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Wisconsin Corpse Plant To Bloom Again
V_IL_Len writes "The University of Wisconsin's original Amorphophallus titanum, or 'corpse plant' known as Big Bucky is ready to bloom and emit its intensely malodorous stench. The plant only blooms a few times in its 40 year life span and each bloom lasts only 2-3 days. Its stench attracts carrion beetles and flesh flies to pollinate it. See this link for photos and live stream of the bloom."
One of these just bloomed in SF - I wasn't able to make it, but apparently it was interesting (if you're into that sort of thing). Read about it here
There's always ebaya tegory=42207&item=4386828334 a tegory=20524&item=4387196761
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&c
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&c
Software Freedom Day!.
An Amorphophallus titanum named "Tabitha the Titan" bloomed last August at University of California, Davis. Two more, "Ted" & "Tammy," are expected to bloom again this summer. That's a whole lot of stink.
There is a chemical in the plant odor that causes hallucinations. Two of them bloomed at the same time, and it caused some of my neighbors to seek psychological counsel because of hearing whispers and seeing shadows. I collected them full-grown when I was in Bio Tech school, about 3 years ago.
One neighbor I am a great friend with, said that whenever they bloom it releases demons looking for people that bet against John Carmack releasing Doom3 AFTER Duke Nukem Forever. Silly, good-hearted man, but it is a great stench to host a Doom3 LAN party with; the game of a lifetime -- You can smell the hell and see it on-screen and with Creative Labs 3D sound!
Other famous Wisconsin people:
Seymour Cray Developed the Super-Computer, Chippewa Falls
Harry Houdini magician, Appleton
Chris Farley actor, Madison
Gene Wilder Actor, Milwaukee
Don Ameche actor, Kenosha
Orson Welles actor and producer, Kenosha
Tyne Daly actress, Madison
Douglas MacArthur WWII General, Milwaukee
Liberace pianist, West Allis
Tom Wopat Actor "Luke Duke," Lodi.
Spencer Tracy actor, Milwaukee
Frank Lloyd Wright architect, Richland Center
Bob Uecker baseball player, Milwaukee
Laura Ingalls Wilder author, Pepin
Eric Heiden olympic speed skater, Madison
Roy Chapman Andrews naturalist and explorer, Beloit
Carrie Catt woman suffragist, Ripon
Ellen Corby actress, Racine.
August Derleth author, Sauk City
Jeanne Dixon seer, Medford
Zona Gale author, Portage
Woody Herman band leader, Milwaukee
Loretta Sell Hildegarde singer, Adell
Thomas Hulce actor, Whitewater
Pee Wee King singer, Abrams
George F. Kennan diplomat, Milwaukee
Robert La Follette politician, Primrose
Allen Ludden tv host, Mineral Point
Alfred Lunt actor, Milwaukee
Frederic March actor, Racine
Jackie Mason comedian, Sheboygan
Charles and John Ringling circus entrepreneurs, Baraboo
Pat O'Brien actor, Milwaukee
Georgia O'Keeffe painter, Sun Prairie
Les Paul musician, Waukesha
Amy Pietz actress, Oak Creek
Charlotte Rae actress, Milwaukee
William H. Rehnquist jurist, Milwaukee
Gena Rowlands actress, Cambria
Leelon StuartSite in Lite radio host, actor, painter, Waukesha
Tom Snyder newscaster, Milwaukee
Thorstein Veblen economist, Cato Township
Thornton Wilder author, Madison
Charles Winninger actor, Athen
Oh - and fried cheese curds.
Well, if you want something with a similarly hellish scent and appearance but of a slightly smaller stature, maybe you should try one of these
Software Freedom Day!.
Several universities across the country have many of these plants - the University of Washington has several, such that there's a bloom at least every year or two.
Virginia Tech has the same thing, and I'm sure many more do as well.
And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
After seeing far too many posts asking why this is news considering their local arboretum has had one bloom, too, and not seeing it properly explained in the links, I thought I'd explain.
Big Bucky is special because it may very well set a new world's record for largest flower (inflorescence, actually). When it last bloomed in 2001, it fell just a few inches shy of the then record which had stood since 1932 (though the record now is held by a 2003 plant in Bonn) and as of a week ago was well on its way to challenging the record.
So while it is true that a few bloom in the U.S. every year now since botanists have found them to really draw a crowd (and donations), that doesn't mean this one isn't special. The bottom line is that my corpse plant can beat up your corpse plant. So there!
philovivero wrote:
>
> I've got mplayer set up with all the right
> plugins to watch just about any sort of media
> file, but I can never figure out how to get the
> file *OFF* their servers and *ONTO* my desktop.
Try: "mplayer -playlist URL" or better yet: "mplayer -nocache -playlist URL"