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ich
A contageous fish disease: infestation by the protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. The disease name is just the short form of the protozoan name. In fact, it's short for the root meaning `fish.' Ichthyophthirius is a New Latin construct from Greek roots meaning `fish louse.' The disease is found in tropical marine and freshwater fish, and on Scrabble tablelands with or without a host. In fish, the disease is characterized by small white pustules on the skin and eyes. You're probably thinking ``Ick!'' As it happens, that's how the word is pronounced, and ick is also an allowed Scrabble interjection. You're on a roll!

All three major Scrabble dictionaries accept ich and ichs. Given the ck pronunciation, that's the expected plural.

ich
German: `I.' English is unusual in capitalizing the first-person singular nominative pronoun. In German, in a personal letter, you (or You) normally used to capitalize the second-person pronouns, but I have the impression that this convention is tailing off.

The capitalized word Ich is a noun. All common nouns are capitalized in German, so Freud coined the noun by capitalizing the pronoun. Obviously, that wouldn't work very well in English, so instead we use the Latin pronoun as a noun: das Ich is `the ego.' Our superego is a calque (in Latin, of course) of Freud's Überich. For his Es (nominalized `it,' naturally also of neuter gender), we use id.

A German electronic music group formed in 1989 and dubbed itself ``Das Ich.'' Their music seems to involve a lot of body paint. Fronted by Stefan Ackermann (voices -- probably there's a good reason why this isn't ``vocals'' -- and lyrics) and Bruno Kramm (instruments and music -- probably there's a good reason why this isn't ``melody''), the group is regarded as one of the prominent founders of and contributors to ``Neue Deutsche Todeskunst'' (`New German Art of Death') a musical movement of the early 1990's.

ICHA
InterCellular Hartree Approximation. A restricted Hartree approximation adapted [C. S. Lent and P. Douglas Tougaw, Journal of Applied Physics, 74, 6227 (1993); Tougaw and Lent, J. A. P. 75, 1818 (1994)] to QCA's.

ICHEP
International Conference on High Energy Physics.

ICHIT
International Conference on Hybrid Information Technology.

ICHM
International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine. The Foundation for the International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine is based in the Netherlands. The first ICHM was held in Amsterdam in 1963. It was annual to 1965, then switched to a ``four year timetable which was felt to be more appropriate for a major international meeting.'' The four-year schedule lasted from 1969 (fourth meeting) to 1981. Due to increased interest, the ICHM has been triennial since then. The fifteenth ICHM: Barcelona, 2005. The closest the meeting has ever gotten to the Middle East is Moscow. For reasons unclear from any of the site's webpages, the homepage is illustrated with world map showing continental outlines and a red star near Kuwait.

The official newsletter is called Oxygen. I see that ahead of the Barcelona meeting, the title is given as Oxigeno, which I have a guess is Catalan for `oxygen.' (If it were Spanish, it would need an accent on the i.)

ichnology
``Ichnology is the study of trace fossils, which preserve the activity of animals as recorded by their tracks, trails, burrows and borings.''

The quote is from Duncan McIlroy's introductory chapter of the book The Application of Ichnology to Palaeoenvironmental and Stratigraphic Analysis, of which he was editor. Remember that when you need a word with four consecutive vowels. It was Geological Society Special Publication 228, issued in 2004.

A lot of dictionaries give an older and more restrictive definition along the lines of ``the branch of paleontology which treats of fossil footprints'' (that's not a direct quote but a representative mash-up). This happens to be truer to the sense of the Greek ikhnos, `footprint.' The earliest instance of the word cited by the OED is from 1851.

Ichnologists distinguish ordinary animal fossils from the ones they study (``trace fossils'') by the retronym ``body fossils.''

IChO
International CHemistry Olympiad. A competition for secondary-school students. Each participating country sends four students under the age of twenty. The idea of the IChO emerged at the Czechoslovak National Olympiad in 1968, where observers from Hungary and Poland were present. (Not exactly an auspicious year for the chemistry between nations in exactly that part of the world.) These three countries participated in the first IChO, which took place in Prague, in 1968. In 1971, no IChO was held.

ICHRDD
International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. ``Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development) is a non-partisan organization with an international mandate. It was created by Canada's Parliament in 1988 to encourage and support the universal values of human rights and the promotion of democratic institutions and practices around the world.'' Based in Montreal.

``Rights & Democracy receives the majority of its funding from Canada's Overseas [officially International] Development Assistance [CIDA] Budget through the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.'' (A pittance, actually: a bit over CAD 5 million in the 2000-1 and 2001-2 fiscal years. Still, it's ``on the International Labour Organization's [ILO's] Special List of NGOs.'' How'd they swing that?

ICHS
International Congress of the History of Science. That's right: ``of ... of....'' I imagine this slight awkwardness reflects only an overly rigid translation of the French Congrès international d'histoire des sciences. Described as der Internationalen Kongreß für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (but abbreviated ICHS) in the German-language announcements.

The circular announcing the 22nd ICHS (ICHS05, in Beijing July 24-30, 2005) uses the English acronyms ICHS and IUHPS/DHS in the French- and Chinese-language sections as well.

ICHSSE
International Conference for the History of Science in Science Education. FWIW, ``ICHSSE'' is pronounced in German as ixuh would be in English, and the German name of the letter x is likewise ``ix.'' So in German, at least, it's not an especially awkward acronym. In 2012, the 9th ICHSSE was hosted by the Institut für Physik und Chemie und ihre Didaktik (IPCD, `Institute for Physics and Chemistry and their Instruction') at Universität Freiburg.

ICI
Independent Colleges of Indiana. An affiliate of NAICU.

ICIA
International Communications Industries Association, Inc. The organization's annual ``INFOCOMM International'' is held around June.

ICICX
The International Community Interconnected Computing eXchange, a non-profit, scientific research and Educational Organization. They sponsor the PNC and use words like informatics, ``telecopier,'' ``telematics'' and ``telecommunities.''

ICIP
International Conference on Image Processing. Sponsored by the Signal Processing Society of the IEEE.

ICJ
International Court of Justice. Located in the Hague. Established by international agreement in 1945. Here's a mere gopher site.

[phone icon]

ICL
Inserted Connection Loss. [Telephone communications.] One cannot directly measure this with perfect accuracy, since one is (with luck) measuring small losses which test pad connections may contribute a significant fraction of. One therefore also defines terms like AML (q.v.) and EML (q.v.).

ICL
International Computers Limited. A single company formed by the merger of the largest British computer companies, at the urging of the Wilson (Labor) government in 1968. Amid much hand-wringing in 1990, ICL was bought by Fujitsu. This occurred at a time when many Japanese companies were looking for a way to have a domestic content or presence within Europe, in anticipation of an economically closed Europe under the EC's intensified European integration (to begin in 1992, I think it was). At the same time, the peak of the Japanese ``Bubble Economy'' made Japanese industry flush, and the liquidity was burning a hole in their pockets. In fact, however, Fujitsu already had a ten-year history of cooperation with ICL, which was mostly out of hardware design and had focused on business integration services since 1980.

They have a fairly forthright, yet still amusingly defensive, set of web pages.

ICLC
International Coalition of Library Consortia. And of course, a library is a collection, so this is a coalition of consortia of collections. A first for me, and amazed they haven't conquered the world yet.

I see LC.

ICLR
Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. ``[W]orking to reduce disaster deaths, injuries and property damage.'' In my own twisted mind, I'd prefer to think of them as the Institute for Catastrophic Loss, for short, but I guess you can't have everything.

ICLU
Indiana Civil Liberties Union.

ICM
Interim Corrective Measure.

ICM
International Congress of Mathematicians meets every four years, unless there's a World War on, or too recently completed. The Congress of 1900 was the one where David Hilbert presented his famous list of 23 outstanding problems. Those were the good old days, when Mathematics had a program, and a hope of foundational certainty, that were pounded into the dirt by Gödel.

The 1998 meeting began on Roman Polanski's sixty-fifth birthday in Berlin, and ended in the same city, on the seventy-sixth anniversary of the day ``Tarzan of the Apes'' was published.

As these examples indicate, mathematics is not the irrelevant subject many believe it to be.

ICMA
International City/County Managers Association. ``Creating Excellence in Local Government through professional management.''

ICMAS
International Conference on MultiAgent Systems. The second was in Japan.

ICMCTF
International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films.

ICME
International Congress on Mathematics Education.

ICME
Interamerican Committee on Mathematics Education.

ICMF
Integrated Coupling Migration Facility. Ideally, if it does what it's supposed to, then it should be transparent to the user. Let's hope, and I won't try to explain what I don't understand. Brought to you by IBM. The rest of this entry is left blank.

ICMP
Institute of Condensed Matter Physics. The link is to one in Lviv, Ukraine, that is part of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol. A TCP/IP protocol for sending control and error messages about IP datagrams.

ICMS
International Congress on Medieval Studies.

ICN
InterChange Network [node].

ICN
International Council of Nurses. Also (in French) Conseil International des Infirmières and (Spanish) Consejo Internacional de Enfermeras, abbreviated (CIE). Please don't complain to me about the sexual stereotyping -- I didn't come up with the translations. (I can't imagine why anyone would think of nurses as typically female.) Someone should do something about this terrible scandal.

The ICN is a federation of national nurses' associations. As such, its members are often grammatically female, because in Indo-European languages, abstractions typically are. When the ICN was founded in 1899, it was the first international organization for health care professionals. Its charter members were the national organizations of Germany (DBfK), the UK, and the US (see ANA). The current UK member of the ICN is the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), but that was not founded until 1916. Perhaps the original UK member of the ICN was the British Nurses' Association (now the RBNA), founded in 1887.

ICN
Iowa Communications Network.

ICNC
International Conference of Nuclear Cardiology. This link is for ICNC 5, in Vienna, Austria, between May 2 and 5, 2001.

ICNND
Interdepartmental Committee on Nutrition for National Defense. US government agency established in 1955 to assist developing countries improve the nutritional status of their people. Hmmm... that wording is a bit ambiguous, isn't it. We're not talking about A Modest Proposal here; US government proposals are usually not modest.

You know, in late 1998 the US proposed to give Russia up to a billion dollars' worth of emergency food aid. It took six months before that program could get under way, largely on account of Russian suspicions of US intentions. Apparently one of the concerns was that this was just a sneaky way for the US to support its own farmers. As far as I know, we never offered to ship them grain confiscated from farmers without compensation. (Must be on account of one of those pesky Constitutional rules.)

ICNN
International Conference on Neural Networks.

ICNP
International Conference on Network Protocols.

ICOET
International Conference On Ecology and Transportation. ``Conducted every two years, ICOET is designed to address the broad range of ecological issues related to surface transportation development, providing the most current research information and best practices in the areas of wildlife, fisheries, wetlands, water quality, overall ecosystems management, and related policy issues. ICOET is a multi-disciplinary, inter-agency supported event, administered by the Center for Transportation and the Environment [CTE].''

Interviewed at the 2003 meeting in upstate New York, Nelson Hoffman of the Vermont Transportation Agency explained that putting up fences helped his state preserve its waning frog population: ``It's making sure frogs are fat and not flat.'' Sounds like he took a page from the Jesse Jackson book of rhetoric. It's not easy being green; join the rainbow coalition.

According to Bill Ruediger, of the USDA Forest Service, ``over 200 people a year in the United States are killed hitting or trying to avoid hitting large animals.''

ICOHTEC
International Committee for the History of Technology. ``[F]ounded as the Cold War was being waged with particular bitterness'' -- in 1968? Oh yeah, in-these-troubled-times, as usual -- ``between the nations of the Eastern and Western Worlds. The intent was to provide a forum where scholars of both sides might meet and communicate about matters of mutual interest in the history of technology.'' How splendidly evenhanded. Scientific meetings managed to achieve ``a forum where scholars of both sides might meet and communicate about matters of mutual interest'' without beating their breasts about it. Ah: ``Through IUHPS, ICOHTEC is associated with UNESCO [grrr, grrr], but it has always functioned as a fully autonomous body with its funding dependent on its membership.'' ... ``The rapid political changes that transformed the world since 1991 led to a restructuring of ICOHTEC as a society of individual members rather than national delegations. Members pay annual dues of $25 and institutions $100.'' So the national delegations were paying the dues?

Article 1 of Title I of the ICOHTEC statutes declares emphatically:

``The duration of this association has no set time limits.''
Bureaucracy, unlike mere skin-deep beauty, gets into the blood, breaches the blood-brain barrier, and systematically destroys language ability.

ICOIA
International Coalition of Optoelectronic Industry Associations. It's also unofficially known as the IOA (International Optoelectronics Association). A number of ICOIA members (national or regional industry associations) have acronymic names or at least regularly identify themselves by a standard initialism. Many of those are listed at the appropriate place in this glossary. An exception (because I don't so list it) is OpTech-Net, the German member.

ICON
The Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC). Another of those all-caps non-acronym nonabbreviation, like HYLE. They seem to be common in HSTM.

icons
Here you can find icon icons.

ICP
Inductively Coupled Plasma. In AES.

ICP
Insane Clown Posse. A rap group (two guys, actually, plus infrastructure) with a somewhat cultish following. At some point the group members began to call themselves Juggalos (no e is added in forming the plural). More about this word at its entry.

ICP's sound is rap edging in the direction of rock, with melodies from the more advanced grade-school levels. The language is Detroit inner-city. (You know, like around Wayne State University.) The lyrics are poser violence with high school references. Members of the cult (viz. Juggalos and Lettes) actively seek each other out to hook up and sometimes even marry. Doesn't it occur to them that by the time they're a few years out of high school, this music will mean nothing to them? Eh.

The author of this entry took this quiz and earned a rating of ``TruE JuGGaLo/LettE ~ you know your icp shit. congratz. mmfcl'' on the first try. He also earned ``Bi Sexual-you like both men and women. you get the best of both worlds.'' on the ``Are you gay, strait or bi? ...Girls Only... (UPDATED...WITH PIX)'' quiz, but the pix were a let-down. This clown needs to get a life.

ICP
Institute for Cancer Protection. Previously named the American Health Foundation (AHF, q.v.).

ICP
International Conference on Persons. Shush! It's not polite to laugh.

ICP
IntraCranial Pressure.

I've got such a headache!

Try trepanation for relief.

ICP
Intrinsically Conductive Polymer.

ICPADS
International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems. It was held in Japan in 1996.

ICPHS
Official English initialism of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, which is normally referred to by its French initialism, CIPSH (q.v.).

ICPMS, ICP-MS
Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectro{meter | scopy }. Perkin-Elmer has some bibliographies on line.

ICP-OES
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry. Here's a bibliography from Perkin-Elmer.

IC-POT
Interexchange Carrier-Point of Termination.

ICPS
International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors. (Held in even years.) In 1996, it was at the TU Berlin. (Proceedings published by World Scientific, Singapore.) Hmm, seems I missed a few years. In 2006, it was in Vienna.

ICPSR
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

ICQ
Who cares? Why don't they expand the acronym?

Oh. Am I embarrassed: turns out ICQ is a rebus for ``I seek you.'' It's chat software.

PowWow seems to be chat software too, but they pitch it as ``instant messaging and online community software.'' Yeah, whatever. Why all the obscurantism?

ICR
Income-Contingent Repayment. ``ICR'' is widely used as a noun meaning ``ICR loan.'' ICR's of this sort are a controversial form (or proposed form) of higher-education funding. Internationally, HECS is the best-known ICR program. This article by Alex Usher surveys ICR programs around the world.

ICR
Initial Cell Rate.

ICR
International Communications Research. It's listed here with a carefully compiled pile of pollers list we serve.

ICR
Ion Cyclotron Resonance.

ICRC
International Committee of the Red Cross.

ICREP
International Course on Rural Energy Planning. You what?

I crepitate.
I make a crackling sound. Maybe my lungs rattle, or maybe it's something else.

ICREPQ
International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality. Since ICREPQ'03 in 2003, ICREPQ has been held annually in some part of Spain's national territory. [I.e., in peninsular Spain or on a Spanish island such as Mallorca (2006) or Gran Canaria (2011).]

The official language of the conference is English (or inglés, which is similar), and the conference title is not translated (at least, the conference website's Spanish-language pages only give the title in English). I guess the plural ``energies'' in the title was intentional and not accidental, since it's not conventional for this context (in Spanish any more than in English). I have often seen the title rendered with the singular ``energy'' -- even in official correspondence -- but it seems unlikely that that could be the official title and that somehow the plural could arise accidentally on the main web page and other official material.

The topics of interest include the following energy sources: ``Wind Energy, Small Hydro Energy, Solar Energy, Photovoltaic Energy, Ocean Energy, Geothermal, Biomass,...'' (ellipsis in original). I find the list more charming as it is given in Spanish: ``eólica, minihidráulica, solar, fotovoltaica, mareomotriz, biomasa,...'' (These lists come from inequivalent pages -- i.e., one page is not a translation of the other -- so the omission of geothermal energy in the Spanish list probably just reflects its relative unimportance in this conference.)

It used to bother me, in principle, that these are called ``renewable'' energy sources, since when the sun eventually burns out, that's it -- it's all over. Then I realized that it's not called ``infinitely renewable'' or even ``indefinitely renewable.'' Of course, petroleum is renewable in the same sense; I prove it every time I refill my tank.

ICR-FT-MS
Ion Cyclotron-Resonance Fourier-Transform Mass-Spectrometry (FTMS, q.v.).

ICRH
Ion Cyclotron-Resonance Heating. In plasmas.

ICRP
International Committee on Radiation Protection.

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ICS
Illinois Classical Studies. Journal catalogued by TOCS-IN.

ICS
Incoming-Call Screening.

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ICS
Institute of Classical Studies.

ICSE
International Conference on Solar Electricity.

ICSEB
International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology.

ICSECA
International Contributions for Scientific, Educational and Cultural Activities.

ICSEP
The Israel Center for Social & Economic Progress. ``[A]n independent pro-market public policy think tank since 1984.''

ICSFS
International Conference on Solid Films and Surfaces.

ICSG
International Center for Social Gerontology.

ICSI
IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection. An individual sperm is injected into the cytoplasm of an egg. This is used when testicular sperm don't penetrate ova on their own. This may occur because the egg is allergic to the sperm (or vice versa).

ICSID
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. A part of the World Bank Group. I can't imagine what they do. As of 2012, fully one quarter of all cases handled by ICSID have been brought against Argentina. Argentina generally ignores fines imposed by ICSID.

ICSIT
International Conference on Society and Information Technologies.

ICSM
Imperial College School of Medicine.

ICSM
International Conference on Superlattices and Microstructures. Now called ICSMM, q.v..

ICSMM
International Conference on Superlattices, Microstructures and Microdevices. (Called ICSM until 1988.) An even-year conference that is a satellite of the ICPS, but which has also been held a couple of odd years in the US.

ICSOM
International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians.

ICSPAT
International Conference on Signal Processing Applications and Technology.

ICSR
Ion-Cyclotron Single Resonance. A bit of a retronym. ICSR is the conventional or original-flavor ICR. The upstart is ICDR.

ICSTI
International Council for Scientific and Technical Information. Since its website is served by the Canadian NRC, we get to find out the official version of the name: Conseil international pour l'information scientifique et technique.

ICSU
International Council of Scientific Unions. That was the expansion when the ICSU was founded in 1931. ``Scientific union'' sounds a bit antiquarian to me, and though most of the ICSU's member organizations still go by ``International Union of <Foo>,'' I suspect that the mere mustiness of the expansion explains why the letters ICSU today are a sealed acronym, and the organization styles itself ``ICSU: the International Council for Science.''

ICS3
Integrated CSS STAMIS.

ICT
Information and Communications Technolog{ y | ies }.

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ICT
Institute for the Classical Tradition. ICT at Boston University is affiliated with the Department of Classical Studies there. The ICT is the North American base for the International Society for the Classical Tradition (ISCT) and the Boston University ANRW Research Center, both run in conjunction with the University of Tübingen. ICT also serves as the editorial offices for the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT).

ICT
International Conference on Thermoelectrics. A conference sponsored by the International Thermoelectric Society (ITS). Really, the conference gave rise to the society.

The original ICT was a biennial conference organized by K. Rao and held in Arlington, Texas, from 1976 to 1988. In 1989 it was held in Nancy, France, and it has bopped around in the usual international-conference manner since then. In 2012, the ICT was part of a joint ICT/ECT conference in Aalborg, Denmark (ECT is the European conference). This was deemed a success, and the 2015 meeting, again in Aalborg, will again be an ICT/ECT. A complete list of ICT's, past and planned, is served at the ITS website.

The 26th (in Jeju, Korea, June 3-5; organized by the KTS; 25 sessions and 222 papers) was typically and officially abbreviated as ICT 2007 and ICT '07. It was co-sponsored by the IEEE (I don't have to expand that) and CPMT (aw, come on, guess). Proceedings of ICT '96 through ICT '07, with the exception of ICT 2000 and ICT 2004, are available from the IEEE. Subsequent proceedings have been published as special issues of the Journal of Electronic Materials.

ICTA
The International Center for Technology Assessment is actually abbreviated CTA.

ICTA, ICT&A
The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies & Applications.

ICTAC
International Congress on Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry. The twelfth will be August 14 - 18, 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark (.dk).

icterus
Jaundice.

ICTFL
Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

ICTL
Indiana Community Theatre League.

ICTU
Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Also referred to internally as ``the Congress.''

ICTY
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Do not confuse with ICBY.

ICU
Instruction Cache Unit.

ICU
Intensive Care Unit (in a hospital). Often modified (e.g.: SICU is for Surgical Intensive Care Unit).

The term that ICU expands has been translated into Spanish as ``unidad de cuidados intensivos.'' It's a bothersome translation. The cognates are close enough translations, but cuidados for care presents interesting ambiguities. The verb cuidar means `take care of,' but cuidado normally means `wariness, carefulness.' Of course, cuidado can also refer to the person taken care of.

ICU
I see you.

You see me. We both see too easily. Too easily to let it... Oh wait, wrong song. Or wrong word. Wrong something. I got it: ``the wrong word in the wrong song at the wrong time in the wrong place.'' I'm so impressively apothegmatic that I deserve to be your president. If this stuff interests you, and since the men in white coats won't be here for a while yet, and since you already recognized the John Kerry allusion, you should now meditate on Dr. John's ``Right Place, Wrong Time'' (1973).

(Incidentally, Dr. John's hit was written by Allen Toussaint. As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in August 2005, about 25 thousand locals who didn't evacuate the city decided that the Superdome would be the right place to be, although the Saints' home opener wasn't for another week. Toussaint was there then.)

ICUC
The International Centre for Underutilized Crops.

Dr. Johnson had a remark that was very much to the point, and fortunately Boswell was there to record it (Tour of the Hebrides, 5 October 1773):

A cucumber should be well sliced,
and dressed with pepper and vinegar,
and then thrown out,
as good for nothing.

``Established in 1992, [ICUC] is an autonomous, nonprofit, scientific research and training center. The Center addresses ways of increasing the use of underutilized crops for food, medicinal and industrial products, and also for environmental conservation. It provides expertise and acts as a collaborative institute for tropical, sub-tropical and temperate crop development. [And not subarctic? Where does that leave Minnesota, eh?] The ICUC operates through regional offices and works in close collaboration with national partners for sustainable technology development for products and marketing of underutilized crops.'' As centres go, this one doesn't sound very centric. They can't even seem to decide whether to spell it centererer or centrerere. But they have a headquarters, which I suppose is the center of the centre or something; in 2005, ICUC's headquarters relocated from the UK to Sri Lanka. This seems to be a popular itinerary for quixotic idealists, if Arthur Clarke is one. ICUC is now co-located with and hosted by IWMI at the latter's headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka. They got a broom closet with a special plaque. Okay, that's just a guess. ICUC and IWMI issued a joint statement in June 2005, announcing the move effective April 2005. This must have come as a shock to commuters in May.

The ICUC's idea of an underutilized crop seems to be mostly the sort I've been buying for 30 years in Oriental food stores from New York to San Francisco (but if you were stuck in Norman, Oklahoma, you'd have to drive all the way to Oklahoma City for this stuff). ICUC mentions taro, but oddly only in connection with New Zealand and Japan, as if it were not a major food crop in Africa. In Africa, the cucumber is widely used as a symbolic ``victim'' or sacrificial offering in traditional rituals. You were probably wondering what the point was of dressing the cucumber if you were only going to throw it out. (Yes, yes, taro is a larger part of traditional Polynesian diets, and common in Asia.)

ICUPE
The International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education.

ICVA
International Council of Voluntary Agencies.

ICYDK
In Case You Didn't Know. It's nice that phrase acronyms revert to the standard spellings of their component words, rather than being based on the texting abbreviations of them, else this might be NCUDN.

ICZN
International Commission on Zoölogical Nomenclature. ``[T]he official body responsible for providing and regulating the system for ensuring that every animal has a unique and universally accepted scientific name. Its financial and management affairs are handled by the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature (ITZN), a charity (not-for-profit company) registered in the UK.''

Somehow connected with the Natural History Museum in London.

ID
Idaho. USPS abbreviation.

The Villanova University Law School provides some links to state government web sites for Idaho. USACityLink.com has a page with a few city and town links for the state.

Idaho is a community property state.

In the 1998 elections, colorful arch-conservative Helen Chenoweth won re-election to the US House despite admitting an adulterous affair with a former business partner. The same day, controversial Republican State Schools Superintendent Anne Fox lost her bid for re-election, but at the GOP election-night party, campaign supporter Mel Clarkson proposed marriage. She accepted.

And they say Virginia is for lovers.

In 1999, Chenoweth married her second husband, Wayne Hage -- a rancher at the center of Nevada's ``Sagebrush Rebellion.'' She retired from Congress at the end of 2000s, having served a self-imposed three-term limit. Hage died in June 2006 at the age of 69. On October 2, 2006, 68-year-old Helen Chenoweth-Hage was riding in a car driven by her daughter-in-law Yelena Hage, near Tonopah, Nev. She was holding Hage's 5-month-old son Bryan and not wearing a seat belt. There was a crash, and the two were thrown from the car. She was pronounced dead at the scene, but Bryan escaped with only minor injuries.

id.
Idem.

ID
IDentification; IDentity document or card.

I don't know what the situation is now or had been before, but in the early 1960's, in Argentina, the national police issued the national personal photo-ID cards. The most prominent words on the card were ``Policía Nacional,'' and non-Argentines easily mistook it for the photo-ID of a member of the Argentine national police. In my case, however, the baby picture often gave it away.

When we went to get my passport, I guess we didn't bribe anyone, or enough. My mother and I stood in line for hours. After we finally reached the desk, and I did the fingerprint piano exercise, the little boy that I was found he had a sticky, inky hand, so he wiped it on the nearest cloth object, which happened to be the burrocrat's clean white shirt. When I think about it now, I wonder that my passport ever got processed.

Many years later, when I was stopped by plainclothesmen in Florence, I took the opportunity to get a good look at what a real police ID looked like.

They were looking for someone who had participated in a bank robbery in Naples. I have never been to Naples. When I was stopped in Florence, I already had never been to Naples. A fortiori, I had never participated in a bank robbery -- in Naples. The plainclothesmen realized that I was a stupid American without the wit to rob a bank, so I walked.

When the carabinieri stopped me in Rome, they weren't looking for anyone in particular. They just wanted to examine ID's. Stands to reason.

I didn't go to Naples.

Naples is famous for pizza, even though everyone knows that the best pizza is made in the US. Last summer, some people who don't have enough real worries of their own came to the US from Italy. They called themselves the Neapolitan Police, and they pronounced themselves dissatisfied with American pizza [ftnt. 13]. I don't think they even visited Chicago. Outrage turned to scorn when it was revealed that these ``Neapolitans'' were from Milan.

To put the matter as generously as possible, Milan is not famous for pizza. The truth is, they haven't even evolved the enzymes necessary to digest tomato yet. Milan is famous for judges. When there began to be a backlash against the Milan judges during the summer of 1995, I was pleased.

Of course, the Italian people are not lashing back at the Milan judges because they are offended at the slander of American pizza. Those Milan pizza judges were faux judges, judges manqués. They were trying to pass themselves off as Naples police, but Naples police have no legal authority in the US, even with impressive-looking Argentine ID. Nothing special against Italians, but taking a trans-Atlantic flight to pick up a pepperoni pizza is not considered ``hot pursuit.''

No, the Italian people are concerned because of an imbalance between the parliamentary side of government and the judicial side. In normal times, a politician first serves a number of years in parliament, and then a few years in an institution of the judicial establishment. A responsible politician in good health used to have a chance to be in and out of several coalition governments before being formally charged. Now, however, the time between holding office and facing prosecution is decreasing. Some politicians, for whom political office reportedly represents the only source of personal wealth, don't get enough time in office to steal an adequate legal defense fund.

It is a stunning turnabout: Put simply, the Italian people, who for years had more governments than anyone else in the world, now face the possibility of a shortage. They're already cutting back on elections. In contrast, Iraq just had an election even though they only had one candidate. Soon the only candidates in Italy will be those too stupid or fanatical to rob a bank in Naples, or too smart and dangerous to get caught.

Last Friday the thirteenth, October 1995, a judge in Milan announced that recent PM Silvio Berlusconi would stand trial on bribery charges. I can't say for certain whether he's guilty or innocent, but I do know this: he didn't bribe anyone, or enough.

It is the end: Ciao, Fini.

Flash! 21 April 1996: The Olive Tree wins! Eurocommunists finally get to learn all the precious secrets NATO had entrusted to 53 safe Italian governments over the last 48 years or so! Yet Italy is also back on track to status quo ante: less than two years since previous elections!

If, despite these portents, you nevertheless decide to visit Naples, visit the Campanian Society entry first. Oh, here's something: in the August 1997 issue of The Atlantic Monthly (they pay me extra to italicize the definite article), a travel feature, ``Napoli Ever After'' gets the following brief in the TOC:

Even people who have never visited Naples can list reasons (the grime, the crime) not to go. Those reasons no longer pertain.
Thanks anyway, I'll visit New York.

[column] Mmm, here's some old news from Italy. Back in 52 (I mean 52 BCE), Rome was in the grip of mob warfare. After the senate building was burned down, the senate passed an unprecedented law making Pompey, a former general, the single consul. Among other things, or inter alia, as they might say, Pompey made a law that after any consul or praetor's one-year term of office, five years had to elapse before he could become a governor. The reasoning was that this would allow sufficient time for prosecution of any crimes he committed in the first office before he assumed the second.

Some years earlier, Gaius Verres had, um, served as governor of Sicily. His one-year tenure was extended twice. He liked to say (1 Verr. 40) that he'd be able to keep the first year's profit for himself, pay his patrons (who wangled him the post) and attorneys with the profits of the second year, and have all the third (and most lucrative) year's profit available for [bribing] the jury. Maybe he should have tried a different approach. He was convicted in 70 BCE, thanks to Cicero's great prosecutorial performance. That chick pea was an unbearably principled fellow.

.id
(Domain code for) Indonesia.

The movie ``The Year of Living Dangerously'' (1982) depicts Suharto's murderous rise to power in the 1960's. Mr. Suharto banned the film in Indonesia. He stepped down after major rioting in 1998, when the Asian economic crisis took its show to Indonesia. Mr. Suharto's successor, Abdurrahman Wahid, appointed a new national board of censors which decided that this movie did not have too much sex or violence, and which claimed it does not consider politics (although some of the censors recommended the blurring of slogans on some communist banners in the film, as well a female breast). Their decision came in time by a few hours for the movie's scheduled first public screening, the evening of Nov. 8, 2000, at the Jakarta International Film Festival. It was shown uncut (and I imagine, especially given the time constraints, unblurred as well).

Indonesia's new-business climate was ranked in a FORTUNE Small Business article in 2007 (Who in the world is entrepreneurial? by Geoff Lewis, published by CNN Money). The rankings compared 53 countries, and Indonesia was ranked 53rd -- least entrepreneurial. (The ranking was based on a simple metric that gave ``equal weighting'' -- it wasn't really clear what that meant -- to the 2007 data on measures from two annual reports. One was the World Bank's ``Doing Business'' report, which separately gauges the difficulty of starting and of operating a business in each of 175 nations. The other was from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), an annual study produced by Babson College and the London Business School. The particular measure from GEM was national rates of ``high-expectation entrepreneurship'' (by individuals who can get good jobs but become entrepreneurs because they see a chance to build substantial companies). Yes, I imagine this is hard to estimate accurately.

ID
Independent (mass-market book) Distributor.

ID
Infantry Division.

ID, I.D., i.d.
Inner Diameter.

ID
Input diode.

The word you're trying to recall is anadiplosis.
Id
Irvine Dataflow. A language described by Arvind, Kim Gostelow and Wil Plouffe at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), in 1978.

[column]

id
Latin: `it.' The standard translation of Freud's term Es (noun use of German pronoun meaning `it.') All nouns are capitalized in standard German, so capitalizing any other word (elsewhere than at the beginning of a sentence) usually forces it to be interpreted as a noun. (There are other exceptions. The principal ones are second-person pronouns, either familiar forms in personal correspondence, or polite forms in general. Vide ich.)

Of course, writers in English have from time to time independently used it (I mean it) as a noun, signaling the use by a determiner or adjective. There are also endless instances of ``an it,'' but here an is almost always the synonym of if, rather than the article. (You know -- ``an it please your worships,'' scrape, scrape.) Searching for ``the it'' in prose on the LION database, I find that all the modern instances either are instances of anacoluthon or really just mean ``the word it.'' I'm very happy about this, because if I don't find more occasions to use it, I'll never remember it (I mean the word anacoluthon, of course). A word pair that looks like ``the it'' occurs frequently in Old and Middle English, but the the is normally the word we now spell thee.

But poetry comes to the rescue. For example, A.R. Ammons published a poem in 1993 that mentions ``the it'' a number of times. He explains that `` `the it' is the indifference of all the differences.'' That sounds, encouragingly, somewhat -- let's say ``indifferently'' -- mathematical. In mathematics, terms are defined once. Everything else you can say about the thing defined, generally, either follows from the definition or is equivalent to the definition, if you've done your definition right. But Ammons also says that it (the it) is the finest issue of energy in which boulders and dead stars float. He says other things. The poem is called ``Garbage,'' and as the first lines make clear, the poem is self-referential (not to say self-obsessed).

James Broughton made good use of capitalization in ``Here's to It (A Metaphysical Drinking Song).'' His ``the It,'' also suffers from excessive definition, but at least the definitions rhyme. (E.g., ``It's a metaphysical hunting kit.'') The poem was apparently written in 1968. W.N. Herbert mentioned ``the it-iness'' of cities. Shouldn't that be ``it-ness''? It certainly makes better rhymes. Karl Jay Shapiro mentioned ``the it-ness'' of trees. Haven't any of these guys heard of the cooties?

IDA
Industrial Development Agency. In New York State, a municipal IDA is a ``public benefit corporation,'' and as such exempt from property tax. However, IDA-owned property remains subject to special district taxes. Come on -- it's New York! You gotta expect they'll find ways to tax you.

When an IDA in NY takes title to a property as part of a project (exempting that property from property tax), the project developer and the IDA usually enter into a PILOT agreement under which the developer pays the IDA for basic services. (I don't know how or if that revenue stream eventually makes it into the police and fire budgets, which are the usual basic services named.) The developer also pays the special district taxes.

IDA
International Dark-Sky Association. A bunch of ticked-off amateur astronomers. Since they oppose night-time outdoor lighting, it follows as night follows day that such lighting does not decrease accidents or crime. It's logic! Oh yeah, they've got some long garbage metastudies to prove these fallacies.

IDA
International Development Association. Part of what is officially only unofficially (though universally) known as the World Bank. More at the IBRD entry.

IDAPI
Integrated Database Application Programming Interface.

IDB
In-suit Drink Bag. [NASAnese.]

IDB
Inter-American Development Bank. Also abbreviated IADB, and BID in Spanish.

IDBA
International Drag Bike Association. Vide goracing.com, VROOM!

IDC
Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

IDC
Integrated Display[s] and Control[s].

IDC
International Data Center supporting the Copacetic Test Ban Treaty, or something like that (CTBT). See IMS entry below for details and links.

IDCAMS
IDC Access Method Services. The ``IDC'' is just the IBM product code for VSAM. Some IDCAMS functions can work with non-VSAM data sets.

IDCP
Internet Device Control Protocol.

IDDM
Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (DM, q.v.). Type-I diabetes. Also called juvenile-onset diabetes for its usual course, but it can first manifest at any age.

IDDQ, IDDq, Iddq
Quiescent Drain Current. As explained in the CMOS entry, one of the beauties of the CMOS design concept is that, apart from leakage, current is drawn through a gate only when it is changing state. Thus, the measurement of current (I) from the common voltage supply to the PMOS drains (VDD) in the quiescent (q) state is a sensitive test that a circuit is working properly. IDDQ testing typically uses a variety of input vectors to check for stuck-at behaviors. One of its advantages is that it can test for some errors that are invisible (do not affect final output) in a given set of test vectors.

Prof. S. Chakravarty, of the Computer Science Department at UB, is coauthor of a book on IDDQ testing.

IDE
Integrated Development Environment.

IDE
Integrated Drive Electronics. A standard electronic interface between a computer's data bus and its disks. When ANSI group X3T10 adopted IDE as a standard in 1990, it dubbed it ``Advanced Technology Attachment'' (ATA), a name by which it is not known.

The IDE standard was based on a 16-bit bus (the IBM PC's ISA, originally); each drive with a built-in controller. It was largely replaced by Enhanced IDE (EIDE, q.v.), which is obsolete.

IDEA
Individual Development & Educational Assessment. The IDEA Center is based at K-State, which is in Manhattan, Kansas, so I think it certainly qualifies as a center.

IDEA
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

IDEA
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.

IDEA
Institute for Development of Educational Activities.

IDEA
Inter-college Dev. of Entrepreneurship Assn. I presume that's Inter-college Development of Entrepreneurship Association. I guess they work behind the scenes. Apart from the website, which had some traffic in June and December of 2002, there isn't much net sign of their existence.

IDEA
International Debate Education Association. Affiliated with the AFA. There are other debating entries in this glossary. ``An Association of forensics educators from European countries seeking to establish an active tradition of forensics activities on that continent.'' Uh-huh.

It's sponsored by Soros's OSI and its over two dozen member nations are basically all the former Warsaw Pact countries and their fragments (and Haiti). It's a fine do-gooder idea, and they even have a ``Karl Popper debate format'' -- ``a three-person format developed specifically for this program to encourage teamwork and cooperation.'' (Famous people should have the sense to trademark their names so this kind of thing doesn't happen to them after they're dead. Hmmm, seems back in 1999 or so Pablo Picasso's last surviving son licensed the family name to Citroën for some van, and Marina Picasso, one of the artist's granddaughters, sought a permanent injunction against the licencing. I'll have to look into how that turned out.)

I imagine it won't do much harm, and if Soros wants to spend his money on these games, well, it's his money (now). But logical thinking is not the problem. These nations regularly produce ten-year-old grand masters who whup our ass in chess, okay? And formal rhetorical skills are not exactly hallmarks of the leadership cadres of the triumphant democratic West, either.

The problem of contending religions has only ever been humanely solved by tolerance, and tolerance is not logical, and not clearly defensible on principles, unless the principles are cooked in advance. Tolerance is merely peaceable and reasonable. On perfectly sound principles, it may be irrational. In that case, sound leadership requires noble hypocrisy and fluent dissembling.

Making a successful civil polity is a bit like making wine. It requires many small ingredients, as Soros understands, and balance which no one can impose, and it is not easily accelerated. A complete list of necessary ingredients would be long indeed, but I would name three that are in obvious short supply in the many countries that have free speech, free elections, an independent judiciary, and long-term ``instability.''

  1. General personal security
  2. Confidence in the law
  3. Good will

Oh, yeah -- that-all is opinion, my idea.

I.D.E.A.
In the Defense of Earth and Animals.

idée fixe
Kenny Chesney had a hit with ``She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy.'' After his marriage to Renée Zellweger, he released a statement that said ``I may well be the luckiest man alive ... to be so in love with someone who is so perfect for me.''

IDEM
Indiana Department of Environmental Management. That's what I said already!

idem
A Latin word meaning ``Indiana Department of Environmental Management.'' Oh, that's not what it always means. That's just what it means here. Usually it means something different. But what it always means is `the same.'

The word idem is normally used in English scholarly texts to compress and make obscure a sequence of citations in successive footnotes or endnotes, and it is conventionally understood to mean `the same as the source immediately preceding, where source is understood as being specified up to the part -- typically a page number or page range -- that is indicated to be different here.' This is normally described as ``the same as above.'' Things are confusing enough as it is. If it could also mean ``the same as below,'' you might combine it with op. cit. to make a formidable illogic puzzle. Idem is often abbreviated id.

In Spanish, the word is used more widely in ordinary speech. Spelled ídem, it can mean `the same.' That's the same as lo mismo, but not exactly the same as el mismo or la misma, which are better translated as `the same one' (male and female forms, resp.). There are even colloquial phrases like ``ídem de ídem'' (a slightly mock-serious phrase, so it seems to me, meaning `just what was said before').

IDEMA
This is a premier example of dyslexic and thoughtless acronym neologism. Instead of calling itself MEDIA (``Materials and Equipment, Disk Drive International Association''), this group chose IDEMA (``International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association''), which sounds like a serious symptom. Their homepage is competently constructed, and it is no longer a sickly shade of green.

``Serving to promote the technological, manufacturing, marketing and business progress of the disk drive manufacturing industry.''

identifiers in PASTA
Because of the way that variables are scoped in the PASTA programming language, it is useful to have a lot of different identifiers. For this reason, PASTA reserved words are allowed as variable names. (However, variables that have the same name as a data type cannot be declared or explicitly cast on inexperienced compilers.) Also, PASTA identifiers are not just case-sensitive but font-sensitive; the standard IDE for PASTA is WordPerfect. See also PASTA----.

identity parade
The British term for what in the US is called a police lineup.

IDERA
International Development Education Resource Association. Based in Vancouver, Canada. There ought to be one in Pakistan called Iderabad.

IDF
Israel Defence Forces.

idid
Induced Dipole-Induced Dipole (interaction).

I did, did I?
Unlike
``He maps spam, eh?''
``He won snow, eh?''
or
``He sports strops, eh?''

this is the kind of rhetorical question that you can easily work into an ordinary, if somewhat belligerent, conversation.

I did not set out to write an exposé
Oh no, quite the opposite! Just as was the case each time I set out to research my fifteen earlier books, I approached the subject with an open mind -- sympathetic, in fact -- and my editor's comment that ``going negative'' would quintuple my sales had no effect on me because, after all, the facts speak for themselves. No, I began with only a sensible, reasonable skepticism, and I was gravely disappointed. Buy this book and read all the juicy details now!

IDIC
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. As explained on the IDIC page:
``The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.''
``And in the way our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.''

-- Dr. Miranda Jones and Mr. Spock, ``Is There in Truth No Beauty?,'' stardate 5630.8

The IDIC has become a very special symbol (and lifestyle) to Star Trek fans. Designed by the late Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, the IDIC symbol was worn by Mr. Spock in TOS episode, ``Is There in Truth No Beauty?'' Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations represents a Vulcan belief that beauty, growth, progress--all result from the union of the unlike. Concord, as much as discord, requires the presence of at least two different notes. The brotherhood of man is an ideal based on learning to delight in our essential differences, as well as learning to recognize our similarities. The IDIC symbol is a union of a plain circle and triangle, uniting to produce the beautiful gemstone in the middle. The circle represents infinite, nature, woman, etc; the triangle can represent the finite, art, man, etc.

IDIC remains the simplest, purest, most powerful idea in Star Trek, an idea that has clear implications for our own times.

If they say so, I guess.

The ``first interracial kiss'' (or perhaps the first black-white) on TV took place on Star Trek. Somewhere on the web, once, I read a recollection by George Takei (``Sulu'') of the the humility with which GR offered him what was rare in that day and still today: a role played by someone who simply happened to be Asian. Many (and to some degree all) of the episodes were morality plays about tolerance. Originally, the `emotionless' `logical' Spock character was supposed to be a woman, but there was too much resistance. Mr. Spock was, however, the child of a mixed marriage (human-Vulcan). ``Human'' is one of those old-fashioned words they used on Star Trek. It meant `terran.' Looks like Mr. Spock took after his dad. [But in this picture he is holding his hand as if giving a Jewish priestly (kohen) benediction. And he needs a shave.]

If it seems quaint or petty that an interracial kiss on TV was once a big deal, then it may be that you can thank Roddenberry for some of your effortless sophistication. The real heroism of Star Trek was his social daring, taking altruistic risks in a market governed by almighty ratings. If only more directors would make movies and TV shows that honored their progressive beliefs rather than pandering to popular tastes, the world would be a better place -- because people would get off the couch and do something. Hmmm... make that ``honored their progressive beliefs and didn't pander to popular tastes.'' I think the other experiment has already been done.

(Speaking of altruism... that interracial kiss was originally scripted to involve Uhura and some other character, but when Shatner learned about it he lobbied to be the guy in the scene.)

I.D.I.M.
Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major. Pronounced ``I dim''?

[column]

Idiot
A German word currently meaning `idiot' in all the usual English senses. The word is derived from the Latin idiota (one of those rare first-declension nouns of male gender). The Latin word meant `ignorant fellow,' and was derived from idiôtês in Greek, where it originally meant `ordinary man,' as opposed to a specialist. In other words, a `layman' in the loose sense. I can find no evidence that this earliest meaning was ever a normal sense of the derived word in any modern Western European language. In particular, I find no evidence of this sense for German in any of the dictionaries I have to hand, including the ten-volume Duden and the thirty-three-volume Grimm etymological dictionary.

I looked because of Der Streit der Fakultäten, Kant's most accessible and by far most amusing book (and his last, not counting posthumous stuff and stuff published for him by others during his last sickness). A fair translation of the title in context would be The Conflict of the [Academic] Disciplines. Somewhere in the three essays this book comprises (essays staking where the Philosophy Department's turf meets those of the Theology, Medicine, and Law Departments), he paraphrases some other discipline's protest as ``Sie heissen uns Idioten!'' [`You call us idiots!'] Presumably he meant that in the original sense. That's the trouble with learning too much: it makes your writing harder to understand.

The book is celebrated by Kantophiles as a heroic stand for freedom of speech in the academic context -- i.e., ``academic freedom.'' It does make a limited plea for freedom, but that is sadly modest, a reminder of the absolute monarchy under which it was written and eventually allowed (by one censor) to be published. This in 1798.

A ``nonce word'' is an invented word (like philosophunculist) with a sense that is obvious (from the putative etymology, say). The term ``nonce word'' does not cover the idiosyncratic, possibly idiolectical use of an ordinary word in an unusual but (by some) understandable sense. Perhaps we can say instead that Kant's Idiot is a nonce sense.

IDIQ
Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity. Refers to a kind of contract entered into by US government agencies that sounds like an option to buy. Maybe it's pronounced ``Aye, Dick'' and maybe not.

I plan to return to this entry at some point in time, and add some information.

I disagree.
I am slimier than pond scum. My pig-headed idiocy prevents me from admitting the God-given truth of your blazingly clear wisdom, and I'm going to be sanctimonious about it into the bargain. Bizarrely, I will also misinterpret your witty but courteous clarifications as vicious personal attacks upon my nefarious character, much though I deserve them. I fry gerbils alive for breakfast, but I prefer the taste of plastic and moist cardboard. I hate you. Die! Die! Die!

Newsgroup and listserv usage.

IDK
I Don't Know.

Well if you don't know, I can't help you. I mean, what are you saying here? Could you be more specific? Your paratactics are getting on my nerves. Scram!

IDKBIW
I Don't Know But It Works.

idl
Integrated Device Logic--a company name.

IDL
Interactive Data Language.

IDL
Interface Definition Language. Structurally similar to C++.

IDLC
Integrated Digital Loop Carrier. Supersedes UDLC: Allows T1 carriers from loop carrier Remote Terminals (RT) to interface directly to the EWSD system, eliminating the need for the Network Office Terminating Equipment (NOTE) required with UDLC.

IDLH
Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health. Look out! It's coming thi

IDMS
Isotope-Dilution Mass Spectrometry (MS).

IDN
Internet Daily News. ``A free daily serving the Internet.''

IDOM
Short for IDOMENEUS.

IDOMENEUS
Information and Data on Open MEdia for NEtworks of USers.

I don't consider myself a vain person.
Other people consider me a vain person.

IDP
Interplanetary Dust Particle. This looks like a job for Space Janitor!

If you take a good look at the Milky Way (I won't say a good close look) from someplace within it but toward the edge (from earth, say), you'll notice that the very middle is not as bright as the edges. That's because of all the IDP.

IDPOL, idpol
IDentity POLitics. Often the politics of resentment. Is there a bit of this at this entry?

IDRC
The International Development Research Centre (sic; it's written in Canadianese).

IDRISI
All-caps of Idrisi, an eleventh c. cartographer, whose name has been hijacked for a Clark Univ. project and GIS software that resulted. An extensive tutorial is available online.

IDS
Information Delivery Service or Information Dissemination Services. Both are used.

IDS
Investors Diversified Services, Inc.

IDSA
Industrial Designers Society of America.

IDSA
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. In New Delhi, India -- ``an autonomous body to conduct study and research on problems of national security and the impact of defence measures on the economic, security and social life of the country.'' Social life?

IDSA
Interactive Digital Software Association. A computer-games industry association.

IDT
Integrated Device Technology, Inc., a semiconductor electronics manufacturer. Most of their stuff is in Adobe Acrobat files.

IDT
Improved-Definition TeleVision.

IDT
Integrated Digital Terminal.

IDU
Interface Data Unit.

IDU
{ Intravenous | Injection } Drug User. The ``user'' referred to is normally an abuser, but the terms with ``abuser'' explicit are less common. In any case, an IDU is a self-medicator and a prime candidate for comorbidity. ``Intravenous'' is the I-word I always heard, but ``injection'' is more common in the medical literature. Maybe it's technically more correct, but I'm unaware of any common drug of abuse that is injected intramuscularly. The slang term is ``mainlining,'' right? (``Autopsy'' is another term common in medical research that mentions IDU's.)

I dunno
I am stupidly ignorant. (``I don't know'' written in eye dialect.) Frequently ironic in intention, if not in reception.

A book described at the manual transmission entry contains this exchange:

How far is it to Fairfax?

Dunno.

Does this road go to Fairfax?

Dunno.

Say, you don't know much, do you?

Nope ... but I ain't lost.

I once lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, but what this reminds me of is an experience I had biking in rural France.

I was on a language-related mission: I biked to the town of Condom to buy condoms, just so I could say I had done so. (I have done so.) You cannot imagine my chagrin, when after 25 km that I recall to have been all uphill, I whipped out my pocket dictionary and did not find this word. A protective amnesia has settled over the period when I learned the necessary vocable (preservatif). I do recall that it involved pantomime.

On the way back, after I got lost, I received directions in sign language. For example:

English:
You are very far from Chateau de Bonas.

Universal sign language:
Repeat ``Chateau de Bonas?'' wide-eyed, slap forehead once.

I also encountered nasty little bicycle-chasing dogs, and also ruminants. The ruminants did not give very energetic chase, but they acted like they had never seen a bicycle before. Many of them trotted up to their fences to get a better look. French cows seem to be a different breed than American cows -- either more nearsighted, or more intellectually active (or both, conforming to stereotype as well as recent research on humans). The fences looked too flimsy to detain any seriously intrigued bovine. This concern became more acute over the last dozen km, which I had to walk on account of a flat tire, pushing the borrowed old cast-iron three-speed beside me, in the rain, in the dark (all uphill again!).

Because the road was narrow and I had no lights, after it got dark (I got back to Chateau de Bonas long after dinner) I would push over to the side of the road whenever I heard a car coming. Sometimes the car was one of those Peugeot Rattletrappes (I think Rattletrap is French for a `three-cylinder, two-stroke, zero-muffler engine,' but maybe it means `corrugated-tin roof resonator.') These were so loud and slow that I usually spent five minutes waiting for them to appear. For another Peugeot achievement in technologie hybride (that'd be moto/automobile-merdiquée hybrids), see the differential entry.

Back in the 40's or 50's, Vance Packard wrote an interesting popular report on studies of animal intelligence, issued under a couple of titles, one of which was Animal IQ. I understand that why dogs bark is an open and active research question. Presumably, why cows low is similarly unknown, but I suspect that they lack the intelligence to engage in very interesting communication. For evidence, read about ``hardware disease'' at the cow magnet entry. (Reports from England in 2006, however, assert the existence of distinguishable local ``accents'' in cow mooing, including something identified as a ``Somerset drawl.'')

IDV
InDinaVir. A drug used in the treatment of AIDS.

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