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Initials & Acronyms

rynner2

rynner2

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
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uair01 posted this link on another thread:
http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/reaction/re08.html

What interested me was something in the side bar:
One of the most exclusive of these clandestine sex clubs is the International Communist Coven whose monthly bulletin Wiccan Revolution carries the strap-line 'Soviets + Electricity = Socialism'.
Click to expand...
Now many years ago I used to work in sailing for an outfit called the Island Cruising Club. (Now maybe some sex did occur there, but that wasn't the main business of the place! ;) )

Another better known ICC is the International Cricket Council.
http://www.icc-cricket.com/
From the website, they're not interested in sex either. 8)

I've come across several incongruous match-ups of initials - I used to belong to an astronomical society that had the same initials as a local ambulance service!

Any more of these incongruous match-ups?
 
I worked for a computer company once that sent all their parcels using a delivery company called ANC. I don't know how big they are, but I've seen their vans around since. No matter how many years I saw that van rolling up to our warehouse's rolling door, with ANC on the side in huge letters, I would always have the words 'African National Congress' going through my head.
 
Well, this thread didn't get much traction!

Here's another set of initials:

IPCC

International Panel on Climate Control (http://ipcc.ch/ )

or

Independent Police Complaints Commission (http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/ ) ?


(Four letters, but they cover eight different words! ;) )
 
There's a BNP which I think are some Spanish real estate company, kind of weird when you see signs up on buildings with that on.
 
When I was a kid I was always amused by the National Union of Teachers, NUT. They were always going on strike, so we were always getting letters saying NUT had decided on strike action. I always thought NUT was an appropriate acronym for a union containing our teachers.
 
Slightly OT, but years ago when i worked for a large UK bank, my Director told me of a board meeting which was discussing how to position the brand for the American market. There was a deathly silence when one overpaid fatcat suggested Abbey National US................... :p
 
We have a Force Uniform Committee at work......funnily enough they are about the only group that doesn't acronymonimise.*

*IDCITNARW

I Don't Care If That's Not A Real Word
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
We have a Force Uniform Committee at work......funnily enough they are about the only group that doesn't acronymonimise.*

*IDCITNARW

I Don't Care If That's Not A Real Word
Click to expand...

I'm sure the Mothers Union would help out to provide uniforms: Force Uniform Committee Knitters.
 
I have no idea what it means, but I have spotted several electrical/utility panels in walls marked I.D.F. I'm quite sure they aren't weapons caches for the Israelis.

Edit: Intermediate Distribution Frame looks likely!
 
I worked in Nottingham and for a short period for a recruitment agency called IRS, of course my tax was paid.

http://www.irs-recruitment.com/

The workers in the office furniture delivery company I was briefly employed at didn't like anyone who wasn't white and british, and they believed that I was obviously there to blow something up, I kid you not. One of the fellas would always say "Chris, how long have you been working for the IRA...I mean, IRS".

Also, I have a sellotape dispenser that's is made by a company called RAPESCO. Now why would you call your company that?
 
I once worked with someone who used to work on the railways - it may have been in the old BR days. He swore that at one reorganisation there was a serious proposal to change his job title to "Assistant Rolling Stock Engineer."
 
Tunn11 said:
I once worked with someone who used to work on the railways - it may have been in the old BR days. He swore that at one reorganisation there was a serious proposal to change his job title to "Assistant Rolling Stock Engineer."
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In the old days, we had a saturday night ITV entainment show called 'The Assistant Rolling Stock Engineers and Steam Hammer Industrial Team Social Club'.
Colin Crompton used to ring a big bell wearing nothing but long johns and Bernard Manning was still a pie then.
 
NATSOPA; one of the old print unions....The National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants.

Or, as the Private Eye used to call them, the National Association of Trained Strikers and Overpaid Piss Artists.
 
The PTL (Praise the Lord) Club could also stand for "Pass the Loot." :lol:
 
Cavynaut said:
NATSOPA; one of the old print unions....The National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants.

Or, as the Private Eye used to call them, the National Association of Trained Strikers and Overpaid Piss Artists.
Click to expand...


I thought they referred to them as NOTSOBA.
 
Oh dear, what is the beeb coming to?

"He said the investigator discovered they were missing after he trawled a database of 750,000 files using search terms including "child abuse", "paedophilia" and "PIE", an anagram for the Paedophile Information Exchange."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28203914

It's not an anagram, it's barely an acronym! :evil:
 
rynner2 said:
Oh dear, what is the beeb coming to?

"He said the investigator discovered they were missing after he trawled a database of 750,000 files using search terms including "child abuse", "paedophilia" and "PIE", an anagram for the Paedophile Information Exchange."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28203914

It's not an anagram, it's barely an acronym! :evil:
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The Beeb is now run by hipsters with neither life experience, individual opinion, creative thought or sense.

*I'd also like to thank myth for running in front of my infernal combustion car a few posts up waving the joke flag to warn passers by. Or bypassers. Whatever.
 
jimv1 said:
*I'd also like to thank myth for running in front of my infernal combustion car a few posts up waving the joke flag to warn passers by. Or bypassers. Whatever.
Click to expand...

Oops! Sorry, jimv1...
 
I've only recently become aware that "laser" has moved from being an acronym, with specific meaning, to a word with a much looser sense, far removed from the original LASER. Any bright light seems to be able to be described as a "laser" these days.
 
As someone who uses a L.A.S.E.R. Cutter in my own artwork, this annoys me to no end....
 
I recently mentioned the Laser sailing dinghy in the Coastguard thread. This boat has been in production since 1971, and is in use world-wide. From 1996 to 2012 it was an Olympic dinghy class.

But it shows the origin of its name by its sail symbol; radial rays indicate a light source, and one longer ray represents the laser beam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laser ... 588_02.jpg
 
Similar names, but totally different acronyms!

The term "laser" originated as an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation".

Jack Cover, a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969.[9] By 1974, Cover had completed the device, which he named after his childhood hero Tom Swift ("Thomas A. Swift's electric rifle")

(Wiki pages)
 
The TASER acronym is my favourite pub bore fact!

I had to write a lot about them for the work website and that was the only interesting fact I discovered.
 
rynner2 said:
Similar names, but totally different acronyms!

The term "laser" originated as an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation".

Jack Cover, a NASA researcher, began developing the Taser in 1969.[9] By 1974, Cover had completed the device, which he named after his childhood hero Tom Swift ("Thomas A. Swift's electric rifle")

(Wiki pages)
Click to expand...

The first SF book I read was Tom Swift And His Giant Robot. I won it in a fancy dress competition when I was eight. I went as Sitting Bull, I always knew which side I was on.
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
The TASER acronym is my favourite pub bore fact!

I had to write a lot about them for the work website and that was the only interesting fact I discovered.
Click to expand...

There are many more interesting facts out there. For instance... the Japanese have recently developed an artificial nanovagina that measures only one pubic hair across. And it speaks in 7 languages!
 
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