{"entry":{"title":"The Dangers of Mutant Mosquitoes","date":"Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:00:00 -0600","author":"Maggie Koerth-Baker, New York Times Magazine","description":"
It’s no wonder that Goethe wrote “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” near the dawn of the industrial age. The poem, which most of us now learn from Mickey Mouse, tells the story of a young man who, left to his own devices, mimics his boss’s spell for making brooms fetch water pails. Once the task is done, he doesn’t know how to stop the thing, so he chops the broom in half, which only enables it to work double duty. The sorcerer eventually returns, fixing the mess his subordinate has made (his situation never got quite as out of hand as Mickey’s). Lesson learned: Solutions to problems at hand can create new, sometimes unforeseeable, challenges in the future.<\/p>","original_link":"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/02\/24\/magazine\/when-mutant-mosquitoes-attack.html?ref=magazine"}}