Whale vomit brings wealth (barf alert)

Sunday Times (South Africa) ^ | Tuesday January 24, 2006 08:35 - (SA)

[traderrob6]

You just can't make this stuff up.

[Cyclopean Squid]

Squids have beaks??? Who knew???

And a tongue lined with spikes called a radula. Fascinating creatures. Giant squid have a rivalry with the sperm whale that is as acrimonious as Michigan-Ohio State, Yale-Harvard, and Yankees-Red Sox.

[Mase]

I just want to know who the person was that looked at whale vomit and said, "I can make some nice smelling stuff out of that."

Good question. I know that they were collecting Ambergris as far back as the 18th century. No one, IIRC, has ever seen a whale puke. They believe that ambergris comes from whales because they find other things like small bones, krill and crab shells mixed in with it. Ambergris became too expensive for making amber style perfumes so synthetics have been created as a replacement.

[EveningStar]

[sully777]

Fascinating

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Quite

[Mase]

What are some of the other "things". I would believe...

Back then, musk was very popular and was used alone as a fragrance and as an ingredient for many other perfumes. The original musk was made from beaver testicles. That's right. That's what we used to make musk. Two pound boxes of frozen beaver balls. Hey, you asked.

No one uses them anymore as they have also been replaced by synthetics. Patchouli fragrance comes from a tree. Plants are the basis for most fragrances and many of them are sourced from the rainforest. Interesting business.

[rdb3]

The "Barf Alert" was well-used.

This is a ch__ch. What's missing?

[MJemison]

I think you are referring to spermaceti. That was used ass a special lubricant, and as an oil in the days before petroleum based oils were available.

I believe it still has some rare applications, (such as certain parts in the Space Shuttle), since it does not break down like synthetic oils. But I might be mistaken.

[RouxStir]

"if they stuck this picture in the whale tank"

Not any longer...have you seen her since her plastic surgery.....she's hot!...until she opens her mouth.

[Gamecock]

Whale puke=Perfume ingredient? How did they fiqure that out????

[Safetgiver]

How did they get the beavers so cold they froze their nuts off?

[TXBubba]

I don't know why, but I'm pinging you to all the nasty articles today

LOL...I noticed! At least they are humorous nasty articles.

[Vaquero]

I think I'm gonna be sick

I googled up a picture of the stuff and remember finding something similar looking that had an aromatic aroma around 2 foot long by 1 foot wide around 36 years ago while walking along an ocean beach on Long Island in the winter. Thought it was whale sh*t. even in 1970 dollars that would have been a pretty penny.

[zeugma]

This is disturbing on many levels.

[jackibutterfly]

Man, I can't stop laughing - "shoots chow" - Talk about descriptive! Whew!

[jackibutterfly]

What in the world is IIRC again???

[Mase]

If I remember correctly. Something I wonder about a great deal more as I get older. :^)

[beyond the sea]

A family on the south Australian coast found a piece of whale vomit on the beach that is tipped to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars

........ the assorted diamonds of 50+ carats imbedded in the sweet vomit had nothing to do with the value.

[Fintan]

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Okay, this really has nothing to do with whale vomit, but I'm pretty sure there IS a beach near where this photo was taken.

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[Fintan]

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How did they get the beavers so cold they froze their nuts off?

 

Y'know, that reminds me of a joke about smelling moth balls...

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