cm

Calendar Manager. Sun Microsystems Open Windows application. Named so as to sabotage .login files of the unix faithful who use cm.

.cm

(Domain code for) Cameroon.

CM, C.M.

Order of Canada, Member. One of three levels of membership in the Order of Canada. Well, not just any of the three levels. ``Member'' is sort of the ``no-frills'' honor (``honour''). Honorable, but not very honorable. Honorable mention, so to speak. Also-ran. Faint praise. I mean, thanks a lot! Sure! You can keep your insulting little compliment!

More details are collected at the CC entry, not because that's the highest level, though it is, but because it's the funniest. But having ``Member'' be one of three ``different levels of membership'' is kind of amusing too, so we'll have to think of something to say here as well, eh?

CM

Carat. I suppose M stands for Mass or Measure.

c.m., cm, CM

Center of Mass. Weighted average position of the mass in a system. By construction, the momentum of that system is zero in any frame of reference using the center of mass as origin. Therefore also center of momentum.

Also called center of gravity (c.g.), since a uniform gravitational field applies torque on the system as if the total force were being applied at the center of mass.

c.m., cm, CM

Center of Momentum. The frame of reference in which momentum is zero. More commonly ``center of mass.''

Relativistically, momentum is not mass times velocity. It is a fundamental quantity, like position, and the easiest way to define it classically is to say that it is the quantity that satisfies

                        dE
                    v = -- ,
                        dp

where E, v, and p are energy, velocity, and momentum. You want a formula? Okay, with c as the speed of light,

                                mv
                   p =  ----------------------- ,
                           ____________________
                          /                2
                         / 1 - (v/c)
                        V

but when you work with relativistic particles, you stop thinking in terms of velocity, since the speed is always pretty close to c.

cm

CentiMeter. Defined in the US to be exactly

                100
                ---  in.
                254

This is exact, whereas the original and less practical definition of the centimeter was one billionth (10^-9) of the length of the quadrant of longitude between the equator and the North Pole that passes through Paris. Whenever the Seine flooded, everyone had to recalibrate; it was just a nightmare.

To be fair here, it's worth noting that a lot of effort had already been put into mapping the Paris meridian in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, in order to test Descartes's hypothesis that the earth is elongated. (It's not, of course; centripetal acceleration flattens it, as Newton predicted.)

For photons in the vacuum, there is a simple proportionality between wavenumber (i.e. wavevector magnitude) and energy. Thus, inverse centimeters, a wavenumber unit, is also used as an energy unit. I mention it here, since the unit is sometimes sloppily called ``centimeters'' for short. Physicists also often use the term ``finite'' to mean nonzero (as in ``finite-temperature Green's function''). A quantity and its inverse are usually interchangeable measures of the same thing, and anyway you can usually tell which quantity is meant by the units (oops!).

CM

Central Memory. AKA ``main memory'' and ``primary memory.'' During the sixties, core. Nowadays RAM, whatever you call it.

cm

Check Mail. Standard unix code to report whether there is any mail in a user's mail spool, and whether any of it is unread.

C&M

Classica et Mediaevalia. Journal catalogued by TOCS-IN.

CM

Common Mode. Vide DM.

CM

Composition Modulation. Term used in nanostructures defined by epitaxial growth, and possibly by lateral segregation processes like island growth.

CM

Conductance Measurement.

CM

Configuration Management.

CM

Core Memory. Contains instructions and data for immediate execution and processing.

CM

CounterMeasures. Think Spy vs. Spy.

Cm

Curium. One element of the Vatican bureaucracy (Curia). (You probably didn't know that the Pope's closest advisors are called the Curio cabinet. It would be odd if you did know it, since it's not true.) Also one element of the periodic table. Context usually allows the thoughtful reader to determine which is meant.

The element has atomic number 96, it's an actinide. They couldn't abbreviate it Cu because that was already taken for copper.

Learn more at its entry in WebElements and its entry at Chemicool.

Although the element itself is your typical silvery metallic, most of its (trivalent) compounds are yellowish. In the sixties, there was something called ``I Am Curious Yellow.'' This makes sense, because the two most common valences are three and four. If the tetravalent compounds were yellowish, then it would have been ``Curic Yellow.''

CM

Cylindrical Mirror. Different focal lengths for light beam displacement in different directions from the lens axis. [Sort of does the same thing to light that a quadrupole magnet does to a charged-particle beam, except that the quadrupole magnet focuses along one direction and defocuses in the orthogonal direction.]

