...I am a philosopher, I live a life wholly dominated by unanswered questions...

In the meantime:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

Murphy's law is a popular adage in Western culture that most likely originated at Edwards Air Force Base in 1948. The Law broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance.
"If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will
result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." It is most
often cited as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong"(or, alternately, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the
worst possible time," or, "Anything that can go wrong, will").

Murphy's Law is sometimes confused with Finagle's Corollary, which is also known as Sod's law.

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.

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.

Eventually the term "Finagle's law" was popularized by science fiction author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners; this "Belter" culture professed a religion and/or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his mad prophet Murphy.[1]

Hanlon's Razor (or Hanlon's Law) is a corollary of Finagle's law. Hanlon's Razor says "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

Sod's Law is the name for the old and famous axiom"Anything that can go wrong, will". "Toast will always land butter side down" is often given as an
example of Sod's Law in action. The phrase is seemingly derived, at
least in part, from the colloquialism an "unlucky sod";
a term used to describe someone who has had some bad unlucky
experience, and is usually used as a sympathetic reference to the
person.

The term is still commonly used in Britain, though in North America the newer eponymous "Murphy's Law" has become more popular.^[2] This change may be partially due to the use of the word "sod", which could be taken to mean a "sodomite". However the word has passed into very common colloquial usage and tends to now be taken to only mean an arbitrary person.

"Sod’s Law" is similar to, but broader than, Murphy's law ("Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong").
For example, concepts such as "bad fortune will be tailored to the
individual" and "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual’s
actions" are sometimes given as examples of "Sod's Law" in action. This
would broaden "Sod's law" to a general sense of being "mocked by fate". In these aspects it is similar to some definitions of irony, particularly the irony of fate. Murphy's technological origin on John Stapp's Project MX981
is more upbeat — it was a reminder to the engineers and team members to
be cautious and make sure everything was accounted for, to let no stone
be unturned — not an acceptance of an uncaring uninfluencable fate.

Some examples of "bad fortune will be tailored to the individual" include:

• Ludwig van Beethoven's loss of hearing - loss of hearing is bad fortune for anyone, but it is Sod’s Law that it would happen to a famous composer.
• Adolph Coors III, who was allergic to beer, was the heir to the Coors beer empire
  – being allergic to beer is bad fortune for many, but it is Sod’s Law
  that someone allergic to beer would inherit a beer empire (and, due to
  a botched kidnapping attempt, die because of the empire's wealth, thus
  being killed by beer, but only indirectly).

Some examples of "good fortune will occur in spite of the individual’s actions" include:

• If you take your raincoat and umbrella with you, it will be sunny –
  any attempt you make to control your destiny (in this case how wet you
  get) will be thwarted by fate.
• You move to another city, only to meet and fall in love with someone from your hometown.

In French, Sod's law is rendered by the phrase: “c’est bien le Diable que…” (literally: “it really is Devil that…”)

Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

Category:
Misc.
Jumbo Joke is a free service of This is True, featuring bizarre-but-true news items from the world's press. Check the site for archives and free subscriptions.

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
2. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
3. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
4. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
5. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting
something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
6. If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone
would be stupid enough to try to pass them, five or six at a time, on a
hill, in the fog.
7. The things that come to those who wait will be the scraggly junk left by those who got there first.
8. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.
9. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
10. When you go into court, you are putting yourself into the hands
of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Good joke: Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

Aussies, Brits, Canadians and Americans Compared

Category:
Misc.
Jumbo Joke is a free service of This is True, featuring bizarre-but-true news items from the world's press. Check the site for archives and free subscriptions.

Aussies: Dislike being mistaken for Brits when abroad.
Canadians: Are rather indignant about being mistaken for Americans when abroad.
Americans: Encourage being mistaken for Canadians when abroad.
Brits: Can't possibly be mistaken for anyone else when abroad.

Aussies: Believe you should look out for your mates.
Brits: Believe that you should look out for those people who belong to your club.
Americans: Believe that people should look out for and take care of themselves.
Canadians: Believe that that's the government's job.

Brits: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.

Aussies: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.

Americans: Cross the southern border for cheap shopping, gas and liquor in a backwards country.

Canadians: Cross the southern border for cheap shopping, gas and liquor in a backwards country.

Americans: Drink weak, urine-tasting beer.
Canadians: Drink strong, urine-tasting beer.
Brits: Drink warm, beery-tasting urine.
Aussies: Drink anything with alcohol in it.

Americans: Seem to think that poverty and failure are morally suspect.
Canadians: Seem to believe that wealth and success are morally suspect.
Brits: Seem to believe that wealth, poverty, success, and failure are inherited things.
Aussies: Seem to think that none of this matters after several beers.

