Archive for April 2010

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We’re the Primitives…

April 30, 2010

– – British scientist Stephen Hawking in a new television series recently entertained the possibility that alien life may exist, but felt that contact with aliens could have devastating consequences.  “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans,” said Hawking in the series.

The program imagines a universe in which alien life forms in large spacecraft hunt for resources after draining their own planet of such, conquering and colonizing such planets as the can reach.  Perhaps if we were more fortunate, alien life might be observing a version of Star Trek’s “Prime Directive” in which indigenous life was not interfered with…

Categories: aliens, science, space, television
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Comments: 3 Comments

When It Comes…

April 28, 2010

– –When the Revolution Comes,

I’ll go on a different kind of fox hunt,

And roam through the woods with automatic weapons,

Their chatter echoing in the still morning air.

I’ll track down a human hunter,

And tell him I need his skin for my jacket.

I’ll drag him along the forest bed, terrified.

And when he thinks that his doom is certain,

I’ll let him go…

Because I only want to make a point,

And turnabout is fair play…   😉



Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry
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Mainstreaming Furry…

April 26, 2010

– – New York’s Parks Department has their first official furry mascot,  the very alluring Pearl the Squirrel! A furry also known as a “Parkie,”  Pearl even has her own bio…she’s an urban park ranger by day, and enjoys riding her bike through the city parks.  Acorns are a food fave, and she enjoys making them into whistles as well…not surprisingly, green is her favorite color…this is an ecologically-minded squirrel, furolks.

Although developed for New York City Parks,  Pearl was created by a cartoonist who works for Disney and hails from Salt Lake City.  Appearing in both fursuited and cartoon images, Pearl may help introduce New Yorkers to the wide wonderful world of furry! 

Categories: animals, furries, furry, Furry-named
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Comments: 3 Comments

Plants Behaving Strangely…

April 25, 2010

– – No, we’re not talking about the carnivorous plant in the musical Little Shop of Horrors, but let’s consider what’s happening to some like…(long pause)…the bloodroot, ahahahahaha!

This little herb, like a number of other plants including dogwoods and lilacs, is showing a life cycle that is sped up,  flowering earlier than usual or normal in many areas.   On average, spring is now coming several days earlier than it did a few decades ago, possibly as a result of global warming.   It’s easy to consider an early spring a good thing, but such may confuse plants and insects, making them shift their schedule.  If snow melts earlier, vegetation may suck up the water more quickly, leading to drier conditions for the ecosystem later on into the summer, and increasing the chances of wildfire.

Most climate scientists say that a warming climate would in turn be expected to affect the weather, but where, when, and the extent of such is hard to predict.  The fact that the oceans are warmer than they were about thirty years ago means that there’s on average about 4 per cent more water vapor lurking around over the oceans.  Since what goes up must come down, this could translate to more snowfall in winter and more extreme weather patterns generally…

Categories: environmental, science, trends

Comments: 1 Comment

Animal Cruelty Videos Protected by Court…

April 23, 2010

– – I wish I could report otherwise,  but the Supreme Court has struck down a federal law designed to stop the sale and marketing of videos showing dogfights and other often graphic acts of cruelty to animals, saying that it the law was too broad and is an unconstitutional violation of free speech.   The court’s ruling here was largely as anticipated.

The 8-1 decision was a defeat for animal rights groups and congressional sponsors of the original legislation, which was intended to stop the legal sale of “crush” videos and videos depicting pit bulls attacking other animals and one another in staged confrontations. Only Justice Alito dissented in the case,  predicting that “crush” videos will soon flood the underground market and saying that the harm animals suffer in dogfights is enough to sustain the law…at least we have one furry spirit on the Supreme Court!

Categories: animal rights, animals, furry, furry causes
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The Horror, the Horror!

April 21, 2010

– – Something wicked this way comes…or at least, something terribly bad is coming.  I’m talking, of course, about the upcoming Yogi Bear movie, which promises to give new meaning to the name, Boo Boo.

One questions why a Yogi Bear movie has to be made in the first place; perhaps it has something to do with the nature of evil, or perhaps the Guild of Malevolent Intent is somehow involved.  Perhaps those of us who are furry haven’t suffered enough in this life, and our pain must be taken to a new dimension.  I will leave such musings to the philosophers, being but a timid woodland creature myself- -.And what possible good can come out of a Yogi Bear movie, you might ask?   The moans and sarcastic commentary to be heard out there just anticipating this movie  are absolutely delicious!

