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Washington Post

I will never forget how I felt today ten years ago on 9/11…standing in the room of a woman who’s husband works in the Pentagon and son was a block from the WTC…watching them crumble on her television. I still can’t bear to watch the footage again…so many innocent victims.

Reading this article reminds me that the victims of the attacks weren’t just those in the buildings or on the planes. There are also the people who are lumped together with the terrorists because they share the same religion (so people think). American Muslims lost much of their freedom that day…because of what a small group of religious extremists decided to do. We should not forget this.

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Photo taken with Motorola Droid phone, Sep 2011. I threw a packet of wildflower seeds on a patch of ground a couple of months ago, and was surprised at what has been growing there. Also surprised at what I can do with my lovely new flowers! Borage: “—-History—-In the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were still sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the young leaves were formerly considered good in salads. The fresh herb has a cucumber-like fragrance. When steeped in water, it imparts a coolness to it and a faint cucumber flavour, and compounded with lemon and sugar in wine, and water, it makes a refreshing and restorative summer drink. It was formerly always an ingredient in cool tankards of wine and cider, and is still largely used in claret cup. Our great grandmothers preserved the flowers and candied them. Borage was sometimes called Bugloss by the old herbalists, a name that properly belongs to Anchusa officinalis, the Alkanet, the Small Bugloss being Lycopsis arvensis, and Viper’s Bugloss being the popular name for Echium vulgare. Some authorities consider that the Latin name Borago, from which our popular name is taken, is a corruption of corago, from cor, the heart, and ago, I bring, because of its cordial effect. In all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, where it is plentiful, it is spelt with a double ‘r,’ so the word may be derived from the Italian borra, French bourra, signifying hair or wool, words which in their turn are derived from the Low Latin burra, a flock of wool, in reference to the thick covering of short hairs which clothes the whole plant. Henslow suggests that the name is derived from barrach, a Celtic word meaning ‘a man of courage.’”

Photo taken with Motorola Droid phone, Sep 2011.

I threw a packet of wildflower seeds on a patch of ground a couple of months ago, and was surprised at what has been growing there. Also surprised at what I can do with my lovely new flowers!

Borage:

“—-History—-In the early part of the nineteenth century, the young tops of Borage were still sometimes boiled as a pot-herb, and the young leaves were formerly considered good in salads.

The fresh herb has a cucumber-like fragrance. When steeped in water, it imparts a coolness to it and a faint cucumber flavour, and compounded with lemon and sugar in wine, and water, it makes a refreshing and restorative summer drink. It was formerly always an ingredient in cool tankards of wine and cider, and is still largely used in claret cup.

Our great grandmothers preserved the flowers and candied them.

Borage was sometimes called Bugloss by the old herbalists, a name that properly belongs to Anchusa officinalis, the Alkanet, the Small Bugloss being Lycopsis arvensis, and Viper’s Bugloss being the popular name for Echium vulgare.

Some authorities consider that the Latin name Borago, from which our popular name is taken, is a corruption of corago, from cor, the heart, and ago, I bring, because of its cordial effect.

In all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, where it is plentiful, it is spelt with a double ‘r,’ so the word may be derived from the Italian borra, French bourra, signifying hair or wool, words which in their turn are derived from the Low Latin burra, a flock of wool, in reference to the thick covering of short hairs which clothes the whole plant.

Henslow suggests that the name is derived from barrach, a Celtic word meaning ‘a man of courage.’”

Filed under herbs borage flowers botanical history

Notes

Project Gutenberg founder Michael S. Hart has died

nocureforcuriosity:

I consider this a loss to the world of libraries. One could argue that Project Gutenberg is a digital library of sorts. It is a wonderful idea, providing access to public domain works in one uniform place. 

This is a great obituary, which explains that as early as 1971, Michael S. Hart had the idea of sharing works electronically. Amazing! I never thought that would be conceivable back then. He invented eBooks, inspired by a free printed copy of the Declaration of Independence. Since then he was digitizing books and submitting them over the internet for public perusal.

RIP.

Filed under Michael S. Hart Project Gutenberg digital libraries lit libraries ebooks technology resources digital tech open access public public access intellectual freedom public domain

24 notes

Michael Gorman on Rationalism

“I am sure that I am not alone in being distressed by the great tide of fundamentalism, superstition, and plain craziness in the world today. From religious bigots to faith healers to militants of all stripes, the world seems to be full of people who are convinced that they know the One True Way and are aggressively intolerant of those who do not share their beliefs and prejudices. I think that our profession is, above all, a child of the Enlightenment and of rationalism. We stand, above all, for the notion that human beings are improved by the acquisition of knowledge and information and that no bar should be placed in their way We stand for the individual human being pursuing whichever avenues of enquiry she or he wishes. We also stand for rationalism as the basis for all of our policies and procedures. Ours is a supremely rational profession and should resist the forces of irrationalism both external and internal.”

~Michael Gorman from “The Portable MLIS”, Haycock, K & Sheldon, B.E. (eds), 2008.

Filed under michael gorman librarians libraries rationalism values