We developed a simple methodology for testing whether a set of followers is likely to be the product of natural user following behavior or bot networks. This test revealed a significant difference between the distribution of followers among the accounts in Mitt Romney's recent spike and that of similar users in our comparison. It strongly indicates that non-organic processes induced Romney's recent surge in followers. We did not find a similar pattern in Barack Obama's recent followers. The details of these findings are presented [at the link].
Victor Navasky tells one of the most revealing stories about Gore Vidal, who died July 31 in Los Angeles at age 86. In 1986, Gore wrote an essay for the magazine’s 120th anniversary issue. Shortly after it was published, Victor was invited to lunch by the publisher of Penthouse magazine, Bob Guccione, at his East Side townhouse famous for its $200 million art collection. “We had barely consumed the amuse gueules when Bob asked me how much it cost to get Gore Vidal to write his essay,” Victor recalled. “When I told him we had paid each contributor to that issue $25 and Gore got the same $25 that everyone else got, he almost choked on his Chateau Margaux and told me he had offered Vidal $50,000 to write an article for Penthouse and Vidal declined.”
At times, Romney adheres to the “oil above all” philosophy more than his team, some of whom advocate for clean energy and climate change solutions. These ideas, embraced by many Republicans, have gone unheard by candidate. Since the primaries, Romney has only doubled down on his anti-clean energy campaign, announcing his opposition to the wind production tax credit, which supports tens of thousands of jobs. He has no problem, however, doubling what the most profitable oil corporations already receive in tax breaks, a boon to his oil billionaire chief energy adviser and the oil lobbyist rumored to be Romney’s pick for chief of staff.
"It is critical to understand that the link between climate change and the kinds of extremes that lead to disaster is clear," Christopher Field, a lead author of the [UN's climate body's IPCC] report and director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institute for Science, said in testimony.[...] Field was the first IPCC scientist to appear before the committee since February 2009. It was a time when there was real optimism about prospects for action on climate change under the new Obama Administration.
Field was the first IPCC scientist to appear before the committee since February 2009. It was a time when there was real optimism about prospects for action on climate change under the new Obama Administration.