Comments on: Buttered side down. Definitely.

Buttered side down. Definitely.

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:20:18 -0800

Though you'd think it's as old as humanity itself, Murphy's Law is only just turning sixty this year. Happy 60th, Murph!

By: ageispolis

ageispolis — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:27:56 -0800

This is the first FPP I read after I woke up to find my flight delayed 4 hours. Damn you Murphy! And may the airline industry burn.

By: p3t3

p3t3 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:29:17 -0800

Color me surprised. It's even younger than Murphy Brown, and it's just a baby compared to the oil soap.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:37:30 -0800

If this thread can become a trainwreck, it will.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:37:51 -0800

Murphy's Law debunked: this FPP is not a double.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:43:09 -0800

You can't debunk Murphy's Law, as the article points out. Because it even applies to itself. Anyways, sort of a double. :)

By: DU

DU — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:43:14 -0800

I always hate how people blame Murphy when things go wrong. The Law is descriptive, not prescriptive! Murphy's Cognitive Corollary: There is no concept so simple that someone cannot misunderstand it.

By: burnmp3s

burnmp3s — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:48:37 -0800

Although the common usage of the term tends to focus on the "bad things always happen" aspect, I think the original meaning mentioned in the article is more instructive. When designing things, it's easy to just focus on the common case and not think about the possibilities of accidental misuse. Keeping Murphy's Law in mind can be helpful in designing pretty much anything, from desktop software to nuclear reactors, and a lot of the worst design mistakes come from not taking the time to imagine the various ways things might go wrong.

By: oddman

oddman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:08:06 -0800

burnmp3s, that's sexist!

By: eriko

eriko — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:09:15 -0800

Murphy's Law, as stated: "If there's any way for him to do it wrong, he will." Thus: Murphy's law *itself* is affected by Murphy's law.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:15:02 -0800

Keeping Murphy's Law in mind can be helpful in designing pretty much anything, from desktop software to nuclear reactors, and a lot of the worst design mistakes come from not taking the time to imagine the various ways things might go wrong. Right. As Martin Seligman wrote in his book on optimism, there are career paths in which it is an advantage to be a pessimist. Non-trial lawyers, for instance, benefit from a pessimistic cast of mind because they can think of all the things that might go wrong, and provide for those possible eventualities.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:15:16 -0800

The whole question of toast falling buttered side down has been studied in the Euro-Journal of Physics. When you see your toast sliding off the table, give it a smart swipe to help it on its way.

By: fungible

fungible — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:19:57 -0800

How about a new corollary? Bush's Law: If anything can be done badly, it will.

By: i_cola

i_cola — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:33:48 -0800

I think Bush's Law is more along the lines of: If anything can be done badly then it will, garnished with wooooah that's so screwed up with a side order of totally fucked.

By: netbros

netbros — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:38:37 -0800

Falling trees have the right of way.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:40:07 -0800

Falling trees have the right of way. Including the ones that don't make a sound if there's no one there to hear them?

By: DU

DU — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:49:01 -0800

Bush's Law: If anything can be done badly, it will. If it is more profitable to do something badly, it will be entrusted to an incompetent.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:51:25 -0800

If a bear hears a tree fall in a forest, the tree will fall on it.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:58:51 -0800

If a bear hears a tree fall in a forest, the tree will fall on it. Ah, but what if it's the Pope?

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:17:11 -0800

If a beaver escapes and fells trees, the Torygraph will scream that it's the end of British life as we know it.

By: pandaharma

pandaharma — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:34:43 -0800

For some reason, I always assumed the rule came out of WWII. Thanks for the background article.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:38:06 -0800

Bush's Law: If, the, uh, if the wrong can do anything, then, uh, we are, something.

By: mandal

mandal — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:03:33 -0800

Yay! Go feral beavers.

By: otolith

otolith — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:07:26 -0800

If a feral beaver sees the forest for the trees, we'll have six more weeks of winter.

By: smorris

smorris — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:16:32 -0800

Murphy's law definitely helped me go through college... lol

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:31:26 -0800

not_on_display: Murphy's Law debunked: this FPP is not a double. vacapinta: You can't debunk Murphy's Law, as the article points out. Because it even applies to itself. Anyways, sort of a double. :) Murphy's Law: doubly rebunked! MetaFilter: Yay! Go feral beavers.

By: swift

swift — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:53:52 -0800

Feral Beavers is my new band name.

By: P.o.B.

P.o.B. — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:02:31 -0800

Do feral beavers wear funny hats?

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:15:35 -0800

Cole's Law: sliced cabbage

By: monospace

monospace — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:55:18 -0800

What could possibly go wrong?

By: happyroach

happyroach — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:10:53 -0800

I WAS going to post about Murphy's Law first, but somehow I managed to blue screen my computer. Damn it all.

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:47:21 -0800

In high school I quoted Murphy's Law to someone and she looked at me, totally serious, and said, "well, you know more about science than I do."

By: jon_hansen

jon_hansen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:43:33 -0800

However, it's always been screwing us over...

By: quin

quin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:56:00 -0800

I try to apply Murphy's Law to all aspects of my life: Knowing that if something can go wrong, it will, how can I design events to ensure that when it does fail, it does so in the most spectacularly, explosively, catastrophic way? And while this might sound like fun, I don't actually recommend this approach to doing your taxes.

By: Nauip

Nauip — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:17:18 -0800

P.o.B. - depends on what time of the month it is. /ducks out of the room

By: Brother Dysk

Brother Dysk — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:22:37 -0800

"Murphy's Law"? Give the fecker who came up with the idea all the credit he deserves... Sod's Law.

By: MarcAbrahams

MarcAbrahams — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:31:17 -0800

The Guardian article mentions Nick Spark's real-life detective/history report about how Murphy's Law got its name. We published that article in 2003 in the Annals of Improbable Research. Nick later expanded it into an even more curious book called A History of Murphy's Law. Nick book deserves more attention than it got, and maybe this "anniversary" of The Law will introduce it to some new readers. Ps. The three people most involved in naming Murphy's Law were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for their achievement.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:29:47 -0800

It would have been teh funny if flapjax's post had had a couple of obvious typos in it.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:42:44 -0800

Y'know, stav, I was gonna do that, really, but Murphy's Law applied once again: I forgot to include the typos, and fucked up my original plan. Buttered side down.