what you can learn on youtube

Youtube - oddball, weird clips that typically have awful comments.  That's true, but I have found some good and educational clips on youtube - like this one.

caption this

Don't look now but President Obama is behind you!

or

Blow in my ear and I'll follow you anywhere.

I found this picture over at the Chicago Tribune site.



about blog         another circus         solar info link

   

there's an app for that

President blocks - Reggie recovers evidence

The right wing will call this a foul.

Here's the picture:

Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama

(photo from AP)

I was surprised by this news this morning.  President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for what the committee called "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

He didn't get the 2016 Olympics for the US but this is a greater worldwide recognition.

Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win. Theodore Roosevelt, won the award in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson, won in 1919.

This shows that the world likes him more than some Americans.  Isn't it good that the western world and other areas too, like him?  

Some Americans will dislike anything and everything he does but I think we should be proud of this award.  I am.

stand together film clip

STAND TOGETHER: An "At the End of Slavery" Trailer from melissa mills on Vimeo.

This film was made by a former neighbor who's a friend of my daughter.

simple message

inspiring speech to start school year

Wow -
I don't know why (could it be that they just don't like him no matter what?) some were upset that the President decided to give a speech to students starting their school year.

He had a great message for our future generation - personal responsibility.

Here's a line that caught my attention:

"There is no excuse for not trying."

He gave some inspiring stories about real students.

What bothers me the most about the complainers is:
their stubbornness failed to allow them to give the Presidency the respect and trust it deserves.

It's OK to criticize the President's speech but I believe you should wait until the speech is delivered. It would be interesting to hear what part of this speech bothered them.

Now had Vice President Biden talked I could understand some being scared that it might lengthen the school day.

not a job I would want

Looks like President Obama is having a good laugh over a picture of his press secretary, Robert Gibbs. With all the problems he faces everyday, I wonder how much he gets a good laugh.

I know I would not want to face the press daily and try to explain things to them.

Chicago Whitehouse

Note the statue in the above picture is not at Obama's house, but it's not too far away.

It's the Statue of the Republic that was erected in 1918 as a reminder of the 65 foot 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in the Jackson Park area of Chicago. A great way to learn about that 1893 fair is through the book, "The Devil in the White City".

So last Friday, my daughter talked me into driving into Chicago for an outdoor concert. I thought I could make the trip more worthwhile by finding Obama's Chicago house. My daughter's schedule failed to give me much time to research before I was on the road. I knew what general area it was in and was able to pin it down to the Kenwood neighborhood.

So on a rainy Friday I started driving around looking for it. I knew the street was blocked off, so I just needed to find police cars and barricades.

I first turned off Lake Shore Drive (anyone call it LSD?) at Jackson Park and proceed north through the Univ. of Chicago campus (reminds me of France).

I found the closed off block on South Greenwood.

After the trip, with a little internet searching I found this on the hydepark.org site.

About the time of Mr. Obamas' run for the U.S. Senate, the Obamas bought 5040 S. Greenwood, a large house in the historic Kenwood Historic District, near Hyde Park Boulevard across Greenwood Avenue from landmarked Congregation K.A.M. Isaiah Israel. Information about the house, gathered from Jean Block's Hyde Park Houses and Construction News - May 28, 1910 includes: Original owner A. R. Clarke, a contractor who also owned and was the owner/architect. The architect was Bishop & Company. Built in 1910. 5040: A Historical Georgian revival home built in 1910 with four fireplaces, glass-door bookcases fashioned from Honduran mahogany, and a 1,000-bottle wine cellar…

You will be lucky to glimpse it and cannot take photographs. You have to keep walking on the other side of the street. The street is closed to through traffic and owners need special ID to enter. Those attending services or events at KAM and expecting to park in the lot must register a day in advance and have their names on a list. Traffic is also regulated on East Hyde Park Boulevard (5100) and when there is a motorcade or such, the street may be barricaded.

That above description is correct.

