Bryce Blakely's Blog

Three dimensional movies have been the major break through in cinema as of late. Every new movie appears to be coming out in 3D, there are even 3D televisions available for public purchase (yes you still have to wear the ugly glasses). Now I’m not sure if this was the most subtle genius the world has seen come out of Hollywood or just some happy accident but it seems this new 3D trend has actually managed to threaten the thus far impervious pirate industry. You simply cannot record and redistribute 3D movies, the cameras cannot catch the image. For all the legal battles, all the gnashing of teeth between both sides when all it took was a little innovation. Now pirates can be innovative too but you have to hand it to Hollywood, that was something a lot of us didn’t see coming.

Tanner Hall, Pro Skier

TRAP! Consider the concept of ambush or guerilla marketing and how it pertains to the sponsorship of events. In class (Comm 101_2) we extensively covered the Bell sponsorship of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and their conflict with Telus’ presence in Whistler. Telus was everywhere, it seemed Bell had paid a $200 million sponsorship bid only to still be in competition with Telus during the games. Now consider Mountain Dew, in snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding they sponsor The Dew Tour, pro riders competing in cross country venues. Now consider the pros themselves, most are sponsored by energy drinks, Redbull, Monster, Rockstar, etc. So you have riders competing in the Mountain Dew Tour wearing helmets and jackets covered in advertising for these energy drink companies. Is it worth Mountain Dew sponsoring the events if these outside companies seem to be getting all the publicity? Possibly, but that’s neither here nor there, these energy drinks companies are getting better publicity and spending next to nothing, guerilla marketing.

The word entrepreneurship immediately brings forth the image of a keen business man looking to create an empire from scratch. But what about social entrepreneurs? The people who put in an equal amount of time and effort with a charitable twist. Social entrepreneurship is the grinding side of things, it doesn’t get easier in you’re a non-profit organization whose resources are spread thin as is. But what if instead of the structure coming first, the strategy, the organization of the organization, the service came first. Take New York’s Guardian Angels a security service for late night commuters started by social entrepreneur Curtis Sliwa. What started as vigilante  later became one of the most well-known pedestrian security services world wide. What Curtis Sliwa and his friends did was what they considered the “right thing”, only it gained momentum. Mr.Sliwa took this momentum and consolidated it by registering the Guardian Angels as a legitimate organization. This empire from scratch was never meant to be an empire at all, social entrepreneurship by osmosis.

If you’ve been following extreme sports over the last year you will have noticed a number of trends. First off, the quality of video edits being produced has increased tenfold, HD, 3D, extreme sports has kept up with the Jones’. Secondly everyone is filming, your friend, your neighbour, that kid across the street. So what’s going on? Did everyone just decide it was time to invest in the cinematographic side of extreme sports a little more? The answer to that question is that the resources became available. Ladies and gentlemen the GoPro HD camera, shoots in 1080p, water proof, drop proof, just shy of bomb proof, and only $300. If 6 of your friends pitch $50 you can afford to film in the highest resolution youtube will support. As a result these camera’s are everywhere, it would be hard to go a day up at the local slopes without seeing one of these and I guarantee this is only the beginning. Check it out for yourself:

You can collect sub-prime mortgages with of a relatively low B-rating and tranche them creating a AAA bond. Banks cannot purchase B rated securities but they can purchase AAA bonds. What does this mean? Banks are essentially purchasing debt, the possibility of these sub-prime mortgages being returned is extremely low. But my grasp of the economic crisis isn’t quite complete enough to write an entire post about that. Instead it’s the principle behind it that piqued my interested, intangible assets assigned value based on presumed worth. That and a news article claiming a woman now owns the Sun (what?). So how are these related? Well if you’re an individual it is possible to claim ownership of a celestial body and it just so happens I have my eye on the meteor Eros. It’s a reasonably sizeable rock but it just so happens to have $20 trillion in precious metals in it (actually so do most meteors). So by claiming ownership of said meteor I would in theory become worth $20 trillion, wouldn’t I? I mean there was about the same percent chance those mortgages would get paid back as there is me actually getting to Eros and collecting my minerals.