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In order to show kids “how cool science can be,” President Obama announced today that he will convene an annual science fair starting next year.
The winners of national competitions in science and technology will be annually invited to the White House as a congratulatory event equal to those, the president said, that are normally reserved for sports stars.
“If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you’ve produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House we’re going to lead by example. We’re going to show young people how cool science can be.”
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Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing
National Geographic's International Photography Contest attracts thousands of entries from photographers of all skill levels around the world every year. While this year's entry deadline has passed, there is still time to view and vote for your favorites in the Viewer's Choice competition. National Geographic was kind enough to let me choose a few of their entries from 2009 for display here on The Big Picture. Collected below are 25 images from the three categories of People, Places and Nature. Captions were written by the individual photographers. (25 photos total)
Click the image to see the full collection.
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Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing
In March of 1861, a new president had just been sworn in and the nation was on the brink of civil war. Yet Abraham Lincoln still found a moment to come to the defense of a kid whose schoolmates were picking on him.
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Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing
A medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation’s largest movie chain pack the nutritional equivalent of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter, according to a report released today by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The group’s second look at movie theater concessions — the last was 15 years ago — found little had changed in a decade and a half, despite theaters’ attempts to reformulate.
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Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing
The percentage of consumers who will pay for holiday gifts with cash or debit cards instead of credit cards is expected to rise this year, a trend that could further depress holiday sales.
A shift away from credit cards could make what is expected to be a difficult holiday season even more challenging for retailers. Store clerks have long found that it's easier to persuade people who are using credit cards instead of cash to spend more than they were intending, says NRF spokeswoman Ellen Davis.
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The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) says it expects to restart the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by this weekend after more than a year of repairs. The 27 km (17 mi) particle accelerator was launched last year, but suffered a failure from a faulty electrical connection, damaging 53 of the smasher's 9,300 superconducting magnets. Repairs are now completed, and the plan is to begin injecting protons into the LHC this weekend, on the path to search for particles such as predicted-yet-unobserved Higgs Boson. Collected below are some photographs of the repairs, and of the LHC and some of its experiments in various stages of construction. (30 photos total)
Click the picture to see the collection.
