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Small Animal News
Sindobook:
In regards to the perpetrators, the following is the best translation.
"We don't know who is doing this. As this is happening on a massive scale, it is likely that an organized group or several groups are behind this."
"The matter is currently under investigation. At this time, please take all necessary counter-measures!"
Worldwide, volunteers are investigating to find the people and/or group(s) of people responsible for the attacks. Measures have been taken to assist in the coordination and exchange of information.
Samantha, who spent several months in Japan supporting a relief effort following the earthquake, believes the threat may be related to the upcoming olympic games, but Mikey added that there is no concrete evidence to specifically support that. In other words, just a hunch on her part.
Mikey believes the attacks will continue and may even get worse as time goes on.
"The only real long term defense is to build infrastructure to stop them. All we have at the moment is volunteer teams 'looking into it'. We don't know who 'them' is at this point, but we will find out. In the meantime, we just have to keep our paws together[1] and do our best to design and deploy infrastructure to counter this threat."
[1] 'sit tight' or equivelent
Personally, I don't know if relying only volunteers is the best strategy, but Mr. Sparkles notes that volunteers have been more effective than paid employees or state workers in the past. Samantha adds that the Bunny Brigade is an all-volunteer force, and it seems to be plenty effective at preventing and/or responding to local small animal attacks. "There's no reason it can't work on the worldwide scale. [Give it some time.]"
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Another quote:
"Some of us may say 'someone' tells imposters to kill, or they attempt to put an imposter in her place. But it's fruitless to say that we will begin blaming each other to spend all the thread[1]. There is no evidence, stay cool. No matter who attempts to get profit, we can fight against them in the same style to save her."
[1] Is that some kind of sewing analogy? I have no idea, I'm really not sure about this one.
Needless to say, sometimes, it can be difficult to understand with any precision the words written by small animals.
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I'm told they use the designation "WVD-01". I have no idea what that stands for, or how to contact them. I'm not even sure who they are. Mikey says he overheard them being discussed in a small animal bar, but the only concrete thing he heard was that they was that "some Panda" was assisting them.
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That's "bunny N" See the earlier post:
« Reply #79 on: December 13, 2010, 07:54:50 pm »
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Revisited:
"Some of us may say 'someone' tells imposters to kill, or they attempt to put an imposter in her place. But it's fruitless to say that we will begin blaming each other to spend all the thread. There is no evidence, stay cool. No matter who attempts to get profit, we can fight against them in the same style to save her."
I think I've got the proper translation of this now, basically s/he was saying that it might seem like since all the attacks have been on, say, bunnies, that it might seem like the motive is to make, say, guinea pigs, rats, hamsters, ferrets, and other small animals more popular by 'bringing down' the popularity of bunnies.
And by now, someone else has commented that even this assertion isn't true, the attacks haven't been limited to just one like that. According to Mikey, "They're going after everything. And everyone. Indiscriminately. There's no obvious pattern."
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It just came in, here is a quick translation of her statement.
"[CFM] is in agreement, and our agents are gathering information. That is a real group, but we don't know if there is any real connection. We have sent communications to them, and await a response."
So really now that they are aware, we can just be patient and wait.
Sad state of things that this has come too... the attacks started in November of last year and only now they (the authorities) are starting to take notice? Small animals need to be more of a priority for them. Someone needs to -- someone will -- stand up to whoever is doing this and start fighting back.
Sindobook:
They do not. It's an impostor. It's been confirmed through their own statement (or there is more subterfuge going on here, ie. someone in their group acting without any knowledge, or they 'disavow all knowledge' of unseemly activities like in the TV series 'Mission Impossible'. All doubtful.
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I think this is the situation. Other than a (relatively) small number of followers, bunnies and guinea pigs mostly, the rest of the small animals aren't so much enamored with the guy. The things that keep coming up, like him banning the snake, when it was that same snake that is widely thought to have brought things back from nearly falling over the edge, make people question if he's really any better. By now everyone knows the cat is on the way out, and he's likely to be replaced by someone who really is better, or is at least a known entity.
Small animals know what's going on, word can travel much faster than people realise. As strange as it sounds, the snake actually has his own followers and has certainly made no secret of it. And there are those in his own organization showing marked discomfort over these situations; and these people probably aren't going sit on it forever.
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In response to "Most of the attacks are on bunnies".
(Household % among total households with small animals, Total Population in the US)
Bunny: 40%, 5.3M
Hamster: 29%, 3.7M
Guinea Pig: 18%, 1.4M
Ferret: 10%, 1.0M
Rat or Mouse: 10%, 1.6M
Gerbil: 8%, 1.0M
Chinchilla: 3%, 231K
Hermit Crab: 2%, 220K
Pot-bellied Pig: 2%, 297K
Hedgehog: 1%, 55K
Other: 15%, 4.0M
Yes most of the attacks are on bunnies, more precisely bunnies from one and a half to two and a half years old. But bunnies are also the most common small animals in the US, so it's not much of a stretch really.
