A couple of only mildly depressing articles about animals (it seems very difficult to find cheerful ones; I guess those don't make the news unless they're odd, like the falling cow). Climate change threatening the food supply for blue whales is the first. The second involves Canada lifting the moratorium on hunting grizzly bears. I'm trying to figure out why people would want to hunt bears. Kill them if they're a menace, eat them for food... but just spontaneously hunt them? What good is that?

From the bulletin on FurryMuck:

The wizards of FurryMUCK SM regret to announce that S'A'Alis has chosen
to step down as wizard and administrator of FurryMUCK SM for personal
reasons. He has graciously offered to continue hosting the muck until
the transfer to a new site can be accomplished, and we are currently
finalizing plans for such a new site. We will have more details on the
move as they become available. --The Wizcore

The Elfwood archive has hosted a lot of furry and fantasy artists for a long time. I had no idea it had been down until I found this message on their front page.

This links to a long-running conversation (spiked back into life by S'A'Alis stepping down) about how few people who offer services for free are recognized and helped when they need it -- which is while they're doing it -- but rather when they've stopped doing whatever it is they're doing for people. Want to make sure your favorite stuff sticks around? Go find the administrators and send them a warm fuzzy email. Really. They won't know how much they're appreciated (emotionally; intellectually they can check hits, connections, whatever) until you tell them.

The following article is a review of Shawn Keller's new comic book Shawn Keller's Horrifying Look at the Furries, released at San Diego Comic Con this weekend. The comic has something of a companion web site, located at www.furryfans.com. Read on for the review, which was submitted by an anonymous author.

Those of you going to Worldcon will have a great opportunity: Michael Whelan, the extremely talented sf/f artist whose work has appeared on multiple book covers, in gallery exhibits and in art books, will be present. You can visit his site online at Glass Onion. It's not too late to register, though it'll cost you an arm and a leg.