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New Videos Posted at Fungal Visions

Philip — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:33:48 +0000

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 Visions collects and posts the best YouTube videos related to the world of fungi.

Giant Mushrooms Found in China

This short news cast offers some good quality video and a bit of humorous banter surrounding the discovery of some pretty large puffball-looking things in China.

Paul Stamets on Fungi: Benefactors of All Earth’s Species

Good quality video features the words and thoughts of Paul Stamets. It’s from a TV show called Healthy Living from SuprememasterTV.com. Includes subtitles in several different languages.

How to Clean and Store Mushrooms

This short and straightforward bit is from the mushroom channel. We don’t spend too much time on mycophagy here at MycoRant, but what the heck, it’s good advice (except the part about putting mushrooms in a salad).

James Arthur – The Mushroom that Shaped the Universe – Amanita Muscaria

Yes that James Aurthur. Video of a talk given in 2000 in Sisters, Oregon (USA). Either you believe in the Amanita muscaria theories or you don’t but it’s fun to consider. He always has some interesting images to go along with his talks.

Attempts to Steal “Know Your Mushrooms” Thwarted

Philip — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:22:55 +0000

The movie Know Your Mushrooms by Canadian producer Ron Mann does have some legitimately posted trailers on the internet—like at the official movie website. There are a few clips on YouTube but none them look all that “authorized” to me. There is this KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS Excerpt featuring Gary Lincoff, which is still up so apparently it is tolerated by the copyright holders. There is another one that looks like a short trailer that was filmed using a hand-held camera as it was being projected. I think it came from someone at a screening at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin. Not exactly authorized either, and not very interesting.

At least one attempt to post the whole things in parts by an idiot have been made on YouTube. I was just perusing the latest YouTube uploads on mushrooms or other fungi and came upon what looked like a video that was “part 1 of 18 in hi def” of Know Your Mushrooms. I though, huh, that’s weird. Sure enough the clip has been removed. Good on ya’ YouTube!

What is even more disappointing is that it appears that more than one attempt has been made (all unsuccessful I am happy to report) to upload this movie by different users, or perhaps the same user using different names, and they have all been deleted. One, which is still up appears to be nothing more than a sleazy ad to get you to visit what almost certainly is a pirate movie site. Boo hiss.

Know Your Mushrooms by Ron Mann

Four New Vids at Fungal Visions

Philip — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:06:55 +0000

Four new YouTube videos have been posted at Fungal Visions, a site that collects and features videos about fungi (“Who needs viral videos when you can have fungal videos?”). These are on the BillNyeRulz channel although it is far from clear that Bill Nye has anything to do with them. I rather doubt it actually , since his voice is not on the videos. The videos are short and not bad, although one might quibble here and there with a few facts as presented.

The videos are:

Structure of Fungi

Divisions of Fungi Kingdom

Reproduction in Fungi

Wonderful World of Fungi

These clips are professionally produced with clear audio.

Five New Vids at Fungal Visions

Philip — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:54:17 +0000

It’s been awhile since I got around to uploading some new YouTube videos to Fungal Visions. I recently took the time to look over the most recent uploads to YouTube that had anything to do with mushrooms, fungi, or mycology. There is always a steady stream of such things. Most of them are not worth viewing.

Worthwhile Fungal Videos on YouTube

You may not agree that these videos are worth watching, but they are among the best recently uploaded to YouTube. Here are the ones I chose. You can see them (and many others) at Fungal Visions.

Biology 1B – Lecture 1: Introduction/Fungi: This is a full lecture from the University of California at Berkeley. The quality is good and the lecturers know there stuff. Since it is the first lecture of this general biology course, there is a lot of housekeeping discussed, but the beginning of the part concerning fungi begins around minute 14 and shortly thereafter.

Fungi for Biofuel: Prof. Amir Sharon, Tel Aviv U: A short explanation of the work being done in Israel on the use of fungi in the development of biofuels. Not overly exciting, but informative.

Paul Stamets Discusses Bioremediation and the BP Spill: A short interview with Paul Stamets, in which he discusses his ideas about, and the basis for, using fungi to remediate the damage caused by petroleum spills.

Growing Mushrooms–Unlocking the Food Chain: A sincere dude shows us some mushrooms growing in a pot of orchids. He makes a case for growing mushrooms for food and/or barter.

Giant Mushroom Safari Cloaks the Sun (HD): A fine, high quality video giving a ground-level view of an expanded mushroom cap (Chlorphyllum molybdites according to the video). Make sure you switch the resolution to 720p for the full effect.

YouTube has been having some technical difficulties today, so if you get an error, try again later.

Strange Fungus Cartoon Music Video

Philip — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:11:08 +0000

A reader sent in a tip (thanks!) on this strangely entertaining cartoon called “Shrooms” (what other name is there for a whack mushroom cartoon?). The website is Weebl’s Stuff and the toon is described as

A full length version of the Mushroom Song from 8-Bit Pwny Club since so many of you requested it. Animated by Wonchop. Written by Bizunth and Weebl (Mostly Bizunth)

I think I might like it better than Mushroom, Badger, Snake.