Tuesday, April 29, 2014

CFZ NEWSLETTER #5

The long awaited weekly newsletter from the
Centre for Fortean Zoology
View this email in your browser
#5 - April 28th 2014
Since 1999 we have been collecting addresses for our mailing list, and occasionally sending out newsletters. We always meant to do them regularly, but life - as it has a habit of doing - got in the way. Now, finally we are doing what we should have done a long time ago. You are receiving this because at one point or other you opted in to our NotifyList account. If you do not wish to receive them for any reason you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this page...
Welcome to issue #5.  I am not exactly sure what I can write in this little text box today; filing, answering the telephone, spreadsheets and such like are not really interesting to anyone - including me!  But as you can see below, things are moving apace in various other areas of the CFZ.  And On the Track got finished eventually, although at one point I thought I was going to get completely suffocated by two eager extras (Pru and Archie) whilst trying to deliver the monthly news on vagrants (vagrant birds that is).
The CFZ Newsletter is edited by Corinna Downes, administratrix supreme, and the wife of the ringmaster of the CFZ Circus.
NEWT CONUNDRUM
In all the years I have lived in North Devon I have only come across one species of newt – the palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus).  However, according to the species distribution maps, Woolsery should be within the range for the smooth newt (L.vulgaris).  A couple of years ago, however, Jess the elder found a small, and very dead newt in the road outside our house.  It appeared to be a smooth newt.

This weekend, the ever resourceful Charlotte, whilst moving stones around our waterfall, found this newt.  I can’t tell whether it is a female helveticus or a vulgaris of indeterminate gender (probably female).  Is there anyone out there who can help me? (I’m thinking Lars, or possible Darren)

And while you’re at it, the lovely Andrea has just come up with a very good question: What does palmate mean?
 
BIGFOOT BLURB
Both an advantage and a disadvantage of the internet, as far as being a journalist who chronicles events in the world of cryptozoology, is the sheer volume of information available.  And when a particular subject grabs the attention of newspaper editors across the world, and the great unwashed who read them, this can get almost overwhelming.  This is what has happened in the world of Bigfoot in the last six months.

Bigfoot is now a major media property. It is the subject of several fatuous reality television programmes and – as such – has spawned a ridiculous amount of newspaper coverage.

This is why, a few weeks ago, instead of posting Bigfoot stories as ‘CRYPTOLINKS’ we have been posting daily ‘BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF’ daily digests, and dealing with the build up of Bigfoot news that way.

However, something which has become particularly noticeable in the last couple of weeks is that since the egregious Rick Dyer finally came out and admitted that his Bigfoot corpse is a hoax (something that no one with more than a few brain cells to rub together had actually doubted for a minute).

However, the number of daily news stories from newspapers from around the world has visibly dropped off.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this tells us more about the brain cell quotient of those whom society has deemed responsible for making and changing the opinions of the people. Scary huh?
Tickets for this year's Weird Weekend are now on sale. So far confirmed for this year's event are:

Nigel Mortimer: Opening Portals
Ronan Coghlan: Bogus Bibles
Lee Walker: Urban Legends of Liverpool
Lars Thomas: Tales from the CFZ Laboratory
Jon and Richard: Introduction to Cryptozoology
Nick Wadham: Alien Abductions
Tony Whitehead (RSPB): O.O.P birds
Carl Marshall: Out of Place animals at Stratford Butterfly Park
Judge Smith: Survival after death
John Higgs: Chaos, Magick, and the band who burned a million quid
Richard Freeman: Tasmania 2013 Expedition Report
Matt Salusbury: Baron Walter Rothschild's Deinotherium caper
C.J. Stone: a MODERN King Arthur
Results of nature walk (Lars/Nick)
Ronan Coghlan: The Amphibians from Outer Space
Jon Downes: Keynote Speech

PLUS
Miss Crystal Grenade
The CFZ Awards
Silas Hawkins
Raffle
Kids Nature walk with Lars and Nick
Kids Mad Hatter's Tea Party
Speaker's Dinner at the Community Centre

and of course:
The Tunnel of Goats
The event takes place from the 15-7 August this year in North Devon. Find out more HERE.Tickets are available at a special discount price of £20/head for the whole weekend as long as you buy them in advance. Buy online HERE.
The event takes place from the 15-17 August this year in North Devon. Find out more HERE.Tickets are available at a special discount price of £20/head for the whole weekend as long as you buy them in advance. Buy online HERE.
The tickets for this year's event are selling, slowly but surely. However, it would be much better for my blood pressure if they sold a little faster. So, ladies and gentlemen; do your bit to save my arteries...
SO, WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE CFZ?
Over the last week we have been doing quite a lot.
  • Andrea Rider, who has recently started working in the office has been working extremely hard on Volume 2 of George Eberhart's Mysterious Creatures  as has Lizzy Bitakara'mire
  • Steve Rider has been working on the next generation of CFZ e-books
  • Saskia England (the other of our two lovely interns) has, ably assisted by her brother Riley and a young lady called Charlotte Phillipson - who is nearly 12  - been working with Richard and Graham on refurbishing the conservatory. She is doing all the designs and masterminding the work as part of her college course on Animal Management. Its not quite finished but looks bloody good.Charlotte and Graham have also been installing our waterfall into the wildlife pond area.
  • Alexandra Cook is working hard on a project about which we shall remain schtum for the next few days. Gareth Shaw has also been working on this project, and I hope we shall be making an announcement about it soon...
This is a Text Block. Use this to provide text...
Copyright © *|2014|* *|CFZ *, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
The Centre for Fortean Zoology,
Myrtle Cottage,
Woolfardisworthy,
Bideford, North Devon
EX39 5QR

