2/6/12 ...Which Starts with L Which Stands for Pound?
Infrequently Answered Question #65: Why is pound abbreviated 'lb' when there's no L or B in the word?
A: It's confusing because 'lb' is not an abbreviation for the word pound, but an abbreviation of another word which is a symbol for pound.
Here's how it works. A pound is a basic unit of weight. Weights can be measured on a balance scale. If you know your ancient astronomy or astrology you know the constellation of the scales is Libra. From pound to weight to scales to libra. So, the symbol for pound is libra which has an L and a B and is abbreviated 'lb'. Hence pound is 'lb'.
This also explains the symbol for the British pound. The money, not the weight. You know, that £ sign. It's a script L with a crossbar for Libra. This is found on a computer keyboard at option-3. But if you hit shift-3 gets you a different pound sign, that # symbol. Well, sort-of a pound sign as it's only a pound sign on a telephone. On a computer # stands for the word number, which is abbreviated 'no' despite there being no O in number.
To go off on another tangent, the astrological symbol for Libra is not £ or # but a horizontal line with a hump in the middle over a straight line. You won't find that on a computer keyboard so you'll have to type out the word. On a telephone pad you'd have to dial 5-4-2-7-2 to spell libra. Then again, there's no longer a dial on a phone to dial yet we say dial anyway.
What I can't tell you is why ounce is abbreviated 'oz' when there's no Z in the word. But you didn't ask so I'm off the hook.
Filed under Infrequently Answered Questions and Blab
2/3/12 The Worst Bargain Ever
I got a puzzle-a-day calendar for Christmas. Here's the puzzle for February 2nd, Groundhog Day, though it has nothing to do with groundhogs:
"Andy flushes the toilet 36 times a day. Each flush uses 2 gallons of water at a cost of 10 cents per gallon. How much do Andy's flushes cost per week?"
Read it all filed under Odds & Ends and Blab
1/27/12 More Fauxcabulary Words
People generally speak differently depending who they talk to. At work you use industry jargon. At the bar with your buds you curse like a sailor. At a family gathering you don't curse like a sailor. Unless maybe you come from a family of salty-talking sailors. The point is, our speech is flexible, we adjust for who, when and where. For this I have coined some bits of fauxcabulary...
flexicon (FLEKS e-kon) noun, words one uses tailored to the audience or social setting...
Read it all filed under Word Definitions & Origins and Blab
Blab Latest & Greatest Shorts
Blab Departments:
Cartoons
Page 1
The Casual Sportsman
Page 1 2 3 4
Fun Facts & Trivia
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6
Infrequently Answered Questions
Page 1 2 3 4 5
Talkin Bout Money
Page 1
Top Tens & Other Lists
Page 1 2
Word Definitions & Origins
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6
Blab Favorites:
Why there are 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour
Why dinosaurs are improbable and tiny men are supermen
Where UPPER and lower case come from
Why there is no channel one on broadcast tv
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and politics
Why it's so hard to change people's minds
Haste makes waste and he who hesitates is lost
Why liberal and conservative aren't opposites
Fauxcabulary, or words I made up
The Sports File:
What are the odds of a parlay?
Links:
Laughing Stock illustration
Cool Quiz
Coyote Blog
Cracked
Electric Universe
Fun Trivia
Go To Quiz
How Things Work
List Universe
Museum of Hoaxes
Plastic
Peoples Cube
The Straight Dope
Suck.com
Zero hedge
Mind Reading Diagramed and Explained
For the first time anywhere I offer this complete illustrated guide to mind reading, or ESP. Though it is not so simple to explain, it is easily understood by the simple-minded. And the simpler the better. So, strap on your pyramid hats and prepare to be dazzled.
The process: An idea pops into the subject's head setting off vibrations, or "vibes", which bounce around in the skull by the process of mental reflection. As the subject concentrates the vibes are concentrated, building up until the thoughts penetrating the brain penetrate the skull and escape as psychic waves...
Or Stupid Automobile Tricks
Lots of people have fond memories of their first car, a warm fuzzy nostalgia for that symbol of youthful independence. First cars are often used cars, often very used. Meaning they might have had more value as a cube of crushed scrap metal than as transportation. Still, the cash-strapped youth of America would buy these zombie-mobiles to squeeze out a few more miles before sending them to remeet their makers. Being a cash-strapped American youth, I participated in this sort-of cash for clunkers program.
Such vehicle leftovers would often as not have some rather unique non-standard aftermarket add-ons not found at any auto parts store. "Features" were added, a wire coat-hanger aerial, duck tape Bondo. And parts were missing, little things, radio knobs, the radio itself, a bumper or two. Many bits didn't work as well as they once had, in some cases not at all. Heaters became air-conditioning, but only in winter. Hand-cranked windows became hand-pulled windows...
Humor Features
How ESP Works Mind Reading Diagramed and Explained
How I Almost Ran Myself Over with My First Car Or Stupid Automobile Tricks
Money Blather Your Guide to Economic Jargon, Lingo, and Gobbledegook
Lights, Camera, Reaction! The Periodic Table of Hollywood Plot Elements
The Miracle Multiplier How to Solve our Economic Woes with Government Math
Those Darn Cats Our deal with the devils
Government Machinery at Work How the Wheels of the Bureaucracy Grind
American History 101 2.0 A fake but accurate account
Watt is it? Musings on the Nature of Light
Space Warps and Wefts What fabric is the fabric of space made of?
