At least two times, I have heard Ph.D. bearing scientists refer to the jagged lines due to image digitization as "jaggies" in public. From a scientific standpoint, this word is ridiculous, and it sounds very childish. Luckily, it has not appeared in reviewed journal papers (to my knowledge), but its use is disconcerting. However, there is a Wikipedia entry for "jaggies" that claims the word originated in an Atari game with aliens called "Jaggis" due to the low resolution appearance of the aliens. Somehow this word has slipped into the parlance of the science community, where those who use it illuminate their verbal deficiencies.
Society worries about the rebellion against knowledge, which is certainly an admirable concern. Obviously, participants in an academic community do not demonstrate an admirable use of knowledge at the basic level of communication. It is funny how the complaints of society often point to the problem of communication among people, yet we offer various masquerades responsible for this fundamental problem. In particular, the education argument is really about communication: the refusal and/or inability of people to communicate. If we aspire to communicate with each other, then we are likely to prevent many of the "problems." Of course, that's a lot of work, so let's pass the problem onto those involved in the early childhood development. Obviously, we cannot blame the parents, because they have too much on their plate with work and all; let's make the teachers responsible. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense, especially since none of them are parents, too.
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