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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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

2013 WEIRD WEEKEND: Provisional running order

Buy Your tickets in advance at the special discount price of £20

Provisional Running Order (please note the word 'provisional' as there is still nearly six months to go)


DAYDrinks at Myrtle Cottage
7
FRIDAYIntro
7 - 7.15Oll Lewis: The Murder of the Elephant Man
7.15 - 7.45Break
7.45 - 8.15TBA
8.15 - 9.15
Book LaunchBreak
9.15 - 9.45Lars Thomas: The Natural History of Trolls
9.45 - 10.45Raffle
10.45-11.00
SATURDAYIntro to Cryptozoology
12.00 - 12.30Nick Wadham: Fairies
 12.30 - 1.15Break
1.15 - 1.45Tony Whitehead (RSPB): Starslime
1.45 - 2.45Break
2.45 - 3.15Quiz
3.15 - 3.30Hayley Stevens: Scepticism
3.30 - 4.30Break
4.30 - 5.00Glen Vaudrey - Mystery animals of Staffordshire
5.00 - 6.00Mystery animals of Staffordshire
Book LaunchBreak
6.00 - 6.30TBA
6.30 - 7.45CFZ Awards
7.45 - 8.00Break
8.00 - 8.30Darren Naish: Adventures from the world of tetrapod zoology
8.30 - 9.30
9.30 - 10.00Richard Freeman: TBA
10.00 - 11.00Raffle
11
SUNDAYSarah Boit: Orbs from a photographer's perspective
12.00 - 1.00Break
1.30 - 2.00London Cryptozoology club
2.00 - 3.00Break
3.00 - 3.30Shaun Histead-Todd: Pre Columbian civilisations in america
3.00 - 4.00Break
4.00 - 4.30Results of nature walk (Lars/Jon)
4.30 - 5.00Ronan Coghlan: TBA
5.00 - 5.45Jon Downes: Keynote Speech
5.45 - 6.00
Speaker's Dinner at the Community Centre
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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.




  • WOOLSERY MYSTERY CAT SIGHTING?
  • RAC set to probe feral big cat sighting
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    CRYPTOLINK: Project Seeks To Bring Extinct Species Back

    A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.

    March 22, 2013
    Although the gastric brooding frog became extinct in the mid-1980s, the genome of that Australian amphibian species is alive again thanks to modern biotech techniques. Michael Archer, leader of the 'Lazarus Project,' describes early efforts to resurrect extinct species.

    Animals

    'Extinction Looms' For Forest Elephants Due To Poaching

    The bucardo, or Pyrenean ibex, lived high in the Pyrenees until its extinction in 2000. Three years later, researchers attempted to clone Celia, the last bucardo. The clone died minutes after birth. Taxidermic specimen, Regional Government of Aragon, Spain

    The Picture Show

    It's Called 'De-Extinction' — It's Like 'Jurassic Park,' Except It's Real

    Although the gastric brooding frog became extinct in the mid-1980s, the genome of that Australian amphibian species is alive again thanks to modern biotech techniques. Michael Archer, leader of the 'Lazarus Project,' describes early efforts to resurrect extinct species.
    Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
    JOHN DANKOSKY, HOST:
    This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm John Dankosky. It sounds like something from a science fiction movie, researchers using cutting-edge biotech methods to bring an extinct species back to life. As a matter of fact, I think I saw that one. It was called "Jurassic Park."
    At a recent symposium in Washington, one team of researchers reported that they'd partial success resurrecting the genome of an extinct species of frog, last seen in Australia in the mid-1980s. Joining me now to talk about the frog effort, called the Lazarus Project, is the head of the team. Michael Archer is professor in the Evolution of Earth and Life Systems Research Group, part of the School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He joins me by phone, where it's very early Saturday morning there. So welcome, and thanks for joining us on SCIENCE FRIDAY.
    MICHAEL ARCHER: Good morning, John. I should say good afternoon to you.

    Read on...
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    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN WANTS TO BUY A DORMOUSE

    Lars Thomas and his two sons finally arrived here at sometime gone midnight after the journey from Hell! Poor guys. Their hire car broke down, and the promised replacement singularly failed to arrive. Add to that the problems of a lost passport, and unscheduled roadworks, and the fact that it is colder here than any March that I can remember, and their holiday in the UK hasn't got off to the best of starts. We are going to make sure that the rest of their stay is less problematical.
     
     
    Once again we repair to Austin for our daily audience with Thom the World Poet
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_27.html
     
     
    An interesting article about Robert Wyatt's film about animal rights
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/link-animals-film-robert-wyatt.html
     
     
     
    A review of the Chicago gig on the current Yes tour featuring an interview with drummer Alan White
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/link-alan-white-rocks-chicago.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 (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and a not very small orange kitten (who isn't) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. 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 cats?
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    DALE DRINNON: Bigfoot, Recent news in Zoology, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs


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    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (C...

    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.

     UF fossil bird study on extinction patterns could ...
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    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 2004 the National Marine Aquarium sank the decommissioned frigate HMS Scylla off the Cornish coast to form Europe’s first artificial reef.
    And now the news:
  • Drones may be used to target 'illegal hunting'
  • The First Spears
  • Meet a One-Eyed, Six-Legged, Flying Whale Chaser
  • How Does the Price of Cheese Influence Perceptions...
  • Some Alaskan Trout Use Flexible Guts for the Ultim...
  • Lemur Lookalikes Are Two New Species, DNA Says
  • Scientists Confirm First Two-Headed Bull Shark
  • Commission reaffirms support to transfer wolf mana...

    • Diving at the Scylla:
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