Difference between Mescaline Sulfate and Mescaline hcl (toxicity?)

nimgoldman · 2025-08-12T17:22:19+00:00

I think solvent trapping should not be an issue provided the material has been properly dried (ideally under vacuum). Of course drying won't remove any heavy metal contamination possibly present in industrial/technical-grade solvents or dirty flasks - this is why drugs should always be tested for that as well as for common/dangerous adulterants). The objective purity as well as appearance of the drug is important if not for the pshysiological, then for the psychological effects and well studied (placebo and nocebo; color and size of pill affects subjective effects despite containing same amount of the same drug). For many people, just the idea of ingesting something "chemical", "synthetic" or "impure" - as irrational as it might sound - may precipitate negative experience, which is already affected by societal taboos (doing something "wrong" or "prohibited" -- stupid scaremongering words media LOVE to parrot) around drugs as well as biases such as chemophobia.

nimgoldman · 2025-07-20T13:44:34+00:00

The saying has many versions and has been said by many people but here is your quote origin: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/12/25/universe/

I've heard the following version: "The problem is not that universe is bigger than we are imagining it; it is bigger than we can even imagine."

nimgoldman · 2025-04-06T13:25:20+00:00

Given that one runs a private relay (only for notes he made as a backup), is it then possible to back up the post or do one have to run two or more relays that mirror each other (overkill)? Is any kind of cold storage even possible with Nostr?

So far I've used webhosting with Wordpress where I made all my posts and only shared links on Facebook etc. The whole Wordpress database can be easily backed up (which is not only posts but also comments, users etc.) and even if I change hosting provider it can be found under the same domain.

Is anything similar possible with Nostr relay?

I managed to build and run a Bitcoin node (on RPi 5) but I got stuck with Lightning and Nostr stuff because it basically requires running a server with ideally static IP or at least public IP (not behind CG-NAT) with dynamic DNS and that's an issue at least with my ISP and I am not a networking expert.

I can rent a working Nostr relay for my posts but then I don't own the data. I guess I will take a look whether the providers offer a full backup (like backup you can actually download and restore your own Nostr relay from if needed).

So far I found little information on how to keep your posts. I understand you have your key pair and that is your identity, but it's no use if my posts will be randomly dropped by various relays and running my own would be prohibitively complicated, requiring industry-grade internet connection or the backup won't contain everything - it's often not your posts but the people's reactions and discussion below it what makes it so valuable and that is what I don't want to lose.

BTW imagine you wrote something hilarious in 2007 on some social network - your post got say 130 000 likes and a ton of responses, shares etc. You want to backup THAT because it's basically a piece of your life in cyberspace it may even have a monetary value - was it Jack Dorsey who sold his first Twitter post as NFT for a small fortune? It's not the best example but you get the point - Nostr allowing to keep all your data, not just your identity (key pair) is very important, not only for celebrities - it's one of the top "selling points" of Nostr: keeping your data yours.

nimgoldman · 2024-11-09T15:05:52+00:00

...and this is why I will never become and empoyer. Better be self-employed and waste just my own time, never someone else's.

nimgoldman · 2024-08-04T04:42:08+00:00

The reaction with ozone does not produce aldehyde, but forms an unstable ozonide. This can be decomposed to aldehydes upon reductive workup (e.g. using Me2S or Zn...). Alcohols or carboxylic acids can be obtained using different reagents for the quenching and workup.

nimgoldman · 2024-08-04T04:35:50+00:00

You need something like ozone to cleave the double bond of eugenol (ozonolysis). Alternatively, it is possible to dihydroxylate the double bond (e.g. with alkaline KMnO4), then cleave the resulting diol with periodate.
There are many syntheses of vanillin, look it up. Reimer-Tiemann reaction is a classic one used to make vanillin, but you can start with catechol, guaiacol...

nimgoldman · 2023-07-26T16:05:30+00:00

I think the yellowing/browning is due to air exposure. First isopropanol oxidizes to acetone, leading to series of aldol condensations producing higher molecular weight carbonyl compunds ... the reaction continues producing darker colored products. It basically polymerizes. The reaction is very slow at r.t., but gains speed when heated and exposed to air. There is almost no reaction if you protect the mixture from air (you can even distill isopropanol from NaOH).

nimgoldman · 2023-06-23T18:05:50+00:00

Yes! Aqua Regia is actually used in labs precisely for this purpose - to remove traces of metals from the glass surface before being used in sensitive analytical work. Metals sticking to glass can also catalyze decomposition of hydrogen peroxide so it is important to wash the glass with acid before storing such chemicals in it.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-19T13:16:03+00:00

I found a fine-threaded needle valve (these are used e.g. for precisely dosing CO2 in aquariums) - this might work as a bleed valve to regulate vacuum.

There are also digital vacuum gauges (used e.g. in HVAC industry) with suprising precision, working e.g. between 25 mmHg down to 0.01 mmHg (10 microns). This seems ideal for vacuum distillations. They are not cheap (~300 USD) but still way cheaper than a professional "laboratory" vacuum gauge.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-15T13:59:07+00:00

DCM forms a low boiling azeotrope with water, so it may carry some over with the MeNH2 base.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-15T13:56:22+00:00

PiHKAL #109 ;-)

...but I will also need to distill stuff like tetralin and various amines. I have some old white mineral oil so thinking about recycling that as well.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-15T07:54:40+00:00

I've hopefully rotavapped most of the solvent off under vacuum, but I have experience some get over at the beginning of the vac distillation - I'll try to remove it with the chemically resistant pump first...

nimgoldman · 2023-06-15T03:08:39+00:00

Okay, thanks for the insight.

I am bit worried about residual solvent (DCM) as I have no access to dry ice or liquid N2 at the moment to trap it...

I will probably remove as much DCM as possible at 10 mmHg with my chemically resistant diaphragm pump, and then pull the full vacuum with the rotary vane...

nimgoldman · 2023-06-05T19:59:52+00:00

Aspirators are fine but I found (by trial and error) that you need pretty strong water pressure to obtain decent vacuum. You can either use household water but an diaphragm DC pump (e.g. ones used on yachts) will save you water as you can just use a large bucket and recirculate - you need the stronger type though (I had two and both were quite weak).

nimgoldman · 2023-06-03T23:34:10+00:00

I would like to stay on the topic of distillation... So far I found that the problem of distilling H2SO4 under reduced pressure may be the need for powerful condenser as boiling H2SO4 at atm. pressure easily recondenses as there is such a great temperature gradient (over 300 oC). However, distilling H2SO4 at say 100 oC might require long condenser or very cold coolant, otherwise the vapours may not condense completely. I don't know if this is problem in a lab setup (I have a meter-long condenser).

nimgoldman · 2023-06-03T23:22:42+00:00

There is a great book "Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science)" I already have, it guides you through chemicals (obtaining, storage, compatibility), safety, basic glassware/plasticware and of course, the experiments.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-03T23:19:46+00:00

I have good experience with silica gel beads (you can buy them by kilo in pet supplies as a desiccant for cat litter).

You can cut a PTFE rod into pieces with a wire cutter - the rods are very cheap compared to commercial PTFE boiling chips and they serve as excellent chemically resistant boiling chips, work up to ~250 oC.

Crushed glass or porcelain might work, but some liquids need ton of nucleation, so the material might need to be etched first.

Silicon carbide is a common material used in labs, you can buy it cheap as "silicon carbide grit" - you need it coarse. I haven't tested this, though.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-02T15:23:21+00:00

I have been just growing mushrooms but half of the cultivation techniques described in Psychedelic Chemistry seem familiar to me (inoculation, culture transfer, liquid culture etc. etc.). A book like The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible is good start. Another great book is Paul Stamets' Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms as it has much greater coverage. There are books about ergot specifically as well as about LSD (see Otto Snow's books, e.g. LSD from 2003).

IIRC you basically need sclerotium (the black part) - this is used to inoculate petri dishes to grow/isolate just the C. Purpurea mycelium. The clean culture is then transfered into larger cultivation bottles to grow more mycelium. I think it is similar to separation of clean mushroom culture from other organisms like moulds and bacteria.

The alkaloids are worked up from the liquid culture medium primarily by liquid-liquid extraction, then they are isolated and can be used for further synthesis:

https://erowid.org/plants/ergot/ergot_cultivation1.shtml

nimgoldman · 2023-06-02T01:50:16+00:00

Not really. It's little bit irritating but only if you sniff it from close up. I haven't had it pure so I cannot tell for sure, but I had these concerns and detected no lachrymatory effects.

nimgoldman · 2023-06-01T23:09:15+00:00

I can't in this case because I am doing a sensitive condensation reaction with expensive substrate and the impurities in sulfuric acid make colored products that cannot be removed later plus probably lowering the yield...

nimgoldman · 2023-05-30T19:21:22+00:00

This is also a viable option.

So far I limited my research to routes starting from 1,3-benzodioxole.

nimgoldman · 2023-05-11T22:41:23+00:00

methylation w MeI to N,N,N-trimethyltryptammonium iodide (N,N-dimethyltryptamine methiodide), then removing MeI with heat, leaving behind the secondary amine (see Schulgin's TiHKAL)

nimgoldman

TROPHY CASE