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, August 28, 2014

Remains of Mythical Creatures & Cyptids Brought into Reality With 3D Printing



Lizard Man

Mermaids, Vampires, Werewolves, and Unicorns are all creatures of our imaginations. For centuries these creatures have existed only in fairy tales, myths, and other stories. Many individuals, do however, believe that at one time many of these creatures actually did exist. There are those people out there, who believe that the stories of these creatures outlasted the actual evidence of their existence.

One man, named Brian Richardson, has taken the stories behind many of these creatures, and used 3D printing to bring them into reality. Richardson, Founder and Designer of Mythic Articulations has designed dozens of skeletons of some of the most popular mythical creatures and cryptids that are still talked about today.




“About a year and a half ago I decided I wanted a bird skeleton, for no particular reason,” Richardson told 3DPrint.com. “I had just learned about 3D printing, so I learned 3D modeling over the next few months and printed one. After that, I made a few other ‘real’ animal skulls and a few plants, and then decided to make a Chupacabra Skeleton. I’ve always had an interest in cryptozoology, and mythology, so that’s where the idea came from.”


Werewolf

The idea ended up expanding into much more than a couple 3D printed animal skulls and plants. Richardson, now has well over three dozen skeletons of these creatures listed forsale in his Etsy shop. They are some of the most unique articulations that you could ever come across, and since they are priced starting at $45, they are certainly something that just about anyone with a fascination in mythology could afford.

“I use the program ZBrush to sculpt each one,” Richardson told us. “I start from a virtual ball of clay, and push, pull, cut, and move it around until it looks like whatever part I’m making. I use lots of reference photos of actual animal skeletons. I’m to the point where a lot of the parts for new creatures are already made (skulls, wings, spines, etc.) and I can just mix and match them with a few adjustments to have a new skeleton.”

Badger cull targets announced for Gloucestershire and Somerset


badgerNatural England has issued authorisation letters for this year's badger cull to take place
A target number of badgers to be killed in this year's pilot cull has been announced.
Authorisation letters for the cull have been issued by Natural England. A minimum of 615 in Gloucestershire and 316 in Somerset need to be killed.
In 2013, 921 badgers were killed in Gloucestershire and 940 in Somerset in a bid to tackle TB in cattle.
The companies carrying out the cull have not announced when it will start this year.
A maximum number of badgers that can be culled this year has been set at 1,091 in Gloucestershire and 785 in Somerset.
Original population estimates for badgers have now been revised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to 1,904 in Gloucestershire and 1,876 in Somerset.
The four-year pilot cull aims to kill 70% of the initial population to test how effective, humane and safe a cull can be.
An extension to the cull in 2013 in Gloucestershire was ended early as it had not met its target, and the Somerset pilot failed to meet its target even after a three-week extension.
Government ministers and the National Farmers' Union believe culling badgers will curb TB in cattle. Opponents say shooting the animals is not effective and inhumane.

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.

  • UK SIGHTINGS - Big cat sighting claim at Aberporth...
  • NEWSLINK-Big Cat Heaven
  • NEWSLINK-Bring back the big cats: is it time to st...

  • VIDEO: Cats Documentary - Felines and Pharaohs 1of...
  • 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



    New TV Special About Killing a Bigfoot Coming in October
    "Bobby Hamilton and Jim Lansdale, founders of the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Organization (GCBRO) take their team and hit the woods in a bigfoot television ...

    First trailer for Exists is essentially The Blair Witch Project, but with Bigfoot
    The director of The Blair Witch Project is going back to the woods with a new found-footage horror flick — but he's traded in witches for Sasquatch.

    Bigfoot stolen in Barry County!
    In Barry County deputies have found two people who they say stole a statue of Big Foot out of someone's back yard. Witnesses say the two heist the ...

    Bigfoot Footprint & Sighting in Mississippi
    The finder of the print seems to insinuate that it was left by a Bigfoot. Unbeknownst to the finder of the print, there was a Bigfoot sighting in that same 

    Have You Ever Seen a Bigfoot Do This?
    Bigfoot Evidence Matt K.
    Will Jevning of Sasquatch Chronicles relates a bigfoot story in which the witnesses observe strange behavior from a bigfoot. Jevning requests that if ...

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN EXPLORES

    The Gonzo Daily - Thursday
     
    Now before we go any further, I am a pantheist, broadly Christian, and believe in religious freedom and tolerance. Last night I came upon what appears to be an appalling slice of double standards on the part of various internet media providers. All copies of Roy Harper's 'Black Cloud of Islam' from his 1990 album 'Once' seem to have been removed from The Internet. However, it takes hardly any effort to find anti Christian songs and videos on the same platforms. Not really equitable is it?
     
    Adam Davies has finished work on his book, and left Woiolsery at mid-day. However, for various contractual reasons which I am not at liberty to divulge, the launch date has been put back to mid January...
     
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_28.html
    ‘Oh, my God – talk about a redirection’: Micky Dolenz on his job offer from Frank Zappa
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/oh-my-god-talk-about-redirection-micky.html
    CHRIS SQUIRE: “Next Year, We Might Consider Doing something with Jon Anderson"
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/chris-squire-next-year-we-might.html
    Pops by the Sea: Former Yes frontman teams up  with SLO Symphony
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/pops-by-sea-former-yes-frontman-teams.html
    GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Napoleon Murphy Brock - Steady Freddie
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/gonzo-track-of-day-napoleon-murphy.html
     
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#92) is available to read or download at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has the Weird Weekend featuring various Gonzo luminaries such as Wally Dean, Judge Smith, Crystal Grenade and C J Stone. We have Merrell Fankhauser's autobiography. Doug Harr was there when Paul McCartney revisited the site of the last ever Beatles concert. There are also new shows from the wonderfully eccentric Jaki and Tim on their Submarine, from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny (hopefully fully recovered from his recent illness) a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and long nosed potoroos (OK, no weird little marsupials, 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/
     
    To make sure that you don't miss your copy of future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
    http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
     
    As well as the Gonzo Weekly, there is a daily service called - wait for it - The Gonzo Daily, and you can subscribe for free HERE:
    http://eepurl.com/OvPez
     
    *  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/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 54 who - together with an orange kitten 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 orange kitten?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - THURSDAY

    ON THIS DAY IN 1939 - The first successful flight of a jet-propelled airplane took place. The plane was a German Heinkel He 178.

  • Rare sei whale spotted off Cornwall's coast in Pen...
  • Huge insect diversity revealed by genetic technolo...
  • Spider personality study shows evidence of 'social...
  • Indian woman kills leopard that attacked her
  • 'Two simple rules' explain sheepdog behaviour
  • Animals first flex their muscles: Earliest fossil ...
  • Orphaned hippo Douglas has been successfully relea...
  • Badger cull targets announced for Gloucestershire ...

  • Rhino Reproduction Could Get Boost from Hormone Te...


  • 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)