I haven’t even watched this TED talk by Willie Smits yet, but I know it’s going to be exceptional. We still need to stop destroying rainforest, and I imagine the list of caveats is a mile long, but it’s good to know that these places aren’t gone forever.

“Fidelity”: Don’t Divorce… from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

My friends (!) -

So you know how most of the world kinda wishes we could just undo Bush? Maybe take away the God-like power W gave to the presidency? Perhaps return some level of civility and worldliness to our approach to global enforcement? I see this happening in 3 steps:

1. Replace Bush with Unbush — DONE
Maybe a Democrat. An eloquent one. Ooh! And make him black. And from the north. And level-headed. And a good listener! Ooh, this is gonna be good!

2. Unmake Bush’s abusive laws — YOU HELP HERE
Support Ron Paul’s “American Freedom Agenda Act”, which is seriously as close as I can imagine us realistically sending giant “f u” to Bush, and a pragmatic turnaround toward reason. I did, and it literally took two minutes. Don’t be lazy. It took longer to vote. I’ll even give you a note to copy-paste (thanks to Brad):

Please co-sponsor the “American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007″ (HR 3835). Undoing the damage done by G. W. Bush and his calamitous administration over the past eight years must be our single most important focus with the start of a new presidency and Congress. Please throw your complete support behind this bill to restore the American people back to the position that they deserve—the position that was created by the prescient and able founders of this nation.”

3. Repair the gaping wounds with the world and ourselves — AWAITING OBAMA PRESIDENCY
I’m hoping our nation will become a citizen of the world again (not its parent), refocus on domestic programs, balance the budget, reinvent health care, etc. You know, the basics. Easy-breezy.

Like most of you, I’m not an email forwarder (to be fair: I wrote this). But I do suddenly find myself a proud, caring American. I’m eager to help, but I’m busy. This is how I felt good today. I just wanted to share that opportunity with my friends. Please help!

Love,
Lee

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the National Space Society has donated telescopes to students in over 20 countries as part of the Permission to Dream project. The project page posted photos of a recent star party in Nepal, featuring one of the donated telescopes:

Click through to the Permission to Dream project page for more photos from the star party. Well done, NSS! If you’d like to donate to the Permission to Dream project, become an NSS member today (and be sure to tell them the San Diego chapter sent you).

[via the NSS on Twitter] ]]> http://globalspin.com/2008/10/permission-to-dream/feed/ 0 http://globalspin.com/2008/08/lets-play-piggyback-with-the-american-family-association/ http://globalspin.com/2008/08/lets-play-piggyback-with-the-american-family-association/#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:17:50 +0000 http://globalspin.com/?p=1180 I am stealing this idea from Fark. The AFA is incensed that Hallmark is making same-sex marriage cards and is boycotting the company. In addition, they have a very nice website where you can write to those durned lib’rals at Hallmark and give them what fer! As was suggested on Fark, it’s also a convenient way to send Hallmark letters of support. So pass it on, because I would be very happy if they got more support letters through the hatey website than hatey letters.

Carducci says that despite beliefs to the contrary, shyness is not completely hardwired. This is because shyness requires a sense of self—which develops only after about 18 months of age. It involves feelings of excessive self-consciousness, negative self-evaluation and negative self-preoccupation, he explained.

“Shy people operate as if thy have a mirror in front of them all the time,” he told LiveScience.

[...]People might try imagining themselves in different social situations while taking slow, deep breaths to keep calm. They can also work to slowly expand their comfort zone, Carducci said. He suggested volunteering as a good way to do this. “When you volunteer, [people] don’t really care your level of skill; they’re just after your time, so there’s no critical self-evaluation,” he explained.

Okay, so it’s not exactly a specific regimen to follow, but there are still some great tips for sky people in there. I plan to try some of them out myself…

First, bask in the calm brilliance that is Keith Olbermann’s response to the president’s recent comments on Vietnam.   If you didn’t catch it, Mr. Bush went to Vietnam and told the American public the lesson he thinks he’s learned from that long, bloody mess: “We’ll succeed unless we quit.”  (No, I’m not making this up.)

Second, take part in what might prove to be the antidote to such bloody-minded idiocy.  Senator Barbara Boxer has created an online petition calling for the president to begin redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq now.  (Emphasis hers.)  I usually advise against Internet petitions because they don’t have any teeth, but this one is different.  It’s being sponsored by an official representative with some real power (especially now), so it has at least some chance of being heard.  There’s more information in her press release about the petition, which makes some compelling arguments itself.

So read Keith to get fired up, then go do something about it.

It is official, Kayla won the contest and the title of NASA’s Greatest Fan! Thank you for all your votes. We don’t have all the details yet, but we’re off to (hopefully) see the shuttle launch!

Excited beyond words,
Jennifer

See the original post below:

From Jennifer, a Global Spin reader and my teammate from Space Camp:

Since I am not a US citizen, I couldn’t enter a contest to win the title of ‘NASA’s greatest fan’ but my friend Kayla did, and she made it to the finals. The prize – a trip for two (her and I) to Florida to watch the space shuttle launch! You all know it’s my life-long dream to see a launch, so make it a reality and vote! Vote lots – the more votes the merrier, and there is no limit!

vote for ‘Mars Mates Forever’ by Kayla

You heard her, folks. Vote early and often. Show the raw power of the Global Spin!

The site is a bit wonky to navigate, but you can watch any of the videos and then click “Vote for your favorite” to go to the voting ‘survey’. ‘Mars Mates Forever’ is the one with the photo of two flight-suit-clad adventurers looking defiantly skyward. It seems to allow you to vote as many times as you wish, so click it a couple dozen times for good measure.