Umm, wouldn't a shorter lifespan effectively speed up evolution of the species in the long run? And in the short run, since females incubate their young in the ingested blood, wouldn't a shorter lifespan lead to more breeding and thus more blood consumption?

In D&D, the Dungeon Master isn't the leader. He's the opposition.
A dungeon is a kind of prison:
http://thesaurus.com/browse/dungeon
So, what is a warden, if not the master of a dungeon?

"Some people are opposed to the death penalty because it makes the state into a murderer. I'm opposed to the prison system, because it turns the state into a gay dungeonmaster."
      -Emo Philips

People with autism-spectrum disorders are well demonstrated to be able to achieve hyper-normal ability in specific areas of motor skills. I had a 12 year old kung-fu student with Aspergers, and his formwork was really amazing (although he lost his edge when he came into contact with an opponent). I had other students for longer and with seemingly stronger basic ability who never *got* the forms the way this boy did. Now he's 17 and spends all his time playing X-Box.

So, did he cheat, or not? Maybe, but if he did, Microsoft really ought to give him another chance. The real problem here is that they refuse to slap him on the wrist and then clear the tag. Whether he's autistic or not, he's 11 YEARS OLD. A "no strikes" rule before permanently labeling a kid a cheater is really draconian way to deal with a child.

I mean, just look at the banks.

(Or forestry in the 1980s. Or the savings and loan arena in the 1980s. Or AT&T in the 19th Century...)

This isn't a normal year... we're at solar minimum, with greater than average cloud cover over most areas, in winter. Basically, sans ice age, solar panels will never receive less energy than they do right now.