History FunWithAcronyms / RealLIfe

** "Maser" substitutes '''M'''icrowave for '''L'''ight. Other variants (sometimes seen in [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hard scifi]]) include the [=GRASER=], which uses '''G'''amma '''R'''adiation, and the somewhat odd-looking [=XASER=], which uses X-rays.

* Pursuit Intervention Technique(PIT): A pursuit Tactic employed by the police where the pursing car forces a fleeing car to turn sideways spinning them out of control and forcing them to stop. While only to be employed at in certain circumstances and at certain speeds, has been employed at high speed resulting in flipped over cars causing injury and sadly even [[https://atlantablackstar.com/2021/09/14/knowing-there-were-kids-in-there-12-year-old-killed-after-georgia-trooper-performed-pit-maneuver-while-chasing-driver-that-fled-traffic-stop/ death]]

** Their prayers are answered. The local transport company of Ticino canton, Switzerland, is '''F'''errovie '''A'''utolinee '''R'''egionale '''T'''icinese. [[http://www.centovalli.ch/ Linky]] - check the bit at the bottom. [[note]] And yes, they are aware of it, and find it ''absolutely '''freaking'' hilarious!'' [[/note]]

** Their prayers are answered. The local transport company of Ticino canton, Switzerland, is '''F'''errovie '''A'''utolinee '''R'''egionale '''T'''icinese. [[http://www.centovalli.ch/ Linky]] - check the bit at the bottom.

* Swiss train manufacturer Stadler Rail has been getting in the game with their '''F'''ast '''L'''ight '''I'''ntercity '''R'''egional '''T'''rain ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_FLIRT FLIRT]]), as well as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_KISS KISS]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_WINK WINK]], which rely on knowing German to get the names.

* In August 2015, the ''Washington Post'' [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/03/364-bills-that-have-been-introduced-in-congress-ranked-by-acronym-quality/ ranked]] over ''300'' bills featuring this trope which had been introduced ''just in the eight months the current Congress had been sitting.'' They ranged from such awful acronyms as the '''F'''OIA '''O'''versight and '''I'''mplementation '''A'''ct (which the Post ranked dead last for using the acronym '''FOIA''' within itself [[note]]Normally it stands for '''F'''reedom '''o'''f '''I'''nformation '''A'''ct[[/note]]) to such gems as the '''G'''lobal '''I'''nternet '''F'''reedom Act, or '''GIF''' Act, which ranked number one. Later, Rep. John Yarmuth wrote in to note they had missed his '''K'''eep '''O'''ur '''C'''ampaigns '''H'''onest Act, or '''KOCH''' Act (a subtle dig at the Koch Brothers) which the Post acknowledged would have ranked in the Top 25 had they been aware of it.

* In August 2015, the ''Washington Post'' [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/03/364-bills-that-have-been-introduced-in-congress-ranked-by-acronym-quality/ ranked]] over ''300'' bills featuring this trope which had been introduced ''just in the eight months the current Congress had been sitting.'' They ranged from such awful acronyms as the '''F'''OIA '''O'''versight and '''I'''mplementation '''A'''ct (which the Post ranked dead last for using the acronym in the acronym) to such gems as the '''G'''lobal '''I'''nternet '''F'''reedom Act, or GIF Act, which ranked number one. Later, Rep. John Yarmuth wrote in to note they had missed his '''K'''eep '''O'''ur '''C'''ampaigns '''H'''onest Act, or KOCH Act (a subtle dig at the Koch Brothers) which the Post acknowledged would have ranked in the Top 25 had they been aware of it.

* In August 2015, the ''Washington Post'' ranked over ''300'' bills featuring this trope which had been introduced ''just in the eight months the current Congress had been sitting.'' They ranged from such awful acronyms as the '''F'''OIA '''O'''versight and '''I'''mplementation '''A'''ct (which the Post ranked dead last for using the acronym in the acronym) to such gems as the '''G'''lobal '''I'''nternet '''F'''reedom Act, or GIF Act, which ranked number one. Later, Rep. John Yarmuth wrote in to note they had missed his '''K'''eep '''O'''ur '''C'''ampaigns '''H'''onest Act, or KOCH Act (a subtle dig at the Koch Brothers) which the Post acknowledged would have ranked in the Top 25 had they been aware of it.

** GNU '''CCCP''' is the '''C'''-'''C'''ompatible '''C'''ompiler '''P'''reprocessor. Because '''CCCP''' is also the initialism for the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], one might suspect that GNU is [[RedScare communist]].
*** Do keep in mind that '''CCCP''' context of the Soviet Union is spelled with the Cyrillic alphabet and means '''С'''оюз '''С'''оветских '''С'''оциалистических '''Р'''еспублик, which is in Russian.

** And don't forget '''LAME''', which originally stood for '''L'''ame '''A'''in't an '''M'''P3 '''E'''ncoder. [[spoiler:Unlike Wine, it is. That was [[IncrediblyLamePun lame]].]]

** And '''F'''ine '''I'''s '''N'''ot '''E'''Macs.

** '''ELVES''' are '''E'''mission of '''L'''ight and '''V'''ery Low Frequency perturbations due to '''E'''lectromagnetic '''P'''ulse '''S'''ources. They appear as huge red halos in the ionosphere expanding very quickly (as in, a few miliseconds).

** '''G'''NU's '''N'''ot '''U'''nix being the most obvious example. (It refers to the fact that GNU intends to be similar to Unix, but contains no code from Unix.) The G is not silent, partially because of the project's stance that it's more fun to say, and partially to avoid sounding like one is talking about the "new operating system" or "new software" (which doesn't apply to GNU, since it's over 30 years old).

** The acronym goes back to (or at least references) the first nuclear reactor ever built, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Pile-1 CP-1]]. One of the safety measures on this crude early reactor was a set of emergency control rods, held up by a rope. There would be a man stationed on top of the reactor with an axe, whose job was to chop through the rope in the event of an emergency, causing the emergency control rods to fall and halt the reaction.

** In fact, it's unclear whether the acronym was originally even there at the time it's first credited (the Manhattan Project); some of the people involved say it was, some claim it was a backronym years later.

* Wiki/Wikipedia [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-enhanced_nuclear_induction_spectroscopy mentions]] the totally real '''P'''roton-'''E'''nhanced '''N'''uclear '''I'''nduction '''S'''pectroscopy]], which is a type of nuclear magnetic resonance technique.

** BASIC ('''B'''eginners '''A'''ll-purpose '''S'''ymbolic '''I'''nstruction '''C'''ode), which drove virtually all desktop computers (e.g. UsefulNotes/AppleII, UsefulNotes/TRS80, UsefulNotes/Commodore64, UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer, etc.) in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

** And by the late Kenny Everett in his repeating ''Series/{{Dallas}} / Series/{{Dynasty}}'' parody ''Dallasty''; the last episode of such in each show ended with "credits" which were of course absurdly long and scrolled past far too rapidly to read, and at the very end said (for a second or two) "Creative Research Associates Production" -- stacked vertically so that the "CRAP" lined up and could clearly be read as such.

* '''DDT''': The debugger on the CP/M Z80 microprocessor platform was called DDT, '''D'''ynamic '''D'''ebugging '''T'''ool. This acronym goes all the way back to DEC's PDP-1 computer with its '''D'''EC '''D'''ebugging '''T'''ape, based on the '''FL'''exowriter '''I'''nterrogation '''T'''ape debugger for the one-of-a-kind TX-0 computer.