Not Mickey’s Twisted Cousin…

Posted February 13, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, furry spirits, music

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– – I don’t know a lot about progressive and house dance music, but I know what I like, and Toronto-based electro sensation Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) often performs in costume that includes a giant stylized mouse head , usually red in color and with strobing eyes, although I prefer the black variant, evil maus (shown above left).–Someday, perhaps more icons will be furry!

His album, For Lack of a Better Name (2009) is a personal fave, with “Moar Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” playfully creepy and hauntingly memorable with a repeating funereal theme!  It’s great stuff for those of us who like Halloween year-’round!–Rock on!


GE’s “The Electric Cattle!”

Posted February 11, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, furry, television

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– – In one of several GE commercials for their Ecomagination campaign, we are shown “cows in concert,” touting the company’s use of Biogas Technology using, err, waste from cows and landfills to generate energy.  These cows are the rock stars at a concert that they are powering, and we are shown their hooves working a bass drum pedal, hitting a cowbell (–what else?) with a drumstick, and working a mixing panel slider.

At the end of the clip, one of the bovines even takes to trying a little crowd surfing…very mooving!

Magnificent Mentos Spider!

Posted February 9, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, cool things, insects, Invertebrates, television

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– – Short of Peter Parker, you aren’t going to find an arachnid as breathtaking as the Mentos Rainbow pack spider! The commercial introduces us to a young couple sitting in their living room when suddenly the female goes ballistic, shrieking and recoiling on their couch.  The view shifts to the carpet, where we are shown…a spider!- –What is it with chicks and spiders, anyhow?!

Anyways, the guy responds by dutifully going to deal with the spider, extending a finger, possibly to crush the inoffensive creature.  The extended digit is all our eight-legged hero needs, however, to demonstrate his profound mastery of Jujutsu or perhaps Aikido, grasping the human’s finger and throwing him like a rag doll across the room no less than three times! A shelving unit and coffee table are splintered in the fracas!  The wrath of the spider is awesome, and the human is hopelessly outclassed!

In the closing images, we see the grounded human’s body dragged forcefully across the floor presumably by the amazing arachnid as the announcer intones, “It’s better to know what’s coming next!” It’s not revealed what fate awaits the human female, but I doubt things will go well for her, either…

…Bravo, I say!  Long may this arachnid martial arts master live and prosper!


Year of the Rabbit

Posted February 7, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry

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– – According to the Chinese zodiac cycle, we are now into the Year of the Rabbit, a fact which has booted sales of rabbits in Asia and elsewhere.   Animal rights group PETA is urging consumers to forgo adopting rabbits as household companions on a whim, however, warning that the animals are often abandoned once their novelty wears off.

Rabbits aren’t just cute and fluffy, you see, but are high maintenance animals which require significant resources, equipment, attention, and veterinary care.  The group also points out that rabbits have fragile bones, require lots of exercise, and tend to gnaw on everything on sight, making them less than ideal pets for all but the most patient of owners.

Wrecking Bunny Ad…

Posted February 4, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: absurdities, animals, furry, plushies, strange, strange happenings

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We all know that it’s important to use the right tool for the right job, and H&R Block illustrates this fact in a recent commercial by showing us a demolition crew trying to take  down a brick building with a 16-foot-tall pink and white bunny…predictably, it doesn’t go too well.  Clearly, a plush bunny is not good for demolition, even a really big one.

In the “wrecking bunny” ad, people gathered at a demolition site “ooh” and “ahh” as the bunny is raised by a crane and swung toward the building.  There’s a muffled thump as the bunny impacts with the unyielding brick, crews wince, and spectators plod away with dejected looks on their faces as they realize that the plushy is not going to take the building out.

It’s an absurdist type thing, but I wind up feeling vaguely sorry for the bunny, wondering if they’re going to keep bashing him into the wall until his poor stuffing pops out; the plushy doesn’t seem to mind, however, and maintains his slight smile…what a trooper!- -Is this abuse of a plushy?- -Can’t someone rescue him?!  He just needs a good, loving home, admittedly one with a lot of space.

Perhaps in the future we’ll see other inappropriate tools used on the wall, like an enormous marshmallow or a gigantic cream-filled donut!

Artificial Meat!

Posted February 2, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: cool things, research, science, strange

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– – Eat your cruelty-free artificial meat…for once, no animals were harmed in its creation!

