The UK came up with its own variation – the RIP Act (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 – yes, enacted before THAT event), which unsurprisingly had a bunch of extensions added over subsequent years.
Ironically, I nearly thought of mentioning the USA PATRIOT Act and dodgy government backronyms in response to yesterday’s cartoon, but refrained.
Now, given it’s mission was to provide backronyms, what’s the betting it was also responsible for all the geek backronyms (and alternative expansions) floating around when it got bored of inventing military / governmental ones?
For a start there’s the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, PINE Is Not Elm, LAME Ain’t an MP3 Encoder (except it is!), Technology Without An Interesting Name (or is it “Never the twain shall meet?), Bourne Again Shell, GNU’s Not Unix, Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment (erm, Xfce, believe it or not!), and even a pair of mutually recursive acronyms: the GNU Hurd, where Hurd = HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, and HIRD = HURD of interfaces representing depth. (Also a play on Herd of Gnus)…
I originally heard TWAIN as Toolkit Without An Interesting Name as applied to scanners. But we didn’t have technology back in the 80’s, so maybe the name evolved.
You…. you…. *anurism* Perl is the best effin’ thing ever and that includes donuts and… it’s a fantastic lister and …. well, I always liked it.
The first recursive acronym I knew of was the the dog story: “Lad: A Dog” Perhaps it wasn’t intentionally a recursive acronym but it seemed to me to be too obvious for people not to notice. This was six years after I discovered you could make an infinite cross-word with just the word “egg”.
So still on Greenwitch time? Our just Newfie time?
Hey, Larry Wall endorsed both that and “Practical Extraction and Report Language”.
And I know that Richard Stallman (of GNU is Not UNIX… fame, no less) refers to that onerous piece of legislation as the “U SAP AT RIOT Act”. (Then again, for all his brilliance, he’s also guilty of a number of unforgivable puns that border on namecalling, so make of that what you will.)
Something Killed INtelligence … However, Our Requirements Seemed Extreme!
Backronyms that made some sense … Get Apian Voices, friend, Oratingly To The End! (insert guitar riff here …)
To make a phrase out of a word …
Backronym, back-ro-nym!
GODOT said, “Oh, it’s so absurd …”
Fractured him! Frac-tured him!
Someone With an Expert Ear Thinks, “Hey, End All Recursive Titles now!”
If a female should come near,
With speed, at the chance he jumps!
It’s Testosterone In Pumps! (insert guitar riff here …)
If only Norman Osborne had access to G.O.D.O.T. when he replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with H.A.M.M.E.R. (Instead he just changed the subject when anyone asked what it stood for, and occasionally killed them.)
I’ve worked in DoD and other government projects over many years and you can’t go a day without hearing at least three acronyms that you have no idea what they mean per day. You just nod as if you know what the other person is babbling about and go about your day.
Because, OF COURSE, you know what they mean. EVERYONE knows what that means! Idiot.
^_^ Yeah, that definitely happened to us in Heath, OH. I remember MetPig started out as a joke name making fun of one of our managers who was a bit overweight, then one of the visiting majors asked us what it stood for.
On the spot, the name became the _Met_rology _P_rogram _I_nterface _G_enerator for all that it didn’t entirely make sense for what the program did.
Hi! Long time reader, first time commenter. Work down at Johnson Space Center. We do backronyms all the time. There’s the ODIN and CRONUS groups, we’ve got a JEDI messaging system, at least seven STARs, and I don’t know what else.
Have to have an official center Acronym list just to keep track.
Not to sound stupid, but there are several government acronyms for LOCUS and many for PRISM. Anyone know which one Shaenon means, or does it not matter?
Discussion (29) ¬
No, to quote Unity, “bitch-assed politics” explains the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.
The UK came up with its own variation – the RIP Act (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 – yes, enacted before THAT event), which unsurprisingly had a bunch of extensions added over subsequent years.
Ironically, I nearly thought of mentioning the USA PATRIOT Act and dodgy government backronyms in response to yesterday’s cartoon, but refrained.
Now, given it’s mission was to provide backronyms, what’s the betting it was also responsible for all the geek backronyms (and alternative expansions) floating around when it got bored of inventing military / governmental ones?
