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, July 12, 2014

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Tommy Ramone

Tommy Ramone, the last surviving founding member of seminal US punk band The Ramones, has died aged 62 in New York, the group has announced. The drummer passed away in hospice care on Friday following treatment for bile duct cancer, US media report.

Born in Hungary, Ramone immigrated to the US in the 1950s.

He started The Ramones with three friends from a New York high school in 1974. The band has been credited with the invention of punk rock. Although they were never commercially successful, their unique sound helped shape rock music and is still often cited as inspirations to new generations of musicians.
Their hit songs I Wanna Be Sedated and Blitzkrieg Bop, among others, earned them an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

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. 




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.

  • CONSERVATION: Private Reserves Support National Pa...
  • NEWSLINK: 'Tiger Selfie Ban' Will Actually Protec...
  • CONSERVATION: Asian big cats: EIA BRIEFING DOCUMEN...
  • BIG CAT RESCUE: Feline sanctuary operators hope f...

  • BIG CAT RESCUE: Should Tony the Truck Stop Tige
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Is This A Female Sasquatch In The Ed Waterman Bigfoot Photograph?
    Ladies and gentlemen. We've seen a lot of Bigfoot photographs since we've started this blog. This photograph from Washington, taken in June, is by ...

    July
    There was no one in the Bigfoot world Chuck did not know. He interviewed the "Big Hitters" of our time and many "famous" people would take his

    This is an Interesting Look at the Creature in the Giant Sequoias Bigfoot Video
    Bigfoot Evidence Matt K.
    Filmmaker Shawn Bannon's video about a bigfoot in the Sequoias is one of the most debated bigfoot videos to have ever come out. Arguments both 

    The Bigfoot World Loses A Legend and I Loose a Dear Friend Chuck Prahl has Passed
    There was no one in the Bigfoot world Chuck did not know. He interviewed the "Big Hitters" of our time and many "famous" people would take his call ...

    'Finding Bigfoot' in the YK Delta in search of Miluquyuliq
    “I saw a figure of bigfoot just standing there, staring at me eye to eye. It was a figure of a human being but way bigger, the head was bigger, rounder

    'Finding Bigfoot': Ripped from the Headlines in Idaho
    Students in Idaho caught a curious figure on their camera while doing erosion testing for school. Advertisement—Continue Reading Below. Share

    'Finding Bigfoot': A S'mores How-to Video Turns Into Potential Evidence
    Two young kids in Oklahoma filming a how-to video on s'mores may have caught Bigfoot on camera. Advertisement—Continue Reading Below. Share

    Breaking: The Ed Waterman Bigfoot Photograph
    Bigfoot Evidence Shawn
    Ladies and gentlemen. We've seen a lot of Bigfoot photographs since we've started this blog. This photograph, taken in June, is by far the best one 

    Bigfoot Researcher Stacy Brown Has A New Music Video
    Stacy Brown Jr is not just a Bigfoot researcher, he's a rock star. Fresh off his winning of Spike TV's Bigfoot Bounty, here we find him rocking out in this 

    NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



    Monster mix up on Google Maps labels Moray Firth 'Loch Ness Lake'
    could the Loch Ness monster be hiding in Moray Firth? Google Maps seems to think so. the net massive has left locals scratching their heads when it

    Where is the Loch Ness Monster - Has Nessie Died
    The Loch Ness Monster also know as “Nessie” is said to inhabit the loch and is one of the most famous cryptids in history. The debate as to existence ...

    The Loch Ness Story - Nicholas Witchell
    Book title: The Loch Ness Story - Author: Nicholas Witchell - ISBN: 9780900963681 - PDF, PRC, MOBI, EPUB, DOC eBook Free Download

    Daily Echo

    The Loch Ness monster at Southampton Sports Centre
    Although many were not impressed by the state of the lake itself all were impressed by the monster, which some described as Loch Ness or a dinosaur ...

    Inverness Courier

    Nessie statue installed at heart of Athletes' Village
    The artwork of the Loch Ness Monster, crafted by Speyside sculptor Stuart Murdoch, has been placed in the heart of the Athletes' Village in ...

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN CARRIES ON

    The Gonzo Daily - Saturday
    www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

    And so, once again, we have finished compiling another issue of Gonzo Weekly.  Peculiarly, considering that there is a full moon imminent (and I don’t have to remind you what happens to me when there is a bad moon rising) and that we didn’t start work on the vast majority of this until gone 8 o’clock this evening, we have finished surprisingly early, and it is not yet 1 o’clock.  Of course, there is all the proofing, mastering, and the editing of the radio programmes etc., but there is still every chance, I believe, that we might get to bed at a reasonable time. I certainly hope so, because tomorrow afternoon, weather permitting, I have Saskia and Charlotte coming round to do stuff with the animals, release an orphaned magpie which is hale and hearty enough to go into the outside world, and edit an episode of our web TV show which, for the first time in 5 years has actually missed a month due to the pressure of work, health and general crapulence.
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#86) will be here later this morning to read or download at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has Hunter Thompson on the front cover an an article by theatrical producer Lou Stein about his friendship with the good doctor. There is also an interview with Paul Woodwright from Kozfest, Galahad at the Christchurch Festival in pictures, Doug Harr with thefirst of a mini series on Brand X, whilst Jon muses about Alan Moore (who knows the score). There are also new shows from the wonderfully eccentric Jaki and Tim on their Submarine, from Canterbury Sans Frontières  and from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and salamanders from Toulouse (OK, no French caudata, 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?

    CRYPTOLINK: Mississippi River monster sighted near Muscatine -- or so the legends say according to a new book

    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. 
    MUSCATINE, Iowa — The U.S. might have its very own Loch Ness monster traveling the Mississippi — one even thought to have visited Muscatine.
    The monster is called Pepie, after Lake Pepin, which forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, where it is said to live.
    The legend of Pepie dates back to Native American mound builders that lived all along the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico to the river's source in Minnesota, according to Chad Lewis, author of the recent book "Pepie: The Lake Monster of the Mississippi River."
    Lewis, a Wisconsin native, is the author of 17 other books about the weird and unexplained and said he became interested in Pepie while researching other lakes and streams in his home state. What made Pepie unique from other monster stories was the $50,000 reward on its head.
    Businessman Larry Nielson offered the reward for conclusive proof of Pepie's existence in 2008 as a ploy to garner tourism to the Lake City area, according to Lewis. The reward is still on the table.
    Though the main focus of his book is Lake Pepin sightings of Pepie, Lewis said his research took him along the Mississippi as well. In 1876, among a slew of other Pepie sightings, the Anita Tribune reported one near Muscatine. The report is brief, reading only: "Another river monster has been seen in the Mississippi river, near Muscatine, by two fisherman. This is certainly a case of snakes in its worst form."

    News from Nowhere

    On this day in 2000
    The British Foreign Office has been severely criticised over plans to back a new dam in Turkey.
    A report by the all-party Select Committee on International Development has expressed astonishment that the government is willing to support the £1.25bn Ilusu Dam project.
    It is an 18-year-old scheme to flood large parts of the Tigris Valley in south-eastern Turkey to provide hydro-electric power.

    WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK