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...




Wednesday, April 29, 2015

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.


  • NEWSLINK: UK: French cat found on a Hutton estate
  • NEWSLINK: UK: Plans progress for big cat return to...
  • Photo proof of snow leopards in newly created refu...


  • Raw meat diet could combat captive cheetah health ...
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Wooster Daily Record

    In search of bigfoot
    WEST SALEM, Ohio -- Dan and Sue Baker made the two-hour trip from Sebring to West Salem to talk about their favorite subject: Bigfoot. While the trip ...

    Bigfoot Evidence and Sightings 2015: Arkansas Holds First Bigfoot Conference
    For just $10 a pop, Bigfoot enthusiasts convened in Vilonia, Arkansas, on Saturday for a day-long conference dedicated to the mysterious apelike ...

    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 ROUND ABOUT

    The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
     
    I love this time of the year. The fresh green leaves on the beech trees in the garden, the holly blues flying over the ivy on the side of the house, and the goldfish spawning in the pond.  However, yesterday, we had only just got the axolotls settled into their outside accommodation, and bought some bedding plants for the new raised bed that Danny has built next to the main pond, than we were told there was a frost warning, so we had to rapidly rethink our plans.
     
    As I write I am listening to 'Postcards from paradise', the eighteenth solo album from Ringo Starr, one time drummer with you know who. It would be so easy to slate this album as being irrelevant and not breaking new ground. But the man is 75 for goodness sakes, and - you know what? He has turned in a perfectly respectable and solid album, which I have to say is at least as good as the vast majority of solo albums by ex-Beatles, and considerably better than some. OK, John got his kit off for peace and George chanted for Krishna, but that was a long time ago.
     
    The album was produced completely by Starr himself, and engineered by longtime collaborator Bruce Sugar. Starr worked with many of his regular songwriting and recording colleagues on "Postcards from Paradise", including Van Dyke Parks, Dave Stewart, and Gary Burr. As with his previous albums, Starr maintains a philosophy of "If you show up at my house and you can play, you're on the record".
     
    This is a much more enjoyable listen than a great deal of the stuff that I am sent. And anyone who can add the name of his favourite pudding into a lascivious song about a Creole girl in the Big Easy is OK by me. This is fine, very well played and crafted, and consistently entertaining music. People should give up waiting for the big statement and bear that in mind. Peace and Love (Peace and Love).
     
     
    The Gonzo Weekly #127
    www.gonzoweekly.com
     
    Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Circuline, Astronomusic, Blur, Blackbird Raum, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
     
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#127) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has the legendary Roy Weard on the cover, and inside yours truly interviews him about his autobiography, memories of Watchfield and Windsor free festivals and lots more. Doug writes about Circuline, Jon interviews Astronomusic, Jon eulogises over Blackbird Raum, and is pensive about Blur's new album. Jon critiques a book about Doc Shiels. Neil Nixon reports on an even stranger album than usual, Wyrd plays live with exclusive pics, 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:
    John Lennon, Noel & Liam Gallagher, Tool, Black Sabbath, Nile Rodgers, Chic, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Bernard Stollman, John Shuttleworth, Hugh Hopper, Rocket Scientists, Tommy James, Birmingham Sunday, Inner City Unit, Mick Abrahams, OneRepublic, Ellie Goulding, Florence and the Machine, Brantley Gilbert,Roy Weard, Circuline, Astronomusic, Hawkwind, Jessica Taylor, Yes,
    Reflektions, Tracy Nicholson, Stargrace, Jim Watts, Dogleg, Doc Shiels, Xtul, Yes, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Rick Wakeman, Blackbird Raum, Blur, Damon Albarn, A.C.,Spice Girls, Elvis, The Osbournes, Michael Jackson, The Partridge Family, Claude Serre, Jonne
     
    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?

    TODAY IS A SAD DAY: Louie Louie - The Kingsmen

    The man who sang the most famous version of the greatest song ever written has left the building

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1429 - Joan of Arc led Orleans, France, to victory over Britain. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Bats use both sides of brain to listen -- just lik...
  • Invasive lionfish discovered in Brazil
  • At home with the world's last male northern white ...
  • Launch of European Red List of Bees: Fostering bee...
  • Hong Kong Officials ask Pakistan to Receive 751 sm...

  • Hey, that's my cappuccino! Coyote captured outside..

  • 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)