Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't • Hacker News Board

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#191

Post by kikokikokiko » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 8:35 PM UTC

KaiserPro wrote: post #115

znpy wrote: post #93

> at the time, he [Linneaus] was probably mostly thinking of “white European cultures” How boring this is, makes me want to close the page immediately. The guy, Linneaus, lived in the 1700s and “white European cultures” were all there was to him. Us wasn’t even a whole nation yet and there wasn’t much scientific cooperation with other civilisations. Also, at the time latin was the lingua franca for the scientific wor…

If you read a bit further, they author then explains why they put that in: > The fucker [Linneaus] created a beautiful system, and it works. And that’s why we still use it. I say this because a few unthinking “performative leftist” nitwits as of late have decided to attack the science of taxonomy itself). I think its in there to head of compliants from people who would otherwise say that latin scientific names are ba…

Well, he wasnt very good at conveying his idea then. I also stopped reading at that point. Fuck anyone that holds this idiotic beliefs.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#192

Post by olivierlacan » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 8:36 PM UTC

alex-robbins wrote: post #188

olivierlacan wrote: post #168

Odd to see one of the best native plant communicators referenced on HN but I'll use to opportunity to mention a side project I'd been delaying diving in for years and finally committed to recently if there are folks here who want to not only learn to identify crucial native flora (and fauna) but contribute to restoring local native plants that are critical to ecosystems. So, mini show HN: https://indigene.app is a br…

I'm at https://indigene.app/regions/pnw (on Firefox on Android) and I'm frustrated because I can't find a map of the region's boundary. It's not at all clear to me how far north or south the region extends.

Fair criticism, this is based on EPA Level III/IV Ecoregions (cited in https://github.com/olivierlacan/indigene/blob/main/DATA_SOUR...) but I agree there should be a way to see it in a clear map.

Level III/IV Maps are here: https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/level-iii-and-iv-ecoregions...

At the very least I'll make sure each region page links to this given it's the source that determines what species are shown.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#193

Post by tobinfricke » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 8:41 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #130

badpun wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought that was really interesting (and obviously wouldn't work in other countries). I don't know about other countries, but in Poland you're just not required to cut down your lawn at all, unless it's a fire hazard (you have a lot of dead and dried up plants).

I think legal requirements are a US thing. I had only heard of it in HOA run places though. Here in the UK there are no usually legal requirements, but it might be a social problem as your neighbours will not like it.

Apparently this text is part of the "International Property Management Code", which is incorporated into the municipal code of many cities?

https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IPMC2024P1/chapter-3-gener...

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#194

Post by cowsandmilk » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 8:51 PM 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 had an interesting internal debate the other day about whether farm fields were more natural than fields of solar panels. (Ignore fields that have both for now). To me, a tilled field that is being chemically fertilized and tilled is at this point just as far removed from the former native state.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#195

Post by xnx » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 8:55 PM UTC

andai wrote: post #127

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…

Brilliant, thanks for sharing. I'm reminded of an article I read once, it seems to have gone offline, an interview with indie game dev Jason Rohrer. He said the city took him to court for not mowing his lawn. He ended up winning under the 1st amendment (the lawn was "free expression" or something...)[0] I thought that was really interesting (and obviously wouldn't work in other countries). The other day I walked arou…

A weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it. So everything/nothing is a weed depending on context.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#196

Post by xnx » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 8:58 PM UTC

Schlagbohrer wrote: post #24

He's great, I love his concrete botany videos about weeds thriving in harsh human environments. His tour of the Chicago River is great, and an NYC parking lot that has been taken back over by nature is fascinating. https://youtu.be/SRRbspvheRc https://youtu.be/AVPkBv-QQ6U

The night heron gulping the rat was something! I think it even surprised them. https://youtu.be/SRRbspvheRc?t=2057

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#197

Post by talon8635 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #4

Watch this guy's YT channel - have been for years now. I think what originally caught my attention on his channel was a video specifically about the flora around run-down Oakland urban-industrial areas.

His video about the hippie snake oil isle in Berkeley bowl is outstanding

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#198

Post by fastaguy88 » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

Two nits to pick, one major, one minor:

Major:

   "Common names simply don’t work on a large scale. One common name (ie    “cedar”) can refer to 8 different totally unrelated plants, where as Cedrus refers specifically to the genus which contains the species C. libani, C. deodara,  and C. atlantica."

Actually, those 8 different plants are hardly "totally unrelated". They are quite closely related in the evolutionary scheme of things (plants have been around for 1.6 billion years). Red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and Cedrus (Cedrus atlantica) are both plants, but also Pinidae (conifers), and diverged about 250 Million years ago (time tree.org), so more distantly related that mammals (~80 y), but midway between humans/platypus (200 My) and humans/ducks (320 My). Hardly unrelated.

Minor:

   "Why is it [taxonomy] cool? Because we now group things according to how evolutionarily related are, and how they evolved."

Yes, we group things by how closely related they are, but not necessarily by how distantly related they are in time. Taxonomy is about branch order, not distance in evolutionary time. The same species in a genus may include organisms that diverged several million years ago, but other species may have diverged much more recently. Taxonomy is a kind of evolutionary history that need not have a very regular clock.

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#199

Post by graemep » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC

tobinfricke wrote: post #193

graemep wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think legal requirements are a US thing. I had only heard of it in HOA run places though. Here in the UK there are no usually legal requirements, but it might be a social problem as your neighbours will not like it.

Apparently this text is part of the "International Property Management Code", which is incorporated into the municipal code of many cities? https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IPMC2024P1/chapter-3-gener...

So not just HOAs but very much US?

Re: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

#200

Post by cmpb » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:10 PM UTC

fastaguy88 wrote: post #198

Two nits to pick, one major, one minor: Major: "Common names simply don’t work on a large scale. One common name (ie “cedar”) can refer to 8 different totally unrelated plants, where as Cedrus refers specifically to the genus which contains the species C. libani, C. deodara, and C. atlantica." Actually, those 8 different plants are hardly "totally unrelated". They are quite closely related in the evolutionary scheme…

To nit 1: "totally unrelated" could reasonably mean "not in the same genus", but even relaxing that to "not in the same family" holds true for the word "cedars". The author's point about "common names" seems pretty salient

To nit 2: I fail to see what you're actually nitpicking here... How evolutionary related things are and how they evolved _are_ pretty well illustrated by taxonomic ranking. Some organisms (in a stable ecology) don't change much over time and some things do, and taxonomy gives us a good way to discuss that.