World Diabetes Day is another awareness day, which I find to be a bit puzzling. The only people who matter in the US are the wealthy, and, as members of the investor class, they are surely aware of diabetes because it is such a gold mine for all those in the medical needs predation business. There are multiple kinds of Diabetes mellitus, the classic being Type 1, once known as "juvenile diabetes". It is caused by the failure of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin for the body to function properly. It is historically treated as "incurable" though it conceivably could fall to modern gene therapies and stem cell therapies were it not for the fact that the mere possibility of a cure terrifies the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Treatment with insulin can help many diabetics lead quasi-normal lives, where available. Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Herbert Best isolated and purified insulin in 1921 and 1922. The patent for insulin was sold to the University of Toronto for one dollar to prevent predatory private parties from hijacking and monopolizing the research, which Eli Lilly and Company had hinted that they might do. The idea was that anybody would be free to prepare insulin and the act was hailed as real progress in medical ethics. This, of course, didn't take place in the US where it would be a clear violation of the national religion.
Generations of US persons have been raised to worship the (sadly mythical) Invisible Hand, god of the free market or capitalist religion, according to which profits of the profit taking class must always be maximized. This is obvious from the reference above to Ethics. Religionists far prefer to speak of morals, such as the immorality of anything arguably tinged with the taint of socialism, or of things which in any way restrict or limit profits and profit taking, and the unconscionably unholy immorality of any arrangement by way of which it is remotely possible that somebody could "git somfin fer nuffin". The holy hand trembled at the above affront.
Luckily, the success of the communistic Canadian cabal was short lived and things were soon right with the world. Scientific, medical, and technological progress soon spawned enhanced and improved versions which could be patented anew by right minded "persons" and soon insulin was priced at the holy, god hand given, level of "Whatever the market will bear", oh Lord, halleluja, Amen. Sadly, however, our exalted rulers are wont to, on rare occasions, indulge in acts of seeming noblesse oblige. Such an event occurred quite recently with a seemingly humanitarian goal of indirectly reducing the cost of a handful of medicines to seniors by allowing Medicare to negotiate something resembling an for 10 whole drugs, with said negotiated prices to apply starting in 2026 or 2028, as the case may be, unless our glorious leaders regain their senses and repeal the whole thing by then. Luckily for pharma and the magic hand, insulin is not included in those 10 chosen medications, but, those who are dependent upon medicaid will see their price per dose capped. The extent to which the makers and distributors of insulin and related products will be able to recapture their lost profits from those patients who are not on medicare remains to be seen, so all is not lost, but the rentier class is concerned.
There is some read-worthy related information here, a very good graphic https://twitter.com/hilaryagro/status/1591422421764313089/photo/1
On this day in history:
1680 – Gottfried Kirch discovered the Great Comet of 1680 1851 -- Moby Dick was published 1889 -- Journalist Nellie Bly started her trip around the world 1910 -- Eugene Burton Ely successfully flew an airplane off of a ship 1921 – The Communist Party of Spain was founded 1922 -- The BBC began broadcasting 1957 -- The heat bagged many high ranking mafia leaders fleeing the raid on their "Appalachian Meeting" 1960 -- Ruby Bridges became the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana 1967 -- Theodore Maiman received a patent for his ruby laser (the first laser) 1973 -- The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurred 1991 -- Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh 2008 -- The first G-20 economic summit began. It was long on hot air and short on real reforms.
Some people who were born on this day:
... I want the world to know that people like me who have returned from the half-world of mental oblivion are not forever contaminated. We have been sick.
~~ Jimmy Piersall 1567 -- Maurice, Prince of Orange, aka Maurice of Nassau, who organized the Dutch rebellion against Spain (and kicked ass). 1765 -- Robert Fulton, an engineer credited with inventing the steamboat 1797 -- Charles Lyell, geologist, premier proponent of extreme uniformitarianism 1805 – Fanny Mendelssohn, German pianist and composer 1840 -- Claude Monet, impressionist painter who liked water lillies 1856 -- Madeleine Lemoyne Ellicott, activist & suffragette 1878 – Julie Manet, author, painter, and art collector 1897 -- John Steuart Curry, painter and academic, liked Kansas 1900 -- Aaron Copland, composer, conductor, and educator 1906 -- Louise Brooks 1908 -- Joseph McCarthy, lying, red-baiting politician whose spirit has returned 1927 – Narciso Yepes, guitarist and composer 1929 -- Jimmy Piersall, bipolar baseball player and sportscaster who wrote Fear Strikes Out 1934 -- Ellis Marsalis, Jr., jazz pianist and educator best known for his kids 1936 -- Carey Bell, singer and harmonica player 1936 -- Cornell Gunter, singer (The Coasters and The Flairs) 1939 -- Wendy Carlos, keyboard & synth player, also composer, went public in 1979 with the fact that she had had gender reassignment surgery. 1943 -- Peter Norton, programmer and author, developed some utilities. 1947 -- P. J. O'Rourke, political satirist and journalist 1947 -- Buckwheat Zydeco, accordion player 1949 -- James Young, singer, songwriter and guitarist (Styx) 1954 -- Yanni, pianist, composer, and producer, alternative to sleeping pills 1954 -- Anson Funderburgh, guitarist and bandleader 1954 -- Condoleezza Rice, liar, war-monger, & war criminal who conspired to lie the US into war against Iraq
Some people who died on this day:
The Woman is the Proletarian of the Proletariat
~~ Flora Tristan 1263 -- Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod, savior of the Kievan Rus, 1687 -- Nell Gwyn, royal mistress & more 1691 – Tosa Mitsuoki, painter 1716 -- Gottfried Leibniz, mathematician and philosopher, invented calculas 1746 -- Georg Wilhelm Steller, botanist, zoologist, physician, and explorer; has his own sea lion, sea eagle and jay 1817 -- Policarpa Salavarrieta, seamstress and revolutionary spy. Celebrated by the Day of the Colombian Woman. 1831 -- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher, author, and academic 1844 – Flora Tristan, author and activist 1915 -- Booker T. Washington, educator, essayist and historian 1916 – Saki, short story writer 1972 -- Martin Dies, Jr., another red-baiting SOB and modern US role model. 2012 -- Martin Fay, Irish fiddler (The Chieftains)
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Day of the Colombian Woman World Diabetes Day
Today's Tunes
The First G-20 Meeting
Aaron Copeland
Ellis Marsalis, Jr
with Bradford
Carey Bell
Cornell Gunter
Wendy Carlos
Buckwheat Zydeco
James Young
Anson Funderburgh
Martin Fay (The Chieftans)
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Just for grins: The original Wendy Carlos Switched on Bach (part 1) from the archive ((https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach1)) The part you probably think of (if you remember this at all) starts about 6:22 [video:https://archive.org/details/SwitchedOnBach1]
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com Open Thread, Nellie Bly, Monet, McCarthy, Wendy Carlos, Buckwheat Zydeco, Anson Funderburgh, Nell Gwyn, The Chieftans, Alexander Nevsky