The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

February 08, 2011

Executive Order -- Establishment of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committees

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEES

     By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including title III of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-403)(15 U.S.C. 8111-8116) (the "PRO IP Act"), and in order to strengthen the efforts of the Federal Government to encourage innovation through the effective and efficient enforcement of laws protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other forms of intellectual property, both in the United States and abroad, including matters relating to combating infringement, and thereby support efforts to reinvigorate the Nation's global competitiveness, accelerate export growth, promote job creation, and reduce threats posed to national security and to public health and safety, it is hereby ordered as follows:

     Section 1.  Senior Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committee.

     (a)  Establishment of Committee.  There is established an interagency Senior Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committee (Senior Advisory Committee), which shall be chaired by the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (Coordinator), Executive Office of the President.

     (b)  Membership.  The Senior Advisory Committee shall be composed of the Coordinator, who shall chair it, and the heads of, or the deputies to the heads of:

(i)     the Department of State;

(ii)     the Department of the Treasury;

(iii)     the Department of Justice;

(iv)     the Department of Agriculture;

(v)     the Department of Commerce;

(vi)     the Department of Health and Human Services;

(vii)     the Department of Homeland Security;

(viii)     the Office of Management and Budget; and

(ix)     the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

A member of the Senior Advisory Committee may, in consultation with the Coordinator, designate a senior-level official from the member's department or agency who holds a position for which Senate confirmation is required to perform the Senior Advisory Committee functions of the member.

     (c)  Mission and Functions.  Consistent with the authorities assigned to the Coordinator, and other applicable law, the Senior Advisory Committee shall advise the Coordinator and facilitate the formation and implementation of each Joint Strategic Plan required every 3 years under title III of the PRO IP Act (15 U.S.C. 8113), consistent with this order.

     (d)  Administration.  The Coordinator shall coordinate and support the work of the Senior Advisory Committee in fulfilling its functions under this order.  The Coordinator shall convene the first meeting of the Senior Advisory Committee within 90 days of the date of this order and shall thereafter convene such meetings as appropriate.

     Sec. 2.  Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committee.

     (a)  Establishment of Committee.  There is established an interagency Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committee (Enforcement Advisory Committee), which shall be chaired by the Coordinator.  The Enforcement Advisory Committee shall serve as the committee established by section 301(b)(3) of the PRO IP Act (15 U.S.C. 8111(b)(3)).

     (b)  Membership.  The Enforcement Advisory Committee shall be composed of the Coordinator, who shall chair it, and representatives from the following departments and agencies, or units of departments and agencies, who hold a position for which Senate confirmation is required, who are involved in intellectual property enforcement, and who are, or are designated by, the respective heads of those departments and agencies:

(i)     the Office of Management and Budget;

(ii)     relevant units within the Department of Justice, including the Criminal Division, the Civil Division, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation;

(iii)     the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the International Trade Administration, and other relevant units of the Department of Commerce;

(iv)     the Office of the United States Trade Representative;

(v)     the Department of State, the Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, the United States Agency for International Development and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs;

(vi)     the Department of Homeland Security, United States Customs and Border Protection, and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement;

(vii)     the Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services;

(viii)     the Department of Agriculture;

(ix)     the Department of the Treasury; and

(x)     such other executive branch departments, agencies, or offices as the President determines to be substantially involved in the efforts of the Federal Government to combat counterfeiting and infringement.

Pursuant to the PRO IP Act (15 U.S.C. 8111), the Coordinator shall also invite the Register of Copyrights, or a senior representative of the United States Copyright Office designated by the Register of Copyrights, to serve as a member of the Enforcement Advisory Committee.

     (c)  Mission and Functions.

(i)     Consistent with the authorities assigned to the Coordinator and the Enforcement Advisory Committee, and other applicable law, the Enforcement Advisory Committee shall develop each Joint Strategic Plan as provided for in title III of the PRO IP Act.  In the development and implementation of the Joint Strategic Plan, the heads of the departments and agencies identified in section 2(b) of this order shall share with the Coordinator and the other members of the Enforcement Advisory Committee relevant department or agency information, to the extent permitted by law, including requirements relating to confidentiality and privacy, and to the extent that such sharing of information is consistent with law enforcement protocols for handling such information.  Such information shall include:

(A)  plans for addressing the Joint Strategic Plan;

(B)  statistical information on the enforcement activities taken by that department or agency against counterfeiting or infringement; and

(C)  recommendations to enhance cooperation among Federal, State, and local authorities responsible for intellectual property enforcement.

(ii)     The Coordinator may establish subgroups, consisting exclusively of Enforcement Advisory Committee members or their designees, who must be officials from the designating member's department or agency, to support the functions of the Enforcement Advisory Committee.  The subgroups shall be chaired by the Coordinator, or the Coordinator's designee with expertise and experience in intellectual property enforcement matters, and may include:

(A)  an Enforcement Subcommittee; and

(B)  other subcommittees as the Coordinator deems appropriate, including subcommittees addressing particular enforcement issues, efforts, training, and information sharing among departments and agencies.

     (d)  Administration.  The Coordinator shall coordinate and support the work of the Enforcement Advisory Committee in fulfilling its functions under this order and under section 301(b)(3)(B) of the PRO IP Act (15 U.S.C. 8111(b)(3)(B)).  The Coordinator shall convene meetings of the Enforcement Advisory Committee as appropriate.

     Sec. 3.  General Provisions.

     (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect the:

(i)     authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof, or the status of that department or agency within the Federal Government; or

(ii)     functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

         (b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.  Consistent with section 301(b)(2) of the PRO IP Act (15 U.S.C. 8111(b)(2)), the Coordinator may not control or direct any Federal law enforcement agency in the exercise of its investigative or prosecutorial authority.

         (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    February 8, 2011.

White House Rooms

The Blue Room | Entrance and Cross Halls | The East Room | Family Life 
The Green Room | The Red Room | Renovations | The State Dining Room 
The Cabinet Room | The Oval Office | The Press Room | Roosevelt Room |
Vice Presidential Residence

The Blue Room

The Blue Room is the center of the State Floor of the White House. Over the years, the Blue Room's oval shape and breath-taking view of the South Lawn of the White House have captivated its visitors. The Blue Room has been the customary place for presidents to formally receive guests. Flowers are a traditional decorative feature of the room as is a distinctive marble-top table purchased by James Monroe in 1817. 

In this room on June 2, 1886, President Grover Cleveland became the first and only president to be married in the White House. His bride, Frances Folsom, was not only 27 years his junior but also, at the age of 21, the youngest first lady in history.

Entrance and Cross Halls

The Entrance Hall, as its name implies, leads guests to the White House from the visitor's entrance into the East Wing of the building. In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson had turned the Entrance Hall into an informal exhibition space for artifacts from the expedition to the Western Territories by White House aide Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark. Upon taking office, President Ulysses S. Grant began the tradition, which still endures today, of hanging presidential portraits in both the Entrance Hall and the perpendicular Cross Hall.

The East Room

This large room flanking the East corner of the White House has served an incredibly diverse array of uses over the past two centuries. First Lady Abigail Adams used it as a laundry room, while her husband’s successor, President Thomas Jefferson, divided the southern half of the still-unfinished room into an office and bedchamber for his aide, Meriwether Lewis. Jefferson's successor, President James Madison, used the room as his Cabinet Room. The East Room was not fully decorated until 1829 during President Andrew Jackson’s administration, though it wasn't until 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned a restoration, that the room was restored to its appearance before the fire of 1814.

Over the years the large, multipurpose space has been the site of weddings, funerals, press conferences, receptions and receiving lines. Upon occasion, President Woodrow Wilson turned the area into a movie theater, and Jacqueline Kennedy used it as a theater for the performing arts.

