WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Wednesday, December 02, 2009

FRISWELL'S FREAKY FEATURES: Octopus awfulness

Some months ago Alan Friswell, the bloke who made the CFZ Feegee Mermaid and also the guy responsible for some of the most elegantly macabre bloggo postings, wrote me an email. He had an idea for a new series for the bloggo. Quite simply he has an enormous collection of macabre, fortean, odd and disturbing magazine and newspaper articles, and he proposed to post them up on the bloggo.

OBSCURE OUTRAGED OCTOPOID'S OBJECTIONS ON OBNOXIOUS OUTRAGEOUS OFFENCES!

I should perhaps subtitle some of these features 'Reasons why I hate the human race' and this one would be a perfect example.

Octopus and squid have featured in many a B-movie, horror story and Saturday-morning serial, usually in the role of hideous monster, lurking in some dreadful, skeleton-strewn pit in the ocean floor, waiting to grab its hapless human prey with its slimy tentacles.

In reality, of course, these amazing animals are wonders of natural design, with considerable intelligence and even, so some icthyologists contend, a degree of emotional capability. Yes, they're dangerous--but only if some idiot trespasses into their territory.

Which sadly brings me back around to human beings. In fairness to the following articles, it has to be noted that they were produced a long time ago, in what might be described as a more ignorant time, and I'm certainly not going to mention the fact that there are still places in the world where fish are fried and eaten alive, and sharks have their fins sliced off for soup, before being thrown back into the sea. Oh, I wasn't going to mention that, was I? Ooops....

One point of interest is that the footage of the shark-octopus fight was subsequently used years later (in 1953) as a back-projection image for Harryhausen's The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.











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