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What is iNaturalist? The citizen science app playing an unlikely role in Erin Patterson’s mushroom murder trial (theconversation.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours 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!