112
What is iNaturalist? The citizen science app playing an unlikely role in Erin Patterson’s mushroom murder trial (theconversation.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by otters_raft@lemmy.ca to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The world has been gripped by the case of Australian woman Erin Patterson, who was charged with the murder of three people after allegedly serving them a lunch of beef wellington containing poisonous death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides).

A new element of the sensational story emerged in court this week, when prosecutors reportedly alleged Patterson used iNaturalist to locate and visit places where death cap mushrooms were known to grow.

top 11 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Lucien@mander.xyz 34 points 2 weeks ago

I use iNaturalist, but not for that

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Thanks for calrifying that. You had me going there for a moment. (/s)

[-] bl4kers@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

Heh yeah same. Totally

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 2 points 2 weeks ago

I use it for mushroom ID...

[-] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Not available through F-Droid but is MIT licensed https://github.com/inaturalist/iNaturalistAndroid

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 3 points 2 weeks ago

Holy shit I never knew that.

I really thought it was one of my apps that I used that wasn't Foss because it was so useful.

Now I want to use it more!

[-] Yaky@slrpnk.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

Slighty altered:

when prosecutors reportedly alleged the murderer used Google Maps to locate and visit places where handguns were known to be sold.

Sounds kinda dumb, doesn't it? Once again, a lesser known app gets a portion of the blame because of shitty people.

P.S. I use iNaturalist and greatly appreciate all the people who correct my identifications.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago

a lesser known app gets a portion of the blame because of shitty people

I feared the article would include something like that. Even trying to blame the distributed model (everyone can contribute) I guess.

Did it say "if you're planning to kill your whole family, this is the perfect mushroom to add to the soup" or did it say "deadly, do not ingest"? If the latter, one could blame a "No Entry" sign for seducing people into entering dangerous places. One could go even further and blame the whole internet - or nature itself!

this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
112 points (98.3% liked)

Open Source

37004 readers
93 users here now

All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!

Useful Links

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Cloak@lemmy.ml
kevincox@lemmy.ml
CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml
Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml