Puerility Spasm #3

I was put in the mood for chasing down a few regrettable acronyms for my own amusement after reading how The Wisconsin Tourism Federation has "quietly rebranded" after getting sick of providing entertainment for immature bloggers like me. They have now reshuffled their name to avoid the awkward WTF acronym and are henceforth to be known as TFW (Tourism Federation of Wisconsin). Bah...

Here's another bad acronym in action:

"For more than 120 years, the Schaeffler Group with its brand FAG has been one of the leading manufacturers of precision rolling bearings for the automotive, mechanical engineering and aerospace industries."

Yet in all those 120 years, no-one has seen fit to whisper in their ear about "FAG Aerospace" sounding a bit weird?

I'm also impressed by those high-minded types at the National Academy of Sciences for sticking with the name Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), for their scientific journal. I guess they're better men than I.

But the best bad acronyms are ones where the deathly serious nature of the subject is given an unintentionally frivolous or smutty overhaul. Islamic terrorists, for example, are not usually amusing. But if you refer to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the Philippines by their acronym 'MILF' they seem a lot more fun. Same goes for our own Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office when they go by their fabulous acronym 'DISCO'.