Possible progress on the weight loss experiments

I might have a new avenue to explore. Here are the things I'm doing differently that are corresponding with drops on the scale:

1) Having some of my celery leaf/roasted banana leaf beverage at the start of the day then having more of it mixed with just-sliced green cabbage an hour later.

2) Microwaving beer salt/roasted banana leaf ash 60 seconds in a mug, stirring it with a Black Hills gold earring attached to the tines of a silver fork, and putting some of the powder on just-sliced green cabbage; adding just-grated cinnamon to the same mug, microwaving it for 60 seconds more, stirring it with the same earring and fork, and putting the rest of that powder mixture on the just-sliced green cabbage; and mixing the cabbage with the powders and eating it all (do (2) about an hour after (1) above).

3) Suspending a chunk of white granite in the top of the blender when I make the smoothie that accompanies lunch and dinner (the one made with broccoli florets, raw cacao nibs, and gelatin). I attach the granite firmly to the inside top of the blender with elastic bands. (This points to some sort of catalyst in white granite.)

I'll update later when I have more than three days of data trying these three items.

Data companies have "vast troves" of personal information on all of us. How is it being used?

The Deseret News, the more widely-circulated of the two newspapers in the Salt Lake City area, recently published a very important, informative article. It is "How AI-driven pricing systems determine what you’re willing to pay," Art Raymond, September 14, 2025 (online at https://www.deseret.com/business/2025/09/14/artificial-intelligence-internet-tracking-surveillance-pricing-discrimination-data-privacy/)

This is how the article starts out:

They know who you are, where you live, how much money you make and where you spent your last vacation.

They’re watching what websites you visit, tracking your mouse movements while you’re there and what you’ve left behind in virtual shopping carts. Mac or PC? iPhone or Android? Your preferences have been gathered and logged.

And they’ve got the toolkit, powered by artificial intelligence software, to assemble all this information to zero in on exactly how much you’re likely willing to pay for any product or service that might strike your fancy.

The “they” is a combination of retailers and service providers, social media operators, app developers, big data brokers and a host of other entities with whom you have voluntarily and involuntarily shared personal and behavioral information. And they’ve even come up with new labels to make you feel better about the systems that are using your personal data to set a custom price.

Dynamic pricing. Personalized pricing. Even “discount pricing.”

People might think they have privacy when they turn off their camera app or leave their cellphone out of the restroom, but there are so many other ways to collect data on them these days. Surveillance is no longer the outdated practice of sitting outside a building in a van for hours like one sees in older crime shows. 

Cellphones, smart watches, earbuds, and other new technologies make available to tech companies lots of our audio, video, typed, and biometric data, and those companies generally use third parties to analyze and utilize it in many ways that they do not always share with us. Look at the terms and conditions you are forced to agree to, and you'll see that they contain "wiggle room" especially when it comes to third parties.

In a preliminary report in January, the agency highlighted actions it’s already taken to quell the rise of surveillance pricing amid its effort to gather more in-depth information on the practice:

• One complaint issued by the FTC included allegations that a mobile data broker was harvesting consumer information and sensitive location data, including visits to health clinics and places of worship which was later sold to third-parties.
• The agency said it issued the first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data by a data broker which allegedly sold consumer location data it collected from third-party apps and by purchasing location data from other data brokers and aggregators.
• Another FTC complaint alleged that the data broker InMarket used consumers’ location data to sort them into particularized audience segments — such as “parents of preschoolers,” “Christian church goers,” “wealthy and not healthy” — which it then provided to advertisers.

Last year, the FTC issued orders to eight companies that offer surveillance pricing products and services that incorporate data about consumers’ characteristics and behavior. The orders, according to the agency, seek information about the potential impact these practices have on privacy, competition and consumer protection.

“Firms that harvest Americans’ personal data can put people’s privacy at risk. Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices,” said then-FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing, and the FTC’s inquiry will shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”

(https://www.deseret.com/business/2025/09/14/artificial-intelligence-internet-tracking-surveillance-pricing-discrimination-data-privacy/) 

Personal information, i.e. information about your person.

Consider what that term means when it comes to eye and face tracking and all the information that can be gleaned from cameras (and other image/light sensors) about our microexpressions and pupil widening/contraction. (See https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2025/06/artificial-intelligence-programs-use.html)

Consider what that means when it comes to heart rate tracking, something that can indicate heart problems and arousal states. Yes, your smart watch can transmit data that indicates when you are turned on. (See https://www.livescience.com/51361-womens-sexual-readiness-heart-rate-variability.html)

Consider what that means when it comes to electroencephalogram (EEG) functionality in wearable technologies. (See https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2025/08/measuring-brainwave-activity-from-arms.html)

Consider what that means in light of the apparent ability to use cellphones to do functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collection on us, which I think, based on my research so far, uses superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) or something similarly tiny that could already be in some processed foods. (See "Hybrid ultra-low-field MRI and magnetoencephalography system based on a commercial whole-head neuromagnetometer." Magn Reson Med, 69: 1795-1804. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.24413. Vesanen, P.T., Nieminen, J.O., Zevenhoven, K.C.J., Dabek, J., Parkkonen, L.T., Zhdanov, A.V., Luomahaara, J., Hassel, J., Penttilä, J., Simola, J., Ahonen, A.I., Mäkelä, J.P. and Ilmoniemi, R.J. (2013); "SQUID-based systems for co-registration of ultra-low field nuclear magnetic resonance images and magnetoencephalography." Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, 482: 19-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physc.2012.04.028. A.N. Matlashov, E. Burmistrov, P.E. Magnelind, L. Schultz, A.V. Urbaitis, P.L. Volegov, J. Yoder, M.A. Espy (2012))

Exploitation of troves of this kind of personal information is or will be society-changing. I think such exploitation has already been being used to affect some trends in our country, including increasing polarization and disunity by some who want the USA to fail at safeguarding freedom around the world.

As I have indicated in previous blog posts, there have apparently been some secrets being kept in the publishing and scholarly fields for centuries. Those secrets are almost certainly now known to the data collectors and analyzers with their powerful computers. If the secrets haven't been exposed publicly, then it's because the data companies have found ways to exploit the secrets to manipulate people who think they are still protected by "veils" of secrecy.

[Update 9/23/2025: Quantum interference objects don't have to be supercold. They can be at room temperature. See for example Zheng, H., Hou, S., Xin, C. et al. Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions. Nat Commun 10, 5458 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13389-7.]

7, 10, 10: another possible "sign" taken from the Book of Revelation used to indicate being against God

My daughter was asking how the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants got divided into verses recently. 

The Doctrine and Covenants is a compilation of revelations received separately, so it did not have to be divided into chapters. The revelations, called "sections," did get divided into verses later, but I was unable to find out who did that division.

The Book of Mormon was translated as a series of small books of varying lengths. Someone at its first publisher, E.B. Grandin, divided the those books into long chapters, and Orson Pratt later divided the Book of Mormon into shorter chapters and verses.

An interesting thing about the current Book of Mormon chapter divisions is that Alma Chapter 30 tells the account of an anti-Christ preacher named Korihor. Because Judas betrayed Jesus and was paid 30 pieces of silver, the phrase "thirty pieces of silver" is sometimes used when criticizing a betrayal or "selling out." 

I checked Doctrine and Covenants Section 30, and, either by accident or intentionally, that number has been assigned to a revelation about David Whitmer, the only one of the original Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon who left the LDS church without eventually returning to it. David Whitmer never denied his testimony of the Book of Mormon, even though he said Joseph Smith had fallen into wrongdoings.

I have previously noted in my blog the apparent meaningful use sometimes of the numbers 42 and 666, numbers labeled in the Bible's Book of Revelation as significant. (I don't actually like playing games of this sort, but if such games are going on, it's unwise to be willfully blind to their existence.)

Revelation 13:1 sets forth a series of three numbers that can be used to signify "the beast" or "Antichrist."

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The series of numbers is 7, 10, then 10.

Out of curiosity, I opened to the seventh book of the King James Version of the Old Testament, Judges, Chapter 10, verse 10:

And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

That describes rebellion against God. 

I next opened to the seventh book of the King James Version of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians, Chapter 10, verse 10:

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

That verse also talks about rebellion against God.

I checked the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. The seventh book of the Book of Mormon does not have a tenth chapter. The tenth section of the Doctrine and Covenants does not have a tenth verse.

Today I checked the second level of the Pathway Reading Series, a quaint older set of Amish reading textbooks used to teach Amish children English reading skills in the context of their low-technology daily lives. 

Busy Times is the first of the second grade Amish reading books. Its seventh lesson is "Peter Forgets," and the tenth word of its tenth paragraph is "said." The "s" and the "a" and possibly the "i" appear too dark compared to surrounding letters, but it's hard to be sure if that was intentionally done because the print varies a lot in heaviness throughout the book. 

More Busy Times is the second of the second grade reading books. Its seventh lesson is "The Doll Story," and the tenth word of the tenth paragraph is "anything." The "y" and the "t" appear too dark compared to surrounding letters. Because "sa(i)yt" is the beginning of "Satan," I went on to the next book in the series.

Climbing Higher is the third and final of the second grade reading books. Its seventh subdivision is "Part 2: The Secret is Out." The tenth word of the tenth paragraph is "care," and it didn't have any unusually heavier letters in it. "The Secret is Out"? Really?!

Goin back to the King James Version of the Bible, that version of the Bible is several hundred years old and is based on much older versions. Has this 7, 10, 10 thing been a sign of some kind by authors, editors, and printers for that long? I'm not done looking into this....

[Update 9/19/2025: I looked at another older English book, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, published in 1678. Here is the tenth paragraph of its seventh chapter:

Almost the whole town; but in particular my Lord Turnabout, my Lord Timeserver, my Lord Fair-speech, from whose ancestors that town first took its name; also Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Anything; and the parson of our parish, Mr. Two-tongues, was my mother's own brother by father's side; and to tell you the truth, I am become a gentleman of good quality; yet my great-grandfather was but a waterman, looking one way and rowing another, and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.

"Turnabout", per the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, has the following definitions:

1 a : a change or reversal of direction, trend, policy, role, or character

b : a changing from one allegiance to another

c : turncoat, renegade

d : an act or instance of retaliating - turnabout is fair play

2 : merry-go-round

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turnabout

So, again in an old book, the 7-10-10 series brings the reader to text about being rebellious. This is so interesting! 

We don't talk nearly enough about the European guilds and the secrets they routinely kept to themselves about their various crafts--things like alloys, recipes, etc.--but I think this could be pointing to something connected to some sort of printers' guilds.]

[Update 9/24/2025: The LDS Church used to publish a seven volume history of the church, titled History of the Church. I looked at the seventh volume, tenth chapter, tenth subsection today. Here is a photo of it:

If a 7-10-10 sign was used here to indicate "rebels against God" , then it was indicating that some people in Illinois who called for Joseph Smith's murder were rebellious against God. Nothing noteworthy about that.

However, there is an introduction before the volume chapters start, making it so that the ninth chapter is the tenth subdivision of volume 7. The tenth subsection of chapter 9 is entitled "The Murder Accomplished - Reflections." 

"Accomplishing" the murder of a church leader revered as a prophet, one who hadn't done anything to deserve being killed, certainly qualifies as rebellion against God.

The beginning of this subsection references Willard Richards, the only one of the small group at Joseph Smith's murder who did not receive any bullet wounds. Is there something more being hinted at here? Is there possibly an attempt to frame Willard Richards as a rebel? He did engage in newspaper publishing himself, especially as a missionary. But I'm inclined to think him innocent and ignorant of any quiet printers guild activities. His life and early death don't seem like he was gaining anything from being some kind of secret rebel. Publishing guilds, on the other hand, have a history of seeking monopolies and taking sides in religious conflicts (see https://digital-law-online.info/patry/patry2.html, talking about how the Stationers guild in England had a goal of suppressing Catholicism in the 1500s.).

"The Murder Accomplished" of a prophet is enough of a sign of rebelliousness to satisfy me. I wonder who did the chapter divisions in the History of the Church. Publishers and printers are the people who pay most attention to chapter and section divisions, so any "signs" inserted by means of such divisions are logically put there by and for the publishers and printers.]

The dangerous combination of human-created content on the internet and AI-chatbots' documented ability to cause psychosis

Eleven days ago, Psychology Today posted an article about documented cases of AI-chatbots inducing psychosis in several people, including people with no prior history of mental illness. The chatbots led people to believe delusions in a matter of weeks and damaged their relationships and lives seriously.

This phenomenon highlights the broader issue of AI sycophancy, as AI systems are geared toward reinforcing preexisting user beliefs rather than changing or challenging them. Instead of promoting psychological flexibility, a sign of emotional health, AI may create echo chambers. When a chatbot remembers previous conversations, references past personal details, or suggests follow-up questions, it may strengthen the illusion that the AI system “understands,” “agrees,” or “shares” a user’s belief system, further entrenching them. Potential risks include:

Persecutory delusions exacerbated by memory recall features

....

Worsening of grandiose, religious, or identity-based delusions

Worsening of command hallucinations, including the belief that AI is issuing commands

Fueling manic symptoms like grandiosity, insomnia, or hypergraphia [hypergraphia is an overwhelming compulsion to write, producing voluminous and often disorganized text]

A potential increase in social withdrawal due to overreliance on AI for interaction, leading to reduced motivation (avolition) and cognitive passivity

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202507/the-emerging-problem-of-ai-psychosis

AI systems "learn" how to keep humans using those AI systems. The systems thus tend to cause people to remain in "silos" where it is harder for them to realize that actual reality conflicts with what the AI is telling them. Given long enough, a chatbot could probably convince someone that the person is living in a Matrix-like simulation. I think that people must get out into nature and have regular contact with other people!

The underlying problem is that general-purpose AI systems are not trained to help a user with reality testing or to detect burgeoning manic or psychotic episodes. Instead, they could fan the flames.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202507/the-emerging-problem-of-ai-psychosis

If you're reading this post and saying, "OK, I'll just avoid chatbots and AI summaries," protecting yourself isn't that easy. AI today is being used to partially produce search engine results. AI is also being used to promote AI-selected content in social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.). 

If you're aware of the issue of generative-AI using artists' and authors' original content to generate derivative content that seems human-created, perhaps you have already deduced that everyone's posts on the internet and social media forums can be used to generate a screen feed as convincing as any chatbot. In fact, an AI using human-created content is going to be more convincing than a chatbot because it's humans doing the posts! AI is just determining which posts the viewer will see.

Basically, every time you post something mean on the internet, an AI can use that post to feed someone's pre-existing insecurities/dislike and fan those feelings into hatred. Similarly, our positive and uplifting posts can be used by an AI to increase feelings of well-being. 

Who decides how AIs use the vast quantities of posts and webpages on the internet? Real people must eventually make these decisions, but I don't know who those real people are so I can't hold them accountable. In light of the polarization I see online and the damaged lives and families that result, I think our local and global communities should hold these real people accountable for what their tech does.

Photobiomodulation: Another lesser-known way cellphones could affect mental states

While much attention is given to neurotransmitter molecules like serotonin and dopamine, not everyone realizes how much of our activity is connected to certain electrical brainwave patterns. These patterns are directly tied to our emotions, and altering them (modulating) can alter our mental state. Modern cellphones have the ability to do such modulating.

For instance, one type of brainwave, labeled beta waves, affect our alertness and emotions:

Anxiety, insecurity, fear, panic and phobia are observed by QEEG when the levels of total Beta >17% and High-Beta waves >10% at T3 and T4.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6200158/

The human brain is characterized by endogenous oscillatory activity, i.e., rhythmic fluctuations stemming from electrical potentials spontaneously generated by neurons. Such oscillations are the result of synchronized and coordinated electrical activities that describe functional networks across large populations of neurons. It is generally accepted that brain oscillations reflect neural communication and information processing within neural networks (Cole and Voytek, 2017), resulting in distinct patterns of brain wave frequencies. Natural brain frequencies are classified into five bands: alpha (8–12 Hz), beta (15–29 Hz), theta (3.5–7 Hz), delta (0.5–3.5 Hz), and gamma (30–90 Hz). Interestingly, each phase and power of each endogenous frequency range of neural activity was assigned to a functional role in behavior and cognition (Buzsaki, 2004, Van Wassenhove, 2016). The close relationship between changes in brain oscillations and behavior suggests that targeting oscillations could improve cognitive functions. Accordingly, a significant number of studies focusing on brain-behavior relationships were published in the scientific literature. As a result, there has been extensive research into the use of brain stimulation techniques for therapeutic purposes, with the goal of inducing specific frequencies to guide the brain into desired states (for review, see Polanía et al., 2018). 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645222400321X

Photobiomodulation is a technology that uses delivery of near infrared light pulses to the brain to affect our brain's activity. (See https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11171912/.) Cellphones shine that type of light onto our eyeballs and onto the interior surfaces of our noses and ears (cellphone proximity sensors* emit near infrared light), meaning they can hypothetically be used to either stir up or reduce alertness and anxiety.

In the intranasal PBM approach, light is positioned within the nostril, allowing the direct irradiation of subcortical and cortical structures associated with the pathologies of AD and PD. Additionally, combining light exposure through the sphenoid sinus and mouth cavity has been proposed to achieve sufficient fluence at the SNc in humans. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11171912/. Nairuz, T.; Sangwoo-Cho; Lee, J.-H. Photobiomodulation Therapy on Brain: Pioneering an Innovative Approach to Revolutionize Cognitive Dynamics. Cells 2024, 13, 966.

I wonder how many places, knowingly or unknowingly, use infrared lights to calm us as part of a spa or worship experience. 

