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Marylaine Block’s Picks of the Week

By Marylaine Block | On The Same Page | August 29, 2008 A Sweetwater County library, Wyoming, blog mentions the FAS OTA Archive.

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Electromagnetic Fields

By Curtis Petty | Active Rain | October 13, 2008 A real estate blog entry discusses “prudent avoidance” of  electric and magnetic fields and credits an  OTA report, Biological Effects of Power...

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OTA on Financial Services Industry

A 1990 OTA report, Electronic Bulls and Bears: U.S. Securities Markets and Information Technology,  notes that “Computer-assisted trading strategies can cause short-term price volatility, or spread...

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Congress Needs Tools of the Future to Save Past Gains

By Paul Light | Roll Call | November 20, 2008 An article about the threat to some of our country’s greatest achievements by a recent lack of investment in the infrastructure of government.    It makes...

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The Future of Foresight under Obama

By Eric Meade | The Extreme Future | November 2008 A blog entry predicts that the new administration will have a new approach to the future and will revive the tradition of  government foresight.  It...

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Relics of Government Reforms Past

John Wonderlich | Sunlight Foundation Blog | November 11, 2008 A blog post says that “with so many options for coordinating or institutionalizing advice, recommendations, and reform, the incoming Obama...

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Alert! Call on your Reps and Senators to Restore the Office of Technology...

Nella Selim | DailyKos | December 2, 2008 A blog entry about restoring OTA says that, “…now is the crucial time for Congress to restore this agency and give Congress an independent view of science and...

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Venture Fund Member Profile – Arata Prabhakar

Funding Post According to this website, “Arati Prabhakar joined U.S. Venture Partners in 2001 after 15 years of working with world-class engineers and scientists across many fields to brew new...

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Vilification of Bovine Growth Hormone is Udderly Unwarranted

Henry I. Miller | Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News | December 1, 2008 This column discusses the beneficial role of recombinant bovine somatotropin, or bovine growth hormone, in the U. S....

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Health Reform from Transition Central

A Health Reformer’s Online Diary | Ken Terry | November 17, 2008 A blog post suggests that  the U.S. healthcare system can improved by organizing providers,  improving quality,  reforming...

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AAAS To Hold Session About Reinstating OTA

Science advice for Congress: Do we need a new paradigm? Rush Holt, (D-NJ), U.S. House of Representatives: “Reinstating the Office of Technology Assessment: A View from Congress” Christopher Hill,...

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How to fix global warming and gain energy security

Peter Montague | Rachel’s Democracy and Health News | December 18, 2008 A newsletter article discusses a recent Stanford study by Mark Z. Jacobson comparing ten ways to generate electricity and two...

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The Bleeding Edge: Tech Predictions for 2009

David P. McClure | The CPA Technology Advisor | January 2009 A recent magazine column scores technology predictions for 2008 and makes new predictions for 2009.  One of the predictions is that a...

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Document of the Day: The Technology Assessment Act of 1972, December 19, 1972

Today’s document of the day summarizes the key concepts, background and rationale underlying the creation of the Office of Technology Assessment. The report, by  Walter H. Hahn and Rosemary Chalk of...

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Representative Rush Holt’s Statement at AAAS

Representative Rush Holt prepared the  statement below for the session, “Science Advice for Congress: Do we need a new paradigm?” at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement...

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U.S. Science Remains Far From Its Rightful Place

Laura Sanders | Science News | March 14, 2009 In a column (interview) about the state of U. S. science, Rush Holt (D-NJ) says he is troubled that many people have a bad attitude about science.  He...

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Fix Congress’s SciTech Lobotomy

Steve Mirsky |Scientific American: 60-Second Science |February 19, 2009 A podcast about science advice to Congress from a session at the AAAS annual meeting says, “Time to bring back the Office of...

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The Future of Foresight under Obama

Eric Meade | The Extreme Future | February 2009 A blog entry says that the new administration marks a change in our society’s views of the future and a chance to renew support of programs that that...

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Restart the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment

Gerald L. Epstein | Science Progress | March 31, 2009 An article gives a brief history of OTA and argues that the Congress needs technical support much more today than when OTA was orginally created....

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Rush Holt pushes to reopen OTA

ScienceCheerleader | March29, 2009 The Science Cheerleader recently met with Rep. Holt and Congressional Fellow Will O’Neal to talk about reopening OTA. She discusses their meeting in her blog post....

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The Push for Restarting the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment

Chris Mooney | Discover Blogs/The Intersection | March 31, 2009 A blog entry points to several articles that are calling for OTA to be restarted, and says that OTA should be brought back because...

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Reversing the Congressional Science Lobotomy

Rush Holt | Wired Science | April 29, 2009 In an op-ed article,  Rep. Holt makes the case that it is time for Congress to restore an important science resource to its rightful place – referring, of...

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Holt Testifies at Appropriations Hearing

Emily Yehle | Roll Call | May 6, 2009 Rep. Rush Holt testified at the House Legislative Branch Appropriations hearing Tuesday, asking the subcommittee to reinstate OTA in the 2010 budget. “It was part...

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Tara O’Toole Nominated for Department of Homeland Security

The White House | May 6, 2009 President Obama announced his intent to nominate Tara O’Toole as Under Secretary for Science & Technology, Department of Homeland Security, according to a White House...

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Rosina Bierbaum appointed to PCAST

The White House |  April 27, 2009 President Obama announced the members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the National Academy of Sciences, according to a...

