satyr

I will definitely be there...arriving Friday arvo, thanx Ed for the maps. @YM looks as if the campsite is easy to find, so no need for pick-up at Pub looking forward meeting you all... cheers S

Alright, then the pub it is Friday arvo....will come from the west (just crossing the SA/VIC border in the morning, so if anyone needs a pickup along that way we can arrange something). Cheers Satyr

My link At an organic farm just outside Monterey, Calif., a super-eco building material is growing in dozens of darkened shipping containers. The farm is named Far West Fungi, and its rusting containers are full of all sorts of mushrooms--shiitake, reishi and pom-pom, to name a few. But Philip Ross, an artist, an inventor and a seriously obsessed amateur mycologist, isn't interested in the fancy caps we like to eat. What he's after are the fungi's thin, white rootlike fibers. Underground, they form a vast network called a mycelium. Far West Fungi's dirt-free hothouses pack in each mycelium so densely that it forms a mass of bright white spongy matter. Mycelium doesn't taste very good, but once it's dried, it has some remarkable properties. It's nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It's also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. In December, Ross completed what is believed to be the first structure made entirely of mushroom. (Sorry, the homes in the fictional Smurf village don't count.) The 500 bricks he grew at Far West Fungi were so sturdy that he destroyed many a metal file and saw blade in shaping the 'shrooms into an archway 6 ft. (1.8 m) high and 6 ft. wide. Dubbed Mycotectural Alpha, it is currently on display at a gallery in Germany. Nutty as "mycotecture" sounds, Ross may be onto something bigger than an art project. A promising start-up named Ecovative is building a 10,000-sq.-ft. (about 930 sq m) myco-factory in Green Island, N.Y. "We see this as a whole new material, a woodlike equivalent to plastic," says CEO Eben Bayer. The three-year-old company has been awarded grants from the EPA and the National Science Foundation, as well as the Department of Agriculture--because its mushrooms feast on empty seed husks from rice or cotton. "You can't even feed it to animals," says Bayer of this kind of agricultural waste. "It's basically trash." After the husks are cooked, sprayed with water and myco-vitamins and seeded with mushroom spores, the mixture is poured into a mold of the desired shape and left to grow in a dark warehouse. A week or two later, the finished product is popped out and the material rendered biologically inert. The company's first product, a green alternative to Styrofoam, is taking on the packaging industry. Called Ecocradle, it is set to be shipped around a yet-to-be-disclosed consumer item this spring. One of the beauties of Ecocradle is that unlike Styrofoam--which is hard to recycle, let alone biodegrade--this myco-material can easily serve as mulch in your garden. Ecovative's next product, Greensulate, will begin targeting the home-insulation market sometime next year. And according to Bayer's engineering tests, densely packed mycelium is strong enough to be used in place of wooden beams. "It's not so far-out," he says of Ross's art house. So could Bayer see himself growing a mushroom house and living in it? "Well"--he hesitates--"maybe we'd start with a doghouse."

....well one could maybe postulate that when we say we love somebody that we are actually not loving that person for its own sake, rather the emotion that person creates in us. So now that the situation has changed, meaning your perception and expectation of the relationship, it obviously led to a change in emotion. Those emotion might not be as pleasant as others so a "falling out of love" could happen... Anyway my personal experience is -as already described by others- that everything is self regulating, emotion adjust to circumstances (sooner or later)and concern or issues turn into nothingness. So don't worry it will sort itself. All the best and travel safe

Well but that hopefully does not mean that we give the idea of now a complete miss, hey?!

