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...




Monday, December 03, 2012

ADELE MORSE IS A FOXY LADY


My name is Adele Morse and I am an artist and taxidermist. I currently live in London  I have been making work for the past year about the mysterious Sumatran Orang-pendek, an unknown species of ape. I am going on an expedition to the jungle for two weeks in 2013 and have been getting all my jabs and equipment. I found a taxidermy fox i made a year ago when i was doing my Masters at the Royal Academy Schools in a box. I almost threw it away but decided when i saw that sweet little face to sell him on ebay. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Unusual-Fox-Taxidermy-anthropomorphic-stuffed-Red-fox-/190734913735

I got lots of interest and messages about the fox. It sold for way above my estimate for £330!

I then contacted the buyer who wanted to pick the fox up in person. He lived in manchester but would be coming to london to collect the fox. we got talking via email to arrange delivery and he told me why he had bought it.  DJ space dimension controller had posted a link to the listing on his facebook page. offering to play at the party of the person who buys him the fox.  Mike who bought the fox is a huge fan and is planning to get the DJ to play in his house. 

All quiet for a week or so. 

Then from nowhere i start getting numerous emails from Russians, both to my eBay account and personal email. telling me they love the fox. or want one. or want that one. 
A blogger got in touch from Russia and asked to interview me regarding the fox. 
He tells me that the fox has become a celebrity in Russia. thousands of images of the fox photoshopped have invaded all social networking sites , meme sites and had won over many people. I posted a link from my blog to the blog article.....

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fal-stager.livejournal.com%2F99532.html


A couple of days later the Moscow version of the Metro newspaper wanted to interview me and put an end to the myths of the fox. I did a skype interview with the journalist. he later send me a PDF of the paper. Its not a photo of me. He took a photo on my blog thinking it was me and published it. It was in fact a photo of a girl from the blog above wearing a fox tshirt. 

The plot thickens. this girl turns out to be Anna Veduta, the press officer of Russian politician Alexei Navalny
a post about this below....

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://rhunwolf.livejournal.com/519709.html&usg=ALkJrhjn4hJyLu-9eihwBS9veDg_oUaeWw

I am now making two more foxes as the demand has been so high. Prior to this happening my blog had maybe 10 hits a day. It has had 10,000 hits each day from all over the planet. Its been getting crazier as the days go by. 


here are links to my personal blog where you can see more about this and some fox pictures. And below that is Google results for the fox in russian. translated. 

www.adelemorse.co.uk




RSPB HEN HARRIER APPEAL


We urgently need your help

Adult female hen harrier in flight
We have a proven track record of helping birds of prey all over the UK. One success story is the red kite, which now soars above many parts of the UK where once it was extinct.
Whilst this is a brilliant achievement, birds of prey are still in trouble and we urgently need your help again. Illegal persecution has left the hen harrier on the verge of extinction as a breeding bird in England, and we can only save them with your help.
Alarming news
Shockingly, there was just one breeding pair of hen harriers in England this year – despite there being suitable habitat for over 300 pairs.
Scandalously, its numbers have been slashed by deliberate human persecution. And it isn’t just hen harriers, my team of investigators have uncovered evidence of other birds of prey being illegally shot, poisoned and trapped this year.
How you can help
To stop the killing, we must raise £600,000 by 20 December, so that we can put our plans into action. That’s just two and half weeks away! Any donation you give is gratefully received.
The money is urgently needed to fund our investigations into wildlife crime, safeguarding hen harriers from persecution and supporting our efforts to ensure that birds of prey are adequately protected.
We all have a part to play in saving the hen harrier and other vulnerable birds of prey and we need government and its agencies, the police, landowners and managers and other conservation organisations to do their bit too.
Having brought the red kite back from the brink, I believe it will be a tragedy if we do not act now, by tackling illegal killing, and help save the hen harrier, so future generations can enjoy this remarkable bird.
Please give £20 today and play your part in saving the hen harrier. If you have already donated to this appeal thank you.
Thanks,
Bob Elliot
Head of Investigations
Donate today

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 Australia:

DALE DRINNON: Early Minoan civilisation, living plesiosaurs, Cedar & Willow, Benny's Blogs

This just up at Cedar and Willow. Already the last half has broken off to become part 2 and there are now two sequels in the works, with  probably more to come. And the reconciliation with Gary Seven and HIS Backers will have to follow after that in another part:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-browns-bruins-clan-of-bear-king.html
New at Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/12/review-early-minoan-colonization-of.html
And Tyler Stone helps out by printing the full Living Plesiosaurs article - when I was posting it at FOZ, the photos did not come through. I wasted a day or so trying to fix that!
http://cryptoanimals.blogspot.com/2012/11/scott-mardis-on-plesiosaurs-in-cold.html
New at Benny's Blog the Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
And at his blog for Thelma Todd, news on Thelma's "Ex", Underworld-tinged character Pat DiCiccio
Best Wishes, Dale D.

TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND UP

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 should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.




  • SIGHTINGS USA: California bobcat
  • SIGHTING INDIA: Unexpected tiger sightings delight...
  • USA SIGHTING: Illinois
  • HMMMMMMMMMMM

    Updated: "Scientists" uncover global league of mythical creatures

    Lack of peer review makes findings less credible, more awesome.



    The yeti/unicorn team is unstoppable.
    How do you know a news story is going to be good? One sure sign is that it opens with the line, "There's a high likelihood that hairs recovered during a state-sponsored expedition in a southern Siberian cave came from a yeti, a prominent Russian cryptozoologist said Tuesday."

    Read on...

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (CFZ)

    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. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.

    Myna 'guity of evicting Aussie birds'

    I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

    Yesterday was a fairly difficult day, and one which I would rather not go into. However, I am feeling far less psychotic this morning and ready to greet the challenges of a new week. Hopefully I will get some interviews done, and things will flow a little more smoothly. We are approaching what is euphemistically known as 'The Festive Season', and whilst I am not a fan of this time of year, I would like to assure you all that the blogs will continue as normal, and I might even look slightly jolly.

    We start off today with a preview of the remarkable new solo album by 'Mostly Autumn' guitarist, Liam Davison

    Our daily visit to Austin, TX and the work of Thom the World Poet

    Still in Texas, here is an interview with Yes guitarist Steve Howe

    People seem to like Michael Des Barres' Christmas single

    Jon Anderson goes through 'Close to the Edge' song by song

    A look at some classic Eric Burdon

    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 - imaginitavely - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link:

    Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



    On this day in 1984 the world's worst industrial disaster, the Bhopal Disaster, occurred causing the deaths of thousands and injuries in the tens of thousands. If you haven't heard of the disaster it is better you read the wikipedia page rather than I attempt to summarise it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
    And now the news:

  • Goat Man Sightings In Kentucky, Texas, Maryland
  • Surprise DNA extracted from ancient poo
  • Sasquatch researcher says Bigfoot ravaged apple or...
  • Claims of cruel animal experiments
  • Gigantic penguins lived in prehistoric Antarctica
  • Scorpion stings passenger on Iberia flight
  • Water Ice Discovered on Mercury - via D R Shoop

  • The seconds from disaster documentary on Bhopal: