Tag: Recently Read

A new academic paper digging into presidential betting in the final weeks of the 2012 election finds that a single trader lost between $4 million and $7 million placing a flurry of Intrade bets on Mitt Romney—perhaps to make the Republican nominee’s chance of victory appear brighter.

Two economists who studied the data offer various rationales for the trader’s aggressive wagering on Mr. Romney in the final two weeks of the campaign. The anonymous trader placed 1.2 million pro-Romney contracts, some of which were actually in the form of bets against a Barack Obama victory.

The most plausible reason for the betting, the authors conclude, is that "this trader could have been attempting to manipulate beliefs about the odds of victory in an attempt to boost fundraising, campaign morale, and turnout."

via the WSJ via PoliticalWire

Weird behavior on the Romney-Obama betting market previously.

via MetaFilter http://www.metafilter.com/132249/Trader-Lost-Millions-Betting-on-Romney

The former John McCain adviser says he has "deep regret" for helping to create a "freak show."

via POLITICO – TOP Stories http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/steve-schmidt-republicans-97250.html

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder used to be able to ride out the storm whenever critics mounted another campaign to get him to change the team name some consider a racist slur against Native Americans.

"Never," is the answer he’s given in the past. But this year, the barrage of criticism — fanned by social media, regular media and advertising — has reached an all-time high, leading some to wonder if the team that plays in Washington will have to plunk down $15 million to change its name.

The Oneida Indian Nation, based in upstate New York, has been making headway with a radio campaign and "ChangeTheMascot.org" website declaring it’s "simply wrong to use the offensive term "Redskins’ to sell anything, much less an NFL team." And Sports Illustrated’s Peter King and USA Today’s Christine Brennan have vowed not to use the word "Redskins" again.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

via Advertising Age – Homepage http://adage.com/article/news/redskins-rebrand-cost-15-million/244295/?utm_source=News&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+AdvertisingAge/News

The reversal by Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, who has seen his allure among conservatives tumble, effectively blocks the judge’s nomination.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/politics/rubio-withdraws-support-for-gay-black-judges-nomination-to-the-federal-bench.html

The world will be watching to see whether President Obama and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran find a way to connect at the United Nations on Tuesday.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/world/handshake-with-iran-might-say-much-more.html

Prabhjot Singh, a medical doctor and professor in New York who is Sikh, was attacked in Harlem in what the police are calling a possible hate crime.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/nyregion/chronicling-anti-sikh-violence-and-now-a-victim.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kenya’s foreign minister says "two or three Americans" and "one Brit" were among those who attacked a Nairobi shopping mall. More than 60 people have been killed in the assault on the upscale mall, which has lasted for three days. The foreign minister, Amina Mohamed, said in an interview with PBS’ "NewsHour" program that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived "in Minnesota and one other place" in the US.

via Yahoo! News – Latest News & Headlines http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-official-several-americans-among-attackers-014659993–politics.html

A group promoting marijuana legalization is making a social-media bid to win online voting for a contest that will award a Super Bowl ad to a small business. But anyone who thinks a marijuana advocacy ad will run during the game on Fox this February may be smoking something already.

That doesn’t mean the parties involved mind the publicity being stirred up.

The contest in question is being held by Intuit, which said in July that it would give one small business 30 seconds of commercial time during the Super Bowl. But then the marijuana advocacy group NORML entered, setting off a burst of attention and posing questions about what consitutes a small business.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

via Advertising Age – Homepage http://adage.com/article/special-super-bowl/long-odds-marijuana-advocates-win-super-bowl-spot/244312/?utm_source=Special%3A%20Super%20Bowl&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+AdvertisingAge/Special%3A%20Super%20Bowl

Netflix seems to know the frustration of having to tread lightly on the spoiler danger zone that is Twitter after a new episode of “Breaking Bad,” so they have attempted a solution. Netflix has launched the “Spoiler Foiler” at spoilerfoiler.com, designed to block out any tweet that could spoil “Breaking Bad,” just in time for… Read more »

via Variety http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/netflix-unveils-spoiler-foiler-to-prevent-breaking-bad-spoilers-1200662567/

Hillary Clinton bursts back into the spotlight this week with her first major interview since leaving the State Department and multiple appearances at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.

via Washington Wire http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/09/23/hillary-clinton-storms-back-into-the-spotlight/?mod=WSJBlog