Confessions of a Mycophile

Zionut for cracking

2010-01-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Another wingnut who can't see the cultural, anthropological or sociological similarities between Zionism and Nazism. Which are like fraternal twins when compared objectively.

A Palestinian rocket – one of dozens fired randomly at Israelis most
weeks – exploded in an Israeli army base early this morning (Tuesday),
wounding at least 69 young Israeli soldiers, some severely.

69 injuries without a single death? Can we say...'beggars belief'? Who could tell such a lie without having to answer to press scrutiny? It happened on an IDF Army base. "Secret" doncha know....

And wouldn't soldiers be legitimate targets for people whose land is being illegally occupied by that state regardless? Of course it would. The "terrorist" label is grossly abused by Israeli and US conservatives.

Gross immediately launches into "Siderot, a working-class town near the Israel-Gaza border, and surrounding towns and villages, have been battered by thousands of rockets launched nearly daily from Gaza. The rockets have killed over
two dozen civilians.

So we have 1 rocket, 69 causalities, and now these "1000's launched almost daily" yet only 20 something dead after all that? Obviously something is very, very wrong about the way these numbers are being used.But don't call it "lies" because the Zionists already thought of that by re-labeling such bullshit "hasbara".

Hasbara is an official policy or tactic used in foreign relations by Jewish Agency operatives.

Attacks last week on Siderot, including a rocket that landed near a crowded day care center led anxious Israeli parents to pull thousands of children out of school and brought demands for the Israeli government to retaliate but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refrained from doing so. Yet the desire to kill Pali kids by Jewish parents isn't reason enough to have them stripped of their own parental rights despite this clear evidence of murderous proclivities!!

I sometimes have to wonder if the Holocaust didn't so severely shatter the minds of many of Israel's founding members that the culture today still reflects the mindset of a psychotic break.

And the "noble Israeli" who refuses to retaliate despite Palestinian wickedness!

This claim gets repeated ad nauseum, leading us to conclude that Pali suicide bombers are so bad in their aim that they are killing themselves at a rate 8 times that of the Jews they are trying to target!
Uh-huh... More Hasbara? Absolutely

Of course anyone who would believe such nonsense after hearing Gross's version of how war is being waged over there is either a congenital liar themselves or mentally handicapped. I long ago settled on fairly conclusive evidence that the 'right' of conservatism is not simply a reflection of an ideological view, but is an indication of a disorder/syndrome with such wide distribution that it suggests an ancient or even genetic origin. The neolithic revolution provides us with both.

He continues....'From speaking to recipients of this email list in a number of European countries, Australia, and South America, it has become apparent that
very few people outside Israel and the U.S. have heard anything at all about the long history of Holocaust denial of Abu Mazen, the new Palestinian prime minister'.

but when it comes to giving even one account of denial by Mazen, we get this from Gross. "Abu Mazen’s record does not amount to a single pernicious reference,
like those of Jean Marie Le Pen, leader of the French (neo-Fascist) National Front (“the gas chambers were a footnote of history”), or Joerg Haider, leader of the misnamed Austrian Freedom party. Abu Mazen has spent years “researching” and writing on this subject, and produced an entire body of work with horrifying claims that go well beyond anything Le Pen or Haider have said in public.'"

Note the citing of well known revisionists of whom Mazen exceeds as a Holocaust denier. yet nothing from Mazen himself appears in his attack-piece!
So much further down after much whining about how mysterious it is to him that no world leaders are willing to confront Mazen on the issues he cites, finally the heart of this guys hate of Mazen is revealed.

"When negotiating with Abu Mazen, politicians should ask what kind of a man would choose to write his entire PhD thesis on the subject and follow it up with a book in 1983, “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement,” in which he denies that the Holocaust occurred."
Okay..... But still there's that claim of outright denial, which is not what is actually stated in the title of his work. Whatever you may think about his idea that early Zionists used Hitler to create a 'new exodus' back to the Levant, prior to the realization of the killings at Auschwitz et al....why is this so horrible? Americans too were doing business with Hitler throughout the Spanish-Civil War and even into WW2 itself.

In any case, Gross finally dances around so much that he becomes the instrument of his own undoing. "Abu Mazen claimed that Hitler did not decide to kill the Jews until David Ben-Gurion provoked him into doing so when [Ben-Gurion] declared war on the Nazis in 1942.'
Gross decides that Mazen states Hitler decided to kill 'the jews" in 1942 based on the mere fact that Mazen used phrasing about Hitler killing "Jews". No distinction over whether he said 'some' or even 'a lot', of "Jews" in context is attempted. Hasbara

As if this distortion wasn't enough, Gross launches into some tirade about a 'villa' owned by Mazen somewhere in Gaza, along with claims of his immense wealth being secreted away. A Palestinian Arab living in Gaza, under IDF occupation.....
Righhht...!
Now we are to believe the asinine assertion that a man...any man for that matter... who only now is being allowed by IDF forces to import or possess weapons for his personal bodyguards, is somehow able to amass a fortune behind his fellow Pali's backs as well?

Righhht.... Hasbara

This all reflects a nationalistic fervor blended with mysticism and exceptional-ism that has but one close match in this last century. His and Hitlers ethical standards reveal the same burning hatred of all things that challenge their own beloved Zionism/Nazism.

Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Zionism, fascism....all the same "I'm better than you!" blackness to them that the rest of us have to tip-toe through due First-Second Temple/Third Reich criminals who start this insane belief structure in a modern age. Pleeeassse just go away so we don't have wipe up yor messes anymore.? The rest of humanity just wants to make a good life possible for everyone...an easily attainable goal but for the right-wing pricks like this who obstruct and destroy any such plans as "commie!" or "librul!" plots to take over things that only people like you desire in life. You project your own sickness onto the rest of ours' motives, then use this delusion to justify your own aggressive tactics, saying you are simply trying to take your rightful share "like everyone else is trying to do!" no..... It really is just people like you who make the world the dangerous place that you then cite to justify your own violent ways. A mad circle of death attempting to justify destruction. Zionism... Nazism... Conservatism,.. Authoritarianism... Please just go away.....Please??

Right-wing extremists seen as a threat

2010-01-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

A Homeland Security report says right-wing groups are on the rise because of fears about Obama and the recession.

April 16, 2009|

Greg Miller

WASHINGTON — The economic downturn and the election of the nation's first black president are contributing to a resurgence of right-wing extremist groups, which had been on the wane since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment distributed to state and local authorities last week.
The report, produced by the Department of Homeland Security, has triggered a backlash among conservatives because it also raised the specter that disgruntled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might "boost the capabilities of extremists . . . to carry out violence." cont...

Right-wing extremists seen as a threat - Los Angeles Times - Page 2

2010-01-27T08:48:00.001-07:00

Right-wing extremists seen as a threat - Los Angeles Times - Page 2

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Change in the Conservative Personality Equals Change in the Offender

2010-01-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

"It appears that conservatism has pathological dimensions manifested in violence and distorted psycho-sexual development" (Boshier, 1983, p. 159). This is supported by a study conducted by Walker, Rowe, and Quincey (1993) in which there was a direct correlation between authoritarianism and sexually aggressive behavior. An investigation done by Muehlenhard (1988) revealed that rape justification and aggression toward subordinate individuals was much higher in traditional (conservative personality) than non-traditional personalities. It is postulated in this paper that the offender has a conservative personality and, therefore, manifests that violence." cont....