Also, most bunnies are kept in a household only a few months. Many are bought around Easter and then 1-6 months later, they are no longer wanted and 'let go' into the wild. As for the 'one and a half to two and a half years old' gap, that is the earliest age where statistics are compiled, bunnies younger than one and a half years presumably fall into that age bracket.
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Sindobook:
Note: A direct translation is almost impossible, there are so many colloquialisms that would make a direct translation nearly unintelligible. But the general situation is this:
When the attacks were active, the eastern volunteers were acting in concert with us (westerners) to fight against them. But now that the attacks against small animals have largely subsided, at least for the time being, heavy infighting has broken out among the eastern volunteers who were far from united to begin with. The infighting has shut down most of their communication network and resulted in utter chaos among their defense organizations. While some of the eastern volunteers are still supportive and want to continue to fight, others apparently feel the bunny brigade or just bunnies in general have too much say in the Chain of Command and the actions of the defense groups. But honestly it's totally unclear who feels what or in what numbers[1].
[1] literally, from Samantha, "Most of the non-bunnies to the east don't even know what they really feel"
When the brigade has tried to establish communications with the individual defense groups to the east, sometimes the leader is cool and willing to listen. But other times bunnies are ignored or simply told that they are unwanted and to go away. While being ignored appears quite common, in reality there is no way to tell if [our] bunnies are being ignored or simply not responded to because the communication network is down.
Mikey commented that most of the eastern volunteers are hamsters, which tend to be older (not in terms of years, but in terms of lifespan -- hamsters have a much shorter lifespan than bunnies which can regularly live 9-15 years. "We found in most cases the relatively younger bunnies of the bunny brigade were dealing with hamsters who were middle-aged and older. And this is only true among the eastern volunteers. The rest-of-world, west included, bunnies are most common volunteers and the ranks of defense groups are filled with younger bunnies and then some guinea pigs.
It's not that bunnies haven't had infighting before, we only need to go back a few years to recall the incidents with Yue-bing or the fiercely debated Bunny Caucuses of the past. But, there's probably a bit of a gap along these lines. "In the east, the hamsters feel they should a bigger say in the way things are run because they are 'older'. But in the rest of world, bunnies are in the majority so they feel they should have the most say. And the way that small animal politics work[2], that's more or less the way it ends up.
[2] majority rule, or largely democratic, versus say the politics of the neighborhood cat gang.
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It is '80% figured out', according to an insider (no comment on who). The other 20% is in progress.
"Very few people know. Most of the Vanguard knows, but that's it."
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(subjects) First, slow down. Embrace and do it slowly, gently. Don't apply too much pressure, it looks bad. Hold hands. Hold for a couple of seconds. No tongue (looks bad). (photo) Some fill flash, as two people tend to block the light. Watch the angles.
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Yes, it is now confirmed that the Cat (cat F) will be there.
From Mikey: "Even if you don't like her, please don't harass/stalk/abuse/tease/etc. her. In the end she's just a cat. Sure she out-schemed Cat Y in order to take over his old show, the show he basically made into what it was, but that's how cat politics works. Someday another cat will come along, and do the same to her."
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She is not, so please do not ask. She's just sticking with her usual VO/TO stuffs. At least that's as of 'right now'.
BTW often times she claims something like "I'm going to do this, and this, and this, and this, and this..." but then in the end only ends up doing one of those things.
Sindobook:
All that shows is a textbook case of 'how not to run your gang'.
Cat L was in charge for roughly a year, from September 2009 until the time his owner left town, September 2010.
In that time, he looted gang coffers, taking roughly 650,000 carrots for himself and 240,000 carrots for his cronies over the course of the year. But the cat's real damage was in expenses, legal, travel, operational, etc. These went from roughly 9,600,000 carrots to 14,500,000 carrots. Gang revenue from shakedowns, collections, protection fees, etc. seemed to be holding steady at around 10,000,000 carrots, but in reality accounting tricks were used (see 'Kitty Kat Accounting') -- deferred revenue[1] increased roughly 1,400,000 carrots in order to hide a drop in actual revenue of 12% to 15%. Also notable was a 'settlement' paid out to C for roughly 280,000 carrots.
At the end of 2010, the gang was roughly 3 million carrots in the red, with less than a million or so carrots in their stash. Cat L was long gone and the hapless Cat P had taken over, and would soon make a deal with another cat in exchange for a loan that even then fell short of the roughly 3,600,000 carrots that would have been required to keep things going for another year.
All carrot figures are approximated at the current exchange rate.
It would be about two to three months before Cat P would cave and make a deal with his ex-rival, Cat F. Cat P was under great pressure, cats from affiliated gangs were clawing at his door almost daily demanding their kickbacks and fees, which he had no hope of being able pay. Protection money and collections from small animals was far below expectations, leaving few actual sources of income. He had narrowly escaped a few scuffles in dark alleys with a mysterious bobcat, and would have probably perished were it not for his ever - loyal and determined - to - stick - with - him - to - the - end assistant, Cat T.
In the end, Cat P's paw was forced and he sold out the gang that had survived several generations of cats on its own for a mere 2,000,000 carrots to Cat F. This was not enough to outright save the gang, but enough to keep it going for a couple of months more. Unless 'something big' happened, the gang was still a goner, and Cat F would walk away with anything of value they still had.
[1] A difficult concept to explain to non-accounting people, think of deferred income like a shop that sells 'gift certificates' at a discount in order to create cashflow (get more cash on hand) or increase reported revenue during a particularly bad quarter. Many gangs will have some form of deferred income, kickbacks, protection fees, shakedowns, and other things that are paid up front for a set period of time. But a dramatic rise in deferred income almost always means one of two things, either the gang is providing its 'services' at a discount in order to try to create short-term cashflow, or they are 'calling forward' future unproven revenue (with equivalent expenses) in ordue to try to disguise a drop in currently reported revenue. The latter case might be known as an 'accounting irregularity' in human accounting practices, but it is par for the course among cats.
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I think it's some new drug.
Don't do drugs! Also don't support/take/buy drugs that were tested on animals.
"After-effects include: drowsiness (67%), depression (44%), nausea (32%), dry mouth (54%), difficulty breathing/shortness of breath (22%), seizures (17%), suicide (7%), non-suicide death (3%)."
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I wouldn't be too concerned. It honestly seems, roughly half-and-half. There are some rumors of political problems and such, but hard to say how much (if any) is real.
"Everyone knows where the UT/VO/TO groups are going to be."
Sindobook:
Unfortunately no. Everything was proceeding as planned, but then he stepped in and canned the whole thing.
A lot of us have big doubts about their current manager; if you know his temperament, honestly they could not have picked a worse guy to run things.
From Tuan Tuan - "The only thing he has going for him is that he has no life, and therefore plenty of time. Otherwise, he has no real positive qualities. Let me say this: very few Pandas aren't welcome in Wolong[1], but he's one of them."
So that's pretty much it. Pandas as a whole are very laid back, and harsh words coming from another Panda are practically unheard of, except in the most egregious of cases. Normally the bunny brigade would try to intervene, but they're in a more important operation against the gang to the north. It's more important to have that succeed than to try to deal with an errant Panda.
[1] Wolong National Nature Reserve, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolong_National_Nature_Reserve
A bunny who has been intercepting their electronic communications reported over the past months that their communications seem to have lost touch with reality.
"Many e-mails seemed to refer to imaginary things like sections of the venue that do not actually exist, for instance making repeated references to events held in the 79th floor of the Von Borscht building (no such building exists, nor does any building the venue have anywhere near that many floors). Others seem to be simple paranoia, in which he imagines a bunny who works in bookkeeping is engineering a conspiracy to overthrow him. There was even one set of e-mails where the Panda was discussing his attempts to sell the organization to 'a media company from Canada' for a large sum that is never fixed, varying between three to seven million dollars."
"Even worse are the podcasts in which the Panda is supposed to discuss things but instead talks about the everyday goings-on in his life. Honestly he spends most of his time 'blowing up' and getting mad, at one point he even smashed the
camera and all you can hear is audio until his assistant replaced it. Nothing of import is ever discussed, it's always just stuff like about how he's really upset he got sacked in a virtual football game or yelling at the camera so loud it's unintelligible what he is actually trying to say."
BTW I honestly don't know if they will be at one of the summer events. Perhaps the one to the far north?
But almost certainly, they will be in the local area for November, and January.
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The girl I talked to last night said the bunnies were 'hopping mad' and pretty much in a full revolt.
When asked what the deal was, like does he hate her, the response was "No, he's just fscking incompetent."
There's huge gaps in the schedule, so it's not like they were overbooked or anything.
From Mikey "They're at the point where they're no longer a small group, they need some structure and some people to be in charge. But, they haven't really figured out who they want to be in charge yet. Like Tuan Tuan said, it's not the people who are the most qualified who are in charge, because this type of person has their own lives and hence not enough time to take an active role. It's the no-lifers who don't play well with others and and really don't have any skill at what they do."
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Yes, one of the local small animal groups will have a table, just make sure you find the right one.
If it's not the right one, you will know.
Also, Killer Lolitas and Scary Shoujo - Sunday 4:30p to 5:50p. (Higurashi Fan Panel)
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