Conversations with GROK

BigUn

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Big’un@Big_un

April 15, 2025

Conversations with GROK

I stumped GROK…
It spun for 2-3 minutes.
It then provided a ‘Retry’ button…
It was stalling for time.
It came back with the answer in about 10 seconds.

Me:
The cassava tuber, which is ground into flour, and is the source of ‘Tapioca’ starch, is highly poisonous. Is there a history of its use that shows how it was discovered and made safe to eat?

GROK:

Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also known as manioc or yuca, is a starchy root crop native to South America. Its tubers contain cyanogenic glycosides, which can release toxic cyanide in the body if not properly processed. Despite this toxicity, cassava has been a staple food for millennia, with evidence of its cultivation dating back at least 10,000 years in Central and South America. The history of its use and the development of safe preparation methods reflect the ingenuity of indigenous pe ...

oples and their deep understanding of local plants.
Discovery and Early Use
Cassava was likely first domesticated in the Amazon Basin, with archaeological evidence from sites in Peru and Brazil showing its cultivation by 8000–6000 BCE. Indigenous groups, such as the Arawak and Tupi-Guarani, relied on cassava as a primary carbohydrate source due to its high yield, drought tolerance, and ability to grow in poor soils. The discovery of cassava’s edibility probably arose through trial and error, as early humans experimented with wild plants. The bitter varieties, which are more toxic, would have caused illness or death if eaten raw, prompting the development of detoxification methods.
The knowledge of cassava’s toxicity and its preparation was likely passed down through oral traditions and cultural practices. Indigenous peoples observed that proper processing—through grating, soaking, fermenting, or cooking—rendered the tuber safe. This empirical knowledge was critical, as cassava’s nutritional value made it a vital crop, especially in regions where other staples like maize or rice were less reliable.
Detoxification Methods
Cassava comes in two main varieties: bitter (high in cyanogenic glycosides) and sweet (lower in toxins, often eaten as a vegetable). Bitter cassava requires extensive processing to remove cyanide, and indigenous methods were highly effective:
1 Grating and Soaking: The tuber is peeled and grated into a pulp, which is then soaked in water for several hours or days. This process allows cyanogenic glycosides to break down and release cyanide gas, which dissipates or is washed away. In some Amazonian cultures, the pulp is placed in woven baskets or tipitis (sleeve-like presses) to squeeze out the toxic liquid.
2 Fermentation: Fermentation, often used for products like cassava bread or beer, further reduces toxicity. For example, the grated pulp is left to ferment, promoting enzymatic breakdown of cyanogenic compounds. This is common in the production of farinha (toasted cassava flour) in Brazil.
3 Cooking: Thorough cooking, such as boiling, roasting, or baking, destroys remaining cyanogenic glycosides. For instance, cassava is boiled to make tapioca or baked into flatbreads like casabe, a traditional food in the Caribbean and northern South America.
4 Sun-Drying: In some regions, cassava is sliced and dried in the sun, which helps evaporate cyanide. This is often a preliminary step before grinding into flour.
These methods were developed independently across cultures, tailored to local resources and culinary traditions. For example, Amazonian tribes used river water for soaking, while Caribbean peoples relied on sun-drying for casabe.
Cultural and Historical Spread
Cassava’s preparation techniques were well-established by the time of European contact in the 15th century. When Portuguese and Spanish explorers encountered cassava in the Americas, they noted its importance among indigenous peoples. The Taino people in the Caribbean introduced Columbus to casabe, which impressed Europeans for its long shelf life—ideal for long voyages. Cassava was later introduced to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders in the 16th and 17th centuries, where it became a critical crop, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Africa, indigenous American processing methods were adapted to local contexts. For example, West African cuisines developed gari, a fermented cassava flour, using techniques similar to those in the Americas. The global spread of cassava highlights the durability of these detoxification methods, which were shared and modified across cultures.
Scientific Understanding
The toxicity of cassava comes from compounds like linamarin and lotaustralin, which, when hydrolyzed by the enzyme linamarase (present in the plant), release hydrogen cyanide (HCN). Modern science has quantified safe cyanide levels (the WHO sets a threshold of 10 mg/kg in cassava products) and confirmed that traditional methods reduce cyanide to safe levels. For example, soaking and fermenting can reduce cyanide content by up to 90%, while cooking eliminates most of the remainder.
Chronic exposure to improperly processed cassava can cause conditions like konzo, a neurological disorder linked to cyanide poisoning, seen in some African regions during famines when processing is rushed. This underscores the importance of traditional knowledge, which was honed over centuries to prevent such outcomes.
Tapioca and Modern Use
Tapioca, derived from cassava starch, emerged as a byproduct of cassava processing. After grating and soaking, the starchy liquid settles, and the sediment is dried to produce tapioca starch. This was refined in colonial and industrial contexts, leading to products like tapioca pearls used in desserts. The name “tapioca” comes from the Tupi word tipi’óka, referring to the processed starch.
Today, cassava is the third most important source of calories in the tropics, after rice and maize, with global production exceeding 300 million tons annually. Its historical detoxification methods remain largely unchanged in traditional settings, though industrial processes now use mechanical presses and controlled fermentation for efficiency.
Conclusion
The safe use of cassava reflects a remarkable history of human adaptation and ingenuity. Indigenous peoples in the Americas, through observation and experimentation, transformed a poisonous tuber into a global staple. Their methods—grating, soaking, fermenting, and cooking—were so effective that they remain the foundation of cassava preparation today. The crop’s spread to Africa and Asia, along with the development of products like tapioca, shows how this knowledge was shared and adapted, cementing cassava’s role in global food security.
If you’d like, I can search for specific archaeological studies or analyze X posts for recent discussions on cassava’s history!

