CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: 09/09/13

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...

Monday, September 09, 2013

CFZ PEOPLE: Greg Braund-Phillips

A happy birthday to my beloved Godson

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: Megalotaria, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/09/megalotaria-longicollis.html

New at Frontiers of Anthropology:

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2013/09/algerian-paleolithisc-art-and-cultures.html

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2013/09/archaeologists-reveal-secrets-of.html

New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/09/hollywoods-famous-recipes-of-movie-stars.html

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/09/closeup-and-comedy-by-johnson-and-scarbo.html

New at Benny's Other Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus:

http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/09/did-you-hear-one-about.html

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Clever girl: Hilarious dinosaur prank in Japan

Japanese TV has a long and august record of delivering the best in terrifying prank-based entertainment, from rocket-powered toilets to a workplace sniper attack.

This latest idea contains all the ingredients for the perfect prank – full-blown looks of horror, slapstick comedy and, most importantly, men in dinosaur costumes chasing unsuspecting victims down office corridors.

While watching the two videos, you may like to think about how glad you are the Japanese version of Ofcom apparently doesn’t take its role very seriously.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS FRUSTRATED

Monday morning with a hangover, and the vista of another week stretches joyously before me. All sorts of stuff has happened this morning already, none of which I am able to talk about. You will probably have noticed that both On the Track and the majority of the Sunday videos from this year's Weird Weekend have not yet appeared. There has been a temporary setback. I managed to blow up our firewire card, which is necessary to transfer data from the video cameras to the main computer. Whilst this has now been replaced, it took a couple of days (even though it only cost fifteen quid) and we are now running several days behind schedule.The situation was not helped by my recent illness, so whilst you can be assured that all these videos WILL appear, please be patient. Everything comes to those who wait!

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_9.html

Today's Track of the Day is by Kevin Ayers, with a message from The Lady Rachel appended to it
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-gonzo-track-of-day-lady-rachel.html

Corky Laing review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/corky-laing-review.html

Blodwyn Pig review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/album-review-blodwyn-pig-pigthology.html

And whilst on the subject of things porcine and bluesy, here is some Blodwyn Pig news
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/blodwyn-pig-compilation-of-rare.html

Judy Dyble review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/judy-dyble-review_7175.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 54 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: The latest news from Stratford

These recently in:

We have recently been donated two beautiful juvenile veiled chameleons Chamaeleo calyptratus by a local breeder, we have named these fascinating lizards Micky and Mallory. They are now settling in well in our reptile section and are feeding gluttonously on small locusts and flies.

We have had an emergence of humming bird hawk-moths Macroglossum stellatarum that can now be found (with some patience) fluttering around the flight area. These magnificent moths can be seen emerging from pupae or free flying - definitely of interest to the Lepidopterist!

Last Tuesday (Aug 20th) FYFFES plc - Coventry ripening site, brought in another deadly wandering spider Phoneutria sp. Soon we are planning a trip to the site to investigate how this deadly genus survives so regularly while other so called "banana spiders" are often killed by the pesticides used there. We shall also collect any species we find - encountered species also usually include Widow spiders Latrodectus mactans., Huntsman spiders Heteropoda sp., Cuban tree frogs Osteopilus septentrionalis and many centipede species (class Chilopoda). Unfortunately, as can be seen in the illustration, this most recent Phoneutria has lost one of its rear limbs in transit but, like other inverts, can luckily renew the lost limb after a few successful moults.