With The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers hitting theaters this summer and together making approximately all of the money, conversations at work have gotten weird. I mean, I have definite opinions on which superhero would win against which superhero in a fight (for the record, Squirrel Girl always wins, Batman never loses and Rainbow Dash beats Starscream), but these people are not geeks. They could probably beat me up, they have social lives outside of the Internet and I’m pretty sure they’ve all lost their virginity.

Okay, I get it, comic books are cool now, although my coworkers were still so puzzled by Squirrel Girl that I was spared from having to explain who Rainbow Dash is. But when they debated whether Mewtwo or Professor X* was the better psychic, I almost lost it. I am not sure I like this brave new world where even Pokémon are cool.

The good news is, Pokémon Conquest for the Nintendo DS is not cool. How not cool? Well, it came out in June, I am reviewing it in September, and have almost wasted 200 words not talking about it. I guess I should start doing that.

Police in Greece, New York have arrested Richard Kretovic, 19 - known in the furry fandom as Formic Hivemind - on a charge of sex abuse. Police say the victim is a boy younger than thirteen.

Police Sgt. Joseph Antinora further said that Kretovic met the alleged victim chatting on Xbox Live; and that upon discovering he was local to the boy, Kretovic arranged a meeting with him, after which sexual acts occurred in Kretovic's basement.

The boy's mother suspected he may have been abused and contacted police near the end of March. Their investigation lead to Kretovic, who was arraigned in Greece Town Court, and remanded to the Monroe County Jail before being released on $50,000 bail.

The fifth generation of Pokémon began by announcing a semi-anthro fox over a year ago. Now, Pokémon Black and White have hit your local video game outlet.

After four generations, Pokémon is a household name. Like the Nintendo DS – hosting five versions of the game, not counting side-trips like the Pokémon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon series – the Pokémon franchise is all but a license to print money.

Add a few critters and upgrades, slap on Pikachu's friendly face and shove it out the door, right?

Wrong. This generation of Pokémon has evolved.

Tateru Nino, a Second Life writer, puts forward an often overlooked force in the creation of furries, namely: mainstream culture.

See also WikiFur's article on the history of the fandom, and contributor Cannon Fodder's writeup about the fandom that happened before the fandom.