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Lumifer comments on LessWrong Help Desk - free paper downloads and more (2014) - Less Wrong Discussion

30 Post author: jsalvatier 16 January 2014 05:51AM

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Comment author: Lumifer 04 December 2015 09:30:08PM 1 point [-]

I wonder if the olive wood reports are coming from the places (like Spain or Italy) where it's easy to get fresh olive wood... In the States kitchen supply stores (including Bed Bath & Beyond) sell olive-wood spoons ($5 or so), bowls and such, but I don't know how much processing (e.g. thermal) did that wood go through.

I buy olio nuovo here and can attest that it's very different from the supermarket olive oil.

Comment author: gwern 05 December 2015 06:20:11PM *  0 points [-]

I wonder if the olive wood reports are coming from the places (like Spain or Italy) where it's easy to get fresh olive wood...

The anecdotes don't seem to specify that it must be fresh, no. Consider gjm's anecdote right here: I doubt a chess board made of olive wood is all that fresh when it's bought by the end-consumer, and if the freshness made a big difference and the chessboard was just months old, then the effect should've noticeably gone away. (That wood lasts a long time makes sense - the oils and other chemicals must be able to take a long time to leach out in at least some cases, because otherwise, there would be little point to things like cedar-lined closets.)

I buy olio nuovo here and can attest that it's very different from the supermarket olive oil.

Mm. I was kind of hoping for an Amazon link, since I need to do an order on there soon anyway for Christmas gifts.

Comment author: Lumifer 06 December 2015 04:01:11AM 0 points [-]

That place (olio2go) has an Amazon storefront, I think they have some but not all of their olive oils there. You want the 2015 harvest, of course.

Comment author: gwern 11 December 2015 05:48:04PM *  0 points [-]

Well, I bought it and also some olive wood. Both cats ignored both of them. So far not so good.

Comment author: Lumifer 11 December 2015 06:13:45PM 1 point [-]

I know some cat people -- I'll ask if they want to volunteer to transform their cats into guinea pigs...

Comment author: gjm 05 December 2015 09:20:42PM 0 points [-]

Just to avoid misunderstandings: what the cat freaked out over was actually the box that held the pieces. I do not know for certain that the box is actually made of olive wood. I do not know for certain whether it's the wood of the box or the residual smell of one or other set of pieces.

I do agree, though, that it seems fairly clear that great freshness isn't needed. The set wasn't terribly new when the cat that freaked out over it joined the household.

Comment author: Lumifer 06 December 2015 04:01:53AM 0 points [-]

Is the box lacquered or varnished? It's uncommon for items like this to be left unsealed.

Comment author: gjm 06 December 2015 10:16:14AM 0 points [-]

It is, to the best of my recollection, neither lacquered nor varnished.