TIM MATTHEWS: Still everything to play for

Tim Matthews is one of my best friends, and also - coincidentally - one of the most controversial figures in contemporary forteana. He has been involved with the CFZ for nearly a decade now, raising eyebrows wherever he goes.

It is still all to play for, so come to us all ye that are heavy laden and work with the CFZ. I remember back in the good old bad old days of X Files hysteria that many of us, me inlcuded, took ourselves far too seriously and forgot that This Thing Of Ours could and should be fun. I mean, what is the point if it isn't? Making a difference has to be enlightening as well entertaining. What amuses me, in a kind of black way, is the story I read today on the BBC website about yet another momentous discovery - this time a new population of a rare species of Orangutan in wildest Borneo.

Cryptozoologists were not leading the way, or the fray, and were following the primates rear whilst Regular Scientists (they who scoff at our feeble efforts), acting on tip offs from locals, discovered a tightly packed arrangement of nests where up to 2,000 of these creatures are said to live. A 17-hour journey to the location included ten hours by car, five hours in a boat and a couple more hours hiking. Now you can't travel that distance on the internet can you?

On the same day that it is claimed that "most Britons" believe in "heaven" it seems that we more chance of convincing people to go to church than becoming active in the scientific disciplines. It also seems that more and more of our time should be spent getting involved with regular scientific and similar practical activities because the Crypto crew are simply not engaging with the right people to make discoveries. The question that needs to be asked is whether this is a cottage industry for the promotion of dodgy folklore or a serious effort intended to push back the boundaries of human knowledge. We'd be better joining in with other people's expeditions, wouldn't we?

Mind you, this is one in the eye for all those 'orrible skeptical specimens that haunt the fringes of our subject and who are oft heard to proclaim that "there is nothing more to discover" or that "it's all myths and folklore". Tell that to Eric Meijaard of Nature Conservancy Indonesia whose team not only found the new rare species but is also working as hard as it can to protect the area in question from destructive human activity including massive deforestation and palm oil production from local sources.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7995970.stm