D20 dice made from wooly mammoth ivory

boing
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Early nitrocellulose pool balls sometimes exploded after a very hard hit.

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That actually sounds fun, unless there’s shrapnel.

When I was a kid I read about a comb factory (I think it was in Canada and I think it was either Goody’s or Ace combs) that blew up from a spark. Killed several hundred people. And I think it was still a couple of decades before they stopped using the stuff.

Plastic and Bakelite eventually came to the forefront.

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I agree - but if people are already being irrational, subjecting them to further irrationality seems unlikely to help them to think more clearly.

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I like this telling of the story in the 99 percent invisible podcast. As always, transcribed but better listened to.

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A small fraction of petroleum is used for non-energy purposes.

Usesofpetroleum.png827×599 44.8 KB

A breakdown of the products made from a typical barrel of US oil.

The material Hyatt proposed for the $10,000 prize was celluloid, which yielded inferior pool balls.
The material that actually solved the problem was Bakelite

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We don’t need them to think more clearly. We need them to stop.

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That makes sense for those of us here who already know that it is a worthy goal, The problem is that those who are doing it keep doing it until something happens which causes them to question their motivations. If/when people’s introspection is facilitated, they have more opportunities to re-think their actions. Otherwise, they keep doing the same thing.

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From what I understand that is not the case. All the ivory sellers in Chinatown claim their goods are mammoth ivory or even cow bone: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0fa8d6cdfe494622b21bcc56747ac4d0/obama-ivory-crackdown-leaves-open-california-loopholes

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asked about the difficulty of discerning ivory of the extinct wooly mammoth from that of illegally killed African elephants, said the agency requires a trained scientist to positively identify the species from which any carved ivory object originated.

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Deckard: Elephant?
Cambod. Lady: I think it was manufactured. Look. Finest quality. Superior workmanship. There is a maker’s serial number 9906947-XB71. Interesting. Not elephant. Mammoth tusk.
Deckard: Mammoth?
Cambod. Lady: Try Abdul ben Hassan. He make this mammoth.

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They have a handy flowchart to help (originally from CITES):

ivory_scheme.gif476×665 46.9 KB

You will need:

  • a UV lamp

  • a ruler

  • a magnifying glass

  • a protractor

  • a photocopier with variable contrast.

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* lots of patience

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My family inheritance includes some trinkets that are presumably ivory. Was fairly popular about a century ago. Somehow, I don’t feel embarrassed about it and don’t think I’ll ever be.

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