Or perhaps it’s U.N.IT.Y. I can’t figure out the “T.Y.,” so maybe GODOT can’t either. Of course, I can”t generate over 5000 acronyms per second, either. But not for want of trying.
About 15 years ago I had a job of checking up on some EU sponsored research projects, the contrived acronyms in the directory of projects where something to behold – to the extent that I’m sure a slightly lower stress position could be found for GODOT in academia.
As a young man I was slightly shocked to find that EU research grants required an acronym and it’s meaning. You weren’t allowed to just give a project a cool name.
Aaaaaggghhh! You have unleashed a memetic virus upon my brain, which will now devote all it’s processing power forever to working out what “UNITY” means.
I’m starting to think that this storyline came about from Shaenon and Jeff not being able to come up with UNITY’s backronym. Which is surprising, as its not that hard. For example:
Once upon a time, Mad Magazine spelled that word “POTZREBIE” (back when Mad was comic-book-size) the only reason I remember it was a Jack Davis story in which an iron kettle had the name “POTS-REBIE” on it, because up until then I’d had NO idea how to pronounce it.…
‘we don’t talk about my acronym’ quote: which strip is that from? I can see from Google links that it’s installment_ID=179347 , but how do I turn that into a skin-horse.com URL?
Off topic—and I don’t expect Sarge to address this until after Comic-Con—but does anyone know what’s up with Narbonic: Director’s Cut? The root website of webcomicsnation.com says “Site suspended.” That can’t be good.
Oh, dear. It *is* Godel, Escher, Bach isn’t it? I thought it might be yesterday. I’m not sure that Bacronyms count as a complete or consistant or formal system so I’m not sure that there is an impossible bacronym; just unsatisfying ones.
So what are the ground rules for Bacronyms? To have an unsolvable bacronym there most be either a symbol that can not begin anything[1] *or* there has to be more to the rules than simply a set of phrases that begin with the symbols.
[1] and this would require more rules as a symbol can always stand for itself.
Now, if for example, the rules state that if the acronym must honestly and accurately describe the the entity itself, then an unsolvable bacronym could be U.N.B.A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.A.B.L.E.
*but* the USA PATRIOT Act proves that that is not part of the rules.
@woozy: A Backronym (note the ‘k’, by the way) doesn’t have to necessarily describe itself, but it does have a target meaning. To borrow an example from the comments, if you want to use the acronym POTRZEBIE for a government regulation about the limits of zombie tolerance, “Picture of the really zany elephant buttocks in Edmonton” wouldn’t be an acceptable backronym, while “Political Organization To Restrict Zombies Eating Brains In Excess” would. Also note that a backronym is usually considered unacceptable if its wording makes you cringe, even if it is technically correct.
Changing the subject, I wonder if this has anything to do with UNITY; I don’t know if you can make a satisfying backronym out of it if you avoid using questionable words like “Ylem”.
Godel’s incompleteness theory states that any formal system must be either inconsistant and/or incomplete and thus will contain an “unsolvable” construct.
The book Godel Escher Bach used, as an example, the “unplayable” high-fidelity record containing a string of notes that would cause the record player to shatter.
To come up with the “unsolvable” you need to know the rules. If the rule is “doesn’t have to necessarily describe itself, but it does have a target meaning” than the unsolvable doesn’t lie in the target acronym nescessarily but in the target meaning as well. So, for example, Target Acronym: U.N.I.T.Y and Target Meaning: “A society that steadfastly refuses to have a word beginning with ‘I’ in its name” would be an unsolvable.
But I suspect that isn’t it. But to find out what *is* the unsolvable, we do need to know the rules.
>>I wonder if this has anything to do with UNITY; I don’t know if you can make a satisfying backronym out of it if you avoid using questionable words like “Ylem”.
Difficult? yes. Impossible? No. Undead Necromancy Inside Thoughtless Youth… Well, not “satisfying” but “satisfying” is pretty vague.
We know the first three words are ” Upgradeable Necrotic Independent,” so “Thoughtless Youth” is a pretty good fit. Though, in Unity’s case, maybe “Terrorizing Youth” is more accurate.
Ah, questionble words.
“Dr Lee, does your necrotic super-soldier use the chemical element ytterbium at all?”
“No. That just wouldn’t work.”