CMA

Calcium Magnesium Acetate. It has a CAS registry number (76123-46-1), and on a quick thoughtless glance it looks like an organic salt, but CMA isn't the name of what anyone would call a pure chemical substance. It's a mix of calcium acetate and magnesium acetate (CaAc₂ and MgAc₂ -- that's Acetate, not Actinum!) in comparable amounts.

In 1950, about a million tons of salt (NaCl) were used for deicing US roads. By 1970, the figure was close to 10 million; with weather-related fluctuations, the figure has stayed there since then. [Or at least until 1988; my information comes from Highway Deicing: Comparing Salt and Calcium Magnesium Acetate (1991). It was Special Report 235 of the Transportation Research Board of the US National Research Council.] In 1980, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the US identified CMA as a possible replacement for salt. Salt is cheap and CMA is less so; the motivation for using CMA is the hard-to-quantify environmental cost of salt use. The FHWA had considered a variety of other chemicals and rejected them due to high cost, low availability, properties making them unsuitable for application (they were gaseous or not water-soluble) or other undesirable properties (they were corrosive, flammable, or toxic). The only two items not ruled out were CMA and methanol (not flammable enough for ya'?). Methanol is particularly effective at low temperatures, but CMA was chosen for continued development ``because of its greater environmental acceptability,'' and handling and spreading characteristics similar to salt.

The bottom line on CMA is that it still costs about $2000 a ton, versus $30 a ton for NaCl, and is needed in equal or slightly larger quantities. Calcium Chloride costs about $300 per ton. The FHWA has also been pushing CMAK.

CMa

Canis Major. Official IAU abbreviation for the constellation.

CMA

Centre de Mathématiques Appliquées of L'École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.

CMA

Cleveland Museum of Art.

CMA

Comparative Market Analysis. An effort to estimate the market price of a real estate property by studying the prices fetched by comps (comparable homes: similar nearby properties that sold recently). Some effort is made to correct for different amenities, terms of purchase, etc.

Realtor.com offers a quick-and-dirty computerized version of a CMA that it calls a ``Community Market Analysis.''

CMA

Cooperative Marketing Agreement. Flintstones glasses at MacDonald's, or Burger King, or one of those. It really burns that fast-food restaurant's name into your memory.

CMA

Country Music Association, which gives the Country Music Awards (usually in September). Different from the Academy of Country Music (ACM), which gives its ACM Awards (traditionally in April). Could get downright confusin'.

CMA

Cover[ ed | ing ] My Ass. Internet usage.

``Cover[ ed | ing ] My Arse'' in Commonwealth usage.

CMA

Crystal Meth Anonymous.

CMA

Cylindrical Mirror Analyzer.

CMAC

Cerebellar-Model Arithmetic Computers.

CMAK

Calcium Magnesium Acetate with some potassium (K) as well. Typically referred to as Calcium Magnesium Potassium Acetate or Calcium Magnesium Acetate Potassium Acetate blend. The initialism is a vast improvement, which is more than one can say for the substance itself (a variant on the CMA idea).

CMAK

Combat Mission: Afrika Korps. A game in the Combat Mission video-game series.

CMAK

Connection Manager Administration Kit.

CMAQ

Congestion Management and Air Quality. A US program which funds air-quality improvement projects. CMAQ funds are allocated to states in proportion to the population in areas that do not meet NAAQS levels, weighted by severity of air polution.

CMAS

Computer-based Modeling and Analysis System.

CMB

Consejo Mundial de Boxeo. Spanish, `World Boxing Council' (WBC).

CMB

Cosmic Microwave Background. Characterized by a temperature of 2.73 K.

CMBE

Center for Market-Based Education.

CMC

CarboxyMethyl Cellulose.

CMC

Cast Metal Coalition.

CMC

Claremont McKenna College.

CMC

Colorado Mountain Club.

CMC

Communications and Mobile Computing.

CMC

Communications Management Configuration.

CMC

Computer-Mediated Communication.

CMC

Coulomb-Mohr Criterion.

CMC

Critical Micelle Concentration. This is not, as you might suppose, the concentration of micelles at some critical point. Instead, it is the concentration of surfactant molecules in solution, above which micelles spontaneously form.

CM-cellulose

CarboxyMethylCELLULOSE.

CMD

Computer Moiré Deflectometry.

CME

Center for Media Education. ``[A] national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of electronic media, especially on the behalf of children and families.''

CME

Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

CME

Component Management Entity.

CME

Continuing Medical Education.

