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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Sunday, July 21, 2013

SIX YEARS AND COUNTING

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS ROUNDUP



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. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.





  • NEWSLINK: Panther on the prowl scares Moinabad cop...
  • NEWSLINK: Truck Stop Tiger Case Could Roar Into La...
  • NEWSLINK: OC Boy Attacked by Big Cat on Vacation i...
  • NEWSLINK: Fourth big cat dies in distemper outbrea...





  • CFZ CANADA: Gotcha!


    I want to state right off the bat that I don't write this to ridicule anyone.

    Day before yesterday, a blogger at GhostTheory.com wrote a piece on Sasquatch.  The post has since been completely removed, so I can't tell you who wrote it or what it said, but from the news update I got it appears to have been an excited retelling of a "news" story in The Sage, an online satire from Canada that is quite similar to The Onion.

    In the original Sage story, whose headline reads

    Alberta: Bow Valley flooding exposes rotting carcass of a Sasquatch.

    Legendary Cryptid believed to be a surviving Gigantopithecus,

    seems to tell the story of a hiker, northwest of Canmore, Alberta.  This hiker purportedly found the rotting corpse of a "sasquatch" that had been uncovered in the mass flooding in southern Alberta.  The article even goes so far as to quote a "Coren Lowman", noted Cryptozoologist.....

    Read on...

    Mel Smith dies of a heart attack aged 60




    Related Stories

    Comic actor and writer Mel Smith has died of a heart attack, aged 60, his agent has confirmed.
    The British comedian - known for the sketch shows Alas Smith and Jones and Not The Nine O'Clock News - died at his home on Friday, Michael Foster said.
    Smith formed a lasting partnership with co-performer Griff Rhys Jones with whom he set up the independent television company, Talkback Productions.
    Rhys Jones described his friend of 35 years as a "brilliant actor".
    In a statement on behalf of his wife, Pam, Mr Foster said: "Mel Smith, comedian and writer, died on Friday aged 60, from a heart attack at his home in north west London."

    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.






    DALE DRINNON: Update

    Today I have been doing primarily computer maintenance. My blogger has bad bugs in it and no new blog postings can be posted at this time. I also seem to be deprived of the ability to edit anything on my own blog BUT I have the option for editing Benny's blogs from my account. That's wrong, my account should not have the capacity to do anything like that. I suspect hacker activity again.

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS SOMEWHAT OF A PATRIARCH

    It was quite late when to bed I crept,
    so today I badly overslept
    now I don't care, cos its the one day
    I get to doss cos its a Sunday
     
    But I also have a jolly time
    doing the Gonzo blogs in rhyme,
    but not to blow your fuses, see
    I do it cos it amuses me
     
    We'll start with this (I think we'd better)
    Issue 35 of our weekly newsletter
    has just come out, I think you've seen
    Its a really groovy magazine
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/gonzo-weekly-magazine-35.html
     
    And now I have something cool to say
    my mate René van Commenée
    has sent me a live video
    recorded with Don Prston don't you know?
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/don-prestonmr-averell.html
     
    Mel Smith has died at the top of his game
    and my world is never gonna be the same
    he was one of the funniest men I knew,
    I really miss him yes I do
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/mel-smith-dies-of-heart-attack-aged-60.html
     
    And whilst on the subject of Mel, you know
    I've dedicated today's video
    to him and I ain't gonna budge
    cos its on topic, it was written by Judge
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/gonzo-track-of-day-for-mel-smith-song.html
     
    Now our Cabinet of Curiosities that
    features the most collectible of tat
    has something connected to Pink Floyd
    which might get a few of you annoyed
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/cabinet-of-curiosities-i-have-only-one.html
     
    Now finally our poem of the day
    comes from our old mate Thom, wayhay!
    This man writes stuff far better than me
    mine is doggerel, his is poetry
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_20.html
     
    So that's about all for this week,
    and so, so long from this particular freak
     
    *  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. 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?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1951 American comedian and actor Robin Williams was born. Williams has played a number of characters with a paranormal element to them in films and TV series including an alien, a genie and a ghost.
    And now the news:
  • Who, what, why: Where are all the wasps?
  • 12 pipistrelle bats killed in Scotland
  • Thresher sharks stun prey with tail slaps
  • Surprising Fish Cousins: Tuna & Seahorses
  • Imported bumblebees pose 'parasite threat' to nati...
  • Here's Waldo! Strange New Clam Species Is Found
  • Darwin’s Dark Knight: Scientist Risked Execution f...
  • Eel influx heralds new beginning for Dearn

  • Now this... This is how to make an entrance: