President Barack Obama waves to the audience after taping an interview for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., Oct. 27. 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama tapes an interview for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., October 27, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Check out a couple shots from the taping courtesy of the Photo Office.
President Barack Obama tapes an interview for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., October 27, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
The Obama Administration and the Department of Transportation are awarding $2.4 billion for planning and construction of intercity passenger rail service. With these 54 projects in 23 states, we're moving full-speed ahead toward a nationwide high-speed rail system.
SBA Administrator Karen Mills writes about the early success of the Small Business Jobs Act.
Elizabeth Warren writes about the conversations she's having to make sure it gets done right.
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month with the President and Vice President at an event to end violence against women.
Obama votou pelo correio
WASHINGTON — O presidente dos Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, votou nesta terça-feira pelo correio nas eleições legislativas de meio de mandato, anunciou seu porta-voz, Robert Gibbs.
Obama, que está inscrito para votar em Chicago (norte de Illinois), "acaba de votar por correspondência na ala ocidental" da Casa Branca, disse Gibbs em entrevista coletiva.
Perguntado sobre o voto do presidente para senador e governador de Illinois, Gibbs respondeu: "Não perguntei a ele. Isto é uma decisão privada", mas depois revelou que Obama votou "nos candidatos democratas". "Penso que vão ganhar".
No dia 2 de novembro serão eleitos 435 membros da Câmara de Representantes e 37 dos 100 senadores, além de 37 governadores.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. Todos os direitos reservados
President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, October 11, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
On the one year anniversary of the "Photo of the Day," Pete Souza highlights ten photos that represent the past year.
President Barack Obama walks on the Colonnade with advisor David Axelrod and Personal Aide Reggie Love on his first day in office, January 21, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to the President, is answering your questions today in a live video chat on WhiteHouse.gov.
Join us for a talk with David Axelrod on Tuesday, October 26th at 1:00 p.m. EDT.
Here's how you can participate:
Tuesday, November 2 at 1:00 p.m. EDT: Talk with Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, and Jeff Bader, Senior Director for Asian Affairs, on the President's upcoming foreign travel.
And check out past Tuesday Talks:
Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, and Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, answer questions submitted as part of the MTV, BET, and CMT town hall event with President Obama.
Pete Souza, Chief Official White House Photographer and Director of the White House Photography Office, is answering your questions in a live video chat.
Learn about the California Women's Conference and watch First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden's remarks at the Conference.
The President tours American Cord & Webbing in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, explaining how the small business will benefit from the Small Business Jobs Act that was blocked for months by Republicans in Congress.
OSTP Director John P. Holdren spends the day with an estimated half-a-million visitors at the USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall.
President Barack Obama greets Mieraye Redmond, 7, on the sidewalk next door to the home where he met with area families in Seattle, Wash., Oct. 21, 2010. Mieraye gave the President a letter she had written to him at school and attached it to a paper bouquet of flowers that she also made and colored. Sen. Patty Murray is at right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
White House Photo, Chuck Kennedy, 10/21/10
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With the President holding a backyard discussion with Seattle area families, the White House releases a report on providing economic security for America's women.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack explains that the Administration's vision for rural America combines new technologies and new markets with better use of our natural resources-more home grown biofuels and renewable energy.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awards $78 million in contracts to build solar photovoltaic (PV) systems at VA facilities nationwide.
The White House Science Fair, the Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and then out West...
As part of the It Gets Better Project, President Obama shares his message of hope and support for LGBT youth who are struggling with being bullied.
