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, November 29, 2012

THE ECLECTARIUM OF DOCTOR SHUKER - THE GREEN CHILDREN OF WOOLPIT



Today, Dr Shuker enters his Eclectarium to investigate an enduring medieval mystery - the Green Children of Woolpit.

Read on...

INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: Wee wee eggs


This next story - once again sent in by Richard Freeman - is probably inappropriate by Western standards, but certainly peculiar by anyone's...


Urine eggs a delicacy in China (02:06)

DONGYANG, China | Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:40am EDT
(Reuters) - It's the end of a school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, and eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school.
But that's just the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favored by local residents.
Basins and buckets of boys' urine are collected from primary school toilets. It is the key ingredient in "virgin boy eggs", a local tradition of soaking and cooking eggs in the urine of young boys, preferably below the age of 10.
There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys' urine, just that it has been so for centuries.

ROB AYLING: Fear and Loathing on the way to Area 51

Well sports fans. Its hot hot HOT!! in the city and its also a three day weekend here in the US. I have one more meeting in Vegas before I hit the open road !!!

It's just me, a hire car, a vague map and then nothing, the abyss......

Where shall I go ? Visit the Aliens at Area 51 ? But its a holiday weekend they may have gone back to their home world ? Even Government employee's time off right ? But, sadly Area 51 the US Governments worst kept post cold war secret isn't on the map... Maybe the Feds actually still think no body knows about it ? So shhhhhhhhh you didn't hear here - right kids !!

Well, well, well... What do we have here ? "London Bridge" in red ink, with the map scale and the typography that makes London Bridge about 44 miles long... Hey, I don't need a map to find a bridge 44 miles long !! Or do I ? Maybe I will go there, but I am worried I may get arrested for laughing too much, that anyone would be stupid enough to;

A). Buy a bridge
B). Buy the wrong bridge.
C). My personal favourtie here, ship it to another continent, not just another country, but another FREAKING continent !!

I know I will keep that is reserve, pending me needing a good belly laugh !

Mmmmmm I see "Barstow" ..... "We where only 50 miles outside of Barstow, when the drugs really started to kick in....". Ahhhh Dr Thompson salute you. The American Dream needs you !!

The "Fiscal Cliff" draws closer and all of Wall Street have already bought their Hand Gliders but the man of the street hasn't a clue how its going to screw with him and it isn't his fault.

If the ordinary man has any responsibility for this fiscal head fuck. It lies in believing what our so called "leaders" told him. No one told him it was the Bankers telling our "leaders" what to say.

Well it looks like I need that "Belly Laugh" after all, it the 44 mile bridge for me. As an unexpected visit to Bat Country maybe a bit too much for this road warrior to take.

Until next time.................


Best Wishes,

KARL SHUKER: CATS OF MAGIC, MYTHOLOGY, AND MYSTERY - IT'S HERE! AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER AT LAST!



My latest book, Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery: A Feline Phantasmagoria (CFZ Press: Bideford, 2012), 322 pages long, almost 300 illustrations, and in full colour throughout, is now available to pre-order!!

DALE DRINNON: Another turtle-like Plesiosaur/Mummies of Uyghir/ Benny's Blog

Newest at Frontiers of Zoology:
New at Frontiers of Anthropology, a blog left lying dormmant far too long:
Benny's new posting on the Ominous Octopus Omnibus Blog:

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (CFZ)

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.



I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

Well, the computers are just about sorted now, and for the first time in about ten days I have my office and working environment back. It is still full of frogs, but I don't mind that...

So,once again let us start off the day with a visit to Texas Thom down in Austin...

I have a problem. I have never been able to link up a tape recorder/data recorder/computer to my telephone, and so until recently I have had a terrible time trying to record telephone calls, which is - as I am sure that you can imagine - quite a problem when I am a journalist. Then I discovered http://www.recordyourcall.co.uk/ who are bloody fantastic, surprisingly cheap, and via whom I have done all my interviews for Gonzo Daily, and the newly launched Gonzo Weekly. Yesterday I was due to speak to Michael Des Barres about his fabbo new Christmas single , so I picked up the telephone at the appointed time, and rang him via those jolly nice 'Record Your Call' people, only to find that.......

An interesting (if unintentionaly surreal) French review of the ABWH live at the NEC

A review of the Move DVD which somewhat misses the point

Some odds and sods from the Gong gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire the other day

A lot has written about this newly released DVD of a 1981 concert by Muddy Waters during which the Rolling Stones and various other luminaries took the stage.  It has been heralded as an artefact of an event of quite some historical significance, so my mother-in-law, Prudence the dog, the orange cat and I sat down to watch it. Like all these things, it turned out to be both more and less impressive that we had been led to believe.

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 - imaginitavely - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link:

Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



On this day in 1898 the author C. S. Lewis was born. Lewis is best remembered for writing the Chronicles of Narnia.
And now the news:
  • Ancient Microbes Found in Buried Antarctic Lake
  • Ice Age warmth wiped out lemmings, study finds
  • Woman arrested after 'joyriding manatee in Florida...
  • Brazilian fisherman chokes to death after trying t...
  • Military's dogs of war also suffer post-traumatic ...
  • Wild coyote attacks, kills family's dog in Hazelwo...
  • Dogs Hear 'Get the Ball!' Differently Than You
  • Darkened Fjord Waters Mean Fewer Fish, More Jellyf...

  • How to make Turkish delight the easy way: