*Fashion: Hair Trends Spring 2010

Messy braids and long, bohemian hair was ever-popular on the runways.

Thats why I really loved the Photos of the Vogue Germany May Spread, based on the current hairtrends. Patrick Demarchelier catalogues the hair trends of Spring. The unique vision of this fashion photographer is instantly recognizable in the pages of fashion and culture magazines across the globe. Central in his work are the multi-faceted artistic statements and iconic images he creates. Starring models Aline Weber, Cato Van Ee, Irina Kulikova and Joan Smalls, ‘Hippie Yeah’ in German Vogue starts and ends with massive, blown-out coifs. Hairstylist Luigi Murenu gets to flex his creative hair muscle.

 The black and white spread also features a smattering of boho- and tribal-inspired outfits.

Enjoy the pictures with their 70s, hippy-inspired feel, long flowing locks and lots and lots of volume...

*Tell me what you think*

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Sources:

Fashionising

Patrick DeMarchelier

Natural gas: Fuel of the future

This gas has been known about for some time, but new drilling and extraction technology has now made it commercially viable.


"There's a lot of conservatism right now," he said in an interview with CNNMoney. "We're just at the very tip of this pyramid."

'It's a question of believing," said Tertzakian, who also thinks the estimates for future natural gas use are low. "Once they believe the trend, gas demand is more likely to gain momentum."


If you all can remember, Exxon has just recently acquired XTO Energy for a total of 41 billion dollars. If Exxon sees something there, I'm pretty sure they are right.


They are definitely not playing a hit-or-miss game. Exxon has always been acute with its investments and this is a particularly big one so there's no way Exxon will get it wrong.

At least, I have 101% confidence that this is the right investment for Exxon. Being the number producer of oil, it is not going to leave the position now that it is reaping the profits from the natural gas boom.


Soon, the boom will die down and everyone will realise just how great natural gas is and how they are actually in surplus out there. It is a matter of who gets them first before they run out.


But in making electricity, it could have real benefits. Ming, from Secure Energy, said that used in the most efficient power plants, natural gas is actually 70% cleaner than coal.


Yes, so there you have it, we now know that natural gas is actually undermined by coal and that it will eventually emerge victorious. It is gaining market share at a rapid rate and estimates have been conversative till now.

It is going to shock everyone in the near future so just you wait guys. Natural gas will be your main source of fuel for all your products before you know it.


More technology will be developed to extract the natural gas from shale more easily and water pollution will definitely be taken care of.


This is de facto synonymous to that of the 3D technology, it has been here for quite some time already but no one has really noticed its potential yet. But everything is changing, natural gas is here to stay! It is becoming more flagrant a fact that natural gas is the fuel of tomorrow!


Start to invest in natural gas and you will be rich before you know it.


Credits -cnn, -culturefeast, -linde, -sxc

atlanta.

what is it about atlanta de cadenet that makes her such an inspiration to me?

maybe it's her young age of 18. possibly her striking resemblance to rachel bilson or the fact that she has become the icon of many street style blogs including mark hunter's the cobrasnake and has been seen in the pages of french vogue. atlanta has become one of my biggest style icons recently with her bohemian and hipster style and hippie-like attitude.

It was all planned ?

All the reports we had seen in the past before the financial crisis, were de facto spurious ! They were all not bona fide!


In actual fact, most of them were misleading. Let's take a look at the notes below.


"Had credit-rating agencies been more careful in issuing ratings or downgraded ratings in a more responsible manner, we maybe would have averted the crisis," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of an investigations subcommittee. "But they did not. Without credit ratings, Wall Street would have had a much harder time selling securities because they wouldn't have been considered safe."


The investigation -- which reviewed hundreds of emails and interviews with officials at rating agencies -- revealed a world of overwhelmed analysts who didn't have enough data about securities they were rating and were under pressure from investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to issue good ratings for complex securities that were at the heart of the financial crisis.


Levin's investigation found that 91% of AAA-rated, residential mortgage-backed securities issued in 2007 and 96% of similar securities issued in 2006 have now been downgraded to junk status.


Later, they too announced mass downgrades of hundreds of subprime mortgage-backed securities.


Well, at least now we know, we should not always look at the reports of the experts for they are experts at obfurscating the facts and they have the propensity to lie just to paint a more beautiful picture to stimulate the economy.


If you guys are familiar with the accountancy field, you should know that accountants that give clean reports will always be sought after by top companies because these reports are coveted by almost any companies.


Why is that so? Simply because by having a clean report, whatever they sell will be highly sought after as well. For instance, if the company Procter & Gamble's record is clean, their consumers will naturally trust that the products they sell are trustworthy.


If the report is ugly, then the consumers will naturally veer away from the products just in case they might get themselves hurt from the products they consume.


The same logic applies here, the rating companies will give great ratings so that they will find themselve a myriad amount of business which will naturally accentuate their strong reputation!


All in all, they will do whatever it takes to beguile the public and to lure them into the trap of the highly precarious securities!


Hence, if you wish to buy securities in the future, do not rely merely on reports, trust your own judgement and look at the news from all angles. Don't be too gullible.

Credits -marketwatch

it's ok to dream.

street chic looks to love.

also, a little update on my life. i just accepted an internship with elle magazine in new york city this summer. something i have always dreamed of and i am really excited to get this experience of what it's like to work at a high-end fashion editorial. looking forward to an incredible summer in the city that never sleeps!

p.s. thanks to my older sister i am now the proud owner of the dress below :)

Against all Odds

"Since 1851, the US economy has been in periods of contraction roughly one-third of the time, yet sixteen of the blue-chip companies that comprise the Dow 30 were founded during recessions and almost 60% of Fortune 500 companies began business in a bear market, according to a June 2009 report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Proctor & Gamble survived the panic of 1837, then the worst recession in our young nation’s history, while General Electric came out of the economic chaos of 1872 and Hewlett Packard was born in the Great Depression. McDonald’s fried its first french fry just before the onset of World War II. Charles Schwab sprouted out of the early 1970s as rampant inflation threatened to get out of control. "


An intriguing summary as to why the bad economy is the best time to start a business.



As Warren Buffett's golden rule states clearly, when other people fears, you should be brave!

Similarly, when the rest invest enthuisastically, you should stay behind and look at the bigger picture which many of them missed.


The point here is that you should never be beguiled by the unsustainable hype for they are merely distractions that will obfuscate your judgement.


In the book Good to Great, there are 11 companies which have showned great tenacity throughout their endeavour in the corporate world.

It has been proven time and again that none of them were simply riding on the galvanized forces of the economy.


When we look at the industry per se, we realised that the company was de facto in an emasculated industry rather than a bullish one.


i.e. Kimberly Clark boomed when the paper-industry was bearish and now it is making big bucks from Huggies

i.e. Nucor boomed when the steel industry was in depression and now it is one of the most renowned steel company in the entire world.




i.e. Kroger boomed when supermarkets were becoming a low-profit business and now you see thousands of its branches everywhere




i.e. Walgreen boomed despite there being a sudden surge in the number of competitors in the pharmaceutical business and now they are actually ubiquitous at every corner of the shopping malls you visit.




Nonetheless, starting a business in a bad economy is merely a perfunctory and vague point. What is more interesting is that behind all these, you need a leader, a great leader so to speak.

Without a great leader, it will be paltry even if you have the best company in your hands. Look at the cute picture above, the leader will go up first and take a peek at what's in front before he helped his team up. We all progress as a team and thus everyone's opinions is precious. It is fatuous to dismiss any one of them at any one point in time.


It is imperative to have a great leader that is neither an authoritarian nor a pharoah, but a relentless yet humble leader who involves everyone in the company, including the customers.


Afterall, the market forces are against you right now so you will definitely need your companions with you to pull through this dire period.


Teamwork!

At the end of the day, it's a matter of First Who... Then what.




If you decide on a destination first, only people who are agreeing with that destination will get on board. The bad thing is that if you decide to change a destination along the way, they will alight from your bus.


However, if you pick the people who are willing to join you, they will follow you and support you with all their might regardless of the destination. Afterall, they believe that they are on board because of the team, not the destination. When everyone works together, they will succeed eventually.


In conclusion, it is no doubt a strategic move to start a business in a bad economy, but it is a lot harder to gather the right people to push your business ahead in this beleaguered economy.


You need relentless consistency and strong tenacity in order to succeed. That is why so many companies steer away from investments in the bad economy, simply because they are afraid, afraid of failing.


Definitely not an easy feat to pull off.





Credits -techcrunch, -bolstablog, -freeuni, -brightscope, -mgcpuzzles

ANTM Cycle 14 Photos

Credits -livejournal