ConiFur NW, the Seattle area's own furry convention, is less than six weeks away. Deadline for the cheap membership rate of $30 is Oct. 12. And the deadline to have the room block expanded is Sept. 28.

For the latest newsletter from the convention chair, click "Read more."

As hopes for finding any more survivors dim, the Los Angeles Times has a story about the dogs involved in the efforts to locate people in the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center. See Dogs Toil to Edge of Collapse (the title says it all).

Found on a UPI news services website. For those who like to delve into mythology and Dragons. One of the oldest fairy tale themes is that of the dragonslayer. A tale that has influenced countless writers from J.R.R. Tolkien to present day video games.



Don Beistle of the University of Georgia has been interpreting Germanic legends, such as Siegfried. He theorizes that the Siegfried and other Germanic folk tales may have been influenced by Mithras religious rites from Roman soldiers stationed in the Rhine. Mithras was a popular religious cult with Roman soldiers stationed around the empire.



The news URL can be found here:

Most of you probably already knew FurBuy was online again, but I was reminded that sending a message might be helpful for those who don't check in on the website every day. We turned everything online as normal again this morning. We will be trying this again for two to three months to see how well it does. If you'd like to see FurBuy remain online and continue to grow, please support us in any way possible.

Hello again from Midwest FurFest...



It's hard to think beyond last Tuesday. We're still astonished at how
so many good people can be taken from us in an instant...and with
them, a good deal of our innocence. May they not have died in vain.
Show the flag and carry on!



Perhaps we can help cheer you up: we're still getting together in
November. We hope you can make it.

BBC News has this report on researchers at MIT who have created a virtual wolf pack where individuals can play at being puppies. Apparently this is what passes for serious scientific research nowadays :)

The BBC's weekly feature recently highlighted the weather detecting abilities of gulls, terns and other seabirds. Since they like good strong winds to make their flights, they are extremely sensitive to the weather. Good reading and some pictures to boot.

Owner of FurBuy states, "We are baffled and amazed, even schocked, that the continued support of the fandom goes to a piece-mail auction system hacked together by an underage individual using a bug-ridden, featureless auction script freely available from the internet. "

Science Fiction Weekly has named The Furry Conflict: Trek Wars as the science fiction site of the week. As the reviewer says, "All of the characters in this Trek Wars milieu are furry—that is, anthropomorphized animals" and "For anyone looking for new perspectives on the Star Trek or Star Wars universe, The Furry Conflict is an essential first stop."

First there was Waiting For Bob, which now is 'waiting for comic'. Then there was Kevin and Kell, which doesn't have Sundays nor is fully browsable. Now, Stalag '99 has made the jump and made a mobile device/PDA edition. Same Stalag '99, but fully browzable on any Avantgo-browsable PalmOS or WinCE device. (Yeah, that's my comic, but doing a comic using all open-sourced tools such as the GIMP , Perl, and ImageMagick should be intresting.)

Pets left behind by victims of the bombing are being looked after, as well as the numerous dogs being used for rescue work. More information here.

Help the families of police, fire and EMS personnel who died trying to save lives.

The NY Daily News has set up a special fund established to aid the families of police, fire and EMS heroes who perished in the World Trade Center tragedy.

My sister, bless her heart, forwarded me this message: "Friday Night at 7:00 p.m. (starting EST), step out your door, stop your car,
or step out of your establishment and light a candle. We will show the world
that Americans are strong and united together against terrorism. Please
pass this to everyone on your e-mail list. We need to reach everyone across
the United States quickly. If we all light candles at 7:00 PM in our own
parts of the country, by 10:00 PM EST, the whole country will be lit up with
the light of hope.

The message: WE STAND UNITED - WE WILL NOT TOLERATE TERRORISM.

We need press to cover this-- we need the world to see."

I was lucky to make my ConiFur flight reservations on Tuesday, the day of the terrorist attack. I talked with my travel agent again today (Wednesday), and he is advising people to allow 2 1/2 hours to get through the new airport security in effect by mid-October. He also expects all airlines to announce considerable fare increases soon; it's the public who will pay for the increased security. If you plan to fly to ConiFur, MidWest Furfest, FURther Confusion, or anyplace else, it will probably be to your financial advantage to book your tickets as soon as possible. Check with your own travel agents for a second opinion. AMTRAK and Greyhound may see a surge in business.

Flayrah.com will be taking a brief hiatus from posting furry fandom-related news. I don't feel that it is appropriate at this time. Please feel free (and I encourage it) to continue posting to the below threads, especially in regards to any of our fan community involved in this (and I can't even think of an appropriate word to describe it)...disaster.

I am at a loss for words.

We will resume our normal publication at a later date.