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The Death Cap Mushroom Is Spreading Across the US

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Discovery News reports that the death cap mushroom is now an invasive species on every continent except Antarctica. It is spreading along the East and West Coasts of the U.S. and appears to be moving south into Mexico. 'When someone eats Amanita phalloides, she typically won't experience symptoms for at least six and sometimes as many as 24 hours,' says Cat Adams. 'Eventually she'll suffer from abdominal cramps, vomiting, and severely dehydrating diarrhea. This delay means her symptoms might not be associated with mushrooms, and she may be diagnosed with a more benign illness like stomach flu. To make matters worse, if the patient is somewhat hydrated, her symptoms may lessen and she will enter the so-called honeymoon phase.' Without proper, prompt treatment, the victim can experience rapid organ failure, coma, and death. But good news is on the way. S. Todd Mitchell of Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California has treated more than 60 patients with a drug derived from milk thistle. The patients who have started the drug on time (within 96 hours of ingesting the mushroom) and who have still had kidney function intact have all survived. 'When administered intravenously, the compound sits on and blocks the receptors that bring amatoxin into the liver, thus corralling the amatoxins into the blood stream so the kidneys can expel them faster,' says Adams. Still, Mitchell cautions against the 'regular look"'of deadly mushrooms. 'They smell very good and when they're cooked, many patients have described them as the most delicious mushrooms they've ever eaten.'"

156 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Re:she by BryanL · · Score: 1

    Men eat phalloides too, I guess. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

  2. Alice needn't worry then ... by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

    . 'They smell very good and when they're cooked, many patients have described them as the most delicious mushrooms they've ever eaten.'"

    At least there is no chance in hell anyone would confuse them with Magic Mushrooms then ....

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    1. Re:Alice needn't worry then ... by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      Well done.

      Why would you attempt to self-identify mushrooms? There is an deadly impostor for even Psilocybe (conocybe).

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

  3. Re:News for the USA. by rk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An English language website, hosted in the US, owned by a US company, administered and run by US employees is US focused? It's shocking, I tell you.

  4. bit heavy on the fud by K10W · · Score: 1

    over doing it a bit since they grow in Europe and I used to spend my time as a kid IDing fungi with my little book, yeah weird kid I know, and amanita genus have been particularly interesting to me. Also someone better tell this guy he shouldn't be doing that https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:bit heavy on the fud by K10W · · Score: 3, Informative

      should have mentioned I mean they are easy to ID and eating unidentified fungi has always been stupid thing to do

    2. Re:bit heavy on the fud by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Informative

      "should have mentioned I mean they are easy to ID and eating unidentified fungi has always been stupid thing to do"

      "Easy to ID" is a relative term. Even experts get some fungi wrong. For example, there are poisonous species of Galerina that sometimes grow right alongside the prized hallucinogenic "Liberty Cap" mushrooms, and even experts have to take a spore print and use a microscope to tell them apart.

      As a PSA, here are two warning signs displayed by A Phalloides as in that picture on Wikipedia:

      First is the "veil" surrounding the stem just below the cap, which you can see on the larger mushroom that is setting on its side. The other is the "cup" at the bottom.

      It is important to note that neither of these are reliable indicators. Some edible species of mushrooms have one or both. Many poisonous species of mushrooms do not.

      The point is: unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing, treat those features as strong warning signs. Best not to eat any mushrooms that have them.

    3. Re:bit heavy on the fud by marcopo · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Indicators and rules of thumb are a good start. However these are also very regional. There were cases of Russians who moved to north america and are mushrooms that would be safe back in Russia (based on guides such as A+B implies safe to eat).

      As noted, to be safe you really want a definitive identification. In extreme cases this requires a spore print and microscope. On the other side, in many cases you narrow it down to either a good mushroom, or one that gives some people indigestion but that's it, and then you may just take the risk and taste it.

      Foraging can be very enjoyable, and is not restricted to mushrooms, nor does it require living through a depression or the cultural revolution or any such crisis. However, it is very culture dependent, and many in north america there is a tendency to treat all unknown food as dangerous. A friend told me she was eating some wild berries in a local park with her son. A family came by, saw them eating and their boy said he wanted some too, to which the parents replied with a "No! these are poisonous."

    4. Re:bit heavy on the fud by K10W · · Score: 3, Interesting

      which is my point exactly, unless you KNOW for certain what it is you don't eat it. Like I say I spent my youth cataloging stuff like that including spore prints and so on and used to carry my guides while hiking and then my adulthood photographing them. Even after surefire ID and so on I'd never considered eating stuff that has very similar looking but highly poisonous ones I could mistake them for. Just isn't worth the chance. I have eaten fly agaric but that was prepping properly and flavour isn't great but I didn't eat them for that.

      like you mention "reliable indicators" are not, not just because of similarities with other varieties but many indicators vary with age of the body (such a stem veil) and weathering and so on.

    5. Re:bit heavy on the fud by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      I've gotten that too.

      Since we're talking rules of thumb here: in North America, all native berries with a blue or purple color are edible. (But not necessarily ornamental or garden plants; you don't know where they're from.)

      Red berries: some are edible, some are not. Be familiar with those that are.

      White berries: pretty much inedible. Many are poisonous, none are very nutritious. There are stories of people surviving for a time on snowberries, but... they're stories.

    6. Re:bit heavy on the fud by Vintermann · · Score: 1

      A mushroom expert I used warned against picking any small brown mushrooms, because there are so many and they can be so hard to tell apart. They're more trouble than they're worth - although maybe the risk/benefit ration looks different for shroomers.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    7. Re:bit heavy on the fud by Elbows · · Score: 1

      in North America, all native berries with a blue or purple color are edible

      Pokeweed has purple berries and some species are poisonous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

      According to the linked article they are native to North America. They certainly grew wild all around my house when I was a kid.

    8. Re:bit heavy on the fud by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Yes, you are right. But that's the only exception of which I am aware. And to be honest, poke berries always looked a bit weird to me anyway.

      Yes they do grow in N. America, and the leaves are edible. Didn't you ever hear the song "Poke Salad Annie"?

  5. That's why by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

    That's why they say, if it tastes good spit it out!

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    1. Re:That's why by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      An interesting evolutionary point, did the death cap evolve as toxic because it was so tasty, that only the toxic variety survived as the rest where eaten. In commercial terms would the death cap be an ideal mushroom to grow and selectively breed to eliminate the toxicity, being one of the tastiest varieties.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    2. Re:That's why by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      This guy ate several and said they were bland. "Gee, I donâ(TM)t think Iâ(TM)ll ever pick and eat these again," he said. He was right!

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    3. Re:That's why by dargaud · · Score: 1

      A close family member to the phaloides is the amanita cesarea, which is considered one of the best mushrooms ever. Unfortunately I've never found any.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
    4. Re:That's why by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 1

      "Gee, I donâ(TM)t think Iâ(TM)ll ever pick and eat these again," he said. He was right!

      All mushrooms are edible, but some only once...

  6. Killer Bees by Ashenkase · · Score: 2

    Looks like the Killer Bees brought it with them from Mexico.

  7. Last link is misleading. by Max+Threshold · · Score: 1

    That's not what the article says at all.

    1. Re:Last link is misleading. by Desler · · Score: 1

      Exactly. It was only one patient and they died.

    2. Re:Last link is misleading. by kaliann · · Score: 1

      The deliciousness is in the previous link, not the last one. Poor choice of linkery.

  8. Why the hype? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is this hype because it is finding its way into the food supply in stores either via getting into commercial operations accidentally or being picked and sold as something else by wild collectors, or is it just journalistic pomp? Because, as somebody who regularly photographs fungi while out photographing native orchids, I'm willing to bet only a very small percentage of the population would ever even consider eating a wild mushroom. Even 90+ percent of my hiking buddies, all of them reasonably good at plant and fungus IDs, would never consider taking that risk unless it was something very expensive to just buy, like morels.

    1. Re:Why the hype? by magarity · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My in-laws from China are always wanting to pick mushrooms out of the yard to eat. It's amazing what living through the Cultural Revolution will do to make you save every penny and eat anything you can find not nailed down.

    2. Re:Why the hype? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      I should clarify...I mean in most of North America. Granted, certain immigrant groups may display a greater predilection for mushroom collecting, and I know it is a bigger deal in the Pacific Northwest of the US along with in Europe, but still, in NA it isn't a HUGE pastime.

    3. Re:Why the hype? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      True. I have a Chinese friend whose parents collect napkins. Thousands and thousands of napkins. They are also of that age group. I suspect they fear running out of napkins. Many of my older Polish family members, especially those born in Poland between say, 1938-1989, displayed similar behavior...presumably for similar albeit somewhat less severe reasons.

    4. Re:Why the hype? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      The long age group was something of a joke, in case no students of history are around...

    5. Re:Why the hype? by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the issue is that though they are relatively easy to ID, they are new to the continental US and can be easily mistaken for the Straw Mushroom, which *is* edible, so people assuming this mushroom still only grows in Europe may be in for quite a nasty surprise.

    6. Re:Why the hype? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 2

      Misinformed reckless people who want to take hallucinogen often lose their kidneys to mushroom. I know someone like this.

    7. Re:Why the hype? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm a Finn and most people I know pick mushrooms during the summer and fall to eat. It's very common around here. Granted, we only pick things that we know to be safe. I guess one reason is that it's very common to hike around the forests and pick berries and mushrooms here due to:

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

      I actually know of only one case in my (not immediate) family that has been poisoned by mushrooms. This was because of a French friend who was visiting in Finland and was living at one of my relatives. He cooked a dinner using mushrooms he had picked. The mushrooms he picked looked very much like a mushroom, which is a delicacy in France. Unfortunately, there is a mushroom in Finland that looks quite a bit like it, but is very toxic. However, you can eat it if you cook it three times in fresh water before consumption. Someone joked during the dinner "so how many times did you cook it?" and then everyone was off to the hospital...

      It's just that so many Americans are so detached from nature and are afraid of that "you're standing on my property!" and getting peppered by bullets, that they don't enjoy nature...

    8. Re:Why the hype? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      Except Vermont. Look up trespassing in Vermont. Weird state. Their marriage age is also a little low.

    9. Re:Why the hype? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      Which makes sense from the standpoint of say, a website catering to those who pick mushrooms, but Slashdot? Plus, the whole thing is so full of hype that you'd think the mushrooms are throwing themselves into mouths.

    10. Re:Why the hype? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      My in-laws from China are always wanting to pick mushrooms out of the yard to eat. It's amazing what living through the Cultural Revolution will do to make you save every penny and eat anything you can find not nailed down.

      Oh great, so we have that to look forward to, as our very own cultural revolution proceeds ...

    11. Re:Why the hype? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Here is a heartwarming story of a bunch of technology-hating hippies who went out in the forest to pick natural mushrooms and instead got a bonus helicopter ride to a modern hospital where the technology of liver transplants saved their worthless lives.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    12. Re:Why the hype? by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      They are, they developed a mechanizim to fling themselves at over 400 miles per hour when the fungus mat detects someone with their mouth open. They also will aim for large nostrils and eye sockets.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    13. Re:Why the hype? by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      WE cant buy bullets right now, so most people are hanging around in trees with machetes waiting for trespassers.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    14. Re:Why the hype? by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      "Camping on someone's property in the style of northern Europe is completely unheard of'"

      no it's not, just ask. most of the time people are OK with it unless they are of the unhinged wack job type.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    15. Re:Why the hype? by tjb6 · · Score: 1

      We have lots of them grow around here (Canberra, Australia). For some reason they like the pine and casuarina plantations around Canberra, possibly because not much else will grow in the bed of needles under those things.

      We had two people (cooks at a chinese restaurant) die last year who picked them, thinking they were straw mushrooms. Just glad they did not serve them up at the restaurant!

      I remember mushrooming as a kid, under my father's guidance. We only picked field mushrooms, which are dark underneath. Deathcaps are much lighter underneath. I think he learnt to do it because he grew up in the bush, and food and money were scarce for a while.

      I've always considered the damn things a death sentence, so wont pick wild mushrooms any more, as it has been too long since I last did it (40 years).

    16. Re:Why the hype? by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Even better. My wife 30 years of age, is the child of parents that grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Even she collects shit like plastic utensils from fast food joints and whatnot. Plastic bag, bottles, containers, etc. What I call "trash" she calls useful. While it is nice to save money and protect the environment, sometimes she goes too far. And no, it's not a hoarding disorder, but it's damn near close with a cause.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    17. Re:Why the hype? by berbo · · Score: 1

      The point of the article is that the mushroom is becoming more widespread.
      Its true that only a small number of people will eat mushrooms that they encounter in the wild. But the number of encounters is going up.

    18. Re:Why the hype? by gregor-e · · Score: 2

      It isn't necessarily about frugality. There are many easily identified mushrooms that can grow in your yard that are quite delicious. Shaggy manes, oyster mushrooms, various boletes, morels, and chanterelles are all delicious mushrooms I've found in yards and eaten. If you're so inclined, you can easily grow your own.

    19. Re:Why the hype? by n6kuy · · Score: 1

      ah.. the kind that glow in the dark...

      --
      If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
    20. Re:Why the hype? by klui · · Score: 1

      Wikipedia's entry says its toxicity doesn't go away after cooking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    21. Re:Why the hype? by dargaud · · Score: 1

      Woah, you have to be blind AND very dumb to confuse those two...

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
    22. Re:Why the hype? by Vintermann · · Score: 1

      This may have little to do with the Cultural Revolution. Picking wild mushrooms plays a much larger role in some cultures.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    23. Re:Why the hype? by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1
      In Thailand I've had to stop the car so someone could get out and pick wild mushrooms along the road. Then later I pointed out some more mushrooms and she said "Are you crazy? You can't eat those!"

      I guess you gotta know what you're doing.

    24. Re:Why the hype? by sjames · · Score: 1

      Not really. It's more like if you go onto someone else's property they are too likely to ASSuME you are there to take something.

      As a result, it becomes self fulfilling. Only people there to take something (or who are innocent and unaware they aren't on public land) will risk it.

    25. Re:Why the hype? by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      Having never compared them myself, I cannot comment on the validity of your statement, however according to this wikipedia page mis-identification is not unheard of, and is in fact the leading cause of recent poisonings by this mushroom.

    26. Re:Why the hype? by pseudorand · · Score: 1

      Nothing in the Amanita genus is easy to id considering that it's a huge genus which includes a very large number of both the most commonly found and most poisonous mushrooms.

      Now, if you mean that the genus, rather than the species phalloides is easy to identify, okay, maybe. But distinguishing A. phalloides from it's edible cousins is in no way easy, and you've got to be pretty dumb to eat anything that looks similar unless you have a degree in Mycology and/or decades continuous of field experience in the region where you picked it. There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters, as the saying goes.

      This is especially the case when other both edible and choice species like Bolets, Morels and Chanterelles are relatively easy to identify, have no poisonous lookalikes (assuming you have the experience to notice key characteristics). Of course, they're much harder to find, but...

    27. Re:Why the hype? by afidel · · Score: 1

      Nope, no trespassing signs can't help you legally, and in fact can hurt you. If someone is injured on your property and it is marked no trespassing the courts may assume you knew you had a hazard on your property and were trying to keep people away via signage instead of proper methods. It's incredibly stupid but it's the way it is.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  9. Is there such a thing as Xtreme eating? by wisebabo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, is there such a think as Xtreme eating (like extreme sports?)

    If the people who ate them " described them as the most delicious mushrooms they've ever eaten.'" have all survived once they took the antidote, would other people consider eating this mushroom KNOWING that they were putting their life at risk (assuming they had access to the antidote)?

    I mean is this akin to eating the "Fugu" fish (which I have!) where, for some, part of the attraction of the food is the possibility that you might die?

    Are there other foods which are (potentially?) dangerous or deadly but are so tasty that it is worth the risk?

    1. Re:Is there such a thing as Xtreme eating? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Are there other foods which are (potentially?) dangerous or deadly but are so tasty that it is worth the risk?

      It isn't worth the risk. Death caps inhibit a crucial part of cell metabolism, RNA transcription. It's interesting that they don't kill themselves. People usually die of liver failure since that's where the poison ends up (the diarrhea is of course also a sign of a large number of cell deaths, but those cells are more expendable).

      Nicely tasting, absolutely deadly poisonous mushrooms with wide specificity but a large time-delay (about a week). Good for wiping out major parts of a herd. My guess is that it's due to their symbiosis with hardwood trees: gives some protection to those slow-growing trees from getting stripped of their bark by deer and other planteaters.

      A single mushroom is enough to kill a person. Even with "antidote", you will do more damage to your liver and other organs than 20 years of heavy drinking.

      You cannot compare this to Fugu since properly prepared, the meat of the fish will not cause any damage.

    2. Re:Is there such a thing as Xtreme eating? by c0lo · · Score: 2

      So, is there such a think as Xtreme eating (like extreme sports?)

      If the people who ate them " described them as the most delicious mushrooms they've ever eaten.'"

      In most of the cases, the expression would change to: "the most delicious mushrooms they'll ever eat".
      You see, a human body has only one liver.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    3. Re:Is there such a thing as Xtreme eating? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      I read a story about a man who ate death caps and survived. He said they were unexpectedly bland. Fugu is pretty bland, too, and expensive. I went to the cheapest place I could find, $45 per person...which of course means they had the least-skilled chef there. Eek.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    4. Re:Is there such a thing as Xtreme eating? by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Yeah, actually, when I saw that, it made me want to try it.

      Then I read the article, and the article sounded like the mushrooms weren't super delicious, but rather the chef who prepared it was very good at preparing food. Further, it read like a eulogy, where you only say good things about the recently deceased. Even when they died from picking their own mushrooms.

      So I'm not sure there is widespread agreement that the mushrooms are so delicious.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  10. so dont eat them by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Honestly, who is picking up random shrooms and eating them?

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:so dont eat them by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      Mainly the sick and the dead.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    2. Re:so dont eat them by Nyder · · Score: 4, Funny

      Honestly, who is picking up random shrooms and eating them?

      "Hey dude, check this out, a mushroom"
      "I'll give you $10 to eat it"
      "Really? "*mushroom in mouth*" there, done, you owe me $10. Fuck, this tastes great, you should try one"
      "Really? give me one"

      That is how it happens.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    3. Re:so dont eat them by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      Maybe it's just a sign of the hard economic times, with a third of the country on food stamps, or whatever. Folks are just looking for free things to eat . . .?

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    4. Re:so dont eat them by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's called Darwinism and it is a good thing.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    5. Re:so dont eat them by wolf31o2 · · Score: 2

      It starts with.. "Hold my beer"

    6. Re:so dont eat them by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      It's not like picking mushrooms is a cost-efficient way to get free food. Mushrooms have few calories, you probably spend more searching for them than you actually acquire. It's that they taste better than mushrooms you get at the store, they're fresher, there's varieties you can't normally buy, and it's kind of a fun activity when you're hiking. In Europe and Japan and many other nations, hunting for mushrooms is fairly common.

      Only a very small amount of fungi is poisonous, as long as you know what you're doing it's not inherently dangerous to pick them.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    7. Re:so dont eat them by berbo · · Score: 1

      People aren't picking up 'random' mushrooms. They are deliberately seeking mushrooms that they "know" are good to eat, and making a tragic mistake. Amanitas can be easily mistaken for other mushrooms.

    8. Re:so dont eat them by Vintermann · · Score: 1

      People desiring religious experiences, but not being able to trust them unless there are hallucinogens involved.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    9. Re:so dont eat them by sjames · · Score: 1

      Most cases are people from another area that has an edible mushroom that looks the same.

    10. Re:so dont eat them by sjames · · Score: 1

      If you have no job and little prospect of getting one if you go job hunting (or you're saving up for a tank of gas so you can go job hunting), the value/tyime equation shifts a great deal.

      If you've been eating plain beans and rice for a while, some mushrooms might seem really attractive.

    11. Re:so dont eat them by mjr167 · · Score: 2

      I had to explicitly tell the groomsmen at my wedding that the flowers were poisonous. At a previous wedding one of them had eaten his corsage for $1.

    12. Re:so dont eat them by tacokill · · Score: 1

      1/3 of the country is not on food stamps because they are hungry. Hunger has nothing to do with it. Ask yourself: how can a country have 1/3 of it's population hungry and still have an obesity epidemic within that very population?

      Something's rotten in Gotham....

    13. Re:so dont eat them by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Only listeria? They are fake poseurs.

      Real crazy fringe goes straight to dysentery.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    14. Re:so dont eat them by sjames · · Score: 1

      You REALLY need to try reading for comprehension before posting. Nobody in this thread said a damned thing about gourmet but you.

    15. Re:so dont eat them by sjames · · Score: 1

      I suppose you'd make the same claim about victory gardens during WWII. Imagine that, due to war and economic difficulties, the working class turned to gourmet vaggies.

      I never knew our cavenman ancestors were gourmands.

  11. Re:News for the USA. by rmdingler · · Score: 2
    Come on there fella... no one works harder doing dumb shit than we do.

    After Sochi, comedians and internet posting wizards such as yourself would run out of material if we straightened out over here in The Colonies.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  12. Re:News for the USA. by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

    To be fair, the story did note that, "the death cap mushroom is now an invasive species on every continent except Antarctica," and the last link was to an incident in Australia. So it could be coming soon to a table near you ... unless you are in Antarctica.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  13. Re:News for the USA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    An English language website, hosted in the US, owned by a US company, administered and run by US employees is US focused? It's shocking, I tell you.

    Less than 30% of Slashdot's community is from the USA (27.3%). If you want all us "furriners" to leave, you'll be doing an even better job of depopulating Slashdot than Beta has.

    http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/...

  14. Re:she by c0lo · · Score: 1

    Men eat phalloides too, I guess.

    They may, but in their majority they still show a preference to the muscaria type. (nothing wrong with this either)

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  15. All mushrooms are edible by SAN1701 · · Score: 1

    At least once.

  16. Re:Mushrooms are bad by rmdingler · · Score: 2

    I consider anyone who eats mushrooms to have suspect decision making processes.

    So you're antifungal?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  17. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by tomhath · · Score: 1
    FTFA:

    “When we present to FDA, it will be a slam dunk for approval,” he told Slate. “The drug has virtually no side effects, it’s very well tolerated, and if used correctly it’s awesomely effective.”

    The doctor doing the research doesn't seem to share your concern.

  18. There are old mushroom eaters, and bold mushroom by musmax · · Score: 1

    eaters. But there are no old, bold mushroom eaters.

  19. Re:News for the USA. by xevioso · · Score: 1

    You keep posting this link to the alexa stats. Although it looks like there has been somewhat of a drop lately, the statistics are pretty unchanged overall since last year.

  20. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    European countries have used milk thistle for this purpose for centuries if not millennia, but US doctors have been blocked from using it by the FDA for years; they'd rather have people die than be cured by something not patentable. hopefully this situation will change someday, even if it has to be because Merck or another Big Pharma firm comes up with a synthesized, patentable work-alike drug similar to silibinin hemisuccinate.

    You are more than welcome to buy and sell Milk thistle all you want. BUT if you're going to sell it for human consumption, or as a medical remedy, you need some kind of factual evidence to back up your claims, as well as some hard data about side effects, toxicity levels, allergic reactions, etc.

    I know, I know, we all love to bash on "Big Pharma" and see conspiracies around every corner. But the fact is that without such laws in place, we'll be back in the good old days when you could pick up a bottle of pure mercury at the grocery store to drink for your STD's. Up until the FDA was established you could put pretty much anything you wanted into a bottle and sell it as a "cure" or "remedy".

    Homeopathy might work, and it might even have valid medical uses, but it's not Medicine. If you want an example of a Homeopathic cure which IS allowed for actual medical use, Aspirin is the winner. Various plants which are naturally high in aspirin have been used as remedies in teas and tinctures for as far back as we have recorded history. But we don't allow those plants to be sold as "medicine" because while they contain medicine, they can contain a lot of other stuff as well.

  21. Re:she by r1348 · · Score: 1

    It's called "phalloides" for a reason...

  22. Re:News for the USA. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    No, Simple reason is Google, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, Oracle, Amazon, the FSF, IBM, and NASA. Not to mention Slashdot is a US based website, in english, and owned by a US based company. Your complaint is as dumb as if I went to France and complained about the lack of TV shows in english.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  23. Re:she by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    only shes eat it?

    No, they opted to use the pronoun that best describes your average, typical human on Earth.

    Nope, 100% wrong.
    English rules in all English-speaking countries default to the male pronoun when gender is general or unknown. Use of the female pronoun is ONLY in cases where you are only referring to females.
    Any person using the female pronoun by default is simply trying to push some kind of agenda.

  24. Thank you noble 'shroom eater for taking by mrmeval · · Score: 1

    The Darwin Challenge.

    Our current contestant is at Stage 1 and has gorged herself on 1 pound of prime poisonous 'shrooms.

    Odds in Vegas are running 3 to 1 against her surviving 48hrs.

    Care to play?

    Click the link.

    --
    I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
  25. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by gmhowell · · Score: 2

    FTFA:

    “When we present to FDA, it will be a slam dunk for approval,” he told Slate. “The drug has virtually no side effects, it’s very well tolerated, and if used correctly it’s awesomely effective.”

    The doctor doing the research doesn't seem to share your concern.

    Admitting that would mean GP couldn't engage in some anti-American douchebaggery, a very popular slashdot pasttime.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  26. Re:just eat only mushrooms you know by wulfhere · · Score: 1

    Or do what I do, and skip them all together. Yuck.

    --
    -- Sent from a computer.
  27. Re:News for the USA. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    No one said that "furriners" sic had to leave. They should just not be any more shocked that a US based website is going to be heavy on US centric news. It would be as silly as if I complained that BBC is too UK centric.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  28. Re:she by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    only shes eat it?

    I'm guessing both genders may or may not consume deathcaps.

    I really wish white knighting feminist wannabes would eat a whole bushel of them, though.

    Protip: masculine pronouns are the standard when writing about unspecified people. If you want to be an asshat, use 'he or she', 'his or her', et cetera. Feminine pronouns are right out. You can't just randomly insert whatever gender pronouns you want. That's what your misbegotten ilk whines is the problem.

    I propose a compromise.
    He is bigoted against women, so it's right out.
    She contains "he" within it, implying that She cannot exist without He, and is therefore just as bigoted against women.
    It is never appropriate to use in reference to a human.
    So we'll just make a new pronoun, gender-neutral and species neutral: SHIT.

    There, now everybody is happy. You're welcome, Humanity, feel free to address my Nobel Peace Prize to AC.

  29. Re:News for the USA. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Less than 30% of Slashdot's community is from the USA (27.3%). If you want all us "furriners" to leave, you'll be doing an even better job of depopulating Slashdot than Beta has.

    http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/...

    Visitors by Country
    Country Percent of Visitors
    India 36.3%
    United States 27.3%
    United Kingdom 3.6%
    Pakistan 3.1%
    Canada 2.6%

    In other news, Rich NRI asked to pay Rs 50L to ex-wife who earns 65k per month.

  30. Re:News for the USA. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    Every tech site is going to be US news heavy for the simple reason that Microsoft, Google, Intel, Apple, AMD, Cisco, and so on are all US based companies. CNN has an International version btw just as the BBC does. I will agree with you that the BBC is a great news service. As a Canadian all I can say is you guys suck. You should have made more episodes of Little Mosque, but you should have kept Reverand McGee and not had Yasar and Sarah divorce.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  31. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by mrbester · · Score: 1

    You can buy milk thistle in various forms in health foods shops in UK and have been able to do so for *decades*. If there was a problem with this unregulated remedy (hint: there isn't) it would have been discovered by now.

    Don't know why you're babbling about homeopathy. Aspirin isn't homeopathic. Never has been. Neither is milk thistle.

    --
    "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
  32. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by serbanp · · Score: 1

    In US, pharmacies carry milk thistle capsule bottles. I know this because back in 2010 I was concerned that some of the Agaricus I have harvested was not Agaricus... Wikipedia mentioned the milk thistle, the ER doctor know about it too (and still gave me the active charcoal regimen, ewww) - it's obvious that this was common knowledge at the time.

    This study must have lasted a long time. There are only a few poisonings every year around these parts (Santa Cruz mountains, the Peninsula), to gather 60+ patients takes time and patience.

  33. Cut to the chase by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    So, they get you high or what?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  34. Re:News for the USA. by Lumpy · · Score: 1

    If you want all us "furriners" to leave...

    he said FURRIES not furriners....

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  35. So delicious! by Kevin+Fishburne · · Score: 3, Funny

    "They smell very good and when they're cooked, many patients have described them as the most delicious mushrooms they've ever eaten."

    Clearly this is proof of Intelligent Design. If I were God I'd definitely place these things everywhere they'd fit just to keep my people on their toes. Nature's land mines.

    --
    Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
    1. Re:So delicious! by Greyfox · · Score: 2

      He IS that kind of God! Putting that delicious-looking apple tree smack in the middle of his garden? You can't win against a guy like that. He's the sort of person who puts bricks under hats.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  36. Re:she by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    That reminds me of the old Borscht Belt joke about the guy who's filling out his social security application and they ask him if he's ever been married.

    He says, "Yes, I was married to first wife for a wonderful 15 years, but tragically she died from eating poison mushrooms. Then, I remarried and my second wife, after eight glorious years died, believe it or not, also from eating poison mushrooms.

    "Then, I married my third wife, and we were together for four years, when she died from a cerebral hemorrhage...

    "Bitch wouldn't eat the mushrooms.".

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  37. Re:she by Cito · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, men do not fall for the trap. Women see it and start thinking of all the ways they can cook it in the kitchen. Women are obsessed with kitchens and all things food, look at Eve.

    Men had it made, perfection, immortality, perfect body, great lawn, we could fart and scratch our balls on silky smooth perfect grass in Eden. But Eve comes along her "kitchen obsession" kicks in and she starts bringing back foods to feed Adam, fattening him up, she breaks the rules and Adam has to suffer consequences along side the woman.

    I wouldn't be surprised if many many cavemen died, they returned home with fresh Sabertooth tiger meat, but the woman had tried foraging picking plants "as they do" and feeds caveman poison ivy/oak/sumac and wipes out all Neanderthals!

    She's.... Yup damn she's

    God created misogyny.

    har har :-)

  38. Re:she by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Well... And I'm saying this as a straight male... you can just as easily argue that the default language is sexist can you not? I think the agenda both sides should be pushing for is the adoption of a gender neutral pronoun, I see nothing wrong with "they" or "one" but that's just my opinion.

  39. Re:she by slew · · Score: 2

    Any person using the female pronoun by default is simply trying to push some kind of agenda.

    I think this might be the person you are referring to and her blog where she links the agenda...

    In case you are interested...

  40. the master solution by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    Scientists have just discovered that the best solution is: DON'T go eat random fucking mushrooms in the fucking woods, you idiot!

  41. Time to stock up on some intravenous milk thistle by surd1618 · · Score: 1

    "Most delicious mushroom they've ever eaten." Maybe I should tank up on sylimarin and go mushy hunting.

  42. People don't know this? by durin · · Score: 2

    The Death Cap is something I learned as a child not to touch, and I teach my kids that too. It's pretty common where I live to learn which things in nature are edible and what to watch out for. I had the impression most people around the world had that kind of education "built in". Is that not the case in the US these days?

    --
    Why, yes! I AM new here.
    1. Re:People don't know this? by dargaud · · Score: 1

      When I was on the East coast of the US, people were screaming at their kids not to go near any kind of green thing: "Stop, there's poison ivy there. And rabid raccoons. And Ebola." Yes, even in their own backyards. Not even exaggerating much.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
    2. Re:People don't know this? by sjames · · Score: 1

      There are kids in the U.S. that have never seen the stars. They get washed out by city light pollution.

    3. Re:People don't know this? by Control-Z · · Score: 1

      About the only things I can think of that I would eat from a "wild" plant are blackberries. I don't know of anyone that eats wild mushrooms, they just avoid them altogether.

  43. Lots of confusion and misinformation... by Kotetsu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The main reason these mushrooms are eaten is that they are misidentified as some similar looking edible species. The most frequent victims for these mushrooms are immigrants that mistake them for an edible species that they would find back where they were originally from. In the US on the west coast, that most often means immigrants from eastern Asia mistaking them for Volvariella, volavacea, commonly sold in supermarkets in cans as "Paddy Straw Mushrooms".

    As far as being deadly, their lethality depends mostly on how much of them you eat. In a very general sense, if you eat some and don't seek medical treatment, your odds of dying are around 50%. With treatment (before the milk thistle extract), the survival rate was more like 90%.

    There are lots of other mushrooms that also produce the same toxins in potentially deadly quantities. The ones that produce the most poisonings are Galerinas (especially G. marginata), since they resemble some of the hallucinogenic species of Psilocybe and can grow in the same habitats, at the same time, and even side by side with them. Lepiotas and Conocybes (Pholiotinas) can also be deadly in the same way, but don't generally resemble other mushrooms that most would want to eat.

    There are lots of safe mushrooms and groups of mushrooms that are easy to identify accurately enough to eat without significant risk. Members of the genus Amanita (the ones these deadly ones belong to) don't fall into that category, unless you're a real expert. A lot of the "experts" that are referred to as such are people that can identify a few species (or maybe a few dozen species) in the woods - not somebody we should treat as a real expert. It's a bit like calling somebody who has done a "Hello World" program in a couple languages a programming expert.

    If you want to learn enough to forage for your own wild mushrooms, you should contact a local mycological society. You can meet people who can show you how to identify some of the easier, safer mushrooms in your area.

    --

    "Bite me, it's fun!" - Crowe T. Robot
    1. Re:Lots of confusion and misinformation... by dargaud · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I'd add to be careful of online forums for mushroom identification. I use them but I've noticed that sometimes you get 2-3 posts confirming your identification, and then the next day a more knowledgeable guy rips them apart with the correct one. If you've eaten them in the meanwhile...

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
  44. Re:she by InfiniteLoopCounter · · Score: 4, Informative

    So? Females are the norm, and males the exception.

    This is not so. By default each human cell is a male cell. Female cells have to be constantly refreshed into being female through hormone release.

    The way it works is that when you are born male you have something called SRY and it increases SOX9 and decreases FOXL2 which is the "opposite" part of a cell that determines which gender it is. For females it is the otherway around. However, if a female does not suppress SOX9 they will develop male characteristics (this is why you can get an XX male). The cells default option is to move back toward "maleness" and this is why after menopause women and men aren't really that different (because at a cellular level they are tending towards the same gender expressions).

  45. Don't buy into the stereotypes by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    It's just that so many Americans are so detached from nature and are afraid of that "you're standing on my property!" and getting peppered by bullets, that they don't enjoy nature...

    Come on, that's not at all true. Visits to national parks in the U.S. are at all time highs, as are regional parks or just any park/forest - there is a TON of open land people can and do go exploring on all across the whole of the U.S. If you have never been I don't think you understand how much open areas there are even close to very densely populated cities.

    I have a number of friends who also go out and collect mushrooms. I myself do not simply because to me the risks and effort to avoid the risks do not outweigh the slight benefits. It's not because "I'm afraid of being peppered by bullets" which approximately no-one is when wandering the countryside.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  46. They don't know if it wasn't there by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    The Death Cap is something I learned as a child not to touch, and I teach my kids that too.

    Yes, but since it is spreading how would people have shown others to look out for it - and why would they bother when it's not supposed to be there?

    That's why the warning is a good thing, for people to be aware the Death Cap could be anywhere and so you should always look for distinguishing signs.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:They don't know if it wasn't there by durin · · Score: 1

      You're absolutely right. I didn't really consider that they'd never actually seen it before.

      Although one would think that people would think twice when picking and eating mushrooms they have never seen before...

      Oh well, people have done things way more stupid than that before.

      --
      Why, yes! I AM new here.
    2. Re:They don't know if it wasn't there by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Although one would think that people would think twice when picking and eating mushrooms they have never seen before...

      You would think they would be, but I think a lot of people have no idea just how bad the bad side of mushroom eating can get.

      Someone needs to make a "Mushroom Madness" movie that swings everyone over the the appropriate state of mind-numbing fear over eating the Wrong Shroom.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  47. But they taste so goooooood! by Rick+in+China · · Score: 1

    If they taste so wonderful, why not market a meal of these magically delicious mushrooms with a cup of milkthistle tea blocker! I'm sure you'd find takers.

  48. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by Atomic+Fro · · Score: 1

    Its not his fault. He, like a lot of Americans, has been trained to believe that homeopathy = "home remedy," not a discredited alternate theory of medicine.

    --

    ==================
    Hippie Logger Jock
    ==================
  49. It's mostly immigrants that get poisoned by billstewart · · Score: 2

    We've got the problem in California that there are lots of people who've come from places where mushroom hunting is a common occupation, and where there are local tasty mushrooms back in the old country which look a lot like our poisonous ones. And it's often not just one victim, it's a whole family who've been out in the woods for the day, picked the mushrooms, and cooked them for dinner. And now they all need liver transplants.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
    1. Re:It's mostly immigrants that get poisoned by Sique · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Hm. But Death Cap is very common in Europe (where it is native), in Asia and in Northern Africa. Wherever you find oaks, you find the Death Cap. Often it gets to their new place with oaks that are grown in Europe (or a place where the Death Cap grows already) and then transported somewhere else to be planted in parks and gardens.

      And yes, in Europe, there are also mushrooms that look quite similar to the Death Cap, but are edible, like the Blusher or Saffron Ringless Amanita. So people coming from Europe to California to go mushroom hunting and are messing up a Death Cap with a Blusher would have made the same mistake in Europe.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    2. Re:It's mostly immigrants that get poisoned by Kvasio · · Score: 1

      also, it is quite commonly confused with edible (and delicious) Macrolepiota procera.
      Especially when both species are not fully-mature, error is quite easy to make.

    3. Re:It's mostly immigrants that get poisoned by Sique · · Score: 1

      Ok, but a fully grown parasol mushroom is much larger than any Amanita relative, growing easily up to one feet or more in height.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
  50. Re:News for the USA. by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    Are there any tech sites athat aren't so USA focused? Slashdot has become really dull lately.

    Could it be because its an invasive species there, and anyone in Europe taken into the woods by their parents as a kid will have been warned of the death cap mushroom, along with belladonna, cuckoo pint, and so on?

  51. Re:News for the USA. by The_Noid · · Score: 1

    Which brings up the question: How can something be invasive on every continent except Antarctica, unless it comes from either Antarctica, out of space, or out of a lab?

    So, where does this mushroom come from? It comes from Europe, meaning it is NOT invasive there.

  52. So it's native to Antarctica then? by Gorath99 · · Score: 1

    Discovery News reports that the death cap mushroom is now an invasive species on every continent except Antarctica.

    So if it's invasive on every continent except Antarctica, shouldn't that mean that it is native to Antarctica? Or possibly not land-based at all?

    (Hint: it's from Europe.)

    1. Re:So it's native to Antarctica then? by kumanopuusan · · Score: 1

      That would be true if its native range included the entirety of Europe.

      --
      Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
    2. Re:So it's native to Antarctica then? by Gorath99 · · Score: 1

      Ah, damn. Good point; I stand corrected. :-)

  53. In Soviet Russia... by dimss · · Score: 1

    Death cap is a common mushroom in our region (western part of Russia and Baltics). You can find it easily in every forest but amounts vary by year. Despite the fact it is well known to any interested person, there are a few lethal cases every summer involving careless mushroom pickers. A cultural note: wild mushroom picking is considered normal everyday activity here, regardless your income and social status.

  54. Re:she by mcfedr · · Score: 1

    Actually its more normal to use 'they' when the gender is unknown.

  55. Re:milk thistle cure is not new by sjames · · Score: 1

    That's due to efforts to bring it into the fold by making a purified extract.

  56. IE gender systems with unmarked male gender by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    It's not an English rule, it's a rule valid in most, if not all Indo-European languages that haven't gone through a full shift from the original tri-gendered PIE system to something without the M/F distinction. Languages like Russian, Slovak, and Czech still keep the original three genders (well, four, if you count the animate/inanimate opposition in masculine as two genders, as many linguists do), and since the M/F distinction is still present in them, M gender is used in indefinite and interrogative sentences. French shed the neutral gender, but since the M/F distinction is still present, M gender is used in indefinite and interrogative sentences, as in other Romance languages. English has all but lost morphological gender distinctions, but since gendered personal pronouns survive, M gender pronouns are used in those indefinite and interrogative sentences that would require the use of some gendered personal pronoun.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  57. Re:she by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    So we have grammar books, but grammar books are just "motivated opinion pieces" written by people, and most of them are conservative white men.

    First of all, all modern grammar books and descriptive in nature. That means that they *describe* how the language is being used. You may call that "conservative" but that's just linguistics to you and me - it's a descriptive science. As far as "white" is concerned - well, guess what - Indo-European languages are spoken by white folks, since they came up with that whole thing! (An exception being immigrants, of course.) And as to the "men" part, some of the best grammarians I know happen to be female, and they don't appear to be pushing any sort of "conservative male agenda", if that's what you had in mind.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  58. Re:she by flyneye · · Score: 1

    well?
    The time it took you to figure that one out indicates your sex.

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  59. Re:she by flyneye · · Score: 1

    Wymyn, cant live with them, cant inter them to California.

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  60. Picking wild mushrooms by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Seems akin to the same risk / reward of scavenging for old land mines. "I know what I'm doing, trust me!"

  61. Re: News for the USA. by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 1

    I think that would require you to be pretty pedantic to accept. If Death Caps are native only to one small environment in Europe, but have spread in recent years into 90% of the continent, that would still make it an invasive species in most of Europe, though technically not for the arbitrary boundaries defining the continent.

    --
    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
  62. Well of course they are! by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

    'They smell very good and when they're cooked, many patients have described them as the most delicious mushrooms they've ever eaten

    We see this all the time. Of course they are going to claim this. Who wants to say "I almost died from eating this mushroom and it tasted pretty bad."? They are trying to put a good face on it. Just like the people who drink their own urine and claim a myriad of health benefits. Who is going to admit they drank their own urine and got nothing out of it?

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  63. Re:she by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 1

    A dude wouldn't eat a mushroom.

    Especially not this shape of mushroom. Well some dudes would...

  64. Re:she by HaZardman27 · · Score: 1

    Any person using the female pronoun by default is simply trying to push some kind of agenda.

    Yeah, just like whoever writes the Dungeons and Dragons player handbooks!

    --
    Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
  65. Life can be very dangerous, if you are ignorant. by srone · · Score: 1

    Mycologists rejoice! Both Academic and Practical Mycologists are needed by all of the ignorant and uneducated.

    A. Phalloides are quite common where I live, and I have been able to visually ID them since I was a kid. OK, I may have made a few mistakes, but a false positive in this area always beats a false negative anyday. After I learned how to do a spore print, I was ready to ID edible mushrooms. I have never picked and eaten a mushroom that I had not ID'ed properly.

    There have always been people dying from eating poisonous mushrooms, since the beginning of time. This is no new danger, except for those that do not know what they are eating...

    --
    "Endeavour to persevere"
  66. Re:she by Talderas · · Score: 1

    We have gender neutral pronouns. It, one, and you.

    I can't stand using one anymore. I keep thinking of flying plant people and floating jellyfish.

    --
    "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
  67. Re:News for the USA. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    Every website will be US heavy.
    Slashdot is not just a tech website but a US based tech website so of course it will be US centric. You want less US centric go to Slashdot.jp.
    Really complaining that Slashdot is US centric is as dumb as complaning that http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada is too Canadian centric.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  68. Re:she by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

    There's also the third-person singular "they" which was widely used up until about a century ago when some grammarians decided that they didn't much care for it and were able to get their views published in the curriculum available at the time. It's only in the last few decades that the third-person singular use of "they" has finally begun to be recognized as grammatically valid again, rather than merely commonplace.

    Quick aside: most people I've seen objecting to a third-person singular "they" object on the grounds that it's ambiguous with the third-person plural "they", yet very few of them voice similar objections to the ambiguity between the second-person using "you" for both singular and plural.

  69. Re:she by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    There already is a gender neutral pronoun.
    It's called "they".

    That is only appropriate in the plural though. When you are talking about an unspecified individual, they is incorrect.
    And it is impersonal, implying the man or woman is an inanimate object unworthy of a gender.

  70. Re:News for the USA. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    so why are you here?

    Inertia.

    Slashdot has become really dull lately.

    But you're right, it's time to move on, which is why I'm asking: "Are there any tech sites athat aren't so USA focused?"

    You greatly exaggerate the USA-focus of the site. Out of the 15 stories currently on the front page, four have any sort of US focus, and two of those ("Bing Censoring Chinese Language Search Results For Users In the US" and "ICANN's Cozy Relationship With the US Must End, Says EU") are of great international importance and could hardly be called "US stories." One of the others ("Iconic Predator-Prey Study In Peril") is more science-in-general related even though it takes place in the USA, and the last ("Majority of Young American Adults Think Astrology Is a Science") is the only story that has a solely-US angle.

  71. Re:News for the USA. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    So, where does this mushroom come from? It comes from Europe, meaning it is NOT invasive there.

    Not by the typical definition of invasive, as species are not evenly spread throughout the whole continent. A species can be both native to one part of a continent, and invasive in another part.

  72. Re:she by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    Driving on the right side of the road is the norm, too. Are you going to insist on doing that in England?

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  73. Re:she by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    It may not have been difficult, but your effort was unsuccessful. "Someone" is singular, "they" is plural.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  74. Re:she by Antonovich · · Score: 1

    First of all, all modern grammar books and descriptive in nature. That means that they *describe* how the language is being used. You may call that "conservative" but that's just linguistics to you and me - it's a descriptive science. As far as "white" is concerned - well, guess what - Indo-European languages are spoken by white folks, since they came up with that whole thing! (An exception being immigrants, of course.) And as to the "men" part, some of the best grammarians I know happen to be female, and they don't appear to be pushing any sort of "conservative male agenda", if that's what you had in mind.

    Eh... you misunderstand. You say that Linguistics doesn't say "you can't say 'she' for the neutral pronoun". I know this, I have a first-class honours degree in Linguistics. Linguistics is (supposed to be) about describing "language" and "languages", though in reality it actually does a lamentable job of it (let's not go there...). However, I'm not talking about Linguistics at all. The sort of claim "you can't say/write 'she' for the neutral pronoun" has nothing to do with description - if it did it would be terrible because obviously many, many respected publishing houses allow it. Though with that I am assuming you are allowing "written language" in the study of language... There are, however, (probably) still lots of prescriptive grammar books out there that make this sort of claim, and many English teachers no doubt too. That makes any descriptive claim false and any prescriptive claim outdated (because "languages" change and this change is happening).

    And you need some serious updating on your demographics knowledge if you think only white people speak Indo-European languages...

  75. Re:she by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    One can't stand using one anymore.

    FTFY

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  76. I know all mushrooms great and small by rkinch · · Score: 1

    "I know all mushrooms great and small,"
    Said William Harvey Snooks.
    And passed from the parlor to the hall
    My how natural he looks.

  77. Re:she by OakDragon · · Score: 1

    There already is a gender neutral pronoun. It's called "they".

    That is only appropriate in the plural though. When you are talking about an unspecified individual, they is incorrect. And it is impersonal, implying the man or woman is an inanimate object unworthy of a gender.

    But I think it's becoming (or coming back into) regular practice:

    You can use the plural pronouns ‘they’, ‘them’, ‘their’ etc., despite the fact that, technically, they are referring back to a singular noun:

    If your child is thinking about a gap year, they can get good advice from this website. A researcher has to be completely objective in their findings.

    Some people object to the use of plural pronouns in this type of situation on the grounds that it’s ungrammatical. In fact, the use of plural pronouns to refer back to a singular subject isn’t new: it represents a revival of a practice dating from the 16th century. It’s increasingly common in current English and is now widely accepted both in speech and in writing.

    From http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/he-or-she-versus-they

  78. Re:Only trolls have left by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Ha Ha, made you break the boycott.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  79. Re:News for the USA. by The_Noid · · Score: 1

    At that point it becomes a matter of scale. The death cap is native to Europe, where it is widespread. (according to a 1974 paper). If something is "native" to 90% of the continent and "invasive" in 10, do you still label it as "invasive to the continent" ? And after which timeframe does it stop being invasive and starts counting as native?

  80. Re: News for the USA. by The_Noid · · Score: 1

    But they're not native to only one small environment, they're listed as "widespread" across Europe. How natively widespread does it have to be for you not to count it as "invasive for a continent". And when does it go from invasive to native?

  81. Mushroom hunting is a risky sport... by metaforest · · Score: 1

    Having a good reference book, and experience hunting with someone who knows what they are doing reduces the risk...

    You could go out hunting for a cheese burger and get a fatal E. Coli infection too..

    YMMV.

  82. Re: she by DrGamez · · Score: 1

    Agenda?

    Christ you people read into things.

  83. Re:she by surd1618 · · Score: 1
    Forgive my ignorance, but I want to make a part of this argument clear for myself. XX male syndrome is caused by SRY being erroneously included in assortment into an X chromosome, but I was told in lower bio classes that a Y was part of an X. Clearly the description of this condition contradicts my limited understanding of the contents of X and Y chromosomes. Then without further information I could conclude that neither femaleness nor maleness is 'normal'.

    However, if a female does not suppress SOX9 they will develop male characteristics (this is why you can get an XX male)

    This is called 'male', but that seems like more of a judgement call than anything. A person with this condition is sterile. A person with XY chromosomes (therefore lacking FOXL2), but defective SRY turns out more like a female actually: XY female.