In 1998, I saw a lead headline so inane that it convinced me to buy the local rag (The South Bend Tribune). It was a report that the King of Thailand had collected another utterly meaningless and unmerited honorary degree, and with this had pulled ahead of the hometown favorite (retired long-time University of Notre Dame president Father Hesburgh -- more at this PLS entry) in the unofficial competition to see who could collect the most such honors before dying.

Further down the front page was less important news. It seems that a physician was lost overboard on one of those ``in-service cruises'' -- sugar-coated CME. Contributing to his fall may have been disorientation from pain medication for a fall he had suffered earlier during the cruise. And -- the name was familiar. Where had I seen that name before? Egad, that was my physician!

I have found that weird news comes in clusters. Another memorable cluster was in August 1979. That was the time of the dirt-granola incident. Up near the tree line, we entertained ourselves reciting translations of Jabberwocky into neo-Spanish and similar languages. But it wasn't the camping trip that was weird, and it wasn't my visits to the Moonies and the Scientologists before and after the trip. It wasn't the Fresno Gestalt. It was coming back to civilization and encountering news. There was an Aeroflot jet at JFK that waited three days for permission to take off. Bolshoi dancer Alexander Godunov had defected, and Soviet minders had escorted his wife (ballerina Ludmilla Vlasova) onto the plane. The US government refused to allow the plane to leave until they could be sure that she was on board of her own free will. (Things didn't work out so well professionally for Godunov, who had been a star in the Bolshoi. He died in 1995, age 45, of unspecified ``natural causes.'' There were continuing rumors of Vlasova's ambivalence about the separation, but after the fall of the Soviet Union they did not reunite. BTW, for details of my Scientology expedition, see the Cosmo entry.)

There was more.

CME

Coronal Mass Ejection.

CMEA

California Music Educators Association.

CMEA

Continuing Medical Education Association. (There's a related commercial site.)

CMEA

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The group of countries with ``centrally-planned economies,'' as the expression went (and also centrally controlled, in theory), aligned with the USSR. CMEA was officially established in January 1949 to coordinate the economic activities of communist states and to maintain Soviet hegemony. Umm, okay the Soviet hegemony bit may not have been official. In the West, CMEA was better known as COMECON. The original group was all-Europe: In addition to the USSR, the members were Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia (CSSR), Poland, (from February 1949) Albania, and (from September 1950) East Germany (GDR).

Good ol' Enver Hoxha pulled brave little Albania out of the sphere of Soviet influence and out of CMEA at the end of 1961, but it continued to be a member, nominally. Yugoslavia, which also pulled out of the Warsaw Pact, was an associate member of CMEA starting in 1964.

Mongolia was added to CMEA in June 1962, Cuba only in 1972, and Vietnam in 1978. The organization was formally dissolved at a meeting in Budapest on June 28, 1991.

CMEA-7, CMEA (7)

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance -- 7 European members, not counting Albania or associate member Yugoslavia. In the West, CMEA was better known as COMECON.

CMEP

Churches for Middle East Peace. Asking both sides to stop the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians, whether by suicide bombings or by targeted attacks on suicide bomb factories.

CMF

Chip-Matched Filter.

CMF

CoMoving Frame. Most convenient frame to compute the Robertson-Walker, among other things. Also the most flattering reference frame in which to weigh oneself.

CMF

Cross-Modulation Factor.

CMH

Centre for Metropolitan History. Part of the Institute for Historical Research (IHR) of the University of London.

CMHC

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. A Canadian Crown Corporation which administers the National Housing Act. CMHC services include insuring high-ratio mortgage loans for lenders.

CMHS

Center for Mental Health Services. Part of SAMSA.

CMi

Canis Minor. Official IAU abbreviation for the constellation.

CMI

Cell-Mediated Immunity.

CMI

Coded Mark Inversion.

CMI

Computer-Managed Instruction. The ``instruction'' is of students, not to the machine. It just means (or perhaps meant, by now) education assisted by computerized record-keeping. Like CAD, CAM, CAE, etc., this is one of those terms that is losing its utility, as the time is upon us when anyone would wonder that any task should be done without the aid of a computer.

CMI

Continuous[ly] Measurable Improvement.

CMIF

CWI Multimedia Interchange Format.

CMIFed

CMIF EDitor.

CMIIW

Correct Me If I'm Wrong. Email usage.

CMIP

Common (network) Management Information Protocol.

CMIP

Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Coupled models of ocean and atmosphere, applied to a common set of data. Cf. AMIP (atmospheric modeling only, but note that water surface temperature data are an input -- you can't ignore three quarters of the earth's surface, but you can try to avoid having to model it).

CMIP/CMIS

Common (network) Management Information Protocol / Common (network) Management Interface Services. OSI network management protocol/service interface created by ISO for the management of heterogeneous networks.

CMIS

Common (network) Management Interface Services.

CMISE

Common (network) Management Information Service Element.

CML

Caribbean Microfinance Ltd. A Trinidad-based microfinance institution that ``aims to contribute to social and economic development in the Caribbean. Through the sustainable provision of microcredit, CML plans [as of August 2001] to establish its operations in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and Guyana.''

C&ML

Classical and Modern Literature. Journal catalogued by TOCS-IN.

CML

Chemical Mark-up Language. An XML-based mark-up developed by Peter Murray-Rust at Nottingham.

CML

Current-Mode Logic. Synonym for ECL (which see -- that's the entry with the mosty; actually, it's adapted from something I wrote as a newsgroup posting, but either way it has the mosting). (It's a good thing these forced rhymes are more fun to write than to read, or they'd never be written at all!)

CMM

Capability Maturity Model. A Systems Engineering effort to standardize QA processes, along the same lines as SEI levels 1 - 5.

Ain't that grand?

(No.)

CMM

Centre for Metaphysics and Mind. It's based in the School of Philosophy at the University of Leeds.

CMM

Coordinate Measuring Machine[s]. Inspection equipment, basically. CMM programmers ought to know CATIA, and CATIA speaks DMIS (Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard).

CMMS

Computer Maintenance Management System[s].

CMMS

Conceptual Model of the Mission Space. Maybe you can make sense of this.

CMMU

Cache Memory Management Unit.

CMN

Comité Mercosur de Normalización (in Spanish) or Comitê Mercosul de Normalização (Portuguese).

CMNS

Classical & Medieval Numismatic Society.

CMO

Central Moneymarkets Office.

CMO

Collateralized Mortgage Obligation. CMO's are derivative securities issued against expected income from mortgages. They generally were (still are?!?!) sold in tranches with differing characteristics. For example, if the mortgages of a particular tranche can be paid off early, then it is sensitive to interest rates (pre-payment increases with a decline in interest rates, lowering the tranche value, and conversely).

CMOS

Complementary MOS (logic circuit). Look, I don't care if you pronounce it ``SEA moss'' or ``SEA mahss'' (i.e., using the ``o'' of American hot in MOS). Just so long as you don't use a really stupid pronunciation (like the radio announcer guy who pronounced it with the ``o'' of most), you can still be my friend.

CMOS is a kind of semiconductor logic using gates with complementary PMOS and NMOS parts, designed so that power dissipation is near zero when the gate is not switching.

A CMOS inverter (mislabeled ``transistor'') is illustrated at right. On the right side within the diagram is a p-well, in which an NMOS transistor has been fabricated. On the right side is a PMOS transistor, fabricated directly in epi material that is n-doped. Not shown are connections between different electrodes or terminals that are made with metal deposited over the silicon. In particular, the drains are joined and their value is the inverter output, while the sources of NMOS and PMOS are connected to the lower and upper voltage rails in the circuit, respectively. In the case shown, the input voltage is low, so the NMOS (on the right) is off. A low voltage applied to the PMOS gate turns it on, although current flows in the channel only to the extent that the gate attached to the output of the inverter has low input impedance.

Illustrated at left is a more realistic version of the same gate. The especially thick regions of oxide are ``thickox'' typically grown by oxidation with steam. It is intended to be thick to assure that metal interconnects on the oxide do not ``turn on'' as transistors any regions in the silicon. The transistor gate (metal deposited by PVD or polysilicon typically deposited from silane by CVD) is usually grown over a thin oxide layer (``thinox'').

The transistor gates in this instance are made of polysilicon (silicon deposited by CVD; because it is deposited over a disordered surface -- the oxide is amorphous -- it too is disordered). The polysilicon is heavily doped to place the effective location of the charge electrostatic plate that is the gate as close as possible to the silicon wafer. From the substantial overlap of transistor gates with the source and drain regions, it appears that a self-aligned process was not used.

The above diagrams are side views. Below is a SEM image of a small segment of a (metal-gate) CMOS gate array (details at source, from Notre Dame Microelectronics Lab). (See gate entry for two meanings of ``gate.'')

CMOT

CMIP Over TCP.

