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...




Saturday, June 28, 2014

THE TETZOOCON

Dear all - apologies for cluttering up your inbox. Now that the end of June is so close, just a reminder that tickets are still available for TetZooCon (Saturday 12th July, London Wetland Centre) - if you're interesting in coming, please book now: http://tetzoo.com/convention

The site also includes the final programme. There are talks on pterosaurs (Witton), dinosaurs and neck evolution (Taylor), primatology (Jahme), herpetology (Meredith), the science of mermaids (Viscardi), speculative zoology (Naish) and more... there's also a palaeoart workshop/discussion/event, a quiz, and one or two merchandise stalls. An article advertising the event has also just appeared at Tetrapod Zoology (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/).

We really hope this can become a regular event, so please do consider coming along. Sorry to people who have already emailed me about absences and being out of the country and so on.

Best wishes and we look forward to seeing you there!


Darren

INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: Another one from Dan Holdsworth - how NOT to be a capitalist pig

Jon,

It would appear that the game of being a capitalist pig is not as easy as it might first appear. After all, currency traders are ignorant Gaia-abusing scum; not as if they are clever or anything? Unfortunately for Greenpeace, it appears that currency traders are just the teensiest bit smarter than Greenpeace activists...

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/16/greenpeace-loses-3m-pounds-currency-speculation

It would appear that some busy bee in their headquarters speculated on the Euro remaining weak back in 2013, and was most mightily surprised when it didn't stay weak (apparently these Eurocrats are a tricksy
bunch). Surprised to the tune of 3.8 million Euros, in fact.

So, if you have a Greenpeace tin rattled under your nose in the coming weeks, that's why. hehe.

--

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


What has Corinna's column of fortean bird news got to do with Cryptozoology?

Well, everything actually!

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. 




TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking. 

  • NEWSLINK: New York State Assembly passes bill putt...
  • NEWSLINK: Florida Panther Update June 19 2014
  • VIDEO: BIG CAT FUN
  • NEWSLINK: White tiger cubs go on display at Mexica...
  • UK SIGHTINGS: Royal Ascot: Forget Brown Panther, C...
  • US SIGHTINGS: Big cat scare in Westside Road home

  • UK SIGHTINGS: CBS San Francisco
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Provo, Utah Bigfoot Video: A Closer Look at the Subject
    Cryptomundo Craig Woolheater
    Provo, Utah Bigfoot Video: A Closer Look at the Subject. Posted by: Craig Woolheater on June 27th, 2014. Cryptomundian chadgatlin supplied

    Watch “Tim Peeler's interesting bigfoot 911 call” on YouTube
    ... To Find What You Want, Video911, bigfoot, sasquatchsasfootbigquatch. Tim Peeler's interesting bigfoot 911 call: http://youtu.be/AKCq8waupH8 

    I've Never Seen Patty So "Stabilized"
    It must be nice to live in a world of unicorns, bigfoot, and fairy tales. .... I had a dream in which seven bigfoot climbed seven towers and ate seven DQ ...

    Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization
    Here's your chance to go on a LIVE bigfoot hunt this coming weekend right here in Kentucky!!! Ron Coffey, a veteran Cryptozoologist with over 40 ...

    Dogman or Bigfoot Structure?
    This is an area where multiple people have witnessed the Dogman. Many people think Bigfoot make these type of structures but could the Dogman 

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS A SMALL BROWN CHICKEN

    The Gonzo Daily - Saturday
    www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

    What are you doing up so early? I hear you ask. Well, I don't but I can imagine you doing so. Neither Corinna or I have been to bed yet. I was recording with Mike Davis until late last night, and then the latest issue of Gonzo Weekly kept on throwing curveballs at us, the most recent being the untimely death of Bobby Womack. On top of that the boiler at my house in Exeter is leaking as is our bathroom ceiling here in Woolsery, and we have to finish the magazine before we can do much else. So I doubt whether either of us will actually get more than a couple of hours hurried kip until tonight.
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#84) will be here imminently to read or download at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has Mick Abrahams on the front cover and features an exclusive interview with this legendary guitarist who amongst other things founded both Jethro Tull and Blodwyn Pig. It also has a letter from Daevid Allen in hospital, Echo and the Bunnymen live, an archive chat between Tim Rundall and Mick Farren and Keith Levene remembering his days as guitarist in The Clash. There are also new shows from Friday Night Progressive, and from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and boxing kangaroos (OK, no pugilistic marsupials, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
    The full list of artists featured is: Mick Abrahams, Yes, Jon Davison, Rick Wakeman, ABWH, Jon Anderson, Allman Brothers, Lana del Rey, Kurt Cobain, Frances Bean Cobain, Prince, Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, Robert Plant, Daevid Allen, Michael des Barres, Hunt Emerson, Keith Levene, Auburn, Liz Lenten, Atkins-May Project, Clepsydra, Renaissance, Galahad, Eric Burdon, Elvis Presley, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Felix Dennis, Eli Wallach, Gerry Conlon, Teenie Hodges, Bobby Womack, Clearlight, Rocket Scientists, Aviator, Ant-Bee, Steve Hillage, Erik Norlander, The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger, Neil Young, Echo & the Bunnymen, Mick Farren, Hawkwind, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Beatles, Erasure, Osmonds, One Direction, Spice Girls, Ozzy Osbourne, Monkees, Alice Cooper, Weird Weekend, Gazpacho, Subject to Thoughts, The Symphony of Screams, Nine Treasures

    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:

    All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
    To make sure that you don't miss your copy of future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
    http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
    *  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: www.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 54 who - together with an orange kitten named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 kitten?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1948 the actress Kathy Bates was born. Bates is best known for her role in the film of Stephen King's novel “Misery” but also gave an outstanding performance in last year's tv series “American Horror Story: Coven”.
    And now the news:
  • Chimps Reveal Their Taste in Music
  • Snakebite Causes Huge Mass in Woman's Leg, 50 Year...
  • New rules introduced to protect Scottish seals
  • Synchronised imaging techniques: One more chance f...
  • Audobon Society asks N.J. to grow milkweed
  • The Last Wild Tigers
  • Get insects to bug off this summer

  • Bright blue stinging jellyfish will "definitely" c...

  • The trailer for Misery (don't watch the trailer if you've not seen the film before though as it is spoileriffic) :