OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

Today is National Gorilla Suit Day when the great and good all wear gorilla suits (no, really it is -look it up on Wikipedia).

And now the news:

Seeing green helps spiders perfect jump
Snow Leopard Discovery In Tajikistan Shows Need Fo...
Birds Invade Town: La Grange, Ky. Swarmed By Black...
Lucas and Juno: Special bond of a rescue dog and d...
Man's best friend for 30,000 years: Canine skulls ...
Article: If You Spot Bigfoot, Should You Shoot Him...
Cold-stunned turtles washing ashore (via Herp Dige...
Turtle Rules Limit Harvest (via Herp Digest)
Animal rights activists hopping mad over kits (via...

There’s something in the air tonight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1561 Sir Francis Bacon was born. Bacon was a scientist, philosopher and politician who foolish fools think wrote Shakespeare’s plays.

And now the news:

Fungus blamed in millions of bat deaths
After 12 million years, plant species at risk of e...
Black cockatoos hungry and dying
Cyborg rats tests could fix brain damage in humans...
Math formula may explain why serial killers kill
'Big cat' tests on second Gloucestershire deer car...
Prehistoric bear skulls found underwater in Mexico...
Monkey 'Extinct For Years' Found In Jungle
Rare Sea Creature Appears on Seattle Woman's Dock

Basically, the crackpot argument that Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays stems from the fact that in the 19th century snobs couldn’t believe that somebody could be a fantastic writer having attended a grammar school rather than a public school, conveniently ignoring the hundreds of other great authors and storytellers that didn’t have rich parents, either:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKlFI6sdpcs

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1924 Benny Hill was born. If you’re wondering what that has to do with the paranormal and related subjects then maybe you should watch today’s sign-off vid and everything will become clear.

And now the news:

Can We Save the Whales by Putting a Price On Them?...
Cockroach Cyborgs Get Their Own Power Source
Saving Devon's Precious Pearls
Aye-aye lemur 'heats up' its special foraging fing...
Why Teens Are More Prone to Addiction, Mental Illn...
Captive rhino romance may be last hope for species...

A tale of terror! (pronounced ‘ter-roar’):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1xvyTdBZI&ob=av2e

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1930 Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, was born.

And now the news:

Most Recent European Great Ape Discovered

FISH TANKS FRAUGHT WITH FIGHTING (Via Herp Digest)...

Crested macaque monkeys follow friends before fami...

Bulgaria – Great potential for ecotourism?

Antarctic lake drilling mission edges closer

The boys are back in town

Stolen Rabbits Returned To Ore. Farmer Levi Cole

Aldrin gets really annoyed when people mention the conspiracy theory that the lunar landings were filmed on Earth and that America never went to the moon. It begs the question where the heck all the moon rocks found in museums comes from if they didn’t go but here is a video that sums up the conspiracy theory (it conveniently ignores the moon rocks though):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZzFemBUJQ

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1948 John Carpenter was born. Carpenter is most famous for directing the Halloween films, but other films of his, such as Starman are much better imo.

And now the news:

Bird flu hits Thimphu
Bootylicious Fly Gets Named Beyoncé
Predators Hunt for a Balanced Diet
New Clue in Battle Against Australian Hendra Virus...
No rhinos poached in Chitwan National Park in 2011...
Human-elephant conflict escalates in Sri Lanka
The tiger sharks that eat woodpeckers and meadowla...

Trailer for Carpenter’s ‘Starman’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgF2lbAL6RA

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1759 the British Museum opened its doors for the first time. Charles Fort himself used the reading room of the British museum during his research.
And now the news:

Two kittens have '18 extra toes' between them
Mouse taped to firework during New Year to be exhi...
Blame Hitchcock's Crazed Birds on Toxic Algae
Hundreds of seabirds caught in Cornish fishing net...
Jellied Century-Old Brains Reveal Secrets of Menta...
Loggers 'burned Amazon tribe girl alive'
Greens whale patrol bill ready

Here are just some of the treasures of the British Museum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QI3cOqyQE0

DIDN'T WE DO WELL!

Just a quick pause to blow our own trumpet. Yesterday the Newsblog posted its 6,000th item. Well done to everyone involved, especially Corinna and Gavin LW.

HELP STILL WANTED

Gavin L-W has too much on his plate at the moment, and so we are looking for one or more people to joing the CFZ News Team. C'mon guys; now is the time for all good folk to come to the aid of the party...

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR WANTED

Our intrepid news editor Gavin Lloyd-Wilson has a lot on his plate at the moment. So we are looking for someone (or even several someones) to help him. Do you fancy joining the CFZ Bloggo news team? If so, email me on jon@cfz.org.uk

WELL DONE GAVIN

Over on the News Blog Gavin L-W has racked up an incredible 5,000 postings. Well done mate :)

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 2009 Jon's blog 'Still On The Track' evolved into the blog you see today. We're still going from strength to strength and special thanks are due to all our fantastic blog writers over the years.

And now, the news, brought to us by Gavin Wilson over on the CFZ news blog:

Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens afte...
Nazi fury at Hitler the paw-raising dog

Tenuous link but in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark there is a scene where a monkey does a similar thing to the dog. Here's what the film might have looked like if made in the 1950s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUPDuQq9GsM

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day on in 2006 NASA released photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor that showed gullies, weathering and erosion likely caused by water.
And now, the news:

One fifth of vertebrates face extinction – But con...
Twin gorillas born in Congo
Strange 'long-whiskered owl' spotted in Peru
Giant panda breeding breakthrough in China (via Da...
Elephants on drunken rampage kill three people
Chinese 'Unicorn Cow' Horns In on Fame
Fat cat flap invented for overweight moggies

Or you could just use a dog flap, which is like a cat flap, but bigger and has been around for years. Anyway, it looks like it's going to be cats again today as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVmGBoPx6Ms

CONGRATULATIONS!

Corinna is in charge of the news blog whilst Gavin Lloyd Wilson is having a brief house-moving-related sabbatical. Whilst under her tutelage yesterday, the 4000th news story was posted. Haven't they done well?

TWO MORE LANDMARKS

Over on the news blog Gavin has racked up 3,000 news items. I don't want to appear patronising but I am massively proud of him. He has achieved a remarkable feat of tenacity and I think he deserves congratulations. There is another milestone looming: if today goes the way that I think it will, we will clock up a million hits on this blog. Of course that does not equate to a million different visitors, just a million visits. But it is still a pretty impressive milestone and it is nice that it happens on the fifth anniversary of the founding of the new CFZ.

CFZ AUSTRALIA: Aversion Therapy for Quolls

A couple of days ago, Gavin ran a story about quolls over on the CFZ Newsblog. By happenstance, the next day, Ruby and Mike from CFZ Australia sent us a similar, but markedly different story, which we are posting here partly because the differences in the story make it of mildly Fortean interest (file under Chinese Whispers) and partly because we are completely anal and obsessive compulsive....

Scientists from the University of Sydney have trained a group of quolls to associate cane toads with feeling sick - a process called 'conditioned taste aversion.'

Before releasing the quolls into the wild, Professor Rick Shine, Stephanie O'Donnell and Dr Jonathan Webb fed each marsupial a small dead cane toad, not large enough to kill the quolls, but they were laced with a chemical that made the quolls feel nauseous. Dr Webb said the quolls quickly learned to avoid eating toads.

Posted By CFZ Australia to Centre for Fortean Zoology Australia at 4/13/2010 04:31:00 PM

NEWSBLOG WOES

Gavin emailed me yesterday to tell us how his laptop is `fried` and his other computer is less than communicative. As a result of that it appears that he may be out of action (partially, at least) for the next few days. Together with Corinna, I shall be wading into the breach, and would just ask for any news stories that you may feel to be of interest to be sent to jon@eclipse.co.uk


That being said, Gavin has posted a couple today already, and so somehow normal service will be maintained....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOOOO

A year ago Gavin Lloyd Wilson started the CFZ Newsblog. 365 days and 2345 posts later we are still going. Thank you Gavin. You have worked like a Trojan and I am personally (and the CFZ is collectively) very grateful for all your hard work...



Corinna says: http://cryptochick.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-year-old-today.html

DIRECTOR'S DIARY: Hoorah - the Newsblog's back

After an absence of several weeks, the CFZ Newsblog is back thanks to the intervention of those jolly nice folks in the Google/Blogger help department.

From what I can gather this sort of thing happens quite often, and so from now on each day we make back-ups of all the blogs, and so if this ever happens again we can just import the backed up version into a new blog and start again.


Hopefully, however, we shall be flagged with the computer that originally sent out the spiderbots as being bona fide and it won't happen again.

I am particularly pleased for Gavin Lloyd Wilson who has worked so hard keeping the thing going. It must have been particularly galling to think of all that work - 2173 posts - going to waste. But it hasn't and with the daily back-ups it won't, so all's well that ends well.

However, whilst on the subject of prolific CFZ bloggers, can I recommend Graham Inglis's blog. He has just posted a post about Hawkwind nearly a year after his previous posting (which was to apologise for not having posted anything for the previous two years!) Nice One Dude.

http://grahaminglis.blogspot.com/

BAD NEWS

Well, I was feeling quite pleased with myself this morning when I came downstairs. But not for long. There was an email from Gavin Lloyd Wilson over on the newsblog to tell me that the blog had been deleted. I checked with blogger.com and apparently our new Press Releases blog has gone the same way.

I received notification from blogger on both accounts reading:

'Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What is a spam blog?) Since you are an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy and we sincerely apologise for this false positive.

'We received your unlock request on 29 December 2009. On behalf of the robots, we apologise for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

Find out more about how Blogger is fighting spam blogs.'

Spam is certainly a problem, and as events stand at the moment, one cannot take issue with blogger for having done what they have done. That is ASSUMING that normal service is indeed resumed as soon as someone realises that a collection of over 2,000 press stories, and another collection of 38 press releases are hardly spam in any sense of the word.

However, there is another more disturbing possibilty. Gavin asked me:

"Do you think someone may have maliciously 'reported' the blog?"

And I am afraid to say that I think that it is very likely. For various reasons (some of which I know, and others of which I can only guess at) we have fallen foul of various movers and shakers within the crypto-community. These people have, for the last year or so, done their best to cause us (and me in particular) as much trouble and distress as possible. Presumably this is working on the principle that they believe that if they carry on tormenting a manic depressive like me, then eventually I shall crack and close the CFZ, whereby more people will buy their books, and attend their conferences rather than ours.

That is what it all boils down to... money.

But it is not going to work. I am tougher than they think (I shudder as I write this, knowing that it will only heap more coals of opprobrium upon my head) and I have a bloody good team behind me. So bring on your worst. The CFZ is here to stay.

NB: Oh, how I hope that I am being paranoid, however, and that this latest problem is merely the result of an over zealous anti-spambot.

Watch this space.

HASN'T GAVIN DONE REMARKABLY WELL?

Back in the early spring I received an email from a bloke called Gavin Lloyd Wilson. Was there anything that he could do to help? Well, I had been doing the bloggo on a daily basis for about five or six weeks by this stage, and I had the bright idea to start a news blog to add to the network.

Now, it is sad but true that although we receive a lot of offers of help, most of them don't amount to anything. People lose interest or they get distracted, or their circumstances change, or whatever, and nine out of ten volunteers fizzle out after a few months at best. So, although I gladly took Gavin on, I had no expectation of it being a long-term thing. How wrong I was!

Nine months later he is still going strong, and what's more, last night we reached a real milestone. He wrote:

Hi Jon,

I believe earlier in the year I estimated that we might make it to 2,000 posts on the news blog by the end of the year, and I've kind of had that in the back of my mind as a target to aim for.

Well, today, I'm glad to report we reached 2,000!

We're building up quite an archive!

Gavin

Bloody well done, mate! I am very proud of ya!