This morning, Obama made a huge pledge to focus more money on scientific research—more than the US spent during the space race. In fact, it's almost as much as we spend on defense.

I believe it is not in our American character to follow—but to lead. And it is time for us to lead once again. I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than three percent of our GDP to research and development... This represents the largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American history.


Obama plans to funnel money into new initiatives such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), which is to be a cousin of DARPA, the agency that had a large hand in the development of the internet.

The bottom line is that if you're a fan of new technologies being developed on US soil, you should be pretty damned excited. [Salon via Purns]