A
All Tomorrow's Parties
Famous song by the Velvet Underground, sung by Nico. ¶
Asahi Engineering
Japanese corporation, produces graphite used in bike frames. ¶
B
Bad Sector
Shop on the bridge which sells old computer hardware. ¶
Body Hammer
Chain of Japanese gyms, features injection of fetal tissue and reinforcement
of the skeleton. ¶
C
Cease Upon The Midnight
Mutual self-help euthanasia group. ¶
Century City II
aka the Blob, third-tallest structure in the L.A. Basin, looks like a
streamlined semi-transparent green tit with a copper nipple, held up by
three skyscraper-sized struts. ¶
Chrome Koran
Famous pop band, 'She God's Girlfriend', 'My War Is My War'. ¶
Chunker
Israeli riot-control device, air-powered, looks like the result of an
union between a bullpop assault rifle and an industrial staple gun, made
of bright yellow plastic, fires one-inch cubes of recycled rubber in a
solid stream. ¶
Cognitive Dissidents
Bar on the bridge. ¶
Cops in Trouble
TV show which features popular lawsuits against policemen. ¶
D
Dancer
4-Thiobuscaline, highly addictive drug which is massaged into the gums;
makes people selfish, pleased with themselves, and paranoid; prolonged
use causes the user's gum steadily to recede which produces a permanent
terrible smile. ¶
DatAmerica
Corporation at which Laney worked at the TIDAL project; also developed
the Realtree software. ¶
Death Cube K
Kafka theme bar in Tokyo. ¶
Death Star
The Southern California Geosynclinical Law Enforcement Satellite. ¶
Dog Soup
East Taipei Label on which the first Lo/Rez album 'Lo Rez Skyline' was
published. ¶
Dukes of Nuke' Em
Racist metal band, 'Gulf War Baby'. ¶
F
Famous Aspect
Rei Toei's corporate entity. ¶
5-SB
Experimental substance with which children in orphanages were dosed; some
of the test subject became sensitive to patterns in vast amounts of data,
and the perception of these 'nodal points' allows them to predict certain
aspects of the future. All of those subjects became obsessed with one
particular media figure later ('stalker effect'). ¶
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G
Gainesville
Federal orphanage where Laney was dosed with 5-SB. ¶
Glock
Standard police issue gun. ¶
Graffiti-eating finish
Embedded crab-like blue patches of smart material which moves to the graffiti
tag and dissolves the paint; developed in Singapore. ¶
Gunhead
Six-wheeled Hotspur Hussar, armored Land Rover vehicle, two Kyocera ceramic
engines. ¶
I
IntenSecure
Rentacop security company. ¶
Idoru
Japanese word derived from the English 'idol'; completely artificial media
personality. ¶
K
Kil'Z
Anti-viral spray to cover blood and other body fluids to prevent infection
with HIV 1-5, Crimean-Congo, Mokola fever, Tarzana Dengue, Kansas City
flu. ¶
King Cobra
Very cheap malt liquor brand which comes in 40oz (1.3l) bottles. ¶
Kombinat
Russian mafia government; strictly restricted in terms of technology by
other states. ¶
L
Little Grande
Earthquake which partly destroyed San Francisco. ¶
Lo/Rez
Extremely popular rock band, released 26 albums, first album 'Lo Rez Skyline',
also 'Positron Premonition', 'Stuck Pixel'. ¶
Lucky Dragon
Lucky Dragon Corporation of Singapore, client of Harwood Levine. At the
entrance they have the Lucky Dragon Global Interactive Video Column, which
randomly shows other Lucky Dragon branches all over the world. ¶
M
Monkey Boxing
The bar in Tokyo where Rez declared to marry the idoru, and which was
then bought by the Lo/Rez management. ¶
N
Nanotechnology
Technology beyond the size of microtechnology, uses assembling machines
so small you cannot see them. ¶
Nanofax AG
Firm from Geneva that offers a technology to digitally reproduce objects
at any distance, installs nanofacsimile assemblers in every Lucky Dragon
franchise in the world. ¶
New Logic
A sect which says that the world will collapse as soon as the weight of
all human nervous tissue exceeds a certain limit. ¶
NoCal
North California. ¶
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O
Out of Control
Counter-investigative show about shows like Slitscan. ¶
Otaku
Japanese term for an avid fan of technology, anime etc. ¶
P
Padania
Part of what used to be Italy. ¶
Paragon-Asia Dataflow
Lo/Rez shell corporation. ¶
R
Real One
TV channel which only runs documentaries. ¶
Realtree 7.2
Quantitative analysis software from DatAmerica. ¶
Republic of Desire
Hackers. ¶
S
Sandbenders
Community in Oregon who build shells for computers and consumer electronics
out of ivory, bronze, ebony, crystal, turquoise etc. ¶
Seperated at Birth
Police program for missing person cases that identifies people by their
resemblance to celebrities. ¶
Slitscan
TV show about the life of celebrities. ¶
SoCal
South California. ¶
Sunflower Corporation
Nanotechnology firm which after the quake planned to rebuild San Francisco
with huge, self-sufficent towers. ¶
T
Thomasson, Gary Leah
American baseball player who went to the Yomiyuri Giants in 1982, for
a large sum of money. Then it was discovered that he could not hit the
ball. The writer and artisan Gempei Akasegawa appropriated his name to
describe certain useless and inexplicable monuments, pointless yet curiously
artlike features of the urban landscape. ¶
V
Virtual Light
Coined by scientist Stephen Beck to describe a form of instrumentation
that produces optical sensations directly in the eye without the use of
photons. ¶
W
Walled City
Digitally occluded information space where all kinds of computer freaks
spend a lot of their time, built after a place near Kowloon airport in
Hong Kong. ¶
Wednesday Night Special
Russian-made suicide device; cartridge, tube and simple firing mechanism. ¶
Western World
Bar and disco on the top two floors of an office building that was severly
damaged by the quake, was established a few days after the quake and quickly
became a major attractor for various subcultures; named after the song
'Here at the Western World' by Steely Dan. ¶
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William Gibson aleph 
San Francisco
glossary 