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Office of Technology Assessment

I’m starting a blog | May 19, 2009 A blog entry about starting new blogs mentions OTA and says, “I’m starting a blog about dead federal agencies.”

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Seismologists monitor North Korea’s nuclear blasts

Dan Vergano | USA Today | May 29, 2009 A column about measuring the size of underground nuclear blasts by their seismic waves refers to a 1988 OTA report, “Seismic Verification of Nuclear Testing...

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Ash Carter Assumes DoD Post

Department of Defense | April 27, 2009 According to a Department of Defense press release,  Dr. Ashton Carter was sworn in as Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics  on April 27,...

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OTA Forum on Technology and Governance in the 1990′s

On January 27, 1993 – in OTA’s 20th year – the Technology Assessment Board hosted a forum for the Congress on upcoming socio-technical issues. The original program is available here. The video from...

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Memories of McNamara

The Honorable Robert M. McNamara reflected upon the Cuban Missile Crisis, among other topics, at a forum for the 20th anniversary of OTA.  He concluded that we should seek to return to a non-nuclear...

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Andrew Wyckoff appointed to head OECD Directorate

American Association for the Advancement of Science | July 22, 2009 According to a AAAS Policy Alert, Andrew Wyckoff has been appointed as director of the Science, Technology and Industry Directorate...

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Sunil Paul Releases Gigaton Throwdown Report

Joel Makower | two steps forward | July 23, 2009 This blog post highlights former OTA analyst Sunil Paul’s recent initiative, Gigaton Throwdown , which asked, “What would it take to aggressively scale...

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Memories of Senator Kennedy

In his long career of public service, Senator Edward  Kennedy championed good governance, as demonstrated by his enduring support for the Office of Technology Assessment. Speaking on March 2, 1972 in...

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Science Cheerleader Cheers for OTA

Kate Dailey | Newsweek: The Human Condition | September 3, 2009 This blog entry introduces Darlene Cavalier, the Science Cheerleader, who advocates “ensuring that adults grasp how science influences...

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Punditry Contestant Recommends OTA

Marisa Katz | Washington Post | October 30, 2009 The Washington Post is sponsoring “America’s Next Great Pundit Contest.” The Post received 4,800 entries from people who hoped to write better...

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Holt Pushes to Re-Fund OTA

Jordy Yager | The Hill | February 24, 2010 Rush Holt (D- N.J.) testified at a hearing of the House Legislative Branch Subcommittee on Appropriations according to this blog post.   Holt pushed to...

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OTA Reboot

Aliya Sternstein | nextgov/Tech Insider | February 24, 2010 A blog post discusses a push by scientists, engineers and  Rush Holt (D-NJ), to “resuscitate” OTA.  Francesca Grifo from the Union of...

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Bring Sound Advice to Congress

Matthew Madia | OMB Watch | February 24, 2010 “Many moons ago, Congress relied on facts, science, and other evidence to guide its thinking and make decisions,” according to this blog.  One source that...

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Managing Radioactive Waste

New in the OTA Archive is the report, Managing Commercial High-Level Radioactive Waste Summary (April, 1982).  This summary was not included in the OTA Legacy CD that was released when OTA closed....

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Congress Needs the OTA

Science Debate.org | April 10, 2010 According to a blog post, “Congressional staffers need access to timely and top quality science advice on the issues before their Members.” To achieve this, U.S....

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How Scientific is Modern Medicine?

Dana Ullman | Huffington Post | April 20, 2010 Scientific justification for medical treatments  is an ideal, or perhaps a marketing tool,  not a reality, according to this blog: Doctors like to point...

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Coping with Large Oil Spills

Fabius Maximus | May 17, 2010 This blog post,  About the long term effect of giant oil spills, says that past large oil spill have had few long-term effects. It provides a bit of  history about  oil...

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Leschine Testifies on Oil Spill

Thomas Leschine | June 9, 2010 Prof. Leschine recently spoke about the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at a hearing of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy and...

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Holt’s New Proposal to Restart OTA

James Dupree | Washington Insider | July 21, 2011 Washington Insider discussed the amendments to the 2012 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill  including one submitted by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)  to...

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Gingrich Said To Be Pro-Science but Anti-Expertise

Nicholas Thompson|  New Yorker Culture Desk | January 6, 2012 In his  blog, “Republicans vs. Science: Ranking the Candidates,” Thompson evaluates the science and technology  policies of the Republican...

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Science Questions for Candidates

Bora Zivkovic | Scientific American/Observations | May 23, 2012 The Scientific American recently asked its readers what questions they would like U. S. presidential candidates to answer, according to...

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Opportunities for Congress to Increase Transparency

Daniel Schuman | Sunlight Foundation Blog | May 24, 2012 The Sunlight Foundation, in this blog post,  calls on the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Committee to take measures to improve...

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Congress Lacks Technical Knowledge

Luke Rosiak | The Cutting Edge | June 6, 1012 “High turnover and lack of experience in congressional offices are leaving staffs increasingly without policy and institutional knowledge, a Washington...

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Non-Partisan Advice Needed By Congress

Jathan Sadowski| the Atlantic |October 26, 2012 According to Sadowski’s technology post, The Much-Needed and Sane Congressional Office That Gingrich Killed Off and We Need Back,  OTA was started...

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Carl Sagan Bemoans Loss of OTA

Rajiv Narayan|Upworthy Narayan of Upworthy found a Charlie Rose interview  with Carl Sagan from 1966 that  ”…gave me the goosebumps,” he said.  In the interview Carl Sagan asks “Who is making all the...

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