Check out 10 ways the Administration's economic policies benefit American women,
| 10 Notable Buildings People Hated Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:01 AM PDT All buildings were once new. And all building designs were once new. But some designs, and the buildings that resulted from them, were so shocking to the public that it took grit to get them built, and time for them to be accepted. Here are ten such buildings, in no order… 10 The Washington Monument
The Washington Monument was initially planned shortly after George Washington died in 1799. But plans were interrupted by the War of 1812 and lack of funding. In 1833 the Washington National Monument Society was formed to raise money to build the memorial. The winning design was submitted by Robert Mills, an architect from Charleston, South Carolina. For cost reasons, only the obelisk from his proposed Greco-Roman temple-like edifice was approved. It drew immediate criticism. "A stalk of asparagus" some called it. "The big furnace chimney on the Potomac Flats", said the New York Tribune. Construction began, but was halted by the Civil War. The half-finished monument stood like a stump for years afterwards. Mark Twain derided the "memorial chimney", with livestock "dozing in the holy calm of its protecting shadow." Work resumed in 1877 and the monument was finally dedicated by President Chester A. Arthur on February 21, 1885, to broad public acclaim. But some still dissented. A reviewer in the American Architect and Building News said, "It is to be regretted that ages are likely to elapse before the monument will fall down." 9 The Eiffel Tower
The French government planned to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution with a symbol of France's industrial prowess. The plan was to build the highest tower in the world. Of all the plans submitted, the judges unanimously chose Gustav Eiffel's graceful lattice of girders, anchored by four piers. When the plan, along with its proposed site in the residential neighborhood of Champ de Mars was made public, the protest was immediate. Eminent artists, including Guy de Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas, signed an angry letter to the minister of public works. "We protest with all our strength the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is without doubt the dishonour of Paris. Everyone feels it, everyone says it, everyone is profoundly saddened by it." As the tower progress, nervous neighbors feared that it would attract lightning, or topple onto their homes, and sued to stop construction. The city would take no responsibility, so Eiffel himself insured the neighbors, and work resumed. Parisians watched in awe & horror as it went up, calling it an "elephant", a "giraffe", a "hulking metal beast crouched on all fours". After it finally opened, it became a huge hit, even with the protesting artists. All except de Maupassant. He hated it so much that he often ate lunch in the tower's second floor restaurant, which was the only point in the city where he couldn't see "this tall skinny pyramid of iron ladders, this giant and disgraceful skeleton." 8 The Flatiron Building NYC
The Fuller Building, immediately nicknamed the Flatiron Building because of its narrow, triangular shape, was, at 23 stories, the highest building in New York north of City Hall when it was built in 1902. Designed by architect Daniel Hudson Burnham and constructed by contractor George B. Fuller, it incorporated many then-new elements of skyscrapers, such as a load supporting steel skeleton, and a masonry veneer. The Madison Square neighborhood in which it was erected was quite stylish at the time, and the imposing building drew ire from the public. An architectural journalist said that the building "is at present quite the most notorious thing in New York, and attracts more attention than all the other buildings now going up put together. Although fears that strong winds would push the building over proved unfounded, the shape of the building created strong downdrafts. The New York Herald reported how "women were inconveniently blown about and paper money lost from their pockets." The gusts also scandalously revealed the women's ankles. Police chased away male rubberneckers by shouting "Twenty-three skiddoo!", meaning "leave Twenty-third street." One blast of wind blew a messenger boy into Fifth Avenue, where he was killed by a passing automobile. Windstorms around the building broke windows. Yet despite all this, the building became a popular tourist attraction, and is now revered as New York's oldest skyscraper. 7 Philip Johnson's Glass House New Canaan, CT
In 1946, architect Philip Johnson bought land in New Canaan, Connecticut, and over the next three years built a minimalist, flat-roofed house made of huge sheets of glass. The neighbors were angry because the modernist design sharply clashed with the clapboard colonial houses the area was known for. Some newspapers published mocking verse: "It takes a heap of livin' in a place to make it home. / And I wish those guys like Johnson would take their plans and roam." Actually, the house was not visible from the road. In one of the first American usages of feng shui, he situated the house on a rocky shelf halfway down a hill. "The good spirits will be caught by the hill that's behind the house; the evil spirits will be unable to climb the hill below the house," Johnson explained. "My house has beautiful wallpaper," he said, referring to the New England countryside rolling away from every viewpoint. But the house attracted unwanted attention. Birds flew crashed into it. Locals threw rocks at it, prompting Johnson to retaliate in kind, landing him in some trouble. As the house was being built, crowds of people came to sightsee, causing traffic problems in the small town, and requiring a police presence. Some residents called it "the desecration of the New Canaan countryside." Johnson finally made peace with New Canaan by opening his home for a tour once a year. The proceeds went to benefit the community nursery school. 6 Frank O. Gehry's House Santa Monica, CA