Aquatic gilled mushrooms: Psathyrella fruiting in the Rogue River in southern Oregon -- Frank et al. 102 (1): 93 -- Mycologia

2010-01-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

Aquatic gilled mushrooms: Psathyrella fruiting in the Rogue River in southern Oregon -- Frank et al. 102 (1): 93 -- Mycologia

Aquatic gilled mushrooms: Psathyrella fruiting in the Rogue River in southern Oregon

Jonathan L. Frank

Department of Biology, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon 97520

Robert A. Coffan

Department of Environmental Studies, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon 97520

Darlene Southworth ¹

Department of Biology, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon 97520

A species of Psathyrella (Basidiomycota) with true gills hasbeen observed fruiting underwater in the clear, cold, flowingwaters of the upper Rogue River in Oregon. Fruiting bodies developand mature in the main channel, where they are constantly submerged,and were observed fruiting over 11 wk. These mushrooms developunderwater, not on wood recently washed into the river. Substratesinclude water-logged wood, gravel and the silty riverbed. DNAsequences of the ITS region and a portion of the ribosomal largesubunit gene place this fungus in Psathyrella sensu strictonear P. atomata, P. fontinalis and P. superiorensis. Morphologicalcharacters distinguish the underwater mushroom from previouslydescribed species. Fruiting bodies have long fibrillose stipeswith small diameter caps. Immature stages have a thin veil thatis soon lost. Gills lack reddish edges. Cystidia are ventricosewith subacute apices. Spores were observed as wedge-shape raftsreleased into gas pockets below the caps. Underwater gills andballistospores indicate a recent adaptation to the stream environment.This particular river habitat combines the characteristics ofspring-fed flows and cold, aerated water with woody debris inshallow depths on a fine volcanic substrate. Based on molecularand morphological evidence we conclude that the underwater mushroomsare a new species, Psathyrella aquatica. This report adds tothe biodiversity of stream fungi that degrade woody substrates.The underwater environment is a new habitat for gilled mushrooms.

Key words: Agaricales, aquatic fungi, ballistospores, Psathyrellaceae, psychrophilic fungi, stream fungi

Conservatism Vs Liberal Socialism? No Contest

2009-03-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

Open Thread | Crooks And Liars

Conservatism Vs Liberal Socialism? No Contest

What drive me nuts about the ongoing debate over the relative merits of conservatism Vs liberals, is why there's any debate on the subject... at all! Because when we look at the sociological sciences for some insight into who is who and which personality traits are hurting the culture and country, we see this from a study that the Oklahoma justice department set up to determine the same thing: "It appears that conservatism has pathological dimensions manifested in violence and distorted psycho-sexual development" (Boshier,1983). This is supported by a study conducted by Walker, Rowe, and Quincey (1993)in which there was a direct correlation between authoritarianism and sexually aggressive behavior. An investigation done by Muehlenhard (1988) revealed that rape justification and aggression toward subordinate individuals was much higher in traditional conservative personality than non-traditional persons.

And if that wasn't enough, they add "Conservatism is not the doctrine of the intellectual elite or of the more intelligent segments of the population, but the reverse. By every measure available to us, conservative beliefs are found most frequently among the uniformed, the poorly educated, and the less intelligent".

Well!.... That about covers everything that one could possibly say positive about conservatives, no? What about the conservative desire to fight terrorism? Let's skip over to Maryland U (College Park) where DHS has empaneled a group of sociologists to determine where the next terrorist attack is likely to come from based on a populations political/ideological views. From their reports it becomes immediately obvious that conservatives are the focal point of their research as well. "Basic social, cognitive, and motivational differences may also explain why extreme right-wing movements are typically obsessed with purity, cleanliness, hygiene, structure, and order( ) and why religious fundamentalism is so attractive to right-wing parties and followers in just about every nation stretching from North America to the Middle East."

And speaking of American conservatives specifically, we get this: "We now take it for granted that political conservatives tend to be for law and order but not gun control, against welfare but generous to corporations, protective of cultural traditions but antagonistic toward contemporary art and music, and wary of government but eager to weaken the separation of church and state. They are committed to freedom and individualism but perennially opposed to extending rights and liberties to disadvantaged minorities and others who blur traditional boundaries. There is no obvious political thread that runs through these diverse positions and no logical principle that renders them all consistent."

So...what are we supposed to be arguing anymore? Apparently everyone from the penal system to Homeland Security is aware of the shortcoming (to put it mildly) of conservatism. It's not an ideology. It's not just a different way of looking at things...no better, no worse than all the others. It is in fact a strong indication of an aggressive, simple-minded lout who means to make the rest of the world behave as stupidly as they.

That's not an opinion. That's the fact of the matter.

So that argument is over. Now all we have to do is make the journalism crowd get up to speed with the intellectual crowd so that we can start marginalizing these people where-ever they are found. That we still elect these misfits should be a strong signal that mankind is still in puberty and has a lot of growing up to do if we are ever to think of ourselves as a wise and noble species.

Gaza To Moros: Massacre (by Mark Twain)

2008-12-08T19:43:00.004-07:00

Comments On Moro Massacre

by Mark Twain (March 12, 1906)

This incident burst upon the world last Friday in an official cablegram from the commander of our forces in the Philippines to our Government at Washington. The substance of it was as follows: A tribe of Moros, dark-skinned savages, had fortified themselves in the bowl of an extinct crater not many miles from Jolo; and as they were hostiles, and bitter against us because we have been trying for eight years to take their liberties away from them, their presence in that position was a menace. Our commander, Gen. Leonard Wood, ordered a reconnaissance. It was found that the Moros numbered six hundred, counting women and children; that their crater bowl was in the summit of a peak or mountain twenty-two hundred feet above sea level, and very difficult of access for Christian troops and artillery. Then General Wood ordered a surprise, and went along himself to see the order carried out. Our troops climbed the heights by devious and difficult trails, and even took some artillery with them. The kind of artillery is not specified, but in one place it was hoisted up a sharp acclivity by tackle a distance of some three hundred feet. Arrived at the rim of the crater, the battle began.
Our soldiers numbered five hundred and forty. They were assisted by auxiliaries consisting of a detachment of native constabulary in our pay -- their numbers not given -- and by a naval detachment, whose numbers are not stated. But apparently the contending parties were about equal as to number -- six hundred men on our side, on the edge of the bowl; six hundred men, women and children in the bottom of the bowl. Depth of the bowl, 50 feet. Gen. Wood's order was, "Kill or capture the six hundred."
The battle began-it is officially called by that name-our forces firing down into the crater with their artillery and their deadly small arms of precision; the savages furiously returning the fire, probably with brickbats-though this is merely a surmise of mine, as the weapons used by the savages are not nominated in the cablegram. Heretofore the Moros have used knives and clubs mainly; also ineffectual trade-muskets when they had any.
The official report stated that the battle was fought with prodigious energy on both
sides during a day and a half, and that it ended with a complete victory for the American arms. The completeness of the victory for the American arms. The completeness of the victory is established by this fact: that of the six hundred Moros not one was left alive. The brilliancy of the victory is established by this other fact, to wit: that of our six hundred heroes only fifteen lost their lives.
General Wood was present and looking on. His order had been. "Kill or capture those savages." Apparently our little army considered that the or" left them authorized to kill or capture according to taste, and that their taste had remained what it has been for eight years, in our army out there - the taste of Christian butchers.
The official report quite properly extolled and magnified the "heroism" and "gallantry" of our troops; lamented the loss of the fifteen who perished, and elaborated the wounds of thirty-two of our men who suffered injury, and even minutely and faithfully described the nature of the wounds, in the interest of future historians of the United States. It mentioned that a private had one of his elbows scraped by a missile, and the private's name was mentioned. Another private had the end of his nose scraped by a missile. His name was also mentioned - by cable, at one dollar and fifty cents a word.
Next day's news confirmed the previous day's report and named our fifteen killed and
thirty-two wounded again, and once more described the wounds and gilded them with the right adjectives.
Let us now consider two or three details of our military history. In one of the great battles of the Civil War ten per cent. Of the forces engaged on the two sides were killed and wounded. At Waterloo, where four hundred thousand men were present on the two sides, fifty thousand fell, killed and wounded in five hours, leaving three hundred and fifty thousand men sound and all right for further adventures. Eight years ago, when the pathetic comedy called the Cuban War was played, we summoned two hundred and fifty thousand men. We fought a number of showy battles, and when the war was over we had lost two hundred and sixty-eight men out of our two hundred and fifty thousand killed and wounded in the field, and fourteen times as many by the gallantry of the army doctors in the hospitals and camps. We did not exterminate the Spaniards -- far from it. In each engagement we left an average of only two per cent of the enemy killed or crippled on the field.
Contrast these things with the great statistics which have arrived from that Moro crater! There, with six hundred engaged on each side, we lost fifteen men killed outright, and we had thirty-two wounded-counting that nose and that elbow. The enemy numbered six hundred -- including women and children -- and we abolished them utterly, leaving not even a baby alive to cry for its dead mother. This is incomparably the greatest victory that was ever achieved by the Christian soldiers of the United States.
Now then, how has it been received? The splendid news appeared with splendid display-heads in every newspaper in this city of four million and thirteen thousand inhabitants, on Friday morning. But there was not a single reference to it in the editorial columns of any one of those newspapers. The news appeared again in all the evening papers of Friday, and again those papers were editorially silent upon our vast achievement. Next day's additional statistics and particulars appeared in all the morning papers, and still without a line of editorial rejoicing or a mention of the matter in any way. These additions appeared in the evening papers of that same day (Saturday) and again without a word of comment. In the columns devoted to correspondence, in the morning and evening papers of Friday and Saturday, nobody said a word about the "battle." Ordinarily those columns are teeming with the passions of the citizen; he lets no incident go by, whether it be large or small, without pouring out his praise or blame, his joy or his indignation about the matter in the correspondence column. But, as I have said, during those two days he was as silent as the editors themselves.
So far as I can find out, there was only one person among our eighty millions who allowed himself the privilege of a public remark on this great occasion -- that was the President of the United States.All day Friday he was as studiously silent as the rest. But on Saturday he recognized that his duty required him to say something, so he took his pen and performed that duty. If I know President Roosevelt -- and I am sure I do -- this utterance cost him more pain and shame than any other that ever issued from his pen or his mouth. I am far from blaming him. If I had been in his place my official duty would have compelled me to say what he said. It was a convention, an old tradition, and he had to be loyal to it. There was no help for it. This is what he said:
Washington, March 10. Wood, Manila:- I congratulate you and the officers and men of your command upon the brilliant feat of arms wherein you and they so well upheld the honor of the American flag. (Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.
His whole utterance is merely a convention. Not a word of what he said came out of his heart. He knew perfectly well that to pen six hundred helpless and weaponless savages in a hole like rats in a trap and massacre them in detail during a stretch of a day and a half, from a safe position on the heights above, was no brilliant feat of arms - and would not have been a brilliant feat of arms even if Christian America, represented by its salaried soldiers, had shot them down with Bibles and the Golden Rule instead of bullets. He knew perfectly well that our uniformed assassins had not flag, but had done as they have been doing continuously for eight years in the Philippines - that is to say, they had dishonored it.

