Noise

noise (noun)
undesired perturbation or disturbance that obscures the clarity of signals being measured.
Origin: from Latin: nausea

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Noise, in the scientific sense (especially in the physical and analytical sciences), is anything that interferes with the signals scientists are trying to measure. For example, lets say an astronomer is trying to map the orbits of the planets in the night sky. If you've ever tried star gazing in the middle of a city, you'll find that you won't be able to see very many stars, but if you went stargazing in the middle of the ocean, or while camping in in a national park, far away from civilization, you'll be able to see many many more stars. This is because the lights in the city - street lights, car lights, lights in houses, etc. - interfere with the light coming from stars and planet, and because these city lights are stronger, they "cancel out" the light coming from the sky, so you can only see the very brightest of celestial bodies. This is an example of noise (in the scientific sense): the light made by humans is noise because it interferes/obscures with the light (from the stars and planets) that you want to see.

I do not know which came first: the scientific sense, or the contemporary sense of the term, but if you think about it, the contemporary sense of the word (i.e. noise having a sound connotation), but it fits. I believe I heard a rumour that "noise" entered the contemporary vernacular when used to describe telephone conversations, in which some long distance calls where sound quality was poor, and they called the interfering sounds "noise" because it was a sound that disturbed/obscured the clarity of the sound you want to hear (the other person's voice).

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TEEHEE sorry for the glibbiness of some of the vonerdwords I've used in the past - most of the vocab I come across in the sciences is totally and completely unused in typical vernacular; I realize that it sometimes comes across as glibby; I'll try my best to have more user friendly vonerdwords (on a separate, totally unrelated note - do you enjoy today's vonerdword? =P). I hope those posts didn't make me sound like too much of a glib (on another completely unrelated note - I seem to enjoy employing the word "glib"; I hope I haven't used it incorrectly/my incessant conjugation/suffix adding didn't violate the laws of English grammar... too much...)

TEEHEE Yes, I am a HP nerd, but not as big of a nerd as other people I know (I'm thinking mainly of Leah). I really appreciate your effort and your thoughtfulness.

Teehee I've been meaning to get into Battlestar Galactica ever since you made known to me the joke "Beets, Bears, Battlestar Galactica" to me all those years ago in band class, but I unfortunately haven't had the time; one of these days I'll have to sit down and go through the series; it sounds fantastic.

I totally understand your sentiments pertaining to not being a glib; I have the same worries. I think the use of "higher language" is, however, inevitable in the sciences, as we need such language to be able to effectively communicate concepts, ideas, or principles. Despite this, scientists do put in a lot of effort to try and make scientific literature understandable. Last year I had to take a course called Eng 112 - University Writing, and there I learned that although academic writing uses difficult terminology, this necessity can be offset by certain techniques, such as frequent interjection or asides, that aid the reader.

And yes, you may be so bold to say so; I feel the same way about our friendship. As John Green once said, it is our attempt to claw our way out of our own minds in order to understand other, and it could not be any more true than for the friendship that I have with you. As I've said before, ours is one that I've never had with anyone else, and I'd be extremely hard pressed to find another that is so filled with a desire to love and understand one another (I love you).

I totally agree! We must be even more careful with the way we phrase things in blog form than in person because we are robbed of body language, facial expression, and intonation to relay our sentiments.

I must, however, confess that I'm not totally comfortable with your position on the Absolute truth of God; not because I disagree with it (because I don't disagree) but more with the way it sounds. Absolute Truth has the connotation of being quantitatively provable and being true in all instances and for every single person; I know that this is the "classical"/"standard" definition of Absolute, but when you're a science major, these things are hard to shake. I'm just having a hard time redefining "absolute truth" in a way that allows me to make the statements you put forwards acceptable. When you say these things, it sounds very much like the extreme conservative christians who condone the burning of the Qu'ran and such, which I know that you are not one of because of our past conversations. It just sounds very contradictory to the thoughts that CS Lewis put forth in The Silver Chair (with which we both agree). I would argue that we cannot QUANTITATIVELY prove our truth, rather, it becomes true because we BELIEVE it to be true; its strength lies not in its physical proof, but in the faith that we put in it; in essence, out truth is powerful and true because we believe it to be so.

As a final note, I want to say that the reason I revere and respect Mr. Moorhead so much is because he played a critical role in helping me define my Faith and guided my understanding of what it means to make your Faith your own; for this, I will always be indebted to him. But also, I acknowledge that ever since grade 8 I've been awestruck by the magnitude of his (excuse the language) bad-assery, which is a contributing factor.

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I wish I had the time to talk about Fire Emblem here, but this post is already quite long and I have need to studying for my midterms next week. The Fire Emblem game I ordered at the beginning of January arrived last friday, and I haven't been able to put it down since; needless to say, I can already feel my grade average dropping XD Oh well, what can we do? I have too much of an addictive personality and too little self discipline to do any better =P I'll let you know how my midterms went next week on friday (my last midterm is late thursday evening).

I hope you are doing well and your schooling is going better than mine is.

Chat soon,
~Tim~