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...




Saturday, August 10, 2013

MAX IDENTIFIES MYSTERY ANIMAL

This picture has been doing the rounds of The Internet, and has been described as: "a tiger prawn, crab and scorpion combined when he was in the jungle to collect palm leaves".

I wrote to Max...

Max Blake I initially dismissed it as a fake, thanks to the poor photo which showed very little about the animal. However, after looking into it, it turns out it is a mud lobster, one of the Thalassina species, but with the tail stretched out. There is a lot of forced perspective, but comparing it to the hand shows it's around 25-30cm maybe, which is at the large end of the size range of Thalassina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassina
http://layersofdelite.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/ngoang.html

CFZ PEOPLE: Doug Shoop



Happy Birthday to one cool dude

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS BESET BY IDIOTS


And so the week that runs up to the Weird Weekend begins. Some people have been towers of strength, others less so, and some proven to be broken  reeds, but that is the way of life. Other people are capable of the most extraordinary acts of kindness. A couple who came to last year's event wrote to me this morning. They are not coming this year but sent a cheque for the value of two tickets as a donation to the cause. If the event does continue (and I really still don't know at this stage) it will be be because of people like them and the lady in the Village Shop who yesterday told me how much she enjoys the event every year.
Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_10.html
Today's Track of the Day is a track from Van der Graaf Generator
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-gonzo-track-of-day-van-der-graaf.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?

DALE DRINNON: Loch Ness, sea serpent, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:
New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:
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.



KARL SHUKER: WATCH OUT FOR THE NIGHT JAGUAR



Karl Shuker solves one jaguar-related mystery and recalls another one.

Read on...

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:
From CFZ Canada:

CFZ PEOPLE: Dougal Taylor-Rose



Happy Birthday, Dougal.  One year old today!  
xxxx

SHERI THE CFZ INTERN: Day 1 – Thursday


I arrived in Woolfardisworthy with a healthy amount of blisters developing on my fingers. These were caused by the excess of luggage which I had had to bring this trip. My camp bed, which was essentially a big bag of metal, wouldn’t fit into my suitcase, nor would my backpack, so these were to be carried separately. My suitcase did hold all my clothes and such for the eleven days that I am here for, as well as a four man tent, sleeping bag and my work and portfolio. To make matters worse, the suitcase only has one working wheel, so everything had to be picked up and carried. All this just the day after I was thinking that I don’t really need brawn.

The first thing I saw as I entered my room here at Myrtle cottage was a large fake gorilla sitting over my bed. This was somewhat startling. I had to face him away before I could sleep there. After settling in, I went back downstairs and was introduced to the new members of staff; Lillith and Captain Frunobulax the Magnificent.

Numerous cups of tea and a delicious meal were had, breaking up the discussion. A surprising amount of this discussion was of a fairly sensible nature. To help towards my research project, a large tome on amphibians was handed to me as light bedtime reading. It will doubtless be of use to me, as well as being personally fascinating. I have read about a page. 

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today