More??

Oh my goodness, more words I have no use for!

Intel: Unless you work for the CIA, the NRO, the DIA or some other agency that actually collects or interprets intelligence, please stop saying "intel" as it makes you sound like a creepy outsider trying to be an insider, like overly-enthusiastic football fans who play-call for their favorite team - "43 ride left, you morons!" Especially stop saying "The intel was there!" in reference to the decision to invade Iraq. If the intel (sic) really was there, where did it go? Do you allege that it also was transported to Syria?

In fact, please stop talking like Tom Clancy period. That means not saying things like "ops" or "specops" or "kill chain" or "operator", or using acronyms like FEBA or MOUT unless you really know what they mean.

Cultures: This one's popular in yogurt circles, where it's a stand-in for bacteria. We've been conditioned to automatically think of bacteria as bad, so the yogurt people have to use a different word. So why don't we all? "Medieval Europe was nearly depopulated by yersinia pestis cultures..."

Massive: Massive means that something has a large mass. I recently read a news story about a "massive sinkhole". Since a sinkhole by definition has no mass, um.... But I'm as guilty as anyone, because I occasionally speak of "massive headaches" or things that are "massively funny". Just because I have no use for this word doesn't mean that I don't use it...

Diss: "So-and-so dissed me!" A) Who cares? B) Oh, grow up and stop being such a baby. C) Diss is short for disrespect, which is a goddamned noun, not a verb. Remember what Stephen King once said: "F*** gerunds!" That's good advice.

On: NASA has developed a tendency to say "on orbit" instead of "in orbit". I even heard one woman, an otherwise brilliant mind, say that she couldn't really comment on the mission (Stardust, as I recall) until she had the data "on lab". WTF? Wouldn't the data be useful in the lab? I'm not sure who in NASA mandated this change, which has all the hallmarks of smarmy management-speake, but astronomers say it right and NASA does not.