The next day, Sunday, -- which was yesterday -- the cable brought us additional news - still more splendid news -- still more honor for the flag. The first display-head shouts this information at us in the stentorian capitals: "WOMEN SLAIN DURING MORO SLAUGHTER." "Slaughter" is a good word. Certainly there is not a better one in the Unabridged Dictionary for this occasion.

The next display line says:"With Children They Mixed in Mob in Crater, and All Died Together."
They were mere naked savages, and yet there is a sort of pathos about it when that word children falls under your eye, for it always brings before us our perfectest symbol of innocence and helplessness; and by help of its deathless eloquence color, creed and nationality vanish away and we see only that they are children -- merely children. And if they are frightened and crying and in trouble, our pity goes out to them by natural impulse. We see a picture. We see the small forms. We see the terrified faces. We see the tears. We see the small hands clinging in supplication to the mother; but we do not see those children that we are speaking about. We see in their places the little creatures whom we know and love.
The next heading blazes with American and Christian glory like to the sun in the zenith: "Death List is Now 900."
I was never so enthusiastically proud of the flag till now!

Conservative/Liberal Paradox

2008-12-03T00:52:00.001-07:00

My apologies for running out on you right at the moment when it seemed likely we were building to a point wherein some kind of rational discourse could, or was about to take place. The election and subsequent appointments to an Obama Administration have kept me busy elsewhere.

What I had in mind Alan, was to try and agree upon on a neutral third-party source of information to test the accuracy of the claims we both base our respective cosmologies upon. I realize that right away we would run into the question of whether a God does indeed exist. But to that end I was going to concede the point to you, but NOT your interpretation of who what He is or what He wants out of mankind....if anything.

So we'd have to agree on info from some place like Harvard Divinity School or perhaps even the Vatican. I'm an atheist so for me to offer up these two ...site(s) unseen by me as yet!...is a heckuva risk for me too take, but one I'm willing to take if you'll agree that degrees granted by places like Bob Jones or Oral Roberts U, especially on hard science subjects like biology or geology...or really on anything that is outside the realm of their own particular beliefs...aren't to be considered as authoritative on anything other than the present state of the conservative Christian ideology now popular in America. Okay?

I'm not so naive as to belive that HDS or the Vatican doesn't have an agenda they would prefer to promote, but I also believe they have sufficient contrainsts against outright lying imposed on them that they would be reasonably safe from the effects of deliberate falsification or purges of factual data where once there was much that was known. I just can't say that about many of websites managed by active evangelicals, creatiomists, athiests....Satanist,.Muslim jihadi sites, etc. etc.

You see, I've been fascinated now for years about conservative beliefs. Prior to the internet, I guess I had either assumed that they held many of their beliefs either because they didn't know what the facts were on a particular topic...and so were honestly mistaken in those beliefs and wqould change them once they knew....or perhaps knew they were "probably" wrong but continued saying them to meet another, hidden agenda. These could be such as they were just "going along to get along" or, as I was absolutely certain had to be the case with many of the TV evangelists, they were willfully lying to their flock for either money, power, or out of pure psychopathy. It always seemed to me that there was no way they could be both lying and doing so thinking it would be fine with Jesus...that there was some secret Gospel somewhere that stated lying --- to bring souls to Christ of course! --- was an end that justified the means.
But then the internet came along and allowed me to lurk on conservative websites. Now I could could watch what they said to each other based on the assumption that they were saying it among "friends" only and as such had no real reason to lie. For the first time it was now possible to see what they honestly believed without having to go to all the trouble of actively spying on them. After all, what they said in books was all very carefully weighed out and assessed for it's ability to promote one of the previous goals I spoke of. How was I to know which book was written by a magnificent liar, and which was written in all honesty?

And what I found..and to my utter amazement...was that a great many, the vast majority even, actually believed what they were saying as being true!!? They really had no idea what a huge and devastatingly hurtful hypocrisy it is --- to pick one out of many --- to continue sending kids (or anyone for that matter) off to to jail because they chose to smoke a plant whose use has repeatedly been shown to have very few negative consequences for it's smokers. Well, except of course now the very real risk that they'll be busted and have their lives turned upside down by some conservative wearing a cop uniform and "just doing his job!" enforcing a law that was originally a wholly conservative agenda to dictate what good conservative morality must be for all of us! And do it with not only a clear conscience, but do it thinking that they are doing right for everyone involved....even the kid now being bum-raped was sent there "for his own good!". It simply stuns me that anyone can be so wrong, about so many things, and have no idea or hint that they are.

And that's why I want to set up an agreed upon set of reference texts so that we can investigate these apparent inconsistencies over who is right ... who is dealing with facts when shaping their worldview... and who is dealing with a set of comforting beliefs ONLY. It's my contention that we both can't be right about subjects wherein the facts of the matter(s) are well enough known that their is little controversy among those who actually study the subjects.