The room has unfortunately served much more somber ends: The bodies of both Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy have lain in state in the East Room. Additionally, during the Civil War, Union troops were at one point quartered in the room.

The Diplomatic Room

Located along the Downstairs Corridor, the Diplomatic Reception Room was the furnace room until the 1902 White House renovation, which transformed the semi-industrial space into a beautiful parlor. The room has since been a gathering place for guests prior to White House events. The Diplomatic Reception Room was first used for hosting diplomats on January 8, 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt and First Lady Edith Roosevelt held a reception there.

Family Life

The White House has served as the home for the president and his family since November 1800, when President John and Abigail Adams became the mansion's first residents. Over the years the White House has been the site of many family gatherings, including birthday parties, holiday dinners, and even weddings and funerals.

On September 9, 1893, First Lady Frances Cleveland gave birth to Esther Cleveland, her and President Grover Cleveland’s second daughter. Esther is the only child of a president to ever be born in the White House.

In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt and his family gathered to celebrate Christmas. President Roosevelt took great pleasure in watching his children and grandchildren open gifts. But the President was so busy leading the war effort that he did not have time to open his own gifts. A few weeks later, a housekeeper found the President's gifts in a closet--unopened. Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower's grandson, David Eisenhower, celebrated his eighth birthday in 1956 at the White House with a western party based on television personality and cowboy, Roy Rogers. Not only was Roy Rogers the theme of the party, but he and his wife, Dale Evans, also attended as special guests.

Though President Cleveland is the only President to ever marry in the White House, several brides -- including presidential daughters Nellie Grant, Alice Roosevelt and Lynda Johnson -- have used the East Room for their nuptials.

Although the East Room has been the site of many happy occasions, it has also been a place where mourners have gathered. The Green Room housed the body of Abraham Lincoln's son, Willie, who died of an illness.

The size of a president's family has varied, and one family made a lasting impact on the White House grounds. President Theodore Roosevelt's six children so filled the home with joy and laughter that he ordered the construction of a temporary building to serve as office space for his staff. Today, that building is called the West Wing.

The Green Room

The Green Room, located on the first floor of the White House, serves primarily as a state parlor and has long been a favorite of Presidents and their families due to its intimate scale and distinctive décor. During his tenure in office, President John Quincy Adams named it the "Green Drawing Room," though the inspiration for the name may have come from President Jefferson's use of the space as a dining room, when he would cover the floor with a green-colored canvas for protection.

Among the most historically significant events in our nation's history occurred here -- the signing of our first declaration of war. President James Madison officially declared war on the British in 1812 in the Green Room. (Two years later, British forces would burn the Green Room -- and the rest of the White House -- to the ground.)

Decades later, President Abraham Lincoln held the funeral for his youngest son William Wallace here in February of 1862.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy redecorated and refurbished the Green Room, along with many other notable rooms in the White House, in 1961.

The Red Room

The Red Room received its name in the 1840s from its vivid color scheme, made all the more striking by its small size. While many First Families have enjoyed the room, two first ladies in particular made special use of it: 

Beginning in 1809, First Lady Dolley Madison held Wednesday Drawing Rooms that opened the doors for socializing between members of opposite political parties during a period of fierce partisan segregation. Her success as the Capital’s hostess redefined the role of the First Lady and helped usher in pivotal discussions in the run-up to the War of 1812.

Very shortly after her husband's inauguration in 1933, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt hosted the first of many press conferences for women reporters in the Red Room. Because women reporters were excluded from the president's press conferences, Mrs. Roosevelt's press conferences erased a social barrier. Though originally Mrs. Roosevelt discussed cooking and housekeeping topics, as her involvement in social issues and her rate of travel increased, the subject matter at these press conferences turned to discussions of domestic policies.

