Confusing Coprinus and Amanita is like confusing a zebra with a jiraffe. Totally different textures
I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
121–130 of 192 posts
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#122Is there an app for mushroom ID? Seems like a no brainer now-a-days. Foraging is coming back with the kids. Could probably raise 80M from it, especially if you invent a social networking aspect around foraging.
If geographical spots for mushroom foraging find their way into social media, there will be no mushrooms in the forests next year.
Mushroom foraging is actually a pretty secretive thing – for a reason!
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#123The author seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the bible (referencing individual psalms by number), wears a cross around his neck to hospital, practises all kinds of eastern religious meditations (recommends "Awaken the Healing Light of the Tao" in the midst of describing himself in a diaper on a CAT scan machine). On top of this he works as a particle accelerator operator at cornell. And still eats some of th…
I found it on the whole endearing. Through the author's religion we saw his valuation of his friends and family as well as his whole life. I think it's certainly within reason that people can believe contradictory 'truths' and I'm sure you do as well.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#124I'm curious if parents still admonish their kids not to eat wild mushrooms. The first time I was with a family friend and watched him pick and eat wild mushrooms, it was as if I'd discovered a new strain of magic. Today, I'll eat chicken mushrooms if they look exactly like the ones I've seen before. Otherwise I'll pass. I sort of feel like those killer whales that have to be taught by other whales that fish are food,…
> I'm curious if parents still admonish their kids not to eat wild mushrooms.
It depends on the culture
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if you touch it and then lick your fingers?
At least in the U.S. and Canada, there are no mushrooms where if a healthy adult nibbles on them to taste them and then spits them out, they will be anywhere close to the LD50. You might still get some minor liver damage or whatever, but not enough to kill you. This is as opposed to plants, where people have died just from putting water hemlock twigs in their mouths to play with. There are a bunch of similar-looking…
Wow I never even heard of hemlock before. Good to know!
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#126Is there an app for mushroom ID? Seems like a no brainer now-a-days. Foraging is coming back with the kids. Could probably raise 80M from it, especially if you invent a social networking aspect around foraging.
Would you really want people to blindly trust that? Like the posted article image recognition might falsely consider a deadly mushroom to be harmless, suddenly you've got potential deaths on your hands.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#127Mushroom foraging was common in my family and the ruleset was quite simple – we learnt this as children: - you have to know a mushroom, that you want to eat, by 100%. You not only have to know the appearance in all possible states (young/old, colour variations, environmental context) but also you have to know the lookalikes and how to differentiate. The point here is: NEVER follow any generic rules (like avoid mushro…
Yeah something along those lines, apart from testing new stuff (god knows how long some toxins take to manifest or how strong they are, why risk life/health for few bites). We knew around 10+ of types that grow around us and all their variations, didn't touch anything else.
It is a wonderful activity, hike in dense forests for hours, coupled with treasure hunt that you can eat afterwards (or dry for later). Great for kids too.
The thing is, when I moved to Switzerland, the amount and types of mushrooms changed dramatically, for the worse in this case. Alps around here seem to be pretty desolate place, and of those mushrooms I can find most are not known to me, so big no-no. Funny how things can change dramatically when you move only 1500km.
The worst people are those that collect all mushrooms they see and then they study them at home. We used to make fun of big city dwellers for this. But this approach is dangerous - not only is there unnecessary destruction to beautiful fungus that will be just thrown away, but also eating something that was touching / has bits of death cap on it cap ain't the brightest idea. Plus without expertise, many edible mushroom might look very similar to dangerous ones.
One of the reasons I never dared to pick up magic mushrooms in the wilderness - they are too similar to some poisonous ones back home. Not worth the risk, not unless I would know all variations of them by heart.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#128I grew up in Russia, and like in many other Slavic cultures, mushroom foraging was a time-honored family affair. Some of my fondest memories are of picking mushrooms with my grandmother, who taught me all I know about identifying them. I still forage them all the time here in the States. I'm sorry, but it continues to baffle me how someone can mistake an Amanita for a Coprinus (or Agaricus). To my eyes they're as dif…
> It's a shame because these kinds of stories create unnecessary fear in Americans about picking things from the wild, when there are so many great tastes and experiences right there at your fingertips. To be fair, until we have better tools to diagnose and treat the tick-borne illnesses that are prevalent in the US, it still isn't the safest hobby. This year I finally got sick of worrying about Powassan virus et al.…
That's... one of the worst excuses I ever heard to not go out into the wilderness. How can you ever sit in the car for example?
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#129The author seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the bible (referencing individual psalms by number), wears a cross around his neck to hospital, practises all kinds of eastern religious meditations (recommends "Awaken the Healing Light of the Tao" in the midst of describing himself in a diaper on a CAT scan machine). On top of this he works as a particle accelerator operator at cornell. And still eats some of th…
Psalm 23 is the most famous one, so knowing it doesn't indicate an encyclopedic knowledge of the bible.
Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)
#130The author seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the bible (referencing individual psalms by number), wears a cross around his neck to hospital, practises all kinds of eastern religious meditations (recommends "Awaken the Healing Light of the Tao" in the midst of describing himself in a diaper on a CAT scan machine). On top of this he works as a particle accelerator operator at cornell. And still eats some of th…
I know it's maybe even the norm, but I can't get my head around this disconnect between doing deep scientific work on the one hand and having such a profoundly mystical world view that seems to sometimes eschew rational reflections on cause-and-effect.
> Why did I live and the rest not live?
There are many factors at play. Among those not listed by the author are: age, genetics and biochemical happenstances, and pure random luck. Yet, the question seems to angle for a deeper meaning, as if to evoke the intent of a higher power who lets people live or die for personal or moral reasons.
> Was it the amount of toxin? Was it that I knew what had happened to me and sought care and help quickly?
Yes.
> Was it my meditation/visualization and somatic self care/self help practice?
It's been shown that a patient's determination and outlooks do have a noticeable effect on their outcome, so your mental framework may very well have helped here for reasons that are not related to specific practices themselves, but because they have a positive effect on your attitude.
> Was it the prayers of my friends and family and my faith?
No. And I would object to this even if I was a religious person. The idea that an all-powerful and infinetely wise entity, who decided on the fate of the entire universe well in advance, would change their mind and let someone live on account of the amount of fawning being performed on behalf of that person - that idea is both intellectually and theologically bankrupt.
> Was it the doctors’ care? One of them said it was a miracle!
Yes, it was the doctors' care, which was most likely necessary to save you. Using a throwaway utterance like this as evidence in support of a miracle-based world view seems self-deceiving.
If we're going to assign miracle status to improbable events, it should probably not be those that fall within the 20-50% range. The most disconcerting thing is that we would expect someone whose work involves particle physics to have a better grasp of probabilities, but I think once a person subscribes to the idea of a personalized universe that cares about the conduct of individual humans, a whole different set of rules suddenly comes into play.