Modeling Traffic in South African Cities
Why Do Traffic Jams Appear Out Of Nowhere? The article I read discusses a severe traffic problem occurring in South Africa. In the cities of Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria, Cape Town, Mother City and more, highways have been facing bumper-to-bumper traffic. One wrong turn can cost hours in these very congested cities which prevents citizens from […]
Social Media’s Affect on Democracy
https://freedomhouse.org/article/new-report-freedom-net-2017-manipulating-social-media-undermine-democracy Recent events have resulted in many people addressing “fake news” and “censorship” and its use by governments to influence elections. The internet is available to use by anyone in order to influence the elections, even those that are not directly affected by it(from other countries). This can exhibit many problems, especially with how powerful […]
Tipping Point in the Retail Industry
In today’s retail industry, the value of data has grown to become a dominating characteristic. Companies such as Amazon, Netflix, Nordstrom, and Target are using predictive analytics to make product selections. The article states that, “the days of relying solely on historical data and personal intuition to make product decisions are gone — assuming you […]
Indictment of Paul Manafort Leads to a Cascade Network Behavior
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/30/manafort-lobbyists-wakeup-call-215763 Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, was faced with 12-count indictment, including but not limited to conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, and being an unregistered foreign agent. When Manafort (and his colleague Gates) was indicted, it was a “wake-up call” for K street. The law regarding the registry of foreign […]
Fake News and Information Cascades
https://thepavlovictoday.com/afterimage-review/analysis-senate-intelligence-hearing-on-fake-news-free-speech-and-russia/ The article talks about Google, Facebook, and Twitter screening ads from now on, and how Facebook chooses to display ads. Senators want the three companies to make political ads publicly available and want to know how they plan to filter out hate speech while not taking away free speech. The article also talks about […]
The Emergence of Scrub Daddy with Relation to Networks
http://www.businessinsider.com/scrub-daddy-is-shark-tank-biggest-success-2015-4 The link above goes to a news article talking about the overwhelming “Shark Tank” success that is the Scrub Daddy, an improved version of a multipurpose sponge. After appearing on the popular TV show “Shark Tank” this product received investments with which the product became extremely popular. I will try to explain the success […]
Apple’s iPhone X may be crossing a pricing threshold
nytimes.com/2017/09/10/technology/apple-iphone-price.html This article discusses how the new iPhone X starts out at $1000 dollars, which is way beyond the previous price of around $769 for the iPhone 7 Plus. As concerning as this may seem, according to investors, Apple has been doing very well (as its stock rises) and they believe that regardless, people will […]
Understanding the so-called Weinstein Effect Through the Lens of the Threshold Model of Behavioral Change
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/10/harvey-weinstein-effect-roy-price-mark-halperin-john-besh-sexual-harassment-assault In October 2017, large numbers of women began to come forward, detailing the sexual assaults they had faced at the hands of film producer Harvey Weinstein. By the time of this writing (Mid-November 2017), over 50 women have spoken up about Weinstein’s abusive history. Following the initial accusations about Weinstein’s behavior, a large number […]
Can High Risk Pools provide a better healthcare alternative to the ACA ?
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/06/527140030/what-are-high-risk-pools-and-do-they-lower-health-care-costs https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/04/fact-check-pre-existing-conditions-debate/101283530/ In this political climate, the Republican party has been striving to end the ACA and replace it with a more market-oriented solution to America’s long lasting health issue: how to provide affordable care to the as most people as possible. One of the current proposals by Republicans to replace the current health care […]
Birkin Bag
When examining network effects with crowds and trends I thought about the birkin bag. This is an article about the interesting economics of the birkin bag. For those who do not know, the birkin bag is a luxury handbag that costs between $12,000 to $300,000. The interesting part of the bag however, is not the […]
« go back — keep looking »