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...




Tuesday, July 02, 2013

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.

Bay Area Thrushes Nest Together, Winter Together, ...

DALE DRINNON: Minnesota Iceman, Benny's Blogs

New at Frontiers of Zoology:
New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:
New at Benny's OTHER blog, the Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
 

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS MILDLY APPREHENSIVE

I am finding the cultural fallout from The Rolling Stones' Glastonbury show quite interesting. The only thing that anyone seems to want to complain about is their age. So What? Everyone ages. No-one looks as good as they did thirty years ago. In fact I look considerably better since I discovered that without a beard, and with that silly moustache I had, I looked vaguely like a bad tempered goldfish. But I digress. The band played a blinding set, and - particularly the bit with Mick Taylor - proved that the vision that Brian Jones had all those years ago for a British R&B band featuring intermeshing guitars, still sounds valid in the 21st Century. Over the past year the Rolling Stones brand looked to me and other media commentators on several occasions as if it had run its course. Saturday night proved us all wrong. Wrinkles? Who cares?

What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
 
 
Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/thom-world-poet-daily-poem.html
 
 
 
 
 

*  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:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
 
* 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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 orange cat?

UPDATED RUNNING ORDER FOR WEIRD WEEKEND


INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: How Does It Taste? Korean Traditional Drink “Ttongsul” Made From Human Feces


This next story was once again sent in by Richard Freeman. Where does he find this stuff? No, on reflection, I think that I would rather not know the answer to that one.


One of Korea’s best-kept secrets, Ttongsul (똥술) is Korean for “feces wine”. This drink is made by pouring shochu into a pit full of chicken, dog, or human feces, and leaving the mixture in the pit until it ferments. Human feces is most popular, since it’s readily available from chamber pots. It’s similar to the African drug jenkem, but unlike jenkem, Koreans actually drink the Ttongsul, out of the belief that it can cure illnesses.

Read on...

CRYPTOLINK: Is there a new type of rodent roaming our fair city?

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.


rat © Adrian Whitaker
Are a new breed of giant rats evolving on our streets? If you’re in doubt, just take a look at the beast being held aloft by Highgate resident Adrian Whitaker. Whitaker found it after he heard the snap of a mouse trap while eating his dinner last week. Pulling back his dishwasher he found the furry giant staring back at him.‘The rat was dazed by a tiny £1 mouse trap. I picked it up with a bag and frogmarched it out of the door,’ says Whitaker, before adding with a sinister flourish  ‘I took some firewood to it and took a few hits to kill it.’ Whitaker estimates that the animal was about the size of a small dog, or the length of his forearm. ‘They are getting bigger in cities,’ concurs rat expert Richard Moseley, technical manager of the British Pest Control Association. ‘Food sources are more available. Food waste, especially junk food, is greater than it used to be,’ he said. According to Moseley, the standard rat measures 40 cm, although creatures measuring in at 45cm have been reported.

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

At about lunchtime today we reach the middle of the year so give yourselves a big pat on the back for getting this far. Doubtless your imagined nemesis of choice thought they would have bested you by now... But they were WRONG! Have a cup of tea to celebrate.
And now the news:

  • Extremely rare jaguar spotted near Arizona mountai...
  • Wakey wakey! Tropical scorpion gives Scottish stud...
  • Internet Outage? Leave it to beaver
  • How Throwing Made Us Human
  • Different Neuronal Groups Govern Right-Left Altern...
  • Cheetah reintroduced in Free State after 100 year ...
  • Bungling grass cutter destroys rare field at Iris ...



  • to go with your mid-year cuppa might I suggest a coconut based biscuit and a jolly, but ironic, song like this: