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...




Wednesday, August 24, 2016

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



Morbid Stories Of Bigfoot Encounters & Habituation
Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch) is the name given to a mythological simian,[2] ape, or hominid-like creature that is said to inhabit forests, mainly in ...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS BACK IN THE SADDLE

The Gonzo Daily - Monday
 
And so life continues its merry way. Chloe was here yesterday afternoon and giggled uncontrollably when I told her that she had worked like a Trojan, because apparently this means something to the current generation other than an inhabitant of the noble and ancient city of Troy. Cassandra would be rolling in her grave (probably with laughter). Apart from that, I have been doing a heck of a lot of sleeping!
 
And now for the news................
 
Maggie Reilly Interview
Is there humour in the music of Van der Graaf Gene...
Dave Brock an Mr Dibs Hawkwind Interview March 201...
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Quantum [Gilli Smyth]
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
 
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore: if you want to make me a happy fellow, you can:
 
buy my novel:
buy my single:
 
Gonzo Magazine #196
 
We talk to the mighty Paul May about his work on Al Atkins’ (ex Judas Priest) anthology. Alan investigates glissando guitar, Doug goes to see Radiohead, and Jon burbles on about John Lennon.
 
Funky eh?
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, and Friday Night  Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a thrilling and slightly disturbing episode of Xtul. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons outside zoos(OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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:
John Lennon, Madness, Prince, Icarus Peel, John Blaneym Brimsley Schwarz, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Kenneth George "Kenny" Baker, Ruby Wilson, David Enthoven, Barbara Gibb, The Boomtown Rats, Karnataka, Rick Wakeman, Paul May, Al Atkins, Radiohead, Alan Dearling, Steve Hillage, Gong, Glissando Orchestra, Neil Nixon, The Beatles, Chris Hadfield, Starmus Festival, Ken Gerhard, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Stacia, Xtul, Cavern Club, James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Elvis, Devo, Brian Eno, Johnny Cash                                                                                  
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 195 (Dave Brock)
Issue 194 (Auburn)
Issue 193 (Genre Peak)
Issue 192 (Rick Wakeman and Brian May)
Issue 191 (Karnataka)
Issue 190 (Erik Norlander)
Issue 189 (Rick Wakeman at the O2)
Issue 187/8 (Yer holiday special)
Issue 186 (Beatles)
Issue 185 (Judge Smith)
Issue 184 (Mick Abrahams)
 
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:
 
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
 
 
* 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.co.uk
 
* 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 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two small kittens, one 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. 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 kittens?

STEVE IGNORANT GETS A BABOON



Thanks to Alan Dearling for this picture

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: Hong Kong spider folklore

On July 28th 2016 (as I have done before)  I posted a question on the Hong History Forum Gwulo.com  to Andrew Suddaby.” Do you remember any stories of very rare or unexpected fauna whilst you were on Cheung Chau?

The day after he replied ,under the heading, Cheung Chau Fauna


Hello Richard,
Sorry Richard, my visits to Cheung Chau were always just for a day and I neither saw nor heard any fauna on the island.  I guess that I was usually too busy taking phortographs of places, things and, when allowed, of people.  In 1958 most adults out of the city centre did not want to be photographed and I tried to respect that.  Children were quite different and would clamour to have their pictures taken.  I always tried to reward them with a few coins, sweets or fruit such as bananas.  If you did that nowadays they'd arrest you, which just shows how sad a world we are living in now.
Anyway, intrigued by your comment, I looked Cheung Chau fauna up on Google.  The only snakes that I have ever seen in the whole of Hong Kong were:
1957/8 a cobra skeleton draped on a barbed wire fence at the top of the Little Sai Wan camp road junction with the Cape Collinson Road.
1957/8 a very dead but beautifully coloured python that some small children found brushing against their legs in the shallows at Shek O beach.  The life guard rushed down grabbed it and, I guess, took it home for his tea.  No doubt thos toddlers acquired an instant phoebia about snakes.
1957/8 a black and white krait that slithered across the path on the way down from the Temple oif 10,000 Buddhas in Shatin.
c2004 I saw a lovely little baby python on the path down at the Point at Little Sai Wan / Siu Sai Wan.  I took a photo of it, showed the snake to two ladies and one of them promptly ground it into the concrete as they departed gleefully up the path.  Is this what slaying the dragon is all about?
The same year, I think, I was scrambling up a narrow and rough path between our sunbathing rocks there and the Cape Collinson lighthouse path when a large centipede trundled across it.  I took its photograph - not realising that it would have given me a nasty bite if I'd tried to put it into a more easily photographed place.
On many occasions when I have been trying to find old pill boxes, etc., I have brushed through bamboo thickets and other thick vegetation often filming as I went and I now wonder how close I might inadvertently have come to becoming well-acquainted with a bamboo snake - but fortunately, as I was always alone in some quite remote places, it never happened.
Sorry, I cannot offer any real help.
best wishes.  Andrew

Also on July 29th Tung contributed: “Hello Richard,
I almost forgot this one......
Boys running around the outback on CC island of my time must understand the fun of hunting and keeping some harmless Spider. This tiny spider never construct any web at all. It scouts on everywhere, indoor & outdoor, on trees, shrubs, or house furniture like your desk. They are like  tiny lonewolfs, maybe in search of flea or other tiny bugs.
People consider they are the good and harmless, kids think they are so friendly and pet-able too!
Kids of age 5 to 8 years old would like to bring their spider pets to school and do all kinds of creative shows or fight. They keep them each in a tiny envelop made out of a leaf. The spider is about 0.5 to 1.0 cm long, and color in all black, white and black, biege or brown. It has no visible hair but very clean to touch. It never bite people at all.
And they are free to go after few days fun!!

Tung.
July 29th. Old Timer.
Thanks Tung and Andrew for recalling our younger days.  This photo reminds me of the creek below the old Clear Water Bay Road about a mintue's walk below Good Hope School.  While the scenic settings were different, their countryside atmosphere gave us children joy and opportunity to explore.
At about the age of the tall boy in this photo, I sometimes hiked to Kowloon Reservoir to look for fighting spiders.  They, a loner, made their home a foot or two above ground by pulling together two leaves with their silk, and this made their location easy to spot.  Some are "Old Poke" (lo-dok - loose translation) because they use their two front arms to spear at their opponent.  When two of them meet, they fight as if they want to hug each other.  Another kind is the "Red Kid" named for their body colour. To catch them, I wrapped around the folded leaves with an opened flat tin box and next closed the lid.
And yes, we kept them in separate homes made of thorny leaves.  A fight took a few seconds and the loser quickly ran away so injuries were infrequent.  I set them free in our balcony garden after a few days.  Looking back, such were our boyish thinking and fun, but pity the poor little creacture who lost his natural home, and freedom albeit temporarily.  Regards,  Peter


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.








NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Wednesday

ON THIS DAY IN - 0079 - Mount Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 20,000 people. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Out of sight, out of mind: Asia’s elusive Fishing ...
  • Tiny island foxes make remarkable, record-setting ...
  • Elephants are the end of a 60m-year lineage – last...
  • UF researchers develop blood test for fatal diseas...
  • Studying poop shows ancient shark ate its own youn...
  • Huge 9ft 2ins blue shark caught off British coastl...
  • River Dee's pearl mussels get a helping hand – or ...
  • Elephants on the path to extinction - the facts



  • 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)