Archive for January, 2010
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 [...]
Tags: art, Ecocradle, Far West Fungi, Mycotectural Alpha, Philip Ross, structures
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. A Card Game that is Actually Educational It might stretch the bounds of fair use, but I hope they won’t [...]
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 [...]
Tags: art, dance, Pilobolus, University of Minnesota
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 [...]
Tags: cholesterol, red yeast rice, statins
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 [...]
Tags: mushroom growing, oyster mushroom, poachers, sustainable agriculture, Thailand
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
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 [...]
Tags: fairy ring, Texas
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
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, [...]
Tags: bats, Europe, Geomyces destructans, WNS
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
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 [...]
Tags: California, Santa Cruz Fungus Fair
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 [...]
Tags: Dragon's Den, mushroom farm, mushroom growing, truffle, UK truffles
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 [...]
Tags: Australia, mushroom farm, mushroom growing
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 [...]
Tags: California, Colorado, NAMA, Santa Cruz Fungus Fair
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
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 [...]
Tags: cancer, cordycepin, Cordyceps, medicinal mushrooms
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 [...]