In 1978, architect Frank O. Gehry pondered the house that his wife had found for them to live in. It was a simple two-story pink bungalow in a quiet neighborhood in Santa Monica, California. "It was just a dumb little house with charm, and I became interested in trying to make it more important. I became fascinated with creating a shell around it." Create a shell he did. He boxed in the house with corrugated sheets of metal, lengths of chain-link fencing, and unfinished plywood, all cut into odd angular shapes. The neighbors predictably complained. One said that it was a dirty thing to do in one's front yard. "If he were a poet, he'd be writing smutty jingles." But Gehry has said that he merely used the familiar materials of his own middle-class childhood in an original way, to create house that is also a work of art. Gehry continued to add to it, but the neighbors hated its unfinished appearance. One neighbor even fired a shot at it. But the house won national architectural awards, and as the years rolled on its fame won it a measure of local acceptance. 5 Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau Germany
This familiar castle, which looks like it came out of a fairy tale, cause considerable uproar when it was first built. "What, is the king mad?" was one typical reaction. In the Middle Ages, castles were for nobility and their family and retainers. But King Ludwig II of Bavaria built Neuschwasntein in 1869 only for himself. He picked a remote site 6,000 feet up in the Alps, atop the ruins of an older castle, so that he wouldn't be troubled by his government's ministers visiting to discuss matters of state. The storybook design was inspired by his admiration for–and friendship with–Richard Wagner and his grand operas. In fact, the Singer's Hall was modeled directly after a scene in Parsifal. Many other idiosyncratic–and expensive–quirks of Ludwig's personality were expressed in the interior design. He was so busy with the construction of the castle that he barely paid attention to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, not even attending the victory celebrations. After he moved in, he demanded more and more public money for additions and more castles, even hatching a plan to rob the Rothschild Bank of Frankfurt at one point. As creditors dunned him for his bills, and the commoners protested his spendthrift ways, he withdrew to Neuschwanstein, never appearing in public again. Before he could be declared legally insane and the throne be given to a regent, Ludwig was found dead in a small lake, in 1886. Contrary to his wishes, Neuschwanstein was not demolished upon his death, and is today Germany's most popular castle. 4 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, New York
"A toilet bowl?" "A hangar for flying saucers?" These were some of the reactions to Frank Lloyd Wright's design for the museum housing the art collection of Solomon Guggenheim. It was Wright's first museum, and his first major building in New York City, which he disliked as "a forest of skyscrapers". Wright was influenced by Guggenheim's collection of abstract, modernist Wasilly Kandinsky paintings. The design featured a spiral topped with a dome. This prompted some critics to call it "an inverted potty" to "a gigantic snail shell". And indeed Wright was inspired by the spirals of the chambered nautilus. Construction was due to begin in 1946 but was delayed by squabbles with locals and artists until 1956. Guggenheim had died in 1949, but Wright was on hand to oversee the construction. The New York press continued to deride the building: a marshmallow, a corkscrew, an upside down washing machine. One of the construction workers called it "screwy. The whole joint goes round and round." "It is a freak that astonishes passersby. It bears no relationship to its neighbors" wrote journalist Brendan Gill. Another writer called it "Wright's joke on New York." Yet when the Guggenheim museum opened to the public in October 1959, several months after Wright's death, the giftshop sold far more cards picturing the museum than any of the artworks therein. It has since become one of the most popular museums in New York. 3 Pompidou Center Paris
Years ago, when I was in Paris on a student trip, I visited the Pompidou Cultural Center. I looked at its facade, all multicolored piping, and thought, "this thing is a giant hemorrhoid." I was not alone. "An architectural King Kong." "The back of a refrigerator, enormously enlarged." were some other reactions. An obscure architectural duo, Englishman Richard Rogers and Italian Renzo Piano, won a competition in 1971 to design the cultural center. This by itself was enough to incense the French, having two unknown foreigners be charged with building the next major Parisian landmark. At a public hearing one woman was so outraged she had to be removed by police. Things got more exciting when the plan was made public. It would be made of glass and steel, but all of its piping, ductwork, elevators, and even wiring would be exposed on the exterior. The seven-story high-tech edifice was to be situated in a medieval neighborhood, full of crooked, gabled, low-rise buildings, a mere block away from the oldest surviving house in Paris, built in 1407. Rogers and Piano worked under a deadline of 1975 for completion. They were hampered by the fact that they hadn't worked out the details of the concrete substructure, and had to do so as they went along. Then in 1974 Georges Pompidou died, and his conservative successor Valery Giscard d'Estaing had to be strongly persuaded to let work continue on the project of his former political rival. As the structure took shape, complaints poured in. Residents filed "nuisance allegations" against the design jury. Artists filed lawsuits. The old petition against the Eiffel Tower was recycled by contemporary artists, in opposition to "this useless monster." At its opening in 1977, novelist Anthony Burgess called it "a $200 million erector set". But it drew huge crowds to its public spaces, and won critical praise in the art press. It drew one more criticism during renovation in the late 90s: from original designer Richard Rogers. He disliked the fact that the interior was becoming more enclosed, and that the public now had to buy tickets to ride the exterior escalators. 2 Walker Community Library Minneapolis, MN
Early in the 20th century, industrial tycoon Andrew Carnegie bequeathed more than a thousand public library buildings to communities all across America. In a small southern town I once lived in, the little Greek marble building still survived as a flower shop. The much larger Carnegie library in Minneapolis served until the late 1970s, when it was obvious that it was too small for the population, and needed expensive physical and electronic upgrades. Plus, in the energy-conscious Seventies, it was hard to keep heated in winter. So when architect David Bennett won the job of designing a new public library, he decided to make most of it underground. The building would extend several stories below the surface, with a low, cubist plaza occupying the surface of the lot. Although he designed in extra-high ceilings and even a sunken courtyard garden, people complained that the interior was claustrophobic. The librarians complained about how stuffy and bunker-like it was, and joked about giving flashlights to the patrons. One critic called it "more like a mine shaft than a civic building." It didn't help matters that it leaked, the heating was inadequate, the above-ground plaza became a hangout for vagrants and sk8tr punks, and passersby often didn't even know the library was there. Another architect, Francis Bulbulian, was hired in 1995 to fix it. He modified the windows and the courtyard so that more sunlight would get in, installed a multi-story bookdrop made from two children's spiral slides, and erected seven-foot-high steel letters on the plaza: L-I-B-R-A-R-Y. After the newly renovated facility was re-opened, the complaints abated, and the community finally seemed to embrace it. 1 McDonald's worldwide
"Will somebody please tell me what's the matter with McDonald's?" asked humorist P. J. O'Rourke back in the 80s. "It's not like the Europeans don't line up by the millions to eat there. Maybe McDonald's food isn't the best thing for you, but roasted goose liver smooshed up with truffles isn't either. And has anyone ever smoked a joint and had a "pate' de foie gras" attack?" The familiar golden arches are a target for snobs and anti-Americans worldwide. "We don't want one of these restaurants on every street corner in France," asserted one French vandal. Whenever the G-20 economic summit comes to town, anti-globalist rioters are right there, with McDonalds at the top of their list of businesses to trash. Yet McDonalds began as a family restaurant founded by two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California. Their innovative restaurant model called for a kitchen open to view, exceptional cleaniless, quick service, and cheap meals. The brothers soon felt the urge to create a chain of the restaurants, and hired architect Stanley Meston to create a distinctive design for the buildings. The first McDonalds with the signature Golden Arches arcing over the whole building opened in Phoenix, Arizona in 1953. The rest of the corporate story, of how salesman Ray Kroc took the franchise to international ubiquity, is familiar or readily available elsewhere. But as the restaurants spread, protests against the tackiness of the buildings did, too. Kroc hired architect Donald Miller to tone down the design. He lowered the arches, eventually reducing them to a logo on the sign. As time went on and the company heeded protests, restaurants were designed to blend in with the local architecture–adobe blocks in the West, for instance. So, although progressives howl against McDonalds as loudly as ever, the buildings themselves are no longer an issue, save for the arches on the sign. Bonus St. Paul's Cathedral Christopher Wren, King William III
One from the Too Good To Check File. When King William III (some say King Charles II, or Queen Anne) was brought to view the newly completed St. Paul's Cathedral, he is supposed to have exclaimed to architect Christopher Wren that it was "awful, pompous, and artificial". The words have shifted meaning over the centuries, and in modern English we would say something like "awe-inspiring, magnificent, and technically accomplished." Yet this linguistic gem is probably apocryphal, possibly originating as a funny in a 1960s lecture by Harvard philosopher John Rawls. Too bad! |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
This morning the President met with his national security team on Afghanistan, a photo from the Situation Room below:
President Barack Obama meets with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Situation Room of the White House, October 20, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Barack Obama looks over to Javier Garcia of Brownsville, Texas, after Garcia introduced him at the signing ceremony for the Executive Order on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans in the East Room of the White House, October 19, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)
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great OBAMA!Gracias mi Señor! Education=Opportunity!I love you!!!!-edjane maps :)
President Barack Obama talks with Javier Garcia of Brownsville, Tex., in the Green Room of the White House before the two of them entered the East Room for the signing ceremony of the Executive Order for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans Oct. 19, 2010. Javier introduced the President at the event. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
great OBAMA!Gracias mi Señor! Education=Opportunity!-edjane maps :)
Le bal masqué raconté par un invité.
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Le buffet était organisé par Potel et Chabot.
En savoir plus sur notre partenaire gastronomique :
Crédit photo : Serge Labrunie
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Carine Roitfeld et Jean Paul Gaultier
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Gisele Bünchen
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Lenny Kravitz
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Pour revivre la soirée en photos :
Le bal masqué Vogue en 100 images
Bal Vogue : les plus beaux masques
Les créateurs au bal Vogue
Le bal masqué Vogue en twitpics
Hoy, en una ceremonia en el Salón Este, el Presidente Obama promulgará un decreto ejecutivo para renovar y mejorar el Programa de la Casa Blanca para la Excelencia Educativa de los Hispanos, de modo que se atiendan mejor las necesidades de las comunidades en todo el país al fomentar su participación en el proceso de mejorar la educación de los estudiantes latinos. Uno de cada cinco estudiantes en nuestras escuelas es Latino.
El nuevo decreto ejecutivo se basa en los comentarios recopilados por el programa en más de 100 conversaciones comunitarias en todo el país con expertos en educación, líderes comunitarios de más de 30 estados, el Distrito de Columbia y Puerto Rico, y los comentarios de más de 10,000 estadounidenses, sobre maneras de llegar a soluciones reales para los desafíos que enfrenta la comunidad hispana con respecto a la educación.
La ceremonia tendrá lugar después de una Cumbre y Llamada la Acción sobre la Educación en el País (National Education Summit and Call to Action) organizada por el Departamento de Educación que se inició el lunes y que ha congregado a expertos en educación y líderes de la comunidad hispana de todo el país sobre asuntos que van desde la enseñanza en la primera infancia hasta la educación superior.
Se han organizado eventos alrededor del país para ver la transmisión del evento. Vealo a la 1:30 PM ET en http://www.whitehouse.gov/live y luego pulsando en el enlace del evento a la derecha.
Luis Miranda es Director de Medios Hispanos de la Casa Blanca.President Obama signs an Executive Order to renew and enhance the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
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-Excellent!great OBAMA!Gracias mi Señor! Education=Opportunity!-
-wow,great!-
edjane maps :)
Join us for two talks: a conversation with Austan Goolsbee on the economy, followed by a dialogue with co-chairs and members of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
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The Department of Defense (DoD) hosts an Energy Security Forum as part of National Energy Awareness Month to discuss how the Department of Defense can turn energy use from a strategic and operational challenge to a key strength for the warfighter.
Tracy's son Sami was diagnosed with a medical condition when he was very young but, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children based on a pre-existing condition. Hear Tracy tell her story and find out how the Affordable Care Act is helping people in your state.
In the wake of the historic rescue of miners in Chile, Maureen Tracey-Mooney with the Office of the Vice President, discusses efforts to tackle an even more widespread danger to miners.
We posted the collection from early September before, but the Photo Office has now released their full collection of behind-the-scenes shots from last month. Have a look below, or view it full size over at Flickr.
G1 faz balanço da cobertura do resgate na mina San José, no Chile; veja o vídeo.
-bom!-
edjane maps :)
f-G1
The Ohio State University, Main Oval
Columbus, Ohio
President Barack Obama addresses a rally at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, Oct. 15, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Congratulations!!! You have been awarded a “Flickr United” Medal!
