2023-01-14 at

Arsenic from rice, risk assessment


- 0.01 mg-As/kg-water : is around the US safe limit
- 0.1 mg-As/kg-dry-rice-grain : is about the best-case scenario
- 1 mg-As/kg-dry-rice-grain : is about the worst-case scenario

- 0.03 mg-As/d/kg-bodyweight : long-term exposure, is where trouble seems to start

So for a 55 kg body, I should aim to ingest no more than 1.65 kg-dry-rice-grain/d ... which seems like a negligible risk. Even that is under the assumption that this was the worst, pre-monsoon-grown, As-rice in the world. Whereas if you go to rice packager websites in Malaysia, you'll see they boast of testing to ensure safe limits.

2023-01-13 at

Creatine is the Bottleneck in Vegan Proteins

( Or, how to save money on food, without sacrificing cognitive performance. )

Home economics breakthrough: I've cracked it.

The main cost of food, comes from meat. Roughly, 

Firm Tofu / Chicken / Beef : source
1x / 2.4x / 2.2x : gross protein mass yield, A
1x / 0.98x / 1.2x : essential amino acid mass yield, B
1x / 2.7x / 6x : raw price, C

1x / 1.125x / 2.72x : price per A = ( C / A )
1x / 0.42x / 2.27x : price per B = ( C / A / B )

... so tofu is cheapest for gross protein, but chicken is cheapest for essential amino acids; however ...

0x / 1x / 1.8x : creatine mass yield, D
∞ / 2.7x / 3.3x : price per D = ( C / D )

... ergo, tofu is useless for creatine, and chicken is again cheapest for creatine.

FOR MOST PEOPLE, ESSENTIAL ACID LIMITATIONS IN VEGAN DIETS ARE A RED HERRING. The real bottleneck for performance is dietary creatine. The goddamn molecule was named after meat, in the first place.

I should have known better. I wish I'd figured this out way back in college, but at least I'm glad to have figured it out before I turned 40. Onward to further optimisations.

So for now, tofu + creatine supplementation will be tested for cognitive performance. Targeted essential amino acid supplementation only when building muscle.

I've used creatine for years. Didn't figure it was the veggy protein bottleneck.Also checking the doses, I now understand better why the "standard doses" are too high for me. Athletic products are dosed at 5g ... which is like 800g of beef equivalent. I usually took less than 2.5g ... today tests have been closer to 1+g which feels just nice, no overreactions ... About 150g beef equivalent.

Otherwise, the body synthesises it at 0.04-0.08g/hour ... much slower than shots.

2023-01-10 at

Discombobulation in Reaction to Advice

I was discussing child development with my friend. Children who have been given only orders and punishment have no preparation for the processing of advice. They may be good at following orders, but may be bad at receiving advice - the implications of bearing responsibility for decisions about advice can make them uncomfortable, to the point of fury. The moral here is, if you want to give anyone useful advice, it is best to first check on their track record of capability in processing advice. Otherwise, such advice may be largely wasted in emotional reackage.

2023-01-08 at

Why People Spend Time with Each Other

Humans cherish time spent with each other. But this is purely due to the fact that human memory is slow-to-write, inconsistent-to-read, and weak-in-persistence. 

This is regularly addressed in science fiction : flawless recollection, instantaneous communication, permanent memory. No one would bother to spend time with other people.

So, if you find my social behaviour weird, just take it from me ... that my memory works differently than most people's ... partly as result of training. I'd prefer spending time training myself to not need to spend time with people, rather than spending time with people.

Life is short. Make the most of it. Hehe.

I hate mayo, but ...

I've decided that while I hate mayonaise, I"ll make a concession for EVOO mayo. I know people don't like bitter mayo, but I think generally vegetable oil is a boring ingredient ... and EVOO is the only generally available EV with an interesting flavour profile. Maybe cold-pressed grapeseed oil too. But heck, I don't think I have the time or budget for tests, yet.

Personal Governance going into 2023

2000 : I got my highschool diploma.

2004 : I figured out how to quantify human experience, and projected that it would take me 20 years to fully absorb the implications of this understanding.

2005 : I graduated from college in the US, and decided to study commerce in Malaysia.

2007 : Having quit my third job, after two years of work, I began pursuing gradschool at home while working. At this point I began to have enough free time for dating, which was severely deprioritised in the stages before that. A lot of commercial distractions happened here, I worked on software engineering, and food and beverage retail. I set segmented directional goals in 2008 ... maybe I should make an updated version.

2012 : I did grad school at home, full-time, for most of the year.

2013-2022 : I allocated a decade for commercial pursuits. I dated the most in this period.

2023 : my schedule tells me it is time to deallocate from commercial pursuits. Time to refocus on studies, for a bit. Perhaps in the future, a greater focus on commerce. Something tells me, my schedule is gonna be hella messy anyway.

Big hmm.