Say what you mean and mean what you say!

O'Reilly Radar asks a question that deserves to be repeated over and over:

But then I noticed something about the sites using the "XML" icon: nearly all of them add some text right next to the icon, clarifying that by XML, they really mean RSS. In some cases, such as SFGate and Amazon, they devote entire pages to explaining what RSS is, before going ahead and using the XML icon. Oy, I ask you. What craziness is this? Using one obscure acronym to describe another obscure acronym...oy!

Such craziness can be explained very simply: Dave Winer did it. Search his scripting.com website for "orange" and you'll get a good history of this enormous clusterfuck.