🍂MtBotany
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany
@mtbotany.bsky.social
140 followers 62 following 1.2K posts
Botanizer. I'm not mad, just irresponsible. Also not a person made of plants or a killer robot pretending to be human, honest. Wikipedia editor that writes about plants. Posting about plants 92.8% of the time. But I comment about other things.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 3d
If you have a request for a plant (that is not a moss or algae) article, reply here or on my Wikipedia talk page. I will make an attempt on any plant species, genus, or family.

#Wikipedia #NativePlants #Botany
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 6h
At the top of every Wikipedia page there is a link to see the history. A list of every edit by every editor.

So you could see that Utah penstemon looked like this before I started working on it this year. Very short and no references.

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...
Penstemon utahensis - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 16h
Also Madoff was a boring scammer.

No clever paints or faking historic photos. No, just a ponzi scheme. And towards the end he had to pivot away from scamming rich people to going after retirees and the middle class.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 16h
A point, but on the other hand Wolfgang Beltracchi. Art forger who essentially got away with scamming millions out of rich people and only got a short sentence... And then got to be a famous and wealthy artist under his own name.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 17h
Because, almost undoubtedly, they have already destroyed these historic works of art. In order to hide the crime they will make it less recognizable and that means breaking them down. It is a loss to all the future that these tiaras won't be seen by anyone ever again.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 17h
I hear you, I have taken your concerns on board, but I'm going in another direction.

For me if someone scammed rich people, fine, no prison time. When you steal from a museum, you get 30 years in the electric chair.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19h
🎶Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground...🎶
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19h
Don't step on any plant if you can help it. Yeah, plants cover the earth. Yes, grass mostly recovers, but it feels wrong to me when I see people just stepping on a plant as if that is fine.

Watch where you put your feet people!
zachweinersmith.bsky.social Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 4d
Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19h
Though I'm going to keep listening to my phone when in my own yard. My space to be mildly annoying in, just not while walking anymore.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20h
Probably the solution if I'm going to keep walking while listening. I might just stop rather than buying something new.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 21h
Walking in my neighborhood I fear having my giant over ear cans snatched off my head or missing that I'm about to be run over by a lifted truck at the corner.

So I've been turning off my phone when I see someone and then going back later.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22h
Okay, I need your advice then.

I listen to audiobooks out loud while walking. But only when I am more than 3 m or 10 ft from anyone. Am I flying too close to the sun here or am I fine?
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22h
I tried searching for a book on archive.org but nothing about taxonomy and this term.

This is one of the cases where being largely self taught has left me with gaps in my understanding that might have been filled in a class.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22h
Mildly frustrated by the abbreviation "Misappl." I have seen it used with some botanical synonyms and I found a brief glossary definition.

"Designation of a name that has been or is incorrect in that it is not applied correctly to the taxon in question."
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 1d
Right. Going to indulge slightly in some Wikipedia editing while slightly drunk. Cider and working on penstemons.

Then house cleaning, I promise
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 1d
Oops. My finger slipped and I added a whole section on taxonomy and names.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherler...
Cherleria obtusiloba - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 1d
TRIAL BY STONE!!!
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 1d
Or to growl, "Chamberlain, I hate your whimper," in response.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 1d
Alpine sandwort (Cherleria obtusiloba) blooming in July atop Cottonwood Pass. Nice little plant.

Unfortunately the Wikipedia article is what we call a stub. Very short giving almost no information.
A very low mat plant with tiny needle-like leaves and dozens of five petaled white flowers, half the diameter of the silver mercury dime on a stone next to it for scale. Photograph by MtBotany Creative Commons by Attribution Share Alike License 4.0
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
I also use Firefox as my default.

Though I also use Brave, Safari, Opera, Edge, and Chrome because I can be obsessive about checking to see that things work in different browsers and for different purposes. Sometimes I need Chrome or a clone.
mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
Since I am obsessed with plants everywhere, let's talk Queen of the Andes.

It is a giant, giant plant that does the bloom once and die thing. Usually after 40 or more years. And it is pollinated by Andean hummingbirds. In the same family with pineapples.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puya_ra...
Puya raimondii - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
When you visit the DuckDuckGo website there will be the three line menu symbol to get to settings. Upper right side.

In settings one of the four menus is "AI Features". Turn it off and also turn off search assist. You can also turn on hide AI images.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
Most editors are enthusiastic about covering subject well.

There are limits because we need sources and we are an encyclopedia, not a how to manual, but overall we want reliable information in Wikipedia.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
You don't have to edit a Wikipedia article directly to fix a problem. Leave a comment on the article's talk page explaining the problem and/or pointing at a good source.

As an editor, if a comment is clear I will work on fixing things in response to them or explaining what is going on.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
Three things to do to support Wikipedia:

1. Dump Google. Make DuckDuckGo with AI turned off your default search.

2. When the information you want is not in Wikipedia and you find it elsewhere leave a comment on an article talk page pointing to it.

3. If you have the means, donate time or money.
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mtbotany.bsky.social
🍂MtBotany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 2d
This is bad for Wikipedia, but the project can survive.

Actually running the servers and paying for backend engineering is relatively cheap. The expensive stuff are the many "it would be nice to haves".

Harder to replace are the new volunteers for editing.
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