2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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Finagle's Law
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. The generalized or folk version of Murphy's Law , fully named Finagle's
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Law of Dynamic Negatives and usually rendered Anything that can go wrong,
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will. May have been first published by Francis P. Chisholm in his 1963 essay
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The Chisholm Effect , later reprinted in the classic anthology A Stress
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Analysis Of A Strapless Evening Gown: And Other Essays For A Scientific Eye
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(Robert Baker ed, Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-852608-7). The label Finagle's
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Law was popularized by SF author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a
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frontier culture of asteroid miners; this Belter culture professed a
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religion and/or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle
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and his mad prophet Murphy. Some technical and scientific cultures (e.g.,
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paleontologists) know it under the name Sod's Law ; this usage may be more
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common in Great Britain. One variant favored among hackers is The perversity
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of the Universe tends towards a maximum ; Niven specifically referred to
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this as O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law. See also Hanlon's Razor.
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