You strike me as an educated, intelligent man, so you're aware what the "rules" are for a fact's admission into the "true" column. But, to make it clear for our purposes here at least let's just say that the current state of knowledge on the matter isn't controversial among those who actually study the subjects at x, y, or z schools. And just as being an atheist doesn't make me an expert on the history and beliefs of atheism, nor does you re: Christianity, me biology, or you evolution.

You seem genuinely interested in getting to the crux of whatever this exceedingly strange, mirror-like cognitive paradox it is that we seem to viewing the other's very existence through.

Waddya say?

Palin's Lot

2008-10-09T23:32:00.002-07:00

Todd Palin says contacts with his wife's administration were proper - Juneau Empire

What needs to be taken into account by political wonks and citizens concerned about the future, is that the term "conservative" doesn't apply to a description of a political ideolog.... or at least not in the sense that "fascism", "communism", "liberalism" are. It's actually a description of a personality profile.

To illustrate, take the following: You will never find a left-wing, liberal, religious fundamentalist.

The significance of this is that other, "non-conservative" ideologies have a logical basis upon which it's learners can reason out their relative merits, benefits or drawbacks...see what each one offers the most hope for someone of their particular tastes and background.

OTOH, conservatism serves no purpose outside the comfort it offers those so afflicted with what I believe is a disfunctional behavioural trait left us from our pre-Neolithic ancestors. But that is a whole other area of inguiry I cannot hope to cover here.

So. Back to our anti-vice, anti-change crusaders.

The conservativism "movement" works in much the same way as the drugs that others use to escape the harsh realities of their lives. But a drug's deadening or euphoriant effects change our moods or minds in ways that are far too scary for conservatives, who are ironically probably the one group whose minds could most benefit from a change of mood.

As it is however, they are in perpetual fear of the gay "agenda" (?), a plot I have been lucky enough to actually have a conservative outline for me. This experience alone would have sufficed as convincing evidence that I was in the presence of a strong contender for placement in the next DSM, but my curiousity was now firmly captured by this presence among us. I found they also see other economically deprived ethnic groups as the people responsible for their own crappy jobs, see academics as the cause of their own failure to achieve any real education; and see journalists as the reason they themselves are uninformed about the world. Amazing.

And anywhere in the world one goes, their 'devils' follow...merely changing names and faces depending on the culture the conservative mindset appears in while the same basic pattern of denial and blame-placement are identical across cultures, languages, religions or ideologies.

If you watch who they choose as persons whom they'll trust to let guide their thoughts, it'll be persons with a charismatic or authoritarian presence that seem best able to re-frame their discomfort by blaming it away on the people who oppose their existence (intellectuals eg.).

Given that the majority of them do indeed live a miserable life,
it's a lucrative career opportunity for someone willing to come up with enough enemies for them to place all that blame. As such, right-wing authoritarians have long been the default fill-in for a role that is far too important to our survival as a species to continue allowing such an incestuous relationship to continue.

Thankfully, they are a minority of the population. And with the advent of the internet it's now possible for us to educate ourselves at least to the basic facts about subjects that have long been the domain of the highly educated or well traveled only.
And because their antics "over there" scare our ones "over here", they are a threat to the peace wherever they appear. Ours will mobilize and threaten war, impose sanctions, and any other antics they can think of to ensure nobody is any happier than they. And no-one, ever, was beset by more devils than the typical conservative. The 'traditional' RWA-SDO alliance creates a cycle of violence that is far too dangerous in these nuclear, and now climatically fragile, times. But the psychologists are fascinated. Group Centrism Syndrome is the phrase psychologists use when referring to their specific disorder.

Now you are aware. Tell your neighbors, teach your children.
Mankind needs to change course NOW!

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

2008-08-11T23:42:00.002-07:00

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

Everyone has a stake in ending the war on drugs. Whether you’re a parent concerned about protecting children from drug-related harm, a social justice advocate worried about racially disproportionate incarceration rates, an environmentalist seeking to protect the Amazon rainforest or a fiscally conservative taxpayer you have a stake in ending the drug war. U.S. federal, state and local governments have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make America “drug-free.” Yet heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs are cheaper, purer and easier to get than ever before. Nearly half a million people are behind bars on drug charges - more than all of western Europe (with a bigger population) incarcerates for all offenses. The war on drugs has become a war on families, a war on public health and a war on our constitutional rights.

Many of the problems the drug war purports to resolve are in fact caused by the drug war itself. So-called “drug-related” crime is a direct result of drug prohibition's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand. Public health problems like HIV and Hepatitis C are all exacerbated by zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean needles. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Few public policies have compromised public health and undermined our fundamental civil liberties for so long and to such a degree as the war on drugs. The United States is now the world's largest jailer, imprisoning nearly half a million people for drug offenses alone. That's more people than Western Europe, with a bigger population, incarcerates for all offenses. Roughly 1.5 million people are arrested each year for drug law violations - 40% of them just for marijuana possession. People suffering from cancer, AIDS and other debilitating illnesses are regularly denied access to their medicine or even arrested and prosecuted for using medical marijuana. We can do better. Join us.

Visit these pages to see how the drug war affects all aspects of our lives:

Drug War Funding
Pain Underprescribing
Terrorism
Informants
Environmental Consequences
Economics
Mandatory Minimum Sentences
Voter Disenfranchisement
Public Health Crisis
Access to Treatment
Higher Education Act
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The True Gnostic Science Of Nature

2008-01-20T13:08:00.007-07:00

"Know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

A profound record of the changes in theology over the last 2 millenia are illustrated below using the words of none other than Christian "Founding Father", the great Father Clement of Alexandria.

The "truth", according to his description of the mysteries that lay at the heart of religious thought itself , are "arrived at through the understanding of nature using reason." This stands in stark contrast to modern Christianity.

"When we have fully realized our plans with respect to these notes [i.e., the Stromateis], in which, if the spirit wills, we will attend to the pressing need—for indeed it is vital, before coming to the truth, to lay out that which must be said as preamble—we shall move on to the true gnostic science of nature [γνωστικὴ φυσιολογία],16 having been initiated into the lesser mysteries before the great [τὰ μικρὰ πρὸ τῶν μεγάλων μυηθέντες μυστηρίων], so that nothing will be in the way of the true revelation of divine mysteries [ἱεροφαντίᾳ], our having completed the preliminary purifications and explanations of the things needing to be passed on and communicated. Thus, the science of nature according to the canon of the truth of the gnostic tradition, which is to say, the epopteia, begins with cosmogony and ascends from there to the department of theology [τὸ θεολογικὸν εἶδος].
"Accordingly, we shall make the book "Genesis", written by the prophet, our starting point for this account of the tradition - exposing in due course the doctrines of the heterodox and endeavoring as much as possible to refute them. For the time being however, it is necessary to turn to the subject at hand and finish the account of ethics". (Strom.4.1.3.1–4)

This passage distinguishes the great mysteries from the preliminary matters of instruction in ethics. These are the "lesser" mysteries. The greater mysteries involve the rational study of nature "founded on cosmogony and culminating in theology". And the result of that study is epopteia, which is the name given to the highest degree of revelation experienced by initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries.

So it appears from this that modern Christians who spend their days in churches having the world divided into "good or evil" "right and wrong" for them by priests with barely more education in matters of theology than they themselves, are also spending their lives in dedication to to a lesser concept of religious inquiry or theological training and thought.

Natural historians and scientists otoh, already know in their hearts that a thorough understanding of the natural world ---- arrived at through reason (not faith!) --- is a the way to understanding not only natural truth but also the way through which one arrives at theological Truth.

