MORE TOUCHING POULTRY NEWS (ever get the impression that SOMEONE in the CFZ is obsessed with chickens?)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-16198947

CALLING ARTISTS WITH A TOUCH OF VINTAGE DERRING DO!

The CFZ, or rather CFZ Press, are on the want. We know that there are a whole slew of talented artists out there, and that quite a few of you read the CFZ Bloggo network. But what we don't know is this...

...is there anyone out there who could work on some book covers for us? We want someone to do pastiches of classic boy's adventure book jackets, especially the ones for authors such as Roger Lanclyn Green in the halcyon days pre-1960.

Please email me on jon@cfz.org.uk

LIZ CLANCY: APOCALYPSE 1080p: Last Day of the World

It's been a long time since my last post for the CFZ bloggo but I have several incredibly good excuses. One is that I'm currently working on a film project and would like to invite CFZ bloggo readers to get involved. And CFZ TV.

In Montreal, back in January 1999, a couple of friends made a simple bet between themselves: produce an original short film every month until the New Millennium and the End of the World. Twelve months later, these friends were disappointed to learn that the Apocalypse had been postponed, but they had kept their bet and 200 short films later, KINO was born!

http://www.planetekino.com/index.php?s=kino&lang=en

Twelve years later, as the year 2012 looms and the 'Mayan Doomsday' silly season appears set to strike with full force, we thought we’d commemorate KINO’s apocalyptic origins by posing ONE simple question:

IF the world is ending on 21st December 2012 (as doomsday theorists claim) how would YOU spend the world’s very Last Day?

Fulfilling your wildest ‘bucket list’ desires? Saying your last goodbyes? Getting plastered? Cowering inside your bomb shelter? Making passionate love?

Partially inspired by the Ridley Scott documentary ‘Life in a Day’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Behind the Mask’ music video, Manchester Making Films Inspirational [MMFI] and SirClancelot Films are inviting Kino filmmakers worldwide to star in the ‘Apocalypse 1080p’ cinema project by sending us your most creative films showing how YOU plan to spend the Last Day of the World. The best footage will be used to create an amazing world-sourced, feature-length science fiction movie to be released in December 2012.

From something as basic as a 30-second mobile phone video clip of your last will and testament before the '2012 apocalypse' to the most elaborate 'countdown to Armageddon' flash mob, feel free to have all the fun in the world in creating your masterpieces.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED?
Imagine it. Film it. Send it in.

Pull out all creative stops. Think outside the box. Let your creativity (and cameras) run wild and send us your most amazing 21/12 'bucket list' films!

Submissions may be filmed with mobile phone, camcorder, DSLR or any other means. They may be of any length and should strive for a minimum resolution of 1080p HD (though films of lesser resolution will be accepted).

Open a Free account and upload your films to Vimeo at:

http://vimeo.com/

Then send us the web link to your film (along with your full name, phone number and email address) via Facebook Message.

Alternatively, you can post your entries on CD or DVD to:

SirClancelot Films
88 Abbey Crescent
Heywood
Lancashire
OL10 4UG

(Remember to enclose your full name, phone number and email address. Submissions are non-returnable and may be re-edited as needed.)

Closing date for entries: 30 June 2012. Please disregard the 'Tuesday, March 20, 2012' closing date indicated at the top. (For some reason Facebook will not allow you to create an event that lasts for more than 4 months.)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Could all participants refrain from adding any names, titles, dates or any other visual information to the films they submit. These will be added in post-production. Furthermore, in submitting material for this project you are doing so under the terms of the Creative Commons Public License.

MAKE THE LAST DAY OF THE WORLD COUNT FOR SOMETHING.
Imagine it. Film it. Send it in.

CFZ CANADA: The RCMP and Sasquatch

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is the Canadian national public safety service for all of Canada. It provides national, federal, provincial and municipal policing, including services to 184 aboriginal communities and three international airports.

Their duties are varied and sometimes rather odd.

http://cfz-canada.blogspot.com/2012/01/rcmp-and-sasquatch.html

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: THE HONG KONG "APE MAN" THAT WASN`T

A few months ago I reported on a story from about 1955 of an ape-man in Hong Kong. At the time all I had was a report on a paranormal blog/website. This led me to a report in the Chinese language newspaper Ta Kung Pao of 8 March 1955 (see http://hkclweb.hkpl.gov.hk:8000/microfilm/1/BATCH29b/6871C4CC9FECC4C7512E49C2E297FC3B34487A75.tif)

Today I obtained a translation from the Chinese herbalist Superherbs in Macclesfield ( see pg. 12 Flying Snake 2), which has revealed that this is a “shaggy dog story” - literally!

The actual incident was as follows:

“A hairy beast was found in Makeng Village of Chizhu, Hong Kong. A policeman found her in the grass. The animal weighs about 50 kilos. As tall as a man, quite hairy all over. It was discovered that this was a huge hound. Raised by a local farmer. She was lost from the farm days before. It was said that she often appeared in the field at nights, people would be really scared if seeing the huge hound suddenly".

But what about those “triangular footprints”? If you remember they were mentioned in the original web report when I first did my blog about this.

R

DALE DRINNON: More California Monsters

Continuing the series on California Monsters:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/01/california-monsters-featuring-lizardmen.html

Best Wishes,

Dale D.

Helicopters, aircraft carrier to save island’s unique wildlife?

A ground-breaking £1.5 million RSPB project to eliminate introduced rats from an uninhabited island in the central Pacific has attempted to remove the fingerprints of man from an otherwise idyllic tropical paradise. As a bonus, the project has also increased the known size of the UK's overseas territories by six square kilometres.

Henderson Island, one of the UK's most remote territories and a World Heritage Site, has been ravaged by Pacific Rats, introduced by the Polynesians eight centuries ago...

Read on...

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson_Island_(Pitcairn_Islands)


Henderson Island on Wikipedia)

Chick photos renew hope for endangered Caribbean seabird

Black-capped Petrel chick—a little ball of gray fluff that was discovered at its nest inside a mountaintop cave. The finding helps answer questions about this secretive species’ life cycle.

Read on...

HAUNTED SKIES: The Florida 'Thingnik'

The Florida 'Thingnik' - 1957

DALE DRINNON: New at the Frontiers of Anthropology

New article about DNA testing of coconuts on Frontiers of Anthropology:

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-on-new-world-coconuuts.html

Best Wishes, Dale D.

P.S. another article on California Monsters is on the way, too.

JON'S JOURNAL: Ness than Zero

So it's that time of the year again; the time that the media, prompted possibly by those jolly nice people at the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club remind all and sundry
that there is a prize on offer for the person or persons who made the best 'Nessie' sighting of the year.

There were, apparently, three sightings last year, and two of them were photographed. According to Fox News (and as someone who hardly ever watches television any more, I don't understand nuances of the 'Fox News Jokes' that circulate the web on a regular basis) the contenders for the prize are as follows:

1. While on vacation in May, William and Joan Jobes saw what appeared to be a head peaking above the water 200 to 300 yards off shore in Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire.
2. In June, Jan and Simon Hargreaves caught a glimpse of Nessie in the Loch near the village of Foyers, but didn't manage to get the monster on film.
3. Then in September, fish farm worker Jon Rowe snapped an idyllic photo of a large, dark shape and two humps in the water beneath the arch of a rainbow.

All very well and good, but the pictures themselves are hardly conclusive:

Joan Jobes' picture

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Jon Rowe's picture

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At least both pictures appear to show something. Many pictures from Loch Ness show nothing more than peculiar waves (this picture below was taken by yours truly in December 2005, when Richard and I visited the Loch to make a particularly futile slice of Mickey Mouse television).

I have no idea what either of them show, but I have my doubts that either are of a bona fide unknown species of animal. I would, however, love to be proved wrong.

Whilst on the subject of Loch Ness check this out:

http://news.discovery.com/earth/loch-ness-monsters-home-not-on-the-level-111231.html

A blog post by Tim Wall on Discovery News, claims that: "Just as the bubble in a carpenter's level moves back and forth depending on the surface it rests upon, Scotland's Loch Ness tilts back and forth according to the movement of the ground beneath it caused by the tides on the nearby North Sea. The motion is so subtle GPS couldn't even track it."

What impact this peculiar geophysical enigma has on the cryptozoological life of the Great Glen, I don't know, but it is interesting nonetheless.

HAUNTED SKIES: Daily Telegraph 1.2.57.

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2012/01/daily-telegraph-1257.html

NEXT WEEK

Corinna and I are going to be away for five or six days from tomorrow. We will still have access to a computer so as far as I know the blog will continue as normal. However, Graham is running the CFZ in my absence and will take over bloggystuff if necessary.

BOB TRUBSHAW: New at 'Heart of Albion'

Just to let folk who might be interested know that I've just uploaded my latest publication as a *free* PDF download from the Heart of Albion website.

It's called Souls, Spirits and Deities and is mostly about trying to understand the Anglo-Saxon view of, well, souls, spirits and deities. However, as is typical for my writing it takes in much else along the way and raises some fairly novel thoughts about the overlaps between late pagan and early Christian world views. See
http://www.hoap.co.uk/general.htm#ssd for more details and the link to the PDF download.

D.R SHOOP: Domesticated alpacas

Jon,

I thought you might get a charge out of seeing some domesticated Alpacas.

About a year ago my sister and brother-in-law decided to invest in these animals and Christmas Day was my first-hand look at the critters.

You may notice the lack of snow for us here in Minnesota. Last year at this time we had over 20 inches; this year it's dry as a bone, which suits me fine.