CMP

Canadian Mind Products. I'm sorry, but my sense of neighborly, vicarious patriotic embarrassment is overwhelmed by my sense of humor. Whether you agree, disagree, or quibble with them, you ought to be amused by such homepage claims as ``President Bush is risking the future of all multicelled life on earth. He has already invaded Iran and...'' [page visited 2006.04.22]. A set of link buttons on that page is illustrated with small images -- a coffee cup for Java, a small Rodin's Le Penseur for ``Deep Thoughts,'' etc. The politics link is illustrated with a US flag, and this fairly reflects the content, though there is an angry little bit of CanCon too. The site appears to be the product of a lone mind (I've seen ``loon'' -- is that the Canadian spelling?), Roedy Green's. The poor fellow should move on south so he too can sport one of those ``Don't Blame Me -- I Voted for [losing Democratic candidate]'' bumper stickers. Come on -- you know you want it!

CMP

Catalogue of Mythographic Papyri.

CMP

Chemical Mechanical Polishing. The acronym has been verbed. Principal parts (and only parts, this being English): CMP (pronounced ``cee em PEE''), CMP's or CMPs or whatever (I've actually only heard this stuff; it may be jargon without a fixed written form), CMP'd, CMP'd (the past participle is a very common verbal adjective), and CMPing or whatever. I like that. <sounds like>``He can't come to the phone -- he see 'em peeing in the clean room.''</sounds like>

CMP

Here they were. They published, I don't know what. Probably something technical. According to this site, on ``February 29, 2008, CMP Media LLC (also referred to as CMP Technology) became United Business Media LLC. At that time, four technology divisions were also established: Everything Channel, EETimes Group and TechWeb. [That's sic.] Much of the content, including lists of brands and marketing services, which were formerly part of the CMP.com web site, can now be found on these four [plus quam sic] division web sites.''

I still don't know what the sealed acronym CMP stood for. Perhaps some personal initials. Maybe I'll look into this in 2012, when they celebrate their first anniversary.

CMP

Cytidine MonoPhosphate. See XMP.

CMPE

Certified Medical Practice Executive. An MPE certified by the ACMPE.

CMR

Caisse Maladie Régionale.

CMR

Cell Misinsertion Rate.

CMR

Clinical Microbiology Reviews. Published by the ASM.

CMR

Colossal MagnetoResistance. Ninety-percent reduction in conductance from zero-field value observed in alloy manganite perovskites. Alloys of Lanthanum [a rare earth (RE)] with an alkaline earth--Ba, Ca, or Sr: La_x(Ca, Sr, or Ba)_1-xMnO₃. Vide R. von Helmholt et al., PRL, 71, 2331 (1993) and S. Jin et al., Science 264, 413 (1994). Cf. GMR.

Don't blame me; I don't make these terms up, I just record'em. Mostly.

CMR

Common-Mode Rejection (ratio). The measure is more commonly abbreviated CMRR. [CMRR = DM gain / CM gain.] Cf. PSRR.

CMR

Comprehensive Microbial Resource. Served by TIGR.

CMR International

Centre for Medicines Research INTERNATIONAL.

CMRR

Common-Mode Rejection Ratio. [CMRR = DM gain / CM gain.] Cf. PSRR.

CMRS

Clinical Magnetic Resonance Society.

CMS

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Previous name was abbreviated HCFA.

CMS

Clay Minerals Society.

CMS

Compact Muon Solenoid. One of the main instruments of the LHC. ``CMS'' is also used to designate the collaboration for designing, building, and maintaining it, and for analyzing the data it collects.

CMS

Conversational Monitor System. IBM uses this term for a VM OS that doesn't sound particularly conversational.

CMS

Coulomb Mutual Scattering. Long-range Coulomb scattering between between mobile charge carriers in nearby conductors. First discussed theoretically by Peter J. Price, Physica (Amsterdam) 117B, 750 (1983). A kind of viscous current drag was predicted. The experiments are kind of difficult, because of the length scales needed to get appreciable drag. Early observations were in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. The first observation was of electrons in a 2DEG dragged by current in a 3DEG -- P. M. Solomon, P. J. Price, D. J. Frank, and D. C. La Tulipe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 2508 (1989). The effect was subsequently observed between 2DEG's:
T. J. Gramila, J. P. Eisenstein, A. H. MacDonald, L. N. Pfeiffer, and K. W. West, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 1216 (1991); Surf. Sci. 263, 446 (1992).
P. M. Solomon and B. Laikhtman, Superlattices and Microstructures 10, 89 (1991).

A number of mechanisms besides CMS can contribute to current drag, such as the van der Waals interaction, according to theoretical work by A. G. Rojo and G. D. Mahan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2074 (1992).

CMSR

Conductor-Metal-Semiconductor-Resistor (structure).

CMSS

Council of Medical Specialty Societies.

CMST

Characterization, Monitoring, and Sensor Technology.

CMT

Cadmium Mercury Telluride. [Cd_xHg_1-xTe, a II-VI alloy compound semiconductor. More common equivalent is ``MCT.''

CMT

Condensed Matter Theory.

Philip W. Anderson, emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University (and my Ph.D. advisor) writes the following on a research-interests page at the department:

I am a condensed matter theorist, a field in which I played the role of a major agenda-setter for 40 or so years (in fact I believe a colleague and I named the field in 1967 when we named our group in Cambridge--before that it was `solid state theory').

He also comments that he invented the ``Higgs'' boson in 1962 and named the ``spin-glass'' phenomenon in 1970. It's interesting that he mentions only in passing (among ``earlier interests'') the fields he left his own name in (with ``Anderson model, Anderson localization'') and the work for which he shared the Nobel prize in 1977.

CMT

Country Music Television. It belongs to Viacom, which belongs to MTV.

CMT

Connection ManagemenT. An FDDI process defined by the HIPPI standard.

CMU

Carnegie Mellon University.

Founded by the steal magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. (Oh, was that supposed to be spelled ``steel''? Sorry.)

In the sixties, another industrial baron -- Andrew Mellon -- was a great friend of the president of the University of Pittsburgh. Apparently that president spent big time (stadium construction, that sort of thing) in anticipation of a big donation from his friend. Then it seems they had a falling out of some sort. Andrew Mellon took his munificence across town to the old Carnegie Institute, now CMU. The U of Pitt, in debt up to its academic eyeballs, ended up becoming a public university.

I heard this story from a guy who was post-docking at U Pitt in those days; for a while until the state bail-out, he had trouble cashing his paychecks.

cmu

Chemical Mass Unit. The atomic mass unit, according to the definition favored by chemists, back when chemists and physicists used different definitions. Read the details at this amu entry.

CMUD

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities District. CMUD is used as an abbreviation for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, a government department that provides water and sewer services in City of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. I hope that's pronounced ``see mud.'' See COLON.

CMV

Commercial Motor Vehicle.

CMV

CytoMegaloVirus. A herpes virus that people with AIDS are susceptible to. Most commonly infects the retina and can lead to blindness. Can infect other organs.

CMVPR

Colegio de Médicos Veterinarios de Puerto Rico. `College of Veterinary Physicians of Puerto Rico.' It seems to be affiliated with the AVMA on the same terms that US state veterinary medical associations are affiliated with the AVMA.

CMX

CoMeX (commodities exchange) market of the NYSE.

CMX

CMX Company writes and sells real-time multitasking operating systems for microprocessors and microcontrollers, C compilers and other software. I doubt that the initials stand for anything reasonable.

CMYK

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK. The four ``colors'' used in four-color printing. Cyan (also called ``process blue''), Magenta and Yellow pigments are the subtractive primaries. Also CYMK, which is a common order to print the words CYAN YELLOW MAGENTA BLACK on a proof copy for control purposes.

cn

CaN. A highly useful chat contraction.

CN

Cellulose Nitrate. Also called celluloid. Quite flammable. In fact, in a slightly different form, the same material is called gun cotton. Also, it's available in an inflammable formulation. Amazing, huh? Why'd they ever switch to putting movies on some less magical material? Ping-pong balls are cellulose nitrate impregnated with camphor.

.cn

(Domain code for) China. The PRC.

Cn.

Latin, Gnaeus. A praenomen, typically abbreviated when writing the full tria nomina. Abbreviation dates from before the end of the 3 c. BCE, when the letter G was introduced to indicate a voiced version of C (which was originally always hard, like a K). Similar situation with Gaius (C.). Also used, less disconcertingly but less commonly: ``Gn.''

CN

Copy Network.

CN

Cranial Nerve. A non-spinal nerve that pokes through a hole in the skull.

CNA

Canadian Nurses Association. How are we feeling? Would we like to read the French version (Association des infirmières et infirmiers du Canada)? There, there.

CNA

Certified Novell Administrator. Novell's entry-level certification, awarded for passing a competency exam based on either the NetWare 2.2, 3.11 or 4.0 systems. Passing this cuts no mustard toward obtaining a CNE.

CNA

Certified Nurse['s] Assistant. The form with the possessive ``nurse's'' appears to be much less common. Pronounced C-N-A, and not necessarily possible to distinguish aurally from ``cee and ay.''

A young woman I know worked as a CNA in nursing homes or extended-care facilities for a number of years. I once asked her if she ever worked in an Alzheimer's ward. She said she did -- once. The patients were too vicious for her. And this is from a woman whom I once saw calm a raging sea of women desparate to use the one women's room during a Saturday-night bar rush at Myrrh's. Wow.

A couple of years ago she completed an accelerated course (15 mos., I think it took) to become an LPN, at the same time that she was working as a CNA and also waitressing a couple of shifts a week at Myrrh's (down from a regular schedule, before she returned to school). Ahh, to be young again and not need sleep.

She came back to work at Myrrh's recently, to catch up on old times and to help pay her mortgage. But basically the latter. I asked her how her work had changed since she became an LPN. She explained that when she was a CNA, she basically fed the patients and took them to the bathroom, but that now as an LPN, she basically supervises the CNA's to see that they feed the patients and take them to the bathroom. So basically, I said, she used to be an orderly but now she supervises orderlies. She basically agreed. If I interview her again and get a better handle on all this, I may spare you some basicallies.

CNA

Common-Neighbor Analysis.

CNAA

Council for National Academic Awards.

CNB

Certain ``National Banks.'' Here's a partial accounting:

• Cayman National Bank
• Citizens National Bank
• City National Bank
• Croatian National Bank
• Czech National Bank

CNBC

Commercial-news NBC. Don't these people know anything about branding? The CNBC home on the web is now ``MSN Money.''

Cnc

Cancer. Official IAU abbreviation for the constellation.

CNC

Computer Numerical Control (of machinery or manufacturing).

CNC

Condensation Nucleus Counter. Counts condensation nuclei.

CNCA

Centro Nacional de Coordinación Antiterrorista. Spain's `National Center for Antiterrorist Coordination.' Corresponds to the US NCTC.

CND

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. (Historical entry. More history at ND entry.)

CND

Could Not Duplicate. Same as NFF, q.v.

CNE

Certified Novell Engineer. (Also Certified NetWare Engineer.) A ``professional qualification awarded to you by Novell.'' Sounds like the educational equivalent of shopping only in the company store. Could be, this is what happens when grade inflation makes university degrees meaningless. Cf. MCSE.

If you aspire to greater LAN's, you can become an MCNE.

CNE

Corte Nacional Electoral. Literally the `National Electoral Court' of Bolivia, though I've seen it described as the ``National Elections Service.'' This is not inaccurate: among its duties, it certifies party compliance with election laws (required for parties to field candidates in elections), apportions public funds to the parties for campaigns (based on their showing in previous elections), administers the actual election and vote-counting, levies fines for noncompliance with electoral laws, certifies the results, etc. It is the careful design of the electoral process, centralized for efficiency and run by a group of respected Bolivian personages, that accounts for the smooth functioning of Bolivia's democracy.

CNES

Centre National d'Études Spatiales. France's `National Center for Space Studies.'

CNES

Classical and Near Eastern Studies. A common combination, and sometimes a department name, as at U. Minnesota.

CNET

Centre National d'Études des Télécommunications. Centre de R&D de France Télécom.

CNF

Cost Not including Freight charges. Cf. CIF.

CNG

Compressed Natural Gas. Try Digel.

Okay, a little more seriously... CNG has been proposed as clean-burning alternative automobile fuel. As of 1996, there were a couple of thousand fleet vehicles running on CNG in the New York City area, and under a hundred thousand CNG vehicles nationwide.

Ordinary gasoline engines can be modified to run on CNG, but it costs $5K to convert a gasoline car to CNG, or $3K to build it with CNG capability, because of the pressurized tank and fuel lines. Ford was the first major US motor-vehicle manufacturer to offer ``factory CNG'' (i.e., factory-installed CNG-capable engine).

CNG

Corporate Network Group.

CNI

Coalition for Networked Information. ``... dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.''

CNIB

Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Like many or most truly pan-Canadian organizations, this one has a bilingual acronym. The Spanish for CNIB is INCA.

cnida

A nematocyst. Less cryptically, it's the nettle cell of a coelenterate (jellyfish, hydra, sea anemone, etc.), containing a chemical and a release mechanism to sting and incapacitate prey or predator (or at least discourage a predator).

This word has an intriguing Scrabble status: cnida (with its plural cnidae) is accepted by the OSPD4 and SOWPODS, but not TWL98. I haven't checked OSPD3; if it's not there (i.e., if it's new in OSPD4) then it may be in the second edition of TWL. Somebody ought to look into that in 2006.

CNIDR

Center for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval.

CNL

Confédération Nationale (i.e., French) du Logement. (Alternate page here.)

CNM

Certified Nurse Midwife.

CNM

Customer Network Management.

CNMA

Communications Network for Manufacturing Applications.

CNMI

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. More material, unreasonably enough, under the postal code MP.

CNMV

Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores. Spanish `National Commission of the Securities Market.'

CNN

Cable News Network.

CNN

Cellular Neural Network. Proposed by L. O. Chua and L. Yang, in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, 35, #10, pp. 1257-1290 (Oct. 1988). It's also expanded with ``neural'' replaced by or slash-compounded with ``nonlinear.''

CNN

Composite Network Node.

CNNA

Cellular Neural Networks and Applications. An international workshop sponsored by the IEEE. The Fourth biennial workshop was in Seville in 1996.

CNO

Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxide (cycle). A cycle that produces isotopes of C, N, and O in stars by hydrogen burning. This is distinguished from the process of Helium burning, Carbon burning, and successively O and Si burning which occur in massive stars.

CNO

{Chief | Command} of Naval Operations.

CN-PPV

Cyano-substituted Poly(p-PhenyleneVinylene) (PPV).

CNPC

China National Petroleum Corp. PetroChina is a subsidiary of CNPC.

CNPF

Conseil national du patronat français. `National Council of French Employers.' At its national general assembly in October 1998, it changed its name to something more aggressive (translated `Movement of French Enterprises,' see Medef) and set out a program demanding government reform and greater labor-market flexibility. It makes you realize that having a road to Hell that's paved with good intentions is no use if you can't grab the steering wheel and head in the opposite direction.

CNPS

Canadian Nurses Protective Society. ``The Canadian Nurses Protective Society ... is a non-profit society, owned and operated by nurses for nurses, that offers legal liability protection related to nursing practice to eligible Registered Nurses, by providing information, education, and financial and legal assistance. CNPS' assistance is available free of charge to those nurses who are, or were at the time of an occurrence, permit holders or members in good standing of one of'' ten member territorial or provincial nursing associations, as of October 2001.

CNR

Carrier-to-Noise Ratio.

CNR

Change Notice Request. You want it when?!

CNR

CarboxyNitroso Rubber.

CNRC

Conseil national de recherches Canada, ``the principal science and technology agency of the Canadian federal government ... [w]ith 16 research institutes located in eleven major centres across the country... .''

CNRS, C.N.R.S.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France.

CNS

Central Nervous System. ``CNS depression'' is not ``depression'' -- it may include drowsiness, euphoria, amnesia, fatigue, and decreased REM sleep.

CNS

Cognitive NeuroScience.

CNS

Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance.

CNSE

College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Albany.

CNSS

Center for National Security Studies.

CNSTAT

Committee on [US] National STATistics.

CNT

Carbon NanoTube. A roll, or co-axial rolls, of graphene.

CNT

Cholesteric-Nematic Transition.

CNTC

Le Conseil des Normes de télévision par câble (du Canada). English CTSC.

CNTD

Central Nucleus Thermal Deposition.

CNU

Congress for the New Urbanism. A ``Chicago-based non-profit organization that was founded in 1993. We work with architects, developers, planners, and others involved in the creation of cities and towns, teaching them how to implement the principles of the New Urbanism.'' That quote is from a long-ago visit to their old web content. They eventually took their new urbanism to a new urbs, and at some point their homepage header explained that they were a ``San Francisco based non-profit organization that works with architects, developers....'' Aren't you fascinated? No? I think that the city where a congress for the new urbanism is based probably says something about that organization. Now they don't say anything prominent about where they're based. Maybe they moved to the suburbs like everyone else? Nope, their mailing address is a downtown Chicago office. Here's the text from an old version of their about-us page:

The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society's built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.

We stand for the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.

On a June 2007 browse, I learned that ``CNU is starting to form chapters.'' Maybe they could put together a whole book. They have ``a number of local groups working toward chapter status.'' The interest group for Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia uses the attractive name of Cascadia. Well begun is half done.

CNY

Central New York.

Cn3D

Rebus for ``See in 3D'' [three dimensions]. an interactive viewer developed by NCBI for molecular structures retrieved from its Entrez

An alternative viewer for some of the same data (all of the same structures) is the 3DB Browser made available by Brookhaven for its Protein DataBase (PDB, q.v.).

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