Be Careful With Your Smart-Talk
A recent article in Pop Sci reminded me of the fact that too many arm-chair intellectuals think they can spew the techno-babble like the best of 'em by asserting concepts like the HEISENBERG Uncertainty Principle. Even seemingly smart and technical people think it means that the act of measuring something changes its properties. Like if a reporter is in the room, the story people will tell is now different. Sorry genius, the theory only deals with atomic and sub-atomic particles: you cannot know its location and velocity at the same time - furthermore once you determine its location, you can never know where it just was. But the remarkable thing about Heisenberg's theory is that it challenges everything we consider factual about the nature of reality. That something (a particle) must be somewhere, but its location exists as a probability of locations - essentially throughout the universe.

How did this widely-held "smart talk" become a misnomer? Let me translate the following quotes everyone has heard a million times:

"We will be landing momentarily" = We will land the plane, and then take right back off again. Momentarily means for just a moment - not "in a moment"....

"Tell me what transpired during the meeting" = I want to know what leaked out of the room or escaped through the cracks in the room.
Transpired means to leak out of - not the meaning virtually everybody thinks it is.

Whether at a party or in a high-level meeting - its best to stay in the shallow end lest you get a big gulp full of chlorinated water for your boldness.

- Doobs was 100% Correct @ 10:22 AM