One of the most famous people

Micheal Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials, MJ, is an American former professional basketball player, entrepreneur, and current majority owner and chairman of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.


After a three-season career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.


Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP Awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP Awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. Among his numerous accomplishments, Jordan holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century.


He is a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame – in 2009 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team").
Jordan is also known for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself. He is the majority owner and head of basketball operations for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, having won a bidding war to buy controlling interest in the team from founding owner Robert L. Johnson.



Slam dunk contests

-Yifu (liymd1202)

Bill gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, investor, computer programmer. Gates is the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He was ranked American richest person and world second richest person in 2011. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill and Melinda gates foundation, established in 2000.According to Forbes bill gates  was ranked fourth power person in 2012 and fifth in 2011.There is a famous quote of bill gates that his son went to a restaurant and give $100 tip to a waiter and next day Bill gates went to the same restaurant and give a tip $10 and waiter said sir yesterday your son came here and he give $100 a tip and you  gave me $10 and he replied that he is the son of billionaire and i am the son of farmer.

                                         Faris   BAFAD 1303

Bruce Lee

Birth 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973

Bruce Lee, whose real name is Li Zhen Fan, the internationally renowned Chinese martial arts actor, director, martial arts artist, and the founder of Jeet Kune Do.

Bruce Lee

Bruce was Born in San Francisco's Chinatown,later on moved to Hong Kong and spent his youth in Kowloon, He was a child actor in Hong Kong and later on In 1959, 18 years old Bruce Lee went back to America to study major in philosophy at the University of Washington, He were also teaching the Wing Chun style of martial arts that he had learnt back in Hong Kong to his students and others. Through the years, Lee met Linda Emery, who has married him in 1964. during his study at the University of Washington, he also guest appearance in many American TV series.

In 1970 Bruce was invited to the Golden Harvest Raymond Chow's film company based in Hong Kong and starred in a martial art action movie named "The big BOSS" and soon gained great reputation，Bruce quickly expand his visibility in the film industry,Since then he has starred in many action movies include "Fist of Fury", "Way of the Dragon," "Enter the Dragon" and "Game of Death", these five action movie shook the entire international film arena.

On July 20, 1973, Bruce Lee was found dead in his own apartment at the age of 32. The official cause of his sudden and utterly unexpected death was a brain edema, rumours has being going around since then, some claimed he had been murdered, and some believe that he had been cursed.

Till Today Bruce Lee's death still remained as a mysteries.

-Ying Zheng(ZHYLD1202)
source from: www.biography.com

Steve Jobs (1955–2011)

The man who changed the history of smart technology

Steven Paul Jobs, born on the 24th of February1955, also known as Steve Jobs, he was an American entrepreneur, marketers and inventor , co-founder of company Apple , also the founder of Pixar animation and former chief executive officer , in 2006 as the Walt Disney Company Board members.


Steve started the company Apple in 1972 with his partner Stephen Wozniak who met him in Homesteady high school, they designed the first Apple computer in 1976 back in Steve's family garage and funded their entrepreneurial venture after Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak sold his beloved scientific calculator.

Apple II in 1977

when Steve were in charge of  marketing for Apple—he marketed the computers each for $666.66, the first Apple Computer has earned around $774,000 for the company. After they released the second version of Apple computer The Apple II, the company has increased the sale by 700 percent, to $139 million. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded company, with a market value of $1.2 billion on its very first day of trading.

Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC 's mouse driven graphical user interface , and apply one year after the Apple Lisa and Macintosh computers.


Steven Jobs has lead the Apple in to the Glory, he introduced revolutionary both software and hardware to the world like the Macbook Air, Itune, iPod and iPhone, shown the evolution of modern day's technology.

Steve Jobs was dealing with pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade, on October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that he has passed away at age 56 in Pale Alto.

-Ying Zheng (ZHYLD1202)
source from:www.biography.com

Jackie Chan

Today will be about Jackie Chan, the famous international superstar actor.

Jackie Chan was born on the 7th April 1954, he was famous for his acting and his stunt works, being one of a few actors in the filming industry who does their own stunt work, he also created the genre of action comedy with his unique style of performing his action scenes, making use of many environmental objects in his fight scenes. Jackie Chan although is mainly known for his works in acting, he is also known for being a action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screen writer, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. Throughout his career, he has work on over 150 films to date. He has also received awards and recognition in the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars (I'm guessing the Hong Kong version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame).

Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong, he was the child of Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, at the time they worked for the French Ambassador in Hong Kong. In 1960, Charles Chan emigrated to Canberra, Australia to work as a head chef for the American Embassy, while Jackie Chan was sent to a Peking opera school (Drama academy pretty much, they style being Peking opera or Beijing opera) where he was trained in martial arts and acrobatics, Jackie was said to have excelled in those activities. Jackie Chan officially began his career at age 5, at 17 he worked as a stuntman and even starred in 2 of Bruce Lee's films, some directors were impressed with his work so in 1973 he received his first roles. Jackie starred in a few films before he went to Australia to join his parents where he attended college briefly and worked as a construction worker.