Carnivorous Fungi from Cretaceous Amber

2007-12-14T15:19:00.002-07:00

Carnivorous Fungi from Cretaceous Amber

Alexander R. Schmidt,¹^*Heinrich Dörfelt,²Vincent Perrichot¹

Carnivorous fungi dating back to the age of the dinosaurs havebeen found fossilized in circa-100-million-year-old amber. Thefossil fungi used hyphal rings as trapping devices and are preservedtogether with their prey, small nematodes. The excellent preservationin amber allowed comparison with extant groups: On the basisof the mode of ring formation and the dimorphic mode of life,the fossils cannot be assigned to any recent carnivorous fungus,providing evidence that different groups occupied this ecologicalniche in the Cretaceous and that trapping devices were developedindependently multiple times in the course of Earth history.

¹ Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
² Martin-Luther-Universität Halle, Institut für Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten, Neuwerk 21, 06108 Halle/Saale, Germany.

An early use of "Destroying Angel" in American History

2007-11-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

THE "DESTROYING ANGEL."

"Destroying Angels," as I understand it, are Latter-Day Saints who are set apart by the Church to conduct permanent disappearances of obnoxious citizens. I had heard a deal about these Mormon Destroying Angels and the dark and bloody deeds they had done, and when I entered this one's house I had my shudder all ready.
But alas for all our romances, he was nothing but a loud, profane, offensive, old blackguard! He was murderous enough, possibly, to fill the bill of a Destroyer, but would you have any kind of an Angel devoid of dignity? Could you abide an Angel in an unclean shirt and no suspenders? Could you respect an Angel with a horse-laugh and a swagger like a buccaneer?

From Twain's "Roughing It" circa 1982

Knowledge (of nature arrived at through reason) shall set you free

2007-10-22T13:33:00.001-07:00

"Know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

I found an extremely interesting opinion of what this may actually have meant among early Christian gnostics that seems a show a massive change in doctrine, here being illustrated by none other than Clement of Alexandria. The "truth", according to his description of the mysteries that lay at the heart of religious thought itself "was arrived at through the understanding of nature using reason." This stands in complete contrast to the way modern Christian fundamentalists look at evolution and other sciences

"When we have fully realized our plans with respect to these notes [i.e., the Stromateis], in which, if the spirit wills, we will attend to the pressing need—for indeed it is vital, before coming to the truth, to lay out that which must be said as preamble—we shall move on to the true gnostic science of nature [γνωστικὴ φυσιολογία],16 having been initiated into the lesser mysteries before the great [τὰ μικρὰ πρὸ τῶν μεγάλων μυηθέντες μυστηρίων], so that nothing will be in the way of the true revelation of divine mysteries [ἱεροφαντίᾳ], our having completed the preliminary purifications and explanations of the things needing to be passed on and communicated."

Thus, the science of nature according to the canon of the truth of the gnostic tradition, which is to say, the epopteia, begins with cosmogony and ascends from there to the department of theology [τὸ θεολογικὸν εἶδος].

"Accordingly, we shall make the book Genesis written by the prophet our starting point for this account of the tradition, exposing in due course the doctrines of the heterodox and endeavoring as much as possible to refute them. But all of that will be written according to divine will and inspiration. For the time being, it is necessary to turn to the subject at hand and to finish the account of ethics". (Strom.4.1.3.1–4)

This passage distinguishes the great mysteries from preliminary matters of instruction in ethics, called the lesser mysteries. The greater mysteries involve the rational study of nature, which is founded on cosmogony and culminates in theology. The result of this study is epopteia, the name given to the highest degree of revelation experienced by initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries.

In short, spending the day in Church having the world divided into "good and evil" "right and wrong" is the lesser concept of religious inquiry or theological training and thought. Science, a thorough understanding of the natural world arrived at through reason...not faith! --- is a the way to understanding the Truth, and natural history is the way through which one arrives at theological Truth.

It appears quite clear from this that somehow the Church teachings that came later from Rome must have twisted the meaning of the words, perhaps so as to not be guilty of changing the Gospels literal words, but by changing the "Words" definitions.

Dean Becker Asks The Obvious

2007-08-08T13:17:00.001-07:00

i-CAUGHT :: Question on drug control

2005 Mushroom Toxicology Committee Report

2007-07-14T17:14:00.001-07:00

2005 Toxicology Committee Report

Compiled by Michael W. Beug, Ph.D.,Toxicology Committee Chair

After a busy 2004 season with many mushroom poisonings, 2005 was a relief. We received a total of 46 reports involving 67 humans and 16 reports involving 23 dogs. I want to thank everyone who sent in reports, especially Marilyn Shaw who submitted 25 of the 62 reports.

Several dogs died in the past year due to mushroom poisoning but there were no human fatalities reported where in the final analysis mushrooms appeared to be at fault. A number of calls to poison centers came from parents whose child had mushrooms in his/her mouth or had been seen eating a mushroom. Most of these cases were asymptomatic. A few calls came in where someone ate mushrooms and then suffered a panic attack from concern that they may have made an error. It is best to confirm your identification before eating the mushroom!

There were a few first time or otherwise unique inquiries regarding mushroom poisoning. An email was forwarded to me from a person in Oregon who was concerned about a woman at a workshop who consumed a Cortinarius in the subgenus Dermocybe. She was asymptomatic but there was concern about symptoms showing up later. Orellanine poisoning is characterized by a delayed onset of 2 to 21 days and the symptoms are headache, GI distress, sweating, lethargy, anorexia, marked polyurua and polydypsia with ultimate evidence of progressive kidney failure, oliguria and anuria. However, there are no cases of orellanine poisoning ever recorded in North America, though since 1952 in Europe it has been a recognized poisoning cause when an astute Polish epidemiologist traced 102 serious poisonings and 11 deaths to consumption of certain Cortinarius species. There is still debate about what causes the orellanine poisoning but all investigators agree that the chemicals show a very strong turquoise or blue fluorescence under ultraviolet light and the fluorescence can be demonstrated not only in the mushrooms but in biopsy tissues.

A second intriguing case involved a notification of a human death from ingestion of a Gyromitra species. A couple had picked tons of “morels” and the wife, a neighbor and the husband ate them all. The husband became ill and died the next day. Further correspondence revealed that the symptoms were slurred speech, stomach pains, and dizziness. He “blacked out”, vomited black stomach contents. He was very hungry and very thirsty. Liver enzyme tests were negative. The victim was an elderly man who did not believe in doctors or in going to the hospital. He had suffered diarrhea for the previous 7 months and had been nauseated for a couple of weeks prior to the mushroom meal. A review of NAMA poisoning reports for the past 30 years did not reveal any deaths attributed to consumption of Gyromitra species, thought there were 9 reports of liver damage and three cases where the kidneys failed as well. This case involved neither liver nor kidney failure and the cause of death was ultimately determined not to be the mushrooms, though they may possibly have hastened the man’s demise.

A third puzzling case involved a horse. The NAMA Mushroom Poisoning Case Registry contains no reports of horses that had been poisoned by mushrooms. Here is the situation:

I found my prize broodmare Isabeau ill with severe diarrhea and fever. She had been perfectly healthy and fit the day before. Now she wouldn’t eat or drink and was very lethargic. I called the vet immediately but despite (extensive treatment) she showed no improvement…until the 9th day… One of my forest pastures contained a larger amount of mushrooms than we had ever seen before… Have you ever had a horse owner suspect mushroom poisoning in his horses…She was tested for Potomac Horse fever, Salmonella, EPM, West Nile Virus and everything came out negative. She has no organ damage. No founder. I talked with my vet and the vets at OSU. They see cases like this every fall. Half of the horses die. No one knows what causes them… Could mushrooms be a factor in these diarrhea cases?

I had no answer. Maybe others will have a chance to examine similar cases in the future and see whether or not there is a mushroom connection in these illnesses occurring in horses.

I dunno....

2007-07-14T14:59:00.001-07:00

Mega-mushroom a savory stunner in Mexico - Yahoo! News

Mega-mushroom a savory stunner in Mexico

Tue Jul 10, 2:49 PM ET

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AFP) - A more than 20-kilo (41-lb) mushroom has been picked in a forest in Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas, university officials said Tuesday.

