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...




Monday, August 03, 2015

WESTERN MORNING NEWS: Weird Weekend will highlight mysterious animal sightings and strange phenomena



The Westcountry is set to play host to a family-friendly feast of odd happenings. Mike Bramhall investigates what's on offer

Fancy a weekend where the weird and wonderful rub shoulders with the downright wacky in a family-friendly festival of freaky goings-on?

Then head for Hartland in North Devon and step into a world of strangeness, for three days of thought-provoking talks by investigators into unusual phenomena and exhibitions of oddity.

The Weird Weekend event on August 14-16 is described as 'the antidote for normality', and organisers say it is the largest yearly gathering of mystery animal investigators in the English-speaking world.

Read on...

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:

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.

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF


Native Americans Traumatized After Killing A Bigfoot [True Bigfoot Stories]
Based on a true story, a Native American recounts a terrifying story about a Bigfoot causing havoc around the village.

Watch: Bigfoot sighting running up creek bed zoomed
Watch: Bigfoot sighting running up creek bed zoomed. This was an interesting video that listener Anthony found and posted to the Facebook group.

Wow, This Guy Is A Tracker And Has Had Three Bigfoot Encounters!
From the archives of the Bigfoot Tonight Show, they sit down with David Weverka, a professional hunter and tracker specializing in dangerous animals 

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



Searching for the Loch Ness Monster
Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Find out if Nessie expert Adrian Shine does on a boat tour in Scotland

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.



THE RETURN OF THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

The Gonzo Daily - Monday
 
And so another week begins. Last week Costa Rica became the first country in Latin America to ban hunting for sport. Costa Rica’s Congress voted unanimously to approve the ban, which will protect the country’s wildlife – including several species of native big cats. Any hunters caught breaking the new law will face jail time or hefty fines. If they can do it why can't we?
 
Shoshy goes home tomorrow, and she and Corinna are having a nice day out today. In the  meantime a European race swallowtail has been seen in Sussex and my office wifi is still not working. With less than a fortnight to go until the sixteenth Weird Weekend I am beginning to get as nervous as I do every year. However, Corrina's second novel is now out, and my second novel is imminent.
Watch this space.
 
 
The Gonzo Weekly #141
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Rick Wakeman, Yes, Camel, Spirit, Shack, Soft Machine, Canterbury Sans Frontières, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#141) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Rick Wakeman on the front cover together with an interview with him inside. Doug goes to the Ramblin' Man festival, he also remembers a very special gig featuring Rick Wakeman and his family, John B-G talks about Spirit, and Jon and Doug and Graham take mother down the pub. Lee remembers a band called Shack. The story of Xtul comes to an end for now at least. Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column. And there is a radio show from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and one from those jolly nice chaps at Strange Fruit, and our monthly visit to Canterbury Sans Frontières featuring an insanely rare slice of Soft Machine. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons with books to peruse (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials in a literary mood, 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!!!
 
This issue features:
 
Morrissey, Damon Albarn, Janis Ian, Keith Richards, Nile, Chic, Marillion, Badfinger, Steve Ignorant, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Buddie Emmons, Bobbi Kristina Brown, Norbert Schwefel, Eddie Hardin, The Boomtown Rats, Karnataka, Rick Wakeman, Camel, The Scorpions, Blue Oyster Cult, Lee Walker, Shack, John Brodie-Good, Spirit, Roy Weard, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Alan White, Steve Hackett, Steve Howe, Xtul, Neil Nixon, Moe Barbari, Ozy Osbourne, The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Jerry Garcia, Stormtide
 

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/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit
 
* 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, 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, and the adventurous kitten?

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Monday

ON THIS DAY IN 1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage led him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Urgent action needed to protect salamanders from d...
  • How bees naturally vaccinate their babies
  • Research could lead to protective probiotics for f...
  • 'Golden jackals' of East Africa are actually 'gold...
  • Costa Rica Becomes First Latin American Country to...
  • Britain's biggest barbel fish, the Big Lady, kille...
  • Manatees show up in North Carolina again as more '...

  • Humpback whale recovery in Australia: A cause for ...

  • 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)