02-013 Dayakattai

02-013
Dayakattai

After writing several posts on traditional playing card decks, I would like to talk about traditional dice. Similar to playing cards, different countries have their own design of dice. And the history of dice is much longer than that of playing cards.

The first traditional dice I would like to introduce is “Dayakattai”. Dayakattai is a pair of long cuboid dice. They are typically made of brass and have dots punched onto the long faces (1, 2, 3, 0).

Dayakattai

Dayakattai is a Tamil dice game played by 2 or 4 people. Although titled as a dice game, dayakattai is actually a board game. The game play involves rolling dice and moving of playing pieces around a board. But traditional dayakattai never sold together with a board. The board is the floor. People draw lines on the floor with a piece of chalk and start playing. And the playing pieces? Just get anything handy from your home.

It is not easy to find chalk nowadays. And drawing lines on the floor will only get your wife angry. So, use a piece of A3 paper instead.

Same as other traditional games, there are slight variations on dayakattai rules between different places. A page on Autodesk Instructables explains the common rule. But the English is quite broken and is not easy to follow. Read also the French version of Wikipedia page to get a full picture of the game.

General Information

Player	2 to 4
Playing Time	?
Age	?
Year Released	?
Designer	(Public Domain)
Publisher	Jayam Traditional
Family	Abstract Strategy, Dice, Race
Score	4.8 (Board Game Geek)

 

Specifications

Dice size	Long cuboid dice made by brass
# of dice	2
Faces	4
Details	The game contains 4 long cuboid dice made by brass but only 2 are needed for the game. It does not come with the board or playing pieces and no instructions.

The game play

Where to buy?

Amazon. 

Dayakattai is a public domain game. Anyone can make. Many local small manufacturers in India produce dayakattai and the price is very low. However, most of them do not ship worldwide or cannot take international payment. Do try your luck on Amazon as I saw some suppliers sell dayakattai occasionally. Brass is the traditional material. Try to get a set that is made by brass.

I got my dayakattai set from a friend. He is an Indian living in Hongkong. After our government has dropped the quarantine requirement on overseas travels, he went back to India to visit his parents. He has not been visiting them for 3 years because of the pandemic. He placed the order for me on amazon.in prior to his trip. Amazon.in does not take international payment and does not ship worldwide. So, the dayakattai was sent to his parents’ home and he paid by his Indian debit card. He brought the dayakattai back to me after his trip and I pay him cash.

Dayakattai set made by Jayam Traditional

The dayakattai set I got is rather no frills. There is not much of packing. It only comes in a small plastic bag with a label on top. The bag was even broken when the goods arrived. But the dayakattai are still in good shape. There are no instructions of the game but a leaflet saying thank you for supporting his small business.

It is always my pleasure for supporting small business. 

A bit of mathematics

Before finishing this post, I would like to talk about the probability on rolling dice.

Rolling a standard D6 dice will grant you 6 possible results, being 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. You do not need a PhD to figure this out. And the probability of getting any number should be evenly distributed, being 1/6 or 0.1667. (This is actually not the case and I will explain later.)

Rolling a pair of dayakattai will grant you 7 possible results, being 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 12. But the probability of getting any number is not so straightforward. Below table shows the ideal probability on rolling each number.

Result	Combinations	Probability
1	0+1 or 1+0	2/16 or 0.1250
2	0+2, 2+0 or 1+1	3/16 or 0.1875
3	0+3, 3+0, 1+2 or 2+1	4/16 or 0.2500
4	1+3, 3+1 or 2+2	3/16 or 0.1875
5	2+3 or 3+2	2/16 or 0.1250
6	3+3	1/16 or 0.0833
12	0+0	1/16 or 0.0833

So in dayakattai, you got a higher chance to roll a 3 and less chances to roll a 6 or a 12.

However, a more detailed study will find out that the probability is not evenly distributed between different side. On standard D6 dice, the one-sixth probability only applies to precision casino dice. As on Western or Chinese dice, the pips will cause a small bias to the randomness. Casino dice have their pips drilled, then filled flush with a paint of the same density as the material used for the dice, such that the center of gravity of the dice is as close to the geometric center as possible.

The phenomenon is more significant on dayakattai. Just roll dayakattai a few times, you will find that there is a higher chance to get a 3 than getting a 0. The reason is because of the pips drilled on the dayakattai caused the side with 3 pips become much lighter than the others. So it is easier to roll a 3 than rolling any other numbers on dayakattai.

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01-025 Animal Tarot

01-025
Animal Tarot

I have seen so much false information of tarot floating around the internet.

Many new age followers, tarot card readers or sellers are actively preaching this as gospel truth on their websites or Facebook. They claimed that tarot has a long history that can be traced back to ancient Egypt. And people have been using tarot for divination since the middle age. Some even claimed that ordinary playing cards were evolved from tarot. These claims are nothing but simply fake.

A simple fact check on internet can find you the truth. Tarot was first found in the mid-15^th century, which is some 600 years ago. And they are evolved from playing cards, not the other way round. However, there exists a theory that playing cards were originated from Egypt. Historians can trace the origin back to around 11^th century AD. Yes, both tarots and playing cards are ancient, but there is still a far way to link them up with ancient Egypt. Cleopatra has never played any tarots.

And tarot is originally designed for playing card games. The history of using tarot decks for divination is quite recent. The practice only first appeared in mid-18^th century, which is less than 300 years in history. However, people started using normal playing cards for divination since the 15^th century. Some are still doing this nowadays and selling their specially made decks on Etsy.

Now, you should know how the merchandisers work out their theory. They took a bit of fact from here and there to construct their story. All they want is to try adding more “history” to tarot decks, making them look more decent and attractive so that they can make more money out of it. For sure, tarot has a long history, but not as long as what many people claim.

Animal Tarot

After introducing the Tarot Nouveau pattern of Bourgeois Tarot and the similar Industrie und Glück pattern which illustrates genre scenes of rural life with no themes, I am now going to show you a third pattern of French-suited tarot deck designated for playing games, the “Animal Tarot” or Adler Cego to be exact.

Since the 18^th century, card designers started to replace the pattern on Tarot de Marseille by different animals. Since then, the deck became popular in most part of the Europe, except in France. France kept using Tarot de Marseille for gaming until the 20^th century and then developed its own Tarot Nouveau pattern, which I have already written another post for that. Card players nowadays have already abandoned Tarot de Marseille for tarot card games. Tarot de Marseille is now produced solely for divinatory purpose.

Animal Tarot

Animal tarot was later superseded by Industrie und Glück in Europe but both patterns co-exist until today. Different animal tarot patterns were once produced but Adler Cego pattern is the only animal tarot pattern still in common use.

Tarot deck in Adler Cego pattern is being played in the Black Forest region of southwest Germany. It is in French suit. Like the Industrie und Glück pattern, it is now produced as a stripped deck with only 54 cards which include of 22 trumps, 16 face cards (images) and 16 pip cards (empty cards). Trump 1 shows the Kleiner Mann (based on Hans Wurst) while trump 2 has mythological hybrids. Trumps 3 to 21 depict real animals. The highest trump lacks the pink panels that the other trumps have on both ends of the cards depicting its rank in Arabic numerals. Instead, it shows a gleeman (wandering poet) and is called the Stieß or G'stieß (Fool). Despite the name (Adler means "eagle"), eagles do not appear in any of the cards.

As its name suggested, Adler Cego is for playing Cego. For sure, the deck can be used for playing other games if appropriate. The pattern is in public domain. At present, mass production is only available from ASS Altenburger.

How to tell the upright direction of the trumps?

I am showing the design of the deck below. Since the deck is double-figured like many modern day playing card decks, it is rather difficult to tell which side should be facing up and which side should be facing down. Luckily, I found a site that can shine some light upon me. 

The face cards of Adler Cego,

all lacking corner indices.

The trump set of Adler Cego

The pip cards, lacking corner indices

Is Adler Cego worth buying?

Technically, you can play all tarot games with a deck of Tarot Nouveau. Same as Industrie und Glück deck, Adler Cego produced nowadays has less cards. Games that require all 78 cards cannot be played with this deck.

But if you want to play Cego in a more “traditional” way, you would like to play with an Adler Cego deck. The cards are beautifully printed and not expensive at all. The patterns are very traditional. Owning a pack of Adler Cego is like having a piece of Bavarian history at home. I recommend that. 

General Information

Player	3 to 4
Playing Time	10 mins
Age	12+
Year Released	1839
Designer	(Public Domain)
Publisher	ASS Altenburger Spielkarten
Family	Trick-taking
Score	7.3 (Board Game Geek)

Specifications

Card size	63mm x 110mm
Deck size	54 cards
# of suits	5 – Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades & Trumps
Details	The deck is in traditional French suit. Pip cards are valued from 1 to 10, but the 5s through 10s in red suits and the 1s through 6s in the black suits are removed. The 4 face cards are V, C, D & R. Trumps consist of 21 cards. Trump 1 shows the Kleiner Mann (based on Hans Wurst) while trump 2 has mythological hybrids. Trumps 3 to 21 depict real animals. Fool card is the highest trump and shows a wandering poet. There are no Jokers.

Game Play

Where to buy?

Etsy.

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06-006 The controversial biography of our taikonaut

06-006
The controversial biography of our taikonaut

The year was 2016. It was a rainy evening. I was on a business trip to Ho Chi Minh City. After work, I was alone in the hotel as usual. As a married man with 2 kids, there are not many opportunities for me to explore a city on my own, especially exploring a city other than the one that I am living in.

I approached the hotel front desk, lowered down my voice, fearing of being heard by others. “Where I can find this?”

No, I am a good Christian. I was not looking for girls, though I know there are plenty in Vietnam. HCMC is a vibrant city. Without doing those no-no things, there are still many to explore. But the thing I was looking for may be equally controversial, in some people’s eyes, at least.

I was scared. I asked the same question in Busan before. The receptionist was smiling at first. But once she heard of my question, her face became black. Immediately, she turned her back to me and said, “I don’t know!” Koreans are friendly people. Foreigners normally won’t get this kind of hospitality, definitely not at the hotel reception. I did not blame her. It was my fault. I was just going too far.

The receptionist in the HCMC hotel was more friendly. She did not only tell me the name of the shop. She even got me a taxi there.

Shop in Phạm Ngũ Lão, packed with backpackers

The area is nothing strange to foreigner. It is Phạm Ngũ Lão, a place packed with low cost hostels. It is a famous district for backpackers, travelling around Vietnam, seeking for cheap stays, food, beer and making some new friends. The taxi stopped outside the Phạm Ngũ Lão coach station. There is where the long distance buses departing from. The taxi driver tried all his body languages to tell me that I should get off there. The place I was looking for is just on the other side of the bus station, inside one of the back alley. He was correct. The shop was just 200 meters away. Only that there is a busy street in between which took me almost two minutes to cross. Crossing a street in Vietnam is sometimes more risky than playing bungy jump, not to mention doing this at night.

I did not know the name of the street at that time. It is not a main road and the time was already 8pm. But I was pretty sure that I was in the right place. One side of the road was completely dark. But on the other side, there were restaurants after restaurants, with hundreds of people dinning, both inside and outside. Now, I got the name of the street from Google, Hẻm 189 Cống Quỳnh. And the name of the shop is Quán Trường 1. It even got its own Facebook page.

Food served in Quán Trường 1, with a bottle of Saigon beer

Quán Trường 1 is a Thịt chó restaurant.

The Menu
I think they mean "Grilled Spareribs" rather than "Drilled"

Yang Liwei’s biography

7 years after coming back to Earth, our first taikonaut Yang Liwei wrote his first ever biography, The long march to space (天地九重). The book was published by the Army of People’s Republic of China. In the book, Yang talked about many things. He talked about his childhood, how his parents raised him and inspired him to be a scientist, how he was recruited into the army, how he was chosen to be an astronaut, the details of the training, his experiences on Shenzhou 5, and what he felt after coming back, granting himself the honor of the first taikonaut in the world. It is an easy-reading book full of information and rare photos. Readers were surprised to see so many details of the Shenzhou 5 can be found inside, as many were thinking that that information should be classified. Clearly, our government is willing to disclose them to the public.

