Obama, inventors check out electric giraffe

Source: AP-EXCITE

By STACY A. ANDERSON

WASHINGTON (AP) — If President Barack Obama is mingling with inventors, sooner or later there has to be a robot. On Wednesday, it was Russell, the 17-foot electric giraffe towering in the South Lawn of the White House, a symbol of the quirky and clever creations Obama wanted to showcase on a day devoted to innovation.

"New tools and technologies are making the building of things easier than ever," Obama told entrepreneurs and students who gathered at the White House at its first Maker Faire. "There is a democratization of manufacturing that is potentially available because of technology."

As part of a weekslong emphasis on the economy, Obama was promoting the use of new tools and techniques to start up new businesses, to boost manufacturing and to strengthen science and math education.

"We've got to make sure that more Americans have the skills and opportunities to land a job in a growing industry or to create entire new industries," he said. "That's why I'm declaring today a national day of making."

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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140618/us-obama-5a57637d66.html

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President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, following a meeting with students, entrepreneurs and inventors, during the first ever White House "Maker Faire". Obama is highlighting new tools and techniques that promote fledgling businesses create and market their products in an effort to focus attention on US manufacturing need for science and math education. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)