1. Don't know, but I enjoy how Alan Watts takes "nothing" into consideration:

Rats are ill-suited for such short-length investigations? Really? Like the 90-Day Rat Feeding Study that Monsanto employs for testing and determining the health safety of "most products"? Sweet, someone should tell them they're doing it wrong.

69, woo-hoo! I...I'm sorry. I'll show myself out.

Metaphorically, the soul has been referred to as the "bride" that joins mystical union/oneness with God/the universe. That is to say, an immediate, definite sensation where one feels, to quote Alan Watts, "that the whole energy, which expresses itself in the galaxies, is intimate" - which has alternately been called…

Impressive, but still not the best earth, wind, and fire I've seen.

Very cool, thanks for the heads up! After reading up on the study, found this very interesting take on it, where the experimenters were regarded as a "group" as well:

Shh, don't startle the simple folk.

It's a form of symbiosis, really. One needs the other in an "out" group to know that they are in the "in" group. And each get plenty of joy in talking shit about the other. It's not a matter of "can't we all just get along." They already get along, they just don't realize it. It's, as Alan Watts calls it, the…

It's a form of symbiosis, really. One needs the other in an "out" group to know that they are in the "in" group.. And each get plenty of joy in talking shit about the other. It's not a matter of "can't we all just get along." They already get along, they just don't realize it. It's, as Alan Watts calls it, the…

Goodbye, crow!

Great insight, fantastic reference.

This guy sees the Matrix.

" He thinks in terms of mathematical 'objects' — abstract entities like geometric objects, sets, permutations, topologies, and matricies."

Thanks, I think that was my introduction to him. A brilliant talk, as well. He also gave a talk at TEDMED 2011 that covered some of the same material. If you want some vintage Stamets, this (the embedded) talk was a blast.

Ha! That's awesome. And here I literally just burned a gift card (which I had been sitting on for a few months now) on four other books. Oh well, into the cart it goes. Thanks so much! And are flugelhorns standard mushroom hunting equipment? Because I might be able to swing a trumpet.

Very cool! I've come to greatly admire Paul Stamets and his work. I don't quite have the courage to go foraging for goods, think I need to pick up a guide and study it first. That, and would preferably want to be with an experienced picker - at least the first few times out.

They may not have a nervous system, but mycelial mats do resemble a neural network. Skip to around 3:56 in this video for an explanation of the pic:

If you want to see some awesome and surprising shit about fungi (including concrete examples of their wide range of uses), check out this talk from the brilliant Paul Stamets. Seriously, it boggles the goddamn mind - and it seems like we're only scratching the surface of what these organisms are and what they can do.

I thought the "Pascagoula Abduction" was an interesting one, particularly the transcript of the discussion the two men had when they thought they were alone in the police station (cops left a tape recorder going and left the room to see if they could catch the guys in a lie). I can't seem to find the audio anywhere,…

Shouldn't these folks start cross-collaborating with the Human Microbiome researchers? Especially considering the fact that we evolved symbiotically, and neither exist in a vacuum, and you really can't have one without the other (blurring, really, the distinction between "us" and "them"). It's my understanding that…