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...




Sunday, April 06, 2014

SHERI THE CFZ INTERN - Day 1 – Saturday

Day 1 – Saturday

The night of my arrival, on the Friday, was fairly uneventful. We went to Lidl to buy cereal: yummy chocolate hoops. I had the most tedious seven-hour train journey yet, as I had been quite absent-minded in the morning and forgotten to grab a book. Though, all in all, it wasn’t too bad. I was just half asleep all evening.

Sleeping in the living room was an effective way of ensuring I was up and ready on time (around 10am). My efforts in folding up my bedding proved futile once the dogs came down and felt they could make it look better.

I got on with type-setting the second volume of the Eberhart book until Charlotte arrived. One of the colonies of cockroaches had collapsed and we were to begin to set up a new one. Rotting logs were placed on top of compost and the four surviving members of the previous colony were thrust into their new home.

After a quick pot noodle break, Charlotte went home and I got back on with Eberhart. I got though about a third of the book before we called it a day. Then we watched the first episode of a TV documentary series about Bigfoot-type cryptids. I was unimpressed. It was more for mere entertainment value than anything scientific. Jon seemed utterly dismayed and openly berated both the show and its personalities. Then it was bedtime. 

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



The Close Encounter with Bigfoot | The Crypto Crew
This is a older report but has never been reported to anyone until now. Bigfoot seen and chases after ATVs. The groups is still reluctant to talk about 

Cryptomundo » Bigfoot North Radio: Meldrum Responds
Cryptomundo » Bigfoot North Radio: Meldrum Responds.

FOX8 - A man who claimed he killed Bigfoot and then took... | Facebook
A man who claimed he killed Bigfoot and then took the body on a nationwide tour has admitted to lying about the whole thing. 'Bigfoot hunter' admits to 

Bigfoot Tracker News: Lynk Paul Releases Statement
Andrew was kind enough to provide Bigfoot Tracker News with an exclusive photo. This is only one but I am sure more will be released in due time.

Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center • View topic - Nests in trees
I have a question. While watching a bigfoot type video a couple of weeks ago, a comment was made about gorillas making nests in the tops of trees

The Search For Bigfoot: April 2014
Investigating a claim - whether some think the claim is a hoax or not - is by its very definition - INVESTIGATION. If those who are throwing poo at

Bigfoot Evidence: The Bigfoot Community Doesn't Have Survivorman, But We Do Have Bill Brock
We're not sure whether this is true or not, but what we do know is that Bill seems to have the skills to survive. Will there be a Survivorman Bigfoot with 

Bigfoot Evidence: Here's a List Of Bigfoot Creatures You Probably Never Heard Of
You've heard of bigfoot, sasquatch, and the yeti, but what about the Lailoken or the Chuchunaa? Check out this top 10 list of some of the more ...

BLIMEY IT'S THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

The Gonzo Daily - Sunday
Sunday morning, I don't feel right
cos I was up for half the night
it may sound weird but its not funny
i was nursing a bulldog with an upset tummy
Twice in the night my darling Pru
woke up and urgently needed to poo
so I crept downstairs and let her out
and hung around until she'd done ow't
and then crept back upstairs and went back to bed
Pru went back to sleep. I lay awake instead
and after a night nursing bilious dogs
I'm quite proud that I've completed my sunday blogs
And why are they done in poetry?
Purely 'cos it amuses me
The next issue of Gonzo Weekly is here. It features interviews with Erik Norlander on the new Rocket Scientists album, Judge Smith on the early days of Van der Graaf Generator, and Jakko Jakszyk on the forthcoming ELP re-issue and the King Crimson rehearsals. There are also features on The Psychedelic Warlords, Keith Levene, Acid Mothers Temple, Galahad and more news, reviews, views, interviews and Matschie's tree-kangaroos (OK, no arboreal macropods from New Guinea, 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!!!
Check it out at www.gonzoweekly.com or http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/gonzo-weekly-72.html
To make sure that you don't miss your copy of this and future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
P.S. If you are already a subscriber but think that you haven't been receiving your copies please check your spam filters. For some reason known only to the Gods of the internet, some e-mail programmes automatically count the magazine as 'spam' probably because it comes from a mass mailer. Either that or they are just jealous of our peerless content.
P.P.S. WARNING: If you are If you are a subscriber using Outlook, Hotmail or Outlook Express, some notifications and previous issues of the magazine may come out with formatting errors.
*  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 54 who - together with an orange kitten 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 orange kitten?

BEFORE THE BEES ARE GONE

Dear friends,


Right now, billions of bees are dying. Already, there are nowhere near enough honeybees in Europe to pollinate the crops, and in California -- the biggest food producer in the US -- beekeepers are losing 40% of their bees each year.

We're in the middle of an environmental holocaust that threatens all of us, because without pollination by bees, most plants and ⅓ of our food supply are gone.

Scientists are sounding the alarm about pesticides that are toxic to bees, and say we’re using way, way more pesticides on our crops than we need. But as with oil companies and climate change, big drug companies that sell pesticides are fighting back with corporate-funded junk science that questions the evidence, and gives politicians an excuse to delay.

Scientific studies are expensive. Avaaz may be the only crowdsourced funding model in the world able to raise enough to fund the world's first large scale, grass-roots supported, totally independent study of what's killing our bees, that decisively challenges the junk science of big pharma. The need is urgent, and if we can't do this, it's not clear who can. Let's see if we can raise a massive fund to save our bees.

Click to pledge what you can, we’ll process your donation only if we raise enough to fund a study that can go head to head with big pharma:            
YES, I'LL PLEDGE £2

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £3

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £6

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £12

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £24

To pledge an amount other than the ones listed above, click here.
We’re running out of time. A new study has revealed the scary truth: in more than half of European countries, there are not enough honeybees to pollinate crops. In the UK, the honeybee population is only a quarter of what is actually needed for pollination -- and although other kinds of bees are stepping in to fill the honeybee void, we’ll likely start losing them too if we keep loading our crops down with pesticides.

And it might all be for nothing: in the 70 years since pesticides were introduced, we've learned that some of them do more harm than good when it comes to cultivating our food because they kill off the natural enemies of pests. Worse still, over time many pests become immune to pesticides, forcing farmers to use more and more deadly chemicals -- often poisoning themselves in the process.

Everyone from official government agencies to scientists agree that one group of widely-used pesticides called neonicotinoids is killing bees. But chemical giants like Bayer and their supporters continue to argue against regulation of their products, presenting self-funded research they claim show pesticides aren't necessarily responsible for the bees’ deadly decline. And it's working -- in the United States, the newest battleground for the ban on deadly pesticides, the government says there is not yet enough evidence to justify a ban. If we lose in the US, Europe could follow suit and lift their own temporary hold on these dangerous chemicals.

It’s time to end the debate once and for all. When enough of us pledge, Avaaz will fund research by highly-respected scientists to fill critical gaps in knowledge. Then, we can join beekeepers and local advocacy organisations in a massive global offensive to save the bees by fueling strategies like:


  • Organising a media tour with our giant Bernie the bee to ensure the research shows up in the world’s biggest media outlets.
  • Funding public opinion polls in key agricultural countries to smash the claim that farming communities can’t survive without bee-killing chemicals.
  • Going after retailers to take the deadly pesticides off their shelves. It’s already happening in Europe, but we’ll get supermarkets and garden centres around the globe to follow suit.
  • Campaigning hard to get a game-changing anti-pesticides bill that has been lounging in the US congress passed once and for all.
  • Naming and shaming those pushing the bee-killing pesticides by running hard-hitting billboard and newspaper ads.
  • Taking legal action to stop government agencies that have approved neonicotinoid pesticides, despite evidence proving they are toxic to bees and a host of other beneficial creatures.
The bees are up against a well-oiled, resource rich machine that will do whatever it takes to ensure the profits of chemical companies and big agriculture don’t take a hit. Pledge now to support a massive effort to save the bees -- Avaaz will only process donations if we raise enough to make a difference:            
YES, I'LL PLEDGE £2

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £3

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £6

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £12

YES, I'LL PLEDGE £24

To pledge an amount other than the ones listed above, click here.
If the bees die out, the world we hand off to our grandchildren will look very different -- apples and almonds could become exotic foods in our supermarkets. But we’re making incredible progress in the fight to protect our precious pollinators: last year 2.4 million Avaaz members were part of a massive movement in Europe that convinced the EU Parliament to place a 2-year ban on the worst bee-killing chemicals. If our movement joins forces now to clear up the false debate that’s stalling our legislators, we could win urgently-needed pesticide bans all over the world and end the chemical war on bees once and for all!

With hope and determination,

Ricken, Mia, Emma, Allison, Christoph, Mais, Emily, Ian, Jeremy and the whole Avaaz team


MORE INFORMATION:

Pesticides halve bees' pollen gathering ability, research shows (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/bees-pollen-pesticides-ban

Honeybee shortage threatens crop pollination in Europe (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25656283

Pesticides 'making bees smaller' (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/20/pesticides-making-bees-smaller

U.S. funds research to reduce use of pesticides harmful to bees (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/08/epa-honeybees-idUSL2N0KI1QM20140108

Chemical giants go to court, bees go to Washington, and giant carpenter bees (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/04/bees-buzzfeeds-pesticides-ban-congress

One-Third of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter, Threatening Food Supply (Wired)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/

Pesticide Lobby Spends Millions To Defend Chemicals Tied To Bee Deaths (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/pesticide-lobby-bees_n_2980870.html

Warning Signs: How Pesticides Harm the Young Brain (The Nation)
http://www.thenation.com/article/178804/warning-signs-how-pesticides-harm-young-brain

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. 


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  • NEWSLINK: TANGO - ESSO TIGER SAVED


  • NEWSLINK: Big cat 'fight' erupts over Golden Gate ...
  • 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. 




    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    Yesterday’s News Today
    http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

    On this day in 1992 the author Isaac Asimov died. Asimov wrote many classic sci-fi novels and short stories including I, Robot and the foundation series. His potential legacy in creating the three laws of robotics might well turn out to be his greatest achievement if ever science creates computers or robots capable of genuine independent thought and reasoning on a similar level to that of a human.

    And now the news:


  • Fisherman must pay £50,000 after being caught fish...
  • Island night lizard: Another protected species bac...
  • Do Dogs Really Feel Guilt or Shame? (Op-Ed)
  • Fruit flies: Male extinction prevented by promiscu...
  • Possible Genetic Link Discovered Between Cavefish ...
  • Tracking sperm whales' ecology through stomach con...
  • Dinosaur tracks: Prehistoric chase scene reconstru...
  • Texas 'Chupacabra' Turns Out to Be Imposter


  • Large-scale fences can cause ecological meltdown, ...

  • Asimov states the three laws of robotics, which is really an imperfect system when you think of it as it leaves a big loop hole where by a person could order a robot to commit a vast array of crimes against a person (e.g. “Robot, steal that man's wallet for me.”) and the robot would blindly obey. A better system is my 1 law of robotics which is simply 'Robot, don't be a tw*t':
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWJJnQybZlk