Snake oil came first. By a likely ~ +50k years

Very much a case of inventing and constructing. The engine maker of the war effort. The word and it’s meaning as an origin point.

In modern parlance engineers don’t invent. They build by the book. If inventing -- that’s science. It can be easy to mix it up and mis-name it though. People do it all the time, so much so that the thing is a bit confused.

I’m not saying that engineers can’t be creative that they aren’t, but in modern parlance, the two are separated into science (theory and original creation) and build by the book (engineer)(which is enabled by the theory and original creation). Engineers search for solutions all the time but they don’t build a bridge based on a theory. 

Scientists, on the other hand, don’t build bridges. Thankfully. Not sure I want to be driving or walking on a bridge built on a theory.

Nor would I ever want to entertain walking on something based on theory. Yet we've taken concrete steps in governing (where the modern shamans reside) and perverted them into abstract (theoretical) concepts to govern by in order to placate the false shamans, resulting in an almost amusing form of chaos. 

Nothing works as it should. Modern shamans of the political bent are ever increasingly neglecting and rejecting proven methods of governing to satisfy their ill conceived notions of how things they perceive should be done. Past is no longer prologue and we are repeating and rhyming past mistakes at an alarming rate, which is one of the definitions of insanity.

Shamans used to rise based on merit and success (raising the tree at the end of winter to signify the coming spring, predicting the next eclipse, etc.) but now they bamboozle and bullshit their way to the top, revealing a hollowing out of the art of the shaman.

That's where professionalism comes into play. Shamans are shamans for a good reason: they are, or should be, among the best at their intended task, be it politics, religion, engineering, agriculture, science, medicine, etc.

All the best,
Nonoise

geoffkait , It could have been worse , imagine how many demerits you would of got if you were in a military ROTC unit .

I once knew the Admiral in charge of Naval Aviation quite well as he was related to my wife.I asked him why they recruited so much at the Big Ten Universities Engineering Schools which I knew to be the case .He replied: " They are smart enough to learn whatever we throw at them but lack the imagination to picture themselves smashing into the back of the deck during night-ops ."I know he was telling the truth because he was 3 sheets to the wind at the time .

@schubert Good one. We used to call it "Chair Force".

True story. I went to a military college. Had to decide which ROTC to sign up for. I went to each one and asked them how much PT they did. Marines, multiple times a week. Army, every Friday. Navy, once a month. Air Force, once a semester. For a thinking man there was no question about where to go.

@geoffkait The modern USAF have, perhaps, the ugliest and least awe inspiring uniforms in history.

@nonoise The political pseudo-shamans of today are technically what you’d call a bureaucrat. They are, in my opinion, the very opposite of anything even resembling professionalism. They are governed by no principles, ideals or concepts, not even pragmatism, other than the notion that all problems can be solved with more paper work and bureaucracy. In this respect they resemble cancer more than anything else. Currently almost all real power in the U.S. resides with them.