Facebook friends and strong/weak ties
Earlier last year, Oxford University did a study on the relationship between a Facebook user and his/her Facebook friends. The study found that the average Facebook user has 155 friends but would only turn to 4 of those friends in a state of emergency. This is surprising because many people are constantly trying to increase […]
Game Theory and Nuclear War
Game theory, and especially the prisoner’s dilemma, seems to manifest in the current state of relations between North Korea and the United States. What I found particularly interesting about the articles related to this situation is that there is much analysis of game theory methods and how effective (or ineffective) they really are at modeling […]
Cutting out the Middleperson with Blockchain
In many business transactions as diverse as trading stocks or ordering a ride on Uber, there are unnecessary (middle-person) fees that the user must pay. Take Uber for example. If I order a ride from Joe, there should only be two parties involved: me and Joe. When I order from the app, there are three […]
Finding neo-nazis via Twitter
The link I remember scrolling through my twitter feed last month to find a set of pictures of Neo-Nazi protestors, dubbed with the caption “If you know these people, please reply with their information.” The post had been retweeted hundreds of times, which is why I could see it from my laptop in an Ithaca […]