After driving by the barricades at both ends of the block, I decided I would venture on foot. Parking my car a house (the lots in this area are large) away from one of the parked police cars, I proceeded to walk up to the Chicago policeman guarding the north barricade.

Expecting he would just command me to move along, I was surprised he was willingly to talk to me. He confirmed that I could not walk down the block and noticing my camera told me where I could take some pictures. He also advised me that I would see mostly trees.

While I was talking to him, a young boy (guessing 11 yrs. old) came riding up on a bike. He was stopped and briefly questioned. Apparently, he was going to visit a friend on the block. He knew the right names and addresses so he was allowed through. It must be interesting living on that block.

Well the pictures I got are not that great. I suggest waiting until the leaves fall for a better picture. You can find better pictures than mine on the internet.

how would he report on Obama

On Friday, July 17, 2009, Walter Cronkite made news one more time. Walter died at the age of 92.

It wasn't until I started to dislike our current news media and their focus on ratings and not the news that I realized how good it was to have news reported by Walter Cronkite. As it has been widely reported the man was a trusted source of news.

I noted Walter's death on my other blog "A Few Clowns Short", but realize he be should mentioned here too. His reporting of world events was honest. He first supported the Vietnam War but after a couple of visits, he came out against it.

I don't know if Walter publicly commented on Obama's presidency. President Obama had these words to say:

know anyone in Boulder?

From wikipedia:

Boulder has the more widespread reputation as a pocket of liberal political views within its largely conservative state, garnering the oft-used nickname "The People's Republic of Boulder."

did you bring home anything from the meeting

Looks like some countries got T-shirts from Brazil.




I wonder what they do with those nice chairs now that the meeting is over?

traveling Obama head

While walking over to the Blues Fest in Chicago the other day, I spotted this head. I glad I had my camera this time.

It is headed to a place in South Dakota called President's Park. You can find more pictures on their site. They have all the Presidents on display at their park.

I don't know when I might be traveling in that area but it looks worth the stop.

Obama is quick

I don't believe I'm that quick anymore. Being a young President has it's advantages. I wonder if it was a Republican fly?

if we could see his blackberry

Hopefully you can read the fine print in the above pic I took from firstblackberry.com
(somebody was thinking to get that domain name).

I first noticed this in the Chicago Tribune a short while ago. Very funny chat sessions.
There's a book out titled "Obama's BlackBerry".

undisclosed burger location

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

This is my second post about Obama and burgers - maybe this is going to be a trend?

Here's the other post (different burger joint).

Hey I wonder if he needs a Joint Chief of Burgers?

people ahead of software on Barack Obama

photo from crunchgear

I don't know of any survey on this (probably is since they survey any and everything) but I suspect most people now know how to pronounce Barack Obama.

BUT there is some software that does not - the new Kindle device from Amazon has text to speech built in but it doesn't know how to say his name.

I checked the text to speech ability of my mac mini and it does an good job on his name. Here's more on the CNN blog.

(hmm is Apple more liberal than Amazon? - better check the political contribution list)

new page on whitehouse.gov

Just to back up a bit - I didn't grow up on the internet or even personal computers. Have you ever seen the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey?

Well I always imagined computers to be the size of those mainframe things in that movie. As my engineering career advanced the computer size decreased as its complexity increased.

Today I easily do what I could not have imagined 40 years ago. Embed video clips of our President into my blog and watch live streaming video from most anywhere.

Check out the new page on whitehouse.gov for the Office of Public Engagement.

President jokes - we listen

Please note this is longer than I thought it would be. It's more like Vice President, Biden, length. It's worth the listen.

President Obama takes some good shots at most everyone, including his staff and himself. My favorite is him saying that he will finish the next 100 days in 72 days and on the 73th day he will rest.

Some good stuff - but I would not want him to give up his day job.

Obama and Biden for burgers reminded me

That last post reminded me of this old SNL skit. I wonder if they will do one about President Obama's visit to Ray's Hell Burgers place.

Bail out burgers with Biden

"...Can you vouch for your fries?"

