That was so nice to read Matt’s interview of Cathy.

Cathy’s ‘design your own’ strategy is lovely, smart!

You know what I’d love to see Cathy go after? A ‘local green’ floral strategy. So many florists’ offering are exotic, long-distance, etc. What about locally-grown, low-impact bouquets of organic flowers? I know people with multiple chemical sensitivities and the like can’t accept conventionally grown bouquets because of the chemicals, and the carbon aspects of long-distance shipping might be troubling to the new mass of green consumers.

I wonder what the results would be of a green category for a florist like Cathy? The bouquets might look simpler, more hand-done, as though you’d just picked them yourself from your own gorgeous garden. I can see folks liking this…liking the local aspect.

Miriam

You’re right – I loved the Naming article!

It reminds me of the slant that has been put on the past 2000 years of history by the fact that it was the Roman Empire that created name designations for people and places across Eurasia. Unsurprisingly, the Vans, the Geats etc. have come down to us as ‘Barbarians’ while, surely, had these been literate people, they would have had much nicer things to say about themselves.

I don’t much like Google’s solution of offering no mapping information for Cyprus. Avoiding the problem won’t solve it.

The name ‘Cyprus’, by the way, has a fascinating history of its own, revolving around the ancient transatlantic copper trade that is ignore by party-line historians.

Ah, no one will every agree about these matters. Hard to know what to do and whether even democratic, open-source options are actually a viable route.

Thanks for that link. Interesting stuff!
Miriam

Yes, the Arabs were geniuses at both math and astronomy! I’m afraid Americans are not taught this at all, really, at least in basic public education. Their achievements, like those of the Chinese, have been largely ignored because of the Western/Roman bias you wisely point out.

Miriam