Renovations

With six children, President Theodore Roosevelt was cramped when he moved into the White House on September 27, 1901 following the death of President William McKinley. Office and living space were mostly confined to the second floor of the White House. For safety reasons, the floors of the State Dining Room and East Room were reinforced with wooden planks whenever a large number of guests were expected for an event. The new president soon realized the White House needed to be expanded and restored, so he supervised a large-scale renovation that lasted through 1902 and brought the iconic building into the 20th Century.

President Roosevelt ordered the construction of a temporary office building to the west of the White House. Today, the building is known as the West Wing. The renovation not only relocated staff offices, but it also renovated the living space of the White House, expanded the State Dining Room, repaired the rooms on the State Floor, remodeled the basement and transferred the visitor's entrance from the north to the east.

On Christmas Eve, 1929, a fire broke out in the West Wing. When the charred interior was rebuilt, a new feature was added: air-conditioning. Four years later, another president named Roosevelt made changes to his fifth cousin's "temporary office building" -- Franklin Roosevelt expanded the West Wing and relocated the Oval Office to the southeast corner in 1934. He also built a swimming pool, which was converted into a Press Briefing Room during the Nixon Administration.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy redecorated almost all of the White House in order to highlight more historically and decoratively significant pieces and create a more tasteful and comfortable atmosphere for the First Family and staff. Her famed tour of the newly renovated White House was broadcast on CBS in 1961 and solidified her place in the American psyche as a public tastemaker. Her work led to the formation of a curatorial staff, who now work to preserve and decorate the White House in collaboration with incoming Presidents and First Ladies. The East Garden was renamed in Mrs. Kennedy’s honor.

The State Dining Room

When Thomas Jefferson became President in 1801, he turned the State Dining Room into his office and used the adjacent Red Room to receive guests and meet visitors. Several years later, President Andrew Jackson improved both the ambiance and odor of the room when he moved the White House stables out from under its windows. President Jackson also officially named the space the State Dining Room.

In the 1902 renovations, the State Dining Room underwent the most dramatic transformation of any room on the State Floor of the White House. Previously, the room had only been able to hold 40 guests for dinner. By removing a staircase, the architects significantly expanded the State Dining Room to its current holding capacity of 140 people.

THE WEST WING

The Cabinet Room

The Cabinet Room opens directly into the Oval Office and overlooks the famed Rose Garden. It serves as both a public and private space for presidents to communicate their priorities and receive advice and feedback from cabinet secretaries and advisors. The centerpiece of the room is a large oval table, a gift from President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, surrounded by leather chairs. Each chair is specifically assigned, with a small, engraved brass placard on the back indicating the position of the person meant to sit there. The president is seated in the center on the East side of the table.

The Oval Office

The Oval Office serves as the president's personal office and as a location for private meetings and conversations with aides and advisors. It's situated in the center of the West Wing, connected to both the Cabinet Room and the Chief of Staff’s office. It is frequently used to stage televised addresses and hold both private and public conversations with everyone from newly appointed members of congress to NCAA champions to visiting heads of state. Though perhaps the most iconic room in the White House, the Oval Office was not used as the President’s personal office until after its renovations in 1902. President Taft was the first to relocate the office to this room and is responsible for changing its shape from rectangular to oval. Though the room’s eponymous shape is considered its most distinctive feature, the preference for oval rooms dates to the time of our first president, President George Washington -- other old rooms in the White House, such as the Blue Room, are also ovular. For President Taft, the Oval Office may have symbolized his view of the modern-day president. Taft intended to be the center of his administration, and by creating the Oval Office in the center of the West Wing, he was more involved with the day-to-day operation of his presidency than his recent predecessors had been.

What President Taft could not imagine in 1909 when he built the Oval Office was that the office itself would become a symbol of the Presidency. Over the years Americans developed a sentimental attachment to the Oval Office through memorable images, such as John Kennedy, Jr. peering through the front panel of his father's desk or President Nixon talking on the phone with astronauts after a successful voyage. Television broadcasts, such as President Reagan's speech following the Challenger explosion, would leave lasting impressions in the minds of Americans of both the office and its occupant.

Learn more about the Oval Office.

The Press Room

The White House press corps gathers here to hear daily briefings from and ask questions of the White House press secretary and other spokesmen for the executive branch. It is centrally located within the West Wing and includes doors to the Rose Garden that allow the members of the media quick access to outdoor events. 

Originally constructed in 1933 as a therapy pool for the Polio-stricken President Franklin Roosevelt, President Richard Nixon converted the space into the current press briefing room in 1970. Television news had become increasingly popular, and more space was needed to accommodate the networks' video equipment.

The Press Briefing Room was renamed the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on February 11, 2000 in honor of James Brady, the White House press secretary who was shot and seriously injured following an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In 2006, the press relocated to temporary space in the White House Conference Center while the room underwent the first, full-scale renovation to replace aging utility infrastructure, including failing and inadequate air conditioning and insufficient electrical capacity. Renovation highlights included improved media work space with new work stations and briefing seating. Cooler, energy efficient lighting was installed, along with interactive media screens behind the Press Secretary's podium. The room was also re-wired with more than 500 miles of fiber-optic cable.

The swimming pool space below the briefing room floor remained structurally intact and was utilized to house electronics for supporting press operations.

Roosevelt Room

The window-less Roosevelt Room occupies the original site of the president's office, built in 1902 during President Theodore Roosevelt's expansion of the White House. Seven years later, when the West Wing was expanded and the Oval Office was built, the room became a part of two waiting rooms. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt relocated the Oval Office from the center of the building to the southeast corner in 1934, this room received a skylight.

The second President Roosevelt called this room the Fish Room, since he used it to display an aquarium and his fishing mementos. President Kennedy continued the room's nautical theme by mounting a sailfish that he caught in Acapulco, Mexico.

President Richard Nixon named the room in 1969 to honor both Presidents Roosevelt for their expansions and improvements to the West Wing. Traditionally, the mantelpiece holds bronze busts of both presidents (as well as President Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize, the first awarded to an American) and their portraits hang on opposing walls. Today the room is used as a conference room and features a multimedia center for presentations.

Vice Presidential Residence -- Number One Observatory Circle

For nearly 200 years, unlike the President, the Vice President did not have an executive mansion to live in. But by the 1970s, the cost of securing the Vice Presidents and their families in private residences had become prohibitively expensive, prompting Congress to establish a permanent Vice Presidential residence at Number One Observatory Circle. In 1974, Walter Mondale became the first Vice President to move into the building, and it has since been home to every Vice Presidential family. 

The white 19th century house overlooking Massachusetts Avenue and adjacent to the United States Naval Observatory was built in 1893 and originally intended for the superintendent of the Observatory. Despite its new neighbors, the Naval Observatory has continued to operate and still keeps its famously accurate atomic clocks and serves as working scientific facility in the study of timepieces and navigation.

Air Force One

No matter where in the world the President travels, if he flies in an Air Force jet, the plane is called Air Force One. Technically, Air Force One is the call sign of any Air Force aircraft carrying the President. In practice, however, Air Force One is used to refer to one of two highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, which carry the tail codes 28000 and 29000. The Air Force designation for the aircraft is VC-25A.

Air Force One is one of the most recognizable symbols of the presidency, spawning countless references not just in American culture but across the world. Emblazoned with the word "United States of America," the American flag, and the Seal of the President of the United States, it is an undeniable presence wherever it flies.

Capable of refueling midair, Air Force One has unlimited range and can carry the President wherever he needs to travel. The onboard electronics are hardened to protect against an electromagnetic pulse, and Air Force One is equipped with advanced secure communications equipment, allowing the aircraft to function as a mobile command center in the event of an attack on the United States.

