Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are arguably the current frontrunners for the Republican nomination for President. Yet only Rubio has officially announced that he’s gunning for the Oval Office. Bush likes to say that he’s still considering it – even though for all intents and purposes he’s acting like a candidate for the top job. Josh Voorhees explained why:

• Those running for Federal office have limits on the amount of cash they can raise.
• As Federal Senators, candidates like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Rand Paul, are always assumed to be running for office by law – therefore the spending caps have already been imposed on them.
• These candidates have nothing to lose by declaring their intent to run for President, and can generate some buzz by being the only ones who are officially running.
• Meanwhile candidates like Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and Rick Perry are not Federal officers, and can raise unlimited amounts of money through Super PACs.
• Therefore while the candidates are clearly running, officially they say that they aren’t.

Read more about what declared candidates for President can and can’t do, and why some non-Federal officers have already declared their intent to run over here.

Source: Slate

We’ve previously looked at how every extra second waiting at a drive-thru leads to 4 cents less in revenue for a fast food chain. According to a study covered by CBS, people value their time when waiting for videos to load pretty highly as well:

• People’s patience with a video that is loading lasts about two seconds.
• After that, for every additional second a video takes to load, a video loses viewers at a rate of 5.8%.
• After ten seconds half a video’s potential audience will have given up.
• People viewing longer videos are more forgiving, and will give a website an extra couple seconds before losing hope.
• Meanwhile those on the fastest internet connections seem to value their time the most and aren’t even always willing to give the two seconds that other more charitable users give.

Read more here.

Source: CBS

Soo Kim covered some of the odder hotels and cafes that are available in Japan:

• One hotel offers a “crying room” with cashmere soft tissues and tear-jerking movies/manga comic books.
• Cuddle cafes allow visitors to cuddle with a female partner in bed. No sexual relations are allowed although for additional charges patrons can stare into their partner’s eyes or even stroke their face.
• Cat, bunny, and even owl cafes let visitors pet animals for a bit.
• One bar only serves canned food. Plastic cutlery is provided and patrons are expected to eat directly from the tins.
• Some dessert shops attract visitors by having servers dressed in maid outfits.
• Yet another offers dancing robots, giant pandas, and humans dressed as dinosaurs.

Read some other fascinating other examples, and how much it costs to partake, over here.

Source: The Telegraph

Moshe Cohen reported on a novel way to rob banks:

• One man managed to “rob” at least eight banks by merely asking bank tellers to hand over cash.
• He was careful about the teller he selected – it was usually a woman.
• He then explained to them that he had no weapons, and had no intention or means of hurting anybody.
• After sliding over a bag for them to fill he apologized for what he was doing and explained that he was facing difficult financial times.
• The tellers would report the robbery only after the man made a safe getaway.
• He is thought to have gotten away with about $28,000 through this technique.

Read what the police think and why this may not qualify as a robbery in the first place, here.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Via: Marginal Revolution

In a documentary David Borenstein looked at the foreigner renting industry in China:

• China is in the midst of a construction boom that has left multiple properties in search of a buyer.
• One way that realtors can boost demand is by renting foreigners.
• Firms provide menus where customers can select skin colours and nationalities.
• By having such faces present when interested buyers come around to visit, developers can make an area seem more globalized than it really is.
• Some of the purchased foreigners will play the role of low level VIPs to further enhance property values.

Watch the full documentary here.

Source: The New York Times

Proving that you can almost never please everybody China.org wrote about an unexpectedly aggrieved interest group:

• Sexy female “car babes” have been banned from the Shanghai International Automobile Industry exhibition.
• This has led to models protesting the decision by dressing up as beggars.
• The protesting models note that their efforts to get thin have been “in vain”.

Source: China.org

Via: Marginal Revolution

Emily Badger looked at buildings that cast a shadow on us all:

• Developers are racing ever-faster to build the tallest buildings in the world – often times for the rich to exclusively enjoy.
• What’s often given less attention is the long shadows these buildings cast on the streets and people below.
• These shadows are in part why in New York City laws require that buildings get narrower as they go up, so that the city isn’t darkened by shoulder to shoulder skyscrapers.
• In San Francisco developers have to hire “shadow consultants” that measure the amount of “theoretical annual sunlight hours lost” and submit this information to the government before getting approval to put up a new building.
• As such buildings continue to be built, light is becoming another expression of inequality. Those who can afford to pay to live in high skyscrapers get to enjoy it at the expense of those living below.
• The battle between light and dark has taken on an added dimension with the spread of solar installations that can be blocked by new skyscrapers.
• Half a world away, in the sweltering Middle East, citizens jostle for the shade offered by the shadows of big buildings.

Read more about the dark side and the light side here.

Source: The Washington Post

Peter Eavis wrote about air ambulances:

• The air ambulance business has been booming. Since insurers usually pay the costs, companies have expanded their fleets and increased their coverage.
• The ambulances save lives. However they’re falling upon hard times since insurers are beginning to ask consumers to pay more of their bills.
• Moreover rapid growth in the industry has left it with a problem of oversupply, with each helicopter flying a fifth less than it used to in 2006.
• Costs are high. Helicopters start at about $4 million and can cost much more.
• The average flight is estimated to cost anywhere between $7,400 and $10,000.
• The average bills has gone up from $17,200 five years earlier to $40,800 now.
• Those who go out of business first might be the non-profit ones who don’t have cash buffers for a decrease in demand.

Read about the lobbyists that the industry has hired, the lengths that companies will go to, to collect debts, and many more details here.

Source: The New York Times

The New Avengers film has been facing some blowback due to its portrayal of women, particularly Black Widow. An anonymous former Marvel employee noted that the Avengers merchandising largely ignores the female Avengers and explained why:

• Age of Ultron has had one of the biggest openings in film history – a lot of it driven by female audiences – yet the toys and action figures aren’t geared to appeal to girls.
• This seems to be something that happened after Marvel was acquired by Disney.
• Disney already has its merchandising towards females locked down with dolls from movies such as Frozen and Brave proving popular with girls.
• Part of the reason for Disney’s acquisition was so that it could build a line of merchandise that was also popular with boys.
• Thus toys from films such as Frozen are aimed at girls, and those from The Avengers are aimed at boys.
• Moreover female characters are often hyper-sexualized in the movies, and there are concerns about selling merchandise to young children with that kind of imagery.

The full article talks about how consumers can best go about pressing the industry for change, and takes a more detailed look into how merchandising deals are set up financially. You should read it here.

Centives has also previously covered how male oriented action figure toys prevent executives from greenlighting comic book cartoons aimed at girls here.

Source: The Mary Sue

Via: io9