The Role Playing Public Radio Forums
General Category => General Chaos => : Maze March 25, 2009, 12:04:14 AM
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To the good people of RPPR, here is the actual meaning of "forensics":
Forensic science (often shortened to forensics) is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or to a civil action. But besides its relevance to the underlying legal system, more generally forensics encompasses the accepted scholarly or scientific methodology and norms under which the facts regarding an event, or an artifact, or some other physical item (such as a corpse, or cadaver, for example) are to the broader notion of authentication whereby an interest outside of a legal form exists in determining whether an object is in fact what it purports to be, or is alleged as being.
The word “forensic” comes from the Latin adjective “forensis” meaning of or before the forum. During the time of the Romans, a criminal charge meant presenting the case before a group of public individuals in the forum. Both the person accused of the crime and the accuser would give speeches based on their side of the story. The individual with the best argument and delivery would determine the outcome of the case. Basically, the person with the sharpest forensic skills would win. This origin is the source of the two modern usages of the word "forensic" - as a form of legal evidence and as a category of public presentation.
In modern use, the term "forensics" in place of "forensic science" can be considered incorrect as the term "forensic" is effectively a synonym for "legal" or "related to courts". However, the term is now so closely associated with the scientific field that many dictionaries include the meaning that equates the word "forensics" with "forensic science".
I'm posting it in the hope that if you didn't originally know what it correctly meant, you now do and will from now on use the word "forensic" correctly. Just today, I have once again heard it used as a vague word meaning "medicine shit with dead bodies and stuff, y'know, like in CSI and shit" on the broad media. The smart way to go about ignorance is to find out about it, not to draw a vague meaning by contextualizing it. I'm sure most of you listeners are really smart people and already know that, but feel free to tell me to go eat shit or to give your input on this. And if I hear "forensics" once again, I will punch holes through your skull with a jackhammer singing "The house of the Rising Sun". I love that song.
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And if I hear "forensics" once again, I will punch holes through your skull with a jackhammer singing "The house of the Rising Sun". I love that song.
But hte CSI guys will use their foresnic flashlights to figure out you killed them with a jackhammer and you'll go to jail :-\
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I'll go to jail happy, Ross. That's what matters.
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Can I still use the term forensic in the singular to act as a synonym for "of the court", such as when referring to forensic evidence, without fear of a jackhammering?
Whatever the answer, I want it on the record that I don't want any sudden, disturbing, and totally unnessicary x-ray zoom shoots of my death or organs.
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Hey, I'm only ranting about the misuse of the word. No jackhammering death will come from proper use.
As a side note, I also encourage the use of italics as often as possible
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When I was in high school, I was in Speech and Debate, but it was called "Forensics" and I would tell people that I was in "forensics" and people would respond with, "I couldn't cut up dead bodies."
Yeah, because there is a class in high school that allows for kids to do autopsies.
Ppl iz dum.
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Similar story here. When I was in high school, a state senator came and visited the Forensics association...forensics groups from all the high schools in this area.
"I think it's great to see so many students interested in the medical side of our justice system."
Hilarity ensued.
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When I was in high school, I was in Speech and Debate, but it was called "Forensics" and I would tell people that I was in "forensics" and people would respond with, "I couldn't cut up dead bodies."
Yeah, because there is a class in high school that allows for kids to do autopsies.
Ppl iz dum.
Dude, people always flipped out when I told them I was in forensics too.
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Yeah, apparently Ross is guilty of the crime too. When I heard him ask whoever to roll "forensics" to dissect a specimen, I punched a baby in the face... twice.
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Yeah, apparently Ross is guilty of the crime too. When I heard him ask whoever to roll "forensics" to dissect a specimen, I punched a baby in the face... twice.
you know the wonderful thing about the English language is its adaptive nature. When enough people use a word in a given manner, it becomes an accepted meaning of the word soooo you're wrong.
Also, forensics is a skill in Call of Cthulhu and Esoterrorists.
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Tell that to the mother of the baby I punched. Somehow I doubt she'll listen to your reasoning.
Of course it's a skill, but it doesn't have to do with cutting bodies open. :P
Plenty of people are wrong about lots of things. Doesn't make it right.
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Tell that to the mother of the baby I punched. Somehow I doubt she'll listen to your reasoning.
Of course it's a skill, but it doesn't have to do with cutting bodies open. :P
Plenty of people are wrong about lots of things. Doesn't make it right.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/forensics
fo·ren·sics (f-rnsks, -zks)
n. (used with a sing. verb)
1. The art or study of formal debate; argumentation.
2. The use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts of law.
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Forensic science (often shortened to forensics) is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or to a civil action. But besides its relevance to the underlying legal system, more generally forensics encompasses the accepted scholarly or scientific methodology and norms under which the facts regarding an event, or an artifact, or some other physical item (such as a corpse, or cadaver, for example) are to the broader notion of authentication whereby an interest outside of a legal form exists in determining whether an object is in fact what it purports to be, or is alleged as being.
fo·ren·sics (f-rnsks, -zks)
n. (used with a sing. verb)
1. The art or study of formal debate; argumentation.
2. The use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts of law.
It all comes full circle. Words are fun. :)
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Tell that to the mother of the baby I punched. Somehow I doubt she'll listen to your reasoning.
Of course it's a skill, but it doesn't have to do with cutting bodies open. :P
Plenty of people are wrong about lots of things. Doesn't make it right.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/forensics
fo·ren·sics (f-rnsks, -zks)
n. (used with a sing. verb)
1. The art or study of formal debate; argumentation.
2. The use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts of law.
I'm pretty sure that was the internet equivalent of the old glove slap. You might have to challenge him to a duel.
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Hehe. No, I listened to the episode again and I see his point. Actually, the definition I brought up in the original post is closer to what he's trying to say.
My own point is that defining forensics as "cutting dead shit up" is like defining see as "looking at shit", when it covers so much more. It's way more than just autopsies.
On a side note, from what I know, CoC investigators have so little to do with criminal or civil courts it's not even funny. Anyway, I gotta go to court myself after that whole baby ordeal. Humph.
I'm up for a duel though.