Solutions to environmental problems occasionally create unintended consequences, that is, solving one problem creates another. Scientists and engineers must carefully evaluate potential negative results before implementing new remediation programs. For...

Human activities often produce consequences very different from those intended. Indeed this is a theme of classical tragedy and much premodern argument about the indeterminacy of human affairs. Sociologist Robert K. Merton was one of the first to...

Unintended consequences refer to situations where an action results in an outcome that is not (or not only) what the actor intended. The unintended results may be foreseen or unforeseen, but they should be the logical or likely results of the action....

Why is it that we sometimes have so much trouble getting the result we want? It should be a simple matter of putting the right performance metrics in place and then waiting for great results. Unfortunately, somewhere between our elegant initiatives and...

The Record (Bergen County, NJ) 11-29-1999 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? Date: 11-29-1999, Monday Section: OPINION Edition: All Editions -- Two Star B, Two Star P, One Star B Column: YOUR VIEWS One of my good friends of the past was a proud all-American gun...

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the global community Thursday to redouble efforts to stabilize Somalia and he reiterated his concern that a U.S. airstrike could have "unintended consequences."At his first news conference since taking charge of the United Nations on Jan. 1, Ban stressed the importance...

A Democratic lawmaker has abandoned her heavily ridiculed campaign to make spanking a crime, acknowledging that the idea would get whacked even in California's sometimes whimsical Legislature.Instead, San Francisco Bay area Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced a more narrow bill on Thursday she said would help...