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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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN'S DEPUTY IS EATING EGGS


Graham's still on bloggy duties, as Jon and Corinna are away at present.
  
The problems of living in such a rural area were highlighted again yesterday, with a series of electricity supply interruptions during thunderstorms. It's possible for power companies to make their networks less prone to surges caused by lightning, but probably such systems are applied to towns and cities first, and rural areas later - or not at all.
  
Meanwhile, on the nutrition front (and as I speculated yesterday) I have indeed preserved my supply of casserole by having egg sandwiches for breakfast!
 
And today's musical menu on the Gonzo Blog is:
 
 


BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



One exercise saw a person unleashed in a popular Edinburgh attraction dressed in a gorilla suit as part of a study to see how people react to so-called bigfoot sightings.

SEABURY BLAIR JR. - Just another outdoorsman hoping to find Sasquatch
I cannot explain why I didn't see the video of the bigfoot hanging out with the buffalo at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park two weeks ago....

Bigfoot Hunting
WOW Screen Shots of possible Bigfoot from Bear Wallow.


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.



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.


Orlando Sentinel

Lions, tigers, cougars moving to Osceola in Florida

Big cats such as this white bengal tiger will soon be moving to a new  Reserve, a non-profit dedicated to protecting wild cats

Mountain Lion Sighted in San Francisco's San Mateo County

The big cat walked down a hill off the street and into the trees, emergency officials said.

 Big cat spotted in Tamil Nadu (Southern India)

Forest officials reportedly spotted a tiger near the Muthumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.



NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Tuesday

ON THIS DAY IN 1938 - The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made. It was the first time that nylon yarn had been used commercially.

And now the later news...


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)

Eric Clapton performs the old Cream song "Badge"...

Monday, February 23, 2015

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:
From CFZ-USA:

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS IN THE EAST


The Gonzo Daily - Monday
www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html
 
Graham here again, as Jon and Corinna are still on their family-visiting travels in Eastern England

On Saturday, Jon described how we'd had a bird rescue brought to us - a baby pigeon that had been caught by a cat. Although there was little sign of injuries, it didn't survive the night, which is often the way with bird rescues.  The rest of our menagerie is in good shape, though.
 
I'm reasonably fueled-up as I did a casserole (hotdish) that was intended to last for several days but which is tasty enough to be shrinking fast... alarmingly fast, in fact! Still, I suppose there's always eggs on toast as an emergency backup.
 
And today's musical stew on the Gonzo Blog is:

 
And a reminder that the latest Gonzo Weekly (#118) is at
www.gonzoweekly.com
Hawkwind, Tempest, Eliza Carthy, Daevid Allen, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
 

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 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?