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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Sunday, June 30, 2013

INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: Prophet sends goblins to steal woman's g-strings


This next story is undoubtedly Fortean. The behaviour is undoubtedly inappropriate. But who is to blame?

A Bulawayo woman is reportedly tormented by goblins which steal her g-string panties and whisper insults, accusing her of switching to another church.

The woman, Lynette Ziweya, is accusing Prophet Paul Grinder of Johane Masowe eChishnu of sending his goblins to torture her because she left the church to join another one.

"I used to attend Prophet Grinder's church and after realising that he was not a true prophet because of his actions, I decided to move to another church. It seems he was not pleased and since that time, my panties started disappearing at home. As if that was not enough, whenever I try to go to another church, I will be seeing the goblins which will be ordering me to return to Prophet Grinder's church," she said.

Ziweya revealed that everywhere she goes, these goblins follow her and as a result she no longer has peace in her life.

"When this whole thing started, I sought for assistance from different prophets, but they all referred back to the prophet saying I should confront him on the issue. When I confronted him, he professed ignorance and vowed that I will never have peace in my life," she said.

The troubled woman added that Prophet Grinder even did a few miracles before her to prove to her that he was capable of doing anything using his super natural powers.

Read on...

CFZ CANADA: Finding the Midnight Toker

Last week the Toronto Star (6/20/2013) carried a story about a researcher who was arrested while hunting Sasquatch.  He claims he was “bullied” by an officer of the law.

Read on...

TAKE THE LARS THOMAS CHALLENGE


And just for laughs
- another little monster - this one I am sure is not of this world!!! You can put it on the website if you like - perhaps make a little competition out of it. 

DALE DRINNON: Hagan mystery creature, mystery killer whale, bigfoot, Benny's blogs

New at Frontiers of Zoology:
New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:
And New at Benny's OTHER Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
Best Wishes, Dale D.

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN TALKS TO A PORCUPINE

Sundays I wake late with a wheeze and a cough
and usually take the whole day off
but then I always find the time
to do the Gonzo blogs in rhyme
 
I watched The Rolling Stones last night
and apart from 'Miss You' (which was shite)
they were bloody magnificent (that's a fact)
and it's great to see Mick Taylor back
 
I watched it all with Dave B-P
'cos he can get the BBC
but now I have to try quite hard
to be the Gonzo rhyming bard
 
The first of the Gonzo posts today
is Thom the World Poet, let's shout 'Wayhay!'
he lives in Austin, his poetry's fine
I'm glad that he's a friend of mine
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_30.html
 
Now Judy Dyble on Norwegian TV
singing a song that is dear to me
she's brilliant, what else can I say?
That's why it's the Gonzo track of the day
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/gonzo-track-of-day-judy-dyble-grey.html
 
Prog Rock is back, says Uncle Rick
that's news that might make some folk sick,
but there's one thing I would like to say
in my house it never went away
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/yes-prog-rock-of-seventies-is-back-says.html
 
Now if you want a groovy scene
read the Gonzo weekly Magazine
It's really good, what's more it's free
and its edited by my cats and me
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/gonzo-magazine-32.html
 
A review of Mr Averell
an artist who's done very well
his album 'Gridlock' is fantastic
(I think CDs are pressed on plastic)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/dutch-mr-averell-review.html
 
Mark Murdock is a percussive star
his album's great, he should go far
and so today from me to you
I'm reprinting an interview
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/classic-rock-radio-dot-eu-interview.html
 

*  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:
http://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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 orange cat?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in 1908 a huge explosion occurred near Tungusga, Russia. It was bigger than that of atomic bombs and to this day nobody is sure what caused it (although a paper was published a few weeks ago that more or less proved it was not a meteorite).
And now the news:

  • Fish and Wildlife Service sued over decision to no...
  • Imported Tortoises Could Replace Madagascar's Exti...
  • Silence of the Rattlesnake Researchers: Snakes, Cu...
  • Social Lemurs Have More 'Street Smarts,' Study Fin...
  • A New Bizarrely Shaped Spoon Worm, Arhynchite Haya...
  • Female Florida panther, raised in captivity, gives...
  • Conserving globally threatened bugs on the UK Over...
  • Leopard shot, killed in Clark County



  • In February this year a Meteor exploded over Chelybinsk in Russia and, thanks to Russians having lots of dashboard cameras in their cars, there is a metric shed-load of footage of it:

    Saturday, June 29, 2013

    THE SOAY SEA MONSTER


    Two contemporary drawings of the Soay sea monster, the first made by the witness Tex Geddes, the second by someone with a vivid imagination


















    Archelon ischyros in all its glory dwarfing the bloke next to it





    DALE DRINNON: South American wildmen, Benny's Blogs and a visit to the world of Cedar and Willow


    New at Frontiers of Zoology:
    New at Cedar and Willow:
    {Meant to go with Benny's Blogs]
    New at Benny's Blogs:
     

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

    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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


    UAE releases 93 endangered falcons into the wild i...

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN vs THE MINGO MICE

    I need to apologise to Max. Every year when he goes to the Glastonbury Festival he telephones me afterwards and tells me all about it. Because last weekend was the Solstice Festival in Wales, I assumed it was also Glastonbury. I have been sulking all week because I hadn't heard from him.
     
    Yesterday I looked for YouTube footage of The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury, and not finding any I jumped to the conclusion that the all powerful Rolling Stones organisation had quashed such things, a bit like the Led Zeppelin organisation did after the 02 gig six years ago. I had even got half way through an article about Corporate Big Brother in the music business. I was waxing lyrical on my themes.
     
    Then, last night my dear nieflings Dave B-P and Jess H came round. In passing Dave said that he was planning to spend this evening (Saturday) watching The Rolling Stones and Primal Scream on the BBC coverage of Glastonbury Festival. I had got may dates wrong and my proverbial knickers in a twist over nothing. Glastonbury Festival is, of course, this weekend, and I am an idiot. But then again, everyone else knows both of those things anyway. I am now gonna sit and lick my wounds and listen to Marianne Faithfull.
     

    What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
     
     
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_29.html
     
     
     
    Double Dutch: Review of the Dutch Woodstock.....from Holland
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_29.html
     
     
    *  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:
    http://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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 cat?

    ANDREW MAY: Return of the cryptoturd



    Hi Jon,

    The two-days-per-week job I'm doing at the moment means I can go for a lunchtime walk round the Winfrith nature reserve, where I saw the mysterious "cryptozoological turd" a few years ago (Animals & Men issue 47 page 72). I saw something similar yesterday, in almost the identical location (photo attached). It was similar in size and had the same regular striations, but this one appeared to be fresher (less dried out). I would say that it's fairly clearly a fox dropping, particularly with the distinctive pinched end. What do you think? The scat was surrounded by downy feathers (a few of which are visible in the photo), which again is suggestive of a fox. So if this one is a fox, then the previous one probably was too.

    Another question -- is there a way of distinguishing at a glance between a newt and a baby lizard? Both species are supposed to be common in that area, but usually when you see them it's only for a fraction of a second as they scuttle under cover. Is there anything about time of year, location, colouring, way of moving etc that would allow you to tell from a momentary glimpse whether it's a newt or a small lizard?

    Andrew

    KARL SHUKER - MY TOP TEN NEW AND REDISCOVERED ANIMALS OF MODERN TIMES



    Karl Shuker reveals his ten favourite zoological arrivals and revivals from the modern age.

    Read on...

    GLEN VAUDREY'S WHOLE WIDE WORLD #30. Scotland

    30. Scotland
    Scotland is home to one of the most famous of cryptids out there, the world famous Nessie, also known as the Loch Ness Monster. 

    However, we are going to stay on land for this mystery animal; we are going to look at one of those out of place big cats. While there have been plenty of sightings made over the years on the Scottish mainland it is perhaps even more surprising to learn that they have also taken place on some of Scotland’s smaller islands with sightings of large black cats being recorded on the isle of Mull as far back as the 1970s and right up to recent times. Mull is an island that at its closest point to the mainland of Scotland is still a 15 minute ferry trip so how a big cat could have made the journey undetected is a mystery. But that’s not the only island to have a big cat sighting for there have been others on islands even more remote from the mainland. In 1999 there was a sighting of a dark brown cat the size of a collie on the very small (8x3 miles) and remote island of Colonsay (over 2 hours on a ferry from the mainland) that must be among the strangest sightings. The creature was spotted by a couple out walking who came within 50 yards of this larger than normal cat; after watching it for twenty seconds until it disappeared over a stone dyke and into the ferns. The couple made enquires locally but nobody could explain the sighting.


    Of course the sightings on Mull and Colonsay are just a couple of the reports of strange creatures recorded in The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: The Western Isles.

    Starting soon you will be able to tune in and hear about the mystery animals of Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland, the Morton Through Midnight show will play host to Morton's Mystery Creatures, a regular feature where I will be looking at Scotland’s mystery creatures.
    Next stop is a trip south of the border to England.