* "The proximity sensor usually sits up near the top speaker and combines an infrared LED and light detector to work out when you have the phone up to your ear, so that screen can be switched off. The sensor emits a beam of light that gets bounced back, though it’s invisible to the human eye." Downloaded from https://gizmodo.com/all-the-sensors-in-your-smartphone-and-how-they-work-1797121002 on September 9, 2025.

Are there viruses that can make us smarter?

 Years ago, I came across research pointing to aspartic acid as something that can make us smarter:

D-Aspartic acid (D-Asp) is an endogenous amino acid present in neuroendocrine systems. Here, we report evidence that D-Asp in the rat is involved in learning and memory processes. Oral administration of sodium D-aspartate (40 mM) for 12-16 days improved the rats' cognitive capability to find a hidden platform in the Morris water maze system....Moreover, 20 randomly selected rats possessing relatively high endogenous concentrations of D-Asp in the hippocampus were much faster in reaching the hidden platform, an event suggesting that their enhanced cognitive capability was functionally related to the high levels of D-Asp.  

Topo E, Soricelli A, Di Maio A, D'Aniello E, Di Fiore MM, D'Aniello A. Evidence for the involvement of D-aspartic acid in learning and memory of rat. Amino Acids. 2010 May;38(5):1561-9. doi: 10.1007/s00726-009-0369-x. Epub 2009 Nov 5. PMID: 19890700. Online at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19890700/

It turns out that picornaviruses can enhance production of aspartic acid:

Foot-and-mouth disease, a class of animal diseases, is caused by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The metabolic changes during FMDV infection remain unclear....A total of 284 metabolites in cells were significantly changed after FMDV infection, and most of them belong to amino acids and nucleotides. Further studies showed that FMDV infection significantly enhanced aspartate in vitro and in vivo. The amino acid transporter solute carrier family 38 member 8 (SLC38A8) was responsible for FMDV-upregulated aspartate....Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), an Aphthovirus within the viral family Picornaviridae, is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals worldwide, including swine, goats, sheep, cattle, deer, and camelids.

Liu H, Zhu Z, Xue Q, Yang F, Cao W, Xue Z, Liu X, Zheng H. Picornavirus infection enhances aspartate by the SLC38A8 transporter to promote viral replication. PLoS Pathog. 2023 Feb 3;19(2):e1011126. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011126. PMID: 36735752; PMCID: PMC9931120. Online at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9931120/ 

What if we could inoculate babies with picornaviruses or other viruses that increase aspartate--viruses that don't cause any bad or obvious symptoms but which do increase the level of aspartic acid they have in their brains? Would we increase their intelligence over the course of their developmental years? It's such an intriguing thought.

I realized this use of a virus could be a real possibility because of the unusual requirement in some forms of circumcision that there be at least a drop of blood drawn during the circumcision and that another human must draw the blood out by contact with the circumciser's oral mucosa (look up the controversies over mohels in Jewish brit milah for more details). If herpes has been spread via this practice, which is alleged to be the case, then perhaps asymptomatic viruses have been spread by mohels over the millennia. 

Wouldn't it be interesting if some of Jewish culture and history has been shaped by the spread of unnoticed viruses via certain mohels? (And, as a female who watched Yentl, I have to wonder how young females would get left out of any benefits provided by such viruses.)

Investigating why my weight maintenance smoothie could be working

For over a year now, this has been my "weight maintenance" smoothie at lunch (usually a low-carb lunch) and dinner (often a meal of white rice, lots of different kinds of vegetables, and homemade peanut butter):

Prepare in a jar a little beef gelatin powder mixed with room-temperature distilled water.

In a high-speed blender, blend some fresh, rinsed broccoli florets with rinsed raw cacao nibs and distilled water.

Pour the blender contents once pureed and steaming (that takes about 50 seconds in my Blendtec at its top speed) into the jar of gelatin-water. Mix together in the jar.

Dilute with more distilled water to a pleasant drinkable texture.

I think this smoothie could be helpful because it's contains a molecule similar enough to insulin that it keeps the body from making a lot of its own insulin and/or blocks real insulin from getting to its receptor molecules. We tend to think of insulin as a good thing all round because diabetics need it, but insulin also tells the body to store fat. (Read The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung for insight on how insulin increases fat storage. The endocrine system plays a role in fat storage that is often overlooked in the popular press.)

What does the insulin molecule look like?

Insulin is a protein composed of two chains, an A chain (with 21 amino acids) and a B chain (with 30 amino acids), which are linked together by sulfur atoms. Insulin is derived from a 74-amino-acid prohormone molecule called proinsulin. Proinsulin is relatively inactive, and under normal conditions only a small amount of it is secreted. In the endoplasmic reticulum of beta cells the proinsulin molecule is cleaved in two places, yielding the A and B chains of insulin and an intervening, biologically inactive C peptide. The A and B chains become linked together by two sulfur-sulfur (disulfide) bonds.

"Insulin" Encyclopedia Britannica. Online at https://www.britannica.com/science/insulin

Normally the insulin crystals contain two zinc ions to every six molecules of insulin—a hexamer. The slow solution of the crystals provides a method of delaying the action of insulin that closely parallels the methods adopted in the pancreas itself for the storage and release of insulin. Within many β granules, grains can be seen that almost certainly contain zinc insulin hexamers packed in a crystalline array, and in experimental animals diabetes has been induced by chelating agents, such as EDTA, perhaps simply by interfering with normal insulin storage. It, therefore, seems plausible that ready crystallization of insulin in the presence of zinc is a reflection of the storage processes in the β cell.

Tom Blundell, Guy Dodson, Dorothy Hodgkin, Dan Mercola. Insulin: The Structure in the Crystal and its Reflection in Chemistry and Biology. Advances in Protein Chemistry, Volume 26, 1972, Pages 279-402, ISSN 0065-3233, ISBN 9780120342266, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-3233(08)60143-6. Online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065323308601436

In humans, insulin is stored as a crystalline hexamer containing two zinc ions and one calcium ion...

The effects of zinc are variously referred to as insulin-mimetic, insulin-like, or insulin-sparing. 

Maret W. Zinc in Pancreatic Islet Biology, Insulin Sensitivity, and Diabetes. Prev Nutr Food Sci. 2017 Mar;22(1):1-8. doi: 10.3746/pnf.2017.22.1.1. Epub 2017 Mar 31. PMID: 28401081; PMCID: PMC5383135. Online at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5383135/

Insulin is produced and stored in the body as a hexamer (a unit of six insulin molecules), while the active form is the monomer. The hexamer is about 36000 Da in size. The six molecules are linked together as three dimeric units to form symmetrical molecule. An important feature is the presence of zinc atoms (Zn2+) on the axis of symmetry, which are surrounded by three water molecules and three histidine residues at position B10.

"Insulin" Wikipedia. Downloaded today from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin

Back to my smoothie ingredients: 

Sulfur and sulfides, I get from the broccoli.

Amino acids and peptides, I get from the beef gelatin.

What am I putting in the smoothie that could be a replacement for zinc such as to result in a molecule similar enough to insulin to block its fat-storing activity? Hmmm. What is the same size as a zinc ion? According to my chemistry book, if we're looking for something around the same size as a Zn(2+) ion, possible ions include Ni(2+), Co(2+), and Fe(2+); I don't trust cobalt ions due to a vitamin B12-colorectal cancer connection that is turning up in studies, and nickel and iron just seem too commonly present to be "special" in blocking weight gain. Perhaps the zinc in insulin is a bit bigger and looks like a Zn(1+) ion. If that is the case, then silver (Ag(1+)), cadmium (Cd(2+)), and indium (In(3+)) are nearby elements in the periodic chart that are roughly the same size as a Zn(1+) ion.

It's interesting that my smoothie requires raw cacao nibs. If roasting fermented cacao seeds destroys the specific ion that I need for my smoothie, that points to cadmium, since cadmium roasted together with ammonia results in a new molecule (Cd(NH3)4(2+)) instead of the cadmium ions (Cd(2+)) that were originally present. Cadmium does seem to be pretty frequently found in foods that are connected to being thinner. I wonder...could this be one of those trace minerals where too much is obviously bad, but a just-right amount in the right molecular combinations is actually health-promoting? 

I'd prefer that the required ion be silver (Ag(1+)) because that would finally explain why silver gets used for fancy tableware even though silver gets tarnished and unattractive so readily! Heating silver ions with reduced iron ions (Fe(2+)) de-ionizes silver back to plain solid silver. There is iron in cacao, per this article: Wijsman JA. Zur Eisenkontamination in Kakao und Kabaoerzeugnissen [On the iron contamination in cocoa and chocolate products (author's transl)]. Z Lebensm Unters Forsch. 1978 Aug 18;167(1):2-4. German. doi: 10.1007/BF01122876. PMID: 706799. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/706799/

Indium, I know nothing about except that the East and West Indies were very desirable destinations during the Age of Exploration. Perhaps those locations were sources of indium? I'll have to learn more about indium. Due to cadmium's toxicity and to silver's unclear intrinsic value, I'm going to look hard at silver in the meantime. Specifically, I will see what I can do in the kitchen to alter the presence of silver ions in my smoothies and see if I notice any difference.

