IT IS the age-old question that has stumped the finest minds for thousands of years. But scientists claim to have finally discovered the answer to the conundrum of what came first – the chicken or the egg? Researchers at the University of Sheffield and the University of Warwick have found that a protein called ovocleidin (OC-17) is crucial in the formation of eggshells. It is produced in the pregnant hen’s ovaries so the correct reply to the egg riddle must be that the chicken came first.

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The ever-vigilant folks at the National Pork Board are out to put an end to the sale of Radiant Farms' canned unicorn meat. But it's not because they want to stop the slaughter of the one-horned flying horses, it's because they say the product infringes on their "other white meat" trademark.

The unicorn meat in question is actually a fake product dreamed up by the resident geeks at ThinkGeek.com for April Fool's. But in the site's listing for the product it had read "Pate is passe. Unicorn -- the new white meat," and that was enough to bring out the Porker's legal cease-and-desist team.

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One of the bigger furcons around the Netherlands has launched the website of their upcoming edition. Go check it out on [link]

"Furs on Fire is a party where we say goodbye to the year that passed and welcome the new year with a big bang.
During this party various activities will be planned, but of course, there’s also time to sit down and socialize with the rest of the attendees. Check the Information page to find more detailed information about the event."

As written on Flayrah:

Users of SoFurry and its predecessor Yiffstar are being told to change their passwords, as the site's MD5 hashes have been compromised. [gsw/furryne.ws]

Toumal admitted the site had been vulnerable for the past eighteen months, but said the "security hole" had been fixed. New passwords will be salted to reduce the damage of any future breach. He also cautioned against using the same password on different sites.

While a hash does not contain the password, it is possible to deduce commonly-used passwords by comparing against a list of pre-made hashes. Salting adds an extra component to the password, rendering this so-called "rainbow table" technique infeasible.

The reporter of the security vulnerability has not publicly distributed the hashes, and is currently assisting with a review of the site's security. According to Toumal, this is the second time in as many years that a third-party has "helped" in this fashion.

Online multiplayer social game Furcadia suffered a similar security breach last October.

The Furry version of the wikipedia, Wikifur already has over 12 thousand articles related to the furry fandom in its database, and is still expanding with dozens of new articles every day. Soon other languages followed such as German, French, and even Suomi. And as of today, there is a Dutch version too.

Europe's largest Furry convention, Eurofurence, has finally put their homepage online. Usually this happens around Januari, but due to circumstances there were some delays. Recently a German law regarding room prices was put into effect, causing a raise in the con-fee. More about this you can find here. The opening of the registration system has been announced: Saturday, Februari 13th at 20:00 C.E.T (11:00 PST, or 14:00 EST).

Wolfie Blackheart is not an ordinary 18-year-old.

She believes she is a wolf — technically, a werewolf — and so she wears a tail. She also wears a harness in case someone special wants to drag her around. And last week, she used a pocketknife in her kitchen to decapitate a dog — already dead, according to Wolfie — that had been missing since Jan. 5. “I severed the head, boiled the head,” Wolfie said. “People make the mistake of hacking the spine, which will fracture the skull.”

She added, “You also have to put (the head) outside for the brains to leak out.”

Before the teenager carted the cranium to the woods, someone held it up and snapped a photograph of it inside her Northwest Side house — a shot that ended up on the Internet. Within days, the photo had spurred an aggressive animal cruelty investigation by Animal Care Services and the San Antonio Police Department.

(Source: Mysanantonio.com)


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Quentin Long here with good news for people who like ANTHRO, the furzine he edits: The third ANTHROlogy, collecting pretty much everything that showed up in ANTHRO issues 13 through 18, is available… and it’s a *big* puppy! Like, 724 pages’ worth of big. Not only is it the biggest ANTHROlogy yet, it’s the single largest book of *any* kind from ANTHRO Press! And what’s actually in those 724 pages, you ask? *Lots* of stuff, including…

…stories by Michael W. Bard, Bill ‘Hafoc’ Rogers, and plenty of other damn fine authors.
…art by equally skilled creators, like Dark Natasha and Lucius Appaloosius.
…more than 140 pages of Fred Patten’s perceptive reviews.
…interviews with David Lillie, of DREAMKEEPERS fame, and Eddy & Susman, the people who make Sofawolf Press what it is.
…columns which cover an intriguing range of topics, written by Phil Geusz, Wanderer Werewolf, Michael Bard, and Keith Morrison.
…a fascinating article on H. Beam Piper’s FUZZY novels (both Piper’s trilogy, and the sequels by Tuning and Mayhar).
…and *then* some!

Read more at: [link]

Flayrah, one of the furry premier news-sites has gotten a fresh start. Green Reaper, also known for his work on WikiFur has restarted the website. He writes on the site:

Welcome to a new year, with a new editor! Aureth and Frysco have given me the chance to lead Flayrah into the next decade. With your help, I hope to make it the best furry news site ever . . . again! We're now running on Drupal - an altogether more modern framework - with hosting graciously provided by Timduru.

Your previous posts and comments are secure, though you might want to update your account with an avatar and fandom links. I've also brought in some free content from WikiFur News - it makes great reading if you missed it the first time around. (Don't forget to click through where it says "Read more")

Read more on Flayrah

Dutchfurs.com wishes you a grand 2010!