Shark Tank

Shark Tank is an American reality television series that premiered August 9, 2009, on ABC. The show is a franchise of the international format Dragons' Den, which originated in Japan in 2001. Shark Tank shows aspiring entrepreneur-contestants make business presentations to a panel of "shark" investors, who then choose whether or not to invest.

The show is currently in its seventh season, and has been a ratings success in its timeslot. It has also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program twice. Two further adaptations of the Dragons' Den format, one in Australia and one in Portugal, have been named Shark Tank. A third, an Italian version, was announced but has not aired.

Overview

Shark Tank is produced by Mark Burnett and based on the international format Dragon's Den, which originated in 2001 with the Japanese show Tigers of Money. The show, however, more closely resembles the format of the British version, Dragons' Den, which premiered in 2005. The show features a panel of potential investors, called "sharks," who consider offers from aspiring entrepreneurs seeking investments for their business or product. The sharks are paid for their participation in the show, but the money they invest is their own. The entrepreneur can make a deal on the show if a panel member is interested. However, if all of the panel members opt out, the entrepreneur leaves empty-handed. The show is said to portray "the drama of pitch meetings and the interaction between the entrepreneurs and tycoons." A one-hour pitch by a contestant is edited down to "a dramatic 10-minute segment."

Warren Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfᵻt/; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the most successful investor in the world. Buffett is the chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, and is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's wealthiest person in 2008 and as the third wealthiest in 2015. In 2012 Time named Buffett one of the world's most influential people.

Buffett is often referred to as the "Wizard of Omaha" or "Oracle of Omaha," or the "Sage of Omaha," and is noted for his adherence to value investing and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth. Buffett is a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation. On April 11, 2012, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, for which he successfully completed treatment in September 2012. Buffet is also active in contributing to political causes, having endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for president during the 2016 campaign season.

My Favorite

My Favorite are an indie pop band formed in Long Island, New York in the early 1990s, later of Brooklyn and Queens. After releasing two full-length CDs, the original band split in 2005, but reformed in 2014.

Formation and original era

My Favorite formed in Long Island in the early 1990s, and eventually migrated to the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The original lineup consisted of founder and principal songwriter Michael Grace Jr., vocalist Andrea Vaughn, guitarist Darren Amadio, bassist Gil Abad and drummer Todd "Todbot" Karasik.

Their main influences included The Smiths, David Bowie, New Order and various singles from influential labels like Factory, Rough Trade, Cherry Red and Sarah. In negotiating these influences and impulses, they were contemporaries of Magnetic Fields and Belle and Sebastian, two bands they performed alongside in New York.

The band released two full-length CDs (Love at Absolute Zero and The Happiest Days of Our Lives: The Complete Joan of Arc Tapes), and several EPs and limited-edition, vinyl-only singles. They also made two music videos.

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. The company wholly owns GEICO, BNSF, Lubrizol, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, FlightSafety International, and NetJets, owns 26% of Kraft Heinz Company and an undisclosed percentage of Mars, Incorporated, and has significant minority holdings in American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, Wells Fargo, IBM and Restaurant Brands International. Berkshire Hathaway averaged an annual growth in book value of 19.7% to its shareholders for the last 49 years (compared to 9.8% from the S&P 500 with dividends included for the same period), while employing large amounts of capital, and minimal debt.

The company is known for its control and leadership by Warren Buffett, who is the company's Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Charlie Munger, the company's Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors. In the early part of Buffett's career at Berkshire, he focused on long-term investments in publicly traded companies, but more recently he more frequently bought whole companies. Berkshire now owns a diverse range of businesses including confectionery, retail, railroad, home furnishings, encyclopedias, manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, jewelry sales, newspaper publishing, manufacture and distribution of uniforms, and several regional electric and gas utilities.

Greatest hits album

A greatest hits album, sometimes called a "best of" album or a catalog album, is a compilation of songs by a particular artist or band. Most often the track list contains previously released recordings with a high degree of notability. However, to increase the appeal, especially to people who already own the original release, it is common to include remixes and/or alternate takes of popular songs; even new material (previously unreleased). At times a greatest hits compilation is the original release for songs that have themselves been released as a single and charted successfully.

Notable compilations

Madonna's The Immaculate Collection is the best selling greatest hits compilation by a solo artist; all of the songs on it are presented in different versions than the original hit versions. The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is the best selling greatest hits compilation by a group and also one of the ten best selling albums in history. Greatest hits albums are typically produced after an artist has had enough successful songs to fill out an album release. Some artists, such as Mariah Carey, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Kenny Rogers, Aerosmith, Kiss, U2, Dolly Parton, Journey, Los Tigres del Norte, Queen, Kylie Minogue and Billy Joel, have released multiple greatest hits albums through their long careers. Some greatest hits albums are released only at the end of the artist or group's career. For example, My Chemical Romance released a greatest hits album after they disbanded. Other artists, like Eminem have released hits albums in the center of their success. He released Curtain Call: The Hits in 2005 and then Shady XV as a compilation album in 2014.