Alexander Grey's stories

FurNation to close down after 14 years online
Sat 9 May 2009 - 04:28

The Luxor pyramid on FurNation Prime, the only FurNation sim to be closed down along with the website.

FurNation, the furry web hosting and general community website, as well as the host of 14 Second Life regions, will close permanently on May 16, 2009.

In a statement posted to the front page of the FurNation website, owner and administrator Nexxus blamed the closure on a lack of funding and a debt of over $2,000 of hosting fees going back several years.

Email accounts hosted on FurNation will continue to operate, however, hosted websites will disappear on May 16 and will run on FTP only until the end of the month. All FurNation branded regions in Second Life – with the exception of FurNation Prime – are to remain open.

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LondonFurs like to dance
Sat 18 Apr 2009 - 06:33

The LondonFurs show off their moves

The LondonFurs have decided to show off their mad-dancing skills and have created a video of them all dancing at a furmeet.

It is a most strange scene to behold, furries (not in fursuits for once) raving to the tune of House of Pain's Jump Around.

RBW opens doors for 2009
Sat 11 Apr 2009 - 23:40

The logo for RBW 2009: "Good Vibrations"

RBW, the London-based furry convention famed for it's Thames boat party, has opened registration for the 2009 event.

Themed Good Vibrations, this year's convention takes us back nearly fifty years to the time of the 1960's for a "Rather Brilliant Weekend".

Registration prices have risen, with the lowest-priced ticket now costing £100, due to financial issues in the 2008 convention.

Media tidbits for March/April 2009
Thu 9 Apr 2009 - 03:31

A Diesel Sweeties strip takes note of the furry fandom.

Yet more fuzzy randomness from the folks at Furry Media!

Girls mag finds a place for furries
Sun 29 Mar 2009 - 06:46

Page two of the Sugar article

Pages three and four

It would appear that the furry fandom is the "in thing" this season, as typical teenage girls mag Sugar gives us a whole four pages of coverage. The shocking bit? It's actually... good!

I'll keep this short (it's probably best for the article to speak for itself), but it's actually a well composed piece of literature. Sure there's the odd factual error (WikiFur is not part of the Wikimedia Foundation), but the whole thing is really quite honest, based almost entirely off interviews with real furries.

The best part? The word "sex" isn't mentioned in the entire article. Who'da thought we'd see the day?

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Furp killed in collision with drunk driver
Fri 20 Feb 2009 - 07:02

Furp, who was recently killed in a collision with a drunk driver

Furp, known outside the fandom as Patrick Reed, 29, was killed on the evening of February 18th, 2009, when his motorcycle was involved in a collision with a vehicle being driven by an intoxicated Marine.

Furp was an Iraq war veteran and regular staff member at Anthrocon, Califur, FurFright, Midwest FurFest and the Rocket City FurMeet; regularly providing operations and first-aid assistance. He was travelling on Highway 62 in southern California when he was struck by a vehicle moving at 65mph (104 kph), he was thrown from his motorcycle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hundreds of memorials have since been left on news articles and his LiveJournal account. A memorial community has also been set up for people to mourn the loss of Furp.

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Two arrested for conspiracy to murder
Fri 20 Feb 2009 - 06:48

Two furs have been arrested by Chorley Magistrates Court, UK, for conspiracy to murder.

Christopher Monks of Clayton-le-Woods and Shaun Skarnes of Ellesmere Port, known in the fandom as Rox Yin and Kyra respectively, have been held on two counts of conspiracy to murder.

Skarnes has additionally been charged with attempted murder following an incident in Clayton-le-Woods where a man suffered multiple knife wounds.

New furry survey in the blocks
Fri 16 Jan 2009 - 23:56

Give feedback on your life in the Furry Survey 2009, where we will again find out the nature of all that is fuzzy!

We here at FT love to know about the make up of the fandom, and it seems that one Alex Osaki does too! Following the huge response to the 2008 Furry Survey, in which over 5000 people took part (the largest known response to a furry survey to date), it only seems fitting to do another one.

Osaki, the man behind klisoura.com and the Furry Research Center, is presenting an improved version of the 2008 survey with more questions concerning non-furry activities and convention attendance - both topics rarely covered by other surveys of the fandom - and with a turnout expected higher than that of last year, it proves an invaluable source of information on fandom life.

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Two furry films nominated for BAFTAs
Wed 14 Jan 2009 - 21:02

The front cover of the book Varmints

Two films starring anthropomorphic animals have been listed in the BAFTAs - both for the same award.

The award is for best short animation and is being battle between three candidates. One of the films, and no doubt favourite to win, is the new Wallace and Gromit film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, first broadcast in Britain on Christmas Day.

The second, more obscure film is Varmints. A 24-minute long film animated and directed by Marc Craste, it is an adaptation of Helen Ward’s book of the same name. In it, a small anthropomorphic creature tries to protect his environment from being lost by modern development – a clear reference to the dangers of pollution. The film is made by Studio aka, who previously won this BAFTA in 2004 for their film Jo Jo in the Stars.

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ConFuzzled '09 has sold out
Wed 14 Jan 2009 - 18:02

The convention has sold out 5 months earlier than in 2008, due to such positive feedback from an initially sceptical public

ConFuzzled 2009, the second rendition of the Manchester-based British furry convention, has now sold out!

ConFuzzled - the first fully-residential furry convention in the UK - was initially deemed "the convention that wouldn't happen", due to scepticism over the viability and interest in a convention; this was condemned along with previous failures at starting a British event.

However ConFuzzled turned out to be a runaway success, and that seems to have come this year too, with all places selling out five months earlier than in 2008, despite the addition of numerous "attending only" tickets (the lack of which was a large criticism of ConFuzzled 2008).

A waiting list is now in action, so if you're still iffy on attending then now's the time to make your decision.

Whether we here at FT cover ConFuzzled again as we did last year remains to be seen, but let's hope we do!