Baruck Obama

Baruck Obama

Outline

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, He is the 44th and current president of the USA. He was a civil-rights lawyer and teacher and pursued a political career later. He won election in the Illinois State Senate in 1996, attending from 1997 to 2004. He was elected to the U.S. presidency in 2008, and won election in 2012 against Mitt Romney, Republican competitor. President Obama carries on perform policy changes in response to the health care and economic crisis problems.

Early Life

 

Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ann Dunham, His mother, grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where her father worked on oil rigs during the Great Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's father, Stanley, recruited in the service and trooped across Europe in Patton's army. Dunham's mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, landed in Hawaii.

Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr. grew up herding goats in Africa, eventually earning a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Obama Sr. met fellow student Ann Dunham, and they married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later.

Obama did not have a relationship with his father as a child. When his son was still an infant, Obama Sr. relocated to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University, pursuing a Ph.D. Barack's parents officially separated several months later and ultimately divorced in March 1964, when their son was 2. In 1965, Obama Sr. returned to Kenya.

In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, an East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Barack's half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son's safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them.

2008 Presidential Election

In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and then-U.S. senator from New York Hillary Rodham Clinton. On June 3, 2008, however, Obama became the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, and Senator Clinton delivered her full support to Obama for the duration of his campaign. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated Republican presidential nominee John McCain, 52.9 percent to 45.7 percent, winning election as the 44th president of the United States—and the first African-American to hold this office. His running mate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, became vice president. Obama's inauguration took place on January 20, 2009.

When Obama took office, he inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars and the lowest international favorability rating for the United States ever. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy, and reinventing education and health care—all while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously. During his inauguration speech, Obama summarized the situation by saying, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.

Challenges and Successes

In the second part of his term as president, Obama has faced a number of obstacles and scored some victories as well. He signed his health-care reform plan, known as the Affordable Care Act, into law in March 2010. Obama's plan is intended to strengthen consumers' rights and to provide affordable insurance coverage and greater access to medical care. His opponents, however, claim that "Obamacare," as they have called it, added new costs to the country's overblown budget and may violate the Constitution with its requirement for individuals to obtain insurance.

On the economic front, Obama has worked hard to steer the country through difficult financial times.

2012 Re-Election

As he did in 2008, during his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama focused on grassroots initiatives. Celebrities such asAnna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker aided the president's campaign by hosting fund-raising events.

"I guarantee you, we will move this country forward," Obama stated in June 2012, at a campaign event in Maryland. "We will finish what we started. And we'll remind the world just why it is the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth."

In the 2012 election, Obama faced Republican opponent Mitt Romney and Romney's vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan. On the evening of November 6, 2012, Obama was announced the winner of the election, gaining a second four-year term as president. Early election results indicated a close race. By midnight on Election Day, however, Obama had received more than 270 electoral votes—the number of votes required to win a U.S. presidential election; later results showed that the president had won nearly 60 percent of the electoral vote, as well as the popular vote by more than 1 million ballots.

Nearly one month after President Obama's re-election, the nation endured one of its most tragic school shootings to date: On December 14, 2012, 20 children and six adult workers were shot to death at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Two days after the attack, Obama delivered a speech at an interfaith vigil for the victims in Newtown, discussing a need for change in order to make schools safer, and alluding to implementing stricter gun control.

Reference
http://mashable.com/2012/01/31/obama-hangout/
http://www.topnews.in/people/barack-obama
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/lessons-learned-potus-takes-fights-to-congress-85935.html
http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/2732642/watch-presidential-debate-barack-obama-mitt-romney-20/
http://blogs.bet.com/news/andresword/tag/barack-obama/
http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369

Brian Rix

Sir Brian Rix, Baron Rix (born January 27, 1924) is a British actor and charity worker.

Born in Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of a Hull shipowner,he became a professional actor, briefly, when he was 18. His wartime service began in the RAF, but he soon after volunteered to become a Bevin Boy, working instead as a coal miner.

After the war, Rix returned to the stage and in 1947 formed his own theatre company. Rix was associated with the Whitehall Theatre from 1944 until 1969, although as an actor-manager he became increasingly well known on TV as well as stage. The theatre specialised in farces, which were regularly televised. Rix was regularly seen on screen without his trousers on.


Rix's daughter Shelley was born in 1951 with Down's syndrome, and he has always used his name to promote public awareness and understanding of mental handicap. In 1980 he retired from acting, and became Secretary-General of the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults (Mencap) (it became “The Royal Society” the following year) and in 1987 became its Chairman. Since 2002 the Society has been officially called the “Royal Mencap Society”, with Rix now serving as its President.


In 1977 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and was knighted in 1986 for his services to charity. In 1992 his tireless work was further recognised when he was created a life peer. After nine years as a Vice Lord Lieutenant of London, Lord Rix was installed as the first Chancellor of the University of East London on 16 July 1997.

His 2004 80th birthday marked the start of a year of fundraising and publicity for Mencap.


Rix's daughter Shelley passed away in July 2005, at the age of 53.

Rix has been associated with many initiatives, including presenting "Let's Go" for the BBC, which was one of the first programmes made specifically for people with learning disabilities. He is the author of two biographies, My Farce From My Elbow and Farce About Face, and two theatre histories, Tour de Farce and Life in the Farce Lane. He also edited, compiled and contributed to Gullible's Travails, an anthology, and travel stories by famous people for the Mencap Blue Sky Appeal.


Brian Rix is the younger brother of Emmerdale actress Sheila Mercier.

Thank you :
http://www.celebrityproductions.info/displayer_celebrities.php/249/Brian_Rix
http://www.celebstoday.info/brian-rix/
http://www.open2.net/nobodysnormal/brianrix.html
http://www.popstar.com/Celebrity/Brian+Rix/
http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/AstoriaTheatreCharingCrossRoad.htm
http://www.famouspeople.co.uk/b/brianrix.html

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt

William Bradley Pitt, widely known as Brad Pitt (born December 18, 1963), is an American film actor.

He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri. In high school Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government and school musicals. He dropped out of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He was two credits shy of graduating with a Journalism degree, before trying his luck in Hollywood. Before he became successful at acting, Pitt supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators and dressing as a giant chicken while working for the restaurant chain El Pollo Loco.


He married actress Jennifer Aniston on July 29, 2000.

He was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys.

Pitt is often referenced to as one of the most attractive people in the world—or at least in the film business—and it is commonly recognised to refer to him in this context.


Selected filmography

Johnny Suede (1991)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Cool World (1992)
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Kalifornia (1993)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Legends Of The Fall (1994)
Se7en (1995)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Sleepers (1996)
The Devil's Own (1997)
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Fight Club (1999)
Snatch (2000)
The Mexican (2001)
Friends (2001 episode as Monica's friend)
Spy Game (2001)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Troy (2004)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2004)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Trivia

Like many A-List stars, Pitt won't do American commercials, but does commercials that are seen in Asia only, most notably for Edwin Jeans, the Toyota Altis, and Japanese canned coffee, ROOTS.

He was previously engaged to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and dated actress Juliette Lewis.

He tore his Achilles tendon during the production of Troy, in which he plays, coincidentally, Achilles.

He sued Damiani International, the company which made the wedding ring he gave Jennifer Aniston, for selling replica "Brad and Jennifer" rings. According to Pitt, the ring was his design and was to be exclusive. Under the settlement reached in January 2002, Pitt will design jewelry for Damiani that Aniston will model in ads, and the company will stop selling the copies.


Thank you :
http://www.people.com/people/brad_pitt
http://backseatcuddler.com/2007/09/03/brad-pitt-attacked-by-crazy-italian/
http://www.topnews.in/light/people/brad-pitt
http://www.bigbradpitt.com/view/48741/Brad_Pitt_and_Angelina_Jolie_Breakup_
http://www.topnews.in/light/people/brad-pitt?page=3
http://www.famouspeople.co.uk/b/bradpitt.html

Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler Biography

Adam Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, producer, musician and composer who was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire.


In the late 1980s, Sandler portrayed "Smitty" on The Cosby Show (1985-1989). He also was a writer for the MTV game show Remote Control, on which he made several featured appearances.


Sandler started performing in comedy clubs by spontaneously taking the stage at a club in Boston. He was then discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller immediately recommended Sandler to Saturday Night Live producer, Lorne Michaels. Sandler was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live in 1990 and became a featured player the following year. Sandler quickly made a name for himself by performing amusing original songs on the show, including The Chanukah Song.


Sandler graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1991. On Sunday, June 22, 2003, he wed model Jackie Titone, whom he met on the set of Big Daddy. Sandler and Jackie Titone later worked together again in the Rob Schneider comedy Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, which Sandler executive-produced.

Selected Filmography

The Cosby Show (1985-1989)
Going Overboard (1989)
SNL (1990)
Shakes The Clown (1991)
Coneheads (1993)
Airheads (1994)
Billy Madison (1995), also written by Sandler
Happy Gilmore (1996), also written by Sandler
Bulletproof (1997)
Dirty Work (1998)
The Waterboy (1998), also written and produced by Sandler
The Wedding Singer, (1998)
Big Daddy, (1999), also screenplay written by and produced by Sandler
Little Nicky, (2000), also written and produced by Sandler
Mr. Deeds, (2002) also produced by Sandler, a remake of the Frank Capra film. Described by The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw as "like watching a chimp trying to fashion a scale model of Michelangelo's David out of its own steaming ordure."
Punch-Drunk Love, (2002)
8 Crazy Nights, (2002), also written and produced by Sandler
Anger Management, (2003)
50 First Dates, (2004), also produced by Sandler
The Longest Yard, (2005)
Click, (2005)

Thank you :
http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2011/05/10/open-casting-call-in-boston-for-adam-sandlers-i-hate-you-dad/
http://www.hark.com/collections/kptyzpnvbd-adam-sandler
http://www.newsmania.com/adam-sandler-turns-into-dracula-in-new-animation-movie-1592/
http://www.evilbeetgossip.com/2007/07/31/is-adam-sandlers-marriage-on-the-rocks/
http://www.dailycomedy.com/hottopic/Adam_Sandler
http://www.famouspeople.co.uk/a/adamsandler.html

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867–April 9, 1959) was one of the most prominent architects of the first half of the 20th century.

He was born in the agricultural town of Richland Center, Wisconsin and brought up with strong Unitarian and transcendental principles. As a child he used to spend a lot of time playing with the Kindergarten educational blocks by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (popularly known as Froebel's blocks) given by his mother. These consisted of various geometrically shaped blocks that could be assembled in various combinations to form three dimensional compostions.

Wright in his autobiography talks about the influence of these exercises on his approach to design. Many of his buildings are notable for the geometrical clarity they exhibit.


Wright commenced his formal education in 1885 at the University of Wisconsin School for Engineering, where he was a member of a fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. He took classes part time for two years while apprenticing under Allen Conover, a local builder and professor of civil engineering. In 1887, Wright left the university without taking a degree (although he was granted an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the university in 1955) and moved to Chicago, where he joined the architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Within the year, he had left Silsbee to work for the firm of Adler and Sullivan. Beginning in 1890, he was assigned all residential design work for the firm. In 1893, after a falling out that probably concerned the work he had taken on outside the office, Wright left Adler and Sullivan to establish his own practice in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, IL. He had completed around fifty projects by 1901.

Between 1901 and 1911, his residential designs were "Prairie Houses" (extended low buildings with shallow sloping roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs and terraces, using unadorned natural materials), so called because the design is considered to complement the land around Chicago. Wright also played a significant role in "open plan" ideas for residential interiors and he came to regard interior space as a more significant part of his designs. He believed that humanity should be central to all design.


He designed his own home-studio complex, called Taliesin (after the 6th century Welsh poet, whose name means literally 'shining brow'), which was built near Spring Green, Wisconsin in 1911. The complex was a distinctive low one-storey L-shaped structure with views over a lake on one side and Wright's studio on the opposite side. Taliesin was twice destroyed by fire; the current building there is called Taliesin III. The first time it burned, seven people were killed, including Wright's mistress, Mamah Borthwick, and her two children (by her husband Edwin Cheney).

He visited Japan, first in 1905, and Europe (1909), opening a Tokyo office in 1915. In the 1930s Wright designed his winter retreat in Arizona, called Taliesin West; the retreat, like much of Wright's architecture, blends organically with the surrounding landscape.

Wright is responsible for a concept or a series of extremely original concepts of suburban development united under the term Broadacre City. He proposed the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932, and unveiled a very large (about 12 by 12 feet) model of this community of the future, showing it in several venues in the following years. He went on developing the idea until his death.

It was also in the 1930s that Wright designed many of his "Usonian" houses—essentially designs for working-class people that were based on a simple geometry, yet elegantly done and practical. He would later use such designs in his First Unitarian Meeting House built in Madison, Wisconsin between 1947-1950.


His most famous house was constructed from 1935 to 1939—Fallingwater for E.J. Kaufmann at Bear Run, Pennsylvania, which was designed according to Wright's desire to place the occupants close to the natural surroundings, with a stream running under part of the building. The construction is a series of cantilevered balconies and terraces, using stone for all verticals and concrete for the horizontals. The house cost $155,000, including the architect's fee of $80,000. Kaufmann's own engineers argued that the design was not sound. They were overruled, but they were later proven to be correct—the cantilevered floors began to sag shortly afterwards. In the late 1990s, steel supports were added under the lowest cantilever, until a detailed structural analysis could be done. In March of 2002, post-tensioning of the lowest terrace was completed.

Wright practiced what is known as organic architecture, an architecture that evolves naturally out of the context, most importantly for him the relationship between the site and the building.

One of his projects, Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin, was completed in 1997 on the original proposed site, using Wright's original design for the exterior with an interior design by his apprentice Tony Puttnam. Monona Terrace was accompanied by controversy reminiscent of Wright's own life, partly involving the authenticity of the combined interior and exterior designs, and partly due to the covering-up of a locally-venerated roadside mural.


Wright's personal life was a colorful one that frequently made news headlines. He married three times. His third (and last) wife was Olgivanna Hinzenberg (née Olgivanna Ivanovna Lazovich), who had been a student of G. I. Gurdjieff who came to visit the couple at Taliesin. The meeting of Gurdjieff and Wright is explored in Robert Lepage's The Geometry Of Miracles.

Wright died on April 9, 1959, having designed an enormous number of significant projects including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, a building which occupied him for 16 years (1943–1959) and is probably his most recognized masterpiece. The building rises as a white spiral from its site on Fifth Avenue. Its unique central geometry allows visitors to experience temporary exhibits on the slowly-descending central spiral ramp.

Many speculate that the character of Howard Roark, an architect in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead, is based, at least in part, on Frank Lloyd Wright. Rand herself, however, denied this.

His son Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., known as Lloyd Wright, was also a notable architect.

Other works

Winslow House, near River Forest, IL, 1894
Ward W. Willits House, Highland Park, IL, 1901
Susan Lawrence Dana House, The Dana-Thomas House Springfield, IL, 1902 - 1904
The Dana-Thomas House, Springfield, Illinois
Dwight D. Martin House, Buffalo NY, 1904
Unity Temple, Oak Park, IL, 1906
Avery Coonley House, Riverside, IL, 1907
Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, IL, 1909
Imperial Hotel (mostly demolished), originally Tokyo, Japan, 1915, lobby and pool reconstructed in 1976 in at Meji Village, near Nagoya, Japan
Aline Barnsdall House Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, CA, 1917
Charles Ennis House, Los Angeles, CA, 1923
Johnson Wax Headquarters, Racine, Wisconsin, 1936
Paul R. Hanna House, (Honeycomb House), Stanford, CA, begun 1936
Herbert F. Johnson House (Wingspread), Wind Point, WI, 1937
V.C. Morris Gift Shop, San Francisco, CA, 1948
Price Tower, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, 1952
Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA, 1957-1966, (featured in the movie Gattaca)

Thank you :
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/frank-lloyd-wright-professional-success-personal-mess/
http://mywhimsicalnotions.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html
http://www.dossier-andreas.net/andreas/p1_p25.html
http://www.famouspeople.co.uk/f/franklloydwright.html