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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Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Saturday, June 21, 2014

RUDYARD KIPLING: A TREE SONG 

Of all the trees that grow so fair,
  Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
  Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.
Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good Sirs
  (All of a Midsummer morn)!
Surely we sing no little thing,
  In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day,
  Or ever Æneas began;
Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,
  When Brut was an outlaw man;
Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town
  (From which was London born);
Witness hereby the ancientry
  Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard mould,
  He breedeth a mighty bow;
Alder for shoes do wise men choose,
  And beech for cups also.
But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,
  And your shoes are clean outworn,
Back ye must speed for all that ye need,
  To Oak and Ash and Thorn!

Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth
  Till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him
  That anyway trusts her shade:
But whether a lad be sober or sad,
  Or mellow with ale from the horn,
He will take no wrong when he lieth along
  'Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
  Or he would call it a sin;
But--we have been out in the woods all night,
  A-conjuring Summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth--
  Good news for cattle and corn--
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
  With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good Sirs
  (All of a Midsummer morn)!
England shall bide till Judgement Tide,
  By Oak and Ash and Thorn!

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DR BEACHCOMBING: African Ape in Iron Age Ireland?

barbary ape

This image from http://irisharchaeology.ie/2014/05/a-barbary-ape-skull-from-navan-fort-co-armagh/

So here’s a teaser. The Barbary ape is an African primate whose only toehold on the European continent is at Gibraltar, where a tiny population has survived into modern times. How, then, did a Barbary Ape get to Co Armagh in Northern Ireland in the Iron Age? Archaeologists have waxed lyrical over the find of ape remains at EM since publication of the find in 1971, and have constructed ambitious models of trade that have seen Carthaginian merchants turn up in the cold north with monkeys and other primates running up and down their rigging. And, to be fair, it is easy to understand the excitement of these archaeologists. But is everything really as it seems?

Read on...
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BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



East Coast Bigfooter Passes Away
It's with a heavy heart we forward the news of the passing of East Coast Bigfoot researcher and author, Rick Berry. Rick spent many years collecting ...

Bigfoot Researcher Freddie Kanney - Teaching Through Thoughts
The man has seen many things in the forest and had his first Bigfoot encounter in 1981. In this video he gives a detailed description of the Bigfoot

Couple encounter 'Bigfoot' on road at night
Couple encounter 'Bigfoot' on road at night. Posted on Friday, 20 June, 2014 | Comment icon 2 comments. What did the couple see ? Image Credit

Have There Been Bigfoot Sightings In Seattle?!
The answer is yes and no. There have been some weird sightings of a very hairy creature roaming around downtown Seattle, but it isn't exactly

Unusual Inheritances: Center for Bigfoot Studies
Cryptomundo ⋅ Craig Woolheater
The want to profile the Center for Bigfoot Studies files (which is now a culmination of my personal files and the Bay Area Group files — George Haas 

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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. 
  • VIDEO: Cougar & Caracal/Serval Hybrid Rescued! - S...
  • VIDEO: Caracal incredibly hunting birds in the air...
  • VIDEO: Day of the Lynx
  • VIDEO: Cougar Couriers!
  • VIDEO: Big Cat in Muleshoe?

  • VIDEO: Cats Documentary - Felines and Pharaohs 1of...
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    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS WORRIED

    The Gonzo Daily - Midsummer
     
    Today is one of the days that I disappear into my own mental landscape. The weather outside is glorious, and the smell of newly mown grass and the sound of birdsong wafts through my open study door.
     
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#83) is nearly here to read or download at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has Stonehenge on the front cover and features a previously unpublished account of the first Stonehenge Festival from Wally Hope, Dead Fred's claim that 1974 WASN'T the first 'Henge Festie. There are memories of Stonehenge Festivals between 1974-1984, an interview with James Lowe of the Electric Prunes, and Erik Norlander's tribute to Bob Moog. There are also new shows from the peculiar multiverse of Sub Reality Sandwich, from Friday Night Progressive, and from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and Irish Stews (OK, no mutton and vegetable based concoctions, 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!!!
     
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
     
    All issues from #70 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. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. 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?
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    KARL SHUKER: Nyols and Net-Nets and Bitarrs, Oh My!

    Karl Shuker goes Down Under to track down Australia's vast assortment of mysterious mini-humanoids.

    Read on...
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    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. 


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    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1964 the actor David Morrissey was born. Morrissey is one of Britain's most critically acclaimed actors of stage and screen and is most well known for staring as the title role of Macbeth in the RSC's 2011 production of the play and as the Governor in The Walking Dead.
    And now the news:

  • England's badger cull breaks wildlife rules, say c...
  • Migaloo the great white whale spotted off Australi...
  • Iceland kills first fin whale of the season
  • Rare Merseyside lizards get a helping hand with eg...
  • Experts finally end two-year mystery of giant sea ...
  • Endangered Gorillas Protected from Oil Drilling in...
  • Man with zebra-print hat, Superman tanktop and inc...
  • Strict diet suspends development, doubles lifespan...
  • Salamanders Give Clues to How We Might Regrow Huma...
    • Morrissey was in Doctor Who as well:
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