Short Biography of Casey Stoner

Full Name: Casey Stoner

Popular Name: Casey Stoner

Date of Birth: 16 October 1985

Place of Birth:     Southport, Queensland, Australia

Occupation: Professional Motorcycle Racer

Nationality: Australian

Website: caseystoner.com.au

Casey Stoner was born on 16 October 1985 in Southport, Queensland, Australia. Stoner is a professional motorcycle racer. He has had a long career in motorcycle racing, starting at the age of 6 with dirt track racing in Australia.

Casey Stoner Career

Stoner competed in his first race was when he was four years old, in an under-nine years old race at the Mike Hatcher’s dirt racing track on the Gold Coast of Australia. Between his very first race win at the age of nine and the age of fourteen, Stoner won 41 dirt and long track titles and 70 state titles. At the age of 14 years, Stoner and his parents agreed he was ready to move up onto road racing so they packed up and moved to England where the legal age for road racing is 14.

In 2003 Stoner moved to the 125cc GP category. Here, working again with Cecchinello and Aprilia, he met with considerable success, scoring his first GP race win and three second places, finishing 8th overall at the season’s

In 2005 Stoner rejoined the 250cc world championship class, racing once again for Lucio Cecchinello’ team on an Aprilia.

MotoGP: Stoner started  MotoGP in 2006 with the Honda RC211V. Then in 2007, Stoner  joining DUCATI team, who then drove him to the 2007 MotoGP world championship. 2008 season, Stoner struggled to defend his world title, but he had to settle for runner-ups appear as behind Valentino Rossi achievement points standings with a total of 280 points. 2009 season, Stoner still survive on a Ducati. Stoner also agreed to extend his contract for one year with Ducati in 2010. Stoner is racing with the Repsol Honda Racing Team in 2011, with team mates Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso. In preseason testing in Malaysia, Stoner was quickest in all three sessions, closely followed by Pedrosa and reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Casey Stoner’s Personal life

Stoner met Adriana Tuchyna from Adelaide when she approached him at Phillip Island in 2003 and asked him to sign her stomach. A relationship began in 2005 when she turned 16, and they were married in Adelaide on 6 January 2007. Source : biographydvd.com

Another story of Rafael Nadal

Are you  Rafael Nadal fan? Want to know a little biography?(born June 3, 1986, Manacor, Mallorca, Spain) Spanish tennis player who emerged in the early 21st century as one of the game's leading competitors, especially noted for his performance on clay. From 2005 to 2008 he won four consecutive French Open championships.

Nadal grew up in a sports-minded family; his uncle Miguel Angel Nadal was a professional association football (soccer) player who competed in the 2002 World Cup. Rafael began playing tennis at age four, guided by another uncle, Toni Nadal, who remained his coach on the professional tour. In his early years, Nadal (who wrote with his right hand) played left-handed tennis with both a two-handed forehand and backhand. When he was 12, however, his uncle encouraged him to adopt a more conventional left-handed style. Nadal stuck with his two-handed backhand but switched to what became his signature one-handed forehand, the stroke that was credited with lifting him into the sport's upper echelons.

Nadal, who officially turned professional in 2001, had appeared in only one grand slam tournament as a junior competitor when he reached the semifinals at the 2002 Wimbledon championships. He began his professional career in earnest the next year, breaking into the top 50 in the world. In 2004 he played a crucial role in Spain's defeat of the United States in the Davis Cup final. Toppling Andy Roddick—then number two in the world—in a four-set opening-day singles clash, Nadal became the youngest player (at 18 years 6 months) in the history of the international team competition to win a singles match for a victorious country.

Driving his forehand with a devastatingly potent heavy topspin and covering the court with alacrity, Nadal quickly became one of the top players on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour. He also developed a rivalry with world number one Roger Federer. In 2005 Nadal set a record for a teenage male player by registering 11 tournament victories, including a triumph at his French Open (Roland Garros) debut, when he upset Federer in the semifinals. The next year, Nadal secured five more titles on the ATP tour, including his second straight French Open win—this time besting Federer in the final. He also reached his first final on the grass at Wimbledon before falling to Federer.

In 2007 Nadal extended his victories on clay surfaces to a record 81 consecutive matches before losing to Federer on May 20 in the final of the ATP Masters Series Hamburg (Ger.). After bouncing back to win his third title at Roland Garros, Nadal lost to Federer in a grueling five-set Wimbledon final lasting 3 hours 45 minutes. The two met once again in the 2008 French Open final, where Nadal overpowered Federer to win his fourth straight tournament title, tying Björn Borg's record for consecutive French Open wins. Nadal and Federer met in a third consecutive Wimbledon final in 2008. This time Nadal won his fifth career grand slam title—in a five-set match lasting 4 hours 48 minutes, the longest men's singles final in Wimbledon history—and thus became the first man since Borg (1980) to collect both the French Open and the Wimbledon title in the same year. In August 2008 Nadal won the men's singles gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing, and he took over the number one world ranking from Federer in the same month. In 2009 he won his first Australian Open championship after he again bested Federer in a dramatic five-set final match. He set a record for consecutive wins at the French Open the following May, which was then broken at 31 when Nadal was upset in the fourth round of the tournament. At the end of the 2009 tennis season, Nadal helped Spain sweep the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup final. Source: www.biography.com

Overview of Shaquille O'Neal Biography

Are you  fan of NBA basketball? certainly familiar with Shaquille O'Neal, along with a little biography about the famous basketball star. Shaquille "Superman" O'Neal is one of the most dominant figures in NBA history. Not only is his size intimidating...he's 7"1, weighs over 300lbs and has size 21 feet...but his on-court record is among the best that the NBA has ever seen. He now has four NBA titles to his name. Three with his old team, the LA Lakers in their magical three season stretch between 1999 and 2002 and most recently one with Miami Heat in the 2005 - 2006 season. He's listed in the NBA top 50 all time greatest list (and he's still playing!) and is currently ranked number 9 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time.

Born on the 6th March 1972 it would be twenty years before he was drafted into the NBA in 1992. He'd played basketball as a boy in Germany and later when he returned to America with his mother and step-father. His emerging size and talent on the court began to become more and more apparent as he reached high school and although he attended Louisiana State University he would drop out and join Orlando Magic after just three years. His rise to basketball stardom was under way yet he did then and still does now talk of achieving things off the court as proven by his successes in both film and rap plus his desire to get a master's degree in criminal justice after his professional basketball career ends.

His rookie season finished with him being named 1993 rookie of the year with an average of 23.4 points and 13.9 rebounds per game...not a bad start to his NBA career! In addition he'd helped Orlando Magic win 20 more games than their previous season.

Shaquille O'Neal improved upon this record in his Sophomore year averaging a staggering 29.3 points per game before injury disrupted his improvement in the 1995 - 1996 season. Once surmounted new options were presented to him and as a free agent he moved to the LA Lakers for what would become one of the most glorious 3 - 4 year campaigns an NBA team has ever had.

His incredible partnership with the rising talent, Kobe Bryant, led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002 before they completely and utterly fell out with each other evident both on court and in the media. This split would not only end the dominance of the Lakers at the top of the NBA but would also end O'Neal's position in the team.

In 2003 the Lakers failed to meet his contract demands which resulted in his eventual transfer to Miami Heat where he still plays now and where he vows to play out the rest of his NBA career. As the Lakers have fallen from grace the opposite has happened for Shaq and Miami as they won the NBA title this season. It seems that there is still much more to come from "The Big Aristotle" as he likes to call himself! Source : www.shaquille-oneal.us

Michael Bolton and His Music Career

Are you a fan of his?, it's a little story about the musical career of the much-loved top singer in the world. One of the music industry's most successful singer/songwriters, Michael Bolton has also gained recognition as an author and human rights activist. Most recently, he authored his first children's book (The Secret Of The Lost Kingdom, published by Hyperion/Disney Press in the fall of 1997) and recorded "Go The Distance" -- the theme song for the Disney animated film, Hercules. Michael brings the same passion, devotion, and commitment to his other major projects that have made him -- with sales of more than 40 million albums -- one of the world's most popular singers.

His new album of pop songs, All That Matters, appeared in the fall of 1997, and an album of opera arias, My Secret Passion, was released in 1998 (SK 63077).

In 1993, Michael established the Michael Bolton Foundation, which provides assistance, through local and national charities and "safe house" shelters, to children and women at risk from poverty, as well as from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. He's the honorary chairman of the National Committee To Prevent Child Abuse and National Chairman for This Close For Cancer Research. In 1994, he received the prestigious Lewis Hine Award from the National Child Labor Committee. In 1995, he was named a Hendon Fellow at Yale University. In January 1996, Michael became the recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr./C.O.R.E. Award. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors for One-To-One, a youth mentoring program and the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

Michael's predilection for good works dovetailed with his developing love of opera recently when he joined Luciano Pavarotti on stage in Modena, Italy, at the "Luciano & Friends Together For The Children of Bosnia" benefit concert. "The experience was indescribable," he remembers.

"There's something incredibly fulfilling in singing beautiful classical music."

Michael Bolton, arguably America's premier pop singer and songwriter, grew up idolizing such pioneers of R&B as Ray Charles and Otis Redding.

Blessed with an incomparable voice and a keen songwriting ability, he began hitting radio playlists in 1983 with "Fool's Game," from his self-titled Columbia Records album debut. After the release of The Hunger (1987), fans and critics began to take notice of this fast-emerging talent, but it was 1989's multi-platinum Soul Provider, with hit singles like the Grammy-winning "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" (which has been played more than four million times on the radio) and the title track, that catapulted Michael to the upper echelon of pop music luminaries.

With the release of #1 Time, Love & Tenderness in 1991, Michael Bolton became an international superstar. The album sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and earned him a second Best Pop Vocal, Male, Grammy for the #1 Pop/AC smash "When A Man Loves A Woman." He also earned two American Music Awards, including Favorite Male Artist and Favorite Male Album, and was named Best Pop Male Vocalist at the New York Music Awards.

Michael followed Time, Love & Tenderness with the #1 Timeless (The Classics), a collection of the singer's best-loved R&B and pop standards.

Then, in 1993, came the multi-platinum The One Thing, which included the multi-platinum single, "Said I Loved You... But I Lied."

Having begun his career as a songwriter, it's no surprise that Bolton's songs have been recorded by an astonishing array of artists. Michael has written songs for Barbra Streisand ("We're Not Making Love Anymore"); KISS ("Forever"); Joe Cocker ("Living Without Your Love"); Kenny Rogers ("Just The Thought Of Losing You"); Cher ("I Found Someone"); and Kenny G and Peabo Bryson (the 1993 BMI Pop Award-winning "By The Time This Night Is Over"). Other noted artists, such as Patti LaBelle, the Pointer Sisters, Gregg Allman, Lee Greenwood and Conway Twitty have also covered Bolton songs. Michael is among the scant handful of songwriters to have collaborated with Bob Dylan; their song "Steel Bars" is a highlight of both Time, Love & Tenderness and Bolton's Greatest Hits album.

The music industry honored Bolton's songwriting with the 1995 Hitmaker's Award, from the National Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and the prestigious "Million Performance Song Award" five times. (A "million performance" song is one which has received at least 50,000 hours -- more than 5.7 years! -- of airplay.)

