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  1. #1
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    Bamboo

    There are already nearly two dozen bamboo titled threads, but they mostly refer to training. We don't have a thread that is just dedicated to bamboo itself. I used to grow bamboo - it can become quite the hobby.

    Stainless steel now obsolete: Chinese graduate designing stadium made entirely of bamboo



    While the rest of China's architects fool around, TU DELFT architecture graduate Shen Chen is drawing up plans for the next Archiprix prize-winning project: a portable stadium to be constructed entirely from bamboo.



    The new structure will be unveiled for the first time in De Brettn, a green zone in Amsterdam's Geuzenveld. Capable of being taken apart and put back together again, the stadium features three major components: a roof, grandstand, and facilities. Inspired by similarly innovative buildings in the East, Chen hopes her bamboo stadium will contribute to the development of more environmentally sustainable ways of construction in the architecture world.
    "In addition to the sustainable value of building with bamboo, the integration of living bamboo into building design may blur the boundary between nature and architecture," said Chen.

    Right now, though, more research into the load-bearing limits of bamboo and whatnot must still be conducted.
    However, Chen has already been shortlisted by Achiprix International as a contender for best graduate project globally. Vote bamboo!
    [Images via Design Indaba]
    Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
    By Shanghaiist in News on Jan 20, 2016 10:30 PM
    Gene Ching
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  2. #2
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    Future building material?

    Bamboo Might Just Be the Construction Material of the Future

    Design firm Penda imagines entire cities built from the plant

    TEXT BY BEAU PEREGOY PHOTOGRAPHY BY PENDA
    Posted January 29, 2016


    Penda’s bamboo structure prototype at Beijing Design Week 2015.

    Bamboo might just be the perfect natural building material. It’s abundant: The plant can grow up to four feet per day, and, when harvested, it regrows without having to be replanted. Not to mention, it’s two to three times stronger than steel. But few architects have explored the plant’s untapped potential as a construction mainstay. Enter Penda, a Beijing- and Vienna-based architectural firm that has been perfecting its blueprints for a modular bamboo structure for several years. The firm, founded in 2013, first unveiled plans to use bamboo for a project called One with Birds, which featured a hotel comprising bamboo tents and towers, inspired in part by tepees constructed by Native Americans. The basic tent unit, built using an X-shaped bamboo joint fastened with rope, can be articulated horizontally and vertically.


    What Penda imagines a bamboo tower might look like.

    Construction is relatively simple, requiring very little equipment. Even the scaffolding needed for building a bamboo tower can be made using bamboo. The benefits of bamboo structures, however, are greater than just construction ease. In many parts of the world, bamboo is readily available, replenishable, and, compared with other building materials, negligibly expensive. When growing, the plant releases nearly 35 percent more oxygen and absorbs nearly 35 percent more carbon dioxide than most trees. Canes from one building can be reused several times over in other projects. Bamboo structures can also be easily deployed as disaster shelters to many regions of the world.


    Bamboo structures gain stability as they increase in size.

    But Penda’s vision is even grander. The firm imagines an entire city built with its bamboo modules. By using the designs from its hotel concept, Penda estimates that a city of 200,000 inhabitants could be built by 2023 using a sustainable scheme for planting and building. Harvesting from 250 acres, the city builders would plant two canes of bamboo for each one they cut down for use in their city. The pace at which construction is completed is crucial to ensuring that the project makes as little environmental impact as possible. In late 2015, Penda built its first prototype, called Rising Canes, for Beijing Design Week, so perhaps soon bamboo structures will sprout up around the world.
    See next post...
    Gene Ching
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    ...or pesky weed?

    Bamboo invasions prompt bans, crackdowns
    Government intervention questioned. Ornamental grass has its champions
    Posted: 8:25 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016
    By Lawrence Budd - Staff Writer

    Bamboo, a popular ornamental grass widely available at local nurseries, is also an invasive plant that can turn neighbor against neighbor and is prompting local governments from Lebanon to Long Island to enact bans to prevent its spread.

    Infestations of invasive plants and can negatively affect property values, agricultural productivity, public utility operations, outdoor recreation, and the overall health of an ecosystem, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.


    Darryl Blair displays a piece of bamboo he cut down in the yard of his Lebanon home. His problems with bamboo from a neighbor’s yard prompted Lebanon to join cities around the U.S. to take steps to control or even ban the invasive plant. LAWRENCE BUDD/STAFF

    The organization estimates it spends tens of millions of dollars each year on invasive species prevention, early detection and rapid response, control and management, research, outreach and habitat restoration across the country.

    Federal and state agencies are researching specific problems associated with controlling the spread of bamboo and other invasive varieties of honeysuckle, mustard, grass and other plants.

    So far the jury is still out on bamboo in Ohio.

    “We are hopeful that as more scientists become aware of bamboo, there will be more published in the literature and we can complete our assessment,” Theresa Culley, chair of the Ohio Invasive Plants Council Assessment Team, said in an email.

    On the other side of the debate are people like Zach Burton who raises bamboo on a 100-acre farm in Warren County and advises customers on how to keep it in check.

    “People who say,’Don’t plant bamboo. It’s going to take over’ are just not very educated on the plant,” he said last week during a tour of Burton’s Bamboo Garden.

    Government responses to bamboo, invasive plants

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Invasive Species Information Center funds millions of dollars a year in research on the impact of invasive plants, animals and other species.

    The center includes descriptions of several varieties of bamboo, introduced in the U.S. in 1800s, on sections of its website devoted to invasive plants.

    The Ohio Department of Natural Resources lists 10 invasive plants, not including bamboo. And the Ohio Department of Agriculture is developing rules for identifying invasive plants based on the passage of Senate Bill 192 about a year ago.

    Lebanon recently joined a growing list of communities also including Worthington, a Columbus suburb, who passed local ordinances designed to help residents who find someone else’s bamboo on their property.

    “The growth of the bamboo may cause serious damage to structures and plant materials located in the path of the underground root system. Property owners adjacent to parcels containing running bamboo cite difficulty and expense in attempt to keep unwanted running bamboo from extending into their yards and spreading,” according to information on the city of Worthington’s website about its law, which has been in effect since July 8.

    Officials in Lebanon and other communities in the Miami Valley left bamboo out of the language in noxious weed ordinances used to battle the spread of bamboo and other problem plants.

    The amendment to Lebanon’s property maintenance code bars “any plant species that encroaches or invades a neighboring property or public right of way.”

    The ordinance, passed last month by the city council, was the result of advocacy by Lebanon Councilwoman Wendy Monroe.

    “Unfortunately, I think there was a need for an ordinance like this,” Monroe said.

    A survey of other communities in the Miami Valley found a range of responses to concerns about invasive species.

    Miamisburg deals with “encroaching weeds” like bamboo much as Lebanon, warning the offenders and giving them a chance to remove them. Failure to remove the plants will prompt city action billed to the offender.

    “If they do not pay the bill, we can assess the cost to their property taxes. This is a fairly common practice in other cities,” Chris Fine, development director in Miamisburg, said in an email.

    Honeysuckle is a bigger problem in Miamisburg than bamboo, Fine added.

    In Oakwood, violators are charged with minor misdemeanors. They are typically ordered to pay $110 in clean-up costs and $115 in court costs, according to Assistant City Manager Jay Weiskircher.

    Like other cities in the area, Mason deals with invasive plants through its noxious weed regulations, according to City Manager Eric Hansen.

    “We also try to identify invasive plants and shrubs during the planning review process and keep them clear from city-owned properties,” Hansen added in an email.

    In Troy in Miami County, Jerry Drake, superintendent of parks and city forester, identifies invasive plants and noxious weeds and notifies zoning officials who contact the owner and hire a contractor, if necessary.

    But in West Chester, a populous township in Butler County, there are no rules noxious or invasive plants.

    “There have not been any discussions on this topic,” Barbara Wilson, the townships director of integrated multimedia & marketing said in an email.

    Rallying behind rizomes

    Still bamboo has supporters, including Burton, who also grows it for zoos to use to feed pandas.

    “There’s a lot of myth out there,” Burton said.

    Before planting any of about 1,200 varieties of bamboo, Burton advises gardeners to bury a polypropylene barrier 22 inches into the ground, with a three inch lip above ground to form an enclosure.

    “All of them can be contained very simply.” he said.

    The running roots, known as rizomes, turn back upon contacting the barrier.

    “If it’s done right, it’ll work,” he said standing in front of a grove planted 20 years ago. “It will never go past it.”

    Once bamboo has taken hold, Burton said it can be killed off by covering to keep out sun or through mowing. Paths or clearings can be cut and maintained, according to Burton.

    “Bamboo comes up 80 percent water. Very fragile. You can cut it down. You can kick it down,” he said. “It goes where you allow it.”

    Bamboo battles

    Darryl Blair is waiting for the first spring rains to reveal the extent to which bamboo from a neighbor’s yard has continued to encroach on his property on Deerfield Road in Lebanon.

    “It just grows and grows and grows,” said Blair during a tour of his yard. In one place, sprouts have wedged themselves into Blair’s foundation.

    “I would be very concerned if one of my neighbors planted bamboo,” Monroe said.

    Blair appealed to Monroe for help while shopping at her gun shop in downtown Lebanon, 22three Firearms Outfitters.

    “I tried to get some help from a neighbor. They didn’t want to do anything about it,” he said.

    Lebanon Councilman Steve Kaiser cast the only vote against the encroachment amendment.

    “That’s a civil matter to be regulated in a civil court,” he said before the vote. “It’s not the city’s place to get in there and make restitution on this.”

    On similar grounds, a ban proposed in Mount Vernon, Ohio, in October was withdrawn from consideration by the local council.

    But bans are in place in Champaign, Ill., and in cities on the East Coast, particularly across Long Island. N.Y.

    In Lebanon, city officials opted for an enforcement option rather than an outright ban.

    “We feel like this one is going far enough,” Monroe said.

    OHIO’S TOP 10 INVASIVE PLANTS
    Ten of the most invasive non-native plant species in Ohio. Officials warn residents to be aware that management of these invasive species is difficult and complex. Residents are encouraged to obtain more information before using controls such as herbicides.

    Japanese Honeysuckle - Lonicera japonica
    Japanese Knotweed - Polygonum cuspidatum
    Autumn-Olive - Elaeagnus umbellata
    Buckthorns - Rhamnus frangula, R. cathartica
    Purple Loosestrife - Lythrum salicaria
    Common Reed or Phragmites - Phragmites australis
    Reed Canary Grass - Phalaris arundinacea
    Garlic Mustard - Alliaria petiolata
    Multiflora Rose - Rosa multiflora
    Bush Honeysuckles - Lonicera maackii, L. tatarica, L. morrowii


    Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources
    It would suck to get busted for bamboo.
    Gene Ching
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    Black Belt Bamboo

    Not that other mag, nor this kind of black belt...

    Black Belt's bamboo bike boom
    Brad Harper, Montgomery Advertiser 5:52 p.m. CST February 22, 2016


    (Photo: Contributed)

    Pam Dorr laughs at the idea that a bicycle made out of bamboo would be flimsy. It’s not the first time she’s heard that kind of skepticism.

    “We just built one for a 300-pound guy in Colorado who’s on pretty rough roads,” Dorr said. “He told me, ‘I’m a big guy, and I want it to last.’ I said, ‘Alright, I’ll get a thick piece of bamboo for you.’”

    She doesn’t have to go far to get it. There’s enough within a block of her group’s workshop in Greensboro to build several hundred bamboo bikes a year, and much more in the surrounding area.

    Dorr moved there a little more than 10 years ago to head up a Black Belt nonprofit meant to kickstart a resurgence for Hale County. The goal was to build affordable housing, spur economic development and start youth development programs. Bamboo bikes offered one unique path to doing that.

    “We develop products out of stuff we have, and what we’ve got a lot of is bamboo,” said Dorr, executive director of the Hale Empowerment Revitalization Organization and its offshoot, HERObike.

    They formed a partnership with the School of Architecture at the University of Kansas, where professor Lance Rake and students help with design work for the bikes. The result is a carbon fiber-laced bamboo frame that appeals to racers and enthusiasts.

    “Bamboo is kind of shock absorbing, so you don’t really have to wear padded shorts if you’re a racer,” Dorr said. “It gives a more comfortable ride.”

    Other companies make bamboo bikes, but at a cost of about $600 to about $2,500 HERObike is among the least expensive options. That’s led to people around the world buying the Greensboro bikes online — most of their sales come from France, Germany, Japan and Thailand.

    HERO uses the money to build affordable housing, and bicycles are far from their only project.

    The nonprofit’s PieLab bakes and sells homemade pies while teaching job skills for the retail and hospitality industry. The youth program will spend part of the summer drying algae out of fish ponds to clean the water and use the by-product for home fertilizer.

    They’re also planning to install solar energy technology at businesses in the Black Belt that have over $20,000 a month in power bills. Dorr said projects like that help the community while also teaching green technology.

    “It’s a lot easier to learn it if you’re doing it,” she smiles.

    Meanwhile, KU professor Rake is researching some new uses for bamboo.

    HERObike has already branched out into making bamboo skateboards, electric bikes, paddleboards and kids’ pushbikes. It even holds workshops to teach people how to make their own bamboo bikes.

    About 30 people work there now, a total that goes up and down depending on demand.

    The Black Belt, a strip of counties in mostly west and southwest Alabama, has struggled with poverty and unemployment for years. Hale County’s unemployment rate was 1.5 percent higher than the state average in December, but that was still 3 percent lower than neighboring Greene and Perry counties.

    So, is bamboo the way to solve the area’s problems?

    “It’s one way,” Dorr said. “In any plan for economic development, I’d hope there would be multiple prongs.”

    You can see more at herobike.org.


    An Alabama nonprofit uses carbon-lined bamboo to create bicycle frames. (Photo: Contributed)


    HERObike is also making paddleboards and skateboards out of Black Belt bamboo. (Photo: Contributed)


    HERObike is also making paddleboards and skateboards out of Black Belt bamboo. (Photo: Contributed)


    University of Kansas student Lyndall Robinson and professor Lance Rake work on bamboo designs. (Photo: Contributed)


    Adam Fowler and Mike Gillis from HERObike build one of the products in Greensboro. (Photo: Contributed)
    Gene Ching
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    ow

    I've been anticipating updating this thread, but not like this.

    Motorist miraculously survives after a six-foot-long bamboo pole pierced through his chest in horrific road accident

    The man was driving his scooter in China on the evening of April 28
    He wasn't paying attention and ploughed into a truck carrying bamboo
    A cane of bamboo went through his chest and pierced his lung
    Doctors say that the bamboo cane narrowly missed his heart

    By SOPHIE WILLIAMS FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 06:16 EST, 17 May 2016 | UPDATED: 09:05 EST, 17 May 2016

    A motorist has had a lucky escape after a sharp bamboo pole pierced through his chest.

    The man was on his electric scooter in Ruijin city, China, when he got too close to a truck carrying bamboo canes on the evening of April 28.

    The bamboo, which narrowly missed his heart and punctured one of his lungs, was successfully removed by doctors.


    Horrifying: The man was riding his motorbike in Ruijin City when he smashed into a bamboo pole


    Shocking: The six foot bamboo pole pierced his lung and narrowly missed his heart

    According to Jiangxi News, the unidentified man wasn't paying attention when he was riding his vehicle and rammed straight into a bamboo cane on the truck.

    The bamboo pole was reported about two metres long (6.5 feet).

    The local fire brigade was called to the scene and cut off part of the bamboo.

    The man was then taken to hospital where he was treated.

    According to doctors, the man had a punctured lung and the cane narrowly missed his heart.

    He underwent a two-hour-long surgery procedure to remove the bamboo.

    The man is still in hospital recovering from the ordeal.

    This isn't an isolated case.

    In 2011, a teenager in the US was rushed to hospital with bamboo impaled through his neck.

    He had been playing a game with friends using a bamboo stick. Doctors managed to remove the stick after surgery.


    Terrifying: The local fire brigade was called to the scene and cut off part of the bamboo
    Gene Ching
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    Bamboo world market

    Rooting for bamboo


    Photo: iStock
    India has the world’s largest natural base of bamboo, yet China controls the world market in this natural resource
    Keya Acharya

    Like the soft swishing from a bamboo grove, last December in Paris, on the side-lines of the UN’s Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 21), a relatively new undercurrent of movement began displaying itself.
    This movement headed by INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) is infusing bamboo into five of the Paris Agreement’s 29 clauses through Articles 5, 7, 10, 11 and 12, all dealing in sustainable forestry and renewable energy. INBAR, the only inter-governmental organization headquartered in China with 41-member countries, is also working with the UN Forum on Forests to fulfil at least six of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
    Bamboo’s benefits are immense—it restores degraded soils, is good for afforestation and water conservation and thereby in climate change mitigation. It has myriad uses ranging from high-end construction materials to producing biomass fuel with potential for further products, thereby enhancing not just rural livelihoods but an industry, all contributing to the overall economy.
    INBAR has proposed bamboo as mitigation tool through carbon sinks in Article 5, and through innovative usage in climate-smart agriculture, disaster resilience and livelihoods in Article 7.
    The help needed by countries for actual work on bamboo is to come from the technology-transfer component in Article 10. INBAR mentions China specifically as having a “wealth of expertise” in both marketing and technology. The organization has initiated, with China’s help, the new South-South Co-operation on Climate Change (SSCCC) that, while transferring Chinese technology, has expanded China’s business into countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. In September 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping set up a fund of $3.1 billion for SSCCC.
    China is thus at the forefront of using bamboo to promote its commercial interests through the climate change arena, a factor that now becomes even more important because it has ratified the Paris Agreement, thus allowing all interventions through this agreement to move forward.
    China’s innovations in bamboo have certainly been manifold. It controls over 83% of the world market, and has seen its industry grow from $10 billion to a $30 billion turnover industry employing 7.7 million people and reforesting over 3 million hectares of degraded land.
    “Much of this work has happened through INBAR,” says director Hans Friederich. “Bamboo should now become a South-South-North dynamic for climate change initiatives using China’s expertise in managing this sector.”
    The India connection
    Interestingly, INBAR was founded by an Indian-origin Canadian scientist, Cherla Sastry, in 1983 through Canada’s IDRC (international development research), then having several other Indian “bamboo scientists”. The initiative set up some centres within forestry institutes in India, but got bogged down by “all kinds of parliamentary questions”, said Sastry over the phone, when it came to establishing INBAR in India.
    “There is continuity in China,” says Sastry, along with cooperation, foresight and their own money.
    What is significant though, is that India, not China, is the world’s largest natural repository of bamboo: approximately 11,361 sq.km of it, compared to China’s area of 5,444 sq.km. Most of India’s bamboo is in the north-east, some in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and in the Western Ghats.
    But the dithering on bamboo has left India out of harvesting any benefits from this huge resource nationally, in the global market and in harnessing bamboo for climate policy negotiations. Sastry is succinct: “There’s money to be had in this sector; money that could be good for national impact too”. Yet India holds a mere 4% of the world market on bamboo.
    There is a tussle in India currently over whether bamboo is a “tree” or a “grass”. The Forest Act of 1927 said it was a tree, thus excluding local communities from harvesting bamboo inside protected areas as non-timber forest produce (NTFP). The clause remained unaltered in the 1980 Forest Act, but one which is now controversial because of the Forest Rights Act of 2006 which allows access to NTFPs but still restricts it as an industry.
    Kamesh Salam, managing director at South Asia Bamboo Foundation, Guwahati, explains the tussle over control by the government as a “colonial hangover”.
    Bamboo is also controlled by the rural development and the agriculture ministries. None of these ministries have as yet a policy that is cohesive to all. Unless we get out of this policy paralysis with numerous administrative players, we cannot move ahead, says Amit Chandra, director of policy at Centre for Civil Society, New Delhi.
    Though there has been an environment ministry directive urging states to consider bamboo as an NTFP and a Supreme Court order categorizing bamboo as such, the ambiguity of our current laws has left it to the political will of states to decide. The result of this is a few discrete pockets of success in communities in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha mainly.
    Rama Rao, managing director at the Centre for Bamboo and Resources Technology in Gujarat, believes bamboo could be promoted with great effect in the 10 million hectare afforestation scheme under India’s climate change mitigation plans, while the compensatory afforestation management's current funds of Rs42,000 crore offer even more potential.
    With India now having ratified the Paris Agreement, bamboo stalwarts say there is time to mend matters. Anil Dave, India’s new environment minister, agrees, saying, “The past is the past.”
    But will bygones really be bygones?
    Keya Acharya is president, Forum of Environmental Journalists in India (FEJI).
    'colonial hangover' - what a great term.
    Gene Ching
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    See next post...
    This is so refreshing & satisfying to watch.

  8. #8
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    Bamboo ceiling

    A-pop! White people are ruining ‘bamboo ceiling’ for us!
    MARCH 25, 2021 BY NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

    By Stacy Nguyen
    Northwest Asian Weekly

    I know we’ve all had a really terrible week, and it feels a bit discordant to read frivolous pop culture news. But I hope this column gives you a break from the heaviness.

    White people get ****ed about term “bamboo ceiling,” which sounds like something they’d do



    Asian reporter Rebecca Sun wrote a headline in the Hollywood Reporter that said “Diverse Oscars field sees Asian actors shatter the bamboo ceiling” and a whole lotta white people got really uppity about it because they didn’t realize that bamboo ceiling is legit a term coined by author (and Asian person) Jane Hyun, who used the term to describe how hard it is for Asian Americans to get into leadership positions in big companies.

    Instead, these woke white people who don’t know that much about Asian stuff and aren’t great at checking bylines were like, “Bamboo ceiling! Oh, because they are Asian? How dare you! Racist!”

    To her credit, Sun responded in a super chill and super classy way. She tweeted, “Hi! I wrote that headline (and the story). My editor, who is not Asian, was worried about it, but it’s a conscious choice I made to reference the phrase’s usage in the corporate world (the difficulty Asian executives have in breaking through to upper management).”

    Anyway, the Hollywood Reporter has since changed that headline to something white people won’t get mad about on behalf of people of color because we must always, always, always center white ignorance and white comfort and do workarounds for white #fakefacts.
    'Bamboo ceiling' and 'Bamboo curtain' are longstanding terms.

    threads
    Bamboo
    Copying this to Stop-Asian-Hate too, just because it's related.
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    Bamboo Drifting

    I didn't know bamboo drifiting was a thing beyond Bodhidharma

    Follow the link for vid
    Martial arts fan shows off 'Single-Bamboo Drifting' stunt
    2022-07-19 10:52:52Ecns.cnEditor : Luo PanECNS App Download

    (ECNS) -- Dressed as a "Swordsman", Pan Haitao stood on a bamboo, drifting on the river through the urban area of Jilin City, Jilin Province on Saturday.

    In a red ancient costume with a bamboo hat on his head and a jade pendant dangling on his belt, his performance attracted much attention from tourists.

    The 42-year-old martial arts fan recently made a stir online because of his martial arts skill shown in a video of crossing the Songhua River, which is more than 500 meters wide.

    Pan said the skill he mastered is called "Single-Bamboo Drifting", a national intangible cultural heritage, and a folk stunt traditionally performed by various people inhabiting the Chishui River Basin in Guizhou Province. The bamboo for drifting across the river which is 8 meters in length, about 15 centimeters in diameter, and about 35-40 kilograms in weight, is often placed in the water along the riverbank of the Songhua River.

    Pan said that the reason why he chooses to practice "Single-Bamboo Drifting" is that he wants to realize his martial arts dream, a dream he has had since childhood.

    Pan is both a businessman and a martial arts fan, with a particular interest in watching Hong Kong martial arts movies. He also pushed himself to lose 10 kilograms for better performance.

    Pan said it's hard to maintain balance and sustain physical strength while standing on the bamboo for drifting. The drifting is highly unstable because of the great fluidity of the Songhua River. Also, as a fan of winter swimming and a good swimmer, he rapidly mastered the skills of "Single-Bamboo Drifting". Even so, he has fallen off the bamboo pole and got bumps and bruises time and again in the last two years, but he has never changed his mind to learn and pass on the skills of "Single-Bamboo Drifting".
    Gene Ching
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    glow shrooms

    New species of glowing mushroom found growing on dead bamboo in India
    Glowing is always in fashion.
    Alexandru Micu by Alexandru Micu November 23, 2020 in Biology, News, Science

    A new species of mushroom has been discovered in the Assam province, northeastern India. It glows.


    Image credits Karunarathna, Mortimer, Tibpromma, Dutta, et al., (2020), Phytotaxa.
    A team of researchers from India and China reports on two weeks of fieldwork in the Assam region, during which they spotted several new species of mushrooms. The most exciting of these is a species that locals describe as “electric mushrooms” that lives on dead bamboo. The species, christened Roridomyces phyllostachydis is bioluminescent — it produces its own light.

    Glow up
    “The members of the genus Roridomyces are very fragile and they love moist and humid conditions,” explained Samantha Karunarathna, senior mycologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and lead author of the report.

    “In general, bioluminescent mushrooms seem to have co-evolved together with some specific insects as these mushrooms attract insects to disperse their spores.”

    The species may be new to science, but locals have known about (and used) it for quite a while now. They’ve been employing bamboo sticks with these glowing mushrooms growing on them as natural torches at night, for example.

    It only grows on dead bamboo, the team explains, although it’s not immediately apparent why. It may be the case that the bamboo substrate offers special conditions or resources that the fungus prefers, according to Karunarathna, but until the issue is researched more thoroughly, we can’t know for sure. This is the first species of the genus Roridomyces to be discovered in India, the team adds.

    The team recovered samples of the mushrooms, dried them, and then performed a genetic analysis to understand where it fits on the tree of life. Both morphological features and its genetic heritage support its position as a new species in the genus Roridomyces. Currently, 12 other species are known in this genus, and five of them are also bioluminescent. The team named the species phyllostachydis after the genus of the host bamboo tree (Phyllostachys) from which it was collected.


    Image credits Karunarathna, Mortimer, Tibpromma, Dutta, et al., (2020), Phytotaxa.
    During the day, they look pretty unassuming. However, at night they glow with a clear, green light — but only from its stripes and mycelia (which are a rough equivalent to roots) that are burrowing into the bamboo. The mushrooms’ brown caps do not emit light at all.

    So why does it glow? Bioluminescence is most commonly seen in ocean environments than on dry land, although fireflies are iconic examples of the latter. Its typically used to attract attention, either for hunting or to coax insects into visiting a plant and spreading its pollen or seeds around. Of about 120,000 described fungus species, around 100 are known to be bioluminescent; only a handful of these are native to India. This is likely due to the fact that there aren’t enough trained specialists to go out and look for new species and document those that have already been discovered, Karunarathna argues.

    Bioluminescent fungi commonly grow on decaying wood and are able to feed on the lignin in plant debris (lignin is a structural component in the walls of plant cells, which gives them their stiffness). The largest genus of bioluminescent fungi we know of is the Mycena (bonnet mushrooms), and genetic studies of Mycena suggest that this trait evolved around 160 million years ago.

    The paper “Roridomyces phyllostachydis (Agaricales, Mycenaceae), a new bioluminescent fungus from Northeast India” has been published in the journal Phytotaxa.
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    Gene Ching
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    Author of Shaolin Trips
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