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...




Friday, April 08, 2016

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.


NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



Scotland Now

THE survey of 2,000 UK adults, conducted by Ripley's Believe it or Not! London, showed that one in five Scots believe Nessie is a real life beast.

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



The Courier

A man told his mum he saw a Bigfoot roaming the Fife countryside – after reading about a similar experience in The Courier. Mark Luke, 46, from ...

WFMJ
Zuniga was buried next to his grandfather and as a headstone his family placed a large statue of Bigfoot. "It was just like so perfect, you couldn't have ...

Witness Spots Sasquatch On The Morice River BC
Aspen Recreation Site - Local resident observes Bigfoot across the Morice River. Year and time of year unknown. Husband and wife stopped at first ...

Bigfoot Expert Vardit Returns With More Sage Advice
Vardit, The Bigfoot Yenta, is back! And this time she helps a "distraught veterinarian in Texas", and a homicidal maniac shooting bigfoot! Vardit's ...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SINGS HAPPILY TO HIMSELF

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
 
And so it is Friday  once again, and once agaion I am feeling indignant. No, I am feeling angry. I am angry about the way we as a society treat our disabled and elderly. When people are no longer of direct use as consumers they become a commodity—a commodity to be traded by Granny Farmers,  and all the other parasites who are feeding on the decaying corpse of a Welfare State that was once the envy of the world.
 
Why? Because of something that was set into motion 74 years ago.
 
The 1942 report on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report, was an influential document in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom, published in November 1942. It was chaired by the Liberal economist William Beveridge, who identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare to address these.
 
The Report came in the midst of war, and promised a reward for the sacrifices undertaken by everyone. Highly popular with the public, the report formed the basis for the post-war reforms known as the Welfare State, which include the expansion of National Insurance and the creation of the National Health Service.
 
And it was all for nothing. I used to work in the health service, and I have friends who do so still, and I have friends and family who work in similar jobs in the private sector. And I have nothing but respect for these people who continue to bring a good service against insurmountable odds. But the people in charge, who have reduces the lives of the old and the ill to mere dots on a balance sheet? I have nothing but contempt for them, and if this country ever sheds the shackles of apathy long enough to rise up against the tyrants (which I truly think is never going to happen), I hope these bastards are first against the wall.
 
“Freedom from Want and Fear?” You are having a laugh aren’t you?
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Sneaky Pete Kleinow -
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Interview with Barbara Dickson & Rab Noakes @
COMING THIS WEEKEND
Inside Zappa documentary 'Eat That Question'
 
Gonzo Magazine #176
 
Badfinger, Joey Molland, The Raz Band, Happy the Man, Live Music, Daevid Allen, Gong, Greil Marcus, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
Joey Molland, the last man standing of Badfinger is on the front cover, with an interview with him about his work with The Raz Band inside. Doug gets all lyrical about Happy the Man, John asks worrying questions about the future of live music, Alan talks about his experiences with Daevid Allen the poet, while we review a book by Greil Marcus and Biffo is uncertain about Crowd Funding. There are radio shows from Strange Fruit and Mack Maloney, the latest installment of the saga of Xtul, and columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons ouyside zoos(OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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:
Motorhead, Pet Shop Boys, Brian Wilson,  Rolling Stones, Noel Gallagher, Barry Gibb, Paul McCartney, Tony Hawk, John Ellis, Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, CBE, Andrew Laurence (Andy "Thunderclap") Newman, David Nathaniel Baker Jr., Roger Marcel Cicero Ciceu, Captain  Beefheart, Brand X, Osibisa, Pink Fairies, Gram  Parsons'- The International Submarine Band, Gib Guilbeau, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Sons of Fred, Percy Jones, Norman Wisdom featuring Rick Wakeman, Joey Molland, The Raz Band, Happy the Man, Roy Weard, John Brodie-Good, Daevid Allen, Alan Dearling, Mr Biffo,  Hawkwind, Xtul, Greil Marcus, The Beatles, Billy Fury, Jimmy Page, Michael Jackson, Cameron Mitchell, Bob Marley, The Who, Neil Nixon, Garth Brooks, Niburta
                                                                                    
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 174 (Keith Emerson)
Issue 173 (Pink Fairies action figures)
Issue 172 (4th Eden)
Issue 171 (Keith Levene)
Issue 170 (Wildman Fischer)
Issue 169 (Wildman Fischer)
Issue 168 (Wakeman/Bowie)
Issue 167 (Paul Kantner)
Issue 166 (Spirits Burning)
Issue 165 (David Bowie)
Issue 164 (Free Festivals)
Issue 163 (Lemmy)
Issue 161-2 (The Christmas Double Feature)
Issue 160 (Frank Zappa)
Issue 159 (Jon Anderson and Matt Malley)
Issue 158 (Billy Sherwood)
Issue 157 (Drones for Daevid)
Issue 156 (Rick and Emmie)
Issue 155 (Pink Fairies)
Issue 154 (Steve Ignorant)
Issue 153 (Martin Barre)
Issue 152 (4th Eden)
 
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:
 
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
 
* 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.co.uk
 
* 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 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two small kittens, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, 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 infantile orange cat, and the adventurous kittens?

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Predators drive social complexity
  • New genus of treehopper named after Selena Quintan...
  • Tucker the gassy sea turtle treated for the bends ...
  • How closely related are gorillas and humans? Close...

  • The Recovery of the World's Most Endangered Sea Tu


  • 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)