Age is just a number...

Drew Barrymore, Dakota Fanning, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Christian Bale. All good actors, all widely recognized, all former child stars.

In Hollywood, experience is a key factor in getting cast in main roles. Few directors are willing to give their lead role to someone new to the scene, possibly because they might not have as much appeal as someone already successful (Emma Stone reportedly missed out on the role of Claire Bennet on Heroes because she was fairly unknown; Hayden Panettiere, who did get the part, was a former child star). For this reason, many stars today have had previous experience in the industry prior to their more "serious" roles- think, for example, guest starring on popular soap operas or starting off in commercials.

With this notion that in order to be successful, it's important to start young, child acting studios have received an influx of business as of late. And who can blame them? After starting at the age of 4, Dakota Fanning was already making $3 million a movie when she was just 12 years old. This idea that your child can be taught and tutored into becoming the next A-list actor, the next million-dollar-making child star, is appealing to many parents, who choose to travel to Los Angeles and enroll their children in such workshops. One of the more popular places, Oakwood Toluca Hills, doubles as an apartment complex, in order to encourage residents already there and lure in potential clients, hoping their child's success at a young age will pave a path for their future.

On the other hand, there are many child actors who didn't continue in the industry- a few names that come to mind are Mara Wilson (Matilda), Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone), and, of course, Shirley Temple- even Drew Barrymore went through a rough period due to her childhood success. So with that in mind, how much does success as a child star affect an actors success in the future?

Sources-
Sirs: "Hollywood Elementary"
Sirs: "Cinderella in Sneakers"
Sirs: "The Barrymore Curse: Can Drew Beat It?"

Underground Economy

the black market gets its name due to the fact that its activity is conducted out of sight and often “in the dark,” outside the sight of law enforcement.

. Even though a good or service becomes outlawed or heavily regulated, the market may continue to demand it. As a result, the black market springs up to meet the market’s demand. This is the case when governments place price controls, rationing or complete prohibition on a good or service.

Black market prices tend to be higher due to smaller supply and constant demand. The risk that a black marketeer takes in acquiring and selling a good or service is also included in the price. If it is a difficult good to acquire, it will have a higher price as well. At times, prices can be lower if the seller has lower “overhead” because he or she stole the good or is avoiding high taxes.

Consumers are often willing to overlook the illegality of a black market transaction if they feel that the good or service is “harmless.” People are able to sell organs as much as 100,000 dollars on the black market.

Copyright laws

 copyright laws are unjust, and are choking free expression. Today's copyright laws are way too strict for two reasons:
laws have not caught up with technology (as usual)economic factors make it profitable for certain corporate interests to leave copyright just the way it is.

In the U.S., the central government is not able to hold a copyright interest in any work they produce. You can read that on the white house web site.

This is for a lot of reasons.
Since taxpayers paid for the creation of the work, it makes no sense they should have any restrictions on its use.
To prevent the Federal government from using copyright as a means to prevent free speech.
To encourage broad distribution of works created.

"Other nations, however, are not so generous." In the UK, as well as some other commonwealth nations, they have Crown Copyright, and other nations have similar provisions. Even Canada has a well-established crown copyright that asks people to obtain a license to use the work.

Such licenses are never required in the U.S.

The Tragedy of Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers.
You've heard the name, although you may not know exactly what Lehman Brothers is.

Founded in 1850, Lehman brothers, an investment bank, quickly grew into a reputable firm. It survived the economic turmoil of the 20th century (i.e. The Great Depression) and eventually grew to become the fourth largest investment bank in the United States.

Surely nothing could ruin such a large investment bank, right?
Wrong.

The beginning of the demise of Lehman Brothers occurred during the housing boom of the early 2000s. Lehman Brothers, always willing to increase business, made the decision to receive mortgages from a number of new mortgage lenders - some of these lenders were dealing subprime mortgages, which if you'll recall, are quite risky due to the fact they belong to people who may not follow through on their housing payments.

This tactic was successful at first, as the firm generated record revenues for a few years after obtaining its new mortgage lenders, however once the trend of homeowners not following through on their mortgage payments began, things started to look pretty bad for Lehman Brothers, who, being an investment bank, used these tainted mortgages as securities - they gave out more of these securities to companies than any other investment bank.