“Well, I’m sorry to break this to you…”
And what. may I ask, is so questionable about the word “ylem”? Ylem is a perfectly acceptable word in astrophysics, related to the cosmic microwave background radiation.
It’s a brand-new assignment,
And I’m trying now to brief my team as best I can,
But they seem to have a really poor attention span!
Their line of thought gets bent!
I’m explaining the mission,
And then Unity is interrupting, saying with a sneer,
That GODOT was acting like a “Nega-Paul Revere”,
And Sweetheart turns to her …
I swear, it’s like I wasn’t even here!
I like talking to myself!
Luckily, I do,
’Cause no one heeds me!
Try to brief my team,
It would sure be nice
If someone needs me!
I don’t mind, because
I enjoy the buzz!
Knowing the government, as unfortunately as I do, it is probably SKIN HORSE they they tried. Literary references are NOT S.O.P for naming a gov institution.
So, here’s the challenge, kids: Find a descriptive backronym for SKIN HORSE. Winner gets access to all future Skin Horse comics. FREE!! On my dime.
Have been meaning to mention – the site’s having some problems in Chrome for Mac.
Somebody’s been letting UNITY read again. They should know better.
Perhaps the target acronym was “POTRZEBIE”.
Picture of the really zany elephant buttocks in Edmonton?
Political Organization To Restrict Zombies Eating Brains In Excess?
Or perhaps it’s U.N.IT.Y. I can’t figure out the “T.Y.,” so maybe GODOT can’t either. Of course, I can”t generate over 5000 acronyms per second, either. But not for want of trying.
My first thought as well…
About 15 years ago I had a job of checking up on some EU sponsored research projects, the contrived acronyms in the directory of projects where something to behold – to the extent that I’m sure a slightly lower stress position could be found for GODOT in academia.
As a young man I was slightly shocked to find that EU research grants required an acronym and it’s meaning. You weren’t allowed to just give a project a cool name.
Aaaaaggghhh! You have unleashed a memetic virus upon my brain, which will now devote all it’s processing power forever to working out what “UNITY” means.
>>I can’t figure out the “T.Y.,”
Thoughtless Youth?
Technological Ylem. It actually works.
I’m starting to think that this storyline came about from Shaenon and Jeff not being able to come up with UNITY’s backronym. Which is surprising, as its not that hard. For example:
Undead Nanoform Intelligent Tissue Yoke
Once upon a time, Mad Magazine spelled that word “POTZREBIE” (back when Mad was comic-book-size) the only reason I remember it was a Jack Davis story in which an iron kettle had the name “POTS-REBIE” on it, because up until then I’d had NO idea how to pronounce it.…
Has anyone else been having trouble getting to the Narbonic Director’s Cut? I haven’t been able to access it since yesterday afternoon.
Ok…. That briefing was very informative, but it didn’t actually tell us anything about the current situation.
A certain acronym-appellated agent is looking entirely too innocent in panel two.
Ah man, you’re totes right! To quote her from an earlier strip, we don’t talk about my acronym.
‘we don’t talk about my acronym’ quote: which strip is that from? I can see from Google links that it’s installment_ID=179347 , but how do I turn that into a skin-horse.com URL?
No way UNITY is impossible.
UNliving Infantry to Terrorize Yuppies(or You).
UNliving Intelligent Terrible Yahoo
Both are terrible, but I’m not a computer. And quality doesn’t matter, if literally any output was possible, you’d see that before you saw a crash.
“St. Charlie”?
Off topic—and I don’t expect Sarge to address this until after Comic-Con—but does anyone know what’s up with Narbonic: Director’s Cut? The root website of webcomicsnation.com says “Site suspended.” That can’t be good.
I’m just getting “HTTP 404 Not Found”. Oh well, like this site’s recent troubles, it’ll be back when it’s back…
I contacted the sysadmin of WebComicsNation. He says his tech team is working on it.
I initially had a problem loading it at 8:15 MST, I refreshed and it came right up.
Impossible acronym? Pish-tosh. No such thing.
Oh, dear. It *is* Godel, Escher, Bach isn’t it? I thought it might be yesterday. I’m not sure that Bacronyms count as a complete or consistant or formal system so I’m not sure that there is an impossible bacronym; just unsatisfying ones.
So what are the ground rules for Bacronyms? To have an unsolvable bacronym there most be either a symbol that can not begin anything[1] *or* there has to be more to the rules than simply a set of phrases that begin with the symbols.
[1] and this would require more rules as a symbol can always stand for itself.
Now, if for example, the rules state that if the acronym must honestly and accurately describe the the entity itself, then an unsolvable bacronym could be U.N.B.A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.A.B.L.E.
*but* the USA PATRIOT Act proves that that is not part of the rules.
@woozy: A Backronym (note the ‘k’, by the way) doesn’t have to necessarily describe itself, but it does have a target meaning. To borrow an example from the comments, if you want to use the acronym POTRZEBIE for a government regulation about the limits of zombie tolerance, “Picture of the really zany elephant buttocks in Edmonton” wouldn’t be an acceptable backronym, while “Political Organization To Restrict Zombies Eating Brains In Excess” would. Also note that a backronym is usually considered unacceptable if its wording makes you cringe, even if it is technically correct.
Changing the subject, I wonder if this has anything to do with UNITY; I don’t know if you can make a satisfying backronym out of it if you avoid using questionable words like “Ylem”.
Godel’s incompleteness theory states that any formal system must be either inconsistant and/or incomplete and thus will contain an “unsolvable” construct.
The book Godel Escher Bach used, as an example, the “unplayable” high-fidelity record containing a string of notes that would cause the record player to shatter.
To come up with the “unsolvable” you need to know the rules. If the rule is “doesn’t have to necessarily describe itself, but it does have a target meaning” than the unsolvable doesn’t lie in the target acronym nescessarily but in the target meaning as well. So, for example, Target Acronym: U.N.I.T.Y and Target Meaning: “A society that steadfastly refuses to have a word beginning with ‘I’ in its name” would be an unsolvable.
But I suspect that isn’t it. But to find out what *is* the unsolvable, we do need to know the rules.
>>I wonder if this has anything to do with UNITY; I don’t know if you can make a satisfying backronym out of it if you avoid using questionable words like “Ylem”.
Difficult? yes. Impossible? No. Undead Necromancy Inside Thoughtless Youth… Well, not “satisfying” but “satisfying” is pretty vague.
We know the first three words are ” Upgradeable Necrotic Independent,” so “Thoughtless Youth” is a pretty good fit. Though, in Unity’s case, maybe “Terrorizing Youth” is more accurate.
Ah, questionble words.
“Dr Lee, does your necrotic super-soldier use the chemical element ytterbium at all?”
“No. That just wouldn’t work.”
“Well, I’m sorry to break this to you…”
And what. may I ask, is so questionable about the word “ylem”? Ylem is a perfectly acceptable word in astrophysics, related to the cosmic microwave background radiation.
(TUNE: “Talking In Your Sleep”, Crystal Gayle)
It’s a brand-new assignment,
And I’m trying now to brief my team as best I can,
But they seem to have a really poor attention span!
Their line of thought gets bent!
I’m explaining the mission,
And then Unity is interrupting, saying with a sneer,
That GODOT was acting like a “Nega-Paul Revere”,
And Sweetheart turns to her …
I swear, it’s like I wasn’t even here!
I like talking to myself!
Luckily, I do,
’Cause no one heeds me!
Try to brief my team,
It would sure be nice
If someone needs me!
I don’t mind, because
I enjoy the buzz!
Knowing the government, as unfortunately as I do, it is probably SKIN HORSE they they tried. Literary references are NOT S.O.P for naming a gov institution.
So, here’s the challenge, kids: Find a descriptive backronym for SKIN HORSE. Winner gets access to all future Skin Horse comics. FREE!! On my dime.
Some Kooky Investigators Nonchalantly Have Outrageously Ridiculous Serial Episodes.
I know it’s Dewy’s place but “Touche!”
Of course! Everyone knows it’s “One by sea, two by land”
…wait….
Secret Knightly Institution Nobly Helping Officially Rare Sentient Entities
See Klutzy Incompetent Nincompoops Halfass our really serious emergencies.
Cross species, self replicating, replicates FAST, slightly embarrassing…
” Upgradeable Necrotic Independent Thinking Yeast”.
UNITY could end in Thus Yclept.
Wait… PRISM? Did they know something we didn’t?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29
This is the exact kind of comic where nega Paul Revere would exist.
Guy who rode out to tell everyone the British were leaving