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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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, October 22, 2014

RADIO SHOW: Fantastic Beasts and the People who Love Them

Tibet has the Yeti.  Scotland has Nessie.  Russia has the Almasty.  But have you ever wondered about Ireland's mystery animals, and have you ever actually gone in search of one?
If you have, then you have taken your first steps into the world of cryptozoology, the pseudo-science that examines the unexplained side of nature that has, despite its detractors, led to the discovery of very real creatures like the Mountain Gorilla and the Collosal Squid.

In 'Fantastic Beasts and the People who Love Them', Shane Dunphy talks to people who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of strange, unusual and mythical animals, and learns where in Ireland one might come across one.  He goes on a monster-hunting tour of the country and chats to Zoologists and Folklorists about the hard facts behind some sensational stories.

In Waterford he hears the first hand testimony of an eerie encounter, in Connemara, on a tiny island just off the West coast, has his own experience with something very unexpected. 'Fantastic Beasts and the People who Love Them' reveals a part of Ireland's culture and natural world most of us have never experienced.

Narrated and Produced by Shane Dunphy
Production Supervision by Liam O'Brien
First Broadcast 11th October 2014

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THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS PERPLEXED

The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
 
Tamara was here yesterday. She really is a delightful young lady. She and Graham took down the wall which divided the crow aviary from the old quail aviary and so the crow now has much more room to flap about in. Peculiarly, although he still has nerve damage, and cannot fly properly, he has lost most of his signs of partial albinism, and is now a very handsome adult. It also looks as if we may have bred the Japanese fire bellied newts. Julia the psychic, Tamara and I have all caught glimpses of what we think are tadpoles, but the tank is so heavily planted we cannot be sure.
 
 
 
Jon Anderson, Matt Malley, Yes, Hawkwind, Genesis and Tommy James & The Shondells fans had better look out! The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#100) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/.
 
It has Jon Anderson on the cover, and features an interview with Matt Malley about his collaboration with Jon Anderson on a charity single released today. But there's more! Doug Harr rewrites the screenplay for the controversial new Genesis documentary, we send the editor to a Desert Island, Davey Curtis was at Hawkeaster and was just about sober enough to write some of it down (but took loads of pics), and Jon asks whether music has to be age appropriate. We also learn about Tommy James and the Mafia. There are also new shows from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the massively talented Jaki and Tim are back with their submarine and Maisie the cow. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and doves making coos (OK, no musical members of the Columbinidae, 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!!! And yes, Happy Birthday to us!
 
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/
 

*  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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat 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 infantile orange cat?

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




Is This a Baby Bigfoot Caught in a Tree?
This is an older video that left people scratching their heads. Some claim it is a baby bigfoot up in a tree, some say it's a porcupine. Others have no ...

I may have seen bigfoot one time.
I'm not actually saying this was Bigfoot, I just don't know what else to call it. You be the judge. It was a couple of years ago, I was 18 maybe...

Olympic Project — West End is a hub of Bigfoot research
In findings published last summer, researchers who analyzed more than 30 hair samples reportedly left behind by Bigfoot and similar beasts like the ...

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: UPDATE: Child bit on neck and foot afte...
  • NEWSLINK: Known cougar killed on San Francisco-ar...


  • US SIGHTINGS: Second report of black cougar in cou...

  • NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1962 - U.S. President Kennedy went on radio and television to inform the United States about his order to send U.S. forces to blockade Cuba. The blockade was in response to the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island. 

  • John Lennon commemorated by naming a new tarantula...
  • Drones Capture Stunning Killer Whale Footage | Vid...
  • If Sharks Feel Pain, Why Are They Not Better Prote...

  • Politician calls for military to help with Romania...

  • 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)