From: timothy42bach@gmail.com   
      
   On Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 8:01:39 PM UTC-4, Tim R wrote:   
   > I went to replace the AA in a kitchen timer and found it had leaked out of   
   both ends.    
   >    
   > I think I've had more of these leak in the past year or so than in the   
   previous ten. Is there something different in manufacture, or am I just   
   unlucky?    
      
   My aging brain had made an invalid comparison to fuel oil.   
   Back in the mid 90's I was an engineer working on an underground storage tank   
   replacement for the military, trying to meet the new tank requirements.  Back   
   then the military had a requirement for redundant backups, and some buildings   
   had large fuel oil    
   storage even if they'd been converted to gas.  I ended up digging up a couple   
   hundred tanks and only replacing about 20 of the big ones, which were refilled   
   with fresh #2 fuel oil.  Some of the old oil had been unused for decades but   
   it was still good;    
   disposal was cheap because it was all recyclable. One of those tanks needed to   
   be removed again a few years later when the building was demolished.  That oil   
   had decomposed due to biological action.  There was more than a foot of jello   
   on the bottom.  I    
   did some research and found the chemistry of fuel oil had changed during that   
   time period and it was not as stable.     
      
   Sorry for the trip down memory lane.  That was a good project, I brought it in   
   2 years early and $2 million under budget, my boss got promoted.  (and   
   eventually I became the boss so it all worked out)    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)