Too Many Kooks Spoil the Brothel:
Various theories have been put forward in the last century or so
attempting to explain the phenomenon of intertial mass in terms of the
electromagnetic interactions of the charged particles of which that
mass consists.

That is a losing proposition, however. For example, the Z has a
mass of 92 GeV, has no charge and isn't a composite of charged particles.
Inertial mass is simply a poincare invariant and by formulating theories
which are poincare invariant (i.e., using special relativity) you can
explain why ``electromagnetic'' mass or any other ``type'' of mass
(except gravitational mass which requires general relativity) is just
inertial mass.

1) Someone (was it JJ Thompson?) pointed out that, if an electron (etc)
consisted of a little hollow sphere with its charge distributed around
the surface, it would -- when accelerated -- exert an e-m reaction
force on itself. In effect, it would be trying to hold itself back by
its bootstraps. If the electron turned out to have a radius of ~10 x
10^-19 m (?), then ALL of the electron's mass could be attributed to
this reaction force.

The classical electron radius is given by r = e^2/mc^2 = 2.81 fm.
The experimentally determined upper limit on the electron radius
is 1000 times smaller than that, which rules out any classical
explanation.

2) Someone else (??Lorentz) suggested a (quasi-relativistic?) reaction
force based on a charged particle's acceleration through a charged
ether soup.

3) A technically-similar idea has since then manifested itself, in the
quantum age, as the Higgs field (and particle), which give particles
mass by putting up resistance as particles accelerate through the
quantum vacuum or something;

While being responsible for the mass, the so-called higgs does
not provide the means to determine what the mass is, so that doesn't
really count as a way to explain the value of the electron mass.

3a) A more-recent variation was the zero-point field and force (ZPF)
idea put forward by Puthoff, Haisch and Rueda (sp?).

Puthoff is a crackpot. If he has a real explanation, there is
a $1 million prize waiting for him from the clay mathematics
institute which requires considerably less to earn than calculating
the actual mass of any particular particle. All he would have to
do is show that the vacuum of yang-mills theory (his so-called zpf)
must have _some_ mass gap.

Bilge wrote:
Too Many Kooks Spoil the Brothel:

[...]

3a) A more-recent variation was the zero-point field and force
(ZPF)
idea put forward by Puthoff, Haisch and Rueda (sp?).

Puthoff is a crackpot.

Shucks! If you're too good for Puthoff, you're obviously too good for
me, Bilge!

If he has a real explanation, there is
a $1 million prize waiting for him from the clay mathematics
institute which requires considerably less to earn than calculating
the actual mass of any particular particle.

Hmmmm, I'm wondering how I get mine .......

All he would have to
do is show that the vacuum of yang-mills theory (his so-called zpf)
must have _some_ mass gap.