What's the Holy Grail item in your hobby?
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I'm into fly fishing and the holy grail for many anglers is catching native brook trout. Most trout are stocked or introduced with wild reproduction. Brookies were plentiful at one time before the loss of habitat. There are those that crawl on their hands an knees through brush to catch a 6" fish out of a stream you can jump over
In California Brook Trout is non-native, but we have a Heritage Trout Challenge where anglers try to catch six of the native trout species in their native streams. When somebody completes the challenge they get a custom certificate showing the species they caught and dates. So far I’ve caught one - California Golden Trout.
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If I could time travel, I'd go see the chestnut forests first. I only learned about them a few years ago but I think about it a weird amount (maybe because I have a huge elm tree in my yard)
Like can you imagine entire states covered in them? I don't think they were quite the size of redwoods but they were ancient and well-established forests. And it makes me sad that most people don't even know what we lost because some rich asshole just HAD to have foreign trees on their estates.
Christ, it’s ALWAYS the fucking rich assholes!
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Because the disease has become endemic to American forests.
The American Chestnut was the dominant tree in the ecosystem of the forests of Eastern North America. Per Wikipedia, "it was said that a squirrel could walk from New England to Georgia solely on the branches of American chestnuts." In the late 19th century, Japanese chestnut trees were imported, and they brought with them Asian Bark Fungus. American Chestnuts are quite susceptible to this fungus, and it largely wiped out the population.
The fungus infects the above ground portion of the tree, killing it. New shoots will emerge from the stump as the below ground portion of the tree isn't affected by the fungus, but the new growth doesn't get very far before the fungus kills it off again. We have no hope of eliminating the fungus from the forests.
So we've got these zombie tree stumps that will grow enough of a plant to keep the fungus alive and running (it also survives on other species of tree), but not enough to grow large and reproduce. There are some remaining adult trees here and there but the species is considered functionally extinct in the wild as it really isn't able to thrive because this fungus is among us. So unless we can hybridize or otherwise breed fungus resistant chestnut trees, we ain't got no American Chestnuts.
American chestnuts are also susceptible to ink disease and the Chinese Gall Wasp.
A lot of problems were caused by importing plants to North America; tumbleweeds aren't indigenous, they're Russian, and a massive fucking problem.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I am untethered, and my rage knows no bounds
We should engineer a virus to attack the fungus. I’m certain it won’t lead to a Last Of Us scenario.
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Thanks, now I want one too. Is there any feasible way to start trying to grown some of these myself, while obviously attempting to prevent infection of my crop?
This would be an excellent question to ask The American Chestnut Foundation.
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In the typewriter community, the “holy grail” differs from person to person, but for me it was a 1930s Royal P equipped with a rare typeface called Vogue. Very, very rarely they’ll pop up from people who don’t know how significant that is, and that’s the only way to get one at a reasonable price - because those who do know what it is will ask thousands of dollars for it.
Eventually I found one for a comparatively cheap price (sub 1k), and the only reason someone else didn’t snap it up before I saw it was because the guy refused to ship it. Local pickup only. So I took the chance to drive the 10 hours round trip to snag it, and it sits proudly as the crown jewel of my collection:
Your actions were the only correct option. This is the same way I snagged my Onix Reference 3 floor speakers. Someone on Facebook marketplace was giving them away for free because they belonged to the previous owner of their new house, and the speakers were taking up too much space in the theater room the new owner wanted to use for Netflix and yoga. I only had to drive 2 hours, but I got immediately into my truck. They also included a Velodyne DLS-3750R Powered Subwoofer, and an Onix Rocket RSC200 Center-Channel Speaker.
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This would be an excellent question to ask The American Chestnut Foundation.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
It's called Black Lotus, I think. Not totally sure since I have never been interested in mtg as anything but something to have fun playing at a medium-high level, but I've heard copies of their original release go for many thousands of currency notes. Much to expensive for my means, but that's okay.
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The Lost Ark of the Covenant actually
Are you sure?
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What is growing there now? It sounds like a pretty shitty situation.
The surviving forests are often oak, hickory, ash, pine. A different blight is working its way through the Eastern Hemlock, which are truly the giant sequoias of the East. Humongous old trees.
Also, corn, wheat, rice, tobacco, towns, cities, suburbs. Probably a third of the US population lives in that green area, to include Washington DC, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Altoona, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Memphis, Charlotte, Asheville, Atlanta...looks like it misses Colombia and just barely grazes Raleigh.
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Owning that super special version of Nintendo World Cup that they made for some tournament and only 4 copies in the entire world exist. And IIRC, James Rolfe (the Angry Video Game Nerd) owns 3 of them.
Irl Seto Kaiba, this guy
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From my personal collection:
Sick, dude.
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It's called Black Lotus, I think. Not totally sure since I have never been interested in mtg as anything but something to have fun playing at a medium-high level, but I've heard copies of their original release go for many thousands of currency notes. Much to expensive for my means, but that's okay.
The Power Nine https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Nine before mtg worked out how to balance, these 9 cards in the alpha/beta set were brokenly overpowered. There's an alpha Ancestral Recall on ebay rn for $5.5k
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For example, in the headphone world, the Sennheiser HE-1 headphones are said to be like the pinnacle of headphones and most expensive, costing $59000 for a pair.
Edit: added image
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Oooh, hey!! I have that game but haven't played it yet. It looks freaking dope. Any suggestions? If I can't convince my family to play I was just going to try it solo
It's the "revised edition" if that matters
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organize a "games night" and see if people are interested: "Hey, on Friday night I'm inviting people over to play Agricola. Do you want to come?"
Board Games, in particular Euros that take can take over 2 hours to play are not something that get pulled out on a whim during social gatherings. -
find a board game meetup near you (try meetup.com for example). It's easier to turn board gamers into friends than friends into board gamers.
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Are you aware of this guy on youtube? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeEf90AEmmxaQs5BUkHqR3Q he creates some very inspired mini electronics.
Subscribed. Thank you!
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Oooh, hey!! I have that game but haven't played it yet. It looks freaking dope. Any suggestions? If I can't convince my family to play I was just going to try it solo
It's the "revised edition" if that matters
It's a fantastic game. If you're playing with less experienced gamers I would probably leave the occupation/improvement cards out at first.
And seconding what Cile said. You show up to a gaming meetup with Agricola and I can pretty much guarantee someone is going to want to play. It's a classic for a reason. Way easier to convince someone that already likes board games.
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Any serious guitarists will let you know their holy grail.
It's not any guitar; it's another guitar.
I bought mine for $100!
I got it new back in the early 2000s but it had a flaw in the fretboard. I returned it for exchange but they discontinued it so refunded me instead. Telling this story to someone a decade later, they suggested eBay. I looked and there it was, bought it on the spot and had it in my hands a week later.
I have enough guitars but am now looking at other instruments. A cello is high on the list.
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My dude. $1,200 is not all that much if it's something that is going to be part of the rest of your life.
For sure. I just have a fairly decent barbell right now (came as a set with bumper plates) and I've got other stuff I need to spend money on. But soon!
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Any serious guitarists will let you know their holy grail.
It's not any guitar; it's another guitar.
None of the ones I already own sound good, though. Since it can't possibly be me that is the problem, I need to purchase another, more expensive one.
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I finally saw a Baltimore Oriole (bird) in real life at my feeder. Its was beautiful and vibrant and now I need to find another cool bird to look at.
