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...




Saturday, December 29, 2012

VIDEO: Alleged chupacabras body from Cuba.

Another dead dog?

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Gerry Anderson (1929-2012)

DALE DRINNON: Bigfoot at the Crypto Crew, and Benny's Blog

Doing things a little differently today:

CRYPTOLINK: Champ: Hook, line and sinker


Photo courtesy SUNY Press
Cover of book recently published by SUNY Press. / ALWHITEHALL — Robert Bartholomew admits it. He really, really wanted to believe that there is a sea monster lurking in Lake Champlain named Champ.

Bartholomew grew up in Whitehall on the lake's southern shore, worked as a radio reporter in Glens Falls and Albany and spent most of his life gathering boxes of material on the possibly prehistoric creature of the North Country that scores of people claim to have glimpsed over the past century.

Now, Bartholomew's long investigation and endless fascination has resulted in a book, "The Untold Story of Champ: A Social History of America's Loch Ness Monster," published in December by SUNY Press.
It's a full-fledged biography of perhaps the second-most famous sea monster in the world after Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.

Bartholomew approaches his subject with the skepticism of an investigative reporter. He debunks and exposes hoaxes as much as he chronicles evidence of the elusive serpentine creature described as having a long, humped back and a horse-like head.

His lively and readable account starts out by puncturing the myth that Samuel de Champlain spotted Champ in 1609. He describes the egos and obsessions of numerous serpent hunters across the decades. He also lays out an almost willful complicity in pumping up reports of Champ sightings among boosterish local journalists, over-eager chambers of commerce leaders and well-meaning lake residents.

Read on...

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.


I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO DAH MAN

As you have probably noticed, we are running stupidly late today. Is this because we don't care and have been sitting around in a lackadaisical fashion doing now't? Of course not. How could you THINK such a thing? It is merely that Corinna and I have been procrastinating a trip into Bideford to do some groceriestuff for several days now, and Prudence wouldn't let us procrastinate any further. She had run out of dog food, mother had run out of nuts and I had run out of brandy. Desperate measures needed to be taken. So we took them. (But we wanted to do it in daylight, so we are running hours late)
 
 
Classic Rock have announced their albums of the year -= and look who is at #28
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/classic-rock-albums-of-year.html
 
 
Martin Stephenson is singing today's Gonzo Track of the Day
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/gonzo-daily-track-of-day-martin.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 loudly 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 - imaginatively - 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, which he shares with various fish and batrachians. 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?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in 2003 Bob Monkhouse died. Monkhouse, as well as being a rather good comedian, scriptwriter and quiz show host of great renown, was an obsessive recorder of television. Monkhouse had owned television recording equipment before it was even available to the public and it is thought that in his vast uncatalogued archives there may be several lost films and tv episodes including lost episodes of Doctor Who.
And now the news:
  • Some in Congress oppose wider ban on big snakes – ...
  • Whale washed ashore in New York
  • China: Shark Tank Explodes At Shopping Centre
  • First Goat Genome Sets a Good Example for Facilita...
  • Tanzania to withdraw proposal for ivory sale
  • TSA Opens New Turtle and Tortoise Facilities in My...
  • Army worms invade Zambian maize fields
  • Ice Seals Get Endangered Species Protection

  • The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse, a documentary about his vast collection: