Inaugural Address Word Clouds

Word clouds of the inaugural addresses of George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama

First George Bush address 2001






















Second George Bush address 2005





















Barack Obama address 2009





















Made with Wordle

How Much is $12 Billion-a-Month?

This article reports on a study by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes that the war in Iraq will cost about $12 billion dollars a month in 2008.

Studies: Iraq a $12 billion-a-month war - Conflict in Iraq- msnbc.com

A little simple arithmetic means the war costs a family of four in America about $150 a month. What would en extra $150 a month in the family bank account mean?

Do you know how much this is?

The Bush administration is seeking the astronomical sum of $190,000,000,000 to continue to prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year.

Administration seeks $190B for wars - USATODAY.com

Can you imagine the scope of this budget request? Do you grasp how much money $190 billion dollars is?

190 billion seconds would take more than 6000 years to tick off on your clock! That would buy one and a half million new Ferraris. You could provide every kid enrolled in any US school with 2 new high end computers.

American Trivia

Here's a really interesting bit of trivia I picked up while watching the Penn State-Michigan game on ABC.

Four American colleges have graduated both a US president and a Super Bowl quarterback.

• Miami (OH) - Benjamin Harrison, Ben Roethlisberger
• Michigan - Gerald Ford, Tom Brady
• Navy - Jimmy Carter, Roger Staubach
• Stanford - Herbert Hoover, Jim Plunkett, John Elway

We have the technology ...

I just watched a powerful, important movie, Who Killed the Electric Car?, which I would vigorously recommend seeing.

At one time, General Motors, Ford, Honda, and Toyota were manufacturing and leasing all-electric plug-in cars, primarily in response to California's 1990 Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate. This film tells the history of the electric car in America.

Somewhat in the manner of a murder mystery, this informative, entertaining, and easily watchable film investigates the inception and demise of the electric car almost entirely through interviews with people from the auto industry, the oil industry, environmental organizations, government, and owners of electric vehicles.

For more information about electric plug-in vehicles visit PlugInAmerica.com.

U.S. government web sites for everybody

There are thousands of US government web sites full of information, publications, and other resources available to everyone.

Technophilia: U.S. government web sites you didn't know you could use - Lifehacker