Inside, the President and his travel companions enjoy 4,000 square feet of floor space on three levels, including an extensive suite for the President that features a large office, lavatory, and conference room. Air Force One includes a medical suite that can function as an operating room, and a doctor is permanently on board. The plane’s two food preparation galleys can feed 100 people at a time.

Air Force One also has quarters for those who accompany the President, including senior advisors, Secret Service officers, traveling press, and other guests. Several cargo planes typically fly ahead of Air Force One to provide the President with services needed in remote locations.

Air Force One is maintained and operated by the Presidential Airlift Group, part of the White House Military Office. The Airlift Group was founded in 1944 as the Presidential Pilot Office at the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. For the next 20 years, various propeller driven aircraft served the President. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy became the first President to fly in his own jet aircraft, a modified Boeing 707. Over the years, several other jet aircraft have been used, with the first of the current aircraft being delivered in 1990 during the administration of President George H. W. Bush.

President Barack Obama

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Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9.

Michelle Obama

When people ask First Lady Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn't hesitate to say that first and foremost, she is Malia and Sasha's mom.

But before she was a mother -- or a wife, lawyer or public servant -- she was Fraser and Marian Robinson's daughter.

The Robinsons lived in a brick bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. Fraser was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, and despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a young age, he hardly ever missed a day of work. Marian stayed home to raise Michelle and her older brother Craig, skillfully managing a busy household filled with love, laughter, and important life lessons.

A product of Chicago public schools, Mrs. Obama studied sociology and African-American studies at Princeton University. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988, she joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she later met the man who would become the love of her life.

After a few years, Mrs. Obama decided her true calling was working with people to serve their communities and their neighbors. She served as assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago's City Hall before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service.

In 1996, Mrs. Obama joined the University of Chicago with a vision of bringing campus and community together. As Associate Dean of Student Services, she developed the university's first community service program, and under her leadership as Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center, volunteerism skyrocketed.

Promoting Service and working with young people has remained a staple of her career and her interest. Continuing this effort now as First Lady, Mrs. Obama recently launched the Let’s Move! campaign  to bring together community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide effort to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity. Let’s Move! has an ambitious but important goal: to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.

Let’s Move! will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.

As First Lady, Mrs. Obama looks forward to continuing her work on the issues close to her heart — supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family,  encouraging national service, promoting the arts and arts education, and fostering healthy eating and healthy living for children and families across the country.

Michelle and Barack Obama have two daughters: Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9. Like their mother, the girls were born on the South Side of Chicago.

Innovation "The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation. None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn’t know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic revolution. What we can do -- what America does better than anyone else -- is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. " -PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, JANUARY 25, 2011 America’s economic growth and competitiveness depend on its people’s capacity to innovate. We can create the jobs and industries of the future by doing what America does best – investing in the creativity and imagination of our people. To win the future, the U.S. must out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world. President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation seeks to harness the ingenuity of the American people to ensure economic growth that is rapid, broad-based, and sustained. This economic growth will bring greater income, higher quality jobs, and improved quality of life to all Americans.

Innovation

"The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation. None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn’t know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic revolution. What we can do -- what America does better than anyone else -- is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. "
-PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, JANUARY 25, 2011
America’s economic growth and competitiveness depend on its people’s capacity to innovate. We can create the jobs and industries of the future by doing what America does best – investing in the creativity and imagination of our people. To win the future, the U.S. must out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.

President Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation seeks to harness the ingenuity of the American people to ensure economic growth that is rapid, broad-based, and sustained. This economic growth will bring greater income, higher quality jobs, and improved quality of life to all Americans.

President Obama on Egypt

Moments ago, the President released the statement below:

The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient. Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world. The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity.

