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.

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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.

For those who like a little astronomy:

On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010.

[link]

I feel like I've talked about this a lot but maybe some of you don't know that I'm riding a bike 140 miles over the course of 2 days in May to raise money for Moveable Feast of Maryland . I've been involved as a volunteer for the past several years but this is the first year I'll be riding. 140 Miles! Craziness! I've just started training in earnest for the Ride. I will be riding with the most awesome team ever, Team Atomic. (Also, my bike name for the Ride is The Spoke Wench!)

Moveable Feast is an incredible organization based in Baltimore. They provide hot meals, groceries, and nutritional counseling to homebound HIV/AIDS and breast cancer patients and their families. Moveable Feast also helps provide shuttle service to the homeless population of Baltimore, as well as providing job training and marketable skills to people who need it.

If you would like to you can make a make a secure, tax-deductible donation on my personal (and, so far, generic) page here or to Team Atomic as a whole here. Either way, the money goes to the same place, and you're supporting a great cause. And, if you’re in the area and are interested in doing the Ride, or volunteering for it, or coming to any of our many Team fundraising events in the next couple of months, email me at my profile address.

Don't know if it's been talked about anywhere, but the grapevine has it that E. Gary Gygax, father of Dungeons and Dragons and one time guest on Futurama, failed his save v. death today (or possibly yesterday). Thought the gamers on this site would want to know so they could tip one in his memory tonight.

The great Zagig is no more.

In case any Buffistas in the Eugene area are interested, I'll be presenting as part of the panel on Carbon Trading at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) [link] on Saturday, the 8th. The Carbon Trading Panel is from 10:30 -11:45 A.M.

I've put my presentation on-line in case anyone is interested. I don't think of it as a presentation on Carbon Trading. I think of it as a presentation about "How to fight global warming without screwing the poor and the middle class".

[link]

The readability of some of the tables is browser dependent. For best results run your browser full screen, then hit F11 to run the presentation full screen.

I'm sure most everyone already knows this, but (for most of us, anyway) clocks "spring forward" an hour at 2am this Sunday.

Despite technical difficulties, David Lehman, editor of "The Best American Erotic Poetry" and the "Best American Poetry" series, was an amazing guest on my Internet radio show, "The Eclectic Word." Listen to the show here.