Terminology

The study of Terms (or somesuch)

Below are the origins and meanings of (some of) the obscure terms used on this blog. In case of confusion, break glass.

ICR: The Institute for Creation Research, and old group of YECs (see below) with a prodigious output of B.S. See their Wikipedia and RationalWiki pages for more information. Not to be confused with IRC.
CRS: The Creation Research Society. An allied organisation known for its purges. WP, RW
YEC: Young Earth Creationis[t/m]. People who believe not only that their God (we’re not just talking Christians here) made the universe, but that he did it in exactly the way described in their holy book. The ICR and the CRS are examples. They are noted for their stance that if Evolution can be proved wrong, Creationism wins by default.
OEC: Old Earth Creationis[t/m]. A broad group encompassing both Theistic Evolution on the one end, and the Discovery Institute’s position on the other. They both believe in a much older earth, more in line with science, and therefore are not as strict on Biblical Literalism.
RationalWiki (RW): A wiki made for and read by rationalists. It is not quite as neutral as Wikipedia, but is generally accurate regardless. They began as a vantage point for purged Conservapedia Parodists to watch over the site, but has diversified since, but retains an extensive Conservapedia Category.
Conservapedia (CP): The “Right Wing Hate Blog” of Andrew Schlafly, nut. Also, the web’s main stockpile of irony. See Wikipedia for a rather neutral and charitable article on them, read what RationalWiki has on them if you have a clear weekend to fill.
Evolution: “Descent with Modification”. Variation is accumulated via various means, and is selected via natural processes (ie death). As much of a fact as the next piece of science, despite the fervent desire of many for this not to be so. Read more on RW and WP (and CP if you like that sort of humour).
Theistic Evolution: The belief that Evolution happened, but was guided in some way via the God of choice. This is despite the fact that Evolution is perfectly capable of happening without godly assistance, but I personally have bigger fish to fry (as do most people). It is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church, and others.
Discovery Institute: OECs (usually) who don’t believe evolution happened, and attempt to prove it, to much hilarity. They espouse both Intelligent Design and Global Warming Denial. (WP, RW)
Intelligent Design: See RW and WP.
DpSU: Daily (pseudo)Science Update, pronounced dip-sue, hence the name. Brian Thomas, the ICR’s Science Writer, tends to dip into a subject, and then make an unsubstantiated allegation (or three). It is unknown at this time whether the name of the the Daily Science Updates feed on the ICR site from which these stories come is merely a coincidence.
Type Io: One of the kinds of DpSU. Such an article starts with a talk about a recent study, but quickly begins talking about something vaguely related, though generally irrelevant to the study, that science (apparently) cannot solve right now (or at least couldn’t 10 years ago, when many of the articles references were written), thus disproving Evolution in a single stroke. The name comes from the first such article I wrote about, on the subject of heat loss from Io, one of Jupiter’s moons.
Type AE: Another kind. These articles stay on topic, but grossly misrepresent the science that they are reporting to make it sound as if they back up the Creationist viewpoint. They are named after an early DpSU post, “Amber and Embryos“.
Type EYE: Consist of a source article calling somebody else (preferably creationists) wrong, and the author of the DpSU calling them wrong but actually being incorrect themselves. Named after The Scars of Eye Surgery.
IEE: Ideological Education Essentials. This is my name for the K-12 blog authored by ICR member Rhonda Forlow, which originally called itself Science Education Essentials, alothough they have more recently dropped the ‘Education’ part of their name. I post about it once a week, generally. The blog began in October 2011, some months after this blog, and so a full chronical of their known activities exist here.
CCC: The Christmas Commenting Competition on the aforementioned blog during the period leading up to Christmas in 2011. It was apparently intended to revitalise interest in the blog, as commenting numbers had dropped significantly. At time of writing it is ongoing, and conclusions as to its effect cannot yet be drawn – the litmust test will be whether, in mid Janurary of 2012, we are back to one comment a week on an old post, which is where we were before the competition was announced.
TaV: That’s a Video! My name for the ICR’s video series, begun in October of 2011, which they call That’s a Fact. The name is intentionally patronising, as while the video itself is slick there have been recurring problems with embedding etc.
YOM: Your Origins Matter, one of the ICR’s more recent projects – it seems to be the rebranding of their speaking arrangements, along with a website.
Designed DNA: The personal website of Jeff Tomkins.
ILS: Incomplete lineage sorting, a concept that came up a fair bit in 2012.
A&F: Acts & Facts. The ICR’s monthly newsletter, which I try to dissect before the end of the next month.
@ICRMedia: The ICR’s twitter account – rarely used.
S&C: Spam and Censorship. The ICR seems to have no qualms about censoring dissent where it can. The name comes from the juxtaposition of surviving spam on IEE with censored commments.
Dr Stuart Robbins: An astronomer from Boulder, Colorado, who comments here and whose own blog, Exposing PseudoAstronomy, overlaps in subject with this at times, and which has been going for several years longer.
Dr Christian Shorey: A geologist from the Colorado School of Mines, who also comments here and has also attempted unsuccesfully to bring reason to the IEE blog and to the TaV channel. The subject of the original S&C saga.