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...




Friday, May 17, 2013

CRYPTOLINK: 10 Cryptids That Could Be Real

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.
Many cryptids are alleged to walk the Earth or dwell deep in its oceans – some of them better-known than others. Even though cryptozoology is considered pseudo-science by many a skeptic with an axe to grind, documented accounts of strange encounters sometimes give even these people a flicker of hesitation.
This list presents ten lesser-known cryptids, each accompanied by stories which should impress and intrigue even those among you who consider yourselves determined skeptics. Nevertheless, a proper scientific attitude is needed when dealing with even the most compelling of stories: whether such creatures exist or not, no one can yet say for sure.

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS ROUNDUP

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.




ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ Canada:
  • Newbies in the Midst — Intelligent questions about cryptozoology from newcomers to the subject...

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


DALE DRINNON: Post Cretaceous Plesiosaurs, Evolution of Whales, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HAS A CUP OF TEA

Last night Mother and I watched the second half of Patrick Barkham's new butterfly DVD. Interestingly there was a section on migrants and vagrants, and he reiterated the belief he stated in his book 'The Butterfly Isles' that the Queen of Spain Fritillary was most likely to become the next British resident species. I am not so sure of that. There have been reports of the Large Tortoiseshell for some years on the Isle of Wight, and it has been claimed that they have bred at least once at a National Trust garden in South Devon. As they were supposed to have been extinct here since the 1950s, this is pretty damn remarkable.
 
I also started reading Mick Farren's massively entertaining 'Give the Anarchist a Cigarette'. I always suspected that he and I were kindred spirits, now I think that it is even more likely. His accounts of Bohemian squalour in (not quite so) Swinging London, are not just evocative, but are funny as well. The fact that they bring us a snippet of valuable social history is an added bonus. I always have at least two books on the go, and I am also re-reading Bill Drummond's `17`, and Philip Allen's 'Moths and Memories', two books which I have always found inspirational/ As I am not firing on all four cylinders today, I shall probably retreat into one or other of these books (probably Farren) this afternoon. Books are always a good place to hide.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

*  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?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



On this day in 1682 Bartholomew Roberts, the most successful pirate captain of the golden age of piracy, was born.
And now the news:

  • Indian tigers face threat 'due to lack of genetic ...
  • Black widow spider found in Aberdeen in US shipmen...
  • Public help smash suspected badger-baiting plot
  • Frog Once Imported for Pregnancy Testing Brought D...
  • Human Disease Leptospirosis Identified in New Spec...
  • Gray whale spotted off Namibia
  • Two pairs of wolves released in Arizona and New Me...
  • World's Most Extraordinary Species Mapped for the ...

  • An entirely accurate depiction of everyday pirate life: