Every hour sees at least seven thermonuclear explosions from neutron stars within 10 kiloparsecs of Earth. And over the same short time period the most magnetic neutron stars can emit hundreds of explosive magnetic flares. I will discuss the physics that underpins this antisocial behavior, and explain how we are using these violent events to learn about the behavior of the strong force in the ultradense matter in neutron star cores. (host: S. Rosswog)