This is slightly off-topic (I'm going to be that "this is sorta more a comment than a question..." guy for a second), but I just want to say that Scott's blog is one of my favorite blogs on the whole internet. If only there were more like it!
I know that me-too type posts are frowned upon here on HN, but in this case I think an exception is warranted. Too many scientists ensconce themselves in the ivory tower and treat the rest of the world with attitudes ranging from indifference to outright disdain. I also want to thank you for not following that model.
On a totally unrelated note, I've been trying to wrap my brain around coherent states and the photon-number/phase uncertainty relationship (e.g. http://hitoshi.berkeley.edu/221a/coherentstate.pdf). Do you know of any simple intuitive stories one can tell about that like one can with position-momentum uncertainty? I know this isn't really in your wheelhouse, but people who both understand this stuff and are willing to field questions like this are exceedingly rare (see above paragraph).
