Model Railroading Unlimited Funny Short Film Model Trains Humour Silly T...

Murphy's law turns 60!

Murphy's Law rules! It’s the maxim that says if something
can go wrong, it will – and it’s now 60 years old. So just who WAS Mr Murphy?

By Marcus Dunk
While this year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th of the publication of his On The Origin Of Species, another major theory is celebrating an anniversary this year and - if anything - it offers an even more profound insight into the workings of the world than Darwin's theory of evolution.
It was 60 years ago that Murphy's Law was first formerly introduced to the world. Also known as Sod's Law, this is the landmark theory which, put simply, states: If anything can go wrong, it will.
From a slice of falling toast landing buttered-side down on the floor to the recognition that if everything is going well you have probably overlooked something, Murphy's Law is the ultimate theory of human impotence.

Wheels of misfortune: Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle run into trouble

The timing for this anniversary is perfect. While evolutionary theory and its revelation that we are all descended from monkeys may have been granted added poignancy by the recent mind-boggling incompetence of our bankers and the failure of the global financial system, Murphy's Law is the true law for our time.
Faced with a credit-crunched world where rising unemployment, falling house prices and the collapse of Sterling have made planning for the future more uncertain than ever, the clear-eyed pessimism of Murphy's Law and its recognition that the world more often that not conspires against our best-laid plans is one that should provide great comfort in these difficult times.
But who was Murphy, and how did he give his name to such a law? Far from a failure himself, Edward Aloysius Murphy Jr was actually a successful American pilot and aerospace test engineer who worked on safety systems for such renowned experimental aircraft as the SR-71 Blackbird and the X-15 rocket plane.
Born in 1918, Murphy was the eldest of five children and attended the prestigious United States Military Academy, West Point, from which he graduated in 1940. He was immediately commissioned into the army Air Corps, and during the Second World War saw action against the Japanese in China and Burma.
A fine and conscientious pilot who was often described as 'no-nonsense', Murphy decided after the war to involve himself in the technological aspects of aircraft design, and went to work as a research and development officer for the Air Force. It was during this period of his life that Murphy became involved in the experiments that would give rise to the naming of his Law.

On the slide: Murphy was involved in G-Force tests where a rocket-powered sled was mounted on a railroad track

In 1949 the U.S. Air Force was keen to assess the impact of G-forces (gravity force) upon pilots, and set up a series of experiments to test the human tolerance for G-forces during rapid deceleration.
Murphy was involved in these tests, which were conducted on the 'Gee Whiz' - a rocket-powered sled mounted on a railroad track. As fragile-looking as it was dangerous, this contraption could reach supersonic speeds.
For these tests, the sled would travel at a speed of over 200mph for half a mile, before coming to an abrupt stop in under a second. Volunteering for this unpredictable experiment was one Colonel John Paul Stapp, a witty and charismatic Air Force flight surgeon who agreed to be the guinea pig, and for his trouble suffered numerous concussions, broken bones and burst blood vessels in his eyes.
There are a several contradictory accounts of what happened on the day that Murphy's Law was coined, but some facts are clear. Murphy arranged for one of his assistants to hook up a series of 16 sensors to the subject's body, and the terrifying speed and stop test was then carried out. To Murphy's surprise the sensors failed to pick up any readings.
After investigating, he discovered the sensors had been installed the wrong way around, invalidating the entire test. Furious, Murphy was heard to say of his assistant: 'If there are two ways to do something, and one of those ways will result in disaster, he'll do it that way.'
It hardly trips off the tongue, but something in what Murphy said stuck with Colonel Stapp, and later at a press conference he attributed the success of the team's safety record to their willingness to anticipate and factor in disaster. He termed it 'Murphy's Law', which he explained as 'Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.' The press picked up the coinage, and it quickly spread until it became common usage.

Evolutionary theorist: Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Like Darwin's theory of evolution, Murphy's Law has evolved over the years as specialists have delved deeper into the implications of Murphy's discovery. Countless variations of the law have developed, the most notable being Finagle's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will - and at the worst possible moment.
Others have teased out subtle intricacies, noting that nothing is as easy as it looks and everything takes longer than you think, while others have observed that left to themselves things always go from bad to worse.
The practical applications of Murphy's Law seem endless, with some notable gems including:
No matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, after you've bought it, it will be on sale somewhere cheaper;
The other supermarket queue always moves faster;
In the military, the more sophisticated your equipment, the further you will be from civilisation when it fails;
Your best golf shots always occur when playing alone;
A valuable object which falls in a hard-to-reach place will land at a distance which just exceeds the tip of your fingers;
And if you want something bad enough, chances are you won't get it.
The principle underlying this law is as old as humanity itself, with numerous descriptions of the phenomenon recorded in the 19th century and before.
And the classic example of Murphy's Law - the slice of bread landing on the butteredside - was noted in a poem as early as 1841:

'I never had a slice of bread
Particularly large and wide
That did not fall upon the floor
And always on the buttered-side.'

For Murphy himself, the law and its variations to which he gave his name was the cause of great annoyance. While he preferred to see the law as a principle of good, defensive design - a willingness to be prepared for the worst - he regarded most versions of his Law as 'ridiculous, trivial and erroneous', and said as much before his death in 1990.
Although he may have failed to see the joke, he does have something of a point. While it is easy to label Murphy's Law as the ultimate pessimist's charter, there is an undercurrent of optimism running just beneath the surface of this Law, one that wryly acknowledges that although things will probably go wrong, recognising that fact is the first step in being prepared for when that actually happens.
Faced with a downturn that could rival the Great Depression of the Thirties, Murphy's Law is the perfect creed for our times - a rallying cry of wry pessimism and cold-eyed realism that could be just the ticket to see us through the current downturn.
Unlike the Darwin anniversaries, no formal celebrations have been planned for the 60th birthday of Murphy's Law, but no matter.
In the coming year, if your plans go awry, if disaster strikes, you lose your job, lose your home or find your slice of toast has landed butter-side down on the kitchen floor, know that in your own way you have paid tribute to Murphy and his most universal of laws.
Copyright: Dailymail.co.uk

I've started to lose weight, here's how I'm going>

MyFitnessPal - Nutrition Facts For Foods

A long time from then till now...

Hi All,

Must say I had forgot I had this Blog... now that I've found it again I must start making use of it again!

I haven't done all that mach from 2 years ago when I last posted, The wife and I now own a hosue and are slowing making it our home and we are both still working away to pay bills ( you know how it goes!)

Life goes on and I'll try to be more up to date with this blog..

J

last day in Iligan city...

Hi All,

Well today was our last full day here, it's getting towards the end of the day now, coming up to 5pm local time as I write this...

Iligan, what did I think of it.....

It's changed in a lot of ways from two years ago, more people, more traffic, more of almost everything but there is less shops open in the center of the city then before and there is more PNP (Philippines national police) and army around then two years back, in fact this time I saw 2 APC driving down the street one day, another day i saw some army people go into the mall, there was enough fire power on them to kill a small town!!!!!!!!!!

It still feels safe here and everybody is just getting on with life, the counter outside the shops were you leave your bags now make you open anything you leave so it can be checked before being left.

I love it here but also hate it, the place/country could be so much better if the amount of paper work was cut way back! the people (or at lest the ones we talked to) all seem very nice and down to earth but there is the whole thing of seeing a white person and jacking up the price!

Love it/hate it.... I guess I do both.... having said that I'm sad that tomorrow we leave and it could be 3 or more years till we come back, I'll miss my wife's family, their some of the nicest people you could ever meet, even if we have problems understanding each other! :)

Tomorrow we fly back to Manila, then on Tuesday back to New Zealand, in just over a week it's back to work and the trip will be but a thing of the past... we're learnt a few thing along the way this time and it will make the next trip better, things like we'll put the stop over at the end of the trip not the start, if we fly from Cebu we'll pack lite.... we'll not try to put to much in to too short a time etc etc

It's been a GREAT trip and a GREAT time, 6 weeks+ has just zoomed past! in 5 days time we'll be back in NZ and we'll be re-living the trip as we tell mum & dad about all the highs and lower.....

that's all for now.

boy it's been a long time....

Well my last post was way back on march 22nd.... what happened to all the time from then till now?


I DON"T KNOW!

But it's gone never to be found again.... What have I been up to? a bit of this and that, mostly working and saving for a big holiday oversea! which I must add I'm on right now! this post is coming to you live from Iligan city in the southern Philippines.

The holiday is going good, we're been away for almost 6 weeks with another two to go and so far we have been to: Sydney, Manila, Hong Kong, Cebu, Bacolod and lastly we're in Iligan visiting and spending time with my wifes family.

Iligan is both a great place and a place that's not so good, reason for not so good: heat, dust, dirt to much noise and concrete but it's good because of: heat, the family, the people and just because it's so different to what I'm use too! it's both fun and hard work, guess I'm tiring to say I both love it and hate it at the same time! maybe a bit more love than hate to be truthful!

I love to travel, see new thing and meet new people but I'm also the first to say that if you do that everyday the fun goes from it very very quickly, you have to take a break from your travel in order to enjoy your travels more... say 6 days pushing to see as much as you can and then 2 or 3 days relaxing someplace, then start again, you'll enjoy the trip more, lest that's what I think!

Jeff

Random net stuff...

Here's a couple of you tube video's I found in the last week, the first one will get you thinking.....



And this one is just a nice bit of advertising!