Reader Jay pointed out in the comments an article from The Root that goes through who gets paid what for music sales, and the basic answer is not the musician. That report suggests that for every $1,000 sold, the average musician gets $23.40.

Going back ten years ago, Courtney Love famously laid out the details of recording economics, where the label can make $11 million... and the actual artists make absolutely nothing.

So think of that the next time the RIAA or some major record label exec (or politician) suggests that protecting the record labels is somehow in the musicians' best interests.

The really, really, really simplified version is that Hollywood sets up a separate corporation for each movie with the intent that this corporation will take on losses.

This isn't new or surprising, but it's getting attention because the income statement for the movie was leaked online, showing just how Warner Bros. pulled off the accounting trick.

In that statement, you'll notice the "distribution fee" of $212 million dollars. That's basically Warner Bros. paying itself to make sure the movie "loses money."

Now it appears that Hollywood Accounting is coming under attack in the courtroom... and losing.

With these lawsuits exposing Hollywood's sneakier accounting tricks, and finding them not very convincing, a number of Hollywood studios may face a glut of upcoming lawsuits over similar deals on properties that "lost" money while making millions.

Always stop to buy lemonade from kids who are entrepreneurial enough to open up a little business.

Then my brother asked how much each item cost.

"Oh, no," they replied in unison, "they're all free!"

"No!" I exclaimed from the back seat. "That's not the spirit of giving. You can only really give when you give something you own. They're giving away their parents' things -- the lemonade, cups, candy. It's not theirs to give."

The Declaration of Independence promised "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It didn't promise anything free.

"The internets completely over. I dont see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They wont pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they cant get it."

"Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that cant be good for you."

The former longtime Russian minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and the problem is solved."

Ordinarily he's an opponent of nuclear blasts, but he says an underwater explosion in the Gulf of Mexico would not be harmful and could cost no more than $10 million. That compares with the $2.35 billion BP has paid out in cleanup and compensation costs so far.

Ideally, it pays to use a camera that offers some level of manual control over the settings. That way, you can dial in the best exposure, aperture and focus settings to achieve the best results.

If you own a fancy, expensive SLR camera, chances are you know what you're doing already. But if you don't shoot at night that often, or if you've never photographed fireworks, these tips should offer some guidance.

The nation has finished bottom of the pile in a survey of health provision in similarly developed countries.

Based on a series of markers designed to assess healthcare quality, efficiency, ease of access, equality and the promotion of a long and healthy life, the US showed the biggest room for improvement, even though it spent $7290 per person on healthcare in 2007. The winners were the Netherlands, who achieved the best results despite spending just $3837 per person.

The World Cup has not been with us long, but almost as soon as it started people were complaining about the noise coming from the omnipresent Vuvuzela horns.

Because the horns play one tone, one long annoying continuous tone, users can filter its range out without having too much of an impact on important things like commentary and inter-player swearing, according to the German firm that came up with the idea to flush the TV sound output through a computer.

Afghanistan may have more than a trillion dollars worth of untapped mineral deposits, a spokesman for the ministry of mines has suggested.

The New York Times cited an internal Pentagon memo which said Afghanistan could become "the Saudi Arabia of lithium".

If Afghanistan's strategic value suddenly increases, so too might the battle for influence between regional giants India and China, and of course the United States, our correspondent adds.

Who wouldn't pass up the chance to feel the sinus-clearing effects of the M2 .50-caliber machine gun?

Reporters had the chance to test out a range of weapons, from the M4 Carbine to the M107 sniper rifle. It was also an opportunity for the Army to show off the XM25 airburst weapon. The XM25 is an advanced grenade launcher that fires a smart 25mm round automatically programmed to go off just above or behind its target.