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Finagle's Law
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Finagle's Law /n./ The generalized or `folk' version of
Murphy's Law, fully named "Finagle's Law of Dynamic
Negatives" and usually rendered "Anything that can go wrong,
will". One variant favored among hackers is "The perversity of
the Universe tends towards a maximum" (but see also Hanlon's
Razor). The label `Finagle's Law' was popularized by SF 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. Some technical and scientific cultures
(e.g., paleontologists) know it under the name `Sod's Law'; this
usage may be more common in Great Britain.
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