Sorry to interrupt fun stories about comics and cartoons, but the Anthropomorphic Research Project story suggests some want to know what furryness means. Let me throw in a topic sharing an abstract concept with the fandom.

Anthropomorphism is often imagined from our human point of view (attaching human characteristics to something non-human). But the concept can exist apart from ourselves, when animals see themselves in objects. The way it works for them can reveal more about us.

Harry Harlow was a psychologist who experimented with monkeys. In the 1950's and 60's, he gave his subjects "surrogate" mothers built from different objects, to see how they would behave, and learn about care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development. PBS says about his famous experiment:

He took infant monkeys away from their real mothers, giving them instead two artificial mothers, one model made of wire and the other made of cloth. The wire model was outfitted with a bottle to feed the baby monkey. But the babies rarely stayed with the wire model longer than it took to get the necessary food. They clearly preferred cuddling with the softer cloth model, especially if they were scared. (When the cloth model had the bottle, they didn't go to the wire model at all.)

Hundreds of furs worldwide have opened up their wallets, giving over $20,000 to a Pittsburgh man who has sold subs, wraps and t-shirts to Anthrocon attendees in recent years.

Business owner Fernando Decarvalho faces financial ruin; his eatery, Fernando's Cafe, was forced to announce its impending closure last month. Fans hope their money will keep it open until Anthrocon 2012, and beyond.

The donations are to be given to Fernando at a planned meetup today (April 21) at his cafe. Over 100 have signed up to eat at the restaurant; several plan to attend in fursuit.

Update: $21,000 was handed over by "Anthrocons"; WTAE coverage - event stream [Dobie] (donations handed over at 33:33). Fernando expressed his thanks, while noting that his landlord has another potential renter in negotiation for his space after June.

Less than a month after the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, California held its “Animal Kingdom” exhibition of Josh Agle’s Furry-inspired paintings, the WWA Gallery, also in Culver City’s Art District, is holding its “Gag Me With a Toon 4” exhibition, from March 17 to April 21, of paintings by different artists irreverently inspired by “last century’s” animated cartoon and comic book characters.

The majority of the paintings in this exhibition feature non-anthropomorphic characters like Superman, George & Jane Jetson, Boris Badenov & Natasha Fatale, and Fred Flintstone. But there are enough paintings of cartoon animals like the Angry Beavers, the Animaniacs, Beany and Cecil, Chip ‘n’ Dale, Garfield, Gossamer, Heathcliff, Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse, Roger Rabbit, Scooby Doo, and the ThunderCats to make “Gag Me With a Toon 4” of interest to Furry fans.

Want to know how popular you are on Fur Affinity? FA Rank, by Taren Nauxen, will tell you.

The site uses a form of the PageRank algorithm, which forms the basis for Google's rankings. Watched users gain points which are distributed among their own watchlist.

Not everyone thinks it's a good idea, with an old straw poll showing 42% in favour of closing the site. However, FA admin Dragoneer appears unconcerned.

For those wishing to know full details, source code for the ranking system is available.

Yes, this is old news, but it was never covered here and the rankings were updated recently.