Murphy's Law

[Tjommi]

There is a phenonema on the internet that those of us that have been around for a while all know about, but I though I would introduce those of you that haven't, and refresh the memory of all those of you that like me loved to read these and laugh. Basicly Murphy's law say that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. This is not a naughty site it's just very funny and it will keep you entertained for a while. Among other things you will find wise statements like this one : "It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. "


http://www.murphys-laws.com/

[Raelee]

O'Flarity said "That blasted Murphy was a bloody optomist!"

[Squeeky]

Raelee wrote : O'Flarity said "That blasted Murphy was a bloody optomist!"

Raelee,
Firstly how the b** H** can you be a "Great White Shark" and a "Polynesian Mermaid"? Something like being a werewolf? SharMaid?

God where is it safe to swim?

Secondly, you have a quote "Fellas be gentel.. up to a point". Is that point something that is physical or emotional? Too damn far away to make the first one possible (and not always capable these days)

[David]

Tjommi wrote : There is a phenonema on the internet that those of us that have been around for a while all know about, but I though I would introduce those of you that haven't, and refresh the memory of all those of you that like me loved to read these and laugh. Basicly Murphy's law say that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. This is not a naughty site it's just very funny and it will keep you entertained for a while. Among other things you will find wise statements like this one : "It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. "


http://www.murphys-laws.com/

Ah yes, Murphy.

The way I know it has a bit more on the end. May just be because of different countries...



Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong it will, causing the most inconvenience & happening at the worst possible moment.

And don't forget all the sub-laws!!

[Greebo]

Tjommi wrote : Basicly Murphy's law say that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time.

Actually Murphy's Law only states that "anything that can go wrong will". What Tjommi is referring to is really Finagle's Law and appears to have first been referenced by John W. Campbell Jr.. a well known SF editor, back in the 1940s.

According to Wikipedia: "Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives (also known as Finagle's corollary to Murphy's Law) is usually rendered:

Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment

One variant (known as O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law) favored among hackers is a takeoff on the second law of thermodynamics (also known as entropy):

The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum."

Although Finagle's Law is known as a corollary of Murphy's Law, the statement of it by John W. Campbell Jr. predates the history of Murphy's Law given by http://www.murphys-laws.com/

I first came across these laws decades ago in the British electronics periodical Wireless World in a very amusing yet informative article, and I still remember mention of "the IP of IO" from that (the Innate Perversity of Inanimate Objects) and was reminded of it by the wikipedia article:
""Finagle's Law" can also be the related belief, "Inanimate objects are out to get us."[2][3] Similar to Finagle's Law is the Hegelian-sounding verbless phrase of the German novelist Friedrich Theodor Vischer: "die Tücke des Objekts" (the perversity of inanimate objects)."

One other related reference that might be of interest to Francophiles is often brought to my mind when things go wrong - "Les choses sont contre nous" - look up "Resistentialism" in Wikipedia.

"The term was coined by humorist Paul Jennings in a piece titled "Report on Resistentialism", published in The Spectator in 1948[1] and reprinted in The New York Times[2]. The movement is a spoof of existentialism in general, and Jean-Paul Sartre in particular (Jennings gives the inventor of Resistentialism as Pierre-Marie Ventre). The slogan of Resistentialism is "Les choses sont contre nous" -- "Things are against us"."

[luke]

In France, we have the "Loi de la tartine beurrée" (law of the slice of bread and butter): when it falls, it's always on the buttery side.

Besides, there's a theory that you can make a cat to levitate.

According to the laws that a cat always land on its feets, and that a slice of bread and butter always falls on its buttery side, if you tie slices of bread and butter on the back of a cat (with the buttery side upside, of course), when you lanch the cat in the air, the two laws should cancel each other out, and the cat never touch the ground.
First attempts to determine quantitiy of slices of bread and butter to be tied on the back of the cat seems encouraging, except that the cat is inclined to eating the butter...

[shark]

[img]smile/bgrinl2.gif[/img][img]smile/fuck.gif[/img] Excellent, Luke… I had not studied this theory at the college...

[60nowise]

@luke: completely new physics , just great!!!

[Squeeky]

Which then is the immovable and which the irresistible object?

[LRM]

Is "Shit happens" an updated version?
L

[Greebo]

Nooo - that goes back to when the first caveman slipped over on a fresh sabre tooth tiger turd

[Arnulf]

HI, these things were investigated and hide no physical secret;

The cat always falls landing on her legs in mostly correct position: it's explanation lies in the very quick reaction of each healthy cat. It's no miracle.

The thing with the bread and butter is a bit complicated. It is a simple effect of normal physics: The tables, from where usually breads-and-butter are falling, are all of similar high. That means, that the conditions of rotation ímpulse, weight, high and position of heavy and light parts are quite similar every time and so it is also with the result. If you are changing the conditions dramatically (for exanple, let the bread fall from the double high) you are getting completely different results.

However, "Shit happens", that is the remaining true word!

[DiTo]

Ehm ARnulf, in my opinion, there's only a 50% chance that you get a different result dear. And if Murphy's Law counts: the chance that you will get a different result is even less

[Greebo]

Of course there are many possibilities, most of them disastrous if Murphy has any say in the matter. The cat might just hover, spinning about a horizontal axis until it disappears leaving nothing but a grin, or it might fly off and wipe out a rare species of bird of inestimable value to our ecosystem.

There again it might drop to the ground and lie there looking like a cat sandwich and pretending it always meant to do that.

Alternatively, if you tried doing anything so stupid to Greebo you'd end up wishing you could levitate.[img]smile/fuck.gif[/img]

[DiTo]

@ Greebo You mean: Don't mess with my pussy?