Still have nearly-perfect hearing, minus the really odd gap at 15kHz-16kHz ...

Not odd at all. Were you exposed to CRT TVs or old monitors for an extended amount of time? Their flybacks operated at one of several freqs: NTSC is 15,734 Hz, PAL is equal to 15,625 Hz, PAL M is equal to 15,750 Hz I wondered if TV/monitor technology was getting better over the years - the flyback scream got quieter and quieter as I got older. Turns out my ears were losing their sensitivity to it. I have a gigantic notch at those frequencies.

I had to do that in my head when I got a KPH only car in Grand Cayman - the signs are MPH. There were a _lot_ of tourists that didn't notice and were going verrrrry sloooooow. It was pretty easy once you learn a few touchpoints - 25 mph=40kph, 30=50, 40=65, and 45=75ish.

At least I didn't get a left hand drive car in a left side-of-the-road country on top of it. Driving from the ditch is not pretty.

No fireballs in space? Wrong! Spaceship occupants need atmosphere.

You don't need oxygen to have a fireball. Hypergolic propellants will happily go boom in a vacuum if they intermingle.

Ignition! is a great book about rocket fuel research. There are a couple of links around.

... hot water heater ...

I installed an on-demand Rinnai water heater - I love it. I'm out in the sticks, so mine runs on propane, but it's still a lot cheaper than electricity.

You are not authorized to orbit my nipples.

Yes, the best sort of review-able stuff. :-)

... why the Red Planet changed from a relatively warm and wet place ... to the cold, arid world it is today.

If it were Venus it would be easy to explain - menopause.

UrbanSpoon.com - I write voluntary, unsolicited, and non-remunerated reviews over there for restaurants I encounter.

... if we start making soylent green out of people when they reach 30.

I love it - "Soylent Green" crossed with "Logan's Run".

Renew! Renew! Become Soylent, too!

When food gets scarce, don't some animals kill off and/or eat some of their young?

... the most violent and aggressive species on earth?

When's the last time you chased down and killed your food? When's the last time you actually used physical violence against another human, much less a prey species?

We're our most violent in aggregate (war). Most recent 'wars' were/are over ideals or perceived threats (we don't like what you're doing to your people, so we're gonna invade), not actual physical threats (WWII was an actual imminent threat). We're not so bad when we don't _have_ to use violence.

The uController could easily run for several _years_ on a pair of D batteries. It sleeps for all but a single second out of the day, and wakes up to 'press' the go button. You could just as easily power it from a wall tumor across the 220V line powering the charger (many/most are 110/220 tolerant).

The fish timer would be powered from 1 leg of the 220 V circuit to the neutral to provide 110V as it expects.

My point in posting was that there are alternatives to having to switch the full 220V / bazillion amp charging current directly. Sometimes subtlety wins out over brute force :-)

Basically anything with f... acid ... off the menu.

And you drink soft drinks? They're about as acidic as you can get without being vinegar or lime/lemon juice.

Also ask your hippie friends if they eat honey, since it's almost identical to HFCS 55 with regard to the glucose/fructose ratio.

My Mini is perfectly average, then. It's a 2003 (got it in March), so it's almost exactly 11.4 years old and only has about 84k miles on it. My previous car was 17 when I passed it on to a local enthusiast. It had something like 77k miles on it (A 1987 Conquest TSI - cool car!).