Sounds like Ray's Hell Burger doesn't offer regular fries. I don't know how their business was before but I bet this sure gave them a boost.

Remember that SNL skit about Clinton stopping in Mickey D's and eating other people's fries?


I picked this video up at the Chicago Tribune site - it comes with ads on top.

=====update====
The video from the Chicago Tribune site stopped playing (??) so here's a version from youtube.

===yet another update===
It's happened again, my posted video clip was taken down.
This is a different hamburger joint but maybe this clip will stay up.

Presidency on flickr

This is my favorite picture from the White House album on flickr.

The White House has a collection of pictures posted on flickr.

Maybe if you grew up on the internet this is not surprising. But for one that lived when the President got his first jet aircraft (Eisenhower 1959) this is amazing.

I found this while browsing the White House blog (oh you didn't know about that either). The older fellow not looking so helpful is Vermont Governor Jim Douglas.

Barack Blackberry Obama is well connected in our wired internet world. I like the openness and internet sharing of this White House but I hope they don't start twittering. That might be too distracting. They do have some work to do besides moving furniture.

if you forgot to count don't worry

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
How to Judge a Guy in 100 Days
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days

100 day's into the Obama administration - Forgot to count? Don't worry the media has been counting for you (also developing report cards).

I like Jon Stewart's take on the media.

funny take on Obama from the north

pretty funny - eh?

Check out my main blog
A Few Clowns

I would like a ticket to St. Louis

This idea is long overdue here. I think the airline industry has been too strong in killing it in the past.

An over 100mph train would make sense between many US cities. It's not just keeping-up-with-the-Jones in the world competition but most of us know about high speed rail in Japan and France.

I didn't know about China before I read the whitehouse.gov blog. Here's a piece:

"...China, where service began just two years ago, may have more miles of high-speed rail service than any other country just five years from now..."

I would use it for Chicago to St. Louis.

funny picture needs good caption

Secretary of Cow

While I was reading about the new first dog, Bo Obama. I found this slideshow of presidential pets at the Chicago Tribune site.

Very interesting picture and pet during the Taft presidency.

finally the first dog

White House photos by Pete Souza

It's a a six-month old Portuguese water dog and a gift from Senator and Mrs. Kennedy to Sasha and Malia.

His name is Bo which works well with the last name, Obama. I suspect we will be hearing some rhyme or song with Bo and Obama in it.

This is probably bigger news than the President's recent G20 meeting. The build-up was interesting and I think positive. I suggest they add a new pet every year. Next year a bird would be good.

Obama's now dropped from Christmas exchange

Bringing gifts to the Queen of England when you arrive for tea at the palace - good.

Choice of gift for the Queen - Ipod - not so good.

So based on this and learning that they gave out a DVD box set to another head of state, I am dropping the Obama's from my Christmas gift exchange.

Now gift giving is not a very important part of the Office of the President, but I expect something better than an Ipod for an older women. Not that I can think of anything at the moment. Any suggestions?

Here's the story covered at Politico.

Also what's with the purse in the above picture? Does she carry the key to the crown jewel case in that purse?

Now I understand

St. Patrick's Day and White House

If you look closely the fountain is green. Interesting, but maybe not that surprising given the Obama-Chicago connection and Chicago's tradition of green dye in the Chicago river. Of course the river was done this past weekend (Saturday) for the big parade.



Thanks to the Chicago Tribune site I discovered the green at the White house.

They also mention that President Obama was presented with a bowl of shamrocks by the Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach).

I don't know how long the bowl of shamrocks have been a tradition but I recall former President Bush getting a bowl of them. After a little searching a I found a picture of President Clinton getting a bowl too.

A reminder, I posted an earlier note about Obama being Irish.

(Tribune photo by Abel Uribe / March 14, 2009)

Please play all the way through

I just hope everyone "plays" these words out in the right direction.

oh canada eh

If you have not heard, President Obama went north recently.

Don't you just love those hats?



How did she get through the security? Breakfast looks tasty.



Speaking of food - WHERE IS IT? EMPTY PLATES?