DST: Time-Saving Device, or Work of Pure Evil?

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If you’ve noticed that people are a little more irritable lately, or maybe just a little more sleepy, you know what’s to blame. And for once, it’s not the exhausting political landscape currently plaguing… well, most of the world. No, people are so tired lately because of the awful social convention known as Daylight Savings Time. Before you start, no, it’s not about farmers. Ask a farmer why DST is a thing and they’ll shut you down faster than a fella can come up with a folksy simile. Don’t put the blame of your biannual exhaustion on farmers—they have enough on their plate. In fact, farmers were infamously against DST, presenting the only organized lobby against it.

If you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further than the founders of Oktoberfest and the inspiration for the bad-guys in the best two Die Hard movies: World War I era Germans.* DST was invented by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, with the hopes it would help in the war effort. In spite of how Germany fared in WWI, a lot of other people thought this was a good idea and adopted it in their countries.

Regardless of whether or not it helped back then, it doesn’t now. Researchers at the University of Washington found that you save a bit of money on your electricity bill thanks to having more sunlight—but you end up paying way more in air conditioning anyway . Not to mention a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine found an increased risk of heart attack in the days after the time change—and another study shows that there is a significant increase in car collisions the day of DST.

So not only is this archaic system annoying and unnecessary, it’s dangerous. California recently voted to end Daylight Savings, freeing themselves from its iron grip. Arizona hasn’t done it since 2005. So why is Canada so far behind? How have we fallen behind Arizona? That’s just embarrassing.

*Little known fact: Canadians in Thunder Bay actually turned their clocks forward by one hour in 1908 and it was adopted by Regina in 1914, beating Germany and Austria by two years. But as anyone who has been to Thunder Bay or Regina can attest to, nothing done in those cities actually counts.

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Ian Mitchell

Ian Mitchell is a pro-wrestling fan who also happens to be in the second year of the Professional Writing program. When not telling his friends about how he would run the WWE, he can be found playing video games, doodling, and writing a rules system for a pro-wrestling tabletop roleplaying game.

Too Much of a Good Thing

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Growing up, there was probably some jerk/wet blanket who told you that there can be too much of a good thing. They told you not to eat all your Halloween candy in one night because you’ll get a stomach ache; don’t play that song over and over again, you’ll get sick of it; don’t forget to list three things, because only listing two things isn’t funny. But is there any truth to this? At what point is too much of a thing that’s actually good for you? What happens when you chug ten gallons of water? Or take fifteen vitamin supplements a day for three months?

As it turns out, bad things happen. All those jerks/wet blankets were right—there can be too much of a good thing. Now before you put that Halloween candy down, just hear me out—I’m not talking about Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, or those gross Tootsie Rolls that keep getting handed out. (Seriously, who likes Tootsie Rolls? Any amount of Tootsie Rolls is too much.)

I’m talking about water. That clear, wet stuff that you’re supposed to drink six cups of a day according to some study sometime. (Or maybe you aren’t supposed to drink that much? Jury’s out on that one.) Either way, at a certain point, it becomes too much water. And the result of drinking too much water isn’t just that you have to sit in your seat squirming anxiously, wondering if it’s too soon to go to the washroom again because you just went ten minutes ago so, will everyone think you’re weird if you go again? In fact, too much water can be downright deadly. It’s called water intoxication, or hyponatremia if ya nasty. It causes the levels of sodium in your blood to plummet, which is important in maintaining the proper level of liquid in your cells. Without sodium, your cells start to swell—which, in the case of your brain, is very dangerous.

But what else can you get too much of? Vitamin overdosing is also a real and messed-up thing. Too much Vitamin D can give you a lot of stomach issues and can even result in dangerous heart abnormalities. The B vitamins (did you know there are 8 B vitamins? Who came up with this?) can cause a whole mess of problems. B6? That can cause nerve toxicity. B3? Nausea, jaundice, and liver problems. And if you think that sounds bad, steer clear of Vitamin A overdosing—that can just straight up kill you. It can also give you dry skin and make you lose your hair, so any hopes of leaving behind a pretty corpse are out the window.

But before you throw out your water bottle and those expensive multivitamins, stop worrying. It takes a tremendous amount of water or vitamins to get these symptoms. It takes gallons of water in a short period of time for your kidneys to start falling behind, and it takes nearly forty times the recommended dose of any given vitamin every day for a while before those symptoms kick in. So as long as you aren’t religiously chugging water or chewing vitamins like candy (which, come on, we all did as kids—Flintstones vitamins were tasty) you should be able to avoid these Issues. Don’t use this as an excuse to skimp out on (what I’m told are) important parts of a healthy lifestyle.

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Ian Mitchell

Ian Mitchell is a pro-wrestling fan who also happens to be in the second year of the Professional Writing program. When not telling his friends about how he would run the WWE, he can be found playing video games, doodling, and writing a rules system for a pro-wrestling tabletop roleplaying game.

What Happens When You Crack Them Knucks?

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It’s been a long day. You’re just home from work, and the whatever it is you do was tough today. You relax in your favourite chair or on your second favourite couch and stretch out your tired limbs. In return, you are greeted with a cacophony of snaps and crackles that would put the Rice Krispies mascots to shame. People tell you you’ll get arthritis, and that the sound is really gas bubbles popping in your joints. But is any of that true?

In short, no. It’s been shown conclusively that knuckle cracking has no correlation to developing arthritis. A study published in 2011 showed that the rate of arthritis was the same in people who cracked their knuckles than it was in those who did not. Unfortunately, other studies have shown that habitual knuckle-crackers have a higher rate of swollen joints and a weaker grip. So while the traditional rumour might be false, it seems that knuckle-cracking still isn’t an incredibly healthy option.

As for the cause, it’s a fairly recent discovery. In diarthrodial joints (which is a fancy way of saying joints where two bones interact, like your wrist, elbow, or knee) there is something called a joint capsule. This is a pocket of tissue that is formed around the joint, and inside this pocket is a lubricant as well as serving as a nutrient for the cells that live there. The fluid in the capsule also contains dissolved gasses, mainly nitrogen, which form bubbles that pop as you stretch your joint. The popping allows your knuckles to move a little further, which is why cracking your joints lets you stretch them a little more.

As for why such tiny bubbles of gas cause such a loud noise, scientists aren’t even sure. However, they do know why you can’t just endlessly crack your knuckles: the gasses need about 20 minutes to build up again before there’s enough to form a bubble. So next time you reach a little further for your phone and you hear your shoulder pop, don’t worry too much about what’s going on. It’s just bubbles of nitrogen and carbon dioxide quickly forming and popping in your joint capsule with such force that you can hear it quite clearly from a few feet away. So when someone complains about you cracking your knuckles, just throw some science back in their face.

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Ian Mitchell

Ian Mitchell is a pro-wrestling fan who also happens to be in the second year of the Professional Writing program. When not telling his friends about how he would run the WWE, he can be found playing video games, doodling, and writing a rules system for a pro-wrestling tabletop roleplaying game.