matthew henry john bartlett

You will be distressed to learn that my mushroom-growing experiment failed. The fuzz progressed a little beyond where it had got to when I last reported in, but it grew very slowly, and stopped entirely after a while. I wonder if it were too wet, or if I suffocated the mushroom fibres by leaving the lid on too long. Either way, it’s all in the compost bin now. I aim to try again in a little while, when I can find some mycelium from oyster or shiitake mushrooms.

In other mushroom-related news, these wee things showed up suddenly in a formerly shady area of the garden that has recently been pruned back heavily. I haven’t tried eating them.

Almost two weeks on, things are going more slowly than I expected, though they are going.

Inspired by Gunter Pauli (on ABC Big Ideas) and Paul Stamets (TED Talk), and following the Mad Bioneer’s directions, I’ve started an attempt to grow mushrooms on coffee grounds. After looking at mushrooms at Moore Wilsons and many times at Pak’N Save, I finally found some at the latter supermarket that had bits of mycelium attached. They are the most boring possible variety — white button / portobello / Agaricus bisporus — but it’ll still be fun if I can get them to grow and fruit. The hope is that the mycelium will colonise the grounds in the next couple of days; then I’ll keep adding grounds until the spooky stuff decides it’s ready to produce fruiting bodies, i.e. mushrooms.

This is beautiful:

Question [to Salman Khan]: Are you interested in turning www.khanacademy.org into a business? Maybe with some VC funding?

Answer: I’ve been approached several times, but it just didn’t feel right. When I’m 80, I want to feel that I helped give access to a world-class education to billions of students around the world. Sounds a lot better than starting a business that educates some subset of the developed world that can pay $19.95/month and eventually selling it to some text book company or something. I already have a beautiful wife, a hilarious son, two hondas and a decent house. What else does a man need? With that said, if you are a social venture capitalist and are looking to deploy capital with the highest possible social return per dollar invested, we should talk. I think you’ll find that there is no more measurable, scalable and high impact way to educate the world.

[via John Robb]

Find more about the book + ordering info at Avery Bartlett Books’ new website.

Having kids is not a ‘decision’, like buying a car. It’s a commitment to a whole life change: in attitude, in experience, in the meaning of love and commitment. For me, having kids has deepened my commitment to working out how the hell to live through this, and to finding out what can be saved and bettered, because it gives me a sense of being part of this world for generations to come, my decisions and impacts echoing on in others after I’m gone. Having kids has connected me more deeply to the world. It’s made me feel, and understand, how to teach the right values, and how to learn them. It forces me to answer questions I would otherwise never ask. It shows me what unconditional love is and it provides me with human beings I would unquestioningly die for if I had to, and with that I learn selflessness too, and all of these things make me better equipped for being in this world, even as it falls apart. All told, it shows me what life means, better than anything else ever has.

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“When it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.” –Milan Kundera in Encounter

For your education & ecumenical listening pleasure, for a limited time only, here are some mp3 lectures from my dropbox:

Luke Timothy Johnson: Early Christian Experience of the Divine [160MB]

Alan Watts – The Tao of Philosophy [228MB]

Alan Watts – Who is it who knows there is no Ego [48MB]

Alan Watts – various lectures [205MB]

Tribal leader Rikirangi Gage said

Te Whanau a Apanui oppose Petrobras’ deep sea oil prospecting and drilling for good reasons. Our ancestors didn’t instruct us to be selfish in the way that the Government is thinking, risking so much and thinking of so few. A longer term perspective shows that bringing up oil from under the deep sea floor to be burnt will cause harm to ourselves, our resources and the world around us.