This is a spinoff of the ConFurence's new annual Anthropomorphic Awards. I am trying to compile a database of the Furry novels, short stories, fanzines, movies, art, etc. published and released during 2001 that are good enough to be worth nominating for the final ballot at the end of 2001. I am sure that I have not discovered or had time to read and watch everything that is good enough to qualify. I will send my list so far to anyone who wants to compare notes. Recommendations from others are solicited; it would be nice if this database can be built into a general Recommended Reading/Viewing List of all the best Furry fiction and art of 2001. Contact me at: [email protected].

Boston furry artist paf! (aka Chris Goodwin) is raising money for his run in the Monster Challenge: Tri Boston triathlon this coming Labor Day weekend. Anyone who makes a donation of $20 or more to help the AIDS Action Committee will receive a free limited edition 12 x 18 poster, signed, numbered, and with their name on it too.

Check out the poster and make a donation and learn more about the run here.

An oldie but goodie: the Grand List of Science Fiction Cliches will provide some laughs for those of us who have read too many books or seen too many movies where "Aliens travel a zillion miles to loot the earth of resources which exist in far greater and much more easily exploitable quantities on the many uninhabited bodies they pass on their way to earth", or "the government bans music, painting, dancing or some other art form; only the hero seems to care enough to do anything about it." Check it out for some grins.

The sea harbors strange creatures, among them the brittlestar. According to this New Scientist article, brittlestars can 'see' through their arms because of microscopic lens in their skeletons. Since I had no idea what a brittlestar looked like, I went hunting and found this photo of an orange-red brittlestar and a second, striking photograph of a spiny brittlestar. Since this is the Internet, my search also brought up a site where you can buy fossils of echinoderms online, including (naturally) brittlestars.

The Seattle P-I reports that an 8-year-old girl in Irwin, Pennsylvania, was critically injured yesterday by the family's 10-foot long Burmese python. The snake, one of five large constrictors the family owns, had gotten out of its pen. The girl's mother found her dauther unconscious with the snake wrapped around her neck. Paramedics reported no heart beat when they arrived. Breathing and heart beat were restored in the ambulance, but the child remains unconscious at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.