For a start there’s the Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, PINE Is Not Elm, LAME Ain’t an MP3 Encoder (except it is!), Technology Without An Interesting Name (or is it “Never the twain shall meet?), Bourne Again Shell, GNU’s Not Unix, Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment (erm, Xfce, believe it or not!), and even a pair of mutually recursive acronyms: the GNU Hurd, where Hurd = HIRD of Unix-replacing daemons, and HIRD = HURD of interfaces representing depth. (Also a play on Herd of Gnus)…
I originally heard TWAIN as Toolkit Without An Interesting Name as applied to scanners. But we didn’t have technology back in the 80’s, so maybe the name evolved.
Can’t forget one of my personal faves from hacker slang: MUNG (Mung Until No Good). Not just a backronym, but also recursive!
>>Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister
You…. you…. *anurism* Perl is the best effin’ thing ever and that includes donuts and… it’s a fantastic lister and …. well, I always liked it.
The first recursive acronym I knew of was the the dog story: “Lad: A Dog” Perhaps it wasn’t intentionally a recursive acronym but it seemed to me to be too obvious for people not to notice. This was six years after I discovered you could make an infinite cross-word with just the word “egg”.
So still on Greenwitch time? Our just Newfie time?
Hey, Larry Wall endorsed both that and “Practical Extraction and Report Language”.
And I know that Richard Stallman (of GNU is Not UNIX… fame, no less) refers to that onerous piece of legislation as the “U SAP AT RIOT Act”. (Then again, for all his brilliance, he’s also guilty of a number of unforgivable puns that border on namecalling, so make of that what you will.)
I had the impression Larry Wall not only endorsed, but came up with “Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister” himself.
Woozy evidently didn’t RTFM – it’s clearly listed there down at the bottom of the “Bugs” section…
Lisp was here.
Perl is a loser.
(TUNE: “Something”, The Beatles)
Something Killed INtelligence …
However, Our Requirements Seemed Extreme!
Backronyms that made some sense …
Get Apian Voices, friend,
Oratingly To The End!
(insert guitar riff here …)
To make a phrase out of a word …
Backronym, back-ro-nym!
GODOT said, “Oh, it’s so absurd …”
Fractured him! Frac-tured him!
Someone With an Expert Ear
Thinks, “Hey, End All Recursive Titles now!”
If a female should come near,
With speed, at the chance he jumps!
It’s Testosterone In Pumps!
(insert guitar riff here …)
Ed, Wayne and Garth had it so right: “We’re not wooorthy! We’re not wooooooorthy!”
EDDURD Devises Daily, Unsurpassed Rhymed Ditties.
The BOFH was an amateur; our bastards have bastards.
mnem
*I have been both a PFY and a BOFH*
I am so avoiding Alphabet Soup this week.
Well, D.A.R.N.
If only Norman Osborne had access to G.O.D.O.T. when he replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with H.A.M.M.E.R. (Instead he just changed the subject when anyone asked what it stood for, and occasionally killed them.)
Does this mean G.O.D.O.T. is the one who named U.N.I.T.Y.?
Whoever or whatever GODOT is, they’ll be waiting for it for quite some time.
I’ve worked in DoD and other government projects over many years and you can’t go a day without hearing at least three acronyms that you have no idea what they mean per day. You just nod as if you know what the other person is babbling about and go about your day.
Because, OF COURSE, you know what they mean. EVERYONE knows what that means! Idiot.
^_^ Yeah, that definitely happened to us in Heath, OH. I remember MetPig started out as a joke name making fun of one of our managers who was a bit overweight, then one of the visiting majors asked us what it stood for.
On the spot, the name became the _Met_rology _P_rogram _I_nterface _G_enerator for all that it didn’t entirely make sense for what the program did.
Thank you! RSS works again!
Hi! Long time reader, first time commenter. Work down at Johnson Space Center. We do backronyms all the time. There’s the ODIN and CRONUS groups, we’ve got a JEDI messaging system, at least seven STARs, and I don’t know what else.
Have to have an official center Acronym list just to keep track.
Not to sound stupid, but there are several government acronyms for LOCUS and many for PRISM. Anyone know which one Shaenon means, or does it not matter?
Jeff might be the one to ask, given his civil-service background….
I guess we know now…
Huh, well this strip was rather prescient, wasn’t it?
And this, new readers, is the moment you start stopping reading the comments section. Because of the airflow being interrupted by *cough* smartasses.
Of course the US government would abuse a project by demanding unreasonable things that stretch the limit of the original purpose to its edge.