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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Friday, February 08, 2013

VERY HEAVY VERY 'UMBLE


There are times that I feel truly humble. 

 Yesterday I posted about the problems we have been having with computers, and - in particular - about how the data retrieval from my two knackered drives is going to cost £399. I did it to explain why some of the work I am doing will be heinously overdue, and also to vent off steam. I certainly wasn't asking for help. But two friends of the CFZ, Steve Jones and Terry Colvin were kind enough to send me totally unsolicited donations, which together have pretty well paid for the repairs. Thank you - both of you - from the bottom of my heart. 

Last night  Dave B-P and Jess came round to see us, and a little wine was drunk. After they left, Corinna went into the office and found a parcel which the postman had delivered and that I had singularly failed to spot. 

I opened it, and it is a beautifully inscribed book of poetry by and from the lovely Karen Gensheimer, another long time friend of the CFZ. It even has a poem about me with it. I was totally touched. 


There are times that the modern world in which we live feels isolating, implacable and horrid, but there are other times - like now - when I am just overwhelmed by the level of love and kindness that I encounter, sometimes from people that I have not even met face to face. Thank you my friends.

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

What is the real story of red and gray foxes in Eastern North America?


Several years ago, I wrote a post called  ”The Tale of Two Foxes in West Virginia.
In it, I used information from the best research at the time to tell what was the supposed story of red (Vulpes vulpes) and gray (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) foxes in in West Virginia. In the post, I claimed that the only reason why there were red foxes in West Virginia is because they were derived from English red foxes that were introduced to the Chesapeake Bay region in the seventeenth century. The reds were able to spread because the forests were cleared into agricultural land, and in parts of Europe, red foxes prefer to live in agricultural land. Gray foxes were always native, but because they are tree-climbers, they don’t feel as secure in more open places.  So their population declined.



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.

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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.


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    News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

    From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:

    I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOODAH MAN

    There are times that I feel truly humble. Yesterday I posted about the problems we have been having with computers, and - in particular - about how the data retrieval from my two knackered drives is going to cost £399. I did it to explain why some of the work I am doing will be heinously overdue, and also to vent off steam. I certainly wasn't asking for help. But two friends of the CFZ, Steve Jones and Terry Colvin were kind enough to send me totally unsolicited donations, which together have pretty well paid for the repairs. Thank you - both of you - from the bottom of my heart. Last night  Dave B-P and Jess came round to see us, and a little wine was drunk. After they left, Corinna went into the office and found a parcel which the postman had delivered and that I had singularly failed to spot. I opened it, and it is a beautifully inscribed book of poetry by and from the lovely Karen Gensheimer, another long time friend of the CFZ. It even has a poem about me with it. I was totally touched. There are times that the modern world in which we live feels isolating, implacable and horrid, but there are other times - like now - when I am just overwhelmed by the level of love and kindness that I encounter, sometimes from people that I have not even met face to face. Thank you my friends.
     
    In other news, the Internet connection is still practically non existent most of the time, hence me being so late with today's postings and with everything else that I have to do. Dave B-P is coming around tomorrow to do some rewiring and fit some gadgets that we hope will rectify this. We shall overcome some day.
     
     
     
    Michael Des Barres has a new siungle out...and its a corker!
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/michael-des-barres-new-single.html
     
    The late, great Huw Lloyd-Langton interviewed by Jeff Swick on Radio Free Saskatoon, early 2000's.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-late-great-huw-lloyd-langton.html
     
     
    And finally, our daily visit to Thom the World Poet
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/02/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_8.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 - 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
     
    * We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

    *  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) 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 elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

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