OI TRISTAN

Due to the recent computer cock-ups (and by the way, I was mildly irritated to receive a letter which read:

"Dear Mr Downes,

You should not claim to have had a `massive computer failure` when actually you had a malfunctioning disk drive"

I bravely resisted the temptation to recommend that he undertake an act of biologically impossible self-procreation, and ignored the pedantic fool.)

I have lost a lot of data, including the contact details for Tristan - one of the youngest bloggo contributors, but a field naturalist for whom I have a great deal of respect. I keep on hoping to lure him and his family down to the Weird Weekend. But his e-mail address is lost in the aether.

So Tristan, if you are reading this, please either ring me, or email. And if you happen to be in Devon next weekend....

WE ARE BACK

The bloggo is back after a 36 hour absence. It may take a few days to get back to full strength again, but we will get there.

I would like to thank everyone who sent us messages of support, and hopefully Dan Holdsworth (God bless 'im) will be able to retrieve the lost data when he comes down on Thursday. As many people kindly pointed out to me, yes I am aware that I should have taken back-ups. Indeed some of it was backed up, but not enough. Because of events within the CFZ and in my own life over the past year or so I simply do not have enough time to do everything that I should do, and I have had to cut corners. On this occasion it backfired badly.

I need more help, more manpower and more assistance. And I need the people who pledge to do stuff for the CFZ to actually follow through with their promises. Don't get me wrong, people like Lizzy and Gavin do bloody wonders. People like Naomi go the extra 9 yards for us, and we have a lot of regular contributors. But there are also people who come swaggering in full of big promises and singularly fail to deliver. I and the CFZ need these people like we need a hole in the head, or rather, like we need a busted hard drive...

But enough of the bellyaching, on with the show....

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today (and the day before that's)

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

Being a Monday, it is customary round these parts for me to offer up my Monday Movie recommendation. This week's film is a pretty mainstream one and one that if you haven’t watched it yet I urge you so to do, ‘No Country For Old Men’.

And now, the news:

Grilled Stoat Cheats Car Death For 30 Miles
Pesky Camels Will Be Shot From Helicopters
Dogs as intelligent as two-year-old children
Mouse builds nest of $20 bills inside ATM

I guess they’ll be sending the mouse the bill for that then…

Due to the current computer problems Jon was not able to post Yesterday’s News Today on the blog yesterday, but fan’s of cryptozoology news 3D images and truly stale puns needn’t worry because here is yesterday’s Yesterday’s News Today in full (making this a sort of two for the price of one blog today):

Yesterday’s Yesterday’s News Today

It’s Stereoscopic Sunday and you remember I promised you something a bit different after not having been able to make a stereoscopic photograph in time for last week?
Well here it is, may I present to you exclusive footage of Jurassic Park 4 in 3D!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT5aD0phQeI

And now, the news (a bumper crop today as I missed a few of the stories Gavin posted yesterday due to me going to bed early):

European Bison Nears Extinction
Zoo finally gets a giraffe
Family of beavers who were reintroduced to Scotland after 400-year absence
Not so terrible
African village dogs are more genetically diverse than teacup dogs!
Dwarf miniature horse is Australia's smallest pony
Kangaroo ends romp through French countryside
'Wall' of fish surrounds divers
Parrot beats investors in South Korean stock market contest
Crows' feats of intelligence have animal experts ravin'

They’ll be ‘crow’ing about that for days you know….

ANOTHER UPDATE

PC World couldn't do anything, so we are back to the drawing board :(

GENEROUS NEW WW SPONSOR

I am off to Barnstaple with David in about fifteen minutes. I am hoping against hope that we shall be able to restore the data from the broken disk. However, some good stuff happened yesterday, and I would like to take this opportunity to say how pleased we are to welcome the Kingsley School Music Department on board as a sponsor. They have very generously lent us some much needed equipment, which will put an added zing into the show as a whole.

UPDATE

The dog and I are the only ones awake. Graham was up most of the night and has managed to get my system limited connectivity, so I can still just about get online with the office computer. I can't print, I can only access my emails online, (and I seem to have lost an enormous trenche of them), and I am still discovering stuff that I have lost (if that isn't too much of an oxymoron).

I feel completely numb. Most of the work I have done for the last eight months is lost, and only time will tell whether I shall be able to replace it. David and I are going to PC World later on this morning to see if they can recover the data from the buggered drive.

I have my doubts.

MANY APOLOGIES - A BREAK IN TRANSMISSION

There are unlikely to be any regular blog postings for a few days. We have had a massive computer failure and lost an enormous amount of data; basically most of the work I have done since December, including the masters of ten books, and all the Russia video. I have also lost most of my WW material.

The Weird Weekend will take place, but it is unlikely to be as slick as usual. Please remember us in your thoughts as we try to deal with this complete disaster.

If you have written me a blog post that has not yet been posted, please resend it. I know I have unissued material from Neil, and Richard Freeman, but I think that Glen, Mike H, Dale, Lizzy, and Richard Muirhead have sent me things. Please resend.

The same goes for submissions for Animals & Men or the yearbook. If anyone has contact details for the chap on the Frontiers of Zoology list who wrote the major paper on Steller's Sea Ape, please send them to me.

I have lost a large amount of personal stuff too, and am very upset about the whole thing. Give us a couple of days and we shall be back....