TENNIS PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S on the Tennis Court on River Island

Your taxi to T.R.A.C.S: http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

Billie Jean King and Billie Jean

Billie Jean King (born November 22, 1943) is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King won the singles title at the inaugural WTA Tour Championships. King often represented the United States in the Federation Cup and the Wightman Cup. She was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, King was the United States' captain in the Federation Cup.

Song

"Billie Jean" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson. It is the second single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. There are contradictory claims on the meaning of the song's lyrics. One suggests that they are derived from a real-life experience, in which a female fan claimed that Jackson (or one of his brothers) had fathered her twins. However, Michael Jackson stated that "Billie Jean" was based on groupies he had encountered. The song is well known for its distinctive bassline played by Louis Johnson, the standard drum beat heard in the beginning, the repetition of "Billie Jean is not my lover" towards the end of the song and Michael Jackson's vocal hiccups. The song was mixed 91 times by audio engineer Bruce Swedien before it was finalized, though he reportedly went with the second mix as the final product.

Let’s kick this thing off with an absolute killer tune, penned by Michael Jackson himself, that would become one of the biggest-selling singles of all time, with its accompanying MTV-smashing video. The story goes that producer Quincy Jones, when working on the Thriller album in 1982, really dragged his feet over the song, complaining that the intro was too long, that he didn’t like the bass line, and that it was generally weak. He further disliked Jackson’s proposed title, concerned that listeners would think he was being offensive towards the bespectacled tennis player Billie Jean King on the topic of a female fan claiming that he had fathered a child with her: ‘She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one, but the kid is not my son’. However, Jackson gave short shrift to Quincy’s idea that the track should be called ‘Not My Lover’, while at the same time trying to get a producing credit on the track, consequently creating a rift in their working relationship. And history suggests that Jackson was of course right, seeing that ‘Not My Lover’ was a naff title, potentially robbing the song of much of its emotional impact. The tune therefore became famous as ‘Billy Jean’. Not sure what Billie Jean King did in fact make of it all though!

Billie Jean is one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs

TENNIS

Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.

Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis". It had close connections both to various field ("lawn") games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport of real tennis. During most of the 19th century, in fact, the term "tennis" referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis: for example, in Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845), Lord Eugene De Vere announces that he will "go down to Hampton Court and play tennis."

The rules of tennis have changed little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye.

Tennis is played by millions of recreational players and is also a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the "Majors") are especially popular: the Australian Open played on hard courts, the French Open played on red clay courts, Wimbledon played on grass courts, and the US Open played also on hard courts.

History

Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand. Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th century". In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe. In June 1316 at Vincennes, Val-de-Marne and following a particularly exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there was also suspicion of poisoning. Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis X is history's first tennis player known by name. Another of the early enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France, who had a court set up at the Louvre Palace.

It wasn't until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called "tennis", from the French term tenez, which can be translated as "hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection used as a call from the server to his opponent. It was popular in England and France, although the game was only played indoors where the ball could be hit off the wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game, which is now known as real tennis. During the 18th century and early 19th century, as real tennis declined, new racket sports emerged in England.

Further, the patenting of the first lawn mower in 1830, in Britain, is strongly believed to have been the catalyst, worldwide, for the preparation of modern-style grass courts, sporting ovals, playing fields, pitches, greens, etc. This in turn led to the codification of modern rules for many sports, including lawn tennis, most football codes, lawn bowls and others.

BIONIC PARTY

BIONIC PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Street on River Island

Your taxi to T.R.A.C.S: http://slurl.com/secondlife/River%20Island/221/249/22

Christina Aguilera - Bionic

This-this-this-this is the moment that I take over your mind frame
Step into the picture that I paint you to my brain game
I let her date you so I give you a migraine
Over and over, put it on me, later you're insane
This is a roller coaster that's about to be long gone
Once you jump in, we're gonna get up on the lump and hold on
Just let it go, get it up, allow yourself to transform
Follow me, follow me to a place I know of no return

Are you ready, ready, ready to go?
Are you ready, ready, ready to go?

Bionic, take it supersonic, eh
I'm bionic, hit you like a rocket, eh-ay-yeh
Bionic, so damn bionic, eh
Gonna get you with my electronic, supersonic rocket, eh

Bionic, take it supersonic, eh
I'm bionic, hit you like a rocket, eh-ay-yeh
Bionic, so damn bionic
Gonna get you with my electronic, supersonic rocket, eh

I-I-I-I-I am the future, put it on you like a hurricane
Call me the supernova that's taking over all time and space
I'm testing your dimension, can't keep up with what I create
I'll break your concentration, imagination with what I make
Many times imitated, not duplicated, can't be replaced
Na-na-now, lemme spell it out, everybody can shout my name,
X-X-X-T-T-T-I-I-I-N-N-N-A
(Say) X-X-X-T-T-T-I-I-I-N-N-N-A-(say)-A-A-(say)

Are you ready, ready, ready to go?

Bionic, take it supersonic, eh
I'm bionic, hit you like a rocket, eh-ay-yeh
Bionic, so damn bionic, eh
Gonna get you with my electronic, supersonic rocket, eh

Bionic, take it supersonic, eh
I'm bionic, hit you like a rocket, eh-ay-yeh
Bionic, so damn bionic, eh
Gonna get you with my electronic, supersonic rocket, eh
Bionic, take it supersonic, eh
I'm bionic, hit you like a rocket, eh-ay-yeh
Bionic, so damn bionic, eh
Gonna get you with my electronic, supersonic rocket, eh

BIONIC

On August 26, 1994 the BBC had the news that “a man gets 'bionic' heart.”

"A man has been given the world's first battery-operated heart in a pioneering operation in Britain. The patient, an unnamed 62-year-old from the south of England, is now in a stable condition at the world-famous Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire."

 

Arthur Cornhill, 62, became the world's first patient to go home with a mechanical heart - a plastic and metal device in his abdomen. It was fitted at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire, in August 1994. The recipient of the heart pump was later named as Arthur Cornhill.

He died from kidney failure nine months after the operation.

At the time of Mr Cornhill's death, the LVAD (left ventricular assist device) had been implanted into two other British men, one of whom died shortly afterwards.

In 2000 progress in LVAD (left ventricular assist device) technology allowed doctors in Oxford, England, to fit the first pump designed to be a permanent fixture inside a patient's failing heart. The patient, Peter Houghton, was on the brink of death before the operation that allowed to him to lead a fit and active life.

Bionics

Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.

The word bionic was coined by Jack E. Steele in 1958, possibly originating from the technical term bion (pronounced BEE-on; from Ancient Greek: βίος), meaning 'unit of life' and the suffix -ic, meaning 'like' or 'in the manner of', hence 'like life'. Some dictionaries, however, explain the word as being formed as a portmanteau from biology and electronics. It was popularized by the 1970s U.S. television series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, both based upon the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, which was itself influenced by Steele's work. All feature humans given superhuman powers by electromagnetically implants.

The transfer of technology between lifeforms and manufactures is, according to proponents of bionic technology, desirable because evolutionary pressure typically forces living organisms, including fauna and flora, to become highly optimized and efficient. A classic example is the development of dirt- and water-repellent paint (coating) from the observation that the surface of the lotus flower plant is practically unstick for anything (the lotus effect).

Examples of bionics in engineering include the hulls of boats imitating the thick skin of dolphins; sonar, radar, and medical ultrasound imaging imitating animal echolocation.

In the field of computer science, the study of bionics has produced artificial neurons, artificial neural networks, and swarm intelligence. Evolutionary computation was also motivated by bionics ideas but it took the idea further by simulating evolution in silicon and producing well-optimized solutions that had never appeared in nature.

Up in the Sky Party at T.R.A.C.S

When I had know that we would have so much guests I would have made a larger platform. Now it was not easy to make snapshots of individual guests. DJ Zee had made a great set of tunes in theme. A special thanks goes to Alina, who gave us all a cardboard plane to wear.