Barack Obama





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Barack Obama





---



Junior
Senator
from Illinois

Incumbent
Assumed office 
January 4, 2005
Serving with Richard
Durbin
Preceded by
Peter
Fitzgerald


---



Member of the Illinois Senate
from
the 13^th district

In office
January 8, 1997 – November 4,
2004
Preceded by
Alice J. Palmer
Succeeded by
Kwame Raoul


---


Born
August 4, 1961 (1961-08-04) (age 47)
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
Birth name
Barack Hussein Obama II
Nationality
American
Political party
Democratic
Spouse
Michelle Obama (m.
1992)
Children
Malia Ann (b.
1998),
Natasha (Sasha) (b. 2001)
Residence
Kenwood, Chicago, Illinois
Alma mater
Harvard Law
School
Columbia University
Occidental
College
Profession
Attorney, Politician
Religion
Protestant Christian (United
Church of Christ)
Signature

Website
Barack Obama—U.S. Senator for
Illinois

More detailed articles about Barack Obama
————————————
Early life and career
· (Family · Memoir)
Illinois Senate
career
U.S. Senate
career
Presidential
primaries · Obama–Biden 2008
Policy positions ·
Public
image

Barack Hussein Obama II (pronounced /bəˈrɑːk hʊˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/;
born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and presidential
nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 United States
presidential election.


Obama is the first African-American to be
nominated by a major American political party for president.^[1] A graduate of Columbia
University and Harvard Law School, where he became the
first black person to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama worked as a community
organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms
in the Illinois
Senate from 1997 to 2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law
School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in
2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003. After a
primary victory in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National
Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with
70 percent of the vote.


As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he helped
create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote
greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official
trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During the 110th
Congress, he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism,
and care for returned U.S. military personnel. Obama announced his presidential
campaign in February 2007, and was formally nominated at the 2008 Democratic National
Convention with Delaware senator
Joe Biden as his running mate.







Contents
[hide]


• 1 Early life and career
  
• 2 State legislator,
  1997–2004
  
• 3 2004 U.S. Senate
  campaign
  
• 4 U.S. Senator, from 2005
  
  • 4.1
    Legislation
    
  • 4.2
    Committees
  • 5 2008 presidential
    campaign
    
  • 6 Political positions
    
  • 7 Family and personal life
    
    
  • 8 Cultural and political
    image
    
  • 9
    Written works
    
  • 10 Notes
    
  • 11 References
    
  • 12
    Further reading
    
  • 13
    External links
    

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Monkeys range in size from the Pygmy Marmoset, at 140 to 160 millimetres
(5-6 in) long (plus tail) and 120 to 140 grams (4-5 oz) in weight, to
the male Mandrill, almost
1 metre (3.3 ft) long and weighing 35 kilograms (77 lb).
Some are arboreal (living in trees)
while others live on the savannah; diets differ among the various species but
may contain any of the following: fruit, leaves, seeds, nuts, flowers, eggs and
small animals (including insects and spiders).

Some characteristics are shared among the groups; most New World monkeys have
prehensile tails
while Old World monkeys have non-prehensile tails or no visible tail at all.
Some have trichromatic colour vision like that of
humans, others are dichromats or monochromats. Although both the New and Old World
monkeys, like the apes, have forward facing eyes, the faces of Old World and New
World monkeys look very different, though again, each group shares some features
such as the types of noses, cheeks and rumps

Second Life






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Second
Life



Second Life logo
Developer(s)
Linden Research,
Inc
Engine
Proprietary, free, and open source software^[1][2]
Physics: Havok 4
Audio: FMOD
Platform(s)
Windows


• Windows 2000 SP4
  
• Windows XP SP2 and SP3
  
• Windows Vista
  




Mac OS X (10.3.9 or
higher)




Linux i686


Media
Download
System requirements
Broadband Internet access


512MB RAM (Win,
Linux)
512MB RAM (Mac)




50MB HD
space (1000MB for Disk Cache)




800 MHz x86 CPU or better (Win,
Linux)
1GHz G4 or
better/Intel Core Processor (Mac)




nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce4
MX or better
ATI Radeon 8500, Radeon 9250 or
better


Input methods
Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad but minimum movement, 3Dconnexion Space
Navigator.


Second Life (abbreviated as SL) and its sister
site Teen Second
Life are Internet-based virtual reality environments launched June 23,
2003 and developed by Linden
Research, Inc, which came to international attention via mainstream news
media in late 2006 and early 2007. Second Life caters for users aged over
18, while Teen Second Life is restricted to users aged between 13 and 18.
A free downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer
enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other
through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social
network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other
residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create
and trade items (virtual property) and services with one
another.




Second Life's world (called "the grid") is divided into 256x256m areas of
land, called Regions or Sims (short for "Simulators"). Each Region is simulated
by a single server, and is given a unique name and content rating (either PG or
Mature). The most basic mode of transport is by foot - walking, running, or
jumping - but avatars may also fly unaided, ride in vehicles, and teleport
(abbreviated to "TP") directly between locations. Land in Second Life is treated
as a valuable and scarce commodity; residents can buy, sell, and rent land areas
from each other. Mainstream media has focused on a small number of avatars who
make large sums of money by doing so.^[3]

History of Second Life

Although many people have assumed that the inspiration for Second Life
originated from Philip
Rosedale's exposure to Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, he has suggested
that his vision of virtual worlds predates that book and that he conducted some
early virtual world experiments during his college years at the University of California San
Diego, where he studied physics.^[7]

Rosedale formed Linden Lab in 1999. His initial focus was on the development
of hardware that would enable computer users to be fully immersed in a 360
degree virtual world experience. In its earliest form, the company struggled to
produce a commercial version of "The Rig," which was realized in prototype form
as a clunky steel contraption with several computer monitors that users could
wear on their shoulders.^[8] That vision soon morphed into the
software-based application Linden World, where computer users could participate
in task-based games and socialization in a 3D online environment. That effort
would eventually transform into the better-known, user-centered Second Life.

During a 2001 meeting with investors, Rosedale noticed that the participants
were particularly responsive to the collaborative, creative potential of Second
Life. As a result, the initial objective-driven, gaming focus of Second Life was
shifted to a more user-created, community-driven experience.^[9]

At the beginning of September, 2008, just over 15 million accounts were
registered, although there are no reliable figures for actual long term
consistent usage. In January 2008, residents spent 28,274,505 hours "inworld",
so on average about 38,000 residents were logged on at any particular
moment.^[10] Despite its prominence, Second Life
has notable competitors, including Entropia Universe, IMVU, There, Active Worlds, Kaneva, and the erotic-oriented Red Light Center.

[edit]
Recent Developments

Cory Ondrejka, who helped program Second Life, resigned as chief technology officer on December
11, 2007. On March 14, 2008, Philip Rosedale announced plans to step down
from his position as Linden Lab CEO. He became chairman of Linden Lab board of directors.^[11] Rosedale
announced Mark
Kingdon as the new CEO effective May 15, 2008.

On July 8, 2008, Mitch
Kapor, the chairman of the board of Linden Labs, sparked controversy with
his keynote speech at the Second Life in-world 5th birthday celebration by
apparently disparaging the current user base of Second Life:

What is Innovative Learning Conference (ILC)

ILC is an interactive three-day conference and exposition produced in
partnership with CUE and FETC for the K-12 education community. Devoted to
advancing student achievement through innovative education strategies, ILC will
offer “hands-on” workshops, concurrent sessions, meetings and exhibitions for
K-12 superintendents, site and district administrators, technology directors,
curriculum designers, media specialists, district CTOs and other IT
professionals.

Who will attend?



• Superintendents
  
• Site and district administrators
  
• District CTOs
  
• Technology directors and other IT professionals
  
• Private and public K-12 educators
  
• Media specialists
  
• Curriculum designers

Playing To Learn is a wonderful new addition to the world of
media literacy...Because it is aimed at the elementary-12th grade audience, it
would be a welcome addition to any school library media center collection. -
The Journal of Media Literacy