbers.) I will be sending one more round
of email. But I will NOT be extending the deadline beyond June 15th, 2011.

The listing of Confirmed Dealers and ‘Dealers in Danger of Losing Their
Table’ is now available on the website at
<http://www.furtherconfusion.org/fc2012/dealers/dealerlist>.

7.  Furry Market Place spaces go on sale August 1st, 2011

We will be using the same online application system for the Furry Market
Place as we have been using for the Dealer Room this year. There will be
twenty (20) spaces available. They will cost US$75.00 and come with one (1)
full membership to the convention. More information on this space will
become available on the website in July. At this time we may not require
the mail-in signature sheet, but the same legalities that required it for
the Dealer Room may force us to still do it. Watch the website in July, as
we should know more by then.

The Furry Market Place is a General Audiences Only sales space outside the
main Dealer Room of the convention. All vendors in the Furry Market Place
area are required to set up and tear down nightly as no merchandise can
remain in the space overnight as it is totally unsecured. Limited
electricity may be available but is not guaranteed.

8.  Music Track

We are very excited to be back for another year with this fantastic
convention, and can barely contain our anticipation of the promising events
we have planned for the Music Track this coming FC. The main goal of this
track is and has always been, to bring more exposure to the ever growing
pool of musical talent that the furry fandom boasts. We will be providing a
variety of educational and instructional panels, musical performances, and
opportunities for musicians to showcase their talents. (More information of
which will be released as time goes on).

A major goal of the music track is to showcase a featured musical artist
each year. We are very pleased to announce that this year, our featured
artist, a Bay Area local, well known for his singing, songwriting and
unique performance style, is Travis Ratledge. Also known within the Fandom
as Colson Grainger, Ratledge was most recently the Guest of Honor for Camp
Feral 2010, has been invited to be a Special Musical Guest for for the
upcoming Midwest FurFest 2011, as well as being selected as Guest of Honor
for Confuzzled 2012.

Colson’s unique singing voice, musicianship and outstanding performances,
samples of which can be found at <http://www.youtube.com/tratledge>, have
earned him a well deserved reputation as a talented and promising up and
coming musician.

We are very excited that Colson has agreed to be our featured artist this
year, and are excited to be able to showcase his abilities to share with
the attendees of this year’s Further Confusion in its new home at the San
Jose Convention Center. Come join us for a musical experience that you
won’t soon forget!

9.  Next Staff Meeting

The next meeting is this coming Saturday (June 11th), and will take place
in the San Jose Ballroom of the San Jose Marriott hotel, starting at 1pm.

For those furs wishing to participate in our staff meeting from out of
town, we will be doing a trial run with a conference bridge at this
meeting, using pro-grade conference phones.

You do not need to be staff to join the call, but we are keeping this
number unpublished at the moment while this solution is in beta: please
contact info@furtherconfusion.org for the number, along with what you’re
interested in doing for the convention.

(Note that this is a regular number in the Bay Area, and is not toll free -
FC is not responsible for your phone bill)

We will join the bridge from the meeting room a few minutes before the
meeting starts, and will make time for folks on the conference during roll
call, etc.

10. For ‘would-be’ Staff

Are you working with FC2012?  Have you been officially hired?  Are you
able to access our private site?  Do you see your name there?

If the answer to any of these is “no” or “Wait, what private site?”,
please speak to your track leader or “boss” (ie, the person who hired you)
to make sure your info has been sent in to our HR team and that you’ve
been added to the appropriate lists.

If you would like to be staff, but have no idea what you would like to do
(or even if you have an idea of what to do), you can contact our HR team
at H...@furtherconfusion.org.

–
Further Confusion
info@furtherconfusion.org
<http://www.furtherconfusion.org/>

For the second year in a row, the KROQ crew stayed in the same hotel for Weenie Roast as everyone in town for the Califur Convention - the gathering of grown-ass men (and a few women) that dress up, head to toe, as furry cartoon animals.

Wow. That's a lot of hair.

Hey guys! and welcome aboard for Episode 5, SONI I mean,……. just ‘Rainbewm’!

Copyright infringements aside, w’ve got Blue Birds blazing a fashion trail, National Geek day, the return of Pooh! ((’Winnie’ that is)), and in-depth looks at COLOUR in it’s entirety and Ray gives us the scoop on SUPPPPPER Volcanoes!

All this and more in store for you this fortnight with a mammoth 2hr+ show, and the Mushi ‘Quik Draw’ competition continues into Round 2! ((Length entirely Carnivals fault. She is soooort of sorry, for the record~!))

Download Standard Podcasts
ActFur s3 ep05 - Rainbewm - Hey guys! and welcome aboard for Episode 5, SONI I mean,....... just 'Rainbewm'! Copyright infringements aside, w've got Blue Birds blazing a fashion trail, National Geek ...

submitted by HappyWulf
[link] [4 comments]

submitted by asciiaardvark
[link] [5 comments]

More news from Warner Brothers and Cartoon Brew: In anticipation of the brand new Thundercats TV series coming to Cartoon Network this July, Warner Brothers will release the original 1980′s Thundercats series to DVD on July 12th. Thundercats: The Original Series, Season 1, Part 1 is a 2-disc set that features the first 12 episodes, “as well as a special featurette entitled Feel the Magic, Hear the Roar, where fans speak out about their incredible passion for the classic animated series.”

 

submitted by jorticus
[link] [14 comments]

submitted by Dhaos
[link] [1 comment]