It’s almost 10 o’clock at night and it’s still light outside. Weird.

During all of my DDT research I found this amusing study. When kids think they’re superheroes, they can get hurt.

What I want to know is, do people wake up one day and decide to research this? Maybe they have young children that got hurt jumping off the couch in their Superman outfit. Kevin and other people with young children, beware!

Update: I don’t know how I missed this, but it’s hilarious.  “The children we saw have all had to contemplate on their way to hospital that they do not in fact possess superpowers.” It’s only the abstract, but that’s all you need.

From now on I will not be posting evidence or proof on my website. I find it to be a superfluous waste of time. From now on I will only post opinions, regardless of their basis in fact. As long as I feel my opinions are correct, that will be the only necessary standard of proof. Now, for my first post.

Cows are really humans wearing suits.

Update: Amy’s “ahahaha” said it perfectly. This discussion has run it’s course.

Due to the recent law moving daylight savings up to this Sunday, I’ve been inspired to write a post about unintended consequences, and specifically negative consequences.

The intentions are to make the days “longer,” or basically move the daylight hours later in the day, which in turn should lead to less lights being used. The primary goal of the bill is to reduce energy spending. As I considered this train of thought, it occurred to me that maybe there will be some unintended consequences.

If the sun is out for longer in the day, it follows that people will not need to turn their lights on as early. While that sounds good, that idea doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and there are a number of other results that can occur due to this bill. The best one I’ve thought of is air conditioner usage. If the sun is out longer, that means it cools off later, and if it warms up in the next month, people will start using their AC more. This is an unintended consequence, and it could just make things worse. Here are some other fun unintended consequences I know of:

• Safety seals on medicine actually increased accidents (according to 20/20). The unintended consequence was that people started leaving medicine in less safe areas accessible to children, or they left the caps off all together because they were too hard to use. So much for being safer.
• Another study on 20/20 found that bike helmet laws might actually make people less safe. People driving cars tend to give bike riders without helmets more space. They assume they are less experienced, and less safe, so they don’t drive as close. The opposite is true for people that do wear helmets.
• Food stamps and other governmental assistance are designed to help people that are poor. The unintended consequences are bountiful. When people give you money for being poor, it doesn’t encourage you to become less poor. Government funded housing, or “the projects,” are an abismal failure. Giving people a home sounds nice, but when the people don’t value the home like an actual home owner does, then you get the ghetto.
• In the early 70′s DDT was banned in the US and eventually in large portions of the world. Crazy environmentalists thought it caused cancer and was poisoning everything, so they decided to ban the stuff. The unintended consequence was that malaria from mosquitos is a FAR greater threat to humans than DDT ever was. Malaria hasn’t been a problem here in a long time (thanks in large part to DDT), but in third world countries there are at least a million deaths a year from malaria. Environmental groups that think they have people’s best interest in mind end up making it a lot worse.*Update – Links contradicting the theory that DDT hurt birds here, here, and here. These are all from the same 100 Things You Should Know About DDT.
• As the global warming crowd increases its warcry, a new unintended consequence could occur. As fossil fuels increasingly become the devil, it’s really going to suck if you’re a low budget country in Africa.

What negative unintended consequences have you observed?

It’s time for Dodgers Baseball! Right now the Dodgers third spring training game is on 980 AM. It’s great to hear Charlie and play by play. La Roche just threw out a runner from third. The first broadcasted game is two weeks from today, and I think they’re only airing spring training games on the radio on Saturdays and Sundays.

Last night I was hot and I put on sandals. I also hooked the Xbox back up and played some MVP Baseball. All of the aforementioned activities have reminded me how much I love Spring and Summer.

My parents came over last night for dinner which was nice. It’s a very interesting life transition going from living at home to living elsewhere. Instead of seeing them everyday sometimes weeks go by. I have a feeling this will change a lot whenever we start making babies, but I have a much greater appreciation for them now that I’ve left the roost. When I saw them everyday and had never lived on my own, I think I took them for granted. But now that I’ve been out on my own and started our own family I appreciate more the role they’ve played in my life, and the role I want them to continue to play in our “new” family’s life.

Please don’t misconstrue all the sentimental talk as foreshadowing of an imminent baby birthing. Not quite yet.