05/23 - World Crohn's and Colitis Day

IBD - Inflammatory Bowel Disease acronym with marker, concept background

 IBD cc by Jernej Furman, license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode 

The words Crohn's and Colitis when conjoined in that fashion usually refer to a couple of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) caused by an auto-immune reaction.  "Colitis", as so used is actually any of several diseases and there are arguably others which are neither auto-immune nor IBD which I intend to ignore.

Caveat: I am not a doctor nor a medical professional and nothing herein is even remotely medical advice.  On the other hand, I do suffer from one of those conditions and have for quite some time and have been under treatment for over 2 decades.  I also have a close relative who suffers from the other one.  For something of an overview, the wikis for the two conditions follow: 

Crohn's - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohn%27s_disease
Ulcerative Colitis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulcerative_colitis  (but one form of Colitis)

Though Crohn's was first described and documented in 1932, and colitis probably earlier, the general rule of thumb statement from the medical profession to sufferers was along the lines of "We don't know how to treat what you have" up until very recently.  Though the word "incurable" was seldom used the fact that there was no known cure was definitely part of the package as was "we have no idea what causes this".   In response, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA.org) was founded in 1967 to find a cure for these diseases.  ( https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/ )

"Treatment" has previously been primarily aimed at ameliorating and/or controlling symptoms and ranged from an assortment of dietary recommendations to chemical drugs such as aminosalicylates and immunosuppressants .  Steroids such as prednisone were also used, though the medical community was reluctant to use them over too extended of a period.  Surgery, and often multiple surgeries over a course of years was sometimes necessary.  Generally, most treatments were of limited and inconsistent efficacy and flare-ups (flares) were fairly common.  Recently, the medical community has learned a lot more about how these diseases work and a lot of "biologics" such as monoclonal antibodies have found use in treating these diseases.  Even so, their promise is "remission" and not a "cure".  That said, I suspect that long term remission would be more than fine with most who suffer from these diseases.

It is also World Turtle Day. Before you conjure up any images of any unsavory turtles, I will direct your attention to Churchill (Churchy) La Femme, the bard of Walt Kelly's Pogo cartoon strip who had a serious thing about Friday The 13TH. There is also the myth/legend of The Great World Turtle, and the ancillary fables of "Turtles all the Way Down."

Then again, on the somewhat unsavory side, there were these Turtles

Before you mock them, however, please remember that the Mock Turtle is a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and is hence elevated above most non-fictional Turtles

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On this day in history:

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1498 – Girolamo Savonarola, famous for his bonfires of the vanities,> was burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.

1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitated the Thirty Years' War.

1829 – A patent for the accordion  was granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna.

1846 – President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declared war on the US

1863 – The General German Workers' Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, was founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.

1873 – The Canadian Parliament established the North-West Mounted Police

1907 – The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathered for its first plenary session.

1911 – The New York Public Library was dedicated.

1932 – Four students were shot and killed during a demonstration against Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas which led to the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.

1934 – The Auto-Lite strike culminated in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sank off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive

1949 – The Western occupying powers approved the Basic Law and established a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.

1951 – Tibetans signed the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.

1960 – A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day killed 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.

1995 – The first version of the Java programming language was released.

1998 – The Good Friday Agreement was accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.

2002 – The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol was reached after its ratification by Iceland. To no avail, of course.

2008 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore,

2013 – A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapsed in Mount Vernon, Washington.

2017 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao

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Some people who were born on this day:

“In natural science the principles of truth ought to be confirmed by observation.”

~~     Carl Linnaeus

1586 – Paul Siefert, composer and organist
1614 – Bertholet Flemalle, Baroque painter
1617 – Elias Ashmole, astrologer and politician
1707 – Carl Linnaeus, botanist, physician, and zoologist
1718 – William Hunter, anatomist and physician
1734 – Franz Mesmer, physician and astrologer
1741 – Andrea Luchesi, organist and composer
1790 – Jules Dumont d'Urville, admiral and explorer
1790 – James Pradier, neoclassical sculptor (
1794 – Ignaz Moscheles, pianist and composer
1795 – Charles Barry, architect
1810 – Margaret Fuller, journalist and critic
1820 – James Buchanan Eads, engineer, designed the Eads Bridge
1834 – Carl Bloch, painter and academic
1837 – Anatole Mallet, mechanical engineer and inventor
1837 – Józef Wieniawski, pianist and composer
1838 – Amaldus Nielsen, painter
1848 – Otto Lilienthal, pilot, aircraft designer, and engineer, father of flight
1855 – Isabella Ford, author and activist
1861 – József Rippl-Rónai, painter
1863 – Wladyslaw Horodecki, architect
1887 – Thoralf Skolem, mathematician and theorist
1887 – C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, historian
1888 – Adriaan Roland Holst, writer
1890 – Herbert Marshall, actor and singer
1891 – Pär Lagerkvist, novelist, playwright, and poet
1908 – John Bardeen, physicist and engineer
1908 – Hélène Boucher, pilot
1910 – Margaret Wise Brown, author and educator
1910 – Hugh Casson, architect and academic
1910 – Scatman Crothers, actor and comedian
1910 – Franz Kline, painter and academic
1910 – Artie Shaw, clarinet player, composer, and bandleader
1912 – Jean Françaix, pianist and composer
1914 – Harold Hitchcock, visionary landscape artist
1914 – Celestine Sibley, journalist and author
1915 – S. Donald Stookey, physicist and chemist, invented CorningWare 
1917 – Edward Norton Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist
1920 – Helen O'Connell, singer
1921 – Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and broadcaster
1923 – Alicia de Larrocha, pianist
1923 – Irving Millman, virologist and microbiologist
1924 – Karlheinz Deschner, author and activist
1925 – Joshua Lederberg, biologist and geneticist,
1926 – Joe Slovo, activist and politician
1928 – Rosemary Clooney, singer and actress
1934 – Robert Moog, electronic engineer and inventor of the Moog synthesizer
1940 – Bjorn Johansen, saxophonist
1940 – Cora Sadosky, mathematician and academic
1947 – Jane Kenyon, poet and translator
1955 – Luka Bloom, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1956 – Andrea Pazienza, illustrator and painter
1963 – Viviane Baladi, mathematician
1973 – Maxwell, singer, songwriter, and producer
1974 – Jewel, singer, songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet
1978 – Scott Raynor, drummer
1991 – Lena Meyer-Landrut, singer and songwriter
1999 – Trinidad Cardona, singer and songwriter

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Some people who died on this day:

 The most un-American thing you can do is to stifle dissent

~~     Utah Phillips

1752 – William Bradford, printer
1857 – Augustin-Louis Cauchy, mathematician and academic
1868 – Kit Carson, Conquistadore
1906 – Henrik Ibsen, director, playwright, and poet
1949 – Jan Frans De Boever, painter and illustrator
1960 – Georges Claude, engineer and inventor, created Neon lighting 
1962 – Louis Coatalen, engineer
1965 – David Smith, sculptor
1981 – George Jessel, actor, singer, and producer
1989 – Karl Koch, computer hacker
2002 – Big Bill Neidjie, activist and last speaker of the Gaagudju language 
2008 – Utah Phillips, singer, songwriter, activist, and poet
2013 – Georges Moustaki, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
2015 – Alicia Nash, physicist and engineer
2015 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., mathematician and academic,
2021 – Eric Carle, children's book designer, illustrator, and writer

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

World Crohn's and Colitis Day
World Turtle Day

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Today's Tunes

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Java

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Otto Lillienthal

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William Kidd

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Paul Siefert

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Andrea Luchesi

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Ignaz Moscheles

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Scatman Crothers

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Artie Shaw

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Jean Françaix

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Helen O'Connell

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Humphrey Lyttelton

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Alicia de Larrocha

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Robert Moog

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Bjorn Johansen

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Utah Phillips

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A Propos Utah Phillips - a REMINDER:

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Georges Moustaki

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Please save Covid-19 commentary for a separate thread. Thank you.

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

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open thread, Crohns and Colitis, Girolamo Savonarola, defenestration, accordian, Carl Linneaus, Otto Lillienthal, Utah Phillips, Scatman Crothers

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Lookout's picture

0.5" so far and still raining. We needed it, we've only gotten a bit over an inch all month. Been watering the garden.

Happy turtle day!
Akumal Bay (43).JPG

Thanks for the OT!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
Turtle Day to you too. Rain - I remember that stuff - we actually had a bunch earlier in the year, not in volume but in days in which there was at least a little. Even then had to do some watering and have now used all but a drib of what we collected and saved during that period.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

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 --

I live in the Florida panhandle but I watch TV from Alabama. They are finally having their primary tomorrow. I have never seen so many campaign commerials where they are all trying to out Christian Conservative each other and shooting guns. Governor Kay Ivey even has a commercial where she pulls out her lipstick, her i-phone, and her pistol. And I believe that 77 year old woman is more than likely really packing heat.

People complain that she raised the gas tax in Alabama to fix the roads. What a horrible person. Alabama has one of the lowest taxes on gas in the country and it hadn't been raised in 20 years. But that's why your gas is so high now, not the oil companies price gouging. But I know that she did spend the money on fixing the roads because I buy my gas in Alabama and around 3 months after she raised it, the roads entering Alabama were paved. Even with the raise, it runs 10-30 cents cheaper than Florida.

The other issues seem to be who is going to finish building "Trump's Wall" to secure the border, and how we need to quit paying people not to work. Who are these people being paid not to work? People collecting Soial Security.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Enchantress

very interesting and makes me wonder what FL TV must be like.

Our primary is yet to come and involves tons of candidates, including any crazies, a small handful of seeming progressives, a lot of status quo supporters and NO DiFi (YAY!) It appears that her day is done, so, come what may that's a plus.

be well and have a good one

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8 users have voted.

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 --

@enhydra lutris There is a station in both Panama City and Panama City Beach. Both are pretty much unwatchable for local news. As my grown children have told me, their elementary school news station had better production value and was more professional. There is also a station in Pensacola which I can get in depending on which way the antenna is pointing. I gave up on satellite TV a long time ago after working for those crooks. They had some kind of Enterprise Zone contract where after you were employed for over six months, the government refunded up to 95% of the employees salary. So every few months, they would have mass firings because it was cheaper to hire new people.

Glad to hear that DiFi is not running. Should have retired 10 years ago. I am a big proponent of age limits. Having worked with the elderly, most people after 70 really start slowing down both physically and mentally.

I have the Florida primary to look forward to this summer. I've already seen Matt Gaetz's signs all over town. He's fighting for us.

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5 users have voted.

I hate to hear of your health issue, but by now, it is likely just a way of life.
It is finally raining here a bit.
Btw, something strange about my property in Colorado. I am prohibited from drilling a well, since my land was not subdivided by some date certain. The law that applies to everyone, at least in rural areas, is that it is against the law to collect roof water run off.
I suppose the companies that provide water for cisterns are big political donors.
Have a good one, pal!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

about that Colorado law, with some incredulity, talk about a theft of the commons.

I've got a little worse with the passage of each year both as to base level, frequency, duration and severity of flares, really cutting into my activities and abilities, but am now starting on one of the biologics and thing are looking up enormously, to the textent tha we're starting to plan things to do. W00t.

be well and have a good one

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7 users have voted.

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 --

@enhydra lutris and that you can do things! Doing things is very important, in my humble opinion.
I am trying to do things daily, ahead of total annihilation by some goofball bastard dropping a nuke.
After work, I will likely be doing a lot of listening. Dear One manages to find something I have never really heard before. Last evening was a couple of the earliest Jerry Jeff Walker albums, long before he became a raucous Outlaw. Unbelievable was his rendition of his composition,
"Mr. Bojangles".
(Dear One, of course, prefers the Viva Terlingua raucousness.)

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

including putting up with ol' whatsisname. Glad that I can start looking ahead to a variety of things and doing stuff right now too,

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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 --

@enhydra lutris To plan and then do things, what else should life be about? I didn't even know you had that issue, much less for decades. I hope your the miracle.
Don't get me started on whatsisname. Gaah!
If he ever bitches, he mowed nearly 4 acres in 3 hours. I worked overtime at the office, have to be in court all afternoon tomorrow.
I call even, Steven.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

usefewersyllables's picture

@on the cusp

worried about that when you first bought the place. Water rights around these parts are a very hotly contested item. I'm extremely bummed that you didn't get water rights in the purchase. People around here routinely pull that sort of stuff when cashing out.

I have to admit that even I was tempted to not mention the water rights we had when we had to sell the ranch, just so I could try to make a killing on it later. But we were good little citizens, and meekly included the quitclaim deed for them in the transaction. Sigh...

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6 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables if and when we ever build a cabin, and cistern sounds ok. Locals say well water is undrinkable due to minerals.
You didn't make a killing by by selling, so sorry, but truth expressed makes for lots of good night sleeping, my friend.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

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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 --

moog and the synthesizers
good way to go!

thanks for the OT bud!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

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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 --

dystopian's picture

Hi EL! Hope all are well! Is rain that wet stuff that
used to fall out of the sky?

Linnaeus! I'll take binomials for a thousand. I have a
genetic defect that allows me to regurgitate binomials nearly
at will. This malady has me having collected thousands of them.
Mostly birds, fish, marine inverts, and insects. I will have
the hardest time remembering if it is Joe, Fred, or Sam however.
Takes like 10 times.

Moog! It was a revolution. Good pick for it. I would
say Keith Emerson was its first high holy practitioner.
His is in a museum or somesuch. I saw him twice on the
Brain Salad Surgery tour in '74. Mind remains blown.
They were right, it was Hendrix on keys.
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Utah Phillips was great - my favorite

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Turtles were huge in LA, hometown heroes I guess, like
Canned Heat, Love, and Spirit. Long live Flo and Eddie!

You showed Me - originally written by Gene Clark of the
Byrds who did a much faster poppy version of it.

Gotta fly!

be well all!

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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

enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian

catch the work by Rachael Flowers on Emerson's moog that I dropped in up above beneath QMS' comment

be well and have a good one

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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 --

dystopian's picture

@enhydra lutris Hey EL! Yeah man, Rachel Flowers is awesome. Funny, my buddy from 'the gang' in high school that I went to the two ELP shows with in '74 is the one that first sent me a Rachel Flowers link. She rocks!

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1 user has voted.

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

l-glutamine is one I have read about many times. It is supposed to be quite effective in mitigating effects of IBS etc. I use it when things get out of sorts digestively, particularly in the spring during allergy times.

https://centrespringmd.com/glutamine-the-powerful-amino-acid-for-the-gut/

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

As for the other end...

This person in the gaudy clothes
Is worthy Captain Kidd.
They say he never buried gold.
I think, perhaps, he did.

They say it's all a story that
His favorite little song
Was "Make these lubbers walk the plank!"
I think, perhaps, they're wrong.

They say he never pirated
Beneath the Skull-and-Bones.
He merely traveled for his health
And spoke in soothing tones.
In fact, you'll read in nearly all
The newer history books
That he was mild as cottage cheese
—But I don't like his looks!

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1 user has voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!