Being long-time enthusiasts about plant and mushroom networking and communication, we quite enjoyed learning of this very preliminary, new research that goes further, responsibly suggesting analogues between the chemical and electrical signals that funguses employ to coordinate among colonies or distant parts of themselves—previously also compared to neurons—and human language. Analysis and attempts at decoding these shared messages reveal that missives are dispatched in packets with a vocabulary of possibly up to fifty words that vary across different varieties of mushrooms with split gills being the most chatty and nuanced among the species sampled.
Wednesday 6 April 2022
Monday 4 April 2022
breadbasket
Via Miss Cellania, we quite enjoyed this appreciation of the Ukrainian roots of wheat world-wide—see also—and how grain-cultivation and baking traditions owe a heavy debt to the Crimean peninsula and successive exoduses and displacement—and what those fleeing carried with them. National banner modelled on the blue sky over the waves of grain, times like these reveal the depth of our connections and dependence.
Thursday 31 March 2022
dรญa de cรฉsar chรกvez
Commemorated as a holiday in several food producing regions of the United States, the life and legacy of the civil rights reformer and labour activist of Cรฉsar Chรกvez, born this day in 1927 (†1993), whom along wit fellow farm worker Dolores Huerta unionised and rallied for better conditions for all.
Sunday 13 March 2022
sant’ansovino
Fรชted on this day, the sainted bishop of Camerino-San Severino Marche in the Apennines refused the high office until could secure personal guarantees from Holy Roman Emperor, Louis II—for who Ansovinus was former confessor—that his congregation would be exempt from military conscription, one of the chief jobs of bishops during that time was as recruiter for the imperial army. Reportedly having the gift of inexhaustibly multiplying stores of wheat in the regional granary in Castel Raimondo and for producing a copious amount of crops from his own meagre plot of land, never refusing to share, this ninth century figure is named the patron of agriculture and the protector of small farmers.
catagories: ๐ฎ๐น, ✝️, ๐ฑ, ๐, Middle Ages
Thursday 10 March 2022
7x7
stacy’s dad has got me down bad: a Fountains of Wayne cover from a different perspective
imperial trans-antarctic expedition: the shipwreck of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 exploratory mission discovered
beachcomber: eighteenth-century seaweed pressings speak to fecklessness and romanceithaca: an new AI model is helping scholars decipher and date ancient inscriptions
x-wing: Star Wars space craft size comparison
snowmen: David Lynch’s haunting images—evocative of Eraserhead from Boise, Idaho in the early ‘90s
there’s a doll, inside of doll, inside a doll, inside a dolly: Robbie Williams’ 2016 Party Like a Russian was inspired by an encounter with the inner-circle of oligarchs when asked to perform at a New Year’s Eve party
Sunday 30 January 2022
root directory
A happily reactivated Present /&/ Correct shop blog (do check out their sundries) brings us this interesting series of studies curated by Wageningen University of hand renderings of root systems (see also here and here) of trees and plants whose subterranean presences and connections can be far more substantial and wide-reaching than we surface-dealers can fathom.
catagories: ๐ณ๐ฑ, ๐ฑ, ๐ณ, ๐, libraries and museums
Friday 21 January 2022
barn
From Neil Young and the ensemble Crazy Horse, with whom the artist has been collaborating for over a half a century, with videography by Young’s wife Daryl Hanna, we are quite enjoying this new album—his forty-first and seventh together with Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina of Crazy Horse since 1968—released last month.
Thursday 20 January 2022
brearley architects + urbanists
Elevated above the marshes of the Yuandang estuary of Shanghai, a Chinese-Australian design group called BAU has created a graceful, sliver of a bridge to connect two areas of wetlands. With a pavilion and observation platform in the middle of the span, the structure integrates infrastructure with ecology and aesthetics. Much more from Dezeen at the link above.
catagories: ๐จ๐ณ, ๐, ๐ฑ, architecture
Wednesday 19 January 2022
7x7
tomm¥ €a$h: rapper presents a sofa in the shape of bread
banana republic: an exhibit that takes a critical look at the fruit trade—see alsofield manual: the predecessor agency to the US CIA issued a guide to simple sabotage which speaks to America’s present state
bio-rovers: Marimo moss balls (previously) could become ambulatory—see also here and here
spinthatiscope: an actual 1940s toy harnessing radioactive decay fragments of life: a suite of animated emoji from Andreas Samuelsson
middle c: a space-saving piano designed to fit in a corner—see also
Sunday 19 December 2021
8x8
schwibbogen: a look at Germany’s Erzgebirge’s Christmas decorative arts traditions—see also
lakshmi-narayan: a looted sculpture returned to Nepal becomes a god again
wind in your sails: a giant kite will pull a ship across the ocean in a demonstration project to cut emissions
all songs considered: NPR’s Bob Boilen’s recommended listening from the past year
farmscrapers: advances in hydroponics and robot-assisted harvesting are making vehicle crop-growing a reality
wysiwyg: Anna Mills on her typography and creative outlook
carry on regardless: the comic language pf Professor Stanley Unwin
god rest you merry, gentlemen: the comma in this carol makes us wonder about punctuation
Wednesday 15 December 2021
7x7
the hallmark channel: a treasury of classic festive films from Eastern Europe
savage garden: the ruins of Rome’s Colosseum was once a wild green oasis full of exotic plants—via Messy Nessy Chic
touching the sun: the Parker Solar Probe enters and safely exits the corona
barcode architects: a new triangular high-rise for Rotterdam’s maritime district
smart tweed: artificial intelligence predicts the next holiday, must-have gifts
็ฌ็ต: Japanese in-situ heating solutions called kotatsu (see previously) have been around for a long time
what day is it boy: the labour shortage hits Scrooge & Marley
Tuesday 14 December 2021
dyer’s polypore
Having seen the process of extracting dyes from our fungal friends before, via Things Magazine, we not only quite enjoyed perusing through this swath collection of colours derived from mushrooms in its own right but also appreciated the site as an important point of departure for cultivating a deeper appreciation for the mycorrhizal network that connects us all.
Thursday 25 November 2021
7x7
brickover: iconic album covers recreated in LEGO from Pasa Bon’s curious links
sand castles: an innovative intervention to counter desertification
all about photos: arresting, colourful best-in-show exhibits from the AAP annual competition—via Kottkeno one listens to cassandra: rediscovering a 1997 article on what could go wrong in the twenty-first century that’s eerily prescient
parks & rec: a huge collection of vintage outdoor living catalogues and magazines—via the morning news
what—it’s not magaggie’s birthday: an unauthorised Simpson’s cookbook
spin-cycle: a gorgeous, inviting laundrette outfitted by Yinka Ilori and LEGO
Saturday 23 October 2021
7x7
floh u. trรถdel: couple’s costume ideas—via the ever excellence Everlasting Blรถrt
boutonniere: Harriet Parry’s flower arrangements reproduce iconic fine art and classic tarot card designs—via ibฤซdem
microface: a quick quiz to identify whether the subject is a font or a Marvel character (see previously)—via Kottke’s Quick Links
์ค์ง์ด ๊ฒ์: Squid Games Funko-Pop characters—see also
pyrrhic victory: the rules of play for a variant called Atomic Chess allows a pawn crossing the breadth of the game board promotion to a scale that would instantaneously annihilate all pieces—of both sides
rollercoaster tycoon: Saudi Arabia transforms a decommissioned drilling platform into an extreme amusement park
hell no: a sensible horror film
Sunday 26 September 2021
biosphere 2
Under construction since 1987, the environmental research facility in Oracle in the US state of Arizona host to the largest closed vivarium—that is sealed ecosystem—ever built, more than a hectare in size and meant to demonstrate the viability of artificial and self-sustaining life-support systems in outer space, began its first forty-eight month mission on this day in 1991, with a crew of eight impounded under the dome. With the crew enduring oxygen deprivation and near starvation over the two year trial and not all biomes that were to represent the different regions of Spaceship Earth thriving plus pests, lessons were learned and changes implemented, although by the time the second mission was to commence, there was vicious fighting amongst the project managers and accusations of bad science and bad methodology, including the engagement of Steve Bannon who put the programme into receivership incorporated under the name Space Biosphere Ventures. All this took place outside of the framework of competitive reality television and the era of business sectarianism. Since 2007, Biosphere 2 has been owned and operated by the University of Arizona, conducting experiments in atmospheric research, soil geochemistry and climate change and holding special week-long space-camps for students.
Saturday 18 September 2021
your daily demon: stolas
Governing from today through 22 September, the cusps of Virgo and Libra, our thirty-sixth spirit is an infernal prince that presents in the form of a crowned owl with long-legs. Commanding twenty-six legion, Stolas is knowledgeable in the art of astronomy, herbs, plants and precious stones and can be a trusted teacher. The demon is opposed by the guardian angel called Menudael.
Thursday 16 September 2021
mรคnnliches knabenkraut
Though inclined to think of orchids as exotic and delicate breatharians, I was not only delighted to be able to identify a wild, domestic cultivar, the above Orchis macula, early-purple, but also to learn that there are enough varieties here for Germany to have selected a distinct orchid of the year since 1989 (this one honoured in 2009). Like other orchids, it produces no nectar but attracts pollinators through mimicry of adjacent flowers. Named for its suggestive virility of their rooty nethers, Queen Gertrude of Shakespeare’s Hamlet demurs, mentioning, “Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, that liberal shepherds give a grosser name.”
Tuesday 14 September 2021
wara art festival
The above named byproduct of the annual rice harvest (see also), the left-over straw (็จฒใใ) was traditionally used a feed for livestock, fertiliser and for weaving doormats and other household items, but the use of industrial materials over the years has led to a lot of surplus, and inspired the Niigata farming community to concoct a creative solution, first organised in 2007, with artisans sculpting monumental figures over a wooden framework. Subjects are wild animals and creatures from mythology, including the beaked sea-going yลkai called Amabie. Learn more from Hyperallergic at the link above.
Monday 30 August 2021
6x6
headgear: Languagehat is no longer neglecting the latter portion of its remit
on seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful april morning: a pair of short stories from Rysuke Hamaguchi adapted for film
aggregate accessory fruit: the curious, circuitous route of the misnamed garden variety strawberry
like astrology for businessmen: a look at the Myers-Briggs personality test
strokenteelt: see strip cultivation at work in the Netherlands
erm: a discussion on intonation and a hummed “I don’t know”
Saturday 7 August 2021
inosculation
These gemels (from the Latin for pair, like Gemini) marked by foresters to not chop down (there’s some light logging in our woods but done fairly surgically with deference to unusual or aged trees though I wish we could protect them all with apotropaic magic) results from the above natural phenomenon (Anastomose) in which the roots, branches or trunks grow together. Conjoined specimens are colloquially called “husband and wife” or “marriage trees” and were possibly the sites of nuptial ceremonies.