The explanation I've seen that it's a visual indication of whether a name made up from initials is an initialism (i.e., you say the letters individually) or an acronym (spoken as a word). So, for instance, in modern British press parlance the European Space Agency is still the ESA, but NASA is Nasa. (Also Norad, Nascar, Comsublant, and so forth.) I can see the logic behind it—it is a clear indication of whether you're dealing with one or the other—and it's been put to me as nothing more than the next logical extension beyond omitting the periods (which we already do, nobody calls it N.A.S.A. any more), but I still find it irritating as fuck.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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