01/06 Open Thread - National Bean Day
~~ Spam and Beans
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.)
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.
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.
On this day in history:
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
Some people who were born on this day:
[Politics] is always a means of conquering others and exercising power over them.
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
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
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?
Today's Tunes
Giuseppi Sammartini
Henri Hertz
Giuseppi Martucci
Alexander Scriabin
Alan Watts
Earl Scruggs (& friends)
Nino Tempo
Doris Troy
Syd Barrett,
Sandy Denny
Kim Wilson,
Malcolm Young
Louis Braille
Dizzy Gillespie
Lou Rawls
Sneaky Pete Kleinow
XTRA sneaky
Bonus: The Battle of Evermore
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Open Thread, Beans, South Sea Bubble, Continental Drift, Montgolfier, Dore, Sandburg, Gibran, Watts, Sandy Denny, Dizzy Gillespie
Comments
Hey, good morning
Ah, beans. Good food.
First learned to cook them in Louisiana.
Red beans and rice is the traditional Monday meal.
Black beans are a staple in south Florida with the Cuban culture.
While working in AZ, pintos were the preferred variety. Makes a
great burrito with cheese. New England tilts toward Boston Baked
Beans (with molasses and mustard). Great Northern (white) beans
with ham hocks is popular thru-out the upper midwest.
Thanks for the Marcia Ball number.
PS: Looks like joe shickspak is getting heavy snow now.
question everything
Good mawnin' Cap'n Q, thanks for dropping in.
I like most of the varieties/dishes you mentioned except the Baked Beans. Too sweet for me, I've always liked my entrees and sides on the savory side and saved sweet for desserrt except for some very special asian and polynesian dishes.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning...
...and happy bean day. The musical fruit.
I usually pressure cook our dried beans with onion, garlic, a little salt and hot sauce and at least some stock of some sort. My routine is to add water, bring to boil on the stove, and let sit for at least an hour. Pour off the soak water (said to de-fart them) and pressure cook with the onions and so on for about 40 min/lb dry beans (a bit longer if making bean soup).
Southern living's bean cooking recommendations.
You can also plant dried beans (or peas) from the grocery to harvest and eat, or just as a nitrogen fixing cover crop. Another similar trick is to buy and plant your favorite type of potato from the store. Potatoes and beans have keep many a soul alive...both are easy to grow.
We had a 1.8" rain last night with temps to fall all day. Row cover will go back on this pm as temp will be 40F and 20F (hi and lo) all week with snow or ice on Friday. Hey, it's winter.
We'll thanks for all the music and the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Your cooking method is quite similar
.
.
to what I've adopted over the years. After an overnight soak and rinse
they go in the pressure cooker with a little oil, plenty water and a
pinch of salt. Only takes about 10 minutes to cook at pressure, followed
by a 'natural' decompression for about 20 minutes. Then drain
(sometimes save some juice). Will split the batch in half - one
to use and one to freeze. I like mine of the firm side, as they are
cooked again in whatever dish is made.
Cheers!
question everything
Good morning, e1, et al!
Pinto beans> soak for a few hours, overnight if you can. Rinse. Add water to the pot of beans, add salt when the water comes to boil. Stir every 15 minutes, add water and salt as needed. Add a glob of unsalted butter when the beans are soft. Expect them to be done in an hour 15 minutes, more or less. DO NOT SCORCH. Enjoy!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning otc, sounds like a lot of work, but
presumably makes great pot beans. When do you add the queso?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Shred and sprinkle queso
when the tacos are put together! In a few minutes here at home, in fact!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning lookout. Of late, I mostly make small
batches for immediate use, but I like the idea of freezing some pre-cooked ones, I'll have to give it a try. I also like the idea of planting store bought ones (presumably those ones sold in 1# plastic bags), maybe plant a few and cook the rest.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Blinken's confidence in the rule of law in Seoul?
Is based upon what exactly? Blinken evades and equivocates with blather when his support for the dictator wannabe now holed up in his bunker somewhere is questioned. The SK Foreign Minister Cho goes on about "unperceived faults" in South Korea, which he fails to specify, other than referring to a class of intellectuals in SK that need to "wake up" to the hidden threats to democracy heretofore unrecognized. This is far right/new right ideological claptrap. The threat isn't the cabinet which participated in Yoon's plan to send armed combat troops to shut down the National Assembly and planned an emergency action legislative committee to replace the National Assembly? No, according to the ROK foreign minister, it's naive intellectuals. This is a sub rosa reference to the "state enemies" line the Yoon government has followed all along. The current acting president received a presidential memo directing him to implement emergency finances to support the new emergency action legislative committee, Yoon and the coup plotters planned to implement. (This analysis is provided by Yoo Shin-min, in a video analysis of acting president Choi Sang-mok's behavior).
Blinken's meeting with the FM in South Korea:
Blinken's presentation is of course in English. I think it's important to listen to this deception. I'm having great difficulty getting readable subtitles from Youtube in either in English or Korean, which to me, indicates internet interference in the ability of native English speakers to understand what is really going on in South Korea. If anyone here can read the subtitles in English on this video, let me know, then I will know the problem is strictly with my address.
There were a series of other repressive martial law measures, I'm sure the current cabinet members (mostly the same as the Yoon cabinet) knew about, which after the unexpected failure to implement dictatorship, they all denied knowing about. Not likely.
Those who knew include the current acting president- minister of finance, who on Dec 3 had the note in his pocket from the president or someone on his staff asking the finance ministry to provide emergency funding measures for the new illegal military government/Yoon dictatorship. He denies knowing the content of the note before he delivered it to the Assistant Secretary of Finance for implementation, and denies ever discussing it with it his staff. Yet apparently there was some kind of Finance Ministry staff meeting after delivery of the note. What went on there isn't known at this point. A report I heard said the Deputy Finance Minister "only had a dim memory of the note" and what it pertained to, although he did admit it contained emergency finances measures. The acting president claimed he didn't even read it.
The acting president also failed to act on recent requests up till today from the CIO attempting to implement a plan for a second arrest attempt on Yoon, to order the Presidential Security Staff, and their supporting military troops, to stand down in the early morning hours today. Instead, someone unknown, appears to have leaked that information to the mob of far right lunatics the day before and then ordered the security forces at the presidential residence increased to 500 personnel, additional bus walls, and barbed wire to be installed, in a multi-layered defense of Yoon's official residence. The CIO under the circumstances gave up on the second attempt plan to arrest Yoon before the warrant expired and transferred the responsibility for the next arrest execution attempt to the National Police. The CIO/PPO said they would seek another arrest warrant.
Nokdu the great leader of the South Korean peasant revolution in 1894 was named after a bean. I think it referred to his appearance but nonetheless. I like tofu, the processed bean food, a common side dish at virtually all Korean traditional meals.
Thanks for the OT Enhydra Lutris. Summary executions of Korean civilians by South Korean armed forces ostensibly under US command took place throughout the Korean war. Such executions had already occurred after the US "liberation" of South Korea from Japan, conducted by Syngman Rhee's fascist thugs. The executions were based mostly on conjecture.
If a simple villager provided food requisitioned by invading NK forces during the war, they were deemed "communist" and summarily executed. Those previously imprisoned by Rhee's forces on suspicion of being communist sympathizers were taken from prison and summarily executed (the Bodo massacres). Gangwha Island is a beautiful place, and the site of multiple invasions by foreign forces, Japan, US, France.
(edited to add final comments and correct typos)
語必忠信 行必正直
Good morning Soryang, Thanks for all the news and information.
I generally couldn't get good english subtitles except in bits and pieces for so long as I could stand listening to Blinkie.
I too like tofu, especially extra firm and firm and still have a "tupperware" style container selected because it is a perfect fit for a whole block of mainstream US supermarket tofu from my working days. Most of my work sites had some sort of mini fridge and I alwys keps a hot pot around.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Thanks EL
For letting me know about the subs. This has happened before where is seems like youtube makes it more difficult for those who need a translation to get the message. Usually I read the Korean subs because my hearing isn't all that good. If I don't know the Korean, I switch to English, to save myself a trip to the dictionary. In this case, none of the subtitles were readable due to an unusual lack of contrast.
For English speakers, that question from the reporter was readily understandable as well as Blinky's evasive responsive.
語必忠信 行必正直
“We need better messaging “
Ungrateful voters didn’t see how much we helped them.
Dude if you have to point it out to those who didn’t see how you made their lives better then it’s because you didn’t.
Democrats always blame the ungrateful voters for their loss.
Stuff it Chuckles! Sideways.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Good morning snoops. What he said was
"we talked a lot but they didn't realize that we cared so we'll have to go and talk some more emphasizing that we care." They need to rename the Dems ATANA -- All Talk And No Action.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Canadian PM resigns
Justin Trudeau said that he will step down as
both party leader and prime minister once a replacement
for him is selected.
A lot of that going around lately.
https://www.rt.com/news/610509-canada-trudeau-pm-quit/
question everything
Too bad more Europeans don't follow his lead,
especially those who lost elections but refuse to step down ow who invalidate the elections.
bwahago
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Monday Monday
Hi all, Hey EL!
Hope it's all good all over out there.
Thanks for the history and sounds... GREAT Sneaky Pete selections. He was awesome.
That continental drift theory was radical for its time, in some circles being viewed like 'earth is not the center of the universe' theory. As so much genius so often is.I have always been clear about my stance on it: REUNITE GONDWANALAND!
A smokin' 25f this morn here. Frozen bird bath.
We have an Anna's Hummingbird (small #'s winter in Texas, mostly along coast over 200 miles away). It arrived here Dec. 20. Looks like Wed. and Thurs. we will have to use a third feeder in the house to rotate them out as they go slushy. The higher specific gravity of the sugar water does lower freeze point, if you wondered. We had one here in '21 during the great blackout freezze which survived 5 and 10f mornings! Actually I hope none show up in the winter... another non-dedeuctible needy dependent.
It is an immature male, just growing in its first all black adult male type tail feathers, and first sang on Jan. 2, which was the poorest rendition of an Anna's song I ever heard. Songs are learned, calls are innate. ..
Have great ones peoples!
happy trails!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Good morning Dysto. Best of luck to your
Anna's. We keep 2 feeders out at all times and often see the hummers in the pineapple sage and Mexican sage instead. If, nonetheless, we pull one of the feeders, they let us know that the situation is unacceptable.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --