# Dice are now "number cubes" -- more PC bullshit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 7, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460 "2005-12-07T04:03:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/41 "2005-12-07T18:49:54Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Lice are now “scalp bunnies”. And they have “play dates” in your hair. Hee! 😃 You know how some things just strike you funnier than they should? I’m going to be chuckling over that for quite awhile now. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/42 "2005-12-07T18:57:00Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > I thought “PC bullshit” implied this cause was being advanced by foolish liberals. But if they’re “True Believers” aren’t they more likely to be foolish conservatives? The Religious Right has pretty much monopolized PC bullshit these days. Liberals are almost entirely out of the game. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/43 "2005-12-07T19:21:39Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I peredict at least three posters will now mention they had no idea dice worked like that, and will, in fact, go inspect all their dice just to be sure. 😛 I just checked, and this seems to hold for all my dice except the 4-siders ;). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/44 "2005-12-07T19:30:28Z")
> [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > I just checked, and this seems to hold for all my dice except the 4-siders ;). Works for mine. Then again, they have eight sides, so… ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/45 "2005-12-07T19:45:10Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Look, I think this is a perfectly reasonable policy. If the ban on dice can stop one kid from falling into D&D addiction then it’s all worth it. But as I asked, and **jayjay** corrected, D&D doesn’t use dice. D&D uses number tetrahedron, cubes, octahedrons, decahedrons, dodecahedrons, and icosahedrons. So you can’t win. Either the kids use dice and fall into the sins of shooting craps and playing chuck-a-luck and sicbo, or they use number cubes and fall into the evil that is D&D. Anyone else wonder if D&D would be more fun if you placed prop bets on what you are about to roll? ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/46 "2005-12-07T19:49:50Z")
I work for a testing company, and every state we make tests for do require something about probability and chance in their math content. Aside from flipping a coin, there’s few other ways to describe simple probability situations. Our questions have to be phrased to simulate real-life situations, and we can’t make any references to gambling. Thus, “number cubes” instead of dice. It’s not a PC thing. It’s a CYA-in-case-somebody-sues-us thing. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/47 "2005-12-07T19:50:21Z")
If you all will excuse me, I’m going to go ambulate down to the neaby intersection where me and my “domicled preadolescent males” will use our number cubes to throw some excretions (or “skeletal remains,” in the vernacular of the street.) ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/48 "2005-12-07T19:50:28Z")
If you all will excuse me, I’m going to go ambulate down to the nearest intersection where me and my “domicled preadolescent males” will use our number cubes to throw some excretions (or “skeletal remains,” in the vernacular of the street.) ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/49 "2005-12-07T19:51:50Z")
Hey I violated the UBB software’s one post per minute rule! I am a rock star. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/50 "2005-12-07T20:05:29Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > In the sixth grade, one of my teachers was showing us all about calculating odds using a deck of playing cards. As he was setting up, he told us about a former student of his who was so good at it that he was now banned from the casinoes. I guess Mr. Dann wasn’t that concerned about exposing us to gambling. Heck, in my senior programming course, we designed a program to play 5-card draw. I attribute my complete lack of a desire to play craps to my understanding of basic statisitcs. I always thought the kind of policy where you will not teach kids about gambling is set in place by the gambling industry: the less people understand odds, the more likely they will be to want play games where they think they will win in the long run. Want to stop gambling? Teach kids statisitics, **using dice!** ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/51 "2005-12-07T21:10:46Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > I remember a (possibly apocryphal) story from my days at BYU (owned & operated by the Mormon church) in the 70’s. The Statistics Dept. sent through a purchase order for several sets of dice to be used for classroom instruction. The PO was rejected by the higher-ups until they changed it to request “cubical random number generators,” at which point it was approved. Surely that has got to be apocryphal? I’ve never in my life heard anything bad about dice (I’m lifelong LDS). I’ve known a few people who didn’t like cards, but dice? Oh well, I guess we’re going to hell any way you slice it; my little girls have a can of poly-sided dice that _were once used by their uncles for gaming_, and we call them dice and everything, so we’re in trouble no matter what. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/52 "2005-12-08T03:39:02Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > Hee! 😃 You know how some things just strike you funnier than they should? Yeah. I’m going to be laughing over the fruit punch thing for days. “Honey, would you like some apple juice, or some flavored drink which does not imply any violence towards homosexuals?” ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/53 "2005-12-08T04:02:44Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > I thought “PC bullshit” implied this cause was being advanced by foolish liberals. But if they’re “True Believers” aren’t they more likely to be foolish conservatives? Somehow, some way, somewhere (probably in California), it is a Foolish Liberal’s fault for working with Satan and the damned humanist atheist evil empire to remove God and Jesus H. Christ from the schools with their damned worthless Bill of Rights. > [@asterion](#): > > Anyone else wonder if D&D would be more fun if you placed prop bets on what you are about to roll? Back when I played D&D I was content to make deals with the devil when rolling D20s. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/54 "2005-12-08T04:06:40Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Back when I played D&D I was content to make deals with the devil when rolling D20s. Of course, now they’ve got the whole “take 20” thing, so I guess it’s not quite the same. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/55 "2005-12-08T08:06:22Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Hey I violated the UBB software’s one post per minute rule! > > I am a rock star. You simil-posted yourself. You can go blind from that you know. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/56 "2005-12-08T11:13:34Z")
> [@JustAnotherGeek](#): > > I always thought the kind of policy where you will not teach kids about gambling is set in place by the gambling industry: the less people understand odds, the more likely they will be to want play games where they think they will win in the long run. It’s self interest; if the schools teach about statistics and gambling, the kids won’t grow up to play the lottery. Where will the schools get their money then? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/57 "2005-12-08T12:51:30Z")
“dice” is unspecific, how many sides? I had an extra credit problem that had to do with dice, I figured out the answer for any number of sides. I got the credit, but not extra extra credit. Brian ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/58 "2005-12-08T15:51:02Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > “dice” is unspecific, how many sides? I had an extra credit problem that had to do with dice, I figured out the answer for any number of sides. I got the credit, but not extra extra credit. > > Brian Unless specifically stated otherwise, I believe that 999 people out of 1000 would understand the word “dice” to refer to 6-sided cubes. In fact I’m not completely sure that other multi-sided configurations could properly be called dice. The definitions on [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dice) all refer to cubes with 6 sides. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460/59 "2005-12-09T00:13:40Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Lice are now “scalp bunnies”. And they have “play dates” in your hair. Bwahahahahah. That is spit take funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dice-are-now-number-cubes-more-pc-bullshit/334460.md?page=2)