"Between writing, performing, recording, and everything else, far and away, performing before my audience is the best," Michael says. From 1991 through 1995, Michael embarked on a series of international marathon concert tours including the 1991-1992 Time, Love & Tenderness Tour and the 1994-1995 The One Thing Tour. He has appeared at hundreds of concerts and performed for millions of fans; Michael's many memorable concert experiences included several visits to the White House at the invitation of President Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Despite his full plate of activities, Michael Bolton wouldn't have it any other way: "I'm working on enjoying each moment a bit more. It feels like it's always time to move onward and upward; at the same time, that means moving deeper into the gift of music. That will always take me where I want to go." Source : www.sing365.com

Metallica Short Biography

Metallica is a band that emerged in the early 1980s underground scene that grew into a giant mainstream rock band. With album sales reaching 57 million units in the U.S. and 35 million units outside the U.S., they occupy 18 th position as one of the biggest album sellers artists enrolled in the Recording Industry Association of America.Metallica formed in California in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist / vocalist James Hetfield. bassist Ron and dinyusuli McGovny then joined Dave Mustaine. McGovney go after a conflict with Mustaine and Cliff Burton changed his position. Mustaine's aggressive nature and often have problems with drugs and alcohol cause he was fired by Ulrich and Hetfield. His position was filled Kirk Hammet, a student of Joe Satriani. Mustaine then form Megadeth.

The band gets its name when Ulrich invited to promoter metal of San Francisco, Ron Quintana, to help choose a name from the list to be the name of his new magazine. The list contained the name Metallica. Ulrich suggests mejalah Metal Mania for Quintana and choose the new Metallica for the band he forms.

Along with Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, Metallica is one of four leaders in the 1980s thrash metal.

The first album Kill 'Em All was released in 1983 via Megaforce. The first album is an example of Metallica sound basis for the 1980s era with distinctive vocals and heavy rhythm of Hetfield.

In 1984 they menndatangani contract with Elektra Records and released Master of Puppets, the album is regarded as the best album Metallica fans. Source: iskandardz.co.cc

Mahjong Game History

'Mahjong' is a Chinese word that interprets ‘clattering sparrow’, ‘flax sparrow’ or perhaps ‘hemp bird’. This is due to the fact that tiles when mixed up make a musical noise suggestive of the noise several sparrows squabbling over the strewn food crumbs make. It was in this very century that west got a glance of Mahjong, when it was launched in the international colony of Shanghai and after that in Japan, USA and lastly Europe. When Mahjong game was established in west, it was asserted that its origins were cloaked in the mists of time. But most of the facts points that the game was developed in late 1800’s in the Ningpo area of China.

There is a diversified range of mahjong games that uses pretty parallel basic rules, but different scoring and different plans, special hands and tile combinations. Although the game Mahjong as it is normally played today can be traced back only to the end of the previous century, the line of games that progressed to Mahjong is long and extensive. From around 800 AD card games were played which bear a resemblance to the way Mahjong is played. The cards used in these games looked a lot like the money used in those days.

Lately large number of people understood the kind of intellectual challenge Mahjong poses as well as the attractiveness and enthusiasm of the game. This resulted in evolving abundant clubs of Mahjong fans and a whole philosophic system ofMahjong representation is now shaped up. Now, Mahjong is also frequently called a solitaire game due to their resemblance.

Mahjong Varieties

The original mahjong game is a board game for four players rather similar to the card game "Gin Rummy", but played with tiles in its place of cards. There are at least 26 acknowledged arrays of mahjong: with the six major varieties being:

·         Alan's Zung Jung

·         American Classical

·         American Modern

·         Australian

·         British Official

·         Canada Mahjong

·         Chinese Classical

·         Chinese New Style

·         Chinese Official

·         Chinese Transitional

·         Dutch League Rules

·         European Classical (same as European Contemporary in 4 winds 1.0)

·         French

·         German

·         Hong Kong

·         Internet Mahjong Server

·         Italian Official

·         Japanese Classical

·         Japanese Transitional

·         Riichi Competition Rules

·         Korean Style

·         Mahjong Masters Million

·         Taiwanese 16-Tile Mah Jong

·         Wilmington Advanced 12-Tile

·         WMPA Rules

·         Novice  

Source : mahjongtime.com