mycophage

In passing: there's no need to mention how many prints you have available - simply that you currently have species xxxxxxx and can pass some on.

It can be pretty tricky these days for budding mycologists to get hold of spore prints. But as I see it, that's easy to fix. Here's how it works: get a print from somewhere grow your fruiting bodies make 10 spore prints buy 10 envelopes and stamps ($5 or so) post here with a description of the strain you've got so those seeking a print can PM you drop those 10 prints in the mail and send them out, for free those 10 who just got a print from somewhere, start from #2 Stamps are cheap, and addressing a few envelopes is hardly time consuming. I see no reason this can't work for both edible and other mushrooms of interest - and if only 1 person in 10 keeps up their end of the bargain, we'll all have access to spores from as many species as we could want. There's also no need to let anyone know your address when you're sending out prints, for the privacy conscious. I'll be coming into some prints to send in the near future, but if someone else wants to jump in and get this started, be my guest.

(singing) Dr Zaius, Dr Zaius

hi, generally enclosed in aluminium foil or a petri dish, yes.

If anyone needs a B+ print (for MICROSCOPY PURPOSES ONLY) drop me a PM.

pdf document Worth reading (and then rolling up like a newspaper and ramming up the arse of every politician you happen across).

full document (pdf) Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety This paper first briefly discusses the unique history of human hallucinogen research, and then reviews the risks of hallucinogen administration and safeguards for minimizing these risks.

very nice.

I had something described as amanita muscaria powder once, given to me by a friend's friend while at friend's house. A coarse yellowish woody powder, similar to psilo powder but with a much lighter colour. We were told a dose was a teaspoon. I washed a heaped tablespoon down with some water; others followed my lead with various admixtures of caution. There were four or five of us. I began to feel very intoxicated, and perceived that my senses of balance and vision were separated from the world by a great number of of fine gyroscopic wheels and gears, so that it took seconds for a movement of my head to result in a change in what I saw. I was tired, poisoned, deathly tired; had the sensation that gravity was very strong and that unseen ropes were pulling my limbs toward the ground; CAN'T SLEEP CLOWN WILL EAT ME thoughts about lying down. I felt intently that if I gave in to the temptation to close my eyes, or even just give into gravity and lie down, I would never get up. My friends were in a similar state, variously throwing up in the garden, asking with faces frozen in horror to be taken to the hospital (impossible, as we were both remote and completely unable to drive), or just lying unresponsive on the floor. Once everyone present had separately come to the conclusion they were going to die, and spent a few terrible hours fighting, contemplating or finally giving in to the fact, we eventually woke up the next morning, all miraculously alive. I realised I had been largely cured of my interest in amanita muscaria. Disclaimer: Other than described above, I have no idea what that powder actually was, or the steps involved in its preparation. Take with salt as appropriate and form your own opinions.

Great article (I agree entirely), and some interesting discussion. In my opinion, psychedelics allow us to perceive reality with a different lens; a different point of view on the "objective" reality we cannot perceive directly. However - the value of this is not that it exposes a more authentic view of reality than we are accustomed to seeing with our ordinary brain chemistry - to believe that the hallucinatory projections we see are real is to miss the point entirely. This is where people with impoverished faculties of reason err - and it's easy an easy error to make, but that doesn't excuse those making it for believing in witchcraft and superstition. Whether you think elves are real because you took drugs or because you have a mental disorder, the outcome is the same: you're wrong. The real value, to me, of such experiences are to show us how far from any objective truth our day to day lens is: how full of assumptions, and how reliant on shortcuts and approximations in our brain's sensory apparatus. In truth, much of our day to day experience is an elaborate - and generally extremely effective - hallucination which throws up recognisable, useful and rich approximations (images, sensations, certainties) based on the very limited and often erroneous data about the world our brain has access to. Optical illusions exploit this, and provide some insights into the hidden limitations of our senses. These evolutionarily selected, reliably helpful hallucinations (which generally provide a very good model for understanding "objective" reality) are so convincing it's easy to equate them with what is *actually* going on under the hood. Psychedelics replace these with other hallucinations, ones which were less likely to help our ancestors evade predators and find food; we often find the world they transport us to infused with (more of) our own subconscious projections - but conversely, they also strip away other subconscious projections we too easily take for granted. That is to say they can, like optical illusions, unravel many of the assumptions our brains make for us, and let us gain insights (if we are careful about the conclusions we draw) about how our senses construct the world around us in day to day life. I personally find this a fascinating domain, and one in which very real advances are being made right now. If you're interested in this stuff, try reading some of the many interesting books on these emerging topics in science: "The Brain That Changes Itself", "The Feeling of What Happens", etc.

Thanks everyone, great info. I'm a bit hesitant about using the aluminium ones (includes the AA 921) for actual cooking, but for $130 it sounds like the Presto is the way to go for sterilization on a budget.

I'm interested to hear from people who've had experience with steam sterilisation without a pressure cooker, especially if they've also tried using a PC. What has your experience with contams been using the two methods? A PC is the single most expensive ingredient in a PF setup, and if I buy one I'm inclined to go all out and get a good one - so I'm trying to ascertain whether it's worthwhile before dropping the coin.

Well, I probably wouldn't want to do it long term (or advertise), but I'd happily accept a few donations and forward them on to people currently looking for prints - I reckon there's at least half a dozen people at the moment who have asked for PMs and would be grateful. Sending out a few letters is cheap enough, and donations could be anonymous. If anyone wants to donate, PM me and I'll send my postal address, and in turn PM others who have made enquiries.