As we have said from the beginning of this unrest, the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. But the United States has also been clear that we stand for a set of core principles. We believe that the universal rights of the Egyptian people must be respected, and their aspirations must be met. We believe that this transition must immediately demonstrate irreversible political change, and a negotiated path to democracy. To that end, we believe that the emergency law should be lifted. We believe that meaningful negotiations with the broad opposition and Egyptian civil society should address the key questions confronting Egypt’s future: protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens; revising the Constitution and other laws to demonstrate irreversible change; and jointly developing a clear roadmap to elections that are free and fair.

We therefore urge the Egyptian government to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made, and to spell out in clear and unambiguous language the step by step process that will lead to democracy and the representative government that the Egyptian people seek. Going forward, it will be essential that the universal rights of the Egyptian people be respected. There must be restraint by all parties. Violence must be forsaken. It is imperative that the government not respond to the aspirations of their people with repression or brutality. The voices of the Egyptian people must be heard.

Love at First Flight

The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change. In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential. In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America.

Census Day for the 23rd Census of the United States
Posted by Robert Groves on April 01, 2010 at 07:00 AM EST
Today is Census Day - the day of reference that defines who to report as living in your household on your 2010 Census form.

This morning, President Obama officially declared today "Census Day" in a presidential proclamation.

Also today, I learned that President Obama recently filled out and mailed back his census form. Below you can see a photo of the President fulfilling his civic obligation to be counted.


President Barack Obama fills out his 2010 Census form in the Oval Office, March 29, 2010. March 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The First Family experiences a unique privilege every day by living in the White House. But one aspect of their lives that is quite common also happens to be something that often causes confusion when people fill out the census form. The First Ladys mother lives with the family in the White House. Since the census asks for a count of everyone currently living in the household - not just immediate family - the President included his mother-in-law on his census form.

In these difficult economic times, it's common for extended family and friends to live with another family, yet many households mistakenly leave these individuals off their census forms.

Like the President, millions of you have already completed your form and mailed it back. You got the message that doing so is important and saves taxpayers the cost of sending out a trained census taker to interview you in person.

And the 10 simple questions you answered on the form are very close to those asked in the first-ever U.S. census in 1790. All of us today are helping to fulfill the goals of our Founding Fathers, especially James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, who played key roles in that 1790 Census. It was their invention to ensure the fairest possible political representation in our government.

You followed in our Founders footsteps, completed a great act of civic responsibility and contributed to wise stewardship of Federal tax dollars.

Now you can follow your community's progress in returning census forms. A new interactive map provides daily updates of the percentage of returned census forms. We encourage you to check the map frequently over the coming weeks to see how your community is doing compared to 2000, and also see how others across the country are faring.
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While you're visiting our Web site, explore its other features, such as an interactive form that explains the purpose and history of each question, assistance guides in 59 languages, and a page that describes the origins of the census in the Constitution.

As for those of you who haven't yet filled out your form, you still have a couple of weeks left. It's not too late to do what many of your neighbors have already done.

So do your part to make the 2010 Census a success -- fill out your form and

THE GIST
T. rex is often described as the king of all killing machines, but some scientists question that description.
According to one theory, T. rex was too clumsy and slow to do its own hunting.
Given other dinos that were around at the time, one researcher argues, T. rex couldn't have survived on scavenging along.
enlarge
An enhanced sense of smell, inferred from enlarged olfactory bulbs, is a common trait among scavengers such as vultures -- but it can help a hunter too, they note. Click to enlarge this image.
Corbis
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Palaeontologists fought back on Wednesday in a spirited debate over the Tyrannosaurus rex, saying revisionists who branded the great dinosaur a shameless scavenger have got it all wrong.

For more than a century after its discovery, many scientists routinely described the Tyrannosaurus as the king of the killing machines -- six tons of teeth, muscle and sinew, designed to run down dinos several times its size and shred them.

But over the last decade, a new wave of T. rex scholarship has painted another, less flattering, picture.

T. rex, according to this theory, was just a 12-meter (40-foot) freeloading lizard that was too clumsy and slow to do its own hunting.

It simply barged in on a meal after nimbler predators had done all the dirty work -- in other words, it was more hyena than lion.