Since having impressed a few people in the filming industry in Hong Kong before leaving, Jackie Chan received an offer to star in a role from Hong Kong film producer Willie Chan (who to date is still one of Jackie Chan's closest friends and also responsible for raising his status to a international superstar), the film however was a box office failure due to that fact that they shot the action in the style of Bruce Lee (who was the prominent Hong Kong action star at the time) and that Jackie Chan was not use to this style, despite this, they continued to film more. Jackie Chan's first major breakthrough was in 1978, in the filming process, the director allowed Jackie the freedom to perform his own action and stunts and looking in retrospect, this proved a wise decision for it allowed Jackie to created what is known as action comedy and that it was also a nice welcome change for the audiences. Jackie Chan's first mainstream success was from the film "Drunken Master".

Having made a name for himself, in 1980, Jackie attempted to break into the western film industry in Hollywood, however, it was not too much success and he withdrew and returned to Hong Kong. He continued filming into the 1990's were he made a second attempt to break in, this time having much more success than the first, he gain a foothold after filming "Rumble in the Bronx", the film was a box office success. Over the years he continued filming hits such as "Rush Hour", "Rush Hour 2", "Shanghai Noon" and many more, through time, Jackie Chan establish himself as a international action star and gain recognition from all over the world.

I have to say, Jackie Chan is one of my favorite actors in the world, not only because his films are entertaining to watch, he puts so much energy into his work, creating action comedy and going as far as to do dangerous stunts on his own. Jackie Chan is one of the greatest famous people in the world.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)

Young Jackie Chan

Old Jackie Chan

Rush Hour staring Jackie Chan

Will Smith

Will Smith

Will Smith

Will Smith was born in the west of Philadelphia 25th of September 1968, he was raised to refrigeration engineer Willard Carroll Smith,because of his charming personality and mischievous behavior Smith , who 's nickname in school was " the Prince "，and later on changed in to "Fresh Prince".

When Smith was a teenager he begins to play rap, he and his childhood friend Jeff Townes(known as DJ jazzy Jeff) formed the "DJ Jazzy Jeff", The "Fresh Prince" Smith served as the lead singer , and Jeff as turntablist and producer. Early 1980s to the 1990s his group of pop and hip-hop music has been very well-known .

Smith's first major acting were in the movie Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and the action film Bad Boys(1995. In 1996, Smith starred in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. The film was a massive hit, and becoming the second highest grossing film in history.


-Ying Zheng( ZHYLD1202)
Source: biography.com

Oprah Winfrey

"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams." – Oprah Winfrey

Oprah was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her father and mother were not married, and lived with her father when she was 14 years old. She stated that her father was strict with her. Oprah got her first job at a local Tv station as a news anchor after graduating from college. She didn’t do well in the news programme and transferred to an ailing daytime chat program. This led to her own show – The Oprah Winfrey Show which is one of the most famous shows these days. Also, she was nominated for an Oscar in the film A Color Purple. She is one of the most successful people, and she helped a lot of people to achieve what they want and taught them how to feel confident about what they are doing. 

Faris (Bafad 1303)

Jay Chou

Jay Chou

(born 18 January 1979) is a Taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor and director.


In 2000, Chou released his first album, titled Jay (2000), under the record company Alfa Music. Since then his music has gained recognition throughout Asia, most notably in regions such as Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and in western Asian communities such as in the United States and Australia. He has sold more than 30 million albums since his debut. Chou continues to write songs for other artists, work on his album and went on to win numerous awards in the music industry. In 2003, he was the cover story of Time magazine (Asia version), acknowledging his influence on popular culture. He has since held five world tours, performing in cities around the world to more than 10 million people.


Chou debuted his acting career and made his film debut in Initial D (2005), and also since ventured into many movie projects. He made his Hollywood debut in 2011 with The Green Hornet, starring alongside Seth Rogen and Christoph Waltz. Chou also manages his own record and management company JVR Music.

Jay Chou

 - Yifu (liymd1202)

Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher
( born 3 January 1969) is a retired German racing driver. Schumacher is a seven-time Formula One (F1) World champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He holds many of Formula One's driver records, including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions and most races won in a single season – 13 in 2004. In 2002, he became the only driver in Formula One history to finish in the top three in every race of a season and then also broke the record for most consecutive podium finishes. According to the official Formula One website, he is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen".


