obama

Mars enthusiasts hoping the United States will soon be exploring the Red Planet will likely get some bad news next week.

According to The Washington Post, President Obama's next budget will slash funding for Mars and Jupiter rovers by as much as 20 percent. The budget is expected to be unveiled on Monday.

The Post reported that the Obama Administration has briefed scientists on its proposed budget, which would slash funding for NASA's Mars program from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion annually. And further cuts are proposed over the following four years.

The cuts are likely … Read more

Spotify got a major endorsement from President Barack Obama today. Obama for America announced that the official 2012 campaign playlist is available on the popular music-streaming service.

The playlist has 28 tracks with an eclectic mix of artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, and, of course, Al Green. … Read more

Check out this video of a high-powered marshmallow cannon fired by President Obama and eighth grader Joey Hudy at the White House.

The second White House Science Fair yesterday gave 100 student winners of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions from across 45 states the opportunity to show off neat science projects to the president, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and several well-respected educators and leaders from the science and engineering community.

Perhaps the viral star of the expose is 14-year-old Hudy's "Extreme Marshmallow Cannon," a compressed air-powered weapon that can launch the tasty confections more than 170 feet. The president helped Hudy pump the cannon to 30psi, and then shot the marshmallow across the State Dining Room. … Read more

Ever since GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole claimed that Hollywood produced "nightmares of depravity" that coarsened American culture and made "deviancy" mainstream, movie studios and record labels have enjoyed a spectacularly uneasy relationship with the Republican Party.

Copyright has been the exception to that strife: since the late 1990s, Hollywood-backed proposals to expand copyright law--the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Induce Act, the Pro-IP Act--have all been embraced, or at least not opposed, by Republicans.

The controversy over the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, has finally splintered that alliance. … Read more

The saddest part of the rumor about celebrities getting paid thousands of dollars to send corporate-sponsored Tweets is that it's true.

It started with Internship.com paying Charlie Sheen $50,000 to solicit "Tiger Blood" interns, and today we're exploring the number of ways celebrities make money on the side.

We'll also talk about presidential campaigns embracing modern technology, starting with Romney's crew using Square hardware to grab donations and votes.

We'll also pick at the reasons why Obama and Google strategically ignored the most-voted question from yesterday's YouTube campaign q&a. Plenty of time to talk about late-night snacks, but what about the 4,500 users who have legitimate health concerns?… Read more

Voters chat with Obama on Google+ Hangouts, Apple surpasses Hewlett-Packard in PC shipments (if you count iPads, that is), and almost everyone would take your call while on the toilet.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

It's no secret that President Obama is a fan of technology.

Just this past month, he joined Instagram, visited Intel to discuss high-tech manufacturing jobs, made plans to have a Google+ video chat with voters, and his wife, Michelle Obama, joined Twitter.

Now, he is beginning to use Square mobile to process his re-election campaign donations, according to Politico.

Obama's headquarters staff, field organizers, and volunteers will all be given Square mobile credit card readers, which will let them receive campaign donations through their smartphones.

"The rollout will happen nationwide, and involve staff at all levels," … Read more

President Obama's first "virtual town hall" in 2009 took a legalize-pot detour. This afternoon, his first Google+ hangout with a handful of voters turned to a no less controversial topic: a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills.

In response to a question about whether the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act would levy "too much censorship on the Internet," the president stopped short of saying he opposes the legislation.

"I think that it's going to be possible for us" to find a workable approach, Obama said during the event broadcast on YouTube, … Read more

What would you do if you found a bag of white powder tucked neatly into the textbook you just bought on the Amazon Marketplace?

If you're smart, you'd take it to the police like Sophia Stockton, a junior at a university in Kansas who discovered something similar in the pages of a history book called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues."

While we're on the topic of narcotics, don't forget to tune into President Obama's Q+A on Google+ Hangout tonight at 5:30 p.m. ET, live from the West Wing of … Read more