Juniper berries sometimes given the same treatment as anise?

 As I've blogged about before, I've had store-bought juniper berries in the past that contained something that allowed me to lose weight. I have tried (and failed) many times to duplicate that effect with juniper berries from bushes in my community.

According to my records, I might have repeated the weight-loss effect when I used anise seed (again, store-bought) in a way similar to how I used the store-bought juniper berries. I have only noticed the plateau-breaking effect with anise three times now, and it is too soon to be certain. But it might be progress, so I'm blogging about it.

An interesting thing about anise seed is that it tastes like two other substances: licorice root and fennel. That means that whatever weight loss compounds that might be included in some packaged anise seeds could also be included in licorice candies and salad components that contain fennel. That would make figuring out the source of weight loss very difficult, if so. Breads, candies, and salads are three very different categories of food!

Another interesting thing about anise is that it is the name of the most famous villain of American cinema, Ani S., also known as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (from the Star Wars films). Realizing that made me wonder if there was a parallel for juniper berries in Icelandic cinema. 

About the only Icelandic show known outside of Iceland is the children's show LazyTown (Icelandic: Latibær). The villain of LazyTown is Robbie Rotten (Icelandic: Glanni Glæpur), who wears a dark blue, maroon, and purple ensemble; those are coincidentally the colors of juniper berries. If one does a double cancellation of repeated sounds (not necessarily of letters, just sounds, for this is a kid's show and literacy is not a requirement to be its audience), one ends up with "anni aepur" which looks a lot like "einiber", the Icelandic word for juniper berry. From what I have read, the letter "b" in Icelandic often sounds more like our English "p" than our English "b", especially in the middle or at the end of a word.

So, two different herbs. Both that show up in their national cinema as primary villains. Both herbs that--when mixed with butter and then put on just-microwaved dill weed over dry cocoa powder, with the whole compound being eaten around the same time as cabbage--I have found to contribute to my going down from a weight loss plateau. But so far the herbs only work with selected store-bought versions.

Using the "wrong" name for animals on different continents

A frequent complaint about the Book of Mormon's claimed antiquity is that it mentions "horses" while the pictorial and other evidence we have indicates that modern horses were not in the Americas until the Spaniards brought them 500 years ago.

I found out recently that it is common to call jaguars (large jungle cats of the Americas) "tigre", the Spanish word for tiger.* There are no tigers in the Americas. Real tigers have distinctive stripes and typically have shaggy, orange fur. Jaguars are short-haired and have distinctive yellow-brown spotted patterns. To confuse the two animals is a ridiculous thing to do once a person has actually seen images of both tigers and jaguars. 

Yet, to this day, throughout northern South America, the indigenous people tell stories of "Tio Tigre" (Uncle Tiger) and other "Tio" (Uncle) animals, including Tio Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) and Tio Caiman (Uncle Caiman).** The storytellers are using Spanish, and Spanish has a word for jaguar ("jaguar"), but they just keep using the word "tigre". Why?

I don't know why. But they do.

I also note that the Book of Mormon does not contain the word "deer", and Mesoamerica was full of them. (Due to the mentions of concrete and large human-made structures in the Book of Mormon, as well as a complete absence of any mention of cold weather, I consider a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon to be required by the text.) Excavations of bones indicate that the prehispanic people of Mesoamerica ate two different species of deer, one large and one smaller.*** I also know that deer, while apparently not good for riding due to their bone structure, can be used to pull loads (remember reindeer/caribou?). 

The Mesoamericans had sizeable networks of raised, packed-earth roads.**** Roads like that are unnecessary if people and their animals are merely walking on them. I think it likely that the Mesoamericans were using deer to pull travois ***** on the roads. Native Americans used dragged sleds for a very long time, possibly as long as 20,000 years ago (https://www.marfapublicradio.org/show/nature-notes/2025-03-07/at-white-sands-researchers-find-tracks-from-ice-age-transportation).

The Book of Mormon never mentions "horses" as being ridden. Never. Joseph Smith, the translator of the Book of Mormon, lived in a setting where horseback riding was a routine way to travel, so this omission is notable. The Book of Mormon does mention "horses" being used to pull some type of "chariot" that could carry at least one person.

Wouldn't it make sense for the people to call their deer "horses" when they were used similarly to horses and the people didn't have any real horses to distinguish the deer from? "Horse" is already such a flexible word. Did you know that "hippopotamus" means "river horse"? "Walrus" means "whale horse." And "sea horses" aren't even mammals!

So, I don't get bothered by mentions of horses in the Book of Mormon. I envision large deer pulling travois-type loads, both human and otherwise.****** And then I move on to the valuable doctrines it contains, such as telling parents to care temporally for their children and not let them hurt each other. It also teaches that Jesus Christ really did die and was resurrected; he wasn't an early alchemist faking miracles, like some believe. I hope people don't let a trivial confusion concerning the word "horse" keep them from reading the Book of Mormon and benefitting from it.

* https://www.portalguarani.com/540_hugo_rodriguez_alcala__/13967_la_doma_del_jaguar__cuentos_de_hugo_rodriguez_alcala.html

** https://www.amazon.com/-/es/El-Tigre-Rayo-Lightning-Spanish/dp/9802570087; https://leeryescribirenlaeducacionvenezolana.blogspot.com/2019/02/tio-tigre-y-tio-conejo.html; https://nypl.overdrive.com/media/3768371; https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuentos_del_T%C3%ADo_Conejo; https://eldienteroto.org/wp49/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Tio-conejo.pdf; https://acc-2.blogspot.com/2017/02/los-cuentos-de-t-i-o-tigre-y-t-i-o.html

*** "Abstract: This paper presents archeological evidence for animal use at Mayapán, the largest capital city of the Postclassic period Maya lowlands. The most commonly consumed species were white-tailed deer, turkey, and iguana, and other important but less frequent animals in the assemblage were dog, peccary, and brocket deer. A wide variety of local and non-local fauna were also recovered. Our analysis of 97,416 faunal bones is based on two distinct samples that are compared in this study—the site's monumental center buildings (temples, halls, shrines, and nearby houses) and the outlying domestic settlement zones. Four arguments are presented regarding Mayapán's animal use in this paper. First, certain rare mammals and marine species were likely obtained through trade. Second, evidence suggests that white-tailed deer were either raised in captivity or were carefully managed in habitats surrounding the city. Surplus deer meat and skeletal elements were major commodities for exchange and local consumption. Third, dog, exotic animals, and specific deer elements were preferentially utilized for monumental center activities. Fourth, culturally prescribed methods of ritually discarding deer skulls were practiced at Mayapán. Mayapán's faunal exploitation patterns were embedded in important ways within the city's larger regional, coastal-inland economic system. Key similarities and differences with other Maya sites are identified." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618208000232

**** "Now, researchers have uncovered another feat of Maya innovation: an extensive network of causeways deep in the jungles of Guatemala. The causeways, Rossella Lorenzi reports for Seeker, stretch more than 150 miles through the Mirador Basin. The area was home to El Mirador, the capital of a sweeping city complex (also known as the Kan Kingdom), where as many as 200,000 people once lived. Upwards of one million people may have resided throughout the Mirador Basin communities that surrounded the ancient city. Researchers believe that the causeways, which linked these communities, were the lifeblood of the city-state, acting as a conduit for armies, food and other essentials...So far, the LiDAR scans have covered 430 square miles of jungle, and the detailed aerial images reveal a remarkably ambitious transportation network consisting of 17 roads. The earliest dates back to 600 B.C, and the latest can be traced to 100 C.E. Project leader Richard D. Hansen, an archaeologist and anthropologist at the University of Utah, tells Lorenzi that the causeways were '130 feet wide, up to 20 feet high and in some cases they extend as far as 25 miles.' The transportation network wasn’t the only discovery that the LiDAR scans revealed. The topographical maps also showed a sophisticated system of corrals, or animal pens, suggesting that the Maya people were producing meat at an industrial level and transporting it along the causeways." https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lidar-scans-maya-network-roads-180961995/

White Roads of the Yucatan: Changing Social Landscapes of the Yucatec Maya by Justine M. Shaw:

"sacbe. Translated as ‘‘white road,’’ the term is usually applied to Maya roads built of stone that are elevated above the surrounding terrain; as discussed in this work, their dimensions and form may be highly variable, however. 

"sascab. Powdered limestone that is mined from softer, ‘‘decayed’’ deposits present throughout the Yucatán; commonly forming the top layer of floors, platforms, and roads, it may be packed into a relatively hard surface using water and pressure."

***** A travois is a "drag sled" and could be a sled carrying an upright human chair (see a Mespotamian version at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364327902_Speeding_up_Prehistoric_animal_traction_and_the_revolute_joint, Figure 4) or a flat load, as in the "travois ambulance" photo found at https://picryl.com/media/travois-or-indian-ambulance-us-army. 

****** "Kiowa Travois," a 1939 woodcarving of a travois being used to carry children in a playpen-like dome on a travois, can be found at the Las Animas, Colorado post office. I recommend viewing it to get a better understanding of how a travois can be viewed as a "chariot." https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/4718390039/

A proposal for a "Civics Connections" colloquium-style course for high school students

Recently I have been learning about the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. One aspect of it that I think non-IB high schools can learn from is the IB program's Theory of Knowledge course (https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/dp-core/theory-of-knowledge/what-is-tok/). The IB Theory of Knowledge course is a teacher-designed "thoughtful and purposeful inquiry into different ways of knowing, and into different kinds of knowledge" that makes connections between knowledge and several other areas as described below:

https://toktopics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/tok-guide-from-2020.pdf

While I don't expect non-IB schools to add an actual Theory of Knowledge course, I do see a commonly-required high school subject in which a connections-based, colloquium-style course would be of enormous benefit: civics. 

Most US states require a civics course or a US. history course as a requirement for high school graduation. However, civics taught alone is a dry subject and based on the current level of civic awareness I see around me, the civics course requirements as currently implemented are not very effective at producing a civically-involved population. Young adults are not engaging in politics like they need to if they are to help run this government "of the people" and "by the people" (https://apnorc.org/projects/younger-adults-are-less-engaged-with-u-s-politics/).

A colloquium course is one in which the students, instructors, and guest lecturers read or view assignments on a variety of topics ahead of time and come together in class to discuss what they have read, making connections between the topics and analyzing the readings for themes and relevance. 

I am aware that many high school students now struggle with reading. Here is an area where AI can be very useful, for AI tools can quickly produce short, easy-to-read versions of the assigned readings for students who require scaffolding in reading comprehension. Text-to-speech tools can also be used by students to listen to the readings ahead of time. Literacy challenges should not prevent us from teaching civics in a meaningful way.

Below is my proposed outline for the topics to be covered in a two-semester high school course that would teach civics in connection with world history, geography, scientific discoveries, communication networks, and societal structures. Each week would look at a time period/location with three focuses: history (geography, anthropology), science (discovery, communication and storage of knowledge), and social studies (civics, social structures (include representative art/shapes), social issues). The pre-class assignments would include short readings and videos. Assessments would be in the form of observations of class participation, in-class worksheets (prepared to be of help with notetaking during class discussions), in-class quizzes (include matching, multiple choice, short answer, and short essay questions), and a summative project/essay/documentary at the end of the second semester.

Semester 1:

Week 1: Prehistory, ancient civilizations, knowledge (what is truth? who knows truth?), root of “science”, shapes of civilization, power & subjugation versus freedom

2: Babylon, cuneiform, astronomy, empires, vassal states

3: Americas and Polynesia [include local material about prehistoric times], local flora and fauna, subsistence nomadism and early agriculture, monuments, baskets and pottery, small extended-family tribes

4: Egypt, medicine, hieroglyphics, Judaism, migration (push and pull factors)

5: China, waterways, irrigation, calligraphy, Confucianism, scholars, meritocracy

6: Africa, minerals (esp. gold), oral tradition, tribes, warfare, struggles against nature 

7: Adriatic (Greeks, Etruscans, Romans), philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle), tutors, birth of democracy, theater

8: Mediterranean (just after 0 AD), temples and oracles, navigation, medicine (Galen), letters, Christianity, dynastic politics across land and sea

9: India, mathematics, Brahmins, castes, Buddha, Hindu religions (including laws and customs)

10: Two Roman Empires, monks and churches, “barbarians”, Crusades, feudalism

11: Arabian peninsula, caravans (goods and information), missionary movements, Islam, clerics, Islamic law

12: Worldwide slavery trends (poverty, race, conquest, gender, caste, etc.), limitations on learning and travel by slaves and its effects on progress/wealth of various societies, status of women, mortality trends (esp. childbirth, early childhood, and warfare) 

13: Northern Europe, “alchemy” and “witches” versus wise women, Vikings (monastery attacks), Althing (Iceland), Battle of Hastings

14: Worldwide freedom trends (increased value of human capital, growing traditions of freedom with decline of serfdom ties), Black Death, biology and medicine, guilds, rule of law, Magna Carta

15: Americas and Polynesia around 1200 AD [include local material], monuments, stelae, codices, quipu, god-kings, priests (human sacrifice), Mesoamerican city layouts (Peten, Teotihuacan, Cahokia), early soccer, Hero Twin myths

16: Europe kingdoms, printing press, books (Bible translations), Protestant Reformation, religious/political/social upheavals

Semester 2:

Week 1: Discovery (Ericson, Columbus, Janszoon), cartography, navigation, libraries, colonization, destruction of Maya codices

2: Renaissance, intercontinental exchanges (Marco Polo, Old<--->New World), de Medicis, Machiavelli

3: Rise of courts, parliaments (Cromwell), charters (universities), contracts, lawyers

4: Rise of merchants and academics and decline of royalty, companies, political parties, banks, checks and letters of credit, stock, investments and eventual adoption of banknotes

5: Early police institutions (sheriffs, Bow Street runners), civil service, professional militaries, social mobility, colonial/criollo identity

6: Revolutions of colonies (US, Bolivia, Louverture, Bolivar, San Martin, Rizal), universities, pamphlet presses, Stamp Act, representative democracy

7: Constitutions (especially US drafting, compromises, and adoption), structure and civics rules of US three branches, executive branch of government, taxation (Whiskey and Fries rebellions) 

8: US Bill of Rights, limits on government powers, clipper ships

9: Religious “awakenings”, abolitionism, political fiction (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), British ending of slavery, US Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws

10: Steamboats, migrations (US: Oregon trail, Mormon migration, gold rushes, coolies, Irish), telegraph, nearly-instant newspaper reports, immigration restrictions

11: Industrialization (steam, then electricity), telephone (everyone can share information), privacy concerns, advances in chemistry and vehicles (land and air)

12: World War I, communism in Russia, Great Depression, banking changes (move off gold standard, FDIC), suffrage, Prohibition, treaties, entertainment and media celebrities

13: World War II, more colonies gain independence, espionage, internment, GI bill, suburbia growth, nuclear and quantum advances, popular science, science fiction/fantasy

14: Activism (peaceful and terrorist), computers (vacuum tubes to punch cards to tapes to chips), Civil Rights movement (African-Americans), voting rights, agricultural “Green Revolution”, population growth

15: Telecommunications, television and cable, growth of internet (listserves, DRPA-net, WWW, darkwebs), long-distance relationships (commercial, romantic, family, interest groups, etc.), outsourcing

16: Cellphones, social media, artificial intelligence, chatbots, brain computer interfaces, EULAs (end user license agreements), new technology uses, data centers, consent and transparency legal issues

This outlined sequence of topics endeavors to lead students to a strong understanding of the many, continuing struggles for individual freedom and the urgent need for lifelong civic involvement. I would have loved to have taken a civics course like this when I was in high school.

Mind reading and telepathy in a Tom Clancy book from 1988

I have been reading The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy. When I first read it decades ago, much of the technical information about lasers and interrogation techniques went over my head. The laser details still mostly go over my head!

This read-through, I realized that Tom Clancy portrayed a KGB "interrogation" that used telepathy and brainwave reading to "read" thoughts. But he portrayed it without saying outright what was happening.

If you have a copy of the book handy, turn to the last part of chapter ten, where Svetlana is put into a sensory deprivation saltwater tank and cannot even hear her own screams. She has divers in the tank with her to keep her from touching her air hose and realizing where she is. Otherwise, she is only wearing a wetsuit. In preparation for the tank session, she was coated with oil and given an injection. 

Yet with no other wires, transmitters, or receivers mentioned--other than her own body--she is able to hear the interrogating doctor gently whisper into a microphone in another room. Then, somehow, despite having an air hose in, she talks back to the interrogator and tells him everything.

The interrogation facilities are described as the "most secret part of Lefortovo's interrogation wing."

Both "mind reading" and translation of sounds into electrical signals that the brain can perceive as speech are now publicly acknowledged to be possible. As to the first, the Chinese can use computer brain interface technology to interpret brainwave activity and accurately output unspoken thoughts as written Mandarin. As to the second, we have had cochlear implants available for many years.

Just because something was not publicly known to be possible decades ago is no indication of whether it was possible back then. Physics principles are the same yesterday, today, and into the future. Science--which means knowledge--increases or decreases, but physics stays the same.

It looks like Tom Clancy or one of his editors knew classified information about telepathy-enabling technology almost forty years ago. Who else knew, and how else was it used?

We are to keep valuable truth safe, not to hide it

In the 1800s, Joseph Smith studied the Bible and felt inspired to make some changes. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published his changes as the "Inspired Version" (text available online at https://www.centerplace.org/hs/iv/default.htm). One noteworthy change, which somehow didn't make it into the LDS Bible footnotes or appendix, where those changes are supposed to be available for LDS readers, is in Matthew 13. Joseph Smith wrote the parable of the treasure in the field as follows:

13:46 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field. And when a man hath found a treasure which is hid, he secureth it and, straightway, for joy thereof, goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

The King James Version of the Bible gives the parable in the following words:

44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Do you see the difference? There is a big difference between securing something and hiding something. To secure something means to get it and keep it safe from damage, while to hide something means to keep it away from everyone else.

Yet the current LDS version of the Bible does not show this important change from hiding to securing. It is not in the footnotes at the bottom of the pages showing Matthew 13. That is highly unusual, for the footnotes often show even insignificant changes in the Joseph Smith version. 

The change to "securing" is also not included in the Appendix, which contains a longer passage from Matthew 13. If you have access to the LDS Bible currently in use, you can check this for yourselves.

This is a substantive change about not hiding things that got hidden by in what appears to be an intentional omission! I think this is strong evidence of untrustworthy behavior by some who work in LDS Church media services. Jesus said we're supposed to believe that which is true, but he never said we have to let ourselves be taken in by people who exhibit untrustworthy behavior.

Some lessons from educational experiences

My children have almost aged out of homeschooling. They like to go to "regular" high school. So, after over 15 years of being a "homeschool mom," I am extending myself in different directions. My professional degree mostly went unused all the years I was homeschooling, so I am going back to school to become a teacher. 

As I have tutored, taught, substitute taught, and volunteered over the past few years, I have learned some lessons that I wish everyone knew. 

First: Our children do not need smart phones. 

The phones are actively interfering with academic growth because they displace advanced reading practice. Not even half of US adolescents can read what should be high school level texts in history, science, and so on. Reading--the basic skill of education, the skill which makes all the other aims of education independently achievable--is alarmingly on the decline right up through the university level (https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancraig/2024/11/15/kids-cant-read-books/). Do the children a favor and get them a "dumb phone" instead.

Second: Teaching beginning readers to guess words from context is harming their ability to read.

Beginning readers are not knowledgeable enough to understand how to successfully deduce a word from context. They just hear us adults say, "Guess...." And so they guess....too often wrong. We are wasting precious literacy development time when we tell kids things like "look at the first and last letter and guess what the word is from context." Yes, that is really what they are told in some reading programs.

Children will be much better off if we teach them how to read new words by sounding them out, left-to-right, with allowances for the different letter patterns that come from French/Greek/German/Latin. (Children like maps and stories of cool cultures. What if we taught them that English is partly French? That could actually rescue their interest in language arts.)

Third: We have some confusing curricula out there, and we should blame it before blaming children or teachers. 

Yes, teachers are underpaid. Yes, students are distracted. But the curricula adopted in many schools is frequently illogical in how it presents material. I see much that is unclear in textbooks' approaches and expectations. In our concern over poor educational outcomes, we need to look harder at confusing, frustrating curricula. "Common Core" isn't the problem; rather, it's the poor implementation of the Common Core standards in some curricula.

We certainly shouldn't be blaming little kids for not having enough "grit." We are the responsible adults, and we should give them instruction that is genuinely effective for their age level.