Bad quotation

(np) 1. A quotation which does not follow the appropriate conventions, either due to lack of attribution or to editing without appropriate indications (cf. brackets, context, ellipses, omission). If the meaning of the quotation is thereby altered, it is a misquotation.

Balesian inference

(np) 1. Mode of argumentation which relies upon reference to evidence in a previous post, which in fact was never posted, or to a future post to appear Real Soon Now, which will, in fact, never be posted. At some point, particular claims which were once claimed to be answered in a soon to be posted message are thereafter claimed to have been already answered in a past post. This technique is named for long time talk.origins participant Bob Bales.

Bandwidth Vampire

(np) 1. A creature of darkness whose aim is to utilize available bandwidth for personal gratification, without reckoning as to content. Typically manifests in the egomaniacal, vain, or self-involved poster to whom self-aggrandizing and other-demeaning soliloquies represent the very height of intellectual discourse. When responding to a Bandwidth Vampire, a "[<slurrrp>]" may be substituted for normal ellipses in order to conserve what little anemic bandwidth may have been left.

Bird's Eye Frozen Foods Division

(n) 1. Purveyors of frozen foodstuffs, popular in the continental USA. [den.] 2. A world- renowned scientific research laboratory. [conn., Ted Holden] See quick frozen mammoths.

Brackets

(n) 1. The typographical symbols "[ ]", which in a quotation indicate insertions or alterations made by the person presenting the quote. All such alterations, even changes in letter case, should be marked with brackets; failure to do so is a form of misquotation.

BSA

(acronym) 1. Boy Scouts of America, USA congressionally chartered youth organization. [den.] 2. Bible-Science Association, organization for the promotion of SciCre based in Minneapolis.

Bullfrog

(n) A word which ones speaks when one wishes to embarrass Duane Gish, who has in the past made astonishing claims about the genetic code of the amphibian in question and its similarity to genetic codes of other animals, and who has been unable to give a source for that claim except rumors. "Chicken lysozyme" has a similar effect.