The Coming Week: 3/1/15-3/7/15

Articles of the Week: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Article: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Category: Geography, Politics, Religion, and History

Owner: Farticles (Team 4)

Pageviews in March 2014: 28,149

Article: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Category: Geography, Politics, Religion, and History

Owner: D's Asters (Team 8)
Pageviews in March 2014: 156,732

What's coming: Here comes yet another round in the seemingly unending legal battles to declare the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The legislation, aka Obamacare, will be challenged once again on Wednesday March 4, as the Supreme Court hears the case "King v. Burwell, Sec. of H&HS." Already there are signs that Chief Justice John Roberts, whose vote maintained the act in June 2012, will continue to back the healthcare law.

It's not the only case to be heard this week. If anything unusual happens during the court session, expect more news for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is a Supreme Court Justice whose Wikipedia page has already been a cornerstone for frontrunner Farticles (Team 4) throughout Fantasy Wikipedia 2015. Justice Ginsburg made headlines in January for falling asleep during the State of the Union, and again in February for suggesting it was because one of her fellow Justices gave her too much wine before the speech.

In addition to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the article Antonin Scalia is held by 50 Shades of Wiki (Team 3). Scalia is another Supreme Court Justice, famously conservative and personal friends with Ginsburg. Major decisions would likely lead to more pageviews for both Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and a surprise decision on "King v. Burwell, Sec. of H&HS" could lead to an explosion at Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Last Week: 2/22/15-2/28/15

Article: Clint Eastwood

Category: Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

Owner: The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom (Team 6)

Pageviews in February 2014: 213,511

What happened: It was a good week for The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom (Team 6) at the Oscars. Michael Keaton is on that team, and although Michael Keaton did not win Best Actor, he is still getting plenty of pageviews from "Birdman." The big surprise from the Oscars is that Clint Eastwood, director of the film "American Sniper," got a fair share of news.

It's hard to say exactly what was newsworthy. He had some sort of altercation with actress Margot Robbie. Fox News suggested (warning: do not click; moronic content) that his film did not get any awards because of Clint Eastwood's appearance at the Republican National Convention in 2012. And last, the gossips discussed Clint Eastwood's date and whether they would get married, which I will not justify with a hyperlink. 

Whatever the reason, this led to more pageviews for Clint Eastwood last week, making The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom a major contender going into March.

The Coming Week: 2/22/15-2/28/15

Articles of the Week: Michael Keaton and Julianne Moore

Article: Michael Keaton

Category: Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

Owner: The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom (Team 6)

Pageviews in February 2014: 112,230

Article: Julianne Moore

Category: Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

Owner: 50 Shades of Wiki (Team 3)
Pageviews in February 2014: 198,013

What's coming: During the Fantasy Wikipedia draft at the end of December, the two favorites for Best Actor and Best Actress were Michael Keaton and Julianne Moore. The favorites can be seen at some of the online betting sites, such as paddypower. Currently. Michael Keaton is no longer the favorite (Eddie Redmayne is expected to win), but Julianne Moore is very much a heavy favorite.

Interestingly, though Julianne Moore is the favorite, it's the article Michael Keaton that has been the stronger performer this year. A lot of the pre-Oscars hype has been around Michael Keaton and the film "Birdman." Perhaps since Julianne Moore is expected to win, we hear less about her, drawing fewer people to the Julianne Moore Wikipedia page. If she wins, Julianne Moore could see extended high pageviews through March.

Other relevant articles are Stephen Hawking (owned by Hot Chicks & Jesus; he's the person portrayed by Eddie Redmayne), Reese Witherspoon (a distant third to win Best Actress after Julianne Moore, also owned by Hot Chicks & Jesus), and Benedict Cumberbatch (a Best actor nominee, owned by E-Cigs in Space).

Last Week: 2/15/15-2/21/15

Article: General Motors

Category: Business, Science, & Technology

Owner: Giant Clam (Team 1, benched)
Pageviews in February 2014: 86,011

What happened: Recently, General Motors has been linked to Harry Wilson, who helped restructure the company in 2009, and now seeks to join the board of the company. This is part of a trend towards shareholder activism. This activism has caught the eye of some big name investors, including George Soros and William Buffett. 

It has not yet, however, translated into more pageviews for General Motors the Wikipedia page. The algorithm that picked Fantasy Wikipedia pages selected General Motors as an article that would do well, but it hasn't. It's possible that the algorithm was oversensitive to news in November about states suing General Motors, which would have caused the article to get more pageviews.

The Coming Week: 2/15/15-2/21/15

Articles of the Week: Silicon Valley and Asteroid

Article: Silicon Valley

Category: Business, Science, & Technology

Owner: Farticles (Team 4)

Pageviews in February 2014: 86,613

What's coming: Silicon Valley is always bustling with something; President Obama was there this week talking about cybersecurity, and the area was under scrutiny for low measles vaccination rates.

This week, it's the annual Innovation Summit. A bunch of people you probably haven't heard of will gather in Silicon Valley to discuss global innovation. I don't know if these conventions lead to more buzz for Silicon Valley, or if they'll lead to more pageviews for Silicon Valley the Wikipedia page. Overall, it's been a good year so far for Silicon Valley and Farticles. We'll see if it continues to be a strong performer.

Article: Asteroid

Category: Business, Science, and Technology

Owner: E-Cigs in Space (Team 5)
Pageviews in February 2014: 59,363

What's coming: Perhaps not this week, but some time in late February. NASA will announce their decision between two different options on their plan to capture an asteroid in the "Asteroid Redirect Mission" (ARM). 

Last year, Rosetta and Philae captured the attention of America and sent many people to Wikipedia to see the page for Comet. It's possible that NASA could capitalize on that attention and get the American public about this asteroid capture mission. If so, expect an increase in pageviews for Asteroid.

Last Week: 2/8/15-2/14/15

Article: Beck

Category: Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

Owner: E-Cigs in Space [benched]
Pageviews in February 2014: 141,299

What happened: On Sunday, Beck won the Grammy for Album of the Year for Morning Phase, making me feel like I'm sort of in touch, since I actually own that album.

Other celebrities felt that Beck was not a deserving winner, which caused an uproar among their fans, leading them to edit Beck the Wikipedia page. This resulted in huge pageviews for Beck after the media picked up the story. Unfortunately for E-Cigs in Space, Beck is currently benched, so his team will not be awarded any points for Beck.

Incidentally, our resolution source is having trouble with data this February. We may need to change it, or to make some sort of assumption about how many pageviews occurred on the missing days.

The Coming Week: 2/8/15-2/14/15

Articles of the Week: Fifty Shades of Grey and Comet

Article: Fifty Shades of Grey

Category: Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

Owner: 50 Shades of Wiki (Team 3)

Pageviews in February 2014: 249,290

What's coming: On Valentine's Day, the movie adaptation of the novel Fifty Shades of Grey will be unleashed on the American public. The hype around this movie has already done well for Fifty Shades of Grey the Wikipedia article, with almost as many pageviews in the first few days of February 2015 (214,004) as there were in all of February 2014 combined. 50 Shades of Wiki, the team, should expect maximum points from this article in February.

Incidentally, there are already good methods to determine how well a movie should perform. One way is the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which has an "IPO" for this movie, which is essentially an expectation for how it will do at the box office. The Hollywood Stock Exchange is similar to Fantasy Wikipedia, but only for movie stars and films. You can see that the film Jupiter Ascending has not met its expectation, with its stock falling from over $90 to about $50 in the last week, as it was hammered by critics. This is bad news for Hot Chicks & Jesus, who has the article for one of that film's stars, Mila Kunis, who has her own Hollywood Stock Exchange page.

Article: Comet

Category: Business, Science, and Technology

Owner: Giant Clam (Team 1)
Pageviews in February 2014: 53,083

What's coming: While women eagerly anticipate the Fifty Shades of Grey movie, and men are dragged there by their wives and girlfriends, the astronomy nerds of the world will be watching the next steps for Rosetta, the European Space Agency craft. In February, Rosetta will leave comet 67P/C-G and move to flybys on other comets.

It's not clear if this will lead to more pageviews for the Wikipedia article Comet. So far, Comet has not been a strong performer for Giant Clam (Team 1). It has average about 1500 pageviews per day so far this February, less than the 2000+ in February 2014. If Rosetta makes a new and exciting discovery about comets this month, it could lead to more pageviews for Comet, giving some needed points to Giant Clam.

Last Week: 2/1/15-2/7/15

Article: Fidel Castro

Category: Geography, Politics, Religion, and History

Owner: Hot Chicks & Jesus (Team 2)
Pageviews in February 2014: 146,419

What happened: Fidel Castro, the aging former head of state of Cuba, was suspected dead in December 2014. New photos of him were released early last week in a Cuban newspaper, confirming that he is still alive. He is shown with a student leader, Randy Perdomo García.

Fidel Castro the Wikipedia article has been a good performer for Hot Chicks & Jesus (Team 2). It scored 4 points in January. An early bump on February 3rd can be seen here, showing 14,830 pageviews in a single day.

Month in Review: January

Team D's Asters

D's Asters (Team 8) takes an early lead!

With all the points collected and tabulated, the team ranks are as follows:

D's Asters (Team 8): 66 points
Farticles (Team 4): 61 points
50 Shades of Wiki (Team 3): 54 points
The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom (Team 6): 52 points

Giant Clam (Team 1): 32 points

Hot Chicks & Jesus (Team 2): 32 points
Wiki Wiki What?! (Team 7): 22 points
E-Cigs in Space (Team 5): 18 points

Details for each team are available by clicking on the new team pages. So, what exactly happened this month?

U.S. Politics: As expected, it was a big month for U.S. politics. After the GOP regained the Senate, everyone watched to see if Mitch McConnell and John Boehner could cooperate with President Barack Obama. The President launched some early previews of his State of the Union address (which Ruth Bader Ginsburg slept through), and the Koch brothers announced a massive budget for the 2016 presidential election. All this added up for big pageviews for Mitch McConnell (+15), Democratic Party (United States) (+2), Republican Party (United States) (+3), Barack Obama (+8), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (+15), Koch Industries (+10), and John Boehner (+8).

Golden Globe awards: A few articles in the entertainment category scored big. Expect these articles to see continued increased pageviews through February. These are the articles for the Best Actor frontrunner, Michael Keaton (+15), and the articles for two Best Actress nominees, Julianne Moore (+8) and Reese Witherspoon (+8). Last, the film "The Theory of Everything" has led to continued high pageviews for its subject, Stephen Hawking (+15).

Oil: Low oil prices have driven up pageviews for some related articles, like OPEC (+15) and Petroleum (+3), ExxonMobil (+2), but not for others, like Hydraulic Fracturing (-1).

New movies: With the release of "American Sniper," "Taken 3," and the anticipated releases of the films "Jurassic World" and "Fifty Shades of Grey," some related pages have had more pageviews: Fifty Shades of Grey (+15), Jurassic Park (+15), Clint Eastwood (+10), and Liam Neeson (+15). The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom had the closest call this week: if Clint Eastwood had 5 more pageviews, it would have increased its January 2014 to January 2015 pageviews to 60% instead of the 59.997% that actually happened. 60% is the threshold between 10 points and 15 points, so just 5 pageviews would have given 5 more points, enough to push The Google, The Veto, and the Mr. Mom into 3rd place.

Other news events: A few other events can be tracked to increased pageviews: both Angela Merkel (+4) and Pope Francis (+15) were highly visible after the Charlie Hebdo events. Fox News Channel (+10) got an increase in pageviews around the time it apologized for comments on Muslims in England and France. Others beyond Charlie Hebdo are Kim Jong-Un (+10), Lithuania (+4), Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (+15), Google (+15), Quantitative Easing (+15), Israel (+4), and Ebola (+15).

Unknown: I haven't been following these as closely, or I don't know the cause of their increased pageviews: Tesla Motors (+10), Stephen Colbert (+8), Bank (+8), and Taylor Swift (+10).