The Day the Universe Stopped Standing Still How it all began explained for people who don't take reality seriously
Unnatural Empty Junkfood Words Half-Baked Buzz Phrases and Overcooked Terms
Blogolicious! Form Follows Function Follows Fun
Uranimals Beastly Beasts
Find the Secret Message A different kind of word search
Clever Silliness and Silly Cleverness Tiny minds and tiny urls
Man is a Verb, Woman is an Adjective Dirt is a noun between them
Star Dreck Musings of a semi hemi demi trekker
Unreality TV No shows
Dangerous Hot Air The truth about inconvenient global warming
Not-so-Special Winter Olympics Olympic events you'll never see
Greetings, Earth-things A blog from one step beyond the outer limits of the twilight zone
Don't Look Down Everthing you never wanted to know about air travel
Happy New Year 2007 in review
From Reader's Digest
Venn Again, Maybe Not Another Last Laugh
Quick and Easy Meals For the Cooking Impaired
Cracked Archives
The Future Ain't What it Used to Be
Bizarre Business Cards We Hope We Never See
History's Least Successful Proto Humans
Police Line-ups Around the World (and Beyond)
Trojan Horse Designs That Didn't Quite Make it
Suck.com Archives (off site)
Crash Course Cartoon motorcycle accidents versus cartoonist motorcycle accidents
Suck School of Comic Art How to Draw Funny
Suck School of Comic Art - Graduate Course How to Draw Funnier
Less Money and Inflation Equals Recession
According to mainstream measurements today, the money supply (M3) is going down, GDP is going up, though modestly, and we have inflation. This is impossible. Which I will now explain.
When we hear inflation we think rising prices. Does inflation signify an expanding economy? Can a contracting economy have inflation? What is Inflation?
It seems some people think of inflation only in terms of a rising money supply. These folks would be confused where the money supply goes down yet prices go up. If we correctly diagnose what inflation is, the confusion vanishes.
Why do prices rise? Before answering that we must answer, what determines prices. The short answer, supply and demand. The purest example is an auction. The more people bidding (demand) on an item (supply) the higher the price will go. On the other hand, where there is low demand and high supply prices are bid lower.
Demand is money, supply is goods. Prices can be derived by dividing demand in money terms by supply, or goods. The ratio of money per goods gives the price. This can be indicated as a fraction, M/G. Goods are products and services, in other words production. Put another way, prices are the ratio of money per production, M/P.
Base case: $1000/1000units = $1/unit
The price will change when the ratio changes, when the amounts on either side of the fraction change at a different rates. There are five cases which increase the price of units...
Other Features
Inflation and Deflation Less Money and Inflation Equals Recession
Billiards Bits for Beginners The Shape of Cheating the Pocket With Throw
Flying Made Simple Understanding How Planes Can Fly Without all the Messy Details
How Planes Can Fly The correct explanation of lift for non-engineers
Bernoulli, Coanda & Lift What is What and What is and isn't Doing What
Paradox or Not? Fashionable Fitness Foods and Futility
“Pass the Honey, Sugar” The Processed Food Processed Food Haters Love
What is Money? It Ain't Just Paper
Sure as Debt and Taxes Phoney Profits and Phoney Prudence
Sell Low, Buy Low When not to trade four houses for a hotel
Works for Me Prosperity is as Energy Does
Changes that Changed Everything The 10 Greatest Inventions of All Time?
Better Than Sliced Bread Uncelebrated Inventions Great and Small
Science Legends Things people know to be true that aren't
The Neutering Curve How Neutering Tom is Different than Spaying Ally
Plausible Cause How Many Zeros Must be Added up to Make Zero?
Quasi-Science We See What We Want to Believe
There's More Than One Way to Skin a Cat Three card monty math which may surprise you
Scaring Up Scary Statistics The Numbers May Add up Though the Conclusion Doesn't
Consensus Cascade How the Conventional Wisdom Can be Like a Pile of Oranges
Misleading Indicators Statistics don't lie, but their interpretation and presentation can
How to Balance a Bike One Man's Take on Stabilizing the Unstable
The Wheels That Don't Turn How to Turn a Bicycle (Without Gyroscopes or Cones)
Evolutionary and Uncivil Wars Was there really an American Revolution or Civil War?
The Russian who Killed the U.S.S.R. It's not Gorbachev or Anyone You've Likely Ever Heard of
Romeo, Wherefor Art Thou Such an Idiot? Star-crossed or starry-eyed fool?
Optical Illusions You Often Run Into Don't worry, they don't hurt
Quizzes, Games, and Such
Terra Incognita A Trick Tricky Geography Quiz
Superest Super Bowl League What is the best pre-merger league at winning the big game?
Hollywhat? A Movie Trivia Quiz of the Funny, the Obscure, and the Strange
99 & 44/100 % Pure Amusement A Pop Quiz About Percentages and Probabilities
Internetelepathy I Will Read Your Mind
What Was That Nym Again? Some fun with words