After beginning with karting, Schumacher won the German drivers' championships in Formula König and Formula Three before joining Mercedes in the World Sportscar Championship. After one Mercedes-funded race for the Jordan Formula One team, Schumacher signed as a driver for the Benetton Formula One team in 1991. After winning consecutive championships with Benetton in 1994/5, Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996 and won another five consecutive drivers' titles with them from 2000 to 2004. Schumacher retired from Formula One driving in 2006 staying with Ferrari as an advisor. Schumacher agreed to return for Ferrari part-way through 2009, as cover for the badly injured Felipe Massa, but was prevented by a neck injury. Schumacher returned to Formula One on a permanent basis from 2010 with the Mercedes team before retiring for a second time at the conclusion of the 2012 season.


His career was not without controversy, including being twice involved in collisions in the final race of a season that determined the outcome of the world championship, with Damon Hill in 1994 in Adelaide, and with Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 in Jerez. Off the track Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO and a spokesman for driver safety. He has been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts throughout his life and donated tens of millions of dollars to charity. Schumacher and his younger brother, Ralf, are the only brothers to win races in Formula One, and they were the first brothers to finish 1st and 2nd in the same race, a feat they repeated in four subsequent races.
In December 2013, Schumacher suffered a serious head injury while skiing. He was airlifted to a hospital and placed in a medically induced coma, having suffered a traumatic brain injury. As of 7 March 2014 Schumacher remained in a coma and in a critical but stable condition.

Picture of Michael Schumacher.

- Yifu (liymd1202)

Martin Luther King, Jr

So the 5th post, today's post will be about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr was a famous American activist, humanitarian, pastor and for many, leader of the African-American civil rights movement, he was born on January 15th 1929 and died April 4th 1968. During King's time, there were many social injustice in the American society, many looked down on African-American and treated them unequally to whites, many African-Americans were also subject to police brutality and inequality, thus King was a very passionate man of the idea of peace, equality and the freedom of African-Americans, he organized or helped organize many non-violent means of protest such as the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in his lifetime and fought equally hard for the freedom and equal treatment of African-Americans in the American society. For his efforts and persistence, his protest movements gain national news coverage.

Martin Luther King, Jr was most famous for the March on Washington D.C. in 1963, where he delivered the famous freedom speech 'I have a dream', his 16 minute speech touch many people, it also established his reputation as a effective orator and master communicator. The next year in 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in combating racial inequality through non-violent means. He later focused on the problem of poverty and the Vietnam War, King delivered another speech in 1967 named 'Beyond Vietnam' as a anti-Vietnam protest, this in turn lost him a few allies as many at the time were for the war. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated on April 4th 1968, he death sparked many riots over many U.S. cities. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for his lifetime efforts, many cities established Martin Luther King, Jr as a holiday in 1971 and it was established as a official federal U.S. holiday in 1986.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very passionate man on the ideals of freedom and he died a martyr. After his death, King became a national symbol of freedom and thus cemented his legacy of a freedom fighter.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1963 March on Washington D.C.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey

Jim was born in Canada on 17 January 1962. he is a one of the most famous actors in Hollywood ,and also a producer and comedian. Jim won 4 golden globe awards from  Liar Liar movie, Truman Show, Man on the Moon, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. However, Jim faced a lot of financials problems when he was young when his father lost his job as a musician his family went form a lower middle class to poor. Jim never finished high school because he worked a full time job to support and help his family. Moreover, his father supported him until he became one of the most famous stand-up comic, then Jim changed his attention to the film and television industries and he succeeded on being a comedian actor. In the end a person like him who struggled in his early life and then worked hard to make his dream come true, should motivate many people who are struggling and they think that they can not do anything by making them believe that there is always a chance.

sources:
biography.com
britannica.com

By,
 Faris (bafad1303)

Neil Armstrong

Today...Neil Armstrong!

Neil Armstrong was famous for being the first human in the history of our species to walk on the moon. He was born on 5th August 1930 and died on 25th August 2012, he did many things prior to becoming an astronaut. Prior to his astronaut career, Neil Armstrong was a officer in the United States Navy and he served in the Korean War. He was also a university professor, naval aviator, aerospace engineer and a test pilot. Thus accumulating many knowledge and experience before becoming an astronaut.

Neil Armstrong joined NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Astronaut Corps in 1962, from there he trained for space mission and extravehicular activities. Throughout his career, he has only participated in two space flight missions. His first mission was on 1966, he was the command pilot of a Gemini VIII spacecraft and he perform a space docking procedure. His second and last mission was the one which earn him his fame, taking place in July 1969, he was mission commander of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the Apollo 11 moon landing mission. He and Buzz Aldrin, another famous astronaut (because of the same reason, only that he was second to walk the moon), after landing they set foot on the lunar surface and spent 2 hours exploring.

