HAUNTED SKIES: Daily Telegraph 1955

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2012/01/daily-telegraph-000055.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

Today is Twelfth Night, so according to superstition, if you have Christmas decorations up if you don’t take them down today you risk a year of bad luck, don’t say you’ve not been warned…

And now the news:

Fossils Reveal Secrets of Insects' Weird Ears
80% decline in Caribou blamed on big industry
Equestrian conservation group voice fears over pla...
Elephant population in Tanzania sanctuaries drops
Rare frog population sent to the South-West
Red-tailed phascogale population diminishing
'Hybrid' sharks found in Australia
Leopards from British zoos could boost wild popula...
Dead herring mystery for Norway as thousands wash ...

What’s this? Culture? On the CFZ blog? Oh yes. One of Shakespeare’s funnier and more accessible comedies, here’s Twelfth Night with Alec Guinness:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOb-8w78SeI&feature=bf_prev&list=PL820AE73624CB71DC&lf=results_main

RETRIEVERMAN'S MYSTERY CAT REVEALED

Last week we posted a link to Retrieverman's blog where he showed a picture of a cat and asked us all to identify it.

Today he gives the answer...

When I asked about the identity of the species depicted above, I actually didn’t know what it was. I initially thought it was an early depiction of the jungle cat (Felis chaus).

However, the image comes from James Bruce’s Travels to Discover the Souce of the Nile (1790).
The Scottish explorer James Bruce actually did discover the source of Blue Nile, which are the springs at Gish Abay in central Ethiopia. Contrary to the title of his work, he was not the first European to discover the source of the Blue Nile. He was, however, the first British person to trace its source.

And that’s all that matters, right?

Read all about it...

SIMON REAMES NOTIFIES US ABOUT THE WORLD'S FIRST HYBRID SHARK

Hello Jon,

Saw this article and thought you might be interested

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/world-first-hybrid-shark-found-off-australia-070347259.html

Simon

THANK YOU TO CASSIE MORRISON ET AL FOR PLUGGING MY MUSIC

I have been a musician and songwriter since I was at school and I have been making records that very few people actually listen to since 1982. However, thanks to those jolly nice people at 'Record Union' some of my ditties are now availale on iTunes, Spotify etc. This is mostly a conceit on my part because I have no illusions about the commercial nature of my songs; there isn't any.

However, Cassie Morrison and others have appointed themselves my A&R team and are saying jolly nice things about my music, which brings me to the next subject. I don't know how to adjust Spotify to give the dates of my records, but the stuff that is up there spans a period of seventeen years.

So for the record, here is the Jon D discography - colour coded!

Available on Spotify etc
Will be available when I get round to it
Not going to be reissued
Available on Voiceprint Records

Here we go:

The Mistake (1982)
You tok me up EP (1984)
Emotional Fascism (1984)
Outside the Asylum (1990)
Breakfast EP - with Brian Storer (1992)
Pyramidiocy EP (1992)
SexGodBaby (1993)
The Chicken Sleeps Tonight (1993)
The Case (1995)
Contractual Obligations EP (1996)
The Mad Gasser - 2 Track Cassette given away free at Uncon (1996)
Weird World of Lionel Fanthorpe, Jon Downes, and the Amphibians from Outer Space (2000)
Hard Sports EP (2002)
Lost Weekend (2003)
Twilight over England (2007)
BiPolar (2011)

The early stuff is either not very good or largely badly recorded, so I am not planning to let anyone hear it any time soon. There is a compilation of my pre-1995 stuff in the works, as well as some new songs. I am on a roll at the moment...

DALE DRINNON: More on Mayans and Mississippians

II looked over some other sites on the internet and I did not think I was putting the case strongly enough. Here is today's more emphatic and authoritative posting on the subject:

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-on-mayans-and-mississippians.html

ROBERT SCHNECK: A Chinese Puzzle

Dear Jon,

I bought this figurine over 30 years ago and have been puzzling over it since.

It's about four-inches tall and has "China" written on the bottom, but that's all I'm sure about. The bristly hair, or possibly eyebrows, are green, it has round eyes, an aquiline nose, toothy grin, and bushy beard. The little indentation to the left is a simple oval ear (like a calf) and it has what looks like a dog's body with a green tail.

I haven't seen anything else like it in Chinese art and suspect that it's either a creature from folklore or a caricature of big-nosed European devils.

If a bloggo reader can identify it a decades old mystery will be solved.