Unforeseen consequences of working at a car rental agency for too long: I think I may, through no fault of my own, be becoming a car geek. Not in the sense that I actually know anything about cars, really (though I can reel off more models from memory — sorted by class, manufacturer and MSRP — than most people even know exist) — it’s more that I have a greater appreciation for them. For instance, a friend of mine has a truly, truly tight ride, which I’ve commented on so many times that she offered to let me drive it sometime. And I’m actually thinking of learning to drive a stick just so I can. I think it may also have something to do with my commute and the fact that I’ve become, out of necessity, one of those people who mentally add 10 MPH to the speed limit. It saves me an hour of my life every week. In less than half a year, I went from being one of those “a car is a car” people to actually noticing, and sometimes even commenting on, these newfangled horseless carriages.

“Pioneer 10 has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, NASA said on February 25, 2003. [T]he spacecraft’s last signal was received on Jan. 22 by the JPL’s Deep Space Network. At the time, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at the speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive.” A stunning achievement, no doubt, nonetheless the first thing to jump out at me in all the coverage is that it took us 31 years to fling something 11.3 light-hours from Earth. I suppose this means that when my hypothetical fortune comes to me, I should sink it into nanotech and anti-aging as opposed to space flight. Though it might be fun to rule an independent sultanate on Mars… choices, choices.