The great thing is "we" are not a single nobody...we are many...taking action and responsibility is always the first step towards prevention/change... getup.org.au <<The Latest Monday, 10 May 2010 Tune in to the ABC tonight to see the efforts of GetUp members in the campaign against internet filtering. At 8.30pm, Four Corners covers the campaign and at 9.35pm, Q&A explores internet censorship, featuring former GetUp National Director, Brett Solomon. Thanks to your efforts and huge grassroots opposition, the Government has finally blinked on internet filtering. Reports suggest that their plan to censor the internet has been shelved until after the election. The campaign isn't over yet, but we've put together this action-packed video to thank you for your efforts so far. GetUp members have emailed their MPs, inundated the Minister with questions in Parliament and on TV, signed our largest petition and chipped in over $100,000 for a massive advertising campaign. Together, we've exposed the futility behind the Rudd Government's censorship agenda. Click here to check out the video and share it with your friends>>

Another vote for the "Aire valley plantation", never been to the Otways before so am happy to start its exploration wherever .

BOTH dates are good for me...so either way I will make the way down...

Great, thanx ...Downloaded and just listening to it now...Love it!!!

Prompt reply from "The National Drugs Campaign" upon my email. <<Thank you for your email of 19 April 2010 regarding information on the National Drugs Campaign website. We followed the matter up with our policy area, who confirmed that your advice is correct. We have taken steps to remove the reference to datura and angel's trumpet from the website. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Kind regards, The National Drugs Campaign>>

I sent them an email yesterday...let's see if they take the time to answer, will keep you posted.

Greetings fellow friends of the fungus, that Otway-trip sounds promising and I really would like to join you. 4th-7th of June suits me well. Hopefully see ya all in the woods. Cheers satyr

Thats the link to the company which produces the ecocradle and insulation. My link "EcoCradle™ packaging is literally grown, not manufactured. We use a growing organism to transform agricultural byproducts like cotton seed hulls and buck wheat hulls into a beautiful protective package. Our patented process is inspired by the efficiency of nature, and uses a filamentous fungi (mushroom roots) to bond this packaging into almost any shape..."

...and i would love to see a show similar to "the biggest loser" just for druggies...and all the adverts resulting from this...something like "burgen bread for benzoheads"

"I sold the first batch for five dollars a cap ....the next ones I sold as three for $25," he said... 3 for $25?!?! mhh nice salary for picking in "broad daylight"

HAHA...reminds me of a scene from Austin Powers....Machine gun jubblies!!! Yeah baby!!!

Great pics, especially the "spiky" ones!!!

This link might help.... My link http://www.shroomery.org/35/Caramel-Cap-Woodlovers

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czech-govt-defines-rules-of-hallucinogenic-plants-growing/411010 vydáno: 07.12.2009, 14:46 | aktualizace: 07.12.2009 14:54 "Prague - The Czech government today approved the list of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, including hemp, coca, mescaline cactus and magic mushrooms, and decided that people would be allowed to grow up to five pieces of such plants and keep 40 magic mushrooms at home, a CTK source said. The cabinet was today also expected to discuss artificial drugs and a permitted amount of these drugs in people's possession. However, it postponed the debate for two weeks, the source said. The new Penal Code, which will take effect on January 1, is designed to specify the government's directive. It contains a special provision on the growth of hemp and magic mushrooms. The government today also approved a directive on the use of anabolics and the list of diseases that will be considered congenial, according to the criminal law. The law distinguishes between the possession of marijuana and hashish for people's personal needs, for which they will face up to one year in prison, from the possession of other drugs for which they can receive up to two years in prison. According to the Justice Ministry's proposal that the government did not approve today, the possession of over 15 grammes of dried marijuana or over two grammes of methamphetamine (pervitine), cocaine and heroin will be punishable. The tolerated amount of drugs in people's possession is at present defined by police internal directives. No one thus knows precisely what amount is considered an amount "larger than a small amount of drug," the possession of which is punishable by the law. If the government approves the ministry's proposal without changes in two weeks, people will be able to have four pills of ecstasy in their possession and up to five grammes of hashish." Autor: ČTK www.ctk.cz

From plain agar powder to malt extract agar plates.... http://www.southernbiological.com/Assets/p...uePriceList.pdf