TCAT 82
Yesterday I sat on a bus and counted the people as they got on and off. I drew a small map of the seats in my notebook, and when someone got on I made a marked that seat with a symbol of the bus stop at which they got on. When someone got off I […]
The Great Bee Hoax
The article “Viewpoint: How a small group of scientists and pliable media created a ‘catastrophe narrative’ that hurts bees and farmers” by Henry Miller discusses the effects of pseudo-science and information cascades when it comes to the popular ‘bee-pocalypse’ trend. According to international statistics from 1995, the number of honeybee colonies has stayed seemingly constant […]
The Opioid Epidemic: information cascades gone wrong
The Cascade of Care framework was first proposed as a policy solution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s by public health officials. More recently, this framework has been revisited and reintroduced as a means of controlling the opioid epidemic that has decimated, in particular, rural white communities across the United States. Unlike infectious diseases […]
Information Cascades and the Rise of Sexual Assault Allegations
The article “Trump and the ‘information cascade’ created a cultural reckoning”, written by Gillian Tett, discusses how new technology connected more people then ever and caused an information cascade over sexual assault. Tett discusses that there probably aren’t anymore sexual assaults now than in past years, however the amount of allegations is at an all […]
Instagram’s Removal of Likes
Recently, Instagram has been experimenting with the removal of the likes counter for certain users in varying countries, and recently expanded to the United States. There is an entire economy that goes on within Instagram for advertisements. Though Instagram itself has paid ads show up every few posts in your feed, individual accounts are […]
The Network Effects of a Currency Revolution
Facebook is the trigger for a currency revolution that’s long overdue — like it, or not In the next few years, we may be seeing a transformation in the way we use currency. Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg proposed to lead a group of tech companies in creating a new currency know as ‘Libra’. […]
The Prevalence of Power Laws in Society
Tauberg, Michael. “Power Law in Popular Media.” Medium, Medium, 9 July 2018, medium.com/@michaeltauberg/power-law-in-popular-media-7d7efef3fb7c. In this article, Michael Tauberg dives into different industries and looks at graphs of data regarding their popularity, whether that’s number of sales, box office numbers, weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list, or other such measurements. What Tauberg observes is […]
The spread of non-credible information
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/studies-test-ways-slow-spread-fake-news The information that we are exposed to can often change our perceptions of the world around us, and an accurate perception of the world requires the ability to discern fact from fiction. With the vast amount of information in the world today, being exposed to reliable information can help ensure that we make informed […]
The Spread of Disease and Transmission Awareness
When we think of the spread of widespread disease there is usually a focus on how to stop the initial susceptibility to the specific virus. But once the disease is out into the world and difficult to quarantine, it is usually much more of an involved task to get the strain of disease treated or […]
Creating Walkable Cities
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/11/software-helps-planners-design-walkable-cities?fbclid=IwAR2nt_uP989wLBZbJLwf9sLlAEgeRTXEz8JpMa0oUjulL7uHmlMc_TcpSPE In today’s fast-paced world, the bustle of everyday life can often get in the way of sustainability and development. To mitigate this problem, urban designers and architects have been developing pedestrian-friendly cities. Walkable cities mean less cars on the road, which means less traffic congestion, less automobile accidents, and less pollution. Cornell researchers […]
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