The Los Angeles Mycological Society (LAMS) Wild Mushroom Fair is scheduled for February 14, 2010 at the L.A. County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. The LA Times (which is quite good at giving coverage to mushroom-related stories and events) says:
Events include: a cooking demonstration; mushroom growing demonstrations; wild mushroom displays; books, collectibles and art; children’s activities; [...]
Tags: LAMS, Stamets, Wild Mushroom Fair
No, being a mycophilelatist is not an immoral activity. It’s a term describing one who collects mushroom topical stamps.
There are a small number of people in the stamp collecting world who specialize in mushroom topicals. Topicals are stamps that have specific pictures on them or are themed on a certain “topic” like trains, bugs, war, [...]
Tags: catalog, mycophilelaty, stamps
In what looks like a potential rival to EcoCradle, Mycotectural Alpha is a construction material made of dense mycelium. Time magazine mentions it in the article Industrial-Strength Fungus by Adam Fischer:
Mycelium doesn’t taste very good, but once it’s dried, it has some remarkable properties. It’s nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more [...]
Tags: art, Ecocradle, Far West Fungi, Mycotectural Alpha, Philip Ross, structures
A previous post (Red Rice Yeast–The Good and the Bad) discussed the pros and cons of red yeast rice as a substitute for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. Evidence is good that it does in fact lower cholesterol, perhaps even dangerously so if consumed unwisely.
Now a new research study has shown that red yeast rice was as [...]
Tags: cholesterol, red yeast rice, statins
It was a slow news evening in Palestine Texas, on January 20, 2010. News of a Fairy ring on farm in Pert drawing interest, swept across the big system of tubes known as “the Internets” starting at 8:50 PM (CST) on Wednesday evening.
Though they consider it nature-made, Don Harris and his wife Fran and family [...]
Tags: fairy ring, Texas
Thanks to tip from @fungalgenomes, we find out about FungiFest at the Machine Project in L.A. Or better to say the L.A. times has an article on it, FungiFest breaks the festival mold. Of course not even the best newspaper writers in the world can resist using fungal puns in their headlines (sigh). There is [...]
Tags: art, film, Fungifest, L.A. Machine Project
Not Mushroom. For Error, er… Not. Mushroom For Error, uh… Not! Mushroom for Error. Nah…
The heck with it. I don’t get the title, but Not mushroom for error is a full-length article about Gary and Michele Akers who recently started a small mushroom growing operation in Australia.
It has involved a lot of hard work and [...]
Tags: Australia, mushroom farm, mushroom growing
According to Scientists discover how Cordyceps mushrooms fight cancer by S. L. Baker, recent research has made progress in understanding how cordycepin, isolated from Cordyceps fungi (Ascomycota), may act to inhibit the growth and spread of cancer cells:
The University of Nottingham scientists found that the Cordyceps-derived treatment has two important effects on cells that could [...]
Tags: cancer, cordycepin, Cordyceps, medicinal mushrooms
A while back I posted a piece on spalted wood, which is favored by woodworkers because of its interesting coloration and patterns. Finewoodworking.com recently posted an article, Spalt Your Own Lumber: Just Say No To Brown Rot!, discussing how brown rot fungi can ruin attempts at producing spalted wood.
I’ve spent a lot of time on [...]
Tags: brown rot, spalted wood, woodworking
A Dr. Marvin Hausman, urologist, transplant surgeon and founder of Total Nutraceutical Solutions, Inc. (TNS) is touting a special mushroom formulation to treat a range of maladies including Alzheimer’s. It apparently works in fruit flies.
According to Wisdom in mushrooms, Local doctor believes he may have found the cure to Alzheimer’s disease by Jason Horton:
Recently, through [...]
Tags: Agaricus blazei, Agaricus subrufescens, medicinal mushrooms, Total Nutraceutical Solutions, UV radiation, vitamin D
Wanna’ trade a Magic Golden Cantharellus for a Purple Entomophagous Bauvaria?
The Phylomon project, as I understand it, is an open source educational card game effort to produce something along the lines of Pokemon cards.
It might stretch the bounds of fair use, but I hope they won’t mind since I enthusiastically want to support and publicize [...]