The white mushroom, macrocybe titans, measured a towering 70 cm (27 in) tall, was found near Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, according to the Southern Border University Center.

This hand out from Colegio de la Frontera Sur(CFS) shows a man holding a 20kg (41lbs) white mushroom at a coffee farm of Chiapas state, Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, where it was discovered.(AFP/CFS-HO/File)

Reflections on Mushroom Poisoning in North America

2007-04-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Reflections on Mushroom Poisoning in North America
By Michael W. Beug Ph.D.

In the thirty-year period of NAMA toxicology data collecting through 2005, we had received reports on a total of 126 people (averaging about 4 per year) who had eaten one of the deadly species of Amanita containing amotoxins. Over the course of twelve months from February 2006 to February 2007, I learned of 16 incidents of potentially lethal mushroom poisoning involving 71 people who had eaten deadly species of Amanita. There were 23 reported deaths. One of the deaths had occurred back in 2003 and 5 cases involved poisonings in Chiapas, Mexico in 2005 and 2006 that resulted in at least 18 or the 23 deaths. I normally would probably not have learned about the Mexican cases. However that still leaves 9 cases involving 44 people and 4 deaths in the U. S. and Canada during the 12 month period – ten times the average for the past thirty years. Consequently, I set out to try and estimate how good a job we are doing in learning about mushroom poisoning. I also came to some striking conclusions about the efficacy of prompt medical treatment for amotoxin poisoning.

In Chiapas, a remote state in southern Mexico, the death rate from ingestion of “Death Caps” and “Destroying Angels” is well in excess of 50%. However, in the United States and Canada, individuals who seek prompt medical treatment have a better than 90% chance of survival. Deaths of healthy adults can typically be avoided without liver transplantation (Regenstorff, et al 2003). Currently treatment involves repeated doses of activated charcoal to remove any traces of mushroom that still may be in the system, IV fluid replacement, massive doses of Penicillin G and treatment with IV and/or oral N-acetyl cysteine. The administration of Silymarin (milk thistle extract) may be of significant benefit. Oral milk thistle extract was used in many of the treatments of mushroom poisoning in the U. S. this past year. In California in a dramatic poisoning case that began January 1, 2007, Tod Mitchell MD was able to arrange emergency approval for use of injectable Silymarin (Legalon®) flown in from Europe. Within hours of use all four of the exceptionally ill patients showed dramatic improvement in liver function (Tod Mitchell personal communication). Indeed all of the patients recovered liver function, though unfortunately the oldest patient died of kidney failure (see full report in the NAMA Toxicology Committee Report for 2006, McIlvainea in press).

In one additional 2005 case involving Lepiota josserandii, dialysis was used successfully. The challenge in amatoxin cases is to combat the liver damage and thus avoid a liver transplant. In one of the North American cases, a liver transplant was successfully performed. In three of the four deaths, either a liver transplant or the available of oral Silymarin may have saved the individual’s life. In one (New York) case the patient refused a transplant and in a second (New York) case a liver did not become available in time. In one death (Minnesota) involving a young girl, I do not have enough information to know whether or not a liver transplant was being considered. Oral Silymarin was administered but I cannot help but wonder whether or not the availability of injectable Silymarin would have saved the two in New York and the young girl in Minnesota considering the extremely dramatic results when it was used in California.

From a combination of personal communications, literature and a lengthy Internet search, I have concluded that NAMA members are hearing about a majority of the serious mushroom poisonings and that death from mushroom poisoning is rare in countries with good medical treatment. For example in Spain from 1986 to 1988 there were 46 amatoxin poisonings (4 of which were fatal) – three died of hepatic insufficiency and a fourth died of intestinal perforation (Sanz et al 1989). The better than 90% survival rate is comparable to the U.S. and Canada. A useful Internet site (www.bio.net/bionet/mm/mycology/1995-June/002175.html) turned up a reference to mushroom poisoning in Finland. Between 1885 and 1988, 17 reported cases of mushroom poisoning that led to death. Four of these were due to Gyromitra esculenta, which is widely sold and eaten in Nordic countries.

In the United States, we know we have good data for the Rocky Mountain region (and Hawaii) because of Marilyn Shaw’s extensive efforts. Jan Lindgren and Judy Rogers have good working relations with the Oregon Poison Center and other NAMA members around the country work to fill in information about their regions. However, California has always been a big question mark as to how good our data are. Dr. William Freedman pursues all the leads he can get but medical confidentiality makes his work extremely difficult and California is a populous state with an exceptionally long mushroom season. Consequently I was most happy to discover a paper on mushroom poisoning in California from 1993 to 1997 (Nordt and Manoguerra 2000). During that time period California Poison Control Center reports contained a total of 6,317 exposures (an average of over 1,200 per year) of which 99.7% were acute and 0.3% were chronic. Most (4,235 or 67%) involved children less than 6 years old but only 6% of these experienced clinical effects from their exposure (an average of about 50/year). In patients 6 years old and older (2082 cases), 588 (28.2%) reported vomiting, 307 (14.7%) reported nausea, 263 (12.6%) reported diarrhea, and 221 (10.6%) had abdominal pain. Sixty-one patients were admitted to critical care. However, major effects were reported in just 17 patients (0.3% of reports, average 3.4 major poisonings/year). There was one death in the five-year period, a 32 year-old who foraged cyclopeptide mushrooms (presumably Amanita phalloides or Amanita ocreata).

I also was able to contact Dr. Zane Horowitz at Oregon Health Sciences University for some additional insight on Oregon poisonings. In the fall of 1989 there was a single cluster of 5 patients of which 4 went on to have a liver transplant. There have been no transplants since and no deaths either. He estimated that they deal with fewer than 10 cases each year exhibiting evidence of elevated liver enzymes. Sandy Giffin, Department Director of the Oregon Poison Center then sent me a copy of the standard report which shows mushroom exposures for 2006 for the region served by the Oregon Poison Center (Oregon, Alaska and Nevada). Table I is created from their data.

Table I

*MMH (Monomethylhydrazine)

It is not clear what poisonings are classified as due to orellanine (possibly ingestion of Amanita smithiana). However, actual orellanine poisonings have never been confirmed in North America.

The total for these three states (Oregon, Alaska and Nevada) is about 22% the average for California, which is about what one would expect. Children under 6 accounted for 53% of the calls to the poison center. The entry under orellanine poisoning is curious, as I have seen no confirmed orellanine poisoning reports ever in North America. It is possible that the entry might refer to ingestion of Amanita smithiana that was once thought to contain orellanine, but it is impossible to answer this question with any certainty. The other two striking things that I note are that the number of calls due to hallucinogenic mushrooms is a striking 12% of the total and that only one ingestion (coincidentally of a hallucinogen) resulted in a major adverse effect. The prominence of calls regarding adverse effects of hallucinogens reflects the unusual abundance of hallucinogenic mushrooms in coastal regions of Washington, Oregon and Southern British Columbia. Other regions where hallucinogenic effects would be prominent are Hawaii and the Gulf States.

Over all I am increasingly confident that while NAMA is not getting reports of all poisonings that occur in North America, we are getting a good representative sample and we are learning about the majority of deadly poisonings. The detailed summary of poisoning reports for North America in 2006 will appear in a separate paper to appear in McIlvainea in press).

References

Sean Patrick Nordt and Anthony Monoguerra, “Five Year Analysis of Mushroom Exposures in California”, West J. Med. 2000 November; 173(5): 314-317

D.S. Regenstorff, R.W. Osorio, and M. Bonacini, “Recovery from Severe Hepatitis Caused by Mushroom Poisoning Without Liver Transplantation”, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2003; 1:392-396

P. Sanz, R. Reig, J. Piqueras, G. Marti and J. Corbella, “Fatal Mushroom Poisoning in Barcelona, Spain 1986-1988”, Mycopathologia, 1989 December; 108(3) pp?

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Froggy Fungus: It Ain't Easy Being Green

2006-11-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

"Frogs facing new threat from fungus":
Port Macquarie News, AUS
October 2003

A DEADLY fungus believed responsible for attacking the east coast's green tree frog population could be felt in Port Macquarie. Southern Cross University PhD candidate David Newell says the fungus called amphibian chytrid affects the skin and damages internal organs, paralysing the frog and eventually killing it. 'The fungus is right along the east coast, so potentially there are sick frogs turning up in Port Macquarie,' he said. Mr Newell is encouraging people to report cases of sick frogs to the National Parks and Wildlife Service in a bid to build up information about the disease. The fungus usually attacks frogs in high elevation rainforest streams where deaths are largely undetected, but this year's cooler winter has resulted in the fungus becoming more virulent in a range of low election, relatively common species such as the green tree frog. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has listed the chytrid fungus under the Threatened Species Conservation Act in a bid to formulate strategies to halt its spread. Mr Newell said there had been reported spates of the disease among green tree frog populations but the fungus could be catastrophic in other species with smaller populations. The disease, which was discovered in 1998, can be spread through the movement of frogs in produce and garden supplies. cont...

Malaysian Parasitic "Cave-Plant"

2006-04-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

On another web-site someone was asking if the thing he found in a cave was a plant or fungus. It was a plant, but what a plant it was! After my having posted it to the UBC Plant Forum and more, looking around asking questions of various people, someone (sorry guy!!) suggested Balanophoraceae. Turned out to be right, although it's presence deep inside the cave entrance in total darkness, on the floor of a cave which had a stream running through it as well.... means that the connecting tissue attaches it to a tree root must run all the way up the side of the cave, through the ceiling and up to the bottom of a tree's root somewhere 20 -30 feet above the plant's location here. Fungus or not, I was mightily impressed with the concept regardless!

So BIG Thanks go to Forest Ang, the photographer and guide who sent me the photos. Seemed like a heck of a nice guy as well, so if you're ever in Malaysia and looking for a guide who appreciates nature the way you and I do.....look him up.

Thirty + Years of Mushroom Poisoning: A Case Registry

2006-02-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Thirty plus Years of Mushroom Poisoning: Summary of Reports in the NAMA Case Registry

By Michael W. Beug, Marilyn Shaw, and Kenneth W. Cochran

In the early years of NAMA, toxicology was one of the concerns of the Mycophagy Committee. The existence of toxicology committees in the Puget Sound and Colorado clubs stimulated the NAMA officers to separate the good and bad aspects of ingesting mushrooms. In 1973 they established a standing Toxicology Committee, initially chaired by Dr. Duane H. (Sam) Mitchel.

In response to a suggestion by Dr. Orson Miller, on a motion by Kit Scates at the 1982 East Stroudsburg meeting, the NAMA trustees created the Mushroom Poisoning Case Registry. Dr. Kenneth Cochran laid the groundwork for maintaining the Registry at the University of Michigan. Dr. Cochran continues to maintain the gateway through which individuals can report mushroom poisonings using the NAMA website (www.namyco.org).

The reporting is an entirely volunteer effort and at the end of each year members of the NAMA toxicology committee assemble all of the reports for the previous year as well as any other earlier cases that can still be documented. Individuals are encouraged to submit reports directly through the NAMA website. In addition members of the toxicology committee work with Poison Centers to directly gather mushroom poisoning reports. Marilyn Shaw (Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii and Las Vegas, NV)), Dr. Bill Freedman (California), Jan Lindgren(Washington and Oregon), Judy Roger (Washington and Oregon), Dr. Ken Cochran (Michigan and the upper Midwest), Hanna Tschekunow (Florida and Eastern U.S., now Washington), Dr. Denis Benjamin (Washington and now Texas) and many others have worked hard to track down and record details of mushroom poisoning cases.

The first annual NAMA report of mushroom poisoning cases was published by Dr. Cochran in Mushroom: The Journal in 1985 (Cochran, 1985). All subsequent reports are in McIlvainea (Beug 2006; Cochran, 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000; Lampe, 1989; and Trestrail 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998). In some of Dr. Trestrail’s reports (Trestrail 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996) he compares numbers of mushroom toxic exposures reported to NAMA to reports to the Poison Control Centers compiled through the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System of the American Association of Poison Control Centers. From this data we can infer that mushrooms account for about 0.4 to 0.5% of total toxic exposures. NAMA is receiving reports totaling about 1% of mushroom poisoning cases that are reported to Poison Control Centers each year. While about 90% of mushrooms in the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System are unidentified, NAMA involvement drops the percentage of unidentified mushrooms into the range of 10 to 30%. Also, since approximately 80% of the reports to PCCs involve asymtomatic events, we conclude that NAMA reports get filed for about 10% of the symptomatic poisoning cases (and probably well over 50% of the cases involving a fatality).

The NAMA database that is maintained of all of the poisoning case reports that have been received by the toxicology committee is not readily accessible when questions arise. This paper summarizes all reports in the database where the mushroom could be reasonably well identified. We cover all material through December 2005. Unlike the annual reports, we will not delve into treatments or why the person may have consumed the mushroom (e.g. for food, for recreation, mistaken identification, etc.). The only age determination we make is for adults (and here we treat teenagers as adults) versus children. However, bear in mind that symptoms can be most severe in individuals whose health is previously compromised (due to age, alcohol or chronic disease) and in children whose digestive and immune systems are not yet fully developed.

There are unusual cases where the death is not directly due to mushroom toxins. These include a previously severely ill elderly man who ate several successive huge meals of a Gyromitra species but the symptoms related to his death did not match any known mushroom symptoms.
A adult quadriplegic purchased and consumed Psilocybe cubensis that were of uncertain quality, went into anaphylactic shock and died.
One woman of a group of 5 ate what was probably Laetiporus sulphureus suffered severe GI symptoms, dermatitis, and died within 19 hours, yet no one else in the group suffered the slightest of symptoms.
After passing unconscious from a large meal of Amanita muscaria, a man froze to death in his tent in Michigan.

On the other side of the coin, we have not entered numerous cases where someone consumed an Amanita in the “Destroying Angel” group and had no ill effects; others consume a plateful of Chlorophyllum molybdites or some Amanita muscaria, etc. without getting sick.

We have also not reported on the huge number of cases (roughly 33% of the total) where the cause of the poisoning is unclear due to the ingestion of several species at a time or due to the failure to preserve or produce any of the mushrooms for later identification.

The reports that have been summarized here are voluntary reports. In some regions (the Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific Northwest) the reporting is quite extensive (though undoubtedly not complete). In other regions the reporting is very spotty because at times during the past 23 years there have been few active experts in the area. Sometimes one can be quite certain about what mushroom was consumed but at other times it is just an educated guess based on mushrooms gathered near where the suspect mushrooms were picked or from pictures that the victim pointed out in a book.

We have generally not attempted to use the most current name but have followed the names used in the reports. The approach has also been that of a “lumper.” For example, Armillaria mellea and Laetiporus sulphureus are now each recognized to be complexes of several species, which often leaves no way of figuring out the actual culprit to the species, although by looking at the location one can sometimes make an educated guess.

A confounding factor here is that mushrooms can become contaminated by bacteria and other molds whose symptoms are extremely similar to most mushroom poisoning symptoms. Some of the cases certainly do appear to have been a result of consumption of spoiled mushrooms that were old before consumption or had been frozen raw, which can still allow for some bacterial growth to occur. For mushrooms growing in lawns, flower beds, along roads and on golf courses, there is the question of contamination by insecticides or heavy metals from car exhaust  In a few cases a recollection specifically of a recent Malathion or other insecticide spray was obtained. We also have a Table of Poisonings where alcohol is implicated because individuals stated their observation of being able to safely eat the mushrooms but only if they did not drink alcohol. We are certain that several additional GI cases were also alcohol related.

