Archive for the ‘Review’ Category

“Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years”

It’s not everyday you come across a weird and entertaining movie featuring yeast. We received one from Netflix the other day (my daughter seems to have a knack for selecting unheard of, unusual, and darned entertaining movies). I’m talking about Gentlemen Broncos starring Michael Angarano, Jemaine Clement, Sam Rockwell and Jennifer Coolidge. The film [...]

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Cows Threatened by Fungi Down Under

Down New Zealand way, the alarm has been sounded. Spore counts have gone through the roof (maybe “sky high” would be a better way to put it) out in the pastures and this spells trouble for those lumbering denizens of the fields–cows.
According to Fungus threat to dairy cows soars, by Richard Woodd:
The facial eczema threat [...]

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Swimming with Mushrooms (or, the Fungal Life Aquatic)

Word has been floating around the mycological community for awhile now about the discovery of mushrooms developing submerged in a fresh water stream in Oregon. Now the research on these mushrooms has come to full light with the publication of a paper in Mycologia:
Jonathan L. Frank, Robert A. Coffan and Darlene Southworth, (2010), Aquatic gilled [...]

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Brown Rot–The Enemy of Spalted Wood

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 [...]

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The Phylomon Project

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 mind since I [...]

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Mycology/Mushroom Instructables

The do it yourself (DIY) movement has really taken off in recent years. Along with that, there has been an explosion of material on the web for how to do all kinds of stuff to save money, impress your friends,  and just have fun doing something kinda’ cool.
Although the Instructables page has been up for [...]

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Northeast Mushroom Book Still Available for Review

No charge. Really! All you have to do is ask and I’ll arrange to have it sent to you.
David Spahr’s book Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada is now available for a MycoRant review. The publisher will send a copy to the reviewer directly. If you are a mycologist at a [...]

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Check Out the Penn State Fun Guy

“Fun Guy” is right right up there with “Fungus Amongus” (oops) on my list, but hey–that’s my problem.
My problems aside, you really should check out the Penn State Fun Guy. A new addition to the mycoblogosphere, Penn State Fun Guy recently appeared on the blog roll at the Cornell Mushroom Blog. I got a chance [...]

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MycoRant is Off Until Next Week

Got some  places to go and things to do (like hiking through the snow with 19 10-year olds this morning), so new posts will be infrequent to non-existent  until next week.

Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard by Nicholas P. Money: Book Review

Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard by Nicholas P. Money
Reviewed by Robert Rogers
I really enjoyed this book — for the second time. I read it previously after borrowing it from the local library and thought it was a good read then. This time around however, I enjoyed it like a gourmet dinner, with truffles of course, rather than [...]

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“Know Your Mushrooms” Airs on Sundance

I was channel surfing Tuesday night and caught the second half of Robert Mann’s film “Know Your Mushrooms” on the Sundance Channel. I now have it set to record the next showing, which is this weekend on DirecTV. Other Satellite and cable networks may have a different schedule.
If you happen to catch this film, I [...]

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Wisconsin Preps for Bat WNS

The fungal disease of bats known as white nose syndrome (WNS) is heading West. According to Sounding the Alarm for Bat Health by Meg Jones:
“For now, Wisconsin’s bat population is hale and hearty. But a devastating fungus is racing through cave-dwelling bat populations in eastern states and it’s headed this way. White-nose syndrome has now [...]

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An Account of the NMMS Annual Foray

Rob Hallock, PhD, and Gretchen Cheverton have been kind enough to write about their experience at the New Mexico Mycological Society Annual Foray, held in Taos during the latter part of august 2009. And here it is…
New Mexico Mycological Society Annual Foray
Taos, New Mexico, was really dry this August, but the New Mexico Mycological Society [...]

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Medicinal Mushroom Book Available for Review

(Update 09/010/09 – the book has been claimed. Look for the review soon.)
Author Robert Rogers was kind enough to send to MycoRant his book, The Fungal Pharmacy . Subtitled Medicinal Mushrooms of Western Canada, this spiral bound edition contains 230 pages of color photographs and text.

Robert [...]

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Mycology Books for Kindle

With the release of Amazon.com’s new wider-format Kindle reader, I though it might be a good idea to provide a list of mycology books available for the increasingly popular e-reader.
A new page at MycoRant called “Mycology Books for Kindle” can be found in the Pages section on the right side bar. Sales referrals help to [...]

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On Holiday (I Mean Moving)

Moving is like being on holiday right? No?
Posts will be sporadic for the next week or so, until I get resettled. Thanks for visiting.