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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Monday, October 13, 2014

ADAM DAVIES: Talks about his new book on Bigfoot (out later this week on CFZ Press)

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THOMAS BRISSON JØRGENSEN: 1673 - The Original Frankenstein's Monster?


Recently I was thumbing through early issues of Denmark's first true newspaper, Extraordinaires Maanedlige Relationer, when I stumbled upon the following report from February, 1673 (my translation):

In Frankenstein (Silesia), an ungodly body by the name Henrik Krahlen, along with his wife Eva and daughter Anna, has done a hideous and shameful thing. For 8 years they have unearthed dead people and removed their hearts and lungs in order to make a powder. This powder was mixed with poison and cumin and sold to unknowing victims, of which 5 are now known to have died. Furthermore, Henrik Krahlen has spread this powdered mixture on the streets throughout town and put it in fresh drinking wells. People were supposed to have been poisoned by this too, but god intervened, and it therefore had little effect.
Krahlen also went into a church where he held a secret feast of boiled and (prepared?) human hearts, together with his followers, who also drank from human skulls. In another church he stole from the money box and committed other injustices. With the bodies of women, he has performed in such ways that it is best kept secret, especially among Christians. Finally last year, right after the Pentecost, he and his wife and daughter were caught and thrown in jail. On the 23d of January this year [1673] he receieved his rightful punishment, when he was put on a wagon and pinched with red-hot pliers in all four corners of town. Afterwards he was taken out of town, where he witnessed the decapitation and burial of his wife and daughter. Then all of his limbs were crushed with a wheel and he was burnt alive at the stake.
The account is fairly outrageous, and sounds more like the plot of a modern horror movie. You probably couldn't sell it as a script prior to the Eli Roth generation of filmmakers, and would have to settle for an independent production similar to Nekromantik. Even with all the crazy stories in the media today, it still stands out. I have no idea if it's even partially true, though, but I think we can assume that at least something happened there. And even if it is a complete fabrication, the story is interesting from a whole other perspective.

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HELP NEEDED

I have been struggling with a html/javascript problem for nearly a week now. Is there anyone in the CFZ readership who is less of a dunce on the subject than me, and who can help me do something that appears to be relatively simple?

I just want to put this effect: http://jsfiddle.net/esteewhy/5Ht3b/6/
on the background of a webpage. But I can't

HELP!!!!!

Email me on jon@eclipse.co.uk if you can help
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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.
  • NEWSLINK: Autopsy reveals the grisly truth behind...
  • US SIGHTINGS: Loose mountain lion spotted in Brent...
  • AUSTRALIAN SIGHTINGS: Beware the black cat crossin...
  • US SIGHTINGS: More mountain lion sightings spring...

  • NEWSLINK: Video and photo gallery: Conservationis...
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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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    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS......

    The Gonzo Daily - Monday
    And so another week begins. Butterfly watchers will be pleased to hear that there have now been quite a few reports of the mighty monarch butterfly in western Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. Whether they have been blown off course from the big migration sound that takes place every autumn from Canada and the northern United States down to Mexico and California, or whether they are from the non migratory populations in Madeira, The Azores, the Canary Islands and southern Spain is unknown. I suspect the former, but have no more than a gut feeling to justify that.
    In more disturbing news, one of Corinna's cane toads has disappeared from its (apparently) escape-proof viv in the kitchen. How it got out without human intervention I have no idea.
    Judge Smith, Peter Hammill, Edgar Allan Poe fans, Wings fans, Carl "Blue" Wise fans, Hawkwind fans, Gong fans and all sorts of other people, had better look out! The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#99) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/.
    It has Judge Smith on the cover, and features an article by him about the latest performaance of his celebrated opera based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". There is also an interview with him about it. But there's more! We have an interview with Carl "Blue" Wise about Denny Laine, Wings, Joey Molland, Badfinger and playing alongside some of the sopul stars of Stax records (amongst other things). Doug Harr goes to see King Crimson, and Jon asks whether repackaging and remixing and remastering music is morally acceptable. The new album by Aphex Twin is critiqued and there are exclusive words Hunter Ayling is backstage at Hawkwind's Hawkoktoberfest. There are also new shows from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the massively talented Jaki and Tim are back with their submarine and Maisie the cow. There is a new show from Canterbury Sans Frontières, but sadly it will be the last for a while. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and doves making coos (OK, no musical members of the Columbinidae, 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!
    You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
    http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/

    *  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 infantile orange cat 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 infantile orange cat?
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    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Indie Kansas Filmmaker Makes a Bigfoot Movie (Video)
    The message of the Bigfoot phenomena movie is “You can't judge a book by its cover.” And Trujillo, who has won national video awards and 

    This Place Has Had Three Bigfoot Sightings in Under 24 Hours!
    Kelly Shaw of the RMSO shares this bigfoot sighting a water truck driver had near the ghost town of Deadwood. This is the 2nd of 3 sightings to have

    Footage of Aussie Bigfoot Sniffing of Game Cam?
    Jason H. has been tracking the Australian Yowie for a while now, and he's actually managed to capture something unique on his tree cam this time.

    Project Bigfoot Trailer (Video)
    Another Bigfoot movie! This year has definitely seen it's share of Bigfoot movies, and here we find one that looks like it will be a comedy. The film is set 

    Britain's Bigfoot: Naming the Beast
    Over at the Bigfoot Evidence blog, you can find an excellent, and extensive, list of the many and varied names that have been applied to the world's ...
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    ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

    News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

    From CFZ-USA:
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    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Monday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1943 - During World War II, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies and declared war on Germany. 

  • Cave paintings change ideas about the origin of ar...
  • In a battle of brains, bigger isn't always better:...
  • Thirty troublesome Gibraltar monkeys to be deporte...
  • Specialist Nairobi team will help tackle wildlife ...
  • Zoos exonerated in baby elephant deaths; Data supp...

  • Plan to protect weasel-like fisher cites pot risk

    • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)
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