The Autumn season is well entrenched in this hemisphere. The huddled masses need some goodwill and cheer; and yet Snektember has finished. What shall we do, I hear you cry?

So I give you... OKOBOLDTERFEST - because one week of kobolds per year just isn't enough, let's have an entire celebratory month! Perhaps you can try some of the "Local Brew"...

Spread the good word of kobolddom, everyone, and join in! XD

(Slight edit to the name to avoid confusion with Octopi >_> )

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7871323/

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7871323/

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7871323/

If you happen to like CTF - which I've occasionally dabbled with in stories! - you should be VERY excited because that splendiferous serpent Amethystine has written a WHOLE, explicitly steamy NOVEL on the topic!

AND YOU COULD BE DOWNLOADING IT RIGHT NOW!

Take a look here, it comes highly recommended by an impressive list of impressive folks (and go support Amethystine's authorship, he's well worth it!)

Anyone who knows anyone who likes the content, be sure to link them up to it as well!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7871323/

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7871323/

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7871323/

Iiiiit's KOBOLD WEEK!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7426890/

Second week of March, folks. Mark it on your calendars!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

An, whoa! Is that a link to a free art giveaway by the infamous wyvern Skyshadow I see?

I do believe it is!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6366416/

Want some free art? Of course you do! Enter a raffle for it, whyever not?

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6352260/

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14904885/

Yup, that's right, there is one!

A certain Mr  Muskie has grand plans for a kobold thief, a dragonkin fighter, and some sexy, sexy revenge... and what's more, it's being crowdfunded!

Spread the word, people! Kobolds, unite!

New konvert to the clan, Jaavik, wishes your attention for the matter of a group kobold picture! Kobolds only!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5459144/

Forward to any kobolds you know! Or, join in if you are one!

[Or, juuuuust drink this potion, and we'll see if you qualify for the picture *afterwards*...]

Let's hope that 2014 sees the world become a better place for as many as possible... always a good, generic goal to aim for!

Happy New Year, everyone!

A kobold appears before you, dressed as a Victorian street urchin, with a wizard staff disguised as a crutch. He speaks, in a slight lisp:

"Mewwy Chwistmas, evewyone!"

*****

Of course, he's less Tiny Tim than.... Sneaky Sov. ;)

...the time where a particular kobold adds an arbitrary year to his age! Huzzah!

http://www.baldursgate.com/

It's downloading now!

I am unbelievably excited that a childhood favourite of mine is back, remade and remastered. I'm even more excited at the rumour that if this does well, they might do a remake of Planescape:Torment, which I *still* rate as the best game ever made.

They sure don't make 'em like that any more.

A friend of mine, the most excellent TF writer  shereth is attempting to recruit some folks via Kickstarter to publish a modern-fantasy novel about dragons; a tale I must highly recommend.

So, don't just stand here! Get over there and check it out!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3932905/

My good friend  amethystine, and his good friend  whitemantis, have recently been putting together a special project - an art-and-story combo flooded with juicily steamy scenes, no less!

Since Ame writes excellent material, and Nay draws some excellent art, I am confidently predicting that the whole thing will be a resounding success that's well worth following - now all do yourselves a favour and head on over to their information journal to see what it's all about!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3225218/

...well, what are you still doing here? Get looking! ;)

It'd be churlish of me not to point people in the story's direction, since it was created as a gift for me!

 9delta has written an excellent D&D-inspired M/M-oriented sci-fi dragon TF story here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7326609

If any of that appeals even slightly, do yourself a favour and go read it; I'd say it's one of his best (and, for that matter, I have said that!)

*goes to re-read again*

We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[CHORUS]
Glad tidings we bring,
Of transformative sin,
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[TO BE FOLLOWED BY A RENDITION OF ‘GOD REST YE MERRY AVIANS,/ NOW LET US SEE YOU PLAY]

Forgive the exuberant but festive mood – I write this partly because I know  9Delta will be reading this shortly, and he’ll be surprised, and hopefully pleased, to see that  paint has just posted an avian TF sequence as a special Christmas present to him, and I have (rather to my own surprise) written a short story to go with it!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7096008 - the first part of six (all posted in sequence!), and see my own account for the story "...Is Worth Two In The Bush" to go with it - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7096283/ !

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my assorted friends, watchers, and lurkers!

*Drumrolls*

It's that time of year again - another year older! Huzzah!

Writing update:
1.) An as-yet untitled TF piece involving some atypical fetishes of mine that, frankly, you can all blame  9delta and  amethystine for me getting into...
2.) A TF-oriented entry into  zsisron's hypnostory contest: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2657324/ - while I hope I win, I was last year's winner, so I also kind of hope someone else gets their minute in the spotlight, so to speak... :P
3.) Another TF-oriented entry into  zsisron's contest, this one a collaboration with my excellently twisted TF buddy  9delta. Our mateship may have come to a close, but our collaborative writing sure hasn't, dear readers, never fear!

I also have several other ideas knocking around slowly... including three part-written and very long multichapter stories that I've been working on intermittently; a pretty long collaboration with Delta that we're having trouble finding time to edit and turn into a presentable piece; and another piece that Delta and I did as a gift to a friend, which we're hoping to get tidied up and posted at some point (but being it gift, it may not be here in my gallery!)

Comments, encouragement, constructive criticism and suggestions welcome!

Verbal abuse, not so welcome... :P

After sketching out several pictures for me for free, I feel I owe an artist a plug.

So, if anyone reading this is a TF fan, with an idea for a full-colour TF picture, and with $10 or so in their pocket, take a quick peek at  foulfrost's page, do yourself a favour, and get him to do you a picture. Or, if you've got a bit more to spare, why not try a whole sequence? Adult or Tame, gender notwithstanding, if you want a TF, he's your dragon - and he's got free time at the moment to fill!

Seriously, he's insanely good value for money. Get in quick before the law of the market forces a price rise!

Yup, that's right; many years ago, this humble kobold was set loose upon the unsuspecting world. In plainer language, it's my birthday!

In other news, yes, I am writing, albeit slowly... I have a longer tale in the works, in fact, although it's still got a ways to go before it's complete. Watch this space between now and Christmas! :D

My first meme, thanks to  draconicarchmage. Never been tagged for one before, nor volunteered, but you should try everything once, right?

Well, as long as it's not insane, immoral, or illegal, but I don't think this qualifies for those counts.

Without further ado...

1) Post these rules
2) Post 8 true things about yourself
3) At the end you must tag 8 people and post their icons
4) Go to their page and send them a message saying you tagged them
5) NO TAG-BACKS

1) I've known I was a furry since about age 13 - even though I didn't know the term 'furry' for a few years after that.

2) Whenever I run a tabletop RPG, I never ever use an existing setting (unless I wrote it). Using someone else's material feels cheap.

3) Ethnically, I'm mostly Welsh, with a smidgen of English in there for good measure; however, I count myself as British first and foremost.

4) I'm a qualified Biochemist, specialising in Genetics.

5) Despite the above, I'm currently employed as an accountant; bizarrely, there's a lot of biochemists in Accounting.

6) Technically, I'm agnostic, but only in the sense that scientific training has taught me never to make absolute statements like 'there is no god'.

7) My first ever computer game was Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Megadrive (Sega Genesis, to all you Americans), waaaay back in 1991; my second was 'Flashback: A Quest for Identity', which started my love affair with Sci-Fi. I still have the original console and games, in full working order.

8) I collect Babylon 5 cards avidly, and several of my friends meet up to play the game at some time, most weeks.




I shall now negate the point of Rule #3 by soliciting volunteers instead; I try not to spread contagious self-replicating units around deliberately, whether they're viral genes, or internet memes.

...and I mean that in a less metaphysical way than usual.

It was years in the making, but now it's happened at long last:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/conte.....cience.1190719

For those of you who aren't biochemists, a rather famous chap called Craig Venter made history on May 20th, 2010. His claim to fame - this time, as he's been the first to do a lot of unprecedented things - was creating life.

He put together an entire bacterial genome using inorganic chemicals in a laboratory, and transplanted it into a dead/disassembled cell of another bacterium. The result was the creation the first ever artificial life form (in human history, at the least). One way or another, 20th May 2010 will be remembered as the day the era of so-called 'Synthetic Biology' really began.

There is controversy about this, of course. There are the expected right-wing religious groups bemoaning that man has 'played God'; there are others who feel aggrieved that the mystery of creation is being unraveled by science; there are those whose feelings are stronger, and feel that this is a new, unprecedented sin - worse than Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge, now mankind is actively usurping the divine act of creation, the theory goes.

Perhaps surprisingly, though, given the popularity of creationism/intelligent design, mainstream religion's reaction has been either apathetic or supportive; the most widespread view by far is that this isn't fundamentally any difference from a man and a woman conceiving a child - it is part of God's gift that life begets life, and this is simply a special case.

The scientific controversy is deeper, more hostile, and more divisive. There are accusations that Venter's team is simply grandstanding and showing off - it's been theoretically possible to do this sort of thing for a decade or so, and the main reason nobody has is that there's not much point in doing this except publicity. To my mind, at least, this carries a whiff of jealousy to it, though!

A potentially more serious accusation - and one I sympathise strongly with - is that Venter 'cheated'. The genome he synthesised was, basically, a copy of one already found in nature. To bring his microbe to life, he used proteins and cell membranes taken from existing bacteria, too; there is a not unreasonable argument that this isn't so much synthetic as patchwork. The parallels with Frankenstein's Monster are deep and ironic - Victor Frankenstein couldn't create life from scratch, either, and had to stitch his Monster together using reanimated parts from fresh human corpses. This is recycled life, not synthetic life.

What is undoubtedly true, though, is that Venter has shown that Biology has begun to move from a patchwork and theoretical science to a powerful tool - much the same transformation as Physics went through after the discovery of Quantum Mechanics. As little as a decade ago, this would have been science fiction - no longer.

What does the future hold? Who can really say, but Venter - never one to rest on his laurels - is already at work on a far more valuable contribution to humanity, namely the creation of a 'minimal' genome; which, as the name implies, means a genetic sequence of an organism that contains only the genes absolutely essential to life. This 'minimal' organism would then be a basis for any number of artificial microbes; the best analogy is a computer operating system, providing an environment within which smaller programs can operate, a standardised platform that anyone can use. Ironically, this was actually the original aim of his synthetic life project, but the plan was changed part-way through!

There are already plans to produce a 'catalogue' of preassembled parts, like a biological version of the local hardware store, which theoretically anybody could buy and piece together as they chose. A world in which such things are commonplace and accessible is a world that nobody can, for now, envision.

Of course - as I suspect you, dear reader, are already thinking - there will be bad as well as good. To follow the earlier analogy of 20th-century physics, Venter's accomplishment may be akin to Enrico Fermi's prototype atomic pile - by proving that a nuclear chain reaction was possible to initiate and control, Fermi laid the foundations for the atom bomb, first tested only six years later. To follow on from the computer analogy I used after that, how long will it be before a renegade 'biohacker' builds a real virus, not just a software one?

That last is a real danger that critics of the synthetic biologists often use to advocate strict controls (debatable but not unreasonable) or, sadly, an ill-advised outright ban on research into the topic. The trouble with the latter idea is that the genie has already left the bottle; it left over a decade ago when commercial genetic manipulation became a reality. It is already possible for anyone with money and internet access to get the materials and knowledge to build, say, Smallpox, or Polio from scratch; scary, but not news.

Controls to restrict dangerous activity in this field area clearly necessary, but a ban is based on the unsound principle that it will go away if ignored. Criminals will still readily use the technology, as will rogue states like North Korea; the best way to defend against dirty tricks is to try and stay one step ahead.

On an unrelated but more specific point, the Neanderthal genome was sequenced recently. It is entirely possible, using this technique, to build an artificial Neanderthal genome, insert it into a human oocyte (egg), and hence recreate a Neanderthal. Any creature whose genome has been sequenced could be replicated this way - and I doubt it'll be long before the first reborn Mammoths are roaming around somewhere. The day is coming, mark my words.



But that is still the future. For now, though, whatever your thoughts on Venter's work and how much of a mixed blessing you think it is, ponder this a moment:

In a petri dish somewhere out there, there exists something unique - a living cell that didn't come into existence by cell division, an organism that has never had a parent. This has happened before - only once, when the Earth was sterile except for a single cell, the first of its kind, the cell from which all life on Earth evolved.

If this isn't history, then I ask - what is?