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01/06 Open Thread - National Bean Day [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-06

Humans have been cultivating beans since sometime in the 7th millenium bce (6,000 bce to 7,000 bce) and no doubt eating wild ones since before that. There are currently somewhere around 40,000 varieties and they are generally considered to be both a healthy and an important source of nutrition. I am aware that there is at least one YouTube Doctor who seems to make his living decrying and defaming beans because they contain Lectins, but humans have got this far regardless of his letcinophobia in large part, no doubt, by simply cooking their beans, which gets rid of those evil lectins, something the good doctor should maybe try sometime. There are a great many ways to prepare beans and many specific bean dishes that are culturally significant to particular cultures, such as Costa Rica's Gallo Pinto, black bean sauce, succotash, "navy bean soup", Jamaican "Rice and Peas", Louisiana Red Beans and Rice, and the like. (Growing up in SoCal, I became quite enamored of refrieds at very early age.)

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Segue: - Where there are beans there will be bean counters and where there are bean counters, there will be speculators, frauds, con artists, get rich quick schemes and the like.



On this day in 1721, the Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published its findings. A most amusing and educational event, the Wiki summarizes said bubble, in part, thusly:

The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of fishing)[3] was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of national debt. The company was also granted a monopoly to trade with South America and nearby islands,



.. There was no realistic prospect that trade would take place, and the company never realised any significant profit from its monopoly. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, peaking in 1720 before collapsing to little above its original flotation price;



.. a considerable number of people were ruined by the share collapse, and the national economy greatly reduced as a result. The founders of the scheme engaged in insider trading, using their advance knowledge of when national debt was to be consolidated to make large profits from purchasing debt in advance. Huge bribes were given to politicians to support the Acts of Parliament necessary for the scheme.[4] Company money was used to deal in its own shares, and selected individuals purchasing shares were given loans backed by those same shares to spend on purchasing more shares. The expectation of profits from trade with South America was used to encourage the public to purchase shares, but the bubble prices reached far beyond the profits of the slave trade.



-- To clarify, the trade envisioned was to be trade in enslaved persons, and such trade was carried out, but not at all profitably. Today these types of scams are the province of Private Equity Firms, which usually use a pre-existing company as a vehicle for their scams and schemes. Whatever the case, and whether fraud, schemes and scams, or other bad acting are involved or not, capitalism is structurally prone to bubbles and busts, so keep one hand on your wallet at all times.



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Aristotle famously stated Man is a rational animal If that were the case, wouldn't humans learn from their mistakes? Just asking for a friend - enhydra.

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On this day in history:

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1066 – The Witan met to confirm Harold Godwinson as King of Engelonde, leading to counter claims, hurt feelings and the Norman Conquest.



1492 – Their Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, entered Granada loosing great horror upon the world.



1536 – The first European school of higher learning in the Americas, Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, was founded in Mexico City



1721 – The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published its findings, revealing details of fraud among company directors and corrupt politicians.



1847 – Samuel Colt landed his first contract to provide revolvers to the US military.



1893 – The Washington National Cathedral was chartered by Congress because you can't have Freedom of Religion without a government chartered National Cathedral



1907–Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy



1912 – Geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presented his theory of continental drift



1941 – FDR delivered his Four Freedoms speech, enumerating 4 basic rights that all persons everywhere should enjoy. Perhaps we may someday yet enjoy them here, but don't hold your breath.



1950 – The United Kingdom recognized the People's Republic of China



1951 – The beginning of the Ganghwa massacre in South Korea



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Some people who were born on this day:

[Politics] is always a means of conquering others and exercising power over them.

also

Propaganda ceases where simple dialogue begins

~~ Jacques Ellul



1412 – Joan of Arc, seer, witch, martyr, saint, kingmaker, etc.

1695 - Giuseppe Sammartini, oboe player and composer

1745 - Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, co-inventor of the hot air balloon

1795 - Anselme Payen, chemist

1803 - Henri Herz, pianist and composer

1832 – Gustave Doré, painter and sculptor

1856 - Giuseppe Martucci, pianist, composer and conductor

1872 – Alexander Scriabin, pianist and composer

1878 – Carl Sandburg, poet and composer

1883 – Kahlil Gibran, poet, painter, and philisopher

1912 – Jacques Ellul, philosopher and critic

1915 – Alan Watts, philosopher and author

1924 – Earl Scruggs, banjo player

1931 – E. L. Doctorow, author and playwright

1935 - Nino Tempo, musician, singer, actor

1937 – Doris Troy, singer and songwriter

**** 1946 – Syd Barrett, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

****** 1947 – Sandy Denny, singer and songwriter

**** 1951 – Kim Wilson, singer, songwriter, and harmonica player

**** 1953 – Malcolm Young, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1955 – Susan B. Horwitz, computer scientist

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Some people who died on this day:

We must be treated as equals - and communication is the way we can bring this about

~~ Louis Braille,



1852 – Louis Braille, educator and inventor of braille

1882 - Richard Henry Dana Jr., lawyer, politician and author

1884 – Gregor Mendel, botanist and geneticist

1918 – Georg Cantor, mathematician

1944 – Ida Tarbell, journalist, reformer, muckraker, and educator

1990 – Pavel Cherenkov, physicist

1993 – Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet player, singer, and songwriter

1993 – Rudolf Nureyev, dancer and choreographer

2000 – Don Martin, cartoonist

2006 – Lou Rawls, singer and songwriter

2007 – Sneaky Pete Kleinow, guitarist and songwriter

2017 – Tilikum, unjustly imprisoned orca

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Apple Tree Day, Bean Day, Cuddle Up Day, Shortbread Day, Technology Day, and Take a Poet to Lunch Day

How about feed a poet beans day?





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Today's Tunes



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Giuseppi Sammartini

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Henri Hertz

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Giuseppi Martucci

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Alexander Scriabin

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Alan Watts

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Earl Scruggs (& friends)

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Nino Tempo

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Doris Troy

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Syd Barrett,

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Sandy Denny

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Kim Wilson,

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Malcolm Young

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Louis Braille

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Dizzy Gillespie

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Lou Rawls

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Sneaky Pete Kleinow

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XTRA sneaky

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Bonus: The Battle of Evermore

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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com



Open Thread, Beans, South Sea Bubble, Continental Drift, Montgolfier, Dore, Sandburg, Gibran, Watts, Sandy Denny, Dizzy Gillespie

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