There aren't a whole lot of good things happening these days so it is nice to report a couple.

Part 1. First I know you know that yesterday President Obama said some good things about scientific integrity, but have you read the whole thing? Check this out:

The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions. Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions. If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the Federal Government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public. To the extent permitted by law, there should be transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking. The selection of scientists and technology professionals for positions in the executive branch should be based on their scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, experience, and integrity.

YES!!!!

Part 2. The Association for Computing Machinery's 2008 A.M. Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize of computer science. has been awarded to Barbara Liskov of MIT. It is disturbing and yet in some ways appropriate that she was the Liskov was the first U.S. woman to receive a computer science Ph.D (it was from Stanford).

Part 3. Tomorrow starts National Engineers Week Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering. It begins at noon (EDT) with a panel discussion on " What does it mean to be a professional woman in the21st Century?" from North America and goes on to include folks from Brazil, Mexico India, China and South Africa. For those of you who don't want to stay up all night, some of the folks are keeping their presentations up so you can hear and view them later.

Part 4. Our snow has been melting, of course it is going to snow again tonight but still the meting is a good thing.