Pictures: 1.,2. Stumping GROK
3. Cassava tubers

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Big’un@Big_un

February 18, 2025

Blast from the past

Baby Sis is having all of her father’s 8mm film library digitized.
I hope that stag film I found isn’t in there.🤣😂🤣😂😂

Here is a short clip of Baby Sis and Mama leaving the hospital.
There’s a handsome 13 yr old young fella that carries her.

For reference, Mama was 5’8”, so at 13, I was 5’9”-5’10”.

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Big’un@Big_un

December 31, 2024

Sous Vide

‘Under Vacuum’

I sous vide two ribeyes for supper.
2.5 hours at 132 F.
Here I’m ’putting a sear on them’.
I also put in a large roast at the same time, it will be in the water for 27 hours at 132F before I sear it tomorrow.
The roast should be as tender as Prime Rib.

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Big’un@Big_un

December 17, 2024

Ascension into

Heaven.
I’m jaded when it comes to Cathedrals.
They are my lovely brides favorite thing. She’s even taken an online course all about them.
She loves a flying buttress…
Therefore, I’ve been in a few Cathedrals.
Don’t get me wrong, the craftsmanship and the time it took to build these Monuments, make them incredible.
I just see ‘cause’ for the reformation everywhere.
Especially the one in Toledo, it has a ‘Chapel’ in the corner of the Cloisters dedicated to a bishop and his nephew. Their Sarcophagi, with their likenesses are in the center of the chapel. The Bishop spent the equivalent of millions of dollars, glorifying himself in the 14th century. Money, given as tithes by the poor.

I always try to find the ‘crypt’ to see if they have any ‘Saints’ on display, in glass cases. This Cathedral had one. St Ursula, of the 11,000 virgins. She and her handmaidens were executed by Atilla the Hun, after she refused to marry him.
She is the Patron Saint of young girls.

The one thing that ...

00:01:27

Big’un@Big_un

March 02, 2022

This is my Darth Vader voice

For you doubters…
😂🤣😂😂🤣

Big’un@Big_un

April 20, 2025

The deed is done

Another man has given up the ‘batchelor’ life…

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Big’un@Big_un

April 21, 2025

Tonight’s Protien Bowl

Brought to you by ‘Ingles’ meat dept.

A 1.76 lb (28.16 oz) bone in Ribeye.
I’m Sous Vide’ing’ a 8 oz beef tenderloin for @The_CINC .

I smoked it on my Webber with Bourbon Barrel staves.

1/4

Big’un@Big_un

April 20, 2025

Seneca the younger

“The good man should go on living as long as he ought to, not just as long as he likes. The man who does not value his wife or a friend highly enough to stay on a little longer in life, who persists in dying in spite of them, is a thoroughly self-indulgent character.”

– Seneca the Younger

Big’un@Big_un

November 30, 2022

The Day I Retired

Its almost the sixth anniversary...

Some of you may have looked at my photos and thought; what young looking handsome man… He couldn't be old enough to retire …

Thank you Mama

Anyway, I am 60 and I retired at 55 in July of 2017. I was given a retainer for two more months in order to be on call. I couldn’t always get a reliable Internet connection and I can’t take someone’s money for nothing, so I shut that down in Sept 2017…

So you are thinking, what day in July did you retire? I didn’t really retire in July 2017. I quit going to work then…

I retired Thursday, around 1:35 PM, December 15, 2016…

Life was good for @The_CINC and I.

It was shortly before Christmas 2016. Tiny dancer, our surprise baby was a junior in college. We had a 4K sqft house on 7 acres, 40 miles south of Washington DC. It was our second house in 33 yrs of marriage. We had lived there for over 20 yrs. The final house payment was due Nov 10, 2017.

The CINC was at the highest point you can achieve as a civilian Govt Employee without going into the Senior Executive Service. When she was offered SES, the CINC had gotten to the point at which it would have meant more work, more time away from home, for no more money (because of the pay structure) for at least five to seven years. We also knew we wanted to Retire, so it made no sense to invest the time required for an SES position.

