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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Sunday, May 05, 2013

CRYPTOLINK: French rods? Hmmmmmm

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, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.


CRYPTOLINK: Creatures of the Causacus

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, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.

In the Caucasus Mountains, which separate Europe from the Middle East, live manlike creatures of which the outside world knows nothing.

    Throughout the “taiga”, or boreal conifer forests which stretch from Scandinavia to the Bering Sea and beyond, come reports of animals not unlike the famous North American bigfoot. However, the creatures of the Caucasus appear to be a little smaller, a little more manlike, and a little more social.
    
As the following translation reveals, Russians first became aware of them after hearing news of the Himalayan “abominable snowmen”, and researchers over there still refer to their subjects as “snowmen”. In this field, the leading lights were Boris Porshnev (a brilliant polymath, according to a Russian mammalogist I spoke to), and Marie-Jeanne Koffmann (b 1919), a French-born Soviet citizen, surgeon, soldier, and mountaineer. The interview she gave in 1988 provides some background on her life – though not the six years she spent in prison, a victim of Stalin's last purge.

Read on..

DAVEY CURTIS: I'll have a pint of what he's having


Dear Jon,

"A pint of your finest Thylacinus cynocephalus, stout Yeoman of the bar!" 

Regards

D.C

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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. So 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.



Muchos saludos y bendiciones a todos ustedes

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN DOES STUFF INCESSANTLY

It's sunday, so again it's time
to do the Gonzo blogs in rhyme
not just 'cos it confuses, see
I do it 'cos it amuses me
But I should start, like some go-getter
and tell you about the new newsletter
which I hope is interesting, not a bore
cos we've got to issue 24
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/gonzo-weekly-newsletter-24.html
Pam and Gary Windo I'll say
I've chosen as our track of the day
and underneath it (THANKS TO ME)
there's a link to their Gonzo CD
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/gonzo-track-of-day-watch-out-for-bones.html
John Shuttleworth is a funny bloke
on Rob's front staircase once we spoke
and so I bring from me to you
a feature with a cool review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/review-john-shuttleworth-connaught.html
But let's now go to Austin City
where the Poets are good and the rhymes are pretty
to meet (as we do every day)
Thom The World Poet, shout Hooray!
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_5.html
And now Bev Bevan and his big bass drum
and other chaps who come from Brum
have decided it's time to gather round
and celebrate that Midlands sound
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/made-in-brum.html
If you read all the words I've spent on
describing the music of Liz Lenten
you will probably realise that this man
of her band Auburn really is a fan
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/gonzo-weekly-liz-lenten-talks-about-her.html
And that's anough from this poetry freak
the rhymes'll be back again next week
Byeeeeeeeeeeeee

*  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:
http://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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and his new orange kitten 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 the orange cats?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in various years several Actors were born including Richard E. Grant (Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Corpse Bride) in 1957, Jonathan Rhys-Davis (Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings) in 1944 and Michael Palin (Monty Python, Around the World in 80 days) in 1943.
And now the news:
  • Alien’ turtles (Chinese Soft Shell) threaten local...
  • Hand-reared rhino gives birth in the wild
  • The Mathematical Butterfly: Simulations Provide Ne...
  • Earth Day Video: Wild Elephants Frolic in Cambodia...
  • AIDS cure rumours short-lived: Tokay Geckos mainly...
  • Primate Hibernation More Common Than Previously Th...
  • Madagascar Tortoise Trafficking Rages out of Contr...
  • Secret to Clingfish Suction Power Found

  • Sometime after Python Palin reinvented himself as an explorer and his greatest achievement was matching the fictional achievement of Phileas Fogg in travelling around the world in less than 80 days without the use of aircraft: