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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Thursday, September 20, 2012

CFZ PRESS: Ebooks

"COME ON JONATHAN DOWNES GET YOUR FINGER OUT WE WANT CFZ BOOKS FOR THE KINDLE"


We regularly receive requests from people for electronic versions of our books. The new predictive text options on Facebook make some of these requests seem more terse and curt than they actually are. Some are just terse and unpleasant, and I have a horrible feeling that there are people throughout the Crypto and Fortean communities who think that we are just sitting swanning about the place and refusing to produce electronic versions of the 100 odd titles that we have published, just because we cannot be bothered.


We can be bothered and we have been trying very hard, but there is a big stumbling block. When we release titles we want them to be available on the three main platforms - Kindle, iPad/iPhone, and Android. All three systems are basically text readers, and unfortunately for this, the vast majority of our titles are heavily image intensive, and this means that they need to be something called 'Fixed Layout', which means that the pictures remain in the same part of the text as the authors and designers intended, and to have these professionally converted is proving to be prohibitively expensive.


Our flagship titles like the Haunted Skies series, and Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo would be rendered into nonsense if all the pictures were out of synch with the text in the book.


David Braund-Phillips, my dear nephew and the CFZ techie is struggling with this, and hopes eventually to be able to produce electronic versions of these books in epub fixed layout, Apple fixed layout, and KF8 fixed layout (Kindle) formats, but we are having the devil's own job with it.


If there is anyone out there who can suggest a way of doing this that will not cost over $1,000 a title, or even better anyone with the expertise to teach us how to do it in-house, please get in touch with him (dave@cfz.org.uk) or me (jon@cfz.org.uk). Remember that we are a non profit organisation and most of our books do not make any significant profit, so we cannot afford to pay out very much money, and would much prefer to be able to do them in-house.


Jon




"Arizona's version of the Loch Ness Monster..."

http://offroadpassport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2232&page=2

I was sent this story earlier. Putting aside the fact that comparing every unidentified aquatic creature with 'The Loch Ness Monster' is both facile and counter-productive, and I suspect this animal is a worm of some sort, it is certainly interesting, and I would like someone to identify it for us.

I've hiked this trail many times and everything was normal until ... we came across this creature in the water!


I have never seen anything like it before. It was about 8 inches long, 1/8" in diameter and wiggled sort of like a snake sort of like a worm. Was it a baby Loch Ness Monster? Here's a video I took of it. It wasn't soft like a worm, it sort of felt like it had an exoskeleton. Sort of creepy...

Anyone have any idea on what it is?

Read on...

WATCHER OF THE SKIES: Today's Fortean bird news

After about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.














"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue".
David Brent
Without further ado, here is today's list of bird news/stories and so on and so forth:



DALE DRINNON: Human Migrations/Cedar and Willow



New Link on Cedar and Willow, Special Talk Like a Pirate Day edition:
 
New at the Frontiers of Anthropology

BIG CAT NEWS ROUND UP

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 should have a go at 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.

HAUNTED SKIES: Sun (The) 30.1.68.


CRYPTOLINK: Is that Nesski? Russian scientists claim lake is home to Siberian Loch Ness monster

Russian academics are calling for a scientific probe into claims of a 'Siberian Loch Ness monster' in one of the world's remotest lakes. Researchers using underwater scanners have found evidence of 'Nesski' - measuring up to 33 feet in length - in the deep waters of Lake Labynkyr, says a new report.

Intriguingly, the evidence is at a lake where native Evenk and Yakut people have long claimed an underwater creature lurks.
Proof: This photograph, said to be the head of the underwater beast, is being used as evidence to prove the existence of a Siberian Loch Ness monster
Proof: This photograph, said to be the head of the underwater beast, is being used as evidence to prove the existence of a Siberian Loch Ness monster

The evidence includes a picture which, it is claimed, shows the monster, says the Siberian Times.
Known as ‘the Devil', testimony dating back to the 19th century says the monster has enormous jaws.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205595/Siberian-Loch-Ness-monster-pictures.html#ixzz26wq07Cdp

EMMA OSBORNE: CFZ Press on Facebook

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the upgrading and changes going on at the CFZ, we have had a CFZ publishing page ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/CFZPublishing/) for some time. This is where we list reviews for books, book releases and even links to Amazon for people to go straight to the page to buy the books. The Facebook page also serves as means of advertising your books - new and old - as we strive towards posting and reviewing every single one of our back catalogue.
We are also looking for people who have read our books to post reviews to our facebook page as well as on Amazon.
Here is our Amazon listings for our Newly released books:
Please check back for regular updates and book releases.

I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN



And so another day comes to pass. I am running a little late today because Richard and I stayed up late watching a slew of documentaries on British folk-rock, inclusing stuff by Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson. Before we knew it, it was 4:00am. So its our thought, but together with a bottle of blackberry liqueur from Lidl, and some diabetic chocolate it was a very entertaining evening.

Today, we regretfully come to the end of our three part visit with Annie Haslam, the lovely and multi-talented singer with 'Renaissance'. I enjoyed it so much, that I feel like phoning back later for a chat. However, I have discovered that you can embed songs from Spotify onto a blog so whoopy-dooo...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/exclusive-annie-haslam-of-renaissance_20.html
Another visit to the singular universe of Thom the World Poet...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_20.html
An article by Michael Des Barres about celebrating the half century of the Rolling Stones. Reading it has made me want to put on 'Exile on main Street'...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/link-michael-des-barres-50-years-of.html
Another taster for the new Jefferson Starship live 4CD set, and next month's UK tour...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/httpvianocturna2000.html
Some more news about Rick Wakeman's forthcoming tour of New Zealand. I wonder whether I can get him to bring me back some giant earwigs...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/more-on-rick-wakeman-new-zealand-tour.html
And finally for today, another angle on the recent release of a long awaited live collection from ABW&H...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/09/abwh-another-insightful-review.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 Editor is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today




On this day in 1908 Cranthorth “Bucky” Wilberforce-Smithe was born. Wilberforce-Smithe is to date the only two-headed football player to represent England at international level. He is best known for the Wilberforce-Smithe head dribble where he would hold the ball between his head and the head of his withered conjoined twin and run from his teams goal line into the goal of the opposing team. This he was usually able to manage unchallenged as the extra head would usually shoot a haunted look at anyone coming in to tackle him causing the aggressor, if Catholic, to cross himself allowing Wilberforce-Smithe to run past while the other teams player started fumbling for a rosary or something in their pocket. In an unrelated incident Wilberforce-Smithe was also to singe the beard of the king of Spain in Cadiz.
And now the news:
No reason for posting this video other than it's a good song: