blood wagon

An emergency ambulance, paramedic vehicle, or other medical assistance vehicle. Especially applicable when said vehicle has flashing lights on and sirens sounding. The passing of a Blood Wagon in full cry is usually very bad news for someone.

"Shit, I got blue flashing lights on my tail !"
"Chill out, it's just a blood wagon".

"Sorry I'm late - there was a crash on the way here, must have been nasty 'cos there were a couple of blood wagons there."

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jesus bolts

The "jesus bolts" are the small, high-tensile bolts that attach the rotor pitch control push rods to the swash plateon a helicopter.

If one of these bolts fails, then one of the 'copter's rotors will be decoupled from the cyclic/collective pitch control, which is generally thought of as a Bad Thing; they are so called because if you've led a good life, afther the failure Jesus is the next person you meet.

See also zero survivability incident

Pilot: "Is this thing good to go ?"
Engineer: "Yeah, we even gave you new Jesus Bolts !"
Pilot: "Gee, thanks."

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Q branch

1. The special equipment unit in the James Bond novels and films by Ian Fleming. They provide all manner of outlandish gadgets, often of a bizarre and highly destructive nature.

The unit's head is known as "Q" and was portrayed in many of the films by actor Desmond Llewelyn (2nd film to the 19th).

2. By inference, a specialised higly technical department within a much larger organisation, often staffed by geeks whose work is little understood but none the less admired and respected by other employees.

Also known as "Q Section"

"Can you come to the meeting ?"
"Yeah... but I'll be a little late, I have to go up to Q Branch and get them to look at my GPS, it's playing up."

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Preemptive Recycling

Stealing stuff ... often, very nice stuff, usually from work.

May include but is not limited to office supplies, computer parts, food and drink.

The justification is that the item(s) would have been thrown out anyway at some point so you're just going with the trend and saving the planet by recycling them a little "early".

Geek 1: "Check out my Blu-Ray rewriter"

Geek 2: "Oh, cool ! Where did you get it ?"

Geek 1: "Er ... it came from work ... I indulged in a bit of preemptive recycling ..."

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collect the full set

An accident, usually involving a mechnaically-propelled vehicle, which is sufficently serious to require the attendance of all emergency services; police, fire service, paramedics, tow truck, and in extreme cases a mortuary van.

The perpetrator of the incident is said to have "collected the full set".

"Sorry I'm late, some idiot in a sports car had decide to collect the full set on the exit ramp of junction 15"

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collapse your wave function

To meet. Based on the fact that when a particle is "observed", its wave function collapses. Therefore, when one meets another person and observes them, one "collapses their wave function", referring to Maxwell's equation for electromagnetic propagation.

"Are your interrupts enabled ?"
"Masked until after lunch.. I gotta finish this."
"No worries, I'll collapse your wave function at about 1330."

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Obersturmbannfuhrer

1. A military rank in the German Army during the Nazi (WW II) era, roughly equivalent to Lieutenant-Colonel in other armies.

2. By derivation, a tight-assed, imperious, arrogant, autocratic bastard of a boss or manager, usually middle-ranking, who also arse-licks his superiors and denigrates his team.

"The Obersturmbannfuhrer's knocked back my request for a bigger hard drive. Bastard bastard bastard."

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