Good joke: Aussies, Brits, Canadians and Americans Compared

SuperKitty Takes to the Sky!

(smaller version for msn messenger)

A few things to note from the last few weeks that I've neglected to post:

-Sunday 26th.  Couldn't drive to work because of the snow 
(took some pictures with my Razr of the >foot of snow atop the
buildings, along the ground, everywhere - that was still coming down in
immense flakes).  Got in my car, tried to drive out to Burnaby Mt
Pkway to take Hastings to work... turned back at the intersection
because it was simply too slippery and dangerous.  Called work,
told them I couldn't get there.  Christina at work suggested I try
transit, and not to worry if I couldn't make it.  So, I transitted
to work for the first time (since it's relatively simple from SFU,
unlike from HS Bay).  I trudged out through the snow past the
Cornerstone and to the bus loop, waited for the 145 to Production
Station, talked to another unfortunate traveller there who'd also been
called into his work.  He said the busses had stopped last night
(the night previous), but only for an hour, so it should be alright for
coming back in the evening.  It was indeed much safer in the snow
- the busses were heavy enough to make it along the roads without
slipping and skytrain is unaffected by weather since floats on
magnetism.  Noticed that the snowflakes were much smaller at the
bottom of the hill and throughout town, and although there was still a
healthy quilt of snow cover, it was probably a quarter (maybe five cm's
sticking?) of what was atop the mountain.  Made it into work an
hour late (which Christina was fine with b/c of the weather), but
relatively unscathed.  Must remember:  145 to Production
Station, take the skytrain West until Commercial Street/Broadway
station, hop off, go over the bridge, hop on the Expo Line West the
rest of the way to Science World.  Took me roughly 1 hr from
leaving home to get there that day.

-So, at work...  interesting day.  Mostly quite slow b/c of
the weather, but I was surprised how many visitors still came despite
the snowstorm.  Jane was at concession and was going star-crazy
because Kristin Kreuk (the local actress who plays Lana on Smallville)
was there that day with friends... I told Jane not to get so excited -
Kristin Kreuk is just another Vancouverite like the rest of us and
actresses get enough flack from fans as it is.  She tried to get
Brandon to go stalk her, unsuccessfully, hahaha.  It was amusing
all the same.  Jenn was in BodyWorlds GS, talked to her for a
while, who also thought the entire thing was pretty amusing (oddly
enough, the actress in question and friends was standing fifteen feet
away in front of the Omni ramp and Jenn missed her =P).  It was
Donna, Anna, Roy, and me in the GS downstairs that day.  Anna,
Roy, and I had fun playing with the new toys that were in... 
particularly PlasmaCar races and the new sand art pictures
(whaddyacall'em).  It was fun.  Anna mentioned it was funny
that we were all like big kids and we all ended up working at the SW GS
together.  Learned something new that day, didn't know Anna was
cantonese - apparantly she's only 1/4 Viet, which is why she's got the
last name she does.  Go figure.  Parents gave me a ride home
after work in the M-Class after going for dinner.... it's the only car
we have that really had a chance in that weather.

-Monday, as noted, univ closed, school cancelled, snow day!

-Tuesday evening (yup, I know it was Tuesday not Wednesday because I remember watching Dead Zone
this week, which is on Wednesday nights), 28 November:  My cousin Gary was in
town - passing through from TO on the way with meeting up with his mom,
Aunt May Sim, in HK for a few weeks.  Mom, Dad, and I took him to
dinner.  Dinner was good, also good catching up with Gary. 
Gary, Winnie, Henry & Family (my cousins on Dad's side) used to
trade visits with me every few years when we were kids.  We drove
Gary back to his friend's house where he was staying; his flight was
noon the next day.  We went to Metro after dinner so Dad could
could use this gift card he had at Tip Top Tailor's - he got a leather
jacket, which came with gloves and needed to get his gloves.  I
ended up buying a new dress shirt, two new pairs of pants, and a new
winter hat while I was there.  Nice.

There is a theory going around that seems to have scientific support
that the WTC towers on 9/11 were not brought down by the plane crashes,
but as in inside job through the use of a controlled demolition
explosive known as thermite (in a variation called thermate).

Links follow:

Interview with BYU physics professor who has investigated this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2842384983834100001&q=thermite&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=695492513004925125&q=thermite&hl=en

WTC video that seems to show signs of thermite use prior to collapse:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=545886459853896774&q=thermite&hl=en

Video of thermite in action:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=695492513004925125&q=thermite&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5735009028560517081&q=thermite&hl=en

It's really beautiful, sunny, blue-sky outside too!