It’s not a siphon, you morons!

If I hear one more TV twit say BP is siphoning up the oil escaping from its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, my head may explode.

These ignorant jackasses apparently have no idea of what a siphon is and how it works.

Here’s how Dictionary.com defines siphon: A tube or conduit bent into legs of unequal length, for use in drawing a liquid from one container into another on a lower level by placing the shorter leg into the container above and the longer leg into the one below, the liquid being forced up the shorter leg and into the longer one by the pressure of the atmosphere.

You cannot siphon from a lower level to a higher level, like from a wellhead a mile below the surface to a tanker on the surface. That’s not siphoning, that’s pumping.

To illustrate, if you can suck a fluid to a point lower than its intake, then gravity and atmospheric pressure take over and will continue the flow.

In most cases, these are the same people who think “decimate” is synonymous with “devastate.” To decimate is to reduce by one-tenth. When the Romans had to severely discipline one of their legions, they’d line everyone up and call out every 10th man and kill him. They called it decimating from the Latin word decem or ten.