The FREAKest Links: Two’s A Crowd Edition

Fortune Small Business reports that a feud is brewing between two companies that provide inflatable torsos to serve as movie extras in crowd scenes. Industry leader Inflatable Crowd is being sued by competitor Crowd in a Box over patent infringement, while the defendant’s owner claims he came up with the idea on his own. (Hat tip: the Wall Street Journal‘s Informed Reader blog.)

Tim Harford, the Undercover Economist, analyzes on Slate whether political prediction markets (a subject we’ve touched on often) can be rigged by a candidate (or a rival) looking to manipulate his/her image before an election. For more discussion of this topic, see here.

While we’re on the subject of betting, New York Magazine’s Geoffrey Gray lays odds on the likelihood of various Wall Street Journal staffers leaving the paper should Rupert Murdoch‘s takeover bid succeed. Anyone who cares one way or the other about Murdoch should read Eric Pooley‘s excellent profile in Time.