Aaron Brown Collecting Specimens from a Study Plot

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 to talk to the Fun Guy himself.

The Fun Guy is one Aaron D. Brown, Ph.D. candidate at Pennsylvania State University. According to Brown, “It has been a real treat providing information about fungi and my research to those with similar interests.  I also have a love of the outdoors that I will bring to my blog through future stories and images.”

Finding out that MycoRant was based in Colorado, Brown added, “I lived in Denver for nearly 11 years and have a family home just past Divide, CO.  I love the area and miss it, but the ‘shrooms are plentiful here in PA and they keep me passionate about mycology.”

Brown is fascinated by the fungal communities found within wooded habitats. One particular habitat is the focus of his   research. Aaron summarizes the goals of his project as follows:

The 31.6 acre old-growth remnant forest located on the university campus Arboretum lands is the location for this research.  The four main goals of this research are to (1) create a mycofloral database documenting the fungal communities within this site, (2) determine diversity and species richness among these communities, (3) determine the effects the invasive species Allaria petiolata (garlic mustard) may have on existing fungal communities, and (4) publish a web site enabling the distribution of research findings to the public sector.

Brown at Work in the Lab

Aaron’s blog reflects his passion for fungi in its design, content and (so far at least) frequent posts. The posts are interesting. The species diversity map of a foray site currently under study is example of good mycology in action. Interesting use of an EveryTrail map too.

Aaron’s blog has only been up and running for a couple weeks. Let’s hope he keeps it up, because if he does, Penn State Fun Guy will deserve continued visits. If you visit his blog and like it, leave him a comment. I’m sure he would appreciate it.

Sure there are some excellent blogs. By excellent I mean ones that are still active, look nice and are worth visiting more than once year (or more than just once period). The Cornel Mushroom Blog, and The Hyphal Tip are cool.

The blogosphere is littered with abandoned blogs—millions of them. That’s too bad for a couple of reasons. Most of these would-be-bloggers never had anything noteworthy to say in the first place so no great loss there. Worse is the fact that a lot of them came up with really excellent blog names and web addresses that are now lost to the world and can never be used by anyone with a legitimate use! That’s too bad.

Take for example Hyphoid Logic, touted as the site for the “Mentations of a Mad Mycologist.” What a good idea! Very cool name! I can’t wait to see what this person has to say! We haven’t heard from the proprietor since December of 2008.

No real mycological content anyway. An attempt to contact the writer has gone unanswered. Oh well.