This isn’t that awful tofu, soy, or gluten stuff, either…nope, this artificial meat, also known as vitro meat or cultured meat is animal flesh that has never been part of a complete, living animal!  In vitro meat is laboratory-grown meat using animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce.  The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten.   Potentially, any animal’s muscle tissue could be grown through the in vitro process.

Some scientists say the technology is almost ready for commercial use and simply needs a company to back it.  Cultured meat is currently prohibitively expensive, but it is anticipated that the cost could be reduced to about twice as expensive as say, conventionally-produced chicken.  Some promising steps have been made towards the technology, but we’re still a few years away from having in vitro meat available to the general public.

PETA is offering a one million dollar reward to the first scientist to produce and bring in vitro meat to market…and the first generation products would most likely be minced meat.- -That’s right, think Spam, vienna sausages, etc…yummers! Meat grown in vats may be necessary, however, to feed the nine billion people who are expected to be alive by the year 2050…

Bomb-Sniffing Plants!

Posted January 31, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: Brilliant but twisted, science, strange

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– – Will bomb-sniffing plants guard the airports of the future?- -One can only hope so!- -Consider the possibilities!

Audrey II:- – Hold it, Towel-head the Terrorist!  You ain’t boardin’ that flight, not on my watch, no sir-eee!- -Feed me, Security!- -HAHAHA!

Achmed the Terrorist:- – By the beard of the Prophet, I am undone! –Aieee!

Normally on Foxsylvania, we consider fauna, not flora…but this is too cool to pass up!  Researchers at Colorado State University have manipulated a plant so that it turns white when it detects even trace amounts of TNT in the air.  The plant has been genetically rewired so that chlorophyll drains off from the plant, leaving it a stark white when specific materials are detected.  The redesigned plants are also 100 times more sensitive than a bomb-sniffing dog!

While the plant currently has a response time of several hours, it is hoped that this can be refined to a few minutes over the next several years, and that such plants could serve as sentinels at airports in the future…

Fur Wars…

Posted January 29, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: absurdities, animals, movies

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– – Even the Dark Lord of the Sith is no match for the Power of the Fur!


Psychic Furries…

Posted January 27, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animals, furry, psychology

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– – About two-thirds of U.S. pet owners say that their animals have a sixth sense about bad weather, while 43 percent say that their pets can sense bad news.

An Associated Press-related poll shows that 72% of dog owners report weather warnings from their dogs, whereas 66% of cat owners relate the same.  The same poll relates that 47% of dog owners and 41% of cat owners say that they have gotten bad news alerts from their pets.

How do furry seers relate these things?  Sixty-four percent of those polled say that their pets hide, fifty-six percent say that their pets whine or cry, 52 percent say that they become hyperactive, erratic, or make unpredictable movements, and 36 percent say that their animals bark or meow persistently.

Don’t believe that animals have a sixth sense?- -Oh, Nostradalmatian knew that some humans were going to say that!

Life Imitates Art!

Posted January 25, 2011 by vulpesffb
Categories: animal behavior, animals, scalies, strange happenings

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– – Those of you familiar with Peter Pan or the movie Hook may recall how a crocodile was Captain Hook’s nemesis, but his approach could be detected by the pirate owing to the ticking of an alarm clock swallowed by the reptile.  The presence of this foreign body did not otherwise adversely affect the croc outside of diminishing his chances of a pirate supper.

Well, Peter Pan was nowhere in sight, but life imitated art when a 14-year-old crocodile called Gena at an aquarium in the Ukraine indigested a cell phone dropped by a woman as she attempted to photograph the croc!  The Nokia phone started ringing afterwards inside of Gena’s stomach (now that’s quality!), and the croc has since been refusing food and acting listless.  Even worse, the croc hasn’t had a BM in four weeks and appears depressed and in pain since consuming the phone.

Hoping that all things will pass, doctors tried to feed Gena quail laced with vitamins and laxatives, but he didn’t take the bait.  The crocodile will be taken for an X-ray next week if he continues to refuse food.  Surgery is a last resort as incisions and stitches take at least three weeks to heal in reptiles, and the procedure is dangerous for both the animal and the vets.

The crocodile in Peter Pan, by the way, had bitten off one of Captain Hook’s hands and wanted to continue the banquet.- -Aren’t kiddie stories great?!