Oops.

By the time the economic crisis was in full swing, it was too late for Lehman Brothers.
Their debt had reached $619 billion dollars; their bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history.

How can we learn from the mistakes of Lehman Brothers?

                                 www.flickr.com

Source:
www.investopedia.com  "Case Study: The Collapse of Lehman Brothers"
- This recent article is featured on a reputable database for topics related to investing.

How to Get Your Hands on a Shirley Temple

Pew Wei is a branch of PF Changs offering basically the same food at a reduced price. A few times I've been there my food is have cold. The service is nothing special, and I dont know anyone who works there.

So why do I go back? Two words Coke Freestyle. Coca- Cola came up with the machine in 2009. The machine was designed by Pininfarnina; a fancy pants Italian car designing company that also design Ferrari's.

The machine offers over 100 flavors of Coca-Cola products. Which vary from Coca- Cola Classic to Peach Sprite.

The machine is more than just a great marketing strategy it also is an awesome tool for market research. Every day the machine sends the data of what has been sold back to Atlanta for the marketing people to look over at coke. So if there is a spike in cherry Mr.Pibb they can offer it on the shelfs of your local grocery store.


Here is the good part, the Shirley Temple AKA Kiddy cocktail is a combination of leamon lime soda and cherry flavoring. By going to Pei Wei, Meat Heads, 5 Guys or any other place that has Coke Freestyle you can enjoy a delicious Shirley Temple by simply selecting Sprite then cherry Sprite.



Source (pic):
http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/3739730775_923bd23454_o.jpg

Source: MSNBC: The Real Story Behind The Real Thing
Source: The Coca- Cola company website.

Both are sources i have used before and both are reliable.

Success for the Successful

Nike KOBESYSTEM: Success for the Successful Campaign Launch

Read more: http://solecollector.com/news/nike-kobesystem-success-for-the-successful-campaign-launch/#ixzz2Bdyt6yhq
http://solecollector.com/news/nike-kobesystem-success-for-the-successful-campaign-launch/#axzz2BdyL5Zk4

words // Brandon Richard 

How to get create a successful company, best way of doing that would be to get famous actors, singers and in Nike's case athletes to advertise your products so people can buy them. 

One way Nike has recently made the gap between other competitors harder to fill is with the release of the new signature shoe from Kobe Bryant. calling this phenomenon  "The Kobe System: Success for the Successful,". Nike becomes a bigger company every time they take in  the so called "top dogs "  by doing this they get those famous athletes that many people look up to. and if they wear the shoe then all the people who look up to them would want to buy it. this is why advertising is such a key part in creating such a great company like Nike today. which leads me to believe that if you want to create a company you need your adverting to be spectacular.

one thing companies go big is on advertising. So how do you get the right person to wear/ use your product? 

 

photozou.jp

LiLo's Losing It

How did Lindsay Lohan go from <--- in The Parent Trap in 1998 to ---> in jail in 2007 and again in 2011?

It turns out she could be a Mean Girl in real life.  We love her in movies like Just My Luck, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and Freaky Friday,but we hate her when she continuously gets arrested. So why do we still follow her? Why does she still get booked for high paying jobs like her upcoming role as Elizabeth Taylor in the new Lifetime movie of her life?

Part of being a celebrity is seeing your face and your life plastered on TV, in magazines, and in the tabloids because people love the drama of it. Celebrities still get paid while they're doing crazy things like attacking the paparazzi and shaving their heads because it gives viewers something to be interested in. The life of a celebrity is all about getting publicity, so by doing crazy stunts like LiLo does, her face gets out there and people feed into the drama, so she gets paid for it.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/lindsay-lohan-court-jail_n_1071804.html
This source can be considered reliable because it comes from the Huffington Post, a credible source especially in the entertainment industy. The author goes further to establish his credibility by stating the sources of his information including Linsday's actual superior court judge, Stephanie Sautner. This article was posted in context of when the trial was actually happening in 2011.
Images: baderknowsbest.wordpress.com ; people.com