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Finagle
Finagle's law of dynamic negatives (also known as Melody's law, Sod's Law or Finagle's corollary to Murphy's law) is usually rendered as "Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment." The term "Finagle's law" was first used by John W. Campbell Jr., the influential editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later ''Analog''). He used it frequently in his editorials for many years in the 1940s to 1960s, but it never came into general usage the way Murphy's law has. Variants One variant (known as O'Toole's corollary of Finagle's law) favored among hackers is a takeoff on the second law of thermodynamics (related to the augmentation of entropy): In the ''Star Trek'' episode "Amok Time" (written by Theodore Sturgeon in 1967), Captain Kirk tells Spock, "As one of Finagle's laws puts it: 'Any home port the ship makes will be somebody else's, not mine.'" The term "Finagle's law" was popularized by science fiction author Larry Niven in several stories (for ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John W
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died c. AD 30), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (lived c. AD 30), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * Pope Jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belter (Niven)
This is a list of fictional characters featured in the ''Known Space'' novels by Larry Niven. Individual characters Sigmund Ausfaller Sigmund Ausfaller, a native of Earth, is a member of the Amalgamated Regional Militia ("ARM"), working in the Bureau of Alien Affairs on Earth. To protect puppeteer (and Earth) interests, in "Neutron Star" Ausfaller plants a bomb in the lifesystem of Shaeffer's ship, the ''Skydiver'', so that Shaeffer will not attempt to steal it. Years later, in ''The Borderlands of Sol'', when Shaeffer encounters him on Jinx, he offers Shaeffer and Carlos Wu a ride home to Earth on his ship, ''Hobo Kelly'', in hopes of attracting the attention of whoever or whatever was causing ships to disappear when entering or leaving Sol system. Some years later, Ausfaller, having almost caught up with Shaeffer on Fafnir, is killed by Ander Smittarasheed in order to protect Smittarasheed's interest in the special nanotechnology autodoc developed by Carlos Wu, left on Fafnir wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sod's Law
Sod's law, a British culture axiom, states that "if something ''can'' go wrong, it will". The law sometimes has a corollary: that the misfortune will happen at "the worst possible time" ( Finagle's law). The term is commonly used in the United Kingdom (while in North America the phrase " Murphy's law" is more popular). The phrase seems to derive, at least in part, from the colloquialism an "unlucky sod"; a term for someone who has had some bad (unlucky) experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the person. A slightly different form of Sod's law states that "the degree of failure is in direct proportion to the effort expended and to the need for success." An alternative expression, again in British culture, is "hope for the best, expect the worst". Comparison with Murphy's law Sod's law is a more extreme version of Murphy's law. While Murphy's law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (eventually), Sod's law requires that it ''always'' go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Eponymous Laws
This list of eponymous laws provides links to articles on laws, principles, adages, and other succinct observations or predictions named after a person. In some cases the person named has coined the law – such as Parkinson's law. In others, the work or publications of the individual have led to the law being so named – as is the case with Moore's law. There are also laws ascribed to individuals by others, such as Murphy's law; or given eponymous names despite the absence of the named person. A–B * Acton's dictum: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men .. * Aitken's law describes how vowel length in Scots and Scottish English is conditioned by environment. Named for Professor A. J. Aitken, who formulated it. * Alder's razor: See Newton's flaming laser sword below. * Allen's rule: Endotherms from colder climates usually have shorter limbs (or appendages) than the equivalent animals from warmer clim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hofstadter's Law
Hofstadter's law is a self-referential adage, coined by Douglas Hofstadter in his book '' Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'' (1979) to describe the widely experienced difficulty of accurately estimating the time it will take to complete tasks of substantial complexity:''Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid''. 20th anniversary ed., 1999, p. 152. . The law is often cited by programmers in discussions of techniques to improve productivity, such as ''The Mythical Man-Month'' or extreme programming. History In 1979, Hofstadter introduced the law in connection with a discussion of chess-playing computers, which at the time were continually being beaten by top-level human players, despite outpacing humans in depth of analysis. Hofstadter wrote: In 1997, the chess computer Deep Blue Deep Blue may refer to: Film * ''Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'', a 1992 documentary film about Mississippi Delta blues music * Deep Blue (2001 film), ''D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ad Hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Common examples are ad hoc committees and commissions created at the national or international level for a specific task. In other fields, the term could refer to, for example, a military unit created under special circumstances (see '' task force''), a handcrafted network protocol (e.g., ad hoc network), a temporary banding together of geographically-linked franchise locations (of a given national brand) to issue advertising coupons, or a purpose-specific equation. Ad hoc can also be an adjective describing the temporary, provisional, or improvised methods to deal with a particular problem, the tendency of which has given rise to the noun ''adhocism''. Styling Style guides disagree on whether Latin phrases like ad hoc should be italicized. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Theodor Vischer
Friedrich Theodor Vischer (; 30 June 180714 September 1887) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, and writer on the philosophy of art. Today, he is mainly remembered as the author of the novel '' Auch Einer'', in which he developed the concept of (the spite of objects), a comic theory that inanimate objects conspire against humans. Biography Born at Ludwigsburg as the son of a clergyman, Vischer was educated at Tübinger Stift, and began life in his father's profession. He became in aesthetics and German literature at his old university in 1835, was advanced to extraordinary professor two years later, and was appointed to full professor in 1844. Due to his outspoken inaugural address he was suspended for two years by the Württemberg government. In this enforced leisure he wrote the first two volumes of his ''Aesthetik, oder Wissenschaft des Schönen'' (1846), the fourth and last volume of which did not appear till 1857. Vischer threw himself heartily into the great German po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resistentialism
Resistentialism is a jocular theory to describe "seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects", where objects that cause problems (like lost keys or a runaway bouncy ball) are said to exhibit a high degree of malice toward humans. The theory posits a war being fought between humans and inanimate objects, and all the little annoyances that objects cause throughout the day are battles between the two. The concept was not new in 1948 when humorist Paul Jennings coined this name for it in a piece titled "Report on Resistentialism", published in ''The Spectator'' that year and reprinted in ''The New York Times''; the word is a blend of the Latin ''res'' ("thing"), the French ''résister'' ("to resist"), and the existentialism school of philosophy. The movement is a spoof of existentialism in general, and Jean-Paul Sartre in particular, Jennings naming the fictional inventor of Resistentialism as Pierre-Marie Ventre. The slogan of Resistentialism is "''Les choses sont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Running Gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not considered to be running gags. Running gags can begin with an instance of unintentional humor that is repeated in variations as the joke grows familiar and audiences anticipate reappearances of the gag. The humor in a running gag may derive entirely from how often it is repeated, but the underlying statement or situation will always be some form of joke. A trivial statement will not become a running gag simply by being repeated. A running gag may also derive its humor from the (in)appropriateness of the situation in which it occurs, or by setting up the audience to expect another occurrence of the joke and then substituting something else (''bait and switch''). Running gags are found in everyday life, live theater, live comedy, television ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parody Religion
A parody religion or mock religion is a belief system that challenges the spiritual convictions of others, often through humor, satire, or burlesque (literary ridicule). Often constructed to achieve a specific purpose related to another belief system, a parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus, cults, or new religious movements at the same time, or even a parody of no particular religion – instead parodying the concept of religious belief itself. Some parody religions emphasise having fun; the new faith may serve as a convenient excuse for pleasant social interaction among the like-minded. One approach of parody religions aims to highlight deficiencies in particular pro-religious arguments – following the logic that if a given argument can also be used to support a clear parody, then the original argument is clearly flawed. An example of this is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which parodies the demand for equal time employed by intelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protector (novel)
''Protector'' is a 1973 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. It was nominated for the Hugo in 1974, and placed fourth in the annual Locus poll for that year. The work fleshes out a species called the Pak, originally introduced in a 1967 story called "The Adults", which forms the first half of the novel (there titled ''Phssthpok''); the second half is titled ''Vandervecken''. The Pak also appear in several of Niven's later works, including the later volumes of the ''Ringworld'' series and the novel '' Destroyer of Worlds'' which serves as a semi-sequel to ''Protector''. Plot summary The novel comprises two phases in the same space that are separated by 220 years of time. Its central conceit is that Humans evolved from the juvenile stage of the Pak, a species with a distinct adult form ("Protectors") that has immense strength and intelligence and cares only about younger Pak of their bloodline. A key plot point is that transit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