Telephone 01237 431413
Fax+44 (0)7006-074-925
eMail corinna@cfz.org.uk


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
 
at No comments:

CHECK OUT THE CFZ-USA BLOG

CFZ-USA

I want to say a big thank you to my old friend and compadre Ronan Coghlan who tirelessly works on the CFZ USA blog, posting daily, and having notched up a whopping 640 posts since he began last October. As might be expected by anyone who knows him, Ronan's take on Transatlantic Cryptozoology is a typically idiosyncratic one, and each day bring more gems.

Dear Ronan is a very sweet man, and I feel embarrassed that I don't give him more support. However, he realises how little time I have these days, especially with my current heal problems, and he shoulders the burden tirelessly. Thank you old friend.

And check this out - these are the most recent postings on CFZ-USA showing quite how diverse their coverage is:

  • MOGOLLON MONSTER
  • THE FURRY ONE
  • THE WEE FOLK OF NEW ENGLAND.
  • BIGFOOT AND GIBBON - RELATIVES?
  • THIS DAY IN WEIRD
  • FLORIDA'S MYSTERY CYNICIDE
  • BILLIWHACK MONSTER
  • BIGFOOT FESTIVAL IN WHITEHALL
  • ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD
  • THE WOLF-BULL OF PATAGONIA
  • HUECHELITO
  • WOLF WOMAN
  • BIGGER THAN BIGFOOT
  • ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD
  • BIPEDAL BLACK CATS
  • AMERICA'S LOST LAND
  • ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD
  • WORLD PENGUIN DAY

  • NDE EXPERIENCES OF BLIND
    • at No comments:

    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Paranormal Central Bigfoot Report 4-27-2014 | Art Bell
    Tonight's bigfoot pictures on Dark Matter Radio Network at 5p pdt and 8p edt. ... California Fish & Game Wardens Bigfoot Sightings, Released After His 

    Eastern Bigfoot / Neanderthal Skull Comparison | Science and Technology - Before It's News
    I did an overlay comparison of the face with the famous Neanderthal skull, the Old Man of La Chapelle-Aux-Saints . The fit is unusually close as you ...

    This Rare Photo of a “Dead Bigfoot” is Older Than We Thought - Supernatural UFO
    Stanley sat across from me, leaning in and sipping his coffee. “David, the guy who told me about it, says it was a Bigfoot.”…… Full Article Source

    Bigfoot Evidence: Are Bigfoot Related to Gibbons?
    Bigfoot Evidence ⋅ Matt K.
    People often wonder what bigfoot actually is. Are they more human or ape? Some even believe they may be somehow related to the gibbon, claiming

    MPI Discovers Bigfoot In 'Willow Creek' - - Bloody Disgusting!
    Bobcat Goldthwait has discovered Bigfoot. MPI announced today they will be releasing Goldthwait's found-footage Willow Creek, starring Alexie ...

    Bigfoot Oklahoma: Who Believes in Bigfoot? Excellent Article in Oklahoma Today
    Published back in 2005, but still relevant today with stories from locals. Worth the time to ready if you're interested in Oklahoma Bigfoot. Good read!

    The Honey Island Swamp Monster | Bigfoot Research News - Blogger
    The Honey Island Swamp monster is a legendary Bigfoot-like creature reported to have been seen in the Honey Island Swamp of Louisiana since the ...

    Possible Bigfoot Outside Squamish BC Analyzed | Bigfoot Research News
    British Cryptozoologist Simon Hicks has recently analyzed the Squamish Bigfoot Video and has come to the conclusion that it is not a real Bigfoot, but 

    BIGFOOT: The Beast of Kentucky: 04/28/14
    Today 04/28/2014, I received a letter in the mail from a witness, detailing her sighting March 2013, This is what she wrote in her letter to me. Dear Mr.

    Bigfoot Evidence: East Texas Bigfoot Researcher Writes Children's Book
    Bigfoot Evidence ⋅ Matt K.
    and of course the really tough question "Is bigfoot real?" Thanks to bigfoot researcher Michael Mayes, we now have help! "Patty: A Sasquatch Story is ...

    Zack Files 19: The Boy Who Cried Bigfoot by Dan Greenburg - Penguin Books USA
    Zack's first trip to sleep-away camp gets a little hairy when legends of a mysterious creature lurking in the woods turn out to be more than just campfire 
    at No comments:

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS SLEEPY

    The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
     
    Damon Albarn's new album, the first to be released under his own name, came out this week. And it is a complete gem of well crafted melancholia. Imagine the avant garde end of hiphop mixed with bits of classic soul, bits of folk and all sorts of other odds and sods. Add samples from Lord Buckley, a gospel choir and bits and bobs of West African musical DNA, stir well, and add guest appearances from Natasha "Bat for Lashes" Khan and Brian Eno, and you have the best record of the year so far. An absolute masterpiece.
     
     
     
     
    ‘I was so proud’: The time Yes guitarist Steve Howe played on a Queen record
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/i-was-so-proud-time-yes-guitarist-steve.html
     
     
    “Son of God” Movie Producer and Actress Roma Downey Endorses ASSIST News Service Founder Dan Wooding’s Latest Book “Mary, My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary”
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/son-of-god-movie-producer-and-actress.html
     
    And just in case you missed it, the latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (which can be read at www.gonzoweekly.com), It features - amongst other things - Hawkwind's Hawkeaster weekend in exclusive words and pictures, interviews with Corky Laing of Mountain, and Gary Green of Gentle Giant, Steve Ignorant, the Dalai Lama, and more news, reviews, views, interviews and giant otter shrews (OK, no Central African insectivores which feed largely on freshwater crabs, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
     
    The full list of artists covered this time is: Hawkwind, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Libertines, Damon Albarn, Morrisey, Paul McCartney, Auburn, Liz Lenten, Barbara Dickson, Circulus, Iona, Merrell Fankhauser, Karnataka, Genre Peak, Steve Hackett, Steve Ignorant, Asia, Mick Abrahams, Clearlight, John Greaves, Hugh Hopper, Alain Blesing, Galahad, Rick Wakeman, Andy Colquhoun, The Prog Collective, Clepsydra, The Deviants, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Captain Beefheart, Pink Fairies, Corky Laing, Three Friends, Gentle Giant, Justin Beiber, One Direction, The Beatles, Jackson 5, Elvis Presley, Abba, Elegant Simplicity, Epica, The Fierce and the Dead, Generation Kill, Moonsorrow
     
     
     
    These issues (and the current one) can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
     
    To make sure that you don't miss your copy of future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
    http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
     

    *  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 an orange kitten named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 kitten?
    at No comments:

    TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

    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. 

    The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking. 
  • FEATURELINK: Paleontologists have found fossilized...
  • FEATURELINK: ghostman: LIONS ENCLOSURE - LAST PLAC...
  • VIDEO: CHEETAH IN EARLY DAWN CHASING PREY
  • FEATURELINK: Top 4 Movies About Big Cats on DVD an...
  • NEWSLINK: BBC - Big Cat - Video www.bbc.co.uk/bigc...
  • NEWSLINK: African Cats (2011) 89 min - Document...


  • NEWSLINK: Big Cats are Beautiful But This is Why T...
    • at No comments:

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


    What has Corinna's column of fortean bird news got to do with Cryptozoology?

     Well, everything actually!

     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. 

    at No comments:

    KARL SHUKER: STRIPE ME - A SPOTTED ZEBRA!


    Karl Shuker presents the paradox of a zebra with spots!

    Read on...
    at No comments:

    Camping Shop Promotion Of The Week

    BmDGPGjCcAAUVQa
    at No comments:

    THIS WAS SENT ME BY SOMEONE ON LINKED-IN: Iraq War: Anomaly Inquiry

    The following narrative was forwarded by a friend who owns a security company. The witness is one of his employees who started working for him after several years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He states that he worked for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations (CID) before and during the conflicts. He left the service for unspecified reasons. This account is second-hand but I believe the witness' sincerity though he wishes to remain anonymous. The anecdote was written by the witness and has not been edited except for some spelling. I included this report in my most recent bookPhantoms & Monsters: Strange Encounters

    I was an investigator with CID from 2004-2009 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of my work was related to various schemes (bribery, money laundering, theft, etc.) by enlisted personnel.

    In 2005 I was informed that I would be embedded with an Army infantry unit in a mountainous region in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate (Iraqi Kurdistan - northeast Iraq). Once I reached my assigned location we were briefed on strange activity that had occurred in a particular area just a few miles from the Iranian border.

    Read on... 
    at No comments:

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

     On this day in 1986 European and American spy satellites captured their first images of the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident.
    And now the news:
  • Mite sets new record as world's fastest land anima...
  • Australia’s new marine parks are a boon for flatba...
  • If you throw a gecko at Teflon, will he stick? Uni...
  • Shark fin banned from airline
  • This Adorable 'Zonkey' Is What You Get When You Cr...
  • On The Front Lines Of Climate Change, Antarctica's...
  • Arrests after wild boars let loose in Maesteg burg...

  • Floating Lab Used In Quest To Crack Genetic Code O...
    • Fascinating and eerie photos from Chernobyl:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJlR-05o5xo
    at No comments: