Join us for the North East Premiere of 'HAPPY' on World HAPPY Day

Background

You may be aware that I’ve been working at happiest Limited since last June. I feel very fortunate to have learnt a great deal, and discover a treasure trove of resources around the practice of happiness. I.e. that one’s level of happiness and well-being is something that one can grown, through regular practice and habitual behaviour.

This post provides the context to a happiness-related event I’m involved in organising in Newcastle upon Tyne, and invites you to attend and bring your friends!

Happiness at Work event

I was thrilled to attend the recent Happiness at Work event, organised by Codeworks:

This month we’re taking a different approach to our Think and a Drink event with the topic of Positive Psychology and its effects in the workplace.  We’ve got speakers and discussions and even a chance of taking part in some of the very first research studies on the subject with our friends at Northumbria University.  Here’s a little taster of what you can expect.

Positive Psychology is a new branch of Psychology which focuses on enabling people to grow and fulfil themselves. Professor Martin Seligman, who is generally credited with igniting the interest in positive psychology when he was appointed President of the American Psychological Association in 1998, describes it as enabling people to ‘flourish’. A positive psychological state in which we feel positive emotions, engagement, achievement, positive relationships and a sense of meaning in our lives.

Research also demonstrates that a positive psychological state seems to protect against illness and prolong longevity. It also enhances resilience, very important given the challenging and unpredictable economic climate we are experiencing.

At that event, the seeds of local action were sown, so please read on for details of the event in February.

We’re showing a movie, and you’re invited!

We’re showing a movie on 11th February in Newcastle upon Tyne. Once in the afternoon, and for the second time in the evening. Please use these links to book online.

The following is the descriptive blurb:

Happy People = Happy World

On World HAPPY Day, February 11, 2012, thousands of people will join together in communities across the globe to watch the film HAPPY and begin their journeys toward healthier, and happier lives. We want everyone in the North East and Cumbria to be part of this amazing, worldwide event so we are screening the film twice, at 2.00pm and 6.30pm, at The Centre for Life in Newcastle.

World HAPPY Day inspires action for increasing happiness in our own lives and in the world. Research suggests that happy people are healthier and live longer, they are more likely to care for the environment and less likely to commit crimes or go to war. Happy people help others more often and are more optimistic and creative. Increasing happiness benefits us as individuals and communities in infinite ways – it is a goal worth sharing.

Roko Belic, director of the Academy Award® nominated “Genghis Blues” now brings us HAPPY, a film that takes us from the bayous of Louisiana to the deserts of Namibia, from the beaches of Brazil to the villages of Okinawa to explore the secrets behind our most valued emotion.

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Screening Programme

Afternoon

2.00pm ‘Happy Networking’ – an opportunity to relax over a drink, catch up with friends and meet lots of new, like minded people

3.00pm ‘HAPPY’ – be one of the first in the North to experience the inspiring new film by Roko Belic

4.30pm ‘Happy talk’ – share your feelings about the film, learn more about the psychology and growth of happiness and find out more about forthcoming Happiness events, including the foundation of a Happiness group in the region.

5.30pm Event draws to a close

« Click here to book the matinee »

Evening

6.30pm ‘Happy Networking’ – an opportunity to relax over a drink, catch up with friends and meet lots of new, like minded people

7.30pm ‘HAPPY’ – be one of the first in the North to experience the inspiring new film by Roko Belic

9.00pm ‘Happy talk’ – share your feelings about the film, learn more about the psychology and growth of happiness and find out more about forthcoming Happiness events, including the foundation of a Happiness group in the region.

10.00pm Event draws to a close

« Click here to book the evening showing »

The Film

Happy - A Documentary Trailer from Wadi Rum Films on Vimeo.

For more information about ‘HAPPY’ go to - http://www.thehappymovie.com

How you can get involved

Please come and join us – the links again: afternoon and evening. Come to both if you like ;-). Key activities:

• share your feelings about the film,
• learn more about the psychology and growth of happiness and
• find out more about forthcoming Happiness events, including the foundation of a Happiness group in the region.

#Movember monkey's tail update, & ‘Mo Down’ - please donate!

Context

Previous posts (Movember: please help raise money to combat men’s cancers & Movember Shave-down) have explained how I am raising money to combat, and raise awareness about, men’s cancers such as prostate and testicular ones.
This post is to bring everyone bang up to date, and sign off by encouraging you to keep giving using this link please!

Becoming Jimmy Hill

Those of you with strong constitutions may wish to check out my scary Dr Who-like regeneration into Jimmy Hill below.
There are three sets of photos in this Flickr slideshow – basically the two last weekends in November, and in fact the final shots are before and after the epic trim yesterday. I hadn’t realise quite how long the Movember monkey’s tail had become!
Apologies due to Jimmy – I’ve always thought actually he’s a really decent bloke (as his Wikipedia profile attests) :-)

Lady Greys bar Mo Down

To finish off the Movember movement in style, us Lady Grey’s bar team members gathered for a drink this past Wednesday. At the bottom of this post, you should find a widget with the results.
Not particularly wanting to see myself without my normal facial hair, I gave myself a two week run-up without trimming my beard, so that I’d have something to talk about from the off! I’d actually opted out of the competition because I chose to start not clean-shaven…
Highlights from these photos include Cameron, who reminded me of Ron Mael from Sparks, but I think that’s probably wrong (although any suggestions gratefully received!). Also, Peter – who had to have his fluff enhanced with mascara [not sure where that came from…!].
To cap it all, there’s James with the wrap-around ‘tache, with a roundel at the back reminding me of that geezer with the thing on his forehead, from Stargate SG-1.
At the time of writing, our team has raised £458, so I’m hoping to boost this through further donations! Thank you :-D

Movember Shave-down

Intro

As per my previous post, I promised to report in. You can skip the blurb and go straight to the photos if you’d like…

What it is

Shave-down

From the Lady Grey's Bar website:

SHAVE DOWN PARTY: 31st of October – 7.00pm

Hosted by our Mo Bro’s at The Boiler House Barbers, Jesmond, this party marks the start of Movember. Every member of our team can get a free shave from a team of professional barbers and once everyone is clean shaven we’ll be taking photos to capture the ‘before’ shot and you can meet your fellow Lady Greys Mo Bro’s.

Mo Sista’s are encouraged to come and we’ll have lots of Movember Merchandise for you to wear proudly to show your support for the cause. You can also sign up to the team on the night so bring as many Bro’s as you can find, the mo’ the merrier.

How I plan to raise more £££ :-D

Ok, so I realise I’m going off-piste with this, and big thanks to Nathan of LGB for his willingness to go along with my idea. I’ve been growing my normal stubble into a rather itchy mass. The plan is to go to the Boiler House and have them craft something evil on my face – i.e. I figure I’ll raise more money my wearing something amusing for the whole month!

What happened

The folk at the Boiler House were very helpful when I agreed with Nathan that I would opt out of the competition, and forego any potential end-of-Movember prizes.

The goal

Inspired by Phil Wright and his “are you looking at my monkey’s tail” look – I have set out to recreate the splendour as best I can.

Lori and the clippers

I was fortunate that Lori (featured in the 3 photos towards the end of the slideshow below) choose to use me as a guinea-pig. Apparently, her rugby-player boyfriend was also thinking of having a monkey’s tail, so she was inspired. And charming, bless her!

Flickr photos

Although the smartphone images are pretty blurry, I hope you’ll get an impression of the event. The Boiler House has fantastic decor, and I did get slightly carried away with the snapping…! :$

 

Please Donate

I would be very grateful if you could please sponsor me – click on the images on this post, or on this link. I’ve led by example :-)

My profile is http://mobro.co/justingsouter – the donate button is at the top right.

Many thanks! It’s for a tremendous cause :-D

Movember: please help raise money to combat men’s cancers

Intro

Pretty much a 'Ronseal' post - does what it says in the title!
This post gives you some of the background to Movember, explains how things work (and my twist on the theme), and then encourages you to donate your hard-earned cash to a very worthy cause. Vamos!

The Details

About

From the Movember website:

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face and then for the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.
Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November and through their actions and words raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.
At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

Docs for more info

Fill your metaphorical boots with the docs presented in the widget at the bottom of this post.

How it’s going to work

Team

I have signed up and joined the team from Lady Grey’s bar. More information about us on the Movember website - please join us. Thanks to Michael Walsh who I bumped into when he was distributing promo flyers – and I became aware of the team :-)
I thought it’d be more fun and hopefully I can raise more money as a result of doing this other people :-)

Shave-down

From the LGB website:

SHAVE DOWN PARTY: 31st of October – 7.00pm
Hosted by our Mo Bro’s at The Boiler House Barbers, Jesmond, this party marks the start of Movember. Every member of our team can get a free shave from a team of professional barbers and once everyone is clean shaven we’ll be taking photos to capture the ‘before’ shot and you can meet your fellow Lady Greys Mo Bro’s.
Mo Sista’s are encouraged to come and we’ll have lots of Movember Merchandise for you to wear proudly to show your support for the cause. You can also sign up to the team on the night so bring as many Bro’s as you can find, the mo’ the merrier.

How I plan to raise more £££ :-D

Ok, so I realise I’m going off-piste with this, and big thanks to Nathan of LGB for his willingness to go along with my idea. I’ve been growing my normal stubble into a rather itchy mass. The plan is to go to the Boiler House and have them craft something evil on my face – i.e. I figure I’ll raise more money my wearing something amusing for the whole month!
I will report in this week!

Please Donate

I would be very grateful if you could please sponsor me – click on the images on this post, or on this link. I’ve led by example :-)
My profile is http://mobro.co/justingsouter – the donate button is at the top right.
Many thanks! It’s for a tremendous cause :-D

Docs

Movember docs if you’d like further details!

UPDATED: to get the Scribd widget to work [fingers crossed!]

NLP Practitioner – first impressions

Introduction

I’m putting this post together after completing the ‘Practitioner’ course of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), which finished on Monday.

[I’ve made extensive use of links to NLP-related articles on Wikipedia – which has a suite of pages addressing the gamut of issues in this area.]

Preconceptions

I must admit that I’m pretty sceptical of people who profess to turn your life around like Tony Bobbins (ok, so it’s a spoof), and I’m not really a big fan of TV hypnotists and Vic Reeves-style “I Will Cure You” stuff.

Loose impressions I’d picked up about NLP included such tropes as ‘vulcan mind control’ and something to do with the Dark Side. ;-D

My background

Perhaps this is all a bit of an amorphous mass of my own preconceptions, but I’m a psychology graduate, and have an interest in self-improvement and have read up about skills like Emotional Intelligence and assertiveness (amongst others).

The course itself

You should be able to find more information about the course from this link, but essentially it was about providing a practical introduction to skills that attendees could use for improving self-awareness and communication with other people.

Tutor and assistants

The course was run by Kay Cooke of The ME Group in Hexham, Northumberland. Kay is an accredited NLP Trainer, and was assisted by presence of a revolving team of Master Practitioners (i.e. people trained with skills to assist other people [my typology]).

Structure

The course comprised two 4-day clusters, run from Friday morning through to Monday night (i.e. over the weekend). Hours were 9.30 until 4.30-5 o’clock.

At times it was quite full-on, and was pretty much a synthesis of best practice tools and techniques for communication (e.g. “Deep structure and surface structure” from Noam Chomsky). There was a combination of theoretical learning, and practical exercises (e.g. visualisation) both with Kay and between other members of the group.

The Group

It was a small group of 5, with 3 men and 2 women. Ages ranged from late teenager to middle-age {I think I can get away with that! ;-)}.

I think the small group worked well – there is a lot of material to cover, and a larger group might well be more difficult for the trainer to optimally instruct.

Impressions

My over-arching feeling was that Kay draws upon a deep well of learning, training and personal insight to deliver a (potentially) tricky subject very adeptly. She made it look ‘simple’ when that’s definitely not the case.

When I questioned her about the wider context that NLP sits in (i.e. how we all live, in our different ways) she posited that NLP material is ‘simple’, and in many ways I would agree with her. However, NLP material definitely challenges many implicit and unconscious assumptions we all make about living.

What’s working for you, what would you like to change?

Kay made clear that the NLP framework is just that – a framework. If you’ve got things in your life which are going well, great: but if you’ve got stuff you’d like to work on, then NLP might be able to help.

There was also an ongoing discussion about process versus content: in that what I might call ‘traditional’ / ‘talking’ therapies, the therapist and client talk through issues; whereas NLP typically keeps content out of the interaction and seeks to come to a different perception of issues and events, in order to influence how the client’s subconscious is dealing with them.

Importance of ethical dimension

One of the things I struggled with at first was how one might be able to use powerful tools and techniques in such a way which was responsible and ethical. The penny dropped during the second 4-day cluster, in that:
a) I was only training for the Practitioner level, so interventions with other people were probably beyond my skill level, and
b) the ethical context was using NLP is / was absolutely crucial

I think this boils down to only ‘helping’ people if they ask to be helped, and—even then—closely observing the person to ensure any assistance was appropriate and that the flow of any intervention closely matched the situation. If you take someone on a ‘journey’, you’ve got to be able to bring them back, as it were…

Conclusions

Why the controversy?

The two founders of the NLP movement had a falling-out, and in compiling this post, I became aware of the extensive controversy surrounding NLP (e.g. vis-a-vis science).

Kay’s training is validated by The Society of NLP (logo to the right).

Whilst I understand that people often have very good reasons to get heated about things, personally I found the material pretty insightful and resonating (although not sure what that says about me! ;-D).

Part of the toolkit

Viewed in the context of many other ways of seeing the world, I felt it was an entirely legitimate subject area, and useful addition to the canon of self-improvement activity.

‘Everything in moderation’ is a useful dictum, and I personally gained some useful insights and elements of new self-awareness. What’s so bad about that? I’m still waiting to learn the vulcan mind control techniques <sigh>.

So, a summary of my first impressions. Doubtless there will be others, and I will do my best to post them here. :-)

Combat Stress – caring for Veterans' mental health

Introduction

For my undergraduate degree, I studied Psychology, and fascinating it was – it’s related to the human condition, but both the physical and metaphysical perspectives [well, something like that – Ed.].

I was also a member of the URNU, the University Royal Naval Unit, and loved that as well. A little bit of background (i.e. a related post) can be found here.

Based on a gut instinct that our servicemen and women could be treated more respectfully and looked after better, I’ve recently donated to Help for Heroes. Based on my background though, I’ve got a closer affinity to Combat Stress, and this post is designed to help you understand why.

I realise that there are a number of quotes from the Combat Stress website, but I’m guessing you’ll bear with it…!

About Combat Stress

Why Combat Stress exists

Combat Stress is the UK's leading military charity specialising in the care of Veterans' mental health.

We treat conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety disorders.  Our services are free of charge to the Veteran.

Since 2005 the number of ex-Service men and women seeking our help has risen by 72%.  And we have a current caseload of more than 4,300 individuals. This already includes 102 Veterans who have served in Afghanistan and 400 who served in Iraq.

In March 2010 our Patron HRH The Prince of Wales launched our major fundraising campaign – The Enemy Within Appeal.

The £30 million, three-year appeal is designed to help us treat the escalating number of psychologically injured Veterans who are turning to us for help, by:

• Establishing 14 Community Outreach Teams nationwide
• Enhancing clinical treatment at our three short-stay treatment centres

If you need help yourself

This link has the map referred to below in the following quote:

Combat Stress provides effective treatment and support to Veterans of the British Armed Forces who are suffering from mental ill health.

If you or perhaps someone in your family has a problem, then please call us for an informal chat.

Our services are free of charge and regardless of War Pension/Armed Forces Compensation Scheme status.

We have people in your area ready to take your call –8.30 am to 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday.  Simply click on your region in the map [below] for contact details of your local Support Desk.

Veterans do not have to have seen active service in order to qualify for our help – but if you are in any doubt, just ask us.

Some facts re the Falklands War

At a recent Combat Stresss fund-raiser that I attended, Lieut-General Robin Brims addressed us, and mentioned the problems that service personnel faced returning home after fighting in the Falklands War.

I don’t really have time to substantiate the following quote which I believe backs him up, but it’s from here and quotes Guardian and Observer sources:

Since the war, hundreds of veterans, both Argentinian and British, have committed suicide. Numbers of suicides are not recorded by the MoD, but the South Atlantic Medal Association claimed in 2002 that more British ex-servicemen from the Falklands have killed themselves since the 1982 conflict than died in action: 264 they estimated (300 is more recently quoted).

An example is Lance Corporal Colin Deary who lost three friends in the Falklands, was discharged from the army eight years later with drink problems, and in 1994 stabbed himself to death. Similar reports have been made about the Argentinian troops.

[…]

As in all wars but still not adequately recognised by the military establishment, the servicemen and women suffer to varying degrees from post traumatic stress disorder. Many soldiers found it hard to return to normal life, ended up getting into trouble and committing crimes.

Simon Skinner suffered flashbacks and stumbled from one crisis to another attempting suicide on several occasions, becoming an alcoholic and getting into debt, and finally in 1995 having his final flashback. ‘He got out of bed, stood to attention, marched out of the room as if in a trance and, stumbling, fell down the stairs. He died five days later.’

Video highlighting the issue

The Enemy Within Appeal

Caution: this advert features a simulated flashback some viewers may find disturbing.

On 11 March 2010, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, launched the Combat Stress Enemy Within Appeal at St. James's Palace. 

This accompanying advert highlights the emotional 
impact of PTSD on the lives of Veterans and their families.

The key aims of The Enemy Within Appeal are to:

• Raise £30 million to enhance and develop mental health services for Veterans.
• Raise awareness of the plight of Veterans suffering from psychological injury.
• Encourage Veterans and their families to seek help earlier.

Please help us in any way you can.

N.B. You can now follow us on:

 

Enemy within appeal leaflet

This gives info on the appeal mentioned above – probably best viewed in Fullscreen mode…

The Enemy Within appeal leaflet

Wash up

Hopefully you get the general idea. I’m expecting to do another Byte Night sleep-out in the Autumn, but plan to devote any future fund-raising activities to help this cause. I hope you can support me. :-)

Crowdsourcing Mycological Response Teams to help with the Gulf #oilspill?

Introduction

In my previous post on this subject, I recapped my personal take on the overall situation.

Having drafted this posted a couple of days ago, I now learn that:

Almost three-quarters of the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico has been cleaned up or broken down by natural forces, the US government has said.

A government report says only a quarter of the oil from the BP well remains and that it is "degrading quickly".

The majority had been captured, burned off or evaporated, it states. But more clean-up is necessary officials warn.

The report was released after BP announced its "static kill" procedure to seal the leak was working.

So I thought I’d better post in case something else major happened. Doh!

Challenges

I’m guessing that despite the good news re the oilspill, that there will remain a challenge to clean up that oil which hit the Gulf coast.

Having pinged an e-mail to Paul Stamets’ team, their response pointed me to a page with the following quote:

The Petroleum Problem

Thank you for visiting fungi.com, and for your interest in the BP oil spill disaster and the potential for mycoremediation.

We are being inundated with requests and cannot individually address all of the questions we have received. We are in direct dialogue with the EPA at the highest levels, and are teaming to implement solutions to this huge disaster. Since we are such a small company, we are stretched to our limits. Your support allows us to dedicate as many of our resources as possible, and for this we thank you. Again, please accept our apologies if we cannot individually address your concerns. Our statement at below will be updated periodically as we gather more information.

[my hyperlink for mycoremediation btw]

I am assuming that Paul Stamets and his team are the primary resource in this domain – i.e. to use fungi to break down pollutants in an ‘eco-friendly’ way. What seems clear is that there are problems with scaling, getting the idea to a wider audience and gaining a following & critical mass.

The article continues:

How can we help?

Knowing that the extent of this disaster eclipses our mycological resources should not be a reason to not act.

I proposed in 1994 that we have Mycological Response Teams (MRTs) in place to react to catastrophic events, from hurricanes to oil spills. We need to preposition composting and mycoremediation centers adjacent to population centers. We should set MRTs into motion, centralized in communities, which are actively involved in recycling, composting and permaculture—utilizing debris from natural or man-made calamities to generate enzymes and rebuild healthy local soils.

I see the urgent need to set up webinar-like, Internet-based modules of education to disseminate methods for mycoremediation training so people throughout the world can benefit from the knowledge we have gained through the past decade of research. Such hubs of learning could cross-educate others and build a body of knowledge that would be further perfected over time, benefiting from the successes and failures of those in different bioregions. The cumulative knowledge gained from a centralized data hub could emerge as a robust yet flexible platform that could help generations to come. Scientists, policy makers, and citizens would be empowered with practical mycoremediation tools for addressing environmental disasters.

Going social

My argument here is that a social approach, akin to the PeopleFinder wiki created in response to Hurricane Katrina, might help MRTs self-organise and conduct operations under a loose ‘umbrella’.

A similar tool might already have been implemented by Deepwater Horizon Response website – but apologies – I’ve not had time to check it out (or the follow-up site RestoreTheGulf.gov).

Tooling

I’m going to kick speculation about what tools to use into touch for now, as my priority is to post – and update this or post separately as appropriate. However, potential requirements could be:

• Repository of successful mycoremediation techniques
• Communications tools
• Team-based areas where teams can get themselves sorted and manage their activities
• Connections with mainstream social media tools

Staci Stoller

I wanted to tip my (Stetson hat) to Staci Stoller, a former colleague of mine in London, who has offered to help in getting the message out in Texas. Thanks, Stace! :-)

The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE?

I saw an item on the BBC news site, which took me through to the main page on this, which explained thus:

It is a $1.4 Million competition designed to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage from ocean platforms, tankers, and other sources.

This X CHALLENGE, announced on July 29, 2010, is a one-year competition that begins on August 1, 2010 and culminates in the summer of 2011, with head-to-head competitive demonstrations taking place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHMSETT) in Leonardo, New Jersey, USA (www.ohmsett.com).

A $1 Million Prize will be awarded to the team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea surface at the highest oil recovery rate (ORR) and the highest Recovery Efficiency (RE).

So, my initial excitement about something fungi-related winning the prize was tempered by the focus on “cleaning up seawater surface oil”. However, on the ‘competition details’ page I also noticed:

X PRIZE will be finalizing the details over the next 30 days, and will post final rules in September.  We encourage you to PRE_REGISTER as a team and we will keep you informed of any changes and when the detailed rules are posted.

So maybe the scope of the compo could be widened to include prizes for on-shore cleanup efforts?

Paul Stamets @ TED on fungi; also re how they can help clean up Gulf oil spill

Introduction

I first discovered Paul Stamets when reading this article on my Palm III via AvantGo (a forerunner of RSS) – waaay back in 2002.

I was particularly struck by the effect of fungi in cleaning up soil contaminated with diesel – as told in this Wikipedia article about Mycoremediation.

Eventually, as per this previous post – I bought some wooden dowels, innoculated by fungi from Paul’s company, and set up a large log with them in. Rather embarrassingly, I never moved the stump from one house when Caroline and I moved – it got left my the wayside as it was too heavy / I was too embarrassed to ask the movers… :$

I also bought a copy of Paul’s book Mycelium Running: A Guide to Healing the Planet through Gardening with Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms but that’s also still on the to-do pile. Ho hum!

Rediscovering Mr Stamets

*Anyway*, I was reading The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business by Tara Hunt last week, and she mentioned being introduced to Paul when she was at TED. So I googled Paul’s talk and found it – see below (I think he really nailed it, although there was a cheesy joke at the beginning lol).

The citation from the TED website reads:

Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets' research is the Northwest's native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.

 

Video

He’s obviously a rocket scientist, but what he says is compelling!

Paul Stamets’ statement on Mycoremediation and its applications to oil spills

So, having found Paul’s talk, it got me thinking that his expertise might be helpful in mitigating the effects of the Gulf oil spill. I then got in touch with his company, and they forwarded the statement below:

Paul Stamets statement on Gulf oil spill

What Paul is saying is that fungi could provide a natural remedy to break down the oil and mitigate its long-term effects, but there would need to be an army of people on the ground to make it work in practice…

I think most people would put this in the “it’s so crazy, it just might work” category – but I’m putting this out there in the hope that it might get some legs. In fact, I might well send the link to the Deepwater Horizon team…

Thoughts?