CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: 07/04/13

Thursday, July 04, 2013

D.R.SHOOP: Sunflowers

Jon,

I’ve been a home gardener for over 25 years and every year I try to outdo myself in certain areas, especially with Sunflowers.

After planting and re-planting no less than 4 times due to infestations and other reasons I have finally raised a few magnificently tall plants.

Take a look, after tomorrow’s dose of fish emulsion (Micro nutrients) I’m hoping the plants will peak at around 14 feet…we’ll see.

Best from North Carolina

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.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS AHEAD OF HIMSELF

Yesterday was going quite well until I read an email from Steve Jones telling me that there has been an earthquake in Sumatra and that over twenty people have been killed. As you probably know, I have a team out in Sumatra at the moment on our fifth expedition in search of the elusive orang pendek.

I have heard nothing from Richard, Adele and Christophe, nor do I expect to, and there is no way that I can get in touch with them. The epicentre of the earthquake seems to be in Aceh (A) which is about 1,000 miles from Kerinci Seblat (B) where the expedition is underway. As far as I am aware there is no earthquake damage reported from that part of the island, so I hope and pray that they are OK.

Back in 2007, when the CFZ expedition to Guyana was underway, there was a minor skirmish between Guyana and (as far as I remember) Venezuela. The British tabloids elevated the status of this minor incident to that of a small war, and cryptopundits who really should have known accused me of "putting CFZ explorers lives at risk by not recalling them immediately", conveniently ignoring the fact that there was no way that I could have done so. The same applies now. I am not in contact with the team, and do not expect to hear from Richard again until he gets back to Singapore airport, late next week.

In the meantime, my thoughts and prayers are with them, and I promise that should I hear anything I will let you all know.

What's new on the Gonzo Daily?http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com

The Gonzo Track of the Day is from The Young Dubliners
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/gonzo-track-of-day-follow-me-up-to.html

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_4.html

For those of you interested, here is episode 70 of my monthly webTV show
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/for-those-of-you-interested-in-such.html

Dutch Woodstock Review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-dutch-woodstock-ummmmmm-im-not-sure.html

New band for Geoff Downes (no relation)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/new-band-for-geoff-downes-no-relation.html

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Gary Shearston (1939-2013)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/those-we-have-lost-gary-shearston-1939.html

Welcome to Gonzo Mick Abrahams!
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/welcome-to-gonzo-mick-abrahams.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 two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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?

CARL MARSHALL: Don't tred on an ant, he's done nothing to you...

Here is a brief video of a Bornean giant forest ant, Camponotus gigas that we found near our camp in Ulu Kimanis, Sabah. This large worker ant was nearly 3cm in length and was surprisingly docile - although apparently when provoked this species does deliver an extremely painful bite! The footage gives a good indication of the ants enormous size as it climbs upon my colleagues wrist.

LIZZY BITAKARA'MIRE: Identify this bug

Lizzy took this picture on the way to work. I think it is a large elephant hawkmoth with stunted wings. Ideas anyone?

CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: On The Track (Of Unknown Animals) Episode 70

Published on Jun 5, 2013
The latest episode of our monthly webTV show from the CFZ and CFZtv, bringing you news on our activities within cryptozoology and natural history as well as the latest cryptozoological, and monster hunting news from around the world. I can't believe that we have done this every month for five years now - 70 episodes. Golly!

This episode brings you:

CFZ in Summer
Sumatra expedition]
Sumatra earthquake report
a tale of two kittens - and a third
Sir Norman the Great
Weird Weekend 2013
Rebuilding the conservatory
Mystery bees
Corinna looks at out of place birds
New and Rediscovered: New moth
New and Rediscovered: New spoon worm
New and Rediscovered: New information about rediscovered frog
Category
Music
License
Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)