Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't • Hacker News Board

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#101

Post by AHabe » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:56 AM UTC

jojocool0501 wrote: post #80

My favorite Youtube channel. Please watch the latest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDVcfSYcxc0 . It's an interview with an old botanist, who shares his wisdom and philosophy, remains engaged after decades of witnessing first hand America's nature getting destroyed. 2 main points: - destroyed old-growth forests, grassland, remnant prairies takes millennia to be back to what they were, not decades. Insects and other…

I love this guy, also my favourite Youtube channel and one of my favourite podcasts, he also guests on In Defence of Plants from time to time, I have the impression he's friends with the host.

Loved him ever since I randomly stumbled across his guerilla tree planting video in I want to say 2020?

Anyway, we all must support the train driver turned botanist.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#102

Post by hmcamp » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:57 AM UTC

The title is misleading. There was nothing in the article comparing/contrasting/linking botany and crime.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#103

Post by defrost » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:58 AM UTC

xienze wrote: post #100

chabska wrote: post #57

They spent a whole section glazing the Linnaeus system like it's a perfect thing, but as someone who has delved into taxonomy a lot (due to playing Metazooa and Metaflora), there are quite a few glaring issues with it. 1. political tussle. australian botanists managed to hijack the "acacia" name from the original African Acacia, to the totally unrelated australian plants that were also called acacia. I noticed that j…

> Names were given by the first white european man that "found" the plant, instead of the local inhabitants who have known and named the plants for thousands of years. I see this brought up often in all sorts of contexts. It's the "if a tree falls in the woods and no one's around" thing. If some indigenous group with no writing system nor contact with the rest of the world has a name for something... does it really h…

> nor contact with the rest of the world has a name for something

Almost everywhere that white Europeans went and named things, they did so with native guides that had names for things.

Many of the Australian plants and animals named with European taxonomies still have common native names and aboriginals alive, kicking, and somewhat traditional that still use older native namings.

eg: (IIRC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7h9V4aKlJw

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#104

Post by virgil_disgr4ce » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:05 AM UTC

hmcamp wrote: post #102

The title is misleading. There was nothing in the article comparing/contrasting/linking botany and crime.

Man you must be really fun at parties

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#105

Post by snarfy » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:07 AM UTC

Instead of trying to make the plants healthy, make the dirt healthy. It seems like the same thing but it is a different mindset.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#106

Post by itomato » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:08 AM UTC

hmcamp wrote: post #102

The title is misleading. There was nothing in the article comparing/contrasting/linking botany and crime.

You’ll have to start with S1E1

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#107

Post by palata » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:09 AM UTC

calmingsolitude wrote: post #78

rapnie wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a pity that, while their focus is on openness and accessiblity, neither Flora Incognita, nor iNaturalist or PlantNet can be installed from the F-Droid appstore. I unfortunately don't use Google Play, so can't testdrive them.

Flora Incognita and PlantNet are not open source, so they cannot be published to F-Droid. However, iNaturalist is and the apk can be directly installed from the GitHub releases page. https://github.com/inaturalist/iNaturalistAndroid/releases

I find it very weird that a free app coming from a university would not be open source...

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#108

Post by TZubiri » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:11 AM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #105

Instead of trying to make the plants healthy, make the dirt healthy. It seems like the same thing but it is a different mindset.

What is healthy dirt, if not dirt that grows healthy plants. Which will of course depend on the plant.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#109

Post by TZubiri » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:13 AM UTC

chabska wrote: post #57

They spent a whole section glazing the Linnaeus system like it's a perfect thing, but as someone who has delved into taxonomy a lot (due to playing Metazooa and Metaflora), there are quite a few glaring issues with it. 1. political tussle. australian botanists managed to hijack the "acacia" name from the original African Acacia, to the totally unrelated australian plants that were also called acacia. I noticed that j…

>We could probably come up with a better system using a tree coordinate system.

I'd suggest having ones that count from origin, and other that count from present, so the current extant species would be +1, LUCA would be -1.

Eukaryot? count from origin, Beagle? Count from present.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#110

Post by Aboutplants » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:23 AM UTC

brunohaid wrote: post #84

Launching a thing soon to make it more accessible, without sacrificing scientific depth, eg: https://www.meso.cloud/plants/tracheophyta/magnoliopsida/gen... Aggregates 780k plants and fungi from many canonical sources (IPNI, Wikidata, GBIF, iNaturalist etc) and tries to present the data in an intuitive and engaging way, lets you search by common names in 300+ languages etc. Feedback from especially botany nerds very…

Very nice! Really incredible amount of sources you’re pulling from.

I actually vibecoded a personal app just last week to handle my personal collection of rare succulents and cactus I grow, primarily from seed. I wanted to create something for my young daughter that showed the mature plant along with information about its habitat, growing conditions, how to cultivate (I grow indoors due to my climate), etc.

I’m actually really interested in the devices you have coming soon as I grow indoors and am always looking for improvements on lighting, monitoring, etc. I have a real hodgepodge of lights and gadgets.