camping checklist

Alright,

with the long weekend quickly approaching and many of us feeling the need to ‘escape’ from the rat race, I thought I’d post an extensive camping checklist that’s taken years to perfect (and is still a work in progress). Feel free to add anything that I forgot…

Peace,

D-F(ng)s

Tarp

tent

axe

hammer

stove

propane

frying pan

Fungus suspected in Cowichan Bay death

Fungus suspected in Cowichan Bay death

Times Colonist

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating the death of a Cowichan Bay woman at Victoria General Hospital Tuesday morning who is suspected to have died from a yeast-like fungus found on trees on Vancouver Island.

Regional coroner Rose Stanton said the 45-year-old woman’s death is under investigation but she is suspected to have died from Cryptococcus gattii. Results won’t be available until the end of the week. About one person dies from the disease in B.C. each year.

Cryptococcus is a microscopic yeast-like fungus.

A variety of this fungus is called Cryptococcus gattii, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

The fungus has been living on trees on the east coast of Vancouver Island, first identified in Parksville’s Rathtrevor Park in 1999. About eight people have died from the disease since that time.

People and animals exposed to this fungus can become sick with cryptococcal disease — a rare fungal disease that can affect the lungs, resulting in pneumonia, and nervous system, manifesting as meningitis in humans.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

Fungus-decomposing what the world proses…

From:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus

Occurring worldwide, most fungi are largely invisible to the naked eye, living for the most part in soil, dead matter, and as symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi. They perform an essential role in all ecosystems in decomposing organic matter and are indispensable in nutrient cycling and exchange. Some fungi become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or molds. Many fungal species have long been used as a direct source of food, such as mushrooms and truffles and in fermentation of various food products, such as wine, beer, and soy sauce. More recently, fungi are being used as sources for antibiotics used in medicine and various enzymes, such as cellulases, pectinases, and proteases, important for industrial use or as active ingredients of detergents. Many fungi produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides that are toxic to animals including humans. Some fungi are used recreationally or in traditional ceremonies as a source of psychotropic compounds. Several species of the fungi are significant pathogens of humans and other animals, and losses due to diseases of crops (e.g., rice blast disease) or food spoilage caused by fungi can have a large impact on human food supply and local economies.

Etymology and definition

The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus, meaning “mushroom”, used in Horace and Pliny.^[3] This in turn is derived from the Greek word sphongos/σφογγος (“sponge”), referring to the macroscopic structures and morphology of some mushrooms and molds and also used in other languages (e.g., the German Schwamm (“sponge”) or Schwammerl for some types of mushroom).

Ecology

Polypores growing on a tree in Borneo

Although often inconspicuous, fungi occur in every environment on Earth and play very important roles in most ecosystems. Along with bacteria, fungi are the major decomposers in most terrestrial (and some aquatic) ecosystems, and therefore play a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and in many food webs. As decomposers, they play an indispensable role in nutrient cycling, especially as saprotrophs and symbionts, degrading organic matter to inorganic molecules, which can then re-enter anabolic metabolic pathways in plants or other organisms.^[32][33]

Symbiosis

Many fungi have important symbiotic relationships with organisms from most if not all Kingdoms.^[34][35][36] These interactions can be mutualistic or antagonistic in nature, or in case of commensal fungi are of no apparent benefit or detriment to the host. ^[37][38][39]

Tibet – 1.5 million people say it’s time for China to have dialogue with the Dalai Lama

On Monday, thousands of people in 84 cities worldwide marched for justice for Tibet–and delivered the 1.5 million-signature Avaaz petition to Chinese embassies and consulates around the globe. (Click below for photos.) Avaaz staff have engaged with Chinese diplomats in New York and London, delivering the petition and urging action. And a growing chorus of world leaders is joining the call.

China is on the fence–indicating an openness to talks with the Dalai Lama, while at the same time pressuring other governments to support its continuing crackdown. Each day, more leaders declare their stance. It’s time to redouble our efforts–click below to send a personal message to your head of state, urging support for dialogue with the Dalai Lama–and check out the photo gallery from Monday’s day of action!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_report_back/5.php/?cl=69515489

Together, we’ve built an unprecedented wave of global pressure. The Avaaz petition is one of the biggest and fastest-growing global online petitions on any topic in history; since it launched on March 18, it has been signed by 100,000 people per day–an average of more than 4,000 per hour, day and night.

Politicians understand that there is power in numbers. We need to show them that they have more to gain by listening to their own people–and heeding the cry for help from Tibet–than by giving China a pass in the lead-up to the Olympic Games. Take action now

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_report_back/5.php/?cl=69515489

We’re privileged to be alive at a time when people anywhere can reach out and support people everywhere–instantly. If we have the power to make things better, we have a responsibility to act. Thanks for what you’ve done so far, for the people of Tibet and for a more humane world for all.

With hope,

Ben, Ricken, Graziela, Galit, Paul, Iain, Pascal, and the Avaaz team

PS – The more people sign the petition, the more powerful our call for change. We will hope to deliver it to the Chinese government again once we reach our target of 2 million signers. If you haven’t already, please forward the email below to your friends and family, and urge them to sign the Tibet petition!

Letter to Eddie Vedder to be given tonight at solo show

Dear Mr. Eddie Vedder,

I’d like to commend you for your efforts in living and promoting the messages and ideals of LOVE, peace, hope, human community, environmental stewardship and spiritual awareness. Collectively we need more cultural icons devoting energy to these worthy causes, and I’d like to thank you for staying true to your principles and not compromising your integrity, even as you have undergone both incredible scrutiny and success both in your career and personal life.

As you are well aware, our planet is facing many serious political, social and environmental issues. It is becoming more and more apparent that the coproratocracy – the alliance of corporations, governments and military- are leading us down a very dangerous path. It is also becoming more apparent that a non-partisan spiritual revolution/re-awakening is necessary now more than ever. The messages of LOVE and peace are universal and throughout the ages have been modeled by prophets and spiritually inclined wise men and women of all ethnicities. Every living organism is capable of experiencing the beauty and energy of an existence that is steeply rooted in love, and for those that still doubt the power and authenticity of love’s potential quantum mechanics is providing us with verifiable, scientific evidence that the power of the heart and mind are much greater than many of us have given them credit for.

Now’s your chance to help us out!

Dear all you fellow fungi,

The Fungus is doing a project on homelessness in Vancouver…. and here’s your chance to help out some good ol’ fashioned grass roots democracy! Our mission requires us to sift through some data – You Tube video clips and old media archives will help us convey the story of the Downtown Eastside – and we have a request! We would like concerned citizens to contribute stories, video footage, media archive reports/articles, and anything else, directly to us at TheFungus. Please send your material (or a link to access it) to us via a submitted comment to this post.

Thanks for your support!

Peace, The Fungus

Neale Donald Walsch

A few members of the fungus attended a Walsch lecture recently. I thought I’d copy and paste a little about him (courtesy of wikipedia). Check out his books on his approach to spirituality if this piques your curiosity.
Peace,
D.

Neale Donald Walsch was born in Milwaukee on September 10, 1943, and brought up as a Roman Catholic by a family who encouraged his quest for spiritual truth. He studied The Bible, the Rig Veda and the Upanishads. He says his books are not channelled, but rather that they are inspired by God and that they can help a person relate to Him from a modern perspective. The God in his books, for example, says that “there is nothing you have to do.” Walsch believes in a pantheistic God, who tries to communicate Himself as being unselfish. His vision expressed is of a New Spirituality: an expansion and unification of all present theologies; a refreshing of them, rendering all of our current sacred teachings even more relevant to our present day and time. He created Humanity’s Team as a spiritual movement whose purpose is to communicate and implement New Spirituality beliefs, particularly that we are all one with God and one with life, in a shared global state of being.

Philosophy:

There are parallels with Walsch’s philosophy and that of the Bahá’í Faith, although the Bahá’í Faith does not believe in pantheism. A possibly stronger connection is with Zoroastrianism, whose divinity Ahura Mazda carries many similarities with Walsch’s God, including the pantheistic angle. Also, there are similarities with early Gnosticism.

Career:

Before starting to publish these books in the early 1990s, Walsch suffered a series of crushing blows — a fire that destroyed all of his belongings, the break-up of his marriage, a car accident that left him with a broken neck. Once recovered but alone and unemployed, Walsch was forced to live in a tent in Jackson Hot Springs, just outside Ashland, Oregon, collecting and recycling aluminium cans in order to eat. At the time, Walsch thought his life had come to an end. Despondent, Walsch began his writings after working his way out of homelessness following a short-lived job as a radio talk show host.
In 2003, the film Indigo, written by Neale Donald Walsch and James Twyman and directed by Stephen Simon was released. It chronicled the story of the redemption of a grandfather, played by Walsch, through his granddaughter, who is an indigo child.

Critical thinking ….

I would like to add a very important side-note (especially with regards to the recent posts I have made…. )

I think the most important skill we can develop today is the ability to think critically. The ability to absorb information and then ask the appropriate questions to (attempt to) ascertain the authenticity and validity of the information cannot be stressed enough. First and foremost…. learning to recognize the bias inherent in all sorts of media is vitally important. Certain media outlets are considered by “experts” to be more reliable and credible than others: BBC is considered by many to be the “spinach” of the media diet, while Fox news is deemed by many as the “fastfood” alternative. Media outlets are ‘regulated’, and are supposed to live up to certain journalistic standards. Whether these media outlets are being held accountable to these standards is anyone’s guess, but there certainly seems to be a lot of speculation that they are not. Reported incidents of ‘propaganda’ and factual distortion have been quite rampant over the past 60 years on many of the major news networks. That being said, I have seen some wonderful examples of truly investigative journalism from even the biggest media outlets. The problem, however, is that the ‘bread and butter’ of mainstream media’s quality investigative journalism is usually buried behind a main section article on Britney Spears, or is strategically located on a page with glossy advertising aimed at taking your attention off the targeted article. Regardless, understanding who stands to gain from the outcome of the article is usually a good place to start when becoming an informed, critically thinking, media consumer.

When viewing information on the internet we must also be extremely careful; being a completely unregulated source of media has its pros and cons. The credibility of internet ‘authors’ is always questionable. Are these people ‘experts’ on the given topic? What are their credentials? Why do they want me to believe their point of view? These are all good questions to ask and as you begin your quest for truth you will find it necessary to conduct further research to determine the validity of certain quotes, certain historical facts, certain details that could easily be manipulated.

Human Potential Movement

The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating of extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in most people. The movement took as its premise the belief that through the development of “human potential”, humans can experience an exceptional quality of life filled with happiness, creativity, and fulfillment. As a corollary, those who begin to unleash this assumed potential often find themselves directing their actions within society towards assisting others to release their potential. Adherents believe that the net effect of individuals cultivating their potential will bring about positive social change at large.

Roots

The movement has its conceptual roots in existentialism and humanism. Its emergence linked to humanistic psychology, also known as the “3rd force” in psychology (after psychoanalysis and behaviorism, and before the “4th force” of transpersonal psychology — which emphasizes esoteric, psychic, mystical, and spiritual development) ^[1]. Some commentators consider the HPM synonymous with humanistic psychology. The movement views Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualization as the supreme expression of a human’s life.

Commentators sometimes classify the human potential movement as being categorised under the broader umbrella of the New Age movement. HPM distinguishes itself ideologically from other New Age trends by an emphasis on the individual development of secular human capabilities — as opposed to the more spiritual New Age views. However, participants rarely make this distinction, and most who embrace the ideas of the human potential movement also tend to embrace the other more spiritual ideas within the New Age movement.

Christopher Lasch notes the impact of the human potential movement via the therapeutic sector:

The new therapies spawned by the human potential movement, according to Peter Marin, teach that “the individual will is all powerful and totally determines one’s fate”; thus they intensify the “isolation of the self.” ^[2]

The HPM in many ways functioned as the progenitor of the contemporary industry surrounding personal growthself-help. and

 

Driving….

I’ve had an epiphany… and this one centres around the way I drive my car. I know I shouldn’t be driving, but unfortunately my job and my life require the odd trip in what my mother refers to as the “gear shifting junker”, or something to that effect. Those of you who know me and have driven with me can attest that I love to drive, and the old ‘88 lude still handles and performs as well as almost any other (poor man’s) sports car on the road. But I think this driving attitude has come to an end. No longer am I going to 1) waste gas 2) harm the environment 3) get stressed out – by driving fast… i’ve decided to slow right down, and in doing so i kinda hope to slow down other people too… maybe it’ll make them appreciate the scenery, or perhaps focus on the song that’s playing on the radio, or get them to relax a little more… or at least save money on gas.

I think it’s more rebellious to drive slow now than it is to drive fast…. if we’re gonna slow the machine down a little, why not start on the road?!

The 9 phases of interspirituality as explained by wayne teasdale

A universal spirituality is eminently practical in nine ways and, through these ways, becomes immensely transformative of the individual, the community, and the world. Interspirituality finds these nine elements in the mature expressions of spirituality in every tradition – that is, in their saints or mystics. These include 1. an actualized moral capacity; 2. a sense of solidarity and interdependence with all beings; 3. deep nonviolence; 4. humility of heart; 5. a spiritual practice; 6. mature self-knowledge; 7. simplicity of life; 8. love in action, or compassionate service; and 9. prophetic voice, or witness, and action.

Explanation on recent spiritual posts

As more and more of you read this blog, I felt it necessary to explain my decision to post spiritual material. First of all, for all intensive purposes, I am a ‘recovering Catholic’.

D-fungus on spirituality

I challenge you to become spiritual; I want you to believe in Bhudda, I want you to believe in Allah, I want you to believe in Jesus. More importantly, I want you to believe in love, believe in the power of humanity, I want you to believe that you have God in you, I want you to believe that I have God in me. I want you to feel the power of nature, to feel the power of living in harmony with that nature. I want you to believe in magic, in miracles, in forgiveness, in divinity. I want you to learn to discover the inherent beauty in everything in life, I want you to believe in the sacred balance of the universe, the beauty of the stars and the galaxy, the beauty of the diversity of the life existing in the blue seas, the magic of each new dawn, and each new evening.

Does your spirituality allow that you be happy, be free, be beautiful, be loved? And does your spirit truly allow you to LOVE everyone and everything in this universe?. Does your spirituality allow you to connect to the Earth? Does your spirituality allow you to totally remove your desire for greed, for power, for injustice, for hatred, for dominance?

Mushroom Documentary

Hidden in the shadows, intertwined with virtually everything on the planet, mushrooms and fungus are an incredible dynamic force – they stink, ooze, metabolize, synthesize and decompose their way down a path of inebriation, murder and mayhem.

http://www.deepbluefunkfilms.com/mushroomtreat.html

This film will be the first full-length documentary about the role and scope of fungus in our lives and environment; exploring a vast, untapped, and forgotten kingdom. Fungi are a branch of life as diverse and important as either the plant or animal kingdom, and yet people know very little about them. Hundreds of millions of years older than plant life and sharing a closer genetic make-up with animals, the fungi remain a mystery. Underworld: The Fun, Violent, Sexy Mushroom Movie will challenge its viewers to accept some radical ideas about communication, individuality, sexuality and the nature of death. In the fungal world sexual pairings are enormously intricate, allowing as many as 21000 pairings – a concept that humans have a hard time grasping. The largest organism on the planet is a single fungus in Oregon that stretches over 2200 acres.