Bio-luminescent Shrooms! [more inside]
posted by Burhanistan on Oct 5, 2009 - 23 comments

Mushrooms Save the World (long form) -- Paul Stamets on mycelia. Previously: 1 2 3 [bonus: slime molds]
posted by kliuless on Dec 31, 2008 - 20 comments

Drawing on drugs by Jeremy Eaton. [more inside]
posted by gman on Dec 18, 2008 - 12 comments

Poisonous and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, including Alice's [Amanita muscaria].
posted by Miko on Dec 9, 2008 - 51 comments

Video of Dictyophora Indusiata. "When they find it, they sniff it. The scent of this mushroom causes sexual arousal, often to the point of orgasm." ^ Other interesting articles available from Aphrodisiology: List of Aphrodisiacs l Visual Stimuli l Pheromones & Perfumes. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 2, 2008 - 49 comments

One Step Beyond - The Sacred Mushroom. A 1961 episode of One Step Beyond investigates whether or not psilocybin mushrooms can give you extra-sensory perception. Part 2, Part 3. [Via Neurophilosophy]
posted by homunculus on Jul 18, 2008 - 27 comments

People's written reports of their psychedelic experiences based on the level of their trips after ingesting "magic" mushrooms. (level one, two, three, four, or five) The site includes a dosage calculator for anyone tempted to try them.
posted by augustweed on Nov 21, 2007 - 134 comments

How to Grow Your Own Mushrooms : Techniques that work for all kinds of spore-bearing fruiting bodies of fungi ...Instructional videos 1, 2, 3, 4, or skip ahead to the advanced techniques using the Laundry basket / Straw Log methods.
posted by Dave Faris on Jun 12, 2007 - 20 comments

Cooking with Vincent Price! Delicious mushrooms & stuffed eggs! Roast pork sirloin with prunes, onions & red wine! Small boys in a spectacular curry! Cooking not your thing? Well, would you prefer learning about cricket? Or perhaps Florentine art? Voilà, my friends!
posted by miss lynnster on Apr 13, 2007 - 35 comments

Climate change fruitful for fungi: more than one third of the species recorded have started to fruit twice per year.
posted by prostyle on Apr 9, 2007 - 15 comments

Shrooming in Late Capitalism: The Way of the Truffle.
posted by peacay on Feb 26, 2007 - 29 comments

Soon you may find yourself in the company of mushrooms. If you're curious about them, Mykoweb, Tom Volk's Fungi (especially his FOTM section), Fungal Jungal, David Fischer's American Mushrooms, MushroomExpert.com, BCERN's Matchmaker and the recently mentioned Roger's Mushrooms are remarkably handy, replete with descriptions and keys for reading up and identifying whether something growing in your yard is heavenly or hellish. The North American Mycological Association maintains a list of affiliated clubs, too, if you want to enlist help in identifying something.
posted by cog_nate on Feb 21, 2007 - 18 comments

A landmark rigorous study, 36 years after Walter Pahnke's Good Friday study ocuments the ability of psilocybin - the chemical in "magic mushrooms" - to trigger mystical experiences. 16 of 24 participants, who had no history of psychedelic use, rated the drug episode (after 2 months) to be among the 5 most meaningful experiences in their lifetime. A longer 40-year follow-up by MAPS on those who took LSD under the supervision of psychiatrist Oscar Janiger in the 1950s, found qualitatively the same result.
posted by daksya on Jul 10, 2006 - 236 comments

Treasures from the kingdom of fungi Taylor F Lockwood's artsy, well lit photos of fungi in their natural habitats have gotten very little attention outside of mycologists, but his eye for detail and composition shows a skilled photographer performing in a very specific niche. Some favorites
posted by klik99 on Jan 16, 2006 - 22 comments

What's That? Sadly, the education of the youth of amerika is declining in more than one way. The other day I was at the grocery store and the checker was unable to identify a portabello mushroom. And no, she wasn't new...and to make matters worse the checker next to her didn't know either. (more inside)
posted by MiHail on Nov 12, 2005 - 1026 comments

Mushroom Life
posted by loquacious on Feb 10, 2005 - 16 comments

Paul Stamets (previously discussed here) says mushrooms are potent antiviral and antibacterial agents, and they also might end up saving the Earth. I wonder what the fungi would say (or sing.) [Via Disinformation.]
posted by homunculus on Sep 1, 2004 - 4 comments

Psychedelic Santa Claus. "Modern Christmas traditions are based on ancient mushroom-using shamans." [Via J-Walk blog.]
posted by homunculus on Dec 22, 2003 - 15 comments

At least four times in the fall of 2002, the president and his advisers invoked the specter of a "mushroom cloud," and some of them, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, described Iraq's nuclear ambitions as a threat to the American homeland... Among the closely held internal judgments of the Iraq Survey Group, overseen by David Kay as special representative of CIA Director George J. Tenet, are that Iraq's nuclear weapons scientists did no significant arms-related work after 1991, that facilities with suspicious new construction proved benign, and that equipment of potential use to a nuclear program remained under seal or in civilian industrial use.

So in regards to Iraq's possession of the one weapon we can be certain causes mass destruction: the atomic bomb, as Gregg Easterbrook put it, the verdict is the unsurprising (and unsurprisingly closely held) nope, not, zero, zip, nada...
posted by y2karl on Oct 27, 2003 - 21 comments

ElfTrance. High Bandwidth Elf Goodness.
posted by homunculus on Mar 20, 2003 - 10 comments

How mushrooms will save the world "I have a strategy for creating ecological footprints on other planets," says the Johnny Appleseed of mushrooms. "By using a consortium of fungi and seeds and other microorganisms, you could actually seed other planets with little plops. You could actually start keystone species and go to creating vegetation on planets." And the Internet is one big giant 'shroom. Fascinating article on how mushrooms may hold the key to environmental clean ups. And so much more!
posted by archimago on Nov 25, 2002 - 9 comments

An L.A. restaurateur just won a rare 2-pound mushroom in an annual "charity truffle auction" in Santa Monica. The winner paid $35,000 for the truffle after a fierce bidding war between a New York-based restaurant owner and Gunther IV, who placed his bids through a subsidiary due to the fact that he is, in fact, a dog. The canine heir to a vast German fortune lost the auction, and the honor of placing the highest recorded bid ever for a mushroom. Go ahead, read it again. This is all, mind you, before anyone actually got their hands on the giant 'shroom.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Nov 11, 2002 - 42 comments

Kinoko-ya has stunningly beautiful pictures of mushrooms. (Please don't crash the site, gang; I'm using it for research...)
posted by realjanetkagan on Sep 25, 2002 - 25 comments

Morel Sightings 2002 There's a fungus among us. Morels are one of the most highly sought-after, delectable wild mushrooms. Each spring, morel hunting goes into high gear in many parts of the country. This site has state-by-state reports. (mine is in MA) You can learn more about these spongy fungi here and here. If you do go out foraging for them, just remember...if you don't know it, throw it!
posted by martk on May 23, 2002 - 14 comments

Typographic Tree. "A small signpost invites users to sing to the mushrooms which sit on top of a 5' tree stump. As soon as a visitor begins a tree begins to grow. Using nothing but the tone and volume of their voice they can control every aspect of the trees growth. It's size, complexity, colour and even the amount of flowers in bloom." I'm not sure why it's 'typographic,' but still very pretty.
posted by Su on Dec 7, 2001 - 3 comments

When is a photograph not a photograph?
...and does it matter? Photosnobs get bent out of shape at Photo.net.
posted by normy on Jan 28, 2001 - 16 comments