We have tabulated all of the reported dermatitis cases because that information has remained scattered. Where the case involved both dermatitis and GI symptoms, the event was tabulated in both tables.

We were surprised at some of the things that we found (or did not find). In over 2,000 reports, there were only three cases total involving a Cortinarius species, even though that is a huge genus with many large fleshy fungi. We did not find a single mention of a poisoning that matched the symptoms of orellanine poisonings. So far orellanine has been found in only one small brown Cortinarius species in North America. A further check of other available sources also failed to come up with any orellanine cases anywhere in North America.
While we have often seen 50% quoted as a death rate for consumption of mushrooms containing amatoxins, we calculated an 11% death rate for reported cases of people who became ill. The overall rate of death from amatoxins is well under 10% when you count the people who showed no symptoms. Furthermore, we only found record of 5 liver transplants for a transplant rate of 3.5% in amatoxin cases. From other sources, we know that Galerina autumnalis can be fatal, but none of those reports have made their way into the database. Similarly, many cases of Galerina autumnalis ingestion that did not lead to death did not make this report.
The one death reported from mushrooms causing GI symptoms with unknown toxins/irritants was from Boletus pulcherrimus. To our surprise, there were no reported deaths from the mushrooms noted for causing kidney failure, specifically Amanita smithiana and Paxillus involutus. Though Amanita smithiana was at one time thought to contain orellanine, we now know that is not true. The toxins in both Amanita smithiana and Paxillus involutus are unknown.
We found cases where mothers became ill from a mushroom ingestion and nursing infants (and nursing puppies) became ill (the puppy died) from toxins in the milk. Though many people still eat Gyromitra esculenta, the large number of cases found where there was liver and/or kidney damage will hopefully lead individuals to cease this practice.

In examining animal poisoning cases, we were struck by how frequently dogs (and even cats) consume either Amanita muscaria or Amanita pantherina. Neither of these species is deadly in humans, but both can be lethal to cats and dogs. Similarly there were deaths of dogs from both Inocybe species and Scleroderma species, though we have no record of human deaths from these same species. We looked for mushroom poisonings of horses or cows. There were no poisonings recorded for these animals, though there were two poisonings recorded for a pig, including one death. We tried to answer a question for a woman from Oregon whose prize horse was healthy one day and dead the next. Her pasture was full of mushrooms. Her vet said that similar deaths of horses are not all that unusual. We hope that someone who reads this will become curious and some day have an answer of whether or not mushrooms are involved in these mysterious
horse deaths.

2005 Mushroom Toxicology Committee Report

2006-02-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

2005 Toxicology Committee Report

Compiled by Michael W. Beug, Ph.D.

Toxicology Committee Chair

After a busy 2004 season with many mushroom poisonings, 2005 was a relief. We received a total of 46 reports involving 67 humans and 16 reports involving 23 dogs. I want to thank everyone who sent in reports, especially Marilyn Shaw who submitted 25 of the 62 reports.

Several dogs died in the past year due to mushroom poisoning but there were no human fatalities reported where in the final analysis mushrooms appeared to be at fault. A number of calls to poison centers came from parents whose child had mushrooms in his/her mouth or had been seen eating a mushroom. Most of these cases were asymptomatic. A few calls came in where someone ate mushrooms and then suffered a panic attack from concern that they may have made an error. It is best to confirm your identification before eating the mushroom!

There were a few first time or otherwise unique inquiries regarding mushroom poisoning. An email was forwarded to me from a person in Oregon who was concerned about a woman at a workshop who consumed a Cortinarius in the subgenus Dermocybe. She was asymptomatic but there was concern about symptoms showing up later. Orellanine poisoning is characterized by a delayed onset of 2 to 21 days and the symptoms are headache, GI distress, sweating, lethargy, anorexia, marked polyurua and polydypsia with ultimate evidence of progressive kidney failure, oliguria and anuria. However, there are no cases of orellanine poisoning ever recorded in North America, though since 1952 in Europe it has been a recognized poisoning cause when an astute Polish epidemiologist traced 102 serious poisonings and 11 deaths to consumption of certain Cortinarius species. There is still debate about what causes the orellanine poisoning but all investigators agree that the chemicals show a very strong turquoise or blue fluorescence under ultraviolet light and the fluorescence can be demonstrated not only in the mushrooms but in biopsy tissues.

A second intriguing case involved a notification of a human death from ingestion of a Gyromitra species. A couple had picked tons of “morels” and the wife, a neighbor and the husband ate them all. The husband became ill and died the next day. Further correspondence revealed that the symptoms were slurred speech, stomach pains, and dizziness. He “blacked out”, vomited black stomach contents. He was very hungry and very thirsty. Liver enzyme tests were negative. The victim was an elderly man who did not believe in doctors or in going to the hospital. He had suffered diarrhea for the previous 7 months and had been nauseated for a couple of weeks prior to the mushroom meal. A review of NAMA poisoning reports for the past 30 years did not reveal any deaths attributed to consumption of Gyromitra species, thought there were 9 reports of liver damage and three cases where the kidneys failed as well. This case involved neither liver nor kidney failure and the cause of death was ultimately determined not to be the mushrooms, though they may possibly have hastened the man’s demise.

A third puzzling case involved a horse. The NAMA Mushroom Poisoning Case Registry contains no reports of horses that had been poisoned by mushrooms. Here is the situation:

I found my prize broodmare Isabeau ill with severe diarrhea and fever. She had been perfectly healthy and fit the day before. Now she wouldn’t eat or drink and was very lethargic. I called the vet immediately but despite (extensive treatment) she showed no improvement…until the 9th day… One of my forest pastures contained a larger amount of mushrooms than we had ever seen before… Have you ever had a horse owner suspect mushroom poisoning in his horses…She was tested for Potomac Horse fever, Salmonella, EPM, West Nile Virus and everything came out negative. She has no organ damage. No founder. I talked with my vet and the vets at OSU. They see cases like this every fall. Half of the horses die. No one knows what causes them… Could mushrooms be a factor in these diarrhea cases?

I had no answer. Maybe others will have a chance to examine similar cases in the future and see whether or not there is a mushroom connection in these illnesses occurring in horses.

Table 1. Principal Poisonous Mushrooms in 2005

1. In several cases the age of the adult is not reported and so the total number in column
2 is less than the total number of individuals poisoned. The percentages in column 3 for    age 26 and over are adjusted to reflect a prorating of the additional 25 adults of unknown age. Many of the individuals in the 15-25 year age class were experimenting with hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Table 3. Summary of the Reports by Species: Ingestion by Humans

Table 4. Summary of Reports by Species:Ingestion by Dogs

Hunting the White Truffle by Maureen Barry

2005-11-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hunting the White Truffle by Maureen Barry | Travel Reviews from Travel Intelligence

In October the Feria de Tartufo - the International Truffle Fair - transforms sleepy Alba into a hubbub of good-natured commerce. Gourmets stop and sniff as the all-pervading scent of truffles, of dark woodland places, of autumn, wafts from every shop and doorway…"

Truffle Recipes

2005-11-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

italmangia.com

The hunt for the white truffle

2005-11-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Pursuits - The hunt for the white truffle: "The hunt for the white truffle
August 4, 1999
Web posted at: 4:31 p.m. EDT (2031 GMT)

By Arthur Boehm

(Los Angeles Times Syndicate) -- It is fall in the Langhe, the Italian hill-country south of Alba, and the air itself smells of truffles.

The scent -- elusive but penetrating, redolent of ground and wood and vaguely garlicky -- catches you unawares, and like the dishes the truffle perfumes, permeates the senses rapturously."

2005-10-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

A.augustus

Mycos

2005-10-12T12:09:00.001-07:00

...at river

2005-10-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

lighting

2005-10-12T12:07:00.000-07:00

Me at Helmcken Falls

2005-10-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

Giant Puffball!