The Game of Misleading Political Advertisements
With the presidential election only a few days away, it seems impossible to avoid seeing political advertisements while watching television. This campaign has been especially brutal, with both sides running advertisements that are factually questionable and almost entirely negative. The cable news channels, which are watched my millions of voters, have to decide where and […]
How all the James Bond actors fit together on a graph
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/oct/26/james-bond-actors-connections-visualised?newsfeed=true In the above link, there is an interactive network of nodes showing ALL the actors of the 23 James Bond films (including the new release Skyfall), linked together on the basis that there is an edge if the two nodes (actors) being connected appeared in one of the Bond films together. The more connections […]
“Born to Run” for Office
President Barack Obama began his final day of campaigning for reelection in Columbus with one lavish introduction. Forget balloons, fireworks, or confetti–it was Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z that opened the show. In the Electoral College, Ohio is a crucial state for a candidate to win. A swing state, Ohio can be won by either party […]
Global Scientific Collaboration
It is not surprising that given the technological advances of the technological advances of the last couple decades that scientists are collaborating with foreign scientists more than ever before. Thomas Adams, from Leeds, UK, picks up on this trend in his recent article in the journal nature (18 October 2012, http://www.nature.com.proxy.library.cornell.edu/nature/journal/v490/n7420/full/490335a.html). Adams tracked collaboration in science […]
Instagram Web Profiles
The popular app Instagram, built on the simple act of taking pictures, is allowing its users to have Web-based profiles starting next week. Before, photos on Instagram were only accessible via mobile devices. Now, users can view their pictures on their Web profile along with their profile photo, bio, and a selection of their recently shared […]
The Growing Influence of Yelp and resulting Information Cascades
In modern times, the decisions people make are increasingly influenced by social media, the internet, and other technological factors. Many rising companies have exploited these niches to provide information to consumers which then helps them with their decisions making processes. With regards to food consumption, nightlife, and a variety of local services Yelp! has rissen […]
The Rise (and Fall) of the Master Cleanse Diet
Many diets have come and go, made popular by best-selling books about them or endorsement by public figures, and then dying out after being replaced by a new diet fad. The Master Cleanse diet is a classic example of this trend. The Master Cleanse was first introduced in the 1940’s by Stanley Burroughs as a […]
iPad Mini Sales Affected by Information Cascade and Direct-Benefit Effect
Apple announced that they have sold 3 million iPads over the weekend, starting from Friday. Even the morality of the great amount of people lined up outside the stores around the time of Hurricane Sandy had to be questioned. Others thought that the buyers should have cared more about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy rather […]
Network Theory and SARS
The paper cited below contains an analysis of the effectiveness of various network structures in modeling the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) through Canada in 2003. A simple model for disease spread, the compartmental model, divides the total population into various compartments, and relates the populations of each compartment mathematically. For example, for the […]
Information Cascades in Twitter
Twitter is a great tool for examining how information travels through a network and can be particularly effective for spreading information in a crisis. For instance it has been shown that Twitter can give information about epidemics and disease dynamics well before official health reports can do the same (http://www.ajtmh.org/content/86/1/39.abstract). Researchers from Rochester Polytechnic Institute […]
« go back — keep looking »