|The South Marysburgh Mirror 5) | MURPHY’S LAW And The Rule of territorial nature disrupted the nesting of many native birds, almost extirpating the bluebird. To make matters worse, gypsy moth caterpillars were introduced, thinking they would make silk. They won’t, and they spread rapidly, es Unintended C q We’ ve all heard of Murphy’s Law, the short version stating, “That if things can go wrong, they will.” Surprisingly, Murphy’s Law was not coined by any member of the Murphy Family on Murphy Road in Milford, but by Captain Edward Murphy, an engineer working at Edwards Air Force Base. His boss performed as his own crash test dummy in experiments of high deceleration stress. He had just exceeded his old record of thirty-one times the force of gravity on a rocket sled, but the gauges hadn’t worked so no one could say by how much. A technician had installed each of them backward. A frustrated Murphy stated, “If there’s more than one way to do a job, and one of them will end in disaster, then somebody will do it that way.” Simply stated, buttered bread will always fall to the floor butter side down. Combine Murphy’s Law with the Rule of Unintended Consequences, and we end up in the world in which we live today. Let’s use Zebra Mussels as an example. These have existed happily in the aie mood of the Caspian Sea forever. They gradually throughout Europe through the ballast tanks of ships, but the foul harbour water that ships used for ballast and the length of time it took ships to cross the ocean saw to it that zebra mussels stayed in Europe. As an unintended consequence of cleaner harbors and much faster ships, zebra mussels held their breath and crossed the ocean. Through the St. Lawrence Seaway, they settled in the Great Lakes... .along with a host of other travelers including the spiny water flea and the round goby, a fish. The world wide distribution of unwanted plants and animals is one of the unintended consequences of cleaner harbors and faster transportation. We often think that cars are a curse, and maybe they are. But when the horse was king in the late 1800‘s, New York City’s horses created 300 million pounds of manure annually, fifteen thousand horses died each year on the streets of New York and had to be disposed of, dust from horse manure killed people by spreading tetanus and tuberculosis, and deaths of humans approached the per capita deaths caused by cars because horses were fidgety and frequently panicked. So to many, the car was a blessing. Now we’re finding out the Rule of Unintended Consequences applies to cars. Smog, gasoline shortages, accidents, jammed and clogged toadways, disposal of tires and auto death and d. to name a few. What will replace the car ? Whatever it is, we can be pretty sure that it will cause problems, too. I think we’re a tiny bit more aware of potential problems today than way back when. In the late 1800’s English Sparrows were introduced on purpose, as scientists thought they would eat caterpillars. They don’t, and their hitchhiking on camper trailers and automobiles and now denude vast acreages of forest. Gypsy moths infested the forest in which I lived once, and you could hear the constant pitter patter of caterpillar excrement dropping to the dry floor of the woods. Deciduous trees went first, then pines. They ate everything except bull briars, presumably leaving them because they are such a hateful plant. Crabgrass was introduced as a forage grass with the monetary support of the US Congress. Crabgrass! What were they thinking?. So it’s plain to see that Murphy’s Law and the Rule of Unintended Consequences has been around for a long time. It’s still going strong today. I have a pump that draws water from the lake for watering plants. I figure watering with untreated lake water not only irrigates, but fertilizes too. I always have a hard time getting the pump working. This year I vowed to do it right. Before I put the hose in the water, I took apart the foot valve, just to make certain there wasn’t grains of sand or algae which would cause it to stick. Well, after wading into the water (I don’t care what you say, it’s cold) and carefully situating the hose, the Continued on page 6 Tree Trimmin & Removal Brush chipping Lot clearing Firewood Hardwood & Softwood lumber Black River Tree Service Glenn Guernsey 476-3757