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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Tuesday, July 09, 2013

CRYPTOLINK: Melba Ketchum strikes back: “There is a conspiracy to suppress our findings”


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 (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.
Earlier this week I wrote about my experience with Melba Ketchum and the DNA evidence she claims proves the existence of Bigfoot. In short, I had the DNA material tested by a credible Texas scientist and it showed no evidence of a new species.
Ketchum
Ketchum
Ketchum has since responded.
First, she did so on Facebook, offering several possibilities as to why the lab didn’t find evidence of Sasquatch:
One, there is a conspiracy to suppress our findings. Two, they just didn’t care and didn’t believe that there is even the possibility that Sasquatch exists and therefore just wanted to be done with it because they had other projects. Three, they themselves suppressed it for fear that their careers would be damaged. The things that I know for sure are that it was not an adequate analysis, they did not even try to double check or recreate our findings. If they really had an interest, they would have jumped at the chance to resequence the raw samples. Funny thing, I offered the samples to three other places also and nobody was willing to test. Something is just not right. I also offered several people an opportunity to visit a habituation site including this reporter and his lab people so they could have a sighting. Of course they didn’t want that either. Bottom line, nobody except a few of you here even care about the truth. Most would rather perpetuate that BF is a myth or an ape.
Then, in an interview with the Huffington Post, she was more direct:
Ketchum was outraged by Berger’s article, telling HuffPost Weird News this morning, “He’s just out there to create drama.”
She bristled at the criticism and said Berger’s work is scientifically flawed.
“This is unbelievable — my study is a legitimate study,” she said. “There’s no credibility in his study whatsoever … There’s jealousy out there.”
I’ll get to the legitimacy of Ketchum’s study in a moment.
First, let me address the issue of “drama.” I was done with this issue after writing about it last February. However after that time Ketchum reached out to me. After what I felt was a reasonable interview, I decided to offer her a chance at vindication.
We made a deal in which I would have a highly experienced and reputable geneticist test Ketchum’s DNA samples in his lab. If the evidence backed up Ketchum’s claims, I had a blockbuster story. My geneticist source would have a hand in making the scientific discovery of the decade, or perhaps the century. And Ketchum would be vindicated. It was in all of our interest for the DNA to come back as Sasquatch.

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:A GIRL BORN WITH A TAIL,1934

This is a classic bit of Forteana from 1934,a case of a girl born with a tail in London,with comment by myself in square brackets. I found the story in Stockport library about 10 days ago,from the Cheshire Echo of January 31st 1934.

A FREAK OF NATURE
GIRL BORN WITH A TAIL
Theory of "Throw-back" to Ape Ancestors

A baby was born in London a fortnight ago with a tail two inches long [there is surely something like this in one of Corliss` books] Such an amazing freak is bringing many doctors to the Metropolitan Hospital, Kingsland Road,London [is it still there?] N, and most of them convince(?) themselves completely unable to account for the strange deformity.

One pathologist has expressed the opinion that the explanation is that the child is a "throw back" across the countless centuries to our ape ancestors.

Another theory held by doctors who have examined the phenomenon is that it was produced by an association of ideas for the mother`s mind during pregnancy .[This is remarkable if taken seriously.I thought such ideas had died out by the end of the Victorian era! This came out as the cause of the Elephant Man`s deformities in one film version]

The Secretary of the Metropolitan Hospital said to a reporter to-day:- "The child ( a girl) was brought to us when a few days old.

 A CURLY TAIL

"The parents told us that the tail was evident from birth. It is about two inches long, tapering to a point and is curly. Its position is the same as that of a monkey`s tail.It has sensitivity and is apparently formed by normal flesh. Apart from this deformity the child is a perfectly healthy baby - and quite good tempered [well of course, probably thinking of the millions she`d make as a traveling freak!] "Doctors who have seen the child - and we have had numbers visiting us - tell me that they do not know of any recorded instance of such a deformity. It is something new to medical science." The parents,healthy working-class people, who have one child apart from this strange little girl, were aghast when they made this remarkable discovery. It will be a relief to them to know that surgeons are of opinion that the tail will be removable without affecting the child`s health in any way.(1)

1. Cheshire Echo  31-1-1934 

DAVEY CURTIS HAS THE RENDLESHAM BLUES


Dear Jon,

Next time you see your old mucker Larry Warren could you ask him...."Was it to the left or right?"

Regards

Davey.C

CRYPTOLINK: Charlie Sheen: I raised hell... and now I’ll raise Nessie

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 (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.



Charlie-Sheen-and-his-crazy-antics-will-be-taking-a-trip-to-Scotland-to-find-the-Loch-Ness-monsterCharlie Sheen and his crazy antics will be taking a trip to Scotland to find the Loch Ness monster
The Anger Management star, 47, is convinced he can solve the mystery of what lurks in the loch.

He revealed his madcap plan on Twitter, posing for a snap in what he called his “hunting gear”, a bronze battle helmet, along with friend Brian Peck.

Sheen was soon flooded with encouraging messages from fans all over the world wishing him the best of luck with the mission.

Marilyn Halley wrote: “its about time Nessie was found!! Thanks Charlie.”
Susie Sunshine added: “u are two great archeologists. let’s get ready for #lochness and take me with u!! :)” 
But Alice Smith warned: “my dad’s house looks into Loch Ness, didnae see your monster lol.”

The first recorded sighting of a monstrous creature in Loch Ness was by St Columba in 565AD.

But it was Aldie Mackay who launched the modern myth, in 1933. A hotel manageress from Drumnadrochit, she reported “something resembling a whale” and months later, Hugh Gray saw an “object of considerable dimensions, making a big splash with spray on the surface of the loch”.

Read on...

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: Mediterranean merhorse, tusked megalopedus and sukotyro, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:
 
New at Benny's Other Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
 
More blogs are forthcoming but there are still bugs on Blogger which are making things difficult at present.
Best Wishes, Dale D.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN TEACHES GRANDMOTHER TO SUCK EGGS

Forgive me for posting tomorrow morning's blogs tonight, but I have a hospital appointment at an ungodly hour in the morning. It is part two of their quest to find out if I have glaucoma, which as my grandmother had it, it skips a generation, I am a diabetic, overweight yadda yadda yadda, is somewhat of a possibility. Tomorrow I shall be emulating an experimental beagle, having chemicals put in my eyes, but without the vague possibility of a bunch of crusties coming to rescue me, so by the time I get home I shall be in no state to do bloggifications. Hence they are being done tonight instead...
What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
*  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?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1981 Mario was born when the ground-breaking Nintendo arcade game “Donkey Kong” was released.

And now the news:





This is to my knowledge the highest scoring game of Donkey Kong that's on youtube and it's not even the world record any more! Donkey Kong players can be very competitive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85flrK1vivI