Good on the man who wakes up one morning and says to himself, “You know, poaching sucks. I think I’ll try mushroom farming.” Apparently that is just what some poachers are saying in Thailand these days (er, sort of, maybe?)
This according to an AFP article (and I don’t know exactly what AFP is, although the [...]
Tags: mushroom growing, oyster mushroom, poachers, sustainable agriculture, Thailand
With a name like Spore Liberation Front, it’s hard to tell what this outfit might be up to. A lot of people might wave their hands and say “they’re just a bunch of ’shroom heads, who think they can change the world.” Well, they would be right about one thing–they are trying to change the [...]
Tags: Cascadia, mycoremediation, radical mycology, Spore Liberation Front
The Santa Cruz Fungus Fair, which took place this past weekend attracted a good bit of press from various outlets (some before, some after). Read all about it:
Fungus Fest celebrates all things mushroom
Thousands of people headed to Santa Cruz, CA this weekend for the annual fungus fair. “The fascination starts with the food thing and [...]
Tags: California, Santa Cruz Fungus Fair
Yes this weekend, January 9-10, 2010. It’s the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. According to the website some of the highlights are:
Lectures by prominent mycologists and basics of mushroom identification in our popular Mushrooms 101 class.
Dr. Tom Volk, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, a very popular and knowledgeable professional mycologist, will discuss the wonderful world of [...]
Tags: California, Colorado, NAMA, Santa Cruz Fungus Fair
You have to be a real low life to vandalize a Wikipedia page about fungus. But, apparently that is exactly what has been happening lately. The problem got to the the point where the page had to be protected from editing by new or unregistered users.
According to the history of the Fungus page, this got [...]
A number of articles found on the web recently (actually they are all basically the same one) have told of a fairly serious case of book damage done by fungus in Luxembourg. Sometime in 2009, the conditions in the basement of the National Library of Luxembourg became quite humid, and before anyone knew it, a [...]
Now this is weird. As the lady explains at the beginning of her story, she gets an email from Africa. Usually those are from “missionaries” looking for a house sitter while they are away, or “bankers” who need a place to stash some money, etc. Uh huh. Not this time.
Nancy Ancrum of the Miami Herald [...]
Tags: Ghana, mushroom farming, oyster mushrooms
When a dance company is named after a dung fungus, you know they are good. Pilobolus has been on stage for a long time now; since 1971 in fact. They must really be comfortable with each other to get in those poses.
The outfit will be performing two shows on February 12 and 13 at the [...]
Tags: art, dance, Pilobolus, University of Minnesota
The Center for Biological Diversity published a press release today outlining a proposal to close all caves to protect bats from a perceived impending collapse of bat populations brought on by the fungal disease, bat white nose syndrome (WNS).
Emergency Petitions Filed to Close Caves and Save Bats From Extinction
The Center for Biological Diversity [...]
Tags: bats, caves, Center for Biological Diversity, WNS
An article by David DeFranza appearing a treehugger.com, European Bats Resistant to Deadly Fungus, discusses reports indicating that European bats are more resistant to white nose syndrome (WNS) than North American bats.
Currently, reports from eight countries in Europe have described bats with white mold on their wings and muzzles and four countries—Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, and [...]
Tags: bats, Europe, Geomyces destructans, WNS
The Dragon’s Den. Sounds like the title of sci-fi/fantasy novel or a place to NOT take the kids in Tokyo. But no. Dragon’s Den is a BBC television program wherein entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of “Britain’s top business brains.” I’ll bet one of them is a mean British guy.
It was about four [...]
Tags: Dragon's Den, mushroom farm, mushroom growing, truffle, UK truffles
A mushroom farm opened as part of a correctional program in Wyoming Couldn’t make a go of it and had to close down after only two years in operation. The reason? The prisoners were too slow in picking and sorting the product, which consisted of portabello and crimini mushrooms. Some Guatemalans who were brought in [...]
Tags: mushroom farm, mushroom growing, prisoners, Wyoming
Andy Isaacson of Mother Jones has written an in-depth article discussing a wide range of work, including a significant amount of biographical background, involving Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti.
The Search for an Endangered Mushroom That Could Cure Smallpox, TB and Bird Flu begins aboard a boat. (Note: It’s a five page article but this link [...]
Tags: agarikon, medicinal mushrooms, Stamets
