Top all-time · #419
SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD
Personal blog · slimemoldtimemold.comsciencehealth
SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD is a personal blog at slimemoldtimemold.com about science and health. Since 2020, 136 different Hacker News readers have linked it 199 times, most often “A Chemical Hunger: Mysteries”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 13 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
Linked for the 'A Chemical Hunger' series arguing environmental contaminants drive obesity, plus diet posts. Commenters call the writing awesome and compelling.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
2026 (10/30) - Links for October 2026 (10/04) - Three Indie Science Project Ideas (09/30) - Links for September 2026 (09/24) - Cybernetics and Dynamics (08/30) - Links for August 2026 (08/27) - For the Love of the Game (08/21) - Meet the Meetups Czar (08/05) - A Stupid Idea for AI Alignment We Came…
Most-linked posts?
- A Chemical Hunger: Mysteries33 people · 37 mentions · first linked 2021-07-09
- Current Theories of Obesity Are Inadequate9 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2021-07-11
- A Chemical Hunger – Part III: Environmental Contaminants7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2021-07-13
- Reality Is Weird and You Need to Be Prepared for That6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2022-01-11
- SlimemoldTimemold: Could PFAs explain the obesity epidemic?5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-07-28
- A Chemical Hunger Part VII: Lithium5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-08-03
- Potato diet community trial4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-05-04
- Half-Tato Diet Analysis4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-06-24
- The Scientific Virtues: Stupidity, Arrogance, Laziness4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-02-11
- Results of Potato-only diet crowdsourced study4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-07-12
What Hacker News says?
This is a great article but the best part is an off hand link to a book review of A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression [1] which includes choice quotes like > The writer George Jean Nathan claimed that before the 1920s, there existed only eight basic sandwich types: Swiss cheese, ham, sardine, liverwurst, egg, corned beef, roast beef, and tongue (yes). But by 1926, he “claimed that he had counte…
Comment linking /2022/04/04/book-review-a-square-meal-part-i-foods-of-the-20s-and-30s/
on “Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs”Submitted A Square Meal – Foods of the ‘20s and ‘30s as a story · 294 points
HN discussionThere are some interesting coincidences that make me think that the torpor hypothesis might be worth exploring: - Basal metabolic rates in present-day Americans are substantially lower than they were in the past ( http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nqBxKGn... -- Yes, the link is from the aforementioned blog, but you can check the citations). - Mean body temperatures today are lower than in the past…
Comment linking /2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
on “Soybean oil affects hypothalamus, causes genetic changes in mice: study (2020)”Submitted A Chemical Hunger: Mysteries as a story · 137 points
HN discussionThis changed how I view the problem of obesity and the world's problem with diet: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p...
Comment linking /2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
on “Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?”Submitted The Scientific Virtues: Stupidity, Arrogance, Laziness as a story · 119 points
HN discussionEven if it were in DSM-5-*, would that mean it's a standalone disorder? I haven't read much psychology, but this article suggests a lot of psychological diagnoses are just labels for symptoms: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2025/02/06/the-mind-in-the-whe... Imagine that your car breaks down and you bring it to a mechanic and he tells you, “Oh, your car has a case of broken-downness.” You’d know right away: this guy h…
Comment linking /2025/02/06/the-mind-in-the-wheel-prologue-everybody-wants-a-rock/
on “Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels”Submitted Potato diet community trial as a story · 115 points
HN discussionThere's a pretty compelling case to be made that obesity is caused by some environmental factor that is making people hungrier. https://slimemoldtimemold.com/
Comment linking /
on “Why doesn’t natural immunity count in the US?”Submitted Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% as a story · 97 points
HN discussionperhaps ironically, it may be the chemicals in our environment and not dietary choices which are driving high obesity rates: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p...
Comment linking /2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
on “Study finds link between 'forever chemicals' in cookware and liver cancer”Submitted A Stupid Idea for AI Alignment We Came with by Looking at Specification Gaming as a story · 95 points
HN discussionI highly recommend reading this series if you think obesity is a personal failure: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p... Obviously, yes, medical conditions do place burdens on health systems. That's why we tax cigarettes highly. However, in spite of considerable public health initiatives, the obesity rate continues to rise...
Comment linking /2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
on “Pfizer board member suggests end to mask, vaccine mandates”Submitted A Chemical Hunger – Part V: Livestock Antibiotics as a story · 66 points
HN discussionAn even bigger contamination bombshell might be in the cards: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/10/19/a-chemical-hunger-i...
Comment linking /2021/10/19/a-chemical-hunger-interlude-h-well-well-well/
on “Leaded fuel reduced IQ of children born before 1990”Submitted The Didactic Novel as a story · 62 points
HN discussionReminded me of the recent https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/01/11/reality-is-very-wei...
Comment linking /2022/01/11/reality-is-very-weird-and-you-need-to-be-prepared-for-that/
on “Measurement of the W boson mass reveals 7σ deviation from calculations”Submitted Results of Potato-only diet crowdsourced study as a story · 53 points
HN discussionBy the way, I recently read Slime Mold Time Mold's hilarious diet proposal ( https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/04/29/potato-diet-communi... ), namely "only eat potatoes, fry them lightly in vegetable oil if you want but prefer no extra fat, use hot sauce if you want but ideally literally just potatoes, supplement B12 and Vitamin A, definitely no dairy". They claim that this diet… just doesn't require willpower? Mig…
Comment linking /2022/04/29/potato-diet-community-trial-sign-up-now-lol/
on “You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)”Submitted Gradient Descending Through Brinespace as a story · 47 points
HN discussionIt could be much much more than CICO. If you want to read an epic saga on modern obesity and it's theories check out https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p...
Comment linking /2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
on “Thoughts on the potato diet”Submitted Lady Tasting Brine as a story · 45 points
HN discussionThanks! I'm not completely sold on the lithium hypothesis, either. But I find their arguments for some kind of environmental contaminant compelling, especially for the ways in which they refute some of the other major hypotheses for the increase in body weights (e.g. food variety, processed food, etc) Note that the SMTM folks recently published an article responding to the TDS data referred to by "It's Probably Not…
Comment linking /2022/07/05/total-diet-studies-and-the-mystery-of-icp-ms/
on “Thoughts on the potato diet”Submitted A Chemical Hunger – Part III: Environmental Contaminants as a story · 44 points
HN discussionThe only reason the potato diet is interesting to me (and presumably the reason it's interesting to the https://slimemoldtimemold.com/ folks) is the likely relationship to their environmental contaminant hypothesis for the public health issue of increasing body weights since 1980, outlined in a series of posts here: http://achemicalhunger.com/ In short, while the variety and satiety explanations make a lot of sense…
Comment linking /
on “Thoughts on the potato diet”Submitted Every Bug Is Shallow If One of Your Readers Is an Entomologist as a story · 20 points
HN discussionYou're right and wrong. Many obese people have done this and lost weight... and then gained it right back again. Over, and over again. There is a persistent myth that the obese person lacks some spiritual strength or willpower. I think your comment implies this. And yet they do have the willpower to lose weight? And something happened in 1980 which turned 30% of adults into weak-willed moral degenerates, and more an…
Comment linking /2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-part-i-mysteries/
on “Thoughts on the potato diet”Submitted Book Review: A Square Meal – Part II: Politics as a story · 10 points
HN discussionIt also causes obesity and may be the cause of American obesity in the South. https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/08/02/a-chemical-hunger-p...
Comment linking /2021/08/02/a-chemical-hunger-part-vii-lithium/
on “USGS uses machine learning to show large lithium potential in Arkansas”Submitted A Chemical Hunger (2021) as a story · 9 points
HN discussion
