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...




Tuesday, April 07, 2015

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A FLYING CHINA-TOWN JELLYFISH?

A THING OF THE AIR

Something That Flies Without Wings and Has Four Legs

From the Virginia City (Nevada) Enterprise. Omaha Daily Herald November 19 th  1880

Some four or five days ago we heard talk of a singular inhabitant of the air seen to pass over the Chinese quarter of the city. The thing was said to have four legs and to fly without wings. At the time we thought some person was trying to get off a sell and paid little attention to the story.Last evening, however, Tom Jackson,special officer for Chinatown, called about the matter, desiring if anything could be found in any encyclopaedia in regard to any such creature of the air as we have mentioned.Mr Jackson says the wonder began to be seen some days ago. It was first noticed by a little boy, who called the attention of Mrs Jackson to it. The nondescript appears to be some kind of flying reptile. It has a body shaped like that of a crab,sixteen inches in breadth. From this strange body hangs down four legs, about two feet in length and thick as an ordinary walking stick. Nothing in the shape of wings is to be seen nor is their any flapping of wings. The creature sails through the air , with its legs hanging down quite motionless, and appears to move without the slightest exertion of any of the known kinds of flying apparatus. Since first observed it has passed northward  regularly every morning about eight o`clock and southward every evening shortly before sundown. It flies over the town at about the height of the International Hotel and moves about as fast as a dove or pigeon. It is of a dark color, but not black. Mr Jackson says he has seen the “beast” regularly every day for four or five days. He last saw it yesterday morning on its way north, but was not down in Chinatown at the time it goes south in the evening. He has watched the thing till out of sight in both directions, therefore is confident that it is no diabolical invention of the Chinese rigged to run on a string or wire. Besides, most of the residents of Chinatown have seen the creature, and are not a little troubled at the sight of it. They unhesitatingly pronounce it to be the devil or a thing of the devil. Mr Jackson is an old resident of this city , and is well-known as a truthful man.   




The above link shows the International Hotel,date unkown.

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

From CFZ-USA:

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



The Bigfoot Conference!
What do you suppose they do at a Bigfoot conference?!? Unless you're a member, all we know is that at the Vilonia, Arkansas, April 24-5 Bigfoot ...

The Hunt Is On: Tuscaloosa woman founds Bigfoot group
Mary Katherine Scruggs started an activist group, Bigfooting in Alabama, which has almost 700 members. The group tracks sightings of Bigfoot in ...

Check Out This Amazing Aerial Drone Footage Of A Bigfoot Hotbed
Kelly Shaw of the RMSO takes us along as they capture some amazing shots of the Bear Wallow area from their drone. The area looks awesome, and ...

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.



THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS THE HIGH COCKALORUM

The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
Holiday weekends are over too quickly. Everyone is now back to work, and the fact that I had two and a half whole days in which I didn't have to do anything except play that blasted game that Dave B-P turned me on to, doze in my chair and cuddle the dogs, has passed over the horizon, and I npw have a whole week's stuff left top do with a whole day less to do it in. Hmmmmmmmm.
The Gonzo Weekly #123
www.gonzoweekly.com
Cream, Kansas, Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Viv Albertine, The Slits, Daevid Allen, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#123) is another bumper one at 92 pages and is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Cream on the cover, and inside yours truly pontificates on the band's legacy while Tony Palmer remembers filming their farewell show back in 1968. Doug writes about proggers Kansas, and Jon critiques the new autobiography by Viv Albertine of The Slits. We look at just a few of the many tributes to Daevid Allen, and send the Gonzo Customer Service guy to a Desert Island. Neil Nixon reports on an even stranger album than usual, Wyrd goes avant garde, Xtul gets even more peculiar,  and there are radio shows from Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are still lost at sea, although I have been assured that they will hit land again soon. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons trying to choose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials having difficulty in making choices, 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!!!
This issue features:
Cream, Ringo Starr, SXSW, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Blur, Daevid Allen, James Murphy, Galahad, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, John Renbourn, Anthony Pero, Michael Porcaro, Bruce Crump, Jackie Trent, Tommy James, Mick Abrahams, Firemerchants, Dee Palmer, Atkins May Project, Wagner, Hawkwind, Karnataka, Paul Buff, Frank Zappa, Charli XCX, Garth Brooks,5 Seconds of Summer, Ed Sheeran, Tony Palmer, Kansas, Steve Lavelle, HaWkwind, Yes, Viv Albertine, Xtul, Fairport Convention, Belle and Sebastian,Neil Nixon, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, Beatles,Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, 1D, Elvis, Micky Dolenz, Tom Jones,  Golden Resurrection, Indicco, Myrath

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/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit
* 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?

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Tuesday

ON THIS DAY IN 1864 - The first camel race in America was held in Sacramento, California. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Are UK lobster stocks dying out?
  • Pentagon funding program opens door to U.K. collab...
  • Whale watchers spot fourth newborn among endangere...
  • Lizard's come-hither behaviour attracts from a dis...

  • 'Squirrel Nutkin' fights back in battle against gr...


  • 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)