    Conserving globally threatened bugs on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena.



    misc/2012/spiky_woodlouse
    The Spiky yellow woodlouse (Pseudolaureola atlantica) occurs nowhere else. Recent surveys indicate that there are less than 50 individuals left at a single cloud forest location. © Ed Thorpe
    Bugs on the brink - Conserving St Helena's invertebrates
    June 2013. Wildlife charity, Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, has launched a 3-year ‘Bugs on the Brink' project, on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena. Many of St Helena's unique invertebrates are on the brink of extinction, with some of its most iconic species, such as the Giant earwig, feared lost within living memory. Funded by the Darwin Initiative, the project will help to conserve St Helena's globally threatened invertebrates. This is the first time that anyone has set out to create a long-term plan for conserving St Helena's invertebrates.

    400 endemic invertebrates
    St Helena is one of the UK's ‘Overseas Territories', lying in the South Atlantic Ocean, mid-way between Africa and South America. It is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world and, for now, can only be reached by boat. The island's flora and fauna evolved in extreme isolation, resulting in more than 400 invertebrate species found nowhere else on Earth. For this reason, St Helena has been called the ‘Galapagos of the South Atlantic'.

    Extinctions
    Unfortunately, following its discovery by sailors in 1502, St Helena suffered immense environmental destruction, caused by introduced livestock and forest clearance. Today, much of the island's unique wildlife is threatened with extinction. Iconic invertebrates such as the Giant earwig (Labidura herculeana), Giant ground beetle (Aplothorax burchelli) and St Helena darter (a dragonfly - Sympetrum dilatatum) are believed lost within living memory. The remnants of the native flora and fauna are struggling to survive in habitat fragments, which occupy a tiny fraction of their original area. They also face a wide range of pressures from non-native plants and animals.

    Read on...

    WALLY THE COMEDY RHINOCEROS: Yesterday's News Today

    Oll is away, so for todayYesterday's News Today is done by Wally the Comedy Rhinoceros. He is a stand up comedian of some renown. Here is one of his rhino-related jokes.

    Knock Knock

    Who's there

    Wally the Comedy Rhinoceros

    Ha Ha that was funny. Sidesplitting. Yes. Ha! Now for the news...


  • Two-headed turtle hatches at US zoo
  • Towards a New Relationship with Rattlesnakes - via...
  • Snake Fungal Disease: The White-Nose Syndrome for ...
  • NASA satellites reveal fire hotspots that are poll...
  • Animals being used as tourist props in Mexico
  • Researchers Discover Species-Recognition System in...
  • Two Rare Albino Humpback Whales Spotted on Yearly ...
  • Social Networks Shape Monkey 'Culture' Too


  • And now for a happy tune that you can whistle while you work:

    Friday, June 28, 2013

    GLEN VAUDREY'S WHOLE WIDE WORLD #29 Faroe isles


    29. Faroe isles
    Our first stop in the European leg of our travels brings us to the rather charming Danish dependency of the Faroe isles. While they consist of only 18 islands they do have a number of creatures of cryptozoological interest. However the one I am going to look at today wasn’t on the land but was to be spotted in the waters around the islands.

    The event took place a few years before 1846 and concerned a sighting made by Captain Christmas of the Danish Navy. Whilst in command of a Danish frigate sailing between Iceland and the Faroe isles he spotted something most unusual in the water, a large shoal of porpoises were racing towards the ship giving the impression that they were trying to get away from something unpleasant. That something unpleasant soon made an appearance, a horse-like head upon a neck some 18 feet tall appeared out of the water before heading back under the waves in a motion similar to that of a duck diving. Was it just coincidence that the creature was sighted close to the fleeing mammals or does it give a clue to what these large mystery sea creatures love to eat?

    If you would like to read more about the mystery animals of the Faroe isles then I would recommend that you get your hands on a copy of my book The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: The Northern Isles, if only to find out how I managed to include them in a book about the British Isles.
    Our next stop is just a short boat trip away. We are off to Scotland.

    CRYPTOLINK: Sarawak - Village in panic over bigfoot prints

    A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.


    ABOUT 200 Bigfoot-like footprints have been discovered near Kampung Kepis Baru, Kuala Pilah, causing panic among villagers, reported Harian Metro.
    Adnan Pungut, 48, claimed he discovered the footprints when he was clearing rubbish and wood at his rubber estate at 3pm on Saturday.
    “I immediately informed the others because I was scared. I told the other villagers and all of us went back to the area.
    “We found 200 footprints that were about the same size and tried to follow them,” he was quoted as saying.
    “Based on the footprints, we can assume that the creature has two legs and weighs more than 100kg,” he said.

