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Author Topic: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.  (Read 128197 times)

Offline JayUtah

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #75 on: June 19, 2012, 10:46:11 AM »
Quote from: ka9q on June 19, 2012, 08:53:52 AM
Who's IDW? Must be before my time.

"Interdimensional Warrior," the instigator of the monumental hoax thread at Godlike Productions.  His arguments are a unique sort of bizarre.  He made a brief appearance at BAUT to attempt to challenge me (and only me), but got his head handed to him in very short order and either left or got banned.

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But every scientist and engineer, among others, learns quickly that every one of the 17,576 possible combinations of three English letters in an acronym has at least a half dozen distinct meanings.

USB = Underwater Stump Blasting
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Offline Jason Thompson

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #76 on: June 19, 2012, 10:53:28 AM »
Quote from: ka9q on June 19, 2012, 08:53:52 AM
every one of the 17,576 possible combinations of three English letters in an acronym has at least a half dozen distinct meanings.

Indeed. Here in the UK there is occasional confusion over the acronym 'STD', which can be applied equally well to a serious health issue and telephone numbers....
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"There's this idea that everyone's opinion is equally valid. My arse! Bloke who was a professor of dentistry for forty years does NOT have a debate with some eejit who removes his teeth with string and a door!"  - Dara O'Briain

Offline ka9q

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #77 on: June 19, 2012, 10:58:09 AM »
I think my personal peak acronym collison factor (ACF) for a TLA is 3. I once had to juggle three separate and valid meanings for "UPS": United Parcel Service, Uninterruptible Power Supply and Upson Hall (a computer RJE terminal at Cornell University). Now it's just two, like USB.

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Offline Andromeda

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #78 on: June 19, 2012, 11:04:38 AM »
Quote from: Jason Thompson on June 19, 2012, 10:53:28 AM
Quote from: ka9q on June 19, 2012, 08:53:52 AM
every one of the 17,576 possible combinations of three English letters in an acronym has at least a half dozen distinct meanings.

Indeed. Here in the UK there is occasional confusion over the acronym 'STD', which can be applied equally well to a serious health issue and telephone numbers....

Don't forget the American custom of Save The Date cards is starting over here as well.

I'm sure there is some connection - you get a STD before the wedding, dial using the STD code to talk about the wedding and if you're really unlucky you can get a STD at a wedding.... (although I think those are called STIs now).
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"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov.

Offline Jason Thompson

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #79 on: June 19, 2012, 11:08:18 AM »
Wow, weddings sound really risky now...
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"There's this idea that everyone's opinion is equally valid. My arse! Bloke who was a professor of dentistry for forty years does NOT have a debate with some eejit who removes his teeth with string and a door!"  - Dara O'Briain

Offline Andromeda

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #80 on: June 19, 2012, 11:13:01 AM »
Quote from: Jason Thompson on June 19, 2012, 11:08:18 AM
Wow, weddings sound really risky now...

Depends what you plan to do at them!  Got something to tell me...?  ;D
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"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov.

Offline twik

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #81 on: June 19, 2012, 11:35:30 AM »
Had a customer once who made LUST videos.

Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.
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Offline JayUtah

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #82 on: June 19, 2012, 11:53:11 AM »
Quote from: ka9q on June 19, 2012, 10:58:09 AM
I think my personal peak acronym collison factor (ACF) for a TLA is 3. I once had to juggle three separate and valid meanings for "UPS": United Parcel Service, Uninterruptible Power Supply and Upson Hall (a computer RJE terminal at Cornell University). Now it's just two, like USB.

The building code for the Undergraduate Library at the University of Michigan is UGLI, which aptly described its architecture until a major makeover in 1993.  Not Albert Kahn's best work.

Gillianren may remind us that to be a true acronym it must be pronounceable as a word, so the A in TLA may have to stand also for "abbreviation," giving us a metacollision of TLAs.

The LUT was originally going to be the Saturn Launch Umbilical Tower.

The one that's most annoying to me is ASCI and ASCII.  Both are pronounced "ass-key," but one refers to the American Supercomputer Initiative (those nice people who give me money to built ever-faster computers) and the other refers to the long-time standard for encoding text in digital form.
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Offline Luke Pemberton

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #83 on: June 19, 2012, 12:56:08 PM »
I used to work for an organisation that had a Science and Technology Directorate. You can't make it up can you?
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Offline LunarOrbit

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #84 on: June 19, 2012, 01:45:33 PM »
When I was a kid I played in a youth soccer league for my home town of Perth. The league was called Perth Minor Soccer. Our shirts all had the letters PMS on the chest.

"Hey, do you want to go see a movie tonight?"
"I can't... I've got PMS."
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Offline Laurel

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #85 on: June 19, 2012, 02:06:34 PM »
Quote from: LunarOrbit on June 19, 2012, 01:45:33 PM
When I was a kid I played in a youth soccer league for my home town of Perth. The league was called Perth Minor Soccer. Our shirts all had the letters PMS on the chest.

"Hey, do you want to go see a movie tonight?"
"I can't... I've got PMS."
Reminds me of the Big Bang Theory episode where the Physics Bowl team called themselves Perpetual Motion Squad. :)
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Offline mako88sb

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #86 on: June 19, 2012, 02:20:52 PM »
Quote from: LunarOrbit on June 19, 2012, 01:45:33 PM
When I was a kid I played in a youth soccer league for my home town of Perth. The league was called Perth Minor Soccer. Our shirts all had the letters PMS on the chest.

"Hey, do you want to go see a movie tonight?"
"I can't... I've got PMS."

My favorite local hobby shop here in Calgary went by the name "PMS Hobby Craft" for years until they decided to change it to the more politically correct "PM hobby Craft' back in 2000. I didn't realize until a few years ago that they started out as a camera shop and the PMS stood for Photo/Movie Supplies.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2012, 02:39:49 PM by mako88sb »
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Offline sts60

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #87 on: June 19, 2012, 02:25:17 PM »
Peripheral Motor & Sensory.  Check the patient before and after applying splints, bandages, backboards, etc.  Good PMS * 4 is what you want.
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Offline gillianren

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #88 on: June 19, 2012, 03:06:47 PM »
My older sister went to the University of Puget Sound.  We used to refer to it as the University of the Brown Trucks to annoy her.
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Offline Jason Thompson

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Re: Hunchback aka inquisitivemind.
« Reply #89 on: June 19, 2012, 03:26:46 PM »
Oddly enough, the university I went to chose not to make a straight acronym out of the school of Cognitive Research And Psychology Studies....
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