When Neil Armstrong returned home, he and his crew mates were awarded to Presidential Medal of Freedom, years later in 1978, Armstrong was awarded to Congressional Space Medal of Honor and then years after that in 2009, him and his former crew mates were awarded to Congressional Gold Medal. Neil Armstrong lived to age 82 and in 2012, he passed away from complications after surgery.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)

Apollo 11 Crew (From left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Colins and Buzz Aldrin).

Armstrong on the lunar surface.

Alexander the Great

And alas, we're here on my third post, who to talk about today? I think today will be Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia and Persia.

Alexander the Great was born according to historians in July 356 BC and died in June 323 BC. He was famous for creating one of the largest empires in the ancient world and he was also a very skilled general, never losing a battle despite the odds against him (that or he never got old enough to lose one since he died at only 32 years old).

At a young age, Alexander was tutor by the great and famous philosopher Aristotle, he was taught many subjects which in time stirred his mind for adventure and discovery. After his father King Phillip II of Macedon was assassinated in 336 BC, Alexander was crowned king, along with his fathers previous conquest of Greece and his military army reforms (which created one of the most advanced and effective military forces in the ancient world), Alexander initiated his fathers plan for the invasion and conquest of Persia.

King Darius III initially underestimated Alexander and sent his generals to deal with him, time and time again, Alexander was victorious, Alexander fought fearlessly and was noted for his daring tactics and strategies, due to the fact that every major battle the Macedonians fought, they were outnumbered and out positioned by the Persians.

Eventually Darius was defeated and betrayed by his generals and that cemented Alexanders conquest of Persia. He had completed his fathers plans, however, Alexander did not stop there, his curiosity drove him further east towards India. After years of constant battles and warring, many of his troops were tired, exhausted and fearful of facing the Indian armies (with their war elephants and everything), they threatened to rebel and revolt (and some did) unless Alexander returned home, Alexander attempted to persuade his troops to keep going however much to his disappointment, they would not budge or change their minds, Alexander eventually gave in to his troops desire and march them home.

The death of Alexander was debated among many historians, some believed he died of disease and some believed he was poisoned by his generals, that debate however remains as much a mystery a to people who lived in his time. At his death, Alexander had created one of the largest known empire in the ancient world and regrettably his empire had died with him, after his death, many of his generals argued and fought over who would succeed him and in the end his empire had been split into smaller factions. His empire had lived has long as he did.

Despite Alexanders self-centered nature and his curiosities of foreign and exotic lands, I do consider him a great leader. His ability to inspire his troops with great confidence was a rare skill, he was also a very skilled general and tactician in the field of battle, having able to devise battle plans and strategy to win battles against superior numbers (though many believed that Alexander would not have been able to get as far as his did without his father's military reforms, however that is up for debate). In the end, he was Alexander 'the Great'.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)

Painting of Alexander during his most famous battle.
The Battle of Gaugamela.

Sculpture of Alexander.

Albert Einstein

Alright, my second post.....I have to confess I having been putting much effort in since my holiday last a short amount of time, but anyways, enough about me, who do I talk about first? Will some thought (...or barely at all) I suppose the first person I want to talk about is Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein was born in Germany in March 14th, 1879 and died in April 18th, 1955, he was a German theoretical physicist, famous for his scientific and logic defying (at the time) theories of special and general relativity and also a famous energy equation e=mc^2.

I will talk about one of his most famous proposed theory, the special theory of relativity. Before Albert Einstein, many scientist believed that time was a constant universal entity (like how time just goes forward and is not susceptible to change in any other direction or anything else), however, Einstein's theory put an end to that fact, when he proposed in his special relativity theory, in his theory it was said that not only is time not a universal constant and that it travels in a straight line like a majority of us believes, but that it can be slowed or sped up, that it can vary. That was the kicker and because at the time of its proposal, that the idea of time varying was so ridiculous, much of the scientific community rejected the idea.

Over the years, as technology advanced and improved, scientist were able to test his theory and despite all the past criticisms, rejections and skepticism, Albert Einstein's theory was correct after all.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)

Old Albert Einstein.

Young Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein's famous equation.

Introduction

First Blog

For my first post, I feel like I should tell whoever is reading this that I will most likely talk about famous people (as my blog topic is stated) who influenced the world, where it be scientifically, socially, historically or otherwise.  The look of our ‘future blog’ will (in my guess) most likely appears as our thoughts on famous people all around the world, be it now or in the past. We will discuss on what they did, what we think about them, what we think they should of done, what we would of done and/or generally whatever pops into our head. We won't be restricted to one famous person (or at least I won't be) per a blog post or multiple blog posts thus we will talk about multiple famous figures throughout history. We will include images, videos, tags, logos, templates, gadgets and/or labels as the assignment requires.

- Leo Lieu (LILED1303/ISYS100)