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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, October 01, 2013

CRYPTOLINK: Bigfoot might lurk in nearby bush

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.


FRUITLAND, N.M. – Strange happenings are being reported on the Navajo Reservation in northern New Mexico:
This footprint, which conference attendee Deb Yazzie says is of a bigfoot, was photographed on the Navajo Reservation in August. Bigfoot experts say this three-toed bigfoot is often seen in Texas.Enlarge photo
Brandon Mathis/Durango Herald
This footprint, which conference attendee Deb Yazzie says is of a bigfoot, was photographed on the Navajo Reservation in August. Bigfoot experts say this three-toed bigfoot is often seen in Texas.
Linguist R. Scott Nelson uses software to slow down and analyze sounds from conversations reportedly among bigfoot. Nelson believes he recognizes “properties of human language.”Enlarge photo
Brandon Mathis/Durango Herald
Linguist R. Scott Nelson uses software to slow down and analyze sounds from conversations reportedly among bigfoot. Nelson believes he recognizes “properties of human language.”
Reports of large, dark intruders on private property. Livestock turned up missing, or worse, in pieces. Gardens have been raided, produce and fruits found partially consumed in unusual ways. Unidentifiable, inhuman footprints have been left in the sand.
Then the reported sightings – more and more with each year.
But what is it? Some residents think they know.
The Navajo even have names for it: woolí, tsõ or yeí tsõ. In the Himalayas, it’s called yeti.
In the U.S., most people simply know it as bigfoot.
About 300 people gathered Saturday and Sunday at the Walter Collins Center near Fruitland, N.M., for the inaugural Northern New Mexico Bigfoot and Paranormal Conference. Speakers came from as far away as Georgia and Missouri to shed light on the subject.
The event was held to help educate people and provide tips on what to do in case anyone should encounter the highly elusive, legendary animal, organizer Brenda Harris said in a Sunday interview.
A resident of the reservation, Harris had so many personal experiences with the creature, she teamed with other locals to investigate incidents in the area, and try to find evidence. They call themselves the Shadow Seekers.
“That’s why I am here. I don’t want to hear about anybody getting hurt,” Harris said.
Harris said that popular television shows such as Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” are set up trying to prove that the creatures exist. Convinced they do, she is far more concerned with people’s safety.
She presented chilling stories of her family’s encounters with an animal she described as huge with broad shoulders, covered in thick hair.
She said the Shadow Seekers try to patrol areas where sightings are most common.
While many people associate sasquatch with the dense forest of the Pacific Northwest or the Deep South, Harris said the San Juan River basin that cuts through the high desert is also a corridor of activity.
Read on...

CRYPTOLINK: Campus group aims to find, gather evidence for Bigfoot


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.
A red shirt with Bigfoot pictured on the front and “believe” written in bold set the tone for a road trip with eight people on Saturday night.
The eight, who are a part of UK’s new Squatchin’ Club, set out on their first official Bigfoot expedition at Red River Gorge. Katie Applegate, president of the club and a senior psychology major, was wearing the Bigfoot shirt  and said she saw a sign at the Gorge a few weeks ago that read, “Warning, sighting of unknown creatures have been spotted within seven miles of Red River Gorge.”
What would normally cause serious hesitation to the average hiker only sparked more interest for the group.
“We could make history,” said Alex Wright, a political science senior and the social media manager for the club.
Wright said the famous primatologist Jane Goodall serves as inspiration to the members. Goodall is a supporter of the belief that Sasquatch exist in North America, according to an interview with NPR in 2006.
“Someone might do it sometime, so why not maybe have it be us?” Wright said about finding a Sasquatch.
Members Garrett Sinnard, Alli Curd and Lilly Neidhardt arrived with the club officers ready to explore. The only light through the trail was provided by their flashlights. In a single file line, members hiked down the narrow trail, stopping every so often to try to communicate with the creature.
Wright  was making calls by banging a baseball bat on a tree trunk, causing an echo through the forest. He said primates use these “wood calls” to communicate through long distances.

CRYPTOLINK: Shipley's Loch Ness Monster hunter takes to the skies

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.


Loch Ness monster expert Gordon HolmesLoch Ness monster expert Gordon Holmes
Loch Ness monster expert Gordon Holmes from Shipley has taken to the skies in his latest bid to capture footage of the legendary beast.
Mr Holmes is Britains’s most dedicated Nessie hunter and this summer sent a tiny camcorder hovering 80 foot above Loch Ness, to search for signs of water disturbances.
His home-made spy in the sky was carried aloft by 10 helium filled foil balloons, explained Mr Holmes: “Originally, I’d hoped to drag the cluster of balloons plus camera around the loch using a radio controlled boat, but the winds are so unpredictable.
“During my first launch attempt, two balloons exploded when blown onto the local sharp rocks.
“However, by the third attempt on the final day the conditions were perfect to launch.
“The spy in the sky cam produced better results than previously expected,” Mr Holmes said.

TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND UP



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 are 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.




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.......

    The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
     
    Last year was universally described as the worst summer ever for British butterflies. This year, despite a very late and cold spring has been probably the best butterfly summer for at least ten years. We have also had the most exciting butterfly immigrants for considerably longer than that. It appears that the mainland race of the swallowtail (P. maechon. gorganus) which became extinct in the UK in the early 19th Century has bred here this year no less than three times - in Dorset, Sussex and Somerset. Those of us who daydream about such things wonder whether it could become properly established again.
     
    On top of that I have received three lots of post which threaten to distract me away from the paths of righteousness: A DVD about the UK Counterculture in the 60s, and another DVD about Duane Allman (thanks to Rob J for those two) and volume three of Roland Smiths' excellent 'Cryptid Hunters' novels, featuring a hero which he admits is based very vaguely on yours truly.
     
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/thom-world-poet-daily-poem.html
     
     
     
    Manchester UK's Crystal Grenade Explores The Darker Side Of Life On Debut Album 'Lo! And Behold'
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/manchester-uks-crystal-grenade-explores.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:
    www.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?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1964 the Japanese Bullet Trains started a regular service. In 2013 Britain still can't get it's act together to build High Speed 2 because Tories are running scared from a bunch of nimbys. Nimbys who probably complain bitterly to anyone who will put up with their bleatings for more than 5 minutes about Britain no longer having as much power and influence as it did in Victorian times and fail to see the irony.

    And now the news:



    Just how noisy are wind turbines these days? This video should tell you everything you  need to know the next time some nimby complains that they shouldn't be given planning permission as they are noisy: