I was waiting to give my 26th unit of blood yesterday, when I saw something I don't see every day: a blimp.

Watching that dirigible fly around the sky while I was giving blood helped keep my mind pleasantly occupied. Afterward, I was walking back to work and got a better look at the aircraft -- it was for Outback Steakhouse.

Now, I didn't go and get a steak dinner. But I thought about it. And that's more than I can say for every other form of advertising I've been bombarded with lately.

I am a scientist who is actively working on solving our Nation's (and world's) energy crisis, and hold an advanced degree in nuclear engineering and engineering physics. I respectfully urge Senator Obama to revise his policies towards nuclear energy.

As the Senator is well aware, nuclear power is a proven technology which has zero carbon emissions and is capable of providing base-load electrical power. Despite its wastes, nuclear power is currently the best of our available options when it comes to electric generation while satisfying carbon emission requirements to combat global warming.

I am a nuclear engineer -- and I fully support deploying a broad base of green electrical power generation technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro-power in order to help clean up our grid. However, eliminating nuclear power from serious, immediate consideration in the energy discussion effectively removes one of our most powerful weapons against combating global warming from the table.

Therefore, I again strongly urge Senator Obama, as a scientist, nuclear engineer, and an enthusiastic supporter of your campaign to reconsider his stance on nuclear power.

We'll need a lot more of it in the days to come if we mean to seriously combat global warming -- a worldwide crisis which needs to be attacked from every possible angle, sooner rather than later. I do not relish the prospect that my children, and their children's children, will be paying the price for our inaction today.

CORRECT!
omphaloskepsis = navel-contemplation

While such a comparison may be well within the realm of a tortured GRE English section, my wife pointed me to freerice.com, a site which has a quirky vocabulary Web-based game paired with unnoticeable advertising. For each correct answer the UN gets a few grains' rice worth of a donation.

So, they make a buck, the UN gets extra food, and you learn fun vocabulary! What isn't there to like?