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, May 24, 2013

STRANGE FOOTPRINTS IN GERMANY

 photo Spuren07.jpg This morning I was contacted on Facebook by a lady from Germany who happens to have the same Christian name as my wife. She wanted me to have a look at some mysterious footprints that turned up in her garden some years ago. The photographs are, by the way, her copyright and this is used by permission, and may not be re-used. This is her story:

It was some late evening in February 2002. My son and husband were sleeping and I sat on the couch watching TV. I was like 2m away from the porch door (total made of glass, like a window down to the floors). The blinds were shut and the curtains were closed. At some point around 2am - as far as I remember - I felt watched. I have no idea why but I turned on the porch light (from inside), opened curtains and peeked through the blinds, but all I could see was the halfway lit up porch and it was snowing like hell. That night I must have fallen asleep on the couch, dressed, and woke up next morning 8am. My husband had left already, but my son was home, I think it musta been a day off school or whatever. Anyway. During the winter, sometimes there;s a little water on the bottom of the windows, so when I woke, I started to wipe off the window edges, when - from the 2nd floor - I noticed these tracks in the backyard. I try my best English to explain:


There was a lot of fresh fallen snow. The whole area (at that time not totally filled with new built houses) was white. Except for our little garden. A dark circle of tracks would stand out. I woke my son and neighbor. These footprints looked too strange.
They would go around in a circle, up to the porch window, and back. It was very very cold, but the tracks were NOT filled with snow,there was just flat grass inside the prints - like something either heavy or warm must have walked here. Also, the tracks seem to have sharp claws, which cut through the snow, but that's probably just an interpretation, it looks like claws, but since you cannot even tell whats front and whats back of the single track, who would know. The truth is, one cannot even say for sure they're FEET. You can tell the size of the tracks by my hand on the pics. One photo shows my son, walking around looking at the tracks, and next to the tracks you see our own footprints, after we have walked around. Our own prints are filled with flat stepped snow.

These tracks are not typical bigfoot prints, but what are they?

There's a wooden shed at one side of the porch, and some buckets did stand right next to that shed. Whatever walked there,- as you can also see on the pics - has somehow scuttled up to these buckets and made a big step over them. Why? Nobody needs to press themself next to the shed. you can just walk in the middle of the porch, no need to step over the buckets.

My son and neighbor and myself were sort of puzzled, so I called the police. The police officer showed up around noon, most of the tracks had almost vanished for the sun had come out, so he also looked at the photos, He said, this must have been a children in monster houseshoes, but he did not look like he did believe it. A few days later, the snowman that was built in my neighbors garden, had mysteriously moved to a strange place

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:
From CFZ Canada:

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.


Poultry Drug Increases Levels of Toxic Arsenic in ...

DALE DRINNON: Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs, Cedar and Willow

New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
 
New at Cedar and Willow, a scheme to intermingle Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, and various Science-Fictional Reptoid Races with more serious "Ancient Gods from Outer Space (Anunnaki)" History.
 
New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd, an entry on Carole Landis, also a recurring character at Cedar and Willow:
 
And New at Benny's Other Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus, a continuing reprint of a Dick Tracy story featuring that detestable villain, the Rhodent:
 
Blogger is still acting up and I already see I shall need to do some repair work on Jayasree's last part in the series, part 8 [today's release]
 
Best Wishes, Dale D.

Yowie And The Magpie

Yowie And The Magpie from dylan white on Vimeo.


A hunter's obsession seals his fate in a darkly comic animated tale of man versus monster.
Made in 2008 for Film London / UKFC Pulse Digital Shorts.
Screenings:
- London Film Festival 2008 - London Calling
- Bafta Regional Film Agencies 2009 - Private Screening
- Edinburgh International Film Festival 2009 - McLaren Animation Nominee
- Stash DVD Magazine Issue 60 - 2009
Credits:
Director - Dylan White
Writer - Tim Telling
Narrator - Ray Crawford
Producer - Melody Sylvester
Audio Producer - Jane Mitchell - HearNoEvil
Sound Design - Andrew Sherriff - Adelphoi
Animation - Roly Edwards, Kwok Fung Lam, Phuong Mai Nguyen
Flame - Sheldon Gardner - Time Based Arts

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS BEREFT

Things are looking up slightly. The car is still not working properly, but Graham reckons he will be able to coax it to Bradworthy tomorrow to get Prudence to the vet. Each morning her hobble is much improved, but by the end of the day she cannot put any weight on the bad leg. This is exactly what happened with her other back leg a few years ago, and I am pretty sure that I shall have to find over a grand from somewhere to pay for the operation. But I always treat dogs and cats as members of the family, and I would no more think of reneging on my responsibilities than I would not think of neglecting Mother or one of the girls. These things happen, and when they do they have to be paid for.
 
Many thanks to everyone who sent condolences after the untimely death of Buttons the kitten yesterday. Especial thanks to Karen Gensheimer, whose telephone call came just at the right time, and to Judy Dyble, Rebecca Lang and Rick Wakeman who also have the knack of saying just the right things. I had a slew of nieflings (Jess H, and Dave and Ross B-P) round last night, and some brandy was consumed. This lifted my spirits somewhat. So today it must be onward and upward...
 
 
 
 
 
 
Finally, the first two episodes of Canterbury Sans Frontières are online. There will be more soon, and - next week - we have another exciting Gonzo Web Radio announcement to make
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-two-episodes-of-canterbury.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) 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 cat?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1844 Samuel Morse opened the world's first telegraph line sending the message “What hath God wrought”.

Here's an apt track from ELO: