Russula virescens is a fungus that produces a mushroom commonly known as the green-cracking Russula. It has a distinctive pale green cap up to 15 cm (6 in) wide, with a surface covered with angular patches in a darker green. It has white gills and a firm white stalk up to 8 cm (3 in) tall and 4 cm (1.6 in) thick. With a taste that is variously described as mild, nutty, fruity, or sweet, it is regarded as one of the best edible mushrooms of the genus Russula. Popular in Spain and China, it can be grilled, fried, sautéed, or eaten raw. The species fruits singly or scattered on the ground in both deciduous and mixed forests, and is symbiotic with roots of broadleaf trees such as oak, European beech, aspen, and some Asian lowland rainforest trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae. First described in 1774 by Jacob Christian Schaeffer, the species is native to Asia, North Africa, Europe, Central America, and possibly North America. The mushroom contains a unique laccase enzyme that can break down various dyes in laboratory and textile wastewater. (Full article...)
Rudolph Valentino's film career started with his appearance as an uncredited extra in My Official Wife (1914), although this is now a lost film. The Italian-born Valentino appeared in several films in a minor role until 1921. He got his major break when he appeared in the role of Julio in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and he went on to play leading roles in fourteen films as a romantic figure. All the films in which he appeared were silent; those in which he played a romantic role within the action genre were the more successful at the box office including The Sheik (1921) and his final two works The Eagle (1925) and The Son of the Sheik (1926). Valentino died suddenly of peritonitis in August 1926, at the age of 31. The subsequent extensive media coverage turned his funeral into a national event. Two of Valentino's films, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and The Son of the Sheik have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. (Full list...)
Crater Lake is situated in a 7,700-year-old caldera in the Cascades of south-central Oregon, United States. The focus of Crater Lake National Park, it is famous for its intense blue color and the clarity of its water. The lake is the deepest in the United States at 594 m (1,950 ft) and, though no rivers flow into or out of it, its waters are replaced every 250 years through rain and snowfall. A post-caldera cinder cone forms Wizard Island.
