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 05, 2012

TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND UP

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.


  • NEWSLINK: Oncilla caught on camera trap
  • NEWSLINK: Tiger shot dead for killing livestock
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    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (CFZ)

    In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that - whereas the study of out-of-place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters - it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.




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    I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN



    Well, as Wednesdays go today is quite a good one. As Corinna is out this morning I am taking the opportunity to buy some Christmas presents online for her and listen to the absolutely extraordinary new Scott Walker album much louder than I would usually dare play anything so completely out there! It is alternately scary and hysterically funny, which is probably not the best thing for a manic depressive to listen to. New books by Richard Freeman and Jim Jackson were uploaded yesterday, and more new stuff is in the offing. Golly, this autumn has been exhausting.
    An interesting interview with Jon Anderson, during which he empathises with the difficulties faced by his replacements in Yes. What a nice bloke he is...
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/link-jon-anderson-on-difficulties-of.html
    The other day, together with Mother and the orange cat, I watched the GPS live DVD on Gonzo. We were so impressed that I went in search of more information on the band
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/making-of-gps-window-to-soul.htm
    I just found this nice little biography of the incomparable Paul Kantner
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/link-paul-kantner-biography.html
    Following yesterday's posting about Helen and the Horns at the Camden Eye, here, ladies and gentlemen, for your delectation, is some video of the gig shot by our very own Martin Stephenson...
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/helen-mccookerybook-video.html
    This is a compendium of writings from one of the great journalists of the 20th Century for one of the greatest music magazines of all time. Of course it’s bloody good.  What did you expect? 
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/fear-and-loathing-with-orange-cat.html
    The Gonzo Daily is a two-way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello,  please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow....

    The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginitavely - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link:     http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
    Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus... did we mention the orange cat?
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    THIS CHRISTMAS FROM CFZ PUBLISHING GROUP: Globsters by Michael Newton

    Naturalist, adventurer and Fortean author Ivan Terence Sanderson coined the term 'globster' in 1962 to describe strange masses of organic tissue washed ashore by ocean tides. 

     While Sanderson initially applied the term to one specific carcass beached in western Tasmania two years earlier, today we know such strandings have occurred worldwide, with records spanning fifteen centuries. Nor is an ocean view required to spot a globster: certain lakes, as well, have vomited peculiar carcasses. 

     Globsters is the first attempt to survey all known 'monster' strandings in a single dedicated volume, covering the years from 661 C.E. through to 2010. In addition to 132 discoveries of lifeless remains, the book also examines thirty-six cases in which aquatic cryptids - 'hidden animals,' the subject of cryptozoology - were allegedly killed or captured alive by intrepid seamen or hunters. Some of the cases are globally famous while others are virtually forgotten, known only from passing mention in documents covering other subjects. Certain globsters have been scientifically identified through DNA or other forms of testing; others are presumed to have prosaic explanations, although evidence is lacking, and a few remain profoundly enigmatic.

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    KARL SHUKER - SRI LANKA'S DEVIL BIRD


    Which winged cryptid from Sri Lanka emits a hideous cry graphically described as sounding like the shrieks of a child being slowly strangled??  Read Karl Shuker's latest ShukerNature blog post and find out!
    Read more...
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    DALE DRINNON: Bigfoot, giant anaconda, owl plaques, Cedar & Willow

    Next Cedar and Willow has gone up, soon to be followed by its sequel. Two new FOZ articles are also on the way.
    The notices for these have been up at Facebook for a while.
    Best Wishes Dale D.
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    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



    On this day in 1945 five American fighter aircraft, referred to as 'flight 19', disappeared off the Florida coast. These and other disappearances in the area gave rise to the myth of the Bermuda Triangle.


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    • The Flight 19 incident also inspired Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Here's the original trailer of that film and an example of how to suck all the excitement out of a film (it's probably the worst trailer I've ever seen and I've seen the trailer for Tiptoes where Gary Oldman plays a dwarf by spending the entire film walking around on his knees).
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