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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Friday, October 06, 2017

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: Problem leopard, suspect behind 5 attack...
  • NEWSLINK: Reports of bobcat sightings sought

  • SIGHTING, UK: Big black cat in Scottish countrysid...
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    For nearly 100 years, Texans have reported sightings of either dark or gray, ape-like creatures better known as Bigfoot. The majority of these sightings ...
    Dr. Jane Goodall is a giant in her field. But in person she's a slight woman with a quiet voice and a commanding presence. She's also full of surprises.

    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.



    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN NEEDS SLEEP

    The Gonzo Daily: Friday/Saturday
    And so another week has trundled inexorably towards its close. The filming has been completed for Episode Three of the revamped OTT, but whether it goes up next week or the week after is in the lap of the Gods. Actually it isn't. It's in the lap of me, but I prefer to make it appear as if it is decided by some omnipotent deity rather than by a fat bloke in a badly converted potato shed.
    We have a huge number of springtails in the garden at the moment. These tiny hexapods are - I discovered this morning - no longer considered to be insects, but are in a class all of their own (sometimes with two other ex-insects). Something else that I discovered today is that they once may have been used as weapons of mass destruction. Although firmly denied by the US government despite the existence of the Pine Bluff Arsenal of biological weapons, destroyed in 1971-1972 under Nixon’s presidency, it has been reported that springtails were used by the US army as a "six-legged weapon" in biological warfare performed during the Korean War. Species cited in allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War were Isotoma (Desoria) negishina (a local species) and the "white rat springtail" Folsomia candida. According to these reports, isotomids were intended to serve as carriers of fatal diseases (anthrax, dysentery, cholera, small pox), dropped by airplanes above rebel villages.
    It would be so tempting to claim that these tiny arthropods have been let loose upon my garden as a revenge measure by Kim Jong-un, but I am not feeling mentally agile enough today to work through all the ramifications which that would entail.
    Forgive me for banging on about our webTV show, but it matters a lot to me, and I would be grateful for an many people as possible to see it, and spread the tidings of it far and wide:
    But now, here is the news:
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Dave Bainbridge & Sal...
    RICK WAKEMAN IN THE NEWS
    KEITH CHRISTMAS IN THE NEWS
    COMING THIS WEEKEND
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    Gonzo Weekly #254
    THE ONLY IN IT FOR THE FUNNY ISSUE
    In this week’s
    astounding issue we meet the legendary Mr Biffo and talk about cabbages and kings, Alan and Sam debate the ethics of free
    festivals, John goes to see Suzanne Vega and Jon finally gets Johnny Thunders. Graham writes about Hawkwind, and Jon remembers a 30 year friendship that was all down to Frank Zappa. And there is oodles more my little cupcakes.
    Wooooot!
    And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Strange Fruit, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and common planigales who have cooked some stews (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have been culinarily creative, 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!!!
    This issue features:
    George Harrison, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Dan Wooding, Rick Wakeman, Green Seagull, The Granite Shore, Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, Pete Townshend, Tears for Fears, Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Charles Edward Bradley, Seth Firkins, Richard David Shepherd CBE FRSA FGRA, Mark Otis Selby, Kit Reed, Cees Bergman, Ammon Tharp, Eric Eycke, Sylvia Butterfield MBE, Anthony George Booth, Hugh Marston Hefner, Mary Hopkin, Man, Arthur Brown, Tony Ashton and Jon Lord, Martin Springett, Third Ear Band, Benjamin Britten, Richard Dawe, Mr Biffo, Alan Dearling, Sam Smith, Free Festivals, John Brodie-Good, Suzanne Vega, Gerry Leonard, Kev Rowland, Exit Eden, Free Radicals, The Hirsch Effekt, Itchy, Karamazov, Lorian, Mayhem, Pandora Snail, Greg Jarrells, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Ringo Starr, Pussycat Dolls, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, Neil Nixon, The Electric Prunes
    Issue 253 (Dana Gillespie)
    Issue 252 (Cropredy)
    Issue 251 (Scott Walker)
    Issue 250 (Jamms)
    Issue 249 (Bill Bruford)
    Issue 248 (The Selecter)
    Issue 247 (Don Airey)
    Issue 246 (Steve Hackett)
    Issue 244-5 (Summer Special)
    Issue 243 (Galahad)
    Issue 242 (Steve Miller Band)
    Issue 241 (Carol Hodge and Steve Ignorant)
    Issue 240 (Midsummer Madness)
    Issue 239 (Miss Peach)
    Issue 238 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 237 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 236 (Manchester)
    Issue 235 (Jon Anderson)
    Issue 234 (Al Atkins)
    Issue 233 (Richard Strange)
    Issue 232 (Roy Weard)
    Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
    Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
    Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
    Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
    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:
    SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
    * 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.co.uk
    * 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 58 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown kittens, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, 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 Archie and the Cats?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Friday/Saturday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1889 - In Paris, the Moulin Rouge opened its doors to the public for the first time. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Emerging disease further jeopardizes North America...
  • New York State DEC Eliminating Commercial Harvest ...
  • Bite force research reveals dinosaur-eating frog


  • 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.