The first broadside on the carnivore's predatory credentials came in 2003, when American expert Jack Horner concluded that T. rex's clawless forearms, beady eyes and lumbering legs meant it was "100 percent scavenger."

In 2007, John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College in Britain dished out another blow, demonstrating the "clunky" dinosaur needed more than two seconds to pivot 45 degrees, making it easy for would-be prey to evade capture.

But a new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, may help redress the balance.

Chris Carbone of the Zoological Society of London and colleagues say that some of the traits that raised doubts about T. rex's predatory prowess are larded with ambiguity.

An enhanced sense of smell, inferred from enlarged olfactory bulbs, is a common trait among scavengers such as vultures -- but it can help a hunter too, they note.

T. rex's eyes, it turns out, are not that small after all, and its binocular vision -- along with its crushing bite and impact-resistant teeth -- are all well adapted for killing.

But Carbone's most most persuasive argument for predation has nothing to do with the giant theropod's physical traits.

"We took an ecosystem approach, establishing a complete list of all the species in the area," he explained by phone.

"What is novel is that we make inferences about abundance from the size of the animals" in the Late Cretaceous, he said, referring to the period 85 to 65 million years ago when T. rex reigned supreme.

Drawing from fossil records and studies of fauna distribution in East Africa's Serengeti plains today, Carbone calculates that the ecosystem at the time would have been overwhelmingly populated by smaller dinosaurs.

Among carnivores, 80 percent would have weighed about 20 kilos (45 pounds), and T. rex would have accounted for only 0.1 percent of the population.

Among herbivores -- generally heavier -- about half weighed in at about 75 kilos (165 pounds).

The researchers calculated the range in which T. rex could roam on a daily basis, how many dead dinosaurs of different sizes it was likely to come across, and what other foragers might be around.

"Given the distribution of carcasses and the potential competition with other carnivorous dinosaurs, it is extremely unlikely that an adult T. rex could use scavenging as a long-term sustainable foraging strategy," the study concludes.

Carbone points out that modern-day wild dogs and hyenas -- similar in size and relative abundance as the smaller dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous -- "can reduce a 70-kilo (154-pound) carcass to scraps of skin and bone extremely rapidly, certainly under an hour."

The consequences for a slow-moving scavenger would have been dire.

Even if T. rex could easily push aside other predators, once it arrived at a kill scene, more agile, fleet-footed meat-eaters would have probably picked the bones clean by the time it arrived.

Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, History

Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, History

How to Increase Google AdSense Revenue - AdSense Income Expectations
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The best way to set expectations of how much income you can get from Google AdSense is to look at it like a long-term investment. Do not listen to stories of million dollars Google AdSense checks or those websites that say they are earning more than a thousand bucks in daily AdSense income and claiming that they achieved these figures in a short period of time. This kind of get-rich-quick scheme will never work in the long term.

This case is analogous to betting on a lottery, and leads you to the wrong mindset for setting realistic Google AdSense goals.

Instead, set expectations based on what your website can currently do (your content, niche, visitors) and what you are able to do (based on current time and commitment, skills, marketing techniques). Even aiming for daily amount of $ 0.85 is NOT low at all if you have great content and an authoritative website. Looking at this number in the long term, if that is your daily average:

$0.85 x 365 = $310.25

That is already higher than what your "NORMAL" bank savings account earns every year.

Here is an important tip: use keywords with SEARCHES in your post title tag. This first step is the most important. Let me give you a brief review of the previous article posted about Google AdSense a year ago:





Lack of knowledge of what keywords to target can be the root cause of low search engine traffic (which can account for 60% of all of your website's traffic sources). Low search engine traffic can certainly affect Google AdSense clicks.

The above article link provides all of the tips and techniques you need to tackle researching the best keyword to target for your main blog page or important pages.Love at First FlightThe Hangman's DaughterRed (Special Edition)