WordCamp San Francisco is the official annual WordPress conference, gathering the community every year since 2006. This is the time when Matt Mullenweg addresses the community in his annual State of the Word presentation – a recap of  the year in WordPress and giving us a glimpse into its future.

This year the speaker lineup is stellar. There will be talks by three of the lead WordPress developers: Andrew Nacin, Helen Hou-Sandí, and Mark Jaquith. We’re also looking forward to speakers like Jenny Lawson, also known as The Bloggess, and Chris Lema. If you’re at all interested in the web, you will appreciate the appearance of Jeff Veen – one of the creators of Google Analytics and co-founder of Typekit.

Even though San Francisco is far far away for most of you, you can still be part of the fun and watch all presentations in real-time via livestream:

Get a livestream ticket and watch all talks from WordCamp San Francisco live

If you hurry, you can get one of the special livestream tickets, including a WordCamp San Francisco 2104 t-shirt. You can find all the technical details and start times at the WordCamp San Francisco website.

WordPress News

Tomorrow marks the start of the observance of Eid El Adha, celebrated by the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. As part of this holiday, nearly 2.5 million Muslims will participate in the world’s largest pilgrimage to perform the ritual of Hajj. This year, millions more from around the world will be able to experience the ritual via the live stream from Mecca, Saudi Arabia on the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information's YouTube channel.

The Hajj represents one of the five pillars of Islam; it requires all Muslims around the world who are able-bodied and can afford it to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime. The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and last month of the Islamic calendar.

This live stream was made possible by our cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information, which also broadcast Islamic prayers live from the Grand Mosque in Mecca during this year’s Ramadan.

Watch on www.youtube.com/makkahlive.

Posted by Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, Head of Emerging Arabia, Google

The Official Google Blog

From time to time we invite guests to the blog to talk about a topic of interest. We’re thrilled to have Rob Reiner, actor and director, join us today. -- Ed.

I want to invite you to come to YouTube on Saturday, March 3, to watch a reading of a powerful new play, 8, about marriage equality and the Proposition 8 trial.

The play, written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk), is an account of the case filed by the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. Framed around the trial's historic closing arguments in June 2010, 8 provides an intimate look at what unfolded when the issue of same-sex marriage was put on trial in the U.S.

At the time of the trial, the Supreme Court ruled against allowing cameras in the courtroom, preventing anyone outside the court from witnessing the proceedings. Today, we’re able to give people around the world a look at what happened behind closed doors via the live stream of this reading of 8 on AFER’s YouTube channel.

I hope you'll join me, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Jamie Lee Curtis and others who will be performing in the West Coast premiere this Saturday evening at 7:45pm PT (pre-show begins at 7:30pm PT). Tune in to youtube.com/americanequalrights to watch the event live streamed from the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif.

Posted by Rob Reiner, director of 8 and founding board member of AFER

The Official Google Blog

Question by oldirtybabb1985: What is an affordable watch brand or model that uses a swiss automatic movement?
I am looking for an affordable model with a swiss automatic movement. I define affordable (in regard to my current income) as below $ 300. I currently purchased an Invicta 8296 with the Japanese movement which has sparked my interest in mechanical watches and perhaps watch collecting (which is probably not the most affordable hobby ;).

Best answer:

Answer by b3nry
The Bernhardt Binnacle uses an ETA automatic movement and is a well built watch. The watch does not have Swiss made on the dial though, but the movement is Swiss.

http://www.bernhardtwatch.com/binnacle.html

I don't think you will find many watches for $ 300 with a Swiss movement; $ 700 would definitely open up your options. If you are willing to spend slightly more, the following brands have Swiss movements/are Swiss; Ocean 7, Stowa, Limes and Zeno.

Japanese automatics are very good, you should not overlook them. A Seiko automatic diver is a must in any automatic collection as they are probably the best value watches you can get for the money and have a "bullet proof" movement.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Nearly 2.5 million Muslims will officially begin the annual Islamic ritual of the Hajj on November 5, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Hajj represents one of the five pillars of Islam; it requires all Muslims around the world who are able-bodied and can afford it to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime.

The Hajj is an ancient ritual, but now, through the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information's YouTube channel, millions of people from around the world will be able to experience and comment on the event by tuning in via video.

Earlier this year, we worked with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to broadcast Islamic prayers live during Ramadan from the Holy Mosque in Mecca for the first time. In continued cooperation with the Ministry, we’re now able to live stream the Hajj on YouTube for the first time.

The stream will be live on Saturday, November 5 at http://www.youtube.com/hajjlive.

Posted by Najeeb Jarrar, product marketing manager, Middle East and North Africa, & Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, regional manager, emerging Arabia

(Cross-posted on the YouTube blog)

The Official Google Blog

The young scientists of the world have proven themselves truly impressive people—inventing technologies to improve the accuracy of prosthetic devices, developing video-audio memory aids for dementia patients and improving switch designs to prevent train derailments. These are just three of the top 15 projects competing for the grand prize in the inaugural Google Science Fair final tonight, which we’ll be live streaming at 7pm PDT at youtube.com/googlesciencefair.

Back in January, we launched the first Google Science Fair in partnership with CERN, LEGO, National Geographic and Scientific American. We asked young people from ages 13-18 all over the world to submit projects online that were creative, inspiring and groundbreaking. Ten thousand students from 91 countries submitted 7,500 projects, from which our international team of judges selected the top 15 finalists.

Today, those finalists are at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. where they’ll present their projects to a panel of science luminaries, inventors and Nobel laureates. The winners will receive amazing prizes including $ 100,000 in scholarships, internships at Google or our partners and a National Geographic Expedition to the Galápagos Islands.

So pull up a chair in your home laboratory and tune in to a live stream of the first Google Science Fair to find out which budding young Einstein will take home the grand prize. The event begins tonight, Monday July 11, at 7pm PDT—watch at youtube.com/googlesciencefair.

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Google Education Team

The Official Google Blog

(Cross-posted on the YouTube and Lat Long blogs)

We’re always fascinated by the unique wonders of space and the world—what can we say, it’s the geek in us! Naturally, when we learned that part of the world will be treated to a rare 100-minute long total lunar eclipse starting at 11:20am PDT today, we were both excited and disappointed that this rare occasion wouldn’t be visible from our Mountain View campus like last year’s eclipse. We suspect we aren’t alone, so you’ll be glad to know that we’ve worked with Slooh Space Camera to let you experience the spectacle wherever you are in the world, in real time.

Slooh will host a live mission interface using Google App Engine that lets anyone not lucky enough to live in certain areas (South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) take part in this rare astronomical event. It’s equipped with audio narrations from real-life astronomers so you can hear a firsthand, expert account of the event. You can also watch the live stream on the Google YouTube Channel or from the Sky layer in Google Earth (download this kml), while exploring the fascinating world that exists in our galaxy. Finally, those of you on the go can download the Slooh Space Camera Android app to view the images right on your phone.

If you're fortunate enough to be able to view this event in the sky, we hope you'll get the chance to step outside and indulge in the spectacle. For everyone else, we hope our moon madness helps brighten your day.

Update 11:23 PDT: Starting now, if you visit the Google homepage you’ll see a special interactive doodle, which will update throughout the day to show the latest state of the moon. Lunar imagery provided by Slooh.

Posted by Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer and Technical Lead in Special Projects

The Official Google Blog