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...




Thursday, October 16, 2014

CRYPTOLINK: A Forgotten Sea Monster may Reappear in Boston Waters this Halloween [Video]

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 sea creature with gleaming, solar powered eyes, a sinister, serpentine physique, a dragon's head and matching fangs once roamed an eery creek which funnels directly into the Boston Harbor. And, unlike the legendary "Nessie" the Loch Ness Monster, there's proof – incontrovertible visual evidence – of this Bay State beastie's existence.
Feast your eyes upon the "Mill Creek Monster," which made its public debut shortly before Halloween 2013.

Yes: It's made out of wood – a prank. And the person who built it is looking for Kickstarter funding to build more this Halloween.
Crafted by Marine veteran and InkTank Boston artist/founder Bobby McKenna, the Mill Creek Monster briefly drew the attention of local residents, the media and even the police last October, after some caught glimpses of a mysterious object floating above the water's surface.
The prankster, McKenna, a Revere resident, explains on Kickstarter how it all went down:
I launched it near Halloween 2013 in the middle of the night in secret to see what the neighborhood reaction would be. Within days, there was calls to the newspapers, police and fire in both cities (creek is the border) and tweets/fb posts from commuters on the train. The local newspaper found out I was the culprit and did a story, citing that many people reported it was a seal in trouble, upturned shopping carts, a dead body...or a real monster.
Nope, just the whittled-out-of-wood brainchild of a man, inspired by the myth of the Loch Ness Monster, Monty Python and the Holy Grail , and the place he calls home.

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: Persian leopard conservation in Iran
  • VIDEO: The lion, tiger and bear family - Animal Od...
  • VIDEO: Black Leopard Birthday!
  • UK SIGHTING: Is beast really on the prowl? More si...
  • NEWSLINK: SFGate
  • NEWSLINK: Mickey Cougar Gets Rescued

  • NEWSLINK: Autopsy reveals the grisly truth behind...
  • CRYPTOLINK: Panic as Plymouth police called to crocodile on the loose - but find an inflatable toy (Via Mark Raines)

    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. 



    POLICE were called to reports of a crocodile on the loose in Plymouth.
    A member of the public asked officer to be snappy in heading to Cundy Close in Plympton at 12.17pm.
    The caller said that what looked like a crocodile was in their garden.

    Read on...

    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.




    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    BC Man Comes Clean, Says He is "Bigfoot" in Canada (Video)
    A BC man has come forward claiming that he is responsible for most of the bigfoot sightings in Canada. That's a lot of hoaxing.

    Scottish Daily Record
    Native American X-Files duo set to share their tales about UFO and Bigfoot sightings at Stirling's ...
    THEY claim to have seen UFOs, investigated Bigfoot sightings and hunted spirits said to take on animal shapes to haunt humans. Now the pair, known ...

    'Squatch on:' Bigfoot investigator shares wisdom
    Marc DeWerth shows off a Bigfoot print during his lecture at the Preble County District Library Eaton Branch in Eaton, on Saturday, Sept. 27.

    'Bigfoot' is the focus at Bucyrus Public Library
    Waller will share an array of witness statements and evidence gathered over the years along with Bigfoot stories from his book, “Standing in the ...

    Dr. Meldrum Talks About Bigfoot Characteristics
    Dr. Meldrum Talks About Bigfoot Characteristics. Dr. Jeff Meldrum is a full Professor of anatomy and anthropology and expert on foot morphology ...

    Brisbane, Fast, First: Town on yowie watch after ape-like sighting and the latest news - October 16
    COULD it be Bigfoot? A Port Douglas man has reported a terrifying run-in with an ape-like creature - and it's not the first such encounter in the north ...

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SUFFERS FOOLS GLADLY

    The Gonzo Daily - Thursday
     
    Yesterday was one of those pleasant days when nothing much happened. I dictated large chunks of what will be this weekend's Gonzo Weekly to Andrea in the afternoon, Mike Davis turned up in the evening and we did bits and bobs for a video we shall be cutting on Friday and the day just seemed to spend itself really. I spent the evening happily watching the tortoises and gazing into the middle distance doing nothing. Bliss!
     
     
    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 performance 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?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Thursday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1962 - U.S. President Kennedy was informed that there were missile bases in Cuba, beginning the Cuban missile crisis. 

  • Olivia Newton-John adopts moon bear
  • Rare Footage of a Humpback Whale Sleeping
  • Dinosaur breathing study shows that noses enhanced...
  • NYC Rats Are Reservoirs for Disease
  • Sea lion throws fisherman like a rag-doll

  • China 'main destination' for illegally traded chim...


  • 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)
    The return of pan (demo no. 2) by Mike Scott on Grooveshark