This week the White House was the venue for the most high-profile Star Party of the year. To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, the President played host to over a hundred school kids and amateur astronomers. He gave a lovely opening address about the importance of science in society, his desire to reinvigorate maths and science education in the US, and he encourages the youngsters present to let their sense fo wonder and passion drive them in their pursuit for discovery. The man can speak.
Science kudos for Obama
December 21, 2008 By
US President-elect Barack Obama has been appointing some excellent people to advise him on all things scientific during his presidency. His latest appointment, John Holdren, to the post of director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has been met with particular joy from the scientific community, as Holdren is a physicist and leading expert on climate change. Hurrah!
Read more in The Guardian here, or the New York Times here. Phil Plait has some opinions on Obama’s appointments and the future of NASA under his administration.
UPDATE: Obama’s weekly address on YouTube of 20 December was actually about his science policy and appointments, watch it below. Sounds good!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMlXNrBxM0g]
One More Time: Yes You Did
November 5, 2008 By
In case you’ve been in hibernation or living in a cave until now, or you just can’t get enough of the man, The Guardian have the full text of Barack Obama‘s acceptance speech with the video alongside it. Enjoy it here!
The Big Vote
November 4, 2008 By
It’s a day like any other: we all got up this morning, went to work, are having coffees at the office and bitching about meetings – only it’s not quite the same here in the US. It’s election day! I’m a total outsider and it’s very exciting to be able to witness this “historic” election from inside the country. To know that the whole world is watching feels pretty special.
On a lighter note, I found this great blog called the Twitter Vote Report. A number of software developers used Twitter as a platform to collate news about the election today. One cool feature is that it creates tables of waiting times in various cities, with the information coming from the actual voters standing in line. Or you can view maps of voter tweets from individual states.
Anyone can contribute to the Vote Report in the following ways:
- Twitter: include #votereport and other tags to describe the scene on the ground
- SMS: Send text messages to 66937 (MOZES) starting with the keyword #votereport plus other hash tags
- iPhone: We have a Twitter Vote Report iPhone app in the App store!
- Phone: Call our automated system at 567-258-VOTE (8683) to report about conditions, using any touch-tone phone
They also have a telephone line with a human being on the line to record your experiences. So call: 1-866-OUR-VOTE, Tweet, text or get the iPhone app!
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