Goon-
I have dealt with my share of LED's, But yeah, yer right those who don't know at least the basics about them better do a little research before blowing up a mess of diodes. Do a quick google search about them, check wikipedia or instructables, and a few of the companies that sell them like SuperbrightLEDs.com, CustomDynamics.com, and AutomotiveLEDS.com have good how to's and general information about working with LED's.
If I am not mistaken Goon, you are the one that turned me on to instructables.com a few weeks back.... I want my life back! Way too many cool projects on there, I am going through solder like nobodys business these days!