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

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.

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)