Archive for the ‘Review’ Category
For some reason, at this time of year I start thinking about what to read over the holidays. If you like studying and learning about fungi, you are probably up for a good topical read once in awhile, not matter what tie of year it is. We’re not talking about the raft of mushroom cookbooks [...]
Tags: books, mushroom books, mycology books, Mycorrhizae, reading
Literally hundreds of videos a month that are found with keyword searches for “mushrooms”, “fungi” or “mycology” are posted to YouTube every month. Most are irrelevant to our interests but a few are worth checking out. Here are four that are worth more than a cursory look and they are posted at Fungal Visions. Fungal [...]
Tags: Fungal Visions, video
Someone I follow on Twitter first clued me into the existence of Spiral a few months ago. I wish I could remember who it was so I could thank them, but alas… Sorry. Whoever it was, I thank them for the tip because Spiral is a great read. My first look at Spiral came at [...]
Tags: books, Cornell, fungal bioweapons, Kathie Hodge, mycofiction, Paul McEuen
Oh good, a new mushroom book, I thought as I pulled the fresh-looking copy of Mushrooms and Other Fungi of North America (Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY, 2010) by Roger Phillips off the shelf at my local library. For a new book, it looked awfully familiar for some reason. A quick scan of the front matter [...]
Tags: books, mushroom identification
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been enjoying the Bravo show “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.” It’s one of those reality competition shows (like “Top Chef” or “Project Runway”) but with artists competing each week on a different challenge. I like it because of the creativity and expression, and because [...]
Tags: art, Bravo, creativity, Fungus Study, Jeanne Greenberg, Miles, nature, Work of Art
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 was [...]
Tags: entertainment, movies, science fiction, yeast lords
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 [...]
Tags: Australia, cows, facial eczema, New Zealand, Pithomyces chartarum, sproridesmin
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 [...]
Tags: aquatic mushrooms, Oregon, Psathyrella aquatica, Rogue River
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 [...]
Tags: brown rot, spalted wood, woodworking
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 [...]
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 [...]
Tags: instructables
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 [...]
Tags: books, edible mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms
“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 [...]
Tags: blogs, mycoblogosphere, Penn State Fun Guy, research
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 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, [...]
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, [...]
Tags: film, know your mushrooms, Sundance
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 [...]
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 [...]
Tags: Foray, Hallock, New Mexico, NMMS
(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 has been a student of plant medicine [...]
Tags: books, medicinal mushrooms
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 [...]
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.
