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cosmic rays n.
Notionally, the cause of [bit rot]. However, this is a semi-independent usage that may be invoked as a humorous way to [handwave] away any minor [randomness] that doesn't seem worth the bother of investigating. "Hey, Eric -- I just got a burst of garbage on my [tube], where did that come from?" "Cosmic rays, I guess." Compare [sunspots], [phase of the moon]. The British seem to prefer the usage `cosmic showers'; `alpha particles' is also heard, because stray alpha particles passing through a memory chip can cause single-bit errors (this becomes increasingly more likely as memory sizes and densities increase).