Wow... a real-life physicist as Secretary of Energy?

Obama's political appointments continue to confound. While I can't say I've approved of some of his choices for his cabinet, this one seems to be a winner: Obama will pick Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as his Secretary of Energy.

Chu won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.” He is Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cellular Biology of University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which does unclassified scientific research. Chu is noted for pushing for the development of technologies to reduce the impact of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. ^{[Source: Wikipedia]}

He's a real, honest-to-goodness scientist, who understands climate change is real, and he's NOT a professional politician. I've never heard of him before, but if he's as promising as his bio on Wikipedia says, we're FINALLY getting some grownups in the White House!

(Ganked from BoingBoing)

Thank you, Aunt Virginia & Uncle Stan!

This is my 40th Christmas, and like clockwork, every Christmas, I receive a card from my Aunt Virginia & Uncle Stan containing a crisp, new $20 bill. Every year since I was a little kid, I have been able to count on $20 in December from these wonderful folks. It's comforting to know that, no matter what the chaos in my life, there's this regular gift from Maryland every Christmas.

I received this year's card today, and like the previous 39 Christmases, I wasn't disappointed!

And I put it to good use: I did laundry. I've needed to do laundry since before Thanksgiving, and everything I own is starting to smell. I even washed my bedding.

And while the wash was going, I straightened up my room, and vacuumed.

Nothing like an infusion of familial love to get me up and going again! And nothing like the feel of clean sheets to inspire me to reduce the amount of entropy in my life.

Thanks, Virginia & Stan. I love you!