    DALE DRINNON: Living Dragons, Benny's Blogs

    New At Frontiers of Zoology:
    Two accounts of Living Dragons, one in England and the other in the Orient:

    And at Benny's blog The Ominous Octopus Omnibus, another retelling of the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast, as told by Superman comics:
     
    Best Wishes, Dale D.

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS.....

    And so another working week shudders to an end. Last night I had a long chat with one of our authors who also works for the DSS. He told me about the obscenely draconian legislation for benefits claimants which is being proposed for 2015 and after. I really cannot believe that any government could be so harsh, and I would love to say that I think that the British people are not going to just like down passively and take this latest affront towards our individual freedoms. But I am sure that we will all just roll over like good little puppies and take it. What the hell happened to the spirit of protest and dissent? Like John Lennon said: "Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV, And you think you're so clever and classless and free", and we all know what he said next.
     
    Wise up people. Before it is too late.
     
    I heard from Richard who telephoned me briefly from Gatwick. By now, he, Christophe and Adele should be in Sumatra. Let's all keep our collective fingers crossed that the expedition in search of orang pendek - the undiscovered upright walking ape of Sumatra - is a success.
     

    What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
     
     
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_28.html
     
     
     
     
     

    *  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:
    http://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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 cat?

    ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

    From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

    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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.



    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


    Thursday, June 27, 2013

    DALE DRINNON: Sauropod, Sea wolf, Benny's Blogs, and a visit to the world of Cedar & Willow

    NOTICE: Comments submitted to Blogger may or may not make it through to publication. There is a bug on.

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO DAH MAN IS ASLEEP

    Well, I finished reading 'The People's Music' by Stuart Maconie last night. When I posted about it yesterday, several people accused me of being unfair. But although some of the later chapters are better, the book is still a big disappointment. It is just so lightweight. It reads like a series of columns in a popular magazine. And the mistakes are unforgivable (Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull did not play the first Glastonbury. It was Ian A Anderson, an acoustic singer songwriter and a completely different dude). Other statements remain unsubstantiated. For example it is fairly well accepted that John Lennon went off in a huff after George Harrison refused to let Yoko appear at the Concert for Bangladesh. However, Maconie says that his non-appearance was because of his unwillingness to cut short a holiday. If this is true, it is actually quite a major thing for Lennon scholars. But where did he get it from?
    I really wanted this book to be good. But it isn't. Maconie is a fine writer, and I suspect that an editor somewhere took a hatchet to his prose and dumbed it down outrageously. That, dear readers, is a sign of the times.
    What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_27.html
    *  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:
    http://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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 cat?

    CFZ PEOPLE: Harriet Wadham



    Happy Birthday, my dear

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

    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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.
    #

    Capture of alleged "kallana" pygmy elephant

    An animal described as a "calf elephant, which is purportedly a 'pygmy'" was "tethered" (captured) in February by Kerala Forest Department (KFD) vets in the forest in Paruthypally, in the Trivandrum District of the South Indian state of Kerala. 

    The capture was covered in The Hindu newspaper of Feb 7 this year and there's also a Malayalam language TV broadcast, which has a fleeting few seconds of a slightly strange-looking elephant moving in the forest, with not much to indicate the scale.

    While the traditions of the local Kani "tribals" who live in the Peppara forest describe"kallana" - an agile pygmy elephant five feet in height or less, the Kerala wildlife officials were so convinced that the elephant was nothing of the sort that they "dismissed" a demand for DNA samples to be taken from the elephant. V. Gopinath, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala, was quoted as saying "kallana" said "kallana" was "a myth" that "existed in the folklore of tribespeople alone." Another KFD official described the elephant as being a six-year-old calf.


    Read on...

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    Wednesday, June 26, 2013

    MYSTERY FISH FROM HONG KONG

    Photos of Sai Kung, Hong Kong
    This photo of Sai Kung is courtesy of TripAdvisor

    Richard Muirhead sent me the above picture. I think that it is some kind of grouper; the serrated back is reminiscent of this Pacific Goliath grouper. Richard's fish looks more elongated, but that may well be an artifact as a result of the curved front of the tank.

    What do you think?

    Whatever it is, it has almost certainly been eaten by now, as it was photographed in a restaurant in Sai Kung...

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