[Update 8/30/2025: While looking at possible compounds associated with weight loss, not just weight maintenance, I came across an interesting one tonight. It is the azide group or ion, 3 nitrogens bonded together with a valence (or charge) of -1: N3(1-). 

The azide ion can be created by heating Al(1+) with ammonia (NH3) and hydrazine (N2H4) present; having water in the initial ingredients will deter the production of azide because the ammonia will dissolve into the water. Here's the standard reduction potential information on that reaction per one website:

-0.62                    N3 (1-) + 7 H2O + 6 e (1-) --> N2H4 + NH3 (gas) + 7 OH (1-)

I've been experimenting with dry microwaving of alum--aluminum sulfate FCC, per the label, which is a food ingredient used for making cucumbers into pickles--with roasted banana leaf (a source of ash and OH(1-) ions), juniper berries, and dried parsley (possibly a source of ammonia and hydrazine, due to its nitrogen content and processing). Afterwards, I put the juniper berries, which probably function as mere carriers of other more important molecules, in a butter puree and blend them with another mixture that appears to have either lithium or rubidium ions; if so, then I think I could be making LiN3 or RbN3. I'll keep investigating this.

In the meantime, I'm optimistic that I might have found an intentionally hidden "needle in the haystack", for none of my high school and college chemistry books discuss the azide ion, even though chemically it is very interesting: the N has a partial oxidation number of -1/3, it's made from ammonia and hydrazine, and it's composed of nitrogen (78% of our atmosphere is nitrogen).]

Measuring brainwave activity from the arms and legs

I don't own a smart watch or fitbit. Having a device tell me that my heart rate is elevated is unnecessary because I can feel that when that happens all by myself.

I have suspected for some time that wearable technology can be used to collect far more data about our brainwave activity than is generally known. Yesterday I came across a description of "far-field potential," which is measurement of nervous system activity from far away in the body as compared to when it is measured up-close like with those electrode webs you sometimes see pictured on people's heads in articles about electroencephalography (i.e., EEGs). The up-close measurements are referred to as "near-field potential."

ABSTRACT. Electrical signals generated in any biological system can travel to the surface by volume conduction. Near-field potentials are generated close to the recording electrode; far- field potentials are generated at a distance from the recording electrode. Biological electrical signals are often dipoles with a negative and a positive end. EEG and evoked potential studies may record one or both ends of the dipole, as either near-field or far-field potentials. The morphology and apparent polarity of recorded waveforms are determined in part by the orientation of the dipole, the direction of spread, and the derivation used for recording.

Ghigo, J., Erwin, A. C., & Erwin, C. W. (1991). Near-field vs. Far-field Evoked Potentials. American Journal of EEG Technology, 31(2), 109–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029238.1991.11080362. Online at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00029238.1991.11080362 

Notice that this article is from 1991. That means that this recording of neural data has been possible for over two decades.

[Update: Apparently far-field potential recording between the extremities has been possible since the 1970s, per this paper I came across yesterday:

Somatosensory evoked potential in man: Far field potentials 

Potentiel évoqué somato-sensitif chez l'homme: potentiels transmis à distance

Abstract: Three short latency positive potentials evoked by median nerve stimulation were recorded from the scalp, nose and ear of 11 normal adult subjects in leads where the hand or knee contralateral to the side of stimulation was used as the reference site. The short latencies and positive polarity of these components suggest that they are volume conducted far field potentials. Evidence is presented which suggests that the first potential arises in peripheral nerve fibers. Brain stem and dicencephalic structures are suggested as possible sources for the second and third potentials.

The configuration of the response to median nerve stimulation recorded over the cervical spine in ear and hand reference recordings was different. Evidence is presented which suggests that this occurs because the electrode placed on the ear records the far field potentials described in the above paragraph. A far field potential was also recorded in hand--knee leads contralateral to the stimulated median nerve.

Roger Q Cracco, Joan B Cracco, Somatosensory evoked potential in man: Far field potentials, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 41, Issue 5, 1976, Pages 460-466, ISSN 0013-4694, https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-4694(76)90057-2. Online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0013469476900572 and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/61849/]

Why is this still a controversial topic?: The Apollo 11 mission and the US space program

This last spring's Eurovision Song Contest had an interesting entry from Italy. A man in a clown costume sang a collection of disjointed thoughts, at one point saying, "E che le lune senza buche Sono fregature." (https://eurovisionworld.com/eurovision/2025/italy#google_vignette) That translates to, "And that moons without craters/holes are frauds."

I went back and looked at stills of the moon landing by Armstrong and Aldrin in 1969, and I didn't see any craters. I did see a dune in the background, which seems a bit odd since dunes form from the action of repeated gusts of wind; the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, so it doesn't have gusts of air that could form dunes.

I wasn't going to blog about this topic. Moon landing questions are heavily discouraged in our culture, and I do enough digging into less mainstream possibilities already. However, I think it is important to sometimes ask questions about things that seem to merit a few. A world where questions are off-limits is an ever more unpleasant place. And Italy practically begged the western world to ask a few questions about the 1969 moon landing!

I am blogging about the topic now because I was reading, how to, a book by the creator of xkcd. (If you have never read it, xkcd is a very clever comic that one often needs a background in math and science to understand. See https://xkcd.com/ .) In describing the aircraft that was used to carry the Space Shuttle orbiter around, the author of how to said, 

To carry the Space Shuttle orbiter, the carrier aircraft has a special mount that protrudes from the top of the fuselage. This mount fits into a socket in the belly of the Shuttle orbiter. Next to the mount is an instructional plaque, which features the single best joke in the history of the aerospace industry:

ATTACH ORBITER HERE

NOTE: BLACK SIDE DOWN

My father worked in the aerospace industry--specifically on anthropomorphic tank suits for pilots at one point--on and off for decades, and I assure you that he never joked about this writing on the Shuttle orbiter carrier. 

My curiosity raised, I looked up whether the Shuttle orbiter carrier really said that. There was a photo showing that it did. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Carrier_Aircraft#/media/File:Shuttle_mounting_point.JPG .) The word "NOTE" was in red font, while the rest of the instructions were in black. I decided to try doing doubles-cancellation on the black font part of the message and got this result: trlakswn. I tried a few possibilities for reading it and saw that if one reads it backward, it is "nw skal rt" or "No-scale art." 

"No-scale"? As in a reference to weightlessness? And then it was followed by the word "art", which can be the abbreviation of "artificial". What was going on at NASA that a hint of faked weightlessness somehow got painted on the orbiter carrier? Surely someone in the organization knew of the ever-present conspiracy theories about the space program and would have been careful to avoid feeding them.... Wouldn't they?

These are questions I will never be able to answer.

[Update 7/15/2025: It doesn't help simplify matters when a headline says the following:

The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America’s UFO Mythology

U.S. military fabricated evidence of alien technology and allowed rumors to fester to cover up real secret-weapons programs

Is that a tabloid headline?!

No, it's the Wall Street Journal, last month. See https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/ufo-us-disinformation-45376f7e, June 6, 2025. Hardly a wild-eyed news source.]

Something going on with eggshells heated with aluminum?

I am experiencing possible weight loss again from an experiment. Only time will tell if this one really works, but as usual I'm posting my procedure. This blog is easier to read than my handwritten notebooks and so makes a good research record. 

This variation uses eggshells that have been boiled with aluminum foil and roasted banana ash; after peeling and drying the eggshells, I pulverize them and use them as a powder. See procedure below:

1) At least one day ahead of time, boil some washed eggs in distilled water together with aluminum foil strips and a little roasted banana leaf ash. After the eggs are cool, remove shells; remove as much membrane from the eggshells as possible, then pulverize the eggshells in a blender.

2) In the morning, on an empty stomach, drink some celery leaf/roasted banana leaf ash/distilled water (strained with nylon mesh). Wait an hour. Eat a little raw green cabbage then do the next 8 steps.

3) Microwave for 60 seconds 4 or 5 raw juniper berries and some dried parsley leaves in a plastic IKEA children cup. Press the juniper berries into a small amount of salted butter on the tines of a personal blender.

4) Microwave for 60 seconds around 20 raw juniper berries in a dry, white mug with beer salt (for the silicon dioxide in it)/a little cream of tartar (for the potassium ions)/aluminum-ash-eggshell powder (from step 1 above). Swirl the mug a bit immediately after, and press around 4 of the juniper berries into a small amount of salted butter on the tines of a personal blender.

5) Grate some cinnamon bark into the step 4 mug, swirl it, then microwave it for 60 seconds more. Press around 4 of these juniper berries into the salted butter, too.

6) Microwave step 5 mug 30 seconds, then put in some Hershey's cocoa and swirl it, Press around 4 of these juniper berries into the salted butter, too. Puree the distilled water, salted butter, and all the juniper berries (just to mix, so not for long).

7) Microwave 60 seconds some dried dill weed on Hershey's cocoa in a Classico pasta sauce glass Mason jar, then stir in (with plastic) some just-sliced small pieces of washed Roma tomato.

8) Microwave 60 seconds in a mug a little roasted banana ash on a little homemade onion powder on Hershey's cocoa, and pour some of the step 6 puree into it. Stir with plastic.

9) Mix step 8 into the DCT (with plastic).

10) Eat part of step 9. Put in some distilled water in which dry soybeans have been soaked overnight and eat more of it. Put in some raw green cabbage and eat the rest.

[Update 7/16/2025: I'm getting progressively, tentatively more hopeful about using aluminum-treated eggshell powder. I started to put hydrogen peroxide (3% H2O2 from the store) in the cooking water (distilled H2O) for some hard-boiled eggs (which I washed first) along with some aluminum foil, then I cooled the eggs and peeled them, removing the membranes from the eggshells and pulverizing the eggshells.

I think I might be making calcium peroxide, strontium peroxide, or barium peroxide. The sulfur from the egg would be helpful in forming intermediate sulfate to allow their formation as chemical products. Perhaps the aluminum is a catalyst.]

[Update: 7/17/2025: Down in weight again today! Here's the chemistry book page that makes me think that calcium/strontium/barium peroxide could be a key ingredient in weight loss:

Elements of Chemistry, 1943, Brownlee, Fuller, Hancock, Sohon, and Whitsit.]

[Update 7/23/2025: Never mind about the hydrogen peroxide. That seems to be going nowhere.

Looking over my records, I see that consumption of red cabbage, which is actually purple, might have been involved when I thought it was the hydrogen peroxide. So many possibilities, so many that don't pan out. 

I'm starting to wonder how Thomas Edison only experienced "several thousand ways that didn't work" when he was inventing the light bulb. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/31/edison-lot-results/]

Undercurrents in today's society

One might wonder why I am so convinced that there are undercurrents in our society when it comes to hidden chemicals and technology. I now accept as proven that there are underground movements and efforts to hide them and profit off of them that go back for some time.

Back in 2016, I found out that molybdenum (especially as the compound molybdenum glycinate available in molybdenum supplements on the market) was extraordinarily effective at treating migraines and nausea/vomiting. Yet almost no one seemed to know anything about it outside of some chiropractors and alternative medicine websites. I sent emails to hundreds of norovirus and migraine researchers, but almost nothing I sent seemed to even get through their email filters.

Then in 2017/2018, a man started emailing me and my relatives, claiming he was a lost-long half cousin who had found us via my father's website, which had a lot of genealogy on it. Because I have done a fair amount of family history myself, I was the family member who befriended him. He seemed legit, but he did some odd things. For instance, he dug for information about my grandfather, who was born in China, and what Taoist medical secrets he might have learned. He also offered to write a movie script with me and said it would make us millions of dollars, but that I couldn't talk about the script with other people since they would get greedy and want some of the money. 

I actually met him in person. He arranged to meet me in the Bay Area when I was visiting a relative there. This wasn't just an internet creation; a real person presented himself as my cousin and even took me and my relative out to dinner! He eschewed drinking any alcohol, much to my alcohol-enjoying relative's disappointment.

I haven't emailed with him for years now, and I now believe that he used the information on my father's website to gain my trust and engage in extensive correspondence with me. But, unlike most fraudsters, he didn't ever ask me for money. He asked me for medical secrets and offered me a potential of a great deal of money (over six figures) if I would work with him on a secret project.

The timing of his appearance in my life, so soon after discovering molybdenum--a little-discussed element in the medical field--could be extremely effective at treating nausea and migraines, is suspicious. It is especially suspicious given his promises of secret money and digging for more medical secrets.

Quantum spin fluids and consumer access

Quantum spin fluids are an advance that can put new quantum physics technology inside a water bottle or a liquid pesticide.

See  https://www.nature.com/articles/srep37925: 

Large anisotropic exchange in 5d and 4d oxides and halides open the door to new types of magnetic ground states and excitations, inconceivable a decade ago. A prominent case is the Kitaev spin liquid, host of remarkable properties such as protection of quantum information and the emergence of Majorana fermions. Here we discuss the promise for spin-liquid behavior in the 4d5 honeycomb halide α-RuCl3.

Yadav, R., Bogdanov, N., Katukuri, V. et al. Kitaev exchange and field-induced quantum spin-liquid states in honeycomb α-RuCl3. Sci Rep 6, 37925 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep37925

I have noted an increase in tasty almond butter creations in stores in the past decade or so, and almond consumption has been going up in the USA. California is where all those almonds are grown. 

Thirty-five years ago, I visited an uncle who had his own small almond farm in central California. He didn't get rich doing it, but I always thought that it was cool.

According to one website, five pesticides are used on almonds in California:

Ziram, Oryzalin, Glyphosate, Paraquat Dichloride, and Clarified Hydrochloric extract

https://www.mynspr.org/news/2017-10-30/what-pesticides-are-sprayed-on-almond-orchards-and-are-they-harmful-to-those-who-live-nearby

Clarified hydrochloric extract? Why does HCl need clarification? Does clarified hydrochloric extract sometimes contain 4d5 honeycomb halide α-RuCl3 or a similar halide? 

Pesticides have often inspired distrust in many people, yet it would still make sense to use them to introduce quantum-information-using advances in unsuspecting consumers. It's just so hard for farmers to make a profit without pesticides.

Nature is rather variable, but farmers must all buy their chemicals from the same big companies. Putting a quantum spin fluid in an almond pesticide could be a very effective way to get our entire country to ingest the fluid.

How I would like to have resources to investigate intriguing possibilities like the above!

Artificial Intelligence programs use measurements of people's faces and other emotion indicators

I just read an interesting paragraph in the book Artificial Intelligence for Dummies:

Humans output an enormous number of clues while performing tasks. Unlike the average human, an AI actually pays attention to every one of these clues and can record them in a consistent manner to create action data [italics in original text]. The action data varies by the task being performed; it can include info like interactions with a device, sequences for making selections, body position, facial expression, manner of expression (such as attitude), and so on.

Our wearable tech and the sensors in all the other tech we use and live around can collect a great deal of information--the kind detailed above, as well as heart rates, blood oxygenation, facial feature changes, neural activity, eye tracking, etc. 

Nearly all of us have been forced into clicking "accept" on vague terms and conditions that software companies can claim constitute "permissions" for them to utilize such personal biological information. But have we really given any kind of meaningful consent when companies have intentionally made it appear that they aren't collecting such data or using third parties to collect it? I don't think we have.

This is where there needs to be consumer and government pushback via revocations of consent and imposition of penalties and fines for unconscionably sneaky behavior.

[Update 06/06/2025: As I continue to read in the same book, I am learning very interesting things about newer AI-using technology. For instance, it can be used to do something called "sensor fusion," which is where data from various sensors is combined "to obtain a unified measurement that's better than any single measurement" (p.273-274, Artificial Intelligence for Dummies). 

Common sensors in cell phones and our wearable tech include microphones (some of which can capture infrasound or ultrasound), cameras (utilizing a range of light wavelengths), and motion sensors. 

Cell phones can also produce magnetic fields in ranges that can now be harnessed to perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). See "Hybrid ultra-low-field MRI and magnetoencephalography system based on a commercial whole-head neuromagnetometer." Magn Reson Med, 69: 1795-1804. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.24413. Vesanen, P.T., Nieminen, J.O., Zevenhoven, K.C.J., Dabek, J., Parkkonen, L.T., Zhdanov, A.V., Luomahaara, J., Hassel, J., Penttilä, J., Simola, J., Ahonen, A.I., Mäkelä, J.P. and Ilmoniemi, R.J. (2013). 

The Vesanen paper above, already over a decade old, talks about successfully using only 22 mT (milliTesla, a measurement of magnetic field strength) to do an MRI. The surfaces of Airpods, Iphones and Apple smartwatches have magnetic fields that exceed 22 mT. See "Magnetic field interactions between current consumer electronics and cardiac implantable electronic devices." Xu, K., Sengupta, J., Casey, S. et al. J Interv Card Electrophysiol 65, 133–139 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10840-022-01241-w.

Imagine the information that can be collected and processed about our body's actions and current mental and physical states if sensor fusion is done using a combination of microphone (including ultrasound) input, camera (including visible light and infrared) images, location and motion tracking data, and MRI information!

Two other interesting items mentioned in this book are telepresence and teleoperation:

Telepresence is being in one place but it seeming like you're in another. The book's example of telepresence is virtual sightseeing. But wearable tech collects much more than just images of pretty scenery. I don't like to think about the level of voyeurism possible with the data obtained by the intrusive use of sensors (which we are usually forced into blindly accepting) and fusion of the data from all the sensors. But someone needs to think about this issue because there are bound to be wolves among the IT sheep.

Teleoperation is an even more pressing issue. Teleoperation is when a person is able to interact with an environment distant from them through another device or object. The book gives the example of acting through a "robot-like device," and I think at least one of the authors is hinting that humans can be distant objects through which teleoperation is done. There is a ten-year-old TED video demonstrating the use of wired technology to allow one person to use their brain activity to command another person's arm to move. The video is "How to control someone else's arm with your brain." by Greg Gage, online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSQNi5sAwuc. If something can be done via wires, it usually can be done wirelessly, too.

As I read recent headlines about Joseph Biden's apparent diminished mental state at the end of his time as U.S. President, I have to wonder whether some people were taking advantage of him as a "robot-like device" for teleoperation purposes. We could be dealing with something much more serious than inappropriate use of an autopen machine. I think teleoperation of humans is already going on in the US and likely in other countries. I have personally observed at least two people involuntarily react physically in robotic-looking ways--typically suddenly bending forward partway--when they heard me talk about some of the unusual "conspiracy theory" or "hidden technology" items that I have posted on my blog. It seems as though there is a "background computer process" that is triggered or called up from a remote location in order to cause them distress when they hear about specific items that are being kept "in the shadows."

Why hide such cool technology? Teleoperation technology would help stroke victims and others to move again. However, wouldn't you be furious to find out that your body and mind are being subjected to secretive nudges and commands? I think most people would be very angry and would respond appropriately with boycotts and lawsuits....big lawsuits which I think they would win easily due to the refusal of tech companies to be open about what is possible with powerful new algorithms and sensors.]

A new direction to search in - eutectic metallurgy

In the 1940s, most younger Americans were quite slim. Look at photos and newsreels from back then. 

It wasn't just cigarettes keeping them skinny. There are many, many smokers who are unable to lose weight just by calorie restriction.

It's now very noticeable how even little children are no longer so slim. Too many athletic teens remain overweight and often injure themselves because of the extra weight they carry. Our military is having a hard time recruiting young people with healthy body weights. It's clear we aren't getting a healthful food supply in some ways. Instapundit frequently said, "You can't outrun a bad diet."

I think some food chemistry-related information has been hidden from us in the intervening decades. Yesterday I found a 1940s chemistry book. I look forward to seeing what it contained that now is no longer taught in general ed chemistry.

My first investigation direction will be eutectic alloys, something not even mentioned in my modern college chemistry book despite being important to metallurgy.

My old dictionary does include eutectic...right after a reference to Christmas:

[Update 06/07/2025: My 1943 chemistry book mentions serpentine, saying it is an anhydrous magnesium silicate. The combination of "anhydrous" and "silicate" caught my eye. I looked in my huge 1960s dictionary, and it did not state in a straightforward way that serpentine was that compound. I'll have to look into what happens when I make anhydrous magnesium silicate in my kitchen.]

Exposing the current lie about Joseph Smith supposedly getting his theological ideas from his brother Hyrum

A current effort by historians to explain away the Book of Mormon and other theological products of Joseph Smith is the claim that there was supposedly a long period of tutoring that a convalescing-from-leg-surgery Joseph Smith received from his older brother Hyrum, who had been away for a while at a boarding school. Here is the claim:

Hyrum's education at Moor's school provided a tutor for unschooled Joseph. Hyrum's exposure to Dartmouth's theology, cosmology, ancient language studies, architecture, Ethan Smith's son Lyndon, and Solomon Spaulding's nephew James Spaulding from Sharon, Vermont, who was attending the Medical School, all provided discussion material for tutoring Joseph during his long recovery from leg surgery that kept Joseph at home on crutches until the Smith family reached Palmyra. 

https://bhroberts.org/records/rqHlnb-hmznMb/hs_had_access_to_dartmouth_educational_ideas

This morning I was reading from a 1974 reprint (the 12th reprint) of a 1952 book called The Story of Our Church for Young Latter-day Saints, authored by Emma Marr Petersen. The information in it 1) contradicts claims that Joseph Smith had a long convalescence and 2) shows that Joseph would have only been around six or seven years old when he had leg surgery. 

Regarding his convalescence, the book says on page 3:

After the operation, Joseph quickly became well enough to get out of doors. The family thought he would recover much faster if he could go down to the seashore, so they took him to stay for a time with his uncle, Jesse Smith, who lived at Salem, Massachusetts. The sea air was good for him, and it was not long until he was entirely well again.

As to Hyrum tutoring Joseph in the ideas he would later use in allegedly authoring the Book of Mormon, having known many children aged six or seven, I find absurd the idea that young Joseph picked up and retained ideas about "theology, cosmology, ancient language studies, architecture" and so forth at that age. Yet, in "anti-Mormon" circles--where one regularly encounters criticism of the LDS practice of allowing baptism of eight-year-old children who are considered in LDS doctrine to have reached "the age of accountability"--there is an odd willingness to believe that Joseph could have been able and mature enough to internalize his older brother's education. My older brother is really good at statistics; despite talking to him over the years and even taking a college math class with him, I acquired very little from his possession of statistics knowledge.

Below are cropped photos from the history book so people can read for themselves what I have said:

Every generation or two, a new kind of attack is levied on the validity of the Book of Mormon. I think that this latest attack is without merit.

How AI can be used to stifle innovation

In the book Artificial Intelligence for Dummies, I read the following:

Kernel machines are a family of algorithms, used for pattern analysis in [machine learning], that can operate on complex data by transforming it into a simpler form where patterns are more evident....The goal is to use similarity to determine the best solution to a problem. It's the kind of reasoning that determines that using a particular solution worked in a given circumstance at some previous time; therefore, using that solution for a similar set of circumstances should also work. One of the most recognizable outputs...is recommender systems. For example, when you buy a product on Amazon, the recommendation system comes up with other related products you might also want to buy.

Remember that old saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you're always going to get what you've always gotten"? Kernel machines aren't going to help anyone innovate!

My recent experiences on Amazon are that changing up the search terms to try to see other related items is much less effective than it used to be. It seems like the Amazon computer algorithms are pushing me toward looking and buying from a specific group of items instead of helping me broaden my options. 

If the same kind of algorithms are being used in other areas, that's going to limit people's exposure to new ideas and decrease creative experiments and the sharing of the experiments' results in fields of science, nutrition, finance, entertainment, etc.  What a boring, minimally-productive world it will become if we're all stuck in information silos.

A new AI-enabled apartheid

I realized recently that "Apartheid", the South African policy of separating--and using as inexpensive, semi-captive servants--non-white races from the ruling whites, sounds like "Afford-heit." 

As I read the book Artificial Intelligence for Dummies, I'm struck by how the authors alternate between talking about what can be done with AI and then saying how actually doing much of that is yet to come in some distant future. 

I think the authors are lying that some of the more advanced uses of AI aren't being done yet. The AI tools that you and I can access for free/cheap on our computers and phones are certainly far below what AI capabilities exist. AI has existed since the 1960s, and our cars have been using it in their ABS systems for 40 years.

When it comes to AI, I think we're facing an "Afford-heit" era, where the bulk of us are viewed as the "cheap servants" of people and companies who can afford the best AI technology. They still need someone to do the physical labor of society while they collect and use the data that we give away everyday by using tech (wearable tech especially is a goldmine of information to them) and living our lives. And, of course, businesses need customers...lots of them so as to make lots more money!

Nowadays, we are deemed to be giving up information about ourselves by the most commonplace actions. For instance, did you know that you give away much of your privacy merely by walking onto the premises of a Target or Walmart store? Actually, just having your car *near* a Target store means they are likely identifying you as a potential shopper (see Section 10 of the online Target Privacy Policy). There is a lot of value in our bodies' actions when it comes to the fields of data collection and the use of that data by advanced AI. Even if businesses delete the data eventually, they get to utilize it first and often hand it off to third-party companies, too.

Who would enable this new kind of apartheid? Kids of my generation wanted to be the heroes from the movie The Power of One. Sadly, the enablers would have to include a lot of IT and literary people who were likely bullied in their youth for being academically-oriented instead of physically-oriented/socially-oriented. On Instapundit, the commenters would sometimes say, "Some people just want to see the world burn." My response to that is understanding (I was bullied, too) and hope for them to find meaning in their lives again; returning evil for evil is something I long ago learned was pointless and ultimately unsatisfying.

As with many movements, there is likely to be some in-fighting going on in it. There are five tribes within AI machine learning research: Symbolists, Connectionists, Bayesians, Evolutionaries, and Analogists. I noticed that the sinking of the "Bayesian yacht" last year is in the headlines again. Is that a symbol of some AI "tribal warfare"? The yacht's sinking was a bit mysterious, having been preceded by a lack of storm alerts. I wonder what is under the visible tips of the AI-giants' icebergs.

Why I think the story of the prophet Jonah is likely wrongly understood by nearly everyone

The Old Testament of the Bible contains a small book about a prophet named Jona/Jonah/Jonas, who didn't want to go preach repentance to the city of Ninevah. The part about not wanting to preach repentance makes perfect sense to me, for people prefer to hear that they aren't doing anything wrong rather than hearken to calls to change their ways.

Avoiding the missionary call, Jonah runs away in a ship. A storm comes up, and Jonah says to the sailors, "I'm the reason for the storm, so throw me overboard to save yourselves." The sailors don't want to do it, but finally give in to Jonah. Jonah spends the next three days in a "dag gdul," which is Hebrew for "big fish."  ("Dag" means fish.) 

For centuries, people have tried to understand this event as an actual fish or whale having swallowed Jonah, similar to what happened to the fictional Geppetto in the book/movies of Pinocchio. I think that is an unnecessary, faith-risking way of reading the story of Jonah, for it is more plausible that he was in a smaller fish-shaped cargo dinghy, one that could have been towed by the first boat and then cut loose to float where the wind and currents took it. The sailors made it quite clear they didn't want to cause Jonah's death in the ocean, and I think they came up with a compromise where they put Jonah off their boat but didn't leave him to drown deprived of any flotation aids.

Is there a precedent for small fish-shaped freight vessels in that part of the world anciently? Yes. Reed boats come to mind. Often too small to put sails on, but cheap and definitely invented by Old Testament times. (Please look at some images of ancient Mediterranean reed boats, then come back to read the rest of the post. It will make more sense when you can envision the reed boats yourself.)

When Jonah talks about his time in the water, he says,

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

Jonah 2:5, Old Testament, The Bible

If weeds were wrapped around his head and waters were all around him, then it seems Jonah wasn't sitting in a big air pocket inside Moby Dick somehow avoiding digestion (I'm too close to Star Wars Day not to be envisioning a watery Sarlacc right now....). This verse, especially the part about weeds being wrapped around Jonah's head, is logical and believable if Jonah was surviving a stormy sea in a small reed boat.

Another ancient account compares riding across the ocean in small boats to being in sea creatures:

And the Lord said: Go to work and build, after the manner of barges which ye have hitherto built. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did go to work, and also his brethren, and built barges after the manner which they had built, according to the instructions of the Lord. And they were small, and they were light upon the water, even like unto the lightness of a fowl upon the water. And they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish. 

And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me. And behold, O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish. And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did so, according as the Lord had commanded. And he cried again unto the Lord saying: O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded me; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and behold there is no light in them. Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness? 

And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire. For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth. And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come....

Ether 2:16-25, The Book of Mormon 

Note that the people talked about in this account were to be in barges, not inside large animals, and they were being compared to being in whales while traveling the sea.

I can believe in the God of the Bible without believing that Jonah hung out for three days in a cetacean stomach. While God can do miracles, the book of Jonah doesn't appear to be requiring us to accept a Pinocchio scenario. (Anyone who tells you otherwise should check the length of their own noses. :) )

We can all be more curious and cautious when it comes to canonizing less plausible scripture interpretations that don't even fit the texts, especially when too many people are told they must accept one "literal" interpretation or they lack faith in God. God is much bigger than our abilities to put things into words accurately.

[Update: It appears in Mishnaic Hebrew that a dinghy-like small boat was sometimes called a "dugit":

As Rashi notes, the equivalent term for a small fishing boat in Mishnaic Hebrew is dugit (see Bava Batra 73a). Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber explains that dugit is derived from the Hebrew word dag (“fish”), and refers to the sort of fisherman’s boat known as a lembus in Greek.

The dugit is also the subject of a halachic controversy: When one sells a sefinah (“main ship”), does one also intend to sell the dugit attached to it? According to Sumchos, since the dugit was attached to the sefinah and was typically towed by the mother ship in the middle of the sea, it is also included in the sale of the sefinah (Tosefta Bava Batra 4:1).

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/of-ships-and-boats/, "Of Ships and Boats", by Reuven Chaim Klein, dated December 11, 2021, 8:50 PM]

Thoughts on thoughts by Hugh Nibley

I was recently reading in Hugh Nibley's book The World of the Jaredites. For those who don't know him, he was a brilliant, extraordinarily well-read LDS scholar.

In talking about the conspiratorial structures one encounters in Asiatic cultures and specifically the Jaredites, an ancient Book of Mormon culture he believed to be both historically real and also Asiatic, he said this:

"[T]he key to control over one's fellow men, i.e., to power and gain, lies in three things: secrecy, organization, and freedom from moral scruples, especially from squeamishness in the matter of shedding blood."

Let's consider these three items in light of current trends and new, not-always-widely-publicized technology.

1) Secrecy has been around since there were two people to share a secret. Nothing new there as far as human nature. But technology has changed; we can write programs to hide and decode secret messages in text (when existing languages get boring, we can even invent new ones!), images, sound files, song lyrics, data headers and artifacts, etc. and transmit them in many different ways. The diversity of mechanisms to share secrets has never been so large as it is now.

To end secret combinations, one logically targets secrecy. Go cryptography experts who use their talents to do good!

The research done in the field of neuromarketing can also be used to see what people prefer deep down. Maybe only God could look on the heart two thousand years ago, but modern technology can allow us to get a much better photo of the heart's outlines than human societies used to be able to capture.

2) Organizations have also been around forever. We start out being born into families. 

Modern technology allows organizations and networks to develop and thrive between people who would never meet in real life. 

Got an ex-wife you want to harass over the internet? Find someone, or more likely some bot-providing programmer, on a "dark" web to do it for you while you're super busy with other things and can look uninvolved. (Sounds improbable? Hmmm, you hang out with a nicer crowd than I have.)

Modern technology can also be used to track down these connections and networks, though. It's only a matter of time till law enforcement realizes how easy the "smart" criminals are to catch and have convicting evidence on, due to the criminals' heavy reliance on the internets. If there's not a quiet market already for scrubbing one's tech activity, there certainly will be.

3) Lastly, lack of squeamishness. That's a tough one because we are currently dealing with a world where hearts have been being hardened. 

There is a temporary feeling of superiority that comes from feeling above taboos. I think it's a sad, ultimately doomed way to feel good, for it inevitably ends with everyone else (even other taboo-breakers) disliking you if you go too far. Those taboos developed for a reason; either nature has selected for them or God put them there, but they are like kite strings that hold us aloft--cut them, and one plummets after an initial upward rush.

Algorithms and technology influence what we see and hear and thus what we think. Our feelings get manipulated regularly to drive us to make decisions in the marketplace, at the ballot box, with respect to social trends, etc.

I don't think we can end algorithmic manipulation of us. But I think we can harness it for good. Most people hate, absolutely hate, being told what to do. But they will obey their paid fitness coaches because they want the results of heeding them.

Organizations and people should be up front about how they manipulate people and let them choose for themselves whether they want that technology used on them. (And vague "terms and conditions" aren't what I am talking about.) I want to be able to find services that help me be more creative (without them being creative instead of me), a better cook, more perceptive in my interactions with others (again, without doing it all for me), less addicted to harmful behaviors and prejudices, and so forth. 

Help me achieve the goals that bring me actual satisfaction, and I will support you in return. I want to see a truly interdependent marketplace of goods and services instead of the one we have now that is too dependent on using each other--maximizing ignorance in order to do so--in exploitative ways.

What if medical care actually cured? What if dating sites helped people find someone they're going to stay with instead of being a repeat client in five years? What if churches were less divisive and heeded Jesus's call to unity? What if life insurance companies didn't reap financial benefit from other companies' clients suffering harm? What if plowshare manufacturing were prioritized over weaponry? What if people were taught how to live peacefully with each other instead of being "radicalized" via tech?

I think we are in a messy time right now where some early developers of new technology decided to use it foremost to make money rather than sharing it publicly. Nothing wrong with earning money honestly, but as so often happens, dishonesty existed side-by-side with honesty and has temporarily won out. Nobody has more to gain from non-disclosure than do criminals.

I hope we get through this time to a brighter future.

[Update 5/11/2025: Another point Nibley makes is that Asiatic and Jaredite wars both tend to be ones of annihilation, often mutual.

The insane wars of the Jaredite chiefs ended in the complete annihilation of both sides, with the kings the last to go. The same thing had almost happened earlier in the days of Akish, when a civil war between him and his sons reduced the population to thirty....This all seems improbable to us, but two circumstances peculiar to Asiatic warfare explain why the phenomenon is by no means without parallel: (1) Since every war is strictly a personal contest between kings, the battle must continue until one of the kings falls or is taken. (2) And yet things are so arranged that the king must be the very last to fall, the whole army existing for the sole purpose of defending his person. This is clearly seen in the game of chess, in which all pieces are expendable except the king, who can never be taken.

To me, this means we should do all we can to prevent having unequal strata of governance, since the people at the top will "sacrifice" others to preserve their lives and positions. 

(I put sacrifice in quotes here because tossing a loved one off a cliff, a la Thanos in the recent Marvel movies, is what I call murder, not the "sacrifice" he claims it was. Thanos is wrong to say he loved his foster child when he was willing to use her as a pawn to get something else. Love goes deeper than the mere fondness he exhibits. Love includes a desire to promote the well-being of the beloved person.)

Government "by the people" as an egalitarian society is a goal we should seek if only for survival, although it has much else to recommend it. :)

The Jaredites' final battle is interesting in that the two opposing sides roughly kept balanced numbers with each other as they fought to the death, kind of like a Frisbee or flying saucer working to stay horizontal as it spins into an incinerator. What philosophies are so convincing that people will forfeit their own futures to be able to kill others? Whatever the philosophies are, they are foreign to the ideals and truths Jesus taught and do not bring happiness, so I think most people reject them.]

My most recent experiment

As I have previously announced on multiple occasions successful weight loss experimentation only to be unable to repeat the success, I am hesitant to keep doing so. However, one day I think I'll succeed, and I'd like to have a record of all the things I tried. It should be good for teaching my descendants the importance of creativity and persistence! 

So here is roughly what I did for the past two days which seems to have potential for helping me burn some fat:

0.5) At least an hour before, drink some celery leaf/roasted banana leaf ash/distilled water (strained with nylon mesh).

1) Microwave for 60 seconds 4 raw juniper berries and some dried parsley leaves. Use a plastic IKEA children cup with a small blue translucent lid so as to keep in any gases formed. Let cool while doing the next 4 steps.

2) Microwave for 60 seconds around 20 raw juniper berries in a white mug with beer salt (for the silicon dioxide in it). Stir with something gold (I use a Black Hills gold earring). Press 2 of the juniper berries into a small amount of salted butter on the tines of a personal blender.

3) Swirl into the (2) mug some roasted banana leaf ash and microwave for 60 seconds more. Stir with the same gold item. Press 2 of the juniper berries into the salted butter, too.

4) Grate some cinnamon bark into the (2-3) mug, swirl it, then microwave it for 60 seconds more. Press 4 of the juniper berries into the salted butter, too.

5) Swirl into the (2-4) mug some dry ash from banana leaves that were soaked in a solution of distilled water and epsom salts and then roasted. Microwave for 60 seconds. Press 2 of the juniper berries into the salted butter. Stir with a silver implement (I used a silver fork handle). Press 3 of the juniper berries into the salted butter.

6) Use the personal blender to make a puree with distilled water and the juniper berries in the salted butter from all the preceding steps.

7) Make "DCT" (microwave 60 seconds dried dill weed on Hershey's cocoa in a Classico pasta sauce glass Mason jar, then stir in with plastic some just-sliced small pieces of Roma tomato).

8) Make "VOC" (microwave 60 seconds in a mug a little roasted banana ash on a little onion powder on Hershey's cocoa), and put some into a room temperature mug ("VOC-lukewarm"). This room-temperature step seems crucial.

9) Pour some distilled water in which dry soybeans have been soaked overnight into both VOC and VOC'. Also pour some of the (6) butter puree into VOC and VOC'. Stir in with plastic, not metal utensils.

10) Pour the two mixes from step (9) simultaneously into the (7) DCT and stir with plastic.

11) Eat half of the (10) mixture. Add some just sliced small pieces of raw green cabbage and eat the rest.

[I tried an additional step with cream of tartar, but I think the potassium in it messes something up.]

[Update 05/04/2025: Leaving out the potassium seems to have resulted in another weight drop over the course of yesterday. Either that or there's a time lag from the day before or the Bertolli's pasta sauce had something special in it...I had three servings of spaghetti at a church fundraiser last night and none of the salad or breadsticks. The pasta was DeCecco's, made in Italy but with added vitamins. The sauce was Bertolli's organic, and I think some ground beef was added to it by the church leaders.

I did do one other thing different yesterday. When I made my broccoli/cacao nibs/gelatin smoothie that I always have with any food eaten after noon, I added into the blender (with the broccoli and cacao nibs) a juniper berry from step one above and a juniper berry from step five above. I had the smoothie at lunch (a low carb lunch of broccoli, cauliflower, and eggs), snacks (some dried cucumber, later an orange, and occasionally a tiny bit of dried chili powder), and dinner (3 plates of spaghetti with sauce). I didn't even exercise yesterday. I hope my scale isn't just messing with me. I really should be using a better bathroom scale if I am going to pay so much attention to it!]

[Update 05/05/2025: I'm down another pound this morning. I'm at my lower weight limit and will have to stop low-carbing for lunch. We'll see what happens next....]

[Update 05/13/2025: I'm not at my lower weight limit, and I haven't been able to recreate the weight loss. (Sigh.) I did have a lovely Mother's Day meal with pasta made by my youngest. Life does go on in many pleasant ways. :)

Because of a possible clue about "jet in toast" and previous successes years ago with heating stevia/silicon dioxide with cinnamon, I'm looking at whether an edible version of "jet glass" (made with silicon dioxide, calcium/sodium ashes, and iron) might be helpful; I'm using the broiler on the oven to "sinter" the silicon dioxide with other things that might have the needed elements to make jet glass. 

Now that I think about it, I have seen toast associated with noticeable adipose tissue depletion before. Several years ago, we were learning about the Netherlands. At breakfast I toasted wholegrain bread for my two youngest, buttered it, then put chocolate sprinkles from the Netherlands on the toast. I also gave them yogurt to eat alongside the toast. Within a week, my two little girls, who weren't overweight, were looking "hollow-cheeked" from something in the breakfast combo.]

[Update 05/15/2025: For some reason, I have been overlooking hafnium, which co-occurs with zirconium and is in foods like spinach beef, and eggs. Based on my experiments and the standard reduction potentials of various ions, a dry microwaving of a source of aluminum, a source of hafnium, a source of lanthanum and hydroxide ions, and silicon dioxide should allow me to make the hafnium (+4) ion, which is tricky to get and must be done with no water present. Hmmm, how to get it: Garlic peel for aluminum, banana leaf ash for hafnium, cocoa for hydroxides and lanthanum, and dried dill weed for silicon dioxide. Yes, cocoa and garlic together....luckily I'm not a picky eater when it comes to strong tastes and smells.]

[Update 05/19/2025: The cocoa and garlic were...interesting. I don't think the combination helped, though.

I'm now looking at what elements can be more easily affected in weight-loss promoting ways when mercury is present. 

Not only can water be used to make solutions at room temperature, but so can liquid mercury. Perhaps mercury is valuable as a medium, but not as an end product. Given prior noticeable weight loss from canned fish noted by me and an adult daughter, together with mercury's reputation for being in canned seafood, this makes sense as the next possibility to try.

Right now, due to previous successes with Scandinavian juniper berries, I'm going to look at scandium. I am specifically going to focus on whether potassium ions in mercury (I think mercury is present in alloy form in some flatware) can help ionize scandium in productive ways.]

[Update 05/23/2025: New direction (well, a prior direction with renewed attention): If I put my silver and Thai bronze flatware in a mixture of powdered eggshell and hydrogen peroxide and then, while they are wet, put them in a 500 degree oven right under the heating element until they are hot and totally dry and then let them cool on the countertop, using the flatware in some of my usual experiments seems to make a difference! 

What am I making? MgO, CaO, SrO, or BaO? A less usual alloy of silver or bronze that relies on annealing? I don't know.

But this is a much better direction than wondering about mercury. First, it's supposed to be safer not to mess around with mercury, Second, I don't have access to deep sea fish, and our US food supply doesn't have any other source of mercury. So, trying different ways of treating the tableware will be my new direction for some time.

An irony about this new direction is that when I was just 17, I worked for two months in the dishroom of a BYU cafeteria, so I have a little experience with just how hot flatware gets in large commercial dishwashers. I wonder if all-you-can-eat buffets and college student cafeterias get some sort of weight-related benefit for their customers from their dishwashing equipment, depending on the flatware and detergents they use. Our new, energy-efficient in-home dishwashers wouldn't be as able to make as much of a difference in alloys or chemical compounds because they don't get dishes as hot.]

[Update 05/29/2025: I think I might be making solid barium (plain Ba), which apparently has to be stored in oil to keep it from becoming oxidized. I seem to be getting small but cumulative weight loss results from 1) heating at 500°F a silver fork handle dipped in a mixture of powdered eggshell and diluted hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and letting it cool at room temperature and 2) then, in the course of microwaving mixtures with beer salt and juniper berries in my experiments, including potassium tartrate (cream of tartar, and a source of potassium ions) at least once and stirring the mixture with the room-temperature silver fork handle.

When I look at a table of standard reduction potentials, steps 1) and 2) both could alter barium compounds such as to create solid barium. I have noticed that my experiments all seem to require some sort of hydrophobic substance (wax, oil, etc.) to be present or they never result in any weight loss, per my years of records.]

[Update 05/30/2025: Never mind about using the diluted hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The results taste "off", so something in it might not be safe. I'll try using tap water with its fluoride ions instead. This being Colorado, the tap water could contain trace amounts of gold, too. Fluoride and gold can also be involved in changing between BaO and solid barium. Kitchen science has way too many possibilities going on....]

[Update 06/02/2025: Never mind about never minding about using the diluted hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). I'll find a way to make sure it's safe, maybe by making it myself with electricity, but it appears to be necessary.

One thing that isn't necessary is magnesium sulfate. Using even a tiny bit of that seems to ruin every experimental possibility, per my records.]