“The misery that will be ‘Yogi Bear,'” as remarks one commentator, features none less than Dan Aykroyd slumming as the voice of Yogi Bear…and get this, Justin Timberlake will play sidekick Boo-Boo!  Tom Cavanagh will play Ranger Smith, a part rumored at one time to be going to Brendan Fraser.  The movie will be done in the live action/CGI hybrid style of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Now Yogi Bear was a one-dimensional character from almost 50 years ago who had no memorable narratives and was at best annoying as he stole countless picnic baskets from human campers in the fictional Jellystone National Park further impoverished by Hanna-Barbera’s econo-animation.  Now if Yogi would maul someone for that picnic basket, I might consider it redemptive, but having seen Robert De Niro play Fearless Leader in Rocky and Bullwinkle, I figure I’ve suffered enough…and as another commentator put it, perhaps this movie was inevitable, but it’s still painful to see…     😮

Categories: animals, cartoons, furry, movies
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Nature Abhors a Vacuum, and Brendan Fraser…

April 19, 2010

– – God help us, Furry Vengeance is coming, a movie which may set the fandom back further than the Fur and Loathing episode of CSI.   The title sounds like a horror movie, but it appears to be another variation of an already well-worked family comedy formula.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Brendan Fraser.  He’s an affable guy, and I liked the Mummy movies, especially for the awesome jackal warriors. Brendan plays a good action hero who knows better than to  take himself seriously,  but then there are his comedies in which he smacks his face really hard into some solid object…over and over again.

Furry Vengeance, opening April 30th, is described as a  live action family comedy in which an ambitious young real estate developer faces off with a bunch of angry animals in the Oregon wilderness when his new housing subdivision pushes too far into a pristine area.   Led by a raccoon, the animals stymie the development, and teach Brendan’s character about the consequences of man’s encroachment on nature.–Sound familiar, wholesome, harmless, and predictable?  Sample yucks:  Fraser hides inside  a Port-A-Potty, which is being attacked by a bear.

Comparisons to Over the Hedge are inevitable.  This looks like a flick geared to appeal largely to little kids, and there will be worse things out there,  oh yes…things like Yogi Bear, the movie, coming this December… 😮



Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, furries, furry, movies
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Comments: 3 Comments

Tasering Animals…

April 17, 2010

– – It may come as a shock to hear that animals have been used as test subjects for Tasers to determine if being subjected to the stun guns can lead to ventricular fibrillation, a highly abnormal heart rhythm that can become fatal.  In a bizarre experiment, sixteen sheep were anesthetized, administered methamphetamine, and then given repeated shocks with Tasers to simulate what might happen when drug-addled humans were hit with the stun guns!   Some of the smaller sheep suffered elevated heart rates, but none experienced a potentially lethal heart condition.   “It’s not so baaad,” commented one sheep of his Taser experience.

Taser experiments have also been conducted on anesthetized dogs as well on on conscious pigs, surgically modified pigs, and pigs under the influence of cocaine! Neither the knocked-out dogs nor the conscious pigs suffered ventricular fibrillation, whereas the pigs surgically modified to remove the thick skin around their hearts did suffer near heart failure when the Taser’s barb was placed less than an inch away from their hearts. The coked-up pigs actually had their safety margin increased by 50 to 100 percent!  (“Hit me again, dude,  far out!”)

A Taser was also successfully used in the field on a cow moose in Alaska who refused to leave a construction site where her calves were trapped.   Research has gone on for five years studying the effects of Tasers on captive moose and bears, and Taser International is seeking to develop a wildlife-specific stun gun;  just don’t tase me, bro!   Wildly unauthorized field tests have also been conducted on bears and bulls as well as on more dogs and sheep…whole lotta shockin’ goin’ on…

…and by the way, the name “Taser” was originally an acronym for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle…”

Categories: animals, furry, medical, science
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Comments: 2 Comments

Viva the Kraken!

April 15, 2010

– – I’m a sucker for mythology with the usual elements of  ultraviolence and the bizarre thrown in, so Clash of the Titans is my kinda thing.  The 1981 original didn’t exactly enjoy cult status, but was kind of a campy classic, even boasting Laurence Olivier as Zeus, a mechanical owl called Bubo, and stop action special effects that were all that was available at the time.   If you allowed yourself,  you could still have a lot of fun with this film, cheesiness and all.

Reviews haven’t been overly positive for the re-make which I have yet to see, with many faulting the dialogue, character motivation, and general lack of humor in the film, which was hastily re-made in 3D.   The Kraken is eventually released and visually impressive, reminding me however of the toothy Langoliers creatures from Stephen King.   Some have preferred the battle sequence with the gorgon Medusa depicted in Titans… but it’s all good!

…So pass the popcorn, will ‘ya?


Categories: cool things, creature features, imaginary animals, movies
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Hysterical Panda Pregnancies…

April 14, 2010

– – Humans aren’t the only mammals that can experience false pregnancies.  The female giant panda at the National Zoo is acting like she may be pregnant, sleeping a lot, making nests with shredded bamboo, and even showing elevated hormone levels…but maybe she is, and maybe she isn’t…and she ain’t talkin’.

…the problem is that panda cubs are extremely small, weighing only three to five ounces.  They are accordingly hard to see on an ultrasound.  If a female panda ovulates but fails to conceive, she almost always goes through a false pregnancy that mimics a real one, with the exclusion that there is no developing infant.  Even those working closely with a female panda can’t tell with certainty if she’s “in a family way” until a baby panda pops out.

The National Zoo’s female giant panda, Mei Xiang, has had pseudo-pregnancies for the past three years, but in 2005 successfully birthed a cub, Tai Shan…

..and wouldn’t Hysterical Panda Pregnancies be a great name for a band?

Categories: animals, furry
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