Cooling It: No Hair Shirt Solutions to Global Warming, an optimistic book about a gloomy subject - the need to reduce fossil fuel use to fight global warming - is now available as a free download at [link] It argues that we have technological substitutes available for oil, gas and coal now - at market prices comparable to those we currently pay. Neither cost nor technical barriers prevent drastic and speedy reductions in greenhouse emissions; slowing global warming is a structural, institutional, social, and political -- not a technical one.

Leading experts such as Patrick Mazza (Reseach Director for Climate Solutions), Dr. Joseph Romm, (Executive Director of The Center for Energy & Climate Solutions), Eric Heitz, (President of The Energy Foundation) all recommend this book for its careful research, technical detail and compelling writing. If you want to know how we can increase efficiency enough to buy more expensive renewables, and still keep overall energy costs the same, download a copy. (Print copies are also available, but the files are designed to easily let you print your own.)

Today is the last day to vote on Madison!F2F 2008 dates.

Here are the current results:

1. Select your first choice for our Madison, WI, 2008 F2F:
6/7 23.1% 6
6/14 23.1% 6
6/21 34.6% 9
No Preference 19.2% 5

answered question 26
skipped question 0

2. Of the possible F2F dates, is there one that you probably could NOT make?
Nope, all three are fine. 41.7% 10
6/7 33.3% 8
6/14 12.5% 3
6/21 12.5% 3
answered question 24
skipped question 2

VOTE NOW HERE! The poll will be open until 9PM EST.

The voting numbers have gone from 59 on the first survey to 26 currently; please vote if you think there's any chance you might want to attend.

Hey, I am doing a Valentine's day thing for sharing the love/snark/happyhappyjoyjoy. I based it in LJ for format reasons, but you don't have to be an LJer (or on my friends list) to participate.

Our Midwest F2F will be in Madison, WI, on June 21, 2008!

If you would like detailed poll results, see F2F.

Thanks for your participation, and I now turn the process over to the point person, SailAweigh.

Hey Buffistim -- I'm having a birthday party on Saturday evening, February 23, at my house in Somerville, MA, and YOU"RE invited! If you didn't get the evite or facebook event notice already, it's not because I don't like you. I simply forgot that you existed! Shoot me an email at my profile addy and I'll forward you the deets.

Hey all - over at TWC, we're having ourselves a contest of sorts... the first inaugural "Top Five": Top five best and worst airports.

You will need to ask Raq what some of the other proposed top five categories are. but there will be more.

come play - send your picks and why you love/hate them to info at travelswithchild.org

[link]

The strike is over. The Random Quote Generator is back. Yay.

send an ecard valentine- send a book to a kid that needs one

First book and Pi Beta Phi are the sponsors

[link]

Just because I'm in a mood, and because I know some non-Buffistas who need one -

PEOPLE: Ruining It For the Rest of Us bumper sticker: [link]

All proceeds from the purchase of this, or anything else on my Zazzle site, will go towards funding b.org.

A friend of mine runs focus groups on policy issues, so I'm posting this here for her. It's open to all Californians interested in K-12 policy.

+++++++++++++

I wanted to alert you to a statewide on-line dialogue on K-12 education reform that Viewpoint Learning will be running beginning on February 25.

We want to get up to 2000 Californians talking about the big questions facing our K-12 schools today. The project is being conducted at the request of a bipartisan group of education policymakers in the state legislature and the governor’s office – and decision-makers will be paying attention to what is said!

I hope some of you might find time to participate, and even better, forward this note to as many people as you think might be interested. We are looking for parents, teachers, administrators, business people – anyone with an interest in how CA schools are run, how they are funded and what outcomes they produce (i.e. every Californian!)

I have attached the invitation, which we placed yesterday in an e-mail blast in the San Diego Union-Tribune and the LA Times (it will appear Tuesday in the Sac Bee)

We would greatly appreciate your "spreading the word" to people throughout this district and CA.

The web site for the dialogue is: [link]

Registration is open now – check out the site and see if you or someone you know might be interested in participating.