
Wardian cases and the process of transporting plants - m-i-l
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51209050
======
ansible
If you are interested in making your own terrariums and such, check out the
Serpa Design youtube channel:

[https://www.youtube.com/user/SerpaDesign/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/SerpaDesign/videos)

You can get started with just stuff you have lying around at home and what you
can find outside.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2Lo0rOF7g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2Lo0rOF7g)

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christiansakai
Ahh, as a hobbyist amateur Aquascaper I like articles like this.

If anyone wants to learn how to get a great planted tank with minimal
maintenance. I suggest Diana Walstad's book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium".
A beginner will easily get amazing success with this method (though it doesn't
last forever and a year or two later this will start to break down).

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dacohenii
50 Things that Made the Modern Economy is one of my favorite podcasts!

For anyone who finds this article (slash podcast episode) interesting, I'd
also recommend the episode on the Hollerith punch card, which is kinda
relevant to the history of the computing field :)

Hollerith punch card episode page:
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz2x7](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz2x7)

The article for this episode (i.e. same format as main link):
[https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50578234](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50578234)

~~~
jonny_eh
I also recommend the author's other podcast "Cautionary Tales". It's very well
produced, and fascinating.

[http://timharford.com/articles/cautionarytales/](http://timharford.com/articles/cautionarytales/)

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libraryatnight
I recently read "For All the Tea in China" which talks about these and Robert
Fortune a bit, it was a fun book. [https://www.amazon.com/All-Tea-China-
England-Favorite/dp/014...](https://www.amazon.com/All-Tea-China-England-
Favorite/dp/0143118749)

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hammock
>He was a fern enthusiast but had struggled to grow them in the polluted city
air.

>Ward's invention...let the light in. It kept the soot and smoke out.

How bad was the air back then, was it really so bad that a plant couldn't
grow? That notion seems unbelievable.

~~~
gshdg
People literally used to dust soot off their garden plants -- you can see this
mentioned in some books. It was not uncommon for visibility in London to be
extremely poor due to soot[0]. In fact, this peaked in the 1950's due to the
combination of coal burning with automobile emissions[1].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_soup_fog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_soup_fog)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London)

~~~
contingencies
_People literally used to dust soot off their garden plants_

We do this in China.

Other significant western plant hunters who were active in China:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rock)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Forrest_(botanist)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Forrest_\(botanist\))
Many were active in China's southwestern region of Yunnan, the origin of tea
and camellias.

~~~
hammock
Now that I think about it, I wiped black road dust from brakes/tires off the
windowsills of my drafty street-level SF (Oak Street) apartment every week
too. One of the reasons I moved. It doesn't take much.

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aaron695
Not sure it makes the case well, but biology and agriculture being
revolutionised by a glass box has parallels.

Don't attack a field directly. Improve it by processes that help all
participants.

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01100011
This article reminds me of James Burke's Connections series. I'm sure it's
dated by now, but worth a watch if you're bored.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Surprisingly, it's not all that dated. Some insights seem prescient, and are
as applicable to 2020 as they were those 42 years ago!

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mwexler
Oh. Not a TV like I expected from the title. :-)

