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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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

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: Leopard strays into residential colony o...
  • NEWSLINK: Kids in Shock after Spotting Leopard at ...
  • NEWSLINK-STRANGE ANIMALS: Not such a big beast! Ne...
  • NEWSLINK: Mountain lion kills cat, two deer, then...
  • NEWSLINK: Volusia plans workshop for feral cat pro...

  • US SIGHTINGS: Bobcats won't stay off local radar
  • CRYPTOLINKS: Did Google Earth Spot A Sea Monster In New Zealand?

    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. 
    Probably a glitch. But some people are convinced that this mysterious shadow that appears in the waters of Oke Bay, off the coast of New Zealand's North Island, is a sea monster:
    Engineer Pita Witehira, who first spotted the dark mass using Google Earth, told the Daily Mail that he doesn't think it's a boat because there's no white wake. Other people think it's a floating tree trunk.
    It isn't the first cryptozoological sighting in the region. In 2013, witnesses snapped a picture of a strange shape off the coast of Australia's Magnetic Island.

    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.






    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF:



    Pennsylvania And Washington Lead The Nation In Bigfoot Sightings
    'Tis the season for year-end stories wrapping up the cultural and political goings-on of 2014. "The Year in Bigfoot"?Read more... So why ...

    Witness Gets Emotional While Retelling His Bigfoot Encounter
    One thing often overlooked is the psychological impact a bigfoot sighting can have on a person. In this video, a man talks about his encounter with a ...

    Whoa, is this an "Invisible" Bigfoot on this Video?
    Some bigfoot researchers believe bigfoot are so hard to find because they have the ability to turn themselves invisible. Kind of like a natural cloaking

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HOPS

    The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
     
    Every year I find myself running around Barnstaple like a headless chiucken a few days before Christmas, and bemoaning the fact that I didn't do my shopping earlier. Well this year, for my fifty fifth Christmas on the planet, I am going out a week early to do what remains of my shopping in the vain hope that I never have to leave the house again until it is all over. And what is more I am taking Graham and Mother. I may be some time...
     
    By the way, I don't know if I have mentioned them here before, but the mighty Sendelica are just about to release a new album. Its called 'Anima Mundi' it is very fortean and very good. For those of you who didn't know: Based in West Wales, UK. Instrumental psyche-space-rock band whose work blends early psychedelic outings, occasional heavy riffing, and electronic ambient musings. The core band in UK is currently: Pete Bingham on guitars & electronics, Glenda Pescado on bass, Jack Jackson on drums, Colin Consterfine on keys/electronics and Lee Relfe on sax and Lord Armstrong Sealand on theremin & synths. 
    GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Cymbalic Encounters
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/gonzo-track-of-day_17.html
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_17.html
    Rick Wakeman Expands King Arthur And Henry VIII
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/rick-wakeman-expands-king-arthur-and.html
    Atkins May Project:
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/atkins-may-project.html
    PETER BANKS: The Mars Tapes US review
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/peter-banks-mars-tapes-us-review_17.html
     
     
    Merrell Fankhauser, Lee Pomeroy, Unidentified Flying Wassnames, René van Commenée, Jon Anderson, Yes, Hawkwind, and Daevid Allen fans had better look out!
     
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#108) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Merrell Fankhauser on the cover talking about his latest project that involves setting music to some apparently alien transmissions from off the coast of Malibu. Doug Harr interviews the legendary Lee Pomeroy, René van Commenée expounds at length on his Desert Island Discs, and also builds a huge musical art machine in the middle of Antwerp, Xtulk declare war on humanity and give away their new single as a Christmas gift, and there are also new shows from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are back with another episode of Sub Reality Sandwich (except its not). There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and anteaters wishing to snooze (OK, nothing to do with dozy edentates, 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!!!
     

    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!
     
    You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
    http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/
     

    * 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/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit
     
    * 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat 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 infantile orange cat?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1830 - South American patriot Simon Bolivar died in Colombia. 

  • Microbes discovered by deepest marine drill analys...
  • Five ways to stop mass extinction
  • Wyoming authorities warn of dangerous wildlife pre...
  • Scientists to recreate snail scent to scare starfi...
  • The origin of the IUCN Red List lies in a collecti...
  • Northern white rhino's death leaves just five in t...

  • London man gets 10-month suspended sentence for il...

  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)