Gadarene Swine Law:
Merely because the group is in formation does not mean that the group is on the right course.
Galbraith's Law of Political Wisdom:
Anyone who says he isn't going to resign, four times, definitely will.
Galbraith's Law of Prominence:
Getting on the cover of "Time" guarantees the existence of opposition in the future.
Gallois's Revelation:
If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled, and no one dares to criticize it.
Corollary - An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the Grand Fallacy.
Laws of Gardening:
Gardner's Rule of Society:
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
Gell-Mann's Dictum
Whatever isn't forbidden is required.
Corollary: If there's no reason why something shouldn't exist, then it must exist.
Law of Generalizations
All generalizations are false.
Gerrold's Fundamental Truth
It's a good thing money can't buy happiness. We couldn't stand the commercials.
Gerrold's Law
A little ignorance can go a long way.
(Lyall's Addendum: ...in the direction of maximum harm.)
Gerrold's Pronouncement
The difference between a politician and a snail is that a snail leaves its slime behind.
Gerrold's Laws of Infernal Dynamics
Getty's Reminder:
The meek shall inherit the earth, but NOT its mineral rights.
Gibb's Law
Infinity is one lawyer waiting for another.
Gilb's Laws of Unreliability Programming:
Gilmer's Motto for Political Leadership:
Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone's following you.
Ginsberg's Theorem (Generalized Laws of Thermodynamics):
Ehrman's Commentary on Ginberg's Theorem:
Freeman's Commentary on Ginberg's Theorem:
Every major philosophy that attempts to make life seem meaningful is based on the negation of one part of Ginsberg's Theorem.
To wit:
1. Capitalism is based on the assumption that you can win.
2. Socialism is based on the assumption that you can break even.
3. Mysticism is based on the assumption that you can quit the game.
Glatum's Law of Materialistic Acquisitiveness:
The perceived usefulness of an article is inversely proportional to its actual usefulness once bought and paid for.
Godin's Law:
Generalizedness of incompetence is directly proportional to highestness in hierarchy.
Golden Principle:
Nothing will be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
The Golden Rule of Arts and Sciences:
Whoever has the gold makes the rules.
Gold's Law
If the shoe fits, it's ugly.
(Bill) Gold's Law:
A column about errors will contain errors.
(Vic) Gold's Law:
The candidate who is expected to do well because of experience and reputation (Douglas, Nixon) must do BETTER than well, while the candidate expected to fare poorly (Lincoln, Kennedy) can put points on the media board simply by surviving.
Goldwyn's Law of Contracts:
A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Golub's Laws of Computerdom:
The Rules for good Riting:
Goodfader's Law:
Under any system, a few sharpies will beat the rest of us.
Goodin's Law of Conversions
The new hardware will break down as soon as the old is disconnected and out.
Gordon's First Law:
If a research project is not worth doing, it is not worth doing well.
Professor Gordon's Rule of Evolving Bryophytic Systems:
While bryophytic plants are typically encountered in substrata of earthy or mineral matter in concreted state, discrete substrata elements occasionally display a roughly spherical configuration which, in presence of suitable gravitational and other effects, lends itself to combined translatory and rotational motion. One notices in such cases an absence of the otherwise typical accretion of bryophyta. We conclude therefore that a rolling stone gathers no moss.
Corollary (Rutgers): Generally the subjective value assignable to avian lifeforms, when encountered and considered within the confines of certain orders of woody plants lacking true meristematic dominance, as compared to a possible valuation of these same lifeforms when in the grasp of-and subject to control by -- the manipulative bone/muscle/nerve complex typically terminating the forelimb of a member of the species homo sapiens (and possibly direct precursors thereof) is approximately five times ten to the minus first power.
Goulden's Axiom of the Bouncing Can:
If you drop a full can of beer, and remember to rap the top sharply with your knuckle prior to opening, the ensuing gush of foam will be between 89 and 94 percent of the volume that would splatter you if you didn't do a damned thing and went ahead and pulled the top immediately.
Goulden's Law of Jury Watching:
If a jury in a criminal trial stays out for more than 24 hours, it is certain to vote acquittal, save in those instances when it votes guilty.
Graditor's Laws:
Gray's Law of Bilateral Asymmetry in Networks:
Information flows efficiently through organizations, except that bad news encounters high impedance in flowing upward.
Gray's Law of Programming:
n+1 trivial tasks are expected to be accomplished in the same time as n trivial tasks.
Logg's Rebuttal to Gray's Law of Programming
n+1 trivial tasks take twice as long as n trivial tasks.
Rule of the Great:
When someone you greatly admire and respect appears to be thinking deep thoughts, they are probably thinking about lunch.
Greenberg's First Law of Influence:
Usefulness is inversely proportional to reputation for being useful.
Greener's Law:
Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel.
Greenhaus's Summation:
I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
Gresham's Law:
Trivial matters are handled promptly; important matters are never resolved
Grosch's Law:
Computing power increases as the square of the cost. If you want to do it twice as cheaply, you have to do it four times slower.
Gross's Law:
When two people meet to decide how to spend a third person's money, fraud will result.
Grossman's Misquote
Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers.
Gummidge's Law:
The amount of expertise varies in inverse proportion to the number of statements understood by the general public.
Gumperson's Law:
The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability.
Corollaries:
Gumperson's Proof:
The most undesirable things are the most certain (death and taxes).
Guthman's Law of Media:
Thirty seconds on the evening news is worth a front page headline in every newspaper in the world.