Why Are Pounds Abbreviated as lbs?

One of the GRANDS favorite parts of the Valentine's get-together is the scavenger hunt. In the past, the parents had to help them interpret the clues. Now, they are more capable of seeing through the sometimes tricky verbiage to determine where the next clue (or final goodies) can be found. You can see the first couple of clues here.

Here they are reading a clue they found in the kitchen. You can see SS capturing a video of the merriment.

Do you know why the abbreviation for pounds is lbs? It seems lb is actually an abbreviation of the Latin word libra, which could mean a pound, itself a shortened form of the full expression, libra pondo, “pound weight”. The second word of this phrase, by the way, is the origin of the English pound. What made me think of that? Well, a dude just set a record by eating 182 slices of bacon in 5 minutes. I thought of the word because I found that 182 slices equates to 11.3 pounds of bacon. I cannot imagine eating that much in one day, much less 5 minutes. The guy also has the record for eating the most gyros, birthday cake, frozen yogurt and pumpkin pie.

Yesterday, I shared some of an interview with Jeff Probst. Here is today's installment.
FAVORITE CHALLENGE
“From a show standpoint, the Ba Ba Booey [in Palau], because it lasted 13 hours. So many things happened that challenge. We had no idea it would go that long. When we tested it, I think it went 45 minutes. So the sun starts to set and we have no lights. We’re out in the middle of the ocean. We have guys scurrying back in a boat to base camp to get a generator and get some lights that we can throw up. So in the meantime, we light some fires. And Tom Westman says ‘Uh-unh. I don’t want fires. The smoke is blowing in my eyes.’ And our game is built on fairness so we said ‘Okay that’s not fair. Get rid of the fire.’

“Now we’re still waiting on lamps to come and now we’re in like, hour 5, then we go to 7. Now I got to pee. I’m starving and I’m thinking, Oh My God, this is hilarious. I’m complaining about having to go to the bathroom or want some food while watching people who at that point have been living for 37 days with nothing. The irony of all of that! And then it goes and goes and goes. And then finally Ian opens the door for a life lesson from an elder who schools him, and then we have an impromptu Tribal Council on the dock as they’re getting ready to get in a boat and head to camp. We’ve never had that many elements play out in a challenge. So for that reason, that’s my number one.

“But the challenge that I secretly like the best is the one where we put a railing in the water and we make them hold on to the railing and just sit there until the water. And the tide rises so high that it starts to drown them and they’re shoving their nose up through the railing, because it is such a fight or flight moment. You’re instincts are telling you, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to drown!’ But your brain is saying ‘I’m not going to drown. All I need to do is flip my head up around this iron gate and I’m fine.’ So it’s panic versus thought, and this idea that I want to win but how long can I hold my breath? Oh my God, here comes the water again! I love that torture!”

When I listen to music on my iPod or iPhone, I never put it in Shuffle mode. Do you? I prefer to pick a group or a specific album and listen to that in its entirety. What about you? Anyway, over in the UK, they did a study to see how random the search algorithm is. What do you think? In brief, it is truly random, but our brains find patterns and it seems less random. Spotify actually adjusted their randomizer to make it less random, but to seem more random to us. Go read about it. It is an interesting study.

Netflix releasing 13 episodes of Marvel's Daredevil on April 10? I do like me some Daredevil (or at least, I did years ago when I read the comic books with my brothers). I hope the series is good.

Have you seen the crazy furor online about whether a dress is white and gold, or blue and black? To me, it is white and gold. What about to you?

So, if new music is released on Fridays instead of Tuesdays, are you more likely to purchase it? That is apparently the hope of the global music industry. For me, there won't be much impact. I haven't purchased music in a loooong time.

Who was 'better', Elvis or The Beatles? While the author of this comparison leans towards Elvis, he shows that there are areas where either could make the claim. What do you think?

Have you been to IKEA lately? I confess it has been some months for me. So, of the five new products mentioned in this article, which (if any) appeal to you? for me, I think that only the Tornviken countertop sink would work in our house.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I often use the quirks of our language in both my comics and my blog posts. So, coming across this article today totally tickles my funnybone. To tease you into maybe reading the story, I will share their first example. If it doesn't make sense at first, read what you read again. "Read rhymes with lead, and read rhymes with lead, but read and lead don’t rhyme, and neither do read and lead." And I decided to share a second one because it looks so wacky. "All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life."

The weekend is upon us, people. Don't waste it. Let's get started ASAP.