Fwd: Rocket Science et al

[GLL]

Re: "not rocket science/not brain surgery" and "... I can fix a screen.  I can
fix a light. This stuff is not brain surgery."

I am fighting a lone battle against 'rocket science; used to mean an arcane or
intractible skill set. I tell people that 90% of rocket science can be
learned in your first term of highschool physics:

- Force, mass, momentum
- Newtons law's of motion & gravity
- Kepler's law of harmony
- Conic sections

That'll take you 90%. So I tell people, tongue only partially in cheek, that
when *I* use the phrase 'rocket science,' I mean 'a technical subject which
just about everyone should have learned to some basic mimimum, and and
instilled familiarity with the subject which should be retained throughout
life.'

R.A. Heinlein puts is this way: "A human being should be able to change a
diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building,
write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the
dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations,
analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal,
fight efficiently, die gallantly."

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org