Yang's biography, The Long March to Space

However, one page of this supposedly good book caused criticism. Technically, only 4 Chinese characters inside that are causing trouble. On page 155 of the Traditional Chinese version of The long march to space, Yang talked about the training details prior to his flight. “Actually, the 3 meals that we consume everyday were just normal food. Many friends were curious on what I was eating. They thought that we astronauts were all eating luxury food. I consulted our nutritionists and our cooks. They said our menu were very normal and there was no secret inside.” Then he listed out a sample of menu from the canteen inside Dongfeng Aerospace City.

It is the very dish on the Wednesday menu of that week that caught people’s eyes: 花江狗肉 or Huajiang Dog Meat.

It is this very page that caused the trouble.

Prior to Gagarin’s flight, the Russians has sent a number of dogs to the space to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. Yang’s canteen menu brought up discussions on whether we also have our own version of space dogs. No, Yang has never mentioned dog meat is on Shenzhou’s menu. I have also searched different articles on the internet and browsed many photos of China Space Food, including those I took inside the Hong Kong Space Museum. There is no mentioning of dog meat being served in the space. Seems dogs have never left the kitchen of Dongfeng Aerospace City. Though, this is still controversial enough to mention.

Huajiang Dog Meat
Image Source: nipic

I like dogs. My brother keeps two and treats them like his own children. In many people’s eyes, consumption of dog meat is a taboo. Being ruled by the Europeans for centuries, Hongkong and Macau have long banned the consumption of dog meat. Two years ago, our neighboring cities Shenzhen and Zhuhai also followed. Now, eating dog meat in these 2 cities is no longer legal. Younger generations of mainland Chinese now consider eating dogs as barbaric. But I found some arguments on dog meat consumption are rather irrational or even a complete nonsense.

The most typical argument I heard is, dogs are our best friends and we should not hurt them. Dogs are only the best friends of dog lovers. In many cultures, dogs are nothing but domestic working animals. It is only in the modern world that people refuse to have offspring and treat dogs as their family members.

If you are not convinced, I can give you an example. Due to the limited size of our apartments, many people in Hongkong keeps fish as pet. And I have never heard of anyone saying that he is not eating Filet-O-Fish anymore because he now has an aquarium at home! Dogs found in the wet market are in different species and they have never been raised as pet. Same as we don’t use goldfish to make Fish ‘n Chips.

Other typical argument is, dogs are clever and we should not eat them. Scientists have already proven that pigs are cleverer than dogs. How to explain the pack of pork chop in your fridge?

Many are also sharing videos of dogs being slaughtered on YouTube, saying that killing a dog for food is nothing but barbaric. Some even use those videos to accuse those eating dog meat as uncivilized. I suggest those YouTubers to visit their local slaughterhouse once. I am pretty sure that they will shut up after the trip, except they are vegetarians. Killing a chicken is not much “mercier” than killing a dog.

Dog meat consumption is a matter of culture and there is no right or wrong within. And if there is no right or wrong, then don’t bother other people’s culture, please. No one is saying that they are going to eat your dog. And no one is promoting dog meat consumption in your country. If you are so concern about the feelings of those unknown dogs in a faraway country that most likely you will never visit in your whole life, how much you are concerning about the feelings of your kids, your parents or the one sleeping next to you? Don’t get the priority wrong.

 

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06-005 The first lecture from space

06-005
The first lecture from space

As a Chinese myself, I feel proud to have our own space stations. Back in 2013, when I saw our taikonaut Wang Yaping hosted our first ever space lecture inside Tiangong-1 Space Lab, I was overjoyed. I was even more excited to see further space lectures being organized in the newer and more spacious Tiangong Space Station in these couple of years.

I am not dumb. I know that many consider China’s space programme as a threat. Comments from haters are still on YouTube. No, the Chinese government has not removed those comments. I read them all. I just do not agree on their point of view. Space is too big for nations to compete with each other. I believe all space travelers are heroes, no matter they are a cosmonaut, a astronaut, a taikonaut, or even a billionaire the spent millions for a seat on the Blue Origin. I sincerely wish every success of the India space program and hope that very soon we can see the first Indian astronaut on board their Gaganyaan spacecraft.

Back to the topic, at the time when Wang Yaping was hosting the space lecture on Tiangong-1, there was a piece of information that drew my curiosity. Wang kept saying that she is only the second space lecturer. The first is a NASA astronaut. Her name is Barbara Morgan.

Christa McAuliffe (left) and Barbara Morgan (right)

China did not take Barbara's credit and claimed the Tiangong-1 lecture as the first space lecture in the world. A newsclip from the Chinese government official news agent, the China Daily, gives full credit and honor to Barbara Morgan. Wang, in her letter to Morgan, also shows her gratitude and full respect to her.

Being overjoyed with the first Tiangong lecture, I feel shame that I have not heard of Barbara Morgan. When did the lecture happen? What she has done in her lecture? Presumably, the lecture should be awfully expensive to organize. Is it available to watch on the internet? If so, I definitely would be interested to “attend” her lecture together with my kids. I googled, and found that there is actually quite a story behind Barbara Morgan.

The story of Barbara Morgan

The story began in 1984 when the former president of United States, Ronald Reagan, announced a NASA program called “Teacher in Space Project (TISP)”. The aim of the program is to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration. The project would carry teachers into space as Payload Specialists (non-astronaut civilians), who would return to their classrooms to share the experience with their students. Christa McAuliffe was chosen for the program and Barbara Morgan was her backup. On January 28, 1986, Christa was on board the Space Shuttle Challenger to ISS. Unfortunately, the space shuttle blew up during the take off and Christa died in the disaster. TISP was cancelled later on.

Years later, a successor program to TISP, Educator Astronaut Project, was created and Barbara joined the mission STS-118 and finally made her way to the ISS in 2007, some 21 years after the Challenger disaster. So, Barbara’s “space lecture” is a mixture of joy and sadness.

About Morgan’s “space lecture”

Compare to China’s hour-long Tiangong Space Lecture, Morgan’s “space lecture” is more a combination of several Q&A sessions, carried out on different days to different groups of students. I checked the log files of the NASA mission and summarized all the Q&A sessions as below.

From STS-118 MCC Status Report #13 (2007-8-14)

Then Morgan was joined by Anderson and mission specialists Dave Williams and Alvin Drew for the first of the mission’s three educational events. Twenty children at the Discovery Center in Boise, Idaho, were given the chance to ask questions on topics ranging from how fast one could throw a baseball in space to how being a teacher is like being an astronaut. The remaining two education events are planned for Thursday and Sunday. 

Below is the video recording of the Q&A session with children from Boise, Idaho. The videos were uploaded in 2007. At that time, YouTube only allows a video length with a maximum of 10 minutes. So the Q&A session is separated into 2 parts. The resolution is not even up to NTSC quality.

From STS-118 MCC Status Report #16 (2007-8-16)

Morgan and Drew will speak with the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Va., and children from the area at 7:06 a.m.

From STS-118 MCC Status Report #17 (2007-8-16)

Also today, mission specialists Barbara R. Morgan and Alvin Drew answered questions from students at the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Va. …

Below is the video recording of the Q&A session with students at the Challenger Center. Again, the clip is separated into 3 parts because of the length restriction of YouTube at the time of uploading.

Morgan also answered questions via an amateur radio connection from students in her former school district, McCall-Donnelly in Idaho. Morgan taught at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School from 1975-1978, and again in 1979-1998.

No video was found but a podcast of the Q&A session is available on NASA’s website. The transmission was carried out through FM ham radio on ISS. Please bear with the sound quality.

++ Click here to listen ++

 

From STS-118 MCC Status Report #24 (2007-8-20)

At 10:46 a.m. Kelly, Williams and Morgan will take a break to talk with Canadian schoolchildren from the La Ronge, Saskatchewan area.

 

From STS-118 MCC Status Report #25 (2007-8-20)

Kelly and Morgan also joined Williams for a Canadian Space Agency educational event with children from Williams' home province, Saskatchewan, in Canada. The astronauts fielded questions from seventh and eighth graders on subjects ranging from whether astronauts grow in space, how microgravity affects bone density and what you need to know to operate the Canadarm.

Below is the video recording of the Q&A session with students from Saskatchewan, Canada. Sorry that these video clips are the best I can find.

Hope you have enjoyed the “lectures”.

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