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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



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...




Wednesday, December 29, 2010

ION WILL HAS DIED

Yesterday Gordon Rutter posted a brief message to the forteana email group saying that legendary Fortean Ion Will, friend of FT, Lyall Watson and Doc Shiels, had died. He promised to post more information when he got it.

I always wanted to meet the man, and now it looks like I never shall.

TAME IMPALA ARE FANTASTIC

As regular readers will know full well, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day I presented my annual top ten of records of the year. And jolly good they were! However, I am not the only blogger who does this. On his blog John Allison, author of the magnificent Bad Machinery that I eulogise about on occasion, presents his Top Ten. It included an Australian band called Tame Impala who are absolutely fantastic, and I decided that I really had to share this with you all.



THE 2011 YEARBOOK IS DELAYED

I am sorry to whinge about flu again...


It is sixteen years since I first sat down at (what was then) my reasonably state-of-the-art Amiga 500 to type out the first CFZ Annual Report. It had a circulation of fifty people and took me about 20 minutes to write. How times have changed! The CFZ is now a massive organisation with branches on three continents, a flourishing publishing wing and research going on all over the world.

Traditionally I have always written this report during that quiet week between Christmas and New Year, and 2010 is no exception. The only difference is that this year Corinna and I are suffering greatly from the depredations of swine flu, and that what is usually a pleasant task is remarkably more difficult as a result. I am just about managing it, and I sincerely hope that OTT with a review of the year will be out on time.


But the 2011 Yearbook, which traditionally is published on New Year's Day, is going to be a couple of weeks late.

GOOD OLD `BEACHCOMBING` HAS DONE IT AGAIN

THE SEARCH FOR FUSANG
The snow is melting rapidly outside and just in time. Mrs B is suffering in the room above from what look like real contractions – Beachcombing conspicuously absent. Beachcombing then is going to let his source do all the talking today. If he hasn’t written much of a conclusion then the chances are that the balloon has gone up and the new world order has begun. Think Iran with the bomb, neo cons with aircraft carriers – the works in short.
The following appears in the encyolopedia of Ma Duanlin (obit 1322), a medieval Chinese scholar who had access to many ancient sources now lost to us. In his great tomes he describes the land of Fusang – the Fusang, incidentally, was the Chinese solar tree pictured here.
read on

TUESDAY NIGHT WAS COMPLETELY FARCICAL

As I write the blog 24 hours in advance, this actually happened last night, which is why it is still etched into my memory. I was particularly unwell yesterday evening; coughing and spluttering like a spectacularly unimpressive grampus. Unfortunately, as soon as I got into bed and became horizontal this got worse. Corinna was also cough-y but not as bad. However, we were both making spectacularly strange noises and Prudence thought that it was her duty to comfort us in our hour of need.


So each time one of us coughed an 11-stone bulldog leapt upon us to try to administer succour in the way that only bulldogs can. And not being the brightest button in the barrel, she kept this up all night with the consequence that I only had an hour of sleep and Corinna had not much more.


Prudence, however, looks highly refreshed, and has the look of self-satisfied smugness that often appears on your face when you have been doing good deeds!

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



KARL SHUKER PREVIEWS HIS FORTHCOMING BOOK

http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2010/12/smile-on-face-of-cheshire-cat.html