Tori introduces you to the new FurteanTimes.com!

Well, as far as I can tell everything is up and running! All systems are go and all your base are belong to us! So let's give a run down of all the new stuff going on here!

We're now run off a completely self-coded interface, giving us massive amounts of extensibility and opportunities for many new features - which will be coming along as time comes on (the new to-do list on the admin interface is absolutely packed).

Adding stuff is as simple as ducks, and it's all published instantly to our front page, which makes for a great platform for all you budding writers and artists out there! Just make sure you format things properly!

Just to give you a sneak peek, stuff planned for the next versions include RSS feeds, video embedding and uploading, better image placement management (they're currently displayed in predefined positions depending on the article type), search, vote functions and drafting functions.

Yes, I'm going to have a lot ahead of me :P

Meanwhile, enjoy!

The front cover of The Hartlepool Monkey by Sean Longley

This issue, I have decided to review a novel, mainly because there a lack of furry novels. While this novel is not written with the fandom in mind, it does cover the furry criteria (i.e. the title character is a monkey with human qualities). Also, it is a novel with some importance to me locally.

I come from the Teesside region of England, and one of the towns in it is the port town of Hartlepool. The most famous myth attached to the town is that during the Napoleonic Wars there was a shipwreck, the sole survivor of which was a monkey. However, the residents of Hartlepool did not know what the monkey was and so they hanged it, thinking it might be a French spy. Since then, the people of the town have been nicknamed “Monkey hangers”.

The legend is one that has been adopted into the local ethos. The mascot of the town’s football club, Hartlepool United, is H’Angus the Monkey. One of the men who played him, Stuart Drummond ran for election as the town’s first directly elected mayor. He promised that if elected, he would give free bananas to all school children – and he won! Not only did he win, but he was re-elected in the next election with an increased majority, despite the fact he failed to deliver on his promise.

Anyway, to return to the point of my review, The Hartlepool Monkey is a novel based on the legend, telling the story of the monkey from its discovery to its eventual execution.

FurreSpace and FurSpace get into legal strop over naming rights

FurreSpace – the social networking site started by furry web host Furtopia – has threatened social newcomer FurSpace with legal action over the similarity of their names and domains.

In a statement posted on FurSpace, founder Kisuka questioned what copyright claims that FurreSpace has to the name, and asked the community for feedback on the case.

Yet more goings on in the great world of the media! [some from furrymedia]

An embroidery of the front door of 10 Downing Street

Politics is always in the air. You cannot avoid even though at times you wish the whole thing would go away. Look at the American election – after all, it is impossible not to. Months and months of coverage, much of it pointless and reporting rumours. All of these stories about Barack Obama being a secret Muslim, an elitist, a socialist, not to mention the “Terrorist fist-bump” and “Not being black because this father was white”. At least we British only limit general elections to a few weeks.

But what about politics in connection with the furry fandom?