She worked for OSD, DOD, WHS (The office that runs the Pentagon, they are the ‘Landlords’) for 34 years. At one point she ran a division that had a yearly budget of $1 Billion.

She would be eligible to retire in April 2017. We really hadn’t decided what we were going to do. My top-secret NSA/DOD clearance was supposed to be coming through anytime. One of my specialties was encrypted secure communications.

I was a subcontractor for IBM and they were paying $50,000 for my vetting. It had been 2 years because I was a traveling consultant that didn’t associate with my neighbors… I was gone all of the time and I couldn’t see any of them from my house anyway..

Once that clearance came through, I could double or triple my salary which wasn’t small in the first place.

Here we were, at the top of our earning potential, few bills, house almost paid for, kids all gone…

Life was good…

Then Thursday, around 1:35 PM, December 15, 2016, happened…

I was in Birmingham AL, working at the US HQ, of a regional US bank that had been acquired by a Spanish bank. I was digitizing and updating their manual and electronic bank and treasury transactions. I had been on this contract for three years. The last 10 months or so I had been mostly remote, working from my lazy boy.

They wanted me to come in for some end of the year meetings and Christmas parties.

I flew in Monday mornings, getting to the office around 10:00 AM. I would work 10 hours Monday, 12-14 Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-8 Thursday and then catch a flight home around 4:00 pm Thursday. I would have 40-45 hours in 4 days by the time I caught my flight home.

I was sitting at my ‘station’, there weren’t really ‘cubes’, just tables with 3-4” dividers that had plugs. It was basically a giant open room, semi closed at each end by meeting rooms. My seat was near the meeting rooms. Behind me to my right was a large opening which led to a spacious elevator lobby.

The bank of elevators were the divider for another large working area. If you really tried, you could easily get 150-200 people in the elevator lobby.

I had just come back from lunch. I was trying to wrap a few things up before heading to the airport. A woman calmly walks behind me and says “Does anybody know first aid?”

I stood up “Excuse me?!?” She pointed to the elevator lobby behind her.

So I walked that way to see what was happening…

I am a trained first responder. I was a police officer at the pentagon and I was a FFX County VA police officer. I am also a trained BSA leader with back country first aid training.

As I entered the elevator lobby I saw an extremely obese man laying partially on his back. A woman by his side rubbing his hand looking concerned. Another man near his feet watching. I looked around, there were about 10 gawkers.

“MA’AM!”

I startled the woman to look at me…

“We have to treat him for shock”

First thing I could think of, get him flat on his back, elevate his feet.

"Go get that footstool"

That gave her something to do and think about.

I looked at the gentleman "Find me something to keep him warm."

I got him on his back. He must have weighed 400 Lbs.

I ripped his shirt open, put my head on his chest.

No Breathing, no heartbeat.

I took his pulse at his carotid artery to make sure.

No, pulse, his face was white, blue lips, his eye lids were partially open, his eyes were already clouding over...

He was already dead.

I looked up for a second...

At least 175-200 people were watching me...

I could hear people sobbing..

Where the hell did they all come from?

So I measured up his sternum, and began compressions..

If you've never really done CPR...

The first time will gross you out. I broke every bone in his chest away from his sternum. It sounded like I was crushing a bag of potato chips.

Another gentleman, kneeling beside me asked "Shouldn't you do the breaths?"

I was doing this for show. I knew he was dead. I have seen and handled many dead bodies. He was already dead, he wasn't coming back.

I looked over at the decedent's face, my compressions were forcing his lunch out of his mouth.

"Turn his head to the side, sweep his mouth, knock yourself out."

About that time a woman came over with an automatic defibrillator.

As I was giving compressions, I talked her through placement of the electrodes. She was so upset, she couldn't read the instructions.

She placed the electrodes, hit the switch, and audible countdown started from 15. When it got to one, it would send the charge.

I kept doing compressions until the Defib audibly said 'CLEAR', at which time, for some reason , I through my arms up like a touchdown. As soon as the cycle was over, I started compressions again.

I was starting to get winded, when I heard the elevators open and EMTs emerged.

one immediately kneeled across from me and took over.

I simply stood up, and walked away.

I didn't want to be there anymore.

I walked back to my station, and packed my stuff.

I was going to the airport.

As luck would have it..

I followed the gurney down to the lobby, one of the EMTs on the guy's chest still giving compressions.

On the drive to the airport, the shakes hit... I can stay extremely calm in the most stressful situations, but it takes a heavy toll later.

After arriving at my gate, I sat down, my cell phone rang. It was my boss from the bank "I just wanted to let you know that the guy didn't make it."

'I know" I said, "I knew that before I left, thanks for letting me know"

I called @The_CINC and told her everything. I then said "I don't want to die in a cube farm. Let's retire"

The Bank, and my employer tried to do some kind of ceremony for me. I told them not to, it was a dumb idea. If he would have lived it would have been a celebration of his life. He died, there was nothing to be proud of.

That was why they gave me the retainer...

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