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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Monday, July 22, 2013

CRYPTOLINK: Leviathan aside, parks are peril-free

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.


Walking through Preservation Parks is a pretty relaxing activity, with none of the dangers that hikers can run across in mountain (black bear), Western (grizzly bear) or desert (scorpion) locales.
Most of our walks are of the white-tailed deer, squirrel, dragonfly and butterfly variety -- with, for excitement, a few hawks scoping out their prey. Like I said, quite tame. Pretty much the scariest thing that ever happens to me is walking into a spider web.
So we're interested when we get reports of scary creatures in the parks. Two recent ones spurred us to action: the report of a sea creature in a pond, and a coyote that was following park visitors.
A couple of months ago, I received a phone call from a man who had been taking pictures at the pond at Hogback Ridge Preserve. He said he had discovered our own Loch Ness monster -- right here in Delaware County! He described the fierce-looking spines on a back of something emerging from the water, and the strange bulbous eyes peering out at water level. The spiny back would submerge, then re-emerge, as the creature made its way across the pond.

CRYPTOLINK: Researchers Discover Rare Fossil Of Large Marine Reptile

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.
Researchers Discover Rare Fossil Of Large Marine Reptile
Researchers Discover Rare Fossil Of Large Marine Reptile: Artist rendition of elasmosaur plesiosaurs. (Photo : UA student Asher Elbein.)
Researchers from the University of Alabama have discovered the fossilized remains of a large marine reptile that reportedly dominated the seas 80 million years ago.
Middle-school student Noah Traylor discovered the rare fossil during a University of Alabama expedition June 20. The fossil was later confirmed to be the neck vertebra of an elasmosaur, which is a subgroup of the late Cretaceous plesiosaurs.

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: Dolphins, sea serpent, Benny's Blogs


New at the Frontiers of Zoology:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/07/dolphins-are-people-too.html
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-emu-not-only-one-sea-serpent.html

New at Benny's blog for Thelma Todd:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-pictures-from-investigation.html

New at Benny's Other Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/07/id-like-to-sing-torch-song.html


Technical problems have prevented any further development of the blogs and are currently hampering the posting of comments.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

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.





THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN JUMPS THROUGH HOOPS

After a jolly weekend, Richard has gone back to Exeter, and as Graham has gone shopping, this is the first time in months that Corinna and I have had the house to ourselves, which is really rather nice. Weird Weekend Tickets are selling at about the same rate as they did last year, which is an encouraging sign. However, it would be great if we could sell some more. So if you are thinking of coming, why not make my day and buy your tickets today?
 So... 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_22.html
Today's Track of the Day is from Jack Lancaster and Robin Lumley
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/gonzo-track-of-day-marscape-jack.html
Another behind the scenes peek at Barbara Dickson's new album
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/barbara-dickson-recording-baker-street.html
Geoff Downes (no relation) chooses his favourite songs
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/askyes-geoff-downes-keyboard.html
Seattle band to record unreleased Beatles songs (oh for it to be 'What's yer new Mary Jane', which is basically unlistenable. The cover I recorded once was even worse!)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/unreleased-beatles-white-album-songs-to.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?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


  • Yesterday’s News Today

    Happy Ratcatchers Day to all those employed in the field of rodent control. The day is celebrated on the 22nd of July as this is one of the dates attributed to the disappearance of the children in Hamlin, Germany, Folklore has it that the children were all led out of the town by a ratcatcher angry about not being paid for a rather large rat extermination job.
    And now the news:

  • Will UK butterflies recover from 2012 washout? You...
  • Deadly oak disease 'spreading' in UK
  • First look into workings of the Neanderthal brain
  • New species of poison dart found in Guyana – By mi...
  • Nesting Gulf of Mexico Loggerhead Turtles Face Off...
  • Great White Sharks' Fuel for Oceanic Voyages: Live...
  • Ape Aptitude: Chimps & Orangutans May Recall Older...
  • Black Bears Return to Missouri Indicates Healthy F...

  • A scaremongering and unfact checked video about o.o.p. Gambian pouched rats (it even calls Gambia the smallest African nation and it is not by a long stretch, either in terms of population or area) :