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.

I, on a personal level, am skeptical about the usage--or at least the possible over-usage--of mood-altering medications primarily because we know so little about the way they work. See TFA as an example. I'm doubly skeptical on using SSRIs and other drugs on childrens, adolescents, and even young adults, as there are even more uncertainties about these drugs on still-developing brains!

Having said that, SSRIs are common medications today. The kind of people who are suicidal or have such a mood-disorder that going on a shooting rampage seems like a good idea are exactly the people for whom you would expect SSRIs to be prescribed! In other words, are SSRIs causing these issues (and earning your blame), or were the problems there to begin with?

I don't know, and I don't know of any studies or other medical evidence that points either way. IMH(and not not scientifically grounded)O, I would, like you, suspect some causal relationship.

... 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!).

The average price of gas in southern California is currently ~$3.50 ... the most fuel efficient large BMW in the US, the 535d, only achieves 30MPG ...

Isn't that a Diesel? I bet Diesel fuel is higher than the ~$3.50/gal you quoted.

A fish tank timer (or more likely, a tiny microcontroller) across the "Start" button leads would work just fine. There's more than 1 way to skin that cat.

The special part about 2.4 GHz is that it's a the first available world-wide ISM band that is anywhere near frequencies that can be generated with high enough power in a countertop form factor to heat anything. Magnetrons are not known for their spectral purity or frequency stability, so using an ISM band that's 100 MHz wide also gives you a lot of leeway for frequency excursions for what little RF is actually leaked out of the oven.